The City of Gold

by OfTheIronwilled

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Tragedy, Alternate Universe
Length: 5098

Fluttershy finds herself in the golden city of Atlantis after a terrible accident puts her in a coma. As problems spring up due to troubled relations with the Kelpies of Saint Buckdon, she finds she either has to help, or watch their city fall.

After the events of Hurricane Day go horribly wrong, Fluttershy finds herself alone near the mythical city of Atlantis. On a search for her friends, Fluttershy decides to trust a stallion named Sun Streak and his group of friends as, as he likes to say, they don't leave Drifters behind.

Unfortunately, after reaching their destination after a long trek through neighboring hostile cities, they find themselves right in the middle of a siege upon their home. As Fluttershy learns of terrible secrets having to do with both the city she's trying to protect, and herself, she must ask herself: is it worth it? Should she continue to help these ponies even though they're just figments of her imagination?

Meanwhile, Twilight and Rainbow Dash are on an adventure of their own, searching for the magical item that will bring their friend back from her coma.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-31 02:30:02 UTC

Prologue: Somepony Laughed

       There was a cloud. A large, muddying grey one, splitting and spraying across Fluttershy's restricted vision. She saw no colors and knew no colors of this unhappy world; she only new the grey, and the pain tearing her head apart piece by piece, stabbing into her brain repeatedly. She knew not how to fly... to even walk or talk. She only knew to float and to suffocate. To die.

       So that is what she did.

       She floated in the cloud, bobbing in the misty spray, the thing pulling away all thoughts... all air; anything worldly now floated in the breeze carrying Fluttershy away. Maybe she was scared and in a frenzied panic, forelegs flying outwards without a care to catch all of those things -- those loves and friendships -- but she couldn't remember. She could only remember sinking and spiraling into the dark all around her, shadows slowly creeping and crawling up her body.

       Fluttershy didn't fight -- she couldn't -- a dirty shade of red collecting at the corner of her peripheral vision, and her hooves cooling to a dull numbness. She just sank lower and lower into her death -- or at least what she thought to be death.

       A warm breeze gently caressed her cheek.

"Oh... oh Goddesses, Fluttershy... Fluttershy can you hear me?"

       Another warm caress. It felt so nice against the cold...

"Fluttershy, it's me, Blossomforth... Flu -- hey! H-hey, over here! Quick! Flu-Fluttershy hit her head! Oh..."

       A mixture of sadness and desperation dripped from the voice, prompting Fluttershy to find her will, aiming to comfort the poor pony behind it; she couldn't bear hearing the mare so torn up. Fluttershy was oh so tired, the coldness pouring into her bones dragging her downwards. Still... she had to try. This pony clearly needed a hug.

       She fought from the shadows, writhing and yanking from the cloudy greyness folded over her eyes.

"Oh, she-she's bleeding..."

       The pegasi's wings flapped wildly against the weights dragging her into the endless abyss below, all thoughts jumping into her skull to accomplish her goal. Her right foreleg ripped away from the blanketing shadows all around, more twisting upwards into a tower of black, grabbing hold of the rest of her immovably numb appendages.

"Fluttershy, just listen to me, okay? I-I know you're awake, okay? Just... just don't go to sleep. You here me?"

       With eyes clamped firmly shut, Fluttershy upped her struggle, left wing ripping away from the mist of darkness clinging to her. She was so close, the adjacent wing tugging away at its bindings with a sickening shlorping sound, and her twitchy ears flicking away the ice attached to them.

"Rainbow Da... here... soo..."

       A claw of darkened sludge shot upwards in a flash of terrifying sound, ripping and whipping at the fur coating Fluttershy's exposed face and chest, and drilling -- if only for a split second -- into the soft skin beneath. Fluttershy stumbled, reds and splotched blues gathering in her closed eyes, wings chugging to a stop.

"Don... g... slee..."

       She fell.

