Destiny's Hues

Destiny’s Hues

Yellow

“Shimmer! Shimmer! Don’t pass out on me!” The shout manages to pierce through the whiteness that is my world. I feel the need to shake my head and blink my eyes, but none of that seems to translate. The world is still a mass of unending whiteness… and a throbbing in my horn. And thinking about my horn, I’m actually able to blink from white to black, and back to the dimly lit room. Except it’s not dimly lit anymore, and it’s no longer a silent lab. Twin lanes of leaping orange, cerulean, and violet flames cast flickering shadows and roaring noise throughout the space. Only me, my Guard and the A-type are between the flames. The other scientists are trying to yell over the power of the fire, and I’m simply trying to think coherently enough to do more than fling my head from side to side.

“Shimmer!” the voice shouts at me again, and I realize it’s my pegasus Guard. “Snap out of it! C’mon, you made these flames, so let’s beat it before they go out!”

“I… I…” I shake, only able to gesture and point at the magically colored fire. I’ve never been able to generate a spell this powerful or unique. This is casting circle level complex. I’m not to that point yet, I know.

“He is not lying to you,” the A-type says to me, and the lack of concern in her voice contrasts weirdly with my delirium and my Guard’s energy.

“Move! Both of you!” he screams at us, and my hooves finally decide to listen to my brain, or something like that. I don’t bother asking. I just grab the A-type’s hoof in one of my own and clamber after the Guard.

“C’mon,” I breathe to her, my instincts telling me not to inhale too deeply this close to fire. “You’re not staying here. You’re coming back to Canterlot with me.”

“It’s against the -” she starts to say, but I don’t have time to listen to her and yank on her hoof harder. She let’s out a little yelp from almost tripping, but I seem to have gotten my point across. She doesn’t try to resist leaving anymore, but when I glance back to be sure she’s okay, her eyes are dilating back and forth far more rapidly than’s natural. And when we exit onto the catwalk, her mouth drops open a little. I desperately keep tugging her along, trying to keep up with my Guard. The protective lances of magical flame go all the way to the elevator, and through the momentary breaks in them, I can see multi hued embers floating around in the entire space.

Then the screaming and the shaking and the shattering starts. All around us, I can hear ponies crying out in fear and loss, and the whole facility begins to shudder and tilt as explosions begin to go off. I look up, unable to see past the flames any other way, and very magic protecting us is shredding through every inch of the lab space. I must slow down some, because my Guard yells something unintelligible from the pulley chamber. When we’re close enough, I pull harder on the A-type to throw her inside before leaping in myself. We collapse in a heap, and my Guard doesn’t wait to send the contraption soaring to the surface. I roll off the A-type, letting out gasping breaths.

“Care to explain that mess back there, Miss Shimmer?!” my Guard asks. He’s not quite yelling at me, but the intensity is there anyway. “Why in Tartarus’s pits did you take that thing out?!”

I stand to my hooves and look over her. She’s standing perfectly straight, no sign of harm, and her eyes have stopped dilating. “Did you believe them?” I ask him as truthfully as I can. “Did you honestly believe they’d built a pony?”

“I chose not to think about it,” he growls at me, but I think he’s satisfied with my answer. “But your magic… That would have been nice to know about.”

“I didn’t know I could do anything like that until today.” I scratch at my forehoof, trying to conjure up memories of when it would have happened and getting nothing. I know he’s scrutinizing me for a few seconds, so I choose to stare at the A-type some more. Even if I can’t remember how I produced fire of that kind of power, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get her scream out of my head. Yet she’s already gone back to being less than real.

The shaft rattles violently again, and I turn back to my Guard. “We’ll need to get off this thing as fast as we can. Are you strong enough to carry both of us in that chariot by yourself?”

“We won’t be going anywhere fast,” he tells me with a grunt. “But I’ll manage until we run into Lift on the way home.” The tile crashes into it’s place on the surface of the facility, and both me and my Guard gaze down the tunnel to the unguarded chariot. “If they came ready to take us down, they’ll have posted security on the strip,” he echoes my suspicions.

“I can craft a shield long enough for us to figure out where -” I start, but…

“This world is quite fascinating,” the A-type says, and she shoves between us to stand ahead. Her head turns first to one side then to the other. “There are three ponies in front of you, one on the right and two on the left.” And before either of us can question or comprehend her assertion, a soft aura of light, the same as my eye color, encases her mane and tail. They rise up and whip about like she’s underwater, though she seems completely at ease with her condition. “The pony on the right is no longer a threat,” she says plainly.

