Chapter 36
Jacob felt less confident the closer he came to the recording studio. He could hear distant voices, see studio lights shining down the hall, but that didn’t make things easier. What do I think I’m gonna do, tell an Alicorn she’s wrong to her face? Sunset Shimmer felt an enormous debt to him, and to the others who had rescued the imprisoned ponies. That gratitude was infused anew every time his magic saved one of her ponies. But that wasn’t the same thing as having the confidence to tell a pony as powerful as she was that she was wrong.
He kept walking anyway. He needed nothing more than the image of Michelle's face in his mind, legs propped up on her couch after another bad-movie marathon. Attacking at random was going to target people like her. People who should be allowed to keep living their lives.
What would Twilight have said about Sunset’s plan? Pity she wasn’t alive to consult. For all his doubts, there was another voice, a voice of shame. The voice that whispered to him that maybe Sunset was making the right choice. They were fighting for survival, and she was an Alicorn. Who better to know what they should do?
He found the door hanging open, ponies and humans in various states of ponification moving about in the usual patterns of video production. He was unfamiliar with most of it, though he recognized enough to know that Sunset had recreated a semi-professional level of production at least. It would’ve been adorable to see ponies moving about with makeup trays or levitating microphones, were it not for what Sunset was filming.
It was a mostly empty set. Sunset stood beside a green-screen, hovering in the air with flaming wings and flashing eyes. There was nothing of special effects in the way even her clothes started to sizzle, and one of the lights near her exploded in a shower of glass.
“Those you trust to protect you sent soldiers to slaughter my friends. They captured and imprisoned your families, and left them to rot like carcasses.” He saw from a display facing him what Sunset must be seeing, images superimposed on the green-screen beside her. The siege of Unity, apparently taken from some of its many security cameras. Humans bleeding and dying. Containment, though there were only a handful of photos, probably taken from Sunset’s own cell-phone. He had wondered who she had been texting three hundred meters underground. Then fresh images, from that very day. The dragon, ruined buildings, and the corpses. It was enough to make him recoil, though he stuffed a fist in his mouth to keep from gagging.
“We will find those responsible, and deal justice to them. What you are experiencing now is not vengeance for their actions.” She landed, approaching one of the other cameras more calmly. Jacob was just glad she wasn’t pointed at him or the open door anymore. “You suffer because it is the only way to protect the ponies of this planet. When there were a few of us, we were hunted and slaughtered though we only asked for peace. Now there are millions. Don’t let them subjugate you as they did your missing families.”
“If you are watching this video, then with it we have published two lists. The first is the names of every pony we have managed to save—your loved ones taken for as long as two years. One day soon, you will be able to see them again, and hear their witness that we have treated them well.”
“The other is a longer list—the name of every person we know of we couldn’t save. The murdered.”
“We will not abandon you as your own planet has done. You will be found, and taught your new powers. Flight for the wings, magic for the horns, and strength for ponies with neither.”
“You are not insane, and you are not alone. Equestria thanks you for your role in protecting the lives of its citizens.” She held still, staring directly into the lens. Then someone shouted, and several of the stage lights went out.
Ponies rushed around with renewed production fervor, many of them looking as disturbed as he felt. Sunset Shimmer had sounded every bit as passionate as when she was back in Containment. Not a person at all, but a force.
She was walking right towards him. All the military sternness was gone from her face, and she smiled down at him. “Jacob! I understand you preserved a good friend of mine the doctors had given up for dead.” She clasped him on the shoulder, her hand burning with heat. “Your service is as valuable as ever.”
He nodded, trying to find the words he had been searching for. When he stormed from their little barracks, he had been so confident. Katie had smiled at him as he left, looking so proud. He couldn’t let her down. Couldn’t let Michelle down. “This video you’re making, is it about something that already happened?”
Sunset stopped, glancing once down the hall before answering. “Not until tomorrow morning. It’s the dead of night in the US and very early morning in the parts of Europe we’re focusing on. It happens tomorrow, then we give another day before we make our statement. No more letting the Light Tenders silence us before anyone can even hear our story.”
“Couldn’t we…” He looked away. “Just tell the story? If you have a way of getting videos out you think people will watch before they’re taken down, we could just use that. Skip whatever you have planned.”
The Alicorn straightened, then looked him over with those dark, confident eyes. “You didn’t see the whole thing, did you?” He shook his head, and she continued. “It’s twenty full minutes long. We explain everything, and use real ponies as proof.”
“Sounds perfect.” He relaxed a little, grinning in spite of himself. “That’s exactly what we need to do. Even the parts you thought were hard for us.”
