Chapter 14
It’s… kind of amazing you have time for this,” Jackie said, when she was laying down with her back against a metal headboard. The princess had chosen one of the identical beds for her at random. It was comfortable enough, but she found herself unable to enjoy it. Not when she knew what was coming. “Trying to help all of us, I mean. They tell us about you in Unity… the two of you rule this whole country. You’re like… half of the president. With enough time to be a doctor too.”
Either she treats me, or I’m crippled for life. She still might be. Sunset Shimmer had been optimistic, but she hadn’t promised she would be cured. The princesses were powerful, but they weren’t gods.
Princess Luna sat by the edge of the bed, attending to a little tray of tea. Her steward hadn’t brought a tray of steaming cups, but instead a kettle of hot water and a box of many little glass jars. She selected carefully from each one, as little as a few sprigs of one plant or trimmings from the leaves of another. She was filling only one cup. “I don’t have time,” she said, her voice matter-of-fact. “But I do it anyway. Life is always a matter of priorities. Fate provides us with the stage, a stage with many roles to fill and many opportunities. But the choice of which we’ll embrace is up to us.” She lowered her voice, speaking almost at a whisper as she poured over the leaves in the strainer. “I chose to undo as much of the damage I have caused as possible.”
Jackie opened her mouth to question, but Luna levitated the cup right up to her lips, tilting it back with her magic. It wasn’t that different from what Jackie had seen from unicorns, so there was nothing to be overly impressed about. Of course, she had been about to talk, and the tea down her throat almost choked her.
Except that it was the best tea she’d ever tasted. Warm, but not too hot. Sweet, but dash of honey sweet, not cubes of sugar sweet. She couldn’t even name the flavors.
No sooner did it touch her tongue than Jackie found herself relaxing. Her wings tucked up against her back, and she settled against the pillow. What had she wanted to ask about again?
A little voice in the back of her head screamed in sudden panic. She was doing something important! She was supposed to be meeting with the princess for treatment, not falling asleep! She’d been up all night, it wasn’t fair! She needed to sit up!
But she was just too relaxed. Luna’s voice stretched into incomprehensibility, and just like that she was asleep.
The harsh white light of sun was gone from overhead, replaced with soothing moonlight. She could hear the sound of churning water from nearby—the crashing of a waterfall, maybe a lake lapping up against a shore. She blinked, sat up, and found she was standing on a tiny island in the center of a lake.
“How did I…”
“I brought you here,” Princess Luna said from beside her. She seemed even taller now than she’d been in the real world, her mane stretching up and up to melt into the starry sky. “It’s somewhere familiar to me. I find it’s better to have a patient somewhere comfortable when this starts.”
“When it…” Jackie found her legs were working again. She could sit up just fine, as easily as she expected it would be for natural ponies. She probably could’ve walked around as well. “This isn’t the treatment? I can already feel my legs working again!”
Princess Luna laughed. “You can feel your legs again, yes. But that’s because I know what it should feel like. So does your mind. You expect, and so you experience. Don’t confuse it with treatment.” She met Jackie’s eyes, and despite how regal and powerful she looked, Jackie could feel the guilt radiating from her. “I wish fate had been kinder to you. I wish she had been more forgiving to the descendants of our ancient ancestors. But when Atropos measures, she cannot be turned again.”
Jackie stiffened. Shouldn’t Princess Luna be worrying more about her treatment, and less about her weird religion? She was losing faith in this treatment. “Whatever you’re going to do, Princess, you should do it. I’m ready.”
“It will hurt,” the princess said. “You’re a part of the web now, Jacqueline. Its threads twine about your neck. I cannot release you, but I can persuade the Moirai to loosen their grip.” She glanced up and away from Jackie, at the distant outline of the silvery moon. “I spent a thousand years in exile. Many times I thought I would be swept away by the icy grip of insanity… but relief never came. Instead of lunacy, I can see. I see you too, though your ancestry is separated from mine by uncountable years.”
The moon seemed to loom larger in the sky. At first Jackie thought she might be imagining things—but then she saw some of the distant trees ripped right off the ground, tanking huge chunks of earth with them. The water in the lake starting pouring up, and the huge flower just beside her strained towards oblivion.
Jackie reached out, trying to grab onto one of the princess’s hooves, but Luna backed away. She was swept screaming into the sky.
All that was concrete in the world was dashed to pieces. Jackie felt knives embedded in her legs and spine as she floated along a sea of clouds, with flashes of memory occasionally bubbling to the surface. She saw her strongest memories—her first time under the bleachers, the time she’d come out to her parents, the moment she had thought Katie would die. Falling from the clouds, falling in love with Harley.
Time was stolen from her. She suffered for years in the dream, feeling as though someone were molding new legs for her from clay. Every time she looked down, she saw only shredded muscle and pulsing veins where her own should’ve been, and a spine that trailed along the ground behind her.
She begged for Luna to stop, screaming prayers to every god whose name she knew into the void. But no one heard her. Once committed, she could not escape.