       The shadows once again swallowed her whole, leaving Fluttershy nothing to cling to except the warm breeze now migrating to her aching forehead.

       The clock gave a mighty tick, time seeming to slip away as it went through is usual revolution. Skinny black arms motioned towards two respective numbers; it was dripping away to the midnight hours, a large twelve standing on its face.

       Magenta eyes scanned the polished area around Rainbow Dash, the mare wincing visibly every time she happened to lift her gaze from the pure white which was the floor. Everything seemed to smell of medicine and death, she noted, the breath going into her lungs stale and dry as anxious ponies flitted about the building. She hated it here, as the only thing interesting was the rather limited collection of Daring Do novels(which she had already read several times over in the library), and she just wanted to go home as soon as possible, before her curiosity -- or would it be loyalty for Fluttershy -- got the best of her.

       Of course, she would be able to do that in just a few hours, seeing as the trickle of medicine flowing down the plastic tube jutting from her foreleg was slowly beginning to wane -- she had been one of the lucky ones, no bleeding, no fractures. Just a sprain which would disappear in short notice due to the magic being pumped into her bloodstream.

       The others however...

       Dash diverted her gaze to the side, where her purple unicorn companion sat snuggled with a rather large book. Already the studious Twilight had torn through the many pamphlets lining the walls and tiny bookshelves, retiring to the tome before her eyes. Rainbow had long since given up asking what had held her attention for such a long period of time(Only Daring Do could be so awesome!), simply dismissing it as one of Twilight's regular egghead books. As much as Dash hated to bother Twilight during her nerd-out(Think of the consequences!), she was bored completely out of her mind, and something was really bothering her.

       Rainbow Dash gave the metal IV stand attached to her left foreleg a nervous push, allowing the clanking noise to fill the uneasy silence that had been growing over the past few seconds.

       "Uh... Twilight? Why are there so many... tubes... in her?" she asked once the silence and the nagging feeling in her gut became too much to handle.

       Her curious eyes turned to the purple unicorn sitting beside her on the cushioned aqua couch, somewhat hoping an answer wouldn't come.

       Twilight looked up in a sudden snap, her eyes shrunken to petite dots, clearly startled from her reading stupor. Eyes once again widening to their normal large size, Twilight immediately pieced together the somewhat vague question, setting down the text in her hooves("The Common Cold and Other Illnesses: Treatments for the Common Household") with a muffled thud.

       "Oh, you mean back there? Well, uh..." Twilight fidgeted, her flanks brushing the fabric supporting her weight, an uncomfortable expression etched onto her face. "Fluttershy is... Fluttershy is in a coma, Dash. Those machines are keeping her alive."

       Rainbow Dash winced, her body jerking roughly to the side. She remembered those machines, tendril-like tubes spewing out of them from all sides, an ear wrenching whine and constant beeping firing from them. They were things of nightmares, like a creature from a monster movie. To even think that one of those disgusting metal contraptions was keeping her friend breathing...

       Rainbow Dash scowled at herself, staring at her warped reflection in the polished linoleum. She just had to ask, didn't she? The doctors had yet to explain what exactly plagued her closest friend -- Twilight had apparently assumed otherwise -- and to hear of an injury of this magnitude felt like a punch to the gut. All Rainbow wanted now was to curl up and puke.

       "Yeah, great job, Dash." the equine spat angrily. "What a great Element of Loyalty you turned out to be."

       Rainbow buried her weary head in her hooves, anger splitting across her stressed features.

       "Stupid, stupid!"

       There was a somewhat startled and apologetic gasp from directly beside her, coming from the lips of Twilight Sparkle.

       "You-you didn't know? R-Rainbow, I--"

       Rainbow Dash's body shuddered from under her, though it was not from her own limbs. The entire couch below suddenly shook, as if Twilight Sparkle was shaking her head to clear thoughts away, or jumping from the couch she had been resting on all together. The former was probably more likely, though Rainbow didn't look up to notice -- she was too busy churning and cooking up some new insults to berate herself with.

