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The Successors: Chapter 8

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Summer Sun loved animals, but she never owned a pet.  She was mostly content to look after the woodland creatures that once in a while came wandering out of the forest, offering them food and playing with the gentler ones – rabbits and chipmunks, squirrels and moles, anything cute and cuddly that wouldn’t try to bite her.  But by far Summer’s favorites were the three young red-breasted robins that nested in a small crabapple tree at the edge of their backyard – the very same birds that she had accidentally knocked out of their nest while catching butterflies earlier that year.

With the help of her parents and her sister, Summer had erected a bird feeder near the center of the crabapple grove, and took it upon herself as a personal duty to keep it filled.  She saw the birds often, usually at least once a day, sometimes dragging her sister along with her.  But Blue was happy to oblige; she was rather fond of the robins herself, but she was happier still to see that Summer had found something to do with her time that brought her so much joy.

The birds had grown up quite a bit since their minor misadventure in the spring.  Their wings had lengthened, their mottled brown feathers now streaked with gray.  On cool blue days when the wind was right they would leap from their nest, flapping and fluttering for all they were worth, sometimes crashing harmlessly into the grass below but always rising to try again.  Gradually they were learning to fly on their own, for soon they would need to.

One late autumn afternoon, Summer and Blue arrived to refill the bird feeder (squirrels had started getting into it as the season wore on, so it needed to be refilled more and more frequently).  Summer eyed the nest – the birds stood at its edge, proudly puffing out their orange-tufted chests and fitting their wings as if preparing to take to the skies.  A flock of geese passed overhead as she sat watching, and the three robins seemed to gaze after them with longing in their little black eyes.  This made Summer think.

“Hey, Blue?” she said.  “I was just wondering – why haven’t they flown south yet, with the other birds?  Shouldn’t they have left by now?”

“I guess they just like it here,” Blue offered.  “Or maybe they aren’t ready to fly by themselves.”  A shadow of worry crossed her face.  “I hope it’s not that – they need to go south for the winter soon, and they won’t get far if they can’t fly.”

“I wish they didn’t have to go,” Summer .  “I mean, if they like it here, why can’t they stay?  We can take care of them!”

“Maybe we could,” said Blue.  “But that’s not what’s best for them, Summer.  I like them too, but I hope they leave.  They’ll be happier in the south than they would be here.  It’s just too cold.”

The robins looked down at the fillies, eyeing Summer with special affection.  They tweeted happily to see their friend and caretaker again, but that sad longing for the south hadn’t left their eyes.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Summer said to them.  “But… but if that’s what you have to do….”

Before she could say any more, the robins leapt from the nest in unison, winging their way through the gnarled, twisted branches and into the cold air.  For a moment they hovered overhead, singing a sweet, thin little song together before vanishing above the treetops and into the gray autumn sky.

“Wow,” said Blue.  “I guess they can fly after all.”

The next day the fillies returned to the grove to find the nest empty.  Summer was saddened to bid her friends farewell, but there was a kind of joy mingled with her melancholy; wherever they were, she was sure they were happy.


When Stargazer had suggested that Corona help Ghost get “settled in,” Corona had taken this to mean giving the little changeling a tour of the palace. She had started with the royal bedrooms, moved down to the kitchen (where she indulged in a small snack), made quick stops by the library and the armory, and finally ended up outside in the palace gardens. Ghost had been mindful enough to resume her owl disguise, which drew a few strange glances from passing guards and officials but otherwise attracted little attention. Corona trotted with a spring in her step, beaming brightly and enjoying the sun and the fresh air, and Ghost bounced happily along perched on her back.

The gardens were especially lively at this time of year, and the great hedgerow maze was the liveliest part of all. Flowering vines crept all over the perfectly-cut hedge walls, dashing the green shrubbery with bright spots of yellow, purple, and white. The maze was one of Corona’s favorite places in Canterlot, partly for the flowers, but mostly for the butterflies that congregated around the blossoming flora. It made her think of home.

