Chapters
-
Lyra dreamed long, strange dreams. In the pale grip of sleep, she found herself in Sugarcube Corner—except the shake she ordered grew to tremendous size in front of her, and she fell in with a splash. She managed to grip onto the straw with her teeth, sipping desperately at what little air she could get while her whole body went numb from the cold.She wanted to call out for help, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t even muster the strength to yell for Bon Bon. Her friend might’ve been able to save her…-
47.8 K •
-
-
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…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra Heartstrings probably wouldn’t have been able to say what she was expecting from the ruin of a pre-Equestrian civilization. What little of this period in history was known was thanks to the handful of objects that had come with the first settlers in Equestria. There would be pottery, a few worked copper objects, and probably a star-worshiping religion.Yet their history contained another civilization—or else the same one, seen from another angle. Ponies who built incredible armor that could resist…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra stared out across the ice sheet, down past blasted rocks and a howling, timeless wind. Some part of her wondered if the ancient ponies of this place had ever really escaped the Windigos of ancient legend—maybe they were still here, guarding over their final tomb.But if that grim reality was waiting for them in the Horn of Celestia, they were going to have to discover it sooner or later. Sooner means that we can make their sacrifice count for something. If the secrets abandoned by our tribes are in…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
Lyra Heartstrings had worked her whole life to stand before this tower.It had many names—the Horn of Celestia, the Dreaming Door, the Pillar of Winter, and strangest of all Windigos’ Bane. But for all its ancient names, an archeologist like Lyra knew it as something else: the oldest intact ruin in all of Equestria.Or almost. To call it “in Equestria” was true only in the historical sense, given that the Crystal Empire’s territory had once extended so far north it almost reached the sea. Where…
-
47.8 K •
-
-
EpilogueA few years later...Gleaming Shield shifted uneasily in her light environmental suit, until the sleeves settled properly over her wings. Most of the Martian-born ponies just wore respirators outside these days, and some part of her wished she could be so brave. But even if the temperature outside were getting better, standing under the pressure washer to remove every potential drop of poison from her coat wasn't worth a little extra sweat.The suit was little more than light plastic, clear except…-
10.7 K •
-
-
Shining was the last pony to suggest needless relaxation after the worst of a crisis was over. After all, she had no reliable information about what was outside the shield, and every reason to suspect that the Empire might be under siege again at any moment.But the Crystal Empire’s unique magical defenses created an incentive to keep ponies as relaxed and happy as she possibly could. She had tried to call Canterlot for aid, but no phone in the city could reach beyond the Empire’s borders. Their enemy…
-
10.7 K •
-
-
Shining didn't know what to expect from the spell. Maybe it would send him to that strange almost-place his sister had briefly described upon completing Starswirl's spell. Maybe he would drift in agony for many days as it rebuilt his body one bone at a time.What he didn't expect was that he would step down into that circle, feel the magical might of a nation pointed down at him like a lens—and wake up in bed.He blinked, scanning the room. His mind still filled with aching magic in his horn and the…
-
10.7 K •
-
-
Shining Armor had never seen this part of Canterlot Castle before. It had been so long since his experience in Equestrian leadership that this wasn't a terribly unexpected thing. That didn't make it any easier to pass through vast chambers that had not existed, filled with strange machines of metal and flashing lights with threads of plastic running between them.Shining probably should have followed the changing state of Equestria more over the last few years. But the older he got, the less any of this…
-
10.7 K •
-
-
There was no pony better prepared to defend Equestria than Starlight Glimmer. While plenty of her fellows had mastered other disciplines, expanding themselves into niches their growing power required, Equestria still needed a few ponies at home to hold down the fort.It wasn’t that she was unsympathetic to the plight of the humans living in oppressive parts of the world. She was even enthusiastic about the new generation of ponies that would rise to become their partners, when they finally gained access…-
20.2 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 86 87 88 … 222 Next
