//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Unwilling Recruit // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Unwilling Recruit It didn’t matter that she had vindicated her and her sister’s greatest fears. Every terrible thing they’d suspected about the ponies was true—but in many ways Jackie no longer cared. Her sister had fallen, her friend Sven. Who knew how many others that the ponies had brought to Unity and tricked. Reality itself soon became a nebulous thing, a specter of vague outlines and batlike wings. She screamed, she mumbled, but she didn’t move much. Time became amorphous and indistinct. She could’ve spent hours in that state, or months. Occasionally she would get the vague sense of someone with her, and she would resist, or try to flee, and they would go away again. Eventually, something changed. She felt a spark of warmth in the cold, the last few seconds of light before night descended on her mind forever. She felt, but couldn’t see, someone with her in the void, a hand outstretched. “Come back,” said the voice. “Come back, Jackie.” In that moment, Jackie was forced to choose between the endless expanse of nothing and the pain and danger in a possible escape. She chose the latter anyway, and gripped desperately to that help. Then there was light. Jackie blinked, looked around, and saw that she was somewhere strange. A round room with a glass ceiling that let in the full light of the moon. She could see the stars up there too, shockingly bright. It reminded Jackie a little of what it had been like to share a cloud with Harley. But that was the only familiar thing. She tried to move, and found her legs twitched uselessly. She tried to sit up, and instead only managed to flop around. “Hello?” Her voice was a pathetic squeak. Why was this chair so big? She managed to look down, though she couldn’t have said how she figured out how. She found as soon as she had that she wished she hadn’t. There was blue-gray fur as far as she could see, covering every part of her body. None of it looked quite right. The joints and limbs went too far, or bent the wrong ways. She was completely naked—not even a hospital gown had been provided to go with the IV. Yet she couldn’t see much, not with her light blue tail covering her. Something twitched against the back of the chair, something she recognized for one of her bat-wings. Now much larger in relation to her body than it had been. Jackie was a pony. She couldn’t help it—she started crying. It was too much to deal with at once. This whole disaster had been a nightmare that never ended. I saved Katie, she reminded herself. I knew something like this could happen. I knew and I did it anyway. That was small consolation now. Decisions were always easier in the moment, when she didn’t have to realize what living with her decisions would be like. She was alone in the tiny hospital room for a long time, she couldn’t have said how long. She tried to get out of the bed more than once, but each time only managed to flop around some more, and get increasingly tangled with the sheets beneath her. Eventually, she heard footsteps, moving rapidly. Someone running. A door flung open, and a familiar voice. A little lower than she was used to hearing it, though she found she didn’t care. Jackie was desperate for anything familiar. It wasn’t a doctor, or even one of the guards. It was Harley. “You’re up! Thank the queens… I was wondering if you’d ever wake up…” Something big moved in the space above her, crossing the room. Jackie was now on her side, not able to move properly. Her limbs still didn’t want to work right. Every time she tried, she couldn’t help imagining there was a set of legs down there, and the attempt would go wildly wrong. She managed to stop crying, barely. Of all the parts of this crazy body, her wings at least were familiar. She managed to cover up her face. “Don’t look at me, Harley. I’m… I’m a monster.” Something reached down towards her from above, something she was powerless to escape from. A pair of warm hands reached down, lifting her against the bed. She squirmed a little, resisting the urge to bite. Those hands were huge! Since when was Harley a giant? A few seconds later and she’d been settled in an upright position, her back resting against a pillow and a blanket over her lower half. She’d already seen that everything worth covering was down there, no longer looking even remotely human. “There you go, squeak. That’s better, isn’t it?” Harley pulled away, dragging a chair over from the wall. She looked a little less gigantic when she wasn’t right up in Jackie’s face, reminding her of just how small Jackie herself was. “You weren’t… supposed to be here,” Jackie managed to say, once she was looking away. Harley was human—wearing the same shape Jackie was used to. Right down to her transparent wings. “We didn’t want them to think you were part of this somehow.” “It worked,” Harley said, voice going glum. “They called me in for questioning, but… since you didn’t tell me you were going to try this, I didn’t have to lie.” Jackie couldn’t tell if that was approval in her voice, or pain. “I’d like to know what the hell you thought you were doing. Breaking every rule like that… going to all the places you were told not to go.” Jackie couldn’t meet her eyes. She shuffled uncomfortably, wings twitching against her back. “My feet aren’t working right. I can’t… are all ponies this uncoordinated?” Harley shook her head. “You’ve got Thaumic Shock, Jackie. It’s… one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen.” Her expression lost most of its anger. Like she wanted to be mad, but… how could you hate someone who was beat up in a hospital