//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27 
// Story: Beyond the Veil of Sleep 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

Mira did not invite the captain of the Diaspora to visit her in Meridian's home. Rather, she couldn't help the feeling that showing anything less than the wealth of a princess would fail to impress the crew. If that happened, she might lose her best chance at a ship brave enough to venture into the Astral Sea. But they couldn't judge her as the regent of Princess Luna if she had no palace to inspect.

So she went to the dock, with only Pixie and Kallisto for company. With Kallisto's help, they both wore the robes of her office as a timesayer of the moon, perhaps the last to ever live in Equestria. Until they were victorious, and Mira could bring back the old ways.

Mira's own robes bore none of the colored tassels or patches denoting achievement that Kallisto could wear. In all her years, she had only earned a few—better to have none at all than to lie.

Even knowing the otherworldly properties of the dreamtime, Mira was unprepared for her first trip out onto the docks. There were many ships resting in port, most with little sign of occupation. She had never seen a boat in person before, but was now absolutely confident that no physical ship would ever equal what she saw here.

The Dreaming ships were vast things, each one similar in scale to a whole housing complex in Understory. They sat low in the water, with their own colorful flags to denote their origin. Most had orange and yellow, the colors she now knew represented the city of Hope when combined together. This was the navy and pleasure-craft of Hope's citizens, then—mostly the latter, judging by the lack of visible weapons.

On the dock's far side was the section actually used by visiting ships. Here the dock was packed with stalls and vendors, along with traffic coming and going from a row of boxy warehouses. It was there she found the Diaspora, stranger than all the dreamtime vessels Mira had yet seen.

She was a smaller ship than most, with a hull so smooth it might've been a single piece of metal. Her sides angled strangely upward, with only a single deck below a sloped building made of more metal.

She had no sails, or any other beasts harnessed to pull her. Yet she must move somehow, or else she never could've made it to port.

"The Diaspora," Kallisto said, as though Mira hadn't already figured it out on her own. "I should warn you—her crew aren't like most other bats you know. They've sailed the Astral Sea for a long time. But we can't hope to force them. If they're not convinced, don't push. Captain Yi is not a stallion of much patience."

There was no plank connecting the deck of the Diaspora to the docks—with such a strange hull, most ramps would probably not have worked for the task anyway.

They would have to fly up onto the deck, where bats as odd as their vessel watched from shiny metal railing. Mira followed her teacher, lifting slowly up. She was still faster in the air than the older mare, albeit without the grace. Kallisto could somehow fly without letting the cloak beneath her flap in the wind. She might as well be ascending an invisible flight of steps.

Mira landed beside her, on a surface that was neither metal nor wood, but something black with regular holes.

Of the incredible "cannons" on Equestrian ships that had once battered down the stone walls of Eventide, Mira saw no sign. There were no weapons at all, just some temporary furniture up on the deck for bats to relax in the sun, and a metal door leading into the building.

As they landed, all the relaxed conversation fell silent, and bats turned to look at them. Some of them wore uniforms, dark blue vests and jackets covered by random discolored blue squares, rectangles, and other smeared geometric shapes. It was easily the ugliest fabric she had ever seen. “Which of you is the witness of the moon?” one asked. Mira couldn’t tell them apart yet. “The one who called us here?”

"I am, sir," Kallisto said, bowing slightly to him. The uniformed stallion was one of only two with a jacket, and easily the largest bat Mira had ever seen. It must be the Dreaming that let him get so tall, with such an outrageous wingspan. Compared to him, the two of them were barely more than foals. "And the mare you see beside me is Mira, Luna's chosen.” Mira felt the eyes of every bat on deck on her.

For an uncomfortable moment, no one said a word. Were they waiting on her to speak?

No, apparently, because the bat eventually broke the silence. "How did Princess Luna choose you, when her body is trapped on the moon? We have not seen her anywhere in the Dreaming, and we searched further than most."

She had to look way, way up to see into his face. She did it anyway, unafraid. "I don't know how it happened. But it did, and now I'm following her instructions. If I don't, the thestrals of Equestria won't survive. We need our princess back."

"On that, we can agree." Another voice spoke, far gentler than the huge stallion. He had a slightly different accent than these other bats, though no less strange. Those words were enough that every bat on deck stood up, straightening. They acted in such unison that Mira wanted to do the same. How could they go from so relaxed one moment to so tense the next?

A single set of hoofsteps sounded behind her, from the direction of the doorway. Mira turned, and watched another bat approach.

The captain was a stallion, though far closer to the size she expected from adult bats. He didn't tower over her with an earth pony's proportions. His uniform was different than most of these others—instead of the ugly blue smears, he wore a fine jacket over a white shirt. That was still less than most unicorn nobility Mira had seen in the nearby town. Yi wore no gold or jewelry. Yet one of his eyes—something was wrong with it. There was something metal in his head instead of an eye, that glowed faintly red whenever Mira looked at it.

"I believe we've met before," he said, inclining his head towards Kallisto. "Your monastery was one of the last in the waking world, I recall. You endeavored to keep our ways alive in a world of hostility."

