The Immortal Dream

"How are you not starving too?" Rainbow demanded, holding Misophaes by the shoulders and shaking her like a broken vending machine. "I thought bringing myself to eat your cave gruel would be the hard part, not getting you to make it! Come on..."

"Save your energy," Starlight told her, laying with her legs tucked beneath her at the edge of the top rim of the nautilus island.

Starlight had slept as much as she was going to, and everyone else seemed to have, as well. This island was exactly the same as the one she had found Twilight at, right down to the inscriptions on the giant shell statue at the island's center. The only difference was, it was at the opposite end of a very long, black chain, one of many chains crisscrossing the empty horizon.

Maintaining a crystal boat wouldn't be any easier than it was last time. She was soaked through, and her hunger was impossible to ignore, but travel would only grow more difficult the weaker they became. It didn't matter that they didn't have anywhere to go. Survival meant not staying here.

She glanced at Twilight, the only one of the group to share her bizarre dream, the one where she was beckoned to a dark, floating tower. If the whole group had seen it, it would have been easy to chalk up to some sort of ambient power in this place, like a recording left for anyone to find. For it to be just the two of them... That felt more intentional. Starlight had a lot of experience drawing the attention of the powers that be, and felt she could recognize it when she saw it. But if there was a tower like that floating somewhere over these waters, neither of them had any idea how to get there.

Or whether they should go there in the first place. Neither of them wanted to say the obvious: if this was a place that had no possible connection back to the world above, it would be a really good place to imprison something.

At the same time, if they themselves were now imprisoned... Just about anyone could become an ally if they wanted to get out too.

Rainbow growled and dropped Misophaes. "Any ideas, Twi?" she begged, taking a few steps towards where Twilight and the Flame of Love were sitting.

"Well," Twilight sighed, "we could keep going in the direction we've been going, though without the chain to guide us we'll inevitably veer off course. We could pick another direction. Or we could try to sleep again, and see if anything else happens in our dreams. The Flame has never seem a tower like the one Starlight and I saw, so we have no information to act on if we do want to go there. But the tower voice didn't even say it had a way back."

Rainbow tapped a hoof pointedly. "If we had some food, there wouldn't be a problem with just boating around looking for it."

Reluctantly, Twilight looked to Misophaes. "There's no chance of convincing you to change your mind?"

"No." Misophaes shook her head, quiet and content. "Even if I starve, I can die in peace. If the accusations come back, then I'll be cursed to live with them forever again. And if they don't, I'm not sure I can use my powers anyway. So there."

"You're okay with your life ending on a clean slate?" Rainbow raised an impatient eyebrow. "You think just because you've no longer got a super guilty conscience you don't need some good deeds under your belt as well? See, that's what I like to call amounting to nothing."

"I don't care," Misophaes said, turning away. "It's perfection. I won't abandon that."

Starlight watched all of this, thinking. Things had spiraled out of control in Abaddon before they could figure out what Misophaes really was. The most obvious answer was Chrysalis, but that didn't feel right. Starlight had spent a long time around Chrysalis as a filly, both before she went on her rampage and after. The last time she had seen her, they were locked together in a purgatory not unlike this one, though then it had been of Starlight's own making.

She knew Chrysalis. Her caustic, almost witty spite. Her burning belief that she lived in a kill-or-be-killed world, and her adamant refusal to let it get in the last word.

If Chrysalis could be broken... Starlight didn't think this was what it would look like, because she didn't think Chrysalis could be broken. The more she lost, the harder she fought and the more she was willing to put to the torch if it meant some semblance of justice, at least in her eyes. Whenever she was forced to take a blow lying down, it only served to stoke her resentment.

Misophaes had some superficial similarities back in Abaddon, like how she assumed everyone was there to hurt her and then made no moves to defend herself. But Chrysalis did that as a defense mechanism, making her visitors feel dirty so they would go away. Misophaes seemed to legitimately want someone to hurt her, if only to help validate her worldview.

Even though their magic and eye color looked the same, and even though Misophaes was surrounded by broken changelings, the longer Starlight thought about it the more she felt like Misophaes had to be a different pony.

