Chapters
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Sunset Shimmer had known full well that there might be civilization on the other side of the portal. American fiat currency would be worth less than the paper it was printed on, but she might need money to get things done. There hadn’t been a transcendental instant waiting beyond the mirror, stripping away the illusion of substance from reality and giving her a single experience that would empower her with magic forever.She would have to work, have to read, and have to study. That’s fine. I knew it…-
27.2 K •
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The pony city of Canterlot might have the same name as the real city she’d left behind, but its charming design led far more to confusion than it did to understanding.Sunset thought she’d be heading for the train station, yet as she got closer, she realized the path she was on led right to a cliff. She hadn’t noticed because dozens of ponies were still taking it, sliding off into the void and coasting down on their wings to the train station below. The flow of messengers and businesspeople up and…
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27.2 K •
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If the world through the portal was the same geographically as the one Sunset had left behind, it got harder to tell during a sea voyage. Sunset spent much of her time aboard the Chrysanthemum’s deck, reading or practicing the suggested levitation drills. While up there, she saw basically the same empty ocean stretching away in all directions. Occasionally an angry member of the crew told her to move so they could work the sails, but she soon found the places she wouldn’t disturb them.She gave up on…
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27.2 K •
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Sunset hadn’t been allowed to see the dig site before. But now, after weeks of cooking and hauling and cleaning, she was finally allowed to walk the short trail up into the hills and see what was worth sending people so far into the wilderness to retrieve.The ruins were located at the bottom of a valley, nestled into the peaks of Isla Colas so tightly that most would probably have walked past them within a hundred meters and never known what they were missing. “Couldn’t have happened to a better…
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27.2 K •
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Instead of being packed into the cargo hold with the other help, Sunset got a cabin all to herself on the return voyage. Well, it was assigned to her, but she invited a certain stallion to share it with her just like their tent. Some part of her wondered if Daring Do had put the two of them together like that all along, after noticing their friendship during the trip over—but that was stupid. There was no reason for an important pony like her to care.Sunset did a lot of stupid things during the trip…
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27.2 K •
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For the palace of the princess, Canterlot Castle wasn’t much of what she’d expected. It was really just a large room, with an elegant chair on one end and a few seats for witnesses along the wall. Sunset walked in at the back of the group, keeping her head down. I can see why the Princess is renovating. The throne room she’s building is way more impressive than this.The trip into Canterlot had been uneventful, painfully so. She couldn’t have said which train Flash Sentry had ridden in, but she…
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27.2 K •
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Five weeks, two days, nine hours until summer crew get here. So went the mantra in Theo’s head, one he had repeated so many times it was probably burned there.If summer crew was here, you wouldn’t be able to do this. As usual, he ignored that thought, then thumbed the exterior door activation.“Hey, Theo,” the voice came over the radio, barking into his earpiece and echoing in the little red plastic airlock a second later. “Computer says you just put through a departure request. You’re going…-
163.3 K •
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Theo woke up, and immediately wished he hadn’t. He could feel the chill all around him, an inviting numbness that was only inches away. All he had to do was lower his head, close his eyes, and he’d never wake up again.You’re a temperature casualty, his brain thought. You’re freezing to death. If you don’t get moving, you’re dead.Theo wasn’t ready to give up yet. With incredible effort, he finally got his eyes open, breaking through a layer of melted snow as he did so.He was on his side in a…
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163.3 K •
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When Theo had first arrived at Barrow, he’d stepped out of a truck into the village and seen several dogs just lounging out in the snow. He hadn’t understood then how they could be so comfortable in temperatures that drained the life out of every inch of his exposed skin, temperatures that would give his ears frostbite in under an hour.But now that all his clothing had been torn or been rendered near-useless and he had no choice, he was discovering exactly how useful a fur coat could be. The village…
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163.3 K •
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The house at the top of the hill seemed more encouraging the closer Theo came to it. It wasn’t just that it was built in a more familiar manner, with fired bricks instead of the packed snow blocks that the locals seemed to use. But there was smoke rising from several chimneys of different heights, and a huge slowly turning wheel on the outside. It was hard to say what it actually did, at least until Theo saw where it ended.There was a tiny outbuilding beside the house. He could see a huge stone wheel…
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163.3 K •
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