Fluttering haphazardly by the hedges amidst the butterflies was a young pegasus mare, snipping away at the foliage with a pair of hedge clippers. Corona recognized her on sight by her purple-splotched white coat and red mane. “Hey, Labyrinthia!” she called out. “What’s up?”

“Oh! Uh, hey there, your highness!” The pegasus set down the hedge clippers and waved. Then she winged her way, a little clumsily, over to the princess and landed with a courteous bow. “Just workin’ on the hedges, y’know? Gets kinda tricky around this time of the year, with all the flowers blooming and all. But I finally finished fixing the maze. Oh, hey, what’s that?” The owl atop Corona’s back had caught her attention. She trained her wall-eyed gaze on the bird as best she could; her two eyes, one blue and one purple, refused to point in the same direction.

“This is my new friend!” Corona said.  “I call him Ghost.  We found him in the Everfree Forest.  And Ghost?  This is Labyrinthia, royal maze-keeper extraordinaire!”

“Aw, Princess,” Labyrinthia smiled bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof.  “I don’t know if I’d say that….”

“Well, I sure would.” Corona gave the pegasus a friendly pat on the shoulder. Labyrinthia was one of the first ponies to befriend her when she came to live in Canterlot some months ago.  The two had bonded over their shared fondness for the gardens. Though she was by all accounts a very nice pony, and very good at her job, not many others among the palace staff had the patience to put up with Labyrinthia’s clumsiness. As such, Corona’s friendship meant a great deal to her.

“…so I’m just letting little Ghost here have a look around,” Corona finished explaining. “He’s gonna be staying here for a while, probably.”

“Wow,” said the pegasus. “That’s really, really cool, Princess. Are you gonna take him through the maze?”

“Yep! That’s the last stop on our tour. Thanks for working so hard on it. You did say it’s finished, right?”

“Yes ma’am, your highness, ma’am!” Labyrinthia saluted with a hoof. “I fixed that, um… that bad spot out in the middle. You can get through now.” A small hint of shame crept into her voice, and she mumbled, “I’m sorry about last time.” A little over a week ago she had been assigned to redesign the maze and had inadvertently made it unsolvable halfway through, where the correct path led to an insurmountable hedge-wall. She looked at the ground and sighed sadly as she thought back on her mistake. “I just don’t know what went wrong….”

“It’s okay!” Corona assured her, smiling cheerfully as though it didn’t matter at all. “It was just an accident. I mean, everpony makes mistakes sometimes, right? Even at the things they’re best at. It’s no big deal.”

Labyrinthia smiled. “Thanks, your highness.” With that, she led the princess and her new friend to the maze entrance and wished them luck, though she added that she hoped they wouldn’t need it.

The maze, Corona reflected as she meandered along, was at once like and completely unlike the Everfree Forest. The high hedgerows towered over her like the forest’s ancient trees, but they were so alive with color, with the cheery song of birds and the vibrant dance of butterfly wings, that they seemed welcoming rather than intimidating. Here and there throughout the labyrinth were tunnels of overgrowth where long vines clung together overhead like the forest’s canopy, but in the bright daylight the close growth made Corona feel cozy instead of claustrophobic. If the Everfree was nature’s dank cellar, the maze was its party room.

The labyrinth proved to be challenging, but not frustrating. Labyrinthia hadn’t altered it too much, so many of the twists and turns were familiar to Corona from the last time she had attempted to find her way through. Ghost seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself as well; from time to time she would fly down from the princess’s back to get a closer look at some plant or chase after an insect that caught her eye. Corona would follow along, explaining everything she knew about this particular flower or that particular species of beetle.  There seemed to be nothing that didn’t excite Ghost’s curiosity.

“You’ve never seen anything like this before, have you?” Corona finally asked. “Not while you were living in that spooky old ghost town next to that murky old swamp. This place must be like a whole new world for you, right?”