Was there a point to knowing this? Maybe. Starlight wasn't sure. Rainbow Dash was the one with a point: they wouldn't be able to keep exploring much longer without food, and then they would be finished. Misophaes could make food. And knowing what made her tick was the key to getting her to help out.

Using force was on the table, of course. Misophaes bore the lion's share of the blame for why they were down here, and the one most likely to argue against it - Twilight - bore the rest. Simply beating her up would accomplish nothing, though. Misophaes had been tortured by her own mind for long enough to welcome any pain of a different flavor. She'd just sit there and take it, and likely try to make everyone feel dirty for trying.

Rainbow noticed the look Starlight was giving Misophaes and raised a tough eyebrow. "You're thinking how to knock some sense into her too, eh?"

"Just thinking," Starlight replied.

"Well, I'm pretty sure beating her up isn't going to work," Rainbow said, echoing what Starlight had just determined. "She's probably twisted enough to enjoy it. But, see, I'm thinking... If this really is Chrysalis, that means she's a changeling, too. And that means she's also a batpony."

Starlight tilted her head. Where was Rainbow going with this?

"You did that thing once, in Mistvale, remember?" Rainbow gave Starlight a penetrating look. "You were telling us how you got a bunch of batponies to stop fighting by piping stuff into their heads, right? Well, what if you tried that on this sea cucumber here? Sounds like she's really enjoying having her head empty all of a sudden. Bet you that would get her off her butt."

Starlight blinked. The Daydream Network...

Rainbow had a good memory. That battle had barely constituted a page in the giant adventure that made up her foalhood, and far more important things had been happening at the time.

"That's an idea," Starlight answered, deciding to think out loud. "But there's some stuff you might be forgetting. I was moon glassed at the time, and my powers work differently in that state. And what I broadcasted to the batponies wasn't my own thoughts. It was a magical recording of the Firefly Sisters singing for peace. I don't know if normal words would have the same effect. I'm far less practiced talking on the Daydream Network than listening on it."

"Oh yeah..." Rainbow frowned and rubbed her chin. "What about you, Twi? Think I'm onto something? If we could ruin her day a bit, would you be on board?"

Twilight looked slightly offended, but still considered it. "All my experience with the Daydream Network is listening to those annoying golems in Macrothesis. If you're planning to bombard her with that, I guess I can't stop you, but I don't think I'll be much help either."

Rainbow pounded a hoof against the other, giving Misophaes a menacing look. "Hear that? Hoof over the food, or Starlight here might feel like experimenting on your peace and quiet."

Misophaes seemed legitimately disturbed by this possibility. "You can do this? Speak into ponies' minds?"

"I've done it before," Starlight said, standing up and sensing weakness. "Not an expert, so like she says, it'll take some experimentation. Your head's a good test subject, right?"

"You're bluffing," Misophaes singsonged, brittle and defiant, clutching her old confidence like a security blanket. "You can't do that. No one can. It's just us down here, and this empty, empty void..."

Rainbow Dash looked to Starlight and raised an eyebrow. "Well? Let her have it, Glimglam."

Starlight sighed and straightened up. Might as well see what she could still do. First things first: where was her Nightmare Module emulation mode?

Ambient environment data is corrupted and may be unreliable, a cool mare's voice said in her mind - a presence she had long understood as a recorded interface used to interact with her powers, voiced by the one and only Princess Luna. Nightmare Module emulation mode may not operate as intended. User discretion is advised.

Nightmare Module emulation mode got its name from its primary function: decades ago, Starlight used to turn gray when exposed to moon glass, losing her ability to see or remember colors and experiencing new sensations in their stead. A bright, starlike aura around ponies and creatures, an attachment to them that was far stronger than usual... In that state, she had been able to wield the Nightmare Modules left behind by Nightmare Moon, and other powers as well, Daydream Network broadcasting among them. Issuing commands to this voice, in her thoughts or out loud, had been her main means of controlling those secondary powers.

Back then, she would regain her color when exposed to powerful harmonic magic, and she had never been able to turn again after getting her cutie mark, presumably due to its own harmonic power. But the old interface was still there, largely useless outside of that gray state but still reachable when she called.

