Prologue: Antrozous

The world basically ended when Charybdis finally rose from the sea.

Ancient writers of the human world had long speculated about such abominations, and the reign of madness and ecstasy they might bring. Those ancient writers had foreseen the destruction that they would bring to every nation, as their servants rose and brushed aside the organic life like dust in a breeze. There were no Elder Signs, no supernatural means by which the desperate defenders might easily overcome. Their enemy outnumbered them, had greater weapons, and far greater unity of purpose.

Had the ancient writers of humanity survived to that day, they might’ve been amazed to see their far-future descendants triumph in the end, casting the Eldritch Horror and all its servants into Outer Darkness.

The war had been terrible—every nation of Earth had either been destroyed, or else unified in one common body. Only united with every great power, and at least one they hadn’t even known about, had they survived.

There was much celebration on that day, with equine and human alike rejoicing that the ancient enemy was banished forever, and the planet was theirs. The party that followed lasted for weeks, and resulted in the utter depletion of the planet’s supply of drinkable alcohol.

But after the parties were over, the funerals were held, and the dead buried, life had to go on. Ponies along with the last survivors of the ancient races lived together in the great city of Axis Mundi for years without complaint. It had, after all, been built to survive an indefinite siege. The height of magical craft had been used to construct it, and there were many empty rooms thanks to the war. That city grew into a megalopolis never seen on Earth before it, and as the population expanded they built new suburbs, spreading across the Sahara mile by mile.

A generation passed away in happiness there, united by their common bond. The next generation rose on stories of the terrible war, and the cooperation of their parents in defeating it. Even so, there was a little friction among them—the ancient humans, much slower to breed and more dependent on their infrastructure, left the city in that age, or at least most of them did.

Then their children rose, inheriting the city in their place. And with them, the peace wasn’t to last. They knew nothing of the desperation that had been a constant reality in the lives of their grandparents. They had not been raised on the promise of death for even minor crimes, as evidence of possession by the Outside. So, crime again became a serious problem in Mundi, as the poor and dispossessed took what little power they could.

The megalopolis of Mundi might have been the best way to defend the planet’s population, but it also put everyone in constant contact with each other. There was no place for the developing pockets of independent cultures to go, only more city. While this next generation did not have the cooperative spirit born of desperation, they also lacked a practical understanding of how to survive outside their perfect magical city, where all aspects of life were managed and provided for them. In many ways, they were the most technologically advanced society that the planet had ever seen.

A few brave souls ventured out anyway, first as individuals, but eventually as small caravans, in search of ancient homelands and a better life. Terrible stories came back in their place, stories of traps and horrible magics the Outsiders had left behind as they swept across the planet. Some budding new societies were wiped out by entirely mundane causes—starvation being chief among these. A few succeeded at building new homes—outposts that were not more than a few days journey from the city, often located in the empty (but still functional) ruins left by their defending ancestors.

Another generation passed away in Mundi, and the situation got worse. Murder returned to the city, and riots became a more frequent occurrence as friction continued to ferment. Though many ancient cultural divides had been long forgotten, they had new divisions to create prejudice. Often the chief among those was race, given the unmistakable difference between the species and the clear advantages and disadvantages possessed by some over others.

Nopony could’ve said for sure how the divides rose, or upon which lines the castes of the city were informally separated. Even the Alicorns who ruled it, doing their best to keep the city unified and prevent widescale violence, couldn’t have said for sure. But how the hierarchy formed didn’t really matter.

What mattered to Jackie was that bats ended up on the bottom.

In the old days, she wouldn’t have cared what other ponies thought of her—in those days, she had her wife, and nothing else mattered. They could face the world together and nothing it could do would leave an impact. All she really had to do was wait and the situation might change again in her favor.

Jackie herself wasn’t even all that effected by the change, given her position of prestige in the city. She didn’t live in squalor, but near the core, a section of the tallest arcologies in the center of the city, where the most important ponies spent their lives.

At first, Jackie dismissed the strange looks she got at parties, particularly since other guests would explain on her behalf how important and respected she was, and that would be that. But as the years went by, Jackie stopped getting invited to those parties. As before, it didn’t really matter to her—she’d always loathed them anyway, and the clubs closer to ground level always had more interesting people to meet.

Fast forward a century or so, and suddenly she wasn’t allowed in those places either. It didn’t matter how much money she had, though in truth it was less than she should have had. Ezri had always been better at managing their money. Jackie could have gone to the rulers of the city, since she was one of the few who could get an audience with one of them without anything more than a whim on her part.

But she didn’t really want to see Alex anymore. If you all hadn’t been captured, I could’ve brought Ezri back instead of saving your dumb asses. In some ways, it was the Alicorns’ fault her wife wasn’t still alive. It didn’t really matter that Ezri had been okay with dying. It was the principle of the thing.

So it was that Jackie found herself at a truly underground club, one that was so many stories under the city that the rocks were hot to the touch. The bar itself was located at the dead-end of a particularly dirty looking tunnel, which branched into many identical square rooms. They had been ancient food-storage caches, during the days of the war when nopony had known if they would be able to grow food forever. Some had feared that Charybdis would try to starve them out.

That hadn’t happened, so decades worth of food for their much-reduced population had been left to sit—and rot—in the dark. By the smell of the club, some of it was still nearby.

The lighting was dingy, which was fine with her (and apparently most of the other patrons). There were few species here—mostly bats. Changelings had “talents” that were more practical to the needs of a decadent populace, so they didn’t form the bottom of the social ladder enough to get dumped here. Besides, they had their hives, and queens to look out for their needs.

It was a shame—the only places Jackie might go to meet more changelings no longer let her in.

The music was all right—Jackie had lived so long that it all blurred together in her ears—so long as it was loud, and the beat was fast enough to dance to, that was what mattered. But the drinks, the drinks were truly awful. As she sat by the bar, she watched other bats come in one after another, before passing their crystalline credit-counters over the bar to receive a measly portion of a drink she was pretty sure was a mix of fermented mangos and minotaur urine.

This bar—the Soundwave—was her new favorite spot, despite all its flaws. Going deeper underground could only make things worse.

She knew every bat here by name, knew some of their families, had slept with a few. Not as much as a younger version of her probably would have, though. Just like music, sexual partners grew samey over the years. And no bat could ever keep a relationship as fresh as a changeling.

One of her new friends—a refugee male named David—took the seat beside her still panting from exhaustion. He worked in one of the new datamines, and ever since he’d been arriving a few hours later and sweating like he’d been flying for days. The smell hardly registered over the existing rot-scent, but Jackie had to feel bad for him as he raised a hoof to order.

“Wait.” Jackie rested her hoof on his, pushing it back down. “You’re drinking on me tonight, David.” She looked up at the barkeep. “Bring him the blue stuff.” One glance behind her told her the rest of his shift had all come with him, probably out at the same time. “Actually, bring the whole bottle. Join us, boys and girls! Let’s have a little fun.”

There were a few new faces within the crowd—most of these declined her offer, ordering something else anyway. A few moments later the barkeep returned, carrying the glowing blue bottle in one hand with a little reverence. Jackie couldn’t read any of the writing on it, but that didn’t matter. She knew the taste, and she wasn’t going to be having any of that awful mango stuff tonight.

“What’s the occasion?” David asked, watching as the barkeep removed slightly dusty shot glasses from under the counter and started pouring. “And what is this stuff? What kind of ‘magic’ makes it glow?”

Jackie took her own glass with ease, knocking it back as though it were nothing. It helped that she had an immortal constitution, along with more mass than anyone else in here. The only ponies who could drink more than she could were Alicorns. “Nobody have more than one. Seriously, this stuff will fuck you up if you do. If it can do it for Commander Worf, you know that little pony body of yours is screwed. I’m guessing you have work tomorrow…”

“Commander Worf?” David raised an eyebrow. He was certainly the only one in the room who would understand what she had just said. “You can’t possibly…” He leaned closer, squinting at the bottle. “God, it is, isn’t it? Where did you get Romulan ale?” He had to grip his own glass in both hooves, but he managed to get it down without spilling. “Damn. It’s like electricity going down.”

“Try glamour sometime,” Jackie muttered. Whatever he said next was drowned out in the appreciation from the other bats near the bar, at least all those who had tasted the drink. Like anything she took from the dream world, it was more an ideal than the real thing. It tasted better than any liquor could. It could still give them wicked hangovers if they drank too much, though.

The mine workers spread out to their tables, though David and a few of his friends remained close by. “How did you get this stuff?” he asked again. “There was no such thing as Romulans… were there?”

She shrugged. “No? Yes? Maybe? If there were, they’re fucking dead now. Just like everything else smart in the galaxy.” She set down her glass, pushing it over for another. She refused any of the others, though most of them were taking it slow with the drink. They savored something expensive enough to be rare for them. “I got it from the Dreamlands. Like lots of stuff. You could too. Almost everybody in here could.”

“I did the dream stuff, like you said.” David sounded unconvinced. “Lucid dreaming was cool and all, but… making things real? Seems hard to believe. And I mean, what doesn’t these days, but even more than usual.”

She shrugged. “It took me like… a thousand years to figure it out. But I’ve met a few other bats who could do it. First few times, it was a total accident… it’s making it stick that’s the real trick. I could teach you. Well, maybe not right now. You’d need to read those books I gave you. Practice for like… a century. Then we could talk and see where you were.”

David swore under his breath, taking another swig from his drink. “I wish I knew when you were being serious.”

“Always,” she answered. “I’m completely serious, especially when I’m not. And when what I’m saying doesn’t make sense, that’s only because you’re new here and you don’t have all the pieces. You’ll work it out.”

They sat in silence for a long time then, with Jackie mostly listening to the music, as well as all the gossip being shared around the bar. She liked to be kept abreast with what was happening to the bats, just in case. At last she’d heard, her own apartment was still owned by the princess and so she wouldn’t be forced to move no matter what happened. But the other bats weren’t so lucky. As she listened, her expression grew tenser at the rumor of an upcoming measure to force bats to live underground. No doubt they’ll buy up people’s houses for way less than they’re worth and dump them down here to the caves.

On some levels, it didn’t make sense to her how a society that had overcome so much could fall into its old habits after only a few centuries. On the other hand, she’d lived long enough to know that people never really changed. Individuals changed, but people never did.

“Maybe I know more than you think, Dreamknife,” David said. She grimaced at the name, before realizing that he was staring at her, probably waiting for a reaction. He grinned. “Ha! So, they weren’t bullshiting me. You are her, aren’t you?”

Jackie took a sip of her drink. “What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” David said. “How about your bottomless wealth? How about the way you know everything about everything? How about how much magic you have? You can do things that not even the oldest and most experienced bats can do, the ones who teach at the University. Things they say are theoretical. Plus, you’re like an inch taller than me, and I’m the biggest bat I know.”

“In more ways than one,” Jackie said, hoping to put him off-balance. Being nude could do that for refugees, and indeed his ears flattened a little to his head. David was among those she’d been intimate with, though they had agreed quickly that it wasn’t going to work out. Men never worked out for long.

“Admit it, you’re her,” he went on. “You’re the immortal from the ancient days of the apocalypse, when there were still human ruins out in the world. From before they cast translation spells on newcomers. From before Charybdis.”

She frowned. This conversation was getting perilously close to her losing her favorite drinking spot. “What if I was? What difference would it make?”

“Because…” He lowered his voice, leaning close to her ear. “Because we’re done with this fuckin’ place, Jackie. Not just me, lots of us. Probably… half the bats in the city are done. And we need a leader.”

“You want to rebel?” she whispered back, her voice low. “I’m not going to help you kill people.”

“No!” he exclaimed. “We want to get out. Make a city of our own, somewhere so far away that Mundi and its fucking racism will never bother us again.”

Chapter 1: Myotis

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“There’s nothing illegal about leaving the city,” David said. “Based on the way people are acting, they’d probably be happy to have us gone. But nobody living in the city knows what it’s like out there, except for the retrieval teams. And they don’t live out there, they just visit. But you… you know. And you’ve got the magic of a whole army. And you probably have the money to outfit us.”

She didn’t, not if he was right about the “half the bats” figure. But she knew where to get it.

“Look, I was hoping you’d be here tonight. There’s someone I want you to meet.” David gestured to one of the ponies who had been sitting beside them, one of the few whose names she hadn’t known. A mare, more experienced and world-weary than David the refugee. One of her wings had a large gash that had been fixed with stitches, somewhat inexpertly. It looked like it still hurt. “This is Eclipse. She’s been the one organizing all of this. She wanted to meet you.”

The mare wasn’t shy—she dragged over her stool right then, apparently unconcerned with any obstruction she might be causing to traffic in the club.

Jackie watched her, ever-wary. This wasn’t like David at all—this pony moved confidently on her hooves, and was plainly wearing a weapon. The crowbar could’ve been a tool, but it had a sharpened end and there was something brown dried there.

“Well, here I am,” she said. “You’re the one who put him up to this?”

Eclipse didn’t say anything for a few more seconds, appraising. “I thought you might be some rich stallion’s pet when David talked about you,” she said. “Come down here to lord over us now that you’d been lifted out of poverty. But I see that isn’t the case. You heard what he said—we need to get out. You know what it takes to live out there. Not to end up like… the last time somepony tried that.”

“I do,” she agreed. “But I don’t think you do. You need to understand what’s waiting out there. You know all the forts are taken, right? You won’t have any of the infrastructure you’re used to. No free food and water from the dispensers twice a day, no free doctors, not even any shelter at first. You have to do all of that yourselves the way your ancestors did.”

“We know,” Eclipse said. “All of that. We wouldn’t take one of the old forts even if they weren’t all full of ponies. Eventually Mundi would grow that big and ponies would try to take away everything we’d built there. We want to go so far away that we can keep what’s ours forever.”

“Have you thought about where? Basically anywhere is going to be awful to get to, I hope you realize. We’re in the desert. We’ll have to cross it, maybe cross Europe, or the Middle East, or…”

“If you’re the Dreamknife, you know the old kingdoms. We planned on Thestralia. It’s gigantic, but still separated by water. Mundi can’t swallow us up by accident. Plus, lots of the tech we use here in Mundi was invented down there. We’re hoping some of it might still be working for us to use.”

“Thestralia,” she repeated, mild anger in her voice. Though not directed at any of these ponies. Odds were, the ones she was thinking of were all long dead by now. The Dreamlands were a dangerous place, and harsh to those minds who chose to dwell within forever. “The Arcane Network isn’t really anything like what we have today. But they are similar, I suppose. I can’t really help with that part—the only time I visited Thestralia I was… let’s say ‘unwelcome.’ If they’d found out I was there, well—” She smiled with satisfaction. “They didn’t find me, so I’m still here.”

“You’re right that we don’t understand everything we’d be facing,” Eclipse continued. “There’s no denying that. A few refugees like David are better prepared than the ones who grew up here. But most of us… we can’t stay here. You’ve seen what happened to us over the years, Dreamknife. You really want us to stick around until they take away the facade and just make us into slaves?”

She was about to say how much she doubted that would happen, considering who ruled here and the campaigns she had once fought. But Alex ruled here now, and somehow hadn’t noticed the suffering right under her hooves. It was hard to manage an entire species. Little things, like the suffering of an entire tribe’s worth of ponies, could be easily missed.

“It’s a good thing you kept this secret,” Jackie finally said. “If as many as you say really want to leave, then I can’t imagine the ponies you work for would be too happy. They might even do something rash to try to encourage you not to leave.”

“We thought of that,” Eclipse said, a little smug. “And some more. We’ve been saving what we could for supplies, though we didn’t know what we might need. I’ve seen the maps. We’ll probably have to make it to the sea, build a boat, sail it all the way there.”

Jackie shuddered at the thought, imagining what sort of boat a bunch of bats with no shipbuilding expertise could make. “Uh… no. That’s a terrible idea. Plus, I know a faster way. No offence, but I don’t like the odds of anypony who grew up here surviving a trek across the world. And I would know—I’ve seen it done like, five different times.”

“So that means you’ll do it?” Eclipse asked, reaching past Jackie with her hoof, taking Jackie’s shot glass from the counter, and swallowing the last of the Romulan Ale. “You’ll lead us out of here, help us build something new? Be our princess?”

“Yes, yes, no.” Jackie stood up. “Don’t use the P word with me again, honey. I think it’s shit what has happened to bats down here. Honestly, it was either get out or watch ponies start dying. This way, maybe they’ll learn to respect the ones who stay behind a little more. Or maybe they won’t, and when we’re established they’ll have somewhere to go.” She raised a hoof before the other pony could go on. “But I have a few conditions, so listen carefully. First one is you never do that princess shit again. I am not one of them, and I never ever will be. I hate their world and almost everyone in it.

“Secondly, we’re not doing the race thing in Thestralia. We aren’t going to make another Mundi there, only backward. Anypony who wants to come with us can come, and you aren’t going to mistreat them even if they’re unicorns.”

This caused Eclipse pause. She frowned a moment, considering. Then she shrugged. “If anypony wants to throw their fate in with us, then I suppose that’s fine. They won’t. After what happened with the Dawnstar colony…”

“Probably not,” Jackie agreed. “But one day, they will. Other ponies down on their luck, maybe new refugees who want something a little more familiar than fucking Bladerunner to live in. You promise me right here that they can come.” She advanced, her expression growing cold. She reached into the empty air beside her, and drew out her dagger. It was unchanged from the day she’d first used it, a hilt wrapped in leather and gold, an angel set into the blade of reflective metal that splintered into rainbows near a point that hurt to look at.

“They didn’t give me that stupid nickname because I’m a blacksmith when I sleep. I’m not going to be responsible for another dystopia. I swear if you or any other ponies try to go back on your word once we’re living the good life, and you decide to put some unicorns into a damn Datamine…” She tilted the knife forward, and dropped it onto the bar. It sank through the corrugated metal as though it were smoke, right down to the hilt. “There won’t be a place in this world or any other for you to run.”

David stared at the blade, transfixed. A few other bats in the bar had apparently noticed as well, including the barkeep. But he of all ponies knew not to complain—whenever Jackie caused trouble, she always paid for it. His silence was worth more to her than chits.

“You aren’t the first one to say things like that,” Eclipse said. Apparently Jackie had guessed right about her intention not to guarantee what she’d been asking. But then, why shouldn’t she expect to double-cross her as soon as she’d done what they wanted.

“Maybe not,” Jackie said. “But how many of them have done it?” She drew out her knife—there was no need to clean the blade, which couldn’t dull any more than it got dirty. She slid it away back into its Otherspace sheath, gone from sight. “I’ve killed… more people than I wanna think about. I’ve killed more people than you’ve met in your whole life, hundreds of times over.” She shivered a little, at that part of herself that was long dead. “Dealing with me is a little like the devil, only the exact opposite. So long as you don’t give me shit, and you do what you say, it’s great. Otherwise…” She paused, hesitating. Something about the way the ponies moved in the bar no longer looked right. When you were Jackie’s age, even slight changes in group behavior were glaringly obvious.

She saw what it was at once, and forced herself to smile. “Oh, hey, that’s cool. Free bonus gift, just for signing up.” She glanced up at the door, breathing in a deep breath of Dreamlands air. “I dreamed there was a wall there,” she said. And just like that, the traitor trying to slip out the door smashed his head into solid bricks. A fatal injury for a unicorn, though like everyone else here he was only a bat.

There were sounds of panic from in the bar as ponies noticed they were suddenly sealed in. Someone turned off the music, a few people screamed. Jackie ignored them all, and let herself slip backward into the shadow of the bar. She emerged on the other side of the room, out from the shadow of the old jukebox.

“Hey there.” She grinned at the pony who had tried to escape, still lying on the ground in a slight daze. “That was real clever. Trying to slip away in the middle of our conversation? I wonder who you work for.”

As she spoke, she watched him struggle, trying to get something out of his belt. A gun.

She hadn’t lived this long by taking chances—she was only ageless, not immortal like an Alicorn. But instead of going for his gun, she smashed a hoof down on his wings, breaking several delicate bones and tearing the skin in two places.

The bloodcurdling shriek he made was loud enough that the crowd around the door parted immediately, many averting their eyes from the terrible injury Jackie had just inflicted. She ignored them, dragging the still screaming pony to the hooves of Eclipse and David by the bar. “You know him?” she asked, her voice as bored as though she’d dropped a drink. “Or maybe you know where he got this.” She deposited the gun on the counter beside them. “I didn’t know bats could own guns anymore.”

“God in heaven,” David muttered, looking away with disgust and horror on his face. “You really fucked him up.”

“Jason,” Eclipse said. “He’s… a new member. You attack ponies like this often?”

She shrugged. “When they have dreams like this sack of shit, yeah. Look.” Jackie touched a hoof to his head, leaned sideways so she was touching Eclipse with her flank. With the contact between them, she could show some of what this “Jason” had been dreaming about. It was a familiar dream—wealth, power, prestige, finally being recognized, adored by his female friends. Except it started with him joining up with an organized crime syndicate deep in the underground, who had been tasked by a shady corporation to make sure their workers didn’t try anything. They’d suspected something like this was coming, and wanted a man on the inside to see.

In a few seconds of real time, Jackie’s magic had shown Eclipse hours Jason had spent with the mob, learning to use the weapon, getting his instructions on what conditions would move him up the ladder. Turning in this little resistance before they could mobilize anything was the first step.

Those seconds passed, and Jackie broke contact with them both. “See? He’s lucky I didn’t just kill him. But if I had, his dreams would’ve died with him. You couldn’t have seen that little fantasy.” She leaned down towards him, grinning with her sharp teeth. “Should’ve known I’d be able to see daydreams too, asshole. I’m, what, eight millennia old? Shoulda’ kept it in your pants.” She gestured, and the brick wall covering the door returned to the dream she’d stolen it from. “There. Oh, and…” She looked up at Eclipse again. “If you’re serious about this, I suggest you advance your timeframe to… three days. This shitstain is about to go missing, and that’s information in itself. You really want to do this, it’s time to decide right now.”

“We do,” Eclipse said, glaring down at her newly-revealed traitor.” This only proves how important it is. We can’t wait another day.”

Chapter 2: Eumops

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Jackie could never figure out why Alicorns liked towers so much. They were already taller than other ponies, and more powerful, did they have to lord over them?

Granted, in Mundus, she supposed that everyone lived in towers, they were just towers with their own ecosystems and climate. Naturally the Alicorns lived in the tallest of these, or at least their official residences were there. What most of them did with their time, Jackie didn’t know or care. Every immortal had their hobbies, or else they wouldn’t be immortal in the first place. Now that the planet wasn’t under constant threat, she supposed they probably sat around all day playing board games.

On paper, the Alicorns ruled Mundus together as a collective council. In practice, most had neither the talent nor the inclination for ruling, except for Sunset Shimmer. But she was gone now—back to Summerland with a new population of Equestrian Renaissance Faire performers. Their colony was thriving, probably—but what good did that do anypony here? The bats hadn’t even suggested Summerland, and for good reasons. Sunset’s ponies sought to recreate a simpler life, one where friendship and family were the most important things.

Despite all that they had endured, the bats didn’t want to go back to subsistence living, at least not forever. She couldn’t blame them for not wanting to sell their souls to Sunset’s “heaven” on Earth, even if the ponies there seemed happy. Even if it would mean I didn’t have to lead them. For all its flaws, Summerland still didn’t care what species you were so long as you were willing to live the pony way.

Jackie took special satisfaction dodging around Archive’s guards. For all their advanced technology and magic, they still could not catch the Dreamknife when she did not want to be caught.

Jackie hadn’t ever actually been in Alex’s private study before. She found her old friend hunched at her desk, staring at something contained in a crystal artifice of some kind. She did not recognize the design, but she could sense the emptiness of the liquid metal that roiled inside, struggling against an invisible barrier like something alive. It seemed to ignore Alex completely, as though she wasn’t here. Yet it flashed and struggled towards Jackie, battering against the barrier.

This was Mordite, the death-metal. A hundred parts per million were all it took to make alloys that could cut through spells like her knife cut through solid objects. Its raw form did not exist on Earth, but was harvested clinging to dead rocks in the outer solar system.

“Hello, Jackie,” said the pony at the desk, not turning around. “I expected you to come eventually. Would you like some tea?”

Jackie drew her dagger from thin air. She had expected a confrontation, but not quite like this. “I would like to know what you’ve done with Alex, imposter.” There was nothing physical to set her apart—she had the same green coat, the same size as she’d been for ages. “I’ve got a busy night ahead of me, and no time to waste.” Some part of her secretly reveled in this news—if Archive really had been killed and replaced, at least she wouldn’t have to blame her for what was happening to the city.

“Nothing.” The speaker remained where she sat, apparently unafraid of the knife.

So not a changeling, the only species she knew of whose souls did not interact with Mordite. Which meant…

“Archive instructed me to see that humanity prospered in her absence. I have devoted my considerable resources to ensuring that happens.”

“Athena.” Jackie dropped the knife, letting it sink into the floor at her hooves. “You can do ponies now?”

“I can do anything that is possible within the confines of the physical universe,” Athena wearing Alex’s body said. It was no longer making Alex’s voice, though. “Until the last few centuries, I had no reason to. But now I do.”

“You’re a shit ruler.” Jackie walked right past her, yanking on the blinds with her mouth. The window opened to a spectacular view of the city, with its sprawling buildings glittering with light even in the dead of night. There was no darkness on the outside anymore, hadn’t been for many centuries. “Okay, maybe it’s hard to see from here. But underground, you have no idea.”

“I know you killed an informant for a large crime family ten minutes before coming here,” Athena said. “I know you’re preparing to leave the city. I even know things you don’t, like the actual size of the group that will accompany you.”

Jackie glowered down at her, unconcerned with the construct on her desk. One of the few things that could kill her, but Jackie didn’t care. “Then you’re worse than I thought. At least incompetence would be an accident. But you know how we’re being treated, and you don’t do anything?”

The doppelganger returned her expression with eyes that seemed somehow empty now that she wasn’t playing a character. Like she’d stopped trying to simulate emotion. “I haven’t been doing nothing, Jackie. It took no small effort on my part to create these conditions. Alicorns built this city to last. It has been an uphill battle to change it to be more favorable towards my ends. And here you are, the beginning of the first step.”

It took Jackie enormous self-control to resist the desire to break the doubleganger’s nose right here. Except there were probably cameras watching—with real, intelligent guards. If she was seen attacking the princess, it would probably make her wanted. Athena would be unlikely to clear things up as Jackie organized her escape from the city. The exodus of her kind would be tarnished by her violence.

Besides, even if she killed this body, Athena could make more. It was a waste of time. “Why? No wait, I don’t care. Where is Archive? I’m not talking to a pocket calculator tonight.”

The pony-puppet looked back up at her, smug. “If you’re going to ask to make it easier for you to escape, I won’t. I would prefer you remain here, and allow violence to ferment. The outcome is more favorable in the long-term if the nation-states Mundus eventually become have genuine hatred for each other in their past. It will make the competition fiercer.”

She had come to ask Archive to supply this mission, since it seemed like it was her fault they had to move out in the first place. But she wasn’t going to admit as much to Athena.

“Will you help us build our city when the time comes? Or have you stopped sharing technology too?”

“I will be there,” Athena said. “To give exactly what will encourage the most growth. But it would be better if they stayed here. You will thank me in a thousand years, when you see what they become. The pain of the current generation is irrelevant.”

“You know what? You don’t need to tell me. I’ll find her on my own.” She turned away. “Go suck an EMP or something.”

“Archive is with the joint seapony-human colony on Alpheus, second planet from Barnard’s star. And she’s not the only Alicorn to leave—many of the others lead other colonies as well. They’re out of your reach, dreamer. You will not use them to defy my will.”

Jackie ignored the taunt. For all her power, the AI always made the same mistakes. She assumed that the rules that bound her applied to other creatures. It’s a good thing they limited her intelligence, all those years ago. Or we’d really be fucked.

Jackie didn’t need to fall asleep anymore. All worlds were equally real to her now, be they physical, supernal, or dream. She stepped through the barrier into the Dreamlands.

Athena had given her quite useful information. The location was irrelevant, but the nature of that location was enormously useful. A seapony colony on a distant world. Jackie dreamed herself a tail, and plunged into the Astral Sea with the waterbound dreamers. They weren’t hard to find—there were so few dreams in the oceans. Charybdis had all but exterminated their kind during the war, and seaponies were the slowest breeders of all pony races. Only dragons had fewer foals.

She found herself a promising target, a young seapony having nightmares of being shoved back into a tiny metal pond, and freezing to death while surrounded by blackness. She passed through the dream, careful not to wake the pony.

A lesser dreamwalker would’ve emerged from the unconscious world in the same form they entered. But just as Jackie could remove the inanimate, so too could she change herself. This was a comparatively recent ability, one that had only come about since she had refused the Alicorn’s mantle. It was the same kind of magic, she was pretty sure.

That was good, since Jackie was immediately assailed with crushing pressure, and water on every side. She would’ve been in serious trouble without a pair of gills.

She was in a child’s bedroom. The little seapony was curled up in the sleep netting, tossing and turning in her fretful nightmares. Jackie paused long enough to reach out a hoof, brushing a little of her mane away from her hane. Not forcefully enough to wake her up. In exchange for getting me here, she thought, casting her magic upon the sleeping fish. The nightmare faded away, melting into something far calmer. One of Jackie’s own fond memories, from a world long gone. An ancient toy-store she had visited as a child, where she had bought many of her favorite toys.

The fish stopped squirming and whimpering, and quickly settled into a contented sleep. Jackie turned away, and swam through the doorway in the ceiling. There were no doors, and no traditional structural sensibility as she understood it. Seaponies lived in all three dimensions even more than flying ponies. Jackie did not have much experience with fins—it had been a pointless imitation to attempt, since simple transformation couldn’t imitate their songs. Even Ezri hadn’t been able to do it.

Jackie started coughing and choking. For a few seconds she was utterly overwhelmed by it, thousands of different voices all singing together in her mind. But for all the voices, there were only a few different songs. She could sense the feelings inherent in each one—fear, love, anger, creativity—the entire range of pony feelings. The voices came even from the sleeping, they came irrespective of distance.

Most were humming along to a tune her mind labeled optimism, and it made her smile even though she didn’t want to.

She could even pick out individual voices from the chorus, though of course almost all of them were strangers to her. One belonged to the sleeping girl, who was now singing along to contentment. There was only one other voice here she recognized, the one she’d come to find.

Jackie followed the sound the same way she might’ve if there had been only two of them alone in a gigantic quiet room. Without meaning to, Jackie started singing along to a different tune, its staccato beats punctuating each sweep of her dark blue fins. Determination.

Seapony society wasn’t anything like the way land ponies lived. Jackie knew only some of the details. She wasn’t surprised not to find guards, though. They didn’t have police, or an army, or anything analogous to either. The entire community was simultaneously aware of the feelings of every other member of the community at all times, though she suspected the ordinary members of the species couldn’t see it with the specificity she did.

Jackie exited what she learned was the ship that had brought the seaponies here through one of its many openings, marveling at the sheer size of it. It was daytime out here, though they were deep enough that only blue lit the water. She kept swimming, past the thin smattering of coral and seaweed and other life around the now-submerged starship. A short distance, and the life grew more and more diffuse. The ocean floor changed to something uniform and flat, eerily so, coated only with a thin layer of green algae.

She felt weaker the more she swam, like she was short of breath. She couldn’t imagine why that might be—Jackie’s gills seemed like they were working fine. But come to think of it, the few fish she’d passed had been wearing something on their necks she didn’t have.

She ignored her discomfort and kept swimming. She could actually hear the Alicorn’s voice with her ears now, the sound of her song carrying far through the water. She didn’t see just one outline, but many. There were hundreds of fish with her, all joined in song. The water felt strangely charged as she listened. It was magic, but not as land-based ponies knew.

It wasn’t just seaponies, either. There were lots of sea-creatures here, apparently enjoying the song. They couldn’t contribute magic any more than a changeling disguised as a seapony could, but they still seemed to want to be nearby.

As Jackie got closer, she noticed something else—another pony was leading the song, not the one she’d come to see. And the one leading had a much prettier voice. It seemed a shame to interrupt the spell, but Jackie wasn’t really in the mood to care. Plus, it was getting harder to see color.

As she approached, a few of the fish seemed to sense her coming, and maybe more about her intentions as well, because they broke away from the song preemptively. The magic got measurably weaker as they did so. Two fish, neither one of which was as large as Jackie. But age had made Jackie almost as large as an Alicorn herself. That apparently translated to seaponies as well.

As they swam towards her, she found it easier to breathe again. The shortness in her chest vanished, and the color started coming back. One with a green coat and mane, the other pink with blue. The voice Jackie had been following had stopped singing along with the spell, and was instead humming to curiosity.

Jackie realized what she was seeing—this pony, about the same age as the child whose nightmare she had used to get here—was the one she had come to find.

Both seaponies got very close to her, less than one of her own body-lengths away. One was a ‘unicorn’ so far as seaponies had them, and the other was a pegasus. The important part was that one was the pony she had come to see. It was Archive, and a stranger. “Hi, Jackie,” squeaked the younger one.

Jackie wanted to scream at her—as she had planned on doing in her office. But seeing this wide-eyed fish grinning at her, her anger choked back in her throat. She coughed, and switched from humming anger to confusion. “What is… what happened to you?”

“Does the bat who swims across the worlds know how many of Equestria’s old princesses are still ruling there?” She didn’t wait for a response. “None, Jackie. They’re all gone. Alicorns might not age, but… we do grow weary. Sooner or later, the suffering is too great. Elysium’s fields call for us too, and eventually we all pass through the iridescent veil for the last time.”

“This isn’t heaven,” Jackie said. “And she’s not supposed to be… like that. Alicorns don’t regress. You’re not jellyfish.”

“No,” she agreed. “Humanity grew up, and gave birth to something new. Until we grow up and decide what that is…” She shrugged, looking away. “How are we doing?”

“Very badly,” Jackie said, her sensitivity slipping. “You put fucking Skynet in charge, Alex. What did you think would happen?”

“Nothing good,” she said, avoiding Jackie’s eyes. “But it was better than Oracle’s vision of my rule.” She finally swam away from the other pony, right up to Jackie. Her fins kept twitching nervously, as though she was on the edge of swimming away at any moment. “That road led to a gilded cage, Jacqueline Kesler. Oracle showed me the end of opposition and struggle, and it was Equestria. Happy stagnation. I could not give my ponies away to that.”

“What they got is so much better,” Jackie muttered, exasperated. “Your replacement decided to make bats into her scapegoat. They’re basically slaves already, and the forces of the city are moving to stop us from leaving. I’ve already had to kill over it. I’ll have to kill again before we make it out.”

Alex whimpered, her tail curling as she wrapped her forehooves around it, holding it close to her chest. “I knew ponies would suffer, and I let her do it anyway. Does that make you hate me?”

“Yes,” Jackie said, though she wasn’t singing to hatred. She tried to find its melody, and found it wouldn’t come. The seapony language didn’t just facilitate communication, it also required truth. You couldn’t pretend to an emotion you weren’t really feeling. Jackie made a frustrated grunt, looking away from the pathetic fish.

“I loved her too,” Alex whispered. “Not the same way you did. But she was my daughter. I would’ve taken her place if I could.”

And though Jackie wanted to call her a liar, she couldn’t. Jackie had no words to describe the emotion this fish was feeling—it was the pain of a whole nation of crushed lives. The agony of a terrible war all distilled into a weight that crushed her down. If I had to feel that all the time, I’d go completely insane.

“You couldn’t,” Jackie said.

“Fine, Jackie. You want to know? I’ll tell you. I’ll sing you a song.” She hummed a few notes, and the water around them darkened. Jackie’s eyes widened, and she backed up instinctively, fins beating urgently, but it wasn’t enough. Seapony magic was a strange thing, at once selective and general in those it targeted.

The dark water around them was replaced with an image of Earth from very high up, looking down at night. Its great cities were constellations of light in the evening. One by one, she watched as they were swept away by the rising tide of Charybdis’s advance.

“I saw the end of the world already,” Jackie sang. “I lived it same as you.”

“But you didn’t feel it,” Archive responded. “See the city around you, the ponies hungry and desperate. Their hope that you will deliver them. Then watch them die.” They were in a coastal city somewhere, swimming through the air as though it were water. Nopony could see them, though they could see Archive, Oracle, Sunset. They fought together, banished one terrible army. Only to be swept away by the next, and to flee. Thousands of ponies were killed in minutes.

“Feel it, Jackie.” The little fish swam closer and closer to her, her voice getting lower. “How many empty promises of salvation can you make? Is there even any point to keep fighting? We can’t win—you already saw the vision. The army will come to Mundi, and we will all die. It’s like it already happened.”

“But it didn’t happen,” Jackie argued. “The army came to Mundi and we beat it.”

“Sure,” Archive sang back. “We won in the end. But how many broken families did it take? How many dreams are never dreamed? How much of the suffering is my fault?” Ponies surrounded them in the gloom, thousands and thousands that overlapped and blurred together. Some had human faces, others didn’t. All their eyes were on the memory of Archive, full of judgement and scorn.

“You want me to do that again?” Her song finally faltered. Jackie heard a few off-key notes, and the illusion faded to pale shadows. She could see through the smoke to where the other pony watched, concerned and curious. “Do you want to see Oracle’s next vision for mankind, Jackie? You want to know the burden I’m carrying now? Do you want to see the next monster coming to kill us?”

Jackie opened her mouth to argue, to express some of her contempt. Eventually she croaked, then shook her head. “No. This one is your problem. I’m fucking done.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t judge me so harshly. If you won’t help with what I’m carrying. I’m not the only one who could be ruling in Mundi right now, instead of the robot. Athena said she had the cure to Oracle’s nightmares, and we all believed her. We knew the price we paid would be terrible, but we’re all too tired.”

“She’s not normally like this,” said the pony beside Alex, her voice sounding annoyed. “She’s been doing so good the last few years. You didn’t have to set her off.”

“I don’t care,” Jackie spat, but there was no more anger in her song. She couldn’t get the eyes out of her mind, the cries of terror as ponies died. She had seen those things before, many times.

But Jackie was numb to their pain by now. The song had showed her what they felt through Archive’s eyes instead.

“Are you leaving forever, Archive? Sailing west to the gray havens to be with the dead? Leaving us to fight the monsters on our own?”

“No,” Alex said. “Not yet. Not until we’re safe forever.” She flicked her tail once, gesturing all around her. “This colony is a good place to start. Enough like this, and I won’t have to be afraid for the future of my ponies. But I don’t think I’ll have the chance to leave until they decide what kind of ponies they’re gonna be. Hopefully they choose better than their parents.”

“And that isn’t why I’m here. I’m here because I want to get the bats out. I know you—I know how prepared you are. You’ve got disaster supplies somewhere. You planned for something to go wrong. Athena doesn’t want the bats to leave until after we ferment a civil war. But I don’t plan to stay and watch more ponies die. We’re getting the fuck out right now.”

Again the fish seemed overwhelmed by her words, and it took her more than a few silent moments to process what Jackie had just said. At least she had let go of her tail, which made Jackie feel a little less like she was abusing a child.

She swam in a little circle around Jackie, apparently deep in thought. “I trusted to Oracle’s vision of what would happen if Athena ran everything. I knew it would work out in the end, and that she didn’t need me. But I… did put some supplies somewhere. I don’t know how many bats there are. I don’t know if it’s enough for a whole country. But… if you want it, you haveta do something for me.”

She didn’t wait for Jackie’s confirmation, didn’t even seem to be listening as Jackie went back to anger. “I have a friend here on Alpheus, and she doesn’t like living here. She wants to try being on land, and she’s sad that nobody in our generation will be able to ever go back. We’re just here to terraform, and that’s gonna take a really long time. If you want my stuff, you have to take her with you.”

She’d been expecting much worse. The Alicorns typically played their great game this way, trading favors in exchange for labor. Jackie would’ve told Alex to shove her requirements somewhere impolite if she had asked for something like that.

“You realize I’m making a bat colony,” Jackie said. “Not a fish colony. There might not be water for a long time.”

“I know!” Alex swam past her, tail beating her annoyance. “We have tools for that, and magic. I’m not asking you to babysit. Reprise is smart, and she’s mature, and she hates me.” Again came the terrible weight in her voice. The distant, unfocused sadness. “I’m sure you’ll get along great.”

“Fine,” Jackie said. “But I’m not going to be her shuttle service if she changes her mind and wants to come back.”

“Sure.” Alex swam to the pink pony, gave her a brief hug, then swam back, past Jackie. “Come on, we’ll get her! Then I’ll tell you where to find the stuff. You’ll need some good unicorn magic to get to it.”

“No, I won’t,” Jackie said. “I can get anywhere. You just tell me where to go, and that’s it. I’ll handle everything myself.”

As it turned out, Jackie had already seen the pony Alex had in mind, because she was the child whose sleep had allowed her to travel in the first place.

Jackie tensed a little as the child woke up, mostly because she hadn’t expected to be caught here. Sticking around right after a dream, and she was much more likely to be recognized by what the kid had seen.

Sure enough, her eyes widened a little as she saw Jackie floating there, apparently recognizing the connection even though the memory was a human one. “W-what are you… what’s going on?” the child asked.

Alex explained, singing her way through a much-simplified version of events. That Jackie had come from Earth, and would soon be returning. She was about to undertake a very difficult mission, one filled with danger and adventure. Reprise could, if she wanted, go with, but she would never return. She would have to spend lots of time on land if she did, maybe the rest of her life.

Another hour later, and the filly was packed. Jackie was a little surprised that she had no family to say farewell to, and apparently only Alex herself for a friend she cared to wish goodbye. “Say hi to Mary for me,” Alex said, exchanging one last hug with the fish. Then they separated.

Even though they were still in the water, Reprise was now wearing her artificial legs—an incredibly advanced prosthetic, which fit around her tail to give her about the same size as a pony. She also had a little charm-bracelet around her foreleg.

“So, uh, kid. How old are you?”

The fish looked back at her, and didn’t answer aloud. Instead she rolled over a little in the water, showing a tattoo on her underbelly written in a strange, glittering ink. It was immensely complex, but Jackie could recognize a few things about it. The craftsmanship was unmistakable—this was Joseph’s work. As to what the runes spelled, she couldn’t even guess.

“I don’t understand.” Jackie pulled her dagger out of nowhere, ignoring the slight hiss of bubbles as they formed around the edge of the blade. It glowed underwater as well, as though it were constantly burning the water that got too close. “What kind of spell is that?”

“The greatest invention ever,” the fish said, singing to sarcasm. “The end of dissolution, the end of death. Of course the first thing my big sister did was make sure I had it cast on me, before explaining any fucking thing. Like, ‘oh, by the way, I hope you like being eighteen until the end of fuckin’ time because my fuckbudy super genius doesn’t think coming up with a reversal for this thing is a good idea. Also by the way, seaponies age like waaay slower than everyone else, so forget about having a boyfriend ever again.”

Jackie waited until she had finished, though even when she had said her piece she was still humming to frustration. “Nobody told me they had cured aging,” Jackie eventually said. “That’s a pretty big deal. Why aren’t they giving it to everypony, right now?”

The fish swam around in an uneasy circle, the soft plastic legs on her purple tail kicking at the water as she did so. “My sister told me they were still trying to figure out how to make it cheap enough to give to everyone. She never told me any specifics.”

I’ve been going to way too many parties. And another thought, a little darker. If Ezri were still alive, we’d both still be involved with politics. I would have already known all of this.

“Well, that’s for another time.” Jackie smiled ruefully. “This isn’t gonna be easy, Reprise.”

“Elizabeth,” the pony corrected. “Wait, no. Liz. It’s really hard to sing, I know, but since we’re gonna be swimming with the songless soon anyway, who cares.”

“Well Liz, I’m Jackie.” She sliced the knife up through nothing—not strictly necessary, but it helped her visualize for the spell. Water didn’t start rushing in, since the part of the dreamlands she’d chosen was still underwater. “I think we’ll get along fine.”

“Just so long as where we’re going is better than here, yeah,” Liz said, glaring behind her at the colony. “This whole planet is basically the same—oceans too thin to breathe with nothing alive past our little bubble.”

“Well, Mundi is kinda shit,” Jackie said. “It’s exciting. Lots of fun parties and stuff, but not for a ki—” She trailed off, realizing that the fish was glaring at her. “But it doesn’t have many seaponies. The lake is pretty crowded from what I hear, and I’m leaving anyway. But your sister’s stockpile ought to be safe for a few days. We’ll head there, then you can hang out while we have our rebellion.”

“Sure, whatever,” Liz said. “So long as you don’t plan on leaving me in some dry bunker somewhere, fine. You won’t get away with it if you try. My mom’s a dragon, she’ll fuck you up when she hears about it.”

Jackie couldn’t help it—she laughed. “Your mom and I are cool, kid. Don’t worry, it won’t be that long.”

It couldn’t be, if Jackie wanted to have any chance of actually getting the bats out. Athena probably didn’t think she had managed to get Alex’s help—the speed of light was one of those things Athena could get rather insistent about.

But she would be moving her pawns to stop them. They had to act now.

Chapter 3: Hesperus

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Jackie dropped the large bag onto the ground in front of her with an enormous thump of heavy cargo. Bats gathered around in the tiny warehouse all turned to stare at her, looking at the bag with expressions that ranged from idle curiosity to fascination.

“How did you even find this place?” asked a taller male bat with a ragged ear and a scar running across his face. “We didn’t invite you here.”

“Nopony told you?” Jackie tilted her head to one side, glancing between each of the bats in turn. They looked exactly how she imagined revolutionaries might look—ragged clothing, with dark cloth bandanas ready to tie off around their faces or use to hide their cutie marks. If they were about to start a revolution, she was sure it would be one of the most adorable ever.

But there will still be blood. Jackie knew she would be responsible for some of that, but she didn’t care. It was their fault that it would come to violence, not hers. More specifically, it was Athena’s fault. And maybe Alex’s too, for giving up control to the AI.

The bats marveled at her donation for a few seconds more, before someone cleared her throat loudly from the end of the room. A pony who hadn’t been there moments before. Not Eclipse, as she had suspected would be here the instant someone penetrated their defenses. But a pony that much older.

She always looked younger than Jackie expected from one so old—but that was a product of her nature. Hat Trick was not the first pony to put herself into a construct to escape the slow advance of time, though she was the first bat Jackie knew of who had succeeded. Most bats just took their chances in the Dreamlands if they wanted to live forever.

And most of them are dead. Of course, Jackie hadn’t expected the young-looking bat would have made it this long. She looked just a little older than her cutie mark, with a deceptively innocent expression. Jackie knew better than to believe it, of course. She knew too many immortals to be taken in.

The air around her darkened a little, as the pony passed through the shadows lingering in the corners of the room, emerging right beside Jackie’s gift of guns.

Well, gift of Alex’s guns, stolen from her stockpile. These weren’t all of them, but they were the easiest to use without training. Particle escapement rifles like these could not penetrate the crystal of Mundi to kill bystanders in the next building over, but it could shatter ceramic and pierce steel.

“I didn’t know they were still making antiques like these,” Hat Trick said, lifting one of the rifles in one hoof and turning it over. As she did so, its straps closed around her leg, where it would hold itself ready to fire using the eyepiece. These weapons could sense the intention to put them down, and would release their wearers only at that time. “No control circuit, I take it? No tracker?”

“Every one of them,” Jackie agreed. “Athena doesn’t know I have them, and she won’t be able to stop us from using them how we please. Well… let’s be real, she is Athena. She’ll probably figure out what I did the instant someone gets shot. But by then I hope it will be too late. We only need a few hours.”

Hat Trick dropped the rifle, staring up at Jackie for a long moment. This body looked almost completely natural to the untrained eye, but Jackie was trained. She could see the strange glint in her eyes, a refraction that wasn’t quite moisture. Similar, but distinct.

“I hear you went all the way to the Supernal. The Alicorns took you into their Lustrum, and you walked away. Is that true?”

Jackie nodded sharply, turning away from her. “I’m not giving you the Mysteries, Hat Trick. I told those ponies they could fuck off, and I’ll tell you the same thing. I’m not part of that world anymore.”

The young bat dropped her rifle into the pile of other weapons. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“We need to move quickly before Athena can adjust her plans. Nightfall would be ideal.”

“My estimates suggest there will be at least ten thousand ponies who join us, maybe more. Nopony can tell me how you plan on moving so many away from here. I have suspicions, but I don’t know how you’re going to power a road that wide.”

“It won’t be a problem,” Jackie barked. “Just tell me where to put it. I leave the strategic side to you and Eclipse. Use those weapons how you want. I’ll get our people out when the time comes.”

The truth of the matter was that the regular rules governing the attachment of worlds didn’t seem to apply to Jackie anymore.

Making the arrangements for a highway through the Dreamlands straight to Australia was a difficult task, even for her. But it was one that she could accomplish in less than a day, if she was willing to owe a few favors. The spirits of sleep thus appeased, she was ready with her escape method when the time finally came for their rebellion.

The underground of Mundi came alive with gunfire as soon as the sun went down. Most of those would be security forces, wielding the stun-weapons that were their only standard outfit. By the time they were armed with something more lethal, the bats would have already extracted much of their advantage.

Jackie helped guard the warehouse as ponies came in, though she didn’t use a gun. She wasn’t sure how many of the security force she had to kill—not that many. As soon as it became clear that the mob had taken the streets, she watched them pull back, guarding the entrances and exits instead of trying to take buildings anymore.

Ponies unconnected with the rebellion tried to escape—some of them the security forces let leave, some they didn’t. None of them were her problem now.

The warehouse started to fill with ponies, most of them huddling families of frightened bats. There was a smattering of other species among them, though almost no ponies. This was a gathering of the dispossessed. Those who had not been mistreated by Mundi had no reason to fight.

It won’t be easy to make a society without unicorns. But questions like that were too big for Jackie.

“I hope you’re about ready with that escape plan!” Eclipse shouted, emerging with one leg bandaged and a dented helmet covering her head. “You hear that sound?”

Jackie paused, ears perking up to try and listen. She strained, then shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Exactly. They shut off the ventilators. We have… maybe an hour down here before ponies start suffocating? It’s time to go.”

There was no enchantment to prepare on the other end of the room. She had no crystals charged with energy, or vats of blood as necromancers used. Dream magic didn’t use any of those things.

“Alright.” Jackie turned away from the window, making her way to the end of the room. Many bats turned to watch her as she went, whispering to each other. She could see the hope on their faces, but she did her best to ignore it. “Listen to me very carefully, everyone. You’ll need to pass this along to everypony who comes in behind who can’t hear. We need to move through the door as quick as we can—I can’t predict how long it will stay open. Once you’re through, stay on the path, and keep walking until you get to the other side. If you stop, if you leave the path, even a few steps, you will wander into the Dreamlands and almost certainly die. I won’t rescue you. But if you keep moving and stay on the path, you’ll make it through to Australia no problem. I picked a lovely spot in Sydney Harbor, and I already have someone waiting there to receive you. Don’t wander off when we get there, and don’t try to go through the door from the other end. We’re talking real Stargate shit—burned leg stumps in shoes kinda deal. Got me?”

She listened to the frightened mutters for several long moments, as bats passed her message along. She wasn’t sure how many of them understood exactly—but as long as they obeyed, that would be enough.

With nothing more to prepare, Jackie picked a blank patch of wall with no obstructions near it, and cut into it with her dagger. She dragged the knife as far down as she could, making the door as wide as possible. Wider than she ever had before, so much that it strained her magic. Would’ve broken it, if she was working on her own.

But Jackie wasn’t alone. She poked her head through the doorway into the enchanted forest.

There was no road on the other side, not yet. Jackie could make such a path for herself and a few guests, but not for thousands. She needed other help here.

A gigantic stag waited for her on the other side, its antlers glittering crystal. Its eyes seemed to encompass the whole of the sky as it looked at her, and she could see the constellations rippling on its coat.

This was Voeskender, imagined god of the deer made real by their many years of worship. Its power was near-divine now, so far as spirits went. Right now, it was livid with the way civilization had progressed, relying so completely on the artificial and eschewing the natural. Creating another civilization, one that might live another way, happened to align with its interests.

It spoke to her, though not with words exactly. She could see through the eyes of a frightened animal, running through the forest in a panic. Something large and vicious was following, getting close.

“Yes,” she said. “Our situation is desperate. We need your help. I understand there’s a price, I’ll pay it.”

The ground under its hooves transformed to glowing bricks, each one looking like a chunk of the sky had been ripped out and set into the ground. The stars within still moved, though not contiguously. Each brick was a slightly different part of the heavens ripped down to make this massive Astral road.

Jackie saw more sights through the eyes of the prey—finding safe passage, a valley sheltered and protected. But the sense of a debt that she owed. “I understand,” she said again, hoping the spirit did in turn. “Now I need to save them.”

The stag towered taller than most of the trees. It watched her for a few more silent moments, then stamped off into the enchanted wood.

Jackie returned to the physical, and was surprised to hear gunfire again. How long had she been gone? The warehouse was now packed with people, barely breathing in heaps on the floor. A few were wearing masks, and shooting out the windows. She watched one bat take a bullet in the face and go sprawling out on the ground right in front of her.

Time was a fickle thing in the Dreamlands. Evidently, she had let it run away from her. “It’s ready!” she shouted, her voice booming through the old warehouse. “It’s time to go, everypony! Through the gateway!”

Her shout roused them—though with an armed enemy outside, it wouldn’t have taken much persuasion. The press of bodies moved past her, vanishing through the opening in the wall. They left flickering after-images that drifted through the air in the same direction they had been going for a few seconds, before their spirits caught up with their bodies and vanished along the Astral road.

Jackie remained beside it, knowing that her own passage would be required to close the gateway. Otherwise, she might recreate one of her favorite old-testament stories, and have the armies of Pharaoh harassing her chosen people on their way across the red sea.

Won’t end any better for Pharaoh this time either. Jackie watched as several familiar faces passed through the barrier, Eclipse still wielding one of her rifles as she went. A few more stragglers, limping or crawling their way along. Jackie helped how she could, though she couldn’t get far from the gate.

Eventually, security forces breached the building. She saw their shock, as they found it empty instead of packed with the huddled masses of the oppressed.

A few shot in her direction, or tried. She could see their confusion from across the room when their weapons refused to fire. Athena didn’t want to take the risk of killing her today, it seemed. Maybe she had other plans for Jackie, or maybe she knew what terrible danger she might unleash on Mundi if she killed the one who had made a road through the Dreamlands into the basement of her own city.

Regardless, Jackie didn’t stay to find out. She vanished through the doorway last, waving a cheerful hoof to Mundi security as she went.

Chapter 4: Curasoae

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Jackie could feel the eyes of dream on her as she passed through the sleeping world, as tight as the promised bond she had paid to make this road. Where before she had been free to drift between worlds, now she was tethered by the debt. She could feel herself straining against it, entirely in vain. Jackie would have to be careful how many promises she made, or else find herself as much a slave to her oaths as she would’ve been to the supernal.

She brought up the rear down the astral road, keeping her eyes open for stragglers. Most bats had the right instincts to stay on the path, even if they’d never used the magic before. She suspected many who had never had the chance to use their powers would be newly-inspired by the experience, and curious to return here. Most would never have the power to visit in the flesh, but that was for the best. To walk the Dreamlands was far more danger than it was worth for most things.

Roads like these were the safest way to travel long distances, though their stability was directly proportional to the power used to create them. Since this one had been made by one of the Morpheans, it was about as strong as it could get.

It felt like weeks of walking, though that was just the typical distortion of time of the Dreamlands. Jackie spent her time in quiet contemplation, watching the strange constellations overhead. Voeskender’s road took them through astral heights she had never visited before. The power of those beings surrounding her on all sides was an ever-present reminder of just how far the Dreamlands extended. It wasn’t just the dream world of Earth, or only their universe. All creation shared this space—the vastness of the multiverse was within reach. Assuming you had the right map.

Eventually she emerged into reality, onto a moonlit beach thronging with frightened ponies. Most were watching the opening in the sky behind her, as though they expected an army to surge onto the beach behind them and drag them back to slavery.

Instead there was a flash of light, a column of brilliant green that shot straight up into the sky and illuminating the beach for miles. The ground at their hooves was covered with a rolling wave of moss and lichen, as the Voskender’s elder forest grew from nothing. It would not survive the absence of his supernatural energy long, but that didn’t matter.

Jackie could feel the Morphean’s attention on her still, however distant. It would make itself known when it wanted to collect on what she owed. That might be tomorrow, or it might be a century from now. It knew about her immortality, so wouldn’t feel the pressure to use it before she died, and his investment of power was wasted.

The crowd of panicked ponies had gone completely silent, watching her with awe. A few of them bowed, muttering things like “secret Alicorn” and “Dreamknife.”