Then she broke the surface of sleep, like a desperate swimmer seconds from drowning. She coughed and hacked lungfuls of slime and blood onto the white sheets, rolling so far sideways that she thumped to the floor. But she didn’t care about the pain, or the voices from nearby. She didn’t care about anything anymore.
Something lifted her back up, more of the sourceless force that was how unicorns did everything in Equestria. Jackie didn’t struggle—she was much too weak for that now. Her head throbbed, though her neck and spine were worse.
She heard more voices, stretched and distorted like her brain was struggling to tune an old radio. Then she heard Harley, and she could focus again. “That’s blood. Why is she bleeding, Princess?”
She felt someone holding her on the bed, and she recognized that hard shell. Harley wasn’t pretending to be a pegasus anymore, apparently. Though she’d only seen her this way for a few minutes, she found the cool touch of Harley against her was already making her breathing come a little easier.
“The damage was more severe than I thought.” Princess Luna sounded truly exhausted now, like she might collapse at any moment. As the world came back into focus, Jackie could see her standing near the foot of the bed. Her mane no longer looked luminous, and her eyes betrayed just how close to unconsciousness she had come. “I rarely risk so much. But seeing into her mind, I knew she would have liked living on as a burden to those around her even less than the risk.”
Jackie realized her legs were twitching. She kicked out at random, and one of the blankets tumbled off the edge of the bed. “I’m… I can move again,” she croaked, feeling a little more slime dribble out of her lips as she said it. “When will the pain stop?”
Harley was there a moment later with the edge of a blanket, trying to clean her up.
“Soon,” the princess promised. “You don’t know how near to the precipice you came, Jacqueline. Your spirit wanders.” She rose to her hooves again, settling her wings against herself. “Be careful that you don’t wander so far in the future. You might not be able to find your way back.”
Then she left, with Gentle Night hurrying behind her.
“Ugh.” Jackie stopped trying to sit up, letting herself collapse against the bed. “Maybe she should’ve just killed me.” She rolled over, trying to look back and see the state of her neck and spine—but there was nothing to see. She looked exactly the way she’d remembered. It was just blueish fur and wings.
“You’ll get better,” Harley said, gripping one of her forelegs with both of hers. There was a flash, and she was the pretend pegasus again.
Damn. Princess Luna had fixed other things while she was in there, apparently. She no longer had any doubts about how she could find ponies attractive. It’s just while I’m here. I’ll be back on Earth soon.
She’d been so distracted she hadn’t noticed that Harley was still talking. “You’re talking to me now, Squeak. That means your mind is still there. At least… I think it is?”
She shoved her with one wing—which meant she didn’t push very hard. “Yeah, yeah. I’m here. Though I don’t want to be here for much longer. Do you think I could keep using the wheelchair until we get out of this fuckin’ place? I want to be somewhere that isn’t here.”
“Sure.” But Harley didn’t leave. Instead she leaned forward, right up towards Jackie’s face.
But any fear that she was going to be more affectionate than Jackie was ready for was vain. The pegasus kissed her cheek instead, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper. “And when you’re done healing, I’ll have you all to myself. No more excuses.”
She straightened, backing away as though she hadn’t said anything. “I’ll get a guard. Somepony will have to come with us, so they don’t think I’m trying to escape or whatever. I’ll get us a room somewhere.”
It didn’t take her long to do exactly that. Jackie barely remembered what happened as she was wheeled out—her body and mind had both been stretched as far as they would go. Harley took her somewhere dark and comfortable. There was a bed, with something gray and feathery to cuddle.
And maybe a little more.
Recovery wasn’t a matter of ending the spell and sending her on her way, though. Even with her legs responding to her commands, learning to use them was still a process. For the next several days, she was in a Canterlot hospital for eight hours of physical therapy a day, learning to walk alongside elderly ponies and others who had suffered debilitating accidents.
There was a little time for sightseeing, but not much. It seemed like the ponies actively discouraged visitors like her from getting invested in the scene in Canterlot. Most of the really interesting places were off limits to her, or at least to Harley. And her therapy kept her so worn out that she never had the energy to venture further.
And less than a week into her time there, they got a knock on their tiny hotel-room door, and Sigil poked her head out from the other side. She wasn’t wearing the same elegant armor and sword as she had been on their first day—only a gold colored coat and jacket in a similar cut. “Hey kid.” She glanced down at Jackie’s legs, but she wasn’t wearing crutches or even braces anymore. “Not bad. Guess the princess took care of you pretty good.”
She did still feel self-conscious about being naked, but at least all her important bits were facing away from her visitor. “Yep.” She stepped aside. “You can come in. Not a lot to see in here. Yeah, Harley’s here. She isn’t breaking parole.”
“I wouldn’t expect her to.” Sigil stepped inside, into the single-room hotel room. They’d kept it mostly clean, except for the growing pile of takeout containers near the trash. The Wild Stallions Lodge didn’t have a maid service. “I’m here about you, actually. It’s time you make your decision.” She lifted something in her magic, a little glowing envelope stamped with writing Jackie couldn’t read. “Either back home to Earth, or staying here in Equestria. Unity needs Harley back, you see. You two are coming to the Worldgate. Whether it’s to say goodbye to your marefriend or go back with her is up to you.”