//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Star // Story: Knight of Wands // by Starscribe //------------------------------// The Star If this had been a physical place, it was possible that the transition to below-ground would’ve killed her. All that wood and glass and debris tumbling down would certainly not have held their shape, and would’ve served only like the stones in a rock-polisher, but with their bodies. But though the others didn’t believe her, Jackie was convinced she was dreaming… or at least that she was in the Dreamlands. Dreaming was impossible for someone with no more physical body. Jackie didn’t get crushed to death, even if they weren’t fast enough to escape the falling building. They just fell—for hours, it seemed. Fell until she figured they must’ve emerged from the other side of the earth by now. This isn’t how dying a glorious death for the world was supposed to go. I’m supposed to just vanish and it’s over, not this. It made her think of every other non-immortal creature that had gone before her with sympathy. And maybe wish that she’d been more obedient to Alex’s request. But the fall ended eventually, with a crash as terrible as the endless distance they’d fell. It hurt, and for a while Jackie thought she might’ve died. But she had no organs anymore, not really. No bones to break. Distance only hurt because she remembered that it ought to. It could do no lasting harm. With this realization she sat up, in a world lacking color or depth. “Sound off,” Jackie called, finding her voice echoing strangely. “Who’s alive?” She heard a groan from beside her, and something shifting under shattered bricks. Squeak emerged, shaking out her wings. “Barely. Not sure I want to be.” Jackie couldn’t see her—but her voice didn’t sound that bad. At least she wasn’t choking on her own blood or anything. We only think we can die because we remember being alive. Sorry guys, you’re just shards and copies. I’ll try to keep you alive during the trip if I can. Unless it meant that she couldn’t discover the truth about Ezri. They were still on a mission. Honestly I’m fucking it up pretty bad at this point. Lost in somewhere that should be a dream but doesn’t let me use all my powers. But was that because she was wrong about the Dreamlands, or was it because being dead changed the powers she had access to? “Functional,” said another voice, shaking off the rubble of the room around them. Jackie could see a glow, and followed it a few more seconds to a set of eyes, the same shade of brown-gold as her own. “Somehow. There must be a force-neutralizer down here somewhere. Something must’ve caught us. There’s a wall here still standing.” Jackie wasn’t sure about that, but the wall part seemed true anyway. From the look of the tent of material above them, this last wall was holding everything up. Jackie fumbled around on the ground, and lifted a plastic flashlight from among the debris, switching it on. Better than using someone’s freaky glowing eyes. “So, how do we get out?” “Seismic analysis predicts…” Moire Pattern began, circling in place as she looked around. “Right there! See that beam? If we can lift it up a foot or so and hold it, we should be able to escape.” Or I could cut us into the Dreamlands, like I did to get away from Alex. “Hold on.” Jackie put out a wing, stopping Squeak in her flight. “There’s something else I could try. Something less risky.” “Sure.” Moire sat down on her haunches, watching. Her ears brushed up against the ceiling. “You don’t have any implants, so I’m guessing it’s native magic?” “Native is an interesting choice of words,” Jackie said, but she was already concentrating. “And…” Nothing was happening. Why couldn’t she… the answer was obvious. She was already in the Dreamlands. Her old self had frequently crossed between the Dreamlands and the waking world, using the connection between them to bypass huge amounts of space. But if she was dead she couldn’t leave the Dreamlands. This was her whole world now. No shortcuts. She could freely pass in and out of the dreams of sleepers, but apparently that wasn’t what she was in right now. No dream, no easy escape that way either. “Nevermind.” She blinked, looking up. “My magic isn’t working here. I… really should’ve known it wouldn’t. It’s my fault for expecting any different.” The two bats just looked at her. She couldn’t see judgement in their expressions, just confusion and pity. “Sure,” said the robot. “I think I can manage… it’s just one beam. I’m stronger than either of you, unless short stack there is really an earth pony.” “Big talk from someone who isn’t alive,” Squeak squeaked, settling on Jackie’s back and lowering her voice to a whisper. “Do we have to bring her?” Jackie didn’t even dignify that with an answer. There was no chance she would leave behind another broken part of herself, no matter the circumstances they’d found her. How many pieces are there? She had lived for thousands of years—longer than most