So, she needed to broadcast on the Daydream Network. She had only ever tried it while glassed, but she had been already glassed at the time for other reasons. Was that a power she could use without actually turning gray?

Pony-to-pony broadcasting requires a power source for signal amplification and an area of network coherence for signal propagation, Luna's voice said. Ambient environmental data is corrupted and network coherence and power source integrity cannot be verified.

Alright. Was there a way to fix that? Did it need to be fixed? Could she try anyway?

You are equipped to establish network coherence, the voice explained. Warning: attempting to establish network coherence where it is already established may invite backlash from existing maintainers.

Okay. So establishing network coherence was probably jargon for making an area's network usable, providing a backend that that broadcasters needed to use to send their messages? This wasn't just telepathy that worked all by itself?

Affirmative.

And the first time she had used this power, back in Mistvale... Had this been a problem there, too, that she had forgotten about? The whole point of that cove was that it was far away from the Night Mother and her control of the Daydream Network.

At that time, you established network coherence without issue, the voice said. Because current network coherence cannot be verified, user confirmation is required to proceed with establishment attempt or to attempt broadcasting without it.

Oh. That made sense.

Well, there was probably nothing else down here maintaining the Daydream Network, and if there was, getting their attention by trying to control part of it herself at least had a chance of working out well. More likely, the Daydream Network didn't function down here, period, and that was why her voice was having issues... but it was worth a try.

"Any luck?" Rainbow asked, interrupting her train of thought.

"Can't say yet," Starlight grunted, as Misophaes waited and the black rain silently fell. "I'm about to try something..."

Do it. Try to establish coherence. She didn't need a big zone; the area of this island would be more than enough. As for a power source, if the Immortal Dream wouldn't work, there was always the thing she had been using to cast Nightmare Modules ever since losing her ability to turn gray...

Starlight focused, summoning her black sword.

Something shifted in the world around her, almost like an ancient groan, a primeval beast stirring amid endless slumber. Starlight felt her perception expand.

Three things grew more pronounced in her senses, the island suddenly occupying a much bigger slice of her world than it previously had. One was Twilight. Starlight was intimately aware of her presence, and felt like she could even hear Twilight's thoughts if she thought them just a little louder, and she leaned in close. The next was Misophaes.

Misophaes was visible, vulnerable, and wide open, her emotions sloshing around at the top of her head like she was an overfilled, leaky kettle that had been pressed back into service after being fished out of a scrap heap. Her train of thought was as plain as a Manehattan neon sign, parked on one single idea and refusing to move: if magic existed that could project thoughts into someone's mind, could someone else have been making her feel that way, all throughout her time in Abaddon? Could her accusers have been real? And if so, what could she possibly have done to make them hate her so much? She just didn't understand.

Starlight almost prodded her, almost peered a little closer, but the third thing she could sense was more interesting. It was the nautilus shell.

The one that looked like a statue, that sat in the center of the island and fed a black chain from its mouth, off into the horizon until it reached an identical one where she had caught up to Twilight. It was responsive to the Daydream Network. She could feel... basically nothing from it, but it was there.

"Hello?" Starlight asked out loud, taking a curious step towards the shell.

Not dead, a small voice mumbled in her mind, sounding like a groggy foal. Only sleeping...

"Starlight?" Rainbow frowned, following her gaze to the nautilus. "Why are you looking at that?"

"I heard it," Twilight whispered. "Is this thing alive?"

Can't die, the little voice mumbled. Nothing to do but sleep...

"Can you wake up and talk to us?" Starlight asked. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Go hold your chain, little sister, the voice in the shell grumbled. Sleeeeeep...

"Hold our chains? What are you talking about?" Twilight pressed. "And what do you mean, little sister? We can't go to sleep. We just were sleeping. And we're looking for a way out of here!"

The shell's lighting shifted somehow, its mouth growing a little bit brighter. And then out crawled a creature that looked like a pony made of glass.

