Steel Solstice

by Starscribe

Chapter 12: Coordination

“I want out,” Jackie said flatly. “We all do. But just because we want what you’re offering doesn’t mean it’s possible. I want you to explain exactly what you plan on doing. I’ll tell you if it’s feasible. Then.” She pointed back at Bree. “She’ll promise to shut her damn mouth, and you’ll change her back. Got it?”

Sunset hesitated a moment, considering. Then she nodded. “If she wants to, sure. I’ll agree.” There was little chance of that, at least if what she thought she’d learned about Bree was true. Forks could be intelligent, but they were not independent. There was very little chance the fork would bother even asking to be changed back.

"Fine." Jackie made her way back to the table, staring down at it. "First, I want you to be honest. This whole thing isn't some... kind of loyalty test, is it? Changing a whole shard like this, doesn't seem like something a newbie would be able to do. Particularly if you're really from... Equestria?"

"It isn't a trap,” she said. “But there's no way to prove that. You'll just have to trust me."

She clearly didn't like the sound of that, frowning down at the glass. "Alright."

Sunset took a deep breath. "So, I know you're an expert at getting places you're not supposed to go. I want to know exactly what it would take to escape the Infinite Realm. I realize it's a simulation... I want to find where the simulation ends, and free ourselves into the world outside. You said it was only Knights and Scholars who found their way out, so there is a way. How would we use it, if we didn't want to depend on them to freely release us?"

Jackie gestured into the holospace, forming a large rectangular object there in the projection. It looked complex, with many interlocking parts. Molten metal and plastic flowed into it from all sides, and a person emerged from the end, naked and still molten. Then they sat up. "That's a fabricator. There used to be thousands of them... before they ended the fucking world, you could buy them for your house. I don't know how many the Tower has, but I know they'll be on Interlinked Shards—shards running on hardware outside of the central mainframe. Very few network connections in, so that they can be carefully monitored." A little glowing diamond appeared in the air, hovering over the fabricator.

Sunset stared down at the little projection. "We find our way here, then we use the fabricator to escape."

"Well... not easily." Jackie stared down with intense concentration on her face, and the rest of the holofield was populated. A Tower appeared, so wide at the base that it didn't fit on the table. The fabricator was situated deep within its basement, protected by locked doors, turrets, and guards. "I don't actually know what's there. But I've thought about what it would take to escape, if I could cut my way into a Fab. I... might be able to. I've been holding onto a Knight's sword. But once we're on the outside..." She sighed. "We'll be in the Tower, I know it's in the building somewhere. We have to get out, and even if we could, there's nowhere to go."

"There is somewhere," Sunset said. "I brought a spell with me that could be used to return to Equestria. All we would have to do is find wherever they put it, and we could cast it. Flee back to my country, where it would be safe."

"A spell," Jackie muttered, her eyebrows going up. "Maybe we shouldn't base our whole plan on something so stupid. Because if we really did get out there, and they caught us... I don't even know what the king would do. If we're lucky, he'd just shoot us and be done. If not..." She shivered. "Remember hell myths? Richard can torture us forever if he wants to. I don't buy the propaganda about how kind and longsuffering he is, so I wouldn't put it past him. We could be swimming all the way up shit creek."

Sunset tapped lightly on the edge of her crown, removing a little glowing crystal from the empty air beside her and holding it out for Jackie to see. "Would you like to see the proof yourself? I have some of my memories of Equestria here. The highlights, when I was training under Princess Celestia. Would that convince you I was telling the truth?"

"Maybe." Jackie held out one hand, but not all the way. Not far enough to take the crystal. "It would be interesting, but... anything could be built in a shard. If you wanted it to be proof, I'd have to get a chance to search the directory when we're done." Which meant she could report Sunset, if she really wanted. Sunset's security programs would have to be turned off, or else her friend might be struck down while performing the search.

"Fine," Sunset groaned. "But don't tell anyone else about this. I want your help, not anyone else's. Nobody else is invited."

Jackie took the crystal in two fingers, and the little object started to glow. Her eyes glazed over, and she stared out at nothing for several long moments. Then she dropped the crystal, her mouth hanging open. "Y-you... you're really an alien. Not from the colonies, not from the Federation..."

