//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Hesperus // Story: Meliora // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Jackie dropped the large bag onto the ground in front of her with an enormous thump of heavy cargo. Bats gathered around in the tiny warehouse all turned to stare at her, looking at the bag with expressions that ranged from idle curiosity to fascination. “How did you even find this place?” asked a taller male bat with a ragged ear and a scar running across his face. “We didn’t invite you here.” “Nopony told you?” Jackie tilted her head to one side, glancing between each of the bats in turn. They looked exactly how she imagined revolutionaries might look—ragged clothing, with dark cloth bandanas ready to tie off around their faces or use to hide their cutie marks. If they were about to start a revolution, she was sure it would be one of the most adorable ever. But there will still be blood. Jackie knew she would be responsible for some of that, but she didn’t care. It was their fault that it would come to violence, not hers. More specifically, it was Athena’s fault. And maybe Alex’s too, for giving up control to the AI. The bats marveled at her donation for a few seconds more, before someone cleared her throat loudly from the end of the room. A pony who hadn’t been there moments before. Not Eclipse, as she had suspected would be here the instant someone penetrated their defenses. But a pony that much older. She always looked younger than Jackie expected from one so old—but that was a product of her nature. Hat Trick was not the first pony to put herself into a construct to escape the slow advance of time, though she was the first bat Jackie knew of who had succeeded. Most bats just took their chances in the Dreamlands if they wanted to live forever. And most of them are dead. Of course, Jackie hadn’t expected the young-looking bat would have made it this long. She looked just a little older than her cutie mark, with a deceptively innocent expression. Jackie knew better than to believe it, of course. She knew too many immortals to be taken in. The air around her darkened a little, as the pony passed through the shadows lingering in the corners of the room, emerging right beside Jackie’s gift of guns. Well, gift of Alex’s guns, stolen from her stockpile. These weren’t all of them, but they were the easiest to use without training. Particle escapement rifles like these could not penetrate the crystal of Mundi to kill bystanders in the next building over, but it could shatter ceramic and pierce steel. “I didn’t know they were still making antiques like these,” Hat Trick said, lifting one of the rifles in one hoof and turning it over. As she did so, its straps closed around her leg, where it would hold itself ready to fire using the eyepiece. These weapons could sense the intention to put them down, and would release their wearers only at that time. “No control circuit, I take it? No tracker?” “Every one of them,” Jackie agreed. “Athena doesn’t know I have them, and she won’t be able to stop us from using them how we please. Well… let’s be real, she is Athena. She’ll probably figure out what I did the instant someone gets shot. But by then I hope it will be too late. We only need a few hours.” Hat Trick dropped the rifle, staring up at Jackie for a long moment. This body looked almost completely natural to the untrained eye, but Jackie was trained. She could see the strange glint in her eyes, a refraction that wasn’t quite moisture. Similar, but distinct. “I hear you went all the way to the Supernal. The Alicorns took you into their Lustrum, and you walked away. Is that true?” Jackie nodded sharply, turning away from her. “I’m not giving you the Mysteries, Hat Trick. I told those ponies they could fuck off, and I’ll tell you the same thing. I’m not part of that world anymore.” The young bat dropped her rifle into the pile of other weapons. “Could’ve fooled me.” “We need to move quickly before Athena can adjust her plans. Nightfall would be ideal.” “My estimates suggest there will be at least ten thousand ponies who join us, maybe more. Nopony can tell me how you plan on moving so many away from here. I have suspicions, but I don’t know how you’re going to power a road that wide.” “It won’t be a problem,” Jackie barked. “Just tell me where to put it. I leave the strategic side to you and Eclipse. Use those weapons how you want. I’ll get our people out when the time comes.” The truth of the matter was that the regular rules governing the attachment of worlds didn’t seem to apply to Jackie anymore. Making the arrangements for a highway through the Dreamlands straight to Australia was a difficult task, even for her. But it was one that she could accomplish in less than a day, if she was willing to owe a few favors. The spirits of sleep thus appeased, she was ready with her escape method when the time finally came for their rebellion. The underground of Mundi came alive with gunfire as soon as the sun went down. Most of those would be security forces, wielding the stun-weapons that were their only standard outfit. By the time they were armed with something more lethal, the bats would have already extracted much of their advantage. Jackie helped guard the warehouse as ponies came in, though she didn’t use a gun. She wasn’t sure how many of the security force she had to kill—not that many. As soon as it became clear that the mob had taken the streets, she watched them pull back, guarding the entrances and exits instead of trying to take buildings anymore. Ponies unconnected with the rebellion tried to escape—some of them the security forces let leave, some they didn’t. None of them were her problem now. The warehouse started to fill with ponies, most of them huddling families of frightened bats. There was a smattering of other species among them, though almost no ponies. This was a gathering of the dispossessed. Those who had not been mistreated by Mundi had no reason to fight. It won’t be easy to make a society without unicorns. But questions like that were too big for Jackie. “I hope you’re about