Chapter 7
Unwilling Recruit
The problem with being girlfriends with a field agent was that Harley was almost never around. What was worse, the changeling’s time while she was actually in Unity had to be divided between her boyfriend and girlfriend.
Jackie hadn’t actually spoken to Apple Cinnamon, which was the way they both seemed to want to keep it.
At least Harley helped teach some of the flight classes whenever she was around. Typically, with a pair of batlike wings, instead of the feathered ones or the transparent fairy wings with their smattering of holes.
“When are you going to teach us to do that?” Jackie asked, after a month or so of practice. She wasn’t nearly the natural at this that her sister was, but she was learning. It was just like her time at university—she might not take to the material as quickly as some, but get her a good tutor and some time in the library and she could work things out eventually.
A few of the other students winced as she asked, or withdrew a little.
But Harley didn’t look offended. “Never,” she said, voice cheerful. “You can’t learn it. None of you can.”
“Why?”
“Leave it, Jackie,” chided Dustin from behind her. They were all resting on a cloud just now, after several hours of practice concentrating parts of it enough to create rain. But they’d been going for so long now that the class was pretty much done.
Harley didn’t seem to mind, though. Jackie should probably have waited until there wasn’t a whole class watching, but the longer she remained in Unity the less cautious she became. “Because I’m a changeling, and all of you are ponies,” she said. “Thestrals, granted. We’ve got lots more in common than with daywalkers.”
Several members of the class chuckled. It wasn’t a pony word, but a word vampires in some dumb movie they’d been watching had used to describe regular people. Despite being incredibly dumb, the word had stuck. Probably because most of these people are bronies, and none of them have any taste.
Jackie found more and more that she had lots in common with her fellow bats, but even so.
“I don’t get it,” Jackie said, just like she always did when someone at the school said something like that. “We’re humans with wings. We’re not ponies.”
Now Harley did seem to become more alert, eyes narrowing. She put up one hand, interrupting Jackie before she could continue. Later, her expression said.
So she waited—until the class had flown back down to Unity. Until they were alone up in the clouds again. Though the higher up they went, the colder it got, and the thinner the air. Jackie could never get a straight answer how they could breathe at these altitudes to begin with. But trying to figure out why anything with ponies worked the way it did was challenging.
“Sweetheart,” Harley said, landing behind her on the clouds and wrapping around her front. “I say this in kindness, but you and your sister should really stop spending time with conspiracy theorists.”
Jackie tensed immediately, and almost shoved Harley off. But she was sitting on the edge of the cloud. Even if her fear of heights had gradually deadened in her mind, there was still something deep and primal that refused to play around with edges like this. Throwing someone off a cliff, even knowing they could fly, was more than she could handle.
“That doesn’t actually answer anything I asked,” Jackie said, annoyed. Instead of flinging Harley off, she dropped backward onto her back, squashing the changeling between her and the cloud. Not exactly a potent attack given how little she seemed to weigh anymore, but it wasn’t meant to be. “Why does it matter what ponies can do? Maybe you shouldn’t put humans into the same boxes. For all you know, I could feed on emotions too… and change into different people, like you can.”
Harley didn’t answer for a long time, though she did wiggle out from behind her, laying on the cloud beside her and looking up at the sky. She found one of Jackie’s hands, and clutched it in hers. Jackie didn’t pull away.
“You could,” she said, quietly. “It’s happened… a few times. During the Canterlot invasion… that was Chrysalis’s plan from the beginning. She knew such an overt attack would probably fail, so she had a backup. Gather up the most important ponies in the city, change them while we had it captured… then use them to attack Equestria again. They’d have to be loyal to us once they were starving too. They’d have to obey her.”
Harley shuddered. “I don’t know if it would’ve worked or not. But I know none of those ponies were ever the same again. I would never want that for you, squeak. The constant, gnawing hunger in the pit of your stomach. Knowing something’s missing, like… the world doesn’t have a place for you. Fate forgot to put you into the story, I guess. And it would be worse for you, since you’d remember what it was like before. I was born like this… you weren’t.”
Jackie rolled onto her side, feigning a glare. But she didn’t have the energy for much protest. “I don’t squeak.”
In answer, Harley reached forward with one hand and squeezed—so quick that Jackie couldn’t see it coming, or stop her.
She arched her back involuntarily, making a squeaking sound so high-pitched she could hardly believe it came out of her own mouth. She shoved away from Harley, though her embarrassment was feigned too. She didn’t really want her to stop.
Unfortunately for her, Harley seemed able to sense emotions. Including desire.
Jackie forgot about her questions for a while under the starlight and the freezing wind.
But an hour or so later, and the cloud had started to drift back down. Low enough that someone out for a night flight might find them. The rules were much less restrictive at night, when even a nearby human far below would probably only see a large bird flying overhead. The night guard were much less strict when it came to staying on campus.
