Chapters
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Jackie could feel the eyes of dream on her as she passed through the sleeping world, as tight as the promised bond she had paid to make this road. Where before she had been free to drift between worlds, now she was tethered by the debt. She could feel herself straining against it, entirely in vain. Jackie would have to be careful how many promises she made, or else find herself as much a slave to her oaths as she would’ve been to the supernal.She brought up the rear down the astral road, keeping her eyes…-
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Jackie dropped the large bag onto the ground in front of her with an enormous thump of heavy cargo. Bats gathered around in the tiny warehouse all turned to stare at her, looking at the bag with expressions that ranged from idle curiosity to fascination.“How did you even find this place?” asked a taller male bat with a ragged ear and a scar running across his face. “We didn’t invite you here.”“Nopony told you?” Jackie tilted her head to one side, glancing between each of the bats in turn.…
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99.8 K •
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Jackie could never figure out why Alicorns liked towers so much. They were already taller than other ponies, and more powerful, did they have to lord over them?Granted, in Mundus, she supposed that everyone lived in towers, they were just towers with their own ecosystems and climate. Naturally the Alicorns lived in the tallest of these, or at least their official residences were there. What most of them did with their time, Jackie didn’t know or care. Every immortal had their hobbies, or else they…
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99.8 K •
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“There’s nothing illegal about leaving the city,” David said. “Based on the way people are acting, they’d probably be happy to have us gone. But nobody living in the city knows what it’s like out there, except for the retrieval teams. And they don’t live out there, they just visit. But you… you know. And you’ve got the magic of a whole army. And you probably have the money to outfit us.”She didn’t, not if he was right about the “half the bats” figure. But she knew where to get…
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99.8 K •
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The world basically ended when Charybdis finally rose from the sea.Ancient writers of the human world had long speculated about such abominations, and the reign of madness and ecstasy they might bring. Those ancient writers had foreseen the destruction that they would bring to every nation, as their servants rose and brushed aside the organic life like dust in a breeze. There were no Elder Signs, no supernatural means by which the desperate defenders might easily overcome. Their enemy outnumbered them, had…
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99.8 K •
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I took little pride in being right. The guards searched us right there on the street, though they didn’t find much. I had a knife kept somewhere obvious, and a few tools I’d hidden away a little better. Calico hadn’t brought anything they cared about, though they stole her little pouch of bits and seemed to enjoy just how hurt it made her look. I hope that isn’t everything you had left.We went straight into the sewer entrance I’d found, then down a series of tunnels until it connected with the…-
16.9 K •
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Falling was nothing new to me. Flying wasn’t exactly my special talent. But I’d never tried falling down a trapdoor at the bottom of a fancy dungeon before.I don’t recommend it.I smacked into the walls more than once, conscious of a distant gray glow and a squealing unicorn in the dark space with me. It sounded like Calico was running through the entire repertoire of profanity, and she was surprisingly colorful.Non-flying ponies were all the same—a bit of a drop, and they were tumbling wildly,…
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Not for the first time since taking up investigations, I found my interests following me to work.Of course I spent the first few hours of the shift wandering through life half-awake, filing things and retrieving requests from prominent ponies more by rote than anything else. But I had a talent for operating on not much sleep, and eventually I’d recovered enough that I had started putting pieces together in my head.The Soma Opal was an artifact—of the valuable and rare sort that the Canterlot Archives…
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16.9 K •
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Canterlot: jewel of Equestria, city on a hill. They said the castle could look out and see half the kingdom on a clear night. City of bronze rooftops, granite promenades, and cascading waterfalls.Well, that was how the tourists saw it. The upper city could seem that way, if you could afford to live there. But most ponies can’t. Instead of gated gardens and sparkling towers, most of us live in the lower city, where the shadows of fancy castles and mansions are always in view.I took a moment to stare at…
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“Come on girls!” Twilight’s voice called from up ahead, insistent. “The train leaves in a few minutes! There won’t be another one until tomorrow!”Scootaloo slowed a little more, dragging her hooves through the sand. Her wings buzzed against her back, but as usual she remained firmly on the ground.“We’ll come and visit,” Sweetie Belle said, pausing long enough to give Terramar a goodbye hug. “I’d like to hear your mountains again. Maybe bring my sister along… it’d be…-
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