//------------------------------// // Property Damage // Story: Anthropology // by JasonTheHuman //------------------------------// Applejack had set up her stand in the center of town. Now that winter had been wrapped up for the year, she was happy to be back to growing and selling apples. Her first customer for the day was already here. “Howdy, Bon-Bon. What can I do ya for?” Applejack asked. “Oh, just the usual. I’ll just take…” Bon-Bon looked over the bushels sitting around the apple cart. “A dozen should be fine.” “Alrighty then.” Applejack started inspecting some apples and started picking out the best ones to fill up a bag. “How’ve you been lately? Haven’t seen you for a while.” “I've been quite alright,” Bon-Bon said. “It’s just that… well, it took Lyra and I quite a while to finish all those apples, and then she was saying that if she ever saw another slice of apple pie she’d probably be sick, and I have to admit that I was running out of recipes that could be made with apples…” Applejack nodded. “Apple Bloom won’t be handling sales anymore.” “It’s for the best,” Bon-Bon said solemnly. “Anyways, how’s business at Sugarcube Corner? Pinkie Pie ain’t gettin' to you, I hope,” Applejack said, smiling. “Pinkie’s quite manageable. I’m sure you know my roommate. I’m used to occasional strangeness.” Applejack helped load the apples into Bon-Bon’s saddlebag. “That reminds me. I just talked to Lyra this morning. Any idea what she’s up to?” “She left early today. I thought she’d be playing another concert in the park.” Bon-Bon tilted her head in confusion. “What did she talk to you about?” “She was just asking if she could borrow one of our carts for the day. I can’t imagine what for, but we’ve got a few of ‘em,” Applejack said. “I figured we could spare one.” “One of your carts?” Bon-Bon said, frowning. “Why would she need one of those?” “No idea,” Applejack said with a shrug. “The Gala’s in a week. What is she up to?” Bon-Bon sighed. “But you know what they say about these artistic ponies. They can be a tad… eccentric.” “I’m sure it was nothing to be worried about,” Applejack said. “But anyhow, enjoy your apples, Bon-Bon!” “Thank you,” Bon-Bon said. There was a low rumble in the distance, followed by the sounds of ponies screaming and gasping in shock. Applejack was squinting at something down the street, and only had time to mutter, “What in tarnation?” Then something wooshed past, just a blur going through the streets of Ponyville with speed to rival the Wonderbolts. “Hey, Bon-Bon!” It was Lyra’s voice, but it quickly cut off as she zoomed past. Bon-Bon didn’t want to look at what had just hurtled through town, but she slowly turned around and stared down the street. There was an apple cart quickly fading into the distance. Applejack’s hat had blown off her head. She picked it up, shaking the dust off before putting it back on. Her eyes were wide in disbelief. “Uh, was that…” “What did she do now?” Bon-Bon said, in a voice that was almost a whisper. “More importantly, what the hay was pulling that cart?” Applejack said. Twilight nearly ran straight into them at a full gallop, and quickly skidded to a halt. She glanced at the two of them. “Hey, girls. Do you have any idea what that was?” Her head turned to watch it, now just a brown dot in the distance. Suddenly Rainbow Dash had shown up as well, flying a few feet over their heads. “Did you guys see that? Where’d it go? What was it?” she said, gaining some altitude trying to see where it had gone. “I think it’s my roommate…” Bon-Bon said. Her voice still quavered in shock. “What? How?” Rainbow Dash said, taking another glance down the street. “That was Lyra?” Twilight said. “I don’t understand! What’s she doing?” “I think it’s best if we stop talking and do something before somepony gets hurt,” Applejack said. Dash gave a quick nod. “I’m on it!” She was gone in a blur, chasing after the cart. She was accelerating as fast as she could as she flew down the street, but was still just barely catching up. There was a lot of distance to clear. Pumping her wings harder, she managed to match the speed of the vehicle and fly right alongside the driver. “Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash,” Lyra said, glancing over to her and then fixing her eyes back up front. She was sitting at the front of the cart, her shirt flapping in the wind as they sped through town. “Lyra? What’re you doing?” Dash watched her, frowning. The last few houses in Ponyville whisked past and now they were headed out of town. Lyra’s horn glowed for a moment and they just barely swerved around a tree and then continued hurtling down the road. Rainbow Dash veered to the other side, then flew back alongside the cart. “It’s an experiment. I’m… Well, it would take too long to explain,” Lyra said. “And I don’t think we have that much time.” Rainbow Dash looked ahead and noticed the ravine they were headed for. “Can’t you stop it?” she asked. “It took me a while to get this thing up to speed. Braking is much harder, it turns out,” Lyra said matter-of-factly. “Steering’s nearly impossible.” “You’re headed for a cliff.” “I noticed.” With seconds to spare, Rainbow Dash grabbed Lyra with just her front hooves, lifting her off of the cart with a jerk. She was only able to support her weight for a few seconds. The cart sped past under them and they both collapsed to the ground, trying to catch their breath. The cart zoomed over the