       "Rainbow Dash, it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known." Twilight sympathized, stopping her nervous shuffling and head shaking, leaning down to the angered pegasi's level.

       Rainbow Dash flicked to the side, eyes boring into Twilight's own, shocking the unicorn with the quick change of location. All day the cyan Pegasus had been abusing herself mentally, even without the news of her friend's condition, and she suddenly found she wished to do so verbally as well. Lucky for her, Twilight had just given her quite a bit to work with.

       "Oh yeah, Twilight? Well if it weren't for me, the whole team wouldn't have gone down the first time, let alone the second; I guess we all went down flying, just like I wanted." Rainbow Dash uttered sharply to the unicorn before her, venom bursting from her self-destructive words. "Only now, not everypony is getting back up for round three! How is this..."

       Dash motioned down the hall immediately facing her from her perch on the couch, to the farthest door to the right in fact, and furrowed her brow in internal agony.

       "... not my fault?!"

       Only now did the frustrated mare notice that her rebukes had evolved into piercing shouts and her wings had begun whipping the air in large arching strokes. Now a few feet off of the soft couch she had been resting on not but a moment ago, the IV stuck(rather painfully) into her foreleg gave a tight, uncomfortable tug, not appreciating the gesture of pulling too far away from its metal holder.

       Twilight Sparkle stood up fully on her back hooves, resting a comforting hoof on Dash's withers, and pulling her gently to the fluffy ground located directly beneath them.

       "Rainbow Dash," she heaved a heavy sigh, her chest briefly contracting, before expanding once again to its normal size. Something seemed to be dragging her down, almost as if guilt was getting to her. "If this is anypony's fault, it's mine. Fluttershy didn't want to do it, but I convinced her. I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash." she muttered, gazing sadly up to the Pegasus, before retiring to prodding at the ground with a nervous hoof.

       Rainbow's eyes widened considerably at this news; she had simply deducted that Fluttershy had came to her own decision independently, as she had not seen the exchange of words the Elements of Kindness and Magic had shared just a short day ago. Everything fell into yet another extremely uncomfortable silence, hushed whispers flying throughout the air around them.

       "Oh, well... I guess we're both kinda' to blame, huh?" Rainbow Dash muttered, awkwardly diverting her magenta irises to the other side of the room, now aware of the entire room of startled ponies blinking their way("Our patients are trying to sleep! Please, miss, keep your voice down!). "But, uh..." To change the subject slightly... "Do you think there's anything we can do to help Flutters... you know... wake up?"

       A surprised yelp erupted from Rainbow Dash's mouth as she was forced into a warm hug.

       "I don't know, Dash, but I promise you if there is, we'll find it." Twilight smiled brightly. "For Fluttershy."

       Rainbow Dash beamed, eyes widening in pure happiness at this reassuring gesture.

       "Thanks, Twi." Rainbow exclaimed, before her signature cocky grin twisted and transformed into a sheepish little smile. "But, uh... next time, do ya' think you could lay off the mushy stuff in front of everypony?"

       In Ponyville Hospital, somepony laughed.

       Fluttershy shuddered uncontrollably, her face distorted in a terrified grimace. Her heart beat spiked in the pit of her chest, body folded over in a shivering ball of fear.

       Fluttershy was scared.

       All around her was an endless abyss of blue nothingness, stretching out for what seemed to be a terrible eternity. There were no warm welcoming walls; all rooftops once present were magically gone, as if they had disappeared one morning, unsuspected by all. Fluttershy knew nothing of what was here, the golden sand floating along beneath her into the nothingness no indicator of location.

       Nopony was here. Nothing was here. She was absolutely lost.

