//------------------------------//
// Wanderers 
// Story: Autumn 
// by canonkiller 
//------------------------------//

     Sunrise shook her head as she jogged back to the Dome. "Will he ever learn?" She muttered to herself.
"Who?"
She spun, expecting to see somepony standing nearby that could hear her. Instead, there was just snow. She scanned the ground. Hoofprints came to a certian point, and there were a lot of them, like a group huddled together. She glared at the space above where the prints stopped.
"Stupid Unicorn." She growled. Far too many wandering ponies were around. Most of them shouldn't be. "Your cloaking spell is still on."
"Crap." A voice replied. A few more hoofprints appeared as the speaker shifted, and the air shimmered and seemed to peel away in layers. 
A lime-green unicorn looked down at the snow. "Sorry about that."
"I have a feeling you aren't the only one?"
He sighed. "Smart little dragon." He muttered. There were a few more flickers, and other ponies appeared. 
A brown Pegasus with a tan mane and tail flicked an ear in greeting, but didn't say anything. His Cutie Mark was a golden watch on a coiled chain. The second was a blue Earth Pony, with a robin-egg mane and tail, a black eye patch on his left eye, and a bomb Cutie Mark. The final was only a colt, who was grey-blue with a teal mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was a foaming wave.
"I'm Lamplight." The Unicorn stated, turning to show off his Cutie Mark. Sunrise said nothing, mostly due to the fact she didn't want to embarass him further by telling him she had never seen a lamp that old. "This is Rapture, Bomberman, and that's Thumper." While the other two muttered something along the lines of 'hello', the brown Pegasus merely looked at her curiously.
"What's up with him?" She asked, pointing a claw at Rapture.
"Don't mind the silence."
"Why?"
"You don't need to know. You're a child."
This common remark enraged Sunrise. Claws out, she tackled the Unicorn, pushing him onto his back and planting her claws on his throat. "I run up that dome every day to secure tarp without a safety rope. I just argued with the Element of Disharmony. I have stronger magic than you, and I can and will breathe fire. I am no child."
Lamplight let out a little squeak, and Sunrise hopped off of his chest and into the snow. He scrambled to his feet, glaring at his companions as they stifled laughter. 
"If you really must know, he's mute." The green stallion huffed. "Good enough?"
Sunrise blushed. "Sorry, I didn't know..."
The Pegasus just shrugged and fluttered his wings in a nonchalant manner. Sunrise found her own wings fluttering in a similar way. They kept up the silent conversation for a few more moments before Lamplight cut in.
"Okay, you're best friends now. Is there any way we can go inside the tent for a while? My friend needs to warm up."
Sunrise cast a glance at the colt. His teeth were bared, and he was pressed up against Bomberman, who was not pleased with it.  "How far have you come without any winter gear?"
"None of your buisness."
She planted he feet in the snow in front of them. "Well, sorry, but I have orders to question any unfamiliar ponies. And if your friends have been out in the snow long enough, Thumper may not be the only one in need of our medical service." 
Lamplight countered her gaze for a few more moments. 
"We've been walking for a week now. We're nomads, so we don't stay put in one place for long. That's why we came towards the tent, you know, familiarity between gypsy folk."
"Hate to break it to you, but if you want gypsies, I'd take your little herd and continue in the opposite direction." She snapped, starting starting to walk without waiting to see if they were coming. "Because this happens to be a very permanent self-sustaining town."
"Meh." Lamplght retorted, trying to hide his embarassment. "It has a tent on it, and that's good enough for me."
Sunrise ignored him and kept walking, hearing the hooves sliding through the snow behind her. Unknown to the herd, Sunrise could hear the vague hum of a weak teleportation spell, and sighed.
"Ignore him, he only wants the attention." She called out, not even checking her speed. Rapture was close behind her, head bent low to her eye level as he looked around curiously. There were muffled squeaks from the others as the spell's humming stopped. Grumbling about how many times he would interrupt, she stopped and turned around.
Discord's expression changed from a distorted mask to a shocked frown. He lowered his claws and shut his wings, turning to face her innocently. She glanced at the three terrified gypsies before looking back at him.
"Forest. Go. Now." She pointed a claw, and he sighed and shuffled back through the snow, waiting for his meager magic store to recharge enough for another teleport. He looked back over his shoulder once, smiling and holding up one claw.
Sunrise rolled her eyes at the obscene gesture and looked at Lamplight and the others. "Come on. You're not the first ponies he's done that to, and you won't be the last. Get your rears in gear!"
Beside her, Rapture mimicked her expression, narrowing his eyes and frowning. Shaking off the sheer terror of coming face-to-face with a mild form of chaos, the ponies started walking again.
Sunrise bounded ahead through the snow, hoping that the sarcastic unicorn might freeze to death. Of course, when she reached the doorway, he was still fully alive and keeping up. Rapture was gliding aimlessly in the sky above, watching Bomber and Thumper as they trekked through the snow. Sunrise stepped aside, letting the nomads enjoy the warmth from the burning torches. 
As they looked around in astonishment, Sunrise jumped up to the closest beam. "I'll be up here if you need me."
She waited for them to move, but they just gaped at the city-like interior of the dome. Rolling her eyes, she scaled the walls, hoping to find the stash of nails left behind when Discord captured her. Again.