ready with that escape plan!” Eclipse shouted, emerging with one leg bandaged and a dented helmet covering her head. “You hear that sound?” Jackie paused, ears perking up to try and listen. She strained, then shook her head. “Nothing.” “Exactly. They shut off the ventilators. We have… maybe an hour down here before ponies start suffocating? It’s time to go.” There was no enchantment to prepare on the other end of the room. She had no crystals charged with energy, or vats of blood as necromancers used. Dream magic didn’t use any of those things. “Alright.” Jackie turned away from the window, making her way to the end of the room. Many bats turned to watch her as she went, whispering to each other. She could see the hope on their faces, but she did her best to ignore it. “Listen to me very carefully, everyone. You’ll need to pass this along to everypony who comes in behind who can’t hear. We need to move through the door as quick as we can—I can’t predict how long it will stay open. Once you’re through, stay on the path, and keep walking until you get to the other side. If you stop, if you leave the path, even a few steps, you will wander into the Dreamlands and almost certainly die. I won’t rescue you. But if you keep moving and stay on the path, you’ll make it through to Australia no problem. I picked a lovely spot in Sydney Harbor, and I already have someone waiting there to receive you. Don’t wander off when we get there, and don’t try to go through the door from the other end. We’re talking real Stargate shit—burned leg stumps in shoes kinda deal. Got me?” She listened to the frightened mutters for several long moments, as bats passed her message along. She wasn’t sure how many of them understood exactly—but as long as they obeyed, that would be enough. With nothing more to prepare, Jackie picked a blank patch of wall with no obstructions near it, and cut into it with her dagger. She dragged the knife as far down as she could, making the door as wide as possible. Wider than she ever had before, so much that it strained her magic. Would’ve broken it, if she was working on her own. But Jackie wasn’t alone. She poked her head through the doorway into the enchanted forest. There was no road on the other side, not yet. Jackie could make such a path for herself and a few guests, but not for thousands. She needed other help here. A gigantic stag waited for her on the other side, its antlers glittering crystal. Its eyes seemed to encompass the whole of the sky as it looked at her, and she could see the constellations rippling on its coat. This was Voeskender, imagined god of the deer made real by their many years of worship. Its power was near-divine now, so far as spirits went. Right now, it was livid with the way civilization had progressed, relying so completely on the artificial and eschewing the natural. Creating another civilization, one that might live another way, happened to align with its interests. It spoke to her, though not with words exactly. She could see through the eyes of a frightened animal, running through the forest in a panic. Something large and vicious was following, getting close. “Yes,” she said. “Our situation is desperate. We need your help. I understand there’s a price, I’ll pay it.” The ground under its hooves transformed to glowing bricks, each one looking like a chunk of the sky had been ripped out and set into the ground. The stars within still moved, though not contiguously. Each brick was a slightly different part of the heavens ripped down to make this massive Astral road. Jackie saw more sights through the eyes of the prey—finding safe passage, a valley sheltered and protected. But the sense of a debt that she owed. “I understand,” she said again, hoping the spirit did in turn. “Now I need to save them.” The stag towered taller than most of the trees. It watched her for a few more silent moments, then stamped off into the enchanted wood. Jackie returned to the physical, and was surprised to hear gunfire again. How long had she been gone? The warehouse was now packed with people, barely breathing in heaps on the floor. A few were wearing masks, and shooting out the windows. She watched one bat take a bullet in the face and go sprawling out on the ground right in front of her. Time was a fickle thing in the Dreamlands. Evidently, she had let it run away from her. “It’s ready!” she shouted, her voice booming through the old warehouse. “It’s time to go, everypony! Through the gateway!” Her shout roused them—though with an armed enemy outside, it wouldn’t have taken much persuasion. The press of bodies moved past her, vanishing through the opening in the wall. They left flickering after-images that drifted through the air in the same direction they had been going for a few seconds, before their spirits caught up with their bodies and vanished along the Astral road. Jackie remained beside it, knowing that her own passage would be required to close the gateway. Otherwise, she might recreate one of her favorite old-testament stories, and have the armies of Pharaoh harassing her chosen people on their way across the red sea. Won’t end any better for Pharaoh this time either. Jackie watched as several familiar faces passed through the barrier, Eclipse still wielding one of her rifles as she went. A few more stragglers, limping or crawling their way along. Jackie helped how she could, though she couldn’t get far from the gate. Eventually, security forces breached the building. She saw their shock, as they found it empty instead of packed with the huddled masses of the oppressed. A few shot in her direction, or tried. She could see their confusion from across the room when their weapons refused to fire. Athena didn’t want to take the risk of killing her today, it seemed. Maybe she had other plans for Jackie, or maybe she knew what terrible danger she might unleash on Mundi if she killed the one who had made a road through the Dreamlands into the basement of her own city. Regardless, Jackie didn’t stay to find out. She vanished through the doorway last, waving a cheerful hoof to Mundi security as she went.