Shellstrings

by shortskirtsandexplosions

Bat Her Up

Appleloosa – Main Street – High Noon

Lyra panted.

She stumbled down a road full of criss-crossing wagon trails.

Her eyes darted to the left.

Chatting Appleloosans lingered around the general store, comparing fruit from separate apple carts. Bustling villagers shuffled in and out of nearby marketplaces talking and laughing.

Lyra gulped.

Her eyes darted to the right.

A group of stallions shuffled into a salt bar. As the front doors swung open, alluring female voices could be heard cooing from inside the saloon.

FLASH! Lyra morphed into a raunchily dressed showmare.

"Grnnngh!" She purred before slapping herself viciously in the painted face.

FLASH! She was a mint green everymare once again.

~o~There are far too many mortals here.~o~

Lyra's teeth chattered as she stumbled down the heart of town.

~o~So many emotions and feelings. You cannot guard yourself from them all.~o~

Lyra gulped, taking a sharp right as she passed a dusty intersection.

~o~We, on the other hoof, can teach you focus.~o~

The mare fumed harder and harder... hotter and hotter.

~o~How to sustain yourself... at least until you lead us to the nearest hive.~o~

Lyra rubbed her green forehead. She glanced at her hoof in mid-trot. "Why aren't I sweating?" She gulped. "Also... after all the crud I've seen... why haven't I done number one?"

~o~You speak of equine excrement.~o~

Lyra did a double-take in the air. "Huh?"

~o~Allow us to take care of that for you.~o~

A burst of flame emanated from Lyra's horn. Two feet in front of her: a cloud of urine and defecation materialized before falling sloppily to the earth. She instantly felt lighter.

~o~So long as you maintain a reasonable diet, we can show you how and where to expel the undesirable fluids...~o~

"Gaaaaaaaaah!" Lyra Heartstrings leapt melodramatically away from the scatalogical display. She tripped over the hoofing of a saloon's front stoop and collapsed on her back. "Ooomf!"

Creaaak!

A hiccuping stallion cradling a bottle limped out through the swinging doors.

Lyra took one upside down glance of the pony—FLASH!—and became him.

The stallion blinked at his doppelganger.

Lyra blinked up at the stallion.

Silence.

The stallion glanced at his drink, teetered... and strolled right back into the saloon.

Cr-Creak!

Lyra was left along on her masculine hind quarters.

~o~You're wasting our valuable time.~o~

"Grrrrrr!" Lyra jumped up to her hooves, snarling in a deep voice. "In case you haven't noticed, Einstallion, but you have no sway over where my legs take me! You're not in control! I am! So maybe it's high time you stopped making stupid demands and just let me get on with my bucking life!"

~o~How can you make a train ride home when you can't even defend yourself?~o~

Lyra's stubbly face twisted. "Huh?"

"There you are, ya no good sleezy varmint!"

"???" Lyra spun to face the source of the gruff voice.

Two vaguely familiar thugs mosey'd on up to the front of the saloon. One brandished a splintery two-by-four brazenly out in the open.

"We done told ya, runt!" The bigger of the two spat into the dust and squinted. "You were supposed to pay us the money by the end of the week or... else..." He froze in place, ears twitching curiously.

Lyra fidgeted on her unshorn feltlocks. "Is there something I can help you gentlecolts with?" she spoke in a sterile, masculine voice.

"How come you ain't rollin' drunk on the ground as always this time of the day?" the smaller thug asked.

"Ain't no matter if he's sober or not." The bigger crook smirked. "A sissy's a sissy. Ain't that right?"

A fixed point of green light flickered just ahead of Lyra's forehead—too quick for the others to see. "Clint." She droned. "Charley."

"Hey, Clint!" The smaller chuckled. "He remembers us!"

Lyra's muzzle scrunched. "I do?"

"Fancy that!" Charley clenched his jaws. "Maybe he remembers the bits he owes us too."

"Look." Lyra waved a hoof. "I'm not wanting to start any trouble."

"Heh... sure thang!" Charley flexed his muscles. "And I ain't wantin' to use yer skull for a pinata bat."

"What." Lyra blinked.

As soon as her eyelids fluttered open...

...she saw nothing but wood.

CRACKKKK!

Comments

[IceKitsune]

I knew we would see those two again! Not exactly in the way I thought but at least we will get the closure to this little plot line.

[Lightning Bearer]

Well, we've certainly gotten one hell of an insight into Lemon's past and psychology. And Lyra may have unintentionally wrecked any chance at them fully reconciling, and right when Lemon was finally pulling her head out of her ass, too. I'm still hoping they can patch things up, but Lyra will have some explaining to do.

That does leave the question of what kind of future Lyra has with her Canterlot friends. I'd hate to see their friendship end, but considering Lyra's... er, "upgrades", it's hard to imagine that they, in all their trauma and entomophobia, will be able to deal with it.