       Fluttershy whimpered into the ground below, inhaling the gritty sand into her mouth and nostrils as she trembled. Already she had screamed for her friends, all six of them individually, though nopony had once answered her through the sapphire blue circling her on all sides. She was now thinking of all of the horrible things which could have befallen them as they were separated -- she could remember clearly that she had been with them before she fell asleep -- they could have wandered away and gotten lost themselves before trotting directly into the jaws of a dragon, or fallen into a bottomless pit while looking upwards and shouting for help, or --

       Just thinking abut it was tearing her apart inside. Her friends were always there for her, putting up with her suffocating and sometimes fatal shyness. Without them there, she felt adrift, as if there was a gaping hole in her heart that needed to be filled immediately. If not, then who was to say what could happen?

       Fluttershy sniffed, shuffling a bit to wipe her dripping muzzle with a butter-yellow hoof.

       "Hello?"

       A squeal erupted from Fluttershy's throat, her entire body flying into the air in surprise. She hadn't heard the voice which called out to her clearly, but in her weary and shocked state, the sound which ripped through the air sounded evil and malicious. Throughout her mind, Fluttershy pictured creature after creature which could be chasing her down to end her -- Nightmare Moon, Discord, a giant fire-breathing dragon... all of them came to mind, among others, though all shook her down to her very soul.

       So of course she did only one thing: she ran.

       Her body wriggled around in the shifty ground below, sand flying into the air, floating and churning in unnatural patterns and somehow suspending itself without falling gently back to it's original, right place. Fluttershy's body felt sluggish and slow, almost as if it was wrong in a way, and she was unable to move without stirring the shifty dirt into her burning irritated eyes. Seeing that she was accomplishing nothing in her struggle, Fluttershy squeaked loudly once again, ducking her head beneath her(shorter than usual?) hooves and attempting to make her body as small as possible; she hoped the terrible monster chasing her down would just ignore her and pass her by, finding something more tasty to eat.

       "P-please don't eat me Mister Monster. I-I promise I'll never come back... I-if you want, that is..." she muttered quietly, and a bit to muddled for anything drawing breath to hear.

       "Um... h-hello? Are you alright?"

       There was a shuffling sound, as if the so called 'creature' which had been slowly approaching her for the past few seconds was creeping slightly closer in a comforting gesture, but Fluttershy didn't dare look up. After all, this act might have just been a ruse to gain her trust, before it gobbled her up for its meal.

       "N-no. Mister Monster, could you... maybe, please just go away for a little bit... please?"

       "Hello? Uh... bonjour? I'm not going to hurt you."

       Fluttershy shivered horribly yet again, considering her options. There was always the great chance that this terrifying thing, whatever it was,  would try to kill or eat her in various ways, but at the same time, it could have also been telling the truth, and lead her to her missing friends. It was a gamble for sure, and she was betting her life, but seeing as she could not navigate throughout this strange endless abyss flying about her, she seemed to have been paralyzed during the event which separated her from the others in the first place, and this monster didn't seem to be leaving any time in the near future, there wasn't much of a choice for her.

       Crying out silently, Fluttershy pulled her hooves away from the flesh of her face, cautiously peeking through the space she created, expecting her life, all the way back to her humble beginnings, to begin flashing before her very eyes.

       There was a gasp, a sharp intake of breath as Fluttershy's chest contracted in pure surprise.

       "Hippocampus Fuscus..." she breathed airily.

       Before Fluttershy stood a figure of grace. A stallion's head, shrouded by a mane of a golden yellow, was perched atop a spiraling body, snow-white flesh stretching over several rings of bone which cascaded down its entire figure. At the end of its shortened torso, its body branched off into a flowing, curl-tipped tail, tiny mustard colored fins jutting out of its pale skin. The coronet standing on its head seemed to match the elegant violet of its beautiful eyes; skin formed the sharp, yet natural-looking shape of a shining diamond. On the area of its torso which would normally act as the flank on a pony was a rose- colored, crystalline heart.

Hippocampus Fuscus. The seapony.

