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Nightmare Night and Nyx

by RealityCheck

Chapter 22

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Chapter 22

Flitter ran down the stairwell as if for her very life. Which, seeing as she had a pair of sinister robe-type cultists with obviously dire intentions for her hot on her tail, was pretty much the case. But she was fleet of foot, and her pursuers were hobbled by their bargain basement robes and vision-obstructing paper masks. She reached the bottom of the stairs and was on a straightaway down the corridor when another cheaply robed pony appeared in her path. "Alpha!" one of the ponies behind her yelled. "Stop her, she saw everything!"

Alpha wasn't the fastest thinker around, but he didn't need much time to grasp the situation. Here came the False Alicorn herself, running like Tirek himself was on her heels, carrying what looked like one of the crystals from the Entrapment Array in her mouth. He didn't have to mentally play out all the ways this could pan out for him to realize he had to stop her right now. He reared up on his hind legs, spreading his forelimbs to block the hallway.

Flitter didn't even slow down. She dove under the pony's robe, between his back legs, out the other side and kept right on running.

The two cultists chasing her weren't so lucky. They were running side by side and weren't so bold as to try and upskirt their dread leader. They split and tried to run around Alpha, only to be neatly clotheslined on either side by Alpha's outstretched limbs. All three ponies flipped in midair and fell to the floor with a crash. Much groaning and pain ensued.

Despite being winded and having done no favors to his back with his landing, Alpha quickly thrashed his way to his hooves. "What's going on here?!" he demanded of the others wildly.

"S-she grabbed one of the Tertiary crystals..." one groaned.

"The big purple one?"

"Yeah... what do we do?"

Alpha fumed. "She's probably running straight back to that traitor Twilight Sparkle with it. We'll never catch her in time. Signal everyone, but tell Lambda and Omega  to make sure the princesses are in the throne room, we have to start Phase One NOW."

"But what about the crystal?"

Alpha did some quick calculations in his head. "Okay, I think I can make a substitution. Get me  three of the lesser amethyst crystals, a tourmaline, some duct tape and a banana. And hurry!"


Flitter barreled around a corner in a panic. The chase was on. She had eluded her pursuers for the moment but word was spreading fast through the Cultists and the number of robed, goofy-masked ponies looking for her was growing by the moment. She didn't know if they wanted Nyx, or just the crystal Flitter had stowed in her trick or treat bag, but whichever it was they wanted it BAD.

Of course, that was why she had taken the crystal. And why she'd Changed to look like Nyx. Her first half-formed plan had been to to trick them into chasing her someplace there was a grownup. But to who? She realized in dismay that she had no idea who ponies went to when bad ponies were up to something.

Okay, first step, find the others, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, any of them. They would know--

To think was to do. It actually didn't take much doing; she'd just had the thought when she ran headlong into Rumble, Pip and Dinky. It seemed Dinky had dropped her trick or treat bag while fleeing from the "cannibal pony" and, Pip's bravado to the contrary, had been too nervous to go back for it. Rumble was magnanimously helping them backtrack through the castle to find the lost candy.

Unfortunately rather than finding a bag of candy they had found an unexpected concussion. All four ponies crashed into each other headfirst and tumbled together across the floor. Flitter was the first to her hooves. She ignored the throbbing in her head and proceeded to sound the alarm. "Guys, you gotta help me! There's ponies-- bad ponies-- they're planning to hurt Nyx!"

"Wait, what?" Rumble said.

"Bad ponies, in robes, " Flitter said. She dropped the purple crystal on the floor between them. "They were doing some weird magic stuff and  talking about how they were gonna trap the Princesses or something and then 'once we destroy Nyx' and 'purge them of their conruptions' and you gotta believe me!" She stood there doing a little frantic little hoofy dance, turning about and trying to look in every direction at once.

Getting the other foals to believe Nyx was in trouble wasn't hard. Every colt and filly in Ponyville, especially her friends, had been somberly instructed by their parents about Nyx; They knew full well that there were bad ponies out there who might try to hurt Nyx because of who she'd once been and they were routinely cautioned to keep an eye out for strangers with bad intentions.  Even if you didn't care for the fact that Nyx was around, somepony who would actually disobey the Princesses just to get at a harmless and helpless little foal probably wouldn't be too careful about who else they hurt.

