Chapter 22
When Jacob emerged from "Avery's" room, he was leading the little pony along. She followed stiffly behind, hooves clopping on cement. Even halfway to melting into one himself, Jacob still marveled at just how little ponies seemed in person. At least Equestria wasn't lying with the name they chose for their "propaganda."
Their little meeting had been adjourned for the healing magic, but even without saying anything his return attracted attention. "You're back, Jacob?"
"Yeah." He stopped near the center of the room, glancing around. Some of his friends were playing video games, relieved to be doing something familiar. The others were chatting with them, apparently happy to have newcomers to their refuge.
Katie clopped her way over too. Jacob was impressed she could even walk without falling. So far as he knew, horses didn't use their tails for balance like other animals did. Of course, ponies weren't really even animals as he was used to using the word. And I'm going to be one of them soon. "You did it? Harley was right, you do have a healing cutie mark."
"I… think I do," he admitted. "But I don't want to talk about it right now." He straightened. "Hey everybody! Put down your crap, Special Agent Avery here has decided to help us!"
The pony winced as he spoke, but it wasn't like there was anywhere for her to run. She didn't try. It didn't take long for people to circle up around them, dropping controllers and conversations alike.
"Why didn't you kill yourself?" Harley asked, fingering one of her teeth. "We haven't managed to capture one of your people for interrogation before. You aren't just going to lead us on before swallowing poison, are you?" Her eyes narrowed, and the wand in her hand started to glow a faint green. "I can take all those teeth out if you think there's a chance of that, Jacob."
"No!" He put out one hand, though he didn't think he would actually have to do anything. "That isn't going to happen. That isn't the kind of thing ponies do, Harley."
"No." She grunted, making her way to the table. "I guess it isn't."
"They were supposed to rescue me," Avery whispered. "A team was supposed to break in and extract me before they attacked. I guess… I guess they didn't."
Jacob helped the pony over to the table, and lifted her up onto a chair, before taking his own seat beside Katie.
"So the evil government conspiracy cuts away liabilities and loose ends as soon as they're not useful anymore." Jackie rolled her eyes. "Have you ever seen a movie, pony? That's like, act two."
She stiffened, glaring across the table. "My organization made the best possible decisions we could with the intelligence we had." She rose, propping her forelegs up on the table. Maybe it made her feel a little taller, but it only made her look more adorable.
How are we supposed to get anything done when everything we do makes us seem cute?
"I want to be clear about this: I haven't surrendered to you. I'm not going to compromise any ongoing missions or reveal agency information to you, except where I think it can help you correct our mistakes and get the correct information distributed."
Nobody questioned her. Harley cleared her throat. "At least give me your word you won't lie to us. Don't think we haven't thought that this wasn't your plan all along, to infiltrate whoever survived what you did to Unity and make sure we were wiped out for good. You won't be getting anything from us, and you'll be watched around the clock from now on. At least until you're shipped off to some Equestrian penal colony."
"Will they still be able to do that?" Eric asked, his voice low. "With the mirror probably gone—"
Jackie threw a pencil across the table at him. "You were listening to the 'not sharing information' part, right?" She gestured angrily at Avery. "This pony might not be the one who destroyed Unity, but without her they would've failed. I'm not even sure we should give her food!"
"We will," Jacob said calmly, with confidence that wouldn't allow argument. "That doesn't mean we have to befriend her, or keep her in luxury. But we can at least give respect to an enemy who wants to clean up some of their mistakes. We aren't her judges." He folded his arms on the table in front of him, though his head barely cleared the edge. "I didn't save her damn life twice only for her to die as a prisoner of war, got it? If she tries anything, you feel free to do what you want. But if she cooperates, then anyone who touches Elise has me to answer to."
Silence. Jackie and Stalwart both glared acid at him. Eric and Danni at least seemed supportive, though they didn't seem happy. Harley alone was unreadable. "Okay." He turned. "Why don't we start at the beginning, Special Agent Elise Avery… Why don't you explain for us exactly what bad information you think your department is using. What convinced you to want to help?"
"First, we considered contamination and mutation the death of the individual… or the suppression, for the really optimistic. We knew that old memories survived, and that's what my infiltration needed. I just needed to repeat what I'd memorized and be brought into your fortress. My implant is subdermal. That's probably the first thing: we need to relocate as soon as possible. You'll need a Faraday cage to keep me in, or—"
"No need,” Harley interrupted. "It came out when you, uh, landed. That's how we knew you were evil in the first place."