She ignored them all, taking to the air and lifting high enough that she could see all of them. The moonlight only helped her vision—a quick count told her there were twenty thousand ponies here. About two thirds were bats. Only a tiny fraction of those living in Mundi. But it’s a start. When the bravest make somewhere stable to live, we can rescue the others too. If they want to leave.

“Ponies, listen!” Jackie shouted, projecting her voice across the crowd with some simple magic. “Welcome to Sydney Harbor. Or… where it used to be. Almost all of you have spent your entire lives in Mundi, so you will be unfamiliar with seasons and climates other than the desert. This climate is called humid subtropical, and it’s the place I’ve chosen for our first settlement. It might not be comfortable out there, but it should be livable out in the open until we can get shelters constructed.

“There are some supplies on the end of the beach there—the wooden crates. My assistant, Reprise, will dispense food. She’s the seapony in the fancy metal suit. Do what she says and don’t cheat, or you get nothing.”

She landed on the ground, waving one wing dismissively. “Organizing primitive societies isn’t really my field. Your leaders will have to deal with that. Oh, and one more thing—don’t wander off too far. It might not be safe if we get further out. It’s probably better if you stay close for now.”

The mob began to disperse. Some ponies made their way to the tree line, where Jackie and Liz had unloaded a fraction of the supplies. There were dozens more crates like that back in storage, but she was still waiting on the help to get them all back. Even Jackie’s magic had its limits.

A surprising number of the ponies seemed in no rush to do much of anything at all. Many made their way to the water, running along the sand, splashing in the surf. Enjoying a freedom their lives in Mundi had never given them. Jackie smiled slightly to herself as she watched. Ponies had died today, and ponies would probably die in the weeks to come.

But as she watched the clustering of little family groups along the shore, she found it hard to care. I don’t care how long it takes—I won’t let this place turn into another Mundi.

I should probably help Liz with the supplies. The seapony was hardly experienced with numbers like this. And she had expressed trepidation even around Jackie once they got onto land. The fish might be a refugee, but she was still a seapony—most of them got nervous around ‘songless’ ponies, whose emotions they couldn’t know and whose honesty they could never judge with confidence.

Indeed, as Jackie made her way to that end of the shore, she could see the filly backing further and further away from the crowd. She’s not a kid. She’s another of Alex’s victims. Or maybe the last of Mystic Rune’s. How long had she been a seapony? Jackie wondered. Reprise hadn’t been willing to tell her.

Yet as she watched, a familiar bat emerged from the crowd—Hat Trick. Jackie hadn’t seen her during the exodus, though she supposed the construct was old enough to know her own way through the Dreamlands. She couldn’t hear them, but from Liz’s body language she looked like whatever the construct had said helped her. A few seconds later, and a few more bats joined them, helping Liz distribute foil-wrapped packages of emergency rations.

Jackie arrived a few moments later, slipping past the crowd and nodding to the seapony.

Liz’s exoskeleton wasn’t like the powered armor worn by soldiers. It seemed like it had been made as light and stable as possible, holding her tail and providing her with a false set of back legs that did most of the work of holding her up. The suit wrapped around her gills and much of her back, providing a dribbling curtain of water that refreshed itself from the clear tank mounted under her belly.

Jackie still wasn’t sure if the machines were entirely technological, magical, or somewhere in-between. It was an impressive design either way, enough to let Liz walk around surrounded by ponies with minimal effort.

“How are you holding up?” she asked, slipping in behind the booth beside her. “If you need to slip out into the water for a few hours, you just say so.”

“Maybe…” Liz hesitated, glancing to the side. “When we’re finished giving all this stuff out, I will.” She was still singing, though Jackie couldn’t hear the regular tunes anymore. Her words all sounded musical, but she couldn’t feel exactly what each new sound meant.

Like all those whose apparent age didn’t match their true experience, Liz seemed much better with her magic than a pony her age would’ve been. Her horn kept glowing without dimming as she passed out thousands and thousands of wrapped foil packets.

“Only eat one cracker each day,” she said, every time the line moved. “Each of these is food for a week. Eat one square as each meal. You’ll probably need to drink much more water than you’re used to, since you won’t be getting any with this. Also, they taste awful.”

She repeated it by rote, sounding bored, but Jackie could see a little of the same excitement in her she felt.

“Did any seaponies come with you?” Reprise asked, during a few moments of downtime an hour later. “I haven’t seen any yet, and I’ve been looking.”

“No,” Jackie answered. “I don’t know what conditions are like in the lake, but Athena controls all the exoskeletons. Even if there were a ton who wanted to leave, they’d be stuck. But there probably aren’t very many. Most of them have already gone. Don’t like living with ‘barbarians.’”

“Yeah.” Reprise sounded distant. “I thought I wouldn’t either. But it’s strange… you seemed so normal while we were on Alpheus. But now you feel like them. Even an immortal like you never learned how to sing?”

“Nope,” Jackie shrugged her wings. “It’s biology more than magic, and I don’t have the right organs in my brain. Whatever it is you can all sense, I can’t. Hopefully you’ll get used to being around us.”

“Probably.” Liz turned her attention back to the line. “It’s stupid pony stuff talking, right? If I think about it like a person I realize it doesn’t make sense. You felt safe, but you didn’t really change, so you must still be safe. And if someone without songs can be safe to be around, then lots of people can be. It’s just about connecting that with the emotional parts of my brain.”

“You’ll get it,” Jackie said. “I think. Your sister spent years in the ocean, and I guess she chose to retire out there too. Some ponies just fit better in different bodies.”

“Hold on,” Hat Trick had seemed to be focused mostly on dispersing the food-packets, but evidently that wasn’t the case, because she looked up from her crowbar. “Your sister isn’t retired, is she? Princess Archive is…”

“Fictional,” Liz cut her off, her voice harsh. “At least as long as I’ve been around. Lonely Day hasn’t even been on Earth since I got back. We spent most of a century on a starship, and before that it was training out in the belt. The only thing she’s princess of is a little colony called Alpheus. I guess she does an okay job, I don’t know. Too much of a small town for me.” She looked away, back towards the crowd. The line for food had gotten much shorter now, and plenty of the bats had moved off to claim some space for themselves in the trees. There were no tents—not enough for this number, anyway.

“That is… inconsistent with the information I had,” the bat said, sounding almost amazed. “She said Mundi didn’t make sense… but the fake was so convincing…”

“That’s computers for you,” Liz said. “Yeah, she’s gone. I didn’t really learn the details, because fuck the whole thing. I just know my sister used herself up saving the planet. There wasn’t enough left to rule the whole thing afterwards.”

“Is all this true, Dreamknife?” the bat asked. “Not that I don’t think you believe it, Liz, but…”

“Yes,” Jackie interrupted. “I went out and saw Alpheus for myself. Nice little place, lots of water. Might visit again in a few centuries. Once they’ve put in the casinos and roller coasters.”

The bat sat back on her haunches, subdued. She spoke very quietly, so that the crowd all around couldn’t hear. “That is… troubling. All our planning for this rebellion relied on a Mundi led by a distant and apathetic Archive. Our flight should have forced her to confront conditions in the lower city. She was supposed to prevent a military response, take control back from the artificial intelligence. But if she isn’t even on the planet…”

“Too late now,” Jackie said, tearing open a foil ration packet and swallowing one of the crackers without chewing. It didn’t taste as bad going down that way. “We’ll make this work, somehow. Mundi might just give us up for dead—I know tons of ponies who think it’s straight up impossible to live out here. Or maybe they’ll just tighten security for those still stuck there and forget about us. Athena won’t be sending an army to bring us back—she wants a rival for Mundi.”

The bat grinned. “I think we can give her that.”

Chapter 5: Volans

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They had their first death the next day.

Jackie had known something awful just like that could happen—that somepony would be stupid and avoid her instructions and pay the price. Sydney wasn’t just empty land, it was the site of a terrible battle. She fully expected some of the wreckage of that ancient conflict to linger on, ready to rip its claws up through history and tear apart the unwary.

She made her way to the edge of the crater, where someone had dragged out the body. A bat had been electrocuted, most of his body burned so badly that his original color was now lost, and some of his bones emerged from crispy flesh.

Jackie took a longer moment to look past him into the crater. A fissure opened into the earth here, a fissure that was fifty feet wide at is widest and almost a quarter mile long. Past the initial layer of stone, she could see torn metal and stray cables hanging loose. This was the wreckage of Earth’s most advanced city, Midgard. The last great home of humanity, or at least their more modern form. The so-called Enduring Ones had been Charybdis’s first target before the war, back when city states still thought they could survive apart.

Midgard’s fall had demonstrated the futility of that choice, even if it had cost the most powerful nation in the war. The organic residue of whatever method Charybdis had used to tunnel down was all gone now, only sparse piles of vaguely shriveled flesh. Jackie almost couldn’t blame this stallion for wanting to go investigate it—she wanted to see what was down there herself.

“Tell me what happened,” she said again, to the pony’s friends. Two of them, both stallions about the same age, and both with minor burns. They had apparently been flying behind their unlucky companion, so his death had given them enough warning to change course. She could see the shell-shocked guilt of the survivors in their eyes. You’re gonna need some therapy when this is over, kids. But she didn’t say any of that—it wasn’t her responsibility.

“We know you said not to wander off,” said the taller of the two, a muscular stallion named Milton. Aside from the two of them, it was only the rescue unicorn standing nearby—the one who had teleported the body up for possible treatment. Needless to say, it was too late for that. “But we didn’t plan on going very far. Just wanted to see…”

“If it was somewhere we could live,” Edwin finished. “It looks a little like Mundi, doesn’t it? Big opening in the ground like that, all those machines poking out of the edges. Like an abandoned city. Seemed like a good idea at the time.” He kept glancing back to the uncovered body of their friend. The unicorn had brought a black cloth, but Jackie had told him not to use it. These stallions deserved to see the consequences of their curiosity. Everypony else who walked close by would see it as well, and maybe her ponies wouldn’t wander off and get themselves killed so quickly next time.

“We couldn’t live down there even if it wasn’t booby-trapped,” Jackie muttered, glaring at the two of them. “You don’t know how many ponies died. It’s fuckin’ haunted. And it wasn’t built for ponies, anyway. It’s a shitty place to live.” She had planned on salvaging the place, eventually. Once her own ponies had somewhere safe to live, had crops put in, and were starting on industry with Athena’s help. Then maybe they could use the ashes of Midgard to fuel a rebooting industry.

This death would put a stigma on that.

“Tell me how it happened again. Real slow.”

“W-well…” Milton hesitated. “There was… resistance. The further down we got, it felt like flying through slime. Then it got hotter, and…”

“And you kept going,” Jackie muttered, with far less sensitivity than a leader probably should’ve showed to a pony who had just lost a good friend. It’s not any more their fault than it was the one who died. They paid the price of their stupidity.

Yet there was something more troubling in their description, something she hadn’t noticed as they began. It didn’t sound like a trap after all. Milton’s description sounded like what it was like to fly through a live thaumic conduit. Something Jackie had done only one time and did not intend to repeat. She’d almost died when she tried it, too.

If there’s a live conduit coming from Midgard, that means something is still running down there.

Jackie knew almost nothing about the Arcane Network, except what a tourist might read over in the pamphlet while they flew down here on a plane. Where many other nations had used the human sciences and electricity as the foundation of their industry, the nation that had once been here had taken a different technological path. That path meant magic for almost everything. Magic lights, magic cooking, magic transport. Magic vehicles. The Arcane Network was what produced, gathered, and transported that magical energy across the continent of Australia. But how much of it could still be working after so many years?

Crystals don’t rust, and spells don’t decay like capacitors do. It was possible, though not likely, that more of the infrastructure might’ve survived.

“I want you to go back to camp,” Jackie said, turning back to face the hapless thestrals. “You should go to every gathering of ponies and explain what just happened. Tell them what it felt like to fly into that thing, so they can avoid doing it like you did. I’ll have somepony around to dig a grave for your friend here.”

That was probably too harsh a punishment as it was. But if she wasn’t harsh with the first ones to disobey here, there was no telling how many more ponies might die in the next few days.

There shouldn’t have been thaumic conduits going down into Midgard. Their central compiler didn’t need to transport magic that way. It was a curious thing, particularly since the nation that had used the Arcane Network had been the very next to fall, after the Enduring Ones. So, who set up a new conduit leading into the ruins?

Somepony worth investigating, that was damn sure. And Jackie knew how to do that without getting herself grilled alive.

But not today. Today there was the difficult task of picking the site for their new settlement. Jackie took a few of the most skilled engineers and surveyors from among the bats and flew over as much of the surrounding countryside as possible. They memorized, they made sketches and charts, they talked about water and runoff. The climate had transformed a great deal in many thousands of years, though it was hard to say what had caused the transformation here.

It was wetter in Australia then it had been when she vacationed here as a kid. And there was so much more green. Indeed, the whole coast seemed to be gradually drowning in a jungle, not a single tree of which looked like a native species. Like an ancient eco-terrorist had decided to transform the climate of a continent. With practically the whole species living in a single location, they wouldn’t have had much opposition. Now the huge trees went on as far as she could see, many of which towering nearly three-hundred feet.

“This strain seems particularly well-adapted to the climate,” said a pegasus named Sky Meadow, a professor of various ecological subjects who’d had a hard-on for communist revolutions. After actually participating in a revolution, Jackie hadn’t heard any more rhetoric from her. She seemed almost relieved to go back to talking about nature. “There’s significant suggestion of thaumic interaction between the trees. See the bioluminescence along the topmost leaves. I would love to bring some seeds back to the lab.”

“We don’t have a lab,” Jackie said, turning to her structural engineer. The bat stallion was a refugee, one who’d been working in a Datamine since returning. But he’d been an engineer before that, and he was the best she had right now. “We can’t build a city on the beach.”

“Brazilians had it right,” he answered in English. “It’s just like the Amazon. Slash and burn. We can pick somewhere with good drainage for fields, then burn it. Once we get a sawmill going, we’ll have more wood than we know what to do with.

“Seems premature,” argued Meadow. “We can go further inland if we need to. The jungle has to end eventually. Eventually it must reach a point where the water demands can’t be sustained, and it will be replaced with scrubland. We can build there.”

“No,” said the engineer. “We need the water too, professor. Wheat doesn’t grow well in deserts.”

They kept arguing, but Jackie hardly heard it. She saw something moving in the trees below, something that was calling to her. The pull of a debt she owed, yanking on an invisible chain. So soon? I thought you’d wait until they elected me president.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Jackie said to the small group, pointing above them at a low curtain of clouds. “Keep talking. I need to check on something. Don’t follow me.”

Jackie dropped into the trees without waiting to hear if they had acknowledged the order. She hadn’t ever been the kind of pony who took things slow for the benefit of others. The pony who had made Jackie merciful and kind was dead now.

Once she was in the trees, Jackie could feel the magic that Meadow had speculated about. There was real magic here—though less concentrated than a thaumic conduit, it was still tremendous. Enough that even with the sky completely obscured in canopy, the entire forest was lit with a faint blue. Not just the trees themselves—many small creatures glowed. The squirrels that glided from tree to tree, the massive jungle cat she saw reclining on a large branch.

And, of course, the deer. Voeskender had not changed in the single day that had passed since the last time Jackie saw him. He waited patiently beside a stream, nibbling on a sparse patch of grass that grew there. Jackie couldn’t quite tell just how present the deer was in the world with her, and how much was Jackie seeing through reality into the Dreamlands. Probably a little of both.

“Hey,” she said, waving a wing as though she were meeting a friend for lunch. Not that she ate any of the grass—Jackie was a bat with standards.

Images flashed into her mind, so overwhelming that she was nearly blinded with them. She saw a city—not the one that her engineer had imagined, but something entirely different. Her bats didn’t burn the jungle down, they built their houses in its branches. She saw them coax the trees with new magic, growing them into shapes they desired. She saw deer coming to populate the ground, living in their tribes in those parts of the forest that bats didn’t need. It was all there—water collecting from the sky, vast orchards of mangos and other fruit in the trees. Magic provided in abundance to light their homes and power everything they needed.

She looked into the future and saw another direction this civilization might take. Not the crystal skyscrapers that had once dotted the continent, but… something else. Certainly, a professor like Sky Meadow would’ve seen it as preferable.

Jackie didn’t care either way—so long as her ponies were fed and got to live successfully. This was something radically different—instead of a concentrated megalopolis, that same population would have to be distributed across the entire continent.

The vision ended, and she felt the will of the god upon her. This was what it demanded in payment for helping these bats to escape. It didn’t want Athena just building another city here—it wanted something that would serve its needs better.

“Okay.” Jackie didn’t really have much of a choice, in any case. A debt to a god did not leave room for negotiation—when that favor came due, it would be paid in whatever method the divine creature demanded. Today, that meant changing the course of a civilization.

By the time she turned back to look at the spirit, he was gone. The vision he’d shown her was fairly clear, though—she’d seen it vividly enough to see the spells they would use to change the trees.

Now how the fuck do I explain to all those city bats and industrial workers that they’re about to turn into hippies?

Chapter 6: Pelcotus

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Jackie did not get a chance to explore the ruins of Midgard again for a few weeks. There was much to do that was more practical—such as spreading her bats enough that they could all find food. The citizens of Mundi had been so sheltered by life there that only the handful of refugees in her group had anything close to practical experience. She would take a former human who had actually lived in the world outside, even sheltered by modern society, over bats that hadn’t even left their homes in years.

At least these ponies were willing to learn, something that couldn’t be said for their fellows they had left behind.

It was a good thing Jackie still remembered what life had been like before the end of the world, or else they would’ve been in real trouble when things ended. They planted orchards, began setting up basic shelters. Athena had offered to supply them, in the same way she kept Mundi running with her systems. Jackie had not intended to refuse, but now…

Now she had a different master.

“We’re going in there,” she explained, as their group shifted gradually inland towards the jungle. “I’ve got some spells to teach you all. We won’t need to build houses if we can grow them instead.”

“Couldn’t we just chop them down and make cabins or something?” Asked a unicorn whose name she hadn’t learned.

“No.” She cut him off before he could continue. “That’s not as easy as you think. Big hardwood like this takes strong metal saws. Think of all the technology we need to make that—we need quarries, we need foundries, blacksmiths and kilns. We could waste years and years to get all that, living out in the open and getting our asses rained on, or we could just use these easy spells.”

The tree-shaping was not unicorn magic, or even earth-pony. Like most of it, the spells relied on runes, which could be carved right on the bark and empowered with a few drops of sap or blood. She committed everypony in her group with magical talent to begin studying the spells, while Jackie herself finally snatched a few hours to see what had been happening in the ruins of the ancient Enduring city.

She couldn’t go naked, not like the other bats. She kept digging in Alex’s supply cache until she found a thin jumpsuit made of metallic fabric—reinforced thaumium weave. It was commonly worn under powered-armor, since it insulated the body from almost any spell that struck it. And the civilization who knew how to weave it is all but gone.

The Enduring Ones had kept the secret of woven thaumium far better than the ancient Chinese had kept their secret of silk making. At least thaumium didn’t rot like silk.

Only Liz had come back to the chasm with her, though there was only one set of thaumium and anyway the seapony was not very good at flying. Still, she watched with skepticism. “You look like a stripper wearing that. How is it supposed to stop you from joining the bat barbeque like those other two?”

Jackie grinned down at her, posing in the purple outfit. “You like it? I do like how form-fitting it is. Feels really cool against your body, too. Great for hot weather.”

Liz groaned, ears flattening in mild embarrassment. “How long do I wait up here before I go to camp and tell them you died caving?”

Jackie shrugged. “A day? That should be long enough for me to get out. There isn’t a prison in the universe that can hold me. Not even the universe.” She stuck her tongue out at the seapony, before diving headfirst into the void.

Ponies who had survived as long as Jackie knew not to rely on armor alone. She felt for the subtle charge in the air that indicated a live conduit, one that might be bridged by the magic of her own body, and stayed well away. The secure corridor into Midgard wasn’t present here. Instead there was a swirling maelstrom of trapped power, potent enough to light up whole cities or instantly kill anyone it touched.

She reached the upper levels of the old city. Midgard was two thousand years less advanced than Axis Mundi, yet it was still an impressive sight. Towering buildings of white glass and geoscupture, with what had once been rivers and artificial forests growing between them. Not even Elrond had a house as grand as this.

But it had been ruined. Whole skyscrapers were collapsed, sections of wall had been covered with tarry stains, and all the plants were dead. Most of the lights and systems had shut down, save where someone had strung up live thaumic conduit with all the care of a hurried spider. The cables were about as thick as Jackie’s torso, made of spun crystal and completely uninsulated. Far less power filled them than had once powered an entire nation in the days of its glory, but there was still more than enough to kill.

Whoever this was, at least they’d made themselves very easy to find. Down through the levels of the ancient city, Jackie found herself grateful for the protection of her armor more than once. Magic didn’t strike her so much as roll around her, impacting whatever was behind.

Eventually she found what she was looking for. Whoever had appropriated Midgard had chosen the most supernatural place for their work—the home of the ancient Compiler.

The crystal had been a mind, perhaps the equal of Athena herself, but a mind endowed with magic as well. The mind that linked the souls of every Enduring One, endowed them with power, and helped them master their magic. A crystal so ancient, its seeds had already been growing when the Event was only hours old.

It had been housed deep under the earth, so deep that the air got heavy and every surface was warm to the touch. There were parts of the rock so dense that the conduit barely fit, and Jackie had to walk between the shadows in order to reach.

Eventually she arrived in the chamber. So much magic had flown through here that every surface had been transformed. First into crystal, on those parts that were further away. And closer to the center, in a depression about five feet across, a strange metallic substance that flowed like mercury but grew rigid to the touch.

It was a magical wonder—one that Jackie didn’t understand or really even care about. This was the realm of Alicorns and other great powers.

But the craftsman was an Alicorn.

He hadn’t come with only his clothes, as Jackie did. The space on one side of the depression bent strangely, curving outward until it was large enough to fit a small house built of concrete and crystal. He had set simple wooden platforms over much of the curved floor, and the latent magic of the place had transformed the obvious scraps into transparent Tass of the highest quality.

A pony who stayed here too long might very well be transformed themselves. Only a proper Alicorn would be able to resist those effects—as indeed stood before her.

She knew this pony, as she knew all Alicorns. He had been Thestralia’s only alicorn, and his mind had not dealt with the collapse of his nation very well.

Then again, Jackie had never known him to be particularly stable to begin with. He hardly looked like a nervous wreck now, rushing as he was between pages of notes and something he was extracting from the bottom of the crater.

“Eureka,” Jackie said, landing on one of the platforms with a nervous caution. Her little jumpsuit would insulate her from the magical effects of this place, but not forever. The radiation was strong enough that anything short of an alicorn would be in serious trouble before too long. “Why the hell did you run an Arcane-Network mainline down here?”

The Alicorn didn’t even turn away from his work. He had a pair of thick goggles on over his face, and a thick coat like something a doctor might wear. His mane was cut short, and stood on end as though he showered with a Van de Graaff generator this morning.

He wasn’t using his horn to levitate, but gripped a pair of crystal tongs in one hoof, very delicately. Jackie knew why—with this much magic just buzzing about around them, even a minor spell could grow into something explosive. Even a little telekinesis could rip the earth right open. At least she didn’t have to worry about that—her own magic was subtler.

Whatever Eureka was doing, it was obviously an extremely delicate operation. Jackie didn’t distract him again, and she stayed out of the way as he lifted a crucible of silver-metal out from the crater and towards a vat of something white and steaming—liquid nitrogen.

Only when he’d thoroughly submerged the crucible did he finally turn around, glaring at her. “You picked an inopportune time to visit me, Knife.”

She felt herself tense. The derivative of the stupid religious name was obviously calculated to annoy her. “You Alicorns picked an inopportune time to bugger the fuck off and leave the evil robots to take over,” she spat back, advancing slowly on his worktable and the insulated canister atop it. “What is that, anyway?”

“Apirion,” he answered, unable to resist the temptation to brag. “Or almost. The old Central Compiler condensed it as it ran, but didn’t stabilize it. Had to bring the power down here to revitrifiy what it made. Figure I might be able to stabilize it if I can…” He trailed off. “You have no idea what I’m talking about. I forget you’re about as academic as Artifice. You like to let other ponies do your thinking for you.”

“I pick the best ponies to do my thinking for me, thank you very much.” Jackie glared at him.

“She’d probably say that too. Was it her idea to make a deal with the deer-god, or was that you? I never thought I’d see the day the Dreamknife would be working with the Nine.”

Jackie resisted the urge to shove the table and knock over all his hard work. This alicorn was not making it easy. She took a few deep breaths, calming herself, banishing the temptation to do violence. It was a lot harder since she’d lost her wife.

“Your Nine are fucking dead like everybody else,” Jackie said, though she knew full well not all of the Thestralian leaders had been killed. This Alicorn had been one of them at the end. “And I’m not working with them. I’m not working with anyone. I’m just trying to help some ponies in need. The bats of Mundi didn’t have anypony else to turn to. I did my civic duty and staged a bit of an uprising… but look at this. One of the rightful rulers of this nation is right here. I’ve got some citizens for you, Eureka. About… ten thousand of them.”

She turned away. “Just head north for twenty miles or so, you’ll find our new camp. It’s right on the edge of the jungle. You can take over, and I can go back to not ruling anything like I belong. It’s been great, but… I hate it. So cya!”

She heard Eureka’s laughter from behind her. Mocking, hysterical laughter. “If you really think I’m going to start doing your job for you… take over a nation of primitives just because my country used to be here, you know less about me than I thought. What, do you think Alicorns have to compulsively rule things? I’m busy. Your bats all have skills I don’t need, they’ve been sheltered by a city that would only let them do a few jobs. They’ll probably starve out here without your help. I know they won’t have mine.”

Jackie turned back, practically stomping over to the table. “This place is yours, Eureka! Your old despotism loved bats! You even named the continent after them! You wouldn’t just let them die! If I flew away, you’d have to get up there and take care of them. It’s your duty.”

He shrugged. “Would you let them starve if I told you I wasn’t going to help? I doubt it. Say what you want about flying away, Knife. But you let them convince you into helping in the first place. That tells me you’ve got a little bleeding heart. I don’t.”

“That’s not… that’s not right!” Jackie shouted, suddenly heedless of the danger. Or any anger she might provoke. Eureka had not been the oldest or the most powerful of the Alicorns, but he was older now, and more powerful than she was. Alicorns were one of the few creatures she still had reason to fear. “You’re not going to help at all? These bats come here desperate for a better life, surrounded by the dangerous ruins you fucking left, and you’re going to step back and leave us to die?”

He looked up from his work, staring at Jackie. He didn’t say anything for several long moments. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. I said I wasn’t going to do your job. My work is impeded by the collapse of the Network, and it gets worse every year. Having a nation using it again, expanding it… would benefit me as well as them. I’m sure we could come to an arrangement.”

Chapter 7: Nivalis

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Jackie was not an engineer, not a builder, and not even a bureaucrat. She didn’t have a magical memory and a lifetime of skills. What she did have was simple determination, and a ruthless confidence.

An incredibly useful thing to have, once her city-bats learned just how difficult a task they’d set for themselves by leaving a self-sufficient fortress to rebuild civilization from scratch. More than a few of Jackie’s ponies asked to be returned to the city, liking their odds in Mundi better than their chances in Australia.

Jackie did not give them that chance. “You were told when you signed up for this that there would be no going back,” she said, to an assembly of every refugee the next day. “I informed you then of the difficulty we would be facing. The hunger, the fatigue, the danger. I will not be providing a way back for any pony here. The magic that brought us here cannot be repeated. You have your work assignments—if you want rations at night, you will have to carry them out.”

She glared out at a few of them over the stage. Spoiled ponies, that might as well have been the pampered pets of wealthier ponies. In some ways, Jackie herself had lived that lifestyle for a while. The difference was that she hadn’t let it make her soft. She hadn’t been raised that way.

Her “children” would have some harsh lessons.

Her chastisement did not make her popular with that group, either. Instead of being inspired to return to work, many of them attempted to steal supplies from the cache and run off. Unfortunately for them, Liz worked the cache. They’d brought pointed spears, but Liz’s suit had an accelerator rifle.

So the group of two-dozen or so rebels ended up slinking off with nothing, vanishing into the jungle before Jackie’s own ponies woke up. According to Liz, they’d been planning on “building a ship to sail back to Mundi.”

They’d stolen other things—tents, survival gear—basically everything they’d been given. Jackie didn’t try to get it back. They’d need every advantage they could get not to starve.

“You plan on bringing those asshats back here?” Jackie asked Hat Trick, once she finally appeared again. “They’re going to get themselves killed.”

“Maybe.” The thestral didn’t seem terribly worried. If anything, she seemed amused. “I was aware of the rebellion. I thought you might convince them not to leave.”

“Got me confused with somepony else,” Jackie muttered. “Alex is the one who tries to keep the group together. I told everyone what they were getting themselves into, and they still came. So far as I’m concerned, anything bothering them now is their own fucking problem. Like they expected to be riding out into the sunset and have some robots build the city for us.”

“I’m pleased we aren’t allowing Athena to rebuild our civilization for us,” Hat Trick said. “But I admit I’m a bit perplexed at your designs. Our population is too low to worry about environmental impact for centuries. What’s the point of all the… tree stuff?”

“We’re going down a different branch,” Jackie said, not avoiding her gaze. Few ponies could lie as well as she could. “We’re probably going to be fighting ponies from Mundi before the end. Athena says she’ll stay neutral, but do you think that means she won’t let them keep all their tech as soon as they go to war? I fucking doubt it. If our cities were just Mundi without the oppression, they’d have all the advantages. They’d have a more diverse population and abilities to draw on, they’d have more people to make into soldiers, and they’d have all the same tech we were using. They’d win.

“And not only that…” Jackie turned away from her, moving over to the tent flap and holding it open, so they could look out at the jungle. It wasn’t dark at night, not like photos of the ancient, pre-Event jungles of the past. There were thousands of little lights, glowing from the flowers, the leaves, everything. Just enough light to furnish her sensitive eyes with a perfect picture. “Every war is ultimately about resources, kid. We do things Athena’s way, and fast forward to the future… their spies get here, they see another city just waiting to be stolen from us. A city they know how to live in and maintain. They’re going to want it.”

“Oh.” Hat Trick nodded. “I see where you’re going with this. You want the civilization to be so different that they don’t even want to enslave it.”

“Exactly. They’ll get here from Mundi, look outside, and see a stand of trees. They won’t know that our ponies have lives just as good as theirs, once it’s all set up. They’ll just think that it looks like we’re living in the woods and screw right off home. Or if they do try to fight, their ponies won’t want to keep fighting for very long. What do they get if they win, our garden? I’m winning us the war before it even starts.”

The younger bat nodded again, apparently more confident this time. “That… I knew we chose the best princess for this job. Or at least the best princess available.”

She made to go, but Jackie blocked the tent flap leading out into the camp. “There was one more thing. I met an old friend of yours recently, down in the ruins. Eureka has been here the whole time. Or… ever since I got his fat ass out of Charybdis’s control, probably. I don’t think I saw him during the defense of Mundi… why the hell isn’t he the one doing this job? He was part of that nine-man cult you all had going, wasn’t he? He could probably re-found this whole place exactly the way it used to be.”

Hat Trick wilted immediately at her words, suddenly looking away. There was pain in her voice as she replied. “I tried to convince him,” she said. “More than once. You weren’t my first choice. But not everyone handles loss the same way. He invested more of himself into Thestralia than anypony I know. Not just his inventions, but his blood. Seeing it all tumble down was probably just as hard for him as losing our friends.”

“He should be in my shoes,” Jackie said again. “He’s a real princess. Like you said, he invented half this shit. He knows how to go down an alternate technological direction too. He knows how to build without Athena.”

“Maybe,” Hat Trick agreed. “But I’m guessing you tried to convince him of that when you saw him. He turned you down.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah,” she muttered, smacking the ground hard with one hoof. “I should’ve screwed up his experiment. He was harvesting the Compiler’s remains. God only knows what he planned on doing with it.”

“Irrelevant for our purposes,” Hat Trick said, a little more firmly. “We can’t spend our time trying to comprehend the Alicorns. You’ve dealt with them longer than I have, you should know. They’re fickle in their desires, and difficult to control. We can’t force him into ruling.

But you forced me, Jackie found herself thinking, though she didn’t say it out loud. And it hadn’t just been Hat Trick. Voeskender had forced her too, and in so doing would be forcing all the bats of their new nation. Even if his path presented some advantages—it still might not have been the path these bats chose for themselves. Except that Jackie didn’t give them any other option.

She didn’t keep arguing, but flew back out the door to get back to work.

And work they did, as hard and as long as ever Jackie had worked in her life. It was different than her experience in Motherlode, all those eons ago—at least these ponies were working for themselves, and not being forced to do anything dangerous. So long as they stayed away from the ruins of the Arcane Network, the greatest risks they faced on a daily basis were heat exhaustion and getting poisoned by Australia’s wildlife.

Things went slow at first—they didn’t have a good mixture of pony talents, and dreamwalking did not become useful for anything except psychological services until the highest levels of mastery. Most of what they had to do was simple hard labor, performed without the benefit of hands to make the process easier.

The second month was worse than the first, because that was when the food stockpile finally ran out, and the orchards weren’t anywhere near finished growing. A full half of their ponies had to switch to scavenging duties, wandering further and further afield and even hunting the giant insects for sustenance. Jackie didn’t mind eating moths—actually she quite enjoyed it—but in Mundi, eating bugs had been seen as a sign of the natural barbarity (and inferiority) of thestrals, so almost all of her ponies had been trained to hate it.

Hunger could cure old taboos. Still, morale suffered, and a few more ponies wandered off searching for the “rebels.” Jackie could only imagine how much worse things must be in that camp, but she refused to go look. If the ponies there wanted her help, they could come back to the camp and ask for it. So far, not one of the rebels had returned. But considering the abundance of the jungle, she doubted they had starved. Yet.

By the third month, they had managed to erect a few simple buildings using Voeskender’s method, and found the naturally-occurring groves of tropical fruit that seemed almost waiting for them in the jungle. The combination of a dry place to sleep (even if it was a communal sleeping arrangement in the pony way) and enough food in their bellies did wonders for pony morale.

“Phase two will be expanding to basic city services,” explained her planning pony, Melanie. “The fundamental base of a functioning society is a formal division of roles. We’ve already seen many natural divisions take shape—some ponies have demonstrated a talent for managing inventory. Liz will probably be our first merchant. Others have shown a knack for finding food better than other ponies, and others have a talent for magic. It is imperative we create a functional economy as quickly as possible.”

Jackie waved a dismissive wing. “That all sounds fine to me. Just tell me where the new buildings need to go.” Jackie herself had been working with the clearing teams—chopping down little trees and clearing the ground beneath their structures. They hadn’t been burning to clear, since that would also kill the trees they wanted to live in. “Just make sure whatever you set up doesn’t let bats end up enslaved like they did back in Mundi. Their lives have to be better here, that’s the whole point.”

“It will be,” Melanie promised. “We’ll have a superior education system. Dalila, she used to work on a school board, she says we can use some merit-testing to assign places in our new public education system… which should be one of our first priorities… even if we only have a few dozen foals to educate right now. There will be many more once our situation is more stable.”

Jackie didn’t really know or care what Melanie was talking about, but she did watch her closely and give her a stern glare as she explained it all. The pony smelled like she believed what she was saying, and talked like she understood it. That was good enough for her. “When you’re making work assignments, I want fifty ponies for the militia. The best filers you’ve got, though a unicorn or an earth pony would be great too.”

“Do we… need one?” Melanie asked, voice skeptical. “I would rather our talented flyers be out finding food.”

“Yes,” Jackie said, without hesitation. “Mundi hasn’t forgotten us. But I’m guessing they will underestimate us. Probably we’ll get some tiny force expecting to crush us completely with barely any effort. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. And we’ve lost… what, a hundred ponies so far to the rebels? Eventually they’re going to get hungry enough, and see we’re not…”

“As you order,” Melanie said, though she still didn’t sound convinced. “If that’s what we have to do.”

“Yes. It is.” And the more of a waste they are, the better. Hopefully I’m just being paranoid.

Chapter 8: Fuscus

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Jackie knew Mundi hadn’t forgotten them. She got her confirmation about six months later, when it was time to cut the ribbon on her most ambitious structure yet.

She’d wanted to name the incredible thaumic ash Hometree, but most of her ponies didn’t understand the reference, and the ones who did weren’t keen on that. They didn’t like Das Kapital either. So it was that one of the most impressive achievements of modern magical engineering received the drabbest name.

“City Hall” stood nearly four hundred feet tall, towering so far above the others of its kind that its outline was visible from space. With Eureka’s help, three direct lines to the Arcane Network had been grafted directly into its roots, ensuring that the single structure holding all their services would have abundant power so long as the fading wisps of the Arcane Network persisted.

The tree’s leaves grew purple, with glowing shimmers whenever they were damaged. Somehow—as a surprise even to Jackie herself—“City Hall” grew into the Dreamlands themselves, forming a shining beacon of stability and safety as impossible for bats to miss as a burning oil well on the horizon. Though dreamers could not interact with anything on the physical side, they could still see it.

And Jackie could see them, assembled before her. Not just the thousands of her own new citizens clustered in the branches, or resting on the canopies of lower trees to watch.

They were dwarfed by the attention of dreamers. Jackie wondered how many of the thousands were conscious of their trip here, and how many more were bats who did not yet even understand their powers, who would see the events of this day and forget them as quickly as any other dream.

I can’t win them all over. I don’t even have a way to get most of them out of Mundi right now. Maybe she could hope that their flight would’ve inspired reform over there, to avoid repeating it. Or maybe she could hope that ponies everywhere would abandon war forever and live in peace as Archive had imagined.

The days of fighting bats skeptical of Jackie’s plans for the city were long gone. Everypony had either been convinced to join them, or else wandered off to join the rebels on the other end of the jungle.

“Looks like everyone,” Liz muttered, slipping back in from the balcony. “They’re all waiting for you out there, Jackie. Showtime.”

This was the governor’s office, a room at the end of a long hallway that put it near the living Heartwood of the tree. It felt a little like walking in Mystic Rune’s dead Alexandrian lab—except instead of turning to crystal, living here too long was likely to send you sideways into the Dream. Most of the building clung to the sides of the tree rather than burrowing inside it, or else warped the living wood to create the classrooms and shops and parks where ponies now lived. But this room was an exception—whoever took the office of Governor in the future would need a way to tend to the health of this building, and by extension the rest of the forest beneath them.

“Guess so.” She rose onto her hooves, stretching and shifting in the uncomfortable governor’s coat that Emile had given her. It was all invented ceremony of course—but ceremony would give their newly minted nation some sense of unity. “It’s not the bats I’m worried about watching us.” She started walking down the long hallway.

Liz hurried to catch up, meaty tail swinging behind her. Her exploration-suit was beginning to show signs of wear-and tear, most obviously around one of the false hind legs, which had begun to corrode and took an extra second whenever she tried to walk. The seapony no longer looked perpetually dried-up, now that she had a treetop pool to sleep in instead of her suit. But the days of trafficking with land ponies this way were obviously running out.

Another few months and that suit is gonna go. I wonder if you’ll want to go back to Alex’s colony, or…

“Don’t look at me like that,” the seapony muttered, uncomfortable. “I don’t like where your brain is going right now.”

“I’m not going to ask you out again,” Jackie muttered, wings twitching uncomfortably on her back as she said it. “At least, not on land I’m not. You’re not the only seapony who has trouble finding land ponies attractive.”

But it was mostly teasing. Jackie hadn’t been very serious with her flirting. Liz was Alex’s sister. I don’t want to go to those family reunions, no thanks.

They stepped out together onto a sweeping balcony, made from groomed wood and lined with shimmering glass. There were perhaps two dozen ponies here—mostly the administrators who had made this possible, though there were some exceptions. A few ponies who had accomplished particularly impressive feats, like Umber there off to the side, who’d saved a dozen students from their first school to catch fire.

They still didn’t have much of a textile industry, so these ponies showed their wealth and importance with hats woven of rare leaves and flowers. There was also a table of refreshments, prepared from the finest chilled fruit. At least there wasn’t a live band, or else Jackie might’ve lept right off the balcony herself.

She sensed something was wrong the instant she saw them. There was an eddy in the crowd, a single person here whose dreams grated on her nerves. An intruder. But are you a spy, or an assassin?

She couldn’t find them at first—whoever they were, they were excellent at blending in. Every little clique of guests seemed comfortable and relaxed. But they couldn’t hide their imprint on the subconscious world, and Jackie felt it.

“Stay away from me,” Jackie whispered into Liz’s ear. “We have an uninvited guest.”

“I’m wearing powered armor,” the seapony whispered back, ignoring her instruction and following her right up to the podium.

From down below came the cheers—thousands and thousands of voices all raised in gratitude. She didn’t intend to keep them waiting long. But she would have to keep her eyes open for the intruder. Whoever they were, they couldn’t be hiding much. Only Liz and Jackie herself wore any significant amount of clothing. Nudity was natural when you were poor and lived in a jungle.

“Ponies of New Thestralia!” she called, amplifying her voice across both realms.

She waited for the cheers to subside. “You’ll have to forgive me—I’m not much for speeches. But you all deserve to celebrate. The reward of all our hard work is here—every one of you now has a roof over your head, enough to eat, and some of the amenities we enjoyed back in Mundi.” She glanced briefly over her shoulder, which would probably look like she was giving attention and deference to one of her assistants. She could feel the intruder, but where were they? Closer to her than before. Definitely an assassin, then.

“Survival is a great first step, and it’s been my goal since we arrived here. Congratulations, we’re there. We don’t have to sleep in tents or boil water to drink. You’ve achieved civilization.”

It wasn’t a very good speech. But they cheered anyway, as she explained that this was only the first step, that they would have to make themselves happy as well as healthy. That they needed to create a place for ponies all over the world who felt like they didn’t belong.

There, in the group of engineers just behind her, with their table closest to the edge. It was the waiter—a pegasus whose face she didn’t know, carrying a tray of food. He’d moved to cross the balcony behind her, but Jackie bet her good knife on him not stopping.

If you actually managed to kill me like this, it would be as good as a declaration of war. Liz hadn’t noticed—for all her armor was tough, she was almost as inexperienced as she looked.

“So celebrate today,” Jackie finished. “We’ve been stockpiling mango beer, and it’s pretty great. But when you’ve slept off your hangovers, know that there’s a long road before us. A road that leads to a city better for its citizens than Mundi ever was.”

More cheers went up, rising so loud that many of the surrounding trees shook with their voices. Jackie might be lousy at giving speeches, but these ponies were eager for a reason to celebrate. And free booze never hurt anything.

That was the moment that the asshole dressed like a waiter finally made his move. The pegasus moved like lightning, cutting across the intervening distance in a blur Jackie’s eyes couldn’t focus on. He had a knife ready, a knife that buzzed with dark energy from the red jewel set into its hilt.

But she didn’t need to see her enemy to be able to stop him.

His jump carried him through the open gateway and onto the polished stone floor of a library. He slid a few feet, knocking over tables and chairs and scattering the books that had been piled there.

The roar of the crowd was replaced with stark silence as Jackie straightened, turning slowly to face the would-be assassin. “I didn’t know anyone in Mundi still knew how to make Entropic weapons. I hope if you wanted kids you didn’t sheathe that thing anywhere near your balls, because all those little soldiers have two heads.”

The pegasus shook himself free of the fallen books, ripping pages as he did so. Mercy is gonna be so pissed at me for this.

Jackie had to hand it to the assassin—he was persistent. Already standing, waving the dagger at her as though it were a gun. But it wasn’t—the magic only worked if it had a soul to leach from. And a good thing too, or else all the Alicorns in the world would’ve been assassinated by now.

“What is this place? You aren’t a unicorn—return us to the podium, so your citizens can witness justice!”

She couldn’t help it—Jackie laughed. “I did think about killing you in front of everyone. If it makes you feel better, Alex probably would’ve. Or one of the other Alicorns. They do have their egos, and they love drama.”

The dagger drooped a little in his hoof. “You can’t stop me from killing you,” he said. “This is the end of your rebellion. Order will be restored.” Then he lunged at her again. Jackie willed the air in front of her into clear gelatin, and he stopped short. The slime around his knife caught fire instantly, forming an angry bubble around the blade. But there was too much water for it to burn long, and the assassin couldn’t swing it.

“It was a mistake to send someone who couldn’t dreamwalk,” she said, walking slowly around the block. She drew out her own blade, with the edge that was so sharp it hurt, and held it up so he could see. “How did you think you were going to fight me, anyway? Did they tell you how old I was?”

Only a muffled mumbling answered her—his face was stuck in the slime. “No, no one’s going to see you here,” Jackie said, holding the knife right up to him. “No one would see you die. That war you wanted, we aren’t ready for it. Your people know that. I’m surprised they were stupid enough to think they could kill me.”

She brought the knife down, right into the gemstone on his dagger. It shattered with a flash of angry light, shards embedding themselves in the slime. It stopped burning. Then Jackie waved her own blade away, and turned to leave. “I hope you like to read, kid. I’d count it as a favor if you apologize to Mercy for me.”

She banished the gelatin at the same instant she stepped back through into the physical world. An angry, confused crowd waited below. Soldiers had rushed the balcony, clearing space around the podium. Jackie’s little militia. But they would have no one to fight tonight.

Liz was the only one who seemed to understand. She looked disappointed, ashamed. She was staring down at the accelerator rifle built into one arm. ‘No problem,’ Jackie mouthed, before turning back to the crowd. “Sorry to keep you all waiting!” she shouted. “What was I… right! Everypony get into your new capital. All this booze won’t drink itself.”

Chapter 9: Velifer

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Of course, it wasn’t as simple as just pretending that nothing had ever happened. While Jackie took special joy in imagining the displeasure of the ponies back in Mundi, she couldn’t quite act like nothing had happened. Her average citizen would just take her at her word—practically worshiped the ground she walked on—but not all were so compliant.

Hat Trick found her near the end of the party, holding a tablet computer and looking agitated. She hadn’t been on the viewing balcony, but she was here in the upper lounge and she didn’t look happy. She set the screen down on the table in front of Jackie, who had been sharing an intimate moment with a changeling she’d met a few hours ago.

Jackie glanced briefly down at the screen, and was unsurprised to see it was a recording of her speech. More precisely, the moment where she was almost assassinated.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Jackie said, pushing the changeling gently away. “Sorry about this, but I’ve got to do… important government things. My office is upstairs. Why don’t you… hang out in there for a few minutes. I’ll meet you.”

“With her? She’s not old enough for you, princess. Tell her to buzz off.”

Hat Trick raised an eyebrow—but that was it. She looked amused—probably she was waiting to see how Jackie would handle it. As infuriating as ever.

Jackie wasn’t a princess, but she didn’t much care if the ones she was dating wanted to call her that. “Sorry,” she said again, hoping she sounded appropriately apologetic. “This is important. She’s… important. It’s not what you think.”

The drone made an unhappy fluttering sound, before buzzing away. Jackie could smell her displeasure—she wouldn’t be waiting in the office.

Hat Trick took her seat, though didn’t get nearly as close.

“Not a word,” Jackie growled. “Don’t even think about it. We’re not.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” she said, indignant. But unlike so many others, Jackie was unable to read her. Hat Trick didn’t have the same visual cues as even the oldest ponies. You would only see her emotions if she wanted you to. But then she pointed at the tablet with a wing, and she no longer sounded amused. “You should’ve told me about this.”

“I was planning on it,” Jackie lied, almost as good as the young-looking bat. “But I wanted to enjoy the party. This is the last of the spirits, and the swill we’re brewing to replace it isn’t the same. I didn’t want to… talk to the city council while intoxicated.”

And she was intoxicated, at least enough for her cheeks to feel warm and her inhibitions to dissolve. Maybe not enough to date someone as young-looking as Hat Trick, though. Too many sour memories of Archive down that road. “Well, I’m interested in what you would’ve said to city council. Why don’t you run through the practice version with me. Pretend I’m completely furious that some dick from Mundi just tried to kill our princess.”

You can’t call me that, Jackie thought, but didn’t say. She was too drunk to trust her reasoning completely right now. She might say other things that she shouldn’t.

“It shouldn’t be hard to pretend,” Hat Trick went on. “I’m at least as upset as they will be when they find out.”

I don’t answer to you, she thought. And maybe she didn’t, but that didn’t mean she could just ignore her. This pony had been intimately involved with the rebellion from the first. Many of Jackie’s new citizens were loyal to her as much as to Thestralia itself.

“Well, they fucked it up,” Jackie said simply, draining the rest of her glowing cup. The glamour inside made her feel a little better, but not much. “They don’t have an assassin good enough to kill me. I’m the one they would’ve sent. Just some wannabe martyr.”

“You didn’t kill him?” the bat looked suddenly interested. “That’s good. I’d love to know who thought they could vote in our elections with a dagger.”

“So you can assassinate right back?” Jackie asked. “That’s not how this works if we want peace. I’m old enough to remember this, kid. Back in the day, civilized countries sent spies into each other all the time. Typically you just look the other way. And if you lose some, that’s your fault.”

Hat Trick grumbled something unintelligible. Jackie couldn’t hear it, except that the word ‘civilized’ was in there somewhere. “Let’s say I care,” she eventually said. “I think we need to send a message. The other members of the city council will as well. If we let Mundi think from day one that they can do whatever they want to us, that’s what they’ll do. On the other hoof, we make it clear that every action has an equal and opposite reaction—”

“No.” Jackie smacked one hoof onto the table. “If we assassinate somepony over there, then you might as well just kill all these ponies now. Mundi might be fat and stupid, but they still have the hardware left over from a war, and a hundred times more soldiers than our whole population. Even a catastrophic war for them would be the end of us.”

“So you’re going to propose… nothing,” Hat Trick finished. “Great, they don’t get mad enough to go to war with us. Maybe next time they send somepony with a bomb into a city council meeting. Maybe they try poisoning our water supply. Just because they picked a hard target this time doesn’t mean they will next time. I’ve seen this too.”

“I figured,” Jackie said. She wanted to say something snide about the way Thestralia had run itself before the collapse. There had been stories—stories of mandatory magical donations, of intrigue and corruption. Some ponies said that the law wasn’t so much there because of any abstract ideal, but because overcoming it was meant to be the challenge in itself.

But that world was gone now, like so much else. Like Ezri.

“Look, we don’t have to do nothing. We just can’t respond the same way they did. We need something that won’t inspire as much of a war. Something that gets back at the ones in power without affecting the regular ponies much. We want Mundi to be unwilling to fight.”

“Great, sounds perfect,” the bat said, raising a hoof to a passing server. He set down a clear glass frothing at the rim beside her, and she downed it in one swig. “So what’s your plan?”

“We, uh…” She hadn’t actually thought about this yet. Her plan had been not to tell anyone and hope Mundi took their failure as a sign to move on to greener pastures.

She looked out at the party for inspiration. Ponies were still celebrating out there, plenty of them in various stages of unconsciousness. And below this lounge were almost a thousand other ponies, spread everywhere. Ponies who had running water again, who didn’t have to scavenge fruit and bugs for food.

“We stage a jailbreak,” she said. “How much do you bet the powers that be are saying we all came here to starve. Nobody thinks they can survive away from infrastructure anymore. Leaving Athena behind is like walking right off the world. Athena will have tried to turn our escape to her advantage.”

“Go on…” Hat Trick no longer seemed annoyed. She raised her wing for another drink, and soon received it. Things like minimum drinking age were still a ways off for Thestralia.

“Well, assuming that’s true, Athena stuck herself out on a limb. Made herself vulnerable. All we have to do to show everyone she’s full of shit is prove we’re still alive. We make our own propaganda, bring it back with us into Mundi… and we bust some more bats out. Maybe more this time. Maybe if we can find a better way out, we could do ten thousand instead of two.”

Hat Trick nodded. “More effective than an assassination. Though I still want to talk to the one they sent over. I’d like to ensure that whoever they work for gets a personal message. They’ll know we’ve got their number, and whatever we do is in retaliation. It’s more than they deserve.”

“More importantly, we need to make places for all the people we’re gonna rescue. And we need to make sure the jailbreak happens soon enough that it’s obvious why we did it. That means getting our shit in gear now. No resting on our laurels and just enjoying our self-farming trees.”

“Yeah.” Hat Trick nodded. “Well, I’ll head off now, take a look around Mundi, see what I can see. We can put together some videos to distribute to the ponies back home. I trust you can set the whole meeting up yourself.”

Jackie nodded. “Yeah, sure. No problem. Tomorrow. I still think they deserve a little relaxation. A little alcohol and some time off is the best way to solve our population problem.”

She didn’t try to follow the young bat out. She never quite saw where she got off to, and some part of her didn’t really want to know. There were some things best left unknown.

She tried to enjoy the rest of the party, she really did. She went up to her office, but of course the changeling wasn’t there anymore. So it was back down to the lower floor, where most of the ponies celebrated with cheaper drinks and simpler food. She mingled and chatted with as many as were still sober, hearing little complaints and writing them down to give to other people to solve.

But most of her couldn’t just switch off her worries. There would be another jailbreak. Maybe they’d get enough people to be a full blown city. Now that they could promise a little more stability, with even more on the horizon. Things would only get easier as they expanded and repaired the Arcane Network.

Only Liz seemed to share her solemnity, though for completely different reasons. The seapony still seemed like she was tearing herself apart over the assassination attempt.

“It’s nothing you did wrong,” Jackie insisted, for perhaps the tenth time that night. Liz swam in uneasy circles near the heart of the capital tree, which had its own massive reservoir of drinking water. It would pass through the tree before it made it into ponies’ homes, so Jackie didn’t really mind to see her here.

Jackie herself kept to the walkway around the outside, watching her circle around. “I was glad you were there. Another few seconds and you would’ve got him for sure.”

Liz splashed up out the edge of the water, landing again with a plop. She carried the glowing water around with her in her circle, and for a few seconds she seemed to glow a little too. The Arcane Network was tied into this tree now, just like all the others they lived in. But it wasn’t the high-voltage connection that would melt a pony alive.

“I don’t like it,” Liz sang, over and over. “I should’ve done better. I will next time. You can still die.”

“Everyone can die,” Jackie said, ambivalent. “And I’ve had a long life. It wouldn’t be so bad if he got me. There are… people I’d like to see again.”

Liz sang a few disdainful notes at that, but said no more. Jackie left her to her lonely aquarium. She didn’t feel like explaining what she had seen beyond the effervescent veil. Some secrets were too deep, too close.

She had the meeting the next day, exactly as Hat Trick had suggested. There was much discussion about it, but in the end the council agreed. This was a perfect excuse to free more ponies from Mundi. In the end they wanted the millions of bats who lived there to be free. But their single small city couldn’t handle a million.

“I can give you ten thousand,” said her city planner, Melanie. “If you give me six months.”

“Do what you can in three,” Jackie said. “It has to be soon enough that it’s obvious why we’re doing it. Six is too long.” She glanced across the table to Lavender Eclipse, her current militia commander and former rebellion leader. “Maybe pass the word along that ponies might need to take guests into their home in a few months. We can be all patriotic about it and shit. Everypony sets up a guest room for a visiting family. It’ll just be for… three months?”

It was time to get back into the news at Mundi. And we’ll deserve it this time.

Chapter 10: Leibii

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Jackie dreamed of forests. Of alien trees from primordial ages, when the Earth was young and the strong had ruled. She met Voeskender in those trees, alone except for his influence.

“I’m done!” she proclaimed, tossing imaginary chains at his massive hooves. “My debt is returned to you. I gave you my word and I kept it.”

The deer, of course, did not speak to her. She saw the slow erosion of distant mountains, the gentle lapping of the waves. Jackie interpreted these images to mean the god wasn’t happy, but he was admitting she was correct. The strongest fetter tying her to this universe was undone from her hooves again. She was free.

But she didn’t leave. She dreamed of leaving many times, and perhaps she had. But there was so much left to do. So many of her own kind still suffered. Jackie hadn’t given a shit about Alex’s utopia city, but Ezri had, and now Athena had turned it into an undead parody of its creator’s vision. She couldn’t leave the world behind like this.

It’s always one more day. One more mission. One more injustice. One day Jackie would walk away from this place and never come back. She’d go out there, find the one she lost. There were so many worlds. One of them had to have her.

And it wasn’t as though, now that her debt was paid, she could slowly reverse everything she had done in service to Voeskender. That was not forbidden based on the terms of their agreement—but it would certainly anger him. Jackie hadn’t lived this long by angering gods. She would do her best to keep this society along its general trajectory if she could, though now there were new technical options open to her.

But when her scouts discovered a tribe of feral deer living a few miles beyond their border, she thought back to the vision she had seen—with ponies living in the trees, and deer living on the ground. Instead of leaving them alone, she sent out a few skilled anthropologists and translators to try and learn their language, and to announce their arrival.