Ghost nodded slowly, her owl-eyes full of awe and wonder.

“It’s okay,” said Corona. “I kind of know how you feel. Blue and I felt that way too when we came to live in Canterlot. But it’s a really homey kind of place once you get used to it. C’mon, we’re almost halfway through, and there’s plenty more cool stuff for you to see!”

Ghost smiled, as much as an owl can smile, and on they went.

By and by they reached the halfway point of the maze. It was here that Labyrinthia had clearly done the most new work; Corona didn’t recognize any of it at all. There were spiraling dead ends and baffling four-way intersections, though with some trial and error they managed to find their way. The sun princess was not as clever a navigator as her sister, but she had learned a few things from Aurora over the years; for instance, she knew how to determine her direction from the position of the sun in the sky, which proved useful when they got badly turned-around in a wide spiral.

Eventually they came to a T-shaped fork, with alternate routes going left and right.  As Corona stopped to think, the faint sound of approaching hoofsteps came echoing from around the corner to the left.  Somepony was coming.

Before Corona could speak, Ghost started to sniff the air, in the manner of a dog that had caught some familiar scent on the wind. Then she started to tremble, whimpering uneasily, as if she recognized the scent as something evil and foreboding. She hopped to the ground and hid behind the princess’s forelegs, still shivering.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Corona asked her, deep concern in her voice. When Ghost refused to answer, she looked back up at the paths ahead. The hoofsteps were growing louder, nearer, as their mysterious source came closer and closer to rounding the bend. “Is somepony out there?” the princess called out nervously. “Who-who’s there?”

At last a pony stepped around the corner. She was a tall unicorn, much like Lord Stargazer, with a dark blue mane and a coat that was nearly white – a bit duller than Aurora’s, perhaps a tad grayish, and the Cutie Mark on her flank resembled a pink-and-purple compass point with a black swirl at the center. The green scarf around her neck indicated that she was from the Arcane University, and the small pair of glasses perched neatly on her snout gave her a scholarly appearance. She looked harmless enough, even friendly, but something about her seemed to make Ghost terribly uneasy.

“Oh! Good afternoon, your highness,” said the unicorn. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I just haven’t had the chance to wander this maze in years – when I got here and saw that the gardens were open again I just couldn’t resist. A maze is such a pleasant intellectual challenge, don’t you agree? I’ve certainly always thought so. Oh, I use to spend so much time among these hedges, back when I was a student….” Her light pink eyes began to glaze over with memories, but quickly she snapped out of it. “Yes, sorry. Just reminiscing, your highness.”

“Who… who are you?” Corona asked.  “I haven’t seen you around before, and I know almost everypony in the palace.  Are you from the university?”

“Oh! Oh dear, I just realized I forgot to introduce myself.” The unicorn bowed. “My name is Professor Somnambula, from the Arcane University. I’m here to help.”

“Um… thanks.”  Corona eyed her half-suspiciously, still unnerved by Ghost’s fearful reaction.  Still, for the moment there seemed to be no reason not to trust her.  “Right, they told us you were coming. But I thought you wouldn’t be here for at least an hour….”

“Well, yes,” said Somnambula, “ordinarily I’m still teaching a history class at this time, but I released my students a wee bit early today. It’s such a wonderful afternoon, and I’m sure they were all bored with hearing me lecture. We were covering the last two centuries of the Pre-Sparkle Period today, and not even I could sit through a lecture about that uneventful age.” She laughed.  Then the little owl hiding behind Corona’s forelegs caught her eyes.  “Ah, I see you’ve brought your new friend with you.”

Ghost looked up at her in fear. “Hey, don’t worry,” the professor said comfortingly. “You needn’t be afraid of me. It’s all right, I know who you are. I won’t hurt you.”

