Chapters
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The death of Lachesis did not mean the battle was over before it started. As Evoli had expected, most of the drones that made up this army did not belong to the freakish “queen of the future.” They were, rather, the army of the great queens. Plus, Lachesis had controllers, and males, and both of these could stop the drones from going feral. The single blow did nothing but enrage her enemy.But for once, Evoli herself did not leave the field. She needed to be here, for the same reason she needed to make…-
27.0 K •
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Evoli watched the army assemble outside her fortress with the eyes of a dozen different drones. On some level it pleased her to see that her rivals had not been so blind and helpless as her initial estimates suggested. Yet they also didn’t take advantage of Evoli’s weakness to come down with crushing force long before the deadline arrived. They had the armies of three great queens, yet she saw none of them. Her new capital in Visuddha’s old hive grew more fortified by the day, alone and…
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27.0 K •
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Evoli ruled over half the world.In a way, her campaign had felt almost too easy. After the death of Manipura, Visuddha’s territory had come next. The especially pure queen’s army had not done her much good, even if her spies had been better than Manipura’s. But seeing Evoli’s army coming was not the same thing as stopping it. After a few hours of siege, Evoli had taken her capital with most of its controllers and males.That Viśuddha had escaped with her retinue was only a slight annoyance to her.…
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27.0 K •
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There were seven queens of any consequence in the former United States. Not that most who lived there now had ever heard that name, and certainly none of them would be willing to admit it. Those queens knew each other by many names over the years, Evoli included. Over time, their suicide pact had ensured stability in many of their domains, such that the primacy of names no longer mattered.They had come to use titles instead, and to recognize each other’s territories by those names. To Evoli, or Ajna, as…
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27.0 K •
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She could see through the eyes of the first drone as it died. She could feel its pain, however shallow and insignificant such creatures were capable of feeling pain. It wasn’t intelligent—none of her new drones were, and so there was no terrible mourning to be had. Every drone asleep in her hive woke at once, hurrying to the armory as those patrolling the outside retreated through the burrows.She got her first glimpse of the attackers—more drones, though they obviously belonged to a different swarm.…
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27.0 K •
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Evoli knew hunger as no ordinary pony could know it. This was nothing new—for the whole length of her existence, she had known the emptiness in her chest, the gnawing void that only love could fill. She had listened to her mother and father’s stories of life before that time, of an existence that wasn’t dependent on magical energy, and never believed them.Well, maybe she’d believed a few years ago. As Alexandria grew, it needed more labor. Changelings could happily provide that labor, so long as…
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27.0 K •
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So the war went on, with Jackie forced to watch from the sidelines. She did her best to help as the great dragons attacked, running supplies along underground tunnels and giving what support she could to the terrified ponies there.But the Father of Dragons was an enemy beyond her power, or any other human for that matter. She watched from hidden cameras along with the rest of the Crystal Empire, as the combined power of the Alicorns banished a creature ripped right out of hell’s worst dreams.Then the war…-
134.3 K •
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The next few days were a blur to Sunset Shimmer. Most of what had to be done involved her very little. First came the supplies to the front, refreshing the troops that were fighting off invasion from the south. A few days without food had crippled morale, but they had kept fighting.The city itself had to be made secure, but Sunset had little to do with that. She wasn’t a warrior, so she didn’t join the squads of ponies tracking down the last of the changeling-like creatures and fighting them off. It…
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134.3 K •
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“I’m not sure how long this works!” Jackie called, without even stopping to look over her shoulder. “But we need to move, right now!”There was now a solid wall of bodies in front of them, with thick brown smoke congealed around it like mortar. But even looking at it from a distance, Jackie could see that the Federation marine had been right. It wasn’t going to last long—the wind was blowing and soon it would be gone. They couldn’t just wait here for the entire city to march into it.Jackie…
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134.3 K •
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“Well if that ain’t the craziest thing I’ve seen today,” Xavier muttered, finally shattering the timeless illusion that was their heartsong contact. “You still speak their language pretty well for not having a translation program in your brain, Sir Bradley. What I wouldn’t give for a core dump right now.”Suddenly the harsh reality of their situation came crashing back down on her. Sunset couldn’t feel the glowing crystal walls anymore, or the sense of sourceless hope that had convinced her…
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134.3 K •
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