//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Uh Oh! 
// Story: Legend Brought To Life 
// by WorldWalker128 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 5: Uh Oh!


Bonbon smiled at the sight of her home in the distance from a bend in the train's railway path. She had been gone for almost a week, and originally had intended on staying in Manehatten longer, but her sister had caught a cold while she was visiting and had not wanted to give it to her. After a short friendly argument that ended with a gift of cough medicine Bonbon packed her things, picked up a snow globe souvenir and then boarded the afternoon train destined for Ponyville.
On the way, the train had broken down and those in charge of running it took an additional day to repair it, but now they were steaming merrily along and would be arriving in town at the latest by sundown so long as nothing else happened.
“It'll be nice to be able to sit down on my own couch-” she shifted in her spot on the bench she sat upon. “eat my own food-” she grimaced at the memory of her sister's cooking. “and enjoy some-” a foal started wailing at the top of its lungs...again...and Bonbon covered her ears. “peace and quiet.” And perhaps best of all, Lyra had joined a book club two months before and now for the most part saved her 'Icarna infatuation' for them, which meant other than the occasional excited outburst from one passage in her book or another, it really would be quiet. “Just a few more hours, and I'll be home again!”


*  *  *  *  *


Echo felt a shiver run down her spine, though she had no idea why; the weather was warm and there was no wind.
Lyra had gone back to her job at the cafe after dropping her things off at their house, walking stiffly. It would seem that news that Thomas could not read or write had snapped something in her brain! Echo thought, checking the door to make sure that it was locked and then turning to the windows to close the curtains. Hopefully it would send the nosier Ponies the message that they did not wish to be bothered for the time being.
Once she was done she went back down into the kitchen where Thomas was eying a bowl of fruit, his mouth watering a little.
“You're drooling.” Echo said, and he hopped in his seat, startled. “Jeeze, acting like that, you'd think you'd never had fruit before!”
“But I haven't-”
“I know that, and you know that, but eventually somepony is going to find that a little fishy. You should at least pretend that you've had one kind of fruit or another. There are places in the world that have fruits that aren't here and the other way around, but sooner or later someone or somepony either from the general area you're supposed to be from or at least knowledgeable of it might show up and then you'll be in trouble.”
“Well what can I do about that? I'm not connected to the hive anymore!”
“That's exactly why I shut the house up.” Echo walked to the couch where Lyra had dumped her books and maps and took the maps and spread them out on their table in the kitchen, using empty cups to hold down the corners. Most of them were of Equestria's shores and the towns or smaller settlements nearby, but a two of them were also maps of the known oceans. “Have a seat. We're going to pick a place for you to have originated from, but we're not going to do it alone.” She let her disguise fall away and pointed a holey hoof at him. He hesitated and she raised an eyebrow. “Well?” Thomas nodded and shifted back as well. He fell forward, and then fell onto his face as all the minds he'd been isolated from for the day and a half bombarded him with questions or began looking through his memories directly, trying to find out what it was like to be what he had been. It was so deafening he could not hear his own thoughts, and for a reason he was not sure he understood, it made him afraid.
“Stop it!!!” He shouted both aloud and in his mind, clamping his fore hoofs to his head.


@  @  @  @  @


The queen's eyes popped open at a sudden frantic shout and looked around for the source. Seeing nothing through her eyes, she reached her mind out to her children and found that the youngling- Thomas, now- had been the one to shout. Apparently most of the minds of her hive rushing into his own all at the same time had frightened him.
Her nap abruptly ruined, she grumbled a little but decided to observe Thomas actions. If this was just a one-time thing, fine, but if being in Human for for extended periods was going to have this effect every time, perhaps it would be better to abandon her plans for using it beyond getting Thomas out of the Pony town.


__ __ __ __ __


The pushing of the many linked minds quickly retreated in surprise. Breathing heavily, Thomas rose to his hoofs and looked at Echo, who also looked at him with surprise all over her face and posture. Thomas took a breath. 
“Just...give me some time to re-adjust first.” 
Confusion and concern washed gently over him from the minds of his hive mates, as well as renewed curiosity. Why had he reacted like he had? Thomas was unsure. Never before had the minds of his hive mates bothered him, but then, he'd not had almost the entire hive pouring into his head at the same time before, either. At the most he'd had five looking in on him at the same time, and only two of them were actually actively routing through his memories. The others had only observed his actions and thoughts. Maybe it was from me only having my own thoughts to listen to for a day? 
The mental silence he'd possessed whilst in Human form had been a strange sensation, though not unwelcome. There had been several times when he thought of something (such as an observation that their queen was getting a little overweight) and soon after wished that he had a way to truly hide it from the rest of his hive. To a degree, his thoughts were his own private thing, but if the queen decided that she wanted to know something that he did, there was nothing he could do to stop her from finding out (and she'd been none too pleased to discover that he thought she was getting fat, which, in reality, she was).
Thomas slowly took several deep breathes (as at some point another hive member had found this to be a good way to relieve stress, so he used it too), and then said that he was okay now, but to please not all rush in at once. Cautiously his hive mates moved in again, a bit slower than before, and found the same blank wall that their queen had when they tried to access his memories. Once they'd discovered this 'wall' they instead began asking him personally what his new form was like. He explained in reply as best he could, including (and adding emphasis to) the sensation of taste. Many of his hive whom had already matured recalling their own 'first taste' experience nodded appreciatively, or chuckled from the elaborate and enthusiasm in the description he gave.
As to balance and the handiness of- well, hands- those of his kind that spent most of their time as regular Ponies or Pegasi and had difficulty holding things could certainly appreciate his hands, but none of them were particularly comfortable with the idea of walking, let alone standing on only two legs, and found his statement that it was easier than it looked to be somewhat dubious.
After twenty minutes of him recounting his day in Human form queen Nymph's voice entered the conversation and ended all others.
So then you are doing well. She stated.
“Yes.”
“That is good. I am planning to have others from our hive come to get you, but until I have selected them and had them practice a Human form of their own for at least a day you'll have to be patient. In the meantime, Echo will be telling you what your back-story is so that you don't trip yourself up. Learn it, burn it into your memory, and use it.”

