Chapters
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The knocking came on Sweetie's door, as clear in her new ears as ever. Part of her wished she could get away with hiding in her bed—but she knew better than to try. A meeting like this might never happen again. If she messed it up now..."Come in!" she called, sounding far more confident than she really felt. "I'm here."Seconds later, the door swung open, and Apple Bloom was standing there.The little earth pony was slightly taller than Sweetie expected. The last time she'd been with her friends, she…-
40.3 K •
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Sweetie Belle lay somewhere dark. She wasn't sure exactly how she'd gotten there. At first she knew nothing at all—then a distant, background panic joined her, pressing in on her from all sides. Whatever was going on, Scootaloo was in danger! She had to find her friend!Sweetie struggled, willing her horn to light—and it came on. The fear was far too sharp for her to notice or even care what kind of magic it was.She was in a dark room, with shiny floors, white walls, and a curtain just beside her. The…
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40.3 K •
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Lilac Empathy listened to the words of the strange hymn, moving her mouth along to each verse. Her school had so many students that one little pony in the back who wasn't singing could hardly be noticed.The other students each sang along as though it were music they’d heard for a lifetime, as familiar in their way as the old Christmas tunes that came back onto the radio year after year. They sang with much of that same energy that a child's choir ought to.But the words they sang—that was where she…-
8.5 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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16.9 K •
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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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16.9 K •
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Time ceased to have any meaning for Twilight. She couldn't escape from her prison, though more than once she tried her horn again. Not even a simple light spell would work for her, despite her greatest concentration. Deep down she knew exactly why it wasn't working, though it was too painful to admit to herself outright. She couldn't cast spells because she didn't have a horn, only a hollow body of painted wood, precious stones, and some metal. Music boxes couldn't perform spells—her very consciousness…-
4.3 K •
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If there was one mercy in being shoved into storage, it was the way time quickly ceased to matter to her. It wasn't dying exactly, at least not as Twilight had read or theorized about death, but at least it meant she didn't have to think as much. Didn't have to think about the friends she wasn't seeing, about the lives they were having without her. Starlight Glimmer had looked so much older last time, suggesting to Twilight that she'd been locked away in storage much longer than it had seemed. Her friends…
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4.3 K •
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Twilight spun.She'd been spinning for a long time now—hours? It felt like hours. There was a clock in her room, and she could hear the ticking as it echoed. Unfortunately it was facing away from her, so she had no way of knowing how long she'd been here. Was Starlight's insane plan to help Celestia and Luna working? She could only hope so—for the sake of all Equestria. She told herself this was why she hadn't yet cast the spell to return to her real body, asleep even now in her castle back in…
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4.3 K •
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