Still that wasn't the problem.  They struggled to stand up, cries of alarm on their lips... before the peculiarity of the situation sank in. Pip was the first to shake off the surprise--- his fishbowl helmet had kept him from being too dazed by the collision. "Bloomin' 'eck, we gotta warn the Princesses! Nyx is in trouble and..." He paused, a puzzled look crossing his piebald face. "Wait, what? But you're Nyx."

"Noooo!" Flitter said, panicking. "We can't go to the Princesses-- I can't---"

"What're you talking about?" Rumble said, baffled. "I mean, I thought you and the Princesses made up and stuff."

"And if bad ponies are trying to hurt you--" Dinky interjected.

"Not me, Nyx! And the Princesses, too!" Flitter said. In her panic and frustration she'd forgotten her current disguise. "But I can't let the princesses see me, that would be bad!" she pleaded.

Pip was looking thoroughly befuddled. "But you are Nyx," he insisted.

It dawned on Flitter what they were talking about. She was still disguised as Nyx. She looked around in a panic; they were in a small vaulted chamber connecting several passageways. Nopony was there, but she could hear the hoofbeats of her pursuers echoing faintly as they made their confused way around the maze of rooms. "Listen, please, I'm gonna show you something but I really really promise that I'm not bad or evil or anything but you can't tell anyone and you please please please gotta help me!"

Taking their silent, confused stares for assent, she stepped back and dismissed her disguise. There was a splash of green flames, and there she stood before them-- a Changeling filly. slit pupiled eyes, green feathery mane and tail, her insect like wings buzzing nervously.

For the longest moment, they stood there, jaws hanging slack, and Flitter dared to hope that things might go okay. Then Rumble started to shake. His legs shook so hard that he literally fell to the floor; he scooted backwards away from her, eyes wide, pupils pinpricked with helpless terror. "Y-you're a Changeling," he quavered.

Flitter took a step closer. "Please---"

"You're a CHANGELING--!!" Rumble shouted, his throat raw.  He collapsed to the floor. Dinky found her voice a moment  later, her shrill scream ringing off the vaulted ceiling. Pip jumped in front of the little unicorn, trying to be brave. "Get back!" he shouted, lashing out at the air with his forehooves.

There was shouting beyond one of the doorways. Flitter looked around, turned and galloped off as fast as she could. Rumble lay on the floor, gasping for air, and watched her go. Even after she disappeared down the darkened corridor the image of her standing there, all insect-y wings and holey legs and horrible fangs, seemed stuck in his mind.

But the strongest image still in his head was of the look of hurt and betrayal in her eyes.


A banshee floated under the vaulting ceiling, her glowing, tattered robes floating around her. Her ululating wail echoed off the dark stone walls.

"AAAaAAaEeeeAAiiieeeeeeeOuuuuuuoooooouuuhhhh..... ahk. Cough. Ahem. Aherm.....could somepony fetch me a glass of water?"

There was a chuckle from below. A moment later a Headless Horse trotted around the corner, bearing a tray on his back with two glasses of punch. "Somepony ordered a beverage?"

Cadence sighed in relief. "Thank you, sweetheart," she said, levitating one of the cups up to where she dangled from the ceiling by wires. "All that wailing leaves a filly parched." She took a long drink.

"Why are you hanging from wires anyway?" Shining Armor asked. "You can fly..." He doffed his invisible helmet so he could take a sip of his own drink.

"Well yes, but hovering for hours on end? Not hardly."

Shining Armor chuckled. "Sorry I talked you into helping us run the haunted castle?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" Cadence said. "The foals are adorable, and it's so sweet to see young couples huddling together as they roam around the castle."

The Captain of the Guard grinned. "Ahh, oldest trick in the book," he said. "Take a pretty filly to a scary show, and wait for her to throw herself into your side--- or for her to use it as an excuse to." His look turned sly. "And wouldn't you know about all those little tricks, miss Princess of Love.."

"That's Mrs. Princess of Love to you, Buster," she said, crinkling her nose at him.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he murmured, moving in for a kiss.

So of course that was the point three young ponies came galloping into the room yelling their lungs out. The two newlyweds suppressed a groan of annoyance and turned to see what the problem was. They managed to pick some pertinent bits out of the babble of voices. "Wait wait wait," Shining said, "a Changeling? In the palace?"