edge and vanished from sight. There was the sound of smashing wood on the rocks below. “There they are!” It was Twilight’s voice. Twilight and Applejack galloped over to them. Bon-Bon followed close behind at a quick trot. Lyra, putting a hoof to the side of her head, was struggling to stand up straight. Her legs wobbled, and she leaned to one side and fell over completely. “Lyra, what in Equestria are you doing?” Bon-Bon demanded. With some effort, Lyra managed to pull herself up off the ground. She shook her head. “I know it seems weird. But hear me out on this,” Lyra said, raising a hoof. “Oh, and Applejack, sorry about the cart.” “H-How...?” Applejack managed to force out. She was staring down into the canyon in disbelief. They could see the splintered remains of the cart. One wheel still spun around on its axle, sticking straight up into the air. Another rolled along the ground and fell over. Lyra grinned sheepishly. “Come-to-life spells are extremely advanced. You really shouldn’t attempt them on something so large without proper practice. Even I can’t quite manage to control them,” Twilight said. “I had a good reason for this!” Lyra said. “What, exactly?” Applejack said, raising an eyebrow. “Um... You see..." Lyra took a deep breath. "Humans have carriages that move on their own. They actually don’t look like these ones, they’re made of something different, but I had to use the closest thing I could find.” “That’s what this is about?” Bon-Bon said. She put a hoof to her forehead in exasperation. “Humans again?” “Lyra, I’ve read all the books. Humans aren’t supposed to be able to do magic, and they could certainly never manage anything that advanced,” Twilight said. “Where would you even get that kind of idea?” Lyra hesitated. “It’s… well… I dreamed it.” Her voice was very quiet. “All of this. It was all just a dream?” Twilight’s voice was flat. “Well, yeah. I see humans in my dreams all the time. It doesn’t always match what’s in the books, but... these things all make sense to me,” Lyra insisted. “We can hardly consider dreams to be a valid source for research,” Twilight said. “Especially when the very existence of humans is questionable at best.” “Just look at this logically. Humans don’t pull carts, we can tell that by looking at them, but what if they need to travel long distances? How would they get around? What if they had to transport some kind of large cargo, like furniture or something?” Lyra said, her voice rising in intensity with each question. “I guess that almost makes sense, but – “ “Twilight, don’t tell me you believe her,” Bon-Bon said. “I really can’t make any conclusions about humans with what little information we have. But I don’t think that this can be included in our final report,” Twilight said. She looked at the remains of the cart. “Lyra even admits that there's no record of anything like this. While this would have been beneficial to humans, it is far beyond what their abilities were said to be.” Lyra stared at the ground. “I’ve never been able to understand how things like that work, either. That’s why I needed to test it.” “If humans had really had something like that, wouldn’t we still be using them?” Twilight said. “Probably. I don’t know,” Lyra said. Bon-Bon stared at Twilight. “You said you didn’t think humans were real.” “Well, no,” Twilight replied. “But even considering the accepted mythology, this doesn’t make any sense." Her eyes widened. "That reminds me, I need to fill out a report to the Princess on my progress. Not that I’ve made much...” “Maybe we should go too,” Bon-Bon said, shooting Lyra a look. Lyra turned to Applejack. “It’s fine. I’ll pay you back.” She hurried along after Bon-Bon without another word, glad to be away from that mess. Once they returned home, Bon-Bon turned to her roommate. “Lyra, I know that I’ve been saying this before, but I really mean it this time. All of this business about humans needs to stop,” Bon-Bon said. “I’ve put up with those… hands, I didn’t even say anything when you started wearing clothes, but this? You could have killed yourself out there!” “It was my first experiment with this technology. Mistakes happen,” Lyra said. “Your first - ? No, please tell me you’re not doing anything like that again. You completely destroyed Applejack’s cart, all because of some theory that doesn’t even make any sense – “ “I know what I’ve seen,” Lyra said. “If you knew what my dreams were like, you’d understand. If I figure out how humans worked these carriages, imagine how much Equestria would change!” “Humans aren’t real!” Bon-Bon yelled. Lyra shrank back. Lowering her tone of voice, Bon-Bon continued, “You’re too old to believe in these stories. Just listen to Twilight. Listen to your own parents, for Celestia’s sake.” “None of them understand what’s going on here. I know humans are real,” Lyra said. “But all of these things you’ve been doing… You’re a unicorn! Nothing’s going to change that. You’re not a human.” “I never said I was.” Bon-Bon took a deep breath. “Lyra, I didn’t want to have to say this, but… If you keep doing these experiments, or whatever it is you call them, I…” She hesitated. “I really don’t want to have to force you to move out, but…” Lyra stared at her, completely taken aback. “You’d… seriously do that?” Bon-Bon nodded slowly. “But…” “I’m worried about you, Lyra. I was willing to let it go and say it was harmless before, but this... This is just too much. You