Avery bristled at the term, but sat back in her chair anyway. "That's good. I'm sure finding somewhere else this well stocked wouldn't be easy. That's… not a question. I'm not trying to gather intelligence on your remaining resources." She straightened. "I've never been one for existential questions. But I feel like myself—except for the physical aspects. I remember my whole life, I don't feel suddenly compelled to… anything. Whatever this disease is, it doesn't kill the infected. That's the first thing."
"We were also wrong about you. We always thought…" She whimpered, blinking away tears. "I didn't… find what I expected. I didn't even think I'd survive to be rescued. They probably didn't either."
"What did you always think?" Jacob asked, as patiently as he could. "Something about the way ponies behaved?"
She nodded. "We've treated this infection like the outbreak of an… intelligent disease. Those who haven't yet succumbed sometimes learn useful skills for use in the field. But the progression of contamination releases energy, and that energy is eventually spent. When that happened…" She looked down at herself, and her voice cracked again. "We didn't think you kept these creatures intact. They're the most dangerous, most contagious form, but you were always the most protective of them. We thought they might be feeding… whatever was at the heart of this. Some monster in the heart of your fortress, manipulating and enslaving you. And when you weren't useful anymore, eating you."
"We aren't manipulated or enslaved," Jackie called from across the table. "Everyone of us your agents ever fought in the field chose to help over living somewhere safe."
"Conscripts make great cannon-fodder," Harley muttered bitterly. "But terrible spies."
"I know." Elise seemed to try and sink down into her seat. "You're just sick people trying to take care of each other. Trying to stop the ones who should be on your side from taking you away." She slammed one of her hooves down on the table, without effect. "I've always hated the way we treated you, but I could justify it before. We were at least keeping you alive, which was more than would happen if you got loose and eaten by…" She shook her head. "This whole thing would've been talked out! I don't understand why we didn't just talk to you in the beginning! You clearly know how to take care of your own, you weren't plotting to spread your infection, but had your own rules to keep it from spreading!"
"You say what we all think," Stalwart called across the table. "Before Unity was destroyed, the ponies would've happily negotiated. They only wanted us to be safe. That was all we ever wanted."
"I know." She whimpered. "I know now."
There was a long silence. Jacob glared anyone down who tried to speak, giving Elise time to recover. She would be able to give them her information on her own terms.
It worked, because eventually she recovered and looked up again, huge eyes staring around the room. "Any information I have goes bad as soon as they know you have me. We remember the early days of the war, with how effective our people could be broken. I guess now I know why… you people were the ones doing the right thing, not us… but either way, there's one place they can't move as easily as anything else. Containment, where they keep all of you. There's a contingency plan in place to… burn the whole thing. It has to be the first place you go, and soon."
She leaned forward, resting her forelegs on the table again. "Bring me a map, I'll show you where it is. You can get your people out."
* * *
A few hours later, and Jacob hovered behind Harley, watching her draft a message. He didn't know what computer system the ponies were using to coordinate. Whatever it was, he had to assume the enemy hadn't broken it yet.
He read the tail-end of Harley's message with a quick glance. "Mounting a rescue should be our first priority, even if we don't know what to do with the ponies after we get them out. If we don't mount this rescue, my informant believes the ponies inside may be killed.”
“I reiterate I was using my natural gifts during the entire exchange and am confident the informant was being truthful with us so far as she knows it. I would remind my fellow survivors that losing every single pony the Light Tenders ever captured is too serious a risk to take even with these odds."
"I suggest a meeting immediately. If anyone in Celestia's service survived, I leave the decision to them. Otherwise, each safehouse should respond to this message if and only if you are able and willing to assist. We will probably need all safehouses to take in rescued ponies once we succeed either way."
She signed with another few lines in unreadable letter salad. "What's that?"
She looked up at him. "Oh, just the usual 'Glory to Celestia, long life to the republic crap. Ponies always sign with it." She sent the message, then spun her rolling chair around.
"Is that… the pony language?"
Harley laughed. "Is English the human language?"
Jacob nodded, understanding. "Is it the same one that ponies sometimes used when they were speaking in code?"
"Yeah. I guess you could call it a genetic language, but that's too simple. It's magic, and you've got to be a pony to speak it. Or… close. A few close cousins like me can study it by listening, even if we didn't get born with it stuck up in our brains."
Jacob pulled over another chair. Messages seemed to be flying back and forth on the computer behind Harley, but she was ignoring them so he did too. "What about other things? Equestria has griffons, minotaurs, zebras…"
"Except for the zebras, nope."