"I largely failed," Kallisto said. "I had one success, and she stands before you."

Mira was about to cut her off, but the Captain moved first. The stallion had an irresistible presence about him, an invisible pressure that made Mira keep her mouth shut, waiting to see what he would think first.

This was how real nobility should act. Not haughty and judgmental. A noble pony didn't need to say anything for Mira to know who they were.

"I am Captain Yi," he said, inclining his head towards her. "I would tell you more of my name, but I'm afraid neither of us can pronounce it."

"I'm Mira," she said. "There's nothing else to it, so nothing to mispronounce."

Up close, the captain had more delicate features than most of his crew, closer to the sort of pony Mira would've imagined in a high court. But he did not bow to her the way he had for Kallisto.

"You make incredible claims, young Mira. I have rarely seen such boldness from one so young. You can't think the power of a dreamer would keep you from the wrath of deserved punishment, if you were attempting to deceive me."

It felt as though the whole world vanished from around them. Only Mira and this strange captain existed. He stared, his attention like a spotlight focused directly on her. The glow of his missing eye grew more intense, as though he was trying to look right through her.

Mira didn't look away. "I don't need protection," she said flatly. "I'm not lying to anypony. There's nothing I would want more than giving this responsibility away. I'm... totally unqualified. Nightmare Moon didn't reach anypony else in Equestria, she got me."

Whatever the captain was looking for, apparently he didn't find it. He spun on his heels, waving with one wing. "Come with me, Mira. The honored monk can go where she likes aboard my vessel, but should not follow. I desire to speak with you alone."

He walked away without another word, obviously expecting her to join him. Mira only had time for one last sympathetic glance to her teacher, before scurrying to keep up. No matter how polite he said it, she could see from the watching eyes that it was no invitation.

Mira knew from the claws pricking her back that her familiar had chosen that moment to crawl out of her robe to stare as Mira entered the strange vessel.

But if Mira thought walking around on deck would prepare her for the strangeness that waited inside, she was entirely mistaken. They climbed up several stairwells, past floors filled with busy bats, with machinery Mira could not identify, and glowing spells as varied as any a unicorn could cast. Despite the heat outside, the interior was pleasant on her skin—exactly like the buildings of Erebus. There was something familiar about the layout of each floor, and the furniture inside.

"Erebus built your ship, didn't it?" Mira asked, as they walked. "It looks... similar. Ponies couldn't build like this."

"Yes and no." The captain didn't slow down. "The Diaspora was built by the same craftsmen that laid down the ancient foundations of Erebus, uncountable moons ago. But she was already old when the first structure was finally built, then inhabited. In those days there were many—but now there is one, and I her captain."

Finally they'd reached their destination, a fine wooden door that clearly didn't belong with all this metal construction. Through that door was a study, complete with a wooden desk, and several bookshelves covered with old tomes and unidentifiable artifacts.

She had no time to figure out what she was looking at, though. The captain waved her across the room, over to his desk. "I want to hear from your own mouth why my crew should risk our lives on the endeavor you purpose. Be succinct—despite my death, I'm an exceptionally busy creature. Arguably far busier, now that I'm dead. I suppose that's a strange kind of justice.

Mira hopped up into one of his uncomfortable chairs. That bought her a few seconds to think of an answer.

She wasn't fast enough. In the few seconds it took her to come up with something, Pixie hopped out of her robe, and landed with little claws skittering on the bat's desk.

She was bigger than when Mira first found her. The cat had more time to grow. It hardly helped her seem more intimidating. One of her front teeth was a little longer than the other, and protruded unevenly from her lips even when they were closed.

"How about because we're the last chance you have? Nightmare Moon only found one little opening in her prison. It only lasted long enough to reach out once. She picked Mira. It doesn't matter if she wasn't the best choice, she's the only one!"

Mira held perfectly still, staring down at the little familiar in shock. Everyone on this ship treated Captain Yi like royalty, and he acted a little like it too. But now that Pixie said it, Mira could do nothing to get those words back.

The captain adjusted his jacket, leaning back in the strangely shaped seat. He looked from the cat to Mira, then back again. "Your familiar, Dreamwalker?"

She nodded once. No use arguing with Pixie now—everything she said was true. At least she projected confidence.

"I want you to understand the enormity of the risk we take, if we stand beside you. The Diaspora has sailed a very long time. Once we were the least of all ships in a great fleet. Now we are alone. Our star is embers, Mira. Our only port of call is not even that, washed away in the dreamtime. None can say if those we love are gone too. We may be the last of our race."

Mira leaned forward, opening her wings reflexively. "Even if everypony in Erebus had died, that wouldn't be true. There are still thousands and thousands of bats living in Equestria right now. They would be joining us here, but Princess Celestia won't let them. She burned all the monasteries, executes any who teach the old magic. If you want more bats, then help me save the ones still alive in my world. Eventually they'll find their way to yours."

Pixie hopped back off the desk, up onto her shoulder. She could say nothing more.

"We are nothing but the stories told after us," Captain Yi finally answered. "If the Diaspora will sail her last, than we will leave a trail so bright that it glows forever."