Chapters
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Felicity had to act—every day she remained in Effervescent Meridian was another day that the survivors of her original ship went unfound. Or worse, maybe the mysterious vessel lingering in orbit had somehow defeated the Varch’nai, and was preparing for an attack on Harmony itself. There might be critical tactical information to extract, with the fate of her entire civilization depending on it.But it was hard to remember all while living with the strange aliens of Effervescent Meridian. The realities of…-
84.8 K •
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Delta didn’t react at first, as Effervescent Meridian faded further and further into the distance. Though part of that might just have been Felicity’s inability to judge their implications. The plant-beings were so alien to everything she knew that she still couldn’t tell for sure if their visual communication was even intentional or not.As she left Effervescent Meridian behind, she felt something pulling her onward, though not quite in the direction she was moving. “That’s the signal we’re…
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84.8 K •
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The first leg of Felicity’s voyage happened in almost total silence. That wasn’t terribly unusual for the plant-aliens when they were working, and it was a habit even she herself had often fallen into. A task brought focus, and anything that took her focus away from her task was something her mind seemed to resist.They drove for hours through a dark, sunless sea. Predators passed by outside, many glowing with eerie yellow flickers of not-sun. That light was meant to attract the attention of plants,…
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84.8 K •
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There could be no confidence or peace on the strange ship, not when any moment might bring the collapse of all safety and the destruction of their skimmer. If simple technical failure wasn't enough to fear, there was also the presence of the predatory fish just behind them waiting for a chance to devour the contents of their little sub. Then there was the unknown alien threat overhead, which might figure out what she was and who she represented at any moment. Maybe she would die in an orbital strike long…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity took the skimmer as close as they could go—until patches of ice coalesced on the surface of the ocean made forward progress impossible. If I'd just taken one of the good skimmers instead of a broken piece of junk, we’d glide right up to the tunnel without needing to put ourselves in danger. Would Effervescent Meridian even care that she jumped through all these hoops to do as little harm as possible?"Do we have to stop here?" Delta asked, watching one of the rear windows with most of her body.…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity wasn't in any particular hurry to make it to the entrance.It wasn't just that they swam through a graveyard of the creatures she had killed to defend herself, though their alien corpses certainly didn't help anything. It wasn’t even the cold and the ice. There was something else on the surface, something clear and strange that didn't quite mix with the ocean.Water, she realized. I'm looking at actual water. There wasn't much of it—anything that separated would freeze almost instantly at these…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity swam away from the entrance, leaving the fast-moving shadows behind on the other side of the glass. There was no way to look in that direction without feeling at least a little self-conscious—what was Escape Gear thinking, looking at her strange body through the glass? Would they ever speak again?Delta wasn't patient enough to wait, though, and swam along just beside her. One tentacle trailed against the metal at all times, though Felicity couldn't tell if she was investigating or afraid of…
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84.8 K •
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Felicity circled around the control-panel. She couldn't say exactly how many times she had swam around it. Not just to bask in the warmth that radiated from it, though there was certainly some element of that. After being in the dark for so long, even the emergency lights served to help wake her up.They were nowhere near as strong as the illumination that filled even the most broken-down skimmer she'd ridden in. Those were designed to nourish one of her kind, minimizing light-bleed along other spectra.…
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84.8 K •
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If traveling in the skimmer had been cramped, hiding in a container full of water made that experience seem like a luxury vacation.It wasn't just that there was barely enough space for the two of them. Plants didn't really care about personal space, in the same way that ponies didn't have the modesty taboo that caused humans so much discomfort. It was the heat that really got to her, and the darkness. When she first woke, she found the liquid in the huge container had dwindled significantly, and that the…
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84.8 K •
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No transformation spell was easy.Felicity had experienced more than her fair share of the obscure magic, particularly during this ill-fated expedition. But no number of repetitions could prepare her for the utterly bizarre sensation of being ripped from a body she understood and crammed into something she didn't.Even when the new one was something she actually wanted. After spending so long in the body of something entirely alien, part of her resisted being restored. Spiritual inertia, perhaps. Or…
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84.8 K •
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