Chapters
-
Lilac Empathy was not quite alone as she entered the antechamber. There was a pavilion waiting here, erected just beside the metal door. She'd seen its like before—many layers of transparent cloth, and the smell of strange incense. Beneath it all was the faint smell of decay, of uncovered graves and rotting meat. The smell covered it only so well.As she stepped into the room, ponies appeared from beside the tent. There were at least a dozen, each wearing the strange Inquisitor masks and armor under their…-
170.4 K •
-
-
Lilac woke in darkness. She wasn’t sure exactly how long she had been there, only that her body ached, and she couldn’t see anything. She barely understood how she’d gotten there—an attack in the dark, Risk screaming, then something grabbing her. She had been awake enough to struggle for a few minutes, squirming in the bag.Until the pony carrying her explained that they were thousands of feet up, and they would drop her if she kept fighting. Lilac abandoned her design in that moment, conserving her…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Firefly froze, utterly still in the dark space. Shapes moved through the room, silent in the night. But one of her wings was up, uncovered in the comfort of the castle. She felt the air playing against her feathers. With no windows open and the air perfectly still, she could feel it all so clearly.There were two creatures in the room, adult sized and moving quickly. She saw them only as thick shadows against the faint light from behind. Firefly felt rooted to her bed, suddenly overcome with fright. Who…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Charlie watched her father fight for his life, powerless to do a thing to help.She'd seen accidents before—in a life long ago, she'd been walking when a drunk driver went straight into a tree. She'd been the one to call emergency services—and the one at the scene when they cut the poor man out, and tried in vain to save him.Perhaps there was something analogous here, in the way Septum had willingly made an oath with evil to make himself vulnerable in the first place. But Firefly wasn't in any place to…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
The next few hours passed in a blur for Firefly. In many ways, visiting here was a luxury unlike anything she had experienced before. How many ponies would get a chance to visit the royal palace? Of those, how many thought they would spend their lives as fugitives in Equestria, ready to be executed the instant that Celestia discovered them?A lifetime she spent in fear, a lifetime for nothing. Princess Celestia was a harsh ruler, one who probably would have killed them if she thought they were a danger to…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
An Alicorn princess stood above Lilac Empathy, her horn already burning with a powerful spell. Lilac couldn’t tell what it was—she lacked the senses to read runeless unicorn magic. But she had no reason to suspect it would not be lethal.Everypony in Willowbrook who knew what she was all said the same thing. If Celestia found them, it would lead to instant, painful death. Lilac reached out, wrapping her foreleg around her best friend, and holding on tight. At least she didn’t have to die alone.She…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Firefly followed Lilac through the doorway into the strange cavern. She kept to the cavern’s edge, staying far from that dark water. There was no telling what would happen to any creature who fell through it, but she knew she didn’t want to find out.“A low place,” she said, her voice echoing strangely in the cavern. “I remember you mentioned something like that before. We need it for... spells that looked back at—”Her friend had said the word not long before, to open the secret passage. Try…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Firefly followed Septum into the Royal Canterlot Archives. With every step, she found herself increasingly nervous. Were those guards watching them? Had that one whispered something to the other? Was a telegram already going out?There was something incredible about a dangerous mission like this when they had a changeling. There was no need to wander through the city, searching for somepony who might be willing to help get them in. There was no need to break into the building, risking arrest.Granted, what…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Flying into Canterlot was like something out of a dream. Firefly knew she was somewhere special long before she actually arrived. As they drew closer, the number of other ponies passing in either direction in the sky increased, until a small handful filled to dozens, then hundreds of creatures. They passed entire suburbs of cloud-houses, floating over other mountains. Others passed over the fields all around Canterlot, watering the crops in a continuous circuit.“Those are... like in the maze,…
-
170.4 K •
-
-
Iris Vale paced nervously back and forth in the fine glass elevator, as it ascended above the streets of Willowbrook. Of course she could have afforded to remain there herself—House Vale was not instantly impoverished by the destruction of a building. The Lightless Star would never allow her to remain away from them for that long. Iris had been on an increasingly short leash since the moment she defied his will, and insisted the imperfectly-resurrected gods be preserved. With the death of her husband,…
-
170.4 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 63 64 65 … 222 Next
