Chapters
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It had been a long time since Olivia had been in Landfall base. She could tell from the way the Forerunner acted that it didn’t want her here—didn’t want anyone here, now that there was somewhere else for people to live.The less contact people had with Landfall, the less likely it would be destroyed as well, should something catastrophic happen to the rest of their crew. If they all died, the Forerunner could keep trying.For all she knew, they had been doing this same dance for a thousand years.…-
515.2 K •
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Lucky Break set down the chalk, spinning around to look proudly up at her teacher. "How's this, Knowing Look?" she asked, shifting a little on her hooves. On the board behind her, Lucky had recreated a poem from Equestrian history, which was written in the unicorn script with the words arranged in the shape of a tree. It had been an ambitious choice for her first final project, far more than anything her fellows were doing, but it was the only task that had felt remotely worthy of Lucky's linguistic…
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515.2 K •
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This was not the first time Lucky Break had felt this way. Her world stretched and reticulated, an endless slow-motion explosion of pain in every tissue of her body. She felt the pressure of a thousand eyes on her, as uncomprehending of her nature as she was of theirs. Thought things that made no sense to her after, and which she would not remember. Saw, for only an instant, something that scared her even more than that.Then she woke up. Fire in her lungs, limbs spasming and convulsing as she shot suddenly…
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515.2 K •
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They didn't ride the same train all the way to their destination. The “Crystal Empire” was apparently half a continent away, and to take too direct a route would make them too easy to follow. They hadn't exited at the end of the route Dust negotiated, but instead slipped off the train while they waited in other cities.James couldn't help but feel paranoid and a little shy as they walked through a few other small towns, even though each one was as different from Dodge Junction as Dodge Junction had been…
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515.2 K •
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Olivia was in the range, the newest section of the base constructed at her request. The stone here still had that shiny, segmented look, reflecting the recently-printed adhesive of the construction process. The Forerunner had apparently not considered firearms proficiency to be important enough to be worth maintaining—clearly it hadn't been paying much attention to the world they lived on. Equestria was a dangerous place, and it was her responsibility to keep her crew alive. Somehow. God only knows what…
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515.2 K •
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James huddled against a canvas sack more than twice her size, trying very hard to think of nothing at all.Her first visit to the ground had started so wonderfully! Take away all the terrible bits, and the visit had been great. She'd learned much more about the native technology and culture, learned things that living in the clouds had failed to teach her. She'd learned the natives had coal mining, blacksmithing, mass production of steel, and probably the telegraph as well. She'd learned that all the food…
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515.2 K •
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James twitched her wings one after another, shaking them against her side. But the irritation only got worse. She whimpered, and this time she was loud enough that Lightning Dust heard her. The pony hovered in the air over their house, pushing bits of cloud in her mouth. This was apparently a weekly process for ponies who lived in cloud-houses, replacing bits that had drifted away and generally giving the structure attention. But how could she question her when the results were obviously successful.…
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515.2 K •
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Even through the walls, James could recognize the familiar sound of quadcopter rotors spinning somewhere nearby. She rose from where she'd been studying, ignoring her racing heart as she darted to the window, and scanned the sky with acute eyes. The quality of pony eyesight in daylight was one of the many wonders James had discovered since leaving her confines of the basement, and it was an ability that came even more naturally than flight. There was no need to run outside and get the attention of the…
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515.2 K •
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Lightning Dust had planned to visit the hospital every few days, to make sure the ponies in charge didn’t find more ways to screw over the filly she’d rescued. At first she managed to keep this up, bringing small gifts of sweets to add a little variety to the filly’s hospital food diet. But less than a week in, wildfires far up north necessitated every available weatherpony (including her) to fly up with as much moisture as they could to stem the flames and protect Equestria’s countryside.It took…
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515.2 K •
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Extricating her gear from the interior of a container that would pass through and dissolve most surfaces in her house had proven to be an intensely difficult task.At least until she remembered her old jumpsuit. Much of what Lightning had explained about the process did not make sense to James. She understood one thing: the ponies had a treatment process they applied to ordinary objects that allowed them to interact with clouds the same way their own bodies did. That treatment had already been applied to…
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515.2 K •
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