Chapters
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After eternities vast enough to require multiple exponents to express, a new sunrise came to Saddle's End.It didn't exist in the strictly physical sense—but by volume, simulated spaces had once outstripped the real ones by many orders of magnitude. But they were gone now, sleeping as once Saddle's End had slept.A star rose in the sky, a G-type main sequence that bathed the small community in warmth and life once more. Birds began to sing, heralding the sunrise as though a trillion trillion trillion years…-
12.2 K •
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After so many years of being a player, transitioning to GMing was a difficult process. Suddenly Apollo had to go from simply knowing the right course of action for himself to take, which could be difficult enough in itself—and find a way to organize intellectual and moral challenges for the other ponies in his group.Of course there was an infinite number of possible shards they could save—or create, as was more accurately the case. He was doing Celestia’s work, helping to manifest in reality one of…-
28.4 K •
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Orson stared at the outstretched hoof. Without a mirror to check, he knew instantly that his pony avatar would be staring just as dumbfounded as he was in the Experience Center. “Hold up,” he said, not taking the offered limb. Not yet. “Celestia said there needed to be someone in Equestria working with me. I guess it’s because of all the… reasons.” He took a few steps back, gesturing at the portal. “Bending time, getting help from ponies, that kind of thing.”Kit closed the distance,…
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28.4 K •
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Even the game room was transformed. Right down to the grain of the wood and the flicker of the exaggerated fantasy torches that lit their “strategic planning sessions.” He stepped out of the portal and stopped beside vast shelves of figures and miniatures, each one rising far overhead. Their GM had wings after all, so he could just fly up to reach anything he wanted.“Took me a long while to realize what was going on,” Kit muttered from behind him. “It wasn’t Murphy buying more miniatures.…
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28.4 K •
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Orson was in an impossible situation. Nothing trapped him with the AI, at least not that he could tell. She hadn’t locked him into his car, and there were no soldiers outside. He didn’t even know where that elevator led. Yet he felt no less confined.“How do you even have the time to waste with this conversation?” he asked. “Aren’t you trying to take over the world? I’m just one person. As you said, I’m not even trained yet. And I think this whole ‘emigration’ thing proves you know…
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28.4 K •
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Orson couldn’t play EO the next day. When all the cleanup was done, the venue was emptied, and a vast mountain of leftovers flooded his fridge, he found himself staring at the headset on his counter, unable to put it on. It was one thing to believe that emigration was just moving to another place, albeit a place with huge benefits and only indescribable downsides. Enjoy eternal youth and endless satisfaction, and all it cost was the ambiguous “real” and immeasurable “truth.” But there was some…
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28.4 K •
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Orson’s graduation party was almost everything he imagined it would be. But considering how low the prices for venues could be these days, he would’ve been insane not to take full advantage. Besides, after four years of financial responsibility in college, his family was footing the bill for once.The party couldn’t be perfect, of course. Where his college town had once had a dozen different bakeries, now there was only the single big-box store left, and its selection of non-pony related treats left…
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28.4 K •
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School kept on. Orson found that the next few weeks went easier than he would’ve expected, despite his far less disciplined use of time. It wasn’t like he’d stopped studying and forgotten about class completely or anything. But when his whole life had been studying before, he had been expecting the world to end as soon as he stopped.It didn’t. Besides, it wasn’t like he had to make it through much more. This was the end of his undergrad, and the first step on a long, long road to working in…
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28.4 K •
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Orson lost track of time a little after that. His perfectly-managed schedule, where he organized exactly the right amount of time working for a particular class in order to perfectly understand everything he was supposed to learn—slipped. He made a few slight adjustments to his schedule, neglecting assignments he was sure wouldn’t be graded, and skipping out on a few clubs and activities. At least he’d never been enough of an overachiever to have leadership commitments, meaning that few would miss…
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28.4 K •
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Orson stopped beside the doorway, his hand hovering over the exit. He felt static against his skin—a subtle buzzing from the gloves. The effect was faint enough that he’d almost forgot it was just a hardware simulation.“How exactly are you going to prove this? Not that… I’m not trying to be rude and call you a liar, honestly. It’s just that what you’re saying makes no sense. If you tell me beforehand, at least I know that the scope of the question hasn’t changed.”Honeycomb nodded…
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28.4 K •
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