Beyond the Veil of Sleep

by Starscribe

Chapter 34

"We're here."

Those words settled on Mira like a great weight, momentarily threatening to crush her beneath their influence. All they had sacrificed to come here—the lives of marines, of the captain of this ancient vessel. The ship itself had decayed in the interim, its alien hull now cankered with rust and lower levels flooded.

Now at last she knew why Captain Yi had been so reticent to agree to this mission—he had known as she did not what it would cost his men. He had done it anyway, even sacrificing his own life to reach this moment. If they succeeded in saving the bats, Mira would make sure he was remembered.

The dead dream floated through the Astral Sea like an island—an island the size of a mountain, with huge structures crumbling down into the water as the waves pounded against it. Like a city turned on its side, formed of innumerable towers, castles, and smaller buildings. All the color left them, leaving only gray rock, gray glass, and gray cloth.

Wind whipped about the island, forming a constant circular storm of clouds and spray. That great wind pushed the Diaspora itself away from the island with gentle pressure, pressure its engines barely equaled.

But for how much longer? The ship was already struggling forward. If its engines failed now, she might never see this place again.

"We can't go with you," Meridian said, while standing atop the deck. "The chaotic dreamtime would unravel and remake us to fit its own kernel. Only a living creature could endure it."

"I will be there." Pixie spoke from her shoulder, quiet and confident. The weeks since their first meeting hadn't gone unnoticed. Still a kitten, but nearly twice the size as at first, when she was a little stray wandering through an empty city. "You'd be lost without me."

They were all there—Meridian, and Kallisto, and even Sandy. Her allies through all dangers, until this moment.

"I'm ready." Mira opened both wings, and instantly they filled with air. She pressed down to the rubberized deck, gripping there to avoid being lifted. Even approaching the island would be challenging enough.

"Dead dreams are not like oneiromancy you have learned thus far, Mira," Kallisto said. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the wind. Even so, Mira could barely make out her words. "They belong to no mind. They overflow with wild magic; they flicker and change. It is the dream self of a sleeper that imposes any kind of order. The view this grants into Nightmare Moon's prison might be entirely useless to you. It might be distorted beyond recognition."

If it is, everything was for nothing. All the dead, all the sacrifices. If this plan failed, she was out of options. Mira would never be an Alicorn—she could never fight Celestia openly. This was her only option.

She removed her cap, offering it to Abe. "Thank you for taking us here. What will the Diaspora do now?"

He took the captain's cap reverently under one wing, without putting it on. "We cannot restart the void syphon. This vessel will not survive the return trip. So we shelter here in the shadow of this forgotten dream. You are the moon's chosen, Mira—Yi believed it. If that power is yours, learn what you must from this dream—then make this chaos into a shelter. If you do, the crew will be spared. If not—we will join our captain."

She nodded solemnly. "I'll try. I think whether or not I can do it depends on what's inside. I know it could kill me before I get the chance—really kill me, not just make me wake up."

"That is the least likely," Kallisto said. "Chances are greater that you go entirely, irrevocably insane. In the days of glory I knew several bats who attempted to seek lost wisdom from the dead. They lived, yet—I believe they would have wished they did not."

"You aren't helping her," Sandy interrupted, blocking out the bat with both wings. "Worrying won't help you, Mira. From the first day you flew in, you were always overwhelmed. You gave yourself a whole tribe to carry. But you kept carrying it anyway, because you hoped something different could happen. Focus on that—somewhere on that evil island is the way to save all the bats in the world. All you have to do is find it."

Mira hugged her, shedding pale tears onto the moth's soft coat. "Th-thank you, Sandy. I'll try." She hugged Kallisto next, far tighter.

"Whatever happens in there Mira, I'm proud of the bat you became. What I told you about your name—it was well chosen. In a better age, you would have grown up under Princess Luna's personal instruction. She would have made you a powerful dreamwalker. I know your parents would be proud."

She let go. Mira offered a hoof to Meridian, but he embraced her too. Lighter, a little awkward. But still, he tried. "I ran away from this a long time ago, little bat. If I die here in the sea, at least I made my afterlife mean something first."

He let go, darting back under the deck. The others followed, leaving only a handful of marines on station to watch. Mira tightened the straps on her mostly-empty saddlebags, lowering Pixie carefully inside. "Better hang onto something. This is gonna be bad."

The cat might've answered, but she couldn't hear the reply. Mira took off, spiraling upward into the air. The storm threatened to sweep her away, but Mira fought against it, with the strength of a pony whose whole race depended on her.

Dark clouds condensed near the island, forming a wall of water and rumbling thunder. Mira tucked her body low, and imagined a thousand bat wings flying beside her. Instead of getting thrown by the wind, she cut straight through it. Ice condensed on her coat, chilling her sensitive wings. If they got too cold, too stiff, she might tear the delicate skin, even shatter the bones underneath.

Whatever evil things Equestria whispered about her kind, she was still no pegasus. Bats were not meant to fight the storm, or change the weather.