bed? “We weren’t sure you were ever going to wake up.” “My sister…” Jackie said. “I fucked myself up for life, is… did I at least save her?” “Yeah,” Harley said. “Katie is fine. She lost her feet, and those won’t be coming back… only, she didn’t get her brain fried by a metric assload of magic all at once. Sven did get almost as much magic as you did, but he was ready for it. He’s still in physical therapy.” Harley rose, making her way over to the edge of the bed. “What am I supposed to do with you, Jackie? You’re like a toddler determined to stick a fork in the wall. I kept telling you it’ll turn you into toast, and you ignored me. Why couldn’t you just trust us?” “Because I was right,” she argued, holding up one hoof. Or trying. It didn’t really lift the way she wanted it to. “We knew something nefarious was going on, and we proved it. We’ve got the footage and everything. The way they dragged Sven away… it’s like a fucking horror movie.” Harley shrugged. “Well… congratulations. You know the truth.” She reached down again, so suddenly that Jackie didn’t have time to react. Then again, she didn’t exactly control her body well enough to be able to do anything. She couldn’t have gotten away if she wanted to. Harley lifted her with one hand below each foreleg, irresistibly strong. Jackie felt the air rushing past her, though she didn’t go far. She was still connected to that little IV, which limited Harley’s movement. She stopped moving a second later, right in front of a mirror. Jackie stared into it, and her reflection stared back. She was a pony all right—about the size of an adult cat. A very solemn, annoyed-looking animal, with a persistent glare and a pair of dark purple wings on her back. Harley seemed to have no respect for her modesty or her personal space. “Congratulations, Jackie,” she said, pained. “You figured it out. There’s no such thing as humans. Every single one of you is a pony.” “Wait… what?” Jackie twisted her neck around, the one part that she could easily control. She squirmed a little too, but not as hard as she had the first time. Escaping too well might get her dropped, and maybe even seriously hurt. “That isn’t what we learned! We learned you’ve been transforming humans into ponies.” “No,” a voice said from behind her. Harley turned, and saw another figure striding in. A human, with brilliant red and orange hair, dressed in the formal-looking clothing that Regent Sunset Shimmer always wore. This was someone Jackie had only met once before, and it hadn’t exactly been a pleasant meeting. Now she was tiny, and naked, and helpless, and felt like she might fall at any moment. She squeaked in protest, gesturing urgently back at the bed. Harley didn’t put her back. Instead she shuffled her arms about a little, resting one arm under Jackie’s body. She felt herself settling onto it, even as the other wrapped around her from the front, holding her more securely. She could feel the warmth through Harley’s chest, even her strange heartbeat. It wasn’t so bad… but she’d never admit as much. “Sunset Shimmer,” Jackie squeaked. “You’re… here to punish me, I guess? Or here to lie?” “Neither.” Sunset stopped a few feet away, and those bright blue eyes seemed only compassionate. “I blame myself for this… what you’ve suffered, none of Unity’s guests should endure. It’s my fault you were as curious as you were, instead of being satisfied. The other two weren’t damaged… but you were. I am the regent. Your pain is my fault.” That took Jackie off-guard. She’d been expecting, almost welcoming screaming. Maybe some threats. If these were evil ponies, shouldn’t they be acting evil? “And I’m not going to lie to you,” she went on, with barely a second’s hesitation. “Just the opposite. I’m going to tell you the truth. Answer as many questions as I can.” She looked up. “Field Agent Harley, maybe you should remove that IV? There’s no rush… there won’t be time on the mirror until dawn anyway. Might as well take our time.” “Might as well,” Harley agreed. She seemed reluctant to let go, though, and Jackie didn’t blame her. She didn’t really want to be put back in that gigantic bed, not with such an important pony only feet away. It was as though the president had walked in on her naked, and also he was a giant. Harley did know how to remove an IV, as it turned out. A few minutes later and they’d gone from the hospital bed one room over, where there was a little cafeteria and a bar with a few raised chairs. There were no ponies around, so the three of them had it to themselves. Harley set a bowl down in front of Jackie, overflowing with something colorful. Her favorite fruity cereal. Unfortunately for her she couldn’t use the spoon, couldn’t even move her legs. It was all Jackie could do to lower her head into the bowl and eat like a pet. She was sitting on the table like one. This is what I’ve been reduced to. I’m an animal. Forever. Sunset and Harley watched her closely, though Jackie saw only pity. That hurt more than the anger would’ve. “The injuries you have suffered are… severe,” Sunset explained. “Even if you can’t see them. But for you to even understand what they mean, you’re going to need to learn it all. All the secrets we’ve been keeping. I hope you’re ready.” “Yeah.” Jackie looked up from her bowl. The taste of something sweet had done wonders to lift her mood. Sitting on the high bar-top was almost enough to imagine she was actually just short, instead of a freakishly tiny animal. “I guess I am. How will I know you’re telling the truth?” “Because she is,” Harley said, before Sunset could. She sounded almost embarrassed. “If you trust me, you’re gonna trust her. Okay?” “Okay,” Jackie said. “Fine. Tell me.”