could have hurt somepony with that thing.” There was nothing else to say. “Fine.” With a sigh, Lyra turned and headed to her room. Closing the door behind her, she collapsed on the bed and rolled over to stare at the ceiling. It was so frustrating. All she needed was a solid piece of proof. Maybe all she had were only theories, separate pieces of evidence pointing to the fact that something had existed and created this society before ponies had come along. But they seemed so close in her dreams. She looked over and saw her journal by the nightstand. The night before she’d woken up again and had those images in her head. She flipped back to the last page and stared at what she’d drawn. She’d managed to get most of the details before she'd forgotten them. It really had very little in common with a wooden apple cart, but that was the closest thing she had. These human vehicles were made out of something else… possibly metal, based on the appearance? There were glass windows all around the sides. Passengers and drivers would sit inside. And the wheels were fatter and not made of wood. They’d been moving in the dream so she hadn’t gotten a very good look at them. The real problem was propulsion. She’d been using magic, same as what powered anything in Equestria. The books all said that humans couldn’t use magic… but how else would these carriages work? She’d seen them moving around at impossible speeds without anything pulling them. Twilight didn’t believe in Lyra’s dreams, but she’d never experienced them. They weren’t normal dreams. Everything was extraordinarily detailed. Lyra often saw things that were never described in the books, but there was no way she’d be able to imagine all these things on her own. And yet, Twilight did have a good point… If humans had built those things, what had happened to them, and why didn’t ponies use them now? She set her journal down on the dresser, on top of a cluttered mess of sheet music for the Grand Galloping Gala. That reminded her, she only had a week left. She picked up a copy of one of the waltzes and scanned the lines of music, hearing it in her head as her eyes moved along the page. Fine. Maybe she’d give it a rest for a while. Do some last-minute practicing for the Gala, even though that was hardly necessary. Bon-Bon was upset and any further research right now would just make that worse. Lyra was tired. She just wanted straight answers, but would she ever get them? Just anything that would make Bon-Bon see things her way. She turned out the lights, and tried to tune out her thoughts and get some sleep. A cab had just pulled up in front of the house. Bon-Bon was the first one to see it through the window. “Lyra, are you ready? Your carriage is here,” she called. “On my way!” The response came from down the hall. Lyra did a quick sweep of her bedroom, gathering up everything she needed. There was sheet music, both loose and bound into books, scattered all throughout the room on her desk, nightstand, and bed. She used her magic to scoop it all up hastily. Everything on her dresser was piled into a jumbled heap, which she compacted as much as she could, and she dashed out the door without another thought. Lyra was running as fast as she could in her dress, trying not to trip over the fabric. She was much more used to pants. This was too wide and hard to move in. She paused in the front room. “Good luck out there,” Bon-Bon said. “Do you think you’ll be back tonight?” “Dunno.” Lyra shrugged. “My parents sent a letter. They said they wanted me to visit after I’m done, which’ll be late, but I’ll try to make it back as soon as I can.” She checked over all of her things – her lyre case, the books of sheet music… That should be it. They all floated along above her head as she trotted out the door. Lyra stepped up to the door of the carriage. She opened it, and started setting down her things inside. Bon-Bon followed her outside and walked around to the front of the vehicle. “Everything alright?” The driver had noticed the expression of worry on Bon-Bon’s face. “Oh, it’s fine. Just wanted to make sure you were driving,” Bon-Bon said. She got a quizzical look in response. “Um… it’s a long story.” She hung her head. “Don’t worry about that, ma’am,” the stallion replied. “I make the trip between Ponyville and Canterlot all the time. Everything will be fine.” “Yes, of course…” Bon-Bon gave a short laugh. “I’m sure it will be.” Maybe she worried about Lyra too much. Her… quirks… had gotten more severe in the past few months, without a doubt. But what was the worst thing that could happen at the Grand Galloping Gala? This would be nothing but a step in the right direction for Lyra. Perhaps she’d eventually find a permanent career with an orchestra and get some steady income. “Alright, I’m ready,” Lyra said, coming around from the side. She looked at Bon-Bon, then to the driver. “Let’s get going.” “Goodbye, Lyra,” Bon-Bon said. “Do your best.” “I’ll see you tomorrow, at the latest." She pointed a hoof for emphasis. "Bye!” Lyra stepped up into the carriage. She sat on the cushioned bench inside, but her dress made it odd and uncomfortable to sit the usual way. She’d have to sit like a normal pony while she was performing, anyway. Just like Bon-Bon and Rarity had both told her. She watched as Bon-Bon and their house grew smaller as the carriage pulled away. Canterlot was probably an hour or so away. She settled back for the ride.