Lyra Heartstrings v. Republic of Terra

by PegasusKlondike

The City of Man

Lyra looked with a discerning eye out over the many choices she and Bonbon had. There were simply too many to choose from, and none of them seemed to catch her eye any more than the previous one.

"Well Lyra, what do you think?" Bonbon whispered to her as she scanned each potential candidate.

"I...I'm not sure. But I think we've agreed that we're looking to raise a filly," she replied.

The mare couple was not shopping for dresses, nor perusing for formal slippers for their upcoming trip to the illustrious and mysterious Republic of Terra. Nay, today they had made their decision. They would become a family, and they would enrich the life of a child in need to do it. The residents of Canterlot's orphanage played, studied, or simply rested on their beds here in the orphanage bedrooms, each one a child left here by parents that could not support them or by cruel fate.

The matron of the orphanage stood ready with them, her grey mane curled back in a bun and threatening to slip loose with the excitement of a potential adoption. "If it will help you young ladies," she told them, "We could set you up with a little 'interview' with one of our children. I assure you, each one is proper and well schooled in their manners."

Lyra glanced out again at the room that was scarce with children. Her expectations had fallen fairly short with this visit, and her eye couldn't seem to rest on any child in particular. They were surprisingly few in number, and all of them fairly old to be in an orphanage. Her gaze drifted to a brown pegasus colt hovering over the beds, sticking his tongue out at a unicorn filly as she tried to get her dolly back from him. A pair of twin, peach coated earth ponies read identical books on their opposing beds, the only difference being the color of their blueberry and blackberry cutie marks.

And they were the youngest of the lot. Even the unicorn filly trying to get her doll back from the troublesome pegasus colt had a cutie mark. And that was the deal breaker for Lyra, all of these children seemed too old, some of them even verging on teenage life and puberty. If anything she wanted to raise a baby as her own, not foster some half grown filly until she could get a place of her own. Adopting some gangling teen almost defeated the entire purpose of being a parent. In Lyra's mind, a person needed to raise their child from birth (or near birth), be there for each achievement in their life, help them up when they fell, kiss their boo-boo when they got hurt, and be there to give that encouraging smile when they walked through the doorway on their first day of school.

"Don't you have any younger children?" she rather blithely asked the matron.

The older mare sighed, the potential for an adoption seeming to slip away with each passing second. "How young were you thinking, Miss?"

"Well, you know, little foals." Lyra folded her forelegs, slightly rocking them to indicate a very small and very young foal that she wanted to raise.

The matron pushed her glasses back up her nose, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sorry, we just haven't had any young foals in months. Most of them find loving families very quickly. And with those new creatures out there taking out all sorts of loans and buying Equestrian goods by the trainload, the economy has been in its best state in over a century. Many ponies are much more financially secure and more comfortable raising a family nowadays."

Lyra gave a very loud and audible sigh of defeat. So, this was what it boiled down to. In a very indirect fashion, the humans were to blame for the poor selection of adoptable children. A strange side effect of their reemergence after two millenia of absence, and not altogether a bad one for the family scene and the economy. But still one that had the ultimate detriment upon the life of poor Lyra. Even though she seemed to be the pony who might receive the most personal benefit from the human race, she had been one of the few to have little positive influence from the creatures.

On the other hoof, the positive human influence in the marketplace just might explain the recent rise in expensive parties by rich business owners and investors, and by that proxy, the recent success in her musical career. The humans, oh what a double edged sword they were.

"And the humans strike back," she hissed under her breath. "Is this revenge for shooting Mr Patterson? Is the universe out to get me?"

"I beg your pardon?" the orphanage matron inquired, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Bonbon flashed a false grin to hopefully cover the situation. "My wife and I are going on a little business trip in a few days. She was just commenting that we will have to take that time to make our decision. Right, Lyra?" Bonbon growled through her teeth.

Catching her cue, Lyra scrambled to return to the conversation. "Oh, uh, yeah! I just said, um, 'I wonder what dresses will fit me.'"

"Dang," the elder mare said dejectedly, losing any hope of pawning off one of those snot nosed, troublemaking ruffians today. "Well, take your time ladies. And remember, our doors are always open here!" Spinning on her hooves, the matron turned and left for her office, leaving Lyra and Bonbon alone in the orphanage lobby.