Sunset gestured, and the little crystal levitated in the air, returning to her and vanishing. "That's right. Do you still want to check the index?"

"Just to be sure," Jackie muttered. "I should check." She lifted her arm and scrolled around on the screen.

Sunset disabled her defenses, trusting her friend's honesty. She had to trust someone. A few moments later and Jackie's face only got more shocked as she stared at Sunset, then across the room at where Bree was still lying, as submissive and blank as any of the others in the shard. Only: she wouldn't offer Sunset any processing resources. Whoever she belonged to was on the outside—if Sunset started charging her credits, she'd surely notice something was wrong, and come to discover who was robbing her. Or worse, call the authorities. Sunset couldn't take that chance.

"So, now that you're sure," Sunset said, turning back to the table. "We need to find the location of where my possessions were taken when I was brought here. Can you do that? Then... join me in the battle to take the Interlinked Shard. I am experienced with monarchs, as you saw. In their own domain, they consider themselves invincible. I am guessing this Richard will be similar—he will have his defenses guarding the borders, and be unprepared for an attack from within. We may be able to seize the shard without much of a fight. And if we have to fight..."

She led the way towards the massive window again, where it was overlooking the castle grounds. "I can bring the intellect of tens of thousands of ponies. We will have soldiers so numerous they won't be able to stop us." She held up the crown for Jackie to see, though she didn't offer it to her. However much Sunset might trust her, that trust didn't go far enough to just hand over all her power. She had no illusions about being able to retain control of her kingdom if the tools she made to protect it fell into another's hooves.

Jackie was silent for a long time. "I'm not sure, Sunny. This is... big. I've never feared big before—these Tower assholes already took my future away from me. Their damn war probably killed my family, but I'll never even know because I won't be able to get out and find them. I'm not hesitating because of loyalty to them. Your alien... pony... aliens... they seem alright to me. Maybe that's a way we can escape, I'm not saying it isn't. I've seen faked memories before, and those weren't fake. But... if we get caught doing this... I'm not sure I want to put myself on the king's judgement."

Jackie extended one hand, muttering under her breath. The air there began to shimmer, until after a moment an object condensed there. It looked like a sword, not unlike the ones the humans had been using for play-fighting in their imaginary war. Only this object was also different—it looked more real somehow, a focus of force and intent just like the crown that Sunset was wearing. Without having ever seen one, she recognized it as the sword of a knight. "If you want my help, you have to promise me something." She lifted the sword, blade pointed inward at her own neck. "If we get caught... if this doesn't work... you don't let me get captured. No matter what. I'm ready to fuck off this world either way. We can escape one way, or... I'll find another way out."

"If we fail to take the shard, I don't think that will do any good," Sunset said. "I saw that battle you were having in the other shard. Even if I swing that—"

"It will." Jackie let go of the weapon. It didn't fall to the ground, but vanished completely. Not even the Element would let Sunset see it. "The knights have admin authority, Sunny. They can delete anything. Even a mind. So let me ask you again: do you promise not to let them capture me?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "I promise. I don't plan on losing, so I don't think it should be an issue anyway." She gestured, and with her whim Twilight reappeared, bowing politely just as Bree was still doing. Only Twilight seemed to be growing more and more intelligent by the moment, and Bree hadn't even tried to move.

"Yes, Princess?"

"Oh hey, you left another one human!"

"A few," Sunset said. "Where it made sense. Twilight here helps coordinate the resources of the school. I've discovered that the administrators have us completely isolated from other shards—probably on our own... reality-making machine. I don't know that for sure of course, but... I do know that we can use all the power it has without anyone trying to stop me. All those credits are ours, to compute what we want. Even forks can figure things out if you give them enough time."

"We can, Princess." Twilight lowered her head politely. "We have completed designs for 'protecting' a pony body as you proposed."

"Good." Sunset grinned. "I can look at what you've come up with in a minute. Will it work with a fabricator?" She pointed at the projection, where Jackie had drawn it. "That's how we get out."

"Absolutely," Twilight said. She extended a hand, holding a little glowing crystal between her fingers. "We already knew the fabricator would be our method of egress from the Infinite Realm, so we designed ourselves accordingly. I think you'll be pleased."

