Chapters
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Outside the weather factory, Olivia could hear her world being dismantled. From the sound of it, the enemy was going up and down the dormitory, gathering every pony in the building and emptying their possessions off the clouds. She could hear the clanking of chains as they were put in irons, and barked instructions in Eoch that she could understand even without speaking the language very well.The greatest fear of every citizen of the Solar System and beyond—a slave crew had arrived.She was somewhere…-
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The skycrane was an impressive sight, even for someone with modern biases who had been spoiled many times by new inventions. A cable stretched so high above them she couldn’t even imagine what it must be made of, yet it looked only a few times thicker than her own body. As it got lower, she could see it ended in a metallic apparatus that gripped several trays all at once, with a gyroscopic mechanism connecting them all and holding them level despite the wind.The crane came down on open ground a few…
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515.2 K •
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Flurry Heart had little experience living out on the trail. Whenever her family went out “camping,” it was always with dozens of attendants, where all day to day aspects of camping and survival were taken care of by someone else. She had no idea how to start a campfire, how to sleep without a cot already set up for her, which plants were delicious and which would make her sick.But traveling with the Elements removed a great deal of the insecurity. Applejack knew the wilderness better than anypony…
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Sarah could feel the weight of Pharynx’s attention on her, and couldn’t look away from the rusting barrel of his gun. There was a clear opening at the end, and that darkness seemed like it was going to swallow her.Deep breath, Sarah. You’ve had cons go worse than this. You’ll be fine.She had to be. She still remembered the threats Discord had made, and she knew better than to think they were empty. He had promised if she died during this little adventure, he would somehow bring her back as one of…
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Sarah wasn’t alone for very long. The second car hadn’t even arrived before she felt someone creeping up behind her. That awful drill made it impossible not to “see” in all directions, though those directly in front of her were still clearer. Apparently the sound all echoing together could get muddled enough that she couldn’t discern it clearly.Whoever was trying to sneak up on her wasn’t really all that sneaky. It was a mining bot, with treads instead of legs but a generally humanoid torso.…
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515.2 K •
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Twilight’s castle smelled. Flurry Heart wasn’t exactly surprised by this discovery—there were many ponies packed into a tiny space, with a well that could just barely give them enough water to drink. Even so, teleporting in was a bit like being hit with several of the most traditional earth-pony barns all at once.The mystery of what had happened to most of Ponyville was immediately solved: the entire bottom floor had been transformed into a camp. Tables had been turned sideways to make into little…
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515.2 K •
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Lightning Dust had somewhere to go. When the ponies of Othar were too much—when their strange customs frightened her and their ambition spawned nightmares in her sleep—she could flee to Deadlight’s cafe.It wasn’t really a cafe—Deadlight talked about opening one, but everypony knew he never would. Or if he did, he’d probably serve something weird, like bugs.Lightning Dust had eaten with bats enough times to know never to eat their food without inspecting it first.Deadlight’s cafe was actually…
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For over six months of her life, Flurry Heart had imagined that things could not get worse. She had lived in an endless nightmare of crushed hopes, as she saw the death of all creation. Now that she was seeing that death come to Equestria, she only wished she could have her aunt back.In a mockery of respect, the Storm King had given Flurry Heart Celestia’s own tower to live in. Its incredible luxury and intricate workmanship seemed spoiled by the feet of his strange guards. But that wasn’t even the…
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“Now you’re interesting…” Sarah heard the voice in the void of unconsciousness. The sound of it brought ripples, like the echolocation of a dolphin, illuminating somewhere familiar to her mind more than her eyes. It was the shape of an alley, with an overturned dumpster and a huddle of dirty figures.Somehow she recognized them, even though she was in total darkness. The scrawniest, most pathetic of those children, huddled in back. At least it didn’t get cold enough for freezing, because she…
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515.2 K •
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The radio aboard the Wing of Midnight didn’t alert them very often. Olivia knew that Equestria had little access to radio technology, being mostly limited to universities. With no significant force deployed, she had no reason to be waiting for messages to arrive. They just weren’t coming.Motherlode hadn’t fallen apart in the last few days, despite the tenuous relationship with Grubber and the other soldiers. So far as she knew, the soldiers were perfectly happy to be ordered to leave the town alone -…
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