Bonbon turned to leave, with Lyra at her tail. "You seem a little bit distracted, honey bun," Bonbon commented off-hoofedly.

"You think?" Lyra replied. "Why can't it work out for us? Why are we constantly getting thrown under the carriage by luck?"

"Look Lyra, we could just adopt one of the older children. There's nothing wrong with them, they're just a little...bigger, than what we want. We both agreed we wanted a filly, and there were several good fillies in there. This isn't a matter of luck at all, you're just being too picky. We should just adopt one of the fillies and see where life takes us from there."

"But what's the point? They live with us for a few years, maybe even call us 'Mom' once or twice as a courtesy. Then they go off to college or move out and we never see or hear from them again except for the slight chance of a Hearth's Warming card during the holidays!"

Bonbon sighed, agreeing in her mind that what Lyra said was probably the most plausible outcome. Even if they did adopt one of those children, there wouldn't be much love from either party. The entire relationship between mothers and their adopted daughter would be based on pity and the strain of a last resort. So, maybe this wasn't the right option. Maybe those children would be better off with a different family, or even just moving into productive roles in society.

Just as Bonbon reached the door, it swung open from the outside, nearly smacking the custard mare on the nose.

"Excuse me," an orange pegasus filly said as she bustled in the door, tugging a box of clothing in a little red wagon.

"Huh?" Lyra said aloud. "Scootaloo? You live here at the orphanage? That's....perfect! Bonbon! We could adopt Scootaloo!"

"Well actually-" Scootaloo tried to interrupt.

"Hey, you're right! She's still young, and we could have so much fun raising her as our own daughter!" Bonbon scooped up the filly, giving her a rib crushing hug to her chest. "You're going to love being a Heartstring! You'll have your own room, and your own toys, and we'll sing you to sleep at night! We'll have birthday parties and we'll celebrate all your important milestones with cakes and balloons!" Bonbon crooned, gently rocking the pegasus as she tried desperately to get free.

Scootaloo tried to defer, struggling to wriggle free from Bonbon's hooves. "For cryin' out loud! What's with the lubby-dubby weirdo?! Put me down! I'm not up for adoption!"

Bonbon's eyes snapped open in surprise, and without ceremony she dumped Scootaloo back onto the floor. "You're...not up for adoption?"

"No! Why the flying feather does everypony assume I'm an orphan?!" Scootaloo replied, desperately rubbing a hoof on her cheek where Bonbon had planted a kiss.

"Well, nopony has ever really seen your parents around, and frankly nopony even knows where you live," said Lyra. "Boy do I feel like a goof. Sorry about that kiddo," she said sheepishly, running a hoof through her mane in embarrassment. "But what exactly are you doing at the orphanage with a bunch of clothes?"

The filly glared at Lyra, her violet eyes threatening to shoot daggers into Lyra's heart. "Donating them! What else do you do with old clothes? And for your information, I live on Bayberry Lane with my mom and dad, and I come here once a week to volunteer!"

"Damn," Bonbon muttered, "So close to getting a good one there. All apologies, Ms Scootaloo, just got caught up in the moment. And I would like to say that you are a very kind and community minded little filly, giving up so much of your time for such a good cause."

"It's court ordered," Scootaloo murmured, grabbing the handle of her wagon and pulling it along.

**************************************************

Today was the day! Lyra could hardly contain her excitement as she neatly and delicately placed her lyre into a trunk, padded with extraneous clothing. Well, the day her trip started. It was a full two day train ride to the human city, so far across the horizon, further than any pony had dared to settle and in territory that the bison considered both sacred and haunted.

"Oh Lyra," came a sultry voice. "Whaddya think of this one?" Bonbon crept around the jamb of the doorway, wearing that blue silk dress that hugged her flank. "Am I gonna be the belle of the ball or what?" She gave her flank a little shake, setting of an explosion of lust in the unicorn.

"Stop it, we're leaving in two hours, we don't have time for that," Lyra countered, trying her best not to get seduced mere hours before the departure on the greatest trip of her life.

"Time for what, darling? I am merely practicing my promenade for the gala of the year. Pray tell, does miss have a companion for the ball?" Bonbon said in her most posh and ostentatious brogue.

