//------------------------------// // Let's Go Meet the Locals // Story: Harmony's Thieves // by 4428Gamer //------------------------------// Shining Armor’s POV Outside Ponyville At Bell Tower … As the pony-turned-human, fumbled to the ground after hitting their head, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining the pain they were experiencing. But even with my eyes practically closed with my painful expression, I noticed the mint green unicorn horn sticking out of her head. “...No,” Scootaloo said in disdain. “No way.” “What?” I turned back to her. “Do you think you know her?” “Everypony in Ponyville knows her,” she informed me. “She’s the mare that always kept going on about human-this and human-that.” I raised an eyebrow. “She knows about humans?” “Yeah. Kinda ironic, now that I think about it.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “But if she’s freaking out that much, it’s gotta be her.” I studied the mare, or ‘female human’, for a second. It took her some time to drag herself back to two legs, rubbing her head as she stood. She seemed to have a good handle on moving around. “Scootaloo. Do you think you know her enough to ask some questions? The kind that only she would know?” Scootaloo deflated for a moment. “Yeah. Unfortunately,” she mumbled. “I guess that means we’re going to talk to her?” I gave her a gentle look. “If you don’t want to, you don’t. But if that’s really somepony else, we need to warn them about the Changelings.” Scootaloo groaned to herself before slowly climbing back out of the cart. “Alright, fine. But if that really is her then I’m not answering any questions.” Scootaloo took a deep breath and progressed forwards, dreading whatever was about to happen next. “Uh, hey? Hey Lyra?” Scootaloo half-shouted, half-mumbled. ‘Lyra’ froze still before she started looking around a little bit. I tried following her gaze, making sure she wasn’t eyeing any other Changelings that were hiding. “Lyra Heartstrings,” Scootaloo tried again, this time catching Lyra’s attention. “Hey, uh...Is that you?” Lyra stared up at Scootaloo in disbelief. Then at me, which, admittedly, I tensed up in response. But rather than hiss or act suspicious, her face lit up into a bright smile. “More humans,” she breathed. “This isn’t another dream? I was right?” I take it back, I realized. This is definitely suspicious. Lyra’s expression quickly shifted into shock. “I was...right. I was right. I was right!” Then shock shifted back to blind joy as she started repeating those same three words over. She started, I think, dancing in place as she hopped from one leg to the next before cackling altogether. “In your FACE Minotaurs!” She cheered. “They said I was insane! That they weren’t some kind of failed experiments of cows catching Human-itis! I knew Human-itis was real!” Scootaloo turned around to blankly stare at my now incredibly confused face. “Now you get why everypony in Ponyville knows her.” I nodded slowly, watching as she started sprinting towards us. Not walking. Not even running. Sprinting. “You gotta tell me,” she shouted. “Where did you come from?! How’d ya get here?! Do humans have their own country or are you from outside Equiss?! I, and, y’know, I guess Equestria, need answers!” “Well, that settles it. Definitely Lyra,” Scootaloo told me. “So. I’m gonna check out that bell tower. You’re kinda doomed already. Sorry.” She didn’t even wait for a reply. Scootaloo just started walking down the hill as Lyra passed and ran right up to me. “Wait,” I told her. “What do you mean doom—” “So you weren’t always human?!” Lyra nearly screamed. “Did you catch Human-itis too?! Did it hurt or did you wake up like I did?” “I...woke up,” I told her slowly. “Hold on a second. Have you been at this bell tower the entire time?” She blinked and turned to stare at the structure for a second. “Oh. No, I got here like three minutes ago. I woke up in this weird cottage with a bunch of animal cages inside of it. Pretty creepy, right?” Before I could think about it, she took my arm and started looking at it from different angles. “Wah— hey, do you mind?” I took it back and watched her for a moment as she looked dejected. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t start pulling on me.” “Sorry, I get a little excited sometimes,” she told me. “But how’d you both wake up like this?” “We’re trying to find out,” I told her. “I woke up in somepony’s house and Scoota—” “Don’t drag me into this please!” Lyra opened her mouth to ask something else but quickly stopped short. “Hold up. Did you say…” She and I turned to the bell tower as Scootaloo, who had still been in ear shot, looked at us worriedly. “Scootaloo?” “Uhhhhhh,” Scootaloo hummed a raspy note. Then immediately pointed at me with her fist. “U-Uh, that’s Prince Shining Armor!” “He is?!” Lyra turned her focus back on me. Her eyes seemed even more wild than before. “Uh-huh,” Scootaloo hummed, watching my smirk vanish. “Actually, he even met a real human! He talked to the guy and everything!” “Scootaloo,” I tried to scold her but I got cut off. “What was the human like?!” That question and many, many more were shot at me in rapid fire as Lyra never looked away from me again. In fact, as she went on, I saw her balled up hands begin crackling with a gold, magical aura. From her hands? I looked down at my own hands for a moment and tried to focus my magic again. And, by command, that familiar rose-colored aura enveloped both hands. I smirked inwardly