Chapters
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We made the visit to the palace as quick as we could, and not just because every moment seemed like the one where Princess Twilight might finally decide it was time to put an end to my ridiculous adventure. It wasn’t just her daughter who had enough of Gilda’s attitude—at this point, it seemed like only a matter of time before she upset Dawn as well.I did stop at the telegraph office before we finished with the trip, long enough to transcribe a brief message to the court. AM RETURNING FROM…-
45.4 K •
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I found Dawn waiting on the Daughter of Wintergreen, along with a half-blind bird with a pink head and a face like he was perpetually smelling sour milk.“You’re the faulty hatchling, eh?” he said, before even Dawn could greet me. He jerked forward, pulling out a gnarled stick and smacking one of my wings.I jumped, backing away. “Hey!”He ignored me. “What, you gonna fly away? Oh wait, you can’t.” He jerked forward again, smacking my other wing just as hard. “Flightless hatchlings like you…
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45.4 K •
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Gabriella obviously wasn’t from any of the clans of birds who ruled the Republic now, or even the empire at the time of the Migration War. I might not have an exhaustive knowledge, but I had a fair idea about the distinct physical patterns. This bird was indeed one of the Equestrian variety, with feathers in a simple pidgeon gray.“I had a visit from Dawn yesterday,” she said, glaring down at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. “She told me you might be coming.” She looked me up and…
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45.4 K •
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I sat alone at the prow of the Daughter of Wintergreen, letting the wind lift my wings. Standing there with my eyes closed, I could almost understand why so many ponies liked to fly. They could have this feeling whenever they wanted, and without a machine to restrict their movement. The Daughter of Wintergreen brought with it a noisy thaumic impellor, and a floor that shuddered and listed gently with every passing gasp of wind.“Didn’t think I’d find you up here!” Dawn said. I didn’t turn around,…
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45.4 K •
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What was your first experience with Accipio like? Equestrian records say you were sent in as a negotiator long before any formal agreements were signed.That’s true. I had a blank canvas to work with when I started.I was afraid—everypony was afraid of griffons back then. But I wasn’t really worried about my own life. Mons Ignis was going to erupt, and maybe kill everypony. That was the bigger threat. Coming to Accipio could’ve saved everypony.It looks like it did.She doesn’t respond to this, only…
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45.4 K •
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We arrived with no more disasters. We weren’t ambushed by the undead, or secretly betrayed by the Virtue crew for some esoteric reward. Instead we pulled into Caesarea after not quite two days in the air. A distance that had taken the Hammer of Gaius only hours. But it didn’t matter, we’d made it. Whether I would survive what came next, that was the tricky thing. We scrubbed in the cold shower until neither of us smelled like anything but soap and shivering, but would that be enough?“I’ll go to…
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45.4 K •
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We didn’t have very far to walk to reach Carrion, so called City of the Dead. Only for these birds, the term wasn’t meant to be literal. When I closed my eyes, I could still see the eyes of Cyrus, who had taken us for days through the dark. He said something about the commander of that outpost, who went too far with the Old Magic even before the world ended. He was talking about himself.But as we reached the real city, the birds who greeted us were all clearly alive, though that didn’t make them…
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45.4 K •
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We couldn’t exactly go anywhere to escape the presence of our rescuer—his strange device was the only reason we were still alive, slicing through the ash and somehow leaving an intact trail behind. I couldn’t begin to imagine how it could actually work, or how it could produce traversable paths without having them collapse on us. But that also mattered far less to me.I had a captive subject for an interview, so long as he didn’t leave us behind. So under the increasing weight of ash over our heads,…
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45.4 K •
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“Do we really just… follow some stranger?” I asked, staring down through the empty tunnel where the bird had vanished seconds before. It seemed incredibly stupid to me—we didn’t even know this creature’s name, we knew nothing except that he didn’t seem to want us in one of the buildings, and yet here we were considering following him. True, he didn’t have skulls or anything hanging from his saddlebags, but I hadn’t so much as seen his face. I looked up at the sky, but couldn’t make out…
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45.4 K •
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Whatever we were standing on was impressively strong to survive the overflowing waves of ash and dust that had fallen on it from above. It became clear why as Radiant Dawn reached one of the edges of the building and started clearing away ash with a foreleg. There was stone under there, apparently strong enough to survive a volcanic eruption.“Help me find the way down,” Dawn called, glancing over her shoulder. She was still cute, even as her bright colors turned to ashy gray. “We need to find…
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45.4 K •
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