       "Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed jubilantly, wriggling in the dirt below in joyful excitement as the stallion before her squirmed in shock and modesty. "Oh my goodness, I've... I've never seen anything like this before! Sometimes a poor seahorse has washed in from the ocean, but I've never seen one of this breed!"

       Fluttershy wiggled awkwardly, lifting herself into a somewhat upright position to get a better look at the specimen before her eyes. Seeing that at this position the squeamish stallion towered over her, she simply estimated that at full height she still would never compare to his particular size and weight.

       "Or of this size! You-you must be a completely different breed... perhaps a different species if you can actually speak! This... this is an amazing discovery!" Fluttershy screamed, blinking hopefully, yet heart-wrenchingly innocent into the violet eyes of the seapony floating directly in front of her.

       "Excuse me? Did-did you get hurt?" the stallion asked, an eyebrow flying upwards in a concerned expression. "Listen, we don't turn away a Drifter. We have a doctor at our shack, if you nee--"

       "There are more of you?! Please, tell me all about them; I love animals."

       The stallion facing her gave a contorted look of pure confusion, seeming to dismiss her actions and words as crazy, incoherent babble. This was a bit strange to Fluttershy -- she thought for a moment that perhaps there was a thick language barrier in between them, though she swore she understood all of his speech so far -- but quieted immediately as the stallion cleared his throat in something completely unlike annoyance. He looked at her with an expression of great sympathy, revealing his petite yellow(a bit cute, too) fins.

       "I have fins." he drawled out slowly, making sure this information was gently drilled into Fluttershy's overworked brain. "I am a seapony."

       He reached out to her slowly and cautiously, careful not to intimidate her as he came closer. Crouching down to the gritty ground, he gripped two smaller, pink fins in his own golden ones.

       "You have fins. You are a seapony."

       Fluttershy blinked rapidly, nearly fainting as she gasped in a complicated combination of fear and excitement. As she slowly began to hyperventilate, she decided that... maybe she did need that doctor.

       It had been hours before Fluttershy had begun any movement besides simply wiggling around like a drowning worm, and even now it was sluggish and slow as she swam in the water which had once been described as an endless abyss. She would often stumble and start to sink to the sandy bottom once again, but with the help and support from the stallion who had found her -- Sun Streak he had explained as they exchanged names -- she had finally gotten to the point of actual mobility. As long as she kept her rhythm, and a steady tempo of thrusts("Rhythm is the most important part!"), she could continue without being entirely helpless.

       "Sorry the Shack's not much to look at. Its just a temporary home, so not much incentive to clean it up."

       "Oh, no, Sun Streak. I'm just honored that you would let me into your home. I mean, I wouldn't want to be a bother..." she uttered in weak reply, her voice dying on the cool currents circling around them.

       Sun Streak smiled reassuringly behind his soft eyes, causing only some of Fluttershy's worries to disappear. "Nonsense Fluttershy. We never abandon a Drifter, and we would be happy to have you." he explained happily, motioning upwards at the mound of coral and wood directly ahead of him -- the structure that would probably serve Fluttershy as a welcome home for a short amount of time in which to search for her friends.

       Fluttershy gulped nervously, plagued with the thought of what ponies might have been inside. Sun Streak appeared to be a very dependable pony; he wouldn't be the malicious type to lead her into trouble on purpose. Still, he had never quite gotten to the point of explaining the population of the house, and Fluttershy didn't feel confident enough to take on a room filled to the brim with new faces, seapony or not; the wonder of this 'new species' quickly died away as she learned they could speak, judge, and view just as the inhabitants of Ponyville could.

       Fluttershy let out a startled "eep" as Sun Streak wrapped a fin firmly around her own in a childlike excitement, dragging her along into a dark crevice hidden underneath a giant, swollen plank of oak. Snapping her eyes shut in fright as they sluggishly chugged into the blackness, she gently rocked her head and pelvis in a unique bouncing, rhythmic pattern of bobs only she would be able to hear -- swimming.

