Chapters
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Star Orchid could hear the echoing gunfire overhead, the pounding of hooves on stone, the distant shouts. Yet those weren’t the shouts of royal guardsponies giving orders, but the screams of anypony getting in their way. At least she hadn’t heard more orders echoing down the halls behind, perhaps warning that soldiers had found another entrance and would be flooding the Undercastle. The rebel ponies had weapons of their own, didn’t they? How long could they last down here?Windbrisk’s sledgehammer…-
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Star Orchid worked through the night. It was a bloody business, ensuring that she saw more of the Devourer than she ever thought she would. There were no ancient magical secrets to discover—the Iron Lord was no hidden Alicorn. It was a good thing she’d been exposed to so much of what happened in the dungeons beneath the castle, or she might not have been able to keep up her composure around so much blood.Star did not fake some accident to murder the Iron Lord, though it was hard to imagine needing to.…
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Shouting sounded from down the hall, accompanied with a hissing and squawking from Kondrak’s helmet. More of that almost-magical communication called radio, perhaps?Star Orchid would’ve been completely lost, except that the Devourers spoke the same language. “They’re coming back!” shouted a human voice. Not terrified, but urgent. “Kondrak, they are marching. Drones say it’s even more than last time!”The human straightened, twitching towards the exit. “It seems this conversation will be…
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The bug turned, wings buzzing nervously. They bowed, and spoke in a nervous, faintly feminine voice. At least Jamie thought it was a girl, under all that reverb. “Please, uh… finish the meal, Emissary?”Jamie did, with far less fear and impotent frustration than she’d felt with Pike watching her every motion. If having to deal with him for a few minutes was the price for getting something she wanted to eat, she could live with that.When she was done, Jamie couldn’t exactly just go to bed—not…
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247.0 K •
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Jamie had seen plenty of Perspective Entertainment in her idle time aboard Persephone, watching as brave heroes fought off dozens of opponents with makeshift tools and their wits one moment while inventing incredible devices or negotiating treaties the next. But putting on a VR headset and watching trained actors perform the stunts was one thing—doing any of it herself was another.There were no daring escapes as they led her from the Zapapple. Maybe if she’d been able to fly, she might’ve tried…
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Jamie wilted, glancing nervously to either side. But there was no retreat here. They neared a thick fortress wall, manned by a dozen more of the weird-smelling soldiers. She wouldn’t be getting away from this. “S-sorry. I guess you… probably think I’m a changeling or something. From one of the… clans?”The princess relaxed, her anger fading as though it hadn’t been there. She turned back to the gate, and waited for Jamie to catch up with her. “It was one possibility, and I admit I did…
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247.0 K •
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Jamie knew she would have to make her time in the royal castle productive. With no creature coming to rescue her and no skills to escape, her only hope of survival transformed to simple cleverness. Maybe there was some fact she could use as blackmail hidden away, or some weakness of the princess’s defenses.And maybe there was, but if that was the case, Jamie just couldn’t figure out what it might be. The dictator hadn’t left her any human books either, so she wouldn’t even be able to learn the…
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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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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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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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