It was a batpony colt, glowing from within with a couple of tiny embers that looked a lot like the Flame of Kindness before they restored it. He was so translucent that he was mostly visible from the rain sliding off his back and neck, the water and his glass surface interplaying with the embers' light to make him look more like an illuminated outline of a pony. Starlight blinked, glancing between him and the Flame of Love, which still wore the form of a hollow, crystalline zebra. They looked kind of similar...

So noisy, the batpony complained, looking around at everyone with glass eyes. Hey... Are you like the Old One? You look weird.

Off to the side, Misophaes was holding herself and rocking back and forth. "It sounds just like the voices," she said with an everything-is-fine smile.

"Hey, what's it saying!?" Rainbow danced a little in frustration. "Can this thing talk out loud?"

"Who's the Old One?" Starlight asked the glass batpony.

The Old One, he explained, as if this answered her question. Little sister, did you forget already? Although... I don't remember you.

"Forget what?" Starlight pressed. "We've only been here for a day or so."

The batpony sighed and started crawling back into his nautilus. Don't know what that means. Go to sleep. Nothing else to do here.

"No, hold on!" Twilight moved to block his way. "Who is this Old One? What do they do here, and where can we find them?"

He's old, the batpony said. He sleeps. He doesn't have to hold a chain. Don't remember why.

"And where is he?" Twilight pressed. "Does he live on a floating tower?"

Floating tower? the batpony asked. No. Can't get to the floating tower. Can't fly. What was its name, again...?

"You've seen a floating tower, then?" Starlight asked. "Can you tell us how to get there?"

No, the batpony repeated. Can't get there. Can't fly. Can't remember where, anyway.

"Alright, and how about the Old One?" Twilight asked again. "We'd really like to meet anyone at all down here."

No, the batpony insisted. No meeting. No point. Hold chains and sleep. Don't remember where the Old One is, anyway.

"And why are you holding these chains?" Twilight asked. As she continued talking to this thing, her emotions were rising; Starlight could feel that it upset her in a similar way to how Abaddon had. This thing, this... Was it a person? It didn't seem to have a will to live.

The batpony thought about this. Don't remember, he said with a shrug. It's important, though. It's why I'm here.

"Is there any way to jog your memory?" Starlight pressed. "We'd love to get off this island and leave you alone, but we need somewhere to go..."

Nowhere to go, the batpony said, before catching himself and thinking. Nothing else to do. Though... If I remember where the Old One is and take you there, will you let me go back to sleep?

Twilight nodded. "We promise."

The batpony yawned, then started groggily walking towards the island's lower tiers and its shore. Okay. I'll try. Such a pain...

He jumped down the tiers without even chipping his glass hooves - they barely made a sound against the stone, just like the Flame of Love. Starlight couldn't feel the flame with the Daydream Network, actually. She didn't know what to make of that. Its body language was plain to read, though: it saw this glass batpony, and felt very, very sad.

At the shore, the batpony dipped a hoof into the perfectly flat, still water. A second passed, and then five, and then with not even a ripple, a boat made of ice floated up from the depths, bobbing to a stop against the island, somehow dry and empty.

Get in, the batpony said, climbing in and taking up a seat at the prow. It might have been this way.

Everyone climbed in, even the Flame of Love and Misophaes. And then, without a single motion, the boat pushed off and began to skim through the water, the world completely silent save for the growling of Starlight's stomach.

Faye slunk through the courtyard outside Crowscone's manor, the twilight lighting her path just enough so that she didn't have to use her bracelet in the fog. They had taken the time to run back and grab her armor, but even a minute longer and the light could be gone entirely.

Vivace was warm atop her back, even though he wasn't breathing. Lissa led the way, since Faye could pinpoint her despite the fog and the darkness using her star sight. Suddenly, Lissa stopped, crouched and jumped, clearing the wall at the edge of the courtyard.

Faye heard no guards and no sounds of pursuit, so she did the same.

It wasn't silent, jumping onto a wall she couldn't see with an unconscious stallion on her back. But she made it over, and suddenly the light was completely gone, the sky obscured by branches and leaves as they entered the grove northeast of Crowscone's manor.

