• Published 14th Feb 2017
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PaP: Bedtime Stories - Starscribe



Earth used to have humans living on it. Now it has ponies, some of which used to be human. It will take ten thousand years for every human alive on earth to return. A lot can happen in that much time.

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Remember the Brave

There was much to say about the battle. Yet it was doomed, and they all knew it. Even as their soldiers marched to the field, with every defensive preparation that could be made. Even as they slaughtered thousands of the enemy’s disgusting spawn without losing a dozen men. There was no victory here, only an extension of the time it would take until the end.

Yet something had changed about the enemy, something Jackie could not immediately explain. They didn’t fight as intelligently as they had years ago, throwing their lives away with specific strategies—luring out their own troops one at a time so they could be destroyed individually. How they all fought together with such coordination had always been a mystery, yet also one of the enemy’s most potent abilities. One they had no ability to counter.

But now it was gone. This gave Jackie hope as she fought beside her wife, changing out every few hours with fresh troops, only to return to the front and fight again. Then the battle took to the sky, and still they fought, their airborne ponies outclassing the enemy just as well as their ground troops. But even one death for a hundred inflicted on the enemy were devastating losses.

Something rumbled in the deep, and the river shifted. A pale, rotting form emerged in the far distance, dragging with it a cloak of decay. Even its own soldiers were not immune to the effect. It was not Charybdis—the presence of that monster would probably have ended the battle before it began. Only the Alicorns (and perhaps the incorruptible crystal ponies) could have fought him back. But he hadn’t come. This was some lesser demon, though how much lesser she couldn’t tell. Like many of Charybdis’s servants, it walked on two legs, dragging itself forward through the mud as though it had once known how to walk, but long forgotten.

Suddenly, Isaac was beside her, dressed in his ancient HPI armor. How it even still worked after all these years, Jackie didn’t know. “That is Deathlord Camazotz,” he whispered, voice low. “My magic suggests he commands this army. I don’t know why he would subject himself to danger this way… he could wait from behind and crush us with time.”

“They aren’t patient,” Ezri answered, peering through the soldiers all the way to the front. “He’s confident he’s won this battle. That means he thinks he’s safe. The corrupted always think they’re immortal until they’re dead.”

“I’m not.” Isaac straightened. “Good luck, you two.” He reached out, touching the side of Ezri’s head with one hand. “Take care of her.” Then he looked back to Jackie. “Do not let him escape. My life is a fair price to pay for his.”

“What are you talking about?” Jackie asked, but Isaac was already gone. He reappeared at the very front of the battle, or at least their piece of it. As he landed, thousands of the enemy burned to ash, swept away in arcane wind. Steel glittered from Isaac’s hands, and he advanced on their enemy. Somehow, his words came through clearly, despite their distance.

Jackie started running. She couldn’t fly, or else enemy ranged-weapons might kill her. There were so many of them at this point that she couldn’t keep it all straight. But she could run, and quickly. “Teleport us to the front!” Jackie shouted. “We’ll take him three at a time! This solo stuff is horse shit.”

Ezri ran along beside. “I’m trying! Camazotz’s too strong! I can’t get a stable jump!”

Jackie swore in several different languages, dodging behind another line of sandbags and the machine-gunners occupying them.

She heard Camazotz’s voice clearly over the din. “Ah, Isaac. I’m so pleased to see you survived the tragedy at Midgard. I worried I wouldn’t be able to claim your head myself.”

“You will not have this planet,” Isaac said. “The Keeper created us to know it—your touch destroys her works. Her firstborn rejects your gift.”

Camazotz’s expression hardened. There was enough humanity to its strange features that Jackie could still sortof read its emotions. Close enough, anyway. “We will see. You are nothing without your Compiler. I saw it broken myself.”

“I saw Supernal lights myself, Gabriel Escobar. There’s still a candle out there for you. Turn this army back, and maybe we can find a way to heal you. Charybdis doesn’t have to own you anymore.”

