Chapters
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For a timeless eternity, Derek Ashsen drifted. She knew, on some level at least, that she was in a scrying spell. She floated without sensation, a passenger in an endless river, tossed in every current and eddie. She couldn't scream, couldn't paddle, only get hopelessly carried along towards parts unknown.But they weren't unknown to her memory. She saw trees, somehow dull and washed out despite the healthy green of the pines and bright yellows of the wildflowers. This was the Nocturne Forest preserve,…-
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The deep was a strange place, even Derek could admit that. Deep underground, she could feel the gentle pressure of attention on her at all times, as though creatures just out of sight were watching her.In Equestria, perhaps they might be. Even after years of time to grow up here, learning as much as she could about the natural magic of the place and its residents, Derek did not feel as though she had any real confidence. It felt as though every new lesson with Iris might add new information that completely…
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170.4 K •
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"She's gone, right?"Derek shifted in her seat, lowering the curtains back over the window. Risk watched her from across the carriage, though she couldn't quite read his expression. Not anger, exactly. Annoyance. The way he usually looked whenever Charlie was around."Yes. Hopefully she doesn't report back. If the Lightless Star is still using the mine, it's going to make this process a lot harder than it needs to be."She settled back into her carriage-seat, getting comfortable again. Derek had a proper…
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Charlie would never admit there was any part of her education she actually enjoyed. Even when she still had two legs in the world without fur or feathers, she would've been hesitant. There was a reason she'd never pursued higher education, after all.But ponies understood what few in that world seemed to. She didn't care about the abstract. But whenever there was an obvious practical use for what she was learning, she had ample reason to pay attention.The school had lots of problems—it was steeped in…
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As it turned out, Whispering Willow Academy did have variations on its uniform policies, once there was a reason for it. For Firefly, that reason was membership in the "Willowbrook Junior Weather Management Brigade." They also didn't give her a choice—the town had so few pegasus ponies “of satisfactory breeding” that she wasn't so much invited to join after her second year as given a new uniform and a new class schedule to match.Whispering Willow, or maybe Equestria as a whole, maintained no…
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Every trip into the Cumulus Maze was a new mystery, taking her somewhere that ponies hadn't seen for years, or maybe even centuries. Sometimes that meant unknown dangers, left behind in an age when the ponies still fought wars against each other. Sometimes that just meant getting crushed under collapsing cloud structures, trapped until her dad could come around to dig her out.Rarest of all, sometimes it meant finding treasures from the past, things her father could sell to interested buyers in museums and…
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Charlie did everything she could to be supportive, as much as any friend could. But Derek didn't get them home anytime in the next few weeks. The more time passed, the further divorced they grew from the reality they'd left behind—a few months, and all their possessions would be sold. A year, and their loved ones had already mourned their passing.That didn't mean Charlie stopped reminding her. She still wanted to get her old body back, and return to her old life. People had gone missing before, and…
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Charlie wasn't sure what it might take to make the magic that would take them home. Equestria didn't follow the rules she had grown up with. When someone said something was “magic” here, they didn't mean it was an impossible myth, they usually meant it was particularly powerful or dangerous. "I should've known this would happen." She sat unhappily inside a prison of mushrooms and soft grasses, staring out at her friend. She couldn't really see what Derek was doing anymore—the little earth pony had…
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Derek squeaked quietly, settling down onto her haunches. She wasn't the brave wilderness-explorer that Charlie used to be, this was all new to her. Everybody knew what you were supposed to do when you got lost: she should stop and wait for rescue. The ground was uneven under her hooves—hopefully she was on the path. If she wandered off..."Firefly!" she yelled. Her voice didn't carry the way it should've, like it was being actively muffled by so many leaves. She shouted again, louder. "Firefly? Risk?…
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Snacks procured, and soon they were on their way. Derek expected a servant to come rushing for them at any second, hurrying to drag them back to captivity in the vast manor house. The servant never came, and so every step made her feel freer.They crossed through the holdings of House Vale, past fields of things she couldn't identify. Maybe those stalks were corn? But so far as she could tell, it was still spring, so maybe that was wrong. There were orchards too. The trees were burdened with fruit, yet they…
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