Chapters
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Star Orchid hadn’t known what to expect when she found her way into the Immortal City. She had imagined a city full of the greatest ponies of her world, filling the sacred realm with their hymns of eternal praise. Maybe Harmony itself would be here, its presence unseen and unknowable, but incredibly powerful. She had not expected to find a unicorn tied up in her bedroom, banging desperately for escape. Now that unicorn finally rose onto her hooves, massaging aching limbs and occasionally looking up…-
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Jamie knew that Starlight Glimmer’s secret knowledge must be hiding far from the world she lived in. Obviously, her secret must rest somewhere that nopony else would ever go, or else it would’ve been revealed years before. But when she turned towards the train station, Starlight gently pushed her aside, gesturing to a trail leading east of town. “The Gem Caves?” she asked, eyebrows going up. “I thought you grew up in northeast Equestria. Wouldn’t your secrets be up there?”Starlight didn’t…
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247.0 K •
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Jamie woke to another perfect morning in Ponyville. Far from unusual, Jamie’s mornings of cloudless sunlight and tuned birdsong were an expected function of life here. Twilight might have long moved to Canterlot as she served as Equestria’s monarch, but that didn’t mean the town of her apprenticeship could fall to imperfection.With the castle’s true owner gone, Jamie had the treehouse basically to herself. Only her mother’s Crystal Guards interrupted her otherwise comfortable seclusion.It was the…
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Star Orchid was in heaven. At least her body was physically located in the place she’d heard her whole life was the divine resting-place of all who followed Harmony’s laws. With every passing second, she found herself more convinced there was at least some truth to those stories.The air all around them was fresh and alive with the pollen of new plants, without the sterility of Concord or the oppressive humidity of the jungles around Hollow Shades. The little dirt road led them swiftly to a red…
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247.0 K •
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Twilight did not take Jamie back to her prison, though part of her longed for that return. Jamie could find a quiet corner and curl up until the horrible images had faded from her mind. She couldn’t look up kitten pictures on her phone anymore, but she could make do. The pain would go away eventually.But the princess didn’t give her that chance. At least she didn’t drag Jamie through the air, letting her follow at the best possible pace through the regular grid of corridors until they were out again.…
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247.0 K •
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The princess loomed over Jamie, looking as much like death as the city dying just behind her. “Get up,” she instructed. She was barely even loud enough to be heard over the cataclysmic explosions of rock behind her. Yet somehow, she remained totally calm.Jamie rose, wiping the rest of the slime from her lips with one leg. Her whole body shook in the princess’s presence—but she didn’t run. She wasn’t going to die feeling like a coward in her final seconds.“You lived in Hollow Shades,” the…
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247.0 K •
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Star couldn’t say how long she slept aboard the not-train and not-airship. Probably at least a day, with how long she’d been fighting sleep to keep working. But if anywhere was going to be safe from Geist’s reach, it would be aboard a Devourer vehicle speeding far away from the Harrow. It was hard to imagine doing any better.But then she woke, and they were still moving. That put some limits on how fast they could be going, given she knew how long to expect travel to the Immortal City to take.She…
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247.0 K •
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Twilight took each step slowly, conscious that each moment might bring some new danger. Some part of her had to keep that thought present with her at all times, fully aware that even a few steps out into the world imperiled her. Her power might be vast, her preparation exhaustive, but that didn’t mean she was invincible. The ones she fought had defeated an even more harmonious civilization before theirs, after all. Humans knew how to kill Alicorns.It was rare for her to venture so far from the protection…
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Jamie half-expected retribution to be waiting for her as soon as she returned to her quarters. She’d been too bold, and Twilight would send someone to remind her of her place.Nothing happened, though. The princess didn’t even send guards in. The servants kept bringing her meals, though even Basal was subdued.When the next day came, still there’d been no retribution for her, though something had changed. Whenever Jamie pressed her head against a wall, or lay down in bed, she could hear a persistent,…
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247.0 K •
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Hollow Shades was evacuating. It wasn’t like Star Orchid had expected anything different. Once they’d taken a ship for themselves, flight was the only possible option. But as Star watched ponies flee up the ramp, carrying what little they could bring of their lives, she couldn’t help but feel empty inside.How much of this was because of her? None of these ponies could ever go home again. If they were lucky, Equestria would just forget they existed, and let them fade into the crowds of displaced…
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