"Yeah, but little, like us--" Dinky explained, holding a hoof over her head.

"But that's not the important part," Pipsqueak added.

"A  Changeling loose in the castle isn't the important part?" Cadence said in disbelief.

Rumble shuddered, but Pip pressed on. "Yes'm, cause she said that there were bad ponies who were gonna hurt the princesses!-- " He'd picked up the crystal Flitter had dropped. He pulled it out of his candy bag and showed it to Shining Armor. "She said there were ponies in robes doing weird magic stuffs with these."

"And they were gonna capture the Princesses and d-d-destroy Nyx!" Dinky added, almost bursting into tears.

Shining stared at the crystal, suspicious. He was a unicorn, but he was no polymath like his sister. It sort of looked like the sort of crystal one would use, from what he'd learned in the Crystal Empire. But a changeling filly running loose in the castle? Ponies in robes? "Okay kids," he said patiently. "Now I'm sure you thought something was going on but, really, how would a Changeling get in the castle? I'm sure you just ---"

His sentence ended with a loud "whouf!" as something small and piebald hit him in the breadbasket in a perfect Trottingham(1) hoofball tackle. He found himself lying on his back with a small, space-suited time traveler standing on his chest. "Okay, guv, we know where this is going," Pipsqueak said irritably. "So 'ow about we skip all the 'there there little foal' stuff an' get to the part where you believe us and 'elp us save Nyx an' the Princesses?"

Shining Armor gaped in astonishment at the tiny little ruffian standing on his barrel. He chose to ignore the snort of laughter from his still-dangling wife and narrowed his eyes at the little hooligan. Pip didn't back down an inch, glaring at the former Captain of the Guard with his snout an inch away. Yikes, this foal was serious.  "Are you positive about---?" Shining demanded.

"She changed right in front of us," Dinky said. "All green fiery stuff, and stuff." That gave the prostrate Captain of the Guard pause.

"And she was scared," the young pegasus with him said as if it were something important just dawning on him. "Really really scared." His eyes were frighteningly sober.

Shining Armor and Cadence looked at one another. Shining looked at the kids--- Pip gave him the evil eye, waiting for an answer. "All right, all right," Shining said. "Come on, we're going to go see the Princesses about this." The children cheered, and Shining got to his feet to help his wife down out of the flying harness.


Tears half-blinded Flitter as she ran. What had she been thinking? She was a Changeling, a thing ponies told stories about to scare each other. Mother and Father had warned her and warned her, but she hadn't believed them. It had been her first real time among the ponies; they had been so nice to her, she had hoped that maybe they could be her friends, for real. Then she'd shown Rumble and Pip and Dinky what she was, and it had been just like Mother and Father had said it would be.

She could never be friends with them. She could only pretend to be.

It was then that her luck took another turn for the worse. She was blinded by tears, too blinded to see where she was going, and she all but plowed into another group of ponies. Startled by the collision, she fell back on her rump, shaking the tears out of her eyes. She looked up to see several Guards--- some Day, some Night--- looming over her. "It's her, we got her!" one of them shouted.

"Oh no, not you, not NOW," she bawled in frustration. She got to her feet and ran in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait, come back!" the guard she'd head-butted shouted after her.

"Not on your life!!" Flitter yelped over her shoulder, doubling her speed. The guards gave chase. Flitter put her head down and galloped. She was out of time now. She had only one choice.

She had to go to the Princesses herself. She began racing her way back to the royal ballroom, with what seemed like every guard in the place in pursuit.

She was so startled by her run-in with the guards and so set on her goal that she'd failed entirely to notice the ebon, smoke-clad alicorn standing behind them, or the two cloaked and paper-masked ponies standing at her side. "Oh confound it," the Princess said. "I should have realized the guards would spook her. Quickly, let's catch up with the poor thing before she panics and gets herself in danger."

So without any sense of irony whatsoever, Celestia, Cadence, Shining Armor, and the Royal Guard all followed the one who was trying to save them right into the heart of the trap.


