Chapters
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Whenever Lucky needed to relax, she went to the beach. It was easy now that she could fly, and she remembered the way.That was where the message found her—on her back in the sand with her computation surface beside her. She could ignore the steady hum of security drones as they buzzed through the jungle, but she couldn’t ignore the incessant beeping of the ‘new message’ notification on her tablet.Lucky’s mind had been drifting. Right then she wondered what attending Celestia’s school might’ve…-
515.2 K •
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Act 3Despite the massive proportions of the Cyclops, it had very few big rooms. The observation deck was the largest, and even it would have a hard time fitting twenty people. That was where they went, with Olivia’s brute squad explaining nothing and practically dragging Melody along with the rest of their team.“I don’t understand,” Deadlight was saying, as they made their way into the lounge. “The best parts of the Caravan festival happen at night! We shouldn’t leave now.”They stumbled into…-
515.2 K •
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It didn’t take Lucky that long to figure out Princess Twilight’s message. She sat on her bed in the back of the room reading it whenever she had a spare moment, strumming her guitar absently.At first, she’d been put off by the dissonance between the words and the princess’s described character. No pony who wrote the way she did was going to send out a letter so full of mistakes. And yet, the last paragraph seemed as though it had been written by someone who knew how to use their own language. Why…-
515.2 K •
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They left the next day.Not the same way they’d gone during their last adventure—they weren’t leaving their home behind for good, carrying all they now owned on their backs. They had no need to abandon all their property this time—only to carry enough to survive during what Lightning Dust insisted would be only one day of flying in each direction. She hadn’t brought her armor—there was no way to fly in that. But she did have her helmet, hanging off her saddlebags on a length of bungie.Lucky…-
515.2 K •
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It was not a pleasant trip. Getting out of the Crystal Empire wasn’t terribly difficult—there were no papers to be stamped, or checkpoints to pass through. Flurry Heart just had to wear thick enough clothing to conceal her identity (which she would have had to do anyway, thanks to the cold waiting for them), and they just walked out. Lucky wasn’t terribly worried about what school would think—now that she had her cutie mark, she wasn’t even required to attend.No, the real difficulty came once…-
515.2 K •
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Dr. James Irwin was not having a good day. This was, in fact, the worst day of her life.In the strictest sense, it was also the best day of her life, which did not suggest she was going to have a particularly good future.She couldn't even have the satisfaction of vocally complaining about it, because everyone else in the world had things nearly as bad as she did. All four of the others were suffering in the same Biosleeves that James had been dumped into. True, not all of them had quite as much to deal…-
515.2 K •
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But as it turned out, they couldn’t. Olivia didn’t respond to her suggestion that a team should be sent, except to say that “There won’t be one ready for six months. I’ll put a pin in your suggestion until then.”Her clone was even less helpful. “We’re too busy building to go anywhere. This isn’t why I signed up.”The rest of their search that day turned up nothing useful—if there had ever been paint or other exterior writing on the ruins, it had long since worn off. There were no…-
515.2 K •
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James whimpered, moaned, then turned over. Her head felt like it was about to explode—the worst headache of her life. That probably didn’t mean much considering how old she was.She opened one eye. James was on the ground in the brig. There were thick bars in front of her, though the openings were wide enough that she could see through them easily. There was noise coming from the other side of the room, but it took her a minute to wake up enough to understand it.“Error—no implant detected,“ said…-
515.2 K •
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James preempted her guest, stepping slightly in front of him. If the major wanted to attack him, she would have to hurt her first. Some small corner of her mind balked—this pony really had attacked her not too long ago. Major Fischer might’ve made some dumb choices, but she had never done anything to threaten James or any other member of the crew.“I haven’t disobeyed your orders,” she said confidently. As confidently as she could, anyway. “Deadlight isn’t escaping. I haven’t let him out of…-
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The more Lucky searched, the more frustrated she got. It wasn’t just that there was little written about the subjects of her interest in the Equestrian books—cultural difference was to be expected from an alien society, even if those differences were immensely frustrating. It was, rather, that it seemed the library had been deliberately scrubbed of information on specific subjects. Astronomy, for instance, was an art to the Equestrians, who studied the stars as a way of appreciating the creations of…-
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