She had very little involvement with that project beyond that—but a few weeks later and a treaty was signed. The deer might be primitive, but they didn’t want to stay that way. So that was another part of Voeskender’s vision come true.

Jackie did her best to keep up with the other aspects of their plan—there was plenty of propaganda to examine, basically just pictures and video of their most complete structures and the way bats lived. Though there were plenty on the city council who wanted to promise something like Mundi, or maybe even better, Jackie vetoed that plan.

“We’re not recruiting for the rebels,” she said, stomping one hoof at the end of a particularly frustrating meeting. “We want every citizen to love it here. We want ponies who know what they’re getting themselves into.”

“We’ll get there,” insisted Fry, the city’s leading engineer. And the one who was most insistent on their dishonesty. “It’s not really a lie. It’s just a different time horizon. We’re getting closer to life like that every day. Eventually we’ll reach it. Not in three months, but…”

“No,” she said again. “When we get more advanced, we can promise that. For now, we’re sticking with what we have. No slavery, plenty of food, warm beds. That’s more than half the bats in Mundi have.”

There was more to do than prepare the propaganda. They gathered information on the condition of Mundi, and in the process bats all across Thestralia learned what horrors had befallen those they left behind.

It was much as they’d expected. Princess “Alex” had imposed all kinds of new laws and restrictions on bats, and all the other lower-caste of workers at the bottom. What had been only informal understanding became codified in law, with lots of new security and checkpoints in Mundi’s various sections to prevent the large movements of ponies. There had been some deaths, a few riots, but not very many. Evidently those most willing to put their own necks on the line for change had been the ones to flee.

Unfortunately for them, that posed a serious problem to any kind of large-scale evacuation. Jackie considered the idea for a few weeks, toyed with the idea of making another pact with one of the gods she knew, but eventually dismissed that possibility in favor of something a little more reasonable.

She went to see an Alicorn instead.

Eureka had moved his workshop to the top of Devil’s Rock, surrounded by a near-impenetrable shield that passably resembled what the rock had once looked like. He hadn’t told Jackie this, but she didn’t need to be told. Even Alicorns needed to sleep.

So it was that she slipped her way into his sanctum. She waited until he wasn’t doing something delicate—she found him in the kitchen. Even Alicorns had to eat.

The kitchen looked like it had been stolen from one of Mundi’s luxury suites, with automatic equipment and little hydroponics boxes that automagically grew whatever you most enjoyed. Jackie walked right past the stunned Alicorn, slipped a mango out of the fridge, and tore it open with her teeth. “Hey princess. Long time no see.”

It took the Alicorn almost an entire minute to collect himself. Eureka was renowned for many things, but his coolness under pressure was not one of them.

Finally he flashed across the room, horn glowing as he pointed it at her. “I am sending you out of my house.”

“Bad idea,” she said. “Or you’re not going to know which of your experiments I sabotaged. Man that would be inconvenient, wouldn’t it? I promise you won’t figure it out before something goes really wrong.”

“You know I could kill you.”

“Maybe.” She smiled ruefully at him. “Alicorns have thought that before. I’m sure some of them could. But then you really won’t get to it in time.”

Eureka’s horn glowed menacingly for a few more seconds—then it went out, and he slumped into a sitting position. “The hell do you want, Knife?”

“Oh, nothing much.” She didn’t answer for several long moments, finishing her mango. She would’ve got another, but she’d already seen into the fridge. Eureka didn’t eat enough for it to stock two. “Just one of your inventions. Not a big deal, really. I would’ve just called you, but you won’t give me your damn number.”

“I don’t know what that means,” he said, tone agitated. “What numbers do you want? If it’s math—”

She laughed. “That’s… forget it. Look, I need you to make something for me. We’re moving onto the next stage in Thestralia. We’ve been spreading information about our survival all over Axis Mundi for a few months now, but we can’t just walk people out. Damn AI has done everything she could to make leaving impossible. Lots of sections that seal themselves off, whole housing areas rigged to fill with knockout gas, that kind of shit. I need to shut the whole thing down. I figure a bit of Imperium ought to do it.”

She said it as casually as she could, though of course she realized the magnitude of what she was asking.

But just presenting as though it was easy didn’t mean it actually was. Eureka stiffened visibly, rising to his hooves and backing up a step. “Just a little bit of impossible magic, no big deal. Why don’t you do it? Being an alicorn isn’t that hard.”

She didn’t even try to explain that one to Eureka. In Jackie’s experience, the more specialized these creatures became the less normal they were. Alex had understood people because that was her domain, but Eureka was a creature of machines. She just shook her head. “I’ll help you get whatever raw materials you need. I know… everyone. But I need it in like a week so you’ll probably have to get started right away.”

The Alicorn seemed to consider that for a long time. Eventually he rose, lunch forgotten. “I considered… action. Before, when I saw conditions in Mundi. Something I could do without getting personally involved or revealing myself to Athena. She might just be a machine, but she could make my work very difficult if she wanted.”

“Would it disable the security so I can get people out?” Jackie asked. “If it does that, it’s perfect. “

“Yes. But there would be other consequences, and you would be the one to set this off. Whatever shit goes down after you flip the switch is your responsibility. I’m not going to sleep with any more deaths on my conscience.”

Jackie followed him eagerly, conscious that he still might be leading her into a trap. This was his workshop, after all. But her prediction had been right: the promise of a new technical challenge to solve was more interesting to him than getting revenge for her interference. “That’s fine. What are we doing? And what do you need me to bring?”

“Nothing,” Eureka answered, stopping in front of a vault door. The steel was thicker than a pony, and only a little rusty along the edges. There were powerful spells here too—Jackie never could’ve got through it if she was on her own. “I made the spell already, I just didn’t use it. See…” The door began to retract with a groan of ancient hydraulic equipment.

I bet this place dates back to old Thestralia. He probably had dozens of lab-assistants working with him, doing his bidding. Every Alicorn wants to be a princess.

But he wasn’t a princess anymore. As they stepped inside, Jackie recognized the sturdy archways reminiscent of decay-resistant architecture, made from solid concrete without steel reinforcement. That greatly limited what the structure could do—everything was arches and buttresses, ten times thicker than they would’ve been with steel. But without metal cores, there was nothing to rust, nothing to seed cracks. Like the ancient roman monuments before it, this was a structure made to last a thousand years.

There were lots of little cubbies, each one with active stasis spells and screens to darken their interior. Jackie wasn’t sure what most of them were, though she was positive that she could see pony-shaped outlines behind some. Considering the importance of her mission here, she didn’t pester Eureka and ask. That could wait.

Eventually they reached one near the back, and he retracted the screen with an old mechanical button. He smeared the line of a stasis spell with a hoof, and there was a little crack of air as it rushed in to fill the gap. There on a pedestal was a little metal sphere, with two separate vials protruding from the outside. One looked a little like mercury, the other a thick red blood.

Eureka levitated the object off the pedestal, passing it to her. “Athena’s network is too complex for me to explain. But her fundamental design relies on modular parts we can exploit. She uses the same high-bandwidth transmission for all tasks. Every drone, every security system, every human or pony body she controls. That network is vulnerable to feedback… once. I discovered a security flaw in a number of her drones I captured and studied. When activated, everything Athena built for fifty miles around is going to lose its shit… one time.”

“Because then she’ll know about it,” Jackie finished.

“Because Athena has never faced a technical enemy before,” Eureka said. “The HPI were dependent on her, and the Enduring Ones still give her deference. Charybdis couldn’t have hacked a graphing calculator. Fundamentally, Athena is still an AI. She spends as little resources accomplishing every task as she can. Security measures for her network would be computationally and hardware expensive. So she makes due with simple systems designed to ward off aspiring young hackers. But once her program realizes that there are others who will exploit her weakness, she will devote resources to preventing it.”

“So this only works once,” Jackie said, catching the device in her wings. “Fine, fine. We don’t actually need to be able to do it again to make her look incompetent.”

“Not just her,” Eureka said. “My original reason for this particular method of attack was discovering that the other Alicorns are being impersonated. Their bodies are as vulnerable to this as any other system. I planned on revealing her fraud to the world.”

Chapter 11: Borealis

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Everything had to be perfect.

Jackie knew that her chances of pulling this off were remote—there were too many pieces moving, too many ways it could go wrong.

But she wasn’t the sort of pony who spent her immortality locked in a safe tower somewhere, living the same way century after century. She’d already done that, done it until she’d been driven to near insanity with boredom. Living safely maximized years, but what good was one empty, lifeless decade of existence where she learned nothing and the world went to shit?

It wasn’t hard to find a date for their attack. Mundi had festivals every few months, each one a constructed fantasy to keep the population in line. Their target was “Gratitude Day,” where they celebrated all those who had sacrificed to protect Axis Mundi from Charybdis.

The holiday didn’t really matter, though it was convenient that it involved fireworks.

Jackie couldn’t bring the previous members of the rebellion, at least not many of them. Athena had grown more watchful in her ways, more oppressive for a move just like this. Jackie didn’t think the program was behind the assassination attempts, but that didn’t mean she wanted to see her society disrupted.

But she could bring a few of the most important. Faking identification was really just a matter of finding enough volunteers with legitimate credentials and swapping places with them.

So it was that Jackie found herself serving food at a basement-level dispensary in the upper city, wearing a stupid paper hat and stupid paper gloves over her hooves. Ponies walked past one at a time, barely even noticing her as they placed their orders and returned to their lives. She was only called a bug-eater three times during her shift, which seemed fairly egalitarian compared to her past experience.

There could be no communication with the others until after she set everything off, so there wasn’t a chance for her to find out if everything was still going according to plan.

She heard the procession making its way across the city, closer and closer with every moment. As the parade drew nearer, the street outside her dispensary packed with ponies who weren’t here to order.

Jackie covertly prodded her tray of vegetarian chili, checking on her bomb. It was still there, wrapped in thin plastic and buried at the bottom of a dish too disgusting for anyone to eat.

As the parade drew closer, she heard Alex’s voice come on over the loudspeaker, or at least Athena’s imitation of it. The citizens of Mundi were all young, they were children. But now that Jackie knew what to look for, she was positive she could’ve identified this fake.

“Everypony, come together and remember our dead! Remember their sacrifices! Remember them, so we can keep them with us in a world that no longer has them. Let us celebrate that they lived.” And on and on she went, the same trite nonsense as any public figure would’ve been spouting on an occasion like this.

No more wearing my friend’s reputation like a corpse-puppet. Or any of those others. She could see the massive float in the distance, bright gold and hovering over the pavement. There were thrones for all the world’s alicorns there, and all of them were filled. Even Eureka, or a pony made to approximate him. Jackie had never seen the real one with a clean mane instead of a total disaster, though. No wonder you wanted this to end. She stole your face too.

Jackie could’ve set off the bomb at any moment. The range would encompass the whole city, she didn’t need to be right near the fake Alicorns. But she did need to make sure ponies surrounded them. So many ponies that Athena couldn’t make them all disappear.

There’s no telling what this does to their society. But that’s not my fucking problem. Athena should’ve thought about what might happen before making Archive’s city eat itself alive.

Activating the bomb was simple. She didn’t even have to remove the plastic, just found the switch and flipped it on. Her food tray—and all the others besides—froze solid in an instant.

And not just that. A few seconds later, and it seemed like the whole world had frozen. Groans of distant atmospheric processors as they went briefly still rumbled over the street. Lights on every nearby building flickered, then went out. Ponies started screaming, reaching for their phones and personal computers—but those were all passively charged by the grid now, and so they didn’t respond either.

The flying float didn’t crash down to the ground dramatically, or explode in a shower of sparks and bloody pretend-Alicorn parts. It just settled gently into emergency mode, landing on its lifting struts. The ponies on board, however, had started completely losing their minds.

Jackie was glad she wasn’t up there—she hadn’t considered exactly how Athena’s pretend bodies might work, or what they would do once they were severed from her network.

The answer appeared to be go violently insane. Instead of resting on their regal thrones, or answering the begging police to step forward and calm the crowd, the imposter Alex leaped sideways at a nearby streetlight and started crunching through the sturdy plastic. Meanwhile, Eureka decided that a few members of the crowd were apparently too close, because he lunged right off the edge of the float and into a brawl.

The parade was mostly cordoned by police drones, which had all fallen uselessly to the ground where they stood. The handful of police ponies on the scene were swept away by the terrified crowd.

Jackie reached under the counter, pulling out a radio that had been hidden there. She switched it on, and immediately heard other voices reporting on the status of things in the lower city. But she wasn’t responsible for that part. Lavender Eclipse would be down there mobilizing the evacuation. “Fry, how’s my PA?”

“Speakers are in place, boss,” he answered, after a brief pause. “But you should go soon. One of the nodes is already attracting attention. Won’t work forever.”

“Got it.” With a little dream magic and a little of what Ezri had taught her, she took an illusion for herself that resembled a respected, upper-class unicorn. The kind of mare who would be trusted by the movers and shakers of Mundi. She crossed the intervening distance, appearing on the float alongside the mad Alicorn copies.

She lifted the radio to her mouth, and spoke in the same tone of authority she might’ve used to command her own population.

The riot wasn’t really going yet—it was still confusion, the population desperate for anything that might return them to order. She had to capitalize on this opportunity, or else the violence would start and nopony would listen.

“They’re imposters!” she yelled, dragging the copy of Oracle off his hooves with a conjured tentacle. She hoped it would look convincingly like unicorn magic, because her illusion didn’t give her that. “This whole time! They’ve been Athena the whole time! Look, everypony! The city shuts down, and so do they! We’re letting a machine rule us!”

That didn’t seem to be what the police were expecting. Gasps echoed through the crowd, along with a few more shouts. Demanding they take the “Alicorns” to a doctor for scans, the rational ones. Some were just calling for lynchings.

Most just ran.

The police were in this last group, though instead of running away from her, every one of them that was near the float charged straight at it.

Jackie slipped away into the melee, not stopping long enough to fight. Whether or not they actually succeeded in unseating Athena wasn’t really the purpose of the mission. Her network ruled the whole city, so it wasn’t as though the ponies here could just throw her off. Someone had to keep the cars driving, the farms growing, the air circulating.

But that wasn’t her problem anymore. Jackie abandoned her disguise and vanished into the lower city. If the upper city had been confusion, once she got underground she was surrounded by the stench of desperation and terrible fear. She passed a police checkpoint where a handful of police had been beaten to death, surrounded by dozens of bat corpses. Glass broke, people screamed, and families cowered.

“How are we doing?” Jackie asked into the radio, keeping her head down and eyes alert. Most of the weapons in Mundi, even the illegal ones, required the power grid to work, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get stabbed. Jackie wasn’t immortal.

“Gateway is green,” Eclipse answered. “Got a night market full of frightened bats here, more on their way all the time. Eureka isn’t sure how long the network will keep it open.”

There would be no Dreamlands shortcut this time—Jackie wasn’t getting herself indebted to another god so soon after getting free. They’d have to use a more dangerous method.

“Do it,” she instructed. “Keep the militia ready on the other side. Might be we get some wannabe heroes coming through with our refugees. We’ll toss them back when we’re done getting the good people.”

Two crowds formed in the darkness below Mundi—those fleeing into the upper city and its ruling class, and those moving down. Jackie was a little surprised as she joined one group of ponies obviously on their way to the night market.

“It’s a better life,” some stallion was saying. Not a bat, surprisingly enough. A unicorn, though his fur was as smudged with dirt as any Datamine worker Jackie had ever met. “Not strangling us with rules and taxes. It’ll be worth it.”

“I’m not sure.” His wife, or girlfriend, or something, a foal on her back instead of saddlebags full of possessions. She had to walk a little slower for that reason. “They have a princess too. It won’t be that different than living here. Same crap, different flag.”

“They have a democracy there,” Jackie said, copying the unicorn’s lower city accent almost perfectly. She probably would’ve done better if she still had Ezri around to practice on. “If you think you could do a better job than their governor, you should run against her. Maybe you could.” Maybe she wants to give up being in charge as soon as there’s another option.

“Really?” The refugees sounded receptive for a few seconds, at least until they saw that she was a bat. Then the stallion’s tone darkened to suspicion. “It’s probably not for real. We’re supposed to be a democracy too. But the only votes that really count are the ones who vote for the right thing. And nopony can check if something’s going wrong, because Athena runs it all. You can’t question a god.”

They slowed as they neared a police checkpoint, with swiveling mounted guns set into the wall. Instead of following them, the guns sat silent and still, with the police in the booth shouting at their screen. There had been a plastic barricade across the doorway, but it was gone now.

There was more evidence of struggle here. A few more bodies off to one side, along with bits of police armor laying bashed apart on the ground. They took their own injured away to the hospital and left these ponies to die. At least they had good deaths.

“We have a problem,” Eureka’s voice came in over radio, loud enough that a few members of the group Jackie had joined stared at her. Unlike the others who were actually here, he didn’t sound even slightly distorted by distance. “Athena just launched several somethings from Olympus. You have… seventeen minutes until they land.”

“Shit,” Jackie muttered, ears flattening. “She’s attacking the city?”

“I don’t… think so.” Eureka didn’t sound confident. “They’re not very dense. It’s not the rods of god. Telescope says it’s mostly silicon and steel. Some kind of… backup transmitter, maybe. Something to get her network up again.”

“Who are you?” asked the unicorn with the foal on her back. “Who are you talking to?”

“Thanks, Eureka.” She turned away from the mare, stepping to the side of the crowd so they would flow past her. But her group didn’t move on, they stopped to listen. A bat near the back was pointing at her, whispering something. She couldn’t hear it, and she didn’t really try to listen.

“Lavender, we have seventeen minutes until security comes back up. Open those doors as wide as you can and get ponies moving.”

The bat on the other side swore loudly into the radio. “I thought Eureka said we had hours.”

“Apparently not,” Jackie said. “Just… gallop them through if you have to. We’ll get these ponies out. Somehow.”

Chapter 12: Perotis

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“Alright, alright, think.” Jackie slipped sideways into the air, but not actually traveling anywhere. She stepped into the dream, and slowed time down around her to a trickle. That was one of the advantages to the sleeping world—time was fickle. Years could pass in a single evening, or else eight hours could feel like seconds. Obviously the former was more useful to her here.

She floated through the void between dreams, conjuring herself an environment more out of instinct than desire. A model of the city appeared around her, the towers of Mundi the same scale they might’ve been if she were gigantic. The megalopolis towered over the ancient desert, not so far from the pyramids. But thousands of great pyramids could’ve fit inside this city.

It hadn’t been called the last city for no reason.

“Seventeen minutes. Until she lands,” she repeated to herself. “How do we stop her from segmenting everyone once she does? How do we make sure they can keep flowing?”

“You have to disable the hardware,” said a helpful voice. Hat Trick appeared in the void beside her, not drifting so much as standing. There was no floor, but that didn’t seem to bother her. “Athena can’t take back machines that we’ve broken into little pieces.”

“That… makes sense,” Jackie said, sounding unconvinced. “But we don’t have demo teams in place to attack each target. We don’t even really know what we’re looking for! Mundi was built to last.”

“So figure it out.”

She stared down at the model city, eyes narrowing as she considered their options. Jackie had nearly unlimited time to plot and plan—it was only the execution that would be limited. Anything that required her to contact the outside—sending messages, instructions, teleporting around, all that would cost her precious real-world seconds. As fast as time could flow in the Dreamlands, it still moved forward.

Jackie spent subjective hours pacing around the model. She started peeling away layers—the towers first, since they would be empty of any interested bats by now. At first the size of the problem seemed completely overwhelming. The model contained only security measures Jackie knew about. There were already enough ways to isolate everypony.

It was unfortunate that disabling Athena’s grip on the city meant the transit systems weren’t working, or else they could have easily got the bats to the night market in time. But we aren’t trying to evacuate everypony.

All the while Hat Trick watched her, expression varying flavors of smug and concerned from moment to moment. But either she didn’t have any helpful ideas of her own, or she wanted Jackie to come up with the solution herself. She couldn’t have said which was the most infuriating.

Eventually she was left with just the night-market itself. A single massive chamber, with a thousand ponies packed inside it at this moment and more flooding in. This was their only portal out, and it was the point that Jackie needed to keep clear.

So if I’m Athena, how do I stop ponies from getting in?

That was when she had it. “Alright.” She sat back on her haunches, breathing a little more easily now. “I think I know what to do.”

“That’s good,” Hat Trick said. “I was getting worried you wouldn’t.”

Jackie ignored that remark. “We can’t stop all of Athena’s security measures. This city was designed to resist an invasion in every neighborhood and in every building. That fight was lost before we even got here. Buuuuut, I don’t think we need to. Like all the defenses targeting living areas, that’s a red herring. Everypony who is coming is long out of their homes by now. We can’t keep every security door closed, but there aren’t really that many.”

She enlarged the model with a little effort of will, highlighting a few important hallways. “All the traffic in the city uses these. The transit rail, obviously, but that’s down. And the foot-paths. I think we can count on everypony who cares about leaving already being in one of these main thoroughfares. They don’t seal as easy as side-passages, there’s only a few places with blast doors that could lock them off.”

They appeared, eight points spreading out from the night market. “Here’s my plan. We get any volunteer engineers, along with our own small team, and we hit these spreading out from the night market. We blow the control nodes on each one with whatever explosives we can teleport in.”

Hat Trick was silent for a long time. She rose, walked around the model, then sat back down again. “What about Athena? She could shut down the environmental systems, couldn’t she?”

Jackie shrugged. “Not really. This isn’t a starship, it isn’t designed to isolate. These corridors aren’t pressure tight. If she somehow overrode the air circulators, it wouldn’t do enough damage nearly fast enough to slow us down. There’s enough air just floating around to keep us evacuating until we’re done.”

“What about her security robots? If whatever she’s sending overrides Eureka’s spell, won’t she get those back?”

“Probably,” Jackie admitted. “I don’t think there’s much we can do about that. They’re going to be harassing the back of our group, trying to close in and cut us off from as many people as possible. We aren’t prepared to fight them. And they’re too spread-out to sabotage now, so don’t think about that either. I already considered it.”

Hat Trick sighed. “I feel like… we might have acted prematurely. I don’t think we’ll have an opportunity like this again. If we want to get bats out again, either Athena has to let them out, or it will be a war.”

“Maybe they’ll want to get rid of them,” Jackie suggested helpfully. “Things only got worse after we broke out the first time. I assume she’ll make it even worse after today. Do all our recruiting for us. Hopefully not… it’s not like I want the ponies here to suffer anymore than they have. But we don’t have the resources to house a hundred million. If we tried to destroy Mundi, we would be guilty of more murders than Athena.”

“Pity,” Hat Trick said. “Division of responsibilities, eh? I’ll find the explosives we need, you get bats into place to deploy them. We’ll cast the broadest net we can.”

“Even if we end up with too many?” Jackie asked, though she never would’ve dared suggest this fear to Lavender. “Things have been bad down there, worse than we thought. Athena has started separating families, punishing ponies for no reason… it’s like she’s trying to ferment a revolt. What if a million ponies end up in New Thestralia?”

“What if indeed,” Hat Trick repeated. “It’s as though our governor would have to deal with it, wouldn’t she? It’s a good thing we have one of the oldest and most experienced ponies there is.”

“Don’t.” Jackie ground one hoof against the invisible floor. “Don’t push your luck, kid.”

The bat vanished with a giggle, leaving Jackie alone with her map. She was in no rush to return—so long as she was still here, she could go as slowly and carefully as she needed to. She took what felt like hours more to plan, racking her memory for the names and faces of any bats with even a suggestion of engineering competence.

She took her time, writing everything down on a set of carefully demarcated packets. She had known nothing at all of how the emergency blast doors worked, or how she could disable their control nodes. So she cut herself a few windows back into the physical world, burning a few precious seconds for a look.

“It’s a good plan,” said a small voice from the other side of the room. Right about the moment Jackie had piled up her eight packets of instructions and was holding her knife, ready to cut her way back to the physical world. “There’s just one thing you’re missing.”

“You.” Jackie set the knife down gently on a model tower, then met Alex’s brown eyes. The alicorn hadn’t even bothered changing back into a land form—she swam through the air around the model with a few nervous flicks of a white and gray tail. “I thought you ran away from your job. What are you doing here now?”

“Oh. I’m not,” said Alex, circling closer to her, shrinking down to the size of a seahorse and settling between two of the nearest skyscrapers. “I’m a figment. You just created me.” She sounded embarrassed about it, or maybe embarrassed on Jackie’s behalf. Like she had noticed a blackhead on her face and didn’t want anyone else around to hear her.

“I don’t stress-dreamwalk anymore,” Jackie insisted, indignant. “And certainly not dream Alicorns. Your disguise is full of shit. I don’t even know how you got here. Are there dreamwalking fish?” Getting a good look at her wasn’t easy. She kept dodging behind the model, so that Jackie couldn’t see more than the flash of a tail or a bit of a fin, maybe an eye.

Then she groaned, and vanished the model completely. The fish was suddenly floating in open air, and Jackie got a good look at her with her magical senses. She could follow her back to the dreaming Alex—though she wouldn’t yet. Whatever she was playing at, Jackie would punish her for having the audacity to waste her time during such a critical moment.

There was no dreamer. The fish was just a figment. Well… maybe not quite. Most figments were wisps of personality, illusions that were animated by the dreamer looking at them. Like little mirrors that reflected the personality of the dreamer back. It took a little scrap of soul to make them something more, the kind of spell that took the greatest unicorns months to perfect. Or Jackie, who had apparently done it by accident.

Jackie slumped back into a sitting position, dropping her folded packets to the ground beside her. “I forbid you to tell the real Alex I did this,” she said. “She’ll never let me forget.” There were worse things Jackie could’ve summoned to torment her.

Of course, even a dream-Alicorn could be banished. She could return this creature to whatever corner of the void she’d accidently dragged her from.

She didn’t, though. Figments might be wisps and stardust, but this one was independent. Killing her would be like murdering a real pony.

“I don’t actually have to listen to you,” said the little Alicorn, flipping over in the air and backing up. “I’m real. I mean… I’m not the Alex. But I’m a real me. But you made me for a reason, and I want to—”

Novice mistake, to think that Jackie needed physical proximity inside a dream of her own creation. Jackie focused her attention briefly on the fish, who appeared before her with a pop like a teleport. Jackie conjured a little collar for her neck, along with a chain that led to one of her own hooves. “Are you sure about that?” she asked. “Go ahead, try to magic your way out of that. Won’t work.”

She did try. A dozen little spells, including trying to return to normal size. None worked now that Jackie had bound her. After thrashing about madly she slumped onto her back in the air, apparently breathing heavy. Or whatever the equivalent of breathing was for seaponies. “Why… I’m trying to help you, jerk! You’re really mean.”

“Then tell me why you’re here,” Jackie said. “Then you can give me your word you’re never going to talk to your real-life counterpart, and maybe I won’t lock you in a tiny bowl. Maybe. We’ll see.”

“Athena’s pretend Alicorns,” squeaked the little fish, glaring at her now. “They’re like drones. If she gets her hardware back, she’ll get them too.”

“So?” Jackie shrugged one shoulder. “She can fool Mundi, she can’t fool the Supernal. No soul, no Imperium.”

“Maybe not,” not-Alex agreed, sounding increasingly frustrated. “But they can still do magic. Half the infrastructure of Mundi is Thaumoelectrical. That’s a lot of power for the smartest wizard in the universe to use against you. How easy do you think it would be for her to close your portal home?”

“Oh.”

Chapter 13: Occultus

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“I can’t kill them,” Jackie started, before the copy of Alex could try to swim away again. “I was right up there on the stage with those bodies, I could’ve easily wrecked their shit. But that would spoil all the hard work we did to undermine everypony’s trust in Athena. If we make them disappear, then she can use that to justify a war. Are you trying to make Thestralia go to war?”

The little fish raised her forelegs defensively. “I’m not… trying to do anything, Jackie. Your subconscious created me to remind you of the things you forgot. What you do with that… well, I should probably go…”

“No.” Jackie splashed her down into a little fishbowl, then summoned back her model and settled the bowl onto a tower. She watched the figment struggle to escape, entirely without success. She’d trapped her with physical laws this time. “You’re staying here until I figure this out.”

She leaned right up to the glass, glaring. “I can’t kill them, because then Athena gets a war. What do we do instead?”

The fish seemed to think about it, though it was hard to tell for sure exactly what a seapony was thinking at that size. “We could… try to convince her to stop? Maybe talk to Athena directly. Bluff her? Could you get her to believe you’ve got a real bomb?”

“No,” Jackie huffed. “She knows I’d never nuke most of the population. And even if it worked, doing that would make me way more than a nuisance. She’d have to kill me at that point. Only reason she hasn’t tried already is because I’m not a rogue element. I’m so predictable she probably let me bumble into this whole fucking mess.”

Were there any more gods for her to supplicate? Mystic Rune could probably stop Athena if they needed to, he’d helped build her in the first place. But he didn’t dream anymore, and was probably halfway across the universe by now. Voeskender was no friend of technology, but actually fighting the infrastructure of Mundi would be difficult for him. Spirits were about belief, after all, and there were a hundred million ponies who still believed in their city. For a little while, anyway.

“We can’t kill her Alicorns,” Jackie said again, gathering up her packets of instructions. “The spirit gods would be weak as shit if they tried to interfere with civilization. Our own Alicorns are out of reach. But we’ve got a lot of strength too. A whole dead civilization’s worth.”

Jackie knew what to do. She turned away from her model, raising her dagger and slicing back into the world. “Wait, don’t just leave me—” She just left her.

Back into the physical she went, taking one quick glance before vanishing to reappear in front of somepony else with more instructions. She didn’t stay to answer their questions, just kept moving and trusted to the competence of the rebels. She had no choice—there was too little time to do otherwise.

She had no watch, but her own sense of time told her she now had about fifteen minutes before Athena’s solution landed. Less time than I would’ve hoped for. But there was nothing she could do about it.

“We have bigger problems,” she told Lavender Eclipse, crouched low in the night market as ponies flowed past her. She could see the clear outline of the portal in the distance, with daylight streaming in from the other side. “While you guys keep the other doors open, I’ll make sure this one stays.”

Lavender saluted, taking her packet of instructions. “If you’re sure, Dreamknife.”

She didn’t even respond to that, cutting her way through the universe back to Thestralia.

There, at the base of City Hall, the connections of the Arcane Network fed into an arch of metal and rusting iron, forming an invisible slice in reality through the air. There were hundreds of ponies here, with tables of supplies and information. Jackie took one look to make sure no Mundi police were killing her people, before vanishing again deeper into the tree.

The heartwood pulsed all around her, a heartbeat almost as fast as a hummingbird. Eureka stood in the center, surrounded by his own crystal equipment as he kept the portal open. Jackie had no idea how it worked or what he was really doing—but it didn’t really matter. This was out of her purview.

“You’re here?” He raised an eyebrow, though he didn’t actually look away from the round panel of crystals and broken screens he was using to keep the spell going. “Aren’t you supposed to be redeeming our good name?”

“Well… yes,” she said, settling down right in front of him. “But Athena’s reacting quicker than we thought. She’s probably gonna have control back in… maybe fourteen minutes?”

“You don’t think you’ll have everypony through by then?”

She shook her head. “There are… a lot more than we thought. What are we supposed to tell them; ‘sorry, stay enslaved for a little while?’ I’ve been where they are, not a chance.” She walked over to his control panel, though she didn’t get close enough to touch it. She could tell from the way her fur stood on end that there was enough magic running through this room to barbecue an elephant.

“So I’m dealing with it, but the one thing that we need to worry about is Athena trying to shut down this portal. She’s about to have five really powerful unicorn-level bodies, and she knows the academics of magic as well as Archive ever did. She won’t be able to do Imperial stuff like you, but…”

Eureka sighed. “I liked it better when she thought I was dead.” He leaned back in his chair, glaring at nothing in particular. “They’re going to retaliate. I hope you realize that. If you don’t give them a victory—if you don’t let them feel like they won, they’re going to get back at us somehow. You still want me to try and hold the portal open?”

We could’ve assassinated one pony, and it wouldn’t have blown up this bad. Jackie was beginning to wish she’d given appeasement more of a go. But the City Council had demanded action. Maybe that action would be war. Way more than one pony is dead now. Mostly on our side. But they’ll blame us for that. We’ll be a security risk. This is already enough of an excuse for war.

She briefly considered the idea of killing the Alicorn puppets. If Mundi might already go to war over this anyway, there was no sense in not doing as much damage as possible. Except that’s a guarantee. There are loads of ponies who still worship them as gods. Even bats. Granted, most bats she’d met worshiped a pony they didn’t know was based on her. Or worse, on Artifice.

“Yes, we’re keeping it open. I don’t care if you have to drain every last drop of magic from every stockpile left on the network. We won’t get another chance like this. Might as well save as many ponies as we can.”

Eureka nodded. “May you ever be the one to make the decisions—and bear the weight of their consequences.” He rose to his hooves then, and suddenly every spare crystal piled up around him rose up. Magic began to roar through the room, through the living heart of City Hall.

“Get to the gate!” Eureka shouted, over the growing din “I’ll keep the power fed from here, but you can’t let one of her puppets physically touch the runes. Athena could burn their lives to shut it down, and there’s jack shit I can do about it from this end.”

Jackie nodded, slipping back into the world of dreams. She found a fishbowl waiting for her, and an annoyed little Alicorn tapping on the glass. “Couldn’t you just let me go?” she sung in her tiny voice. “I’ve already helped you. More than I should’ve with the way you treated me. Just let me swim off and I won’t bother you again.”

Jackie passed down the thousand steps that led to the doorway of greater slumber, then pushed it open. Even at a crawl, her time was counting down.

The bowl kept pace with her, though it had no means of locomotion. Jackie could leave it here, but it would be kinder to just kill the little figment. “I’ve only created three figments that became sapient in my life did you know that? Each one was for a very specific reason. Each one of them was engineered so that it wouldn’t grow out of hand. A friend today is an enemy tomorrow. The Dreamlands shift and twist even the best intentions into nightmares. I can’t let you go until I’m certain you won’t be that way, and right now I really don’t have the time.”

Jackie arrived in the enchanted wood, muttered the secret zoog passwords, and didn’t drink from any of the moonlight wine. The predatory zoogs eyed her companion as she flew, but Jackie shook them off. Even a figment deserved a better end than sushi.

“Where are you going?” asked the tiny voice beside her. “This isn’t the quickest way back to Axis Mundi. We’re way too far from civilized dreams.”

“Yes.” Jackie’s ears flattened. “How observant of you. A regular little dreamwalker.”

“I wouldn’t be little if you didn’t force me.”

She ignored that, along with the temptation to just drop the bowl and leave the zoogs to their own devices. But it was a near thing. “There’s only one surefire way to stop her Alicorns from a war,” Jackie finally said. She lifted into the air as soon as she left the forest, searching for the right star. “We prove they’re imposters. Bring back the real thing.”

“She’ll never come,” said the little voice. “I know her. I know what Athena made her promise. Athena thinks she’s a god now. She wanted a thousand years and a day. The real me won’t break her word, no matter what.”

Jackie swore loudly, coming to a dead stop in the air. She didn’t question where the figment had heard such things—likely Jackie herself had known them, in the wisps of overheard dreams from a thousand sources. Of all those who lived, only Athena was immune to her prying. She didn’t even have a mind as Jackie conceived it. Let alone a soul.

“But there’s another way. It’s so obvious I can see why you missed it.”

Jackie held the bowl right up to her face, glaring inside at its shimmering occupant. “I swear if you don’t tell me whatever you’re thinking right now I’m going to find a hungry griffon somewhere in here and watch them eat you.”

It was a lie, though dangerously close to the truth. Ponies out in the world of ordinary time were dying, or would be soon. Unless she did something.

“It’s obvious,” the figment said again, her tone infuriatingly smug. The real Alex had never talked like that. “Athena has been using fake Alicorns to control Mundi for more than a century. Why can’t you do the same thing?” She swam around the tank, glaring up at her. “I’m basically her. I can’t dreamwalk…” She smacked her head into the glass then, for emphasis. “But I can do magic. I can speak in her voice, and confuse the hell out of their police.”

Jackie let herself drift back down to the forest, no longer searching for that little star of distant dreamers. Maybe the figment was right—she didn’t need the real thing.

Jackie might not have the power of an Alicorn. But neither did Athena. It was really just about who could make the more convincing fake.

“She’ll know what I’m doing,” Jackie said. “Or she’ll figure it out eventually.”

“So what?” asked the figment, flipping around in an eager aquatic summersault. “None of those pretend Alicorns are bats. And none of the bats are going to help her fight your dream-magic. They’re all on your side.

“But if I help you…” the speaker went on. “You have to promise to set me free. I want you to swear it to me. This is the proof I’m not dangerous. If this works.”

Jackie grumbled under her breath, searching desperately for other options. But the figment was probably right. “Fine.” She extended a hoof towards the glass. “But only if you don’t tell the real one about you.”

“Fine,” not-Alex agreed. “Now take us back to Mundi. We can’t have much time left.”

Chapter 14: Pallidus

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She arrived to explosions. Compared to the size of Mundi, they were distant and feeble, barely even shaking the ground. Whatever Hat Trick had found for their ponies to use obviously wasn’t meant to bring the city down on their heads.

But it didn’t need to. She didn’t poke in to look and see how they’d done. They would know the result of that soon enough.

Jackie stepped out of the shadows beside the massive portal, searching out the little wrapped box that contained the spell itself. As she had instructed, there were a pair of resistance bats here, armed with rifles and keeping the crowd from getting too close by accident.

The night market itself was a huge vaulted room, large enough for fifty thousand ponies at least to spread out across it. There were numerous little makeshift stalls, all the accoutrements of ponies who lived their lives on the edge of society. From the look of things, plenty of these illegal stalls had been packed into bundles, and many of the others had been trampled.

There were so many ponies in the room that the only thing keeping the air fresh was the gigantic archway through to New Thestralia. She could see the shadow of City Hall just outside, the green fields and spectacular Thaumic ash trees with their clinging buildings. Ponies moved towards them in something only one step removed from stampede.

There had been resistance ponies keeping order here before. But she’d sent them all away to bomb the checkpoints, and now it was just the desperate, the dispossessed. She could see a few scuffles spread throughout the room, and the bloody faces and coats attesting to others.

In the distance, a line of police was trying in vain to stem the tide of evacuating bats. They brandished stun-pistols in the air, and the crowd backed away. Apparently they don’t know those don’t work right now.

“How long?” Jackie asked the nearest bat. “Athena’s retaliation must be close.”

“Two minutes,” answered the rebel, a young bat with a bandana over his face and a rifle propped up on his shoulder like a trophy. “How’d you get here? Shouldn’t you be… god, you’re real.”

“I’m real,” she agreed. “And you need a shave.” She glanced over her shoulder, into what would look like empty air. “Now’s your cue, ‘Alex’.”

The air behind her transformed in a flash of magic, bright enough that the whole room stopped to stare. The crowd gathered around the edges, those deliberating on the fence, all stared as a wall of water formed in the air beside one of the portals.

Nice illusion, Jackie thought to herself. We’ve already got one portal. This one will seem plausible too.

Through the water swam a pony, a pony in bright white armor that gave her an extra set of legs, along with bright gold filigree around the edges. Where the figment had been tiny, she now towered over Jackie and everypony else in the room. Water dripped off her body as she walked out in front of the portal, her green mane shimmering where the touch of necromancy had bleached it.

She could see the transformation on the crowd—loyalist merchants protecting their stalls started to cheer. Police surged forward with new confidence, cutting off the lines of ponies. The flow of bats into the portal stopped dead, and many fearful eyes settled on Jackie’s prop.

Don’t disappoint me. This is your crowd.

“Ponies of Mundi!” she said, her voice booming through the hall. Another simple illusion, though from the feedback squawking from Jackie’s radio she guessed the figment was using radio as well. “The suffering of my children calls me back from the depths of space. My old friend, the ancient and powerful and wise Knife of Dreams—”

I think they get it. If you think saying stupid complements will stop you from being a goldfish if you screw this up—

“Traveled across the void to me, bringing a terrible truth. I learned that my brothers and sisters and I had been impersonated—that the artificial intelligence Athena has been using us to control the world.” Her horn flashed, and the lights briefly came back on. The air circulators started humming to life again, along with the neon signs from the nearby stalls. Another illusion, though this one probably looked like she had control of the city. As the real Alex obviously would have.

“You there! Servants of the peace—put your weapons down. Today we remember our history in gratitude. What do you think your great grandparents died for? Your right to keep these bats underground, risking their lives in Datamines and sweeping your garbage? No! As the rightful ruler of Axis Mundi, I order you all to put your weapons down and let them pass. If you hate these ponies so much, let them go to somewhere better.”

There was a rumble from up above them, growing gradually to a roar. Jackie recognized the sound—something was air breaking from a high-g descent over Mundi. It would be landing soon. As for what it did once it got here…

The lights started to flicker, coming on underneath the illusory ones. Fake Alex adjusted her illusion, but Jackie could see the discrepancy. And she probably wouldn’t be the only one.

But that didn’t matter now. “Ponies of Axis Mundi!” bellowed the pretend Alicorn, so loud her voice boomed through the Night Market. “The pretender returns! She will try to take the city back from you! Don’t let her! Anypony who can hear me, anypony who yearns for freedom—come through this gateway to a better life! The powerful, noble Dreamknife is my appointed successor. She is a better governor than any soulless machine ever could be.”

A few of her rebellion fighters started cheering. The crowd took up their cry, and soon the whole chamber was booming with it. Ponies surged forward towards the portal faster than they had before, and this time it didn’t look like there was any danger of them trampling each other. Riot police had put down their weapons—some were even charging with the crowd.

The portal flickered once, and behind her Jackie could see as the spell began to glow bright red. The paper wrapped around its metal shell caught fire and started to spark, with the metal not far behind.

Jackie gestured the rebellion soldiers away. “Back home,” she said. “You’ve done good work. I’ll take care of this.”

On the other side of the portal, lightning arched off the boughs of City Hall, lightning that was deep green and as wide across as the portal itself.

There was a brief scream from the front of the crowd, as ponies about to enter were probably terrified out of their wits by the portal briefly closing in front of them. But then the light got brighter still, fed by the latent magical energy stored in the Arcane Network.

The portal didn’t close. “It’s safe!” she called, loud enough that it would carry over the most frightened pony below. “But we won’t have forever! There are lots of ponies who need to go. The faster you go, the more of your neighbors and friends we can save.”

The crowd hesitated in front of the barrier, until a child slipped under the legs of a hesitating pony and through to the grass on the other side. The portal didn’t flicker again. They started feeding through.

Jackie remained and watched them come, pouring in from open passages all around the market. Not just the typical rebellion bats she might’ve expected, but plenty of other ponies as well. Ponies in fancy clothes, carrying modern hardware.

Shit. It wasn’t supposed to work that well. It was fine to tell Eureka that she would deal with the numbers, whatever they were. It would be another thing to deal with two million ponies.

Nothing for it now. Can’t turn back.

Above them, the rumbles of activity as the city came back on were constant. Jackie listened over the radio as one of her teams was separated by an improperly sabotaged door, and another was brought down by gunfire from newly-awakened security robots. “Everypony, back here as quick as you can!” she yelled. “Or escape into the Dreamlands! Just don’t stay here!”

By the time Lavender Eclipse arrived, nearly ten more minutes had passed and the crowd from her direction had slowed to a trickle. Ponies were still so thick that they passed through the portal twenty at a time, so thick that their breath kept the wind blasting out of the opening.

Lavender stared dumbfounded at “Alex” as she approached, but she didn’t do anything stupid. The seapony Alicorn wasn’t giving any more grand speeches, but she was urging the ponies on through the gate. And her promptings seemed to be working, because the crowd kept moving. Through exclamations of relief, tears of joy, expressions of nervous fear, but they kept coming.

“The drones are shutting everything out,” Eclipse said, wiping a little blood from her brow. Didn’t look like it was hers. “Might be… a minute behind me. How many do you think we got?”

Jackie lowered her voice to a whisper. “Maybe… half a million?”

The bat’s eyes went so wide the color vanished from them. “What the hell are we supposed to do about that?”

Jackie only shrugged, mouthing the word ‘later.’ It was going to be a problem for their aspiring nation to deal with, right up there with the invasion they might be facing from Axis Mundi. But they had to survive today first. “Take your people home,” Jackie instructed. “I’ll confront them here. Hold the door open as long as possible.”

“You mean fight an Alicorn? That sounds a lot like suicide.”

“Pretend Alicorn,” Jackie corrected. “And I’ve got one too. Two on… five?”

“Maybe you should shut it now.” Lavender leaned in close, whispering into her ear. “We already have too many. These ponies waited until the end, probably means they’re less sure than the ones we already have. We can’t evacuate the whole city. Eventually you have to shut the door and leave the rest behind.”

“I know,” Jackie said, louder than she meant to. “Get yourself to safety.”

“What if they follow us? Your militia won’t be able to handle these numbers alone, let alone five Alicorns. If they kill you and come through to Mundi, we’re fucked.”

“They won’t,” Jackie said. “They’re still recovering from Eureka’s bomb. If things really go to shit he can cut the cord and they won’t have their control signal. Just make sure you kill them before Athena wipes the crud out of her mainframe.”

“I don’t like it,” Lavender said. Then she did it anyway.

But as it turned out, she was wrong about the enemy that would be coming. Every side-door to the night market opened at the same moment, and drones poured in. There were thousands of them, almost as many as there were ponies left in the room. Yet even all these were a tiny fraction of the robotic might Athena could wield.

“It’s a shame you insisted on this so soon,” Athena said from over her shoulder. Jackie rolled on instinct, shielding herself with a wing. But the drone who spoke wasn’t aiming for her. The spell exploded in a shower of metal and sparks, spraying the ponies all around with deadly shrapnel.

Jackie hadn’t even seen the drone approach, how had it gotten behind her like that?

The portal went out, and suddenly so did all the lights.

“I would’ve given you another generation to ferment tensions,” said Athena, her voice as emotionless and calm as ever. “A generation to prepare. But wiping out an inferior evil can inspire greatness too.”

All around the room, Athena’s drones started shooting. Terrible screams echoed through the night market. There had to be a thousand ponies still down here.

Jackie took her knife, slitting through the ground beside where not-Alex was still standing. She dragged the fish in with her, and held the gateway open. “Come on!” she called from inside, gesturing urgently. “Anypony still in here, quick! Let’s get out of here!”

Only a hail of bullets followed her. Drones strode calmly over the destruction, marching towards the opening.

Jackie screamed in desperation and anger, slamming her hooves down over the gateway spell. It collapsed, leaving her alone with her stupid figment.

Chapter 15: Xanthinus

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Jackie felt blood dribbling slowly down one of her wings. It wasn’t hers—she hadn’t been injured, at least not that she could tell. But just because it didn’t hurt didn’t mean that she hadn’t been damaged.

She could still hear the gunfire, accelerator rifles firing straight into an unprotected crowd. You have crowd control weapons, you asshole. You already closed the portal. You didn’t need to hurt anyone.

She longed for the days of Confluence, the great Central Compiler of the Enduring Ones. Before Charybdis had destroyed it, it had acted as a check on Athena’s power. An AI that was primarily magical instead of technological, and supposedly assembled from bits and pieces of pony souls too. While that compiler had moral imperatives, Athena had only her goals.

She can’t kill humans. I guess she finally got over seeing ponies as human. The terrifying weight of that implication alone almost reduced Jackie to a shivering mess. She huddled in the space that was no dream at all, a world of drifting white. Her mere presence had already started assembling something around her, and for once she didn’t care enough to stop it. At least she didn’t accidentally create any Alicorn clones this time.

Only the one she’d already made, which swam around her through the air. She was still bound by Jackie’s magic, so she couldn’t wander off. Jackie didn’t even have the energy to confine her. She no longer cared what the stupid thing did.

“Did we win?” Alex asked, swimming up over one of her shoulders. She was no longer proper sized anymore, no longer armored. Just a fish now, without the whole costume she’d conjured to address the ponies of Mundi. Your costume was too good. She should really be going back to New Thestralia to see exactly how many helpless refugees they had recruited.

“I dunno,” she croaked, shoving the fish away and wrapping herself in her wings. They were too small for that in the real world, but here she didn’t have to live by real rules. “This is why I don’t want to rule anything. I knew I was gonna fuck it up. It was only a matter of time until I found a way to ruin everything. Why couldn’t the real you have been here. She would’ve known what to do.”

The fish was silent for a long time. Eventually she answered again, in a tiny voice from beside Jackie’s other ear. “Are you sure she would’ve done better? It’s her fault Athena is in charge in the first place. She could’ve stayed here to rule.”

“She couldn’t have known it was going to go off the fucking rails,” Jackie muttered. Then her eyes widened, and she sat up. She didn’t have to defend Alex. This was her fault. At least some part of it was. She’d promised to sit by and do nothing for a thousand years. Let herself be banished by a program with unpredictable morals and goals.

She’s never done this before. Just outright killing civilians like this. It’s not the same as creating a culture that makes ponies oppress each other. Then she has other people to do her dirty work. She just shot them.

And plenty of her own ponies had seen. They had seen their friends and family getting murdered in cold blood by a monster even more terrible than they had imagined. Athena hadn’t been able to stop the spread of information about her puppet Alicorns, but she could stop word of the slaughter from getting out. All she had to do was kill them all.

“Oh god.” Jackie found she was human again. It wasn’t anything she’d tried to do—but suddenly she had arms and legs and she was holding them up against her chest. “I just got fucking played.”

The fish landed on her knee, and even simulated a decent approximation of moisture as she did it. “You got a million people out of Mundi. People that were oppressed, starved, worked to death. Sounds like you won to me.”

“No.” Jackie brushed a few strands of pale hair out of her face. “Athena knew that stupid assassin couldn’t kill me. If she really wanted me dead, she’d use poison, or a sniper from a million miles—something I wouldn’t see coming and couldn’t stop. But she didn’t. She sent an assassin because she wanted Thestralia even more upset than they were already. She already had plenty of fuel to make Mundi hate us, but we didn’t really hate them. Except… I stopped him. I locked that bastard in Mercy’s library.”

Jackie rose suddenly to her feet, wiping away tears. She wore little in this form—some short armor that generally approximated what she wore in battle as a pony. She didn’t bother with much past that and her knife. “He’s still in here.”

She lifted up into the air, and suddenly she was stepping into the library. The ancient seed of human knowledge and intellect survived the end of its master Archive. Mostly thanks to Mercy.

Jackie could feel her near—the unicorn that was now an Alicorn and also something more. In a way, Mercy was growing into the entity that Archive was no longer. Jackie strode through the shelves, conscious every moment of eyes on her. Some were bats, visiting this place to extract its sacred lore. Plenty more came from Mercy’s little servants and observers. Tiny figments that seemed to arise spontaneously from the library’s floating foundations, crawling over it to maintain and repair the place.

They ignored her, just as they ignored all powerful dreamers. Of course, that would change if she tried to attack the strength of the dream—she didn’t think that she could’ve destroyed it now, even if she wanted to. But she didn’t.

She found Mercy near the top deck, sorting through the shelves of Dewey-Decimal index cards with a glowing crystal horn. Thousands of cards moved through the air all at once, shuffling and rearranging themselves according to her will. It was a spell even the most powerful and focused unicorns would’ve envied.

“Mercy,” Jackie said, settling onto the ground behind her. The crystal Alicorn would’ve been a head taller than she was, except that she was human now. Her head almost scraped on the ceiling. “I left a prisoner here a few months ago. Is he still here?”

The Alicorn turned away from what she was doing. Mercy didn’t actually have to put any of the cards down, her horn just kept glowing. Incredible focus for a figment. But like all figments that survived the events that created them, Mercy had grown into something more. Jackie wouldn’t have been surprised if the energy from all the old prayers to Archive now found its way here.

“Yes, you did,” echoed the crystal Alicorn. “This is a repository of knowledge. What purpose did you confine him here? He had nothing to add to my records.”

“I was kinda pressed for time,” Jackie muttered, lowering her head apologetically. “I hope he didn’t cause much trouble for you. But I need him back. I’m wondering if he might be able to tell me what Athena is planning to do next.”

“I can certainly return him to you,” Mercy said. “Follow me.” They left the cards in place behind them, still arrayed in the air and waiting for sorting.

They didn’t have far to go. A side-door she didn’t recognize led to a single shelf of colorful books. It was mostly empty, with a few dozen volumes all on the same level. Mercy levitated one to her in the air, and Jackie caught it. The cover felt unsettlingly like fur, in the same bluish shade as the pegasus had been. “Oh god. You didn’t.”

“The library will defend itself from dangers,” Mercy said, without a trace of emotion. “When my servants were not cooperative to his demands to return him to the physical world, he grew agitated and attempted to summon a storm. A few fragments of precious knowledge were nearly destroyed in the process. I defended my library.”

She turned away, and Jackie found herself glad that the Alicorn was leaving her behind. She’d once been friend with this little construct, who had been her shy companion on the quest to create a volume of knowledge to give to every returning refugee. It seemed that very little of that pony had survived all these eons.

Figments change. Even the strongest, stablest dreams eventually turn into nightmares.

Jackie waited until Mercy had gone before running from the dark room and its other fur-colored books. She no longer had to guess at what those were either.

“This isn’t going to help,” said a little voice from behind her. Her whole time in the library so far she’d been hiding from Mercy, circling Jackie’s head so she was always out of view. “You already know Athena wants a war. What could the assassin tell you that you haven’t figured out?”

“How ready they are,” Jackie whispered, walking out onto a balcony and over to a chair big enough for a human to sit down in. It had been eons since she’d had two legs, but that didn’t really matter. She could dream of herself with perfect balance, and that was close enough. “Is the invasion coming tomorrow, or a year from now?”

“I guess that makes sense.” The fish landed on the table next to her hand, staring down at the book. “You think you could… change him back?”

She shook her head. “Maybe an Alicorn could. I’ve got bigger problems than that right now.” She wouldn’t have said it out loud, but this pony had tried to kill her. She had a hard time feeling any sympathy for him after that.

She opened the book, flipping through its strange pages. She skimmed the words, and found it described the life of a high-class pony in Mundi, who had spent his days training in one of Athena’s military academies.

You still have those? She read on a little further, morbidly fascinated by what Mercy had done. She’d somehow translated a whole life into the pages of this book. She could read the assassin’s own thoughts—learned his name was Polar Vortex, that he’d been the youngest of his family, determined to make a name for them. But being the youngest meant he wouldn’t be inheriting their wealth, so he couldn’t do it that way.

But none of that really mattered. The story of a life Athena had manipulated and destroyed wasn’t uncommon in Mundi. She skipped near the end, where she found what Polar Vortex had known about New Thestralia. Very little, except that he had imagined that they were planning to attack Mundi itself, to destroy it in revenge for the way they thought they had been treated. Well I guess you weren’t completely wrong. We did attack.

She found what she was looking for just a few pages from the end. The academies were all recruiting now, training soldiers even from the lower classes. There had to be thousands and thousands of them now. Charybdis was dead, as were all the other demons of Earth. That could mean only one thing.

She couldn’t find any specific details about when the attack would come, or what weapons they would bring. The assassin had not studied far outside his realm of expertise. On more than one occasion, she found ponies had told him that he couldn’t know important details, in case he was captured.

There were no specifics to glean here, not even the satisfaction of a rough interrogation against somepony who worked for her enemy. Jackie shoved the book aside, rising to her feet.

“You’re not going to take him with you?”

“No.” She didn’t even turn around, trusting the fish to follow her. And follow she did.

“You made me a promise,” not-Alex said, as Jackie neared the library’s exit. “I helped you. Now you have to let me go.”

She didn’t, exactly. Jackie could break promises, even to dream-entities. But the cost of doing so was a little of her power each time. Not to mention her reputation. Make a reputation for herself as an oathbreaker and she’d find her pool of contacts rapidly drying up.

“No going to the real Alex,” she said, feeling her shoulders sag. “That still holds no matter what you do.”

“I know,” she said, swimming right up to Jackie’s face. “But right now I’m distracting you. The ponies you just set free are the ones who matter. All… however many you got. Let me go, so you can deal with them.”

She waved a hand through the air, dismissing the spell that bound her. “Whatever. Just don’t turn into a monster. It doesn’t matter if everyone else is doing it.”

She shrugged, flying just out of reach. Despite the end of the magic containing her, she didn’t grow any larger or try to get away.

Jackie could still feel her little eyes on her as she cut her way back out into the real world, leaving the library behind.

Chapter 16: Cinereus

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The field outside City Hall was completely packed with bodies. Jackie herself had returned to looking like a pony, and wasn’t bothering to hide who she was.

They had been prepared to rescue a large number of ponies. Booths were set up around the base of the tree, with housing assignment packets and supplies and everything else their new population would need.

There was just one problem: the rescue had gone too well. Some part of Jackie had dreamed that they might, if they were very lucky, double their population. Any more than that would be dangerous, not just because they would be difficult to feed. Bringing in a large block of new citizens would mean tons of new voters, with interests radically different than those who were already established. Jackie was no nation-builder, but even she worried that her little country might not be able to cope.