Camazotz answered that offer with a howl of rage, charging directly at Isaac as though he intended to rip him limb from limb. They met, and the confluence of magic between them melted a crater in the ground. Camazotz’s own soldiers kept charging, and were instantly destroyed when they got too close. Not just by Isaac’s magic, either. The Deathlord made no attempt to protect his own from the effects of his power. Their side kept well back, getting as far away from the battle as they could. Probably it was an opportunity well-needed.

Isaac dropped to the ground, one of his arms hanging limply at his side. His chest heaved, body burned by a dozen different spells that would’ve killed a mortal pony. Jackie was almost there. Twenty more seconds, and she could help.

“We’ll see what you think about service once you’ve spent some time in the Void. There are no screams there, Isaac. So many of your kin are already waiting for you.”

“No!” Ezri screamed, horn glowing and sparking in a vain attempt to get them closer. The earth at Isaac’s feet opened, and he vanished without another word.

At that moment, the two of them fought their way through the lines, shoving back their own troops to make it out onto the field of corpses blasted by Isaac and Camazotz’s magic.

“Brother of the lower path.” Ezri stood tall as she cut through the swirling void-magic with her horn, bending it out from around them. Isaac had done the same for himself, but no trace of him remained. “Bring my immortal brother back. Surely Charybdis gave you the power to fight all three of us at once.”

Together, the three of them had the power of an Alicorn, minus the immortality. Ageless did not mean they couldn’t die here.

“Of course.” Camazotz towered over them, easily as tall as Athena. He was a creature of inscrutable anatomy—something underneath looked to have been human once, but that part was old, and not the dominant factor in its anatomy anymore. He had too many limbs, and thick armor around his chest. His flesh was sickly and rotted, with gills on either side of his neck. The ground all around him seemed perpetually soaked, even though they were almost half a mile from the water. Only Charybdis needed to remain in the ocean perpetually—the rest of his servants could leave if their bodies allowed it.


“The master of this planet would wipe you three away like marine snow drifting in the current. But just because he would let you face him doesn’t mean I will. Gods have that power—I am only the servant of a god.”

“He was right,” Ezri said quietly. “You don’t have to serve him anymore. We can cut the cancer out. We can heal you. I’ve been through the whole thing myself.” She was telling the truth, though the meaning was arguable. Ezri had been born with a damaged soul, as all her kind. Love had healed that wound. Camazotz, on the other hand… he’d been born intact, and sworn himself to the void anyway. His wounds were self-inflicted, and far deeper. There might not actually be anything left to save.

“My sister forgets herself,” Camazotz said, stretching out all six of its strange limbs. There were claws there, glittering with venom. Claws with metal tips instead of bone, and many other strange things. How such a configuration was even possible biologically, Jackie couldn’t say. “You too have come to die. I will happily oblige your desire. And when you’re dead, your wife will join my master’s service. She will have no choice.”

Jackie charged directly for him, drawing her single dagger into her teeth. A dagger that had come from beyond the universe, and taken countless lives in this one. They didn’t call her the Dreamknife for nothing.

But even the two of them working together could not overcome the terrible power Charybdis had entrusted to his servants. They severed limbs, they scored wounds on its flesh, and caused other terrible harm. But it wasn’t enough. Their magic waned, the protection on their artifacts was depleted. They were as doomed together as Isaac had been alone.


Camazotz towered over them, his presence as expansive as it was overwhelming. There were so many dead that Jackie could not see the ground. Most of those appeared to be Charybdis’s spawn, yet it was impossible to tell in the chaos of war just how many of their own were dead around her. All of them would be, before too long.

Ezri lay beside her, as broken as Jackie was herself. Between the two of them, they probably had a hundred different broken bones. The ancient Runeplate had allowed Jackie to fight on, ignoring the pain of every injury, yet within it all she felt hollow, and empty. Death would soon come for them. After that, to the rest of Datong. Whatever was left of it, anyway.

“Y-you… can’t,” Ezri coughed from beside her, rising to shaking hooves. Jackie couldn’t see where she got the strength. Hadn’t they spent everything they had in the battle with no end?

