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Part 1 - Alone4,093 words
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1-42,566 words
1-54,611 words
Part 2 - Shim-Curious2,396 words
2-21,361 words
2-32,769 words
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2-51,638 words
Part 3 - Propogandist1,586 words
3-21,985 words
3-33,610 words
3-41,903 words
3-51,300 words
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3-82,727 words
Part 4. The willing pawn3,469 words
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4-42,717 words
4-52,509 words
4-62,379 words
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4-83,292 words
Part 5. Public Enemy5,153 words

Part 4. The willing pawn

Ari learned that for every bat pony you saw there were two you didn’t.

She made three-quarters of a lap around the large building. Then, in an actual flash of lighting this time, that bat pony came back with two of his friends.

The three night ponies all but tackled Ari and dragged her back inside whereupon she was lectured extensively. The leader of the three scolded her about how much seeing somepony in their in-group do something dangerous and stupid like that triggered their instincts.

It wasn’t like Ari had a good explanation as to why she ran out into the storm, either. So she couldn’t complain about getting lectured. Either way, they forced her to dry off and change clothes. Then they made her sit down by the fire to warm up. And that was how Ari found herself in bat jail, laying on her side in her pajamas just before the fireplace.

Of the three, she knew only the name of one: Shiv, now awake. Shiv was the only one cut up as he was. Either he got into way more fights than a normal night pony or was just really bad at his job. Shiv never seemed to sit still, always darting his head and ears around, stalking about. He looked so much scrawnier and sketchier than the other stallion, whom Ari assumed was in charge of the three.

The third was a mare who sat on the couch watching a black and white movie about samurais, the volume turned down too low for Ari to hear. She didn’t look like she wanted to talk, keeping her gaze purposely transfixed on the large TV.

Shiv noticed Ari staring at the most severe injury on his face and came right over, opening his mouth wide so Ari could see half his teeth (mostly in the front and to the right) were missing.

“And da crazy part?” He snapped his mouth shut. “I won dat fight! By a lot. Behehehe!”

He jumped back to his larger friend, jabbing him a couple of times on the side. The older night pony looked stern and humorless, reacting little to the playful move.

“Your name is Shiv, right?” Ari wanted to make sure.

“Ah, hey! She hearda me.” Shiv walked carefully towards Ari. “Somepony introduce us in my sleep?”

Ari nodded.

“Less see. Ari Webba.” Shiv took slow steps as he strode past Ari. He licked his lips and looked absently toward the ceiling like he was remembering something. “Cloud Weaver. She went out to Pennsylvania and got infected by uh, Ribbon Swirl yeah? Ribbon, original last name Jace, brother lives up in Michigan, next door to uh… Leaf. You remember him. Green unicorn you just met yesterday?”

Shiv pointed to the mare, who only narrowed her eyes and kept watching.

“I like keeping everypony within a couple of degrees like dat.” He ran back over to Ari to say it. Already she got the impression he felt the need to be right next to whoever he was speaking to. “For you mosh is gonna go through Spring Breeze, yeah? Less see. Jaden, no pony name, is on Spring’s tech team and their college roommate works for directly Supercycle. Then um. She lives in the same house as Feather Quill whose cousin’s boss has a vendetta against a pony name Number Crunch who's one of Sunset Blessing’s bitches. Nah, that’s too many.”

Shiv muttered to himself trying to formulate a more direct path on that second one. That was kind of impressive he could do that off the top of his head. Especially since he was from Nelson Residence rather than Spring Breeze’s community.

But something about his first comment didn’t sit right with Ari.

“Wait. Ribbon Swirl?” Ari asked.

“The pink pegasus?” Shiv asked. “Coughed in your face? You ate one of her hairs.”

“But.” Ari sat up slowly and quietly. “I didn’t even know her name! I never told anypony specifics of that. So how did…?”

Shiv turned to her, confused at first as he came out of his deep thought. Then he smiled slyly.

“Behehehe!” Shiv grabbed onto Ari. “Everypony has a talent and dis is mine. Knowing everypony, I mean. I met everypony, you know?”

“Every last pony?”

“Important ones, anyway. Twilight, Starlight, princess fucktard, Rarity, Pinkie… Sunset Blessing, Sunrise Storm: I met everypony important already. But not all of them met me if you catch my drift, eh? Behehe.”

Ari could imagine. She tensed up all the same. This pony had just pierced one of her secrets without even trying to.