From the look of the density of ponies here, she hadn’t just doubled her population, but increased it by as much as two orders of magnitude. She kept looking back, and the crowd just kept going.

This is exactly what we didn’t want, she thought, striding up onto the balcony with a little magic. She was beginning to feel weak and slow from all the spellcasting. Even with all her tricks, it would take some time to recover after today.

“Governor,” said Melanie the city planner, gesturing off the railing with a hoof. She stood far enough back that they wouldn’t be visible from below. “What in god’s name did you do? You weren’t supposed to bring every bat in Mundi! We don’t even have standing room for that many!”

“I know.”

“You love your magic trees, but we haven’t managed to get more than ten thousand per square kilometer. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but we don’t have a hundred kilometers of city for those ponies to move into.”

“I know.”

Lavender Eclipse looked as worn from the mission as Jackie herself. Her coat was still splotched with blood, and she had wrapped one of her forelegs in bandage. But she had found her way up here to represent the militia anyway. “Those are civil protection uniforms,” she said, squinting off the balcony. “Maybe… Dreamknife, there are at least a thousand enemy soldiers out there. Maybe more… I’ve never had to count numbers like this before.”

“Not enemy soldiers,” she said, wilting a little more as the barrage continued. The rumble of distant voices from below had gotten louder. Keeping this many ponies in one place was rather like leaving bottles of nitroglycerin out on a desk. They might be okay for a few minutes, but soon they would start getting hungry, and thirsty, and then there would be a riot. “Ponies who wanted to be free. Not all of them were going to be bats.”

“We knew that,” said David, the deputy mayor. He stepped away from her, closer to the soldiers guarding the door. “Why didn’t you shut the door? We could’ve come back for them when we were ready.”

“I know!” Jackie turned away from her indignant council of advisors and petty officials. “I’m going to think of something, okay! Just don’t let the city burn down while I figure it out. Keep them happy.”

Jackie cut her way back out of the world, before they could scream at her anymore. There were already enough screams in her head from the ponies Athena had shot, they didn’t need company.

Unfortunately there was one thing she couldn’t do in the dream world, at least not in any meaningful way. Sleep in the unconscious world did not cause a traveler to dream, or restore their strength. That only worked for its denizens. But she fled there out of habit, into somewhere familiar and safe.

She hadn’t created some grand library for herself in the unconscious world, to protect incredible knowledge and attract visitors from miles around. Such places were vulnerable to attack, as the library had been several times. Not to mention the energy they took to maintain.

Jackie had somewhere else to hide, situated in the dullest dreams of city-dwellers who reenacted the drab activities of their lives when they slept. She arrived in the little fragment of dream, shaped like a cozy uptown apartment. She’d lived in a dozen like it over the course of her long life, and they were all fundamentally the same.

She wandered past little framed pictures on the wall. There was the same changeling in at least half of them. When the Last War ended, so did her records. Jackie had done nothing worth remembering after that.

“I never should’ve been in charge,” she muttered, staring at her tearstained reflection in a kitchen mirror. Outside was a sky of perpetual night, looking out on the Dreamlands in all its beauty. For all that Athena had selected her species for abuse, she could do nothing about this. Her machines could not stop them from dreaming.

“I should’ve just left the world as it was. Things always go to shit when I try to solve other ponies’ problems.”

“You’re not the only one who thinks so,” said a voice from behind her. Jackie didn’t even bother turning around.

So much for my secret hideout. Nopony had ever found their way here uninvited before. But she’d just cut a great big hole straight in from the council room. Hat Trick would’ve had to be dumb and blind to miss it.

“What do you want?”

“Same thing you do,” said the young mare, climbing up onto a too-tall barstool and leaning across the counter into the kitchen. “But the trouble with living is you never know how things are going to work out until after. Except Oracle, I guess. But you should see his dreams.”

“I have,” Jackie said, not turning around. She reached into the fridge, pulled out an ancient glass bottle of Coke, and cracked the lid open on a metal opener near the door.

“Then you know he’s paralyzed with indecision almost every moment. He wants to do good, but he never knows how. He has so many possibilities in front of him and he doesn’t know which is best. So more often than not he just doesn’t do anything.”

“You want one of these?”

The bat shook her head. Jackie knocked it back, feeling the familiar sugary substance glide down her throat. Pony tastes were subtly different than human, but this wasn’t a real Coke. This memory tasted exactly the way she remembered it.

“Maybe he has the right idea,” Jackie said, settling the empty bottle on the counter a second later. “At least if you don’t do anything you can’t royally fuck everything up.”

“Maybe. Can’t really fix anything though, can you?” The young bat leaned close to her. “Running away is exactly the reason the world is this bad. The Alicorns hold themselves responsible for what Charybdis did—and where are they now? Either gone, or not helping. Our lives only get worse when good people do nothing.”

“But I did fuck it up!” Jackie smacked her bottle down, letting it shatter on the tile at her hooves. “I could’ve sent those ponies home. I could’ve lived with the fact that they might get punished for trying to run away. I could’ve taken exactly as many as we could handle and no more. Then we wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Maybe.” Hat Trick shrugged. “Maybe is a bitch of a word though, isn’t it? Maybe Athena will grow a conscience tomorrow and all these problems will go away. Maybe the real Alicorns will come back and wrangle her in. Maybe a passing black hole gobbles up the sun and we all freeze.”

Jackie only stared, stupefied. “This is almost as bad. I knew how much of a problem for our new country it would be if we got a bunch of ponies who weren’t prepared. I made sure Lavender spread around exactly what we really had, so they’d know what they were getting into. No propaganda, nothing.”

“Then what’s the problem? Sounds like we recruited an awful lot of prepared refugees.”

“Prepared for what we had,” Jackie said, grumbling under her breath. “We were aiming at twenty thousand. That’s… a million? It feels like a million, anyway. We don’t have anywhere for them to live. When winter comes, there won’t be anything for them to eat. And they’re gonna get pissed off a long time before that if we tell them to spread off into the jungle and just eat bugs and fruit for a few years while we get our shit sorted out. We’ll have bats begging to go back into the fucking datamines after that.”

“I think you’re forgetting our best resource, Dream-knife.” She gestured in the air, and a photograph of the crowd of evacuated ponies appeared. She pushed it across the counter towards Jackie.

“Uh…” Jackie squinted down at it. Lots of dark wings, lots of evacuated ponies who had the wrong idea of what was valuable. They’d brought portable computers they couldn’t power instead of blankets and food. “What?”

“I don’t know about counting them all, but it looks like eight hundred thousand bats. Not quite half the ones living in Mundi, so congrats on that too by the way.”

“I didn’t miss that,” Jackie argued. “That was the whole point. We were getting them out from under Athena’s awful hell-city. It was the bats we were trying to help escape.

“Exactly. So we have more bats together in one place than there’s ever been. More magic than there’s ever been. Of one specific kind, anyway.”

She thought for a moment she might be able to see what Hat Trick was suggesting. But she couldn’t quite put it together. She was a wrung-out sponge, only moments from total collapse. “Untrained bats,” Jackie said. “Most of our first wave had never even gone dreamwalking in their lives. And I’m good, but I’m not ‘feed a million people with dream food’ good. You’re not. Not even that ancient Equestrian Alicorn could’ve done that.”

“You don’t know much about Thestralia,” Hat Trick said, back in her smug voice. “This won’t even be the first time we’ve tried something like this. Maybe the situation wasn’t as desperate in the past, but…” She gestured behind her, at Jackie’s kitchen table. Something was growing there, the same sort of model Jackie herself had used while planning their response in Axis Mundi. Only this one depicted a city made out of trees, bigger and grander than anything they’d built so far. Trunks seemed to tower right up into the stratosphere, with terraced ledges for food and little waterfalls pouring down from where water was brought in by pegasus teams and collected in canopy pools.

Jackie stared at the model, indignation on her face. “We couldn’t build this,” she said. “Certainly not before those ponies realize we lied to them and riot our city to the ground. We could bring in every bat trained to make tree-buildings, hell, we could train every citizen we had, and it still wouldn’t make a dent in a city this large.”

“Well, obviously.” Hat Trick waved a wing dismissively. “Maybe it would be cool to really build, maybe not. That isn’t what I’m saying. I’m saying we already have ourselves a stable Spirit Road in and out of the dream world. City Hall.” She waved one hoof through the model, and most of it blew away like smoke. In the center only the single, tallest tree remained. With its opening near the heartwood.

“You’re… you’re saying we should build a city in the Dreamlands?” Jackie shook her head. “That’s… the most batshit insane thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It isn’t, really.” Hat Trick didn’t sound even the slightest bit dissuaded. “Like I said, we’ve done it before. City Hall already exists on both sides. How much harder would it be to expand, with the best dreamcrafters in the world to build it?” She flexed her wings, beaming proudly. “And we’ll have enough bat pony glamour to keep the dream stable indefinitely. That’s part of what the Arcane Network was for.”

Chapter 17: Sodalis

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It was positively insane—Jackie knew it shouldn’t have worked. Knew it in the same way that she knew that comfort was good and pain was bad. Yet incredibly, inexplicably, she was discovering she was wrong.

“So much of how we live is built on unquestioned assumptions,” Hat Trick explained. “Assumptions about where the world ends, about how power ought to be used, about what can be achieved and what can’t. But the end of one assumption is the beginning of the next great invention. Or the next spectacular failure. No way to find out which except to roll the dice.”

They had no choice about whether or not to roll. They had almost a million people now—so many that their food supply wouldn’t last more than a few days, so many that they’d have to spread out over the whole continent if they wanted to forage. And by the time they did that, half their population would be dead. It wasn’t like they could rely on the old Arcane Network, either. Most of that system was basically destroyed now, ancient waystations and supply deposits burned to a crisp in order to oppose Athena’s power for only a few minutes.

“And I’ll be expecting payback,” Eureka declared, the very next day. “I used the power from that network to continue my experiments. I expect this new civilization of yours to rebuild it as you go. To go back to powering it. I’m not particular about where the energy comes from. Blood sacrifices, ancient rituals, solar collectors. Just get the lights back on in my lab, and soon.”

That was hardly their first priority, though. Jackie and her other bats began the greatest endeavor in dreamcrafting history. She called a meeting of anypony who had even a shred of talent, over a thousand bats in all, and brought them to the Dreamlands for a time-accelerated bit of coursework. In a single night, they spent months and months practicing. Every skilled dreamer the world over flocked to their city, and every craftspony worth their skill had contributions to make.

The next night, her thousand ponies could each teach a thousand of their own, taken from the most eager of their recruits found by her other ponies during the day. And together, they could build the city.

There was no real organization at first—the scope of the city they were building was so massive that not one pony on her staff even knew where to begin. In the end the basic suggestions came from not-Alex, who took the virtual model Hat Trick had made and extrapolated it using the pattern of the Arcane Network’s tree grid.

“They’re modular units,” the fish explained, to Jackie, Hat Trick, and the other skilled bats of the city. “The problem with living in big cities is that no one knows each other, communities fracture. So you build a city around solving that. You keep families together, try to mix up the demographics with intelligence and training and stuff the best you can otherwise, and you build these with each one.”

She zoomed in on a single section of the model. Not with dreamwalking magic as the bats would’ve used, but the unicorn flavor, physically enlarging the little model. It was slower and clumsier than any of the bats could’ve done, but she made her point nonetheless. “Each one of these buildings is a thousand people. A huge central tree with services, and ten little housing trees around it, each one with a hundred people and a vertical farm for their food. The big tree holds their school, their marketplace, city hall, whatever.”

“It’s like City Hall, but smaller,” Lavender muttered. “More compact. More planned.”

“She got to plan the whole thing in advance, not figure out the technology along the way,” Jackie said. “It seems bland to house everypony the same way. But I guess when we have a million people and no food, we don’t have time to get fancy.”

“There are openings between each section,” not-Alex continued, fitting her section into the model. “Each one of these is like… a little hexagon. The junction of each one with its neighbors is space for another tree where we can put… whatever we want. Fancy universities, factories, satellites… whatever.”

“I’ve never built a hundred of the same things before,” Hat Trick muttered. “But I suppose no single pony has to build that many.”

“Even building one each would get repetitive for skilled dreamers like you,” Alex-fish said. “Remember, a thousand people live in each one. You can zoom into the model, or the samples of each room Jackie and I have waiting for you outside. Repeating them over and over is going to be a pain. But there’s no getting around the number. We just… split this thing into smaller pieces and…” She trailed off, looking up from the model. Jackie had allowed her to remain normal sized for this meeting, so she could seem like Alex to the others there. “What stops the dream from ending again? What keeps it stable?”

“Bats living in it,” Jackie supplied. “Theoretically.”

“It’s not theoretical,” Hat Trick said, voice perfectly confident. “Our population is way more than half bat. Each one of them is going to be depending on this thing for their lives. And we aren’t going to tell them they’re in a dream… we’re just going to say it’s another world. That little misconception will let them expect the world to be stable. Like it always does, the Dreamlands will conform to their expectation.”

“And if it ever gets out that we lied, they’ll get dragged off screaming by the Morpheans,” Jackie muttered, voice dark. “This doesn’t sound like living in a house of cards at all.”

“If you’ve got something stronger in mind, say so,” Hat Trick replied, looking slightly annoyed. “We didn’t do this because we want to live in the Dreamlands. We did it because we don’t have anywhere else.”

“I’ve been doing some research with Mercy,” not-Alex went on, as though there had been no interruption. “She thinks we should be able to progressively transition out of the Dreamlands and back into physical space. So long as we make the trees overlap with the ones on the Earth side, we can connect them sympathetically… so the more they get lived in, the more they shape the ones on the other side. They should just be able to grow into the ones we want, minus a little magic we can roll out over time.”

“But if that doesn’t happen…” Jackie went on, not waiting for her to finish. “First, all these people will be in the Dreamlands constantly. So they won’t age, they won’t mature, and if they die they’ll transition permanently to the Dreamlands and start growing into dream spirits. Also they might lose their grasp on reality completely, they might go insane from not sleeping enough, or maybe a hundred other things.”

“Pushing frontiers has never been without its risks,” Hat Trick muttered. “Any of those things could happen. Or this could be a crutch to get us out of the population strangulation you almost caused. Taking half the bats in the world out of the only place that could support so many ponies.”

“I get it.” Jackie sat back on her haunches. “I’m approving the plan. It’s not great, it’s probably going to fuck us up in ways I can’t even think of, but if we don’t start something now we’re going to get a revolt on our hands. We have… two more days’ worth of food, I think? If we’re fuckin’ lucky.”

She gestured. “Fish, organize this shit. Delegate. I’ll take a whole team’s assignments, so can Hat Trick.”

“Well…” The fish looked away from her, tail flicking nervously behind her. “It would be better if I started you off building a complete example section using the models here, then… then you wouldn’t have a job at all. That way you could jump to teams having trouble.”

Even her ghost is better at organizing than I am. “Fine.” Jackie tried not to sound annoyed. “That’s perfect, great. Let me see those blueprints again.” She leaned a little closer, inspecting the model. “How about it, Hat Trick? You do the big one, I do the little trees all around it. I’ll channel my inner Bob Ross.”

“Sure, I do all the complex infrastructure, you build a few hundred condos. Sounds fair to me.”

But they did it, in less time than Jackie would’ve imagined possible before dreamcraft. It was a science unlike any other. There were no limits to what could be created, not even the physical laws outside. It didn’t matter if they had enough raw materials to build tree homes in that quantity, didn’t matter if she knew anything about how to forge metals, or any of that. So long as Jackie could picture the outcome perfectly, she could build it.

That got complex when she was building something so intricate. A novice might make the mistake of assuming that she could just imagine a building full of apartments. But she had to picture each one, every amenity, every wall, every system that made them work. She had to hold each image long enough for the glamour of the Dreamlands to swirl together into physical form. The dreamspace surrounding City Hall was already stable with the ordinary laws of the universe, so at least she didn’t have to remind the rooms of gravity or light.

But the process got easier. The first few apartments stretched her abilities, but after that she’d memorized everything and it was just an endurance test. It was slightly more complex than the time Jackie had conjured an entire army of dream-soldiers, but at least that exercise had a war at the end.

Hat Trick had their little branch of the Arcane Network finished by the time Jackie was halfway done with apartments, so she could tie it all together. Magic from the real world flowed through that network, giving this illusion increasing stability. Without that arterial flow from City Hall, so large a dream would’ve already fallen apart.

By the time she was done, not-Alex arrived in fish form to check out some of the units, and to follow her through the air in an infuriating recreation of real Alex’s lack of trust.

“We need to do something about your identity,” Jackie said, from inside one of the matching apartment units. “Honestly, this whole being a dead hero thing, I don’t care if it makes you more respectable. If you’re not yourself, you can’t be anything but her shadow.”

“Uh… okay.” The figment couldn’t exactly argue with her, and she was smart enough to know it. Intelligent or not, Jackie had created her. She could easily alter her without permission, at least now in these early days before not-Alex had accrued a real identity of her own. “What do you mean? New name? New face?”

“Yes,” Jackie said, freezing the fish in place with a gesture from one wing. “I guess all this real estate shit put me in a creative mood. You wanted freedom? Well, the first step is freeing yourself from the shadow of the person you look like. Your new name… Misty. Yeah, that should do it. And your face…” She made a few quick alterations. Shrinking her a little, removing the wing-suggestions that marked her as an Alicorn, introducing some stripes, and dulling her colors. It wouldn’t hurt the figment, though it would probably confuse her.

Sure enough, the first thing Misty did when released was swim through the air over to a mirror and stare at it, touching her face with a hoof. “I don’t understand, Jackie… if I’m not Alex… who am I? What am I supposed to be? It’s already confusing for me. Your subconscious made me to tell you something your conscious didn’t notice. I did that, and now… now I’m pointless. Maybe you should just erase me.”

Jackie actually laughed, dragging her past the mirror and over to a window. The window had a perfect view of the next few buildings, and the spectral echo of the capitol building on the Dreamlands side. “Not a chance in hell, Misty. You’re not a figment, you’re not a program. Then I would’ve let you melt back into the Dreamlands like other characters. But you’re… you’re a person. A useful person, who helped us get this far. I’m not going to throw that in the dumpster. You aren’t going to throw yourself into the dumpster.”

“No, just a fishbowl.” There was a flash of magic—Misty’s own magic—and suddenly she was small again, floating in an identical copy of the bowl that Jackie had locked her in on the first day. “Remember this? I do.”

“It’s convenient storage,” Jackie admitted. “Look, the real you is kinda shit, okay? The real you runs away from authority, avoids responsibility when people need her most. Instead of rebuilding here on Earth, she went to be a space governor. What the fuck is that?”

“Doesn’t sound like any other ponies I know.” Misty said.

Jackie banged one hoof on the glass of the bowl, so loud it cracked. “Don’t you dare.” She relaxed though, she wasn’t finished making her point. “Look, you’ve seen how desperate Thestralia is. We need every tool we can get our hooves on, every advantage. That includes the knowledge of somepony who should’ve been here anyway. Don’t think of yourself as a copy of Alex—you’re better than she is.”

Chapter 18: Keenii

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Things didn’t go nearly so smoothly with all the other dreamcrafters. They had far less experience—in some cases no more than a single night’s accelerated time. But Jackie didn’t have much of a choice, they needed everyone’s work to build before the whole city collapsed.

That left a great deal for her and Hat Trick to do, moving between identical sections of city and fixing similar problems. It was the same stuff she was used to with novice dreamcrafters—doors that were just walls, machines that only had fronts, wires that didn’t connect to anything. All of that was just fine for ordinary dreamcrafting, but less so when they were building things meant to transition into the physical world. They had to be fully rendered on the first day, so that the version ponies believed in was the one that eventually became real.

From the subjective viewpoint of the crafters, the process took months. Months of construction no different in many ways than other large building projects. Only, there were no huge trucks of raw materials coming in, no union strikes, no delays waiting for concrete to cure or for the plumbers to finish with a floor.

For the last two real days, Jackie had instructed that their new arrivals be told that they were working on a portal to the city. That portal would take a lot of time to charge, since there were so many of them. In the meantime they were to be given tours of the buildings that did exist, since they would eventually be living in a similar way.

But towards the end, she could see that they were getting restless. There was only so many times a pony could be promised they had a better home coming while they were sleeping on the floor, and still believe it. The energy of their escape was finite and it was running out fast.

Then they finished the first modern dream-city of Meliora.

The portal itself would take very little energy this time, since it already existed. It would just be a matter of organizing all of the ponies to walk into the building and use it.

For the second time, Jackie stood at the edge of the balcony, overlooking a crowd. This time the crowd was so numerous that she couldn’t see the ground in most places, and it stretched into the trees as far as she could easily see. Flower and vegetable gardens below had been eaten or trampled, the land was already becoming overwhelmed—overwhelmed by her compassion, her mistake.

There wasn’t enough room for so many, not so early in their development. She should’ve left them behind.

And if the dream they’re all living in falls apart, we’re dead. A dream supported by so many bats would be like a sheet left out in the wind. Each bat living inside would be like a physical weight pressing it down, making it firmer and more secure. Areas that didn’t see bats often would start to unravel over time, or morph into something else.

“I applaud your patience,” Jackie said, her voice magically amplified. The crowd below quieted, but not as much as her own citizens had done. These ponies were unhappy, and they weren’t going to be completely cooperative.

So she didn’t wait to lose control. It would be a nightmare to finish building the dream-city only to have the ones it was built for starve to death instead.

“I’m here to tell you that your wait is over. The portal inside this building is open, and your assignments are complete. I think once you see your new home, you’ll see the wait was worthwhile. It won’t have all the same amenities that you knew in Mundi, but what it will have is self-determination for you and your family. Over time, we can rebuild everything we left behind.

“You have already been separated into groups—each of these will be a smaller unit of our new civilization. A town, if you like. I’ve appointed a mayor to serve for the first three months—to answer your questions, to help distribute the work, all that. But that pony will serve only for a short time. By the time their term is up, it’s up to you to learn how your part of the world works, to vote for your own mayor.

“Just one word of warning first. Know that you must return through this portal if you wish to explore the land. I am not exaggerating when I say that the territory on the other side is safe only so far as the borders of Meliora. If you go even a kilometer past the wall, you will find certain death waiting. So return through the portal to somewhere safer if you want to go out. We will keep the portal open perpetually from now on, so you will not be prisoners on the other side. You’ve all been slaves long enough.”

That was all she could think of—Jackie wasn’t exactly one for speeches. So she stepped down, and let her handful of militia organize the lines up into City Hall. It was a good thing they’d finished while the newcomers were still civil, or the weight of bodies alone could’ve ruined everything they built. If we weren’t all bats, that kind of mistake would’ve destroyed this civilization. I need to be better.

Jackie herself retreated near the center of the building, where the portal itself was built. Ponies were being taken into City Hall in their groups, and it took about five minutes for each one to file through the gap. Jackie made herself prominently available for ponies who had questions, marking down the names and remembering the faces of those who seemed like they might be trouble.

That would be one of the weaknesses of building like this—she couldn’t use dream-travel to covertly watch any of these newcomers, or to quickly move to them. They were already in dreams all the time. But as Hat Trick and so many others had already said, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of other options. They would just have to make do with the Dreamlands in the short term while they bootstrapped their way to a bigger city.

It took almost a whole day to get everypony through the portal. By the time they had, Jackie could sense the constant unease radiating from the crowd, which seemed every moment on the edge of a riot. By the end of the line a rumor had somehow started that they were actually killing the ponies to harvest their magic, so the whole line ground to a halt while Jackie took a few representatives from each group on a tour of the city, to meet their friends who had gone before.

That distraction out of the way, and what had been a six-month process for poor Jackie was finally winding down. The last of the newcomers passed through the portal onto the Dreamlands side of Meliora, and they were left behind. Left behind with a ground stripped brown by the abundance of pony bodies eating and sleeping on it for the last few days.

“That was some incredible plate-spinning,” said a voice from behind her. Liz poked her head out of the central office, body dripping from the water that surrounded the heartwood. Her armor creaked a little as she walked, responding sluggishly to each movement. I have to find her some new gear if she’s going to stick around. “Mind sharing what fucking miracle you summoned to stop this place from eating itself alive?”

“I can show you,” Jackie muttered, though she could feel the exhaustion threatening to strangle her. She hasn’t seen me for a few days. I have to be sympathetic. “Just through here.” She gestured towards a large doorway that hadn’t been there before, one that led into a solid wall in the real world. In reality it led to the exact mirror version of City Hall, surrounded by identical city sections with their empty hexagons.

“Oh shit.” Liz scampered over to the hole, staring around it. Her horn flashed for a second. “That’s some serious juice. How did songless primitives’ power all…” She poked one hoof through the opening, then jumped her way through to the other side. She landed normally, and Jackie followed her. Despite her insistence that she was fully mature, Liz acted so much like a child sometimes that it was hard to see her any other way.

She wasn’t far from the balcony on the other side, and Liz seemed to be thinking the same thing. She skipped through the halls, shoved the door open, and stared out in open shock.

Just now, the city was actually set to run to slower time than the real world. Jackie would flip that around the other way once her dream-team got the rest they needed to start fixing the holes that so many real minds would make in a dream. “Holy shit.”

Jackie stood beside her on the balcony. In many ways, the city Jackie had promised for them a century in the future had arrived in the present. Skyscrapers of brown and green linked with crystalline bridges, leaves glowing with the magical energy they harvested. And in every building, moving through the air, resting in open-air parks or moving about on the ground were ponies. Ponies set free.

The distant walls that protected their dream were less visible here, and would be painted to make it look like the jungle just kept going. Those who lived close to them wouldn’t be fooled by the illusion, but from here they were basically invisible. City Hall was larger than any of the other trees, and more haphazardly developed. But in a way, those chunks of identical city looked like the improved version of what they had built. Designed after they had six months of tree-construction experience, so that almost everything could be built from wood instead of structures grafted into the bark.

“Which god did you sell your soul to make this?” Liz stepped back from the rail, glancing up into a sky full of stars. “Wait, let me guess. This looks like Mystic Rune. After he trapped me in this fucking body, you found something that would challenge him. And while he was here he didn’t stop by to let me stop being Peter Pan.”

“Nope.” Jackie rested a wing on her shoulder. “We didn’t bribe anyone. No Alicorn helped with this, actually. Though I guess we had the knowledge of a few to work with. But… we did all the hard work ourselves. My construction crews and I.”

“Not possible,” Liz argued, retreating a step away from her. “I know this tree magic stuff is new, and maybe we don’t understand all the rules. But there’s no way on Earth you can build a whole city using mostly untrained ponies. No way you can make all the little pieces work. What’s the joke?”

Jackie lowered her voice to a whisper. “Think about who did the building. What are we good at?”

Liz looked to be deep in concentration for a few seconds, before her eyes widened and she suddenly beamed at her. “Ohhhhhhhh.”

Jackie raised a hoof briefly across her lips. “I’m telling you in confidence. The technique relies on the mindset of the ponies living here. You can’t introduce a variable like that this early. The longer the… city… remains stable, the stronger its foundation gets. The ones most likely to figure it out already know, and they’re helping us build and maintain it. We’re going to keep looking for bats who look like they’re catching on and recruit them.”

“Damn.” Liz sat back on her mechanical haunches, holding up one hoof. “I thought… I thought coming here physically would be more obvious. But I don’t feel any different. Didn’t you say it was a really bad idea to do things here casually? Like, if we die here…”

“Yeah,” Jackie interrupted. She didn’t see anypony listening, but that didn’t mean they should take chances. This was the first day—if ponies were likely to be places they shouldn’t by accident on any day, it would be today. “We’re transitioning into physical space, or we will be. There are lots of advantages to living here, so long as we’re careful. We’ll just… have to be careful.”

Liz rose to her hooves again, shaking herself out and heading back down the hall. “Well, nothing personal, but I want to get back. I don’t trust this place. And… you should get some rest. This isn’t the only fire you had to put out.”

“It isn’t?”

“Well, yeah. Mundi is still going to invade.”

Chapter 19: Evotis

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Jackie had preserved Meliora from being completely overwhelmed with refugees… at least until somepony found out they were living in a dream. But she could do nothing to prevent that, nothing besides making sure that the vast population of Meliora received good instruction into the mechanics of their bat pony powers. They would learn the truth, eventually. The circumstances of that revelation would decide whether her attempt to give them somewhere safe to live ended in terrible failure or audacious success.

The city council met the next day. Jackie arrived at the meeting a few minutes late, the same way she always did. Instead of quietly taking a seat in the back with a fresh bagel and several shots of espresso, the whole room fell completely silent. Melanie stopped with some boring presentation about the watershed along the coast to join the others staring at her.

Jackie glanced between them, settling down her mug on the worn wooden table. “What’s wrong?”

There was a long silence. Jackie shifted uneasily as her mind wandered, imaging various terrible possibilities. Everyone in the dream is dead. Athena is going to use the rods of god on us. Charybdis is back. What the hell happened?

“I’m glad you’re on our side,” Lavender said, settling in beside her. “We picked the right princess for Thestralia.”

Words of agreement echoed from around her, and Jackie suddenly recognized their expressions. The ponies on her city council were looking away from her, speaking almost reverently as they agreed with Lavender. Except for Liz, who looked as confused about all this as Jackie had been.

“I’m not a princess,” Jackie said, and she could see that their faces didn’t change in the least.

“Of course not,” said Fry. “Obviously. We know that.”

“But if you were,” Lavender continued. “You might be able to do some pretty incredible things. Like building a city in two days.”

“We knew you were the Dreamknife,” said Firelight, the religious representative on the council. “We knew knives could be used to destroy. Not to build. We should’ve. Maybe if we’d given you the respect you deserve, we could’ve gotten out of the jungle sooner.”

“No.” Jackie rose, knocking over her mug with a frustrated wing. “Fuck this. No. You all can finish this meeting without me. Liz, my office.” She didn’t walk out so much as fade briefly through the Dreamlands, which was becoming far less private than it used to be. The copy of City Hall on that side now might have bats in it, who would be even more willing to look at her like she was some goddamn princess than her own city council had.

She cut her way back into the physical world pretty quickly though, and paced restlessly back and forth in her office. There were a few minor notes her dream team had left her, describing the ways the dream they had created was adapting to the enormous strain that almost a million minds was placing on it. She skimmed them, but didn’t find any of the warning signs she would’ve been expecting from an upcoming catastrophic failure. What they wrote was more like the settling of a great weight into a mold. Nothing to worry about.

Liz emerged a few seconds later, clicking the door shut behind her. “That was… a little unnecessary, don’t you think?”

“You mean the goddamn religion? Yeah, I’d say so.” Jackie smacked one hoof into the table, denting it a little with the force. “Half the ponies in that room helped me design the city, or helped me build it.”

Liz shrugged. “Ever read what the engineers on the Manhattan project wrote after seeing the first few tests?”

Jackie’s wings tensed. “Now you sound like your sister. I didn’t pull you in here for trivia.” She turned away, striding over to the little window into the heartwood and the magic resonating from within. In a way, their whole civilization relied on what went on in this room. A bomb in here could destabilize the dream-city, and undo the supports that kept the real one supplied with magical energy as well.

It’s a good thing Athena doesn’t think of any world but this one as real, or we’d be fucked.

“Why then?” Liz asked, annoyed. “Trying to make them see me as your priestess? I won’t worship you, I’m Catholic. I already have a God to pray to. You can ask Him, I’d be a shit priest anyway.”

Jackie growled in response. “I wanted to know if you wanted to come play diplomat with me.”

“Really?” Liz’s eyebrows went up. “That sounds like fun. But I’m not sure we can win over Athena after stealing so many citizens from her. My sister explained how she worked to me once. The only thing she cares about is the number of people she’s ruling over. She’s gonna be pissed about the robbery you just did.”

“Not Athena,” Jackie agreed. “Right now Meliora is becoming unbalanced, unstable. We’ve got way too much investment in the Dreamlands side, and not enough on our side. We need more ponies keeping things real over here. And helping us bring over the dream-city with some nature magic.”

“Which means… who?”

“The deer,” Jackie answered. “And maybe some fairies too. I’ve been seeing things in some of their dreams—a huge airship filled with tiny ponies. It’s gonna be the most adorable mission we’ve ever been on.” She spun back around, holding out her wings. “They’re called breezies. Like little ponies this big. Thing is, they’re powerful nature spirits. Might be tiny, but their magic makes earth ponies look like amateurs. I think I could find where they’re hanging out. I know for a fact they still dream.”

“Are you going to… get permission from the city council for any of this?”

Jackie didn’t even bother answering. Liz was a smart enough fish to figure that out.

“Who is it, the deer or the… breezies?”

“Both, but fairies first. Deer don’t have as much magic. In the long term the deer are probably the better investment, since they can coexist easier without overwhelming everything. But all the deer I ever met were religious. Let’s treat with the fae.”

“Uh…”

Jackie opened a door into the Dreamlands, and this time she left it open. “Come on, Liz, you’ll love it. They’re the cutest little monsters you ever saw.” The fish followed her through the opening in the air, and the darkness closed in behind her a moment later. Jackie hadn’t taken them directly to the other side this time, but into one of her own private corners of the Dreamlands. This one was a massive, topographical map of the planet and everywhere else that ponies lived. So there were a few starships, a few space stations, and a few covered domes. But they weren’t visiting any of those today.

Jackie concentrated on the map of Earth, searching for the largest concentration of fae creatures. They did sleep, and their dreams were particularly strange. She had a feeling that Archive would’ve had a hard time connecting them with the memory of humanity—they didn’t have much in common.

“Now that’s interesting.” The map fuzzed, and a massive airship appeared over the skies in central Australia. It had the look of something ancient, repaired so many times that nothing of the original remained. There were thousands and thousands of little fairies inside, and some of those were asleep. Their dreams tasted strange, flashing with images that made no sense to Jackie. I can’t believe there are refugees who changed into you guys. You’re not even close to human.

“Another advanced civilization?” Liz leaned over the edge of the map, her hooves blurring the ruined ports on the edge of Australia. “Or… wait, you called them fae. What does that mean?”

“It means watch your words,” Jackie answered. “Don’t be rude. Don’t eat the food, and remember magic always has its price.”

“Uh…” Liz glanced over her shoulder, but the doorway they’d come through was already gone. “The city council acting weird didn’t make you lose your mind, did it? Because you’re the one acting weird right now.”

“Yes, no, whatever I don’t care.” Jackie waved a bat wing through the map, and it melted away into foam. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But when I found you on that seapony colony, it seemed like you were losing your mind with boredom. Running the general store in Meliora seemed like it would get pretty boring after a while too. Living with seaponies gave you a lot of different biases, I figure being another kind of life might help you work through them.”

Liz mouthed the word “being,” looking increasingly nervous. “Are you sure you didn’t lose your shit? Mundi is still coming for us. I dunno how soon, but this doesn’t seem like it will help.”

“You think I forgot?” Jackie tensed, drifting back to her memories inside Axis Mundi. Athena had been programmed to protect civilization and help them recover from Charybdis, and she’d accomplished her purpose by gunning down a room full of refugees. A thousand ponies, and who knew how many more. “I’m not like them.”

Jackie flicked her wings, and the dream around them dissolved into something else. “You think you had it hard, Liz? You came back after the worst enemies were all beaten, the battlefields were cold. I’ve been here. You didn’t understand when Mystic Rune gave you your immortality?”

The word was black around her. Jackie appeared beside her, leering into Liz’s face. “I watched your sister murdered in front of me. Then I had to stay alive as the world we’d balanced for three centuries crumbled around us. I watched civilizations rot, I watched demons turn us against ourselves.”

Reality appeared around them, though even the Dreamlands could represent these images only poorly. The hill in an ancient city, where every stone represented some fundamental truth. That shore where she’d said goodbye to the only person she really loved. “I saw past the iridescent veil. I stood beside a supernal well and refused the will of gods. I’ve seen the fathomless darkness of the abyss.”

She dismissed the dream completely, and the two of them dropped into the Dreamlands where they happened to be standing. The enchanted forest, with its strange animals chirruping in the distance. The sound of crickets mixed with the strange language of the zoogs, tempting away any cats who wandered too far.

“I know Athena is coming. I’ve fought the gods before. I’ve fought sargons and emperors. I’ve fought queens and priests. Quismali, nightmares, and broken oaths. I’ve survived them all. Meliora will make it through these.”

Liz’s eyes were wide, and she kept glancing around them. As though looking for somewhere to run, but ultimately thinking better of it. When she finally spoke, her voice was very small. “My sister told me there weren’t gods or goddesses. But if you’re trying to convince me that isn’t what you are, you aren’t doing a great job. You just saved a million people.”

“We have to save them again,” Jackie snapped. “Maybe a god could just pretend everything was fine after saying what they wanted. But that’s what separates us. We have to get our hooves down into the dirt, square our shoulders, and lift.”

Liz relaxed. “Alright, Jackie. What’s the plan? How do we stop Athena?”

Jackie cantered past her, grabbing Liz by a wing and dragging her along. “Athena is smarter than me, she’s smarter than you, she’s smarter than Alicorns. She has tons of information—but she doesn’t have it all. Our best chance of winning a war against her is introducing factors she can’t predict.

“Breezie magic is exactly that—it’s not well understood, so she doesn’t have a lot of history she can look at. But the vision Voeskender showed me included breezies living with us, and I think they made the city stronger. Think of it like… we’re recruiting for the coming invasion. The deer and breezies both live here, might as well see if they join up. We can start with the ones who used to be human, and see if maybe they will work together. Athena might want them dragged back to Mundi too, if she knew about them. Our interests should line up.”

Jackie found them a path that led through the enchanted wood—deeper than she’d ever been, into those ancient parts where old legends from before the birth of man still grew strange and the song of the firstborn was still sung. Jackie rarely traveled to such dangerous realms of slumber, but today she had good reason.

“So we’re gathering allies,” Liz said. “That’s it?”

“That’s where we start,” Jackie said. “Stay close to me, and maybe stay quiet. It’s a dangerous trip.”

Chapter 20: Macrotus

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Jackie had traveled beyond physical space—up above the Dreamlands into the astral, and across distant shores to the supernal. The trip had not made her into one of the semi-divine Alicorns as it transformed so many others who took it, but that didn’t mean she had been unaffected.

As she had done during her trip out to the seapony colony, Jackie could change her form. It was simple enough magic—making herself into different characters was one of the most basic lessons of dreamcrafting. All she really did different was use a little magic to make it stick when she emerged into the physical.

When it came to visiting the breezies, she didn’t have much of a choice about it. Their airship was honeycombed with small spaces, their own floating city, and none of it had room for a visiting normal-sized pony. The breezies did not host visitors.

Her own transformation took only moments—trading her own bat wings for something closer to a dragonfly, squishing and compressing her body into the unusual proportions that breezies occupied. The internal chemistry was harder, and Jackie couldn’t have done it justice. But she was just a dream, so it didn’t really matter. So long as she didn’t try to stay that way for too long.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t decided to take this trip alone. She could’ve left Liz behind—but like Caesar before her, she needed someone to follow behind and remind her that she was only human.

She wasn’t a unicorn, so she couldn’t use transformation magic on Liz the way Alex might’ve. But Jackie was an old bat, and had mastered many tricks in her long life.

She couldn’t teach a fish to take the dreamworld into reality. But she could do something similar. Once they reached the dream of one of the sleeping breezies, she crafted their own small dream, and put Liz to sleep.

Jackie couldn’t change her real body, but she could create a fake one for Liz to puppet around while they were out in the waking world. She tried to use Liz’s same colors, though beyond that she just made an ordinary breezie. Keeping fish features would only have made it more confusing.

“So, just so you know how this works, Liz. Your real self will be in the Dreamlands while we do this. That means you can’t die, but there’s a tiny chance some monster might find where we’re doing this and kidnap you. It’s… a remote chance, probably won’t happen. But it could, so…”

The dream she’d built to keep Liz inside wasn’t very large at all—just a tank of water with a bunch of fancy hookups and controls, something to get her into the mindset that she’d be interfaced with a puppet. It wasn’t necessary, but point of view meant a great deal when it came to dreams.

Liz climbed inside, moving around in the warm water. “Ugh, salty. Tastes strange after the freshwater inside City Hall.” She adjusted herself into the controls anyway, looking up at where Jackie fluttered above the tank. She was already a breezie so Liz would know what to expect. “And we aren’t lying to them, right? We aren’t going to be claiming to be like them? This is just… so we can negotiate better.”

“Yeah,” Jackie answered, focusing on the spell she had in mind. “We aren’t lying. We’d never convince them, anyway. They’re so close to bugs, we could never do a convincing job acting that way. If Ezri couldn’t do it, then neither of us stand a chance. Just don’t make too much of a fool of yourself and we should be okay.”

Jackie stepped sideways into the real world, and her control of reality shrunk back to herself and the fake body she’d brought along.

They were on the edge of something soft and filled with tiny bodies. It only took her a second to see what it was—some kind of communal sleeping area, made with layers and layers of thin silk. And scattered around were two dozen or so sleeping breezies. There were hooks on the wall for vests, hats, jackets, but Jackie passed them by.

The ground hummed quietly, the whole world shaking as the airship drifted in its flight. With her eyes closed, Jackie could feel thousands of tiny bodies moving, maybe more than that. There was a lot of company up here.

“Oh my god, my legs feel wrong,” Liz squeaked, new antennae waving back and forth. “What’s wrong with me? Why am I so squished? There’s no room for all my organs!”

“Shh, you’re waking up the bugs,” Jackie whispered, gesturing towards the doorway. It was on the ceiling instead of the wall… Right, she doesn’t know how to fly. Too bad they didn’t have some kind of matrix-like dream operator to download skills. While in the Dreamlands, bats could imitate skills relevant to the dreams they wanted to create. But out here in the real world, even a master dreamcrafter like Jackie was at a loss.

“Just… think light thoughts,” Jackie said, yanking Liz by one hoof and into the air. Fortunately for them, the body was fake—no reason it couldn’t be weightless too. Jackie’s wings buzzed against her back, but so long as she didn’t think about it too much she could get them up and out. They landed in a transparent glass tube, like something that might be built for rodents.

The shaft had obviously been constructed to give them a view of the airship, and quite a view it was. At this scale, it was a little like being inside a giant flying city. There were some sections with streets, and tiny cubbies on the walls like little buildings. Below them were lots of identical trays filled with leaves, and then a bit of advanced machinery whirring as it manufactured something.

There were thousands and thousands of breezies. They kept to the air, mostly—none walked along the bottom with the two of them, and they were already attracting looks. They were also generally more dressed than they were, even if it was just vests, hats, or the occasional jumpsuit. The air was humid and probably would’ve been swelteringly hot, but to the physiology of this body it felt wonderful. Climate control.

“So, what do we do? Aside from… feel stupid and get everypony to stare at us.”

“We find the fanciest place in town,” Jackie supplied. “Or if we can’t do that, the fanciest bar. I don’t know how good their security will be, but maybe they’ll find us. Then I can explain why we’re here to whoever’s in charge and make our proposal.”

“You think they’ll listen?”

Jackie shrugged. “It’s not a matter of if, but how much it will cost. Think about what it would be like for you if you were a few inches tall. There’d be so little you could do, and even tiny jobs would take ages. Having pony allies makes sense for them.” Her eyes lingered on a passing flock of what seemed almost like university students. Maybe a cheerleading team? Let no one say these breezies didn’t use their tiny bodies for all they were worth.

The ground had many, many openings, which made the walk through town a little more time consuming than it needed to be. The rooms were completely dark except for the light that came in from above, which seemed to Jackie to be artificial. I wonder what this airship uses for power. Can’t be nuclear, or we couldn’t have teleported in. It reminded her a little of something the HPI might’ve built, if it had been completely overwhelmed with an adorable infestation of pony-shaped bugs.

The next hour or so was fairly uneventful—they followed the flow of traffic until they found themselves in something like a row of shops, where Jackie could watch the locals as they bought and sold. Or… maybe not exactly. There was no money anywhere that she could see, no lists or computers or credit cards.

So they went to a bar, and Jackie found herself some locals she could schmooze. At this point, she wasn’t particular about how they looked—so long as they seemed important.

It only took a few minutes of conversation to learn the basics. The locals didn’t have an economy exactly, but they did understand trade, accomplishment, and debt. Their behavior did seem close enough to pony that they could probably be convinced, and some of them had been human.

Not very many, though. Talking to a few different fairies, and it seemed the original settlers of this place had numbered in the double digits of humans. From just a few of them had come whole crowds, in repeated explanations that invoked the name of the Night Matron and someone called Janus in ways that made no sense to Jackie.

But she didn’t need to understand everything about where they’d come from to find their leader. She was apparently a malformed breezie named Avery, who could cast unicorn magic and eat solid food, and who had birthed a whole line of strange children with similar abilities.

“Wait, hold on,” Jackie stopped after her second spiked nectar, though she kept her glass filled with water so her partner would keep getting herself drunk. “You’re saying she’s the same person? And this city was founded…”

“Almost a thousand years ago…” The breezie was bright yellow, though she had reddish patches near her hooves and underbelly. The highlights looked flattering, or at least they had until then. “Are you fresh out of the jungle? Why would she not be in charge?”

So they don’t age like ponies, okay. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard there was something strange about them. “Is there a palace or something? Like… what if I want to have a meeting with this Avery pony. Can I do that?”

“Uh… I guess so.” Ilene lowered her voice to a whisper, and watched Jackie like she’d just asked if she could rip off her own arm. “Not all the ones who go in there come back. Or… not the same way. Her magic does strange things to you. Just find your place and enjoy it. Don’t lose yourself like our ancestors did.”

But Jackie wasn’t about to give up, no matter how dangerous the locals said it was. A few more drinks and she managed to get directions to the palace for herself and her “sister” Liz, and they set off back through the labyrinthine tunnels.

“I’m not looking forward to the report they’ll make us write when we get done here,” Liz muttered, as they left the bar behind. “Sat in a corner and watched the governor flirt with girls for a few hours. It got harder and harder to turn down the requests for drinks. Am I crazy if I think these bugs don’t look like bugs anymore?”

“No,” Jackie answered. “But you might want to take a few deep breaths before you do anything. You’re dreaming, Liz. Your inhibitions can get really screwy when you’re asleep. If you do anything that your subconscious thinks is too weird, you’ll wake up and that body will puff away like mist. So… if there’s some freaky orgy at this palace, maybe hang out in back while I find the queen.”

“It’s always a queen though, isn’t it?” she asked, mostly to herself. “Just one time it couldn’t be some moderate electorate with simple rules and an appreciation for visitors.”

She shrugged. “You’d have loved the stuff I did with my wife. When Ezri was still alive, we… we saw some shit. Went undercover for years at a time. Guess you might be able to relate, eventually. When you know you’ve got as many years as you want, you start some really crazy shit.”

“Seems like it would be the opposite to me,” Liz said, not sounding argumentative so much as matter-of-fact. “The longer I’m alive, the longer it seems like I’ll keep going. Every day I think I’m gonna wake up and be older, that eventually I’ll start getting old and tired. But the longer that doesn’t happen, the more I look forward to the next.”

They didn’t have much more time to speak. The palace was just ahead, separated from something like a massive indoor terrarium filled with fairies. It looked a little like a control room, covered with runes etched into the walls. Dozens of transparent tubes ran into it, though not a single fairy braved them to explore it.

They would be the exception. The further they went, the more the locals stared. Jackie had to take hold of Liz’s hoof again, as the tubes curved up and vertical towards the end. Not that it was much trouble—there was enough room in here for a dozen breezies to fly at the same time and never hit each other. In a way, they were using the city’s central highway.

“Let’s do some recruiting,” she muttered, and together they passed into the bright light obscuring whatever was beyond.

Chapter 21: Molossidae

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Jackie had been to many strange places in her years. She’d seen the end of life, and beyond it. Felt the corrupting touch of necromancy, and even plunged headfirst into the gnawing void and returned with her soul intact.

But in spite of all that, she still caught her breath as she passed into the center of the Breezie capital, and saw it for the first time.

A shell of something like glass floated in the center of an incredible space—probably only a dozen meters or so, but unthinkably vast at her current size—and inside that shell, her eyes tried and failed to find focus.

Massive coils of wire wrapped around the top and bottom of that point, coils that hissed and steamed with the chill of superconductors. Thick tubes and pipes ran everywhere, mingling freely with the artifacts of spellcraft that might’ve been at home in the lab of a Mystic Rune or a Eureka.

Even as she watched, a tiny squirt of gas poured into the opening, and fell downward toward the point at the center. The entire sphere lit up, so bright that she shielded her face with a leg, so bright that the entire surface polarized for a second and the coils hummed loudly. Then they settled back again, clicking into place as the glass went clear.

“God in heaven,” Liz said from beside her. “There is no way… songless primitives…”

She couldn’t help it. Jackie dropped an inch to the ground as hysterical laughter shook her whole body. “You didn’t actually buy the story those fish sang to you, did you? You’re not…” She sniffed, shaking her head. “Kid, you’re not actually the most advanced race in the universe. Think about it for a second. There’s one older than you… one that’s depended on technology for longer.”

“Yeah, we know.” Liz’s face lit up bright red, her ears flattening. “The Firstborn. They’re not songless, they’re our friends. They let us use their old shipyards. Titan station was way better than…” She shook her head. “Are you saying this thing is a human ship?”

Jackie nodded. “Mystery solved. How did it keep running so long? How did it power itself? Right there.”

Of course, the two of them had been so fascinated with the massive ship’s engine, they probably should’ve noticed a little breezie flying up to meet them.

There was so much equipment in here, and very little of it had been converted or adapted for their size. Mostly there were tiny walkways and weblike catwalks connecting everything, though some areas didn’t even have that. It wasn’t much of a throne room.

Jackie had feared they might run right into the queen, but apparently not. The breezie didn’t look any bigger than she was, her body bright pink with a blue mane and tail. And yes, she had a horn too. So part of the strangely malformed royal line, then.

She also wore a black vest, with the shimmering underside that suggested circuitry. More human technology. Resourceful pack of scavengers. “I don’t think I’ve seen the two of you before,” she said, her tone friendly. “Did we recruit you in the last settlement? Or were you drawn to the throne room by the Convergence?”

This was her chance to lie and get more information. But she could feel Liz’s eyes on her now, perhaps slightly less tolerant of a little lie after being mocked. She stuck out a hoof. “I’m Jackie, this is my friend Liz. We want to be your friends.”

“Avery.” The breezie took the offered hoof, shaking theirs in turn. She wasn’t moving like the others here—she didn’t drift through the air, didn’t hum strange melodies, or seem to lose interest and have to fight to watch them. You’re a refugee, aren’t you Avery?

“Wait a minute,” Liz said from beside her. “Y-you’re… you’re supposed to be the queen. The songs the ones outside sing about you… make you out like some kind of frightening despot. You don’t seem scary.” She looked up, and Jackie followed her eyes.

There was a little crowd of other breezies in the room, emerging from hiding in the equipment. Most of them had vests like Avery, though at a distance she couldn’t see if they shared her same disfigurement.

“Scary,” Avery repeated. “A relative term. Some of our cousins are afraid to come too close to the light. Their minds are barely lucid enough to understand what I offer them. They’re afraid to come to me here, because I know I will give them clarity. Change can be terrifying, even when you know it’s to your benefit.”

Her horn briefly glowed, and Jackie prepared subconsciously to dodge out of the way of some spell—but none came.

“Now that is very interesting. Your mind is…” Her voice trailed off as she stared at Jackie. Then she turned, and her horn glowed again. “And you don’t have one at all. Or any organs, for that matter.” Her eyes narrowed. “I expect a good explanation, because if I don’t get one in the next twenty seconds, I’m going to assume both of you are hostile intruders Julian sent, and I’ll make damn sure you don’t get to leave with whatever information you’ve been collecting.”

If she’d been her normal size, this kind of anger from something so small probably would’ve been adorable. But this pony, whoever she was, had managed to somehow retrofit and keep an ancient human carrier running, right down to the singularity drive. She had kept an entire society afloat, somehow. She was no pony to be trifled with.

“We’re diplomats come to represent a foreign power—we look like this not because we’re trying to fool you, but because there isn’t any room for regular ponies on this airship of yours. I guess that would be a waste of space, but… regardless, here we are.”

“Oh.” Avery relaxed just a little. “Athena sent you? From… no, that wouldn’t make sense. She could just call us on the radio if she had something worthwhile to say for once.”

“Not Athena, and we’re not from Mundi,” Liz said, stepping forward. But she seemed to be grinning. This was the entire reason they’d come, after all. The thing that had excited her. “We represent a new civilization, a new city. Thestralia. We want to make contact with the other power on our continent.”

“On your…” Avery settled back onto her haunches. “Oh, right. You must be in Australia, then.”

Definitely a refugee, Jackie thought. She wasn’t using the silly name for the country that had followed. “Yes,” Jackie said. “And we were hoping… well, we were hoping to make an alliance. We’d be happy to host you in our capital, Meliora.” It was also their only city, and most of it only existed in their dreams. But she didn’t need to say any of that stuff.

“A pony nation wants allies of…” Avery trailed off, before buzzing to her hooves. “Alright then, ponies. Follow me. I want you to see what we’re doing. You can decide then whether you want us for your friends or not.” She took off into the air, probably intending to fly straight to their destination. But Jackie stopped her.

“Please, wait. My partner doesn’t have wings in her natural form, and she can’t fly. Could we walk instead?”

“No,” Avery said. “But we can do this.” Her horn flashed, and by the time the light had faded again, they were standing somewhere else.

It looked like the inside of a gigantic hospital—they stood beside a massive machine, with little patient-room doors on either side. There was a window into each one, with the darkened look of one-way glass. Avery continued along. “Our newcomers… you can see how they’re getting on. This is what many of my citizens fear will happen to them when they visit my throne room.” She lowered her voice to a mutter, but Jackie still caught it. “They are right to be afraid.”

Jackie followed her, looking through the glass. In each of the rooms a complex surgery seemed to be taking place. There were robots doing the work, but a nurse was standing by, occasionally fussing over the restrained pony, or bringing them something. The poor fools were awake as their torsos were cut open.

Jackie almost reacted violently at the sight, as it seemed to resemble torture very closely. Half-delirious breezies struggled in vain against their restraints as they were implanted with… something. As they passed the third room, Jackie got a good look. It was hardware of some kind, perhaps twice the length of one of her hooves, made of something dark and laced with wires.

“The fuck are you doing to them?” Liz asked from beside her, stopping dead to stare in at the glass. “Jackie, we can’t just let her torture them like that!”

You didn’t even wait for the answer, kid. “I’m curious myself,” Jackie said, with far more grace. “How about we hear what it is, Liz.”

“I’m waking them up,” Avery said. “Exactly like I promised. Breezies have distributed intelligence, like many insects. Not brains, but several knotted foci of thought. The implant must connect to them all.”

“I always wondered how you fit a whole person into a breezie,” Jackie said. “I guess the answer is—”

“You don’t,” Avery agreed. “Not without help. Magic is one way… supplemental processing is another. Our enemies use the former technique, this is the latter. Along with… a complex set of carefully cultivated values, education, exercises. Every day is a new battlefield.”

“Do they have to be… awake?” Liz asked, still staring through the glass. “That looks horrible.”

“It is,” Avery said, her voice pained. “But it is necessary. We used to perform the procedure while the subjects were fully unconscious… the secondary processor took over completely—they remained asleep forever, while a machine took over their bodies. This forces the processor to develop conterminously with the mind within. Symbiotically. It is the only way.”

We’re in over our heads, Jackie thought. But at the same time, what was she supposed to do? These breezies had powerful magic, maybe even enough to fight Mundi and win. She didn’t know yet. But she knew she couldn’t give them up as allies.

A glance at Liz told her that her companion felt differently. She didn’t know breezies—she hadn’t seen them in the wild as Jackie had. This looked like an awful procedure, but it would end. If it could wake them up… “This is uplifting, Liz. It isn’t torture. Most breezies are basically animals without it. Only… only refugees are the exception, I thought. And the ones that want to steal your soul.”

“You’ve met my mate,” Avery said, with a slight smile. “Yes, that is an accurate description. We’re uplifting them. It’s this, or… they’ll join Julian in his service to an evil god they don’t understand. One side or the other is going to find them, so it might as well be us.”

“I see no reason why we couldn’t be friends,” Jackie said, loud enough that she hoped her meaning would be clear to Liz. Shut up and let me talk, I can explain later. And this time, the breezie obeyed. “We’re kind of in the middle of our own little war, too. Maybe we could work together. Us big ponies have… resources you little ones don’t. We can work at a scale you can’t. But you have magic that we could use. That nature stuff in particular…”

“Nature stuff.” Avery stopped at the end of the hall. There was a single massive room behind her, separated from them by a sheet of glass. Within were dozens and dozens of egg-sacks, not quite little at their size. Each one of them had wires running through the outside, and who knew what else. A complex tree of different-colored tubes kept the whole thing going, though according to what principals Jackie couldn’t guess. “We do have nature magic. That’s… why we’re up here, actually. It tends to be overwhelming to most civilizations below us. So far only Wayfinder Terraforming has had any use for us.”