“Can… can you move?” I tap her on her shoulder experimentally, and she turns to face me with her eyes once again an exact mimic of my own.

“Of course,” she says.

“Damn liars. That effect’s obvious as Her Majesty’s plot,” the Guard says with a hearty chuckle and takes a running lead out of the tunnel. I shake that mental image out of my head before shivering as I grasp her hoof and run after him. I glance to the right when we burst into the fresh air, and one of the earth ponies is already unconscious when my Guard leaps into the air to take on a pegasus. On the left, there is indeed a unicorn, but he looks traumatized and is frantically touching and tapping on his horn. I ignore them all and tear straight for the chariot. She climbs in easily enough, and before I join her, I rip away the camouflaging cloth and wrap it around her like a blanket as best I can. I jump in beside her, squeezing my side against the freezing, ash smeared metal and tucking my tail inside the car. But as I’m using my magic to ready the harness, an echoing, thunderous boom drowns out everything else. The fire from before rips out the top the facility, spewing sparks and shrapnel and bursting one of the balloons with an ear-shattering cacophony. I yelp and force her down inside the car with me, even as the entire structure slowly leans, abruptly yanking back as the anchoring chain prevents it from falling from the sky completely.

“Keep her inside the car, Sunset!” I hear the Guard’s voice in my ear despite the rattling and heat and groaning of metal. “And whatever you do, the both of you, keep your heads down!” A click sounds from the front of the chariot, and when I look out the back of the car, we’re moving. But not straight. There are winding lanes of fire all over the surface of the leaning facility, and they’re constantly bursting from inside. Metal lies in bits and chunks all over, and - ! My head yanks down and my hoof puts more pressure her head to keep it out of harm’s way as well. Another of the balloons explodes, and the chains can’t keep the place upright any more. The wheels of the chariot are rattling like mad on either side, and when I look out the back agian, my stomach lurches. The entire structure is leaning forward, and all I can see is the sky as my Guard rides the firey descent for as long as he can. Clattering rocks join the bits of metal as the chains whip back with untold tension and cleave the ceiling in two. Barriers of violet fire erupt to around the edges of the gaping wound, and in an instant, we’re no longer dodging the collapsing pieces of Halter Labs.

The wind replaces roaring fire and creaking metal, and after a few moments, I can watch the whole spectacle as the facility completely smashes into the snow covered valley. Our ascent is easy and steady, and once I’m sure we’re well away from danger, tension I didn’t even notice before drains out of my limbs and chest. I let my hoof fall from the A-type’s head and try to regulate my breathing. She seems entirely unperturbed, but it doesn’t surprise me all that much. Her mane and tail have gone back to silky normalcy, and I can finally clearly see that she has gray eyes, a whitish-cream coat, and a grey-blue mane and tail. She sits up, and her mane is immediately yanked back from the force of the wind. I follow her, but keep my face turned away from the front.

“You weren’t hurt, were you?” I ask. “Either of you?”

“I am unhurt,”  she says, and her head actually moves to look over the side of the chariot. “The world outside the lab is very fascinating.”

“We’d be dead if I was injured, Miss Shimmer,” my Guard says through labored breaths.

“Land if you need to,” I tell him and haphazardly tap against the edge of the car, feeling like there’s something else I should say. I leave him be. He’s probably using all of his concentration on keeping the two of us in the air. Instead, I turn my attention to the A-type and watch as she lolls her head around. She actually has an expression of amazement on her face, and I figure her dilating eyes are some kind of external indication of her filing away new information. “Thanks, by the way,” I mention to her. As if it’s some kind of signal, her eyes immediately snap back to normal, and she turns her head to face me. Once again, she’s gone emotionally blank. I decide to elaborate anyway. “For stopping that unicorn and telling us about them, I mean. We probably wouldn’t - Oof!”

I’m cut off for what feels like the upteenth time tonight, but this time, it’s because she’s hugging me. It feels forced and… I guess necessitated would be a good word.

“I’m glad,” she tells me, still embracing. “It’s what I’m for, after all.”

