Bit's of Tomorrow's Future

by No one is home

Technical Difficulties

A thunderous hoof fall shook the ground within the mist that had enveloped the center ring. “There are tales in secret cults across the ash of a queen! A Queen!” A gigantic pale horse of a pony strode forth forth from the mist, marking each step with the thunder of his hooves. “A holy queen who shall descend from heaven and deliver to we, the fragile ponies of the ash, the greatest of miracles… The Miracle of Sunrise!”

“And lo,” Deadlift smirked cruelly as he delivered his line, “I did look, and I saw a demon, spurned by the blaze itself, it’s blasphemous name burned free of it’s wretched soul…”

A shadow of a… thing approached out of the mist. A helpful Gem Gnoll clown very openly carried a can of clearly labeled kerosene across the stage where it was grasped by one of several… tongues? As the audience tried to process what they’re eyes told them was transpiring before them, a second shadow, a unicorn… pegasus… perched atop the first.

“...And riding upon this nameless beast I saw a savior… an angel… a sunrise…” The pale giant horse’s voice boomed throughout the tent.

A second clown ran across the stage bearing a torch, quickly grasped by what it’s light revealed to be not a tongue but a seemingly living snake, whispering gibberish. The serpent held up the torch from the mouth of the giant..thing… revealing, lounging on it’s back, a languid, beautiful unicorn with fur that shone ivory like wind polished bone, and mane that shimmered with all the lovely colors of a oil slick in a pure spring.

“The time has come,” The mare leered like the sun and her snake-mouthed mount smashed the torch against his face, igniting the hungry fuel with a grin, “For a new day in Everglow!”

The beast’s head exploded into flames, and the queen’s wing’s flared and light exploded from her horn, and the precious audience witnessed a miracle.

-=Damn The Sun=-

Discord Blinked, and the flicker in his eyes went out but the picture on the screen continued to move on it’s own.

“The buck?” Sweetie Belle exclaimed

“We are now experiencing technical difficulties,” Discord pulled nervously at a suddenly plaid collared shirt.

“Get ready for a dark ride, kiddies,” The Sun winked on the screen, but the voice came from the non-functioning media cart.

-=-=-=-=-

“Is it weird that I still miss her, Big Guy?” An insectile, middle age unicorn with the face of a clown asked from his Bar stool. “Sunrise I mean… You know, even after all she did, and all these years… I still miss her sometimes. Is that weird, you figure?”

“Prolly, a little.” A snake hung from the mouth of a giant blue stallion, talking to the clown, while two more drank from a large pitcher of bitter ale. “Prolly less weird than me. I’d give anything to take it all back. Just go back tell her I love her with actual words. Just to see her one last time, even though I know if Sunrise Flare were standing right here in front of us, I would strangle the life out of her all over again. Yeah… it’s weird.”

-=Damn The Sun=-

“I knew it was always going to come to this,” Ocellus whispered softly

“I’m working on it!” Discord shouted in a panic as he tossed reels of 16 mm film both from and into the aether, “I apologize in advance to you all, and you, in some cases problematically important guardians.”

-=-=-=-=-

“We’ll travel the north route,” The nameless beast’s snakes explained, “It’s the off season on that route. We’ll just grind it out as independent performers.”

“That’s a hard road,” Slapstick reasoned, “We’ll be a side show without a circus… basically we’re gonna be beggars.”

“This plan is tactically sound,” the metal filly perched on the freak’s withers crooned in perfect autotune, “However logistic problems for organic functioning are detected.”

“It’ll be fine,” the thing smiled sadly, “It’s the off season, and all the caravans will be on the south route. There’s no one to compete with us, and no one for us to compete with.”

“An independent sideshow though,” The clown mused, “We’re gonna basically be beggars.”

“You could still go back,” the freak glared at his companion, “She’d take you back if you went back to her, and you know it.”

“I’m just sayin’,” the insectile clown clown heaved a sigh, “We’re gonna basically be beggars.”