civilizations existed. She had numberless lovers and experiences, numberless contributions to the universe both good and bad. That probably made her a pretty big spirit. Maybe I shattered the instant I was born. Only Alicorns are supposed to be this big. It didn’t matter—none of it would, so long as she could see Ezri again. The ceiling above them began to shake, as Moire lifted the support and held it with quaking legs. “Go, both of you! Before you get squished!” She went, clambering over shattered glass and crushed concrete, with Squeak clinging to her neck all the way. She didn’t go far though, just enough to be out of the doorway. That way the other Jackie could follow. Moire’s legs seemed to give a little—then she jumped, rolling out from the collapse even as the building imploded like an empty water bottle taken under the ocean. Moire rose, brushing the dirt and grime from her coat, and ignoring the damage the steel rod had done to her shoulders. But her torn fur didn’t bleed, or show any other sign it was causing her pain. You really are a robot. But where were they? Jackie scanned the area around them, but her flashlight wasn’t bright enough to reach past the broken building. It was utter blackness in all directions, without even the crack leading up. “Now we’re in the Underworld,” she said, as casually as she could. “Eh, Squeak? Cuz’ we’re under the—” “I got it,” she said, taking off and baring her teeth. “That’s some real low-effort shit, Jackie. You could at least try.” Jackie ignored the anger, trying to take better stock of their surroundings. It didn’t seem like any of the other buildings had fallen down here with them, just the one. Though describing the pile of rubble as a “building” now was a bit generous. Probably nothing useful to be scavenged from in there. “Why don’t we take inventory,” Jackie said, her voice echoing strangely in the vast space. “I know I can summon objects and sense magic, I’ve used both of those powers already. But… from what I’ve seen, probably nothing bigger than me. I can’t give us a ladder tall enough to climb, or a helicopter to fly out of here. What about you two?” Squeak landed on a pile of broken cement in front of her flashlight. “I can walk on clouds and change the weather,” she said. “I miss my girlfriend very much and I don’t think I’m going to find her in some stupid hole.” You do remember! That was encouraging, anyway. Maybe her broken parts could heal. She was like a… starfish, regenerating in pieces. Whether those pieces would ever come back together she still couldn’t say. “Not a lot of weather down here, pint size. And we wouldn’t have much use for changing it either. Walk on clouds, yeah right.” Jackie stuck out a wing to cut off the little bat’s response. “She can. I can too, so guess you’re the one who’s fucked if we have to do it. But… probably not down here. So what can you do?” “I just got overhauled,” she answered, as though that was itself an explanation. “I can lift a hundred times my weight, fly just a little below supersonic, got full satellite uplink and ten petabytes of local storage.” She folded her wings to her side. “Saving the best for last, it’s okay. Perks of being a soulless machine with no free will whose entire life means nothing, that’s how we do.” Are either of them sane? But was she? Apparently not, because the flashlight’s beam was shining on something up ahead, a colorful glint against the gloom that was clearly moving in their direction. A changeling, of the later breed like her wife. Ezri? Ezri, are you here? Jackie didn’t even stop to think about what would happen to her companions—she just started galloping. Even her wings were forgotten as she crossed off the wreckage of broken building and onto a uniformly flat, cement floor. It seemed to stretch on forever, with the tiny, occasional grate for drainage and some markings she couldn’t read in the gloom. But none of that mattered, only the one she could see. The glitter of a shell, the flash of transparent wings. She was here! “Wait! Stupid giant, where are you going? Don’t leave me with her!” “I think she lost it,” said the other voice. “Her heart rate just spiked, and her pupils went crazy. Maybe she’s having an episode. Come on.” Jackie ignored them. Let them think what they wanted to think, she didn’t even have a heart rate. As she galloped, Jackie became conscious of the fact that the flat space wasn’t as empty as it had first appeared. There were huge… pillars, rising up in the gloom. Each one of them was as wide as the largest buildings, as big as a convention center or block-spanning skyscrapers. Some kind of brown foam or growth seemed to surround them, with a distinctly moist appearance to it. She stayed well away, just concentrating on her target. There was another pony in here, and she wouldn’t have to get onto any metaphorical flights to find them. She rounded the bend, and nearly smacked into… herself? Jackie swore under her breath, looking up at the pony. She