//------------------------------//
// Chapter 23 
// Story: Beyond the Veil of Sleep 
// by Starscribe 
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Getting a map of the Astral Sea turned out to be something easier said than done. Not just because of the constant pressure of royal discovery looming overhead, though that was certainly a big part. Mira had no idea what power she had used to banish the guards once, and didn't know if she would be able to repeat it against somepony who actually knew some dream-magic of their own.

They couldn't even rely on the pony's tribe to suggest whether or not they could be trusted, since of course she had already been killed by bats once. Some of her own tribe would side with a tyrant over their own ponies. It didn't matter how unlikely that seemed to a bat who actually lived with what the Sun Tyrant did.

It must be so much easier for them to forget about the suffering of their still-living relatives when they hadn't walked on Equestria's soil for so many years.

But Kallisto insisted that attack shouldn't be a concern, at least not in the short term. Once they'd finished cleaning up the wreckage and come back with a few baskets of new supplies, anyway. "Time warps and twists in the Dreaming, matching the expectations we have for its flow. This is how incredible journeys can be undertaken and accomplished in the space of a single night, and how minutes can stretch into hours. There are techniques to manipulate its flow. I know them well, and will employ them here to guarantee our safety."

For his part, Meridian only looked grim. He gathered several scrolls and books and pieces of polished lens-glass around his worktable, but yet somehow never made eye-contact with any of the bats around him. When he did speak, his voice was always a whisper, as though afraid of a constant audience of lurking eyes and listening ears.

"That's only buying time. Sooner or later you'll leave. I'll still be here, without the living pony overflowing with power from your world to protect me. You antagonized them."

Mira shrugged. "It's not like they'd believe my denial anyway. I can see now—getting involved means I'll have to take steps to protect my allies. That was always what would happen. I have Kallisto here to help me set it up. Or you could just help us bring back Nightmare Moon, and she'll be the one to protect the bats of Equestria."

He hunched down, focusing on his work. Mira left him to it—constant interruptions would do nothing to speed him up. Besides, Pixie kept nudging her leg, and was obviously trying to get her attention. Mira walked with the little cat down the nearby steps, where she would be out of earshot of the mapmaker. If the cat had bad news, it would only make him less willing to work.

"Yeah?" she asked, helping the kitten up onto a shelf. She seemed to like being at eye-level, despite her diminutive size. "Something wrong in the real world?"

It took her a second to answer. The cat groomed her forelegs one at a time, as though she'd suddenly forgotten Mira was there. Despite being the one to call her in the first place. Finally she looked up. "You need more balance, Mira. You've been in the Dreaming an entire day already. Your body must move, or it will weaken and die."

That long? she thought. A fresh wave of panic passed through her. "I thought time favored us in here. We could spend months in a single night!"

The cat stuck out her tongue. "We can. That isn't what we did in your little dream. And intruders who aren't real dreamwalkers always drag everyone else down. The ponies slowed you to a crawl."

Her mind raced. The kitten was obviously right—Mira needed to keep her body intact to keep doing this dream-travel stuff. If she died, then how could she return to help the princess of the moon retake her rightful seat on the throne? "Can I leave without putting my friends in danger?" she whispered. "Meridian is right, I'm echoing into the sun here. How long until she sends reinforcements after me?"

The cat stood, stretching on the shelf. "I'm supposed to know how ponies think? Forget it, little bat. I'm a familiar. I'm familiar with the sunrise outside. Kept an eye on your body, like you said. Doesn't look like the priestess is trying to stab you while you sleep. My nose is good, but I can't pick up every poison. Do you trust her enough not to put a little nightshade in with your honey?"

Not a chance. "I'd think she was working for Celestia if I thought unicorns were capable of looking at us like equals. Also she's working at a moon monastery, so she'd probably get executed for that, even if she's just pretending."

Pixie hopped off the shelf and onto her back. "What will you do about it?"

All Mira wanted were answers. No matter who she met, how many new allies she found, every one of them came to her for questions. Maybe it would've been better if the moon princess had picked somepony else. Somepony older, more experienced, and braver. Instead the gaps in her prison were sealed, and she had only Mira to be her advocate.

Mira hurried up the steps. She didn't return to the workroom, but instead waved Kallisto over with a wing, as silently as she could. The last thing she wanted to do was warn Meridian of what she was thinking. His patience was already stretched as far as it would go.

When they were back in his dusty storage rooms, she finally spoke. "What is it, Mira?"

"I've been thinking—the scope of this mission will take more than a night. But if the other bats working with me are in danger—we need somewhere you can all hide, where the Tyrant's agents can't find you. Where could we find a place like that?"

