Autumn

by canonkiller

Dome

TWO MOONS LATER, MID-WINTER

Sunrise clambered up the wooden beams of the dome, her yellow scales flashing with from the light of the fires below. Jumping off of the wood, she reached out into the open air, her claws catching on a blowing piece of fabric. Extending her wings to change her direction, she swung back at the wall, landing on her hind legs on the beam. Pulling the thick nails from her mouth, she proceded to hammer them into the wood using her tail.

Tigerjay landed beside her, tail sticking straight out as he struggled to balance on the thin wood. "I don't know how you can climb up her every day and patch up these holes. I'm surprised you haven't fallen yet."

She shrugged. "My wings can't really work, but they make good parachutes."

"What about when you rescued me from nothing?"

"That was different. I had no idea I was flying."

Tigerjay rolled his eyes, claws digging into the wood. "I'm going to head back down. You coming?"

Sunrise shook her head, pointing at another tear a few beams up, and one on the other side. "Still have work to do. The Pegasus can't hold as many nails as I can, and I'm faster!" She smiled and prepared to jump up.

As she climbed away, Tigerjay smiled. "Tell me how proud you are when you fall off!" He yelled up. She yelled something unintelligible and continued higher. Laughing, Tigerjay let go of the beam and opened his wings, gliding down to the ground in a lazy spiral. It was a long free-fall, and he had more than enough time to think about what would happen come spring.

Unicorns and Pegasi had been flying all over the Forest and the remaints of the town, knocking down trees and collecting the wood. Earth Ponies had been clearing away massive piles of charred wreckage from the town, revealing soft, brown dirt. Almost immeadiately, the base had been built, while the soil was still soft. From there, a ring of beams, on top of those, another set of posts, until it formed a massive dome, connected at the top and supported by a few tall trees harvested in full growth from the forest, their branches woven into the woodwork.

The tarp was made of any avalible fabric, including curtains, blankets, parts of clothing, carpets, and everything else. This was streched over the wood and nailed down, macigked to fit perfectly around the tree's growing branches without tearing. The nails, however, were not as enchanted, and large seams opened regularely. It was Sunrise's job to fixed them, and she loved scaling the walls without any form of safe-fall mechanism. Tigerjay had tried to help before, but ended up breaking a wooden beam that Sunrise had to put back togather with flame. He hadn't helped since.

He could see her hanging upside-down from the roof, flapping her wings for balance as she held a section of tarp shut. Smiling to himself, he prepared for landing and shut his wings.

AS his claws hit the warm dirt, he smiled again. Multiple buildings, built like multi-level tents, were thriving under the warm dome. Three larger poles of wood streched above the rooftops, magic fire lit in the cups at their top. No sparks ever flew from them, and if they fell, the flames would go out without burning.

Earth Ponies lived closer to the edges, where the best soil was, and grew crops long past the growing season should have allowed. The Pegasus had moved clouds in during the early days of development, to keep the soil soft with light rain, and had never moved them out. On the now-dry clouds, small houses stood proudly, the occasional pieces breaking off to form another cloud. The center was home to Unicorns and Luna, who was living in Ponyville instead of Canterlot, for the time being. She felt partially responisble, and didn't want to leave until everyone had been declared stable. She didn't have a majestic palace made of remnants. She didn't want any more than anypony else did.

He did agree that it would have been easier just to move everypony to the nearest cities, but none of the citizens of the new Ponyville wanted to leave the place where they were born. Including Tigerjay. He shook the dirt from his claws and slipped into the stream of walking ponies. Weaving through the crowds, he approached the nearest ground-fire and lay down to warm up.

Something heavy landed on his back, and he yelped, trying to turn around to look at whatever had landed on him.

"Hi!" Chibi was looking at him, her face upside-down in the tops of his eyes. "You looked so cute, I had to come over! I haven't seen you in forever!"

"You saw me yesterday, Chibs." He reminded her. "You've seen me every day this week. And last week, and the week before that. Now get off, you're heavy."

She backpedaled, walking around him. She was bigger now. Not full-grown, but still much heavier than she had been at the beginning of construction.

"So, Chibs, what have you been doing? Crop planting?"

"Actually, no! I've been building!"

He rolled over, inviting her closer to the warming flame. A thin layer of snow was coating her legs. "Where? I haven't seen you at any of the indoor sites."