“If we thought it would work.” Sunset sighed. “You’ve seen how good humans are with movie production and special effects. If you saw a video of a pony a year ago, before you joined us, would you think that everything you understood about the universe was a lie, or that you were watching some kind of film trickery.”
He didn’t really have to consider. Of course he wouldn’t have believed anything that absurd, video “evidence” or not. He had seen video evidence of hauntings and bigfoot, but that hadn’t convinced him either. “Jackie said you were giving a lot of it away… Some kind of transformation…” he shook his head. “Whatever. Couldn’t you at least keep the attack limited? Get a military base, maybe. Instead of civilians who don’t even know we’re at war.”
Sunset pulled him around towards the studio, wrapping one arm around his shoulders. He didn’t squirm, though his flesh recoiled at her touch. This person wanted to attack innocent people. It didn’t feel right. “No matter how big a single attack was, they’d make it go away. With Containment gone, I don’t expect our enemy to be capturing ponies anymore. They’ll slaughter us.”
“Two attacks might be the same way, or three, or ten. I don’t know what resources they control.” Film people hurried around them, tending to Sunset’s makeup, straightening her collar. They ignored Jacob completely. “So we attack everywhere. We free a million ponies, or two, or five. Maybe our virus spreads over the whole planet, and the problem disappears…” She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s likely. Humans are too versatile for that, or you’d already be extinct. They will stop it, eventually. Our only hope is, by then, there are too many people for the Light Tenders to kill.”
“When that happens, the surface will be safe again. We won’t have to hide in caves, because there will be so many more ponies. We can recover the shards of the mirror in safety, and bring Celestia here to greet her new subjects.”
“Your masters taught me: supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. This way might be… unconventional, but it also won’t cost lives. When we’re done, the Light Tenders won’t be able to kill us. We will win the war without fighting.”
“I don’t like it.” He pulled away from her, shivering at how cold he felt despite the spotlights shining all around him. “It’s brilliant, it might even work, I dunno. But the way we win matters. If you do this… even if we win, and ponies are safe… you’re going to make people hate us. Maybe forever.”
Sunset tensed. All around them, the crew’s conversation faded to silence, and many eyes watched them. Sunset folded her arms. “If the way you win matters, is it right to save the lives of the dying? You’re making the decisions of an Alicorn, rewriting their fates and using necromancy on their bodies. Is the magic evil when the result is a pony who doesn’t have to leave the ones they love?”
He tried to come up with an answer, but his lips only stumbled uselessly over the words. Necromancy? Rewriting fates? What was Sunset Shimmer even talking about?
The princess advanced towards him, resting one hand on his shoulder. He tried to pull away, but her grip was too strong. He was no earth pony, to resist the will of an Alicorn. “Lifeline, I know you aren’t the only one who is uncomfortable about this. I haven’t asked for your help—I only ask for your trust. Princess Celestia gave me this planet, and I intend to honor her trust. I will take the responsibility, I will take the guilt, and you can keep up the good work saving ponies. Alright?”
“Yeah.” He bowed, lowering his head. “I understand, princess.”
She didn’t correct him.
Jacob got out as quick as he could, hurrying downstairs. He met Eric and Danielle in the lobby, Eric carrying Danielle in his arms. She didn’t look very awake.
Eric was. “You look like you saw a ghost,” he said, stopping in the hall. The pony he was carrying didn’t even twitch.
“You could say that.” Jacob stopped, glancing around them. There were other ponies here, a steady flow of traffic into and out of the capital. Few of them went downstairs though, considering how little housing was down there. “Is Danni doing better?”
He nodded. “She wasn’t hurt to begin with, just exhausted. Earth pony magic is usually just being able to do physical stuff well, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Walk with me.”
Eric followed without objection, down the stairs and into a supply closet on their floor. It had held emergency food rations once, but they had eaten all that. Jacob shut the door behind them, resting his back against it. So far as he knew, no one had seen them go in. “What’s wrong?”
Jacob explained as quick as he could.
Eric’s confusion quickly changed to horror, as his grip on Danielle got tighter. He was shaking by the time Jacob finished. “What… what the hell are we supposed to do? We could try the Internet cafe, but they screen everything people post… probably no one would believe us…”
“I don’t know.” Jacob rested against the empty shelves, but he was still nearly two feet shorter than his friend. “Even if we can’t stop this, we have to do something.”
“That’s why we’re hiding in the cupboard.”
He nodded. “I’m not sure about Harley. I’ll talk to her. Katie will agree with me, we can get her help. Jackie looked pretty upset too. Not sure about the others…” He started pacing back and forth. “You have Harley’s identification, right?”