So Jackie pulled her shirt back on, forcing herself to sit up. “What were we talking about again?”
“Nothing,” Harley said, somehow already dressed. “I was just telling you that I’m going on assignment tomorrow, so I won’t be back for a week or so, and—”
Jackie cut her off. “I remember now! I asked about ponies, and you tried to distract me with some terrible story about the war. Which did sound terrible, but… I still want to know.”
“You want to,” Harley repeated. “But it’s better if you don’t. I feel for you, Jackie. I know how much it sucks to have things you want to know, but nobody will tell you. I know what it’s like to feel trapped. But if you keep digging, you’re…” She shook her head. “I can’t even say that.”
“Why not?” Jackie asked, glaring. “I’m gonna find out eventually, anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to just tell us and get it over with? I can tell you what my sister thinks…”
“No!” Harley squeaked in frustration, kicking out at the nearby cloud. It dissolved with a puff of fog, even under her bare feet. Both of them were barefoot up here, as they usually were when doing weather practice.
At least Harley hadn’t insisted on any of her students wearing those stupid hoof-boots that were going into style with more and more students of unity.
“No, Jackie.” She rested one hand on her shoulder. “I need you to look at me for a second here. I’m not allowed to tell you very much about what you’re thinking. There are rules… lots of rules, and I’m a changeling. If I break them, I’ll be…” She shivered, looking away. “Well, I’m on probation here. I’ve almost paid my debt. I’m not going to fuck it all up now when I’m almost free. And you… you’re not the first po—the first students to get obsessed with it. You’ll learn what it all means eventually. But right now, the rules are there to protect you.”
Jackie shoved her away, glaring. “Now you sound like them. You’re supposed to be the reasonable one. Can’t you just be straight with us? Is Nnity trying to condition us into becoming ponies, or isn’t it?”
“Nope!” Harley covered her ears with both hands, stepping forward. “I didn’t hear that, Jackie! I didn’t hear it, and you didn’t ask it!” She stepped off the edge of the cloud, vanishing into the night. Jackie tried to follow, but she found the changeling had somehow evaded her. She couldn’t see her as she flew down towards Unity, not even when she could see the entire school from above.
But she didn’t waste much time looking for her. Harley didn’t insist on much, but when she drew a boundary like that, Jackie knew it was a waste of time to fight directly.
Changelings weren’t about open conflict—they were about trickery, subtlety, manipulation. If they wanted to get any answers, they would have to find them on their own.
Jackie slipped back into her bedroom a few minutes later. Her sister wasn’t up yet, but the sun couldn’t be far behind. Jackie wouldn’t have long to wait. She tossed most of her clothes onto the floor, then flew up into bed as quietly as a bat.
She spent a few minutes playing on her 3DS, leaning up against the wall of her bunk bed and trying not to make too much noise.
Then she heard her sister stirring beneath her. There was no alarm—the first light of dawn coming in from outside was all it took.
“Hey,” Katie squeaked, as she rose. Whatever drowsiness lingered in her eyes seemed to fade after only a few seconds. “Long night?”
Jackie shrugged. “I asked her about the pony thing.”
“And?” Katie started fumbling around, grabbing towel, soap, and uniform, though she didn’t step out into the hallway just yet. She was up early enough that a few minutes to linger wouldn’t make her late to anything.
Jackie shook her head, snapping the 3DS closed. “Nothing. No hints, no confirmation…” She trailed off, thinking. “Well, maybe not. She did say something about rules. So I guess that confirms what Sven was thinking about that. Even the ones who want to tell us things can’t, or else they’ll get in trouble.”
Harley had told her more about that—about her own personal life. She was on probation, for… past conduct in Equestria, presumably. Though for what, Jackie only had bits and pieces. Harley was always evasive whenever she wasn’t the one volunteering information.
Katie groaned. “Well, it sucks, but… we would probably have wanted proof even if she told us everything. I think we’ll have to break some rules.”
Jackie leaned forward over the edge of the bed, grinning in spite of her growing tiredness. “You didn’t mention we would be having actual fun. Did you guys come up with a plan while I was asleep again?”
Her sister looked away, blushing slightly. “M-maybe a little. It’s a good plan, though! I think you’ll like it!”
Jackie gestured with one wing. The meaning was apparently obvious, because her sister went on.
“Well, you know how we aren’t allowed to visit like half of Unity? Well… most of it’s underground, and there are guards in the way. They say it’s dangerous, but Sven spent all day today watching people go in and out. Some of them were humans like us, and they weren’t burned or sick or anything. I think that’s where they keep the freaky mutants.”
“Could be,” Jackie agreed, sitting up again. She no longer felt tired. “But what about the guards? They aren’t just going to let us walk down there. We’re not Harley, we can’t just pretend to be one of them.”
