//------------------------------// // Imitation // Story: The Fluttershy of Tomorrow // by Amneiger //------------------------------// They stopped for the night in the basement of an old, crumbling house. It was a larger house, sitting by itself on its own block, and it was made from wood and carpet instead of the uniform stone that the apartments had been made out of. Fluttershy wondered how the house had come to be in this world. She didn’t know if anyone else had made it out of Tacoma. Almost none of the others she had met there, the albinos or the orphans, had shown any ability to fly. Fluttershy found a box of matches and some birthday candles inside a kitchen cabinet. She lit three of them: one for Maxwell, one for the disc, and one for Lisa. It wasn’t much of a memorial, but it was all she could do. She thought about what Maxwell had said to her. He had been trying to tell her what the city was, then had mentioned something called a bardo, and then had told her about Mania. He wouldn’t have talked about them in that order unless they were connected. Rainbow Dash had said that the dimensional engine that had kept the fabric of Tacoma’s reality from falling apart ran on Mania. Was a bardo a place that needed Mania? She ate a can of vegetables with the help of the last light of the day, while Little Ball worried at one of their two remaining glass cylinders. After that, she sat and watched the candles burn down until she and Little Ball had fallen asleep. Fluttershy awoke when the dawn’s light shone into the basement through a small, narrow window that was just above ground level. She yawned and sat up. Little Ball was still asleep in the wicker basket. Fluttershy quietly opened her map and sat in front of it, thinking about what to do next. The house they were in was a mile outside of Tacoma, and she wasn’t sure Megiddo wouldn’t send assassins to search around Tacoma once they had cleaned up the factory. They needed to put distance between themselves and Tacoma. But which way could they go? Her eyes caught on the marked building with the snake that was near Downtown. It had to have been marked for a reason. Hopefully it wouldn’t be the same reason the Industrial Distract had been marked. Fluttershy sat down on the ground and looked at the sky as she waited. The orange light didn’t quite reach all of the basement, and one of the far corners was still dark. She didn’t hear any footsteps outside, which was good. There was a series of quick ticking noises, and Fluttershy looked up. Little Ball was waking up and stretching. “Good morning,” Fluttershy said. “Did you sleep well?” Little Ball nodded. “I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “We’re going back up north, to here.” She put a hoof on snake building. “Do you know anything about there?” Little Ball shook its head. It usually stayed near the center of Downtown instead of wandering north. It did seem to recall that there seemed to be more humans around there than in other places it had been, but it wasn’t sure. “Thank you,” she said to it. Maybe the humans knew a way past whatever Megiddo had done to lock up the city, if they came from regular Seattle all the time. “We’ll go there, then.” They headed north, flowing low to stay in cover behind the buildings. It was clear flying until they came close to the edge of the Industrial District again. The guard had increased. Patrols of three now walked the streets around the Industrial District. Flocks of aerials flew in circles over the black walls. Behind them a giant aerial that looked as big as a train car hovered, with metal arrows attached to the wings. They must have come out in force after what had happened in Tacoma. Fluttershy was giving them a wide berth when she saw the aerials forming up near one of the walls around the Industrial District. Something was flying in rapid circles just before them, winging back and forth, trying to gain distance. Bolts of lightning cut through the air past the thing that the aerials were chasing. It spun, and Fluttershy saw the profile of spread pegasus wings. Fluttershy gasped. “We have to help!” she said to Little Ball. She turned and flew towards the pegasus, flying low to stay behind the buildings. Above her, the pegasus was slowly but steadily pulling away from the aerials, spinning left and right to dodge the bolts. Fluttershy changed course, trying to get ahead of them so she could try to signal the pegasus once they had gotten away. The other pegasus was almost out of reach of the aerial’s weapons when a bolt whizzed right past her. There was a shower of sparks and a familiar-sounding scream, and the pegasus spiraled down behind a building nearby. The aerials zoomed over the spot where the pegasus had gone done; their speed had caused them to overshoot it. Fluttershy put on an extra burst of speed and