Chapters
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Summer stared up at Corey, at first so overcome with disbelief that she didn't even move. Yes, Brooks had made it clear that they would be sending someone in. But shouldn’t it have been some kind of scientist, or at least a doctor? "You weren't the one I expected," she said, probably sounding incredibly stupid. But she wasn't quite self-conscious enough to care.He laughed amicably, glancing from her to Sharp, nodding politely to him, before waving one hand towards Emerald. "And I didn't expect to lose…-
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Brooks rose to her feet, folding her tablet closed. "I assure you, your time trapped in here will be as brief as possible. If we could be sure it was safe, you could already be touring the observatory. I would much rather shake your hands than have you on the other side of a barrier. Well..." She held up one hand, glancing down at them and looking embarrassed. "Metaphorically speaking. Obviously you don't have... You get the idea."She straightened, turning to Summer. "I hope you don't mind if we use this…
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Their meeting came early the next day. At least, Summer thought it was the next day. The longer she spent in the camp, the less she was able to clearly differentiate one minute from the next. Maybe she'd only been on Earth for a few hours, and all her hours in the windowless almost-jail was warping her perception of time.She knew the meeting would be different because she was warned about it in advance. "If there's anything you'd like to do to prepare, now's the time," said the marine over the phone,…
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For the first few hours, none of them could do anything productive. It wasn’t just being in such an unfamiliar space, with gigantic furniture that might’ve been picked for size, but still was far too big to feel like they really belonged here. Aside from a few wonderful reminders of the delights of home, the food was strange to the ponies. Being so far north meant few of the fresh veggies and grains that were their staple diets.Instead, everything was processed, everything was canned—so more of the…
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Summer probably should’ve been excited about this. In some ways, this meeting was everything she’d been waiting for, months of effort all focused on this single moment. She’d fought her way across Equestria, swam as a fish, and now she was back home.Except… she wasn’t home. I need time to think. I need to figure out what went wrong. But it didn’t seem the US military authority now running the base was very interested in giving them time to figure things out. Maybe if I ask nicely they can put…
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Theo was lying in the snow. He couldn’t have said how he got there, or what he’d been. He couldn’t say much of anything at first, as his body adjusted to the apparent beating he’d just endured. For a few seconds it was all he could do to twitch and moan, trying to get up. There was motion around him, shouts and boots and many moving figures. More than there should’ve been. God, what happened?Memories were foggy to return at first. There’d been… a confrontation. Kate had been waiting for them,…
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Summer settled down to bed with confidence. Opening the Doorway again wasn’t going to be easy, but now at least they had the magic for it. So long as she kept her head under pressure, she should be able to keep her friends. The hardest challenge waiting for her would be dealing with the awkwardness of their differences in sex.But in the end, she didn’t wake up rested with the dawn, ready to approach this last and most difficult challenge. Rather, she found herself yanked painfully upright out of bed,…
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The further they flew, the colder it got.Soon enough it became clear that their strategy of avoiding Feather by staying away from civilization had a price—they couldn’t descend again without buying or finding gas, and so they never did. But not landing meant they had a limited supply of food, and an even more limited supply of fuel.The little firebox struggled to keep the cabin warm against the blasting arctic chill, except when filled almost to capacity. But they were running out of coal much too fast…
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Summer stayed beside Sharp until he started shivering, and kept beside him until he stopped again. They might be species from the same planet, but there was no denying how much cooler ponies were compared to hippogriffs, even when they weren’t freezing to death. Probably the same comparison to birds and other mammals.She found herself thinking back to that naturalistic comparison more than once, and all the things she might do under that blanket. The warmer Sharp got, the more his natural scent returned,…
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Summer Ray stood in the doorway of a room full of corpses, trying to process what she was seeing. In some ways, this was worse than having Kate try to kill her, or even jumping out of a window. At least she only had to fear for herself then, instead of burning with the sympathetic agony towards these people and the battle they’d fought.It was worse than anything she’d seen on film. These weren’t show-props, but real corpses, each one its own unique flavor of horror. Skin was shriveled and sunken,…
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