Eric nodded. “Maybe she’s a good spy, but she hasn’t changed her password in four months.”
“I want you to go over the database. Look for anything unusual, anything we can use…” He stamped one foot in frustration. “Damnit, I’m not sure what you can even look for! We can’t give the ponies away, or we’ll all be slaughtered. But I can’t stand by and do nothing while Sunset Shimmer ‘greater goods’ one or both of our species into the ground.”
“I’ll see what I can find,” Eric eventually said. “Maybe there’s something we can use. But… there might not be anything useful.”
“Examine the political stuff too.” He stopped pacing. “Maybe if we can’t stop her, we can get her deposed or something. Celestia wouldn’t be happy with her attacking innocent people, would she?”
“Not the one from the show.” Eric reached down, stroking Danni’s mane. She didn’t notice, though she did seem quite relaxed in his arms. “But the show wasn’t the whole truth.”
“We might be able to learn from Harley. She didn’t seem to like Equestria much—I bet she’ll be as negative as possible.”
“But that might not be the truth either.”
“Yeah.” Jacob slumped back against the wall, burying his head in his hands. Somewhere far away, terrorists were transporting poison. What he wanted to do was warn the president, and have his warning be taken seriously. But there was no time, no way, and no chance he would be believed.
They were helpless.
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Uh, did I miss something here? When did this happen? I thought they all got back to Equestria through the mirror.
I honnestly fail to see what is so horrific about that plan. It does sound like it will cause a massive emotional trauma, but the other option is agression and war, wich would cause emotional massive trauma and a lot of suffering.
In addition, since in the context of this story, most if not all humans aren't really human anyway, it isn't a transformation, but rather a very forceful way of showing the truth.
It also sligthly taste like taking the population in hostage to force the governement to acknowledge the truth and negociate, but I have heard of far worse demand as far as hostage taking goes. In fact, Sunset plan is really reasonable; since the human governement somehow absolutely want a war and the extermination of ponies.
7558917 Nope, she ded.
7558947, Government does pretty logical things, the question is "Why does Equestria want to bring magic to Earth so hard, along with reclaiming Earth as Equestrian colony?". Recreating mirror just to leave doesn't worth millions of forcibly broken lives. And I'm pretty sure, that if there were any shards, Light Tenders succesfully recollected it.
It's an interesting question. What would you do in Sunset's situation? It seems like finding the Light Tender's bases and destroying the source of their magic is beyond what the Earthside Ponies can manage. (Which is what I'd advocate for.)
7558917 It's my understanding that she's officially MIA, but the odds of her survival are ... low, and that it seems like she sacrificed herself to save as many as she could.
And honestly, the conversion attacks seem to me like the least bad option at this point. The Ponies are in no position to win a conventional war, are ill-equipped for guerrilla warfare, and have the stomach for neither. This will hurt a lot of people and transform them against their will, but the odds of lasting damage are ... low, and this *will* put an end to the torture and imprisonment of Ponies ... especially important if Containment wasn't the only facility of it's kind.
And the shades of gray deepen.
Should I bring facts confirming that introducing magic to a world almost completely not prepared to it is going to cause huge problems? It's a miracle that USA didn't collapse in first days, but there is no fact that problems from "technology vs. magic" conflict won't arise in future.
P.S. Tries to combine technology and magic in one are futile, you don't have a number that lookls like 1 that is put inside 0.
7558947
Honestly, I'm on the fence about this. On the one hand, I try to put myself in the position of the average human being on this planet if they were informed of the truth. My initial reaction would be to say that we didn't ask for them to come to Earth and breed with us to make more ponies. They effectively took the planet away from humanity. I really feel like Sunset is crossing the moral event horizon here by forcing the issue in a way that is indeed sure to engender more hatred.
But on the other hand, what's done is done. This all started thousands of years ago, and it's probably pretty useless to argue over whose fault it is, and I certainly don't like the idea of just exterminating ponies because it's essentially committing genocide on ourselves. (genocide in general, of course, is pretty heinous and morally unjustified, but using it here is more like implementing a scorched-earth policy).
This is an interesting turn of events, Sunset is trying to organize a counter-attack by shear arithmetics on her side. The more people become ponies the more difficult it becomes for the government to hide the their activities and stretch their resource thin until hide it any more and they they run dry in funds, the more people become ponies the more the government would struggle to justifies what they are doing in the public eye that they are incarcerating people without trail or justification, especially to their loved ones, and the more the ponies will be one step closer to be acknowledge as being people by the government and should be giving all the same rights as human can.