"Well," Lyra started, "I've got this plain-jane candy maker I was thinking about dragging along, but you've got a little something going on there." She looped a foreleg around Bonbon's neck, kissing her on the cheek. Her horn still glowed gold, packing her clothes carefully around her precious lyre. That was her money maker, and without that precious instrument and its companion harp being carefully packed in a velvet lined case downstairs, they wouldn't have this opportunity at all.

"Are you packed and ready?" Lyra asked.

Bonbon rolled her eyes, quickly taking off her dress, folding it neatly and placing it delicately in her trunk. "Alright! I'm ready, we just have to lock up and leave our keys with Dr Whooves."

"Okay, I have our boarding passes to get on the train, which arrives in thirty minutes, boards passengers and cargo for another another hour and then leaves. Which leaves us thirty minutes to get our baggage down to Ponyville station and get our baggage checked. Are you absolutely, positively sure you got everything you needed?"

"Yes, Mom," Bonbon groaned, "I'm positive that I packed everything we'll need. Now how about you, did you remember your toothbrush this time? Because you forgot it that one time we went to see my sister in Manehattan, and your breath smelled like hay fries the entire time."

Lyra quickly levitated a toothbrush from the bathroom medicine cabinet into the bag, hoping that Bonbon wouldn't notice this continual slip up in her memory. Straining her magical abilities to the limit, Lyra levitated both hers and Bonbon's trunks in her aura, taking them carefully down the stairs and grabbing her encased harp to add to the pile.

Dropping them carefully outside the door, Lyra panted as she waited for Bonbon to finish their pre-trip checklist.

"Okay, we turned off the stove, check. Closed all the windows, check. Latched the storm shutters, check. Made sure we had no perishable food that wasn't properly stored, check. And last but not least, front door locked," Bonbon took their keys in her teeth, closing and locking the door with an audible click. "Check. Now let's have us one heck of a vacation!" Bonbon trotted off towards the station, leaving Lyra up to her eyeballs in luggage.

Twenty minutes of lugging each and every heavy trunk down to the train station, Lyra dumped them in a careful heap, waiting for the routine inspection of her luggage and the clearance to get her baggage checked. Bonbon appeared by her side, appearing pleasantly calm despite the complete equivocation of what was going to transpire.

How can she be so calm like that?, Lyra thought to herself. This was most certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that ponies told to their children and regaled to their grandchildren in their golden years. The tale where grandma received a personal invitation to come and perform her art in the city of the Men. And if she weren't so beaten from dragging their bags across town, the aquamarine unicorn would have been shivering with glee on that train station bench. Hey, magic didn't make hauling that crap any easier, it just strained something other than her muscles.

A far away whistle carrying on the wind was the first sign of the Friendship Express, the gaudy and lacy steam engine that carried passengers hither and thither across the expanses of Equestria. Lyra had to ride the train quite a bit due to the travel requirements of her job, and she decided early on that there must be at least a dozen of those pink and fru-fru trains chugging about Equestria at any given time, otherwise nothing would ever get done with just one train.

The passenger train pulled into the station, a contrail of puffy white smoke drifting in behind it and washing over the platform. The brakes screeched as the Friendship Express slowed to a halt, and the engineer gave the whistle a tug, letting out its shrill acknowledgement to the town of Ponyville.

"Welp, here's our ride," Lyra proclaimed. Passing off their tickets, both mares boarded and picked a nice booth to take. And almost immediately when they crossed the threshold into the passenger car, they noticed they were far from alone. Most of the booths were occupied with what looked like Canterlot nobility. Lyra looked beyond the well dressed ponies who conversed lowly, many turning up their noses at the very quaint hamlet of Ponyville, and was stunned to see what looked like a few gryphon clan lords and some minotaur merchant guildsmen. Creatures from several backgrounds and locales all occupied the passenger car, even a few from species she was not very familiar with. But the one uniting factor was the apparent wealth displayed by every individual. A quick glance and some calculations natural to a pony raised in Canterlot made Lyra guess that some of those upper crusts were wearing more gold and jewels than she made in several months.

"Wow," she said under her breath. Spotting an empty booth, she and Bonbon quickly filled it, stowing their carry-on luggage in the seat compartment. Lyra sighed in delight as she kicked back in the seat, leaning her head over and looking out the window. "Humanland, here we come."

Outside the train, more ponies arrived at the station bearing their luggage, passing it off to a platform worker and boarding the train. Those six mares came along happily, chatting about their return to the infant nation they had left in peace over a year ago. And then the two humans came. Dr Patterson, along with Ms Cook, Aaron being a gentleman and carrying what little luggage Ms Cook had brought along.

