Chapters
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“This is your plan, Quill. I think it’s only appropriate you remain here with me to see it through.”Iron Quill emerged from the tunnel, straightening the Lord Commander’s armor about his torso. The weight of the enchanted metal was thin comfort against what he knew was waiting outside.He strode up to the princess, bowing exaggeratedly for the benefit of the unicorn door-team. He was beyond thinking that Nightmare Moon herself actually cared about such petty signs of respect, at least from him. But…-
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Night came as harshly as ever to Moonrise, with the excitement and glee at the first night replaced with resignation. Yes, it was true that Moonrise was, if anything, too warm on the beginning of the first night. But they all knew what would be coming in a month’s time, and so the celebrations were short-lived.Chain Mail’s advice had been sound, even if they couldn’t obey it. Ponies were upset to be forced back bunking with other camps. Worse since Quill’s own Lunar company was much larger than any…
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231.4 K •
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Members of Quill’s council filed out one after another, signaled by the departure of Nightmare Moon herself. Quill remained in his seat until the end, giving each one their instructions in turn. “Fabricating glass is our first priority,” he told Silver Needle. “Put the other sections on hold until we get that done.”“They’ll complain,” Chain Mail said. Not argumentative, just matter-of-fact. “We’ve been telling them that we were focusing on survival first.”“Keep telling them that,”…
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231.4 K •
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It didn’t feel quite right to call Moonrise a city, in the sense of the places in Equestria that were cities. But neither was it a military camp anymore, since nearly two months had passed since any of them had done anything remotely military. Given the two options, Quill preferred to think of it as a city. It wasn’t a place for soldiers to wait until they fought again—it was a place for them to live, with no more expectations beyond that.Quill passed through the outer barrier to the central warm…
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Some part of Iron Quill hoped that some of what the Polestar had done had made him magically immune to the cold. But as he returned to the colony beside the exhausted princess, he was disappointed. The air still caught in his chest with his first breath, sucking what little of his strength was left and assaulting him like a physical force.As he entered the cave, he stopped for a moment to appreciate Nightmare Moon’s work. A gigantic metal spike pierced the ceiling now, almost directly overhead. It…
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Iron Quill watched from the front of his camp as the army passed. They marched in tight order, with many of the soldiers looking eager to be moving. Don’t worry, I’ll have you all working soon enough.But ultimately it wasn’t these soldiers or their captains that he feared. These troops were demoralized, but he hardly needed to force them into doing something whose only intention was warming them up. Their captains were now suitably frightened into submission… though he would’ve preferred they…
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231.4 K •
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Penumbra was gone for hours. Iron Quill had other tasks to do in the meantime—being the Lord Commander of the army wasn’t a position ponies aspired to because it was easy.He reviewed proposed settlement maps for the caverns, in particular one that Silver Needle had drawn up just the day before.“We might not even need a magical solution to this,” she said, gesturing at her illustration. “Ponies have been living in frozen environments before, and we’ve always managed.”“Ponies in the Empire…
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231.4 K •
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Iron Quill wandered through a field of the dead. His legs faltered under him, and more than once he nearly lost his grip completely and had to spread his wings to keep himself moving forward. But he had to keep moving—if he wasn’t here to give these ponies final mercy, who would?The Solar Legion—fifty thousand stallions and mares, along with uncountable numbers of sellswords, mercenaries, and other hangers-on—lay on a battlefield as vast as a city. Nightmare Moon hadn’t burned them with Alicorn…
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If Iron Quill closed his eyes, he could almost imagine the beating drums were the pacing orders of the siege engineers, directing a constant stream of flames down on Rockroost. The distant screams occasionally cut through the grinding wood and gears of the trebuchets as earth ponies marched around reloading them—but he hadn’t hated those sounds then.They had filled him with satisfaction.He felt none of that now as he walked to the far end of the arena, where a simple box was marked in the stone. He…
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Iron Quill woke without his extremities buzzing and without a headache. He sat up, cleaned without interruption, then dressed in the underclothes he'd worn under his armor for half a lifetime. He exited the tent, nodding once to Chain Mail beside it. "Excuse me," he said. "Chain Mail. Have there been… reports, since your watch began?""A few," he answered, saluting. "What do you wish to know, Lord Commander?""Have there been any more deaths? Children and foals among the camp followers would be the most…
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