For what I can understand of the situation, this is a question of the very survival of the ponies on Earth and waging as secret war like that is playing in the enemies favor, as if now one know about them no one would be able to defend them while they are facing either extinction or enslavement, by people how don't see them as equals but animals, so they can't be negotiated with. I think hiding form from the population is no longer an option for them, as they been discovered and they now know the length the enemies are willing to go to reach them. At this point, they don't really have much other options left then to use the most powerful and non lethal weapon they have, any and all options should be explore and the enemy wouldn't expect them to try and do something so drastic at the moment to try and turn the tied and can't deal with so many targets at ones.
At this point, they would become terrorist and will be painted as aliens trying to convert or assimilate humanity into Equestrian culture, and I don't think that is the direction you are trying to go with.
the choice is extinction or assimilating the enemy.
This is starting to look like the conversion bureau again.
From a logistical standpoint, I'd have to support Sunset. Given their current situation, she doesn't have much choice. They don't have any way to renew their human illusions so their "in the open" operational force will only ever shrink. This will also have the side effect of forcing world governments to make anti-ponification tech a priority, tech that Sunset could make solid use of.
As for Jacob's objections, he was solidly correct to voice his concerns but until he has a better idea, actively undermining will only make things worse. In the best case he will weaken cohesion among a group that cannot afford infighting. In the worst case he will leave them lacking both leadership and a coherent strategy for survival.
7558917
I recall a mention of the Elements making it through the mirror. I'll try to find a quote when I'm not on my phone. Either way, anybody who didn't get to Imperium from Unity (by death or escape to Equestria) is currently lost to them.
7558951
Quote or link please?
I'm honestly a little bit confused about Jacob's position here; he talks about wanting to see his sister sitting around and watching a bad movie marathon, but is this a realistic outcome? Or more importantly, does the essence of this scene change if Michelle is a pony?
I think its likely the result of this story being very actiony without really digging into the quieter moments of the characters' thoughts and feelings, because really, I'm not sure how Jacob is developing these lines of thinking. For example, several chapters ago, Jacob tearfully asks Sunset if she's going to "kill his sister" (or something along those lines), but why is he thinking she would? As far as I can tell, none of the Equestrians so far have actually killed anyone unless they were in a life or death situation (if then) and had to respond with lethal force, or have they displayed a callous disregard for human life--certainly on in the same way the Lighttenders have done.
Perhaps Jacob is meant to be read as someone who fundamentally doesn't want to be a pony--a theme that I think's common enough in Ponies after People, but it's also been pointed out to him that those who go full pony end up adjusting to their new form in relatively short order and not being overly bothered by it--suggesting, perhaps, it's the transitional state that he's in currently that is what's making him uncomfortable.
As an aside question, did Jacob not lose anything this time around?
Truthfully, I'm not really sure what other outcome there possibly could be: if they do nothing, then people are still going to be transformed into ponies, but the Equestrians are no longer going to have the resources to really do anything about this. They probably can't mount very good rescue operations, and as Sunset points out--they're probably just being wholesale killed now.
Coming out doesn't seem terribly effective either, without proof. Although one could argue that if Sunset is really an alicorn, perhaps she could move the moon; this would be observable, uncoverupable, and make the point fairly well.
But, even in this, it isn't really clear what the outcome would be in the long term. Even if they manage to leave their underground city, anyone they come in contact with is going to be bathing them in magic that will eventually induce the same changes that lead down the road to ponification. There's no way of getting around this.
I just don't know what directly Jacob is seeing here.
Unless the end goal is transforming everyone. If you're an immortal long-term thinker, you might look at "transform everyone, then wait a couple of generations until our new citizens don't care what we did" as a sensible plan.
When it comes right down to it, ponies were said to have hidden themselves as humans because they were magical and that magic could be detected by Discord. Exposure to magic seems to be the main thing actually transforming people, so if a couple of million people transform, won't they continue transforming others by their mere existence? In Casualties, it was possible to innoculate people against the immediate transformation of the bioweapon, but won't normal magical contamination eventually transform them in the slower way that, say, Jacob has been transforming?
7559014
I'm not so sure on that one. They came, integrated themselves and a few thousand of year later, it happen that theya re the dominant species. If they aren't simply the only one remaining.
The fact that this situation completly blur the distinction of pony and human aside from a cultural one makes it impossible to stand on such a ground.
Morover, the "our planet" attitude feel very arrogant to me considering how many other living species there is. And even more considering we don't even live on most of the planet and how even less human there was at the time of the ponies arrival.
