Autumn

by canonkiller

Chromatic and Metallic

"Uh, no. I don't know where Discord is." Twilight looked around, trying not to look at Tigerjay's luminous feathers. "I could have sworn he was here before... but I haven't seen any trace of chaos..."

Spike snorted and lay his head back on his paws. "Just imagine how much trouble he might have caused by now."

"Shut up, Spike."

And the pegs spun silently.

Another one of the machines rolled up, taking the same form. It seemed to be made of a different metal, with a blue sheen.

<You have disabled one of the Guards. May I inquire why?>

"My friend, he's in the... mouth... and he's hurt. One of the teeth must have gotten him. The stupid machine was being agrrivating."

<I can understand that. The automatons are quite repetitive.>

"You aren't... programmed to repeat things?"

The robot let out a whirring laugh. <Oh, those are still prototypes, so they don't have speech microchips. Until they recieve a command from one of us - I mean, higher level Officers - and we disable them and take care of the intruder. Until Maris works on the programming, they're only meant to slow intruders. Most who enter are here on purpose, and unviolent. They are taken care of quickly. And you?>

"Here for Maris."

The blue machine waved a paw for her to come forward. <Aren't you all? I'll get a Nurse to your friend, and she'll meet up with you at Maris's palace.>

"Thank you." Sunrise sighed. "Wait... she?"

This time, it was not an Earth Pony who was hiding, nor was she in an alley. She was underground, in a cave, lit by fire and rabbit-hole skylights. There had been noises above, loud noises, voices and hooves, and her animals had scurried above ground and away, leaving the pony alone in her expansive tunnel system.

The roof did not bother her as much as it should have. Her wings were weak even when she was young, and getting older had not done them justice. She was just as much an Earth Pony as one born without wings. At least, until she had heard the cracking voice of a Unicorn, and her wings twitched.

Muscles that had been dormant for fifty years regained power. Flapping silently, the grounded Pegasus began to rise. Nearing the roof, she began scraping at one of the skylights, debris raining down onto the ground. There was nothing left for her in the animals, not since Angel passed away. Now, now she was ready. Now, she was coming home.

As a large clump of earth fell with a thud, the Pegasus climbed out of the hole, covered in mud and animal dung. Standing on the ground with the wind back in her long, knotted mane. she closed her eyes.

"Fluttershy?"

The Pegasus bit her tongue, trying to find words. She had planned this so many times, when she would finally reveal herself to Twilight Sparkle. And now, all the planned scenarios in her head vanished.

She felt her back being touched moments before she was pulled into a dirty, stinking hug. "Fluttershy, where have you been? I was so worried! Were you underground this whole time? What did you eat? How did you survive?"

"I...uh...I ate grass... sometimes..."

The Unicorn looked at her friend, tears running down her cheeks. "It's unhealthy, being out of the sun! How are you feeling?"

"Fine... if that's okay..."

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You look like you were raised in a pigsty!"

"NO!" Fluttershy tore away from Twilight's grasp, glaring at her. "Stop assuming I need your help all the time! I'm strong now!"

"Fluttershy, I didn't mean-"

"You never mean it! That doesn't make it easier!" She grimaced and turned to face the waking crowd. Leaning in, she spotted a zebra, grabbing her by the shoulders and slamming their foreheads together. When the yellow light diminished, everyone was staring at Fluttershy, ignoring the changes beginning to overtake Chibi.

The Pegasus backed up to the enlarged hole she had climbed from. She looked through everyone, to the zebra.

"Take care of the Element. I couldn't." And she reared back, falling down into the blackness of the tunnels.

Twilight lunged forward, stopping almost as fast when a loud groan echoed from under her feet. Cracks began to spread from the rabbit holes. Spike grabbed Twilight and opened his wings, soaring above the trees and diving down to capture more ponies.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, wait!" Twilight screamed, trying to throw herself off of Spike's claw. "Wait!"

As the ground began collapsing inwards, there were no ponies left on the surface. All of the remainders clustered on Spike's broad shoulders.

Fluttershy heard Twilight crying, and thought about turning around.

"No." She whispered to herself. "I'm happy. She'll be fine."

Still muttering, she trotted off down the branching tunnel and away from the blocked exit, the massive chunks of earth blocking the sky for the final time.

