Chapters
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Hayden felt the eyes on her at every moment. She moved through the dark space with Achelois strapped across her back and two of the Blackwings flanking her. She wore her own armored uniform as well, though without the rifle. It wasn’t proper for a general commanding an army to also wield common weapons as though she were nothing more than one of the enlisted troops.This was far from the elegant, courtly dance she had expected. The commanding officers here were all haggard and desperate. She expected to…-
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There had been casualties, it turned out. Without enough of the sword-proof armor to go around, her cannon crews wore only what most of Hayden’s soldiers wore: cloth uniforms. They had spent their resources on better weapons, not anything else. It was the best they could do.Three of her ponies had been killed—though one of those was assumed, as a heroic earth pony named Bronze Bell had severed the cables holding in one of the guns, using it to dislodge the remaining griffons and save the rest of his…
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Hayden felt the faint thumps against the hull as a few griffons managed to latch themselves on, and had to resist the urge to rush back and try to fight off boarders. She doubted even the most determined Stonebeaks would manage to get into the hull anywhere but the parts of it they’d damaged, particularly since the cargo areas had already been structural weaknesses. They couldn’t just seal off the airlocks and hope for the best, not when all their powder and munitions were stored inside. If some clever…
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For the months leading up to the first battle in Icefalls, Hayden had imagined what it might be like on the day the Grand Fleet arrived at her gates. Somewhere subconsciously she had been imagining her own experience in war—a few dozen insurgents at a time, never clearly seen. They would man some defenses, hide behind some sandbags and occasionally return mortar fire.This wasn’t Icefalls, but even so it wasn’t anything close to what she had pictured. Glancing at long-distance radar images could not…
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They had been underway for nearly an hour before Hayden heard something she hadn’t before—a voice from the ship, speaking in clinical English. “We are receiving an incoming message from the HMS Neptune.”Guards and ponies all over immediately stopped what they were doing, staring off in all directions for the speaker. Except Skylark, who looked to Hayden instead.“What’s that? Is that… bad?”“No.” Hayden reached out, pressing the “message accept” icon that had just lit up.She was…
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“This is a bad idea,” Nightbreeze spoke from behind her, her voice distant and annoyed. “I guess we’ve had lots of bad ideas lately.”Hayden did her best to ignore the bat, focusing all her attention on what she was watching below. Hovering like this took a little more concentration than simple flying, which meant riding the balance between deciding what to do and relying on her instincts. Well, relying on Luna’s instincts, since Hayden didn’t know the first thing about this.The world below…
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Students scattered from around the empty classroom, leaving the artifacts of their new day of study littering the ground like leaves. Star Swirl hadn’t had to tell any of them to flee, but Hayden could see the emotion on his face. His horn glowed faintly for a few seconds, as though examining several different spells before ultimately rejecting them all.“That’s it, then,” he finally said, the chalk that had been levitating beside him snapping into little pieces and raining down like powder.…
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Hayden realized the north was changing the moment she saw weather-ponies lounging around the square by noon, instead of their distant specks in a desperate battle against the clouds. Layers of ice sloughed off rooftops, and the streets began to clear. A day or two later, the great waterfall after which the city was named began to roar with life, creating a background hum that never quite went away.Most important of all, though, was that the city was still there. Icefalls had not devoured itself with…
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Hayden met the princess on the castle ramparts. Princess Luna did not attempt to return to her disguise—considering the display she had just put on for every citizen in Icefalls, there probably wasn’t much of a point. She had acquired her sword, Achelois, probably through the same means Hayden had the last time she used it. I wonder what would happen if I was carrying it when she tried to summon it.Hayden landed behind her, the only pony who had dared approach her up here. There were a few guards on…
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Hayden was in a daze. She listened to the drums—that beat meant a sighting from two stations down along the wall. That particular beat signaled at least one airship. She could tell no more from merely listening.“Sargent, get East Wind back to the keep!” she ordered, turning to take off. She didn’t even wait for a response from the pony, just beat her wings and leapt off the side of the wall. She caught herself in a smooth parabola that took her up above the edge, where she could get a good look…
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