“What even is half this shit?” Anon groused, sifting through the seemingly endless wellspring of junk spilling from Fortuna’s case.
For the past few days, the mechanical mare seemed to have been malfunctioning - well, malfunctioning more than usual. Her stutter had returned with a vengeance, the bouts of sooty coughing had become more frequent, and she’d developed a nasty jitter with her left foreleg. It had been painfully obvious that she’d been ridden hard and put out wet, so to speak, but her recent hiccups had spurred the man to action.
Though he was by no stretch a mechanic or electrical engineer, he saw no harm in popping her open and having a look-see. Since he’d first stumbled upon her in the junkyard, he’d been more than a little curious about her inner workings; under the pretense of potentially mending whatever mechanical maladies she had, he would finally get the chance to take a peek inside of her - in as gentlemanly a fashion as he could manage, of course.
Armed with naught but his inquisitive instinct and a flat-head screwdriver, he set upon her one evening after his shift. Wrestling her cabinet away from the exterior wall of his gatehouse, after getting her sputtering and sparky blessing, he’d knelt down and prized open the rusty latches on her lower compartment - a move he quickly came to regret. As soon as the hatch had been loosened, a small avalanche of brick-à-brac spilled out around his ankles.
“Traveler, what secrets have you revealed?” she asked, shaking him from his stupor.
Situated as she was, bolted to the windowed upper portion of her booth, she didn’t have a clear view of what the man was doing. Grabbing her housing and craning her neck around, she tried and failed to see what had elicited his rather uncouth question. As he peeked around the corner, he grimaced up at her.
“Did you know there was all this...this...stuff in here?” he inquired. Grabbing a snow-globe from the compartment and thrusting it up at her, his frown deepened.
Her eyes went alight, seeing the bauble in his hands. “Ah, yes, I picked that up from my stint on the trans-yakyakistanian railway! I haven’t seen it in ages!”
Utterly baffled, Anon looked between her face and the object for a moment. “How did it even get in there?” he asked, unsure of how she could have achieved such a feat.
“A trusted guest of mine stored it there, of course! You don’t presume I’d let anypony go rummaging around in there, do you?” she snickered.
Shifting slightly, after setting the snow globe to the side, he gave himself a better look at the seemingly random pile of odds and ends mounded in her chassis. Even if she had some sentimental attachment to her belongings, her housing clearly hadn’t been designed to stow such things. The items would really need to be removed, in hopes of preventing a premature breakdown, which gave him an idea. Pushing himself up, he dusted his pants off and walked around to face her.
“Wait right here,” he intoned, “I’ll be right back.”
Softly tittering, she waved a hoof at him. “As if I have a choice in that.”
Snatching his trusty hand-truck from the nearby utility shed, Anon pressed into the yard. He had just the thing to alleviate their problem, so long as she was willing to accommodate him; somepony had dropped off a bookshelf the other day - which would work perfectly for holding her various trinkets. It only took him a few minutes to fetch the thing and wheel it under the awning of his office.
“Ok, so,” he grunted, shoving the empty piece of furniture beside her, “how about we keep your knickknacks in here. I’ll be sure to put up a Display Only sign or something for them, so you won’t have to worry about anyone taking anything.”
Fortuna’s eyes went alight, quite literally, as she gazed over at the vacant racks. “And I’ll be able to regale ponies about my travels! Quite the shrewd solution, Traveler!”
Her response was more than he could have asked for, leaving Anon to grin from ear to ear. With her agreement freely given, he put his hastily laid plan to action. Squeezing back behind her, he carefully began extracting her possessions and putting them on display. The entire operation would have been a simple affair, had she not stopped to comment on each and every one of them.
As he studiously relocated her goods, he was stricken by just how varied they all were. A gemstone crown from the dragon lands, what appeared to be a patchwork quilt, a small painting of an antlered deer, a spare tarot deck, a satchel of what looked like runes - her innards were a veritable treasure trove of goods. Though she had a story for them all, he found a few of her claims dubious.