for a moment. Now that’s more like it. I let the magic fade away and put my concentration back towards Lyra as she kept asking question after question. She wasn’t going to stop talking until I stopped answering. So I settled for taking up the cart in my hands and walking down to the bell tower to get comfortable. Big Mike’s POV Ponyville Cliff …     I rubbed my eye while this new girl, the one with a purple horn, finished trying to explain all this new stuff to me. Every now and then, Bell would say some stuff too and Big Mac would just nod along or throw in a ‘Eeyup’ to go along with it. To tell the truth, it was hard to follow a lot of what they were talking about. They were using words that sounded like jokes and it all sounded like one big imaginary game. Then again, after the talking ponies and werewolves, I guess what they were talking about didn’t seem too random. Just confusing. “All of you were ponies before, then,” I summed it all up. Then I looked between Bell and the new girl. “And Bell said that you were unicorns?” “Yep.” Sweetie breathed a sigh of relief. “And Big McIntosh is an earth pony.” “Eeyup,” Mac added. I thought about it some more. “But then, if you’re supposed to be ponies like all of those pink ones, how’s come you aren’t anymore? Is that supposed to happen?” The new girl, Bread Bright I think, shook her head. “Not particularly. There are transmogrification spells that can allow a pony to change into a different form, although to extend that kind of magical capability to so many targets at once, even if it’s just the four of us, would call for extremely advanced magic. And that’s not even taking into account the fact that ponies that aren’t willing to allow themselves to be polymorphed in the first place would mean that the caster would need to overpower each pony’s individual magic to forcibly change them.” She turned back towards the rest of us and was met with three very confused looks. “Umm,” Bell hummed. “Could you say that a little slower? And with less words?” Big Mac nodded. “Eeyup.” “...” I tried to replay some of the bigger words over in my head. And when that didn’t work I tried sounding them out. “Transistor-giraffe,” I tried. Nope. That didn’t sound right. Bread Flight’s patience faded for a moment. “Somepony had to be really powerful to turn us into...whatever we are.” The trio of us all started nodding along, with Bell and I letting out an ‘Ohhhh’ as we understood. Then I frowned again. “But, Big Mike’s always been a human. He’s not a pony.” Or...am I? “Finally,” Bell groaned. “Big Mike, we’ve been trying to get you to tell us what we are all day!” “Oh. sorry.” I shrugged. “But why didn’t you just ask?” Bell didn’t tell me. Instead, she just slapped the part of her forehead under her horn. Is that a unicorn thing or is she upset? “That’s another thing,” Breath Light brought up. “In order for somepony to transform their target, they would need to know what a human is in the first place. More specifically, they’d need to see and understand humans to begin with.” “But I’ve never even heard of a human until now.” Bell pouted. “Eenope,” Big Mac threw in. “Big Mike knows humans,” I admitted. “He doesn’t know any magic though. My brother knows some party tricks though.” “This is stronger than party tricks,” Breath Fight informed me. “In fact, I’d wager that they’d be strong enough to put up this barrier too.” “Oh yeah, the purple sky.” I glanced up at it for a moment. “So that’s not some sort of trick or something? That’s actually there?” She nodded. “More than likely. Not to mention it’s impossible to get through it unless you can dispel it.” “Huh.” I stared at it for a second. It rounded out at the top so you couldn’t just climb over it. “Well then...What if you went under it?” “...Say what now?” Brake Light blinked. “Like, maybe you dig a hole and go that way? That’s how my dog Dan kept getting past our fence. Joe had to train him to stop doing that.” Oh yeah, Dan, I remembered. I took a second to hope that he was okay while the others thought about what I said. “Actually, that makes sense,” Bell agreed. “If it’s just a giant dome then that means that it just goes until it hits the ground, right? Maybe those dog things that were at my house already have a tunnel.” “U-Uh,” the new girl stammered for a moment. “I-I mean, I suppose that might be an idea. There’s no telling how far deep we might have to dig. The barrier may even curve back in on itself underground.” “Then maybe we can do what Bell said and get the werewolves to do it.” I pounded my fist into the palm of my hand. “They’re still dogs, yeah? Dogs are great at digging!” Big Mac nodded along with a content smile. “So we’ll do that,” I announced. “We find some werewolves, have them help get us a really good tunnel, and go under the purple sky! Easy and done.” “What are you...why do you keep saying werewolves?” Flashlight asked me. “And how would we do that anyways? We’re just four ponies?” “No,” I told her with a smile. “We’re humans. And we human people do crazy stuff all the time! Like, when some people built a really, really big wall in China, did that stop the humans?” “...I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug. “That’s right. No.” I shook my head with a smile. “In the movie, that guy with the scary eyes and the bird just climbed it. And then, also, when humans built really, really tall triangles to keep out other humans who wanted to steal stuff, did that stop them?” “I’m going