//------------------------------// // Chapter 33 - Bon Bon, Bunsen Burner // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// The town hall of Ponyville was naturally the place where all community relevant matters were discussed and addressed. Today, as it had for so many times previous, it would serve as a place for a public announcement. It was a sweltering afternoon, which was only compounded by how closely packed the near two hundred citizens of Ponyville were to each other. Bon Bon looked into the mirror in front of her, trying as best as she could to move any stray hairs into their rightful places. The Mayor Mare appeared in the mirror beside her, and from the reflection she could see that she was looking to her. The older mare asked, “How do you feel?” “Terrified,” the young candy maker murmured, “I’ve never spoken to so many ponies in my life, let alone all at once.” The Mayor Mare chuckled, “Would you believe, after nearly twenty-two years of doing this job, I still get the jitters before every speech?” Bon Bon, surprised by this tidbit of information, looked to her, “Are you serious? I’ve never seen you slip up even once when I’ve heard you speak!” “That’s just years of practice at play,” she declared, “You don’t have long, but I can give you some simple advice; when you spoke to me along with the Elements, you were passionate about what you were saying, and that’s what helped to sway me. What did you see in your mind’s eye when you were talking to me?” Bon Bon’s face scrunched up a little as her stage fright burned into righteous anger. She was about to express it into words, but the Mayor Mare stopped her, “Don’t say it out loud! Think about it, and if you get nervous, imagine each face out there is mine; it’s a one on one conversation between you and me again. Just repeat what you said to me as best as you can and you’ll do fine.” She smiled a little, “You know, I still remember the last time I had one of your pastries; it was a peach strudel.” Bon Bon laughed a little, “Yes, that’s one of my favorites.” “If you can bring as much passion to this speech as you do to your divine artistry in confectionery, you’ll knock’em dead.” Two rapid knocks pounded through the door, and Twilight Sparkle face appeared in the gap as she opened it, with a pre-performance excitement tingle in her voice, “Are we ready?” Bon Bon took in one sharp breath before turning to the unicorn, “Ready.” It was a blur, going from the Mayor’s office to the platform and podium outside, the other five Elements were waiting just near the door out, and the seven of them together filed out one by one, with Bon Bon in last, and Fluttershy directly before her, who was just as jumpy and full of stage fright as she was. Twilight Sparkle took the podium first, addressing the crowd about why they were gathered here, the decision to reaffirm their neutrality in the face of the three arson attacks, and to ask the other Ponyvillians to do the same. Bon Bon didn’t hear a word of it; she was stuck in a nervous trance. Twilight finally gestured to her, and she slowly came to the podium; so many faces watching, wondering why she was there. She rested her forehooves softly on the podium, and tried to start, but her voice caught in her throat. The ponies in front looked up at her expectantly, but she clammed up. She had flubbed it! It was only downhill from here! Like a splash of cold water on hot sand, the Mayor Mare’s advice came back to her in a burst. Suddenly, all of the ponies in front of her looked like the Mayor Mare, waiting for her to let out her bottled up words and emotions. “You’re probably all wondering why I’m up here,” she began unsteadily. She chuckled nervously, “So am I.” The Mayor Mares who could hear her chuckled too. “If you’re anything like me,” she spoke out louder now, “You’re shocked by the unrest that has come upon us out of nowhere. Why are we all fighting? Aren’t we all of the same nation? The sides that have helped to create this divide have chosen one Princess over another. ‘We follow Celestia’ or ‘We follow Luna’.” She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, before they flashed back open, full of determination, “Well I say neither is the right way. This strife and division, stuff we haven’t even heard of except in Hearth Warming’s Eve stories, is not the Equestrian way. We need each other! We need both our Princesses, the unicorns, the pegasi, and us earth ponies too. We need Harmony! We love Harmony. I want things to be like they were not so long ago; no Solar Empire, new or ancient, no Lunar Republic, now or ever. I want Equestria back, and we need to remind everpony that that good dream we lived in, of love and peace with each other, is still salvageable! We can save Equestria from this mad ideological war! We have to stop being afraid and do the right thing; stand up for what we believe in, and be brave enough to fight with only our words and our hearts, not our horns and hooves. We must reach out to all the other lovers of the Equestria we once knew, and march to Canterlot to show everypony, ‘We will live in harmony! We will live in peace with all. Equestria was and always should be the land of Harmony!' ” Bon Bon caught her breath as she felt her body crumple a little when she finished her speech; she had barely stopped to breathe in all the time she was speaking, mostly out