PaP: Bedtime Stories

by Starscribe

Trimester Three

“It’s the smallest nuclear device ever constructed,” Sargon Antonio Engels finished. “Smaller than anything that was imagined a decade ago. Small enough that even the NAU will not suspect it.”

Jackie looked over the case on the table in front of her—a briefcase, slightly bulging and metallic, with sturdy hinges and an oversized lock. But it was open, and she could see the mechanism of nuclear death before her.

It was cruder than anything that would’ve been constructed in the last cold war, back when the best human craft was behind the inventions. But Jackie’s senses were more than physical now—this object had a powerful presence in the Dreamlands, the weight of thousands and thousands of laborers. This was no staged prop for her entertainment. Every worker who had helped to build it had believed with absolute certainty that it would work.

“The range of the explosive is not large,” the Sargon went on. “In terms of such weapons, it is… considerably smaller than our largest tactical devices. It would not make a dent in the largest cities. But for all the ponies around it when it goes off… or any other creatures…”

Jackie’s body tensed. She felt a wave of heat and fear course through her, and tightened in her legs a little, feeling the oversized bulge that was her belly. The little pony inside was so close to being done that walking was becoming a challenge for her, so close that she couldn’t fly after drinking anything or else piss herself. Biology was infuriating and every day was another reminder why she never wanted another male inside her again.

“It has to be you,” the Sargon continued. There were none of the usual assortment of generals and advisors, only the stenographer and a few of the Sargon’s personal guards. She wondered if any of them would be shot when this meeting was over. “They won’t search you too carefully, I know it. As far advanced as you are, they’ll probably be bending and bowing to make things easier for you. Talking down like you can’t manage your own responsibilities.

She couldn’t anymore, or wouldn’t have been able to without the wealth of magic at her disposal. The world where a heavily pregnant mare could keep working through her final months inspired only by a pure love of the workers was as mythological as half the food.

“So I deliver it to the meeting,” she said. “And…” She kept her tone as neutral as she could. “Die for the motherland?” Did she sound enough like a fanatic? This bomb must’ve cost them terribly to build. I can’t let it out of my sight. She might even have to kill him if he tried to change his mind.

“Hopefully not,” the griffon said, his wings opening in modest agitation. “It is possible that will be required. The enemy must not discover the nature of our new abilities—this secret is more precious even than your mission. If there is any hint that you’ve been identified, you must detonate the device immediately.

“But… this is an emergency, and one I’m certain you will not encounter. If you follow the plan exactly, one of our other agents will have drugged the entire NAU delegation. One of them will be asleep, and you can escape into the Dreamlands with our insider a few moments before the bomb detonates.”

Still carrying a child.

After working with the Sargon for years now, after living in a world that was utterly dominated by his propaganda, she had almost come to believe it.

He’s still a warlord. One who intends to win no matter what it costs.

It was not her place to question the orders—she couldn’t be the one to ask if he’d lost his mind. Assassinating the President of the NAU would only remove Archive’s greatest rival, and spur their enemy to righteous fury.

“So this is the first shot,” she said, voice low. “We’re going to be the one who starts the war?”

“It wasn’t us,” Engels whispered, his voice dark. “They’ve been at war against the good people of this planet since their broken system was first conceived. You have a great honor in helping to end it, Alyona. Even if you do not return, you and your husband will be remembered as heroes of the people forever.”

“It will be our honor,” she said, with absolute conviction. She reached forward, snapping the case closed.

“You leave tomorrow,” the Sargon continued. “You will be flying a neutral Chinese vessel most of the way, so you should be able to escape inspection until the port of entry. I have numerous agents on the floor you will be assigned. Show your ring, and any you need will come to you.”

A day passed, and she was standing beside Ezri in the massive ballroom aboard the Hépíng, watching as a black sea roiled under them. She could almost sense the anger rising there, the satisfaction at the death that was about to begin.

From just beside her, music played on an ancient record player. It had taken many years for Jackie to appreciate classical music, but now of all times she could enjoy a little Clair de Lune. It reminded her of simpler times—of coffee shops and hipsters and concerts attended with her family.

We kill ourselves, and the planet belongs to him. It couldn’t go any other way.

“How much further?” Ezri asked, glancing at her bulging middle again. “We don’t have to keep up the ruse, bat. We’ve done everything that could be asked.”

Jackie slumped forward into a nearby chair, and not just because she didn’t have the energy to keep standing. At least, not that she ever would’ve admitted. “I can’t believe we couldn’t stop this. All the power we had, what good is it? What’s the point of having a knife when the whole world is about to burn?”

Ezri settled one leg around her shoulder, pulling Jackie in close. She didn’t resist, even though the motion would crumple the elegant ambassador’s dress. They’d checked the room for bugs, but there might still be eyes watching them. Let them watch.

Ezri didn’t say anything, her wife knew better than that. He just held her tight, the larger of the two as he had been for the months of their undercover assignment. Months that had turned into years.

The side door slammed open so hard the engraved glass shattered, and the wood splintered into pulp. The corpse of a minotaur went tumbling out, blood spraying from its many wounds as it toppled tables, shattered chairs.

There was shouting, screaming, and another few corpses went soaring through the air. One of the side windows shattered, and an earth pony went tumbling out into the abyss.