She looked back, and realized that she was bleeding, a large chunk of skin ripped away from her ankle. She had been oblivious to the injury, and realized the shadows in the corners of her eyes had grown larger, and her mind was getting fuzzy.

Somehow, she smiled. "Good luck, everypony."

And everything went black.

Obsidian opened his eyes, seeing what looked to be a pink draconequus leaning over him. It glanced up with the customary laser eye, and his eyes flickered shut again.

The robot stood aside, letting Sunrise enter the chamber. It was a high dome, looking like it had a lot of flying room, and was filled with gray synthetic clouds and supported by shimmering copper columns. There was a fountian off to the side, and assorted cushions, chairs, perches and blankets littered the ground, with equally assorted species on top of them.

There were only ten. There were two Griffons, both female, judging by the small-tufted tails. There was one dragon, a slim blue who was casually sipping water from a wine glass. Surprisingly, there was a pheniox, one of the more intellectual ones that could hold up a conversation. There was one of each type of pony, a red-coated-green-maned Earth mare, a purple-coated-white-maned Pegasus mare, and a dull orange-coated-equally-orange-maned Unicorn mare. There was a zebra mare as well, and beside her an extravagantly emerald-feathered winged serpent. Leaning up against a pillar was a tan Diamond Dog, who Sunrise assumed to be female, from the trend.

As she walked in, she realized that smaller robots were hovering around, bringing food from slots in the walls and giving it to the circle of animals.

Only the serpent looked up as she approached. "You too?"

Sunrise pulled up a pillow, sitting down on it and looking at the faces of the others. They all looked stressed, or worn, or tired, or all of the three, and they were all her age.

"What do you mean?"

The zebra glared at the snake. "This is a stressful situation, I'm sure she wants an explaination. My name is Zuta, newcomer dragon; this annoying reptile is Flaytenemon."

"Call me Tene, please." The oddity added.

"I'm Cureheart." The Unicorn continued. "The Pegasus is Skybreaker and the Earth is Songscript."

The dog looked up and shuffled over to join the group. "Helia." She grunted.

"The name's Spear, friend." The other dragonness said.

"I'm Spring, and this is Summer." One of the Griffons contributed.

Extending a wing, the pheniox smiled. "Hythenz."

"I'm Sunrise."

The snake from before grinned, exposing needle-like teeth. "So, you got here by chance? With no prior knowledge of who, what, why, where, when or how?"

Sunrise nodded.

"Well, it may look good now, but it's not. You're lucky you're new. How is up to you to remember, we all have our ways. I'll have you know none of us are here by choice. When? Still unknown. Can't have a calender, and none of the guards will tell you. Where? Underwater in a giant mechanical fish. Why? Another unknown. Some of us think it's Him tempering with magic and reality to bring us here, but noone knows. What? Well, it's sort of a massive... um... prison? Prison sounds good. And who? Who is Maris, otherwise known as Him. Note the capital, somehow the guards can tell if you speak it or not. So yeah. Understood?"

"Enough."

"Enough is good." The blue dragonness sighed. "Hey, minion, get the new kid some food."

A nearby 'minion' sped off towards the wall, clicking and whirring.

The snake made sure noone else was going to talk before starting again. "Anyone with you? Normally we show up in pairs. The Griffons, me and Zuta, the phenoix with the Unicorn, the Pegasus and the Earth, the dragon and the Dog. You're alone, which is pretty odd, considering."

Sunrise shook her head. "No, my friend got hurt. The teeth cut his leg."

"You came in through the mouth? With a guy, no less?" This was the dragonness again, and she walked over to Sunrise, tilting her head to look at her gills. "Never seen Maris take a guy in, and this is strong magic for a dragon. How'd you know to come in?"

Sunrise avoided denying the 'dragon' concept. "My friend-"

"Boyfriend." Tene.interrupted.

"-told me I would be safe."

"Man, if he let you come in here, he's got a pretty mutated version of safe." The robot arrived with a plate of flawed gemstones, which Sunrise took and put down in front of her, listening to Spear. "If he's with a nurse, let's hope he can act as a girl pretty well. Maris doesn't take kindly to males."

Comments

[Landonshy]

Nooo fluttershy