The unicorn’s horn began to glow a purplish-pink while bands of similarly-colored light formed around the stocky little owl. Suddenly they began to swirl and glow brighter, and Ghost’s disguise came unraveled like a roll of fabric, spinning away in streamers of magical light. In moments the light had died down, and Ghost lay there in changeling form with her stomach to the ground and her forelegs folded protectively over her head. Being revealed in such a way only made her even more fearful, but Somnambula’s pleasant demeanor made it clear that she intended no harm.

“Ah! Just as I was told. She’s clearly emaciated, though it looks like she’s slowly getting her strength back. Oh my, I hope I haven’t frightened her too badly.  Sometimes changelings get that way around powerful unicorns, you know.  It has to do with our magical auras, you see, and the way changelings, as a magnivorous species, are subject to more powerful extrasensory – ”

“Um – excuse me, professor?” Corona interjected.  “Maybe we’d better get back to the palace.  My sister’ll probably wanna know you’re here now….” She turned to look back at the endless maze of hedgerows behind her. It would be quite a long walk back through the labyrinth, she realized, and Ghost still didn’t look up to walking that distance. Then Somnambula spoke up, having noticed the worry on the princess’s face.

“Oh, wait! Hold on a moment if you please, Princess.  If you and our little friend could just hold still for a moment…” Her horn began to glow again, and purple-pink bands of light, much larger than the ones before, formed around the trio in a wide circle. Once again they swirled and spun, building up to a tremendous flash – and an instant later, when the light had died down, Corona found herself, Ghost, and Somnambula standing at the back entrance to the palace, well outside of the labyrinth.

“Wow,” said Corona, greatly impressed. “You’re really good at teleporting.”

“Thank you, your highness.” Somnambula’s face flushed a tiny bit at the praise. “It’s just a matter of keeping one’s magi-cognitive matrix aligned with the spatial… oh dear, I’m rambling again, aren’t I? Please do excuse me. As you said, I’m sure Princes Aurora will want to see me as soon as possible.” Turning, she trotted lightly through the gate, looking around with wide eyes full of nostalgia and talking (mostly to herself) about her fond memories of the place. She seemed to have quite a few.

“C’mon, Ghost,” Corona prodded her changeling friend, who was still lying on the ground in fear. “We have to go. Professor Somnambula’s gonna help us figure out how to take care of you. Please?”

The little changeling stirred and looked up at Corona, her anxious, pleading eyes showing through the tangled, stringy mess of her mane. “Please,” she squeaked. “No hurt. Please.”

“What are you talking about? Nopony’s gonna hurt you. It’s okay, I’ll take care of you. Now c’mon.”

At last Ghost rose tepidly, assuming her owl disguise again, and hopped onto the princess’s back. Satisfied, Corona quickened her pace to catch up with Somnambula.  She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly off.  Ghost’s frightened pleading continued to echo in her mind even as the professor continued to reminisce, and an old familiar knot of worry began to form in her stomach. She did her best to soothe it with thoughts of her sister, assuring herself that Aurora would solve whatever problems arose, as she always did. It helped a little.

When they arrived at the throne room, Princess Aurora and Glass Eye were there, apparently deep in a conversation of their own.  Glass Eye lit up visibly at the sight of his granddaughter, and before either princess had a chance to say anything Somnambula rushed over to him and wrapped her forelegs around his neck in a tender, wordless hug.  Though she was taller than her grandfather, she suddenly seemed much younger and smaller than before, like a foal in his embrace.  After a moment had passed they separated.

“My dear Somnambula,” he greeted her.  “It’s so good to see you again.  I haven’t heard from you in such a long time….”

“Sorry, Grandfather.  I’ve just been so very busy – I’ve had to devise the new history course, archive all of my field research, work with the medical department on the – Oh!”  Suddenly she stopped herself short, remembering who else was in the room with her.  “I’m sorry, your highnesses.  I have a tendency to ramble.”  She bowed her head to Aurora.  “I was told you had need of an expert on changelings.  I suppose you’d like to get down to business, as it were?”