         When her lids lifted once again, she was startled, and relatively relieved at what she saw.

       Around her was a bowled-out, smooth surface of beautiful rose-colored coral, rotted planks of mold covered wood standing proudly in the bare corners where no vibrant colors dared to show through. The 'house' itself was only decorated in the very slightest; a few planks of the kind which circled the small complex stood overturned in what was just a few petite inches from the absolute center of the perfectly round room, acting as a makeshift table. Hanging from the drooping ceiling was a scattered collection of small glass jars, several with finite cracks covering their surfaces, which were filled to the brim with an odd glowing powder, a sickly green light spouting off of them and contrasting the smothering pink all around; other than two adult seaponies relaxing happily directly in front of the arching doorway behind, this was all the Shack seemed to offer.

       Fluttershy squeaked quietly as Sun Streak's eyes widened into a loving nostalgia, the stallion raising out his petite fins in a proud display of accomplishment.

       "Hey, guys, look what I found out in the Grounds." he said a bit louder than needed, just in case the seaponies placed before him were in a sound, peaceful sleep.

       "Is it food?" one of the seaponies drawled out quietly behind closed eyes -- a stallion with a dusty charcoal skin, the coronet bursting from atop his head a simple, perfectly round disk; sapphire hairs sprouted from the rounded surface, cascading down his rather large body and matching the majestic hue of the two fins clinging to his tight torso. A softly shaded picture of a red cross and an adjacent blue peace sign were plastered onto what Fluttershy assumed to be the flank. "Because if it's not food, I'm no--"

       The stallion sluggishly opened his baggy eyes -- Sun Streak had apparently woken him from a short, needed nap -- and allowed his fiery gaze to bore into Fluttershy's own meek one. His irises were a shuffling midnight blue.

       "Oh, come on, Sun Streak!" the irritable stallion groaned audibly. "Not another one!"

       The seapony beside him seemed to shuffle and stir from her rest due to the sudden out burst -- a milky-white mare, the beautiful coronet latched onto her petite head the gentle shape of a heart, and covered in several extremely long hairs, each individual one the sweet shade of cherries, along with the strangely large fins attached to her slim torso. Her demeanor and slim, yet tall and strongly built figure seemed to almost match that of Sun Streak's, and Fluttershy could easily assume they were related in some way -- though she didn't dare exclaim this out loud.

       The mare yawned boomingly, turning to the stallion immediately adjacent to her, half lidded eyes -- a familiar cherry red -- filled with curiosity and concern.

       "What is it, babe?" she muttered, her voice filled with ended sleep, and her head turning accusingly to her(what Fluttershy thought to be) sibling. "What did Sun Streak do no-- "

       The mare blinked in rapid succession, rubbing a weary fin over her sparkling eyes.

       "Oh... Well, who's the new chick?" she said a bit louder, gently bobbing her head to Fluttershy's general direction. "You know we can't afford you gettin' a lady-friend right now, no matter how pretty she is."

       Fluttershy's eyes lidded slightly, the sapphire irises turning downwards to the coral, sand covered ground bobbing and floating below her swimming body. Their reactions had been quite a bit of a surprise, as Sun Streak's demeanor caused her to believe she would be accepted in open hooves(fins?), and her confidence suddenly dropped to fatal levels. Perhaps this Shack wouldn't become her welcome home after all.

       "Oh, I-I can go... I-if you want that is. I-I wouldn't want to be a bother..." she muttered quietly, slowly turning to the open doorway.

       Sun Streak's eyes widening, he disappeared in a milky-white flash, his boy blurring away into a shining streak of lines and sudsy bubbles. Grabbing hold of Fluttershy's newly-acquired vibrant fins, he shot her a sickeningly sweet expression of pure happiness and reassurance, his face melting into one of an old friend.