flew down the street, taking a turn around the last building that was between her and the pegasus. The pegasus was sprawled out in the street. Her coat was an odd orange-black color, and something about her form rang a bell. She was still, and Fluttershy trotted towards her. As she got closer, Fluttershy realized that the coat wasn’t actually orange; it was a dark metal that was partially reflecting the sky above. It was the infiltrator Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy skidded to a stop next to the body. The other pegasus was still lying there, on her side, wings limp around her. Her eyes were closed. A large section of her left side had been destroyed, as if something inside the pegasus’s body had exploded outwards. Through the wound, Fluttershy could see something steadily beating inside of the pegasus: a dark chrome heart. Fluttershy looked at the pegasus. She…wasn’t sure what she should do. It didn’t seem like the infiltrator was on the same side as Megiddo anymore. But she had attacked Fluttershy, had hurt her, had ordered others to attack her and lured her into a trap. On the other hoof, seeing anybody like this… In the distance the aerials were banking, coming back around. Fluttershy needed to do something fast. Fluttershy remembered that when they had been attacked in the underground train station, she had grabbed the arms of one of the assassins, but they hadn’t been hurt. At the time she had realized that they had been protected from her touch because they had been built in the city, by Megiddo. If fake Rainbow Dash was built here by Megiddo, would she be protected too? There was an open doorway nearby, leading into what Fluttershy guessed might have been the back of a restaurant. Fluttershy flew inside and put the basket with Little Ball down. “Stay here,” she said, and then flew back out. Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around the infiltrator’s body. The metal was warm to the touch, like a tin can that had been left in the sun, and she smelled like oil. Fluttershy dragged her into the restaurant just before the aerials flew back overhead, the buzzing noise they made rising to a high pitch before rapidly dropping down as they faded away. They needed to get some distance from here, before reinforcements arrived to search the area. “I can’t carry the basket and her at the same time,” Fluttershy said to Little Ball. “Let me put the basket in my backpack.” Little Ball nodded and climbed out of the basket, although its eye was on the body in Fluttershy’s arms. It ticked out a quick question. What was Fluttershy doing? “I’m…not sure,” she said. “The right thing, I hope.” She picked up the basket, put it into her backpack, and poked her head out the door. The sky was clear, for the moment. Fluttershy put her legs around the infiltrator again and pulled her out into the street. The body made an uncomfortable scraping noise whenever Fluttershy pulled on it, and she winced in sympathy. Hopefully that didn’t hurt too much. Fluttershy couldn’t move quickly at all with the body. They only made it two buildings down before she heard the buzz of approaching aerials again. They were in front of what looked like another apartment building, this one taller and narrower than the ones in Downtown. The door was ajar, and Fluttershy pulled the body through and closed the door. The ground floor of the building was a big empty space with an overturned couch and some fallen shelves in it, with the stairs at the back of the room. Fluttershy made it to the stairwell before she heard metal footsteps stomping in the street. She put the body down at the foot of the stair and looked around for something to make it safer. A bookcase had fallen at an angle against the wall, and she pushed it upright and pulled it in front of the stairs before dropping behind them. The footsteps outside continued. Fluttershy could faintly hear the buzzing of the aerials through the ceiling. There were footsteps out front, and the front door creaked open. She didn’t dare look. An assassin’s lamp danced across the walls above them. Fluttershy held her breath. Little Ball crouched as low as it could. The footsteps turned and kept going down the street. After several long minutes, the footsteps and buzzing faded away. Fluttershy sighed in relief. She looked down at the body at her feet. She would have to take her somewhere else, further away from the Industrial District. It was going to take a long time, though; it would be nice if the infiltrator could move a bit by herself to help out. The body groaned. Fluttershy jumped. Little Ball leapt up and skittered around behind Fluttershy, and she heard a faint tick as it leaned over to look around her. After a second, when the initial shock had worn off, she bent down towards the infiltrator to look at her. The infiltrator