Does Sunset not know how humanity reacts to bio-logical warfare. Especially in the U.S., there's going to be a huge quarantine. Then possibly a huge genocide when that video goes live since the Light Tenders are inside major world governments.
God speed Jacob, Eric and Danielle. Save the innocent from the ignorant.
7558917
Found the quote.
And here I thought you were hiding a code or secret.
7559814
Other than ones that are inconsequential or look intentional, here are the italics I found when digging in the source html.
The <i>s</i>iege of Unity, apparently taken from some of its many security cameras.
He<i> ha</i>d wondered who she had been texting three hundred meters underground.
<i>S</i>he landed, approaching one of the other cameras more calmly
Sunset Shimmer had sounded every bit as passionate as when she was back in <i>C</i>ontainment.
He nodded, trying to find the words he<i> ha</i>d been searching for.
When he stormed from their little barracks, he<i> ha</i>d been so confident.
“Couldn’t we…” <i>H</i>e looked away.
The <i>A</i>licorn straightened, then looked him over with those dark, confident eyes.
“<i>You</i> didn’t see the whole thing, did you?”
would you think that everything you understood about <i>the</i> universe was a lie
He<i> ha</i>d seen video evidence of hauntings and bigfoot, but that hadn’t convinced him either.
<i>S</i>ome kind of transformation…”
<i>It didn’t feel righ</i>t. “<i>No matter</i> how big a single attack was, they’d make it go away.
<i>s</i>upreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
It had held emergency food rations once, but they<i> ha</i>d eaten all that.
Well, it's official. This story bothers me on an intrinsic level. The more I read, the more I realize Jacob and the rest are the only 'good guys' here, and I include Harley with them.
The government's methods here are brutal, but lack understanding. The ponies have a goal in mind, and are willing and all too happy to run roughshod over anyone that gets in their way, up to and including their own allies. And it makes me sick.
... the more difficult thing in all this is that I can't tell if I'm enjoying the story anymore, and this is coming from a fan of your work, Starscribe. There's no brightness, no happiness to be found in these last several chapters, and I find it wearing and worrying in turn.
7558917
It's a (admittedly safe) assumption the characters are making that Twilight died. The assumption seems to be that if Twilight had survived, the mirror would have as well.
7558969
Even Sunset doesn't seem happy with her choice. As others have pointed out, there isn't a wealth of good options here.
7559039
You are of course correct that Jacob doesn't really have a good option and isn't seeing that at this point. Well, I think he knows how doomed his situation is based on this line:
7560163
Don't give up!
publishingcrawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/storyarc_traditional.jpg
We're getting close to the peak at this point, and things are pretty grim. Just don't give up! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise!
I would like to question point of "survival" here. Throught the entire story Equestrians had only one goal: "Ponify all humans, or as many as you can". First time we were told that Equestrians are here to help, but they only tried to fix what they've broke. Now we are told that this is only for survival of the Imperium. Along with that, ponies want to rebuild the mirror. I can't even imagine what would happen next. "Now we will start to exterminate all of the world's leaders who resist" or something in that manner, proclaimed by the great army of Equestria?
Also, let's not forget about one particular character: Elise. She joined and helped Equestrians because she believed that Equestrians know how to contain "the disease" better. I really want to see Elise's reaction on the event ponies are planning to perform, because this event is radically opposite from what she expected from them. I think that this fact is going to have huge impact on Elise. Perhaps, maybe she will have something that might help our heroes.
It's funny because from a population perspective, total ponification is the only thing that can save humanity. It won't affect the few remaining humans, and if there's enough, they can assume a stable population. Otherwise they'll inevitably breed with changed ponies, until no humans remain in the next generation.
And this is the moment i lost all good will towards ponies running the show.
8080758
"Gave me this planet"
Yep.
Celestia thinks it was her planet, now the planet 'belongs' to sunset.
7558917
Nobody knows.
They couldn't find the bodies, so they couldnt prove or disprove her death.
I cant begin to describe the pure rage and anger that these sentences are making me feel right now.
I still cant tell whether i hate that or like it. but since im still here reading on you seem to be doing something right.
I think i've finally found the words i've been looking for for the past couple of chapters to express and define my disgust.
To me humanity is defined by spirit, culture and our history (good and bad). Not race, gender or even species. Even in a world like this one where everyone is likely some pony/human hybrid, that doesnt make them any less human to me. The equestrians in this story seem to spit on this every chance they get.
I also just want to take a second to say i totally called them pulling an FE:fates revelations
9324159
To be frank, this story has made it clear that those are pony traits as much as human.
They aren't human.