Heedless of the mayhem rapidly building a head of steam elsewhere in the castle, Princess Luna held court in the throne room-slash-ballroom as the partygoing ponies danced the night away all around her. At the moment she was lounging on her throne, the Bearers of the Elements and their escorts gathered around her like a flock of butterflies around a night blooming rose. All their attention was centered on a tiny unicorn filly resting in the crook of the Princess' forelimbs. She was dark blue with a pale blue mane, enormous blue eyes, and was five pounds of adorable in a four pound sack. She was sporting a pair of cloth wings and a painted on copy of the Princess' own moon and sky cutie mark. And, strangely enough, a cloak made from a patched blanket and a paper hat made from a map. The filly was in the midst of flipping through an enormous hoof-bound scrapbook and laboriously relating, in her babyish lisp, the story behind each of the pictures inside. It seemed to be mostly about a certain pretty little pony princess and her adventures on the moon...

The filly's mother, a surprisingly unassuming mare made up in a simple witch costume, was close at hand, and very obviously flustered at all the attention. "....So she asked me one day for a story-- a story about a princess," she was explaining. "So I started drawing pictures of, well..." she waved a hoof at the book. "Yourself, your majesty. As a little filly. I just felt the original story was just too upsetting for a little foal, so I changed things around, a bit. It became a thing we did together; I'd ask her what 'Princess Woona' should do next, she would make something up, and I'd draw a new picture showing what happened. She must have snuck it into her candy bag, she was so insistent on showing it to you."

The Princess clicked her tongue in amusement as the filly continued turning the brightly colored pages. "I must say, if the Moon had been this exciting, I never would have left," she murmured. Several of the Bearers laughed.

The mother flushed. "Please believe me, your majesty, I never meant any offense-- I'm terribly sorry--"

The Princess reached out a reassuring hoof and rested it on the mare's shoulder. "Oh, please, don't be!" she exclaimed. "This is absolutely adorable! Please tell me you will have a copy made for me when it is finished; I would love to show this to my sister."

The mare looked at her in disbelief. "You don't mind?"

The Princess rolled her eyes and nodded at the decor. "Believe me, I've had far worse fairy tales told about me," she said with wry amusement. "Tis nice that at least one story should be so light and innocent."

Woona's mother looked about at the Nightmare Night decorations and got the hint. "Oh. Right."

Luna chuckled. "So how were you planning on finishing this ?"

"I'm still not sure," the mare admitted. "Of course Princess Woona has to get back from the Moon, but first maybe something with Discord...?"

The idle conversation was interrupted rather suddenly. There was a commotion at the entryway, as several guards in various states of armor and costume poured in, followed by "Nightmare Moon," who was in turn escorted by two ponies in Changeling costume (Trill and Buzz, who in the hubbub had lost their robes)  and apparently in pursuit of somepony. A lesser commotion filled the stairwell as Cadence and Shining armor made an appearance at the eastern doorway, tailing after several foals. At the western doorway, several ponies in cheap robes and terribly tacky paper masks piled through and bogged down at the door, apparently taken aback by the size of the crowd.

Down the center of the room came Flitter, running like the Devil himself. She was currently disguised as Nyx-- or trying to be. The green Changeling lights  scattered all about the throne room amidst the decor were playing merry hell with her disguise magic, flicking it on and off like a light switch. She dodged among the legs of the grownups, eluding her would-be captors by inches, and slid on her belly across the polished floor to the very foot of the throne, just as her disguise finally sputtered out. What was that phrase??

"Ithrowmyselfonnamercyuvthathrone!" she bawled, throwing her hooves over her head.

The room was thrown into tumult. Guards tried to rush forward to protect the Princess, but were pushed back by the ponies trying to back away from the tiny monster that had flung itself at her feet. The bearers of the Elements clustered around the Princess, and their escorts, trying to prove their chivalry, placed themselves between the tiny changeling and the mares.

Luna, for her part, kept her face deliberately impassive. She of course knew who the changeling was, and couldn't think of a worse possible way for the poor thing to have presented herself to the court, and now other ponies were shouting something about Cultists and ponies in robes, and others were just noticing the very lifelike Nightmare Moon behind them (and there went Lady Winterbottom in a dead faint again) and she knew that at any moment a panicked stampede could break out and that it fell to her to prevent any havoc before it started--

This of course was all summed up with the simple unspoken thought, "Oh horseapples."