moved slightly, one wing twitching and rolling the body slightly further onto her side. Her magenta eyes blinked open. “Wha...?” she said, her eyes moving slowly over the ceiling above her. Then her vision passed over Fluttershy, and her eyes snapped towards the yellow pegasus. “Oh no, not you, not you again, oh no oh no get me out of here!” The infiltrator jumped to her feet, spun, and ran right into the metal shelves that were blocking the stairwell. She was knocked back with an “oof!”, and she sat down heavily on her flank, dazed. “It's okay,” Fluttershy said. “I'm not going to hurt you. Are you all right?” “What? No, no I'm not all right! How could you...” The infiltrator made a sobbing sound, and brought a hoof up to her eyes. Fluttershy hesitated, then stepped forward and put her forelegs around the infiltrator in a hug. The metal pegagus stiffened as if expecting a blow, but slowly relaxed. Fluttershy held her for a minute before letting go. “Are you feeling better?” “I...I guess...a bit,” the infiltrator said. “That's good,” Fluttershy said. “Could you tell me what you were doing? I saw the aerials chasing you.” The infiltrator glared at her. “Why did you help me?” Fluttershy blinked at the question. “I’m sorry?” “The last thing I remember was falling down. Now I’m here.” The infiltrator stood up, snapping her wings out. “You pulled me out of there. I wanna know why you helped me.” “I…” Fluttershy began. “I saw you lying there. I knew that if I left you there they’d find you, and probably hurt you. I didn’t want that to happen.” The metal pegagus stared at her for a long moment, judging her. Fluttershy leaned back slightly, away from her. “Fine,” the other pegagus finally said. She sat down, letting her wings fold back down again. “I believe you. Because that is the kind of thing you’d do.” She sighed. “What were you asking again?” “I wanted to know why you were trying to get into the Industrial District.” “Well…” The infiltrator fidgeted. “I thought that he'd understand, it was just a mistake back in Tacoma, it wasn't my fault...” The infiltrator sniffled. “But he didn't! He didn't care! I couldn't even get close to where he was before they started shooting at me, I just...” She lowered her head. “It's okay,” Fluttershy said. “You're safe now.” The infiltrator humphed and looked away. Fluttershy wondered what to do with her. Now that she'd rescued the infiltrator, she felt she had an obligation to at least not hurt her. If they parted ways here, it wouldn't be that bad. The infiltrator could take care of herself, probably, and maybe if she could prove to herself that she wasn't helpless and lost that would be helpful. On the other hand, leaving her alone, even after she had been an enemy in the past, felt...wrong. “Why don't you come with us?” Fluttershy said. The infiltrator's head snapped back up. “What? No! Why would I want to travel with you lame jerks? I can do fine on my own.” “I don’t think there’ll be too many people who are going to be friendly to you,” Fluttershy said. “Megiddo isn’t going to help you, and I think if any albinos saw you they would just attack you. I won’t, though.” “I'll be fine,” the infiltrator said. But she was mumbling, and looked back down at the ground as she said it. “Do you really want to be by yourself?” Fluttershy asked. Her intuition told her that the infiltrator wasn’t used to being alone; she had always had the assassins or Megiddo to help her. If she had been built specifically to deal with Fluttershy, the infiltrator might never have had to be alone before in her short life. “Well, I…” The infiltrator scuffed a line in the dust with a front hoof. Fluttershy waited. “Fine,” she finally said. “Just for now, though.” “Oh, thank you so much!” Fluttershy threw her forelegs around the infiltrator’s neck in a hug. The other pegasus leaned back, but otherwise didn’t try to pull Fluttershy off of her herself. “I’ll be really nice, I promise.” Fluttershy pulled back and sat back down. As she did so, another question occurred to her. “What should I call you? I mean, you’re not the Rainbow Dash I knew in Equestria…I hope you don’t mind my saying that.” “Really? Everyone else called me Rainbow Dash in the past. And I feel like Rainbow Dash.” The infiltrator crossed her forelegs. Fluttershy considered that. She did sound kind of like Rainbow Dash, and the body language was the same, but at the same time she simply wasn’t Rainbow Dash. “Infiltrator Dash?” she finally said. “What? What kind of lame name is that? ‘Infiltrator Dash?’” “Well, I don’t have any other ideas…” Fluttershy looked away, embarrassed. “Do you have any?” “Yeah, I should totally be called Rainbow Dash! Because I’m totally her.” Fluttershy looked at the other pegasus’s metal body and exposed beating heart. “Um…” “What?” said the other pegasus. She bent her head around