Chapters
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The world passed before Chip in a timeless eternity. She saw very little, felt almost nothing, moved hardly at all. She had been something once, but now was barely anything. So small her mind could barely string together thoughts, so cold that it took an eternity to reach each one. She wanted to grow, to expand, to mature, but found she could do none of those things. The icy chill all around her kept her small, obscured the world in a thin sheen of frost. Once she felt the whole world shake, and…-
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A year passed.Rarely if ever did they ever see other ponies. Only once a month were they let out, walking around dark stone rooms while ponies replaced the straw. They were offered no clothing, no blankets, nothing but loneliness and the vague cycle of day and night visible through their windows.Drones grew up much faster than queens did, and very soon every other drone dwarfed Chip. This wasn’t to say that they beat her, that she had to struggle for food or anything. The drones understood their place in…
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Chip’s third year went better than her second. The initial period of fear, when she worried Chives might go to the guards and get them all killed, came and went. He came back with a robe, and together they began the second stage of her plan. Chip wrapped herself up, and followed Chives out of the stable under the cover of night. She became Blooming Posy. At first just in name, sheltered by shyness and the lie of an illness. When she had collected enough glamor, she no longer needed the cloak.“That’s…
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Chip didn’t stay until dawn, as she sometimes did. This was a shame, since Study Time’s conversations afterwards were always more interesting than getting a little to eat. Unfortunately she had somewhere to be, and had to fly away.“I’ll be back when I can,” she whispered, slipping out into the night. She flew quietly, as quiet as a bat though she lacked any of their magic. Even a changeling queen couldn’t imitate the unique racial magic of the different pony tribes.She passed over the city’s…
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Chip stared at a blank stone wall, pulling the cloth of her single blanket close about herself. She had stared at this wall for a long time—long enough that her reserves of glamour were starting to dwindle and she felt hunger clawing at her empty stomach. Her captors brought a tray of mashed grain each morning along with a small wooden cup of water, and that was all. Some days she drank the water, but she never touched the grain. Eating it was completely pointless. The guards who brought it felt no pity…
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When she woke again, Chip felt something soft under her body. Much had changed—the awful smell of her prison, the steady dripping of the water was gone, the flickering light of distant candles were gone. Her hunger was gone too, replaced with a staggering supply of fresh glamor in her stomach. Not the most she’d ever had, nowhere close to her capacity, but enough that she didn’t feel even a little bit hungry. Enough that she could sleep for weeks without worry.She didn’t sleep for weeks, but rolled…
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Archive had gathered the greatest minds from all of Comox.The deer she'd chosen had very little in common. A handful were young, fawns in their second or third year who looked almost like adults but acted like adolescents. There was Cherry-Blossum-Always-Blooms, and her younger brother Unseen-Wind-Lifts-Many-Birds. They sat side-by-side on a single cushion made from rough fabric and stuffed with straw. They were only permitted to be so close on account of both still having their spots—once 'Birds' lost…
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Comox had only one type of accommodation: small, thinly insulated group homes which provided a large sleeping mat for several individuals and not a lot else. Alex did not share hers with any deer— not since Stride had a mate and many fawns of her own. She didn't have the little building to herself— she had two apprentices, who continued to pretend around her that they weren't in a relationship. She, cordially, pretended she didn't notice.Alicorns needed less sleep than ordinary ponies, which had proven…
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Epilogue - Some years laterChip looked down at Alexandria from the highest point on its tower. From her perch all that they had built was visible—the ramshackle housing she’d lived in with Chives, the sturdy stone buildings of the wealthy, and everything in-between. Chip no longer needed to climb all the way up here to have a good view, not with as many drones as she now controlled.Chip was queen in more than just species, now. It wasn’t just that she’d grown as tall as Study, though she had. It…
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Alex knocked lightly on the door with the edge of one hoof. She wasn’t wearing any regalia today, not even a crown. She wasn’t even wearing her old saddlebags, but a fresh pair made from sturdy white cloth.The manor was one of the finest in the city, built from the ruins of an old skyscraper. The door opened only seconds after she knocked, and a pony wearing a dark suit bowed politely to her. “You’re here to see your mother, Princess?”“I am.” She made her way to the elevator, waiting politely…
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