Chapter 15
It was a good thing that Sigil had come during the night. Even in Equestria Jackie found the day was difficult for her, particularly without caffeine. Canterlot had coffee, but it didn’t have energy drinks, and that was critical.
At least Sigil was willing to wait a few minutes while they got ready. They hadn’t been told anything, hadn’t been anywhere near the palace again since Jackie’s treatment.
“I thought we would have another week,” Harley said, emerging from the bathroom in her gray pegasus disguise with a mane still wet from the shower. “The doctors didn’t seem like they would let Jackie go without getting her galloping.”
Sigil shrugged a sympathetic shoulder. “I don’t have any of the details of her case. Maybe they’ll be upset when she doesn’t show up tomorrow. But I don’t think she’ll need to gallop if she goes back to Earth with you.” She looked to Jackie, expression friendly. “You haven’t forgotten how to walk on two legs yet, have you?”
“No.” Jackie didn’t have much in the way of clothes, but she had acquired one thing: a dark hoodie she’d found in a cheap souvenir shop with “Earth Memorabilia.” It fit pretty good, and even had holes for her wings. Not that it actually did any of the things clothes were supposed to do.
Harley tossed a satchel over her shoulder—she didn’t even have clothes, just some bits and a few simple tools. But considering the world she’d come from, that wasn’t really that surprising. “We’re ready. Aren’t we, Squeak?”
“Yeah,” Jackie said, letting the pegasus rub up against her. She didn’t mean it—and Harley hesitated.
One of her eyebrows went up, and she looked like she was about to ask something. But she only shrugged.
“Do you think we could walk?” Jackie asked. “I’d like to get another look at the city before we go. Never really got to experience the nightlife with the early morning PT, but at least I could see it.”
Sigil nodded ruefully. “I’m glad you want to walk, because I don’t have a carriage. We do need to get there before midnight, though. Word is Harley has a helicopter waiting for her on the other side. And you’ll want to see your… sister?”
I want my sister to see here. “Yeah.”
They left, vanishing into Canterlot’s streets. For such a big city, there were huge swathes of it that went dark at night. There were streetlights at regular intervals, but not the flashing signs and neon that she might’ve expected of a Vegas or a New York. Far fewer ponies in the air, and most of them had wings like her.
There were a few exceptions, though. They passed one of the city’s many theaters on their way to the Worldgate, and Jackie slowed to peek inside. Ponies wearing jeweled dresses and smart tuxedos chatted politely about the show they’d just left. A little further on, a street performer danced with a troop of rabbits, soliciting bits from passers-by.
Jackie stopped near one of the city’s many scenic balconies, at the end of an alleyway between a row of closed shops. The courtside was dark out there, save for a handful of distant sparks. The many towns that surrounded Canterlot, even less awake at night than this place.
“I’ll be right back,” Sigil called. “There’s a hot chocolate cart just around the corner. Jackie, you’re deputized, don’t let the parolee wander off while I’m gone.”
Jackie didn’t even look back, just stared off the edge of the world. The drop was even more spectacular than Unity. And instead of a sea of clouds, or some bleak third-world country, there was life down there.
No one was trying to kill her here. No one was hunting them. No more magic was coming to transform her.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” Harley said from behind her, before settling down beside her on the edge of the city. “You’re not the first one. Lots of humans we bring here never want to leave. Though… not every city is as pretty as this. Canterlot is the capital. For every place like this, there’s a hundred small towns with maybe a thousand ponies and gas lamps instead of streetlights.”
But I could find my way here. Once I learn enough to be useful. Or some other city like it. “I can see why you guys wanted to invade.”
Harley laughed humorlessly. “Queen Chrysalis wanted to invade. She saw how we went hungry and tried to do something about it. I can’t really hate her for it.”
“I would.” Jackie looked up, eyes narrowing. “She’s the reason you’re not free right now. These ponies have such bleeding hearts—if you’d just walked in here and told them you wanted to be friends, they would’ve welcomed you. They’re dying to help some strangers in a world that isn’t even theirs.” She sniffed. “I want you to stay with me, Harley. Here.”
Harley draped a wing over her shoulder. Jackie leaned up against her, no longer fighting her tears.
“I wish I could. But I have another year of service left, at least. And… I think even if it was over, I couldn’t stay yet. Your world is going to shit. They’re making innocent ponies disappear. Ponies as clueless as you were when I found you. Those ponies will need heroes.”
Jackie pulled her hood up over her face. But there weren’t very many other ponies around—certainly none at the end of this random alley. They were all in the lower city, at those nightclubs and bars where life kept going. Where she wanted to be.
Maybe she could’ve stayed.
Except there was Katie in her mind again, hearing from the regent that Jackie had decided not to come back to her. She’d made a promise. No matter how much she wanted to spend some time in paradise… there were things that mattered more.
Her world hated her right now, sure. It had already tried to hunt her. The ponies thought she was a criminal for trying to reveal the truth about Unity to its population.
Jackie didn’t really think she would keep trying to do that. Not if the ones she told might end up like her, with no recourse for treatment but Princess Luna’s magic.
“In a year…” Jackie continued, suddenly feeling small. “When you’re done. Do you think… maybe then? Will that be enough? How many people do you have to save before you can save yourself?”
Harley didn’t answer.