"Then why not write the whole thing in code? If that makes sure no human could read it…"
"Celestia's ponies always did. But we can't rely on the ones in charge being from Equestria right now. Jackie would be in charge here if I hadn't come back, and she can't read it." She leaned back in her chair. "If you ask me, it's a useless code, and I'm damn sure they've already broken it. Elise proves they're willing to use ponies as tools when they need to. Every single human is a potential translator."
Jacob wanted to learn more about this strange new magic, but didn't get the chance. The computer beeped loudly, something it hadn't done yet. Harley stiffened and rolled around to face it.
A message had opened, filling the screen with English letters. "This is Sunset Shimmer: what resources do you have available to complete this mission?"
Harley typed quickly. I have a detailed breakdown of the location, defenses, and procedures used in the prison. My safehouse has two earth ponies, one trained thestral, a unicorn doctor, several untrained fliers, and me.
The response came very quickly now. "Based on what you know of their defenses, what would we need to get inside?"
Jacob leaned closer, watching Harley's fingers blur across the keyboard. The prison is built to human standards of defense, which means most of its protections are above-ground and stationary. We stand no chance of defeating them. We have a pony with intimate memories of the facility—a gatecrashing team could sever the prison's nerves with explosives and not much risk. My source reports only twenty guards or so in the facility at any one time, most of them prison wardens. Five warponies and the gatecrashers would be enough if we could move soon.
"The database suggests you have at least one unicorn in your safehouse right now. Could you make the gatecrashing team?"
Harley laughed out loud, then met Jacob's eyes with a blush. "She wants…" She didn't finish, hunching down over the keyboard again. Not a chance. They're all untrained. My doctor has a cutie mark for saving dying ponies, and that's about all he's good for. I don't think he can teleport.
"I'm standing right here."
Harley looked up at him. "What, am I wrong? Do you even know what a gatecrasher is?"
He grunted. "They said teleportation was too advanced."
"It is."
There was a response waiting for them on the screen. "We could still use him if something goes wrong. And your earth ponies, will they help? It's in our best interest to involve as few ponies as possible in this: right now the enemy believes we've been eradicated. I wish to send the message that we are only a few vengeful survivors. This rescue should give our scattered ponies a chance to relocate."
She gritted her teeth. The earth ponies are both ready. My doctor is halfway pony and may be a liability. "No offence," she added, but didn't type. I do not think fliers will be useful for this mission. I also don't know anywhere large enough to bring this many ponies without attracting attention. I didn't know we had anywhere that big.
"The less any one group knows the better, in case one of our groups is captured. I will do the gatecrashing myself, and find a few more ponies for the attack team. Can you be ready by tonight?"
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Yay, Shimshim's not dead!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... I HAVE IT!! King Koopa got the meteor shard and is shoving it into the big meteor and making their worlds merge little by little!
This is OBVIOUSLY what's happening!
Because "Super Mario Brothers" was the bestest movie of all time!
33.media.tumblr.com/baae32e7dd40fc41f49895affa9a5a26/tumblr_ngc05s65sn1rp0vkjo1_500.gif
Hell yes! It's time to mount the rescue!
Ok, this chapter was... Mindblowing. You know. I was first glad to see our Special Agent not completly broken, but at the end these four words didn't leave my mind: ЧТО ЭТО ***** ТАКОЕ!?
I'm sorry for russian and russian obscene language, but these are perfect words to express emotins I had upon completing reading of this chapter!
Of course we got vital info about government's perspective, but at the end chapter turned into something way too crazy.
Avery doesn't want to reveal any vital info, but thinks that revealing structure plans, defense and location of, wait for a minute, one of the most secret, if not the most secret, military facility in the entire United States!? I understand that she wants to correct her mistakes, but that is something really radical! You know, it's like coming to Pyongyang, staying there for some time and then talking to the North Corean government in a manner of "I'm sure you're a good guys here, I'm ready to present you this TOP SECRET Pentagon intelligence!"
And Government going to kill every pony now? They tried to find a cure, didn't they?