"Outside, back in the forest. At first I was just building myself a cart so I could bring my mother's things here, but one of the colts saw me working and invited me to help. So I've been hauling limber and re-enforcing the lower supports." She streched out, the melting snow soaking her from the knees down. Tigerjay had to turn away to hide his blush. He rubbed a talon over his cheeks gently, as if expecting the colour would rub off. Narrowing his eyes to focus his attention somewhere else, he waited until the heat had faded from his cheeks.

When he turned to continue the conversation, he realized at somepoint, Chibi had left. And for some reason he couldn't explain, it made him sadder than he had ever been before.

Sunrise looked down from her perch, although, it did seem like she was looking up to her. She was currently upside-down, tail pressed against a newly hammered nail. She loved being up high enough to see everything in the dome, and being part dragon, was not at all scared by both hanging by her talons and the height. She had often locked her claws around a piece of wood and slept high above everypony else. sometimes going for nights without returning to her treehouse home.

Seeing the last edge flapping nearby, she clambered across the beam, her tail sticking out as she balanced. If she swayed too much, not only would she fall, which wasn't really a problem, but chances are her claws would pull the beam down with her. And due to the fact that a major snowstorm was approaching, it would not bode well to have a massive, ragged tear gaping in the roof.

As she approached, she felt the pressures on the beam change. If she hadn't been on the surface to check for snowfall that morning, she would have thought it was simply a snowdrift sliding off to the ground. But when she had gone out, there was only a thin layer, and no fresh flakes had been blowing through the holes moments before.

Curious, she climbed out of the hole, little claws poking miniscure dots into the fabric. Almost immeadiately, she was picked up and carried off of the dome and into the forest.

Squeezing her eyes shut against the bitter cold, she cursed at herself. Nopony's magic had been strong enough to make a new barrier around the new town, due to the fact that Luna was still raising the sun, and the two previous protectors, Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, were now gone. Of course, noone knew what condition Twilight was in, but since Celestia was confirmed dead, there was little thought to the others not having the same fate. So the camp had come to terms with the loss of the final Elements.

She was suddenly dropping, and got ready to parachute to the ground. Unknown to her, the drop was only a few meters, and her opened wings merely plowed through a puffy pile of snow. She lay flat for a little while, trying to figure out what was happening. No predator would simply drop a captured kill on snow. Rocks, maybe. But not snow. And if snow, never anything this deep.

Sunrise was not claustriphobic, which was good for a dragon that used to live underground. She was more than comfortable with the idea of lying face-first in the snow until she figured out what was going on. Of course, like everything that ever happens in Ponyville, there's never a logical explaination.

The thing that had dropped her pulled her back out, clicking it's tongue.

"Really, could you at least bother with resisting?"

Sunrise scratched out a lot of names on her mental list. She rolled her eyes as she narrowed it down.

"Really, could you at least bother with coming in and getting me?"She snapped, shaking snow off of her back.

"Someone's grumpy." Discord replied. "And why would I sacrifice being seen for one measly little dragon?"

"Why would you stand on the roof? How long were you waiting for?"

He blushed a little. "Doesn't matter."

She glared at him. "You've been up there for most of today, haven't you?"

"Doesn't matter."

They were silent for a while, Sunrise glaring daggers and Discord looking mildly ashamed.

"FINE! I've been up there for at least four hours!" He growled. "What makes you so sure of yourself?"

"Oh, I'm fine with knowing you were shivering up there for more than a few minutes."

Now, for anyone getting confused at this point, Discord had regularly captured ponies and the other creatures living with them, attempting to corrupt them. The first few times it was terrifying, but because of the daily attempts, they had just become part of the schedule, even if it was annoying. Luna had been the first captured, and had placed an effecitive restricting spell on him before he used his magic. Now, he could only play his games if the target had agreed or given in.

Of course, that really pisses him off.

He growled, shoving his head into the closest snowdrift. "Come on! I'm so bored with you mortals. I can barely teleport, so I can't even bother anypony else! I hate ponies!"

"I know, I know, you've already given me this rant." Sunrise reminded him. "It's Tigerjay who hasn't heard it yet."

He sighed. "Can't one of you just give up?"

"No. Can I leave now?"

He waved a paw from the pile of snow. "Yeah, whatever."

Sighing in frustration, Sunrise jogged away.

"Get Tigerjay over here, by the way!" Discord yelled out from behind her.

"NO! Go do something productive for once!"

Comments

[cr4zy4zn]

lol Discord got told!