“Can’t what?” Camazotz had been bloodied by their fight with him—his vaguely humanoid figure was missing some of its extra limbs, and a whole section of the armored chitin around his chest had been blasted away by a lucky shot from a skilled crystal pony. Yet it had made little difference. Jackie didn’t have the strength to move anymore, didn’t have the strength to resist the corruption of the void. “I’m sure you’ll find I can do whatever I want.” He reached forward with his stray hand, towards Jackie.

Jackie twitched away with all the energy of a fish pulled out of the water, completely without effect. Ezri tried to protest, but she too had no strength left.

Neither side had servants here to help—anything mortal had been destroyed in the confluence. Far away, the battle raged on, but the three of them were alone.

Camazotz’s rotten hand touched Jackie’s wing, and there was no pain. Instead, it brought with it a soothing, gentle flow, a cooling touch that took away the pain. It promised healing, promised a return to life, promised everything in exchange for her permission. Jackie didn’t have the strength to resist that for long—it was a far more effective lure than any torture could’ve been.

“You won’t have… her,” Jackie croaked. “We both know it doesn’t work. Your magic can’t corrupt the Redeemed. They’ve already… they’re immune…” Jackie spoke, because it was the only thing she knew to do. Spoke because it distracted her from the agony, and it gave her a few more seconds where she would not accept the offered terms.

“A pity,” Negal’s voice rumbled beside her. “A tragic waste of life, yes. But you will be a prize nonetheless. The first to wield the Supernal’s own power turned against it. Charybdis will have a seat of might prepared for you. In time, you will forget what I made you do to her.”

“No,” Ezri said again, dragging herself forward. Again, her horn flickered, though no spell was cast. Jackie could feel it—all three of them were dead to power now. Isaac’s sacrifice, though not enough to kill Deathlord Camazotz, had been enough to render him weak. And we still lost. It cost his life, and we still lost. This was worse than dying bravely here.

Jackie would be forced to live on, forced by the consent she would give to join Charybdis in service. Camazotz’s hand was not healing her. It was rotting her—giving her unnatural life, completely dependent on the Unmade’s touch.

“No,” Ezri said again, a little more forcefully. “Not her. You can’t.”

“I can,” Camazotz said. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Wait your turn to die, sister. It’s coming soon enough. We can all see you have no power left. Your servants are dead, your magic is spent. None will ever say I don’t have a personal touch—that’s why Charybdis chose me. Your wife will see this through to the end. I will extend your suffering for years, if I can. I want to see your face when that last city burns.”

Jackie could feel relief so close, like she was drowning, and the water was within an arm’s reach. “Just take it,” said that voice. “It’s so easy. Take it, and everything will be better. You’ll never feel pain again. Never know death, or fear again. You will bring fear instead—to those whose petty actions brought this fate. You could’ve won, if you had been more united. You can punish those who caused the death of your world.”

“No,” Ezri croaked, a little more forcefully. Loud enough that Jackie looked up. She saw blood on the ground below Ezri—she had so many wounds. Both had been blessed by the Supernal, and could recover from such things in time… but not if they were dead. “I have… one more spell for you, Deathlord. Plenty of power left for that.”

Camazotz laughed. Broken shards of bone and drops of blood went flying from his lips. “You think a lie will save your wife, sister? I can sense you have no magic left. Your crystals are all shattered, and your body is broken. You are nothing.”

Jackie winced—of course, Camazotz was right. Ezri had to know that too—any being of power could sense the magic another wielded. Even Jackie could feel it, and she didn’t have a horn.

“Not… quite… out of power yet.” She straightened, though how she had the strength, Jackie couldn’t know. “You forgot… something, Deathlord. Creatures… like you… never had one. Or don’t anymore.” She looked sidelong at Jackie, whose eyes had begun to widen.

Ezri did have some magic left—her soul itself.

“Fire,” Ezri said, aiming her horn at the towering Camazotz. It wasn’t a terribly complicated spell. Considering the power she had behind it, that didn’t matter.