Going back to the North Corea comprasion, even our fellow heroes don't know the reason staying behind equesrtian actions. Let's get a few comments back to my two posts describing why ponies are not the ones we should trust. Harley stating that Equestria didn't send enough magic to change anyone (though change doesn't actually mean awakening of the
forcemagic), Avery believes that ponies don't want to spread the infection, but Avery, as well as some readers, doesn't know the major part of the puzzle: the way ponies call their show. I'll repeat it once more: Thaumic-inducing historical transmission. It definetly sounds like something that would spread «The infection», but Jacob stated this once inside Unity and completely forgot it and never mentions it later. I'm pretty sure that mentioning this would destabilize Avery's faith in ponies and this wouldn't help our team, but it would also destabilaze Jacob's faith in ponies, since, you know, "Thaumic-inducing" severly contradicts with "didn't want to spread" and if he remembered that, he would definetly compare it to the Avery's speech details.I just hope that this definition will sooner or later play some major role or will cause come (un)expected twist, because it is a very vital part and it would be shame if it will turn into subverted (when trope is believed to happen, but it doesn't) Chekhov's Gun. But now... Avery, you're pretty sure cannot avoid the thing you're doing in your situation, but you will definetly regret later. And believing that ponies are far greater good than the Agency just because you saw Pyongyang or, let's say, "tourist side" isn't better choice either.
Getting interesting.
7486346
What did you just call me, you little sod? XD
7486395, you pretending to be an end of the chapter?
Oh hey, you got featured again!
7486395
translates as...
7486406
The above however leaves me very confused.
EDIT: Unless there's a famous pony in Stalliongrad called 'Connected Gravy'.
7486575, it was intended to mean "What, [swearword], is this!?", where swearword doesn't mean much, but indicates the mood of the speller. Anyways, it is how it works most of the time when you lose in CS or get suddenly wounded.
But if it will be easier to understand, this phrase is used the same way WTF usually used on the Internet.
7486406 No. But I'd like to cosplay as the beginning.
7486575 Well, that bitch you refer to is my dog.
And it's a male so...yeah.
I love this fic.
Oooh, 'gatecrasher'... I like me the sound of that! Smacks deliciously of an XCOM surgical strike.
7486346
You don't learn about the judicial system by staging a jail break. Avery isn't giving away any major operational secrets, only the functionality of a single installation. She is risking that some might be found in the raid, but it's a risk she's willing to take. Her reasoning for doing so is that she now knows a large number of innocent lives are at very imminent risk. Many of those lives she is directly responsible for putting in that risk. Also, judging by the comments, "What the f*** is this (sh**)!?" sounds like a darn good American translation to "ЧТО ЭТО Б**** ТАКОЕ!?"
That said, this assault has "Charley Foxtrot" and "Foxtrot Uniform Bravo Alpha Romeo" written all over it. Poor Jacob is going to be going full pony pretty fast at this rate.
What the fuck? Who comes to that conclusion? What proof is there that this is at all how they function? I mean, what? A specific community has been targeted and is being abducted, and they came up with the convoluted idea that they're being transformed and consumed by some kind of hive mind disease? The fuck? I just don't understand how they made that leap. That seems so ridiculously large and unlikely.
You know what that does sound like? A god damn Changeling hive. I wonder who seeded that idea in their head? A couple guesses.
7543539
You have to remember that this is a universe where "an ancient, magical conspiracy did it" is apparently the correct answer. And if we give the ponies at least a little bit of a shadow of a doubt, supposing they did try to make contact and talk it out and just weren't able to make any progress, then it follows the Conspiracy is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-annoying. If the higher-ups feed them a plausible line, how hard do you think it would be to sell them that notion? "I don't understand all the details, myself, but this is what we've discovered..."
Y'know what's funny? I've read a story on this site where there's an intelligent virus kidnapping people who mutate into horrible monsters. Check out 'The Chaotic Touch of Harmony' by Law Abiding Pony (damn good author).
Jacob: Excuse me, if I interrupt you there, special agent Rudolf Höss, but you seem to forget that I was in your mind, and I saw your little concentration camp and what you did to the people you "rescued". Even if we leave aside all the innocent people you murdered during field missions, the treatment of your prisoners alone exposes the blatant lie of having "good intentions". You tortured and imprisoned people who had committed no crimes and treated them worse than even battery farms treat their animals, even though you knew for a fact that they were sapient beings the entire time. There is no conceivable way that mere lack of knowledge of your opposition could possibly lead to such levels of deliberate, directed, and unambiguous evil. People who "just didn't know any better" don't end up creating such pits of horror by sheer accident; only people who know exactly that they're doing and want it that way can manage that.
Seriously, I was just starting warm up towards agent Avery a little, when she spews out that piece of utter, transparent bullshit, in order to make herself feel better about what she knowingly and willingly did to her victims. There goes any shred of sympathy I might have developed.
Lets hope this gatecrasher doesnt go like operation gatecrasher in xcom 2 tends to go.
Hugs. Lots and lots of hugs. Of the bear variety.