This story is a sequel to The Storm and the Scorpion

The Storm King has been defeated, his former subjects are recovering, and the world is being rebuilt, trying to erase all evidence of his tyranny. The new chaos god, the sister of the Equestrian prince Antares, has left Equestria in an attempt to heal from the events of the war, and with the help of her friend, the former seapony Princess Skystar, she travels the world, hoping to find the peace she seeks, even if things do not go the way she hopes.

This story is a sequel to Responsibilities

The 'adventures' of Blank Page continue. Changelings, Griffons and Princesses. At least he have learned his lesson not to volunteer for things anymore.

Yeah. Right.

That would involve him learning from his mistakes and that would be horrible. Celestia in particular finds it rather hilarious.

That's how you end up with Duties.

Cover art by Sipioc

I like to think of the Company as an island of order and sanity in a sea of chaos, selfishness and irrationality. My fellow soldiers tell me I'm a damn foal, and an idealist, and I white-wash the mercenaries of the Black Company in ways that doesn't serve either the Company or them. But I've been given the role of Annalist, in the absence of anyone better-suited and properly lettered, so until they take the Annals away from me, I'm going to write them as I see fit. The Company has been my home since it forcefully recruited me from my unending apprenticeship, and I've seen more interesting medicine in the years since then than a hundred apothecaries, a dozen chirurgeons, or three other doctors with, pfft, "degrees". Most of it screaming for its mama and bleeding out on my surgery table.

They call me Sawbones, and this is the story of the last of the Black Companies.

It has been four hundred and fifty years since the clans of Old Pegasopolis went into exile. The island-nation of Freeport languishes under the rule of the Necrocrats; what began as an idealistic experiment has become a new form of corruption, the ideals of the past lost amid the greed and vain ambition of lesser men. Clan Charger has been all but destroyed, while the Strikers and Doos teeter upon the brink of collapse. There is no hope for the future.

However, when a down-on-his-luck mercenary captain crosses paths with Torch, the last survivor of Clan Charger, it sets in motion a chain of events that will redefine the very face of Freeport itself.

There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.

Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.

This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story was written at the behest of Canary In The Coal Mine, who is sponsoring it on my Patreon. As usual, cover by Zutcha. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

Fantastic prereading help from: Chyre, Danger Noodle, Doctor Disco, and Doggyshakespeare (who also did the Esperanto translation). Thank you all for helping to make this story more readable and more consistent for everyone.