Chapters
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Patreon Writing“You’re quite lucky to be talking to me.” Sunset pulled over a chair, sitting on it backwards and watching her. “I’m guessing you did not have much exposure to the propaganda.” At her nod, the woman continued. “We keep areas off-limits for a reason, Jackeline. Exposure to that much magic is difficult for an unprepared mind. Every human has… a spell protecting them. You were born with it, and exposure to magic weakens it. Too much magic at once and the whole thing unravels.…-
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Unwilling RecruitIt didn’t matter that she had vindicated her and her sister’s greatest fears. Every terrible thing they’d suspected about the ponies was true—but in many ways Jackie no longer cared. Her sister had fallen, her friend Sven. Who knew how many others that the ponies had brought to Unity and tricked.Reality itself soon became a nebulous thing, a specter of vague outlines and batlike wings. She screamed, she mumbled, but she didn’t move much. Time became amorphous and indistinct. She…
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Unwilling RecruitTheir plan began without a hitch. They prepared their cameras, waited for Harley to leave on assignment, and watched Unity’s exterior entrances carefully. The balcony they planned to use was used by many of Unity’s winged inhabitants, or at least the ones that claimed to come from Equestria.Sven was not excited about the part of their plan that involved being carried down to the window, but what other options did they have? They had plenty of time to practice the maneuver without a…
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Unwilling RecruitThe problem with being girlfriends with a field agent was that Harley was almost never around. What was worse, the changeling’s time while she was actually in Unity had to be divided between her boyfriend and girlfriend.Jackie hadn’t actually spoken to Apple Cinnamon, which was the way they both seemed to want to keep it. At least Harley helped teach some of the flight classes whenever she was around. Typically, with a pair of batlike wings, instead of the feathered ones or the…
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Unwilling RecruitKatie caught her on her way back to the room. Jackie had come back in through the laundry, so she hadn’t been completely naked—though the robe she’d stolen didn’t fit, and smelled like it hadn’t yet been washed.Katie was already awake when she came into their shared dorm, half dressed with the straightener warming in front of the mirror before her. Couldn’t you sleep in like a normal teenager?Still, it could’ve been worse. Nobody else in the girls’ dorm had noticed…
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Unwilling RecruitJackie broke away from the kiss, screaming hysterical fear. She kicked and squealed as she fell, reaching out for something, anything she could use to catch herself. “Harley, save me!” she screamed, but the words were ripped away from her lips as she fell. She felt a sudden sharp pain between her shoulderblades, as though she had smacked against the rocky base of Unity on her way down. There was even the moisture of blood dribbling down her back—then she reached the clouds.Already…
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Unwilling RecruitJackie sat beside her sister on the comfortable leather seats, watching the world below retreating into indistinct shapes. So long as she didn’t think about anything, she could imagine this was just the flight back home after the convention. Her whole world didn’t have to change, she wasn’t a criminal. She hadn’t almost lost her sister through her own stupid mistakes. Up here, she could just sit comfortably and let all of that drift away.Harley seemed to recognize her discomfort,…
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“You’re making a mistake,” Harley said, her voice quiet, pained. She stopped tugging on her sleeve, turning away. “Good luck! When they interrogate you, tell them whatever you want. If it will keep you alive.” She gestured urgently away, and Bruce gave them one last, backward glance.Then he turned to run as well. Katie looked between Jackie and the two of them, as though completely frozen by her indecision. The expression didn’t last long. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”“Always.”…
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Jackie blinked, realizing that Harley had stopped talking. The whole world suddenly seemed to come back into focus, as from a dream. She yawned, stretched, looked around. Not even one of the chairs all around her was occupied anymore. Worse, it had only been twenty minutes. Her limbs were stiff, as though she’d just sat through all of One Piece without getting up.“That’s wrong,” Katie said, glaring up at Harley as though she had just admitted to strangling her dog. “You shouldn’t have done…
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Jackie had been waiting for Portland Fancon for over six months now. On an emotional level, she understood that the rest of the world didn’t care about her efforts at best and would’ve mocked them at worst. Even so, Jackie Kessler had been waiting forever for a chance to show up.The con was packed with visitors in scores of different costumes. The pop-culture touchstones were there—Jedi, and Starfleet crew, and the latest popular videogame character. Jackie made her way through the dealer booths,…
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