It's OK to Be a Pony

by David Silver

14 - Defending What's Right

Lyra arrived and, after knocking, gained entry to the house. She smiled at her little ponies. She wasn't sure since when she felt so protective about them, but they were like her foals. Some of them were growing up so well, and it made her heart swell with joy; but others were hurting, and she wouldn't give up on any of them. "I heard Samantha came back here?"

Steven pointed off to one of the bedrooms. "She said she's Sunny Morning? What's going on?"

Lucy shrugged. "She went native, obviously."

Thomas made a dismissive wave of a hoof. "I have to get to work, let me know what's going on later." And he was gone.

Shattered Stone emerged from his room with a mare Lyra didn't recognize. She raised a brow at him, wondering if he was back to his old ways.

Shattered flushed and gestured back at his companion. "Have you met this lovely unicorn? Her name is Deep Thought."

Deep smiled lightly at Lyra, looking her over. "I'm told you're his caretaker?"

Lyra tilted her head. "Yes, that's a good description. I'm looking after all the ponies here." She gestured across all the gathered ponies. "Nice to meet you, Deep Thought. I'm Lyra Heartstrings."

Deep stepped up to Lyra and offered a hoof, and they bumped in a friendly way. "I hope you don't mind my dating Shattered? He's such an interesting stallion."

Dating? Lyra felt the tension leave her. They were actually dating... "N-no! Please, I hope you both have a wonderful time."

Deep tipped her head at Shattered, and they trotted out together like a happy couple. Lyra looked to the others. "How long have they been together?"

Before an answer was forthcoming, the living room window shattered, admitting a figure that was rapidly shrouded in some kind of gas with a loud hissing from a dropped canister of some kind. Lyra summoned a quick shield around herself, but this didn't let her see through the rapidly building fog. She heard the thumps of her ponies hitting the floor and began to panic.

She was suddenly shoved back as her attacker rammed into the shield, but it held firm. "We've got one still standing, repeat, one still standing."

"One what?" She demanded. "Get out of here! You're trespassing!" Not that she thought yelling at the intruder would work. Though she could barely see it, it sounded male. She focused her magic on his outline and fired a hostile blast of transmutative magic, rendering them suddenly into the form of a common farm chicken. Their things fell to the ground in a heap. No longer wearing whatever protected them from the fog, they suddenly got woozy, then fell over. Lyra grinned in triumph at her quick thinking.

She found the cannister still spewing the gas and tossed it back out the broken window with her magic before opening the door and letting the house start to air out. The air in her bubble was starting to go stale, but before she let it drop, she found the chicken-i-fied intruder and pulled him into the shield with her, quickly tying him up before fleeing outside where she could let the shield drop and catch her breath, panting wildly. Her thoughts went to the still draining transformation, keeping it up at all costs.

The gas eventually cleared, and the others woke up, as did the chicken, but he could only cluck and wriggle around, secured by an angry-looking Lyra. Steven emerged from the house, looking woozy but intact. "What happened?"

Lucy and Sama... Sunny Morning came out afterwards, sharing the feeling. Lyra nudged her captive with a hoof. "This pony just crashed in and attacked everypony!"

Steven tilted his head. "A chicken attacked us?"

Lucy snorted. "He wasn't a chicken then."

"Oh."

Lyra sighed. "I'll let him turn back, but be ready for anything, alright?" They nodded, and she let the spell go. Suddenly there was a tied up human between them, and they all gaped.

Sunny Morning spread her wings. "It's him!"

"Him who?" asked Steven, looking between her and the mostly naked human. "Why is there a human here? I thought the portal made you a pony if you weren't already one."

Lucy pointed at the human. "Tell that to him."

The human was rapidly becoming not a human. Bright purple fur exploded over his form and his hands clenched into hooves, and soon he was an earth pony with no cutie mark. Lyra shook her head slowly. "I didn't do that, I swear."

The pony scowled at Lyra. "Yes you did. You took away my respirator."

Lucy shook her head violently. "I don't get it. Does that mean we were human until we breathed?"

Sunny Morning snorted angrily. "No! I wasn't ever a human. I know it!"

