Autumn

by canonkiller

Belly of the Beast

"Obsidian...?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we dead?"

He grunted, feeling a rush of pain spear through his leg. "It doesn't hurt when you're dead, does it?"

"Um, I don't think so."

"Then I'm not dead. And you're here, so you're not dead."

It occured to him that they were on solid ground, that was hard and seemed to be slippery. Water? It was dark, and the ground was firm and slimy, and they were alive, and they had just been eaten by a massive monster fish.

A dim glow flickered into being, spreading over Sunrise in an organic, gentle way and illumintating her forehead, wings, and a thin line down her back with amazingly bright pale purple light. The material they were standing on looked colourless, a dull grey, and had to be some kind of metal.

Obsidian shivered. Metal meant danger.

"Hey, a-are you o-o-okay?"

He pushed himself up by his arms, finding one leg virtually impossible to move. "Just dandy, can't you tell?"

"Your l-leg is-is-is b-b-b-bleeding." Sunrise squeaked, pointing with one claw. "T-there's blood all o-o-over the f-floor..."

"Well that's just great. Perfect. How could my day possibly get better?" He rolled onto his back, holding the injury and squinting at it. Massive gashed had torn through the furry skin, and as Sunrise had pointed out, there was a suitable amount of gore spilling from it. "Great. Amazing. Splendid. Not only are we a bazillion miles away from anything, now my leg has decided it wishes to be amputated. Ugh."

Dropping the soaked limb, he struggled to get up on his other leg.

"Can't you hover?"

"Can't focus. Have enough energy, but this subtle pain in my lower half is attempting to tear me apart." He winced and collapsed back onto the floor, feeling the sticky coating smear over his cheek and neck. "This has to be here for a reason. It's a machine. Go ahead and try to find help."

No! Don't let her out of your sight!

"I'm scared."

He glared up at her, eyes reflecting yellow against her light. "I didn't let you come just so you could chicken out! Go and get help."

Obsidian... Kha'dighreel growled. Listen to me.

"Fine. I'll go. Try... try not to die, okay?"

"Not planning on it."

Sunrise dropped back to all fours, bounding off into the distance, light fading from Obsidian and vanishing in the metal maw of the fish. Obsidian stopped struggling to stand, collapsing on his back and ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his fur soaking.

You imbecile!

Oh, shut up. You're the one who told me to get eaten, anyway. Stop digging on me.

Not that, letting her go!

Oh, it's much better letting her sit here while I bleed to death.

Kha mentally facepalmed. It's not that...

Sunrise had gotten too far to see or hear Obsidian, and it was worrying her. Panic set in, and she resisted the impulse to run back to him. There was an end to the mouth, and she had found it, running alongside to look for some kind of entrance. The metal was dull and unchanging, and she would have thought she was on a treadmill if not for the trail she was leaving.

Bloody prints continued out of her light range.

Something was building inside her, painlessly and powerful. It was filling her limbs and making her head pound, increasing the light her scales were expelling, and she thought she saw her eyes reflected an spectral white in one of the blood pools she had left.

Stumbling, she rolled a few times before skidding to a stop and attempting to stand. She was instantly level to what looked like a... power cord? Grabbing it in her teeth, she began instinctively releasing magic, sending powerful energry through the cord.

It wasn't long before she wasn't the only source of light.

Small bulbs flickered to life along the roof and walls in the same spacing they had before. The ground seemed to glow as well, light appearing from the metal. It didn't seem healthy, though, sickly and geometric. The sight of it almost made Sunrise retch.

And then, defying the solid gray of the wall, it split in two vertically, lifting into the roof of the jaw and sinking into the bottom as well. A large, metal ball rolled out of the newly opened wall. As Sunrise watched, slightly astonished, the ball rolled up, looking at her with some kind of laser. It split apart, small bars hidden under the shell crunching and reforming until it formed a dragon-like structure, one laser eye still regarding her curiously.

<Excuse me, but how did you get in here? This isn't dragon magic tuned.> The robot frowned, at least, tried to, and it's radio voice lowered in an almost-threatening way.

"My friend, he's hurt. The teeth caught his leg."

<Excuse me, but how did you get in here? This isn;t dragon magic tuned.>

"Shut up. My friend needs help."

<Excuse me, but CRZT!!!>

The machine's head clinked off the ground, sparks flying from the collision. Sunrise spun, kicking the body of the robot back into the opened corridor.

"Well, here goes nothing." Dropping back to all fours, she ran off into the centroid of the mechanism.

"Tigerjay, what's with the dye job?"

The Griffon in question smiled and looked up at Spike. "I like it! It makes me look like a firework or something sparkly! I like sparkly things! Do you have an over with you? I'd like to make some cupcakes."

Spike lifted one eyebrow before looking at his back, and the purple unicorn sleeping on it. "Hey. Hey, Twilight. I think Tigerjay's on something."

She lifted her head, wiping sleep away with one hoof. "Huh? What do you mean?" Seeing Tigerjay's new saturation, she jumped up. "Did you happen to meet a pink pony?"

"What are you both smoking?" Spike muttered.

"Yeah, she was really nice and she made me red and I like red!"

"Did she say what her name was?"

"She knew my name and I never told her what it was, it was weird! And she said I was new, and then she got sad because she was new, and then everything went bright and pink, and then she was gone!"

"Her name?"

"Oh yeah! Pinkie Pie!"

Spike glanced at Twilight nervously. "What does he mean, 'went all pink'?"

Twilight looked up at the dragon that had once been her scribe. "He means that two of the six Elements have changed Bearers."

There was a few moments of tense, heavy silence, before Tigerjay burst out laughing.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON!!"

Something not unlike a massive set of gears had rusted beyond recognition, deep in the bottom of Canterlot. A being was beside them, watching as a series of smaller, once-pastel cogs had begun turning. Two, counting the one that had just started. One purple and one pink.There was still a white, a yellow, a blue and an orange, at least, they were the only smaller ones. But from just the two spinning, a third of the wall had begun spinning, banshee screams of machinery echoing around. The complex lock behind the door had begun shifting towards opening. In front, however, all that could be seen were six pegs, against a blue wall, and the faded insignia of a golden sun embellishing the center.

The being tapped the moving pegs, waiting for the magic to undo it's ancient oath.

Four more, and Balance could be restored.

"Hey," Tigerjay glanced up at Twilight. "Has anyone seen Discord?"