She's still here? Lyra thought to herself. Well, it kind of made sense. None of the human trains that passed through Ponyville were passenger trains, and that strange black monstrosity that brought her hadn't come back this way yet, so this was really the only way she could get back to her country. Did she stay with him? she pondered. Well, good for him.

But after dropping off her bags, Dr Patterson turned around and began to motion to some ponies carrying a very large crate between them. He appeared very concerned about the welfare of the crate, even steadying it with a stream of his own magic as they loaded it preciously into a cargo car. Satisfied with his object's safety, he grabbed a long, cylindrical bundle from his own pile of baggage, clutching it tightly yet gently.

Boarding the train with his mysterious package, Lyra couldn't help but notice two things. First, Dr Patterson graciously extended a hand to Ms Cook, helping her aboard the train with a certain slight smile on his face. Second, and she had almost no doubt that all the other unicorns on the train felt the same thing, that even from this distance that mystery bundle was sending off arcane ripples like a stone thrown into a placid lake.

*********************************************************

The countryside of Equestria zipped by outside the window, becoming a wilder land as they edged away from the center of pony civilization and out towards the frontiers and closer to the center of human civilization. Aaron gently tucked away his bundle, being careful not to jostle it too much, lest he damage such a priceless object. He had no doubt some people wouldn't be too overjoyed when he presented it to his leaders as a gesture of goodwill to his people from the nation of Equestria, but he wasn't too concerned about it.

He sat down across from Ms Cook, whom he had graciously boarded in his newly built home on the outskirts of Ponyville whilst she conducted her survey of the town in all its glory. Unfortunately, that dinner he had said he would take her out to had not happened. Certain circumstances required his presence in Canterlot for a few last minute trade agreement details that could involve his people, and he had been stuck in negotiations for almost the entire week. Plus, he had to personally oversee the final preparations of his gift to the human race. Well, not him per se, but someone who knew what they were doing, in his body. Giving her a smile, he struck up a conversation.

"So, Ms Cook, how did you like Ponyville?"

Ms Cook returned the smile. "Well, it meets all government standards, and I must say it was a rather charming little place."

"Quite," Aaron replied. "In my opinion, Disneyland could never compare for the title of 'happiest place on Earth'. Sure it has suffered more natural disasters and monster attacks than any other town in Equestria. But trust me, the low taxes more than make up for it."

She chuckled politely, and Aaron got to see a dazzling sparkle in her sapphire blue eyes that set his heart aflutter. "Thank you for letting me stay with you, Mr Ambassador."

"Please, call me Aaron. And I apologize for my absence, duty calls and all that."

"Alright, Aaron," she said with a touch of novelty. "So, is it true what they say about you? When I was coming over in the helicopter, all of those soldiers said I was going to meet a legend in the flesh. Is it true that you fought in Operation Hammerstrike?"

Aaron let out an involuntary wince at the painful memories that came with the mention of Hammerstrike. "I didn't "fight" per se, but yes, I was present for Operation Hammerstrike, what ponies call the Day of Judgement. Since I was one of the few people from Greenewell that had ever talked eye to eye with a pony, they chose me to be a part of the parley force. And.....and I failed. We saw eye to eye, Cloud Hoof and I, but we both knew that neither of our peoples could back down. And after that....the bullets started flying." Aaron stopped to take a deep breath and control his emotions.

Anita regretted asking him a question that had become so personal and emotional. She knew many soldiers in the Republic, and none of them who fought during Hammerstrike told their tale without the ghosts of their fallen comrades hidden behind their stifled tears. "I'm so sorry for asking, forgive me," she said sympathetically.

"No, it's alright. It's just....I blame myself for a lot of things that happened that day. And even though I know for a fact that they would forgive me, I still can't help but feel the greatest regret. Even Cloud suffered to his dying day from the haunting memories."

"Who was Cloud?" she asked, knowing by the name alone that the person in question was most certainly not a human being.