“Yeah,” I try to say without hurting her… but she doesn’t feel… it’s very awkward. “You… you don’t have to keep holding onto to me though,” I say, edging her off with a little pressure to her shoulders. She pulls away, and I let out a mental sigh when she doesn’t react negatively. I assume it must be some kind of in-built reaction. “A nod or smile is fine,” I say.

When she doesn’t reply, I look away hesitantly and decide to busy myself with the warming spell. She goes back to gazing around of her own accord in short order, but since the heating spell is something even a first year at school could do, I’m left with nothing but my thoughts. And now that I’m not surrounded by what I’d equate to a secret society and on my way home, they’re ordered and logical again. Wait. Home. The castle… the princess. My hoof finds it’s way to my forehead, and my eyes shut while I mutter about how much of an idiot I am. Even if she would believe me, trying to explain how I destroyed a flying laboratory won’t end well. That, and I’ve technically stolen property… A shiver runs down my spine at the thought. It just popped into my head that way, even though she’s sitting right there next to me, breathing the same air I am.

But it doesn’t keep me from having to explain myself. If not stealing, I’ve kidnapped somepony. I’ve burned the equivalent of a small town, and probably killed every scientists there. I can already see Princess Celestia’s eyes and her tone as she tells me to get out of the castle, and… and… All of their faces, even the one that tried to attack me, come swimming into my mind, and I can’t stop myself. I crawl over to the back of the car, hang my head over, and vomit. A lot. But when I come back up, wiping my face and coughing at the taste of bile, my thoughts are even more transparent. How am I going to explain myself. And worse, what will they decide to do with the A-type if I don’t explain myself well enough?

But I’m not even given time to really think about it. “You okay, Shimmer?” the Guard asks, though he isn’t able to look back.

“Just… ugh, just…” I want to say I’m fine so I can go back to figuring out what I’m going to do, but doing that in the first place ended with me losing my stomach over the side. “What are we going to do?” I ask as straightly as I can. “The princess won’t be pleased, we have her to explain… It’s going to be a nightmare, and I’ll be lucky just to be expelled.” Even though I try to keep my tone set, I can’t help as a little panic runs into the end.

“They attacked us first,” he says without a flinch. “Both you and I were well within the law to retaliate. So we damaged a control system that happened to collapse the entire structure, not something we could have known.” He pauses to catch his breath, and it’s somewhat comforting to hear him confident we won’t be thrown in a dungeon for that. “That experiment next to you’s what’s complicated. Figure that out first.” I nod even though he can’t see me. It’s true any way I look at it. Some dark part of me tries to insist that she’s not real, and that the easiest solution would be to push her out of the car to the ground far, far below. But it’s gone before I’m even able to express revulsion at myself. I lean against the car’s side, letting the pulse of the heat spell lull me into pondering. I’m looking in her direction, but not at her. More through her to nothing.

“Is that what thinking looks like?” she asks with her straight, unregulated volume. She’s staring right at me too, which she seems to do when addressing anypony. I blink to refocus and nod.

“What am I going to do with you?” I sigh, not intending for my voice to carry to her ears. Thankfully, the wind carries it away before anypony knows I said anything, and I turn to stare off behind the chariot rather than at the A-type. There’s no chance I can take her to the princess. Nevermind having to explain what actually happened at Halter, but no matter how hard I try to convince myself it would be in a far better environment, I know the A-type would just be taken to another lab. And perhaps they wouldn’t mistreat her, but if the princess decided she was an abomination or a threat to Equestria, nopony would hesitate to put her down. And what’s worse, I’m not sure she understands she can be killed. She would just let them. I’m not sure why I’m the only pony that seems to look at her… differently, but if I can just get everything settled down, I know I’ll be able to figure out why.

I consider putting her in the care of my Guard. He knows the delicacy of our situation and would understand me wanting to keep her on a low profile for now. But at the same time, she’d be exposed to a Guard’s lifestyle. Ponies might accuse me of being classicist, but even though Guards are the spitting image of perfection on duty, I know most of them get drunk and find mares of the night whenever they have the chance. I shudder to think it, but they might even make a pass at her if she was around their quarters.

I need to hide her. Keep her someplace I know is safe until I’m able to sort out the mess this aftermath is going to be. And maybe I can get her to act more naturally in that time so I can make a stronger case against having her taken off to an examination room and used as an experiment. My rooms in the castle aren’t even remotely an option. The maids alone would find her. I don’t trust any of the colts or fillies from school to keep a secret for Sunset Shimmer. She’d just be a blackmailing tool to them. I haven’t spoken to my mother or father for years now. My older sister is across the country in Trottingham… It’s a possibility if I can’t think of anything else. But only if I can’t think of somepony in Canterlot. I knock my hoof against my head, trying to force an idea out.