Lyra went into the house and poked through his things, finding the respirator and bringing it out. She tossed it in front of the human. "Here."

He shook his head. "Too late for that now. I have to get back. Let me go!"

"Let you go?! You attacked them!" Lyra pointed at her charges. "You're going to jail, that's where you're going."

He went sullen and quiet. Steven perked an ear at Lyra. "I have a few ideas, but nothing solid. Want to hear?"

Lyra wobbled a hoof. "Lay it on me. It can't get any more confusing than it already is."

Comments

[Shilic]

....

Well. That was unexpected.

[wlam]

That sure went weird in a hurry. You've certainly got my full attention now.

[Nightmare Wolf]

Preparation for human invasion/science experiment. Those ex-human ponies are sleeper agents after failed brainwashing. Calling it now.

[Rain Nero]

Why do I get the oddest feeling that we're about to have another story added to the continuity of the Silver-verse? This chapter reveals what might be the possible aftermath of One Step. I may just be reading too much into it though.

[Batbrony]

Lyra wobbled a hoof. "Lay it on me. It can't get any more confusing than it already is."

That pretty much sums up the story right here. In a good way, mind you, trust, I'm very engaged and interested to see where this goes. But there is some seriously cray-cray stuff going on, no doubt about that!

[David Silver]

6018183 Lyra's a bit out of character for what she would otherwise know in that case.

[wlam]

6018183
I really hope not. "Author continuity" is one of the worst things fanfics have to offer.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Darrell and Sam not present, or they just didn't say anything?

I'm surprised Princess Twilight Sparkle or whatever police/guard force Ponyville has hasn't intervened already. I'm going to guess there were witnesses to what happened, and I'm not sure how far Shattered got with his date before that occurred. You'd think they would still be in the area.

I've a lot of predictions, but I don't wish to spoil what going on.

[ForestPony]

Well that explains...

I have no idea

[Ranakastrasz]

Huh.
I've seen a few example of how a Fisher Kingdom Effect works.
I've seen it as intrinsic to the world/realm/dimension/universe.
I've seen it as an artifical effect, a spellmatrix that polymorphs outsiders into locals, and places a translation matrix on them, and probably a tracker as well. (Retired to Equestria)

This time, Its in the Air.... Nanites? Or, you know, a arcane equivalent? Some kind of material in the air that carries such an effect?

I would note that the portal as seen won't work like this, I think. As is, you are already a pony/human by the time you hit the other side.

[David Silver]

6018269 Well that tells us one thing at least!

[Ranakastrasz]

6018280 Does it? I was kinda just rambling there.

I generally spend my time trying to find stories, and theorycraft on as many possiblities as I can think of that fit into what is known. Maybe hoping that I get a valid guess.

I suppose also in hopes that I might catch a logical inconsistency for the Author.

[David Silver]

6018285 Uh oh... Though I'd rather hear about what I messed up, if I messed up.

So far the only outright mistake I made was assuming pigs could talk when there is no canon backing for that.

[Jonathon Smythe]

It can't get any more confusing than it already is.

Taunt the universe more, Lyra, let's see what happens.

[Sh4dowWalker96]

What. The. Buck? So, Equestrian air contain an element unknown to humankind that is heavily laced with magic, which, when ingested, turns the being that ingested it into an equine similar to the local population, if they already weren't. Interesting. At least, that's my theory.

[harts fire]

cool this is a neat twist

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I've a question about observations that Lyra didn't notice.

Was the human a mirror world human? Or a human-human the way we think of them? Proportions, skin tone (no mention of purple skin tone), etc.

It'd be Lyra's first glimpse of a real human if that was the case, methinks.

And, more importantly, does he have signs of transformation magic on him? Beyond Lyra's chicken polymorph spell that is.

[David Silver]

6018358 And yet she's a bit too keyed up to take a good look besides 'Oh horse apples, there's a human attacking my patients! I have lost all control of my life.'

[Epoch]

At first I thought he was a secret agent considering knock out gas is not sold at Walmart, but we all know that when you are being secrative and sneaky in Equestria you wear a form fitting black spandex suit and sometimes night vision goggles. So what could he be if not a secret agent?