The memory of his dear friend brought a smile back to his face. "General Cloud Hoof, first commander of the pegasus army, leader of Cloudsdale in its antiquity, and a dear friend of mine. We captured him as an earth pony a few weeks after the first Surge, and it was my job to question him and learn about what was happening. Then the second Surge hit, lo and behold the Earth Mother decides that Cloud gets to live his dream and sticks a pair of wings on his back. I never expected to find such an endearing friend in a pony, but he taught me that friendship and love have no barriers. That mare over there," he pointed to another booth, where Rainbow Dash fidgeted in her seat, bored beyond belief, "She's his descendant. I don't know if she knows it, but I see a lot of Cloud Hoof in her. And though she's arrogant and a braggart to boot, it's why I love Rainbow to death." He turned back to Anita, and saw what looked like a touch of disappointment flash in her eyes. "Like a sister," he added quickly. "Or even a niece."

And those sapphire eyes quickly gained a spark of light again, and Anita smiled.

"Well," Aaron started again. "Look at me here, trying to kill the atmosphere. Enough about my hard times, I want to hear about you, Anita. What's your story?"

"Oh, I don't have much of a story. Nothing that could compare to anything you've ever done, or even that could compare to what half the people in Lazarus have to tell."

"Nonsense, everyone has a story to tell. And there's always someone who wants to hear it."

"You really want to hear my story?" she asked, honestly wondering why someone as important as the ambassador to Equestria would want to hear her tale. He gave a nod, and his brown eyes sparkled with curiosity. "Well, I'm originally from Newark, out in New Jersey. Or, what was New Jersey. You know, before ponies and dragons and stuff took a steamroller to the place. I was always a bit of girly girl, but I never went for things like cheerleading or any of that preppy stuff. Umm, I went to college at the University of Virginia, majoring in Social Sciences."

"You went to Virginia? I had a few colleagues that went there for research positions on the staff! Hey, did you know Kent Roth?"

Anita thought for a moment. "Really frizzy red hair, always pushed his glasses up his nose? I think he tutored biology?"

"That's the guy! He and I did postgraduate studies under Professor Bremme at Georgetown!"

"No kidding? I guess it is a small world after all."

"Anyways, sorry to interrupt your story. You were saying?"

Anita gave a laugh, leaping right back into her personal history. "After college I got a little job working in Indianapolis as a social worker for state child services. And when the Surges hit, I kind of lost my job along with the rest of society. I roughed it for a year or so, trying to survive when the monsters started coming. I tried my hand at gardening to grow food for all the people in my town, you know, since people didn't really need social workers after the apocalypse. But that didn't turn out so well. And when the soldiers from Greenewell showed up, looking for volunteers for Project Lazarus, I kind of told them a little fib and said I had a bit more manual labor skills and technical knowledge than I actually had. They ran me through a few blood tests, drove me to Greenewell....and you know the rest. Now I work for the Republic of Terra's Department of Social Services."

Aaron sat quietly, nodding his head and smiling at her quaint and short life story. "That was a good story."

"Stop teasing!" she said playfully.

"I'm serious! Up until the Surges all I could say about my life was the fact that I had a good cat and a job at the local bank."

Compliment her on her eyes, a certain ethereal voice intoned psionically in Aaron's head.

"What?" he said aloud.

"Hm?" Anita responded.

Give her a compliment on the beauty of her eyes, you twit.

"Gah, I'm sorry Anita. But you just have the prettiest sapphire eyes I have ever seen. And I have to admit, I don't really toss that around a lot."

A flush of crimson rose on her pale cheeks. "Thank you," she said sweetly.

You've got her hooked, now reel her in.

Aaron took the goddess' advice to heart. "So, are you going to the big gala?"

Her grin slowly rose into a blushing smile. "I wan't exactly invited, but I've heard it will be the party of the year."

"Well, I have an extra invitation. Perhaps, maybe..." He couldn't seem to finish the sentence. That horrible effect of being a lovelorn male of any race was tangling the words in his throat and making his ears burn in both excitement and embarrassment. Damnable testosterone! And why did he have the feeling of that prying pseudo-deity laughing at his discomfort from the safety of her realm?

"Are you asking me out, Mr Patterson?" she asked very innocently, knowing how her natural feminine wiles were turning him to mush.

"Um, uh....yeah. Yeah, I guess I am, Ms Cook."

"Please," she said, reaching a hand up to her hair, expertly undoing her coiled bun and letting her blonde hair wash down over her shoulders. "Call me Ann," she said with a smile.