And for once, it works. Flitz. Her mom works long night hours, and Flitz and I get along really well. It’ll be a hassle trying to explain everything that happened and why I need to keep an emotionless, staring filly in her room, but I think I can manage. I glance at her again, and a small giggle can’t help but escape my lips. She’s taken on my pose from before, low eyelids and all. “It doesn’t suit you that well,” I tell her.

“Oh, then I will stop,” she replies, and returns to her open-eyed, straight-backed sitting. “But how should I appear to be thinking?”

“It’s different for everypony,” I say. “Some ponies don’t even look like anything in particular when they’re thinking.”

“How will I decide how to appear to do so?” she asks.

“You’ll figure it out for yourself, I guess,” I say with a small shrug. “I never paid much attention to ‘how’ I do it. What were you thinking about anyway?”

“I was cataloguing the data I have gathered about wind speeds and cloud formations at these altitudes,” she says with a blink, separate from my own for once. “And that I need to eat some kind of food to become comfortable.”

“I’d give you some of my traveling oats if I had any,” I sigh. “They fell out of the car with my saddlebags when the building was collapsing. And you can just say you’re hungry. I think all of us are.”

“I’m hungry then,” she says, and I could be imagining it, but I think I hear the faintest hint of a whine. We leave it at that, and she continues to gaze while I huddle up in the car to try to sleep the day away. I must wake up at some point and tell her she can do the same thing if she’s tired, because I drift in and out throughout the day and she’s always sleeping when my eyes peek open. She doesn’t curl up, but I’m not one to judge somepony for how they sleep.

Again, I wake fully when I feel the car beginning to lose altitude, and I sit up in the cart to see Canterlot approaching fast. I take a look at the A-type briefly and think it best to let her stay asleep and innocuous for as long as possible. My second Guard, Lift, has joined back up with us, and both he and his commander look far more focused now than ever. “We’re detouring away from the castle strip!” I yell over the wind to the two of them. “Find an alley on Bagging Street in Lower Canterlot you can land in without drawing too much attention!”

“Aye, Miss!” my lead shouts his reply. “Duck inside! It’ll be better if nopony sees either of you!”

“Duly noted!” I confirm hearing him, and curl back down. I take careful note to wrap my tail inside and actually have to use my other hoof to pull her’s out of the wind as well. When the car takes a sharp dive and the whistling of the air around us dies away a little, I poke at her side until her eyes snap wide awake.

They dilate until they look normal and the color shimmers through a rainbow of hues, but she eventually looks at me and asks, “Did you need me Sunset Shimmer?”

“Look, you can just call me Sunset,” I impress upon her. “But yes, we’re about to land, and I need you to do exactly as I say until we reach Flitz’s place.”

“Yes?” she asks. “I am ready to receive your commands.”

“Oh… um, yeah, walk right beside me, a little off set so you don’t look awkward and don’t make eye contact with anypony unless they’re headed right for us. If that happens, just give them a look and smile.”

“I will do exactly as you say,” she replies, but also asks with a small tilt to her head, “But what does this show to the other ponies?”

“I… well, I guess it makes you look purposeful but not angry or sad. It keeps you from being stopped by total strangers is my point,” I explain in a rush. Brick walls are surrounding us now, and the chariot rocks to no end as the Guards make a full hovering stop before touching down.

“Go! Go!” the lead Guard hisses to me. “Make it snappy!” I jerk my head in response and wait for the A-type to step down and to my side. I stick my head out of the alley and look both ways, trying to use the limited lamp light to see any approaching ponies, but when I don’t see any obvious movement, I motion to her with a hoof. I do my best not to tip-hoof or make any long, careful strides, but I’m pretty sure I’m not walking exactly normally. I just don’t do conspiratorial stuff. Anything that might require it that I would want to do I can just get permission from the princess for. I’m woefully out of practice, though I think that might be a good thing in certain ways.