Mira flew on anyway. The wind accelerated, carrying with it a voice, a mournful dirge of defiance. "You... do not... belong..." it said. Each word stretched so far she could barely understand them. It was more the dark intention she felt, hatred purer than any living being could manifest. So long as she didn't look to either side, she felt as though she did not fly alone. Hundreds of wings joined her, spiraling forward, slowing the wind in their numbers.

Maybe her parents were among them, bats dead so long that she never learned their names. Maybe it was her imagination.

Finally the clouds parted, and she came streaking in towards the city. The structures here were strange, tilted on their axis, and crumbling in a hundred ways. Yet there was far less chaos than she expected. Shouldn't such a dream be filled with living insanity, twisting constantly between different truths?

Instead, a single city remained, its streets unchanging and its buildings defiant. Only at the edges did they crumble slowly into the Astral, worn down over geologic time.

This isn't just any city, it's Harmony! The capital of Equestria, or at least the old one, was now destroyed in Nightmare Moon's campaign of defiance. She had seen paintings of it, at least the vast night palace, with huge sky windows and observatories. And there, pointing sideways, was that exact structure. Its largest window was shattered now, a gaping maw ready to swallow her.

Mira flew directly into it, as she might into the opening of a balcony.

She had only ever seen this place described, yet somehow found it feeling intimately familiar all the same. The central observatory had walls covered in a detailed map of the sky, plotting the movement of stars and planets for many years. The spells no longer worked; the lights didn't glow—but some of the old equipment was still there.

Shelves of books and charts were full on the floor, but had dislodged their contents on the ceiling, forming an ocean of scrolls and maps that even Meridian would appreciate.

Mira slowed as she moved, relying more on her sensitive ears as the light faded above. Thanks to the constant storm, this island would see very little light. With an effort of will, she conjured a magical lantern on her head, one with angled mirrors like those a unicorn might wear. She had no unicorn magic to power it, but fortunately she imagined it already charged.

The arcane spotlight illuminated more of the same—not sanity warping monsters, impossible spells, or devouring demons. There was only the natural chaos that came from the state of this ancient place.

"It should be worse than this," she whispered. Despite the storm outside, the air within this chamber was perfectly still. Her flight lifted a trail of dust beneath her when she flew, seemingly centuries of decay. But of course it could not be—her parents had lived during these days. "Don't these places want to kill us?"

"No," Pixie said. She poked her head through a crack in the saddlebags, eyes reflecting the light of Mira's magic. "They don't want anything, they're dead. The Dreaming is shifting, always changing."

"Not in here." Mira slowed as she approached what would've been the central observatory. A great telescope lay in shattered ruins, glass lenses crushed beside twisted, melted brass. Part of the wall was even burned behind it. "This is... a real place. Castle of the Two Sisters, in the center of Harmony. Luna's wing."

"So think about where the knowledge would be hiding." Her familiar clambered up onto her shoulder, balancing there despite her moving wings. But if the cat wanted to risk it, who was she to tell her no? Mira had long since given up.

Where would a powerful wizard place their enchantment cast on the princess of the moon? Mira's first thought was to reject the question entirely—as though she had anything in common with a stuffy, rich unicorn wizard. But after everything she'd done, maybe she did have some idea.

Containing an Alicorn would be powerful and complex. They would need enormous space to trial different ideas, and maybe work through the math on various lesser spells before settling on one. Maybe it would involve the same magical runes she had carved into the anchor, which would mean a physical workshop to work with materials.

"Somewhere as big as this, but not ruined by the battle. Where would the unicorns hide their magic workshop?"

Pixie stuck out her tongue. "You big things never put stuff where it should go. Probably in the worst place possible."

Mira nodded slowly. "The worst place—Celestia would want to hide what was happening until it was too late. If her sister discovered it, she might be able to prevent it. So... underground? Secret basement?"

The cat flicked her tail sharply to either side, as close to a shrug as she could.

Without anything to prompt her otherwise, Mira set off into the ruin. She found a sideways staircase leading down, and flew through it. More tunnels waited there, a maze in different directions with random objects scattered sideways.

Then she felt it—the gentle tug of magic, leading her downward. The ruins weren't just intact, something was active down here. In the Dreaming, which meant power she could feel, even if that sensitivity would never reach up into the physical.

But it didn't have to. "After all this time, something survived. A spell for us to study, maybe?"

"For you to study," the cat said, making her slow way back into Mira's saddlebag. "Wake me for the part where the old dream turns into a pit of acid or something. I don't want to get dissolved today. Tomorrow isn't looking good either."

Mira grunted in frustration, but didn't argue. The cat's eyes and ears were sharp—but Mira's were too. Maybe it was best if she focused on following the trail. Her bats didn't have the luxury of any other options.

Comments

[redmar]

I wonder what Mira will find in that dream. Given what we know form the cartoon she isn't approaching things entirely correct but she doesn't know everything the readers do.

[FanOfMostEverything]

I suppose laying down the keystone will have to wait until after Mira tracks down what she cab; she’ll overwrite the traces of this dream without meaning to once she lays claim to it. Still, I can’t imagine this will be pleasant. We’ll see just what she uncovers, and how much it can do to her.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

11818530
But this isn't the show anymore. Celestia of the show would never commit genocide

[ColinChanged]

Wasn't there supposed to be a chapter posted yesterday?