*********************************************************

The sun rose high in the sky, and swooped down low to the horizon, all the while the Friendship Express continued to plow across the Equestrian landscape. Quaint towns and hamlets gave way to endless tracts of fields growing their crops. Farmhouses dotted the landscape, singular signs of civilization, eventually dwindling away as the land changed once again to primal wilderness that threatened to choke out the very railroad track itself. Only the regular passage of the steam engine through this wild growth and thick forest kept it from being assimilated back into nature.

And like the transition from town to country and from farm to forest, the landscape once again changed on the dawn of the second day of Lyra's voyage. The forest began to thin, the hills and valleys of the forestlands giving way to more gently sloping hills and plains. Thick, golden grasses eventually conquered the trees entirely, and only hardy bushes and scrub brush claimed any holdout in the waving sea of grass.

And she learned through snippets of conversations overheard and through deep and engaging discussions with some of the other passengers that the humans had some very big opportunity planned for them, and that the only clue was that it involved great deals of money on the part of the invited guests. Both Lyra and Bonbon felt a little shorthanded, two middle class mares going to an event where the rich and wealthy from across several continents and nations would rub shoulders. Several times they questioned themselves, asking whether it would have been a good idea to bring a little more money or not.

A few times, Mr Patterson would leave his booth that he shared with the human woman, a grin on his face and a simple hum telling a tale of success. The fact he had a crush on a woman seemed to dampen his anger and fear of Lyra even more, and he even stopped by a few times for a relaxing chat, though he spent most of his time with Lyra and Bonbon dreamily fantasizing.

But those times were rare, and he spent most of his time chatting and laughing with Ms Cook in their booth. It was about noon on the second day when the train rolled through the desert-like plains and once again began to see signs of pony civilization. Appaloosa stood out on the flat horizon, the little frontier town having grown like a weed since the boom of trade that came through this part of the Equestrian frontier. It maintained that small town western charm; everypony wore a stetson hat or a bonnet to keep their heads cool, and tumbleweeds drifted through with the wind, but it began to take on the size and sophistication of a more central Equestrian town as more and more goods began to flow westward to the human country.

The Express blared out a shrill warning to the folks of Appaloosa, and the engineer in the engine began to ease onto the brakes. Like it had in Ponyville, the Express came to a perfect halt at the train station, right on time as usual. And when it came to a complete stop, the voice of the engineer magically came into each compartment.

"Folks, this is your conductor. The Friendship Express is at the end of her line, and all passengers headed further down the track to the human outpost of Gladstone will have to disembark. Your luggage will be transferred, free of charge, and we ask only that you exit in a neat and orderly fashion. Thank you for choosing Equestria Railways for your travel needs, and we hope to see you again."

Lyra stretched out her legs one at a time as she stood up from her seat. It had been comfy, sure, but being still for almost two days straight was no picnic. Magically levitating hers and Bonbon's carry on bags, she joined the stream of creatures filing out onto the platform to await the human passenger train to come through.

And with her last few days having sapped every minute of delicious sleep from her grasp, Lyra very promptly found the nearest train station bench, crashed down and took a nap.

What felt like only a few seconds later, a hoof nudged her in the ribs.

"Fivemoremems," she murmured sleepily.

"If we wait five more minutes we'll miss our train! Come on, sleepyhooves, we've got to go!"

"Huh?" Lyra looked out at the platform and spotted a massive steam engine resting in the passenger docking area, boarding passengers as she slept. "When did that get there?"

"About fifteen minutes ago, now come on! You slept for a good two hours, now move it or lose it!" Bonbon growled, butting her head into Lyra's back and shoving her off the bench.

Trotting lazily over to the line of disgruntled creatures forced to wait in a dusty train station for hours, the mare handed over her boarding pass over. She snapped back to the waking world when a human hand took her pass, inspecting it with a discriminating eye and waving her on. Always a bright spot in her day, seeing a new human. But this one seemed disinterested in her, and she moved on into her seat in the passenger car.

"Wow," Bonbon commented. "Look at how big everything is! And this seat, it's upholstered with felt!"

"You're right, this thing is huge!" The human train could have easily overshadowed any engine in the Equestrian fleet, and everything seemed so much taller to accommodate the taller frame of a human being. "It's like a snapshot of their era," Lyra mused aloud, her human theorist dark side reemerging. "I forget, did we pack the camera?! I have to get some pictures of this! Why haven't I been taking pictures already?! Where's the camera?"