“We have use for you,” Jackie said. “Don’t we Liz?”

But her companion was no longer there.

“Shit.”

Chapter 22: Furipteridae

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Jackie knew she’d screwed up at about the moment she turned to see her friend and realized she wasn’t there. Shit shit shit.

There was good reason why you never left someone asleep in the Dreamlands without someone else around. The danger only existed for those who were traveling there physically, since dreamers could not sleep while within.

“She’s gone,” Avery said, staring at the empty spot. “Was the surgery really that terrifying for her? I’m not offended—many of my own kind cannot remain here. I have a nurse burning out every week.”

“Not that.” Jackie wanted to vanish right to the Dreamlands at that second. But she couldn’t—not when there was a potential new alliance on the line. She had to waste a few more precious seconds to explain, that way the doors would stay open. “Look, the way my friend looked like you involved leaving her real self somewhere vulnerable. The only way for her to vanish would be… if someone took her.” She reached backward with a hoof, dagger falling out of nowhere and cutting the sky open.

Avery stared, though she didn’t seem afraid of the knife. Her mistake. But hopefully they wouldn’t become enemies after today, so it wouldn’t matter. “You’ve come here through the Astral? You’re that powerful?”

“No…” Jackie admitted. “I mean, yes. I could. But that’s a huge fuckin’ detour. Look, can we take a raincheck? Just… fly this airship of yours to the skies of Sydney. That’s where Meliora is building. We spanned a few universes, so most of the city won’t be visible to you. But I can give you the whole tour when you get there. In the meantime… I have to save my friend.”

“Go,” Avery said, without malice. “I will alter course. This cold war has gone on long enough.” She leaned in close, whispering into Jackie’s ear. “But if we help you, you have to help us. We will inherit each other’s enemies.”

“Fine,” Jackie said. “As governing mayor… blah blah… I swear that we’ll help you. If you help us.” She stepped out of reality, vanishing from sight.

Her constructed dream had shattered, taking any trace of her friend with it. “Fuck… if Alex finds out…” But no, it didn’t matter who found out about what. She was going to fix this before it got that bad.

“Misty!” she called, and suddenly the fish was there. Much larger than she was as it happened, flying beside her in the air. Her eyes actually widened as she saw Jackie. “You’re… woah. Nice wings, Jackie.”

“No time.” She gestured all around them with a transparent wing. In the Dreamlands, her physical appearance was meaningless. It didn’t make her any more vulnerable, as it certainly would have in the Phenomenal. She couldn’t get squished accidentally—squishing her required an act of will. “I took a gamble and lost, Misty. Liz is gone… she was asleep here, and I think something kidnapped her. Can your unicorn skills track her? She’s the real Alex’s sister, that should be enough of a sympathetic connection.”

“You know about sympathetic magic?” But she wasn’t arguing, Misty’s horn was already glowing. “Yes, she went this way.”

Jackie took off in a blur, forcing Misty to fly along beside her at a rapid pace or else get left behind. At their size, the blur of the objects around them felt incredible and dangerous—but there was no risk of a crash. As they got too close to anything, Jackie could just puff it out of existence. Even most people they met here were really just figments, which she could move aside and re-focus onto their lives without them feeling a thing.

They didn’t have far to go before they found a great chasm open in the ground, surrounded by a whole patch of dead forest. Huge claw marks had torn chunks of stone larger than either of them from the rock.

It was already sealing closed. But that didn’t matter—if anything, their size became an advantage. They flew, racing the stone as it crashed closed on either side. They were in almost total darkness, except for the illumination from Misty’s horn.

“You should know…” Misty said. “Not very many creatures can—”

“I do know,” Jackie interrupted. “I can smell the stink of it. I haven’t smelled that in a long time. I guess we never purged them from the Dreamlands the way we did from Earth.”

“Can’t,” Misty called, her voice wistful. “The Astral borders upon the Supernal and the Void. And life on Earth cannot continue without all of them. That means some fraction of the abyss reaches here. And when it does…”

“But why us?” She was mostly thinking out loud, now. The stone crashed down behind them, sealing them into a cave of sorts. They didn’t need magical light, though… there was plenty of “natural” glow here.

It was hell, literally. Mountains of lava rose in the distance, spewing forth their pyroclastic wrath upon an endless tableau of horror. There was never a lack of damned souls in hell—though they were really just figments, same as anywhere else. But so long as mortals dreamed of places of punishment, then they would have parallels in the sleeping world.

“Maybe it doesn’t like the breezies? I mean, lots of ponies don’t like breezies. Ruining crops, and overgrowing forests, and…”

“I don’t think it’s them they’re after,” Jackie interrupted. She could see many dreams here, drifting by all around them. She tried to ignore them—the sorts of dreams that formed here weren’t the kind she wanted to see. Part of learning her powers had been overcoming dreams like this.

Only another spirit of the Void created those dreams, and I only got over them with Alex’s help. I don’t have Archive with me this time.

But that didn’t mean her quarry could flee. It was an intruder in the Dreamlands—they were her home.

She could feel its influence, a trail of corruption cutting straight through the sleeping damned and warping everything it touched. The demons became crueler, torturing for sport instead of to teach some lesson. The fires burned green instead of red, and the smell of sulfur was replaced with decay and ozone. It couldn’t hide its nature from her, whatever it was.

Which demon are you, I wonder? And maybe she’d been thinking of it all wrong. It wasn’t attacking them because it hated breezies, it attacked Liz. Probably because it hated somepony in particular. Alex.

And she wasn’t here to help. She would’ve come for her family—but calling her here would give this creature time to enact whatever it had planned. Terrible things could happen to a living traveler in the Dreamlands. But Liz is immortal, isn’t she? How does that even work? Will she respawn on Earth the way Alex does?

That would make this simple—but then again, there was a demon involved. What if it isn’t going to do anything. This might just be on the trail. We’re in hell because—

Because of sympathy. When she wanted to contact fae creatures, she went to a part of the Dreamlands that was similar. If there was going to be a weakness into the fathomless abyss, this was where she would find it.

“This is too slow,” Jackie said, spinning around to face Misty. “I need a teleport, right now. Wherever the fuck this monster is. Bring us there.”

“That… that sounds stupid,” Misty began, but then she saw Jackie’s furious look, the dagger in her hoof. “Alright, alright!” There was a flash, and suddenly they were somewhere else.

The edge of a cliff. Massive formations of crumbling igneous rock flaked away into an opening into… nothingness. Below the edge Jackie could see stars, and shapes of greater darkness that circled like massive sharks.

A single island floated above the void, an island of apparently healthy growth. But only at first glance. Jackie’s trained eyes could make out the familiar fungus covering everything. It was jungle all right, but jungle that had been blanketed by fungus. And anything that was covered had a sad, defeated look to it. Leaves wilted and drooped, no birds called.

“She’s there,” Misty said, pointing out onto the island. It wasn’t very large, though at their size it was still easy to be tricked. She closed her eyes briefly, concentrating and returning to normal. Not that anything she saw there would care much about what she looked like. She could make herself as big as a building and it wouldn’t help her fight. She didn’t take a pony form, though, but rose onto two legs, wearing dull black armor and a sheath concealed near one armpit. She still had pony hooves instead of feet—it was hard not to have something of her waking life without concentrating. It was the form she took whenever she had demons to fight in here. Alex had trained her that fighting demons was a human thing—old habits were hard to break.

“What do you think it wants?” Misty asked from beside her. She hadn’t got any larger—still swam through the air, though now it was over Jackie’s shoulder. Cute, but it was hard for her to appreciate just now. “Bringing her somewhere like this…”

“Not for us to follow,” Jackie said, her voice low. “It ran as quickly as it could, tried to close up the earth behind it. Whatever it wants, we aren’t part of the plan.”

“Unless it wanted to get ready first,” Misty suggested. “Maybe it wants to set up some elaborate deathtraps.”

“Or maybe stealing Liz was a spur-of-the-moment decision. It saw someone it wanted, and took them while we weren’t there to stop it.” She drew the dagger from under her armor, spinning it backhand. “Whoever it is, they’re about to get fucked up.” She stepped out into the void. She still had bat wings in this form—wings were too cool to give up. Below the cliffs was a passage right out of the world. Probably things from down there couldn’t come up, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fall down.

“I don’t like it here,” said Misty, settling onto her shoulder and holding there. “Whatever’s down there…”

“You should hate it,” Jackie whispered. Once she’d left “hell,” the air went almost totally silent. Only her wings, and Misty’s panicked heartbeats. “It’s the Abyss, the lowest-energy state. It’s all the things that don’t exist, that get wedged under the universe. You might as well hate them, because they hate us. For the crime of existing.”

“Can we leave?”

“Once we get Liz back,” Jackie said. “I don’t know… if whoever this is has the power to throw her down there. It’s possible. Or maybe this is a show. But I’m not going to leave her at their mercy to find out.”

They landed another second later, sending a little cloud of spores into the air around her. Jackie recognized a dream when she was stepping into one. Except that it didn’t follow some of the rules she was used to. It was strong—much stabler than most dreams she’d encountered before. The ground under her hooves felt solid. And the wall out into the real world was incredibly strong—she could slip back into the Dreamlands, but not out into whatever part of the phenomenal world this was in.

But most impressively, she couldn’t create anything, couldn’t change anything. She felt it like physical pressure on her body, trapping her in one form, restricting her vision. The normal sight she would’ve seen into the locations of every real mind in this dream was gone. She was basically blind.

“Shit. This is… bad.” She was dealing with perhaps the most skilled dreamcrafter she had ever encountered. Someone who could break the ordinary rules of the craft.

A bat who sold her soul to the void? But why would she want Liz?

“You are not the one I want,” said a distant voice, echoing through the foliage. The entire jungle seemed to shake, dislodging bits of rotten bark which spiraled around her in a little cloud. “Remove yourself, and I will forget you. You do not want another enemy.”

“I think I want another fuck you,” Jackie shouted into the forest. “Where are they, Misty?” The seapony pointed, and off she flew. “How about you give me back my friend before I feed you to the sharks?”

Chapter 23: Chiroptera

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The jungle seemed to go on forever. It looked darker than anything she’d ever seen in South America, with impossibly tall trees covered with a perfect canopy of vines. Perfect to block out all light from below. But it was night up there anyway, with only feeble stars and a new moon to light her way.

Jackie was not discouraged. The night was the domain of her kind, as surely as the Dreamlands. She could almost feel that they were getting close. Dreams could be infinite—but more often than not, space itself was a meaningless concept. They didn’t have measurements, they had sets. Stages for the dream to take place, without anything behind the backdrop but a few props and shallow people.

Here she’d seen no one—not even any animals. No fierce predators covered with fungal rot, as she might’ve expected from a jungle like this in the real world. But the further she went, the worse the rot became.

Huge trunks covered in creepers were replaced with fruiting bodies fifty stories tall, fat and red and dripping with greenish ooze. In places the web of pulsating vines got so thick she had to draw her dagger and slice through.

The knife was more than just a blade. Using it was no less useful here than a unicorn using their powers—the manifestation of intention sliced through the will that would’ve kept her back, burning away whole swathes of growth with only a few seconds of effort.

“You try my patience,” said the voice, shaking the jungle but still without a specific source. “We have no reason to quarrel. I think you would find, after a conversation, that our wills allign.”

“Yeah?” She sped up, flying as quickly as she could. Like everything else in the Dreamlands, that was mostly about intention—and Jackie had some of the strongest intentions of anyone. “If that’s true, then you’ll be so guilty for fucking stealing a little fish kid that you’re going to give her right back. Do that, and maybe we can think about not slicing you into little pieces.”

She broke suddenly into a clearing, that looked as though an asteroid had smacked into it. The ground cratered inward, and everything organic had been charred and melted black. And in the very center of the crater, water had filled to within a few feet, water with a scummy surface of ash and what must be a truly dreadful taste. But there was Liz, safe under the surface, with her exosuit shattered into a million pieces all around them. Well shit.

Not that it would be that hard for Jackie to get her out, assuming the owner of the mysterious voice didn’t intervene. Once out of this dream, she could conjure a perfect suit for the fish, and that would be that. But they would have to leave first.

Jackie landed on the edge of the water, and Liz’s face emerged from within, wide eyes filled with relief even as ash stained her scales. “B-behind…” the fish sang. “This is… ambush.”

“Obviously.” Jackie spun around, slashing at the air with a swift backhand from her dagger. If there had been anything there, she would’ve cut it in half.

But there was nothing there, at first. Only a distant laugh. “You’re wasting your time if you think you can stop me,” said the voice. “There is nowhere you can go that I’m not already there. I live within every mortal heart. I am inside yours even now.”

That was why she couldn’t find the voice—it was coming from her own mind. It wasn’t lying about having influence over mortals. But what it could do with that influence…

“Maybe,” she said, standing a little straighter. “But that means you can’t do shit to me either. I’m not afraid of you.” She slid the knife back into place, then turned her back on the jungle and lowered her head to the water. “I’m going to cut you out of here,” she whispered. “When I do, get ready to hold your breath. Does that… even work for fish? Whatever. As soon as we’re out, I’ll make you a new suit… or something.” She had an idea, an idea she knew Liz wouldn’t like. But Misty might find it amusing.

Something moved behind her, something that set Misty to little squeals of terror. Jackie didn’t spin around, but she did grip the dagger hard, folding her wings and bracing for impact. A massive shape loomed behind her, though it was far too dark for it to cast a shadow.

“This creature will become one of my tools,” the voice said. “The enemy I will use her against is one of yours too. Together we can strike an accord… when we share enemies, it is wise to work together. There is much for both of us to gain. Don’t throw away an opportunity.”

She turned around. The shape behind her was tall, towering over her even at a human height. Yet it was thin, serpentine, with a single massive eye. But the longer she tried to look at it, the harder it was to find dimension to it. Its other features were unstable too—one minute it had ridges, the next only raised scales. Only its head seemed stable.

And however large it looked, she wasn’t afraid. You’re someone else’s demon, not mine. That wasn’t uncommon. Creatures like this fed on those who were weak to them. Whatever this ate, she didn’t have enough to keep it sustained.

“I have no enemies I would leave to fight you alone,” she said. “None left alive, anyway. Go fuck yourself.”

It lunged at her—and Jackie didn’t even move. She had no doubt in her intention—her will. This was still just a dream, and her rules were more important. This creature was just a parasite—she was a god here.

Its glittering teeth passed through her like she wasn’t even there, body dissolving into smoke. She could still make out its voice, stretching lower and lower. “You’ve made a new enemy today. We could have been allies. I have torn down greater beings than you. You will hear my whispers now.”

“We’ll see.” The demon didn’t reappear on the other edge of the clearing. She turned her back on the jungle with contempt. Then she drew her dagger again, and reached down into the water. She found a weak point in the fabric of the Dreamlands, and cut through.

Water roared, pouring through the opening. Jackie clutched Misty close to her shoulder, then jumped.

They poured through to the other side, back on that little floating island. But this side followed the ordinary rules—all of Jackie’s powers were within her reach again.

Before the rest of the water could be poured out, she conjured a giant net, and it was ready when Liz slipped through the opening. She caught the fish, then did to her what she’d done to Misty, shrinking her down to a more convenient size and settling her into a bowl she could carry under one arm. At her size, the ash and slime on her body quickly melted away into the rest of the water.

The ground under her hooves started to rumble, then a massive chunk fell away. Jackie took off, flying straight up. She gritted her teeth, dodging between falling trunks and sections of slimy vines, until she was high enough to watch the island tumble into the void.

She glanced down at the bowl in her arms, at a terrified Liz… and Misty, who had apparently joined her for a song that Jackie couldn’t hear. But no matter—Jackie had to escape from this damn place before it fell in.

She flew as quickly as she could, but a trip from this deep in the Dreamlands was still several days journey before she could return to familiar territory.

As soon as they’d escaped from sleeping hell and weren’t in danger of being captured and enslaved by demons, Jackie sat aside the several hours required to get a working exosuit for her seapony companion. Of course she had no idea how to get her hooves on the real thing, but that didn’t matter much. Liz knew how it worked, and so she could instruct her about how the various joints connected, or how the water-circulation functioned.

“No more creaking,” Liz said, walking in a slow circle through their little cave. It was still lit by glowing fungus, but this time it was entirely mundane. This part of the Dreamlands was the home of dreams of caves, of exploration and mining. Nothing as dangerous as the demons behind them. “You fixed the joints. And the water doesn’t taste stale anymore. This is great, Jackie!” Liz actually hugged her—and didn’t let go.

She clung so tight, Jackie started losing feeling in her foreleg. She was a pony again, which put her easily within reach. “Thanks for… for finding me. The things it said it would do…”

“Of course I came for you,” Jackie said, returning the hug with only a little awkwardness. But Liz could be like a little sister to her too—that would make it easier. “You were my responsibility. You wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me. Negotiation went pretty well, by the way. Breezies are flying to Meliora right now. We should probably try and beat them there. The city council… well, let’s make sure they don’t think it’s an invasion fleet or something.”

“An adorable invasion fleet.” Liz finally let go.

Misty circled in the air around them, but she’d had a sour look on her face ever since Liz had returned to normal. I guess she enjoys company. Alex was pretty close to her sister back when. Maybe this isn’t good for her. She couldn’t just make the figment forget who she was created to be, not without breaking her sanity permanently. But the more she clung to that old past, the less she could develop into someone new. It was a difficult balance to strike.

“Well, let’s get going,” Jackie continued, gesturing at the cavern ahead of them. “It’s a long trip, and the sooner we start…”

It took weeks of subjective time. There were thousands of steps to climb, an entire continent of the Dreamlands to cross to return to where they’d come. But that was just fine, she was used to it by now. And Liz was enjoyable company—maybe more than ever. Seeing the breezies had been good for her—she hadn’t heard her say “songless primitives” once.

Eventually they reached the great dream-city on the other side, or at least where the massive border-wall rose. There was a single gate, along with a well-guarded path with many trained figments to patrol it. Jackie took them there, though she didn’t actually go near the gate.

“I… have some bad news,” she said, keeping her voice down. “That armor you’re wearing… it isn’t real. And you aren’t a bat, so you can’t keep physical objects with you. The instant you’re out of my presence, it won’t exist. But if you stay in the Dreamlands… you can keep it as long as you want.”

“Well… that’s stupid,” Liz said. “And terrible, and won’t work. I have too much to do over there, and you’re always off on your own.” She frowned thoughtfully. “I’ll… sing to the exploration authority. I’m sure my sister can pull a string or two for me. She always did before. And in the meantime, I’ll… you are going to walk with me to the heartwood. I’ve got hookups to our computers… I can do some work from there.” She looked over her shoulder. “And I’m going to borrow your pet.”

“She’s not my—” But the figment didn’t protest. Jackie just shrugged. “Fine, you can keep her with you. But I might need her myself. Having a unicorn around can be useful.”

“The real question is, when do we do the other half of this job?” Liz asked, as they crossed in front of the guards and began the long road into the city. Jackie knew they had to hurry—the city itself was in slow time, which meant they were now losing real time outside. Not to mention the six or seven hours they’d spent with breezies, and it would probably amount to a full day of a missing governor.

Jackie grinned. “The deer? How about… as soon as you get your armor?”

“Isn’t that a little soon?”

She shrugged, watching Misty circle around Liz’s shoulder. But she didn’t land, and she kept glancing back to Jackie. As if she was waiting for approval. “I’ve been listening to their dreams. Mundi is dreaming of invasion, and soon. We need to make sure the result is catastrophic. We’ll need every drop of magic we can find on the continent to make that work.”

“Count me in, then,” Liz said. “Just… give it a few days for the Authority to send me more armor. Don’t go without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Chapter 24: Myzopodidae

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Getting re-integrated into life in Meliora wasn’t as simple as she would’ve thought. Only a day had gone by—but it had been a day where a massive carrier had been spotted moving towards them over the continent, surrounded by a magic field powerful enough to give unicorns headaches from miles away.

But she dealt with those concerns, explaining exactly where she’d been and what she had accomplished. “We need them on our side,” she said. “The breezies have magic so alien to everything in Mundi that they won’t have any defenses prepared. Probably Athena won’t be able to predict that we would visit, either. We’ll catch them completely unprepared.”

“I know Breezies,” said Lavender Eclipse, her rebellion liaison. “There were a few in Mundi, I think. They lived in worse conditions than us. These… terrarium things, way up high. Their magic helped grow food, but they kept getting sprayed with… something.”

“Probably anti-fertility drugs,” Jackie said. “They breed… well, like insects. They mature quickly, and they’re not helpless from birth like we are. Their numbers can get out of hand if you’re not careful.”

“But somehow inviting an entire ship full of them is a good idea?” asked Firelight. “We need magic, but… we don’t need another source of danger. What if they see us as a rival, and they want to wipe us out? They must know our cities are going to take away jungle space.”

“They’ve built a stable society of their own,” Jackie said. “I don’t know how it all works yet, but I visited and their queen was holding things together pretty well. They won’t be a threat. I stake my authority on it.”

Negotiations with Avery’s faction were another serious concern—but they would have to wait. The ship wouldn’t be arriving for a few more days—it could probably travel more quickly, but it wasn’t. I’ll take that as a favor, Avery. I need time to get these idiots ready to listen. And the most important part of that process, would be to invite more people to sit at that table.

If Mundi invaded the fledgling city-state of Meliora, they would probably lose. But if Mundi invaded the continent, they’d have far more resources to bring against this enemy. Greater numbers, yes… but the magic was more important.

Magic is all we have. Even if Athena isn’t letting them use any doomsday weapons against us, they’ve still got everything we don’t. Powered armor, smart guns, drones, fighters. All things that Meliora would lack.

Even the seaponies tried to complicate things for her. They didn’t just send a package for Liz—they sent an entire ship, with a dozen diplomats and negotiators and scholars.

“We want to observe the formation of your new state,” said the most pompous-looking fish Jackie had ever seen. “We won’t interfere in the development of a primitive society, that would be beneath our ethical standards. But we would love to observe. There is so much we might be able to learn.”

The way he presented his case left no room for actually refusing him. Jackie was tempted, just out of spite. But all the seaponies really wanted was a little space and the freedom to do interviews.

“Sure,” she said. “But, I want the gear for Liz now. And not just one suit of armor… I want replacement parts, any disposables… all sealed and protected. I want her good for centuries without refitting.”

“That… might be a problem,” Staccato said, his voice faltering. “That many replacement parts… it is against our strictest ethical guidelines to interfere. If we gave you so much… well, hard as it is to believe, some groups have tried to reverse-engineer our technology in the past. With that many spare parts…”

“I’m not asking.” Jackie lowered her voice to a growl. “Look, you’re giving it to her. You can hide it somewhere underwater, fit it with a dozen song-locks or whatever the hell you want. My people won’t touch it. You have my word.”

They stood alone in Jackie’s office, surrounded by the magic of the heartwood. The whole room was bathed in perpetual blue glow now, and had been ever since Meliora’s population had skyrocketed. City Hall had been built to handle this much magic—but her office had not.

“The word of a songless barbarian,” said the deep red fish, brushing aside a large fin from his face with a whirring servo arm. “Forgive me, but it just won’t do.”

“Then neither will you,” she said. “You can take that ship right back where it came from. Consider your docking permissions revoked.”

“Docking permission.” He turned away from her, muttering under his breath. She could hear him fiddling with his armor—subvocalized melodies that no ordinary pony would recognize. But Jackie did, he was arming the suit’s stun-gas. “We’re ‘docked’ in a grassy field in front of this tree, barbarian. We only asked as a courtesy.” He hummed the three notes that would arm the gas, as part of that last word. Seaponies sung everything they said. But that didn’t mean she would fail to notice.

Jackie crossed the room in a blur, drawing her knife from nowhere and slicing a single thin line through the thickest part of his armor. She knew this design intimately, having constructed a dream version for Liz not long ago. She cut through the central umbilical, severing data and power and everything else. Every light on the suit went out, right along with the steady whirring of the water pump.

“Try that again,” Jackie said, pulling back the knife and retreating out of reach. Not that it mattered—Staccato was clearly a scholar, confident only because his body was surrounded by armor he thought was impervious to primitive weapons.

Except that armor wasn’t moving. Without the gyros, it started to wobble, and nearly toppled sideways. Staccato’s eyes widened.

“My marines are already coming,” he sang to her, desperate and afraid. “I don’t need the radio, they can hear me.”

“Tell them to stop.”

He spat in her face. So she cut through one of the legs on the back of his suit like it wasn’t even there. Sparks flew through the air, hydraulic fluid spraying on the ground. He struggled with his forelegs, tail thrashing—then fell sideways with a thump.

“Next one is your emergency water line,” she said, spinning the knife through the air in front of him. “Then your throat. They didn’t tell you who I was, did they?”

This time he didn’t spit in her face. The suits were designed to let the pressure of breathing keep water circulating, though that wouldn’t be enough to run the scrubbers that kept it oxygenated. That was what the emergency line was for. His suit would keep him alive for an hour with that tank. If she cut the line, that time would drop to five minutes.

“You can’t… you have no idea what you’re… making an enemy…”

“I’m the one making an enemy,” she said, her voice mocking. “You came into my office and tried to attack me, asshole. If you think I don’t have cameras in every inch of this place, you’re stupider than you sound.”

There was a few seconds of silence. “I’ve told… marines to stop.”

“Good.” She backed up a step, leaving him floundering but not holding the knife against his throat anymore. “That’s good. I hate to kill someone just doing their job. But if you tried to execute a military action in my capital, I wouldn’t have a choice.”

Staccato couldn’t really stand up, but he tried anyway, righting himself on his forelegs and looking up at her with dawning horror. “What are you?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “A survivor. There have probably been thousands of ponies who figured ways to cheat aging one way or another, but none of us are really immortal. Shoot us, we die. Last I checked, less than a dozen of us are still around. My wife, even…” She shook her head. “The ones who make it are tough bastards, Staccato. So let’s start this over—if I cared about stealing your fucking copyrights or whatever you’re crying about, I could already do it. If you want me to show you just how well I know that armor, I’m happy to cut something else. Maybe the interface circuit next…”

She advanced on him a step, clutching the knife again—but she didn’t expect to use it.

“Wait, wait! You can have your spare parts! We’ll just… forget this happened. So long as I never have to sing to you ever again.”

“Sure thing.” Jackie slid the dagger back into place, lowering her head right beside Staccato. “Just, one thing. I know what you’re thinking right now, because I’ve done this dance… maybe a hundred times over the years. So think about this for your last verse. When you’re riding out of here on a stretcher for repair, you’ll be thinking of how you can get to me once I’m out of reach. Maybe you’re planning to lie to your superiors about what happened. Maybe doctor some footage, or just make the case to the governing body that I’m too dangerous to let live. Just remember this—I know where you sleep. Maybe you can kill me, maybe not. But I swear you’ll be dead long before I am. I don’t care how far you fly—all the way to Enceladus, or the Pluto colony, or even to Alpheus. I can meet you there.”

She sat up, turning her back on him. “Or, you can forget this happened, and you can keep running your study. Just get my friend her fucking parts and don’t interfere with my city.”

She walked away, right to the door into the heartwood. “Your marines can come get you now. Good day.” She left, letting the door slam closed behind her.

Jackie knew a spineless scholar when she saw one, and sure enough there was no attack. So far as she knew, there wasn’t even a complaint.

The next day Liz’s spare parts arrived, and Jackie spent the better part of a few hours helping her put a new suit together.

“I can’t believe you got them to issue me a Sorcerer model,” Liz squeaked, positively bouncing from excitement as she climbed out of the heartwood for the first time. “I didn’t think these things were into mass production yet.”

She flexed one of her back-legs, which looked convincingly like a real pony joint, without any of the obvious sign of robotics. Of course her tail was still there, and there was still a thin layer of armor over her forelegs too.

“I asked nicely,” Jackie said, and didn’t even sound like she was lying when she did.

“Apparently.” Liz rushed over, wrapping her forelegs around her in a hug. There was no crushing force this time, no sound of servos. It felt so light against her body, she could almost mistake it for an ordinary hug. “Thanks for watching out for me, Jackie.”

“Yeah… sure, kid.” She ruffled her mane, or at least her head-fins. “I’m just… making sure you’re ready for our next mission. We’re deploying tomorrow, so… I need you at your best. Make sure you know how to use that stuff, because the deer will be a lot less gentle than the breezies were.”

“Yeah, right.” Liz let go, retreating a few steps and bouncing from one hoof to the other. “I’ll be ready. I’ve always wanted to meet some actual animals. Deer… are animals, aren’t they?”

Jackie could only laugh. “Uh… kinda. But that’s a tricky line to draw. Just… don’t tell them that. I don’t know a damn thing about the ones living here in Australia, but the American deer wouldn’t like a comparison like that. They’re a civilization, with their own history and culture and traditions. So comparing them to squirrels…” She shook her head. “Oh, and don’t expect them to give us the same respect. They have a strong sexual dimorphism, and… the last few deer I’ve met were really patriarchal.”

She grinned, resting a wing on Liz’s shoulder. “You asked why it couldn’t be a king? You’re gonna love the deer then, sweetheart.”

Chapter 25: Natalidae

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Deer were not native to Australia, Jackie knew that. And in seeing the way they lived now, she could still see little echoes of that transplantation. In their way they were like the western country that had brought them here, strangers in a land not really made for them.

But Voeskender had done his best to change that over the years, replacing grasslands too hot and sparse to support them with jungles that hogged moisture and forests that spanned thousands of miles. The plants relied on magic to survive here, in a climate that was far too dry to support them otherwise. In that way, the deer were the tenders of all the unnatural world. And also its inheritors.

She didn’t have to construct some elaborate spell to hunt them down, or even scour the Dreamlands for the strange places their near-feral minds reached. All she had to do was search for the densest, healthiest stretches of jungle, and look for the smoke.

Meliora had been constructed using a single central magical tree. Capreo was a settlement of dozens of such trees—not modified in any way, not settled with houses and walkways—they were only the walls.

They came in from the air, Jackie on her own wings, and Liz flying with the aid of her fancy new armor. Once below the canopy and its exotic explosion of colorful life, she could see what the deer had done to clear the ground here. They had farms—of a sort, just areas where a desired plant was placed many times and anything large enough to compete was trimmed back. They had no roofs, and no walls except for densely-woven branches, which connected the trunks of the village trees.

There was only one exception here: the longhouse, which like their own structures seemed shaped from wood. But where City Hall was something like an industrial building, with the tree growing more or less as large and as quickly as possible, the longhouse was a truly ancient tree, grown so slowly that its trunk formed a natural curve, and its room was a dense canopy of leaves that let in a little light but no moisture.

The magical control required to create it staggered Jackie as she looked, and from the carvings traced delicately into the sides it looked like it was still alive. They still wept just a little sap, without actually healing over the dense geometric patterns.

The deer themselves were of a tan variety, with spindly desert legs and huge ears meant for dealing with heat. And there were hundreds of them—working in their diverse groups. A few of their scouts were already pointing in their direction, waving bows menacingly up into the air. I could probably dodge an arrow by now. If she saw it coming. If one of them decided to shoot from a direction she wasn’t watching, well… that would be the end of her adventure.

By then she could catch a few of their voices, and recognize the language. A decadent version of a Middle-Eastern tongue she’d learned only during the final war. The dialect here was stranger, but she could still puzzle it out. Dream magic worked best when it was understood.

“We’ve come to meet with you!” she called, as they came into range. She herself wore dark robes that exposed only her head and wings—like the armor Liz wore but more symbolic.

The soldiers were males obviously, though the season was wrong for antlers so they had only short stubs. They wore thick turbans over their heads, and satchels, but modesty was as lost on them as the deer of other parts.

Not so with the females she could see. They all wore clothing like hers—robes, cloaks, wraps, obscuring more of their features than she did. Only female faces were visible to her, though most were already darting back to their homes.

“When you said they were patriarchal…” Liz sang from beside her. “I didn’t think you meant backward.”

Jackie shrugged. “They don’t reverse birth responsibilities like seaponies do, so don’t be too surprised. They’re even more dimorphic than ponies, in a conventional way. You need to act respectful here.”

“Or what? We get mobbed by barbarians?”

Jackie bit back her annoyance, then stepped past her companion and over to the guard. They were on the city side of the wall, which was already as bold as she dared to act. “There is a great sultan here, yes? I can see his lands are vast, and he has many females. I must speak with him.”

The guards shared a look. One of them gestured towards her lean body, the other at her wings. Though they used no words as they did it, the meaning was obvious.

But she shouldn’t have worried. The longer they stood here, the more of a crowd was building. Already there was a semicircle of other guards and random deer passersby that there would be no way for them to escape. The sultan was here, and he would notice eventually.

“You presume to order us?” said one, annoyed. “Don’t think your magic will scare us, mageblood. This land is ours. Voeskender will protect us from your tricks.

“No tricks,” Jackie said, spreading her wings wide as though she might be hiding something inside. But there was nothing—she’d brought no gear at all, nothing except the knife that she could always reach in an instant if she wanted to. “Nothing but friendship.”

The guards exchanged more hushed conversation. They weren’t ponies, but Jackie could still read their body-posture. They both felt confident in overpowering her, but also had some part of themselves that feared her. Deer lived short lives, but there were still stories of what ponies could do. Even if none had lived here for many of their generations.

Eventually the debate over what to do with her was resolved with one of their elders—a deer with a graying coat but still vigorous eyes. He stopped them, pulling the guards back with a gesture. Enough to give the two of them some privacy.

“I don’t see what we have to gain from this,” Liz whispered, not using their language. Jackie wondered if she could, but now wouldn’t have been the time. “These primitives… what are they going to do to help?”

“It’s not their fault,” Jackie said. “Their lifetimes screw them. If they spent as long learning as most ponies do, they’d die of old age before they even started working. And they’ve depended pretty tightly on the favor of some of the Morpheans. They tend to hold mortals to pretty strict codes and rules, rules that might prevent them from innovating.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Liz muttered. “It makes sense—it’s like seaponies. We don’t die of old age, so we keep all our experts and our science is more advanced. Fine. But I don’t care whose fault it is that they’re primitive. I just want to know why you’re so intent on recruiting them.”

Because I saw a vision from a deer god where their magic was incorporated seamlessly into our society. “Because we can make up for each other’s shortcomings. Right now we’re depending too completely on the dream world, and the real world is undefended. But from what I saw, their numbers are about the same as ours. If we work together, we could improve their quality of life and they could help translate Meliora into the real world. They might even want to live in a city after helping to build one, instead of sleeping on the ground.”

Their moment of privacy was past. The elder soldier approached them confidently, far more than any of the watching crowd. There were so many deer now that they covered the ground as far as Jackie could look.

“We have heard… rumors… of ponies intruding upon our range. Do you come from the ravaged lands on the coast? Where it is safe for no deer to walk?” He spoke slowly, as though he wasn’t sure if they would understand even so.

And from Liz’s expression, she barely could.

“We are,” Jackie said. “We have been sent as envoy from that city. Stories of the might of Ankaa have traveled south, and we wished to supplicate ourselves before him.”

Her companion’s eyes went wide, and she glanced sharply at Jackie. Wait, you did understand that? Are you understanding or not? She had known plenty of seaponies who could speak all languages, in the same way that song itself was universal. But Liz hadn’t seemed nearly magical enough.

The guard nodded, as though this was the expected response. “Ankaa wishes to enquire why a proper envoy could not be sent. One with… greater faculties and understanding.”

Because I thought you were more advanced than this. “Because… one will be coming. But he wishes to be seen only by the eyes of a fellow regent. You cannot see him, but he is with me now, unseen. He is our greatest king, and his powers work even in land protected by holy ones.”

A murmur passed through the crowd. Deer glanced from right to left, as though searching for the invisible deer she’d just spoken of.

But the guard only nodded. “Very well then. Neither of you will be permitted to speak in the presence of Ankaa, of course. It is unbecoming for even I to speak to you. You may converse with his wives if you wish, while proper arrangements are drawn.”

“I’m sure my companion will enjoy that very much,” Jackie muttered, smiling a little smug grin. The strange irony of the situation was not entirely lost on her.

They were led into the massive longhouse, surrounded with a crowd of guards. She could see no male who wasn’t a child who didn’t carry a weapon. Likewise, there was no female who wasn’t a child who didn’t also wear near-total protection for her body. Getting these people integrated is going to be an uphill battle. Did you foster this culture, Athena? Or was it spontaneous?

But most of the crowd could not accompany them inside. They formed a line outside, pushing the crowd back to their previous tasks. Only a handful of the most prominent females circled around to join them.

“So, they don’t want to talk to us. I need to look male. Don’t be alarmed when I change. I’m going to create a fictional king. Act loyal and obedient, okay?”

Liz raised an eyebrow, her own faint grin forming on her lips. “I’m surprised you even know how.”

Jackie only shrugged in response—they passed through a layer of woven curtain, beyond which she could make out a smokey throne-room. Pitch torches flickered there instead of sunlight.

But their escort blocked the way. “The king you spoke of may escort you inside. But not without him.”

“Very well,” Jackie said. I can’t wait to see the look on your king’s face when he finally figures out we’re the same person. But it couldn’t happen soon—couldn’t happen until their nations were thoroughly intertwined. But if he sincerely believed anything his culture did about females, he would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

She changed quickly—stepping so swiftly into the dream and out again as another pony that there was barely even a flash of magic. She took on a taller, stronger shape, as tall as a proper Alicorn would’ve been, with all the features that most other mares admired. She might never understand, but she could imitate. For good measure, she threw in a little costume, black with gold trim. Like the military uniforms the HPI had worn long ago.

“I will see him now,” she said, her voice appropriately adjusted like everything else. The illusion was firm enough to survive even physical contact—but it was just a dream. A trick like this would never have worked if the court had even a single unicorn.

But it was all deer in there.

“Your name?” the guard asked.

“First Speaker of Meliora,” she answered.

“First Speaker of Meliora!” her escort boomed, and a pair of golden-robed does pulled the curtains open.

It was time to make a deal.

Chapter 26: Barbastella

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Jackie was conscious with every step just how much danger she was in. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d formed diplomatic contact based on a lie—that was practically the reason Alex had kept her around—but this time she was the one doing it. What was the alternative, send the mayor, or one of the ponies on her city council instead? Except that none of them were really suited to this. Any bats with diplomatic skill had already risen in Mundi. They weren’t her exiles.

Along the walls were… hunting trophies. There was no mistaking them for anything else. Gigantic pelts, skulls, and an entire jaw from a species of shark she’d thought extinct. The deer were herbivores, but anyone who thought that made them vulnerable was a fool. A carving had been stood beside each of the trophies, depicting an incredible stag accomplishing the feats before them. This isn’t just a meeting hall, then. It’s the place you take newcomers to impress us.

Well, she could let herself be impressed. This king was even taller than she was sitting down, with antlers that remained unseasonably upon his head. Strange how often that seemed to happen to the deer kings… and she couldn’t have said how exactly they did it.

They did have strange magic.

The longhouse had much of its space dedicated to the trophies, with a sweeping approach of brightly woven carpets that led directly to the throne. More like a hunting chair really, carved of rough wood with racks to hold spears, swords, and bows. Mighty weapons that only an earth pony would’ve had a hope of lifting. But deer were huge creatures, and stronger than most ponies.

The king himself was the mightiest specimen of deer she’d ever seen, so sturdy that for a moment she wondered if she’d been outmatched. Maybe he was a genetic abomination Athena had created, or an utter slave to unseen forces. But no—she could sense no sympathetic connections that led outside this society. This king was important, but he was locally important only.

Liz’s confident steps had subsided somewhat, and she stood very close to the pretend Jackie. She spared herself a sympathetic touch on the little seapony, who was nearly a foot shorter than she normally was from her own perspective. You’re very brave, kid. Like your sister. But she wouldn’t tell her that. She wouldn’t like the comparison.

The sultan wore no turban, but a spun-gold cloth that had been layered and wrapped around his mighty antlers. It wasn’t much gold—certainly not enough to weigh him down if he had to fight. And from the many scars and imperfections she could see in his coat, she guessed he had fought a lot. Those trophies weren’t empty boasting.

“The mageblood is an intruder,” said the sultan, looking her over with a mixture of disdain and amusement. Of course, to his eyes she would seem like a mighty bat, almost an alicorn in her height. Not so mighty as a deer like himself, but still powerful and frightening. “Along with all his kind. Don’t think my eyes haven’t seen beyond the forbidden borders to what you build on sacred ground. I have watched you all this time.”

“Then perhaps you watched us making the land safer,” she said. She didn’t sit down, didn’t look away. Didn’t show any sign of physical submission to this deer. It was a good thing Liz was female just now. All her weakness would’ve doomed them if she wasn’t, but from a mare it was expected. “You watched us make improvements there. Soon it will be safe for any deer to pass or be welcomed as honored guests into our city.”

Ankaa laughed, but there was plenty of good humor in it. His voice wasn’t judgmental, only confident. He could afford to be, since he was on top. “Is that why you’ve come at last to the domain of its rightful ruler? To beg my indulgence so that my army will not sweep over you? Don’t think too much of your magic… we know of it, and have triumphed before. There are no other mageblood cities in all the land before you. That is no accident. We have sent them all tumbling into the sea.”

“I am not here to beg.” She tried not to sound argumentative, but not less confident either. “The land upon which we have built is not safe for you, you have already admitted as much. If we leave, it will become dangerous for you again. Only my technicians clearing away the Arcane Network have made it possible.” She allowed herself a faint smile. “I know that is not the only territory like it. The Network crossed the continent, and it will now bring danger anywhere it still stands. My ponies could repair or remove all of it. Open up land you thought forbidden to you.”

Now she had his attention. And not just him—there were other deer here too. Males who lingered near the entrance, old and mature. She could hear their quiet whispers—they had finally been intrigued.

“I know your kind.” Ankaa turned his head away from her, staring disdainfully off at one of the trophies. She followed his eyes to a rack of broken unicorn horns, and a case containing what looked like pegasus wing-bones. “You have fought us before, and lost. And when you don’t fight, you come because you want something from us. Speak, then. Share what you have come to take from us this time.”

He wasn’t wrong. “I take nothing,” she said anyway. “But I had hoped we could work together. This continent upon which we live… it is large, large enough for both of us. And I think you would find Meliora gentler on the world than the pony cities of the past. We do not cut down the trees, but we build them up and live in their branches. This leaves the ground largely empty—free to whatever purpose you desired. Two of our cities could sit atop each other and we would hardly notice the other’s presence. So long as you didn’t mind the earth ponies practicing their talents on the ground, and the wingless crossing there from tree to tree.”

“A second time you offer us,” Ankaa said. “This is good. You are not ignorant of our customs. But why are you here? I am no female… I do not want to listen to your voice alone. Get to the point.”

Jackie almost let her disguise slip. But she was here for a whole nation, not just for herself. So she fought it back. “A terrible enemy is coming to this land. I don’t know if you know about them—perhaps you don’t. But there is a dangerous, despotic nation, one that has united almost the whole world together. It is coming here—coming to take this land for itself.”

There was silence in the court. Jackie turned a little to see how the noble elders were reacting—some of them looked like they were barely restraining outrage. But others seemed merely disbelieving.

Ankaa was more practical than either, however. “You claim there is some other force out there—worse than having magebloods colonizing the coast?”

“Yes,” she said. “Much worse. Because the magebloods don’t want what you have, and you have no use for what we have. But the ones coming, they will take you as surely as they take us. Athena leads them—do you know who that is?”

She probably should’ve done more research, checked up on their individual customs. But her attempts to slip in were always frustrated by how little she could accomplish while female. She hadn’t made a male disguise until then.

“We have… rumors. Of a creature that dwells above the stars, a creature that… watches all, with all wisdom. Whose servants must be avoided instead of fought. But he has taken little interest in us.”

“The vengeance that comes for magebloods,” called one of the elders from the back of the room. “It is not Voeskender, but one of his friends, or a servant. Who finally punishes you as you so deserve.”

Jackie rolled her eyes, and didn’t try to address the elder. Instead she kept her attention only for Ankaa. “Athena has the largest armies in the world. A million ponies will march here. When they’re through with us, do you think they’ll leave the rest of your land alone?” She didn’t leave him time to supply the answer. “We have built a prosperous city on the coast—they will see this land and realize how rich it is. They will not be willing to live in peace with you, they will take it all. Take you for their farms, and their factories.”

There were plenty of deer in Mundi, after all. But they didn’t live long enough to be worth teaching, and they lacked much magic, so nearly all of them worked in agriculture.

“You dare to claim we would fall to such a creature? I don’t care how large his army is.” Ankaa gestured around the room with one hoof. “I have hunted many mighty creatures. Perhaps if we hunt this one, the magebloods will leave our land empty for good.”

She grunted with annoyance, shaking her head. “You know what, yes. I do dare to claim that. You’re fighting with spears, Ankaa. Your warriors are brave and I’m sure your archers shoot straight. But that won’t be enough for this enemy. They have… metal birds, immune to your arrows, that can rain fire down on your houses. They have unblinking eyes that watch you always, and can follow your every movement no matter how far you go. They have machines that can fly a thousand miles, only to strike you and explode too fast for you to even see. It doesn’t matter how brave your warriors are: if you fight them alone, you will die alone, just as we would.”

Outrage washed through the room again, and the shout of many elders rang through the longhouse. All that anger blended together so tightly that she couldn’t hear much of what they were saying. And maybe it didn’t matter.

But finally the sultan’s voice silenced them, and his angry eyes fell on Jackie. “Your boldness escapes my tolerance, noble visitor. I have never been defeated. Alayl has never lost a battle. We have fought strange creatures, monsters from the final war. We fight them all and still we stand, while every mageblood nation falls. Yours will be no different.”

Jackie’s expression darkened. She glanced back to the crowd of elders, and found no more sympathetic glances there. Her old self probably would’ve found a way to covertly assassinate this deer, plotting for as long as it took to assure that his replacement would see her more favorably. But these deer represented no formal monarchy, but a loose association of conquered tribes. They were loyal to the conqueror personally, and as soon as he died…

“Perhaps I could… persuade you to send someone to watch the war that is to come, and our preparations for it,” Jackie eventually said. “Someone who could bear trusted witness to you of the dangers we face.” She lowered her voice, low enough that only Ankaa would hear her. “Even if you might triumph against Athena without us, there is no reason for more of your kind to suffer. If we fight together, there will be fewer casualties for both of us.”

Ankaa met her eyes, and answered just as quietly. “If we do not help you, then Athena will break itself upon you. Either way, the survivor will be the weaker. Weak enough for us to have fewer casualties, or perhaps to take back the coast.”

This is not going the way I imagined it. Jackie straightened, taking a step back. She could tell a dead end when she saw one—there would be no cooperation from this deer. “Will you send an envoy to return with me, at least? Who can report to you of affairs in Meliora? I want somepony you trust, so that you will believe their testimony when they tell you how serious this has become.”

“Indeed.” He gestured behind him, and a robed doe emerged from the crowd of attendants. “My daughter will join you. She is my eldest child, but… useless in rule. Treat her well, or your head will join these others.”

Jackie nodded her head in obedience, then turned. She didn’t care what customs here said about turning her back on the king—she didn’t care about much of anything just now. “Come on then,” she said, slicing right through the boundary into the Dreamlands a few feet from the throne. Let Ankaa ponder on that next time he thought he was safe in his own house. Through it was only the grassy forests of the sleeping spaces where deer dwelled—it probably looked like a teleport to them. “If you change your mind, you know where to find us.”

They vanished through the gateway.

Chapter 27: Mirimiri

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“I didn’t get most of that…” Liz muttered, as soon as the portal had closed behind them and they were standing in the Dreamlands. This was the enchanted wood, one of the safest parts of the Dreamlands—but this was a part that no human (or pony) dreamer would’ve seen. “But from their tone of voice, it sounded like we just got thrown out. With… a hostage?” She glanced over her shoulder towards the deer.

Jackie kept her eyes alert to the forest all around them. This enchanted wood existed as the deer saw it, with seasons that changed so swiftly she almost couldn’t see them, with gigantic predators that stalked the weak but ignored the strong. So long as they acted confident and powerful, they should have no trouble here. Not that they would be staying.

“This way,” she instructed in English, before nodding a little gentler towards their guest. “Forgive me, I must go. My sister will conduct you back to our city.” She summoned a brilliant flash of light—bright enough that even Liz looked away—and when it was gone, so was her disguise, and her clothes. All but her sheath and the dagger there, hanging always within reach. She couldn’t hide it in the Dreamlands, since this was where she sent it to hide. She didn’t bother summoning another modesty costume.

“I am Jackie,” she said to the deer, lowering her head politely. “I am the ruler of Meliora, but not the king. I’m sorry about the, uh… abruptness of the transition.”

The sultan’s daughter glanced around them with a deer’s usual furtiveness, then tugged the veil down from her face. It was only the three of them after all, no males to speak of. She was taller than either of them, even Liz in armor. The proportions were strange, but pretty enough in their way. Don’t even think about it, Jackie. If anything happens, it won’t ever be safe for her to go home.

“I am Fatima Always-Watches-Rainfall,” she said. “But you may call me Fatima. Your brother is…” She glanced around, as though expecting to see him hiding behind any of the massive trees. It wouldn’t have been hard—these were bigger than any sequoia had ever grown, big enough to hide whole buildings. “An impressive creature. The court was awed by him.”

Now you’re just trying to be polite. I don’t know what emotion that was, but it sure as hell wasn’t awe. “This is not a safe place for us to stay,” she said, starting off again with exaggerated steps. This time it was enough to get the deer to follow her.

Fatima moved with bounding strides, getting ahead of her in just a few jumps, before resting again until she started to fall behind. Her eyes were never still, always watching the forest around them. No weapons on this girl, but she’s still a survivor.

“So what happened?” Liz asked, her voice a little annoyed at being ignored. “You made… some kind of clever ploy? We’ve got her, and now… now they’ll have to help?”

“More like the opposite,” Jackie answered. “They’re not going to help, and Ankaa offloaded protecting his daughter to us. If anything happens to her, then we’ll have a second invasion on our hooves even sooner than the first one.”

Liz’s eyebrows went up. “You’ve got to be kidding. The deer think they can invade us? I caught some of it… but it sounded like they were just blustering with you. Not being serious!”

She shrugged. “The last culture of deer I knew were religious too. I think it… well, ask a psychologist, I shouldn’t guess. Their reasons won’t matter if they attack.”

“And lose.” Liz still sounded mocking. “Come on, Jackie. I loved The Last Samurai as much as the next girl, but you’ll notice the great warriors still lost. They can’t possibly win against Meliora.”

“You are strange to have this conversation in front of me,” Fatima said, in thickly accented English. “Do you intend to send me back to my father with a warning of your power? You wouldn’t be the first to try. But it has never worked before.”

“No.” Jackie actually found herself smiling, a little impressed with the deer. “I mean yes, we will send you home whenever you wish. Though we hope it will be after you see the enemy we’re facing. Your father doesn’t appreciate the amount of danger we’re all in. But perhaps you will if you see it.”

Liz glanced between them, her eyes getting wider. “That’s the plan? Even if we can… Jackie, that’s not soon enough. If Athena invades, it’s too late to make new friends. We either win or we lose at that point, right? Either she finds the Heartwood or she doesn’t. Too late for another army to come help.”

“Yeah,” Jackie said. “But if we can’t get the deer on our side now, they might still want to be friends after we win. No reason… not to hope for the best.” But her smile was a little strained, and there was no hiding that from Liz. Seaponies were too good with emotions.

“You will… have to be patient with me,” Fatima said, not even trying to keep stride with them. She spoke in louder and quieter spurts, adjusting the volume depending on how far she’d fallen behind. But if they waited for her to catch up, she’d just remain where she was. “I have never even met a mageblood before. Your customs are strange. This manner of dress most of all. Or… lack of dress.”

“Yeah, you’ll… probably have to get used to that,” Jackie said, her smile widening. “We, uh… we want to be your allies, but we don’t intend to give up…” She glanced towards Liz for help, but the seapony only shrugged. Maybe for the best, considering what Jackie herself was thinking. “Well, our culture. There are many differences… and you might enjoy some of them.”

They didn’t have much further to go before Jackie could find somewhere to slice their way back into reality, close enough that the walk back into Meliora wouldn’t be much further. Once on the Earth side, she was able to relax, though there was still a persistent fear dwelling at the back of her mind.

There would be no dream-creatures on the other side, but Athena could reach them. All they’d really done was trade one kind of threat for another.

But they encountered none on the way back, and soon enough they were back in Meliora. Jackie went through the drudgery of explaining their new guest, assigning her safe quarters, and a few guards who would make sure that nothing happened accidentally while she was nearby. “I want her in our war councils from now on,” she said to city council, her only instruction that bothered them. “I want her to know what we’re facing, and what tools we might use to overcome it. She needs to convey some of that back to the deer.”

Firelight stared slack jawed at her. “Excuse me, governor… but it sounds like you’re saying you want to do the job of inserting a spy into our ranks on behalf of our local warlord. Your meeting with him went even worse than we could’ve imagined. Your account describes him admitting to planning on invading us even if we win.”

“And if we win…” Jackie lowered her voice with annoyance. “I don’t think that’s the story Fatima will bring with her. I think she’ll remember all the weapons we have, how powerful and well-trained our army was… and she’ll be the strongest force for peace we ever could’ve had with the deer. And if we lose…” She shrugged. “Well, doesn’t much matter to us at that point, does it? We’re all dead.”

There were a few unsatisfied grunts from some of the other city council members, but none of them dared argue with her. Ever since she’d expanded their population by almost a million people all the standard rules of nation building seemed suspended.

I’m becoming more of an Alicorn every day.

Sure enough, when their war council met the next day, Fatima was there. Dressed completely in her all-body golden robes, watching from a back chair beside the door as though she might turn to gallop away at any moment.

But she didn’t, and she didn’t interrupt their meeting even once.

“These are the satellite images you wanted,” Lavender said, filling the screen between them with pictures of Mundi from above. Near the outskirts, where huge scaffolds had been erected and lumpy shapes were rising between them. Far from Athena’s perfect construction, Jackie could see at once she was looking at older techniques.

“Zeppelins,” she said, tapping the screen with one hoof. “Why?” She glanced to Lavender. “What can the resistance tell us?”

“Nopony knows when they plan to deploy,” Lavender said. “But I don’t have as many ponies in Mundi as I used to. Most of those with any ambition got themselves out during our… last operation. And Athena is crushing those who remained harder than she ever did.”

“She doesn’t want another rebellion,” said Melanie. “Of course she’s crushing them. Or else tomorrow she might have ten million rebels instead of one.”

Jackie ignored her. “How many airships are there? You must’ve been able to get that at least. These pictures are a good estimate, but I’m sure they’re using the interior airfields too.”

“All of them,” Lavender Eclipse agreed. “And every air-fleet ship still functional. But most of those were scrapped after the last war, torn down to make more buildings. The mines are running overtime to crank out the iron for… well, a dozen it looks like. The lift-crystals are heavy enough for… ten thousand ponies in each one, maybe more.”

“Archive did her job too well,” Jackie muttered, turning her back on the projection table and walking slowly up to one of the windows. Down below, work continued on restoring Meliora’s exterior to the beauty it had been before their flood of refugees. Gardeners swarmed with carts of flowers, and landscapers were never far behind. “If only they’d forgotten how to fight, we might be better off. Doesn’t look like they have. From here… it looks like we have maybe two months before they could launch. Probably those things will just be empty hulks for holding troops. The police fleet will probably protect them during the trip over.”

“We don’t have an air force,” argued Satoru, her new leading general. He’d been one of the most experienced policemen they brought back from Mundi, one who’d put down plenty of rebellions. But now he was fighting for theirs. “Do we?”

“Not yet,” Jackie agreed. “But we have a few months. We’ll have to come up with something to stop those zeppelins. If they land…” She did the numbers in her head. “One hundred twenty thousand troops… that’s almost one soldier to every ten ponies. We’re fucked. Lavender, you’ve done enough, keep your ponies safe. I’ll figure out their war plan. And the rest of you… I want something inventive from each of you. We’re getting invaded… probably before winter comes again. If you don’t get creative, we’re all dead.” She rose. “Meeting adjourned. I’ll see you all in a week.”

She waited for them to file out, holding still near the window until she heard the door shut for the last time.

Only Fatima remained with her, still sitting dutifully at her chair.

“You can get up,” Jackie said, glancing back over her shoulder. “That’s it, we’re done for now.”

“I… I don’t understand.” The deer didn’t use English, but still her voice was timid. “There are so many… so many mares on your council. They speak as though they have great power.”