“No, but… almost all of us can fly. I’ve been scouting out Unity during our flight practice, and I think I found a way into it. Between the two of us, we could carry Sven. Take a camera, find out what they’ve been hiding. If they’re really some kind of evil pony cult, trying to mutate all of us… we need to know. Maybe we’d be better off with the other side.”
Jackie considered that a long moment. She thought about Harley, begging her to turn back. If you’d told me, I would believe you. I’d try to stop them. But you didn’t. “Alright. Let’s give it a few days… I don’t want Harley to be here to catch the blame, and she’s being deployed soon. Once she’s gone… we’ll do it.”
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Questions left unanswered, half-truths and growing doubts, and now an illegal infiltration looking for answers.
I foresee zero problems.
Unity, I believe.
I admit that I haven't read the story that this is a prequel for (I am not sure how much I'd need to know), but this really seems sketchy and like humans are the good guys...
Sure, magic would be great, but the ponies aren't being at all up front about this. Unless it's something like Fivescore, this is sounding like they're infiltrating... which makes it ironic and a bit hypocritical that the changelings are on probation.
Considering this has less views than its predecessor, I presume most of its current and would be readers know the twist already, as it was a major mystery with a twist there, too. The reveal already happened at this point then, but before I go any further, I'm going to issue a spoiler alert.
On Eques, many of their sufficiently intelligent specie are hoofwaved by ponies at large, and deemed just as mythical as they are on Earth. There's mention minotaurs aren't a thing at one point. What wasn't stated was the fact they may have existed, but went extinct. If you should see one, it's only a facade that will come off rather soon. And most of them don't like their facades at all. Other things like gryphons and dragons are real, but less numerous than you'd expect. And a minority of them likewise bear a facade, but not most. And they lack an inherent adversity to it.
Ponies do rule and run the world, more or less as we see it, but they omitted some things about their world, and Equestrians hide some of their less savory aspects, even less than petty bullies. Blatant misandry or dislike for males for all but their biological need is a major one. I won't go into them all, but their philosophy is treated like a religion, and like a religion, no place must remain untouched and unfettered by it, but they chose a more subtle approach that wouldn't be called out right from the start. To them, lacking magic is something no being should ever have to suffer, not even unknowingly.
Lastly, what do you think my first paragraph implies about anything or everything else? How do you think it would tie in? Thatis what they are hiding with such severity, and are covering the bases. Don't expect Jacqueline to get her answers by investigating. Only certain people are allowed down there, and there is a very specific reason they are permitted, unbeknownst to her, she has it. Her sister likely does not, and is to be kept out.
Guess who is in there? Hint: she has fiery hair. Flaming redhead who is most frightening when she's being legitimately, unironically nice. I think this is enough clues for anyone who read through these spoilers.
Espionage is an underrated sister bonding activity.
9091342
I didn't remember that part. The one about species being wiped out I mean. I did a little about being equestria's beliefs that began all the problem. Them and their own demons.
Damn ponies bringing problems wherever they go
"Nnity"
Oh boy this chapter. so much to quote and point out.
Despite some of us already knowing the answers to most of the mysteries you're doing a much better job building them up here compared to friendly fire. Much more foreshadowing and little bits and pieces.
Small typo here i believe:
Should probably be Unity. Though it somehow sounds like a name a horse would come up with.
minor spoilers for this story based on what we know from the other one.
Nice foreshadowing.
Either i missed him earlier or i think i know who Sven is.
He's Stalward isnt he?
Massive spoilers here for the first story and probably this one too. Seriously do not read this if you haven't finished the first story. Cannot stress this spoiler enough.
HMMMMMMM..... Nice little nod.
You evil, evil person.
So like, if you invade Equestria for the purposes of harvesting their emotions and transforming them into something they weren't - robbing them of their special talent solely to swell the ranks of your army - and then get saddled with community service, it's the absolute worst, but meanwhile Harley can't seem to shut up about how resourceful and independent human beings are.
Meanwhile, we throw refugees who haven't done anything into concentration camps, for the crime of trying to escape violence against themselves. Or where we rounded up citizens of a particular ethnicity because their presumed 'true nation' launched an attack on us, and then left them to die?
And that's just the United States, given it's the central setting for this universe so far.
It's not clear to me why Harley is so willing to forgive the human world its foibles, but so unwilling to forgive whatever slights Equestria served to her in 'Child of the Invasion', at this point. If her situation is that she's sympathetic to all the humans because to her, their broken fate-less selves remind her of herself, with their governments being equivalent to Equestria, I might understand that. But I wouldn't understand why she would then turn around and believe that leaving humans to their own devices is 'the right thing to do'.
10457739
Oh man, I too like arguing on my favorite pony site, fimfiction, about politics.