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    When everything seems dark, don't be.

    Chapters

    • Part 6 (Alex) – Chapter 3 Cover
      by Starscribe “Was it really smart not to bring the unicorn with you?” Taylor’s voice in her earpiece didn’t sound petulant, or even all that questioning. Just curious. “They might or might not find resistance in the house. You already know most of them are waiting for you. You said they’re armed, and at least some of them can still shoot.”“Yeah.” Alex shrugged. She was putting her life’s worth of confidence into the strange transformation the ponies of Equestria had worked on her. The magic was…
    • Part 6 (Alex) – Chapter 4 Cover
      by Starscribe Behind her, Alex’s friends made their way into the library. First came Joseph. One of his legs looked broken, and he had burns up and down his side. Yet his face made no sign he registered the pain. His steps were rigid and mechanical. Moriah came behind him, moving forward with great resistance in every step, as though she were battling an army of invisible ghosts. She dragged Alex’s saddle bags behind her along the ground, though she looked very much like she didn’t want to. Behind them were…
    • Part 6 (Alex) – Chapter 5 Cover
      by Starscribe Form and meaning unraveled in the void, where symbols were as true as the things they represented. Time ceased to matter, just as space did. A battle raged; a battle she could not possibly win on her own.The other wished to frame it in terms of Equestria, of ponies and spirits and magic. Alex refused, and so gave the duel form in another way. A human way.Archive saw a roadside diner, right out of any number of 1950s era movies. It was late at night, and she pulled up to escape the wrath of a torrential…
    • Part 6 – Interlude Cover
      by Starscribe Last night, little Riley had learned that the information Alex had shown her from the library hadn’t been wrong after all. Just as the Equestrian books said, she could will herself into new forms. The effort was exhausting, and she had very little idea of what she was doing. Yet the instinct was there. With the original pony helpless before her, she had all the time in the world to make sure she got every detail exactly right. The pony who called herself Carol, whose real name was apparently True Sight,…
    • Part 7 (Founders) – Chapter 1 Cover
      by Starscribe Adrian was alone in a world of pain. The spirit called Odium pressed down upon his mind, trapping him in his worst moment, stretching into forever. Thousands and thousands of times Adrian watched that memory replay. The pain of the crash was bad, but it wasn’t even close to the worst part. He saw the mare on the roof of the hotel. He heard her over and over, a hopelessness crushed by the weight of an uncaring universe. Nothing he could say made a difference. Eventually, when she thought he wasn’t…
    • Part 7 (Founders) – Chapter 2 Cover
      by Starscribe Cloudy Skies did not return to Alexandria until near nightfall. Her mission, though important, felt hopelessly mundane. Without knowing when Lonely Day and the other ponies would return from Philadelphia, and with no way to call and tell them, it was her job to find a satellite phone, make it work, then report on what they had learned.It would’ve been far worse than boring to travel off on her own when Blacklight was putting herself into danger with all her other friends. Except Cloudy Skies had company,…
    • Part 7 (Founders) – Chapter 3 Cover
      by Starscribe They were all there, the day they had the vote. Everyone but Alex, unconscious as she was in a hospital bed. There were no more attempted suicides; not now that the shock of having Odium gone for good was finally over. That left Alexandria with a problem, of course. What could they do with a dozen ponies that had tried to take over? Moriah participated in several of the proposals that were made, just as all of them did. Rather than keep all of them locked up in little cells during the week or so it took…
    • Part 7 (Founders) – Chapter 4 Cover
      by Starscribe Joseph reviewed the translations around him one at a time. He had read over each thousands of times, both the originals and the eventual descriptions. Even now that he knew the simple code the cult had used, he still shivered at the patterns the letters elicited when written in runes. There was something special about runes, something the books about it described as almost sacred. Runes gave the whole world new instructions. To use them to tear the tapestry apart instead of making it stronger disgusted…
    • Part 8 (Cody) – Chapter 1 Cover
      by Starscribe Alex made her way to the door with halting hoofsteps. Less than twenty feet, but a monumental distance in her current state. If I burn my cookies because of this...Alex had never imagined she would ever have to know the difficulty and physical strain of pregnancy. She knew it now, had known it for almost eleven months. Never again, Oliver. You're lucky I don't stab you right in the— She opened the door with her mouth, swinging it outward.Three ponies waited outside—one who should've known better than…
    • Part 8 (Cody) – Chapter 2 Cover
      by Starscribe Alex blinked, opening her eyes in the gloom of her hospital room. There was no pain, only a strange stiffness in her limbs, particularly on her belly. All around her, the room was in shambles. Her own green fur was all over the floor, though none appeared to be missing from her body. There were bloodstains on the edges of the room, splashed near the door or soaked into the mattress. She'd woken quickly enough that they hadn't even cleaned up after her.Her heart started beating, and the monitor beside her…
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