Challenge #00582 - A207: Visiting an Ailing Friend
Hatchworth and Fluttershy in the world of SPG
[AN: I almost tossed this and then I realised it was a different prompt]
Hatchworth was certainly an interesting friend. He spoke of interesting things, of humans and dragons and an assortment of interesting beings in a place called Kazooland.
Rather like Equestria, it was part of something bigger, and also made up of smaller realms. And, like Equestria, it thrived on magic.
Fluttershy watched as Hatchworth hammered a road sign into the earth on the other side of the tunnel. He’s left another like it on the Equestria side, pointing helpfully to ‘Snornia’. This one pointed helpfully to ‘Equestria’.
“Oh! There’s Up-grade’s cave.” He added an arrow to the sign post and gestured for Fluttershy to follow. “You’d like Up-grade. She loves po-nies.”
“F-f-ft-for breakfast?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Non-sense,” chuckled Hatchworth. “Ro-bots don’t eat.”
It was a scary realm, which Hatchworth sung about in a cheerful way. And though the song contained vampires and zombies, it was oddly comforting.
The horde looked fake. It glittered and gleamed l ike it had too much to prove. And, clutching on to it and moaning softly, was a huge… thing… halfway between human-shaped and dragon-shaped. She still wore the remains of what had once been a neat black dress, though she was three times the size of Hatchworth.
Perched near her shoulders was a rough-looking human. No. Not human. He was covered in reddish-bronze scales and had a rainbow of serpents for hair. He was vigorously scratching the dragon’s back.
“That feels better, dunnit?”
The pink metal dragon-thing moaned again. “A little,” she allowed. “All my spinal linkages ache.”
“Side effect of growing a new spine,” said the humanish one. “Ey! Hatchy! We heard you were lost…” He patted the pink dragon and slid down both metal flank and fake horde. And somehow, on the way down, he became more human. Almost. There was still something… dragon-y about him. He knelt and showed Fluttershy his empty hands.
“Hi there, li’l darlin’. Did you help Hatchy get back?”
“…i understood his name was hatchworth…” Fluttershy murmured.
“Aw, she’s adorable,” cooed the transforming human. “It’s okay. I don’t bite. And you’re right. His name is Hatchworth. Hatchy for short.
A new figure appeared, all black and white and a tiny hint of blue. She, too, was larger than life. And came over as strict and severe. She tapped her foot, looked at an invisible watch, and then threw an invisible lasso at Steve and promptly and literally dragged him away.
"Aw c’mon, Bunny… all work and no play…” complained Steve.
“Mime magic,” said Hatchworth. “Mimes are among the ma-ny pseudo-hu-man spe-cies in Ka-zoo-land.”
Fluttershy used Hatchworth as a mobile shield so she could peek in on a weredragon and a mime work at an invisible lab bench to come up with concoctions for a robot who was changing into a full-time dragon.
“You have a very confusing reality,” Fluttershy finally announced once she was done understanding it all.
“It is,” said Hatchworth. “And it’s home.”
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