       "No, it's alright Fluttershy, I promise." he said quietly, craning his neck back to the two seaponies located on the sandy floor directly behind him. "Guys, I found her all alone on the Grounds. She doesn't know where her friends are or where she is; I think she's a Drifter."

       He seemed to turn his weary gaze to the mare before him -- his eyesight completely neglected the stallion her tired body rested upon -- and her eyes glowed jubilantly at his news.

       "Oh, well that changes everything, now doesn't it?" she asked with pure honesty, rapidly flapping her ruby red fins, and thrusting her head and pelvis in opposite directions; the stallion beside her scowled irritably as she swam away, leaving him leaning on nothing but a small area of pure emptiness. As she approached the rapidly drooping Fluttershy, she jutted out her shining fin in an act of meeting. "Name's Ruby Tune. Look at the tailfin if ya' need to know why. What about you?"

       Fluttershy smiled slightly at the sight of her change, but soon grew in discomfort as she stared into Ruby's shining expression of expectance. Just ever so gently prodding at Ruby Tune's fin as a greeting, her eyes trailed off to a plank jutting from the wall, which now became an extremely interesting topic to view.

       "Na... Flu...shy..." she muttered in her regular, barely audible fashion.

       "Well, alright then, Fluttershy(sweet name by the way), I can see why they call ya' that." Ruby exclaimed, somehow hearing Fluttershy's extremely muddled response.

       The mare turned away only slightly, her head bobbing to the side with a sharp jerk, and allowing Fluttershy to see the crisp, black eighth note stamped to her flank(tailfin?).

       "That sexy thing back there's Flash. I'm assumin' ya' know my bro by now." she explained, gesturing to both the charcoal stallion sulking behind her oblivious head, and the now brightly beaming Sun Streak, who seemed to be absolutely bursting with jubilant happiness. "Goddess knows where Peek-a-Boo swam off to. Anyway, welcome to the family. I reckon' you could go and hunt for us, since my bro obviously didn't, and Sexy's on maternity leave. What do ya' say?"

       "Oh, um..."

       "Actually," Sun Streak cut in, before flashing Fluttershy a sickeningly apologetic look -- he obviously felt uncomfortable interrupting their new guest, especially one with such a shy attitude. "I think she might need some medical attention."

       Bobbing his head forward in a unique tempo of sways and thrusts, he swam up to Flash, who was currently allowing the terrifyingly large scowl on his face to grow. Putting his muzzle up to his ear, Sun Streak dropped the octave and volume of his normally cheery voice, sending a hushed whisper into Flash's abused eardrums. Reading his snow-white lips, Fluttershy easily encoded the message:

       "She thinks she's a pegasus."

       Flash's eyes shrunk to the size of petite pinpricks, ears flattening against the flesh of his round face. Rage bubbled onto his features, frustration shaking in his stressed limbs. He definitely wasn't happy.

       "Why do I have to check the looney-tooney?! Why don't one of you guys mess with these weirdos for once?!" he shouted, seeming to stare holes directly through Fluttershy's newly acquired, scaly skin.

       Her eyes drooping in sadness, Fluttershy seemed to cripple immediately, folding over slightly in discomfort. Whimpering quietly at the outraged outburst directed towards her person, she could physically feel all confidence sap from her body, eyes diverting to the very interesting moldy plank once again.

       Seeing Fluttershy's drastic change in demeanor, Ruby Tune slowly swished around to the stallion located behind her. Putting gentle fins on his stressed withers, and playfully nibbling on his darkly colored ears, she allowed a frighteningly evil little smirk to fly over her face.

       "Check the tailfin." she practically sang through the plush flesh clenched softly between her teeth.

       Flash sighed heavily, all air escaping his lungs in one large burst, his face clearly showing signs of pure, unadulterated frustration.

       "I hate you, Ruby."

       "Love you too, Sexy."

       Somewhere, in the middle of the ocean, somepony laughed.