Chapters
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It would take Sunset’s organic guests a little more time to get coordinated than the near-instantaneous hookup she’d used to step into the realm. She moved immediately to the fastest-computation track, which her timer indicated gave her twenty-one subjective hours until her friends arrived.Twilight Sparkle appeared beside her in a flash of light, frowning slightly. “Something’s bothering you,” she said. “Did something go wrong with the ponies you were bringing?”“Not… exactly,” Sunset…-
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Jackie’s world faded back in slowly, like someone turning up a dial. She queried her internal chronometer in a panic, and discovered to her horror that 21 hours had passed since she had last been conscious.She opened her eyes. Jackie was strapped down on a heavy metal workbench—the one from the barn, though they weren’t in the barn now. The ceiling above her was stone, and the steady glow of electricity illuminated the world around her.System diagnostic, she ordered.Diagnostic complete. Right arm,…
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134.3 K •
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The Crystal Empire was not for her as it was for the ponies all around her. As Sunset Shimmer passed through its glittering streets, she did so from the seat of a six-wheeled all terrain extended deployment vehicle. There were six passenger seats, and all of them were occupied. In a way, this was as much mythology to her as anything she’d first heard about the Builders and their civilization. Unlike her trip to Earth, the Crystal Empire was everything she had imagined. An entire city built out of the…
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134.3 K •
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Jackie began to doubt her decision the instant she saw the starship’s outline behind the trees. It wasn’t as though they had any other choice, and she pointed and started running towards it as though it was an exciting relief. But she’d seen the old Merlin ships before in museum sims about the early history of space, and she was hardly filled with confidence. The distinct hump of its main hydrogen tank rose along its back side like a tumor left to grow untreated for decades.Bree seemed to be thinking…
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134.3 K •
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As it turned out, Sir Bradley had prepared more than food down here. Without anything better to do, they took the time to open all the crates, revealing bedrolls, tents, basic cookware—an entire camp’s worth of supplies.Of course Sunset and any other Builders there wouldn’t have needed it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help. They set up everything, arranging the sleeping bags before making a cooking circle with chunks of crystal and the crates themselves as fuel. While Trixie cooked a batch…
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“I’m going to see her,” she announced, rising to her hooves and marching straight for the airlock. “This conversation is fucking over.”Of course, the hatch didn’t open. Despite Jackie’s confidence, an AI like the OMICRON Core couldn’t be intimidated so easily.“You will not be permitted aboard,” Edison said. “I’m sorry, my acting captain’s orders are absolute. You are too much of a security threat. We do not know what abilities the Tower has developed since the war. A single…
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“Well if that ain’t the craziest thing I’ve seen today,” Xavier muttered, finally shattering the timeless illusion that was their heartsong contact. “You still speak their language pretty well for not having a translation program in your brain, Sir Bradley. What I wouldn’t give for a core dump right now.”Suddenly the harsh reality of their situation came crashing back down on her. Sunset couldn’t feel the glowing crystal walls anymore, or the sense of sourceless hope that had convinced her…
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“I’m not sure how long this works!” Jackie called, without even stopping to look over her shoulder. “But we need to move, right now!”There was now a solid wall of bodies in front of them, with thick brown smoke congealed around it like mortar. But even looking at it from a distance, Jackie could see that the Federation marine had been right. It wasn’t going to last long—the wind was blowing and soon it would be gone. They couldn’t just wait here for the entire city to march into it.Jackie…
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The next few days were a blur to Sunset Shimmer. Most of what had to be done involved her very little. First came the supplies to the front, refreshing the troops that were fighting off invasion from the south. A few days without food had crippled morale, but they had kept fighting.The city itself had to be made secure, but Sunset had little to do with that. She wasn’t a warrior, so she didn’t join the squads of ponies tracking down the last of the changeling-like creatures and fighting them off. It…
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So the war went on, with Jackie forced to watch from the sidelines. She did her best to help as the great dragons attacked, running supplies along underground tunnels and giving what support she could to the terrified ponies there.But the Father of Dragons was an enemy beyond her power, or any other human for that matter. She watched from hidden cameras along with the rest of the Crystal Empire, as the combined power of the Alicorns banished a creature ripped right out of hell’s worst dreams.Then the war…
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