of nervousness. The gathered crowd of ponies roared, cheered, and stomped their hooves in joyous agreement with Bon Bon’s speech, who nervously smiled. She turned to look to her left, where the Elements stood on the podium, and they too were stomping their hooves, each offering her a smile, a wink or a cheer. The Mayor Mare approached the podium from behind the Elements at a practiced trot, and gave Bon Bon a smile, and with tears in her eyes, she murmured, “Fantastic.” Within a matter of weeks, scores of ponies descended on Ponyville. From all walks of life, from all over the country, stallions and mares came to support the ideal of a restored Equestria. A pegasus mechanic from Trottingham named Fix-It, an earth pony hotel manager from Mustangia named Sunny Resorts, a wizened old money unicorn from Fillydelphia named Bullion Mint, and many more after them came to show their support for the way things had been, for one reason or another. Some wanted to be able to practice their business in peace and without fear, others wanted the markets to return to normal, and some simply wanted an uneventful, quiet life once again. Bon Bon and the Elements were overjoyed by the ponies that showed their support with their presence, even as they struggled to find room for all of them around the town. Hotels and inns filled up within days of the speech, and nearby fields were being used as camping grounds for the many ponies that kept coming. Local law enforcement was not enthused by this most recent of developments. “So many ponies, all in my town,” Officer Blue Badge said as he looked all across the meadows that held the different shapes colors and sizes of tents and makeshift dwellings, he turned to look at Bunsen Burner, “I’d be thrilled if there weren’t so much of a risk of a stampede if someone should panic.” The bespectacled stallion grunted his affirmation, “It also provides too easy of a target for infiltration. How long have you been sheriff in this town?” “It’s been around fifteen years since I first got this job. Ponies all around like how I do my job, and keep voting for my re-up every year.” Bunsen Burner slid his visor down over his eyes, and scanned the meadow, “Have any of the locals been acting odd in the past few months?” The sheriff scoffed, “No more than usual; we do have plenty of colorful folks around here, but it’s been a little subdued since the Changeling scares began. With that in mind, we enacted the buddy system so that everypony could keep a lookout for each other. Twilight Sparkle's organizational skills have been a miracle for the town these past two and half years!” “Yes, her abilities have been well documented,” the older stallion murmured. The visor was an invention of Bunsen Burner’s that was created to show magical shape-shifters of all types, but was primarily used in finding Changelings. Ancient mages, Starswirl the Bearded among them, believed that all beings had some balance of magic and mundane within them; some balance of Form and Matter made up all things, and defined their place in the hierarchy in the natural order. A balance of modern technology and unicorn magicks, the Arcanium visor was an example of what had become commonly known at the Royal Science Division as AuraTech. The filtered vision he was offered allowed Bunsen Burner to see the relative magic levels and aura types of the ponies around. As far as he could see with a cursory glance, everyone down below was clean. He then turned his gaze back toward Ponyville, and began to scan the visible locals. Everyone passed checks, and Bunsen Burner was about to put the visor up, when he had a paranoid desire to look again. One earth pony’s aura levels were abnormally colored; a pink aura with tints of bright green floating through her. Bunsen Burner slid the visor back up to his forehead, and blinked his eyes heavily. The mare with abnormal readings was passing by with a red stallion at her side. It was the school teacher, Cheerilee. “Out of curiosity, how long has Ms. Cheerilee been in town?” he asked with a practiced pitch to Officer Blue Badge. “Oh, she moved into town almost twenty-five years ago. Her Aunt Jubilee was the previous school teacher until she retired and passed on, Celestia bless her. Sweet mare; she cares about the young’ins a lot, and takes her time with them, makin’ sure they know everything they need to.” “Any long out of town visits or vacations?” The sheriff shook his head, “Never seen her really leave the bounds of the town all that much since she came here; schooling isn’t the best paying profession an’ all. So far as I know, Ms. Jubilee was her only family.” Bunsen Burner grimaced a little, unnoticed by the Sheriff, as he looked at Big Macintosh, “And how long have those two been together?” “About four months now. I’d expect church bells in their future,” Officer Blue Badge chuckled, “and it’s all thanks to three of her little students who thought she deserved a Special Somepony enough that they made a love potion for the both of them!” Bunsen Burner turned all the evidence over in his mind, trying to find the weak link in the evidence, “Is that right?” He then began to walk back into town, “Thank you for your professional courtesy, Sheriff. The information was very helpful.” “Always a pleasure!” Officer Blue Badge declared, turning his attention back to the campsite of out-of-towners.