Chapters
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Theo’s claws scraped uselessly at the edge of the Horizon, staring over the railing at the distant forest. “Out of curiosity, Sharp… what’s our altitude?”“About… two thousand feet,” he answered. “We could do ten times that if we wanted to lose some of our ballast, but I thought you would be more comfortable learning down here.”“More comfortable…” she muttered. Out in the empty air, little Emerald was flying back, somehow pushing a cloud along ahead of her. It was several times…-
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Theo ran below as quickly as she could. She couldn’t imagine what difficulty Sharp could possibility be having: his engines seemed to be assembled so perfectly, with an incredible standard of mechanical tolerance for something that had been built by hoof.But as she opened the door to the engine room, she was hit with a wave of black smoke that sent her staggering back, hacking and coughing. Oh god we’re on fire. There was no mistaking that terrible smell, even from the top of the stairs. Theo had…
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Theo woke the next morning—whatever her ambitions to keep searching through the night, she’d apparently been far too exhausted to keep working. She yawned and stretched, emerging from the tent a second time. As before, she had no idea how she’d gotten inside, no memory of climbing in the night before. Sharp Edge didn’t leave me out in the open after I fell asleep. She would’ve loved to thank him for his help, except of course that he wouldn’t understand her if she did.She rose slowly, wiping…
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Sharp Edge grinned broadly as the first structures of Agate came into view below them. It reminded Theo of plenty of similar places she’d seen on the American northern frontier. Unlike her homeland, these people didn’t have a thousand years of history in the town.The ample use of redwood logs and the local granite made the cabins seem almost like a charming little tourist destination, maybe a ski resort.To say the locals were surprised by their arrival was an understatement. As they emerged from the…
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They didn’t have the train to themselves for long, as more ponies boarded the closer they came to Canterlot. As the car became more and more crowded with strangers, Theo and her companions moved to a single row, where they could sit in relative comfort and not disrupt anyone else.Theo watched the countryside closely from one of the wide windows, sitting beside Sharp Edge on one side and Emerald on the other. The more time she spent with ponies, the more her fears that they would violently kill her for…
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Theo had been in government buildings before, when she’d been gunning for her current position. Current, former position.Either way, she found the inside of the embassy strikingly similar to plenty of identical structures she’d visited before—polished marble floors, too high ceilings, and metal banisters. It was all about showing stability and casual wealth for anyone who visited. They represented whole nations, after all. They couldn’t do that without showing off.Once through the doors, Theo…
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By the time their train arrived in Ponyville, full dark had settled over the town like a heavy blanket. This was no Crystal Empire or Canterlot, with bustling activity even late into the night. As Theo emerged from the train, she could see only a few flickering gas lamps, leading into town towards a round, municipal-looking building.The rest of the town could’ve come out of any number of semi ancient villages in her home country, though it had been quite some time since she’d seen a thatch roof on…
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Theo didn’t get to go on the expedition to retrieve the airship. It wasn’t anything personal—even Sharp Edge wasn’t able to go. The team the blue pegasus brought wasn’t so much a group of trained experts as a dozen pegasus ponies from halfway across Equestria.If it was Theo’s airship, she probably would’ve told the pegasus “no thanks” at that point. But Sharp seemed to recognize some of them, and the knowledge made him more willing to let them make the trip.There was no more work to do…
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Theo followed the pony at an arm’s reach, unable to suppress her constant, background fear at being around someone so important. For all the time she’d been in Equestria, she knew almost nothing about its royalty. Should she have refused the request?For all her panic, her companion didn’t seem to be having the same concerns. She glanced at the symbols scribbled on the edge of various shelves, reading some meaning from them that Theo herself couldn’t. Some pony equivalent of the Dewey Decimal…
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After much work—it felt like months, but Theo knew full well it couldn’t be—the Horizon was finally ready to sail. Theo learned this news from Sharp after a hard day of work in the cabin, leaving with empty cans of finishing stuff and the scrap-metal left over from her electronics work. “Hey, Summer.” He caught her wing with a hoof, which couldn’t put more than a tiny bit of pressure on the feathers. Still enough to slow her down, which was the real point. Then he seemed to actually notice…
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