Flesh and Chrome

THREE

The next morning Bend woke up on the floor beside the couch. Sweetie was still sleeping and Flora was making some sort of good smelling thing for breakfast. She stood up off the floor and brushed herself off with her tail sub-consciously. "Hey Flora," she said, "What's cooking?"

"Oatmeal." She responded, "Good morning, by the way." Hypothesis glanced out the window.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Oh, around ten."

"Ah, I see." she replied, "Wait, ten?!"

"Yeah, why?"

"The police must've had some time for searching by now."

"Yeah? so? You are in the Everfree forest, does that not make you feel any safer?"

"It doesn't." Bend sighed, "That's probably the first place they are looking, and if I saw the smoke coming out of your chimney at night, imagine how much it stands out during the day!"

"So it would be a clear give away that somepony is there, no?" Flora tilted her head, "And you are too smart for them, so you wouldn't make a fire, no?"

"..So logically, they won't go towards the smoke.." Bend realized, catching on. "Swamp, you're a genius!"

"Flora dear." Swamp Flora admonished, "I don't like it when people call me Swamp."

"Flora, how old are you? You are talking like you are twenty years older than me or something."

"I'm twenty one. Unless you are secretly a foal, I can't be twenty years older than you."

"Oh, I'm eighteen."

"Input age twelve!" piped up Sweetie, who woke up right before Swamp, I mean Flora, told her age.

"Hi Sweetie Belle!" Hypothesis Bend smiled. "Ready for a new day?"

"Affermative." Sweetie replied, "Where is the start up meal?"

"Breakfast?" Flora asked, "Its almost ready." She walked back over to the cauldron and checked the oatmeal.

"Are you baking a portal?" Sweetie inquired.

"No, dear, just oatmeal." Flora replied, "Why did you think portal?"

"Because the gypsy uses cauldrons to make her portals." Sweetie said, jumping out of the couch, still wearing her Nightmare Night dress, the bolts fell off sometime during the flight.

"Sweetie Belle, who made your dress?" Bend asked, genuinely interested.

"Rarity, my sister, sis." Sweetiebot replied, "She is a master of dresses and giant hats."

"Sweetie," Flora said, "Why do you keep calling Hypothesis Bend your sister?"

"Because.." Sweetie said.."Because she seems like my sister. And she helped me get away from those awful ponies, oatmeal is at a satisfactory temperature, take it off the fire." She looked at the cauldron in the back.

Flora walked into the back and took the cauldron off the fire, Sweetie Belle was right,she thought, this *is** perfect!*

She scooped the oatmeal into three bowls and they ate the 'start up meal'.

Halfway through breakfast, somepony knocked on the door. Bend immediately stopped eating and glanced toward the door. "Sweetie," she whispered, "Follow me." She looked at Flora, who nodded, then walked to the bedroom door, opened it, led the scared filly inside, then closed and locked it behind her. The door knocked again. Flora quickly put the two other bowls in the sink then ran and opened the door. "Hello?"

"Robot Police ma'am. We are looking for two ponies, a filly and a mare, wanted for treason to this wonderful country." A rough voice barked, "May I enter?"

"What makes you think that they are in the Everfree forest sir?" Flora asked, letting in the pony.

"Eyewitness accounts and these," he said, pulling out a small plastic bag, inside it was the screws from Sweetie's costume. "We found these in the Everfree." He began looking around the house.

"And who are you, may I ask?" Flora questioned.

"The name is Radiant Beat, Robot Police chief and DJ extraordinaire." He barked, "And you?" Bend froze at the sound of his name, Radiant was her old boss. He was good at his job, very good, almost TOO good... "Oh no.." She muttered.. The window creaked open behind the two hiding ponies, neither of them heard it.

"I'm Swamp Flora, call me Flora." She replied, "And there is no way that I would ever strike my country with such a low blow of hiding traitors." Radiant's necklace flashed once.

"My dear Flora," he smirked. "But you did." Flora's eyes widened. "How did you.."

Radiant's horn glowed a bright green and stopped Flora from moving. The bedroom door opened and out floated Bend, covered in glowing blue magic, and SweetieBot, covered in glowing purple magic, then two unicorns, their horns' glow matching the color. "Lets go." Growled Radiant Beat, Robot Police chief and DJ extraordinaire.

"Welcome to the robot police headquarters," chuckled Radiant, "We hope you find your stay...Satisfactory.." He smirked then left the room, shutting and locking the door behind him.

"I hope he isn't serious." Bend said, on the verge of laughter. "Serious about what, big sister?" Sweetie questioned.

"I know how to get out of here." "Oh? Do tell dear." Flora chirped.

Bend walked over to the wall of the room, knocked on it in a certain place, then a door opened.

"That is in case a Robot Police member gets trapped in here." smirked Hypothesis. "C'mon!"

Radiant was almost all the way down the hall when he stopped dead in his tracks. "GAH!! THE ESCAPE!!" he cried and rushed back. HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID AS TO NOT LOCK IT!?!?!? His mind yelled at him. "SHUT UP!! I AM GOING TO CORRECT IT!!" He yelled back. Granted, he did look insane, yelling at himself, but he didn't care right now. YOU DARE CALL YOURSELF A ROBOT POLICE CHIEF?!? YOU DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER TO LOCK A FREAKING DOOR! His mind snapped at him. "I SAID SHUT IT! I AM GOING TO GO FIX IT!!"

STUPID LONG HALLWAYS!! THEY ARE PROBABLY ALMOST OUT BY NOW!

"Where does this go?" Flora asked.

"It goes three miles out into the forest. At the end of the passageway your magic gets locked. But seeing as we are both pegasi, and Sweetie doesn't know any magic, we should be good." Bend replied. "You see, the reason that the magic locks is that because any police member who accidentally locks themselves in automatically gets the punishment of the long walk back."

The end was in sight, they started to walk a tiny bit faster. Suddenly all of their foreheads were covered in a pink goop. "See, magic block." Bend said, scooping some off with her wings and putting it in a jar. "This will come in handy." She put it back in her bag.

They began walking away from the building. If they flew they would be spotted. After a while they came upon a river. A sea monster with a strange, two-colored mustache rose out of the water. "Why hello! What awful pink goop you have on your head! Care to wash off?" He motioned to the river. "C'mon Sweetie, its about time you took a bath." Bend smiled then walked into the water. "But the water makes me feel funny..." Sweetie Bell complained, took her dress off, and grudgingly walked in. "Ok guys, want to see why I have my cutie mark?" Flora asked.

"Yeah!" The two adoptive sisters cheered. "Show me." the sea monster smirked.

The blue pony dove into the water, rose up, and began swimming close to the speed of light, it seemed that fast. She zoomed this way and that, jumping out of the water over rocks and the sea monster's tail. She finished by diving down in the middle of the river, waiting a minute, then bursting out of it at high speed, sending water everywhere. "WOOHOO!!!" Bend cheered. Sweetie clapped wildly and the monster's jaw dropped. Stepping out of the water, Bend noticed something on Sweetie, something.. interesting.. "Sweetie, look there." She said and pointed.

Sweetie screamed.

__________________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed.

Regards, Muffinpatrol.