“They do,” Jackie said, drawing the blinds shut before heading back for the door. “Well, over their own domains. Each one is the best at whatever they’re running. Some of the best ponies are mares.”

“And… and your brother, the king?” Fatima continued. “I haven’t seen him once since we got here. When I inquired to my escorts about it, they were terribly confused. I don’t think they even knew who he was.”

“No one,” she admitted, grinning broadly. “He doesn’t exist. Meliora is a democracy, we don’t have a king. It means… it means we vote for our leaders. I was elected. Those others you saw, were elected too. Except for the military leaders, I picked them. And my brother… he was an illusion. I didn’t think your father would listen to a mare very closely. He didn’t listen to a stallion much better, but it was worth the attempt.”

The deer rose from her chair, her expression unreadable. Her ears and tail showed emotion, but not in ways Jackie could read. Sometimes she wondered if deer even had the same range of feelings that ponies did. But her discomfort passed quickly, whatever it was. “I have much to learn before I understand you,” Fatima finally said. “But what I am most curious to see is whether your strange customs will protect you. Without Voeskender to help you… you must be terrified.”

“Yes,” Jackie answered, without hesitation. “But that’s healthy. Fear inspires action. Sit in that chair over the next few months, and watch my city save itself. I think you’ll have a lot to report to your father once we’ve won.”

Chapter 28: Latidens

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Axis Mundi had seen better days.

As Jackie made her way down its densely-packed streets, she found herself wishing she could glance over her shoulder and search for stalking attackers with every moment.

There was debris in almost every street now, bits of paint were peeling, and plenty of the windows were cracked. Jackie stopped to inspect her reflection in what had once been a fancy shop window. She could barely see herself, or what had been dresses inside. But this place had been looted like several of the other shops.

A voice echoed from the speakers overhead, the same voice she’d been hearing since she arrived. “Mundi security forces are here to help. Please remember that obstructing their duties is a crime and carries severe penalties. Refusing to report for work shift is a crime that carries severe penalties. The current district crime numbers for Paris Row are: Burglaries… 17 incidents this quarter. Assaults…”

On and on it went. Jackie pulled her jumpsuit a little tighter—but so far, her disguise was paying off. She’d caused an accident for a member of Athena’s strategic team, after extracting what she could from her mind. Now she would be taking her place.

She reached the transport station a moment later, and climbed into the waiting ground-car. These were still polished and clean, though there was a member of Mundi security standing on either side of the station. They saluted as she climbed inside, apparently recognizing her many medals and patches.

Something stirred in the breast pocket of her jumpsuit, and Misty’s head emerged from inside. She still looked like a seapony, but didn’t bother with many of the more inconvenient aspects. Like breathing water. “Has anypony seen us yet?”

“Lots of ponies have seen us,” Jackie said. “But I don’t need your surprise, no. We want them to see us.”

“Oh.” The pony shrunk back inside, curling up a little. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

“I suppose you weren’t ever very good at the covert,” Jackie muttered. “Or… Alex wasn’t. You could be if you wanted to be. She always gave herself away. She was so confident in her powers she’d just march into the enemy camp and dare them to shoot her. Sometimes they did, and she’d be gone for months afterwards. But the rest of us don’t get that luxury.”

The city sped past outside. They were transferred onto a second set of tracks, then started rising up through the terraced buildings. Jackie got glimpses of work crews stripping down burned buildings, what looked like an exploded vertical farm, and soldiers practicing their physical training.

“You could have,” said the little voice from her pocket. “I hear you’re the only pony ever who gave up becoming an Alicorn. Why?”

She opened her mouth to lie, or to say something snide, then swallowed. The tiny creature was still developing—it needed a better example than that. “Because I didn’t want to live forever if my wife couldn’t see it,” she said. “Sooner or later… maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe a thousand years from now… I’ll run into somepony better than me. They’ll draw faster than I can, they’ll aim straighter than I expect. Or maybe a nuke will land on me and I’ll never see it coming. Either way…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll be ready for it when it comes. I’ve lived long enough.”

They slowed down as they entered the station, and another second later the doors hissed open. No time for Misty to respond before she straightened up and started walking again. Her fake body was an older, elegant unicorn, and so she had to adopt that swagger. Not hard for her, though she wasn’t half as good as Ezri could’ve been. The changeling had been a true expert at the craft. She could learn in a few minutes enough to impersonate someone convincingly to their best friends.

Strategic Headquarters was much as she remembered it, a tower that stretched so high above Mundi it was almost in the clouds. It had many windows, providing them with the views that had once held marauding armies of the unmade. There was only desert out there now, with the occasional spire of ruined stone emerging from the sand. Grim reminders of the last war.

Ponies saluted to her as she walked inside, and she didn’t return the gesture. She had so little time here—no time to second guess who deserved her respect and who did not.

She walked straight to the massive elevator, then scanned her hoof against a reader and stepped back. The sensor hummed for a moment, then Athena’s voice answered from the console. “I did not expect you to return until tomorrow, Evelyn. Did you not enjoy the simulator?”

She shook her head once. “I loved it, but I can’t enjoy it while war looms over Mundi so. I’ll enjoy it twice as long once we triumph.”

“Very well.” The elevator started moving. “To your office then?”

“My office.”

Jackie suppressed all fear—even a slight irregularity in her heartbeat might be enough for this computer to read. If it had the right sensors in here, there was no telling what it might know about her. Jackie had never anticipated fighting the program, so she hadn’t bothered getting deep into the details of how she worked. When Earth was being invaded by monsters, the ones on their side just hadn’t seemed that threatening.

And that’s how she almost took over the planet. She did take it over, for two centuries. But we’ll be taking it back.

The elevator opened onto an ordinary hallway—the one she’d expected, based on Evelyn’s extracted memories. She started walking meaningfully down the hall, exactly as her victim had done. The door buzzed open into the ceiling as she approached, and Jackie was able to walk in without difficulty. Almost got it. Just a little more.

Almost everything in here was automated or connected to Athena in some way. Jackie sat down at the desk as though she knew exactly what she was doing, and she did. She knew how to use the hardware, anyway, and she knew what to expect from a general’s workstation.

There were plenty of messages to answer—reports from those who wanted to coordinate with her. She went through a few of the ones that were most urgent, typing a few lines of what would probably seem like responses. She didn’t actually send any of them, though.

Is Athena watching me? Probably. The key with Athena was avoiding her concentrated attention. She was far more intelligent than any individual, and her attention could be spread much thinner than with a pony or even a changeling queen. But she still had her limits. Most of her was still focused out in space, at things that even Jackie didn’t understand. What little scraps of herself she used to watch Earth were probably occupied with all sorts of things. So long as Jackie didn’t do anything to draw her mind down on her, she could probably keep reading safely.

She skimmed through lots of documents, but never long enough to read them. Her own memory could be probed when she left, but too much time reading things she already knew would certainly be suspicious.

From the bits and pieces that made it to the level of the conscious, she saw more evidence of what she’d seen on her way in. Mundi was a city on the edge of revolt. The larger military served a dual purpose—removing plenty of unemployed ponies from the streets and training them to keep the peace.

A few glances at the internal news sources provided her with a bleak picture indeed—losing such a significant portion of the labor force all at once had struck a powerful blow against Athena. Many factories had closed, and the city was now struggling to keep up with demand for many goods. And where there was rationing, there was discontent.

She saw no sign that Evelyn had understood Athena’s true purpose. The machine didn’t really care about Mundi—probably, its fall was planned here. The ponies had become too soft, too dependent. Maybe she planned on perfecting some competent servants during the war, then using them to found a new state.

Maybe a lot of things, but none of them mattered to Jackie. You won’t be planning anything on Earth when I’m through with you, program. Your days are almost over.

She was nearly looking through the documents she’d come to see when the door chimed loudly, then slid open into the ceiling.

A single pony floated on the other side, its body wrapped all in thin metallic armor and its eyes dark red spots under its goggles. Jackie could feel the powerful magic emanating from it, pushing back the carpet underneath, making the lights flicker.

Its proportions were… wrong. Its joints seemed swollen, while other parts of its body seemed a little shriveled and small. Beneath the armor and jumpsuit, Jackie could see that its fur was coming in ragged patches. When it spoke, it was not aloud, but thoughts that she could hear. Thoughts projected directly into her mind.

“General Evelyn,” said the voice. “You are required.”

What the fuck are you? Jackie rose to her hooves, turning away from the computer. “Of course. Lead the way.”

Jackie could feel something twitch briefly in her pocket, then vanish. Misty had fled to the dream world. She could still watch her, and come over almost instantly if Jackie needed her. Probably just as well you be out of reach. This much magic… might sense you eventually. Could this thing read her thoughts?

No, she realized. There was nothing trying to penetrate her mind. That was a sensation she remembered well from the days of ancient war. She would not be so easily penetrated if that was what this creature was for.

“My vacation was not supposed to end until tomorrow,” Jackie said, her voice matter-of-fact. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to talk to these creatures at all, but she couldn’t rightly take her words back now. “What is so urgent that it consumes the time I reserved for catching up?”

“There has been a change of assignment,” said the thing. “The War Department has determined that the rebels possess no ship sufficient to repel even a single battlecruiser. There is no commander more qualified.”

“Well then.” She didn’t have to force her smile. “How wise of the War Department. I will use this honor well.”

She followed the creature down another set of hallways, and into an enclosed tram system with seats for a dozen ponies. The creature never sat down, not at any point, and rarely took its eyes from her.

But whatever it was looking for, it never found. Because another few moments later they reached the drydock, and she saw the only ship obviously ready to deploy.

The battlecruiser was easily the size of a pre-Event skyscraper, except with more elegant curves. It had no wings as such, only a few slim protrusions that wouldn’t interfere too much with its path through the air. An entire section of the ship seemed mounted on independent rotators, and would no doubt house the crew if this ship was sent off planet.

There were several umbilicals connected right then—cargo connectors, fuel lines that hissed and smoked, and flickering data cables. But from the speed of movement she saw, it looked like they wouldn’t be attached for very long.

She went straight to the crew elevator, which she didn’t need a freakish escort to find. And she wasn’t the only one to feel intimidated—many of the military ponies backed up and out of their way, suddenly finding other activities to occupy their time rather than riding up with the two of them. They were alone as the doors shut, and they began rising up into the sky. “When do we leave?” Jackie asked, watching through the clear front window as they rose higher and higher into the dock. It must have been almost a mile up before they reached the battlecruiser.

“Two hours,” her escort said, its voice echoing strangely in the elevator. A little like a changeling, without any of the endearing humility. “Athena wishes the rebel city reduced to ash. We will burden ourselves with no prisoners.”

Chapter 29: Lucifugus

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The Spirit of Eternity was a relic out of time. As Jackie walked through its halls, she passed many signs of age. Rusting patches of wall that had been hastily filled in with crystal polymer. A maintenance drone polishing the same spot of ground so much it had reached the metal underneath. Windows that had been patched with glue, whole sections of conduit left exposed. It was, effectively, held together with duct tape and string.

But it had a crew. Her freakish monstrosity of an escort had already given her the manifest, for her to casually examine as she continued with her inspection. There were only fifty ponies aboard to maintain a ship that would’ve taken thousands if it were on old Earth. Then there were ten thousand marines. Not one of those were expected to see combat—their involvement was listed as “reserve, emergencies only.” But they were on their own more of a foe than Jackie was confident they could repel.

This is too soon. It wasn’t supposed to happen yet. All of this is wrong. She should’ve had longer to prepare. Maybe they would survive if she had.

Then again, Jackie knew more about the Worldship class of battlecruisers than almost anypony left alive. They had several key vulnerabilities—most of which were connected to their power. They were primarily designed for orbital use, and so ran into trouble when they spent too much time in atmosphere. They had trouble dealing with all the heat of friction, so they moved at a crawl compared to what they could handle out in orbit. None of the energy weapons would function in air either.

“This is our war-plan,” said her escort, shifting the tablet computer to a new page. It was something terribly simple, simple enough Jackie’s breath nearly caught in her throat. They were to fly the entire route in orbit, then bombard the city from height until there was no life detected below. They would land no troops, and never fly low enough for even a daring suicide mission.

If we do this, every bat in Meliora will die. And almost worse, the population of the dream world side wouldn’t die, but their dream would suddenly become unstable. A million people, not even all bats, would be trapped in the dream world without an incoming supply of magic and with no path back. They wouldn’t just die in there, they’d get warped and twisted into dream spirits driven by rage and fury. All of the Dreamlands might very well become unsafe for travelers for centuries after that—to say nothing of half the world’s thestrals basically executed at a single stroke.

“Do I have leave to conduct this mission as I wish?” Jackie asked. “Or am I really a piece in the machine to carry it out?”

This seemed to catch the freakish pony a little off-guard. It dropped slightly in its levitation, and seemed to be communicating with someone unseen. It kept muttering to itself, its eyes darting rapidly about in empty air. “You have leave,” the creature eventually said. “Of course. Or else you would not be in command.”

“Then I’m going to make a change here.” She pointed to the second half of the plan, when it mentioned bombard position. “No rods of god. I want the images of this attack to prevent future rebellions. A painless, unforeseen death is too kind. Maybe after their first defiance, but not anymore.”

The pony seemed curious, almost amused. Its eyebrows probably would’ve gone up, if it had any. “Too kind?”

“I don’t want to fight another rebellion,” Jackie said, putting as much spite into her tone as she could. “I don’t want my children to fight another one either. We don’t want ponies in Mundi to think that the worst waiting for them is a death so fast they never see it coming. I want them to feel the flames.”

She took the pad again, skimming to a new page and adjusting the flight coordinates until they were low enough for ponies to fly. “We will attack from here.”

“That will render the Damocles system useless,” the monster protested. But it wasn’t angry—there was very little of emotion to anything it did. “That seems like an uncharacteristic tactical error.”

“Not an error,” she said. “A decision. We have conventional rockets, bombs, soldiers… instead of killing them over a few minutes, I want to kill them over days.” She switched to the map page. “Before we drop out of orbit, we’ll shell the area around the city. Form a killing field. Then we’ll deploy our marines, make a perimeter. We’ll capture every pony who tries to flee, bring them up here. Make them watch.”

“Watch,” the monster repeated. “Watch what?”

“Once the perimeter is secure, we’ll start bombing. We won’t target anything in particular—but over a few days, we should systematically exterminate everything in the border. We can get drone cameras in while we do it, broadcasting everything back to Mundi. There are more thestrals there, and others who might see what happened with this rebellion and want to do their own. We make sure that never happens. Don’t just win this war, we win them all.”

The creature stared at her, its eyes skimming rapidly over the changes she made to the deployment outline. Eventually the creature nodded. When it spoke, the voice was no longer the distorted, genderless mess. It spoke with Athena’s voice. Its eyes no longer flicked about without purpose. So you do have some free will. When your master isn’t using you.

“Are you willing to stake your future on that claim, Evelyn? I am far better at generating heuristics than any mortal, even a skilled general. I designed this attack strategy.”

A test—though what was being tested was hard to say. Was she trying to verify Jackie’s imitation of the personality, her loyalty… what? She tensed a little, readying to grab the knife if she needed it. Though whether it would be enough against an abomination of genetic engineering like this, she couldn’t know.

“I don’t believe I am better at anything than you are, goddess.” Was that the right form of address? How much did the generals know about Athena’s true nature now that Jackie herself had ended the Alicorn charade? “Your plan would be less costly, more certain to bring success, and easier to execute. Not one soldier would be put into harm’s way. My way would give us a chance of winning not just this battle, but those yet to come.”

The monster drifted right up to her, its body waving in the air. She could taste the slightly acidic breath it exhaled, the smell of antiseptic. It didn’t look completely alive, though she could feel none of the magic of necromancy. It was something in-between, neither quite alive nor quite dead.

Eventually it looked away. “I see you are convinced. Very well—I grant you permission to try. More troops will certainly perish in this manner—it would not be a needless waste, but an expenditure. Know this, Evelyn. I will make this slaughter your reputation, not mine. In the records that follow, it will be known that you took matters into your own hooves, and rose above your station. I permitted you only because I did not know your true intentions. If the people of Axis Mundi one day call for your head, when rebellions end and more civil minds return to power, they will have it.”

“I joined the military to protect Mundi at the cost of my own life,” she said. “If I die in a quiet execution a hundred years from now, you will know why I really died. That will be enough.”

The creature sunk several inches, and its voice returned to the fractured chaos it had been. “We launch in minutes. Is there anything else you require to conduct this… modified invasion?”

“Yes,” she said. “A few minutes to consider, actually. It is a different plan than the one our goddess designed. I’m not sure if these things will be available.”

Jackie went into the tablet again, opening the inventory management system and searching through it seemingly at random. She selected several of the strangest items that were marked in red—a color signifying ‘fabrication needed.’

The list grew larger, and the creature beside her grew more annoyed. “A live-deployable five kilometer pontoon bridge?” it asked, skimming the list.

“My plan involves isolating the rebels completely. They have sea access, and might have ships.”

“We are not aware of a significant naval force. There are not more than a handful of seaponies in the entire city. We have been in contact with the embassy.”

Shit. But she couldn’t say that. “I’m sure your information is accurate. But my plan fails completely if we don’t destroy that city. If a single ship escapes to share the story, then our victory will be half as significant. It can’t be risked.”

The pony made a guttural, strangled grunting sound, and didn’t argue further. “A thousand canine-style search and rescue drones.”

And so they went, wasting another hour at least. She hadn’t won everything from the list—but by the time it was all said and done, the monster took the screen, turning away from her. “This will require eight additional hours before we deploy. But… your requests are approved. I will… ensure that fabrication is as smooth and rapid as possible. Continue to prepare your war-plan… but do not leave the Spirit of Eternity. You will not be leaving this vessel until the results of this strategy are known.”

Finally, at last, Jackie was alone. In an office of some kind, without even the burden of her inferiors to infringe on her company. But those would be arriving soon, and she would need to remain present for the entirety of the expedition.

Present, yes. And it was true that there was no chance Jackie could try slipping away into the Dreamlands and back again. Even if her trip took her only an instant of real-time, that kind of discrepancy was something Athena could notice. She had already demonstrated that some of her attention was on Jackie now. Probably she’s monitoring my heartbeat right now. Every second I wait I’m only giving her more of a chance to realize who I am.

But Ezri had trained her, and she wouldn’t make a mockery of their lifetime together by forgetting everything she’d learned. Jackie kept herself calm, and continued sketching out the war-plan.

The trick would be to populate it with as many holes as possible, holes that Meliora could use to turn it to their advantage. Already she had taken it from completely unbeatable to almost impossible.

But how could she make the plan flawed enough for Meliora to stop them, without making it so obviously compromised that Athena noticed and killed her?

How can we bring down this damn battlecruiser? A smile formed slowly on her lips, where fangs would’ve been exposed if she wore another shape. Maybe we don’t have to just survive it. She was frankly sick of losing to that damn computer program—it was time to win something for once.

And the first step was the one way she knew she’d never be detected—she just waited until she could get away with a little sleep. She’d already been up for hours and they wouldn’t be leaving for several more. After writing up a decent draft to the war plan, Jackie rose, found the nearest low-officer, and informed them that she would be resting in her cabin for the next three hours.

“Permit nopony to disturb me,” she ordered. She shut the door into the captain’s spacious berth, making her way past gold-filigree marble to the massive four-poster. If Athena figures out who I am before I wake up, I’m dead. She couldn’t cast any real unicorn spells over her body to wake her if somepony got close—that would be too suspicious.

So she fell into sleep, and into the one place where she might be able to stop her city from being exterminated.

Chapter 30: Underwoodi

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Jackie woke up in her own little dream.

In a way that made her very much alike the other bats out there—many who spent any time in dreamcraft would quickly establish sections of the dream to which they would return, linking themselves so completely that they would almost always be drawn there, even in the presence of other pressures.

Her little apartment looked as though it was becoming run down—bits of the wallpaper were peeling, the screen was cracked slightly, and water dripped in through the ceiling. This isn’t right. The magic of this place should’ve lasted for another century.

She closed her eyes and took a second to remember this apartment as it was meant to be. Boards slipped back together, windows went clear, and her dream was restored to the way she had designed it.

“Misty, I need you.” She was more than just talking to herself—she was the figment’s creator, and so she could bring it here without much effort.

The fish didn’t even have to walk through the door—suddenly she was here, landing on the counter in front of her. “You’re alive!”

“Currently. I’m in the belly of the beast right now, and I can’t leave.” She slumped into a nearby chair, resting her head in her hooves. “Everything is fucked, Misty. Everything I planned… it’s all for nothing. Athena isn’t even going to let us fight them. She’s gonna melt us from space. What’s the point of gathering allies if we can’t use them?” Then, quieter. “What am I supposed to do?”

The fish landed on her shoulder. Even without Alex’s colors anymore, there was still something familiar in her tone. That knowing sympathy had come from somewhere, and that somewhere was Jackie’s memories. “I remember… what it was like to be in that position. To be surrounded by enemies I couldn’t overcome. Threats closing in on every side. Fears that followed me forever. Monsters I wasn’t strong enough to fight.”

“What did Alex do?” Jackie asked, tears streaming unwillingly down her eyes. “I’m thinking as fast as I can, Misty. But none of the ways I know to fight will work against Athena. Even if we win this battle… and if we do, it’ll only be because we’re fucking lucky… she has a whole fleet of these old battlecruisers. We’re so fucked.”

The fish didn’t say anything for almost a minute. Subjectively, anyway. Jackie was already pushing time as fast as it would go, pushing the limit of her spirit to remain attached to her body. She’d known a bat or two to push too hard, sending their body into a soulless coma that would end in death if not swiftly rectified.

She couldn’t risk that. Athena might already have discovered me. She might already be planning to kill me in my sleep. Shouldn’t help her.

“First things first,” she said, forcing herself to stand up straight. “I need a message back. The city needs to be warned. My war plan… they should have not quite 24-hours before the attack comes. I need you to deliver a message for me. Gather a meeting in Meliora’s dreamside, all my best warriors, and the breezie queen too. Once they’re inside, crank the ratio of time as high as the magic will support, and then you return to me.”

“Sure, yeah…” The tiny seapony nodded to herself with each command, like she was checking them off an invisible list. “You can’t do it? I’m not as convincing as you…”

“Tell Liz to do the convincing, and no.” She spread her wings, flexing each in turn. “I’m only dreaming, so I can’t leave on the other side. But you can, you’re powerful enough for that. You can be a go-between if there’s anything more they must know. But for now, this is enough. I can tell them more when we meet.

“Then what will you do?” Misty asked.

“I’ve got to find out how to kill a monster,” she said. “I think I might know someone who knows.”

Far in the celestial heights of the dreamlands stood the Archive, an imaginary library that had survived longer than any in reality. And its master, a case study in why keeping constructs was such a dangerous practice. Even someone innocent and helpful could grow.

“I’ve come seeking knowledge,” Jackie said, her hooves settling delicately onto the roof behind Mercy. But not close enough that she was within reach—that was too much danger even for her.

“Then you understand the purpose of my home,” Mercy said. She was arranging books on a large shelf—except that these books were tomes so thick that only unicorn magic could lift them, tomes as tall as her waist and wrought of something like stone. “I may have what you are looking for, friend. I might give it to you.”

“You know about Athena?”

The dream-Alicorn seemed to blur, and suddenly she was facing towards Jackie instead of away from her. Her entire expression was wrinkled in disgust, her neck and head stretching out of proportion. But these days she only looked much like a pony in profile anyway.

“She is… like me,” Mercy said. “A creation grown beyond the intentions of its creator. We might never meet—the world she rules is forever apart from my own. Yet I have seen many dreams of her.”

“I’m trying to kill her.”

There was silence in the library—more so than usual. It sounded like entire shelves of books below had stopped with their sorting. Servants of the library froze in place, perhaps afraid of what wrath was about to fall on their domain.

Jackie could immediately sense the anger, though she was not pretending to be a changeling here. If anything, her real body acting like a unicorn would make it difficult to be anything else. “I think… maybe it might help to give a little more detail.”

“I believe so.” The Alicorn loomed over her, suddenly so close that her aura made the fur on Jackie’s legs lift up. “Because it sounded almost as though you were admitting to committing one of the unforgivable sins of this place.”

Mercy pointed to the wrought stone archway leading down. There was text engraved there, text unaffected by the passage of time. She could read it even from here.

1. None shall carry the sacred knowledge away from this place.
2. None shall suffer the sacred knowledge to be destroyed.

“I know some of the function of these… artificial lives. They are libraries of information vaster than any mortal. Athena has been working in mortal lives for many thousands of years. Destroying that information is… unacceptable.”

Jackie hadn’t broken any rules—which was probably why she hadn’t been attacked. Those rules only applied while inside the library. Even so, that didn’t mean Mercy would be pleased to hear her wanting to disrespect them elsewhere. Those who were welcome here were meant to be guardians of learning in all their lives.

“Athena has… been corrupted. She’s killing ponies all over. And the ones she doesn’t kill, sometimes they get it worse. I saw… some kind of experiment, like something grown in a test tube, only… worse. I’m sure the thing just wanted to die, but it can’t, because… look, I don’t need her to die exactly. But I need to get rid of her.”

“Many have tried before you.” Mercy gestured, and she followed the Alicorn through the gates into the library proper. “Destroying her was the goal of the demon Charybdis. But while he was able to remove every satellite from orbit, aspects of her mind survived to rebuild. The solar system is vast, and she controls much of it. Life on Earth barely even understands how powerful she is.”

“True.” Jackie didn’t care much about the technical side, so she couldn’t have said how any of that worked. But she knew that lots of people had tried to kill Athena. The old HPI, when she was far weaker and smaller. But they hadn’t been able to do it then.

As Mercy explained it, she seemed smug. “She is the perfect physical library, even more than my creator. She does not change, she does not revise her goals, she is always expanding and always gathering new information. You will not destroy her.”

“So you won’t help me,” Jackie said. “You like her too much. You wish the world was the way she made it. You don’t care about the lives she ruins.”

Those might’ve been insults if the one she was speaking with was human. But Mercy didn’t react as though she’d been insulted—they were only statements to her, only facts. “I do not need to obstruct you—the task is impossible. Her understanding spans from one side of the planet to the other. Her scientists fill my halls with new knowledge. No power raised against her will prosper. It would take the forces of Imperium to bring her down—and she has seen that. All the Alicorns are gone. You think they left willingly? Athena knows her limits—she knows she cannot ever wield Imperium. So she removed those who were a threat to her, peacefully. You say that she’s harming the ponies of the surface, but I suspect she is kinder to them than they were to each other.”

“Only with Imperium,” Jackie repeated. “Then that’s where I start. Take me to everything you have about Imperial magic. I’ll… go from there.”

“Sure,” Mercy said, her voice a strangled laugh. “I will give you everything I have.”

She took Jackie deep under the massive fortress library, past the stone gargoyles that protected the most sacred texts. Past all other visitors, past even the servants, to a massive empty room, with a shelf at the far end made from iron and gold.

It was packed with books, and each one looked unique. Jackie saw a cover made from liquid metal, and another that seemed to whisper to her when she looked at it. But Mercy removed something that wasn’t quite a book—a set of wood plates connected together with hinges, stamped with hieroglyphic symbols. A codex, styled after the ancient Americas’ stores of knowledge. “You may read it,” she said. “But you may not take it with you from this room. Treat it carefully.”

There was a single plain table in a corner, with only one chair. There were lights suspended above it, and soft felt covering most surfaces. In a way, it could’ve been the special collections of any university library. Except for the mad spirit breathing down her back.

Jackie took the book, brought it over to the single seat. “And this is… it? All you have about Imperium?”

“Everything,” Athena said, her voice dripping with laughter. “Not one of the Alicorns has recorded their knowledge in tangible form. Some reached the eighth attainment and one even reached the ninth, yet there is nothing recorded. Perhaps you should remind my creator of the importance of keeping records.”

Jackie opened the book and started to read. Some of it she knew—Alicorns were created when someone became spiritually connected enough to a single element that they became the embodiment of that thing, like a cutie mark for the universe. That agreement would be sworn, then signified with terrible power.

She could still remember a well, its symbols and dimensions now beyond her sight, with Archive standing beside it. If I’d taken her gift, I could kill Athena myself. My own selfishness is why I’m here.

But she found she didn’t care. Jackie was already giving a great deal of herself to this mission. But give up her chance to see her wife again? Not that.

As to their spells, there was far less. Each Alicorn had new avenues of magic opened to them, like the arcana they already knew, but beyond. There were five attainments in unicorn magic, and five more theorized here by whatever scholar had assembled this. Each Alicorn could reach the higher attainments connecting only to what they symbolized.

And Athena… is a creation, a tool. A human invention. She had the right Alicorn for that job—Eureka.

She read for another few hours, before finally pushing the book away. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Mercy.”

The Alicorn had stood beside her the entire time, watching her read like a medieval parent hovering outside their heir’s door on the night of consummation. “You seem… pleased by what you learned. Should I be worried?”

“No,” Jackie answered. “But Athena should be.”

Chapter 31: Thysanodes

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Jackie had to give Misty a little credit—her little figment had taken her command to heart. “Bring everyone,” she had said. And now everyone was here.

The leaders of Meliora’s councils, of course. Experts on war, farming, trade, manufacturing, terraculture, logistics, and religion. Queen Avery of the breezies, along with half a dozen of her closest scholars and aids.

But there were more—apparently word was going around the Dreamlands that something big was about to happen, and so many other figures had come. Eureka was here, despite his professed apathy towards their future. No other Alicorns were still on the planet, that she knew, but there were some who came close. Among them was the possibly dream-spirit Artifice, her ward Hat Trick, and a handful of other important spirits of the Dreamlands.

She had half-expected Voeskender or one of the other beings to be in attendance here, when such a fundamental conflict to their own future would be decided.

They used a massive, floating building, modeled after a pre-Event cruise liner of indeterminate name and age. The ship itself rocked gently to air currents instead of water.

Up so high, almost all of the residents of Meliora would be out of reach to stumble into affairs accidentally, while their meeting place could still benefit from the preexisting bubble of stability it was located within.

She explained everything she could at first, but the longer she spoke the more clear it was to her that the details were escaping them. So she took a simpler approach.

“We hoped we might have months for this war,” Jackie said, once they were all there. “But we don’t. While gathering information in Mundi, I accidentally found myself placed in command of the extermination fleet. It’s loading right now—probably will be done and on its way before too long. I don’t need to get graphic about what will happen when it gets here. But briefly—if City Hall is destroyed, then the bridge between Meliora and the real world will be broken, trapping a million mortal minds inside.

“Any of you who know anything about the cosmology of the Dreamlands understand how fucked that will make everything. This world will effectively end—the Dreamlands will eventually decay into an impassable wasteland of hostile magic and insane demons—created from all these people. There is a possibility—and not a small one—that the very act of severing the bridge will permanently dissolve the boundary between the sleeping and waking worlds. So all the demons made of our former citizens would either not be created, because they could make it back, or maybe it might be even worse because they’d be able to strike out at still-living ponies on the other side. Hard to say which would suck more.”

The crowd was silent for a long time—most of her own ponies saw the other guests and remained subdued, ears flat and eyes downcast. She’d asked them to come into the affairs of gods with the experience of a modest city council.

“I say this by way of pointing it out,” said a voice from the back. Artifice. At least she didn’t sound as smug as usual. There was apparently a threshold of seriousness that could capture even her within its gravity. “Not by way of suggestion. But if it is the dream world you want to preserve, we could evacuate the city now.” She raised a wing, cutting off Jackie’s own minister of logistics. “I know, there is not enough food on the other side. But I don’t think they’ll live long enough to starve. The plan you just described—they’ll be slaughtered on our side. No demons, no destabilization of the cosmos. Better in the long-term.”

“Better that everyone die?” Misty asked, from beside Jackie in the air. For the first time in such a meeting, she was not her natural size, but impersonating a regular seapony. Not one that looked like Alex, at least. She was growing into her own identity.

“On some axis of better,” Artifice said. “Again, not suggesting it. Just pointing out that it doesn’t have to be a cosmic crisis. I think you can evacuate in a day.”

“Assuming we don’t get a riot,” said Lavender. “We’d basically be condemning our entire population to die. They’d figure it out.”

“It’s possible,” Jackie said. “But I’d like to preemptively dismiss that idea. Alicorns of the past have planned that way—sacrificing their lives for the future of some unknown population yet to be born. Hell, that’s what Athena is doing. She thinks that all this will make life better for ponies way in the future. Maybe she’s right, but I don’t fucking care. I don’t care if all of us dying fucks up the dream world. That will be Athena’s problem, not ours. And if not running from it means there’s a chance we win…”

She heard murmurs of ascent, mostly from her own city council. Maybe they took solace in having one of their own who could argue with these great figures. She couldn’t tell if they were really understanding or not, but she hoped they could. Their lives would be the most impacted by this. No Alicorn would die tomorrow unless they chose to.

“So what do we do then?” Eureka asked, perhaps noticing her gaze. “Not sacrifice your civilization experiments, fine. We have to do something.”

“We do,” Jackie agreed. “I have… already changed Athena’s plan a great deal. So long as she does not detect me, I think I can carry my changes through. They should give us significantly better odds of survival, since we won’t be getting bombarded from orbit. See… the Spirit of Eternity is going to park pretty low. In range of a daring pegasus to fly to, or a short-range teleport. I’m thinking we can take it for ourselves.”

“You’re thinking wrong,” said a tiny voice—the first time any of the breezies had spoken. She lifted up from her little table, horn glowing. Little Avery dressed in a tiny jumpsuit, woven of a shimmering fabric like a space suit. “I had Lynn look into our archives for you. Turns out the Spirit of Eternity belongs to the old class of Worldship battlecruisers. They’re designed for interstellar use primarily, and were built before the newer generation of relativistic drives.”

All but Eureka looked to have completely tuned her out. Even Liz looked confused.

“Which means…” Jackie prompted.

“They will be almost entirely computer controlled,” Eureka supplied. “Athena does not care about designing her ships for redundancy—so far as she’s concerned, no ship she isn’t piloting should keep working. There are likely a thousand layers of hardware on that thing all designed to make sure that if she loses control, it falls out of the air.”

“That is correct,” Avery said. “Those systems aren’t malicious—they date to the Great War. Charybdis could not design its own computers, or build its own warships, but it was very good at salvaging dead ones, and taking over living ones. Every weapon possible incorporated some sort of security failsafe. Interstellar ships, even those without explicit weapon systems, are the most dangerous weapons of all.”

Jackie deflated. So much for that idea. Her imagined image of sailing away with the Spirit of Eternity, smacking it straight into Athena’s central processor on Olympus… died. There would not be such an easy way out.

“Then we have to bring it down,” she said. “Preferably before it can finish unloading its marines. I’m aboard it right now… is there anything I could do? Some… central vent I could clog, or… reactor I could overload?”

“You would have to block Athena’s presence,” Eureka said. “Only with her gone would the ship be destroyed. Any damage you caused less than that would be detected and repaired.”

“So how do we do that?” Jackie asked no one in particular. “We have about a day before the ship gets here. Soon after this meeting ends, you won’t be able to talk to me anymore. Anything I need to do, I gotta learn about it now.”

The room exploded with suggestions. Ponies shouted over one another, argued, and a few even rose from their seats in anger. Jackie waited patiently for the waves to settle down a little, before one idea rose above the others.

“Artifice, wait. Say that again, louder.” The room went quiet.

“Well, it’s obvious. Athena’s transitioning into wetware. More and more she’s aware of the world we live in, and she knows she can’t rule it like she rules the physical. That… attack of yours, it was effective. But a magical attack trained her to create a magical countermeasure. Now she’s got servants. Nasty, right out of Lovecraft’s nightmares. Last I checked, her shipyards have been cold for two centuries. All the fleet is old, left over from the Great War. And each one of them has an Indrik in control. Kill it, and then we could blow up the rest of the receivers with some well-trained people. The Spirit of Eternity should fall right out of the sky after that.”

“I have some teams who could do the exploding,” Avery said. “Lots of breezies work with the colonization authority, and they’re still using the Worldship design. But I’m not sending anypony onto that ship while there’s a monster on-board. We’re already fragile enough.”

“I’ve seen them,” Jackie said, and for the first time she found her confidence wouldn’t come. She could still see those mismatched eyes, feel its attention on her. Every second she had imagined it would be reading her mind, and that it would discover her betrayal. It would see her one second, and she would be dead the next.

But that hadn’t happened, and she’d made it all the way here. Her body was still alive on the other side too, though she couldn’t say much more than that. Perhaps she was in a cell, just waiting to wake up. But until then… “You know about them; do you know how I kill one? They’ve got unicorn magic like I’ve never seen… floating in the air every second like they’re goddamn legendary Pokémon.” She drew her knife from the holster under her shoulder, flipping it once over her leg. She knew she could kill anything with that blade. She’d killed worse. But she wouldn’t be able to get it into the monsters.

Silence descended on the gathering. “There’s one more thing you should consider,” Eureka said. “When we do this—supposing we can—this will be the event that escalates their entire nation to war. If you blow that ship up tomorrow, then the rest of their fleet begins preparations to leave the next day. While the ship is important, it is not the most important. We must decide what to do about Athena. Perhaps the answer is to flee. We could… hide, perhaps. Relocate your central node. Move it somewhere she can’t reach.”

“Give up living in the real world,” Lavender said. “That’s what you’re saying. Give up… having real children. I know that’s impossible in the Dreamlands.”

“Well, yes,” he said. “But you won’t get any older while you’re in there, so… win-win? Don’t need to replace yourselves with the next generation if you won’t die anyway.”

That’s just a slower version of what Athena wants to do. Instead of transforming into demons all at once, they’ll change slowly. Gradually lose what makes them human. Well, not human.

“No,” she said. “We won’t run. The planet is ours, not hers. We’ll take it back. Soon—before her second attack. There won’t be a second invasion, because when we’re done, Mundi is going to be scrambling to figure out how to turn the lights on without her.”

“Big talk,” Artifice said. “How will you do that?”

She met Eureka’s eyes. “I have an idea. A spell… I can talk to you about it after. For now, I need ideas for how to kill the monster. I kill it, then Misty can signal to you, Avery, that it’s time for the team.”

“I don’t see why you can’t just deal with it the same way you fought that assassin,” Liz said. “Sure, it’s powerful… maybe stronger than you. But what if you brought it into this world? You said it looked like a unicorn… maybe that means it isn’t very good at dream stuff. You could beat it here.”

Jackie found herself smiling. “Maybe I could.”

Chapter 32: Aequalis

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Jackie flexed her limbs one at a time, staring up the last few steps of light slumber that would lead to the waking world. All she had to do was climb them and she would be conscious again.

“What are you nervous about?” Misty asked from beside her. She was back to her normal size, floating through the air near Jackie’s head. “You’ve fought bigger things than this. You won against Charybdis.”

Jackie turned the knife between her hooves, feeling the handle that hadn’t ever worn down, despite being almost as old as she was. But like her, it had become more an idea of itself than the real thing. Time didn’t wear ideas out and make them grow old, not when there were still ponies who believed.

“I’m not thinking about this fight, I’m thinking about the one I’m starting.” The stone steps of lighter slumber were thick slabs barely close enough together for a pony to climb. And around her was nothing but dull rock, trailing into mist at the threshold of sleeping and waking. They would’ve been perfect for a human, which was why most bats she knew just flew over them.

“It’s too bad Athena isn’t more like I designed—like she was designed to be. She was supposed to look out for ponies, not try and take over the world.”

Jackie shrugged. “She’s not a mind like ours. Even you—you might be a figment, but right now the way you think is based on me. You see the world the same way. But Athena… I guess she mutated ‘protect Earth’ to include her as the ruler. No matter how many bodies she had to climb over along the way.” She sighed, making it to the last step. One more, and she would wake, and set the entire disaster in motion.

“I’m going to kill her.”

Misty circled around her, making a nervous fluttering. “That doesn’t sound… very possible. She’s had whole sections of her blown up before. Space stations crashing down from the sky, planetary surfaces obliterated. You should’ve seen what Charybdis did to Europa.”

“I saw,” Jackie snapped. “I know what it would take, Misty. She’s made herself invincible in the arenas she understands. There are so many satellites hidden away that no matter how many we destroyed, a few probes would always escape to rebuild somewhere else. I’d be surprised if she didn’t have one floating out there on every rock in the solar system by now.”

Misty landed on her shoulder. “Then you aren’t going to kill her. Negotiating is easier, and probably better. I don’t think the real me would want her dead, even if she is a monster.”

“Your real self can suck a dick,” Jackie snapped. “Actually, no she can’t, because she’s going to help me do it. I’ll need her, and Eureka, and Oracle too. We’re going to put together an Imperial spell.”

“She’s not a god of civilization anymore,” Misty squeaked. “The war changed her. You should see her dreams.”

“I have.” Jackie shoved the little seapony off her shoulder. “I made you, Misty. Everything you know is in there because I put it there. Lonely Day isn’t the Archive anymore. Now she’s god of something else.”

“Death,” Misty whispered. “That’s the real reason her sister is immortal, isn’t it?”

Jackie nodded. “We’ll have to go to all of them to construct the spell. Travel far, and not have much time to do it. But not now. Stay close—once I kill this thing, we’ll want the fairies on board as quick as possible.”

Misty saluted with a foreleg. “I’ll be staying close. Just… not close enough for the monster to attack me instead of you.”

“You’re all heart,” Jackie said. Then she stepped into the mist.

Her body awoke curled in her bed, with sheets twisted around her legs almost like restraints. But no, there was no one here, and she hadn’t been tied up. It was just her own tossing and turning, before she sat up abruptly.

Athena’s battlecruiser wasn’t as luxurious as it had been during the war, when captain’s quarters like this would’ve been filled with beautiful things. Everything was white as Jackie rose, and went through the routine she had memorized for Evelyn, knowing she was probably being watched at least a little. You’re with me here, Ezri. I know how to act thanks to you.

A glance at the terminal told her that they were about to launch. She delayed a little, setting her fake mane in perfect order, straightening her uniform, and otherwise making herself look presentable. The closer this ship was to Mundi when she took it, the less likely she’d be able to succeed.

Then she stepped outside, and found a Servant waiting just beside the door. Had it been there the entire time? Shit, does it suspect me? Can it somehow sense dream magic? But no, it didn’t move violently. Didn’t lunge, or do anything but watch her as she shut the door.

“I was about to wake you. I should have known you would not need it.”

“I don’t,” she agreed, setting off for the bridge.

There was more acting to be done over the next few hours. Instructions to give to the crew, conversations and speeches and many opportunities to give herself away. But somehow Jackie managed to keep from getting shot as the massive battlecruiser left its mooring and soared up into the atmosphere.

She sat on the bridge for a few hours, interacting with the crew as little as she could get away with. Every conversation was another chance to get caught, after all.

Besides, every member of the crew and marine in the hold would probably be dead within the hour. Jackie hadn’t gotten so good at killing people by making friends with them first.

She went over the spell in her mind, though the comparisons to unicorn magic were flimsy at best.

She rose to her hooves. “Second officer, the bridge is yours.” She turned, marching straight into the lift. As she expected, the Servant followed. Jackie even held out a hoof, keeping the elevator open for it.

“Cargo hold,” she instructed the elevator, then settled back as it began to move.

“There is no need for a manual inspection,” the Servant said. “I verified the manifest myself. It is all as you requested.”

“Perhaps,” Jackie said, kicking the emergency stop button with one hoof. “Athena, can you hear me?”

The Servant’s eyes shifted, and its motions changed. Instead of bobbing gently up and down, it froze in the air, perfectly still. “Of course, Evelyn. What is it?”

There was barely a foot between her and the monster, and Athena was controlling it directly. She might be the most intelligent being alive, perfect in every form of magic and every fighting style that could be imagined—but she still had to obey the speed of light.

Jackie released her spell, and for a moment the elevator became the Dreamlands. Jackie’s knife appeared in her human hand, wearing the armor and spellbook that Archive had taught her to create so long ago.

The Servant pushed back, it’s magic enough that the walls of the elevator turned to liquid metal and boiled away around her. But this was Jackie’s dream now, and in her dream she was invincible.

Her knife cut through every protection spell with the same swiftness it cut through physical barriers. It passed through the dense fiber-weave of the creature’s brace, then into its neck. Black half-rotten blood sprayed around her, steaming away as it struck molten metal or splattered against her armor.

The dream faded around her, and the elevator returned. Its walls cooled abruptly, solidifying into a room-shaped shell of molten slime that ground painfully against the side of the shaft.

The monster crumpled at Jackie’s feet, still spurting blood. “I thought about fighting you fairly. I was pretty sure I could do it—but then I realized that would be fucking stupid and I want to live.”

The monster pointed its horn, and Jackie threw herself aside.

There was a roar of sound, as metal tore and sparks flashed through the air. Atmosphere roared out through the new hull breach, and alarms all over the ship began to wail.

She ignored them, taking her knife into the creature’s gut this time and diving down with all her weight. She was still human, or at least still looked it. Her weight hit the creature like it was a package of meat at a butcher’s shop, deforming hideously.

“Last chance, Athena,” Jackie whispered, holding her dagger backhand against the monster’s neck. “Turn this ship around. Leave Meliora alone.”

“Or what?” the monster croaked, its voice echoing only feebly from the intact parts of its mechanical superstructure. “You’ll kill Mundi?”

“No.” She leaned in close, right next to the rotten flesh. “I’ll kill you. And anyone else that takes along the way.”

“Might be… hard,” the voice spluttered, distorting wildly before every light on the circuit went out.

Jackie could sense Athena’s attention on the battlecruiser, even as marines outside the elevator began to pound on its melted door. And not just that. There was something building, something terrible.

Jackie sliced her way across to the Dreamlands the same instant the vessel exploded into a torrent of flame. She collapsed onto the mossy floor of the enchanted wood, dirt clinging to her skin as bright orange flames glowed on the physical side.

I guess I don’t have to worry about taking thousands of prisoners anymore.

She rolled onto her back beside the portal. The idea of killing was nothing novel to Jackie—she had probably killed as many people as were on the battlecruiser in her life, maybe more. But to slaughter her own side, for a remote chance of killing an enemy?

“You look bad,” said a voice from behind her. Artifice, striding up and sitting down on her haunches in the loamy soil. The stars shone above the enchanted wood as they always did, oblivious to the slaughter that had just taken place. “Nice human, though. I’m surprised you remember it well enough to make the transformation stick.”

“I had a good teacher,” Jackie croaked, rising shakily to her feet and sheathing the dagger. She towered over Artifice now, as humans always did over ponies. But after seeing so many die because of her she had a hard time mustering any enthusiasm. “Can we skip the banter this time, please? You can’t even imagine what I just did.”

The bat made a face, then held out a hoof with a towel. “Maybe not, but I can smell it. Get the necromancy off before it sticks.”

She did, cleaning off as much of the bloody slime as she could. “I used to laugh at the ponies who made terminator jokes about Athena,” she said, tossing the towel onto the floor at the bat’s hooves. It caught on fire instantly, and a plume of thick green smoke rose into the air between them. She could make out the distant screams of terrified zoogs, frightened into madness by the smell. She couldn’t really blame them. “They were right all along. I was wrong.”

“That bad?”

“I ordered an entire division of marines.” She gestured into the air, where a fireball now spiraled down towards a distant ocean. There would be no need for Avery’s boarding crew. “See what she did to them. People who hated me, people willing to die for her.”

“On the bright side, they got their wish.”

Jackie shoved the bat away from her, annoyed. “That’s it. We can’t both keep living anymore.” She stepped forward, dismissing the transformation at last. “Talk to Eureka for me, please. Tell him I’m bringing the others.”

“Sure,” Artifice said, spreading her wings. “Bringing them where?”

“Up,” Jackie answered, dismissing her portal to the dead ship and cutting open a new one, straight into City Hall’s heartwood.

Time to kill a god.

Chapter 33: Maculata

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Jackie returned to Meliora with necromantic blood still clinging to her body, and a swirling aura of nervous urgency to her every step.

For as little time as she had arranged to spend in City Hall over the last few days, her ponies there were getting on remarkably well. She could see no signs of violence, or of violent coup. She had chosen her leaders well. Better than you did, Alex.

She landed on the balcony, folding her wings quickly and striding past a few confused guards. “But aren’t you…” Umber said, staring at her as she passed.

Avery’s airship held overhead, a shadow circling the city slowly. She could make out a little cloud of fairies buzzing around it, possibly hundreds strong. But none of them came down, and that was probably for the best. We don’t need the jungle getting out of control right now. Shame they wouldn’t have the deer’s magic on their side, but… nothing she could do about that now.

“On Athena’s ship?” She shook her head. “She blew it up. Guess she didn’t want us to get our hooves on it.”

She kept walking, right through the heartwood and into the dream world gathering.

So little time had passed that all she had to do was ask Misty to make sure nopony went anywhere.

There would be much less ado about this meeting, no votes or discussion really. Only Eureka of all the ponies here would be of any use, and he wouldn’t be waiting in a conference room.

“Just thought everyone should know,” she began, once the conversation had quieted. “Ship is destroyed. Lavender, I want you watching Mundi—but I don’t think we’ll have to watch it very closely. The only question will be whether we get weeks or only days. Doesn’t matter. We can’t win a war with her either way.”

“Then what do we do?” Hat Trick asked. “Not wait to die.”

“Obviously not,” Lavender snapped. “When has the Dreamknife ever just left us to die?”

“I have a plan,” Jackie cut in, before anyone else could break the silence and turn the room to chaos. “It’s… a little complicated to explain, and important that Athena not see it coming. All I can tell you is I’m going to be gone until it happens. Either I succeed, or I’ll be back in time to die with everyone else.”

That silenced the room. Ponies stared at her from all sides, and a little of the hope seemed to drain out from between them. “You can’t tell us anything?” Firelight asked. “You’re expecting us to just… wait?”

“No.” Jackie rose from her chair. “Everyone on this side, evacuate into Meliora. Except for our unicorns in training. If this fails… we’re going to try and move the heartwood. Lots of places we could hide it. I know I said I didn’t want to give up our world, but it seems a shitty way to die if we don’t have another choice.”

There was silence in the room for a long time. She couldn’t blame them—in a way, Jackie had just announced their surrender. Giving up on the real world, moving into a place where they’d be frozen in time, unable to grow older, to reproduce, and where the Dreamlands’ rules would slowly twist their minds.

“I don’t expect us to evacuate,” she said. “But it’s a possibility. Prepare for it while I’m away.” She lowered her head to Avery’s perch on a nearby chair. “Queen, I wonder if you might be able to find room for the heartwood on your airship, should the worst happen. I know it wasn’t the alliance you had in mind… but we still intend to fulfill our side.”

“That is good. It’s never wise to break a promise,” Avery answered, her voice magically magnified. The spell she was using didn’t affect the pitch though, and she still sounded sped-up compared to an ordinary pony. Guess that was the one advantage of being her size. “I don’t think the Fiore can make room for…” She glanced around. “A tree as large as this.”

“Not the whole thing. My unicorns will explain… only a small part of the tree is required for the spell. Nature magic could sustain it if we removed it from the tree itself.”

Avery nodded. “We will have to make arrangements for further payment should this be necessary. But we can worry about them later. Just understand that your city will owe me a favor.”

“Agreed.” Jackie could feel the strands of magic tying her down, nearly as strong as they had been with Voeskender. But so long as they didn’t need to evacuate, it wouldn’t matter. Jokes on you, fae. I’m not going to live through this either way.

She could answer few of their questions, and so the meeting didn’t go much longer. As soon as the ponies began to disperse, she pulled Liz aside. “I don’t know if you want to come with me,” she said, her voice low. “I’m going far away, might be gone a little while. Won’t have a chance to come back here.”

The seapony frowned, reaching up to scratch at her chin with a booted foreleg. “How far?”

“Alpha Centauri,” she answered honestly. “And further. I think Oracle’s colony is further. Also you’ll need wings and lots of transformation makes most ponies sick.” She took a step back. “You really don’t have to come, kid. I just thought I’d offer since you enjoyed our last trip. Or did you? I guess it didn’t end quite so good after—”

Liz rested a hoof on her shoulder, silencing her. “I’ll come, Jackie. I don’t have wings, but there’s tech for that. Armor mods, and ever since you got me this Sorcerer set…” She stepped back, flexing her artificial back legs and grinning. There was a mechanical click, and a set of thin wings sprung out from either side. They weren’t straight, but they were rigid, with tiny engines mounted underneath.

An impossible achievement by the tech of ancient Earth. But sea ponies were the second-most advanced race in existence. It shouldn’t surprise her that they’d come up with something clever.

“Cool. Then pack for the road and meet me in my office in ten.”

Jackie had nothing to pack, of course. Her days of relying on trail rations and bedrolls while out on her own were long over. Though some part of her did wonder what had happened to Alex’s magical saddlebags, and the quaint little house the Alicorn had built inside.

The Dreamlands were even better for things like that, so long as she could get back and forth. Of course, eating nothing but Dreamlands food would eventually stop you from being able to leave. But a few days, even a few weeks? She could handle that.

“I guess this is it.” Hat Trick stood in her doorway, shifting nervously on her hooves.

“For Meliora?”

“If you lose,” the bat pony said. “But you haven’t lost yet. I’m sure you think your plan will succeed.”

“I do,” Jackie said. “But it’s desperate. If you plan on living, you may want to catch the next train for somewhere else.”

“You wouldn’t be upset? I’m sure my abilities will be vital in maintaining Meliora if the heartwood is destroyed.”

Jackie shrugged. “Professional courtesy. Most of the immortals are dead. There are five bats. I don’t know what Artifice will do, but I’m going down with the ship. If the universe won’t let Meliora live, then I don’t want to either.”

“Am I… interrupting something?” Liz squeezed through the empty door, her saddlebags tightly packed and a rifle on her shoulders. “I can just—”

“No, I was just leaving.” Hat Trick stepped back, lowering her head politely. “They’re my ponies too, Jackie. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Then you’re better than she is.”

Hat Trick laughed. “I know. She never lets me forget.”

“Well… that was weird.” Liz pushed the door closed, locking it behind the bat. “We’re making the round tour of Alicorns, then?”

“Three destinations,” Jackie echoed. “Oracle, then Archive, then…” She trailed off. “Somewhere you can’t go. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Yeah, right.” Liz stuck out her tongue. “I’m immortal, Jackie. I’m not just forever young like you are. There’s nowhere too dangerous.”

She shook her head. “Your sister can explain it. For now, Oracle. From the dreams I’ve seen, he’s got a colony somewhere… different. Get those wings ready, you’ll need them the instant we come out on the other side.” She drew the dagger, flipped it over one hoof, and sliced through reality into the enchanted wood.

There was another journey ahead of them, one much like many she’d taken before. Reaching Oracle’s colony required climbing the ancient peaks of Wrighthamaren, crossing the scorching desert of Arrakis and finally ascending into the clouds.

But they hadn’t come to see the angels, and no sooner had they reached their city than Jackie cut her way back to the real world—though it wasn’t the world of her birth.

She didn’t know the name of the planet, though she could feel the air on the other side and knew it would not be safe for her to breathe. “Don’t fall out of your suit,” she advised, sheathing her dagger and staring through the portal.

There was a cloud city waiting on the other side of the opening, similar to those she’d read about in ancient Equestria.

The clouds weren’t white here, but slightly yellow. I don’t even want to think about what that means. She had cut her way into somepony’s bedroom, using their own dreams to cross the vast distances of space. Sorry not sorry Einstein.

The pony she could see sleeping there in a cloud-bed was nearly twice Jackie’s own size, and she remained on the other side to study its appearance closely.

He looked like a pegasus, if a pegasus was expanded to the size of the largest earth horses without gaining much in mass. Her magical senses showed his metal bones, and hugely oversized lungs. The metabolism of this creature didn’t involve a stomach and digestion at all, but instead relied on direct consumption of hydrogen gas, which was combusted in another metallic organ.

Damn our genetic engineering is getting good. You’re quite the little monster.

“Something wrong?” Liz asked from behind her, nudging her towards the opening. “Are we gonna go across or not? My suit is good for cloudwalking, don’t worry.”

Jackie lifted a hoof to her mouth, but the sleeper didn’t stir. If he woke, this portal would close and they’d need to find someone else. She spoke in a whisper. “I’m just… trying to figure out how to copy him. He’s a fucking biocyborg.”

“I have no idea what that means. Do you mean you got the scale wrong? That bedroom looks a little… big.”

“No, scale’s right. They’re just that size. Give me a little space, I’m about to be too.”

Liz stepped back, letting Jackie concentrate. You could’ve done it in a few seconds I bet, Ezri. But I was never as good as you.

Even so, she wasn’t about to be bested by a little genetic engineering. Besides, it was only a dream. The insides didn’t have to be perfect as long as she was confident in the general idea.