Bonbon fished it out of their carry-on bag, tossing it lightly to Lyra. "Don't fill up on pictures of our train compartment."

Lyra ignored her wife, happily clicking away, the flash bulb capturing every nook and cranny of the human machine's plush passenger car.

*****************************************************

There it lay in the distance. The first town that any creature here had seen that had more humans than anything else. Gladstone, a temporary railroad encampment in the territory of the bison, an oasis of human life in the sprawling emptiness of the plains. Though it originally was meant to move northward while the workers laid fresh track to the still rich iron deposits in the north, Gladstone had been simply too convenient to move. It lay now at a crossroads between the Equestrian tracks, the tracks leading northward to the iron mines and the rail leading into the human heartland.

The bison, though still wary of the creatures they and their ancestors had known for millenia as the demonic and malevolent 'Hunters', almost refused to voice any negative opinion. The humans kept mostly to themselves, and they kept their distance. And they should, Gladstone was beginning to become a frontier town, complete with its own fully outfitted garrison of highly trained human soldiers. Only those bison who gave in to curiosity or needed some trade goods tread lightly into the town proper, trading their turquoise and raw materials for processed textiles.

And though they didn't even need to stop at the scratch up station here, the train put on her brakes, slowing to a stop.

And when Lyra looked out the window of her booth, she saw something that both fascinated and confused her. A full squadron of humans, outfitted in camouflage clothing and long, strange black objects that could only be weapons."What's going on?" she asked aloud.

"I don't know," Bonbon replied, a nervous feeling running through her as she stared at the heavily armed human warriors.

"Just stay in your seats," a voice said behind them. Both mares snapped to the aisle, the human ambassador stepping in. "We're going to be boarded here for a few minutes, so just hang tight. And most importantly, do absolutely everything they tell you to do," he said before leaving to inform the other passengers.

The door to the passenger car slid open, and Lyra poked her head out into the aisle. A human soldier bearing one of those wicked looking weapons walked slowly down the aisle, scanning each booth visually while keeping a finger on the trigger. His eyes were covered by a set of thick sunglasses, and his mouth covered by a rag. Waving to another soldier behind him, he entered. The second human wore some kind of pack on his back, with cables running to an odd looking device in his hand.

As he swept it across the aisle and past the passengers, the device made a crackling, whining noise. Moving slowly through each booth, the pair of soldiers came to Lyra and Bonbon. "Please remain calm," the weapon bearing soldier intoned mechanically.

The second one, the scanner, stepped in and began to sweep his device over the mares. And when it came to rest on Lyra, the machine's crackle and whine spiked. The soldiers glanced between each other, and the scanner reached to his side and brought out a smaller black device with two metal prongs on the end.

"Ma'am, please extend your arm," the scanner said to Lyra.

Unsure of what this device would do or why they wanted her to do that, she hesitated. A quick glance to her wife, and Bonbon's gaze seemed to say: Don't be afraid, just do what he says.

"Ma'am, please extend your arm, or we will have to use force," the soldier said again.

Tentatively, Lyra stuck out her hoof, shaking with grim anticipation. The scanner lowered the device to her foreleg, and with a press of a button, a small spark of electricity jumped from the prongs and came as a shooting pain all the way up her foreleg. She retracted her hoof in pain, rubbing the sore spot it left.

However, it seemed to satisfy the pair of soldier's mysterious needs, and without another word they moved on to another set of passengers.

"What was that?" Bonbon asked.

"I don't know, but it hurt like a motherbucker!" Lyra swore, rubbing her foreleg.

"Lyra! Language!" Bonbon hissed. "You never know when impressionable ears might be around."

"Easy for you to say, you didn't have to get shocked! Celestia damn it, that was like getting caught by one of Derpy's stray thunderbolts!" The tingling finally began to recede, and though she had made it a bit more of an issue than it actually had been, she was more injured in her pride than anything else. "Why did I have to get shocked anyway?"

Their answer soon came, Dr Patterson poked his head back in to check on them. "Everything go smoothly?"

"No! They shocked me!" Lyra complained. "Last time I trust a piece of human technology."

"Trust me, it was for a good reason," he replied.

"What kind of reason could they have to go around waving probes in my face and then forcefully shocking my leg?!"

Dr Patterson remained calm as he said, "Changelings."