Sigil emerged a moment later, levitating three steaming cups over. Like something out of an expensive artisan shop back home, with patterns in the foam and little marshmallows floating in the liquid. Jackie couldn’t quite hold a cup with her wings yet, but she could brace it against the rail and lean down to lap it up with her tongue. So maybe going back to Earth is gonna have some advantages.
“The prisoner didn’t try to escape while I was gone?” she asked, winking at Harley.
“Not with a pony as clever and powerful as Jackie,” she answered, suddenly a unicorn. She levitated the cup up to her lips, and sipped at it without any sign of the pleasure that Jackie felt. “I’d never stand a chance.”
Jackie took another sip, letting the warmth replace a little of her fear. She wasn’t ready to go home, but that didn’t matter. Her sister was back there, and Harley might need her. They would finally get to go on field missions together.
“I think I’m ready,” Jackie said, passing the empty cup back. “Thanks for the hot chocolate, by the way. You guys make it way better than Starbucks.”
“Weeeell…” Sigil grinned mischievously. “That was from a Star Bucks.”
“Of-fucking-course you have them here,” Jackie answered, spreading her wings a little in her frustration. “I bet you have McDonalds too… or, wait, maybe not. Their menu is mostly meat. So maybe not them.”
“Not my area.” Sigil flicked her tail back towards the alley. “Worldgate is just around the corner. Let’s get there before Harley misses her flight. I haven’t had a chance to serve Earthside myself, but I don’t want Sunset hating me before I even get there.”
It was the same building waiting for them, but this time Jackie walked on her own power. She was only a little more awkward than the other ponies here—at least so long as she stayed slow. The last time she’d tried to run, she couldn’t even make it across the hotel room.
There was a brief search for “magical contraband” which was far less painful than the last time she’d been through a TSA checkpoint. Then they passed through a medical room, where a unicorn wearing a white coat offered the two of them a tub of blue jelly.
“Make sure you cover your wings completely,” said the pony, sounding bored. “The consequences will be severe otherwise.
“I’m… not really sure how I’m supposed to…” Jackie slowed to a stop in the hallway—slowing the progress of traffic. Despite the late hour, there had to be a hundred other ponies here, all queuing for the slow trip across the border. At least the crowd looked as confused as she was.
“I’ll do it,” Harley said from behind her, lifting a sponge in her mouth. She was back to being a pegasus it seemed. “Then you can do mine. Working together, see?” Stupid changeling was far more intimate with it than she had to be. She’d had a whole week to learn where Jackie was sensitive.
“I didn’t have to wear cream over my wings on the way in,” she muttered, when she’d finished helping Harley with the slightly shimmering slime. The sponge was disposable, but she still had to taste the jelly. It tingled a little like electricity against the roof of her mouth for a few seconds, making her insides glow blue.
“You weren’t getting a disguise spell on your way in,” Harley answered, as they slotted themselves into the queue outside the portal room. Ponies entered a few at a time, the door shutting behind each in turn. “Now you are. Apparently this is Star Swirl’s magic. You don’t fuck around with that stuff.”
“Language,” somepony ahead of them whispered, voice annoyed. But Sigil didn’t seem to care.
Jackie ignored her too. “Whatever. As long as they have Rockstar on the other side, I’m good. Rockstar and a bed. Unless we end up on a… Learjet to Tokyo or something. No, London. Or Paris? Somewhere for our first covert mission together.”
Harley nodded, though there was none of her usual confidence in her expression. “Maybe. Sounds like whatever this is is pretty urgent, though.” She gestured with one wing at the line ahead of them. A group of colorful ponies were chatting near the door, with one slightly taller than anyone in line. Jackie hadn’t noticed at first, but there was something different about her. The purple one had wings and a horn.
Harley lowered her voice to a whisper, speaking right into one of Jackie’s ears. “That’s Princess Twilight, I’m sure of it. Must be something big going down. Probably… not the best place for your first mission.”
Soon enough the line in front of them had worked down to nothing, though there were still plenty of important-looking ponies behind them. “This is your last chance to turn around,” Sigil said, sounding sympathetic. “Nopony goes in there who isn’t using the portal. If you plan on staying in Equestria… you can still use that hallway there. There are guards who can help settle you.”
“If I was going to stay, I wouldn’t have smeared this shit all over my wings,” Jackie said. The door slid open before the ponies behind them could get annoyed at her language again. “What about you? I guess this is where you say goodbye to Harley?”
“Not this time,” Sigil said. “I won’t be working with her on that side… but it’s my turn. I hope Unity is as awesome as everypony says.”
“I… guess it’s okay,” Jackie muttered, following her awkwardly into the open center of the room. There were at least a dozen guards here, most of them unicorns, and all watching the portal as though it might leap out and attack at a moment’s notice. “I mean, it is a giant floating castle. But I think Canterlot is cooler.”
They stopped in front of the shimmering surface of the portal. Sigil shrugged one shoulder, saluted to the guards, then stepped inside.
Harley seemed like she was making right for it—but Jackie hesitated, and so she stopped too.
“It wasn’t a pleasant trip over,” Jackie muttered. “I thought I was gonna puke.”
“You wouldn’t be the first one,” Harley muttered. “But you get used to it. It won’t be so bad.”
“If you say so.”
Jackie closed her eyes, took one last deep breath, then stepped through the portal back to her world.