After hearing it and practicing with Echo multiple times he changed shape again and they reviewed several more times to make sure that he still recalled it.
Thomas was a sailor under the employ of his captain, who was named Christina Hills. Christina was a name stolen from one of the first few books. In that book, Christina had been a gardener that was only mentioned twice in book two, and queen Nymph hoped that nopony would recall the name because of that. Her ship was called the Seafire, and possessed a wooden statue at the front of it carved in the shape of a phoenix in flight. Thomas' favorite homeland fruit was a pineapple (though other than a picture that he'd been mentally shown as a Changeling he had no idea what that was), and his job was making sure they got the food supplies they needed for a journey and stowing it away.
His queen hoped to have several of their hive ready to enter town and retrieve him within the next three days. Until then, he just had to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible, and stick to his story.
Stay out of the spotlight. He rolled his eyes and sighed. Right.
“Well, at least if anyone asks you about your occupation you can answer!” Echo said, trying to be optimistic.
“But what about what my 'home' looks like? Do I live on a mountain? Near a sandy or stony beach? A forest? Do Ponies live there, or only us and regular animals? Queen Nymph has had over a day to think over that, and my job was the best she could come up with?” Thomas clapped a hand over his mouth as he realized that he'd just insulted his leader and mother, and Echo's expression quickly changed to annoyed and walked over to him and kicked his shins, to which he yelped.
“If you think you can do a better job, child, feel free to make up your own story!” Echo said in a deeper and very familiar voice. “Unlike you, I also have to oversee our entire hive, as well as worry about preserving your ungrateful hide!” Then Echo blinked a few times and shook her head form side to side.
“You made her angry, Thomas. And she's right, you know. All you've really had to do since you got here was just play along and put up with Lyra's enthusiasm. You've gotten free food, a place to stay, free clothing, and even your own personal fan club!”
“Yeah, but who was the one that got me stuck here to begin with?”
“You.”
“Huh?”
“You were the one that decided to experiment by taking the form of a fictional character. If you hadn't done that, queen Nymph would never have decided to use that form as a distraction, and you'd be back home helping to dig out more tunnels.”
“And then we'd be being chased out of town by a bunch of panicked Ponies.”
“Is that a complaint?” Thomas hesitated.
“Well no, but-”
“Then tell me your story again. If you want to add something to it, go ahead.”


