"You feel like being a hero, uh…"
"Eric." Eric sat in the corner of the room, a sketchpad in hand and a lump of charcoal in the other. He had lost his old one in Unity, with its thousands of charcoal drawings in various stages of completion, but that didn't mean he would be discouraged. “And no, I don’t.”
Jackie landed beside him, ignoring his answer and instead glancing over his shoulder at the drawing. "What's that?"
On the first page, Eric was taking his time with a cover page. He had drawn a detailed image there, one that now followed him every minute of his life. A thin brush with a handle wrapped in thread, painting a half-finished cloud. "My Cutie Mark." He turned it to face her, holding it up a little so she could get a good look. With any luck, the accuracy of his drawing would remove the need to "ask to see it." Jackie seemed the type.
"Oh." Jackie rose again, leaning against the wall beside him. Her wings stretched and flexed behind her. "What's it for?"
He closed the sketchpad. Eric couldn't keep drawing anyway, not with someone watching him. "Not sure. I got it the first time they took me into Unity's weather factory." He clutched the notebook close to him, looking away from Jackie. He might be about her height, but he still felt nervous. Jackie was a stranger and a girl, and the combination made it very difficult for him to be near her without getting uncomfortable.
"You got it during your first weather lesson?" She put her hands on her hips, glaring. "Please don't tell me you're some kind of naturally gifted weather magic master, or I might puke all over your book."
He chuckled, setting it on the ground behind him. "Nah, I'm useless at weather. I can barely bust clouds after three months of practice. Damn good at optimization, though."
"Huh?" Jackie stuck her head to one side. "Is that French?"
He really did laugh that time. "N-no! Nothing like that. I'm just good at figuring out how things fit together. Remember the Big Board?"
"The one with all the numbers and maps?"
"Well, the way they were doing things might've worked for keeping Unity hidden, but it was an absolute waste of water. It didn't matter that I can't actually make any, a map's a map. Once I got a good look I just couldn't walk away without making a few changes…" He looked around the room. Both of the ponies left behind were here—Katie had been standing behind her sister with her arms folded the whole time, listening.
He blushed, looking down. "Sorry. I didn't mean to… how'd you get yours? Whatever it is."
Jackie shook her head. "I don't sign up for that much pony at once, Eric. Any time I feel like I'm suddenly good at something, I run the other way. Safer that way."
Katie walked up to join them, looking a little more eager. "Were you and Jacob close?"
"Uh…" Three months ago, the answer would've been “not really.” Now, though… "We're pretty good friends. Why?"
Jackie turned, curious. "That's a good question. I hope the answer's worth delaying our superhero adventure time."
Katie whined, retreating. Her hoof-feet clopped a little as she did. "Jacob has string on his cutie mark too. Sorta like the Crusaders with their shields."
"I never much liked those shields," he admitted. "It felt like it took away from the uniqueness of the individual…" He trailed off. "Who cares? Unity's gone, the mirror's gone, none of that matters. We'll never get to see Equestria now. Our friends might be dying right now trying to rescue ponies who don't have any hope any—"
Jackie slapped him. It wasn't as painful as the time Danielle had done it, though it still stung and made him stagger back, clutching at his face, shielding it with feathery wings. Stupid instincts. What sense does it make to hide behind your most delicate limbs?
"Nope, nope, none of that." Jackie turned away, heading for the stairs in the corner of the room. "Didn't Harley teach you not to do that?"
"Just come on," Katie whispered, offering her hand. He took it, following her towards the stairs. They went to the real roof access, not the boarded and blocked one that opened on the hallway.
"Sorry." Eric sniffed, and felt a little better. Ponies were like that—physical contact made everything easier. Katie was mostly a pony already, at least if her childish shortness and hooves suggested what she was rapidly becoming. "It's hard."
"Yeah." She nodded. "We know."
"That's why we stay busy!" Jackie called, kicking open the roof-access door at the top of the stairs. There was a ladder there, which she started to climb.
Katie went next, though she mostly relied on her wings and her hands, since her hooves gave her such poor grip. Eric didn't watch too closely, since that would mean staring straight up her skirt the whole way.
"Stay busy doing what?" Eric climbed out onto the roof beside them, not winded from the climb as he might've been a few months ago. Eric didn't shiver in the night wind either, though it was quite chilly here.
The rooftop was exactly what he would've expected, flat and frequently broken with air conditioners and pipes running everywhere. Mixed in with all of these was a metal storage cupboard, though it had been turned on its side to blend in with the other conditioners. It was to this Jackie had gone, opening it and digging through.
"Oh, being superheroes." She lifted several colorful masks from within. Eric's eyes widened as he saw them. Dark blue cloth, with light blue plastic goggles underneath. She tossed one of them to Katie, along with a wide-brimmed hat. "You can fly, can't you."
"Yeah, but…" He shook out his wings in the chill, dislodging a few broken feathers. He hadn't been taking care of them properly since Unity fell. Flying would be a little harder because of it, though he was fairly sure he could still do it. "Aren't we trying to stay hidden? Playing superhero isn't very stealthy."
Jackie tossed him another mask, complete with hat. "We won't get caught! You have any idea how hard it is to spot someone flying above you in the dark?"
He shook his head. "No idea."
"There's a night vision spell on the mask," Katie said, her voice a little muffled from the mask. "You should put it on."
