Chapters
-
Jackie returned to Meliora with necromantic blood still clinging to her body, and a swirling aura of nervous urgency to her every step. For as little time as she had arranged to spend in City Hall over the last few days, her ponies there were getting on remarkably well. She could see no signs of violence, or of violent coup. She had chosen her leaders well. Better than you did, Alex.She landed on the balcony, folding her wings quickly and striding past a few confused guards. “But aren’t you…” Umber…-
99.8 K •
-
-
No sooner were they through the opening in the air than Liz’s Sorcerer armor began to rumble, and the stallion sat up in bed with a panicked screech. “Eeeh!” He held up his wings over his face. “Mom! There’s…” He stopped, clutching at his chest. “How’d you get in?”“I dunno, but I know how we’re leaving.” Jackie moved past him to the cloudy wall. Night sky waited out there, with at least two little moons circling somewhere vastly far away.She could hear ponies moving somewhere…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
For a long time the Alicorn only looked at her. Oracle’s knowing glances were always infuriating, the way he always let on that he knew something she didn’t. And more often than not, he did.“You’re constructing an Imperial spell,” he eventually said. He didn’t get up—maybe he couldn’t. The chair itself was made of metal instead of cloud, with a few glowing screens whose purpose she couldn’t guess. But the tubes attached directly to Oracle’s underbelly, at a metallic gasket that…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Jackie dropped the large bag onto the ground in front of her with an enormous thump of heavy cargo. Bats gathered around in the tiny warehouse all turned to stare at her, looking at the bag with expressions that ranged from idle curiosity to fascination.“How did you even find this place?” asked a taller male bat with a ragged ear and a scar running across his face. “We didn’t invite you here.”“Nopony told you?” Jackie tilted her head to one side, glancing between each of the bats in turn.…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Jackie was not an engineer, not a builder, and not even a bureaucrat. She didn’t have a magical memory and a lifetime of skills. What she did have was simple determination, and a ruthless confidence.An incredibly useful thing to have, once her city-bats learned just how difficult a task they’d set for themselves by leaving a self-sufficient fortress to rebuild civilization from scratch. More than a few of Jackie’s ponies asked to be returned to the city, liking their odds in Mundi better than their…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Jackie knew Mundi hadn’t forgotten them. She got her confirmation about six months later, when it was time to cut the ribbon on her most ambitious structure yet.She’d wanted to name the incredible thaumic ash Hometree, but most of her ponies didn’t understand the reference, and the ones who did weren’t keen on that. They didn’t like Das Kapital either. So it was that one of the most impressive achievements of modern magical engineering received the drabbest name.“City Hall” stood nearly four…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Of course, it wasn’t as simple as just pretending that nothing had ever happened. While Jackie took special joy in imagining the displeasure of the ponies back in Mundi, she couldn’t quite act like nothing had happened. Her average citizen would just take her at her word—practically worshiped the ground she walked on—but not all were so compliant.Hat Trick found her near the end of the party, holding a tablet computer and looking agitated. She hadn’t been on the viewing balcony, but she was here…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Jackie dreamed of forests. Of alien trees from primordial ages, when the Earth was young and the strong had ruled. She met Voeskender in those trees, alone except for his influence. “I’m done!” she proclaimed, tossing imaginary chains at his massive hooves. “My debt is returned to you. I gave you my word and I kept it.”The deer, of course, did not speak to her. She saw the slow erosion of distant mountains, the gentle lapping of the waves. Jackie interpreted these images to mean the god wasn’t…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
Everything had to be perfect.Jackie knew that her chances of pulling this off were remote—there were too many pieces moving, too many ways it could go wrong. But she wasn’t the sort of pony who spent her immortality locked in a safe tower somewhere, living the same way century after century. She’d already done that, done it until she’d been driven to near insanity with boredom. Living safely maximized years, but what good was one empty, lifeless decade of existence where she learned nothing and the…
-
99.8 K •
-
-
“Alright, alright, think.” Jackie slipped sideways into the air, but not actually traveling anywhere. She stepped into the dream, and slowed time down around her to a trickle. That was one of the advantages to the sleeping world—time was fickle. Years could pass in a single evening, or else eight hours could feel like seconds. Obviously the former was more useful to her here.She floated through the void between dreams, conjuring herself an environment more out of instinct than desire. A model of the…
-
99.8 K •
-
- Previous 1 … 74 75 76 … 136 Next