Shiv dropped his smile. “What? Gots you scared? Behehe. You don’t gotsta worry about nothing. You help us, you my friend. Simple as.”

He grabbed a pillow from near the fireplace and threw it hard at the mare. It bounced right off but for a moment Ari expected it to bowl her over.

“Webba helped make da phone strap you got on right now!” Shiv pointed at his own phone, strapped onto her foreleg with Velcro, similar to the device Ari wore.

Those had caught on with the ponies in Ari’s circles anyway. All the ponies here wore one. Though she wasn’t sure how much credit she could take for the idea. The ponies had already vastly improved on it and modified it for their own use.

“What’s her deal anyway?” Ari looked over to the mare.

Shiv pointed to her. “Dats Cloak.” Then he pointed outside to the rain. “And Dagger is stuck over at the deli, so Cloak is all lonely wid just Shiv and five hundred other ponies.”

Ari wondered how close you had to be to another pony to make your names combine like that.

“And him?” Ari looked at the biggest of the three.

“Call me Rogers,” he answered for himself.

“Rogers?” Ari repeated the name. She turned to face him, still sitting on her mat. “Isn’t that name a little strange?”

“It’s a common last name,” said Rogers.

“I meant it’s weird for here. Everypony else has a pony name. Even I have a pony name!”

Shiv’s smirk grew mischievous as he moved to an unamused Rogers’ side.

“Ooh! A mystery! Want da ansher?” Shive put a -hoof on either one of Rogers’ shoulders. “Dish? Dish is da guy… who shot Shim Sham!”

“What?!” Ari’s eyes shot right to Rogers, completely stone faced, then back to Shiv with a less credulous expression. “No way. You’re messing with me.”

“Behehe!” Shiv laughed and backed up a step.

“I didn’t kill Sunset Shimmer.” Rogers moved his stern eyes onto Sketch. “I was part of the operation that initially captured her the first time. And before you say anything, I had already been quarantined by the time she escaped. But any specifics are classified and I can’t talk about them.”

“Eh.” Shiv sat up, putting his hooves up in mock innocence. “I didn’t say nothing! But you know…”

Shiv stalked up next to Ari again.

“I do know the name of da sniper what did kill her?” He whispered, then licked his lips.

“Shiv.”

“Ut!” Shiv backed up, smiling again. “Not that I’d say! Looks like our Shim Sham got the better of old Rogers though. Eh, Webba?”

“So you really changed your mind about her?” Ari asked Rogers.

“No.”

“Huh?”

“Sunset Shimmer was a terrorist and a threat to America. She deserved to die, and I would have killed her in the first encounter were it up to me,” said Rogers.

“Um.” Ari straightened up. She looked at the banner with Sunset’s cutie mark, down at her orange pajamas bearing the same mark, then back to Rogers. “You know where you are, right?”

He simply stared into her eyes with his usual intensity.

“So why are you here?”

“Because your childish obsession with her doesn’t actually matter,” said Rogers. “Sunset Shimmer is dead and there are other threats to America now, threats that we aren’t taking seriously because the government is too focused on some fantasy about turning back the clocks. I don’t agree with all your hippy bullshit about banning cars or whatever. I don’t like your edgy little game where you pretend to worship some random bitch you know nothing about. But the SSP are the only party taking the existence of magic seriously right now, the only ones who won’t lead us to get left behind on the world stage.”

Ari more or less followed his logic. Typically, people worried about China or India using magic to surpass America on the world stage aligned with techno-Shimmerists, but she knew the arguments well enough.

“So I guess I’m with you. For now.”

He turned sharply to Shiv, who had been humming ‘America Fuck Yeah’ that whole time.

“Oh!” Shiv lit up again. “And we got one other problem you’re with us on. Yes, my fellow ideologically impure dissident.”

“We don’t talk about that.”

“Talk about what?” Ari asked.

“Most night ponies are spineless, pathetic cowards.” Shiv turned his nose up. “But that doesn’t concern you nothing. We gots our own problems. And uh…”

“Shiv,” said Rogers. “Bravo Delta.”

Shiv looked at him confused, miming the two words before coming to an understanding.

“Behehe!” Shiv jumped back to Rogers’ side and shook him again. “Dis guy’s my friend.”

Then Shiv ran off into the dark house.

“Go to sleep,” said Rogers, then left.

Ari looked at the mare, still watching her show, before deciding the two of them wouldn’t be talking any time soon. So she went back to her bedroom.

