Chapters
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Flynn could hear many sirens in the distance. They were coming frequently now. He could hear at least one helicopter, as well as the distant sound of people moving through the trees. A search party had finally been mobilized.“Transfer complete,” Agent announced, indicating Caroline. Flynn was now sitting in a car with a pair of corpses. That’s probably the wrong word if emigration really works. Shells. They’re shells. His friends weren’t dead, they were somewhere else. Somewhere away from all…-
24.5 K •
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Smooth Agent had been quite confident in his ability to get them to the Center within minutes. The reality, however, was proving to be a bit different, when less than a minute into the trip a police car had appeared seemingly from nowhere and started flagging them down. Agent didn’t pull over, but rather got up from the controls completely, swearing under his breath.The van kept driving—if anything, more skillfully than before, dodging up onto empty sidewalks or cutting across empty parking lots,…
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24.5 K •
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The next day began exactly as so many others before it. Flynn ate his breakfast, spent over an hour hauling himself into the sitting tub for an awkward, uncoordinated shower, and refused to let the nurses help as he dressed himself. He gave no outward sign at all that today was not going to be like other days.He knew he would not be seeing this bedroom again—though what they’d do with him if he decided not to emigrate at the end of today’s adventure, he didn’t know. Still, there wasn’t anything…
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24.5 K •
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The next thing Flynn knew, it was dark outside, and they were alone. The nurses hadn’t come for them—though they would if they waited much longer. His limbs were already going stiff from the chill. He looked up, clearing his throat loudly. “I, uh… think we should get inside,” he said, not into the Ponypad.For once, even Caroline didn’t look annoyed with him. She nodded, glancing down at the screen. “We should get going,” her pony said. “Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.”It…
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24.5 K •
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“I don’t like it,” Gina said, for the tenth time now. She whispered quietly enough that she would not be easily overheard, yet still it seemed like dozens of eyes looked their way whenever she spoke. Either that, or it was the sight of something so strange as a griffon with such a troubled past in a part of the world where there was only sunshine and rainbows.“I don’t either,” Flynn said, and found he barely had to mouth the words for his character to speak them, just as quietly. The Ponypad…
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24.5 K •
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And thus, it was for time Flynn barely counted. But then, that was nothing new for anyone in St. Justin’s. Nobody counted days, since for almost all of them those days were numbered. Flynn went on many adventures, each of them more real than anything he’d played in video games before. This time, he didn’t feel like he was wasting his time. Rather, he was doing something important.He rose through the ranks of the Broken Chain, until he was respected enough not to need an escort everywhere he went.…
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24.5 K •
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Flynn’s friends hadn’t been lying to him when they said the new Ponypads were the best they’d ever made. Maybe not as nice as the augmented reality headsets, but… impressive nonetheless. He marveled at the immersive sound-projection, which seemed to fill the entire room when he was playing alone, but got quiet whenever he looked away or someone else came in. Even more impressive was the passive 3D, like Nintendo’s old handhelds but far more effective. The effect was so natural he hadn’t even…
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24.5 K •
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Every one of Flynn’s worst fears was confirmed. It wasn’t just that things at the hospice changed—things at the hospice were always changing. It was, rather, that everything changed. His friends still visited him, helped push his wheelchair around the grounds on days he could leave his bed. They still played the same handful of board games together every night.Still the arrival of Ponypads had brought change, and even with his hatred of Equestria and those who lived there, Flynn couldn’t ignore it.…
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24.5 K •
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Flynn stared at the rectangular package on the bed in front of him. It was wrapped in brown paper; the same kind people had once used to contain old packages. Not only that, but it had been tied up with twine—almost like it had been decorated. Flynn’s hands were weak, and he barely had the strength to pull the envelope out from inside. Down the hall, he could hear the happy squealing of his fellow children—an uncommon sound indeed in St. Justin's Hospice. Something exciting must be in these packages.…
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24.5 K •
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Hayden wasn’t in a castle anymore.She started to panic, worrying that she’d somehow wandered off, maybe been dragged of by some Celestia loyalist. She’d been living only at her hospitality for at least a week now, and there were probably plenty of her staff that would’ve jumped at the opportunity to make her vanish into a cell.But this didn’t feel like a cell. She was in bed, surrounded by stars.I’ve been here before. This is Princess Luna’s tower.She sat up at once, memory flooding back to…-
141.3 K •
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