She got to her hooves to try to calm the crowd. But before she could speak, terrible events began to unfold.


Outside the immense glass doors that led to the garden, a lone cloaked and paper masked pony (who had been seriously weirding out Octavia's classical quartet) had been standing watch, waiting for the time to come. The soundproofing spells on the windows and french doors was excellent; he couldn't hear a single thing that was going on inside. But he had his orders and knew what to do.

He didn't know what the tumult inside was all about, but he saw that the Elements were all present and accounted for. He saw that Princess Luna was in attendance, and that Princess Cadence and her formidable husband had just arrived, and that pony wearing the Nightmare Moon costume could only be Princess Celestia herself.

He saw the Princesses move together, towards the throne, all of them talking or shouting about something...

Perfect.

Quickly he cast aside his robe and mask and knelt to ignite the fuse of a small skyrocket with his horn. It shrieked into the sky and exploded with a thunderous report and an enormous bloom of golden sparkles, scaring the fudgesicles out of the few uppercrust ponies walking the garden paths.

The explosion was visible in every window of the castle, and audible clear down to the cellars. All over the castle the conspirator ponies knelt and activated the crystals in the array.


There was a tremendous thrummm, a powerful vibration that rang through the stones of the palace. Threads of amber yellow light sparked in the crystal arrays, raced along the lines and rune paths, spread like trails of lightning up and down the halls and corridors and towers of the Lunar Palace like forking branches of golden lightning. Enchanted lights all over the castle popped like party favors in the magical surge. The streaks branched and zigzagged and converged on the throne room, racing along invisible tracks up the walls and merging together at the center of the skylight--- the skylight where an ornate array of crystals, so easily mistaken for a chandelier, was suspended by oricalcine frames and crystal wires. The light unfurled in an amber  ribbon, striking downward like a snake....

And, splitting in three, enveloped Cadence, Celestia, and Luna in light.

All three reared in alarm, wings spread-- then froze in place, trapped in glowing bubbles of light. Auras of gold, silvery blue, and soft pink, began pulsing from each of their horns, seemingly drawn up into the amber lightning, which swelled and branched out to every pony in the room, striking earth pony, pegasus and unicorn alike, binding them in place. The first to be bound were the Bearers; trapped like insects in amber. No matter how they shouted and struggled, they were unable to move from where they hovered. From there the light had lashed out to every pony in the room, trapping them in its golden glow.

Outside, a shimmering indigo bubble of magic dropped down over the Palace. None outside would be getting in to help; none inside could move, their very magical strength feeding into the trap that held them.

Save, it seemed, for the hooded ponies. They trotted into the center of the room, standing in a rough circle before the dais of the throne. The leader pulled his hood back, revealing a pale blue unicorn stallion with a dark black mane.The cries and shouting of the trapped ponies ceased. An ominous silence filled the room.  "Forgive us, your highnesses," Agent Alpha said. "I hope in time you will forgive us for what comes next."

From across the room a voice rang out. It was Spell Nexus; cocooned in magic like everypony else. He gave the pony speaking a gimlet glare. "So, my old assistant--- Sundae Sprinkles," he said, his voice ominous.

There was a pause. "You know, that'd sound a lot more sinister with a better name," Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Nobody asked you," Sundae Sprinkles snapped.

"Our villains are getting so prissy lately..." Rainbow muttered to herself. Sundae Sprinkles ignored her.

"Yes, your old assistant," he said to Spell Nexus. "Here, like always, to clean up after you. Some things never change." he stalked over to glare at the imprisoned wizard eye to eye.

Spell Nexus glared back through the amber bubble. "Just what do you intend to do here, you foolish colt?" he demanded. "Whatever resentment you have for me, for my past sins, do not involve anypony but you and me!"

"Not involved?" Sprinkles said in disbelief. "You believe that your crime against all of Equestria, your crime as the leader of Nightmare Moon's cult, involves nopony else?" he shook his head. "The false alicorn's sorcery has clouded your mind. It doesn't matter; once we have corrected this, your mind will be yours again."

Dread filled Nexus' gut. "What do you intend to do?" he demanded, his voice all too calm.

"I would think that was obvious," Sundae Sprinkles said. "I am here to destroy the last vestige of Nightmare Moon-- once and for all."