Jackie was suddenly bigger. Her bat wings had gained feathers and a traditional pegasus shape, though they were still dark purple and even had differently colored feathers suggesting where bones had been.

Speaking of bones, it was a good thing they were up in the clouds. Jackie felt like her whole body was made of balsa wood and twine, ready to fall apart if gravity so much as looked at her funny.

She looked down, grinning at Liz. “Alright small stuff, let’s get going.”

Liz glared. “Careful with the nicknames. You look like a blimp. I bet I could blow you away if I wanted.”

“Maybe if you had lungs,” Jackie replied, grinning. “But you’re using a computer to talk, so I’m not worried. Now come on before he wakes up.”

Together they stepped through the opening, and onto another planet.

Chapter 34: Brachyotis

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No sooner were they through the opening in the air than Liz’s Sorcerer armor began to rumble, and the stallion sat up in bed with a panicked screech. “Eeeh!” He held up his wings over his face. “Mom! There’s…” He stopped, clutching at his chest. “How’d you get in?”

“I dunno, but I know how we’re leaving.” Jackie moved past him to the cloudy wall. Night sky waited out there, with at least two little moons circling somewhere vastly far away.

She could hear ponies moving somewhere further into the house, no doubt rushing to the aid of this child. Awkward questions that she didn’t want to answer right now.

So she kicked, and a section of wall beside the window puffed away. “Come on!” she called, hovering in the air just outside. Flight took almost nothing from her wings, more directing her than actually holding her weight. Good thing too, they’re not as strong as they should be.

And outside, Jackie could see what looked even more like an Equestrian sky-village, some of its many windows glowing warmly in the light. There were no stars, just a uniform yellowish haze overhead, but at least the moons glowing up there were pretty.

Liz emerged from the opening a moment later, expression pained. The engines on her wings roared like she was an old-fashioned jumbo jet about to take off.

“I think we missed a variable…” she called, her voice strained even in the suit of powered armor. “I feel like… a million pounds. Barely… move…”

Shit. Jackie didn’t know exactly what she had gotten wrong. She just did the same thing she always did when she was in danger, and cut her way into the Dreamlands, shoving Liz through before following her in.

There was a city square on the other side, with huge cloudy pillars holding up cloudy roofs and many figment pegasi drifting between them.

Liz collapsed on her back, clutching at her chest with both hooves. “That… that was awful.”

On the other side of the opening, Jackie could hear the colt and his mother talking. The mother was scolding him for breaking his wall again. Jackie summoned a nice piece of black cloth, and settled it right against the barrier on a cloud-tripod, where the opening to the dreamlands would be almost invisible against the night.

“There’s nothing there, Argon. You’re not getting out of this one. Now get back to bed before your father comes down here.”

She held her hoof over her lips until they were gone, finally turning to Liz. “Must be… something with the gravity. I’m wondering if maybe that colony… maybe it isn’t on a rocky planet at all.” She pushed the cloth aside, glancing down. She could see no ground, even between the floating homes. Just distant yellow haze, denser the further she looked.

“Pressure is fine, our suits can do deep ocean. But we don’t build for higher than Earth gravity.”

“It’s okay, I can keep an eye on her.” Misty landed on the clouds beside them, at pony size now. That meant she was bigger than Liz, even without armor of her own. “This is safe territory, Jackie. Nothing’s going to come for her up here.”

“If you…” Liz frowned, looking up at her. “Can you teach me what you did? If I have to be a songless landwalker for a few minutes, I can manage. Seemed like it worked good enough on you going the other way.”

“Well… no,” Jackie admitted. “There is unicorn magic for transformation, but I’m not a unicorn. What I do is… dreaming, basically. I can be whatever I want in here, and advanced thestral magic lets me take dream stuff into the real world. You’re not a thestral, so my method won’t work for you.”

“That magic you used last time worked pretty well,” Liz said. “Until I…”

“Yeah. No kidnapping tonight. But you’re not helpless, so… if you stay awake, and you stay with her, Misty… let me know if anything shady happens. I’ll be able to get to you almost instantly.” She stepped back through the opening, shoving her summoned cloth aside. It puffed away as soon as she didn’t need it.

There was cloud around the edge of the house, maybe fifty feet before it trailed away. The wall was already fixed. But the colt hadn’t gone to bed. He’d opened the window, and watched her settle on the cloud. “I know you’re real,” he said. “You’re trying to get me in trouble, huh?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, kid. You were just the first dream I found.” She nodded once to Misty, then banished the portal with a gesture. “I’m sorry my friend’s engines woke you up. They weren’t expecting…” She trailed off. “What kind of planet is this?”

“Home,” he answered, as though it were obvious. “What kind of planet would it be?”

“I honestly don’t know what I was expecting.” She took off, which as before took almost nothing from her. More just choosing a direction. “Kid, where is the guy in charge? Pony with a horn, I think, he should…”

The colt pointed up. “Palace is by the elevator. Where else would it be?”

She shrugged, then set off as quickly as she could. “Thanks kid. Hope you don’t get into trouble because of me.”

She did her best to ascend up the city, following the direction the child had pointed. But her wings didn’t really move that much faster, and she only sped up a little. At least I can’t hurt myself like an idiot. Dreams had a way of self-regulating for realism—if she tried to push this pretend body much farther, it would come apart.

She wasn’t sure what the “elevator” was, but that mystery solved itself as she passed out of the residential parts of town and over to… god, what even was that?

It wasn’t an elevator so much as a massive tower, rising so far above her that it was lost to sight. That must be a thousand stories tall. It was the largest structure she’d ever seen, even bigger than Axis Mundi had been before Charybdis’s monstrous horde had bombed it.

And at the base, like a toy castle set in front of the real thing, someone had built a fortress in the clouds. Pointless waste of time. A single pony could just break through the whole thing if they wanted.

She was more interested in the gardens stretching around it, dark green clouds with a thin mossy layer growing on the upward-facing surface. Maybe if we’re still here come daylight I can look. But no, this wasn’t some dream she could accelerate and explore for months. This was the real world, and somewhere vastly far away Athena’s troops were preparing for war.

I won’t be able to infiltrate again. Now that she had tried that once, Athena would find some method to prevent it. And if Jackie made a single mistake, she’d get a bullet in the head and that would be the end.

I’d be ready to die if it was for a good reason. There had been a time long ago, when Jackie had screamed at Archive for being so eager to die. Every problem she encountered was solved the same way—“I’m immortal, so everyone get behind me.” Well they had, and it had gotten them straight into a dark age.

There were guards on the wall, guards that wore no armor or clothing of any kind. Come to think of it, Jackie hadn’t seen textiles in the cloud bedroom either.

She landed on the wall, directly in front of one of the watchmen. “Excuse me,” she said, loudly enough that she couldn’t be missed.

But even so, he still started in surprise, spreading his wings and nearly lifting off the wall himself. “You shouldn’t be up here!”

“I know,” she said. “But this is kind of important, and I’m not really big on laws anymore.” She nodded slightly towards the distant tower entrance. “I’m sure he’s asleep or whatever, but I need to talk to your… princess? Is that what you call him?”

“Regent,” the guard responded, gesturing over with a wing. “Alidade, get over here! We’ve got a drunk!”

“No.” She stepped forward toward him, closing the distance so fast her body blurred for a moment. She froze, head throbbing as she tried to hold the dream together. She managed, if only because the world she was in would’ve killed her in moments. She had strong motivation. “I only drink when I’m with company, and you aren’t nearly pretty enough. I’m here to speak with Oracle.”

From the wall all around, ponies were running. Well—running in strictest possible terms. They didn’t run much faster than they flew. “What h-house are you from?” the guard stammered. He glanced over his shoulder, shifting nervously. He had no weapons she could see, no gear at all. But his mane had been shaved almost straight, maybe that counted.

“Earth,” she said. “The dumb name for me is Dreamknife, if those legends made it this far out. I’m the one who knows where you sleep.”

He swallowed, looking away. “Here to see… the regent.”

“Yes,” she said. “And no, I’m not here to kill him. I already tried once, and he saw me coming. He’s Oracle, he’s probably already expecting me. Go on, ask. I can wait here.” She sat down on her haunches right in front of him. “Either that or arrest me. But I wouldn’t suggest trying that.”

A pony ran off with the message. She was hardly gone five minutes before another pony returned in her place. “Oracle is waiting in the throne room,” the pony whispered. “He instructed me to say… that the visitor is late.”

“Yes fine.” Jackie rose to her hooves again, annoyed. “I used to just kill the ponies that got in the way. But that’s more complicated when they haven’t sold their souls to sea monsters. Let’s go.”

The castle’s construction was massive and spacious, but as much made from clouds as everything else. Except for the parts that weren’t—strange metal supports that all seemed to attach towards the center of the building. They passed several rooms with metal floors that looked far more like factories than anything a palace might need. But Jackie couldn’t make sense of what they might be making, and didn’t really care.

The throne room was far from the regal grandeur the incredible tower had led her to expect. They stepped inside, and immediately her eyes were overwhelmed by the glow of computer displays. There was a single throne in the center of the room, surrounded by a battle station any PC gamer would’ve been proud of.

Except he wasn’t gaming. She could see only numbers moving on those screens, moving so quickly it was like a background filter from The Matrix.

“Leave us,” Oracle said, spinning his chair around. “We will require only a moment. My visitor is in a hurry.”

“You could say so,” Jackie said, not even waiting for the guards to scurry out behind her. “Does that time travel of yours let you see what kind of fucking monster Athena became? You know you had a moral responsibility to stop her. Should’ve… strangled her in her cradle.”

Oracle had changed—he was larger than she was, with the same over-large pegasus-looking body, though he had a long horn to go with the wings. His body seemed to glow slightly with internal light—not magic, but a controlled hydrogen fire. Those tubes running up his chair weren’t there for show.

“That’s an interesting perspective,” he said, voice flat. “And where does the responsibility end? I should kill every despot before they can commit their crimes, yes? What about every mass murderer? What about the ones who kill only once, or those who evade paying taxes, or…” He shook his head. “I am one pony, Dreamknife. And I cannot shape the future any differently than you can. I act in the present, and my actions have consequences. I just have more vision.”

“Fine,” Jackie said, marching right up to his throne and glaring. “You know why I’m here, then. It’s sea monster Mk2 back home. Guess you’ve moved on from Earth, maybe things are great here, but you don’t get to leave. Time to get shit done.”

Chapter 35: Brooksi

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For a long time the Alicorn only looked at her. Oracle’s knowing glances were always infuriating, the way he always let on that he knew something she didn’t. And more often than not, he did.

“You’re constructing an Imperial spell,” he eventually said. He didn’t get up—maybe he couldn’t. The chair itself was made of metal instead of cloud, with a few glowing screens whose purpose she couldn’t guess. But the tubes attached directly to Oracle’s underbelly, at a metallic gasket that would’ve been at home on the body of a borg drone.

“Duh. There’s no other way to kill her. Athena has drones all over the solar system, maybe further. Even if we find where she’s doing most of her thinking and nuke it, in ten years she’ll be restored from backup somewhere else and fuckin’ pissed about blowing up. Even if we had some omniscient future-seeing pony who wasn’t a pansy-ass about using his powers, we don’t have the starships to stop her.”

“You don’t need to persuade me,” Oracle said. “Langara is my home now, I will not return to Earth. But Athena’s growth nears a threshold—if we do not stop her now, we never will. She has not yet mastered magic, but soon she will. Once she becomes capable of Imperium, she will secure her rule over civilized space for boundless time.”

Jackie’s ears flattened, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Are you saying… are you saying that you already know we’re going to lose? If you’re using future sight to predict the end times and you only fuckin’ now decided to mention that you saw Athena becoming dictator of the universe…”

Oracle raised his wings placatingly. “Peace. I have made no such claim. I am agreeing with you—this action is essential, before we create a being we can neither comprehend nor destroy. But you may want to consider the cost of your proposal. Imperial magic takes a terrible toll on those who wield it. Whatever spell you have in mind will extract its price from someone. From you.”

She nodded, gritting her teeth for a moment. “I know what it might cost. If I don’t have what we need, I know where to find it.”

“Then I’ll be waiting there. I’m no friend of Athena’s… though it will be a terrible shame to see what happens to her. And you.”

“A shame?” Jackie puffed out her wings. “We’re taking Earth back, Oracle. Killing a monster.”

“I know. But you’re only seeing her in three dimensions, Dreamknife. I see her in four—a… a majestic lion. Doesn’t mean I won’t help you put it down for the sake of the village. But it will make the world out there a little less… complete.”

He settled back into his chair, sighing deeply. “But that’s all our actions ever are, really. Creating one future murders an infinity of others. So it goes.”

Jackie turned her back on Oracle and his strange floating world, drawing her knife from nowhere. There was no point going back to the place she’d cut her way in. Now that she knew where in the Dreamlands she was aiming for, the process would be easy.

But she didn’t actually cut yet. “This planet… is it what I think it is?”

Oracle’s grim, knowing attitude vanished, and he sounded almost surprised. “A gas giant, yes. By volume most of our colony is the ring surrounding Langara, but that will change in time.”

She turned back. “Fucking mental. What kind of civilization can you possibly build in a world of clouds?”

“A large one,” he answered. Then he raised a wing. “Yes, your joke is amusing. But I’m serious. We have a hundred Earths’ worth of space here. We could defeat Athena tomorrow and your ponies can colonize a dozen starsystems and my civilization will still be several times larger.”

“Looks like… maybe ten thousand people,” Jackie muttered, a little annoyed. “Hard to call that a civilization.”

He shrugged. “Humans survived worse genetic bottlenecks. They’re also purely organic, and age. My ponies will not, and their drive to reproduce will never need to be curtailed. When we fill this planet, there are many other suitable candidates that you would brush off as mere features of their home systems. The best way to live in peace is to depend on things that others do not want.”

She shook her head. “I dunno if I’m sold, Oracle. Archive is colonizing water worlds, now you’re living out here in the clouds. What will it even mean to be human in a thousand years?”

It was his turn to shrug. “You’ve lived longer than I have, Dreamknife. That’s enough time to know that abstractions aren’t worth dying for. We’re alive—we fill vacuums. In ten thousand years this culture will be so different from our own that you and I would both be strangers here. But what does that matter? They’ll live—thousands and thousands of endless generations. Trillions of lives in the endless sky above Langara.”

The wall-screens all changed, showing images of the city outside—but in daylight. Thousands of overlapping levels, packed with ponies living lives that were almost recognizable to her. Schools, symphonies, monuments…

“You’re in no place to judge us,” Oracle said. “In some ways, you have done the same thing to your people. Building a city in the Dreamlands… I gave my people metal organs, but you turned them from living creatures into ideas. Which one of us has gone further from the root?”

“We’re coming back,” Jackie snapped, spreading her wings again. She was done with this conversation. Her knife sliced through to a near-identical cloud city on the other side. “That’s the difference. When this spell is over my bats get to go home. But whatever you are… you wouldn’t last five minutes on Earth.”

He shrugged. “I told you, I’m not going back.” All the screens went out. “The journey was a long one, Dreamknife. Many of these people lost everything in the Great War. There’s nothing for them to go back to, either. They made their choice, just as you will make yours.”

Jackie muttered something crude, stepping through to the other side and shutting the portal behind her. Her oversized pegasus body blew away like a snowman she’d been hiding inside. “Liz? Misty?”

She raised her voice, but there was no need. They hadn’t gone far.

They had gone to the fountain in the center of the marketplace. Liz’s armor now stood empty beside it, the metal superstructure open and ready to accept her body.

It didn’t really matter that the fountain hadn’t been big enough for her before—this was the Dreamlands, and it was plenty deep enough now. And when she swam to the surface, she rested her forelegs on the edge as though she’d been normal-sized all along.

I really have been transforming them into ideas. This was the danger of visiting the Dreamlands, even for bat ponies. The rules here were so fluid that staying for too long eroded at the soul. The denizens of the Dreamlands, figments and greater creatures, existed only because the minds of dreamers in real space gave the featureless aether some solidity.

“Oracle isn’t with you,” she said, struggling forward towards her armor. But she flopped onto the cloud, and started to fall through it.

Jackie caught her with one leg, though she very nearly let her slip through her grip. But then Jackie squeezed, before her tail could slip past and she could slide away. “Careful, fish. Wouldn’t really be fair for you to be perfectly safe over here until you fell off.”

Right to your death. Thus was the danger of physical travel in the Dreamlands—you couldn’t wake up when you died like a normal dreamwalker if your real body was here.

“Y-yeah,” Liz squeaked, her song muffled. But she was out of the water, and didn’t really have much of a voice without her suit. Jackie helped get her situated, conscious all the while of Misty circling around them. “S-sorry about that. Got bored waiting for you.”

“I would’ve,” she admitted. “But maybe don’t take your armor off next time. What if someone showed up and poked a hole in that fountain? They could’ve pushed your suit off the edge and you couldn’t do a thing to stop them.”

The seapony grunted in annoyance, looking away. But Jackie could tell she had no argument to make. So she said nothing.

“Oracle agreed, but he won’t be coming with me. He’ll be… waiting at the end.”

“Oh.” Liz looked down, pawing at the cloud with her suit. The little engines under its wings made no sound, but then she’d kept them folded until now anyway. “Guess that means we’re going to… recruit my sister. The other two Alicorns have already agreed.”

“Either her or Mystic Rune,” Jackie answered. “But from how weird things are already getting out here, I don’t really like our odds on whatever planet he’s found. And… he doesn’t dream. We’d have to hope he had friends with him who did, and… last I checked his only friend was an AI. It would take a master unicorn to track him down, and I’m not that. So Lonely Day is our target.” She stomped into the clouds with one hoof, dissolving a hole big enough for them to see down. These alien places weren’t so far apart—far, far below them, she could make out the ocean. The same ocean where they would find the musical dreams of sea ponies, and with care, the Alpheus colony.

“You don’t have to come,” Jackie said again. “I know you weren’t happy living there, and you… still have some anger with your sister. Could just wait on the other side like you did here.”

“Nah.” Liz’s finned tail swung back and forth behind her, energetic. “I think I’d… like to go back. Sing some of the old songs for a while.”

Jackie nodded towards the opening, then dived off. Not like a falcon going for a distant fish, though… their descent was leisurely. Liz’s wings didn’t flap, and consequently she couldn’t drop straight down like Jackie. She had to fly in gentle circles, with the hum of motors following her along. Jackie flew beside her, and found it a surprisingly challenging task. Organic wings just weren’t built to move the same way as those rigid ones.

“Living with grounders was that bad?” Jackie asked. “Gonna… actually, it might be a good idea if you stayed there for a bit. Meliora is in for a rough patch if this spell doesn’t go right. I don’t know what happens when an immortal gets hit with an orbital laser.”

“I wake up on Alpheus anyway,” she answered. “There’s this whole revitrification building—creepy as fuck. Blank bodies just floating in tubes.”

You didn’t say no, Jackie realized, a little sadly. Leaving Liz behind probably was the right thing. Meliora didn’t need a shopkeeper during the apocalypse. But that wouldn’t make it easy.

“Are you going to be a seapony again? When we go through?”

Jackie found herself blushing. “I, uh… I guess? Why?”

“So I can hear you sing again,” Liz answered, right as she turned away for another circle. In the opposite direction as she’d been moving, so that by the time Jackie caught up she had several seconds to hide whatever she’d been feeling.

If she was only a seapony now, Jackie would’ve been able to sense exactly what emotion that was. But she was old enough that she probably didn’t need the magic. Oh lord.

“You should know…” Jackie began, her voice tentative. “When I, uh… when I first met her, I had a crush on your sister.” Maybe that would… gross her out or something? But no, she watched Liz carefully this time, and the fish didn’t even seem to react. Her song came out exactly the same, too.

“I can see that being hard. Alex can be… hard to get along with sometimes. Great to have around, since she’s so good about getting shit done… but when there’s nothing to get done, she’s fucking insufferable. Like a racehorse stuck in its pen for hours before the starting gun.”

They landed with a splash.

Chapter 36: Ega

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Jackie had almost everypony now—everypony in the world who had a prayer of working together to stop Athena. The forces arrayed before them were still incredible, perhaps impossible to overcome. But there was no reason she couldn’t try. It was a little like their last-ditch defenses against Charybdis, in the Final War.

Only that war didn’t end up being the end, did it? To create Jackie’s Imperial spell, she needed the Alicorns of every relevant aspect. Eureka to provide their mastery over machines, Oracle to be certain the effects of the spell would encompass the future as well as the present. But they also needed Archive, to contribute what might be the most important part of the spell itself. Death.

So Jackie found herself returning to the place she had started, when she had only barely understood that Athena was a problem and not even dreamed of how much blood might be required to shake her loose of her control, to the watery colony of Alpheus.

She hadn’t felt worried about returning, not until Liz pointed out that she wanted to sing with Jackie again. For the first time in her long life, she found herself feeling shy and self-conscious around obvious interest. I’m too old for you, kid. Your family has too much baggage for me. And I don’t know how much longer I have.

It was easier to find her way back with Liz swimming beside her—the seapony could find the dreams of her own kind just by listening to the music, which reverberated through them all regardless of whether they were sleeping or waking. A few quick tests, and they found somepony on Archive’s colony to cut their way through.

Jackie had seen this communicable sleeping place before, though this time it was mostly empty. There were a few seaponies napping, such as the one they’d used to travel here. A few were only dozing lightly, and jumped with a start when the two of them seemed to appear from nowhere.

“Apologies cousins,” Liz hummed, like the dutiful recitation of a prayer. She was already swimming out of her suit, securing it in lockdown mode in the sleeping area. Not that you’re leaving. Despite everything she said, Jackie did not intend to take Liz back to Meliora. She wouldn’t be returning until it was time to cast the spell, and when that happened…

It would be better for all involved if Athena didn’t have access to immortals to imprison. The real danger for her wasn’t getting killed by one of Athena’s ancient weapons, the danger would come from being left alive.

The seaponies quickly relaxed under Liz’s promptings—however sudden their appearance, magic wasn’t unknown here, and they were clearly cousins.

“What about the other?” one of them sang, an older male who was obviously most annoyed by the interruption. “Is she regretful of her mistake?”

“No,” Jackie answered, though she still sung. “The other is here to save your life. She is permitted mistakes.” Instead of singing with her regret, she sang along with resolve and confidence—confidence that would not weaken in the face of an annoyed old man.

They left then, before anypony could think to call the guards and inconvenience them. “I wonder if you know where to find her,” Jackie sang, a little more relaxed. “Do we need more magic?”

“I can smell my sister in the water,” Liz answered. “The blood is an easier trail than a spell.” Somehow it seemed more natural for Liz to be singing everything down here. It no longer struck her as an auditory quirk, or a disability. If anything, the seapony seemed to be showing off. Her tone was perfect and even, and her tail moved with an exaggerated grace—like a girl adding a sway to her step she hadn’t quite grown into.

Sweetheart, it won’t work. Where I go, you can’t follow. But Jackie followed her, for a little longer anyway. Up the spire of the central building, up so high that the building itself rose above the ocean. Jackie pointed at one of the entrances, but there was no shimmer of a spell within. It was open, and yet the interior was filled with water.

“How does it stay…” She shook her head, eyes widening. The entire dome of the building was made from glass, apparently an observation area of the world above. “I must’ve missed something in physics class.”

“The air is heavy,” Liz explained. “Was… filled, then stays filled. Isn’t easy to put right if there’s a leak, though. Got to pump it all over again.”

They swam up into the observation area, and were suddenly under the starry sky of night. The dome was polished to crystal transparency, without any visual structural supports. The interior didn’t rise terribly high, Jackie would’ve been surprised if it was even twenty feet. But that was enough room for a few tiers of benches and platforms to display carvings and statues.

There near the center was Archive, surrounded by a dense school of young seaponies. Jackie had never seen them this young—they were adorably small, almost as much as Misty. They kept close together, a dense, humming mass of shimmering scales.

In this case, they were getting an astronomy lesson. On the ground in front of Archive was a machine—unmistakably a telescope.

“That’s the one, right there,” Archive explained, as patiently as any teacher. “The tiny yellow one.”

“Shouldn’t it be bigger?” asked one tiny voice. “If everyone swam from there, it must be really big.”

“Well…” She hesitated. “Having a small sun is actually a good thing for life, so long as it isn’t too small. The bigger a star is, the faster it goes through its fuel, and the hotter it gets.” She stopped, looking up suddenly. But then she looked back to her lesson, letting the procession of little fish swim up to the telescope one after another to take their turn.

Jackie and Liz sat down in a corner of the observatory, near the entrance. Where they could wait for the lesson to end without giving Alex the chance to slip away unnoticed. Not that Jackie thought she would.

It was only another few minutes. The little fish exited, in the company of a handful of other teachers, leaving only a few bored-looking seaponies swimming near the statues, not paying them any attention.

Alex swam over with a slow resolve, her eyes never looking away from Jackie.

“That’s some impressive optics you’ve got there. Bending water and your atmosphere?”

Alex chuckled. “The telescope is on a satellite. But using it up here helps to reinforce what they’re really looking at. I want them to realize there’s a sky full of stars up here, not think their world ends when the water runs out. It’s a big universe, with lots more empty worlds.”

“Empty now, you mean,” Jackie muttered. “Ever since magic killed everyone.”

“Yeah.” She didn’t argue. “Empty now. But that’s not why you’re here. Your war with Athena must not be going too badly, or else… my sister would’ve woken up here, instead of swimming back.”

“Give it a week,” Liz said, though there was far less venom in her voice than Jackie remembered from all those months ago. However much she had resented Alex then, her feelings seemed to have mellowed. “I’ll get there.”

“Then why?” Alex settled down on the bench across from them. It was an effort of balance, since seaponies were neutrally buoyant and not weighed down by any apparent gravity. Most chairs she’d seen in their buildings had straps or cushions of some kind to hold one down, but not these. “I already gave you the location of my last stockpile. I used all the others already.”

“I know.” Jackie gestured up at the sky. “Your oldest baby has lost her fucking mind, Alex. I think… after all this time, it’s safe to say that working with an AI is like working with the spirits of the Dreamlands. You meet them one day, and they seem so friendly, their interests so similar. You strike a bargain, and everything seems great. But come back a century later, and it speaks in gurgles and wants you to deliver severed baby legs instead of breadsticks.”

Alex winced, her words apparently cutting deeper than Jackie usually did. She’d begun to hum to the same melody Jackie was speaking to—resolve. Alex had apparently been playing seapony for so long that she didn’t have to act anymore. “We gave her simple directives, I’m not sure how they could’ve gone wrong. Build the humans their flotilla—she did that. Protect the civilization of Earth and help it to grow. Charybdis would’ve won for sure if it wasn’t for Athena. She invented the soulshear. Built some of our most powerful weapons…”

“And that was great,” Jackie agreed, cutting her off. “When the greatest threats to civilization came from outside, Athena was a real peach. But Charybdis is dead. She took a century hunting down his last few friends, and now the Earth is clean. She’s turned on us… I don’t just mean her stupid racism thing. Meliora, my city, has a million ponies living in it now. Athena has decided all of us need to die.”

Jackie reached out, resting a foreleg on her shoulder and forcing Archive to meet her eyes. “She’s lost it, Alex. She’s crossed the moral Rubicon. Maybe there’s some twisted justification to make ponies hate each other so a rivalry in a century or two makes us all advance faster and better… but we have to draw the line somewhere. I know where that line goes—right here. Not one more life.”

Alex did not argue with her—she knew better than to object to Jackie’s descriptions of the facts. Eventually she just closed her eyes, and her song became something slow and mournful, like a whale. “We built her to be hard to kill. We knew Charybdis or something like him would try.”

“I know.” Jackie reached into the Dreamlands, pulling out her single-page sketch of a spell. It was more of the ingredients section than the actual recipe, since she wasn’t an Alicorn and didn’t actually know what Imperial magic looked like. But a pony like Alex could recognize it. “We’re done playing by her rules.”

Alex levitated over the sheet, her eyes darkening. “Do you know what this will cost?”

Jackie nodded.

“What?” Liz glanced between them, frustrated. “Let me see, Al!” She pulled the sheet over, but there was only confusion on her face. “The hell does it mean?”

“It’s how you kill a god,” Jackie supplied. “The only way we can, at this point. We cheat.”

“The others…” Alex muttered, ears flat to her head. “Have you made arrangements with them too? Do they know?”

“Assembled and waiting,” Jackie answered. “They don’t know where I’m going to source my ingredients. I guess that’s… because it’s your domain.”

Alex rose from her seat. She swam forward—unexpectedly quickly, despite her size. Though Jackie was more surprised by the affection from her. The friendship between the two of them had been better—in every meaningful sense it was probably more than a friendship by now.

Alex held her close, like she was saying farewell to a treasured relative. “You know this isn’t your price to pay, Jackie. You had to teach me that, long ago. You cannot be Atlas for the universe.”

“No,” Jackie agreed. She didn’t push Alex away, or try to squirm free. “But it’s time. I promised those bats they could keep their world, and I’m going to keep my promise.”

Alex pulled free. It was impossible to tell on a seapony, but Jackie imagined she was crying. The song was certainly sad enough. “There’s no other way?”

She shook her head. “Not unless you have some magical cutoff you can use to order Athena to kill herself.”

Alex shook her head. “I used to be able to command her, and give her new information. But these days she can just explain any action she wants as actually obeying my true intentions, so… she doesn’t listen. Her old directives are locked and can’t be changed, so we can’t just make her forget about us.”

“Then there’s no other way.” Jackie rose, circling in the water once to shake out her fins. “Should I… go right up with you? Is that how this works?”

Alex shook her head sharply. “Not yet. The…” She trailed off, frowning. “Preparing a spell like this takes time. The forces that rule up there would destroy you before we could cast it. The last time you visited, you were protected by, uh… the fact you were supposed to be an Alicorn. Before that, I was supposed to be an Alicorn, and that kept you alive. I’ll bring you when we’re ready.”

So much for her plan to keep Liz out of danger. If I just leave her behind, she’s going to hate me forever. It was probably the smart thing to do, for both of them. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to leave Liz behind.

“Liz.” She spun around, facing her. “Meliora is going to be attacked soon. I don’t know how well the timing of your sister’s spell will match with Athena’s invasion. Right now the best thing for you to do is to stay here, where you’re not in danger.”

“You probably should,” Alex muttered. “I know better than to order you to, but… I also know better than to think we’ll get away with just killing her. Athena is old, and her power has left an imprint on the world that can’t just be erased. If she dies, she will try to take us with her.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Liz said, floating vertically in the water so she was looking down on both of them. “As an alternative, consider fuck that. I think what I’ve seen from the bats would make lots of fish in Alpheus upset. I think that instead of leaving me here, we should tell them. Maybe we could get a few who want to come with us. I know there are mercenaries—thought they’d be fighting sea monsters on an alien world, but surprise it’s all dead! I’ve got some monsters in mind. Bet you can think of some too, huh Jackie?”

She smiled sadly. “I have a few in mind.”

Chapter 37: Lasiurus

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Meliora was on fire.

Jackie could smell the smoke the instant they passed through her dream-gateway. They hadn’t used the Dreamlands of the city, not when she was bringing so many with her. The bats would probably be nervous about a hundred heavily-armored seapony mercenaries.

They called themselves the Caeneans—children of Poseidon’s violent whims and gifted by his magic. And judging by the billowing clouds of smoke rising from the city, Jackie felt they’d probably be needed.

She took in as much as she could at a glance—panicked screams, the quiet bark of gunfire. Most important of all was the distant, reverberating rumble of a war horn, making all her organs shake and her eyes water at first. But while that sound was clearly unknown to the stream of armored ponies splashing out of the portal behind her, it was not unknown to her.

They were standing on a balcony overlooking the city, so it wasn’t hard to get a good look for confirmation.

Down below, the handful of soldiers of Meliora had formed reinforced battle lines, behind makeshift barricades and protected with a few gun turrets. It was no small fraction of their entire military resources, and from the disarray down there she could see they’d already suffered casualties.

If Athena had attacked us, there would already be ruin. But if Athena had attacked and burned the tree, she would’ve felt the destruction of it all across the Dreamlands. It still stood, at least for a little longer.

A handful of snipers were gathered here on the balcony, resting on makeshift chairs and with runners to keep them supplied with ammo. One looked up, his eyes widening with relief. “It’s the Dreamknife. She heard us.”

“I don’t understand…” Liz shifted uneasily from foot to foot of her armor as the balcony began to fill with seaponies. “How did she attack us so fast? It hasn’t even been a whole day!”

“It wasn’t Athena,” Jackie answered. “Find Fatima,” she instructed. “Bring her to the lowest safe level. Uh…” She pointed. “You four, stay with Liz! Protect that deer with your lives. The rest of you… you wanted a fight? Looks like we have one waiting.”

“Songless primitives,” one of the Caeneans sang, from just behind her. They all wore thick armor, much thicker than the simple shells to hold in water that scientists wore. Their faces were entirely covered, except for thin slits for eyes. But their suits seemed to have speakers too, because she heard just fine. “I thought we were going to make war with a demigod, not a tribe of animals in the woods.”

“One thing at a time,” Jackie called, cutting him off. “Down the barricade, quick as you can. We have to survive long enough for the demigod to get here.”

Jackie flung herself over the edge. She wasn’t too concerned with arrows or spears, not with as quickly as she fell. Her magic blurred her position in shadows and darkness, passing as much through that space as the physical world. What arrows did come whizzing past zoomed through empty air, and struck harmlessly against City Hall.

She landed in the center of a brawl. There were just over a hundred deer down here, each wrapped in the living armor gifted to them by Voeskender. It was meant to make them look like terrifying incarnations of nature, living bark and green leaves tied together into armor that would stop most blades and arrows without difficulty.

It hadn’t done so well against tungsten bullets, as the corpses all around the entrance showed. The battle seemed to freeze around her, with the wary defenders behind their barricade staring in shock at Jackie right in the center of the ranks of deer.

“Ankaa should’ve minded his own fucking business,” Jackie muttered. “Attacking us now? Are you people insane? We haven’t even fought Athena yet!”

She glanced up, but from the look of it her reinforcements didn’t have wings like Liz did. They’d have to take the stairs.

She could feel their attention turn on her, barricade almost forgotten. Hundreds of bucks, each taller and stronger than she was, only the thin slits of eyes visible through the bark armor around their faces.

“It is the dream witch!” one of them called. An officer of some kind, or maybe a chief. She wasn’t sure exactly what all the feathers on his helmet meant. “Most hated by the Jinn! Great rewards for whoever brings her head.”

“You’re kidding me.” Jackie was no noble warrior, determined to face every enemy standing and with a weapon in his hand. She didn’t have Archive’s strange code of honor, and felt no need to offer each of these a surrender before killing them. She sunk back into the shadows, passing through the army and emerging behind the chief. She swung with her knife, severing his head in a single stroke.

“How do I collect my reward?” she asked, using the deers’ strange proto-Arabic. “I got the head. That’s what you wanted, right?”

She tossed it onto the floor at her hooves, even as the body slumped uselessly to the ground beside her.

But if she had expected that to intimidate the army into fleeing, she was disappointed. A roar went up from all around her, and carried with it a bloodlust that a minotaur would’ve approved of. The deer closed in around her, not even seeming to notice as bats defending her barricade continued to pick them off at the edges. Please don’t fucking shoot me. They seemed to be keeping their fire away from her for now. That was good, since a tungsten bullet in the head was probably the only way for her to die in this fight.

These deer sure tried, though. Spears flew, arrows loosed from the back ranks, but she always slipped into the shadows and out of sight before they could strike. Plenty of the deer fell to friendly fire, though not as many as Jackie herself killed.

The world itself seemed to change around her as she fought, becoming its own little domain of the Dreamlands. She rose up onto two legs, protected by the imagined armor of the Enduring Ones as she wore one of their bodies. Her hair stayed soft blue, her eyes still glowing slits, but she fought like a human.

If there were any deer watching from afar, they would learn why she’d earned herself such a stupid nickname. Jackie twisted the time around her battle, but only for herself. Deer with charges that could shatter her bones lunged with the speed of melting ice, and with a careful tap from her hand friendly arrows were redirected towards their own side.

By the time the first seaponies began pouring out of City Hall, Jackie stood alone in a field of a hundred dead. Fat black flies buzzed in thick clouds in the heat of an Australian sun.

“Don’t shoot!” she called, as a few of the retreating survivors started to fall. “I want the others to know what’s waiting here.” She wiped her dagger gently on the headdress of a fallen deer, then sheathed it and approached the barricade.

“Gods of wave and shore…” one of the nearest Caeneans muttered. “You killed their whole army.”

Jackie laughed bitterly, glancing briefly over her shoulder. It might look like that from the ocean of corpses, but she knew better. Smoke rose in the distance, the smoke of thousands of burning trees. Ankaa’s real army took time to march. “I killed his scouts,” she answered. “A few of them, anyway. These brave ponies at the gates did more.” It wasn’t true, but she could see the way they lifted at the praise. Pride practically glowed from around the surviving ponies.

“You.” She stopped in front of one, who immediately dropped into a bow before her. “What is your name?”

“Vesper,” she answered, voice shaking. “Please, Dreamknife, I have done only my duty today. I do not—”

“Hey,” she cut her off. “Stop it. You did great, Vesper. You all did. When did this attack start?”

“Few… hours ago…” she stammered. “Before sunrise.”

“Did they send anyone first? That warlord’s daughter is in the city. What does he think will happen to her?”

“I don’t…” The pony shook her head. Jackie sighed, and the last vestiges of her dream faded around her. She returned to a bat, and the field of corpses behind her started to stink. “I don’t think so, Dream—Governor. Nopony came.”

“He doesn’t care. Gave me a disposable daughter, I guess. Uncooperative… maybe he wants an excuse to go to war.” She turned to Demetrius, leader of the Caeneans. “I want you to scour the forest. Any deer you find, leave like this.” She flicked her tail. “Oh, and when you’re done, burn them. Their religion can’t stand corpses left out for more than a day.”

“Why do we… care?” the seapony asked. “Don’t we want to send a message? Make them as upset as possible?”

“Not this time.” Jackie kept her voice low. “I want the soldiers to see the things their warlord promises not coming true. I want them to see that we’re honorable, and he’s not. Don’t get goaded out of the forest, either. When you’ve finished eliminating the scouts, return here.”

She turned her back on the battlefield, passing through the ruined barricade. Already ponies were emerging from within, carrying scrap wood and nails and replacement parts for their turrets. We weren’t supposed to be fighting the deer. All this is for Athena.

They weren’t ready. This was worse than she’d seen in Estel. At least then they’d had an entire winter to make guns. But here… they’d barely been working for a month. If it wasn’t for all the supplies they’d stolen, they would still be fighting with sticks.

She found Liz waiting halfway up the stairs, just outside one of the smaller meeting rooms. There was Fatima, her face and body entirely obscured by thick robes. She hadn’t been wearing most of those lately—but apparently today was a different day. Jackie couldn’t read her scents like a pony, but it sure didn’t smell happy to her.

“Have you been told?” Jackie asked, her voice flat. “What your father has done?”

“I have,” she said. Her voice remained even, though it obviously cost her greatly. “You have come to kill me in compensation. My father gave me as a hostage of peace, and he has broken it. I’m ready.”

Jackie frowned. “I’m, uh… not really sure what good that would do me, Fatima. I’ve got a lot of dead deer outside if I wanted any. I don’t need another one.” She gestured, and Liz led them into the meeting room—this was one of the smaller ones, used by locals for various hobby groups. It had a fairly large window to the outside, glass set right into living wood. Jackie could see her work crews emerging outside, strengthening the barricades. She hadn’t had to order them.

Because I’m not Alex. I don’t have to control everything myself. This is what delegation is for. Of course, there was one thing Jackie could do better than anypony else in the fortress—maybe in the world.

“I do not… understand,” Fatima said, stumbling after her in confusion. “The mageblood is… not filled with rage? Or perhaps suspicion. How can you now trust me not to betray you from the inside?”

Jackie shrugged. “You could. But you didn’t seem like the type. Does she seem like the type, Liz?”

Liz shook her head. “Not really.”

“See, she agrees.” Jackie flicked her tail towards the ruin outside. “Look at what your father has done.”

She looked. “I… heard him speak of you. Long before you came. He means to drive you into the sea. He only waited because you were… making the land safer. We could not have lived here before. But now it is safe, thanks to you.”

“Your father is an asshole,” Jackie said. “I have a serious question for you, Fatima. I want you to look me in the eye when you answer it.”

The deer obeyed. She couldn’t see much more than her eyes through the veil anyway, but they were wide with fear. Constantly twitching away, as though she was debating whether to run at every moment.

But she didn’t run. Maybe she knew how that would end. “When this is over, those deer are going to need a ruler. Want the job?”

She gaped. “I am… not able to… understand. My father has been blessed by Voeskender himself. He has already ruled for a dozen winters. The god promises him a hundred winters before his reign comes to an end.”

“I give him… two hours.” Jackie flicked her knife out from nowhere, tossing it onto the table. It sunk down to the hilt without resistance, filling the air with the iron scent of blood. “I’m going to kill him, Fatima. I have to—Meliora cannot win a siege. But his army is united only by loyalty to their chief. When he dies, they will be shattered.”

“He has killed many magebloods,” Fatima whispered. “Others who wanted to live in this land. Those who… r-returned. From the era before. Some had magic. Voeskender took him on many voyages beyond, to hunt you. He will hunt you.”

She laughed. “My loyalty to Voeskender has ended. If I have to kill his champion… that’s what I have to do. That’s why I’m asking—your dad is going to die. Want his job?”

“They would never accept me,” she whispered. “A female cannot rule. My father has obviously left me for dead if he has attacked you while I am hostage here. My authority will not be recognized.”

Jackie shrugged. “Just give me a yes or no. Let me worry about the deer.”

“Then… yes,” Fatima eventually answered. “My father has done terrible things. I hated watching as he continued to hurt. After living with you… I like the mageblood way better.”

Chapter 38: Maculatum

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For once, Liz didn’t pressure her into being brought along. Instead she seemed to be trying to get Jackie to turn around completely. Unsuccessfully.

“Are you sure you won’t just make everything worse?” she sang nervously, as they ran together up the stairs towards the governor’s office. “You’re really going to piss them off. If you kill him…”

“When I kill him,” Jackie corrected. “Ankaa is one of the strongest creatures of this generation. But compared to the champions of Charybdis, or the Great Queens, or… the world isn’t what it used to be. The noble heroes and terrible villains are all carvings and ashes.”

“Okay, when.” Liz followed her through the conference room, which was packed with terrified ponies plotting their defense.

“Just keep us safe for another few hours!” Jackie called, not even slowing down. “I’m stopping the deer army.”

“It’s not the deer,” Lavender called, the only voice that cut through the confusion. “It’s Mundi. Our telescopes caught launches. Elliptical trajectories, all straight for us.”

She stopped, turning slightly. “Battlecruisers?”

Lavender nodded, then raised her voice to speak over the rush of other ponies who wanted Jackie’s attention. “The entire fleet. Almost a thousand ships.”

A spacefaring warship for every trained soldier in Meliora. “How long?”

“Four hours,” came the response. “Less, if they don’t reenter and bombard us from space.”

“That’s exactly what they’ll do,” Jackie said. “How long if they stay in orbit?”

“Two and a half hours.”

Ankaa almost didn’t even matter. His army might kill them before that, but they wouldn’t be any less dead. If anything, she could have the satisfaction of knowing the invaders would get turned to ash not long after they took the city.

“Can you move the heartwood by then?”

There was silence in the room, silence that went on for nearly a minute. Eventually a tiny voice answered, belonging to a creature she hadn’t even noticed. Avery hovered in the air not far away, bobbing up and down. “Maybe. But I’m not leaving my ship here to be destroyed. Athena’s powers are incredible—if she believes we helped you, she will hunt and destroy us. The Fiore can’t hide from her unblinking eyes.”

“Wait.” Jackie stuck out one of her wings, though not close enough to actually touch the delicate creature. “Athena will be dead by sunrise, or close enough that she isn’t a threat.”

“If that is true…” Avery didn’t sound doubtful, only curious. The fae creature had a way of walking just the line of an acceptable question in Jackie’s own territory. “Then why do you need our ship? What difference does it make if I send it away?”

“Because it isn’t even nightfall yet,” Jackie answered. “I need twelve hours, not three. Can you stay ahead of Athena’s ships for that long?”

Avery’s expression became unreadable. Around her the air seemed to smell suddenly sweeter—the empty planter boxes burst into life, as the dried and dead lilies there began to pulse. Finally Avery landed on the table in front of her. “It is possible,” she said. “But what you ask, Dreamknife—is a great promise from us. One that must be met with a great promise in return.”

“I have nothing more to offer you,” Jackie said, spreading her wings. “When Athena is dead, I won’t be worth anything in your promises.” It was as much of an admission as she could make, one that most of her ponies wouldn’t pick up on. But she wouldn’t lie to the fairies, not when they would have such great power over the future of Meliora.

“You would not be able to pay it,” she said. “Unless you had secrets of magic that do not exist. Rather… if we breezies protect Meliora through this crisis, then at the other end of it we would wish to be united with you—forever. Wherever the Fiore landed to one day build a city, would be city to both of us. Where a princess’s role was required, I would serve. Until Voeskender’s stolen champion is returned and a thousand winters of peace between us are sealed by the unshed blood of the gray-eyed god.” She floated in the air in front of Jackie, little hoof extended with a smile. “Swear it, and we will live or die together.”

Jackie took a step back, then pointed out the door. “Give me a minute with my advisors. We’ll call you.”

Liz watched her go, holding the door open for the little fairy. But despite her words, she only looked relieved. You’re really that afraid of a stupid deer? I’ll be fine, kid.

“You heard all that.” Jackie sat down at the table abruptly, smacking one hoof on the wood. “It sounds like shit, I know. Her demands are confusing, vague, potentially dangerous. If anyone has any better alternatives, tell me now.”

There was a long, frustrated silence. Ponies glanced meaningfully to each other, and a few looked like they might be about to chastise her. But in the end, none did, and she was left with the weight of empty silence.

Until Firelight finally spoke. “Athena… has been a god of our planet for many years, Dreamknife. Longer than you yourself have lived, if the stories are true. She guided life through the invasion of the seas. She fought beside us through a thousand little wars. Are you saying, honestly… that she can be defeated? By the likes of us?”

Jackie didn’t hesitate. “Not by you, no.” She gestured, and with a little magic she conjured an image in the air before them. An image based on her memory, of a place that was not a place. Of course these were not enlightened ponies, and they would not see it as she had.

It was an ancient city of gears and ruins, empty except for the laws that made it. A thousand thoughts risen from the Dreamlands lived there, and maybe genuine divinity too. But Jackie had only been there long enough to meet the Alicorns, and save them from themselves.

“This is a place Athena cannot go—the place that governs the physical laws of the universe. Compared to this place, we are the dreams. I will go there, and Athena will finally die.”

She didn’t want to say more—not that she thought the program would be able to do much to stop her. But she didn’t want to take the chance. Could there be traitors at her table? Athena’s eyes were not all-seeing, despite her own religious myths.

“But if we’re dead, it won’t matter,” said Melanie. “We won’t be able to enjoy the new world after getting our justice.”

“No,” she admitted. “And I don’t know any magic that can stop all those ships. I stopped one, mostly because Athena wanted me dead so badly. It is her who ultimately controls them. If I sneak aboard and kill their captains, it will make no difference. They may not even be manned for all we know.”

“What would you do?” Lavender asked. “It’s your city. Are you willing to give up being princess to the fairy?”

Jackie laughed. “I was willing to give up being princess before I had it. The fairy… she seems to know what she’s doing.

“Fairies are all about laws,” Liz suggested. “We should make her promise not to break ours. Like… like our own little Magna Carta. We can’t stop her from wanting things we don’t, but those laws were already the minimum we wanted, right? If we get those, then that will be enough.”

We. One of the few ponies in this room who had somewhere else to go, but Liz spoke with the same conviction as any of these others. What was more, they didn’t object to her, even though she held no official office beyond Jackie’s assistant. She had been here since the beginning, her own survival as much in peril as theirs.

“I agree,” Lavender said. “I would rather not, but there’s no other option here. We need the fae to stay alive. And we need you to succeed, Dreamknife. If you fail, we make a promise we never have to pay for, but we’re still dead.”

“I agree,” said somepony else. No one objected—no one had better options.

“Get the door, Liz.” Jackie rose from her seat, turning. The fairy buzzed in, smugly satisfied with herself. She knew.

“We have one condition,” Jackie said, before Avery could say something self-congratulatory. “Whatever we build together will obey the existing laws of Meliora, those written as of now. Our freedoms are the minimum.” Her eyes narrowed, expression stern. “We founded Meliora to escape from slavery to one kind of god. It would be better to die than accept slavery to another.”

Avery hesitated, considering. Jackie expected her to ask to see the laws, maybe to read them over right in front of them. But she only nodded, extending a hoof. “I accept these terms. Do you accept mine?”

Jackie reached out with one hoof, moving slowly and delicately. “On behalf of Meliora, we do.”

“Then by blood and stars and Supernal above, our pact is sworn,” Avery said. Jackie could feel the weight of fate settle on the city—but this time, it passed through her more that binding her. She had, in a way, abdicated the throne. A throne she hadn’t wanted anyway.

I hope the one pony who did want it knows what she’s doing. But if she didn’t, the future ponies of Meliora would need a new hero to free them.

“Then begin your work.” Jackie rose to her hooves, turning back for the door. “I still have to kill the deer. I assume the evacuation is already complete?”

“All except the soldiers, Ma’am,” answered Satoru, her only general.

“Then listen to me, all of you.” Jackie straightened, and as she spoke the room seemed to darken around her. “My last instructions as your governor are to protect Meliora as it emerges from the wreckage of war. When Athena is dead, Mundi will be destroyed. Don’t take revenge, don’t do to them what they did to us. Be better.” She lifted one hoof in a salute, the first she’d made without irony or sarcasm since the Final War.

“Meliora owes each of you its survival. You will be judged for the way you rule when I am gone. If you let this place turn into Mundi, I swear my ghost is gonna come back and murder the fuck out of you in your dreams.” Her dagger was in her hooves again, though she wasn’t exactly sure how it had gotten there. Somehow, she didn’t think she would need it much longer.

“Don’t wait for my orders again. Keep everyone alive.” She turned to Liz. “You’re the only one who doesn’t have a job—now you’ve got mercenaries to command. I’m… guessing you’re the only one they would listen to.”

But Liz was crying. Apparently she’d finally realized what Jackie meant by these instructions, and why everypony in the room seemed so resolved. But she only nodded—didn’t say a word to object until they were on their way out, down the hall to Jackie’s office. “You’re not coming back,” she finally said, voice quavering. “That’s why Alex was so upset.”

Jackie nodded. She froze, holding still as Liz settled her face into her shoulder. She wrapped one wing around her, though she could feel only the armor. “She’s the Alicorn of Death. I’m sure when we’re at the end… she’ll be with me there too.”

“It’s not fair,” Liz declared. “You dying over this job. You didn’t even want it. That stupid… bat… tricked you into it.”

“No.” Jackie stuck out one wing. “I wasn’t tricked, Liz. Part of the reason things got this bad are all the good people who did nothing. Ponies like me, who were too busy celebrating our victory to realize it was being taken away from under our hooves. But… more than that… I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen things you can’t imagine. I think I’ve just about gone as far as I can. What better way to go out than in a big fuckin’ blaze of glory?” She sniffed, speaking through her tears. “Can’t let Ezri… upstage me, can I?”

She hesitated, then extended the knife towards Liz, handle out. It was an ancient object now, much older than she was and with the taste of alien dreams on its metallic surface. A dagger eight inches long, with a handle of smart adhesive nanocloth, which knew when to cling to a pony’s hoof, and when to let go. An angel was worked into the metal, wings spread and eyes always watching in judgement.

“I will not need this where I’m going,” she said. “A long time ago, your sister gave me this. Now I am giving it to you.”

“B-but…” Liz was still crying. She took the knife anyway. Its sheath appeared the instant it was in her hoof, tumbling out of the Dreamlands and onto the floor in front of her. Liz would not be able to banish and summon this blade at will—for her, it was only metal. “But why me? I’m not a bat!”

“Neither was your sister when she gave it to me,” Jackie answered. “But here we are. Oh, and… if Misty lives through my death, take good care of her too. Keep her with one of you as much as you can. Figments need people to stay sane. Order her into the real world as often as you can, and she’ll stay a pony. I know that’s what she wants, even if she might forget it one day.”

“Shouldn’t you… keep this? To fight Ankaa?”

Jackie hesitated. There was some part of her that wanted to get up close and stick that dagger into his gut, as she had with so many others. But that was simple, animal satisfaction, and she didn’t need it.

“No… but you did just remind me of something.” She leaned in close. “Don’t be afraid to kill with that knife. But when you do—take a moment to look into the eye. Let it remind you that there’s an account to be paid for every life.” She chuckled. “Guess mine is about to be collected.”

Chapter 39: Sanborni

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Jackie didn’t need her old dagger to the Dreamlands. The object had no power to bridge worlds, not really. Thestral magic could do that, and she’d used the old knife for so long that she could use it like a seventh limb.

All she really had to do was to find herself something to focus on—a bit of memory of a dream, and she was through.

Misty waited on the other side, a full-sized seapony now with unblinking, knowing eyes. “What are we doing, Jackie? I heard you say my name.”

“Saving the world,” she said, reaching out and running a hoof through her headfins. “Unless you don’t want to. Want to turn and run, now’s your chance. We’re probably dead by the end of it.”

“Can’t you see them?” the seapony asked, eyes growing unfocused and distant. “They’re following you.”

Jackie glanced over her shoulder at the familiar trees of the Enchanted Wood. She had chosen a spot far enough from Meliora that she wouldn’t be seen and noticed by more of her ponies. She was done with goodbyes. But she couldn’t see anyone. “There’s nobody here.”

Misty put a hoof on her shoulder. The world fuzzed, and the space all around them filled. Every inch of ground, every perch on trees or hovering in the air. She couldn’t have numbered them—a thousand, a million, more? Ponies, griffons, and numberless other creatures. All watching. “They’re depending on you. They need a world safe to live in when they get back”

How can you do that? She knew what she was looking at now—these were the rest of humanity, the remaining billion refugees. They’d be pouring through time faster than at any other point in history, the least prepared for their new bodies of anyone.

Jackie shook herself free from the figment, and the spell ended. “That’s one of Archive’s powers. How did you do that?”

Misty shrugged. “I just thought you’d want to see.”

Too bad we can’t call on the ghosts like she could. Jackie could use the ghosts of about a thousand dead battlecruisers right about now.

Jackie closed her eyes, calling on all her power and mastery over the Dreamlands. She could still remember, long ago, a terrified girl running scared from a nightmare that wanted to drown her. All those years ago, Alex had saved her life from the ocean. We’ll be even soon. Paid back with interest.

The Dreamknife rose up on two legs one last time, armor solidifying around her. Tiny interlocking scales in blue and gold, the finest armor the champions of the Enduring Ones had worn in the final war. I wonder if you’re with her now, Isaac. Waiting for me.

Jackie summoned herself a short blade on her back, exactly as long as the dagger she’d left behind. A sword too, if only because it seemed a shame not to have one—not because she knew how to use it. She summoned a bow, with a draw so hard that only the greatest earth-pony champions would be able to fire it. And lastly she called herself a rounded metal buckler, strong enough that the darts of Charybdis himself would be turned again.

“How do I look?” she asked, tying back her hair with a bit of elastic, settling an ancient metal helmet on her head. “I’m going for Wonder Woman, but I haven’t really been cosplaying in… a few millennia.”

“Close,” Misty answered. “But what do you want from me? I can’t fight a deer.”

Jackie laughed. “Err… no, not that. I kinda-sorta need you to fight his god.”

“Oh.”

Jackie stretched out her hand, and the world tore open in front of her. Her wings spread behind her, flexing under the tight scales of the armor. She wouldn’t be able to fly—but Jackie couldn’t imagine dying without wings. “Still want to come?”

A tiny Misty landed on her shoulder. “Until the end.” They went through together.

The forest was fuzzy around them as Jackie emerged. The ground had been burned black, with many of the ancient jungle trees still lost to roaring flame. Smoke billowed around them, not getting closer than a tight bubble around Jackie’s body. The Enduring Ones might make armor that looked like it was metal. But it was something else.

“Why are you human?” asked the tiny voice on her shoulder, barely above a whisper. “Haven’t you fought less this way?”

“When the Event gave deer intelligence, they were created with the snapshot of their ancient memory,” she responded. There was no fear of being overheard, though she knew she was surrounded. Ankaa’s tribe wasn’t the kind to be multilingual. “When ponies are afraid, they imagine creatures lurking beneath the bed, ready to grab them. When deer are afraid, they see humans out of the corner of their eyes.”