For a moment, they held still, hearts pounding. And then, confident that they weren't being followed, they slipped deeper into the trees.

"I think we're safe," Lissa breathed after a few minutes of running, the only thing Faye could see in the darkness. "Should be easy enough from here to loop around and re-enter town from the north."

"I can't believe that worked," Faye said, shaken. "We didn't get spotted, or chased, or... anything."

"That's what happens when you don't fail at stealth," Lissa said, as if this should be obvious to anyone with experience. "Think we can chance a little light?"

Faye nodded, and turned her bracelet to a low glimmer.

Its light reflected eerily off the fog, glaring back into her eyes and revealing nothing but the ghostly stalks of tree trunks all around her - short, gnarled, fruit-bearing trees, planted in rows that were deliberate and cultivated. In the direction they were going, the terrain sloped gently upwards.

This place would be beautiful during the day, she suspected, without any fog to obscure it. But tonight, on the tail end of robbing a manor, her nerves were tight enough that it felt like a graveyard.

"So," Lissa murmured. "Think we've got enough time now for you to tell me what this means?"

She gestured to Vivace, and Faye sighed. She had gotten out of a lengthy explanation in the manor by pointing out that they had more pressing priorities, but now... "He's a changeling," she started. "A batpony who disguised himself like this by shapeshifting. So it's still the same thing affecting him the same way as the others." She broke eye contact. "I know this because I've met him before."

Lissa raised an eyebrow. "You can say that with confidence about someone you think is a shapeshifter?"

"He was a mercenary who came to my town the better part of a year ago," Faye explained, the mist hanging silently in the air. "He and his band were all changelings, and kidnapped me and some friends of mine by disguising themselves as prospective employers. But they eventually were captured and shipped off to Ironridge to be brought to justice."

"Alright," Lissa said, not particularly interested in the specifics. "But how do you know the one you met wasn't just pretending to be someone powerful or famous? If I could shapeshift, that's what I'd do."

Faye frowned. That was a good point... but none of Aldebaran had ever claimed to be anyone famous. In fact, Leif had gone out of her way not to, and she actually was. Or at least she had left a big mark on history.

Besides, Rondo was in Rhodallis' crew now, and he had recognized her. If one former Aldebaran member had wound up in the east's circles of power, why couldn't another?

She shook her head. Actually, it didn't matter so long as he was unconscious. "Let's try to get back into town first," Faye advised. "Meet up with Flarefeather and see if she and Coda are alright. Then we can figure out what to do once we're all on the same page."

"She'll be fine," Lissa promised. "Flarefeather only acts like an airhead when I'm around. Don't let it dull your confidence in her. But as long as you're sure we've got the right pony, then right. Let's get going."

The town, which had been bustling not two hours ago, was completely deserted as Faye and Lissa crept through the streets, Faye's bracelet once again dim as she relied on her star sight to stick with her companion. Lissa continued to lead, by far the most stealthy.

Amid the gloom, enough light filtered down through the fog to make out houses as a different shade of black and nothing else. Monoliths in the mist, every here and there one bore a solitary, pinprick light or two, perhaps the horn of a unicorn who wasn't ready to go to bed shining through the windows. The ones that didn't might as well have been abandoned.

How did Lissa have any clue where they were going? Was her sense of direction just that good? Faye was lost, and her star sight wasn't helping.

Barely a yard away, the stillness of night was shattered by the crack of breaking glass.

Instantly, Faye went on high alert, sinking partway into the ground to reduce her silhouette. Lissa was even faster, zipping several paces away and falling as silent as the grave.

Faye crept forward towards the next house's dim silhouette. As it passed in range of her star sight, someone a little brighter and more desirable than the average citizen hopped out through a window, their trajectory and motions suggesting they were carrying something lopsided and heavy.

They started running, their course taking them right past where Lissa was waiting. The moment they passed by, Lissa jumped them.

Faye scarcely had time to think about whether to help. With a couple of sharp squawks and swishes and a meaty thunk, their scuffle took barely three seconds, ending with tight breathing and a threatening hiss.

"Hi there, bandit," Lissa whispered. "Bad night for looting, huh?"