to see where Fluttershy was looking. “Okay, I guess that’s different. But I’m still Dash!” “Um…” Fluttershy tried to think of another name. “Dash 2?” “Dash 2? Hmm…” the other pegagus said, trying out the name. “Dash 2…” She thought for a moment. “Dash version 2. Dash v2. Like Dash, but better. I like it.” She smiled. “Dash, but better!” “All right. I’ll call you Dash v2 then.” “All right! That sounds awesome.” Dash v2 jumped to her hooves. “So, now what?” “We should probably go somewhere further away from the Industrial District,” Fluttershy said, looking around and listening for more footsteps. “And then I was hoping I could ask you what to knew about a few things.” * * * Fifteen minutes later, they were in the kitchen of what had apparently been a small restaurant. Much of the equipment were rusting hulks and the door to what could only have been the cold room was missing, but the window in the back door was still clear enough for them to see out of. When the three of them had sat down (with Little Ball still keeping a cautious eye on Dash v2), Fluttershy pulled out the pouch with the glass cylinders. “You must be hungry. Did you want one?” Dash v2 shook her head. “No, I don’t need that. I mean, I could eat it if it I wanted, but I don’t have to because I’m ide…idio…idiosomething-compatible. Whatever. It means that as long as I stay in the city, I don’t have to eat.” Fluttershy wasn’t sure how that worked, but it didn’t sound like Dash v2 would know. “All right then.” Fluttershy put the pouch away. Dash v2 shifted where she was sitting. “So what’d you want to know?” Fluttershy went over her mental list of things she still didn’t have answers to. “That white circular gate, the one I was looking for. You said it wasn’t in Tacoma. Do you know where it is now?” “Yeah, it’s in the Industrial District. In his central laboratory, like right next to him or something.” “What?!” She couldn’t get past that huge blockade! There were so many of them, she’d never sneak past them all! She should have guessed it would be in the most heavily fortified place in the city. Dash v2 shrugged. “What? Did you think it was going to be somewhere else? That’s where I’d put it.” Fluttershy’s ears drooped. She couldn’t believe it. How could she get back to Equestria now? There had to be a way in. There had to be. She had to think of a way in. Fluttershy thought over what she knew about Megiddo’s military, trying to remember if there was some weakness she could use. Assassins, walls, aerials, infiltrators… “I have a few questions. Is it okay if I ask them?” “Sure, go ahead.” “I think he locked the access corridors so nobody could go to regular Seattle with them. Is that right?” Dash v2 nodded. “Yeah.” “How did he do that? Is there a way to open the doors?” “The lock generator’s also in the Industrial District. I’m not sure where it is, but it’s probably pretty well guarded.” Oh, not that too. She had been hoping she could turn off the lock, get to the other Seattle, and see if the humans would help her. She needed another approach. “Why didn’t he put the gate in his lab and have the assassins take me right there?” she asked. “I wouldn’t have been able to get out if he had.” Dash v2 shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t work if it was right next to him? He didn’t tell me much about the gate.” “Oh.” Maybe another question would get something helpful. “Tacoma seemed like a strange place to put a trap like that. There was such a big and important machine right there. What if someone else before me had tried what I did?” “I’m not sure. He had a plan, I guess. Maybe.” She scratched her head. “Well…all right then.” Um. What next? “If Megiddo could make infiltrators, why did he send soldiers to get me? He could have sent infiltrators instead and done it much more quietly.” Dash v2 shrugged again. “I dunno. I just followed orders. I didn’t know the whole deal.” “Hmm…” She was asking all the wrong questions. Fluttershy decided to try another angle. “Who is Megiddo?” Fluttershy thought about what she'd seen so far in this place, and decided to amend the question a little. “And what is Megiddo? If you don't mind my putting it that way.” “I dunno. I never actually saw him.” “But…” Fluttershy had no idea how that could possibly work. “But if you never saw him, how could he give you orders?” “We didn’t need to see him. He would just…kind of be in our heads, and you would just know what he wanted you to know. I don't know if he actually talks like that or if he could just do that because he built us.” “What did having him in your head feel like?” “It’s really hard to describe.” Dash v2 rubbed her chin. “He didn’t talk. He was just there.. I guess the best way to put it was that he was bright. Really bright, like the sun.” Fluttershy remembered something Maxwell had said. “Do you know what