“I would,” Aurora answered, nodding.  “It’s important that we get this resolved right away.  There are many ponies in Ponyville who need help as quickly as possible.”

“Yes, well,” Somnambula said, clearing her throat and slipping into a more professional tone, “it goes without saying that helping those afflicted by the drain is our top priority.  Fortunately, the cure I’ve developed is just about ready to be administered.”

“Um… what exactly is it?” Corona piped up.  “The cure, I mean.  How’s it work?”

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s all very technical,” Somnambula apologized.  “Neurotransmitter enchantments, Starswirl’s Law, psychic regeneration, dreadful jargon like that – it wouldn’t make a two bit’s worth of sense to anyone who hasn’t spent years studying emotional magic.”

“It’s fine, professor,” said Aurora.  “As long as it works.”

Their discussion continued for several dull minutes, and Corona sat down tiredly and listened while Aurora, seemingly content, led them from subject to subject – the state of the Ponyville patients, the means of delivering the cure, and so on.  By now Ghost had dropped her disguise again, safe to do so in the relative privacy of the throne room; maintaining an assumed form for any length of time could be tiresome even for a well-fed changeling, and the constant form-changing had clearly taken a toll on her stamina.  Even so, Ghost seemed unusually uncomfortable, shifting about uncomfortably and pacing in small, nervous circles until Corona simply pulled her close with a foreleg to keep her still.  Being held seemed to calm her down a little, though she continued to squirm whenever the taller ponies – particularly Somnambula – glanced down at her.

“Well, if that’s decided,” Glass Eye said eventually, “I suppose that just leaves the matter of what to do with Princess Corona’s new friend….”

“She’s got to go home, you know,” Aurora said evenly.  “We can’t keep her here.”

Somnambula nodded in agreement.  “Princess Aurora is right, I’m afraid.  It really isn’t healthy for changelings to live among ponies – for the changeling, or for the ponies she’s living with.”

“What?” Corona cried in protest, protectively pulling Ghost into a tighter embrace.  “But… but I can take care of her!  I promise she won’t be any trouble!”

“We can’t keep her hidden forever,” Aurora asserted.  “Sooner or later somepony would find her out.  Summer, I’ve done my research about current politics.  Our relations with the swarms are still… still complicated.  Nopony would accept a rogue changeling living in the royal palace.”

“And it’s not just that, your highness,” added Somnambula.  “Changelings can be taught to willingly reciprocate love and live peacefully with other races – that’s Silvermist’s Principle of Reciprocation, of course, and it’s half the reason the changeling swarms aren’t a threat anymore – but they learn best from others of their own kind.  A lonely little changeling like her wouldn’t have a happy life here if we can’t keep her properly fed.”

The professor looked down at Ghost with kindly eyes and a gentle smile.  “I know you’re probably scared right now,” she said softly, as if speaking to a frightened child.  “But I promise I can find your real home again.  Just give me a chance.”

Aurora eyed her curiously.  “How do you mean to do that?”

“A pony doesn’t perform a three-month field study of changeling swarms without learning how to track them,” Somnambula explained proudly.  “If you and Princess Corona could show me where little Ghost was living when you found her, I ought to be able to figure out where the rest of her swarm flew off to.  There are signs I could look for – shed skins, habitation remnants, even magical impressions in the air and the soil.  It would be no trouble at all, I assure you.”

“That sounds splendid,” said Glass Eye.  He turned to Aurora.  “What do you think, Princess?  Shall we proceed?”

“We can’t!” Corona cried.  “I – we – but Ghost was gonna stay here with me!  She likes it here!  I gave her the tour and everything!  And she’s just finally started to trust me, too.  Blue, please – we can’t send her back!”