would’ve been the same size as her, except that she was distinctly an Alicorn. Wide wings, sharp horn, and several inches of height. “Hey.” She didn’t even bother with politeness, stopping dead and clutching at her chest as she panted. “There was a changeling here. Where the hell did she go?” “Oh, you saw? Dammit.” The pony winced, then shifted. Her magic dissolved, and there was the changeling she’d seen before. She wasn’t naked like the other members of her group—she had boots on her hooves, with adjustable clasps apparently made to resize every time she got bigger or smaller. She had a satchel too, which looked to be filled with something. “You must have good eyes.” Jackie did have good eyes. Damn, I didn’t know I could look that good. She might’ve said something about it, if she were doing a little better. But Jackie was exhausted enough already. The other two caught up another second later, skidding to a halt behind her. Both stared at the newcomer with equal confusion. “I don’t get it,” said Squeak, the first to break the silence. “Why is there another one? Aren’t two enough?” “I didn’t plan on there being more than one,” Jackie said. “But you know what they say about making plans. Then I got myself killed, and now… now here we are.” She stuck out her hoof. “You’re Jackie, I’m Jackie, so are they. We’re dead, or maybe dreaming or both. What’s going to try to kill us here?” The changeling’s ears flattened to her head, transparent wings spreading and buzzing in an insect display of discomfort. “Ughhh… I don’t know what you’re talking about. My name is Sarah. I’m… a changeling. Not a bat.” “You tried to be an Alicorn,” Jackie said, unimpressed. “Don’t think we didn’t see that. You can’t just pretend we didn’t, Sarah.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m a changeling, there. That’s the truth. A changeling who… can’t… remember how she got here. Have either of you seen Photuris?” “Let me guess,” said Moire, before any of them could react. “That’s a changeling. Your girlfriend?” She shifted, making an embarrassed buzzing—but if she thought any of them would judge her for it, Jackie couldn’t imagine why. “So are we,” she said. All hunting for the same thing. Different names, but the same destination. Was there some meaning in this dream? Maybe it wasn’t some random swathe of the Dreamlands—maybe it was somewhere she had created. Powerful dreamers could do things like that, and she was fairly certain she had. She’d made apartments to resemble the ones she’d lived in while human. She’d made safe pockets for her visitors. She’d made places for them to puppet bodies made of dream while they visited other realms. But had she made an endless black abyss, populated only with broken pillars? “We need to escape… wherever this is,” she said. “I don’t know if the Dreamlands is reflecting our memories back on us, or maybe this is what it’s like to be digested by a dream-spirit. But this is unsafe, and we’re dying. We’re breaking out.” She winced. “You, uh… Sarah. Please tell me you were the one who got the dream magic. Can you do portals?” “She thinks we’re dreaming,” Squeak said, annoyed. “We’re not. We might be dead though.” “We are dead!” Jackie yelled, her voice booming off the ancient pillars. For a few seconds there was absolute silence, with all the other bats staring at her. She didn’t give them a chance to cut her off. “I’m sorry to tell you. All of you. We’re here because my world was fucked up. There was a monster to slay that could only be killed by sacrificing someone else’s life. That was mine. Now here we are… dead. I should’ve moved on, but… I told the goddess of death she could fuck off.” Squeak tugged on her wing. “Uh, Jackie, there’s—” But she ignored her, yanking it free and rising up onto her hind legs. It was time they faced the reality, all of them. They couldn’t keep gathering up her broken pieces forever. “That’s why any of you exist. We’re decomposing in the Dreamlands, breaking down into different fragments of personality and memory.” “Jackie!” It was Squeak again, her voice barely even words anymore it was so high-pitched. But it cut through enough for her to notice the ground was shaking. Something was coming for them. She lifted up her flashlight, shining it out into the gloom. It looked like a rising black tide, moving almost as fast as she could see. Except—there was a glitter of hard shell, not just a fluid. Those were changelings, all coming for them. Oh god. “I don’t know what the fuck you said,” Sarah called, lifting up into the air. “But dying is fucking terrible, I don’t want to feel that again. Let’s skip and say we did.” She gestured with her horn, and a crack split the air in front of them. There was a forest through there—a forest that smelled of familiar plants and comfortable spaces. Was it the Enchanted Wood? Jackie didn’t know, but she no longer cared. They hurried through, before the rising tide of changelings could reach them, and tear them all apart.