The hand on Jackie’s wing was gone, gone in a flash of light that blasted up into the air as though the flames had been sent from heaven itself. She collapsed immediately, and felt her fur instantly turn to ash, even as the rest of her started to burn. But she hardly felt the pain—it didn’t matter, because she knew what it had cost.

No! I’m not losing you now, Ezri! The flames faded moments later. Jackie had been permanently blinded by them, she knew. Knew because she felt no more pain in her eyes. She couldn’t see her wife. Still, that was a blessing. At least she couldn’t see the ruin that had been made of her own body.

She could hear, at least a little. Far away, the army of the enemy had broken into chaos. They’d been right—Charybdis wasn’t here. Without the Deathlord to unite the invaders in common purpose, they’d begun tearing each other apart as vigorously as they attacked Datong.

Jackie felt something soft, and realized she must be touching Ezri. “P-please…” she said, or thought she said. “Don’t be…” But she was. There was no bargaining when you cast this last spell, no control. It burned everything you were, and left only chalky remains behind. Even now Ezri’s body felt unnaturally soft, as though squeezing too hard might turn her to ash and let her blow away in the wind.

Of all the immortals on Earth, none had loved quite like she loved Ezri. Jackie screamed her fury into the void, oblivious of the battle. That despair had brought clarity—a sudden understanding, a sight beyond sight. Jackie fell into herself, consumed by the agony of loss.

She opened her eyes in a glittering, golden city, her pain suddenly gone. Jackie had known this city before, though only once. She had seen these streets, paved with the symbols that made the natural laws. Last time she had been here, Jackie had been sent during the death of her friend—an escape that had been meant as an ascension. Now she had come here by right, and yet she didn’t care.

Something called Jackie towards the hill, and yet she ignored it. Ignored the stars overhead, playing back her memories. She only wanted to find one thing, and it wasn’t power. The Alicorns and their magic could fuck right off.

She found Ezri waiting for her, just as she knew she would. Her body looked as though it were only half there, and seemed in constant flux—one moment she was that little drone she’d been, the next a powerful Redeemed queen, the only immortal they had. Jackie could come no closer to her, for she stood on something watery, which turned Jackie’s hoof to smoke whenever she touched it. Further away, like a dim mirage in the distance, Jackie could see more figures—hundreds of Redeemed, ghostly echoes just like their queen. And so many more—changelings who hadn’t gotten colorful, but with holes all over them. She recognized a few, but only one was close enough for her to see for certain. Riley—Ezri’s ancient queen.

“Come back,” Jackie urged her, reaching out in vain with one hoof. She had already tried to fly—here, it seemed, the magic of flight didn’t exist. “I’ve brought so much magic with me. Enough for both of us.”

Ezri approached, walking to the edge of the great precipice. Below her, the ground Jackie was standing on swept off into the void, returning to the raw medium of creation. “No,” Ezri said. “My life isn’t worth that.” She pointed upward with a wing, and somehow Jackie followed her gaze to the mortal world. Where even now, Charybdis’s army slaughtered in Datong. Even killing each other, they would overwhelm it, and come for Mundi next. Jackie saw what would happen if the Alicorns couldn’t return to fight, and she saw the end of all things. The vision she had watched Oracle play out so many times happened before her again.

“You could use your power to bring me back, or… you could use it for something else.” She pointed towards the hill. “I’ve fought my fight, love. But you haven’t finished yours.”

Jackie reached out to embrace her, if only to feel her warmth one last time—but her hooves passed through nothing. Jackie was alone on the shore, looking out at nothing. Maybe there had never been anypony here.

Jackie contemplated plunging headfirst into that abyss, abandoning the mortal world to its fate. Yet somehow—she didn’t think that was what her mate would’ve wanted. Ezri was right—she wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

She turned, banishing her tears as she returned to the hill that had called her, walking the steps of its worn cobbles with hooves clopping lightly as she walked.

At the top of the hill were all the missing Alicorns. They were arranged in a tight circle, backs to an old well. They were all here, all the missing immortals who were supposed to be fighting in the world below. You’re the reason Ezri is dead. But no, it wasn’t them.