to guess also no?” Flashlight rolled her eyes. “Actually, Big Mike doesn’t know yet,” I admitted. “Big Mike never saw the Indiana movies. They creeped him out when he saw the skull thing in a video once.” The three of them shared a look of utter silence. “The point is,” I concluded. “Even if you’re not actually humans, we can probably do whatever humans could do. So if a human could get around a purple sky, we probably can too.” “That’s the takeaway?” She lamented with a dull tone. I gave her my best smile. “Yeah, you get it, String Sight!” Suddenly, she looked as if I punched her in the gut. “...Starlight. Glimmer.” Bell gave her a defeated smile. “You get used to it.” To which Glammer only stared at Bell skeptically. “Alright everyone. We need to start finding more people if we’re gonna dig this tunnel,” I told them. I looked over at Big Mac. “Hey, is it okay if Grammar—” “Glimmer!” “Yeah, her. She can take Big Mike’s seat in the taxi-rickshaw, right?” “Eeyup.” Big Mac started to go over to bring the taxi back around. “Hold it,” Glimmer commanded me. “You do know that this whole tunnel idea isn’t the best plan, right?” “Well, probably,” I admitted. “But Big Mike’s not really a planning person. He’s more of a ‘someone-give-him-a-shovel-and-he’ll-do-it’ person. Besides, after we find my brothers and Big Mac’s sister and Bell’s family and probably some other people, one of them’s gonna come up with a better plan anyways.” “Then why go along with the digging plan?” She pressed. “Because no one’s told Big Mike a better plan yet. And not digging a tunnel isn’t a plan. It’s a not-plan.” Bell and Grimmer thought it over for a second before Bell eventually just shrugged. “I mean...Technically, he’s not wrong. And we’re still looking for everypony anyway.” “Eeyup.” Big Mac set the taxi down beside the three of us and Bell slowly started to make her way inside. Gritter gave me a worried look and opened her mouth to say something only to close it. She gave me this unsure stare. “Something wrong?” I blinked. “Um...N-No. Nevermind.” She gave me an embarrassed smile before carefully climbing into the taxi with Bell. Once she and Bell were in place, I decided to do one last thing before standing over beside Big Mac. I walked over to the railing where we saw the girl for the first time. “Uh, hey Grover?” I called out. “It’s…” Grover stopped when Bell just shook her head. So she let out a small groan instead. “Yes Big Mike?” “Were you trying to look for anyone else when you were up here? This is a pretty good looking spot.” The railing was still too low for me to lean on so I settled for putting my hands on my brow to block out the sun. “I suppose you could say that,” she explained. “I didn’t know what those other humans were when I saw them so I kept my distance.” Bell stared at her with wide eyes. “You’ve seen somepony else?!” “Well, I didn’t know if they were ponies or not. I’ve never been to this town.” Groomer shrugged. “But there were two other humans there. One with a gray mane on their head and another that was on a rooftop.” “Rooftop?” I looked back over the cliff and started looking for any sign of a person. “Which rooftop?” “It was a tall tower-like building with a red rooftop. It looked like it was falling apart from where I was.” Suddenly, Bell gasped. “That’s the town hall! Big Mike,” she shouted to me. “I think it’s close to the edge of that amusement park place.” “Close to the amusement park...” I looked a little closer but it wasn’t hard to track down. A lot of the buildings in this town were each really unique and colorful but only one building looked more towery than the others. “Yeah, Big Mike sees it,” I told them. “It doesn’t look too far. Just down the hill and in a that way direction,” I said, pointing in a ‘that way’ direction. “We already know where it is,” Bell told me. Oh yeah. “Do you see anypony there?” “Um...” I looked a little harder. “Well. It’s got a lot of pink windows. But, Big Mike sees a lot of spaces without windows for some reason. Is there supposed to be a balcony that goes all the way around?” “Eeyup?” “Oh. Well, there’s not anymore,” I told them. “There’s a giant pile of wood on one side where the balconies are supposed to be. And then, there’s a little tower at the top that—Uh...” “What, what’s wrong?” Bell almost got out of the taxi. I didn’t have to answer her though. Even though we were kind of far away, all of us could hear the snapping and soon the smashing of the town hall’s rooftop break and tumble into the streets below. “Was that the tower?!” Now Bell definitely tried jumping out of the taxi but Big Mac caught her and forced her to sit back down. “Mike,” Big Mac shouted. “We need ta go!” I looked for another second. Now that the little watch tower’s top was gone I could see inside. Moving around on the little stand I spotted something looking over what railing was left. “Person!” I shouted at them. “There’s a person on that roof!” Big Mac grabbed the taxi handles and worked to turn the whole thing around. As he did, I grabbed the taxi by one of the handles and we worked to get the taxi back down the hill without it running over us in the process. Grime Fright and Bell held onto the taxi’s walls and seats to keep from falling out as Big Mac and I matched speed and started running down the hill. “Are they gonna be okay?!” Bell shouted. “Eeyup!” “How do you know?!” Grim Fright demanded. “Because,” I screamed, not having a real reason. But we kept running anyway.