"Who do you think you are?" a youthful voice growled back. "Hold a knife to my neck, will you-"

Immediately, the scuffle broke out again. There was a grunt from Lissa, the scraping of hooves and talons against dirt, a sharp caw of pain and suddenly a thwack as Lissa's light spun and the bandit went splayed out against the ground, a loud jingling and clattering sounding around where he had landed.

This time, he didn't get up.

Faye crept the rest of the way forward, daring to light her bracelet just a little. It was a griffon, a young one, with a sack that was leaking money onto the road. Was this the same one from earlier...?

"Not the same," Lissa whispered, as if reading her mind. "But I'll be a fool if they're not part of the same thug scene." She grabbed him, hefting him awkwardly on her back. "Come on. We shouldn't stay here."

A few blocks away, they stopped running, and Lissa dumped the unconscious griffon back on the ground, staring down at him with annoyance.

"You alright?" Faye whispered.

"Yeah," Lissa whispered back. "Hopefully my outfit can say the same. But this kid isn't normal. I'm a trained bodyguard. A random burglar shouldn't have put up any resistance whatsoever, even in the dark. But he knew some real martial arts."

Faye raised an eyebrow.

"Not like he was good," Lissa continued. "Like he had a good teacher. The cops were saying looting was a problem when we were there this evening, right? If this is one of the culprits, this could mean he's working for someone."

"Is investigating this as high of a priority as getting back to the hospital?" Faye breathed. "Why are you bringing him along?"

"It'll make a great alibi." Lissa shrugged. "Hospital's right next to the police station, right? Which is bound to be guarded. If a guard tries to stop and question us, we say we're vigilantes, turn in this guy, and then claim the Consul is some stranger we caught him assaulting and are bringing in for treatment. The cop takes the thug and doesn't look too hard at the rest of us, just like that."

Faye frowned. "You really think it'll work out that easily?"

Lissa picked up the griffon again and resumed walking. "I think I've got the charisma to make it more likely to work than if we just try to sneak past and get caught."

They pressed on, and the residential district transitioned to a commercial one, the stars around Faye growing far more scarce as houses were replaced with businesses closed for the night. And when one finally did draw into sight, standing solitary guard in front of a strip of building fronts, Faye recognized where they were: they had reached the police department, approaching from the other side.

And of course it was guarded, just like Lissa said.

"Who goes there?" the officer growled, his horn lit warily against the night mist.

"Vigilantes," Lissa answered, stepping into his light with the griffon out cold on her back. "We caught this guy breaking into a house about five, six streets north of here. This is where we drop those off, right?"

The guard sighed an exasperated sigh, lifting the griffon in his aura and looking him over. "Well, this one's a known troublemaker, so I assume you're telling the truth. But I haven't seen your face around here before, so let's get something clear: the Department of Civil Obedience doesn't need vigilantes. We have the situation under control. There's a curfew for a reason, and it applies to you just as much as this kid. I'll let you off the hook for tonight since your heart's in the right place, but go home. You're just going to cause more trouble and get yourself hurt."

Lissa winced a little and nodded. "You sure? I mean, understood..."

The guard's attention turned to Faye, just far enough back in the mist that his horn glare let her see him easier than he could see her. "What about your friend there? Got another one?"

"No," Lissa explained, shaking her head. "We caught him in the middle of a burglary. Heard the glass break, went after him... Didn't get there in time to stop him from knocking out this poor stallion. Thought we'd bring him to the hospital just in case rather than leave him alone in the dark."

"Yeah," Faye agreed, skirting the edge of the guard's vision.

"Oh." The guard seemed slightly mollified. "Well, get on with that. And then go home. Might as well see if we can hold this one down for more than a day or two..." He took the griffon, who was just starting to stir, and lugged him inside the police department.

As soon as he was gone, Lissa gave Faye a cheeky wink. "Told you it would work."

Faye had to admit, she was impressed. Though whether it was by Lissa's luck, or her belief in her luck, she couldn't tell.

Lissa's face went back to business, and she pulled open the door to the hospital, Faye following her inside.