Chapters
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Chapter 16Jackie stumbled out the other end of the portal, feeling a little less like she’d just had her insides scrambled than she had the last time. She passed a mounted gun before she realized that she was walking on two legs again. She couldn’t help herself—the sound that escaped her lips certainly wasn’t a word, or even close to one, and it made her blush the instant she realized what she’d done.She leapt up into the air, hanging there for several full seconds. Wait, what? No sooner had she…-
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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…-
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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,”…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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