She looked away for a second, lost in thought. "There used to be a great city defended by the strongest dreamwalkers who were ever born. But Erebus... you saw what happened to it. Its streets were abandoned. The guild was empty. If we knew where all those brave bats had gone, we could beg for their help. When you escaped me—I searched. For you, and for them. I found no sign of either, only muttered whispers about strange gods on the extreme boundaries of the Dreaming. And not the useful whispers either, nothing I know how to follow."

Whispers that even her exceedingly wise and old teacher didn't understand were a tempting subject for Mira's curiosity—but they were also one that would need to wait. "Then how? How would you protect a growing rebellion against a princess who could send sorcerers to hunt us down?"

The bat was silent for a long time. Mira wasn't even sure how long she was thinking—she would've thought the bat had fallen asleep, if she didn't know better. But finally she met Mira's eyes again, resting one leg on her shoulder.

"There are gods of this dreaming place—the princess we served was one such. Others rose from powerful bats of ancient names, or creatures older than them all. These beings all had the power to create their own realms in the Dreamlands. Think of them like—the personal Dreamspace possessed by any mortal. Except that they exist independently of the mind that created them. Like... the dreaming city of Erebus."

That implied something Mira had never considered—perhaps the reason for the city's fall should've been obvious. If a god had carved it out of the Dreaming, maybe the death of that god could cause it to collapse again?

"Could I do that? If a princess can make a whole city for millions of bats, could I make a... secret tree-fort, for a dozen or so?"

Her teacher shrugged. "I've never... heard it considered before. The princess was concerned with war while I lived. I was not important enough to question her, or even to speak with her often. I never heard her explain Erebus in my presence. Shame we can't ask her."

Then a tiny voice spoke from Mira's back—a bored kitten. "She told you how when she shared her memories of dreamcraft, bat. Don't you remember?"

Mira didn't remember—but so far, the magic Nightmare Moon had given her only appeared when her life was threatened. Maybe she should take up base-jumping with her wings bound and see if that dredged something up. "I think if you remember it I don't, Pixie. You picked up some of her knowledge by accident, remember?"

She hopped off Mira's back onto the railing. Her claws dug in, and she didn't slip. "No one can create pieces of the Dreaming. The princess found a dead piece floating in the Astral Sea, one long abandoned—and she anchored it. She made it hers using a phylactery in the waking world. I could sketch the runes she used, if you bribe me.

"Anyway, she brought a copy of the object she made in the Waking with her into the Dreaming. She set it at the center of the city, and so defined its rules. Like which ponies could enter, and which ones couldn't. Time, gravity—lots of other boring stuff."

"A piece of the Astral, like... what we're hunting for right now," Mira exclaimed, suddenly overflowing with excitement. "We just need to get that thing ready in the waking world, then bring it with us once Meridian gives us a destination!"

Now that she knew exactly what she needed, Mira realized that she did remember this stuff. The runes were simple, it was just about defining the dream she was trying to create. She could make it first in her own Dreamspace, then replicate the diagram once she woke up.

"Will that be fast enough to stop the Tyrant from finding us?" she asked. By now Mira didn't even really expect an answer from anypony. Her hopes of a straightforward reply were probably in vain.

Sure enough, Kallisto shrugged. "The Sun Tyrant is a very busy mare—twice as busy, since she banished her sister. While I lived, she did not seem very interested in any chance of a Lunar Rebellion returning. She did not hunt for our secret cities. There were no armies on patrol. It was only when evidence reached her court that she ever acted. So we can't know what she'll do without knowing who ordered the investigation into your actions. If we did, we could guess what she would do. Not until then."

But if I do nothing, we'll waste this opportunity, and my allies will be in even more danger over the long-term. "Can you keep this place safe while I'm gone?" she asked, resting one wing on her teacher's shoulder. That was still strange, looking into the face of such a young and healthy mare, but with no less wisdom behind her eyes.

"We will not be surprised this time," Kallisto answered. "I can try. But come back quickly. The Sun Tyrant doesn't have trained dreamwalkers, but there is a whole school of sorcery dedicated to travel to other realms. If she wished, she could send a thousand ponies marching on Hope, all to find this house. We're not hidden away in some secret garden, we're prominently located in a major city that's friendly to outsiders. And they already know where to find us."

"Right." Mira hugged her. "Keep everypony safe. I'll hurry.”

She ascended the steps, all the way to the doorway leading inside. It was there that she used another technique, one so simple that it was now easy for her memory to find. She gestured at the door, and it transformed, opening instead to a false chapel under a familiar glass ceiling to the moon.

From beside her, Kallisto gasped. "What in stars’ name have they done to my chapel?"

"Nothing good," Mira said. "I've been here the whole time, remember? I'll clean it up once I find a safe place for our rebellion to hide." Before she could have second thoughts, Mira stepped through the gateway—and woke up.