__ __ __ __ __


Lyra picked up a clean dish rag and began polishing her lyre while she waited for the town's lunch-time rush. It did not really need to be cleaned, but she liked it when it caught the sun's light and shone like a golden jewel. The lyre was only gold-plated and not made of actual gold, but it was not as if she could currently afford one in a gold lyre's typical price range anyway.
She plucked a few of the lyre's strings with the edge of a hoof, savoring the angelic plink they made. 
What would it be like, I wonder, to play this with fingers instead of magic or my hoofs? She plucked another string before her lyre was covered in a shadow. Lyra looked up to see the president of the book club staring hard at her with narrowed eyes and a small frown on her face. She jabbed a hoof at Lyra and said
“You.”
“Me.” Lyra replied, a tiny bit confused but suspecting she might know what her literature leader was displeased about. “How you doing, Page Turner?”
“Oh, I'm fine. We're all fine, miss Heartstrings. There's just one” she poked Lyra with her hoof. “little” she poked her again. “problem.” and one last time. “A certain somepony is keeping a certain someone all to herself!” Yep, she knew, but decided to play dumb.
“If this is about your ex-coltfriend, I had nothing to do with-”
“You know fully well who this is about, Lyra!” Page stomped her poke-hoof in the packed dirt like a pouting child. “You and your room mate are keeping the Human all locked up and hidden in your house where none of us can see or speak to him!”
“Locked up and hidden? What are you talking about? Bonbon may be willing to tolerate him, but she's not happy he's there. She's not so uncaring she'd just throw him out without a good reason, but even with the mayor telling us to not make a spectacle of him to say she's hiding him is just silly.” A thought occurred to Lyra and her own eyes narrowed. “Unless, of course, you've been hanging around outside o four house like a creepy stalker. You haven't been doing that, have you?”
Page Turner cleared her throat and then coughed, both of which sounding forced.
“Well I was not, I can assure-”
“You were, weren't you? I knew I saw a camera bulb's flash outside my window when I went to greet Thomas!”
“Thomas?” Page Turner raised an eyebrow, confused for a second, then she emitted a soft gasp as realization dawned on her face and she leaned forward until she was invading Lyra's personal space. “You found out his name! What else did he tell you?! Tell me! Tell me! It is your obligation as a member of the book club to share your findings with the rest of us!”
Lyra gently pushed Page back a few inches, now sporting a frown of her own. 
“First of all, I'm working right now, and second, if you want to ask him a bunch of questions you'll need to speak to the mayor mare first to get permission. She's afraid that if more of his kind come looking for him and see a bunch of us surrounding him that they may not react well to it.”
“We don't want to mob him, we just want to know how much of the books are fiction, and how much is- hey, waaaait a minute...” Page trailed off as an idea struck her and turned her head to one side and stroked one side of her chin with it. “He's not the only source! I can ask the author directly!”
“Ask the author?” Lyra asked, raising an eyebrow and shifting on her stool to make herself more comfortable.
“Didn't you hear? No, I suppose not, I only found out an hour ago. 
“Twilight Sparkle sent a letter to princess Celestia last night about what happened at the theater, and the princess sent a letter of her own to the Icarna author asking her if she knew her 'fictional characters' were in fact, real beings. This morning the princess wrote back to Twilight that the author would be coming here to see him for herself! Isn't that cooler than ice?! I can have both the author, and a creature from the series sign it!”
Page Turner's voice had grown steadily louder as she explained her realization to Lyra, and by the time she'd finished she was nearly yelling, which drew curious stares and frowns from the waiter and the patrons who had sat down at the cafe to enjoy casual conversation and lunch. The waiter, upon the completion of Page's excited explanation trotted over to her and asked her to either lower her voice, or else leave. Page chose to leave, now that she was in a better mood and, in truth, had forgotten the reason for her agitation at Lyra for the moment.
Lyra in the meantime was prodded by the waiter to begin playing and Lyra did so, though the strings she strummed and plucked were done more through motor-memory than any actual will to do so, which was good, because at the moment she was too busy running possible scenarios through her mind as to what might happen when her two current favorite people met. 

Later, as the sun had begun to set the cafe owner closed his restaurant, paid Lyra, and bade her good night.
Lyra made her way home, whistling a tune that she often heard Pinkie Pie singing in the Sugarcube corner and about halfway when she saw a tired Bonbon heading her way. Thomas wasn't with her. Curious as to why this might be she waited for her to reach her and then asked.
“Thomas? Who's Thomas?” Lyra made a face.
“What do you mean, 'who's Thomas'?! He's only been staying with us for about a day, now! You know, he's about my height, brown hair, walks on two legs, has hands?” Bonbon rolled her eyes.
“Lyra, is this another one of your silly Icarna things? Did you make a life-size model of one of those characters while I was out of town?”
“Uh, no. Seriously Bonbon, did you like, hit your head or something? You never left Ponyville!”
“What do you mean I never left Ponyville?!” Bonbon asked, incredulous. “I left you a note on the refrigerator a few days ago telling you that I was going to be out of town for a week visiting family! I came back a little early, but that was because my sister got sick before I got there. 'Did I hit my head?' Did you hit yours?”
Lyra was filled with confusion for a few moments, as conflicting information clashed and made war in her brain, but then the battle ended with one conclusion: Either she was speaking to a Changeling right now, or she had been living with one for the past few days, and she'd just left one of the most important living discoveries in history in the company of one!

Lyra had asked Bonbon a very personal question, one that only the two of them new the answer to (after telling Bonbon her theory) and now the two of them were galloping back to their house, though Bonbon was still doubtful that Lyra had seen an actual Human and figured it was part of some sort of mental illusion that the alleged Changeling must have created so that Lyra would be distracted and therefore less likely to notice anything different about 'her friend'. 
Lyra slid to a stop outside of their house and tried the handle to discover that it was locked. Suddenly worried she turned her attention to a window on the side of their house. Just as Page Turner had complained, the curtains had been pulled shut and the window itself was also locked.
Oh no! What could she be doing to him?! Or what has she done?! Lyra turned back to the door and readied a burst of telekinetic power aimed at the door's lock. Bonbon saw the look on her face and took a few steps back.
“Um, Lyra? What are you-” Her unfinished question was answered as Lyra unleashed  her magic on the lock and then pushed down on the handle and practically tackled it open. Indoors Thomas was fine and was sitting on their couch, but sitting next to him, as she'd feared, sat a shocked Changeling!
“Get away from him!!” Lyra yelled and charged the creature, which just barely regained the presence of mind to hop into the air and fly towards the open door, but seeing what was now inside their house (both of them) Bonbon jumped into the air and slapped it with a hoof, knocking the intruding creature to the floor, whereupon Lyra used her magic to pin it to the ground. Lyra looked at her friend and told her to go get a town guard while she held it in place. Bonbon nodded and galloped out of the house.