The Shining Beacon

"The Shining Beacon" is the second episode of RWBY, which premiered on the Rooster Teeth website on July 25th, 2013.

Summary
The airship lands at Beacon Academy, and the students of Beacon quickly leave the ship. Jaune Arc empties his uneasy stomach at a nearby garbage bin, while Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long gaze at the sight of Beacon Academy in awe.

Ruby is initially overwhelmed at the sight of many weapons owned by the other students. When inquired by Yang about her obsession with weapons and whether she was happy with her Crescent Rose, Ruby explains that each weapon is different from one another, like their owners, and seeing each one is like meeting a new person - only way better.

Yang encourages Ruby to find some new friends, but Ruby is uninterested, as she has Yang to hang out with. With this, Yang reveals that she has already made some new friends of her own and rushes inside the academy to hang out with them. Left stunned and dizzy by Yang's exit, Ruby falls on a trolley carrying luggage owned by Weiss Schnee.

Weiss scolds Ruby on her carelessness, explaining that the content of her luggage is Dust; more importantly, Ruby could have blown them both to bits. She also points out that Ruby is too young to attend the academy, further scolding the latter on the fact that Beacon is a school to train Hunters to hunt and kill Grimm, and not just an "average" combat school about sparring and practice like Signal Academy.

After checking on the vials in one of her suitcases, Weiss grabs a vial of red Dust and slams the case shut, plumes of blue and yellow Dust billowing out of it. Unfortunately, while she waves the vial in Ruby's face, a large amount of the Dust leaks out. Ruby breathes some in and sneezes, quite explosively, on Weiss, and the red Dust's fiery explosion sets off the blue and yellow Dust, creating ice crystals and arcs of lightning. The vial Weiss was holding flies through the air and rolls over to Blake Belladonna, distracting her from the book she's reading.

Noticing the Schnee snowflake symbol on the vial, Blake looks toward the source of the vial and spots the pair. In response to Ruby calling Weiss "princess," Blake explains that Weiss is actually the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, which is famous for providing the bulk of the world's Dust supply. Ignoring Weiss' smug look, she notes that the company is also infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners. This latter point leaves Weiss stunned and angry and causes her to leave in a storm, leaving her servants to pick up her luggage, while Ruby shouts to Weiss that she'll find a way to make it up to her later. She then attempts to thank Blake for defending her, only to see her walk off too.

Disappointed by how badly her first day is going, Ruby lays down on the ground to think for a moment. Luckily, she finally befriends Jaune, whom Ruby identifies as "Vomit boy." The pair immediately hit it off, Ruby introducing her Crescent Rose and explaining that she "went overboard in designing it" at Signal. Embarrassed upon seeing the advanced weapon, Jaune awkwardly introduces his weapon, Crocea Mors, which is a simple sword, a family heirloom, being held inside a shield and sheath combination. The pair realize that they are lost, having believed that the other knew where they were going and followed suit.

Trivia

 * VFX missing.pngly half of the episode was shown at RTX alongside the pilot episode, "Ruby Rose".
 * During RTX, the scene where Ruby sneezes on Weiss lacks the explosion and Dust effects and has a cameo appearance by RWBYsaurus along with the captions "VFX missing" and "KA BOOM."
 * Ruby reveals that all students at Signal forge their own weapons.
 * This is the first episode in Volume 1, and the entire series, to show character silhouettes at the ending credits.
 * In the DVD version, this episode cuts off after Jaune says, "I don't know, I was following you", and then quickly transitions into the upcoming portion of the series.