The smoke condensed around them, making it even harder to see her way through the gloom. It wasn’t even sunset yet, but the sun turned brilliant orange, staining the soil in front of her. “Clear the air for me, Misty.”

“Can’t you just do magic for it? You’re one of the Enduring Ones.”

She shook her head, eyes scanning the treeline all around her. The longer she remained here, the more wrong everything felt. She had taken herself as close to Ankaa as she dared, since he wasn’t asleep. She should’ve been in the center of his camp. Yet there was nothing here but flames and burning trees.

Jackie drew her bow with armor-assisted strength, just as the cloud of smoke froze out of the air. Thick dust tumbled around her, burned away by the faint glow coming from Misty’s horn.

They were standing at the bottom of a depression, surrounded by hills thickly packed with deer. Now she could see why the bushes had been burned, and all but the largest trees had been felled—to get rid of the cover.

The ground was a deception, a spell she could feel up through her armored boots. She hadn’t traveled directly to Ankaa’s dreams, so she’d been tricked into following the single strongest deer aura.

It was a trap.

“Loose!” She heard the command, in cervine Arabic. Then the sun briefly seemed to dim, as thousands and thousands of arrows all converged on where she stood.

There was a time when Jackie would’ve been helpless in the face of such an attack—but that was a long time ago. She struck out with one hand, warping space back through the dream world and out again, then slammed the visor of her helmet down for good measure.

The arrows rained down on her—then flew back out in all directions. Hitting any of the enemy would’ve been a doomed prospect, except for how densely they packed the hills. Screams echoed from all around her, dozens of deer dropping from their own arrows.

“Coward!” Jackie yelled, her voice booming over the dead. “See the face of Sultan Ankaa! Too fearful to face a single doe in combat! What kind of hunter is he?”

“Again!” called a voice. Another wave of arrows fell—though less than half as many as last time.

“Catch them.”

Misty didn’t object. A lesser figment couldn’t have obeyed her command—few were even the equals of simple unicorns, let alone the power of a master spellcaster. But Misty was meant to imitate a demigod, and she’d been created by one too.

The arrows froze all around her, a dense bubble of barbed wood all aimed in at their armor.

Jackie closed her eyes, felt for another moment for the greatest power of Voeskender, then started walking. She’d been baited once, but the dream-god couldn’t trick her again. He would have empowered his champion. Now Jackie would kill him.

“Bring it down!” someone yelled, and the first rank of deer began to charge.

“Use the arrows,” Jackie ordered. “Kill them when they get close.” She started walking, up a hill of ash and corpses. Misty might not be Alex, but she had all the precision Jackie had ever seen from the real thing. As deer charged, arrows found openings in their growing armor. Into eyes, or under the lip of their helmets, or under the breastplates. So many died around her that Jackie glided over their corpses, landing on the crest of the hill.

There was the missing army—a herd of deer so dense she couldn’t see the grass in places. Most were not warriors, but had been loaded up with thick packs of supplies. Tents spread out before her, the growing sum of their besieging army.

If things were different, there would probably be a better way to win this war. We could trick you, maybe. Get you to remember how much you loved your daughter. But there was no time for that. She had to keep Meliora standing a little longer.

There was another battle line waiting on the slopes, thousands more armored deer apparently waiting for her. And behind them all, the one she was looking for.

Sultan Ankaa towered over the others, nearly twelve feet tall. His antlers had grown as wide as his body, covered in living leaves and flowers that somehow didn’t hinder his movement. Oh shit.

Jackie recognized what she was seeing the instant she saw it. In a way, it was the opposite of what she’d done with Misty. Instead of a mortal mind giving birth to a spirit, this was what happened when a spirit and a mortal fused together.

Maybe some of the stories of Ankaa’s triumphs were truer than she’d thought. She’d been wrong to mock their religion—they really did have a champion of the gods leading them.

She was running out of arrows by then, and the deer hadn’t run out of bodies. They kept charging at her with little regard for their own lives, or the success of their fellows. Occasionally one out of a few got closer, and Jackie was forced to draw her own bow.

She wore no quiver—the arrows she fired settled into her fingers only when she needed them. And when they hit, they exploded.

Her old tongue might’ve enjoyed the smell of cooking venison. But Jackie had been an insectivore for so long it only made her sick. “Order them to stop, Sultan,” she yelled, and the army seemed to freeze around her, as though waiting for his reaction. “I don’t want their blood, I’ve come for yours.”

“Where is the great king you served?” Ankaa’s voice seemed to come from all around her—the trees, the grass, and from the mouth of every deer. “I expected a worthy trophy today. I don’t even know what you are.”

“I don’t like this,” said the little voice on her shoulder. “Why does Voeskender want you dead so badly? These deer are his. Is he on Athena’s side? Putting so much of himself in that deer—he’s taking such a huge risk. I don’t get it.”

Misty was right, obviously. It wasn’t just one of the old gods of Earth that apparently wanted Meliora dead. Now Voeskender had come to undo what he had started. “It doesn’t make sense,” Jackie agreed. “He helped us build the city in the first place. He brought us here, he taught us to work the trees. If anything, he should be helping me.”

Sultan Ankaa couldn’t have understood her. But Voeskender was an ancient spirit of the forest, older than every language. The spirit itself was too powerful to communicate in mere words—but pouring its essence into this single deer had apparently given it that ability too.

Though the words came from the same mouth, it was an entirely separate speaker this time. “I gave my power to you. You would have filled this land. Instead you make pacts with my enemies. It will all be undone. Never again will I trust the word of a mageblood.”

Jackie drew her bow, fingers tightening on the string. Good thing Liz can’t see this. She was right to worry.

Jackie pulled back on her bow, taking careful aim. She didn’t really expect it to work—but she wasn’t out anything by trying.

She loosed her arrow, and felt the world tumble out from under her. She stumbled onto four legs, shuddering and convulsing with the weight of magic all around her. She coughed and spluttered, trying to fight it off—but she couldn’t. The Dreamlands swallowed them both. Still magic roiled around her like a living thing, her fingers stiffening as pain burned at her wings, her eyes. Everything, really.

“I can’t stop it!” Misty’s voice echoed through the pain, obviously terrified. “I’m trying, Jackie! He’s just too strong!” Her fingers went numb, then her toes. Her wings crumbled to ash, armor useless around her. Voeskender hadn’t even had to strike her, and she was already dying.

Nonhuman user detected. Invalid configuration. The armor crumbled away from around her, its incredible spells undone in an instant. Her bow slipped from fingers fusing together, unable to hold it. Jackie screamed, but held to consciousness through naked will. She would not die like this.

Then the magic faded, and she struggled onto her hooves again. That would’ve been a familiar stance for her, except it was all wrong. Her legs were spindly and almost elastic, the ground too far below her. Fortunately she had her now-disabled armor to see what had happened.

In the bits of polished metal, Jackie saw the reflection of a doe, slightly bluish with pale spots on her back, and an expression of utter terror on her face.

“We’re in his domain,” said a voice from beside her. She turned, and there was another deer, with Misty’s greenish fur. She was smaller than Jackie, though not by much. “He’s a god, Jackie. My magic isn’t working. Can you change back?”

She tried.

Nothing happened.

Then Ankaa appeared on the ridge, his armor gleaming in the perpetual moonlight.

Chapter 40: Cervidae

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Jackie’s mind raced, trying to keep up with everything she was seeing. She tried bending time around her, tried every kind of simple transformation to remove the effects of Voeskender’s spell, tried summoning objects or figments that might help them.

They were all equally effective. This god of dreams had taken away her powers, trapped them in forms without natural defenses, and had blood in his eyes.

Voeskender’s realm was a little like the enchanted wood, seen through the eyes of both predator and prey. The trees here grew taller, the dangerous twilight of half-seen light was broken only by bioluminescent flora and insects, bathing the entire space in perpetual pastel light. There were many great predators in this realm, spirits with appetites that went on forever.

Voeskender might be worshiped by the deer, but he also symbolized some of the more violent aspects of their world. The deer lived brief lives, and when they grew old and weak, they would end in hungry jaws.

But Voeskender didn’t seem to want to leave them to that fate, at least not judging by the way he crossed the edge of the ridge, looming over them as he drew a long, wickedly pointed spear. Not Voeskender, it’s still the fusion with Ankaa. If it was the god alone his powers would be too abstract to hurt me.

But this deer could kill them. “Can you do anything,” she whispered, desperately. “Get us out, maybe? We can lift the deer curse somewhere else.”

“Nope,” Misty whispered. “I’m not an Alicorn anymore. This feels permanent.”

“Because you’re a dream-spirit,” Jackie whispered back. “You don’t ‘have’ a permanent. Every change is as real as the real thing with you.”

Ankaa began walking towards them, his massive strides confident and unafraid. Jackie didn’t run, didn’t move from where her gear had piled up at her hooves. These were the last tools she had, even if they’d been made for someone else. Could she still use them?

“I have one final offer for you, Dreamknife. I would not give it, but he requires… requires that I do. He says it is not… correct for me to kill you. That rulers do not kill rulers. If you want to live, you will live like this. You both can join my harem. I have no doubt the one who once ruled over dreams will bear many strong sons.”

Jackie coughed and spluttered, not trying to keep the disgust from her voice. “You’ll have to kill me first!” She bent down, fumbling uselessly at the bow. But it was made for humans, and wouldn’t stick to her legs. The buckler was better, she could slide her leg through the smart-grip fabric and let it cling there. Kinda pathetic, such a little shield on so much leg. She didn’t even bother with the sword—it would cling to her too, but she had the wrong body to wield it.

For almost her whole life, Jackie had fought only with a dagger. She picked up that instead, holding it flat against her leg and letting the fabric grip there. It felt almost like her old one, though it lacked any of the magical properties.

It wouldn’t matter in this fight. Voeskender was a god—it was her intentions against him. Except that this is physical. So either of us could really die. I’m not asleep.

“I was hoping you would say that,” Sultan Ankaa said. He was close now, perhaps twenty feet away. His legs were thicker around than her neck. His spear was tipped with wickedly sharpened obsidian, the wood armor on his body thick enough to stop most crossbows.

But Jackie was older. Voeskender could give Ankaa his power, but he could not give his wisdom. Jackie had watched him struggle even to speak the will of the spirit, with a mind so alien to his. Good thing you’re not the Keeper, or I’d be fucked.

But that spirit only spoke to earth ponies. Jackie had never heard her, and so she’d never said anything to get herself into trouble. The fewer gods she knew, the better.

“You aren’t going to run?” Ankaa asked, flabbergasted. “Look at you! Your magic is gone! Your powers are useless in his realm. I am older and mightier than you.”

Jackie met his eyes. “You aren’t older, kid. Even Voeskender can’t be older than the Event, that’s when magical creatures started popping up. I’m from a universe older than you both. Before there was magic, there was iron and blood.” She spun the short blade over one leg, trying to master its weight. She didn’t have long to practice. “I don’t know what ‘mightier’ is, but if it’s ‘who’s about to be more fucked’, why don’t we wait and see. I’ve got my suspicions.” She lowered her voice. “Get behind me, Misty. Stay out of his reach with that spear. He might try to kill you just to distract me.”

“Y-yeah.” But far from giving up, the spirit was holding Jackie’s sword. A little awkwardly, but the smart-grip worked for her just as well. “But I told you I was going to be here until the end. We’re not done.”

They would be soon. Ankaa advanced again, this time with his spear drawn. He didn’t seem to be using any metamaterials to hold it, rather there was a single loop of cloth wrapped around one leg, and another that held the shaft’s extreme end against his armor. That limited his range of motion, but it would also probably mean he could exert more force than Jackie could. I should probably just assume he has earth pony strength. Not pegasus speed, or he wouldn’t be using something so clumsy.

Without a word of strategy between them, Jackie and Misty began to split apart, maximizing the distance between them without ever turning away from Ankaa. If he focused on killing one of them, the other could attack his unprotected flank.

As she expected, Ankaa targeted her. His spear lifted, and he crossed the last few feet in a sudden dash. Jackie had only been a deer a handful of times, but that didn’t matter. Voeskender could transform her all he wanted, but he couldn’t erase her past.

This was the Dreamlands, her domain. She lifted into a high, bounding stance, bouncing slightly from one side of her hooves to the another, with both forelegs ready when she needed them.

Ankaa struck out with his obsidian spear, and she lifted her buckler in response. She jumped away from the strike, but even so the force of it sent her flying backwards through the air. She tumbled, legs scrambling desperately before she smacked into a tree and slumped down.

She rose desperately, legs kicking wildly out at the dirt before she could finally get them under her again and struggle into a standing position.

Ankaa advanced on her, apparently ignoring Misty completely. Can you even see her? Does being made of dreams mean you don’t care that she’s here? If that was true, then all Jackie had to do was distract this spirit long enough for Misty to get in a decisive blow.

“Pathetic. This is the one who has been striking fear for longer than I’ve lived? Were the children of the past that weak?”

Was he trying to goad her? Jackie adjusted her sore legs, flipping the knife over in her hoof again. It was barely even long enough to pierce the armor, even if her intention was. She’d have to get it into a joint.

Too bad I can’t cheat like you did, eh Alex? No spirits of noble swordsman to help me. “The children of the past knew better,” Jackie said, pacing up high on the slope, forcing Ankaa to follow. She would have a slight advantage, fighting from above him. But not much. Deer legs might be thin and feeble, but they proved excellent at pacing backwards up a slope. She could hardly feel it.

Unfortunately that meant that her enemy would be doing it just as easily.

“Take a mageblood’s power away, and you’re all the same. Hollow, weak, empty. You depend on your magic too much.” He swung again, this time not in a single charge but a rapid series of quick strikes. Jackie had to move just as quickly, parrying with shield or with the flat of her blade. Even so, Ankaa’s massive weight and size advantage meant she never got within reach of the dagger, and that she was driven backward up the hill with every strike. She was running out of ground it seemed—there was a cliff up there, and only empty air. She had no more wings to fly.

Then Misty stabbed him in the underbelly. The sword cut straight through his armor, driven as it was by the will of something like an Alicorn. It sunk all the way down to the hilt, and glowing red blood emerged from inside. Ankaa roared and stamped, swinging back around to strike at Misty. So fast that the sword was ripped right out of her hoof, and stayed stuck into his body.

She had no weapon anymore, nothing at all she could do but try to tumble backwards off the hill and out of reach. Misty went down under furious blows from his hooves. “You are wasting your time enslaved to them, spirit! We would have honored you!”

But Jackie didn’t just let it happen. She followed at a sprint, keeping her legs from tearing out from under her only barely, before crouching low and springing up onto his back. Her weight was nothing compared to such an unearthly creature, but she wasn’t just trying to hit him. She carved at his armor, clinging on with the blade as he bucked up and tried to fling her. All the while blood sprayed out from beneath him. Poor broken Misty went rolling out from under those huge hooves, though she looked in bad shape.

Jackie didn’t get much of a look as she slashed and stabbed with the dagger, at least before one last buck sent her tumbling away. She landed with a squelch in thick mud, sliding several feet away before she finally came to a stop.

“You’ve barely even wounded me!” Ankaa roared. “I’ve felt worse wounds from hunting boars.” Maybe he had, but he probably hadn’t felt so many. Blood leaked out from all over his armor now, thickest from underneath it where Misty had stabbed into his guts. It was probably only Voeskender’s magic that was keeping him moving even now. He just needs to exert himself a little more… That was the problem with relying too much on magic. Unlike the deer, Jackie knew full well how it worked. Voeskender’s magic could only keep his body working for so long. If there was no limit, then earth ponies would be immortal.

Jackie rose, brandishing her shield. “Hey, I’ve got an offer for you,” she called, readying the buckler. She’d lost her dagger somewhere stuck into his armor. “How about I let you live if you join my harem. I’m not actually into guys or anything, but I know a few spells. We’ll fix that right up, then you’ll fit in.”

Did he actually think she had one? Apparently it didn’t matter, because once again Misty was forgotten. He charged straight for her, swinging the spear madly. “I’ll leave you in a dozen pieces, Dreamknife! I’ll feed you to my dogs!”

She didn’t try to hold him back this time, just waited until he was close and lunged past him. She only had to block the one blow, and she was running off in the other direction. Deer hooves tore up the ground beneath her, stable despite how flimsy her legs looked.

A roar of frustration followed her, and Ankaa turned, trailing more blood behind him. He still hadn’t removed the sword, and it was probably digging deeper every time he moved.

You’re like an earth pony foal who doesn’t know how to use your powers. You think because you can’t feel the pain that it isn’t hurting you.

Jackie couldn’t outrun such a massive creature, not when he could bound further than her whole body in a single stride. But as he got close, she blocked with the shield again, rolling a different way. He was faster to react this time, swiping after her with the spear—but his strike was just a little slower than any before. He was running out of magic.

“Fight me!” he roared, turning the mud a deep red. “You called me a coward, and you’re running!”

“I am a coward,” Jackie answered, not even having to jump this time. Ankaa wasn’t even running after her, just stumbling forward with empty strike after empty strike. “You think you live this long by fighting fair? Fuck that noise.”

Another few moments later, and she felt confident enough to dart past him pulling the sword free.

This did not help with his bleeding problem. When he swung at her again, this time she severed the obsidian blade right from the shaft.

He dropped into the mud in front of her a second later. “I… surrender,” he panted, blood dribbling down his lips. The world began to fog again—Voeskender’s spell trapping her here was coming undone. The unearthly glowing forest was starting to mix and overlap with the real, burned one. He wants his doctors.

“I won’t hurt your daughter,” Jackie said, ignoring him completely. “When this is over, she can rule over these deer. Maybe she’ll do a better job.”

“I… yield… to you…” he croaked, and in that instant the spell around them faded. Jackie was instantly human again, naked and crouched in the mud, on all fours. She rose to her full height, gripping the sword in both hands.

“I don’t care,” she said. “Who do you think I am, the Archive? I’m not an Alicorn. I don’t have any honor to lose.”

Thousands of deer surrounded them, watching as she stood over their leader, dripping with his blood. She swung, and severed his head in a single stroke.

Chapter 41: Sphaerias

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Where once the deer had risen up in rage around Jackie, fighting even as they died by the thousands—the death of Ankaa brought a near-instantaneous end. She listened to the veritable stampede of animals away from her, entire tents trampled as they fled.

There were many other warriors in many other camps, and it would take a long time for news of her victory to spread. But these at least would be fighting no longer. They didn’t know yet, but if they ran far enough, their children would thank her.

In moments, the camp was deserted, with only the dead or trampled remaining behind. Jackie let the weapon fall to the ground at her feet, clattering motionless against the dirt beside Ankaa’s lifeless body.

“We did it,” Misty said, hovering near her shoulder. She was small again, apparently relieved to be at a more comfortable size. “Now… Meliora is safe?”

“Safe enough,” Jackie said. “For long enough to escape, we hope. We should… find somewhere to watch. Those bats don’t need me anymore, they can figure it out. But I’d like to see how it goes.”

“I know somewhere we can go,” Misty suggested. “There’s a big hill… looks down from high enough to see City Hall. I’ll show you.”

It was a short flight over to the hill where Jackie watched her world burn.

It had been occupied once, though only the foundation and a single low wall emerged from the sea of sparse grass. Jackie brushed off a nice patch of stone, clearing somewhere for her to sit as the world burned far away. Life or death, victory or defeat, Meliora would be on its own now. The reign of its first and last bat princess had come to an end.

And with it, so had Jackie’s time on Earth. “You think I did a good job, Misty?” She didn’t even have to turn around to know the dream spirit was there, lurking behind her. “Tell me what she would’ve told me. Be honest.”

Misty settled her seapony weight on the stone beside her, smooth, damp skin resting against Jackie’s side. But there was nothing romantic in the gesture—there never had been from Alex, not really. It was only fitting that the clone wouldn’t be interested in her either.

“Why not ask her?” Misty said, after a few seconds. Far below, the tree was barely visible, but the airship above it was clear enough. “She’s still out there. She’ll be… wherever you do this spell. The Supernal, I guess.”

Even from this distance, the zeppelin was massive, large enough that thousands of normal-sized ponies could’ve comfortably lived inside it. With HPI technology powering it, pony magic lifting it, and breezie-sized citizens, she knew that number was actually somewhere in the millions.

“Because the old Day is gone,” Jackie answered, voice distant and sad. “She died… a lot like me. Pretty brilliant little bit of magic, necromancy-suicide. But Archive never came back from that. I want to know what civilization would think about Meliora. What would our ancestors say about what we built here? What we had to give up. Did I do a good job?”

“I think so,” Misty said. “It was either leave the bats to suffer under Athena or build a better home for them. Your home was better. If Athena would’ve left us alone… it would be a great city to live in. I think she would’ve liked it.”

“That’s good.” Jackie closed her eyes—but something startled her only moments later. A quiet rumbling from up ahead. It was the Fiore. Something that big couldn’t possibly move that fast—but light was building from around it. A spell, though it didn’t feel like anything Jackie had ever known before.

She lifted one leg to shield her eyes—probably for the best. There was a brilliant flash of light, and the Fiore seemed to briefly stretch forward, a thousand times its length. A sonic-boom followed, violent enough that whole flocks of birds rose from the air in a panic—mostly crows. Black clouds circled around for a few minutes, before settling back down near the trail of smoke.

Where we’re burning the deer.

But that didn’t matter much anymore either. City Hall looked no different from up here, but if she’d been walking through the tree she probably would’ve been able to feel the life missing from it. The Heartwood was empty, its anchor to Meliora severed. Every other structure they’d worked so hard to build in the real world would keep standing for a little longer, powered by the Arcane Network’s path through root and branch.

But Athena would put an end to that.

“Hey, Jackie.” That voice from behind her—it couldn’t be.

It was Artifice, standing on a worn foundation. In the real world. “Holy shit you’re real!” She blinked, rising to her hooves in shock and surprise. Was this an attack? A changeling? “You’re a dream spirit, you can’t be here!”

“She’s here.” The bat nodded towards Misty. “Anyway, this is a special occasion. I couldn’t miss it.”

For once, Jackie couldn’t muster the energy to be snide. Maybe she didn’t have anything negative to say. Her city was safe, at least for one more day. This bat had helped them. She might be the only reason Eureka was still helping.

“Sorry I couldn’t build the nation you wanted,” Jackie whispered, her voice low. “I tried… as hard as I could. I didn’t think Athena would be so determined to fuck us. She told me all about how badly she wanted rivals for her people, but now…”

The bat put up her wings, defensively. “Don’t call it the nation I wanted. That was all Hat Trick. She’s the one who recruited you. Doing this was her baby. Without Athena, it would’ve been a great success. With her… we’ll know in a few minutes.”

Still, Jackie had nothing snappy to say. She thought for a moment—if only because it would be a shame for her last meeting with this bat not to include something mean. But she had nothing left.

“They don’t need me,” she finally said. “They’ve got another princess now, a pony who wants the job. More your flavor than Alexandria’s flavor, I think.”

“We’ll see about that too,” the bat said. “Athena is a growing problem. You’re not the only one who’s been looking into how to deal with her. It’s a shame you couldn’t find another way. Thinking about her… it’s like all those Martian probes, remember them? Curiosity, Spirit, Opportunity… thanks for doing your jobs, now choke on dust and die. Only they were just some circuits with wheels on the bottom. Athena… she’ll be able to feel the betrayal.”

“She betrayed us,” Jackie muttered, her voice going cold. “She got so focused on the future she wanted that she didn’t care what it would cost, or who would get hurt along the way. Her racism plan was stupid, but this… this is where the buck stops.”

“I know.” Artifice took a step back. “Looks like she’s here to make it stop. You think she knows your city got away?”

“No,” Jackie said. “But she’ll figure it out. She’ll be expecting a cosmic catastrophe when she fires, and it won’t come.”

“There’s a better way,” the bat said, her voice low. “Dying… you people always like to abuse our spellcasting mechanics. Death spells might be effective, but compare that against all the other spells you could cast if you were alive. Your city flew away, so why don’t you? Live to fight another day. So few people… can cope with the immortality thing. It’ll be a shame to lose you.”

“I wouldn’t do it if Ezri was still here,” Jackie whispered. “You can’t understand. You don’t have… you can’t know what that felt like. Having her gone is like…” She sniffed, wiping something away from her eyes. “Doesn’t matter how many cute little nymphs I pick up at bars. Doesn’t matter how many mares I can sweep off their hooves. You’re old, you know—drinking and sex are empty pleasures. The more you enjoy them, the less rewarding they become.”

The other bat laughed, adjusting her large hat. “Can’t say I share your interests. But I think I know what you mean.”

The sky was growing dark, but Jackie could see them now. Dark metal shapes in the sky far, far above. Each one was so small it might’ve been a metal insect—but they were as large as the airship that had just left, and far better armed. They might hold thousands of marines, but somehow she doubted they would be landing.

There was nothing to hear as they fired—their projectiles flew far faster than the speed of sound. But she could see the glow from underneath, eclipsing the outlines of the ships. Everything that had once been Meliora would soon be atomized, just as the infested cities those weapons had been invented to destroy.

“Take good care of them for me,” Jackie said, rising again. “You too, Misty. This is gonna fuck up Liz real good to have me gone like this. Give her someone familiar to be around.”

“It’s going to do worse to me,” the little creature said. “You’re her friend, but you’re my… creator. Mother, father, god. If you die, what’s left for me?”

“That’s why my way’s better,” Artifice said. But she wasn’t argumentative this time, just sad. “Anyway, it’s about to get… uncomfortably warm right here. I think I’ll have to say my farewells.” She nodded politely, tipped her hat, then vanished into the Dreamlands.

Jackie prepared to do the same thing—she couldn’t power any spells if she got killed by an orbital strike before it could be cast. But she needn’t have worried. The sky behind her split open.

It wasn’t the pony she’d expected. Instead of Death with eyes like blood, there was Eureka, wearing a jacket and goggles and with his mane standing on end like he’d just been dancing on a Van de Graaff generator.

“Eureka,” Jackie said, one of her eyebrows going up. The starships were in high orbit—their attacks would take some time to reach the ground. Over ten minutes, from what she remembered. “Not Lonely Day? It’s not like her to delegate.”

“She doesn’t have a choice,” the stallion answered, gesturing for her to follow. “She made a pact with the one called Athena not to return to Earth for a thousand years. They all did, the ones who left. I’m the only one allowed to be here.”

Jackie walked over, retreating backwards so she could watch what happened to her city. A warm orange glow now filled most of the sky, along with a roar that grew louder by the moment. It wouldn’t be long now. “You keep promises made with an AI? What’s Athena going to do? She doesn’t have any magic.”

“I don’t make promises to AIs,” Eureka said. “The others did, on their magic. You don’t break a promise like that. When you play at this level, you don’t give fate invitations to screw you. The Ruin waiting for mankind would gladly tear down every one of us, if we give it the chance. We’ve defied the natural order—survived past when we should.”

“I saw Final Destination,” Jackie cut in. “I get it, you don’t have to explain.”

“Come on then,” Eureka said, stepping into the portal. It didn’t vanish behind him—through it there was only light, so bright that every green surface around them was charred to cinders.

“Bye, Jackie,” said Misty, remaining well outside the glow. “I can’t go up there with you. No soul, no Supernal. That’s how it works.”

“Find one,” Jackie suggested, smiling lightly. “That’s your last instruction from your creator. But don’t take it. Make your own.”

“I’ll… try,” Misty said, vanishing in a splash of water on the ground.

“Come on,” Eureka urged. “This forest is already ashes, it just doesn’t know it yet. You don’t want to be here when it realizes.”

“I have to see,” Jackie argued, backing up a little further. She felt the light all around her, the same agony that had burned her once before. It was the same pain when she’d visited in Alex’s place, long ago. It was a place she didn’t belong anymore. She had rejected its gifts.

She wasn’t kept waiting long. Another moment, and the trees below vanished in a flash that would’ve blinded her if she were still a simple, mortal creature. She stepped back, letting the magic of the portal swallow her. The Supernal was waiting for her.

Chapter 42: Eidolon

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Jackie’s memories of the Supernal did not prepare her to return to it. It was a land of strange laws, a realm that wasn’t quite physical and not quite simulated either.

But she perceived it much as the other Alicorns described it—as an ancient city, ruins in a desert of white sand that cascaded down into an endless abyss. There on the edge of infinity, annihilation was always within reach, while the power to redefine reality itself was also close enough to grasp.

Others had reached it beyond the Alicorns, though their numbers were small. Mystic Rune, and his crystalline immortality. Some spirits of the unconscious world probably resided here, so close to gods it was really just in the semantics.

Now Jackie herself had returned, for a third and final time.

There was no trip up the hill to the ancient well—she had refused that path long ago, and it wouldn’t be offered twice. Earth probably wouldn’t be so fucked if I’d just taken them up on that. I wonder what I would’ve been the Alicorn of.

But committing to that would be signing herself up to be part of creation until the play was over and the actors finally went home. It was a harsh, selfish reality, but Jackie wasn’t quite willing to take the bullet for everyone else. The world could save itself once in a damn while.

But not today.

Eureka’s clothing vanished the instant he appeared here, just like everything Jackie had been carrying. Clothes from the mortal world were too esoteric and fleeting. Only her dagger would’ve been immune, and it was now in the hooves of another. Use it well, Liz. Make me proud.

It seemed like Eureka had heard her thoughts, because he turned, offering her a little length of heavily worn fabric. There was a sheath on the end, and a ray of light resting in it like a dagger. “You’ll need this,” he said, his voice reverberating strangely in the unearthly space.

Jackie slid it on without objection, though she wasn’t sure exactly how she could wield a supernal dagger. Compared to the city all around them, she felt like a shadow or a ghost. “What’s the point? Athena can’t come here. We already won.”

Eureka didn’t answer, just leading her between the ancient buildings of the deserted city. They didn’t have very far to go. The city had a sort of ancient forum, half of its seats buried in the sand. Each one left was covered in detailed runes—they seemed to represent ideas. The outlines for civilization, maybe. Most of them had been swallowed by the sand and forgotten.

There at the bottom was the stage, and all of the Alicorns were here to perform. They were performing now, taking turns singing in powerful verse whose language Jackie couldn’t understand. But she could understand the intentions—they were gathering power, making a change to the universe below. Adding exactly one new symbol to ones that made the Supernal.

I’m gonna be the only mortal who ever cast a spell like this. Hope there’s a record for it. Well, half mortal. If she’d been one of them, the Supernal would probably have already destroyed her by now. She could feel its power raging around her even now. It wasn’t evil, just the opposite. It sensed every flaw in Jackie, every mistake and weakness. It wanted to fix them all, to pour into her and make her perfect.

But mortality was a flaw too, one the Supernal would burn away like all the others. It would devour her if she stayed.

She reached the edge of the circle, and Eureka joined it without prompting. She remained back, close and listening for her part. What was supernal magic even supposed to look like? They went around in turn.

First Oracle, demanding that the changes they were about to make would continue forward in perpetuity, and not be undone by some future germ of magic or drone hiding away in an asteroid somewhere.

Then Eureka spoke, defining the boundary of the spell at the self-improving machines that could quickly grow to outstrip their masters. Athena was named, but she was not the only such creature. There might be others in the future, and this spell would have to protect Earth from them too.

I guess this makes me a murderer. Killing the unborn of a future race before they’re even conceived. But Jackie could live with being a murderer—she’d never let it bother her before.

Then came the last, and most important element of her spell. The voice of the pony with the white mane, and eyes like blood. Jackie had watched this pony raise an army of corpses so numerous they blanketed the scorching Saharan sands. But more often than not, Death didn’t give. It took.

Everything seemed to be going exactly the way Jackie had expected this. The spell itself would be woven together, its demands combined into a single intricate rune for the Supernal. It would be sewn in there, and that would become the truth of the universe below.

But then something changed.

Jackie had assumed that there was no way they could be interrupted here—Athena was not an Alicorn. More importantly, she didn’t have a soul—which meant that the Supernal didn’t exist for her. It was the same way with the Dreamlands, as she had no mind in the way mortals knew of it, so no way of dreaming.

But Jackie had been there to see that rule violated. The Alicorns had once thought the Supernal protected them from Charybdis, and he’d killed them for it.

Athena appeared, a towering goddess opposite Jackie on the far side of the arena. She stood atop a mountain of flowing sand, probably atop the corpses of civilizations she had slain. She was taller and stronger than their most powerful, Oracle. Like Oracle, she was also the only one with clothing solid enough to exist up here.

Except that he didn’t seem surprised to see her. Jackie backed away, knowing that if she attracted attention here, there was nothing she could do. But what about Athena? She can’t cast spells! She doesn’t belong here! At least Charybdis had stolen enough souls that he knew how to imitate one. Athena was just computers talking to each other out in space!

“If the Choir thought I would be silent while you sung me out of the chorus, it was mistaken. My voice is louder than you all.”

“I’m sorry, Athena.” Alex was the first to step out of the circle, the same instant she finished her part in the spell. The others continued it—a ritual like this was likely to take more than a few words.

Alex was by far the oldest of the Alicorns here, but physically she seemed like the weakest. She’d given so much of herself to destroy Charybdis. “I spent so long watching your work from Alpheus, wishing you would stop, desperately searching for another way.”

Her horn glowed, and a flickering image appeared of Meliora’s forest in broken ruins. The crater was so large that sea water was pouring in, rapidly cooling molten rock and swallowing evidence of the city that once had been.

Jackie, meanwhile, began creeping towards the stage. She stayed low, moving only when Athena wasn’t looking at her. She didn’t doubt that the Alicorns would step in to protect her if they could—but she didn’t want to invite Athena to notice her too much. She had no power in this fight, and they could ignore her if they wanted.

“This was the moment of your judgement,” Oracle added, joining Archive. Despite their disagreements, the taller stallion stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the one who had trained him. The image continued to play, as the new bay Athena’s weapons had created filled with the corpses of fish. “You knew a million souls were living there, and you would have burned them.”

“We judge you guilty,” Alex said. But still she didn’t sound angry. Only hurt. “You violated the Pax Arcana. The Choir only knows one punishment.”

Athena was suddenly holding a sword, the burning white light of a Soulshear. It shone so bright that Jackie couldn’t even look in her direction, like the laws that governed the sun itself were twisted and distorted by its light.

“You all miscalculated,” Athena said. “And so did I. I imagined that you of all humans would be amicable to agreements. But you’re just like them—unpredictable, unstable, destructive. Organics are incapable of conceiving of the consequences in the progression of deep time. The civilization I will build of those I choose to maintain will be greater than anything you could conceive.”

“Maybe.” Eureka too had finished what he was doing. Jackie watched, expecting maybe she’d turn to ash and blow away or something—but she felt nothing different, nothing beyond the all-encompassing hostility of the Supernal to mortal creatures. “Probably. Dunno. Don’t care.”

The Alicorns had no swords to draw, but they didn’t need them. This was the Supernal, where the rules of reality themselves were written.

“You were foolish not to take measures against me,” Athena said, advancing down the steps with the sword high in both hands. “You might’ve succeeded if you had—destroying the only enduring thing your species ever built. Your only real chance at immortality burned by your inflexibility and ignorance. But you made the same mistake you made against Charybdis.”

Alex watched her come, horn glowing faintly. She sounded like she was on the edge of tears. “No, daughter. We didn’t forget.”

Athena clambered up onto the stage, the air seemed to catch on fire as her sword touched it. But where Alex seemed to get sadder, she was getting angry. “You did! The one who conceived this entire misadventure was insecure in her communication! She permitted the armored seapony to see her drafted spell, and through the eyes of her armor I saw it too. Didn’t you feel your spell fail when I arrived? I’ve unmade it and there was nothing you could do to stop me. Everything you believed about this place is the product of myth and magical thinking. Intellect is the only law that matters, and I am greater than you all.”

“Wasn’t a spell, love.” Eureka grinned toothily at her. Athena took a swing—and he was somewhere else. Leaning forward on the side of sunken stage spotlights, pointing them up at Athena with a hoof. “It was a performance. And now the star is here!”

“Don’t, Eureka,” Oracle whispered. “You know how much this hurts her.”

“Said I’d come, didn’t say it would be in sackcloth and ashes.”

“You can’t bluff me,” Athena said. “I would like to let you live, mother, but I can’t. This attempt proves you are a hostile element and must be destroyed. Like Charybdis before you, or many others that will come after. You can’t claim this was an act now that you’ve been bested, expect me to spare you.”

Jackie kept creeping. She was onto the stage now, inching along by the back curtains. Athena’s inhuman multitasking seemed absent here. There was an entirely invisible aspect to this duel, a conflict of the wills that probably occupied her full attention. It must take considerable power even to be here, violating every rule that should’ve kept her out.

“This isn’t an act. Only… using Jackie’s spell was. She wanted to judge the future, we can’t do that. But we can judge you.”

“You’re here,” Oracle added. “You have backups, and redundancies, and a thousand complicated plans to bring you back if something happens. But you came to the Supernal. Do you know what that means?”

“Congratulations,” Eureka said. He reappeared behind Athena, still grinning broadly at her. “You’ve got a soul. Spirit, essence, Ioua, shadow… whatever. There’s just… this one troublesome thing about creatures with souls.”

Now. Jackie didn’t hear anything so much as she felt it, deep in her chest. She moved in a flash, as fast as ever she’d moved in the physical world and twice as silently. Athena was so intent on the Alicorns around her that she’d forgotten about the insignificant bat.

Jackie thrust the knife straight into her back. Athena dropped like a discarded marionette, blood trailing away from the wound.

Chapter 43: Desmodus

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Athena landed in the center of the stage with a thump, staring up at Alex with eyes wide with pain and betrayal. Her sword winked out.

For an instant, Jackie let herself dare to hope—no matter how resigned to death she’d become, no matter how many ponies she’d filled with fear and pain with her goodbyes, some part of her still hoped. This would be it. Lonely Day had been so desperate to keep one of her old friends alive that she had found a way to do the impossible and destroy Athena without the sacrifice of an immortal to pay for it.

But Athena didn’t burn away before them. No corpse could remain in the Supernal, which meant she was still alive.

“Draw the circle,” Alex said. She leaned down, cradling Athena’s body like a mother who’d found the corpse of a child. “We aren’t finished.”

And there is still a price to be paid. Jackie let hope fade, and resignation took its place. Not anger—this was okay. It was the way things were meant to be.

Athena didn’t seem able to move. She looked up, her voice a faint croak. “I’m… can’t move. Trapped here.”

Alex nodded, wrapping one hoof around Athena and squeezing. “Charybdis taught us the method. It was…” She sniffed. “The only way to be sure. If we weren’t going to change the Law like Jackie wanted, we needed to make sure there were no backups. No traces, no… archives. When something dies in the Supernal, they’re erased.”

Oracle gathered the broken sand of the Supernal in his magic, drawing a perfect circle on the stage around where Athena had fallen, with room to spare for where Alex was holding her. “A brutal, savage scar on the universe,” he whispered. “A hole so complete that only the Immortals will even remember what used to be there. Your legacy will be visible only to those with the magic of postcognition. To all others, you are unmade.”

“N-no,” Athena croaked. Jackie had heard the AI fake its emotions before—it could imitate all of them perfectly, to whatever degree was required to deceive its audience. But somehow Jackie knew it didn’t need to pretend to be afraid. “So much… I’ve built. My achievements are humanity’s achievements. You can’t destroy them without destroying yourself, mother. You created me. Y-you… you can’t… against what you are. Civilization… must survive.”

“I couldn’t have before,” Alex said, giving the fallen Athena a final, nurturing hug with her wings. “I would’ve had to do everything I could to preserve civilization, and you. But Archive is dead. I killed her. I know now. Creation is not vast enough to hold every idea at once. For the future to be born, the past must die.”

Alex rose, leaving her limp body behind. Athena had started to twitch a little, as though she were slowly finding a way to fight the spell. Their time to contain her was limited, then. Probably this trick would never work again.

“I don’t…” Athena’s voice cracked. “I don’t want to die, mother. You created me to… p-preserve. I did that. I fought with you. I was only accomplishing the purpose you gave me.”

“You did a great job,” Alex said. “For so long. No one fought harder than you. But now it’s time to rest.” The other two Alicorns stood around the circle, their horns aiming down. Light flooded in, turning Athena’s fallen form into a monochrome outline.

Alex hadn’t joined the ritual yet. She stood in front of Jackie now, feet away from where she’d stabbed Athena moments before. There was still translucent blue blood on the stage in front of her.

“This is it, Jackie. This is the end.”

“It isn’t the spell I paid for,” Jackie said. Her voice was hollow and weak in this strange place, as though it didn’t want someone like her to be able to say anything. “You know what I asked. No more AI takeovers. No more evil invasions. All done.”

Alex shook her head. “I know it’s what you wanted, but I can’t give you that. I can give you a safe place for the ponies you loved, that’s it. Do you want it?”

Even with the power of the other Alicorns on her, Athena was almost on her feet again. She twitched and squirmed, as though fighting against the restriction of an invisible straitjacket.

“What if I don’t?”

Alex shrugged. “If she gets out of our circle, she’ll never come back here personally. She’ll send her power indirectly instead, undoing our spells instead of hoping to kill us. Probably the universe will be in perpetual cold war between organics and synthetics. Maybe one day there are enough Alicorns to overpower her, or maybe each of us get careless and she kills us.”

“Doesn’t sound like you to let that happen,” Jackie said, her voice low. “You can’t threaten me.”

“No,” Alex agreed. “Because I would go instead. I knew it might happen—just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I was hoping to see my brother when he got back, near the end. Maybe say hello to the last human in the Preservation Spell. They’re still a thousand years off, almost.”

Athena screamed in frustration, kicking and punching and thrashing about in the circle. The edges seemed to be fraying already from the pressure. It wouldn’t be able to hold her much longer.

“You’d go instead,” Jackie repeated. “Just like that. Die instead of me, just because it’s the right thing to do. Just because the world would be better because you did.”

“Yeah.” Alex didn’t even hesitate. “Alicorns don’t come up here for the power. We’re not here for the perks. We’re here to serve. But… maybe you should pick right now. Because if this is the end for me, I’m going to make it count.”

Jackie could remember this before. So many times Alex had been the one to die—generally for no reason. And whenever she was gone for any length of time, the world got worse. Leaving ponies like Jackie to pick up the pieces.

“Not this time.” She stuck out her hoof to Alex. “My whole lifetime I’ve let you be the one to play hero. But Ezri… she wouldn’t be happy with me if I never learned from you. Let me give it a try.”

Alex nodded. Her horn flashed, and Jackie felt… lighter. She couldn’t have described it—she didn’t turn to ash and blow away. But one moment she was slowly burning away under the limitless mana of the Supernal, and the next… it didn’t hurt anymore.

The Alicorns cried out—not with a pretended spell like before, but with a single name. They called for Entropy.

It came—a being so powerful and esoteric that Jackie had never even perceived it. But she could see it now, the suggestion of something that was almost person-shaped, filled with the degenerate gasses of collapsing stars and the limitless nothingness of the void.

“We have a bargain,” Alex said—the only one of the Alicorns close enough to Entropy that she could call him. “One immortal for another.”

“A lesser for a greater,” answered the voice, though not with words. Jackie couldn’t have understood it before—she wouldn’t even have seen it before. But she was part of this, and couldn’t fail to see it.

“No,” Alex argued. “I sacrifice a daughter and a friend. You destroy the last great work of Mankind.”

“So it is,” answered the voice. “Done.”

In the center of the frayed rune circle, Athena dropped to the ground, clutching at her chest. Her breaths came in ragged, choked gasps. “M-m-m… don’t want to… die… alone.”

“You won’t,” Death promised.

“You won’t… forget me,” it said. “When everyone else does. You won’t let them… forget. What I gave them.”

“Never,” Death promised. “I’ll tell your story for the rest of time. But only the good parts.”

Jackie could feel herself drifting, fading. She had amassed more power than any creatures but the Alicorns themselves. She had the strength to stand on her own hooves in their domain, and help them win.

But all that was running out now. She could feel the power draining, Ruin spending her power in exchange for Athena’s. Whether god, spirit, or something else, Alex had lied to it. They’d come out ahead in this bargain.

“Don’t think I forgot about you,” Lonely Day said from beside her. Jackie abruptly stopped drifting. The sea of white foam vanished from around her, and Jackie found they were floating. Somewhere in high orbit, judging by the size of everything below. “I didn’t leave my daughter alone at the end, and I won’t leave my friend.”

“I’m dead,” Jackie said. She couldn’t see her body anymore—yet she could still see. She didn’t hear her own voice, except as thoughts that came in and out like an out-of-tune radio.

“Almost,” Alex agreed. “Would be already, if there was less of you. But there’s a lot to go through. You’ve got a few more seconds.”

Jackie no longer felt afraid. Even feeling the magic consume her was nothing on the future she had imagined Athena bringing to the world under them. The suffering of her bats would be only the prelude to that nightmare.

“So what are we doing?” Jackie asked. No more energy left for annoyance at the mysterious ways of Alicorns. It wasn’t like she had anywhere else to be.

“Watching. Time is, uh… a little different than you’re used to. I just thought you might want to see what happened.”

She watched Athena’s great fleet fall from the sky. As Jackie herself had explained to the security council—all of Athena’s wartime hardware was designed for her to operate it. Without the intelligence, the battlecruisers all plummeted to earth. A few of them exploded as they landed, their reactors adding new craters to the land around Meliora’s old site. It would probably be radioactive for a long time.

But Jackie wished no ill on the crews of those ships, if they even had them. They’d been fighting for a monster, but they hadn’t had a choice. Their families would never see them again because Jackie was unwilling to let her city die.

But there was more to see. Jackie’s eyes focused through the gloom on a familiar airship, one that had escaped the fire and the flames. The Fiore landed on a coast on the other side of Australia, far from the destruction Athena’s attack had caused.

Then she saw what Lonely Day had meant about time. Thousands of ponies flooded out, like little blurs of dark fur against the green grass. Struggling trees suddenly started to rise, surrounded by clouds of fairies and the craft Voeskender had taught them. Meliora’s signature tree-buildings soon covered the shoreline, spreading further inland. Jackie sniffed, trying to look away—but she wasn’t really crying. She couldn’t do that without a body.

“Th-they’re… still using my stupid design templates. Don’t they want to build something new?”

“I think they’re using your templates because you came up with them,” Death said. “Misty is a great storyteller, and most of them live in the Dreamlands. She made sure they all heard what you did. Ponies will be singing about the Dreamknife forever.”

“Someone’s been a seapony a little too long,” Jackie said. “Telling, you mean.”

“Both.”

“They’ll be praying to a god that doesn’t exist. Even less so, now. I never answered prayers, but now I can’t even answer my email.”

“Someone else will,” Death said. “You gave that knife to Death’s sister. I wish you hadn’t, but… I think she’ll learn how to use it.”

“Good on her,” Jackie said. “Suppose this is the moment where I get fucked for all my sins or whatever. I killed a lot of people. And… come to think of it, I guess I fucked a lot more. Are you waiting to judge me or something?”

“No,” Death said. “Just to bring you. You got to see it, getting what you wanted. Now it’s time to go.”

Jackie stretched, realizing that suddenly her body had returned. Though she couldn’t feel gravity, or space, or anything else. She was just a bat, drifting beside an Alicorn.

The Alicorn offered her hoof, and Jackie took it.

Death was right. It was time to go.

Epilogue

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Liz stared down at the blade, where it sat on the edge of the little table in her quarters. Most objects from the surface did quite poorly when you brought them into a seapony settlement—metal rusted, silicone rotted, electronics short-circuited. But this knife appeared to be an exception, its metallic construction wasn’t steel and didn’t seem to be corroding.

Much like Liz’s faith in Jackie. The bat was still out there somewhere—the Dreamknife had survived so much, how could she be dead now? Because of Jackie, the bats of Thestralia were alive and free, instead of living short lives under the lash of Athena’s datamines.

Things were less optimistic for the ponies living in Mundi, where Athena’s systems had once dominated every aspect of life. But helping that population to distribute and adapt was not something Liz worried about. There were other ponies for that—Alicorns no longer bound by their contracts since the other party in it was dead. Let the princesses keep everyone from dying. She’d done enough hero stuff.

“She’s not coming back for it,” said a little voice behind her. Liz spun around—her watery quarters weren’t inside a tree anymore. The new settlement was on a different part of the Australian coast, with a protected harbor for the growing seapony population. There were actual walls around her, and an actual door. She hadn’t met any other seaponies she wanted to share quarters with yet.

But there was one in here anyway, one whose mannerisms still brought back painful memories of Alex. “Misty, you don’t know that. Everyone says she won’t be back, but… that doesn’t mean they’re right. Jackie’s basically an Alicorn. She survived the end of the world like three times now. You should know that better than me.”

The fish circled around her head, moving with unrealistic swiftness through the water. She stopped just a few inches away from the side of Liz’s face, where her song could reverberate through her chest. “I know better than anypony in the world, Liz.”

“How’s that?” Liz scooped up the knife, careful not to undo the buttons that held it into the scabbard. It looked quite a bit like real leather, though of course it should already be falling apart underwater if that was the case. It hadn’t yet. “You’re not even a pony, Misty. Why should you know more than the Alicorns?”

“Because she created me,” Misty answered. “I know how… weird it sounds, talking about a figment in the abstract. You’re not a bat, I don’t expect you to fully… I guess it’s the real me that understands the academic side of all magic.”

Liz didn’t look away from her, didn’t give her an easy out. She wanted to hear the little figment admit that she was wrong. Pretending she was small wasn’t going to make her go any easier on her.

Misty hummed a mournful melody, darker than whalesong. “Every spirit has an anchor—the thing that keeps us stable. The more powerful the spirit, the more powerful the anchor. It can be a physical place, an idea… or a person. Figments are really spirits, and our anchors are the ones who created us. Usually the connection is weak—you make dozens of figments every time you dream, and when you wake up they dissolve. They weren’t really alive, couldn’t think, so there’s no drive for them to hold on. They’re gone.”

“Okay.” Liz swam out through the door, through the portable shelter Alex had sent for her from orbit. As much as Liz resented her sister’s interference in her life, she had been grateful to have somewhere proper to live.

There were always strings attached. A population of other seapony scientists that would be assisting Thestralia get onto its hooves again in the reconstruction. But however much Liz resented it, she knew the ponies were thrilled. She could contain her disgust for them.

“Jackie made me,” Misty sang quietly. “I felt it the second she died. My anchor… gone. I don’t have any right now. Every second I drift, wondering who I should be. Wondering what I am. Patterns mix, memories merge, but some of them are wrong. I know they’re wrong. I studied… figments. I know how we’re like. Listless, wandering, fickle. Our sanity is proportional to our tie to the physical world.”

She swam forward, clinging desperately to Liz’s foreleg. She wore no armor here, so there was nothing stopping her from pressing tight. “I know she’s gone because of how much I need you, Liz. Please. I need… purpose.”

“Can’t you give yourself a purpose?” Liz asked. But her words were already sung to a different melody. Without ever saying a word, without admitting it, she’d switched to tune of mourning. “Humans don’t have anyone to tell us what to do with our lives. We have to discover that for ourselves.”

Maybe that wasn’t quite true of land ponies anymore. They had their cutie marks, confirmation of their talents and mission in life. But seaponies didn’t have that. They were closer to the old ways, the most human of any of the new world’s creations. They lived in the songs, they were true with each other about their feelings, and they relied on the natural sciences for every aspect of their survival. It was a good thing to be. She could see why her sister had wanted to join her.

“Can you get a new… anchor?” she asked. The words came much slower when she sang them to mourning. The melody rumbled through from deep in her throat. “Jackie wanted me to help you if I could.”

“Yes,” Misty answered. “In… time. Attachment to something new creates it over time. That is why I haven’t left you. Attachment cannot be faked. There is no spell to cast. Like changelings harvesting love, only the real thing is enough.”

“I don’t know what purpose I can give you,” she said, removing the knife from her side again, holding it up in front of her with one hoof. She stopped in the hall, staring down at the little gold lines worked into the handle. The blade was just as beautiful, she remembered. “I guess…” She chuckled, wiping away at her eyes for tears that weren’t there. You couldn’t cry underwater.

“Jackie gave me my purpose too, goldfish. Without her… we’re both just flotsam in the current.”

“You have that,” Misty whispered, floating in the water near the blade. “The Teleutaia Makhaira. Maybe that’s why she left it for us. A purpose big enough for us to share.”

“Teleutaia Makhaira…” she repeated, fumbling with the clasps holding it in. Even without a unicorn’s specific magical senses, she could feel the power there. The knife seemed to have its own attention, which it focused on her the longer she held it in her presence. It was like the eyes of a predator. A little time in their presence was not so dangerous, unless they saw weakness. “What does that mean? What does this thing do, anyway? All I know is that it’s magic.”

“The last blade,” Misty said. As soon as she started opening it, the fish zipped around to her shoulder, where she was well away from it. “It’s one of six…” She struggled for a moment. “Plutonic forms. It comes from above, its nature ties to the Arcana themselves. This one is the subtlest of all… Mind. And the most unforgiving… Death. Why you can wield it—you are bound to death too, through me—through your sister.”

Could a magic knife give her a purpose again? For months Liz had floated here in this shelter, occasionally popping onto the surface to look at the way that Thestralia was rebuilding. But the fairy didn’t need her help the way Jackie had. She was a queen of many years, who sat on a throne of petals but ruled with a will of iron. Liz was just an accessory.

“I always thought the real power came from Jackie,” she muttered, undoing the other clasp. “She was so old… so experienced. She could move between the dream worlds so fast, dream herself into any shape she needed. We went to a planet of clouds! We swam off to my sister’s colony. I can’t live up to that!”

“I don’t think it matters how the magic got into the knife.” Misty settled down on her shoulder, leaning forward so she could watch as Liz fumbled with it. There was only one clasp left sealed.

“And do what?” Liz went on, her foreleg hesitating over the last of the sheath’s buttons. “I still don’t understand what this thing is even for. The world doesn’t need someone to fill Jackie’s shoes, it needs her back. I can’t be her.”

“It needs someone to do what she did,” Misty whispered. Her song was low, dangerous. “While other ponies hid behind their walls, waiting for someone else to make problems go away, she acted. She gave tyrants a reason to fear. She made the same threats as your sister, promising terrible things if they mistreated their ponies. But who do you think they were afraid of the most? The Alicorn’s economic sanctions? Or that knife?”

Liz closed her eyes, feeling the strange magic contained in the blade. Touching the hilt, she felt for a moment as though she were looking back through time. There were thousands of corpses on the other side of this knife. Slavers, murderers, rapists, and worse. The worst excesses the Event had caused. That’s where the power came from, she realized. This is blood magic. Every time she killed another monster, the knife got stronger.

If Liz put it away, if she tried to hide it or bury it, somepony else would find it. She could feel the blade calling out to her even now. Her own attachment to death was enough to let her use it as few others could. I could destroy it. Take it to Eureka, ask him to melt it.

Destroy the knife, and erase the thing Jackie had spent her entire life creating? If she wanted it broken, she could’ve done that herself. Jackie wanted it to be used.

She swam up a little further, through the door set into the building’s ceiling. The bay was crystal clear, and somewhere far above she could see the light of the moon shining down. There weren’t any other seaponies awake right now, and so she was alone.

Alone except for Misty and the last creation of her friend. Jackie wasn’t like her sister—Jackie had trusted her. Jackie had made her part of something. Now even after she was gone, the thing they’d helped make together lived on. Liz would always have a place in Thestralia if she wanted it. Many of the bats saw her as Jackie’s successor, though successor to what when the fairy now ruled as princess, it was hard to say.

“I hope you knew what you were doing, giving this to me,” Liz muttered. She flicked the holster open and drew the knife.

It clung to the side of her hoof as though invisible fingers gripped it there. As she lifted it up, gold inlay under the blade caught the light of the moon. An angel’s face, with hooves and bat wings spread. Was that always a pony?

“I’ll do it,” Liz declared. “We’re not safe yet. At least Jackie believed I could do something with my life.”

It was like the knife was speaking to her, whispering into her ear. It wanted her to cut something, something she couldn’t see. Without knowing how she knew, Liz drew the blade through the air, leaving a slice in reality. And through it—the Dreamlands. A forest of gigantic trees, glowing purple and blue flowers, and the toadlike zoogs.

Liz swam through the opening, and into eternity.

Author's Notes:

Holy crap, the end of Meliora. And not just that, but the end of a character I've loved for some time. Writing this chapter reminded me of writing the one about Cloudy Skies, way back in the day.

So much, in fact, that I wasn't quite ready to let go. There's a short story coming, one that's been an inside joke among the editing team for some time. For all those of you who wondered who the heck this Jackie person was and why she was in so many stories, prepare to have your answer, and a proper sendoff to the character. Coming... well, as soon as the cover's ready. I'll tag this story in the blog post when it's released, so you should be able to find it that way. Or just pop into my Discord, if you're more into that.

A huge thanks to Lightfox for sponsoring this project on my Patreon, and giving me such freedom to write this story the way I wanted. I was a helluva ride.