"NO!" Twilight's cry of horror cut across the room. Threats and imprecations rained down from the imprisoned Elements. "If'n you lay a hoof on a hair on her head--" Applejack said threateningly.

Sundae Sprinkles ignored them all. "Yes," he said to Nexus. "I've already prepared the circle, elsewhere in the castle. I promise you, nopony will be hurt--"

"Except for the innocent child you murder," Nexus said scathingly. Sprinkles flinched. "I did some monstrous things when I was contaminated with Nightmare Moon's essence, but what you're about to do--"

"She's not a real child!" Sprinkles shouted. "Can't you see that, you old fool? She's-- she's just a malevolent blob of animated magic! A soulless thing! And if we leave it to grow in power, some day it will destroy us all!"

A voice, sweet and powerful and uncannily serene, spoke up. "Even Nightmare Moon was not just a 'thing,' Sundae Sprinkles," Celestia said from her magical imprisonment. She and the other two princesses still stood rampant, their wings raised, frozen in place, a torrent of magic leaching from their horns. Only their eyes could move, and Celestia's tracked the leader of the conspirators as he paced the floor. "Listen to me, my little pony. This is an innocent life you plan to take. If you do this, you will not be able to deny that truth-- and you will regret your actions the rest of your life."

Sundae Sprinkles looked up at the Princess he revered, pain open on his face. "I'm sorry, your Highness," he said sorrowfully. "I'm so sorry for this. But once the Nightmare is gone your mind will be clear. You'll understand...." he looked away. "Find the false alicorn!" he shouted to the other hooded ponies. They scurried to obey, spreading out through the room. There was a shout and a brief struggle, and one of the cultists came trotting back, a tiny black form hogtied and thrown over his back. Twilight whimpered at the sight.

Sundae Sprinkles stepped up to look at the bound filly nose to nose. "So, finally, you horrible thing, we have you right where we---"

One of the Changeling lamps sputtered back to life. There was a flash of green flame, and Sundae Sprinkles suddenly found himself nose to nose, not with a tiny black alicorn filly but a large, full grown and very angry Changeling male. Buzz bared his needle fangs at Sundae Sprinkles and gave him his very best evil hiss.

As it turned out, Spell Nexus wasn't the only high ranking University unicorn who screamed like a filly. The pony who suddenly found himself carrying a befanged horror-pony draped across his back wasn't too bad at hitting the high notes either.

Things got very exciting for a few minutes.

While several of the conspirators had a very busy time trying to pummel and subdue the viciously fighting Changeling, Nexus spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Something was making its way up the underside of the banquet table, rustling the tablecloth as it passed... he could just make out four tiny black hooves under the hem of the tablecloth, making their way towards the end of the long buffet table nearest the still-open doors. Hurry, child, hurry, he pleaded silently with all his might.

Nyx scurried between the table legs as fast as she dared. She'd abandoned all the glowing and clinking accoutrements of her costume, but her hooves were still dangerously loud on the marble floor.

It had been blind dumb luck that she had been near the tables when all the excitement had started. When she'd seen the Princesses and the Elements-- and her mother!-- trapped in glowing magic (and why hadn't it trapped her as well?), she'd hidden under the table in terror. She'd spent Sundae Sprinkles' whole speech under the table, quaking in terror. When the rumpus with the changeling had started (Changelings! In the castle! Was there any end to the nightmares come to life tonight??) she'd decided her only chance was to get to the end of the table line and make a break for the doors. She held her breath, willing herself to be silent as a mouse, and scurried for the end of the buffet line. thirty feet, twenty feet, ten feet....

She stuck her head out from under the tablecloth and peered around carefully. Several Conspirators had borne the Changeling to the ground. Sundae Sprinkles was standing over the bound and badly battered Changeling, breathing heavily. "What is this load of happy horseapples?" he shouted to nopony in particular. He glanced up--

---and looked straight into Nyx's eyes from across the room.

"Run, child, RUN!" She heard Nexus exclaim. There was a crash and the sound of somepony falling to the floor.  She needed no further encouragement; she galloped for the door, dove through, and began running for her life...


1)Less like Ponyville hoofball and more like Rugby. Pip was little but he knew how to take his lumps-- and dish them out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 23 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 18 Minutes
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