He did. The elastic obviously hadn't been sized for a man, but Eric was small enough he could stretch it a little and still fit. It had holes for pony ears, but he didn't have any of those.
The world tinted blue with the mask on, but no longer looked like night. Instead of having to squint to see his companions off the contact glow from streetlights, Eric could see them clearly. Colors washed out, but that was all. These masks were far better than any real night vision he had ever tried. He didn't put on the hat.
"We're part of something bigger, Eric." Jackie picked up a satchel from in the cabinet and slung it over her shoulder. "Haven't you been following the news?"
"Not really." He tossed the hat aside. "Unity didn't get any newspapers, and I spent all my computer hours on Overwatch."
"That figures." Jackie locked the cabinet back up, then straightened. "Well, being seen is part of the old plan. Agents on the outside dress up and do a little supernatural shit wherever we can. We're trying to make sightings so common that they're useless as leads."
"That works?"
Katie nodded—it was easy to tell them apart, even with the similar modified jumpsuits and masks. "They've tried to catch us in town before. But we don't go around that often, or stick around. Bad guys haven't thought of anything better for catching us than drones."
"We're way faster than drones." Jackie took a running start, wings flapping energetically. She might not have any feathers on hers, but the magic was the same. Her skill was impressive, and her speed beyond anything he could match.
"You two go ahead." Eric took a step back, towards the ladder. "I don't want to go out there right now."
"What?" Katie frowned at him, body frozen in preparation to run. "Why?"
"We don't know how long they'll be gone!" He took another step back towards the ladder. "Someone should be here, in case they get back hurt and need help." He shook his head. "I'm not really one for going on adventures."
Jackie looped over the building. He could only see her thanks to the mask, which he tore off and tossed onto the ground near the metal container. "You coming?"
"No," he said again, a little more firmly. "You two go ahead. I'll fly with you some other time." He lowered his voice, blushing. "I stayed in the weather factory for a reason."
"Alright." Katie sighed, then sprinted forward a few steps. She took to the air with a quick spin, then lifted steadily up.
Jackie hovered down, though not close enough to land. "You sure? Flying will make you feel better."
"No it won't." He didn't sound petulant or argumentative. Just like someone stating a fact. "Having my friends back will."
He waved, then slipped down the ladder, slamming the cover down over it as he went. Eric didn't dislike either of these ponies, far from it. But when he was stressed, it was easier to be alone. Certainly not going on some crazy adventure with people he barely knew.
They didn't try to drag him back, for which he was grateful. Eric had neither the desire nor the ability to go out on some reckless mission. He couldn't blame Jackie or her sister for not knowing that yet. It was a shame he couldn't do something more to help these ponies.
I chose a side and it's losing. He had no way to know how the jailbreak was going, and really nothing he could've contributed even if they had taken him. Jackie might've fumed about the way they had been left behind, but for him at least it had made sense. He might've asked to be allowed to stay behind if Harley hadn't already wanted him to.
The safehouse was enormous, much too big for one person. Fifty people could probably live here, or twice that many ponies if they didn't mind sharing bedrooms. Why bother setting up safehouses to take care of so many if you were only going to keep a few people in them?
Eric got bored of wandering around, and so he wandered into the computer room. There were several extremely-modern machines inside, all locked with the customary security measures. Eric sat down at the center one, cracked his knuckles, and keyed in Harley's identification.
Several large screens filled with the interface of the EQS. Only full-time field agents were supposed to have access—Harley didn't know he had learned her ID back in Unity, but she hadn't changed her password since he had memorized it.
It used to be that a global map would take the center of the screen, with cities of interest marked in red. Eric doubted every field agent could see as much as Harley could—she apparently had access to the location and strength of every safehouse the ponies operated, and list after list of successful operations. Unfortunately, all that information was gone. He couldn't see the missions anymore, or the location of safehouses, or any of that. The magical books were all still there, along with the show and lots of other historical information about Equestria. Most of it was in the language he couldn't read, but that was a separate problem.
A few news cables were available, one of them less than two hours old. That would have been right before the rescue mission.
"Ponies of Earth," it began. "The rumors of Unity's fall are all true. Many of you will be worried over loved ones serving there at the time of its fall. There is no way to give you a casualty list, or to assuage your fears. I can say with confidence that many of our ponies did escape. Princess Twilight Sparkle kept the portal functioning until the last, and many of your loved ones may be safely back home in Equestria."
"We will hope the princess escaped through the portal before it was destroyed, since we could not find her body in the rubble. The other Elements all escaped, they are no longer with us on Earth. As of this moment, we're all of Equestria left on this planet. We don't know how long it will take relief to come, if that's even possible without building a new portal on this side."
"I don't need to remind you that a surrender is not possible. With no guarantee of relief from Equestria, we must win on our own."
"As Celestia's appointed regent, I declare the Earth colony in a state of rebellion. Your orders to remain inconspicuous and respect the refugee governments is rescinded. Where Celestia hoped to avoid chaos by acting gradually, we cannot possibly hope to survive against the brutal war the Light Tenders are waging."
"In the war to come, we won't be able to rely on Unity for supplies and information as we once did. As of this moment, each group of you is another cell, to fight this war in your own way. Protect who you can, destroy the Light Tenders and their monsters however you can, and protect your own."
"We will rebuild the bridge. We will protect the refugees who have taken this world for their home, even if that means protecting them from the ones they think they can trust."
"Fight well. Make Celestia proud."
“-Regent Sunset Shimmer"