//------------------------------// // Banshee's Lament // Story: Autumn // by canonkiller //------------------------------// ~I hate, no, despise sounding needy or egotistical in any sense, but I have noticed that a lot of people are both viewing and tracking this story. I really want to get back on the Featured, but the rating is .4 stars too low. I would like to encourage anypony who enjoys reading this story to uprate, and I thank you all for looking at this story at all. Oh, and this story will have two parts. Part one will be coming to a close soon. Sorry about my odd update times, Ice~ Obsidian woke up surrounded by pale light, with the pink draconequus he had assumed was a mirage leaning over his chest. As his vision focused, he was relieved to find it was made of plastic-y panels and metal gears. It looked up as he shifted. "Not as much." He sat up, looking down at his hoof, and seeing it was covered in hardened plaster and a layer of goo. "Where's Sunrise?" Obsidian sat up, turning sideways before hopping off the cot. Pain shot up his bandaged limb, but he held back the spots clouding his vision and put a claw on the cot. "I'm... fine..." He panted, still resisting the overwhelming urge to pass out. "Which... way are... we going?" The robot walked up, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to lean against it's pink shell. He nodded, teeth gritted, before limping off alongside the unnatural rosy Nurse. Sunrise lifted her head from the pillow, where she had been flicking a tassle. She had no idea how much time had passed, but all of the animals, including Helia, had attempted to make her talk, only met by her continued stare into some infinite point in space. The doors had slid open almost silently, with a short sniff of air, before sliding shut again. "Hey, new kid." Tene whispered, poking her with a wing. "Is that your boyfriend?" Spear snorted. "That's not even a dragon!" The pheniox glared at her counterparts. "Hush! Obviously your disdainful comments are not helping! Let the girl speak, and him as well. It may be true that he is no dragon, but that does not mean we should treat either of them differently." "It is not a dragon that is now among us, I believe it's a draconequus." Zuta added. Sunrise jumped to her feet, bounding over and knocking Obsidian from the Nurse's arms in a hug. She was almost crying. "Hey, get off me, you're heavy. I was coming over, you know." He attempted to push her off, and she nosed his hand aside. "I missed you." "I missed you too..." A navy wing opened between the two. "Hey!" Spear growled, almost whispering. "The Nurse is still here. The slave drones won't care, but she will. Get a room." "Ahaha... yeah..." Sunrise blushed and backed up quickly, leaving a stunned Obsidian flat-out on the ground. As he got up, Sunrise subtley pushed the Nurse towards the door. "Yeah, we'll take care of him. Run along now." With a final shove, the robot was pushed outside, and the doors slid shut. Spear opened a near-invisible panel, revealing a keypad, and pressed a few of the buttons. The room got darker, but a loud clicking emitted from the door. "I locked it. We're on a lower supply of magic now, but only Maris can come in. The drones are stuck outside." She looked over at Obsidian, who had, through the supporting shoulders of Sunrise and Skybreaker, made it to the circle of creatures. As she pulled up a new blanket, Sunrise leaned up against Obsidian. He purred and nuzzled the top of her head. Silently, Skybreaker made a gagging face at Cureheart, and the Unicorn was having trouble keeping from laughing. When they realized that there was a suddenly awkward silence, Obsidian smiled. "So... they think I'm a girl?" Tene nodded, laughing slightly. "I guess. Otherwise there's no way you'd have your leg fixed." "That must be a blow to your ego." Spear added, tilting her head. "Or those 'bots really are blind." Sunrise made an exaggerated snarl. "He's mine. Back off." Spear stood up and swung her hips. "Oh, keep your attitude to yourself. You know he wants me." Both dragonnesses turned to Obsidian, who had shoved his face into the nearest pillow. His wings were sticking straight up from his back. "Obsidian!" Sunrise yelled, glaring at him. "Stop that!" "I can't help it!" Was the muffled reply. "I'm sorry!" "Aw man, we should have gotten a guy in here sooner!" Spear laughed, poking Sunrise. "This will never get old!" Sunrise smiled devilishly. "Defend yourself!" The yell was little warning. By the time Spear had tilted her head in confusion, the Elemental dragonness had landed on her, rolling across the ground with a squeal. The two settled on an all-out catfight, swinging their paws at random and far enough away that no serious damage could even possibly be dealt. Obsidian was still blushing thouroghly, but the others were laughing at the dragons, and he was able to throw a blanket over his back. The attention now turned to the unwilling recipent of Fluttershy's light. Her color had changed completely, leaving her stunned and slightly embarrased. All the stripes on her body had turned pink, while the rest of her coat was a nice soft yellow. Her mane was strips of pink and purple, and the few golden bands hanging loosely around her neck and hooves had changed to silver. "Well," Chibi sighed. "This is awkward." The being woke from his temporary nap as another soft scream filled the air. It was not as loud and disturbing as the other two, more like a song than an exclaimation of terror, but still a scream none-the-less. He fixed his eyes on the new turner. This time, it was the yellow peg, swiveling in sync with the purple and the pink. More gears had begun to shift, and he could have sworn he saw a spark of magic flash in the keyhole. Half of the pegs were spinning, the rythymic ticking from the hidden machinery beating out a ceaseless, noteless tune. "Come on come on come on!" The being whispered to the otherwise unoccupied room. "Time is of the essence! Hurry up!" He resisted slamming his fists against the metal. All it had done before was sent a moderately powerful surge of electricity through his veins, which had happily vaporized half of his bloodflow. Now, all he could do was wait. Kha had seen a place once, a distant blue-green dot in the orbit of a star he had lovingly nicknamed Sol. It was a pretty place, and he had even visited it once, but after he did not want to return. It was crowded, and filled with stone and steel, spires of mineral that exuded power, that in turn made you feel insignifigant underneath them. Despite these, the beings traveled mercilessly, cursing at sloth and eating with gluttony. And this was when he had come to the realization that while half of the lively dots in orbit of places like Sol had Harmony and Peace, there were others like this one that were the breathing embodiments of Cacophony and Chaos. And after arriving on Sol's only bright planet, the pictures flared in his mind, the pictures of war and death and bloodshed, all in vain, all under the higher powers that set no foot in the fight and called it off on a whim. The pictures had not left his closed eyes since, haunted his dreams in nightmares, waited in the shadows, beckoning endlessly for one more blink, so that his temporary innocence could never be spared slaughter. He missed the dreams of plants and towering trees and icy beauty of winter and soft breeze of summer, of calm and gentle and natural and harmonic in the way they were created, but these dreams, in their essence of fragility, had broken and dispelled under the morallic weight of the pictures. So when his host laughed and loved and lived, it hurt Kha in a way that could never be described as anything but envy, for this creature who could survive in innocence and flowers and happiness, surrounded by family and friends, and not know the pictures, and who could breathe and smell and see and move and feel, could feel anything other than silence and mourning, could dream. This simple act of peaceful unconscienceness tore Kha's soul to the core. But as he had always done while in pain, he slipped away, letting the chaotic hurt of another take the place of his, and distanced himself further from the feelings he had come to realize were his.