The very crowded bedroom with some fifteen ponies sleeping on the floor.

Ari got the bed as promised but not all to herself. She shared it with Spring Breeze and two other ponies. They really were way more into cuddling and Ari was eager to appropriate their culture.

Lying sandwiched between two ponies, Spring Breeze sleeping on her chest, while many more ponies cuddled up nearby on pads on the floor. Knowing that the house, the whole street, was filled with like-minded community of ponies, with her community. It was the most… together she’d ever felt!

She’d never felt less alone in her life. It was the closest she’d ever been to being a pony. And with her eyes closed, for that brief and wonderous time, there was barely any difference.

If only she could just never open her eyes again. If only her whole life could be like this.

Five and a half hours later, the sun came up and the ponies all popped their eyes open and sprang out of bed in near-perfect synchronization. They may have been out like a light before but now they had the upper edge.

Ari couldn’t do it. She tried to sleep another two hours amidst all the noise. It was a partial success at best. Crawling out of bed wasn’t easy after that.

Ari staggered downstairs almost two hours after the ponies activated. Needless to say, she missed breakfast. The ponies in the kitchen were already working on lunch for the huge crowd. They had some leftovers that just needed to be reheated for her. Spring Breeze had told them to wait.

Exactly one other pony had slept in with her, a plump, grey earth pony named Steel. Apparently, he was a wealthy donor who could just do whatever he wanted. So that much made her feel a little less bad.

Just the cup of coffee they gave her made Ari feel like she was getting a five-star treatment. Coffee was one of those things you simply had to cut out of your life these days. It was quickly becoming a luxury to be enjoyed exclusively by the rich, with ponies being the only possible relief in sight.

And they gave her a coffee straw without asking! Which was a bigger deal than a normal person might assume. Straws were damn near banned in New York, making life that much harder.

There were so many little things that just didn’t assume the existence of hands, many Ari hadn’t thought to implement herself. Like their draws for holding spoons weren’t little compartments you threw the spoon into and had to fish out. They were instead tossed into a slanted container with the handle pointing out.

That way, instead of clumsily getting it out, Ari could just slip her strap over a handle, tighten it and be ready to go! That was it! She was surprised she’d never thought of something so simple. But when you had millions of minds working towards something, you got better solutions than random people on their own.

With her spoon ready, Ari sat down to be passed a bowl. Her face lit up at what she saw.

Oatmeal!

Not even instant stuff! It looked like real, actual oatmeal!

Having not eaten this stuff in so long probably contributed to it, but this really was the best oatmeal she’d ever had! By a lot!

“I feel like I’m eating solid gold right now!”

“Is that a good thing?” Steel, the only other pony eating breakfast this ‘late’ asked her. “Because that comment could go either way.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get oatmeal out in New York?” Ari asked.

“Nope. Ponies don’t got any problem with food,” he said. “Is it really that bad with you?”

“You have no idea.”

Ari missed the first couple of talks that day, but she had an important mission. Operation Snowblind, they were calling it.

Ari found herself in the basement sometime later. They gave her a laptop containing the paperwork to register as part of a pony community. Not for Nelson Residence or even Spring Breeze’s community but for someplace in Nowhere, Montana nopony had ever heard of.

But that was all part of the plan. Ari would never speak with the ponies of that community, but she did have to legally be part of one. That was phase 0.

And oh what a phase it was. She signed document after document hour after hour. It became like a comedy routine after a while. Ari didn’t even bother to ask what she was signing anymore, had no choice but to trust that the ponies knew what they were doing. Becoming a legal member of one of these things really was impossible without a lawyer.

But she wasn’t alone for once. Ragnarök was there for most of it, as well as DS. Though DS wasn’t there in person. He was the one guiding her through the signing process and going over the plan with her for the most part, yet he was talking to Ari over a large monitor.

“I don’t travel,” he explained in a slightly monotone voice. He never looked at Ari for long, staying focused mostly on other, unseen monitors. “The government dislikes the fact that I exist and refuse to work for them or a corporation. They’ve been searching hard for reasons to lock me up.”

“Did you hear about the time DS got arrested for jaywalking?” Ragnarök asked

“Yeah.”

“Then you understand why I don’t like being anywhere in person,” said DS. “I don’t want to draw much attention to myself either, so I’d appreciate you not talking about me too widely.”