A figure stood across from them, a human figure whose very presence seemed to corrupt the stones he stood upon. Like Ezri, he seemed only half here, with different internal organs or strips of rotting flesh occasionally appearing in the world, only to fade to transparency again. “Well fuck you, Charybdis,” she said as she approached. Nothing happened. He didn’t even seem to see her.

She walked up, inspecting the scene. Charybdis stood with both hands outstretched towards the Alicorns. His power appeared to be entirely invested in trapping them here—that was why he hadn’t been at the battle, and why he couldn’t see her even now.

Jackie didn’t know much about magic, but she knew enough. She found a stone, pacing slowly around Charybdis, making a groove in the ground she could use. When she had circled him completely, she focused her intent to change on him, as she might’ve done during a dream. Existence is dust, we’re all pale shadows on the wall of the cave. “You do not belong here,” she said, voice confident. “Get out.”

Up here, that was spell enough. Charybdis seemed to see her then, mouth curling into fury and frustration for the barest instant. Then he vanished, disappearing down a newly created shaft into eternity. And all the power Jackie could’ve used to bring Ezri back was gone.

Jackie turned her back on the Alicorns and their power. She was done with this place.

“Jackie, please.” Alex’s voice came from behind her, more childlike and afraid than she’d ever heard it. “I don’t know the pain you’re feeling right now. Please… don’t go. All leaving would do is rob you of the power you could use to make her sacrifice matter. We need you.”

“How the fuck would you know? You’re the ones who are supposed to be protecting us. You act like gods, but you don’t even know what happened today.” The other Alicorns were all gone now—returned to Datong and the battle. Only the two of them remained.

“I gave the only life I could to protect you, Jackie. But we’re not gods—you should know that better than anyone,” Alex said.

“How?” was all she asked. “Why didn’t you tell us what had happened? If you were there the whole time…”

“I didn’t know,” she said. “The unity in Datong brought me back, but Charybdis held my essence here along with the others. It’s not an excuse—you still deserved more. But there’s no one to give it to you, Jackie.” She held out a little clay cup in her magic. Something sparkled in that glass. “Please, take it. I don’t even… know what would happen if you refused. To drink ties your essence here, as part of what you represent. If you refuse… you won’t be a part of any world. You might not be able to find your way back.”

“I don’t care.” Jackie turned her back on Alex, for good this time. “I don’t want to live forever… not without her. You can dump that right back where you found it.” She left.

But Jackie wasn’t quite done yet. She might’ve refused the power that was now her right, but she would not abandon her friends. One of her fellow immortals still needed her help—and Ezri’s ghost would’ve come back to haunt her if she didn’t help.

Jackie took what was left of her power, and sliced through the Iridescent Veil. She passed through the opening into the abyss, where few creatures could go and return alive. Supernal significance kept her mind working properly through geometry no mortal mind could comprehend. She didn’t even try, just flew stubbornly onward, until the sympathetic magic of her target called to her.

She found him alone on a bleak, windswept expanse of flat rock, surrounded by innumerable dead. An ocean had formed of the blood of lesser demons, and their bodies had built a small mountain around him. Yet still Isaac fought, apparently unexhausted.

“Hey,” she called, extending a hoof to him. “Your ride’s here.”

Songs still tell of the defeat of Datong—the defeat that bought its survivors time to escape to the last city, and brought life back to its Alicorns. Those songs did not say what happened to the Dreamknife, the only pony who had been offered the mantle of the Alicorns, and refused it out of love.

But there are other stories written about her, and other songs. In some, she led the evacuations of Datong—while in many others, she wanders all creation, still searching for the love she lost.

Author's Note:

And there's one battle told. At first, I wanted to post the whole confrontation at once, maybe in one big week, but as time has gone by a new story commissioned on my Patreon requires this information to make any sense. Can't really tell the story of what happens after the war without showing at least this piece. That story won't make it into Bedtime Stories until its finished, but it will be posted here once it's done there.

Can't say it's fun to say farewell to a character I've loved since the early days of this setting. Goodbye, Ezri. You won't be alone long.