On an unrelated note I need to see Lyra in a secret angent suit while trying to be sneaky now, it would be so cute.

[David Silver]

6018377 He was polymorphed into a chicken. If he was wearing things, they are currently sitting on the floor.

[The Wandering Draconian]

Obviously he was in the army before he came here. This new guy that is. I think... Why else would he have a respirator and a canister of chemical gas?

[Mister E]

To reiterate my comment from the previous chapter... I did NOT see that coming!
And now you have my complete attention. The eye of Sauron Quix is gazing intently at you fic, waiting for the next installment.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I can't help but speculate. I was referring to this as proof that there is at least one genuine human turned pony in Ponyville right now, while the others are unknown. But then I thought about it -- the whole point of him attacking (and it implies he is part of a group) is to have a pony with human memories and motivations, implanted.

How do we know the gas on his respirator wasn't a transformative agent and his form as a pony isn't his real form, and he had his memories implant too? It was certainly a famous enough plot in the Ghost In The Shell movie with the puppetmaster. He was acting through agents who in turn were exposed as agents themselves, all of them having false memories implanted.

The rabbit hole goes deep, this one.

[GasmaskBrony]

I find this latest twist to be a rather worrying twist. I was enjoying the pathing of the story and this feels like a twist thrown in to make things more exciting and interesting. I'm personally not sure I'll be able to continue enjoying the story now that it has gone from a slice of life about a group of people who may or may not be ponies claiming to be human receiving help from a medical professional, to this multiversal conspiracy thing . I'd have been happy with a twist being that a few of them were in fact not human but ponies who had suffered abuse and escaped into a delusion strengthened by the presence of a couple of actual HiEs in the group. The change in tone and conflict from a very personal and internal one to an external, potentially global, one is both jarring and disheartening after all the personal struggles and conflicts of people trying to adjust to a new life where they need to try and justify what they believe they are.

I'll give this story a few chapters to put my fears to rest, but I'm getting a feeling of an all to common trend of a story betraying itself to try and make it appeal to a wider audience.

[David Silver]

6018813 I go where my muse carries me. It has surprised me that the story has received the attention it has. Still, your words do not fall on deaf ears, and I humbly ask that you do give it a moment or three.

[David Silver]

6019167 Sorry...

[David Silver]

6019218 Samantha was never a human, she was a pegasus that liked the story of humans and pretended to be a human and had a human OC that she obsessed with. She got into spats with her (presumably wealthy) parents about things, and claimed she didn't need them, and likely said some rather hurtful things, and a badly worded dare came out and she tried to live life as Samantha instead of Sunny. In her confused state, she eventually ended up at Lyra's place with the other human-ponies. The drugs/spell was starting to flake off and she remembered she had a home, but ran away during the detox procedure and came back to Lyra, then their hired stallion showed up to drag her off again, but Lyra kicked his flank around.

That about explain it?

[David Silver]

6019230 Are presumably real humans until proven otherwise.

[David Silver]

6019260 I think she's had a pretty busy week. Give her a night's sleep to wake up and go 'Oh snap, I was sleeping next to actual humans!', which is to say she's probably not left the fic.

[David Silver]

6019274 Samantha wasn't being hugely social with the others, and was always late and flippant about her sessions, as noted earlier. If she interacted fully, it probably would have come out sooner.

[David Silver]

6019318 You highlighted another hint. She immediately identified with herself as a pegasus, and a pretty one, but without the wild enthusiasm of Shattered. She saw two people, and she wasn't wrong. There was Samantha, and Sunny.

[Rocky Runner]

"Lay it on me. It can't get any more confusing than it already is."

Oh how wrong you are...

... and wat? Humans-that-are-not-ponies are in Equestria now? Since when did that happen? And... need respirator thingy to not turn into a pony? Wat? Mind has explodeded.

[Ekluvstuff]

Shattered flushed and gestured back at his companion. "Have you met this lovely unicorn? Her name is Deep Thought."

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Reference?

Anyway, some confusing stuff happened in this chapter.

[MidnightFMare]

Huh, I have a long explaination for this but... too long