Sunset took the crystal, accessing the memories it contained. Most of what she saw didn't make sense to her—she hadn't taken any classes on how electronics worked, or on the fundamentals of fabrication and design. Yet she could clearly tell the pony bodies for what they were, apparently wearing plastic armor. She didn't look for long—she didn't really have a way of judging whether it could really do what Twilight claimed, or the time to find out. "Excellent work." She turned back to Jackie. "It might take me a few weeks of subjective time to prepare for war. Can you find out where they're storing my possessions in that much time?"

"Yeah," Jackie said, grinning. She'd spent much of this meeting with her face moving from disgust to confusion and back again, but finally some of her old self seemed to be returning. "I think I can handle that. Just put Bree back to normal while I'm gone, alright? I'm sure she was convinced by that whole thing. Bree... always goes along with whatever we're doing, really."

Jackie didn't wait for a response, conjuring a portal of her own and vanishing into the air a few feet away.

I trust her, Sunset thought to herself, over and over. She's going to help, I know she is. I trust her.

Comments

[Condray]

I wonder how much time in Equestria is passing during all this. Since with things being set up to come to a head like this, it'd be one hell of a downer ending if they fail. But most likely they don't make it back before the main story, although I suppose it's possible they have but it seems unlikely. And with how much time compression they have in the simulation it'd take decades subjective for that much time to pass. Although I don't remember if there was any time dilation noted in Equestria, but knight what's-his-face having been dead centuries in Equestria seems to imply it's not minor.

[KMCA]

So she knows Bree is a fork but still trusts her? That seems foolish.

[John Tannius]

8277592

Depends on if she knows who Bree is forked from. Hell, Bree could be Jackie's fork for all we know. Unlikely though. I would imagine that in most cases you would be at least semi-aware of what your fork was doing. In the education shard that Sunset is in however, those forks are definitely running autonomously. I guess it depends on how the author has set up his network and sharing privileges...

[djthomp]

Ooo, so, robot pony bodies if all goes well? Should be fun and probably cute.

[Blazeblast4]

8277586
Since there's no sad, dark, or tragedy tag, I'm guessing Sunset will at least survive. While I haven't caught up with MLA, from what I've seen, my best guess is that they do escape, but the robot bodies can't use the spell (a fail safe from Clover), so they end up on the run until an epilogue or time skip to after the final story (at least before the ten year time skip one). Plus, if she were captured and not killed, the Steel Tower should've already known much more about Equestria than they did in MLA.

[Raistlin]

8277586

Well, imagine Sunset returning to Equestria with Jackie and co. with all the knowledge she learned from the Tower simulation, ready to offer it to Celestia and prepare Equestria against the Outsiders and their pawns... just to discover everything has been solved without her. Oh, and Twilight is an alicorn.
That would be quite the downer ending for Baiconhead.

[Yami Vizzini]

And Sunset is once again trying to bring an army of brainwashed high school drones back to Equestria.

[Lithl]

8277636
Actually, readers of the series should know that Bree/Brigid is a member of the Technocratic Order. I'm not sure if they get admin access like the Knights, but they're of similar importance to the Tower's sociopolitical structure.

[John Tannius]

8278451
Not sure how I forgot who she was but definitely a facepalm moment. Not quite sure how things are matching up in the timeline though, Bree hasn't left for Equestria yet right?

[Lithl]

8278466
Maybe she has, and that's why Sunset can get away with mucking around with the fork?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Slight kink in the plan: Sunset doesn't seem to grasp that her physical body has likely been discarded. And with it, her horn. It's hard to cast a spell when you don't have any way of channeling magic, and I doubt the fabricators have access to any suitable materials. It's possible that Twilight's thought of that, but far from certain.

Still, Jackie's on board. It's certainly a step in the right direction. Now to see how much they can keep up this momentum.

[Skulljack17]

8288110
I imagine the spells she decided to carry with her activate with minimal magic...just tap something, say something, or gesture in some way, and they would activate. Much more useful for a unicorn in a bind that can't use magic at the time or is under pressure to perform something essential like casting a cloudwalking spell or so they can breathe underwater or whatnot, and could be used by other races too. That's my thought anyway.