Chapters
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“You’re making a mistake,” Harley said, her voice quiet, pained. She stopped tugging on her sleeve, turning away. “Good luck! When they interrogate you, tell them whatever you want. If it will keep you alive.” She gestured urgently away, and Bruce gave them one last, backward glance.Then he turned to run as well. Katie looked between Jackie and the two of them, as though completely frozen by her indecision. The expression didn’t last long. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”“Always.”…-
38.1 K •
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Jackie blinked, realizing that Harley had stopped talking. The whole world suddenly seemed to come back into focus, as from a dream. She yawned, stretched, looked around. Not even one of the chairs all around her was occupied anymore. Worse, it had only been twenty minutes. Her limbs were stiff, as though she’d just sat through all of One Piece without getting up.“That’s wrong,” Katie said, glaring up at Harley as though she had just admitted to strangling her dog. “You shouldn’t have done…
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38.1 K •
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Jackie had been waiting for Portland Fancon for over six months now. On an emotional level, she understood that the rest of the world didn’t care about her efforts at best and would’ve mocked them at worst. Even so, Jackie Kessler had been waiting forever for a chance to show up.The con was packed with visitors in scores of different costumes. The pop-culture touchstones were there—Jedi, and Starfleet crew, and the latest popular videogame character. Jackie made her way through the dealer booths,…
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38.1 K •
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Liz stared down at the blade, where it sat on the edge of the little table in her quarters. Most objects from the surface did quite poorly when you brought them into a seapony settlement—metal rusted, silicone rotted, electronics short-circuited. But this knife appeared to be an exception, its metallic construction wasn’t steel and didn’t seem to be corroding.Much like Liz’s faith in Jackie. The bat was still out there somewhere—the Dreamknife had survived so much, how could she be dead now?…-
99.8 K •
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Athena landed in the center of the stage with a thump, staring up at Alex with eyes wide with pain and betrayal. Her sword winked out.For an instant, Jackie let herself dare to hope—no matter how resigned to death she’d become, no matter how many ponies she’d filled with fear and pain with her goodbyes, some part of her still hoped. This would be it. Lonely Day had been so desperate to keep one of her old friends alive that she had found a way to do the impossible and destroy Athena without the…
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99.8 K •
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Jackie’s memories of the Supernal did not prepare her to return to it. It was a land of strange laws, a realm that wasn’t quite physical and not quite simulated either.But she perceived it much as the other Alicorns described it—as an ancient city, ruins in a desert of white sand that cascaded down into an endless abyss. There on the edge of infinity, annihilation was always within reach, while the power to redefine reality itself was also close enough to grasp.Others had reached it beyond the…
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99.8 K •
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Where once the deer had risen up in rage around Jackie, fighting even as they died by the thousands—the death of Ankaa brought a near-instantaneous end. She listened to the veritable stampede of animals away from her, entire tents trampled as they fled.There were many other warriors in many other camps, and it would take a long time for news of her victory to spread. But these at least would be fighting no longer. They didn’t know yet, but if they ran far enough, their children would thank her.In…
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99.8 K •
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Jackie’s mind raced, trying to keep up with everything she was seeing. She tried bending time around her, tried every kind of simple transformation to remove the effects of Voeskender’s spell, tried summoning objects or figments that might help them.They were all equally effective. This god of dreams had taken away her powers, trapped them in forms without natural defenses, and had blood in his eyes.Voeskender’s realm was a little like the enchanted wood, seen through the eyes of both predator and…
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99.8 K •
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Jackie didn’t need her old dagger to the Dreamlands. The object had no power to bridge worlds, not really. Thestral magic could do that, and she’d used the old knife for so long that she could use it like a seventh limb.All she really had to do was to find herself something to focus on—a bit of memory of a dream, and she was through.Misty waited on the other side, a full-sized seapony now with unblinking, knowing eyes. “What are we doing, Jackie? I heard you say my name.”“Saving the world,”…
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99.8 K •
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For once, Liz didn’t pressure her into being brought along. Instead she seemed to be trying to get Jackie to turn around completely. Unsuccessfully.“Are you sure you won’t just make everything worse?” she sang nervously, as they ran together up the stairs towards the governor’s office. “You’re really going to piss them off. If you kill him…”“When I kill him,” Jackie corrected. “Ankaa is one of the strongest creatures of this generation. But compared to the champions of Charybdis, or…
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99.8 K •
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