Chapters
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Lyra watched as Vulcan built a fleet. Their section housed them in supreme luxury, conditions not even the wealthiest Canterlot elite or Manehattan trendsetter could imagine. It knew their whims, their wants, and their needs. All were provided with minimal delay. She watched from an impossible beach around a deserted station as light pierced a star from many angles, and metal flowed up along those lines, energizing vast networks and machinery to new life. Most were too far away to actually see, but with…-
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Lyra settled into her captain's chair, poised at the exact center of the battle formation. Through the screen of her ship, Lyra could scarcely judge the scope of what she saw—the other ships were each incredible in scale, each their own mountain of frozen metal and bristling weapons.With a few months of study, her crew no longer wandered from seat to seat, without ever contributing anything at any specific place. Now everyone had their station—Muffins at sensors, Time Turner at communications, and…
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"This is Emperor Grant Septimus Aurelius, the Magnificent Sovereign of the Divine Griffon Republic, Protector of the Thousand Systems, Guardian of the Eternal Light, Supreme Commander of the Celestial Legions, Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom, High Overseer of the Frontier Realms, and Last Scion of the Aurelian Dynasty. I demand to know who I am speaking to," said the bird, perched atop his golden throne. How Computer could extrapolate such subtle movements, Lyra couldn't say—maybe it was inventing all of…
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The Equestria had no shuttles and fighters like the carriers did. It was instead its own lander, with a horn section meant to detach from the newly rebuilt carrier section, packed with living space and support systems. So it was that the Horn of Celestia finally made its return to Equestria, separating from the carrier group and descending on the peak near to Canterlot. Part of Lyra wanted to bring it down right in the city—but that desire collided sharply with common sense. Air traffic over Canterlot…
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She wanted to tell them everything. From the vast distances they'd crossed to the incredible discoveries they'd made along the way. The transformations they had been through, the homeworld they had visited, and the strange mechanical minds they had befriended. Computer didn't stop her—she was as free to share information as to give her ship commands. Her concerns were entirely practical in nature.Emperor Grant Septimus Aurelius was on his way, and even Lyra knew little about what that might mean. She…
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Lyra waited outside the council chambers while the affairs of empires were decided. She heard some of it through the doors—raised voices, arguments over things she didn't quite understand, and impassioned pleas from ponies and griffons alike. A few times Twilight or Luna emerged for a brief conversation, or to ask her the meaning of some term. She had to explain why the “Sylphgate” was so important, and why the ancestors’ technology could not be used by griffons.While she sat, members of the other…
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The machine was speaking to her. Not the way the elevator had spoken, with its voice obviously recorded. It might’ve sounded clearer, but the spell could’ve just as easily been a gramophone. But this, this was something else. It spoke, and Lyra could hear the subtle differences in tone and pronunciation. It spoke Old Ponish as though it had done so all its life. “Where are you speaking from?” Lyra asked, propping her forelegs up on the railing and staring into the glass cube. This had to be some…
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Lyra was frozen in her seat, utterly motionless in a timeless space. She could see nothing with her eyes, not feel the chair she was sitting in—but it wasn’t sensory deprivation.The process proceeded in a series of rhythmic pauses and starts, freezing her in darkness for time she couldn’t measure before returning her to the bridge surrounded by stars and her confused friends.Could they even feel it? Bon Bon was standing beside her, and she was speaking. But her words seemed to come an infinity apart.…
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Computer didn’t take them right down to the surface. The elevator didn’t even take them to the Horn’s entrance, but to a strange room of thick walls and no windows that Lyra hadn’t seen during their wandering. Even so, she knew instantly what she was looking at, she’d seen palaces like this in dozens of ancient ruins all over Equestria.Even if she didn’t know the kinds of armor suits displayed here, or the weapons in their racks on the walls, she knew an armory when she saw one.Even Sweetie…
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It wasn’t long before they discovered just what the effects of the “bioforming aerosol” really were.Lyra guessed the victims had probably been griffons once, or something so close to them that there was no meaningful difference. They had once had wings, and beaks, and claws. They’d once been wearing armor and carrying strange long objects with imposing spikes that had to be weapons.But they wouldn’t be using them anymore, because they’d been melted into the ground. The jungle floor wasn’t…
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