Chapters
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Gilda could smell Kios before she saw it. By no means was it a bad smell, though the scent was so strange and intense she actually slowed down in her flight, taking a deep breath. It was cooking meat—a luxury she had often dreamed about, but rarely been able to experience.Any doubt that these birds were really the ancient ancestors of her own people vanished before she even penetrated the clouds.She tucked her wings close to her sides, angling downward for a dive. It was a pony maneuver, but one that…-
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“Oh, you don’t call them that,” Velar said, raising his voice a little. “You’re so good at the act. But when it comes right down to it, don’t the pegasus ponies end up a lot like citizens in Equestria? They sit on their clouds, with the easiest jobs making weather and things… then there are the free people, you unicorns. You’re the scholars, priests, skilled laborers. Then the worst jobs… farming, ditch digging, drawing water… that’s for the earth ponies. Your slaves. It’s basically…
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Velar stared down the length of the palace storeroom, at the hundreds of rows of identical barrels and boxes. They were each made of the same rough wood, though some were very old and dented from many years of repeated use.His family’s diamond dog slaves were proving to be the most useful laborers they owned. Burrows were claustrophobic and uncomfortable for birds, but they also stayed the same temperature no matter how harsh the sun and were easier to defend than houses made of mud bricks.He walked down…
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Velar remembered the first time he had ever visited the great city of Scythia. After a childhood raised on warships and army camps, he was initially unprepared for the stone majesty of such a city. He had taken months of time with his mother guiding him through the streets before he finally came to accept that strange world of stone nests and ample resources for himself.New Scythia was to be the equivalent of that ancient homeland in the strange territory of Equestria. Without the thousands of years of…
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Velar sat alone as near the prow of the pony ship as he could, staring off into the ocean. They were up too high to see much down there but black water, and anyway his amazing vision turned to washed out confusion as soon as the sun went down. But just now, that was an advantage.Unfortunately for him, the one thing he wanted to see least was still plainly before his eyes at every moment. The strange pony vessel with its impressive magic shield could not keep out the ash.It showered on everything, a fine…
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Daughter of Wintergreen’s deck was packed with ponies, as all fifty of the crew jostled for the best places to watch the eruption. Of course, few of them seemed to know exactly what they were supposed to be watching. A few seemed to think Scythia itself might be about to explode, as though the griffons had built their city directly atop the volcano without noticing.The quarterdeck where Starlight Glimmer stood was not so busy, since it had been reserved particularly for their illustrious passengers.…
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Dear Starlight Glimmer,The airships baring your writ of approval arrived in the newly created Accipion refugee territory. There was a minor dispute over borders, which has since been resolved. My friends have been on the ground helping to coordinate, but so far it looks like you were right. I know I speak for all of Equestria when I tell you how thrilled we are to be wrong about a coming invasion. To be honest, it isn’t a conflict I think we could win.We had to choose to train soldiers or train more…
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Starlight Glimmer stared off the deck of the Daughter of Wintergreen, her whole body shaking visibly. Being so close to a princess of Equestria, and what she’d done before, meant she had been exposed to her fair share of terrible things. In her past, she had inflicted some of that suffering. Her experiments with time travel and her vengeance against Twilight Sparkle still gave her nightmares.But for all that, she had never seen such naked barbarity. The griffon prince had been so kind, so courteous. He…
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“I don’t suppose you were listening to my father’s opponent?” Velar asked, his voice every bit as sarcastic as his mother’s had been. “Lord Gabriel represented everything hostile to your nation. He would have seen Accipio prepare boats full of soldiers instead of refugees. He would probably have seen us invade the volcano too, once the eruption is over!”“What is your name?” Gaius asked, before the pony could respond to Velar’s question.“Starlight Glimmer,” she snapped at him.…
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Gabriel charged, tearing up chunks of rock with his armored talons as he went. The crowd roared, many races filling the air with shouts that transformed into a near-uniform rage. Gaius could feel the bloodlust rising, his ancient blood demanding satisfaction. But he fought that down, as he had done so many times before. Gabriel would not have the discipline, and in doing so he was constantly ruled by his anger.Gaius had to be something different, something better. If he couldn’t, then birds everywhere…
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