The alley we landed in was quite a way from Flitz’s house (well, Flitz’s mom’s house actually) but I’m used to walking the whole of street to it from Upper Canterlot. We reach the door of the small and quaint home, and there’s a new inspirational plaque on the outside, just like every week. Thankfully, we didn’t run into any other ponies out late, and the A-type moved beside well enough. She was still a little artificial, but I’ll take what I can get at the moment. I rap on the door several times and wince at how loud it seems at night.

But with her mom out late and her work day not starting until later in the afternoon anyway, Flitz is a tried and true night owl. She’s really a great pony to spend long study nights with. And because of that, she comes to the door almost right away. Not that I don’t repeat hushed thanks over and over as I push past her while dragging the A-type inside after me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I murmur. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but I couldn’t think -”

“Woah, slow down Sunset, what’s going on? Who is she?” Flitz asks, sounding half dazed.

“It’s complicated,” I settle for saying to stall for time. I turn to the A-type, but before I can tell her what to do, it hits me hard how badly she needs a proper name. I wrack my brain for several long moments and shake it with squinted eyes. “Aura,” I blurt the first thing that stands out about her. “Your name’s Aura. Okay, Aura, this is Flitz. Flitz this Aura.”

“Uh… he- hello,” Flitz says and waves nervously before frantically trying to fix her messy bed mane.

“Hello,” Aura replies in her typical tone, but she at least follows through with a wave like Flitz gave her. “Why have you brought me here, Sunset? Are you assigning me to protect her?”

“No. No, no,” I say. “While you’re here, I don’t want you to use your… ah, ability, at all.”

“Look Sunset, could you please explain what’s going on?” Flitz butts in, and I have to admit, frustration doesn’t go well with her.

“I’m sorry, I really am,” I preface, “but I need you to look after her for a while. Nopony can know about her. Nopony. Not even if Princess Celestia herself came asking could you say. I need to sort out everything else first, but she’ll make it impossible if I let her known from the get-go.”

“I… Look, you can tell me if you’re in deep with something illegal, Sunset,” Flitz says. “I mean, is she like some brain washed prostitute or something…?”

“No!” I reply vehemently. “No! I’ll give you all the details tomorrow, but she’s part of a mess of an assignment that letter you gave me sent me on.”

“Oh, sorry,” Flitz answers. “What… what should I do with her?”

“Aura’s a little… odd. Just take my word for it, I think she’s still assimilating behavior from other ponies. It’s why she doesn’t seem normal. So, just treat her like you’d treat me or any other pony. She’s not gonna react the same way, but just keep at it.”

“I’m in for a long night, aren’t I?” Flitz asks me with half-lidded eyes.

“To Tartarus if I know,” I reply with a shrug. “I barely know what I’m doing as is.”

“You have to promise to go over why I’m supposed to do this tomorrow,” she demands, and I can’t say I blame her or think it’s unwarranted.

“I already knew I was going to have to,” I say anyway, “but I promise. Aura, stay with Flitz for now. I’ll be back to check up in the morning.” She takes it as silently as always, and I bump a quick hoof with Flitz before heading back to the door. It’s only a few steps away, but in that time, something stops me.

“Sunset?” Aura’s voice asks, and I whip back at how soft it is, at least relative to the hard and loud I’m used to hearing. “What is going to happen to me if I am left alone here?” Her eyes are beginning to glow, but not tear like. It’s a more subtle version of what happened when her mane and tail were hazed.

“You’re not alone,” I try to reassure her, despite how wrenchingly confusing it is to be offering consolation of any kind. “I trust Flitz. She’s my best friend. She’ll take care of you.”

“I feel… afraid,” Aura states simply. “I do not know what will happen. Is this normal?”

“Yes,” I say even though my mind is struggling to comprehend how she jumped from blank emotional disinterest to something like this. “But if you’ve learned to fear, I’m guessing you can learn to trust. So trust I can get it sorted out, and trust I know Flitz will take care of you.”

“Move quickly,” she says. “I have decided I would rather learn a different feeling. This one makes me uncomfortable.”

“You also owe me a trip to Joe’s,” Flitz hisses in my ear just before I shut the door behind me. I may have told her trust Flitz, but already having to leave her in somepony else’s care is driving my mind into thinking up the worst possible things that could happen while I’m gone. I just need to visit the Night Court and make an afternoon appointment with the princess. Just take it one step at a time. And try not to rush back to Flitz’s place instead of sleeping in my rooms. This had better resolve itself quickly because I can already see myself losing it and becoming a piping hot mess.