Chapters
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“There,” Nightbreeze proclaimed, after twenty minutes of painfully slow work. “Not that you’ll wear that again. But if you did want to, you’d be able to.” She carried the last of several hangers into the wardrobe.“Thank God.” Hayden stretched each of her limbs in turn, feeling as though she’d just had shackles removed from all over her body. “Every time I moved I thought I was going to tear something.”“Well… you did. Damage the dress, I mean. Not that it matters—one of Luna’s…-
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Hayden could not have easily described what about this pony made him so attractive. A month ago, she might’ve been so disgusted she rejected the feelings outright, or worse, made it clear just how she felt right in front of him. Lord Golden Glow was taller than she was, more muscular as well. He wore a tailed suit like the other stallions, only he didn’t seem like he cared about how he looked.Instead of fluffy and loose like most of the other suits (including the one his butler was wearing), his was…
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But Nightbreeze had been right about the ritual, just as she had been right about a great deal. There was nothing dramatic, at least not to her. Hayden listened to the ponies as Princess Celestia and Luna formally accepted oaths of loyalty from each of the house lords—which thankfully didn’t include her. She was here as a member of Luna’s house, so all she had to do was sit and listen as quietly as possible.She got many stares, whispers, ponies pointing at her, but that was all.When the ceremony was…
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“Don’t you think this is a bad idea?” Hayden asked, shifting uncomfortably on her hooves. After spending well over a month naked most of the time, putting on so much clothing felt strange. The fact that it was an overblown, elaborate dress certainly didn’t help matters.Hayden had finished construction in her room, or at least most of it. Even so, Luna had insisted they would see her clothier on the other side of the castle. A crowd of gawking ponies lingered just outside, passing by the shut door…
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Hayden kept her eyes defiantly on the ground—there would be no concealing their strange pattern from this ruler once she saw. No concealing her wings, if she asked her to remove the robe. I hope Luna was wrong about you, she thought. Otherwise, I’m dead. Her colleagues at work had always joked she would be killed by a wild animal on one of her hikes. This probably hadn’t been what they had in mind.“Rise, Lady Evening Star,” Celestia commanded. “That… is your name, is it not? My sister just…
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A few days passed in uneventful study. Each day Luna would visit, asking about what she had learned and quizzing her at random. She kept trying to call emergency services, though each time there was nothing more than an endless ring.Each day Hayden tried to learn when she might be going home, and each time she was rebuffed. She memorized a complex series of lies, which taken together would explain who she was and where she’d come from. Only her unique physical traits—slitted eyes, sharp teeth, and bat…
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Hayden looked in, surveying her new living quarters. Her wings twitched a little as she did so, betraying some of her worry that this might be a trick. How easily would it be to trick her into a cell, where she could be locked away and made to be quiet. They still hadn’t given her back her gun, which hardly filled her with trust.But it wasn’t a cell, didn’t seem to have a lock at all in fact. In terms of living quarters, Hayden would’ve compared it with an upscale hotel… or at least an upscale…
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Hayden’s search for a mirror paid dividends in very short order. The tower had a bathroom, though like everything else it was built to a medieval standard. That meant it was part of the same room as the bedroom, with a woven screen to separate it and nothing else. The rest of the facilities were… similarly primitive, betraying an underlying ignorance of sanitation and hygiene.What I could do with a handful of general contractors and a trip to the Home Depot… but there were no general contractors…
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There was nothing wrong with crying, except that it was a total waste of time. Hayden stopped crying, wiped away the remaining moisture from his face, then set about exploring his surroundings. So, he was a captive—he could at least learn more about his captors. Maybe that would help him negotiate for his release.Besides, having glasses meant he could see where he’d been imprisoned, could take in details that he might’ve missed when everything was a blur. And what a prison it was.On the one hand, it…
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Hayden was slow to wake, in the cold and the dark. His memory was a mess, and what he did remember just didn't make any sense. His weekend hikes were always an adventure, even though he was walking trails he had visited many times before. He remembered the voice, a voice that came from his earbuds over the music he'd been listening to. It hadn't been a call—that was the first thing he'd checked. There was no service in Denver’s mountains. That was the whole reason he came out in the first place.Then…
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