Chapters
-
Lyra heard knocking against her quarters door. She wasn't sure how long it had been—long enough that she was in bed now, with the better part of her uniform now hanging on a hook. Technically speaking that might be a bad idea—a proper captain from the Equestrian army would probably not have stopped fighting until everything was resolved and they were all safe at home.But Lyra was an archeologist, not a general. If she didn't get a chance to rest, she would probably just keep breaking down. If she lost…-
47.8 K •
-
-
For a single, eternal moment, Lyra sat suspended on the deck of the Equestria. Her friends scattered across the bridge, though not all of them moved. Time Turner and Muffins huddled close to each other in their seat. Muffins abandoned all pretense of using her own, and instead rested in his lap, both arms thrown over his shoulders. Lyra wished she could do the same with Bon Bon, but the mare didn't move. "Sweetie?"She wasn't just sitting still, but totally frozen. She didn't blink, and her mouth was open,…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Before the Equestria floated three gigantic warships, each one bigger than most Equestrian cities. They loomed closer with every passing second, bristling with unknown destructive power. In her chair weighed life and death—for them, and many strangers.The ship promised freedom for Equestria, relief from an endless future as a prison planet to unknown powers from above. If Lyra fired the first shot in that war, it might escalate into a conflict that nopony at home would even agree to start."We can't tell…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra stumbled awkwardly through the bridge, still feeling the painful disorientation of decontamination. But as her head cleared, the true weight of their predicament became increasingly obvious.Or maybe that was the large illustration on the viewfinder, showing three metal hulks from below. Comparing them to the Horn of Celestia was a little like trying to use her first levitation spell as a graduating thesis at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. There was no grace in the ships, nothing aerodynamic or…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Sweetie Drops collapsed to the stone floor, her eyes weak and distant. “That’s it, then,” she whispered, staring up at the humming machines. “One by one, Computer got us. Now I’m the only one left.”Lyra dropped down beside her, resting one knee on the strange ground. Her girlfriend had always been cute, but now there was something almost parental in her feelings. She’d never sounded so heartbroken, not anytime Lyra could remember. She put one hand on her shoulder, and winced at Sweetie’s…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra led the way into the massive facility, shielding her eyes with the back of one arm against the incredible light. She glanced behind her at the growing distance between herself and the other members of her group. Maybe it would be more frightening if she were at their eye-level, with machines looming over her instead of settled right where she might look at something. The Conflux was the single largest interior space Lyra had ever seen—larger than any grand ballroom in Canterlot, larger than…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
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…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
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…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
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.…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra stared at the shut door, shivering slightly as she pictured the ponies inside.It hadn’t been long since she saw the final message of the Equestria’s previous captain, just long enough to get a set of human clothing to go with the human body. Underclothes, a set of white pants, and a button-up vest with her name and cutie mark on it, along with a jacket she had left behind in the medical bay.She felt like it was going to suffocate her. But her skin was clearly not as sturdy as a pony coat, so the…
-
47.8 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 85 86 87 … 222 Next