-=Damn The Sun=-

“It’s the parts you wouldn’t show us on the fieldtrip.” Ocellus wasn’t asking a question.

“Crusaders? We’re friends right? You’ll tell the girls I didn’t mean for this...Right?” Disord pleaded

-=-=-=-=-

“That’s the third settlement,” Slapsticks clown makeup slowly flowed from a smile into a frown as he scowled, “Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern.

“Ya know the world isn’t actually round right?” The giant staggered, before catching his balance as the metal filly perched on his withers gracefully adjusted her stance.

“It is true!” The filly gestured widely with a hoof. “Our planet is a four dimensional non euclidean plane according to leading orbital research at the time of my last instructional download.”

“So you gonna both gang up on me to change the subject?” The unicorn scoffed. “Three settlements now, and it was me and not you two that got us kicked out. We gonna pretend that ain’t a thing?”

“Naw, Slappy, that’s a thing.” A particularly venomous looking snake met eyes with the colt. “But the thing is… why do these good folk hate clowns so much all of a sudden? Weren't like this last year....”

-=Damn The Sun=-

“Can we just go help rarity?” Scootaloo asked nervously.

“You can try, I’ve been trying to leave myself for three scenes now,” Dicord responded, “Maybe the answer is to actually use the door… Honestly, I’m not sure…”

-=-=-=-=-

“It can’t be our old troupe… Even if Sunrise was wanting to chase us, think about it,” the insectile unicorn clown argued vehemently, “They’re on the south route. Cutting across the empty would eat up up all their supplies… the north route is a hard road this time of year, even for us… it couldn’t support a full circus…”

“They ain’t travelin’ as a circus no more, Slappy,” a tired serpent hissed from the cradle of the the giant’s mouth, “that’s just their line to get em in the town proper.”

“Sunrise… no…” The magician heaved a hopeless sigh, “No town’s gonna trust us after this. Not any of us! Not just our circus… any circus…”

“Based on my calculations,” The impassive metal filly rang out in perfect autotune, “Clowns specifically will be despised.”

“Sunrise…please… no...” The colt pleaded to his absent mentor.

“This is what it means to break a queen’s heart boy,” a cold snake echoed, “This is what it’s like to fight the sun. We can skip back south… I’ve crossed the empty plenty of times. With the girl, I can keep you alive, and we can make Turves behind them… you got a chance there.”

“Not if they get there first… she’s not gonna just let us go, boss, and you know it,” Slapstick LeFaux straightened his shoulders, “I’m done with running away. They’re not hunting us anymore. I’m hunting them.”

-=Damn The Sun=-

Discord spasmed as his eyes resumed their flicker. A test pattern flashed across the walls, settling on the screen.

“We now resume our scheduled program…” His voice droned mechanically.

Comments

[Alchemik]

Well, the splintered narrative is only making me more curious. So that's cool.

[Starlight Nova]

If the main OCs in this story and the previous one were voiced, what would they sound like?

[No one is home]

9568423 Bullette sounds like Sweetiebot... because she's Sweetiebot... I wan't even subtle with that. No Name's "default voice" has a southern, country drawl to it, but his snakes sometimes throw their own filters on it. He speaks with many forked tongues. Slap Stick would sound different at different points. When he first met No Name, he was a young teen. So cracky voice, unsure tones. When they dropped him off in Turves he was a young adult. His voice had settled i to a some what high pitched baritone, but he was still unsure of himself. By the time they came back he was a full on middle aged business-pony with a foal on the way. A ring master in his own right, he had the voice of a slightly sleezy sales-pony. Sunrise has a voice that inflicts itself on you. High pitched, and scraping like nails on a chalkboard... but alluring at the same time. It's important to note that she's charismatic and vain... but not "pretty" per se. I like to think of her "pre-queen", Sunrise Daffodilly voice as "bitter honey", and her "post-queen" Sunrise Flare voice as "poison honey".