Chapters
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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…-
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Jackie did not get a chance to explore the ruins of Midgard again for a few weeks. There was much to do that was more practical—such as spreading her bats enough that they could all find food. The citizens of Mundi had been so sheltered by life there that only the handful of refugees in her group had anything close to practical experience. She would take a former human who had actually lived in the world outside, even sheltered by modern society, over bats that hadn’t even left their homes in years.At…
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They had their first death the next day.Jackie had known something awful just like that could happen—that somepony would be stupid and avoid her instructions and pay the price. Sydney wasn’t just empty land, it was the site of a terrible battle. She fully expected some of the wreckage of that ancient conflict to linger on, ready to rip its claws up through history and tear apart the unwary.She made her way to the edge of the crater, where someone had dragged out the body. A bat had been electrocuted,…
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Jackie could feel the eyes of dream on her as she passed through the sleeping world, as tight as the promised bond she had paid to make this road. Where before she had been free to drift between worlds, now she was tethered by the debt. She could feel herself straining against it, entirely in vain. Jackie would have to be careful how many promises she made, or else find herself as much a slave to her oaths as she would’ve been to the supernal.She brought up the rear down the astral road, keeping her eyes…
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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.…
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Jackie could never figure out why Alicorns liked towers so much. They were already taller than other ponies, and more powerful, did they have to lord over them?Granted, in Mundus, she supposed that everyone lived in towers, they were just towers with their own ecosystems and climate. Naturally the Alicorns lived in the tallest of these, or at least their official residences were there. What most of them did with their time, Jackie didn’t know or care. Every immortal had their hobbies, or else they…
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“There’s nothing illegal about leaving the city,” David said. “Based on the way people are acting, they’d probably be happy to have us gone. But nobody living in the city knows what it’s like out there, except for the retrieval teams. And they don’t live out there, they just visit. But you… you know. And you’ve got the magic of a whole army. And you probably have the money to outfit us.”She didn’t, not if he was right about the “half the bats” figure. But she knew where to get…
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The world basically ended when Charybdis finally rose from the sea.Ancient writers of the human world had long speculated about such abominations, and the reign of madness and ecstasy they might bring. Those ancient writers had foreseen the destruction that they would bring to every nation, as their servants rose and brushed aside the organic life like dust in a breeze. There were no Elder Signs, no supernatural means by which the desperate defenders might easily overcome. Their enemy outnumbered them, had…
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I took little pride in being right. The guards searched us right there on the street, though they didn’t find much. I had a knife kept somewhere obvious, and a few tools I’d hidden away a little better. Calico hadn’t brought anything they cared about, though they stole her little pouch of bits and seemed to enjoy just how hurt it made her look. I hope that isn’t everything you had left.We went straight into the sewer entrance I’d found, then down a series of tunnels until it connected with the…-
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Falling was nothing new to me. Flying wasn’t exactly my special talent. But I’d never tried falling down a trapdoor at the bottom of a fancy dungeon before.I don’t recommend it.I smacked into the walls more than once, conscious of a distant gray glow and a squealing unicorn in the dark space with me. It sounded like Calico was running through the entire repertoire of profanity, and she was surprisingly colorful.Non-flying ponies were all the same—a bit of a drop, and they were tumbling wildly,…
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