Illumination is, then?” “Know what’s what now?” Dash v2 looked at Fluttershy in confusion. “Um, never mind.” That hadn’t been so bad. Maybe she was getting the hang of what kind of questions would get useful answers. “Can you tell me what he did tell you about me, then?” “Yeah, sure. He wants the Elements of Harmony. He’s got a plan to get them, and you’re part of it.” “But…!” How could that work? “The Elements are protected by Princess Celestia’s magic! He can’t get to them!” Dash v2 shook her head. “Don’t you remember what happened during Shining Armor’s and Princess Cadence’s wedding? Princess Celestia told the six of you to go to Canterlot Tower by yourselves to get the Elements. So you can get inside.” “But…but…” Fluttershy groped for something to argue with. “You saw them, right?” Dash v2 said. “In the dimensional viewing room? I know we set it up for you to find, and the last screen had the Elements of Harmony in Canterlot Tower.” “Well…yes…” “So there’s your proof. We can still look inside even with the spells Princess Celestia put on the tower, so we can get inside too.” Oh no. Oh no. “I…But why does he want them?” “I don’t know.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to figure out what to do next. She needed to focus. Something touched her shoulder, and Fluttershy opened her eyes. Dash v2 had just poked her in the shoulder. “Look, you’re not going to get the gate back from right under his nose like that, so you’re going to have to work something out. I’ve got an idea for that: the Lemurians.” “The Lemurians?” Fluttershy said. “Yeah, them. You know about them?” “I heard that they were the ones who brought Megiddo here.” “Yeah. He was supposed to be working for them, but when things went all kablooey in 1962 he stopped listening to them. They’ve been trying to get him back under their control since then.” “1962?” “Huh? Oh, right, you’re not from here, you wouldn’t know. It’s the year 2012 in Seattle right now. This city wasn’t all wrecked before 1962 come along. The Lemurians were doing something to this place, something that was supposed to make it better, but they messed it up. After that all they had left was one base in here, connected to their main base in Seattle.” Fluttershy did her best to process this. “If they didn’t do so well, then why are we going to talk to them?” “Because they’re always looking for more of Megiddo’s technology. He started making his own stuff instead of using their designs when he split, and they think that if they understand enough of it they can take the city back. I’m Megiddo’s technology, so they’d ooh and ahh all over me and we can ask them for anything we want. If I knew where the Lemurian base was, I could take us there. I think Megiddo knew where they were, but he never told me.” Fluttershy remembered what Little Ball had said about humans who came and took things away. “Are the Lemurians humans?” “Yeah, they are. Why?” “Well, I heard that humans sometimes come to this city to take things…” “Yeah, that’s probably them looking for more stuff to study. Why?” Fluttershy fidgeted instead of answering. “Um, do you mind if I just talk to Little Ball about this for just a minute?” Dash v2 shrugged. “Yeah, all right I guess.” Little Ball had been sitting off to the side, watching the two pegasi talk. Fluttershy took a few steps back into a corner, and Little Ball followed her. Fluttershy leaned down towards Little Ball. “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Fluttershy whispered. “What do you think?” Little Book shook its head. It didn’t like this, and it still wasn’t sure having Dash v2 with them was a good idea. They should play it safe and get rid of her. “But where? And how?” Fluttershy said. “We need another idea. Let me check something.” Fluttershy got back up and turned towards Dash v2. “I was going here,” Fluttershy said. She pulled out the map and pointed at the snake building. Rainbow Dash leaned forward to look at where Fluttershy was pointing. “Oh, hey, that’s the Lemurian symbol! Awesome! Where’d you get this?” “I…I found it. Um. I need another moment please.” Fluttershy trotted back to where Little Ball was. “Do you have any more ideas?” she whispered. Little Ball looked at the map, tracing a leg helplessly along the street lines before looking back up at her and shaking its head. Fluttershy couldn’t think of anything else. “We’ll just have to be careful when we get there,” she whispered. She looked back up at Dash v2. “All right,” she said. “We’ll follow you to the Lemurians.” “Awesome!” Dash v2 jumped into the air. “This’ll be great! Come on, I don’t want to be wandering at night when we’ve got a place we can crash at. Let’s go.” She pushed the back door open and was out. Fluttershy and Little Ball looked at each other, before Fluttershy folded up the map and they followed Dash v2 out.