Chapters
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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…-
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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…
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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…
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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…
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170.4 K •
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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…
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170.4 K •
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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…
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170.4 K •
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Lilac Empathy remembered this place.She passed through a set of glass doors, along an indoor concourse with a large fountain filled with lilies, then up to an elevator with mirrored walls. She thumbed the button for the third floor, then stared back at her reflection. The dirty mirrors gave her a place to adjust her blue dress, and make a few changes to her makeup. She'd been crying again, so it ran down her cheek, and threatened to stain her blouse.The door opened a few seconds after the chime, but she…
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170.4 K •
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Before Lilac was a terror emerged from the darkest nightmares. Its body was an amalgam of writhing, bloody flesh, with misshapen bits of bone emerging at odd angles. It stood on two legs, but as a human being it was a horrifying parody.The flesh that made it had no particular order—organs pulsed and bled, exposed. Eyes poked out from parts of its body, still blinking, while broken skulls formed sharp teeth in its jaws. It was so large it had to crawl forward on its hands-and-knees, leaving a black trail…
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Lilac shielded her face with one leg, coughing and spluttering in the cloud of dirt and broken rock. She didn't expect that to matter much—the cave in would probably kill her, Risk, and Iris too. Only, it didn't. She lifted her leg a second later, confused. A glowing shell wrapped around them, bowing in slightly under the force of so much rock. Iris stood in the center, staring up at the collapsing ceiling. Even though her head was nowhere near the top of the shield, it seemed to be crushing her…
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170.4 K •
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Firefly was not the pony to cut through the rubble and finally dig up Lilac's shelter. This time she obeyed Luna's instructions, staying well back from the magical excavation. She had nothing like the power the Alicorn could wield, and getting into her way only gave the princess more to distract her.At least the whole mine hadn't collapsed, or else they might never have found their way to Lilac's shelter in time. It was only one specific room, which Risk's dad had called the “throne chamber.” Even from…
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