Also, I feel bad for whoever keeps the streets of Appleloosa clean.

[Scorch215]

Now we get to learn if she feels pain from attacks as well as any defence or offensive abilities she has now.

[PiercingSight]

Aaaaaaaand they're screwed.

Also, I really want Lyra to make up with Lemon Hearts. I want to see that happen... though, I probably shouldn't request such things considering you tend to extend the wait time for such satisfactions.

[Razzy]

You know, Lyra, don't tempt fate. Chryssie clearly has control over your body's abilities. If she wanted to, she could force you to move against your will via telekinesis or prevent you from moving by shifting you into a rock or summoning that carapace armour, but without moving joints.

[Booster Spice]

If kids learn by example, whose example are they getting it from.

2 by 4? Talk about not being serious at all. Even without Chrisy Worfing Lyras head, thats some thick skull and dumb horse there.

[Leftover of Saikano]

If in some past life Lyra beats Snips' dad with a piece of wood, would karma make that happen to her now?

[Cyana Flame]

lights out, it's Chrissy's turn

[The_K_Man]

For a land of magic and harmony, there seems to be extra suffering for everyone this time around.

[bloons3]

A burst of flame emanated from Lyra's horn. Two feet in front of her: a cloud of urine and defecation materialized before falling sloppily to the earth. She instantly felt lighter.

hehehehe. Efficient!

[mastermenthe]

7619295
I hope not.

[mastermenthe]

7619575
Otherwise known as the Star Trek Solution.

[bloons3]

7619582
Scotty just beams the shit and piss out of them when they use the teleporter. It's why they always love using it.

[Revan]

Time for mayhem.

[PoisonJoker09]

...Something tells me that it wasn't bone that took the rough side of that exchange...

[Kryssi]

I finally caught up with this story. Booyah.

7619575 Something about it just sounds so silly. Also, I feel pretty bad for whoever has to clean that up, considering that it’s either on or not too far from Main Street.

[Cotton Fluff]

Poor Lyra's already getting into trouble. I wonder if we'll see Chrissy in the drivers seat for a while, or if Lyra will be the one that has to get them out of this new situation.

7619575
I can not imagine that didn't feel anything but awkward while it was happening, but I'm not surprised that Chrissy would have some efficient method for avoiding such things.

7619147
I'm not too sure Chrissy does have full control over the body's abilities. Unless she likes messing with Lyra and potentially blowing their body's cover of not being a changeling. The 'carapace armour' you mention is their actual body and isn't something that is summoned (Lyra's appearance is a disguise on-top of that body), and if she did have an ability to hold Lyra hostage I think she would have done it already. Chrysalis does not seem like the type to put up with this when she's got things she needs to get done.

[Razzy]

7636217 I think she does have full control over this body's special abilities, but she knows that while she could prevent Lyra from moving, she can't actually make her do something, so she's still trying to reason with the moron.

[Warrior Kitten]

7643939
What is it?

[Hap]

FLASH! Lyra morphed into a raunchily dressed showmare.

I've identified a glaring deficiency in this story.

There are no illustrations.

[QueenMoriarty]

Einstallion...

Deep sigh.

Someone please explain to me why we think pun names are a thing in MLP. Point to three isolated examples in the show of a pony's name being a human name with an incredibly basic horse-word shoved in.

Names have meaning in Equestria. They aren't just incoherent assemblies of sounds that human mouths make.

Contrast the pony OCs in this story, whose names in some way either describe the character in some way or just make sense as a combination of words. Is it really too much to ask of an author to spend five minutes making a pony OC of Einstein? Or better yet, structure the dialogue so that you aren't making incredibly lazy references?

[Pretentious Narwhal]

HAHAHA!!! At last, I am caught up on a skirts fic of signifigant size!!!

[The Portal Passer]

7497217 exactly what Twilight did to Starburst

[NikitaKitten]

I still find it a little amusing that a story that took near a hundred chapters to even approach what was written in the synopsis was abandoned only a couple dozen chapters later. Truly this is the ultimate troll-fic.

[olivetho]

...

based on Transcendence AU?

no?

not even a little bit?

are you sure?

[StardustSurvivor]

It has now been over a year.

[MixMassBasher]

The set up took so long but I'm hoping to see more of Shellstrings

[Alicorn Capony]

And then she died. Le Fin.

[Nonchalant]

7949550
Where am I referenced? :P

[Telaros]

What? No way, no more chapters??

GaaaaaaaaAAAAA

*hyperventilates*

But it’s been like a year or two. This story should have been over a million words or more by now. How is there not another chapter?

Whelp, enough dramatics. I suppose I should get back to that rainbow blur and check out more Twijinks between those two now that I caught up to this story.

[MarcusPyKnight]

You write all this story to FINALLY get to the story’s main focus to just leave it on a cliffhanger.
Ill say you are a good writer, but you are the worst at making/finishing endings for anything you write.