“Summer, we have no choice!” Aurora snapped, then quickly regained her composure.  Turning, she walked a short distance from the two unicorns and motioned for Corona to follow for a private conversation.  When her sister reached her side, she spoke again in a low, harsh whisper.  “Summer, we’ve been over this already.  We can’t risk somepony finding out that we’re harboring a changeling in our own home.  There are plenty of nobles who already doesn’t trust us, who want to discredit us any way they can – if something like this got out, they might go so far as to call it an act of treason.  We’ve got to send her back.”

Corona tried to stammer out an argument, but found that she had nothing to say in her defense.  Aurora was right, like it or not.  “I’m sorry, Blue,” she whispered, hanging her head morosely in defeat.  “I’m just worried about Ghost, y’know?  I mean, when we found her she was all alone and starving.  What’ll happen to her if we don’t take care of her?”

Aurora sighed wearily, but sat down by Corona’s side and draped a comforting foreleg around her.  “She’ll be all right.  Professor Somnambula is right – she’ll have a better life with her own kind than we can give her here.”

“But her swarm just left her behind!  What if they don’t want her back?”

“Then we’ll find another swarm that does want her.  Sis, I’m sorry.  I know she means a lot to you, but… but this is kind of decision we have to make as leaders.  We have to do what’s best for our people, not what makes us happy.  Ghost will be better off with other changelings, we’ll be better off without having to worry about her, and Equestria will be better off with rulers who aren’t busy trying to look after one little changeling.”

Slowly, sadly, Corona nodded agreement.  Her sister’s words rang true, and as much as they made her heart sink she knew she couldn’t argue with them.  “Well… can I at least have some time to say goodbye to her?  Can we wait until tonight to take her back?”

Aurora smiled.  “Sure, Summer.  That sounds fine.”

Together, the sisters returned to wrap up the discussion.  “Here’s what we’ll do,” Aurora announced, filling her voice with authority.  “This evening, we’ll take the train back to Ponyville to deliver the cure, and to search for the changeling’s swarm.  Professor, can you be ready by then?”

“Certainly.  I’ll just head back to the university, start gathering my things.  If you’ll excuse me, your highness….”  With the princess’s nod of approval, she excused herself from the room.  Corona couldn’t help but notice that Ghost seemed to relax a great deal as soon as she was gone, ceasing her uncomfortable squirming.

“Now,” Aurora continued, turning to her adviser.  “Glass Eye, see to it that our train is ready to leave just before sundown.  In the mean time, if it’s all right with you, I’ll be getting some rest.  If I’m going to be up late again tonight, I’d like to be at my sharpest.”  She began to make for the door herself, stopping for a moment to turn back to her sister.  “Hey, Summer – do you want to join me?  You could probably use some sleep, too.”

“Oh.  Um… no thanks, sis.”  Corona sat down and wrapped a warm foreleg around her changeling friend.  “I just wanna spend some time with Ghost.  If that’s okay.”

“Of course.  I understand.”  She offered Corona a sad, sympathetic smile – it was all she could do, really – and vanished through the door.

“Excellent, excellent,” said Glass Eye.  “I’m so very glad we were able to resolve this dilemma.  Now if you’ll excuse me as well, I’ll make the arrangements with the train station.”

“Hey, Glass Eye?” Corona called, catching him before he could get far.  “Listen, I… well, um… how do I put this?  Is there… I mean, do you know of anything… weird… about Somnambula?”

“I beg your pardon, your highness?”  His tone was not disrespectful; he sounded genuinely confused.  “Whatever do you mean?”

“Ghost didn’t like her.  She seemed really scared of her for some reason.  Professor Somnambula said it was because changelings sometimes react that way to powerful unicorns, but Ghost never had any problems around you, or Tally Mark, or Lord Stargazer.  I mean, I was just wondering... you don’t know if anything’s up?”

“Princess Corona, I assure you,” Glass Eye sputtered, “There’s absolutely nothing sinister about my granddaughter.  I know her better than anypony, and if there were any reason to be afraid of her, I would most certainly be aware of it.”