He really did have a cutie mark they described as ‘disturbing to some’. Ari didn’t get to know what it was but neither did anypony if it could be helped.

Ari did, at least, learn that the ‘DS’ stood for ‘Data Sphere’ and figured his talent had something to do with computers. If that wasn’t already obvious.

“You’ve already helped us a good bit,” said DS. “We certainly got out money’s worth out of that advertising campaign. Just a little over a thousand dollars bought us so much.”

“Did a lot of people respond?” Ari asked.

“More than you’d probably guess. More importantly, it was an information-gathering campaign. By judging the response relative to the visibility of the posters you put up, we’re able to gauge enthusiasm for our ideals in various locations. We can better decide where to target for further expansion.”

These ponies were thinking way further ahead than Ari was. She was glad she was on their side.

Ari supposed she was part of that expansion campaign now. Even if it was more about setting up a trap than bringing the light of Shimmerism to New York.

“I hope you understand your mission by now,” said DS. “The SSP, through the pony community you just joined, will purchase the building to become the new community center where you can live. Our bank will be giving you a credit card with an extremely high spending limit, which will be paid off, to cover any expenses you have. But you will be expected to quit your job to devote yourself full-time to this project.”

Ari already found herself drooling over the prospect. Technically, she’d be working for nothing but room and board. Yet it somehow sounded more tantalizing than the promise of pulling in millions.

“Don’t be tempted to spend more than you need,” Ragnarök warned. “The reason your limit is so high is… well I had to convince a few other ponies to trust you with this much. Get it?”

Ari nodded.

“Hey, I don’t want to sound like I’m flaking out already,” said Ari. “But how exactly am I supposed to set up a Shimmerist community center in my town without drawing too much attention to myself? There can’t be that many of us and my only hope of finding enough would be to run through the streets loudly announcing it to everyone.”

“Since you’ve agreed to work for us,” said DS, “certain resources will be made available to you. I’m making you an account on the SSP darknet server.”

“The darknet server?” Ari wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“It just means it’s harder to access. Don’t say anything there you wouldn’t say in front of the FBI because they are watching us,” Data Sphere warned. “We won’t be discussing details of operation Snowblind through that channel. It will, however, allow you to connect with our specialists.”

“I see.” Ari went back to filling out forms for a second. “So you’re… sending a pony specialist to help me?”

“I’m routing Magic Card to your home location now,” said Data Sphere. “She should be there on Wednesday. Your outpost must be 100% human, but Magic Card will help you establish it.”

“Is one pony really all I’ll need to do this?” Ari asked.

She had a lot of confidence in ponies already and they sounded more incredible by the day.

“Magic Card will be all you need. We have perhaps the second or third largest database of cutie marks on the planet. Of all of them, Magic Card’s talent is the one I see as the most useful. If it were between her and the next ten on my list, I would always pick Magic Card to be on my side.”

“You’re really upselling her, huh?” Ragnarök teased. “Let me guess, you think she’s cute too?”

Data Sphere made some displeased noises and buried his muzzle closer to the keyboards.

“What talent does she have exactly?” Ari tried thinking of what abilities a pony name ‘Magic Card’ would have. “Like card tricks? Or… oh! Does she use tarot cards to see the future?”

“I would consider an ability like that to be less than useless.” Data Sphere recovered from his embarrassment and shook his head. “A pony like that would be a detriment to us all.”

“Future sight is a useless ability?” Ari looked up from her own secondary monitor. “I’d assume it was incredibly powerful.”

“From what I can tell, the power of prophecy cannot be used to your advantage,” Data Sphere warned. “Sunset Shimmer tried to rely on such power, reacting to a warning she got, and it led her to personal ruin. I have few data points, but it seems everypony who tries to stop some predicted disaster meets with a terrible end. I really don’t understand why we’re taking heed of a nearly identical prediction from the exact same pony who caused Sunset’s demise.”

DS looked up from his computer at some higher point.

“If it was useful,” said DS, “why did this alien not show us the timeline where we do destroy the devourer? That would be infinitely more valuable. I wonder…”

“That’s all very interesting,” said Ragnarök, “but you’re getting off-topic. Ari isn’t going to destroy any space robots. Sorry.”

“Well, you’ll meet Magic Card in a few days,” said Data Sphere. “You can also request the assistance of any of our other high-value cutie marks if you feel it necessary. Though you live in the middle of nowhere, so we won’t always be able to send them.”

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