According to her, several of the objects had been gifts from dignitaries or nobles. He couldn’t rightly say if it was common practice for the royalty of Equestria to bequeath an automaton with offerings, although the concept sounded odd - still, it was an entertaining way to spend the evening. Before he knew it, he’d cleared her compartment of all her effects - all her effects, that was, but one.
As her lower half had been emptied, he’d finally been able to get a decent look at how she functioned. A dizzying array of cogs, gears, screws, and actuators lay affixed to the underside of her body, surrounding a rather ominous box bedecked with warning labels and hazard stickers. He assumed the emblazoned case housed whatever was powering her, though that isn’t what caught his eye. Jammed in the sprockets and wheels was a stuffed rabbit.
Pursing his lips, he cautiously freed the trapped plush from her metallic bowels. Sure enough, as soon as he’d extricated the felt bunny, he heard a deep sigh escape the fortune teller. “Hey,” he called, gently rapping her housing, “move around for a second.” He presumed she’d done what he asked, for her clockwork started moving around freely and unimpeded. Pleased with the results, he gave her a spritz of lubricant, withdrew from her confines, and buttoned her back up.
“That feels much bett…” she trailed off, seeing him step into view. Her eyes locked on the stuffed animal in his grasp, her mouth flapped for a moment, and she slowly reached for the item. “I...I wasn’t sure she was still with me…”
Turning the rabbit over in his hands, staring down at it, Anon cocked his head. “What is it?”
“It is a treasure I was sworn to protect long, long ago,” she began, reverently taking it from his grasp. “Our herald and savior, twin sister of the moon, made me promise to guard her…”
The man’s head shot back in surprise. Surely she couldn’t mean who he thought she meant. “Well it looks like you did a pretty good job, since she’s still in one piece,” he chuckled, grinning down at her. “Do you want me to-”
“No,” she cut him off, “I would like her to stay here with me - if only for the night.”
The mention of night reminded the man of just how late it had gotten. Illuminated only by a light post and the automaton’s soft glow, he realized the sun had set some time ago. Despite having enjoyed his time with her, he’d need to get a meal and some rest for himself before long. Resigning himself to depart, happy that he’d addressed at least one of her problems, he patted her shoulder.
“Alright, just keep her close. I’m going to head home for the night,” he sighed, recovering his hat from the office. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Making his way to the exit and sliding the gate to, he gave her one last look. She hadn’t responded to him, fondly gazing upon and petting the plush in silence. He’d be sure to ask her more about the silly thing in the morning, since it seemed to mean so much to her - for now, his priorities involved some sleep and maybe a hayburger on his walk home.
The remainder of his evening was routine and tranquil. He’d gotten some takeout, given himself a shower, then passed out on his couch reading comics. Though he’d been a bit more tired than usual the morning following, since he’d stayed up later than usual, he still managed to get himself dressed and back to his post on time. It had begun as another sunny day, but things quickly took an intriguing turn.
“Traveler!” Fortuna bleated, spying him unlock and roll the gate open. “Traveler, you wouldn’t believe what happened!”
“Coming from you, that’s a stretch,” he grumbled, ambling over to her with coffee in hand.
Positively beaming, she waved the man closer. “She came! She came and praised me for my diligence!” she exclaimed.
Cocking a brow, Anon stepped closer. “Who came? The Princess?”
“Indeed! She was quite thankful that I’d guarded Madam Carrot Patch for so long!” she explained. “I had feared she’d forget about me and her dear confidant!”
“Truly, you’ve done a great service for the Empire. I want to hear all about it - but first, let me check the docket for the day,” he grinned, seeing himself into his office.
He’d heard a fair number of tall tales from the fortune teller, but this one took the cake. To think that one of the nigh immortal diarchs of the land had paid the rickety machine a visit was a bit of a stretch - still, made up or not, he wouldn’t mind hearing the story. Stepping into the tiny building and flicking the lights on, he froze; there, resting on his desk, was a very unique envelope.
There was nothing singular about the paper, and there wasn’t a bit of writing on the thing, although a wax seal emblazoned with the royal crest held it closed. Flicking it open, taking care not to damage the stamp, he shakily pulled a small note from its confines. The correspondence was brief, holding only four simple words, yet the ramifications were jaw dropping.
Celestia