Chapters
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Mira woke to a world of shifting voices and frightened whispers. She groaned, rubbing one hoof against her forehead. Part of that just came from a long dreaming—muscles aching from lack of movement, and a body deprived of the necessary nutrition. Even with loyal ponies all around her, there was only so much they could do for her.But this time felt different. Fighting the princess of Equestria exacted a strain beyond simple tiredness—it left her wrung dry, like a fruit left too long in the sun.Yi is…-
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Hours later, little of that energy had subsided. Mira stood beside the tunnel where her commissioned stone was now buried, inspecting the quality of the concealing rock. The bats had done good work with this creation, covering the entire section with thickly-packed dirt blending together some of the larger rock sections.Passing along the temple corridor, she almost wouldn't guess that something had been there before.The ponies who had donated to help her craft that stone would be disappointed not to see it…
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87.2 K •
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"We're here."Those words settled on Mira like a great weight, momentarily threatening to crush her beneath their influence. All they had sacrificed to come here—the lives of marines, of the captain of this ancient vessel. The ship itself had decayed in the interim, its alien hull now cankered with rust and lower levels flooded.Now at last she knew why Captain Yi had been so reticent to agree to this mission—he had known as she did not what it would cost his men. He had done it anyway, even sacrificing…
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87.2 K •
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It was not some vague magical impression that warned Mira she had nearly reached her destination. It was, rather, a distant pony, muttering quietly to himself. The speaker was a stallion, and quite old by the timbre of his voice. Not a bat either, as their voices had a distinct quality she could identify easily. Given the situation, she imagined an old unicorn with a sharply groomed beard, perhaps wearing a fancy robe. His words were meaningless at first but became clearer as she crept closer.Strangely,…
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87.2 K •
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Inevitable. The prison's designer thought its borders were fixed from the moment it came into existence. Did that mean she only had to wait, and Nightmare Moon would be free to help the bats of Equestria anew?Unless the ponies were right, and Princess Luna represented a horrifying danger to all other life. Of all the ponies to ever tell her that, she'd never considered there might be any reality to it until this moment.Equestria's ruler would twist the truth to justify her own act of betrayal. Her loyal…
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Mira stumbled to her hooves, shaking herself back to wakefulness as energetically as she could.Maybe a little too energetically, because Pixie's claws dug into her back, before she went spiraling off her shoulders to the floor, yowling in protest."They can't be here already... I had... scouts. There were bats watching. We should have known a day before they got here."Her memory returned sluggishly at first, but clearer as she spent more time in the waking world. She gave the bats one night to prepare to…
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Mira woke in a strange land, surrounded by the lights of an impossible place. Stars swirled in the sky above, melting between discordant forms, then joining together. Constellations morphed and changed as she watched, familiar shapes from all over the sky. Kallisto had taught her all of them once—enough to read the seasons by them, or navigate a ship.Or just to appreciate the glory of Princess Luna's night. No one who did not know the night could love the night. No one who didn't love the night could…
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It took some time to convince the population of Legacy to gather for another council meeting.Without the fear of extinction, without the advancing army, the bats did not much want to think of danger. Explaining the esoteric risk to themselves if they remained in this world of dream was a losing battle. Most were too practically-minded to care. The island was far larger than their small population could possibly require, with the oceans for many miles rendered peaceful by Mira's reality anchor. Sometimes…
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It wasn't easy to save a princess and her people at the same time. But Mira, fortunately, was not alone. The bats of Legacy were not all equally united in their labor, but they were at least on the same side. There was no fear of an Equestrian army crushing them with the Astral Sea swirling and Equestria bereft of skilled dreamwalkers of its own. The unicorn imitation could get them only so close.The resources available to Mira's mission ebbed and flowed as the years passed. Greater sometimes, when the…
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One step forward and Mira was nowhere. No light, no darkness... endless, featureless oblivion, boundary. No beginning, no middle, and no end. All was alike within the void.Yet she remembered. Purpose—she was trying to get somewhere. If she couldn't, bats a lifetime away might never have their second chance.She assumed, anyway. It had been so very long since she saw any on the outside for herself. But she heard stories, and knew how desperate for survival they were.Purpose moved her through that…
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