“Well… okay,” Corona said dejectedly.  “Sorry.  Just wondering.”

“You needn’t apologize, your highness.  I understand your concerns, though I can promise you that they are entirely unnecessary.”  He paused for a moment in thought, as if pondering his words to make certain that they were altogether true.  “Actually,” he began after a moment, “I suppose it is possible that her Ghost’s fear of Somnambula might have some rational basis.  It is possible that they have met before.”

Now this made Corona curious.  “Met before?  How?”

“You may recall,” Glass Eye explained, “how Somnambula mentioned that she once performed a lengthy field study of changelings.  It was… oh, about two years ago now.  She spent three months in the wild on the trail of a small nomadic swarm that had been sighted here and there across Equestria.  At one point her travels led her through the far northerly stretches of the Everfree Forest – perhaps there she encountered the swarm to which your changeling friend belonged.”

“Two years ago...” Corona echoed.  “That’s right about when the ponies in Ponyville started seeing Nightmare Moon, isn’t it?”  She looked down at the little changeling.  “Was that your family, Ghost?  Was that when you got lost?  You must’ve been really little back then, huh?”

Ghost made no reply.  She simply snuggled up against Corona’s side, murmuring incoherently.

“Well,” said Glass Eye, clearing his throat, “at any rate, it seems the most likely explanation.  Young Ghost was traveling together with her swarm when they crossed paths with a strange unicorn.  Ghost became frightened and separated from her fellow changelings in the commotion, and was consequently left behind in the forest with unpleasant memories of the pony who caused it all.”

“Yeah… I guess that makes sense.”  She didn’t like it, and she still wasn’t wholly convinced, but for the moment there seemed to be nothing else she could do but go along with it.

“Indeed,” Glass Eye agreed.  “Well, as I said earlier, I must make arrangements for transport to Ponyville.  If you’ll excuse me, your highness….”  With that, he left the throne room, leaving the princess alone with the changeling at last.

Corona stood up, heaving a sad and heavy sigh as she did so.  “C’mon Ghost,” she said, filling her voice with as much artificial cheer as she could muster.  “Let’s go finish the maze, okay?  I did say there’s still plenty of cool stuff for you to see.  C’mon, let’s go!”  Ghost rose, assuming her owl disguise one last time, and the princess led her from the room in the hopes that the dancing butterflies and flower-dotted hedgerows might raise their spirits again, even if only a little.  If this was to be their last day together, Corona wanted it to be a happy one.
Chapter 1: fav.me/d5bc4dq
Chapter 2: fav.me/d5bple7
Chapter 3: fav.me/d5e1wqe
Chapter 4: fav.me/d5g0o0r
Chapter 5: fav.me/d5onu3v
Chapter 6: fav.me/d65au8f
Chapter 7: fav.me/d6apku3
Chapter 8: You Are Here
Chapter 9: fav.me/d6y4pjr
Chapter 10: fav.me/d76dow6
Chapter 11: fav.me/d7i8utc
Chapter 12: fav.me/d7jwg7k
Chapter 13: fav.me/d7ldtn8
Chapter 14: fav.me/d7mpyy4
Chapter 15: fav.me/d7pv0tp
Chapter 16: fav.me/d7u17yf
Chapter 17: The Successors: Chapter 17
Chapter 18: The Successors: Chapter 18

As promised, Corona gets to star in this chapter.  Also, introducing Somnambula!  She's a fun pony to write, though it's
sometimes tricky coming up with magical techno-jargon for her to ramble about.
© 2013 - 2024 Portmeirion
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Valkyrie-Girl's avatar
Yay you got it to work!

And huzzah for Corona getting the spotlight! She is such a cutie and I love how she dotes on little Ghost. Who is also a cutie. You did such a good job on Somnambula to! She such a giant nerd and I love it. And Labrynthia!

It's really cool to see the plot moving forward now as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything unfolds. Once again, I cannot thank you enough for this.