Jackie didn’t turn around, just watched it all through the reflection in the glass. Watched as a greenish Alicorn emerged from the rear of the ship, her coat splattered with blood and a crystalline revolver levitating in the air beside her.

The record kept playing. Yet the nose was beginning to dip—one of the engines made a choking sound, then died.

Archive pulled herself a chair, wiping the blood from her face with the tablecloth, then straightening. “Ezri, Jackie, good to see you both. Can’t wait to meet my grandchild.”

“That’s it?” Jackie flicked an angry wing towards the gaping hole in the side of the zeppelin, and the roar of wind that was drowning out their record. “You just killed everyone on this ship, and you want to know about a kid? Doesn’t it bother you?”

The Alicorn’s expression hardened. But she didn’t answer. The nose continued to dip. Expensive china dishes slid off neighboring tables, shattering to the floor. The drinks cabinet swung open, and bottles rained down.

“All men die, Jacqueline. These men were delivering a bomb to those meeting with them under flag of truce. It is a kinder fate than what waited for them if they were captured.”

Ezri’s eyes had no judgement, not as Jackie felt. What she had pretended for the Sargon, her wife actually felt for Archive, even after all these years. “Won’t they assume you shot it down? Even if you… prevent them from getting a message off. They’ll use this as a call to war.”

“Maybe,” Archive said. “But they’ll know we didn’t shoot it down.” She lifted the case from beside the table, and somehow it remained still while everything around them was at least on a thirty-degree angle by now. It took Jackie more strength than she had to keep sitting. “We’re going to set it off. If I allow the Union to get their hooves on that device, they will want it deployed against the Sargon in retribution. This way, there’s at least a chance they’ll assume a technical fault was responsible, or… an effort of counter-intelligence. It should give us a few more weeks of peace, if we are lucky.”

There was a rustle from the doorway, and a roar. Archive didn’t even sit up, the gun just moved, firing in front of them. A few more corpses slid across the floor, before they even had a chance to aim their weapons.

“Those men are trying to protect me,” Jackie whispered. “It’s wrong to…”

“Not wrong,” Archive declared. “They knew the risks. They die good deaths. Because of them, we may have another chance at peace. Or maybe we won’t.” She sighed, eyes settling on the bomb. “It’s hard to believe someone willing to use these is capable of peace. We won’t be able to trust them for any meeting again.”

“That’s your problem,” Jackie said, rising from the table. She reached into her dress, removing a little bit of plastic concealed up her thigh. The detonator. “I’m fucking done with this whole shit. You got to sit out a war, this one’s my turn.” She couldn’t lift into the air, not with so little space to get a running start. But Ezri rose beside her, and that was almost as good.

“You did good work,” she said, catching the detonator in her magic. “The NAU will honor you for your sacrifice.”

“No they won’t,” Jackie spat, voice bitter. “They’ll all be dead in a week. Everything we did was for nothing, Alex. The whole world’s going to ashes around us, that wet asshole is going to fucking win and there’s nothing we can—” She winced, freezing still and trying to make sense of what her body was telling her. Had she sat in one of the drinks without realizing it? Or… no, that pain she’d been ignoring, those were… shit.

Jackie drew her dagger in a single swift motion, slicing through into the Dreamlands. “Good luck with world peace,” she said. “You’re gonna need it.”

Jackie gave birth to her first child under a ceiling of white linen on the shore of an ancient beach.

There were no monsters here, not in waters patrolled by the strong songs of seaponies and the sharp blades of their soulshears. It was a painful, messy, bloody process, but not nearly as bloody as what they watched on the single portable display.

From the sight of Athena’s orbital satellites, Jackie watched whole cities vanish in flashes of light. Archive’s gambit had failed, and with it went a million lives.

But while numberless ponies died, one more settled into her arms.

She was glad the baby was too young to understand her disappointment that it was a male—but Ezri didn’t seem to mind, or even to notice.

He was a bat, just like her, with a coat the same green as her father’s, a mane a few shades darker than her mother’s. He looked up at her, and laughed, and she was no longer disappointed.

They had done their best, and it hadn’t been enough. The world was burning. But at least the three of them were together.

“What are we going to call him?” Ezri asked, returned to her natural shape at last. That was good—Jackie was getting sick of stallions.

“Alvin.”

Comments

[Von Snootingham]

I feel like I've forgotten something. Why "Alvin"?

[Starscribe]

It was Chip's human name, Ezri's father.

[Von Snootingham]

9363667
Ohhhh. Wow, yeah, been a while.

[Helium]

Archive pulled herself a chair, wiping the blood from her face with the tablecloth, then straightening. “Ezri, Jackie, good to see you both. Can’t wait to meet my grandchild.”

One hell of a way to make an entrance.

It was Chip's human name, Ezri's father.

I knew that name sounded familiar...

This was really the only story in PaP that felt really unresolved to me and with this chapter you've fixed that.

[Yami Vizzini]

One more of the advantages to dream travel- you can go into labor in the worst possible situation, but you don’t have to stay there.

[Condray]

9364649
Probably one of my favorite entrances by Day...probably partially because it feels more like a Jackie move. Guess hang around the same group a couple of centuries and they rub off on ya!

[Inucroft1]

Really? Really? FFS Starscribe, this is what, 4th end of the world now?!