And with one word, Lyra felt the entire act to be justified. The haunting nightmare of being under that bitch Queen Chrysalis's mind control, having to survive lost in the caverns below Canterlot for three days while they did the wedding without her. Anything to make those insectoid monsters suffer even an iota was worth a little pain on her part. "But, how does that affect changelings? And why are your soldiers being so thorough?"

Aaron sat down next to Bonbon, rubbing a sore spot on his wrist, still red from a shock they gave him. "As you know, changelings take on the form of a pony or other creature to infiltrate their society and feed off of their emotions, particularly love. I got a report over the winter from my people, telling me to consult Princess Celestia on how to deal with them. Apparently, four or five changelings managed to slip into the Republic over a few months time, and they fed off of our people. They fed so much that they put three people into comas, and accidently forced a pregnant woman to miscarry. Needless to say, we went through a bit of a purge, finding every last one of the monsters and putting a few extra holes in them. But our scientists did some experiments, and we figured out a little combination that is extremely effective at sniffing out the little rat bastards. When they transform, they have a strong aura of magic to hold the illusion. That first device was called an omega detector. We use them to detect traces of energy in almost any amount. Detect too much, enough to suggest a changeling in disguise, and we move on to the second device. Just a simple personal defense device called a stun gun, and when applied to a changeling, the jolt is enough to jar them loose of any spell they might be maintaining. And if we find one, we kill it."

"And they picked me, because of my magic?"

"Not just you, every other magic user on the train. Thankfully we're clean, they would have made a mess if they found one of the damn things." And with that, he turned and left, settling in for the final leg of their journey back to his home.

Lyra leaned back in her seat, a shiver running down her spine at the mental image of sharing the train with one of those sickening bugs.

"You alright?" Bonbon asked.

"Yeah. I just...don't like-"

"Changelings, yeah, you've told me. But we don't have to worry about that. With all these human soldiers around and their fancy-schmancy doohickeys, there's no way a changeling could get past them. Heck, I bet those icky bugs are trembling in their hives right about now."

Lyra cracked a weak smile. "Yeah, maybe the humans have a flyswatter big enough to crush Chrysalis like a horsefly!"

"Ooh, one with jets and flywheels or whatever it is that humans use in their weird technology!" With the situation diffused by a few jokes, both mares relaxed and waited for the train to cross the border into the newest nation on planet Earth.

*********************************************************

Lyra pressed her face into the glass of the window, peering out with childlike fascination and intent. The plains hadn't slowly melted away, they just stopped. Literally stopped at a wall of trees and undergrowth. And something definitely felt different about the magic around here. It felt ancient, and like it was preserving this land for those who dwelt here in hibernation for so many centuries. Subtle, almost nonexistent, and its lack almost made Lyra uncomfortable.

And just like the halt of the plains, the forest thinned and was replaced with a familiar sight. Farms, with fields carved from the forests and valleys. Tender crops pushed up through the dirt, and more than a handful of humans farmers tended these fields with care.

And finally, as the train rounded a bend, Lyra saw it.

....and was kind of disappointed.

The City of Man, the human settlement of Lazarus. What she expected was a metropolis that stretched both towards the horizon and the sky, with towering buildings that displayed not only elegance but power. What she saw looked just like a very large town. Not quite a city, Lazarus seemed to be divided into several districts, with the construction of the buildings varying by purpose. Some buildings evaded her mind in their function, but some were simply exaggerated things she was familiar with, like the titanic greenhouses that lay on the far end of the city.

Nearest to the approaching train were several buildings made of brick, with smokestacks that belched out thick smoke. Buildings that could only be factories, warehouses and train depots. And the train they rode approached one of these newly built depots, slowing to a stop.

A voice very mechanically chirped out from a PA system, "Folks, this is your conductor speaking. We have arrived at our destination a little earlier than expected. The time is four o' seven, welcome to the City of Lazarus. Please exit the locomotive in an orderly fashion, your luggage is being unloaded as we speak."

Despite the mild disappointment of the city itself, Lyra bounced like a filly. "We're here! We're actually here! What should we do first?! Maybe we could do a little exploring! Or, or maybe we could try some human cuisine!"

Bonbon grabbed her bag, slinging it onto her back. "Maybe we should find a place to stay first. Then maybe we can go sight seeing."

"Spoil sport," Lyra muttered, grabbing her stuff and joining the stream of creatures heading out into the station. And as she walked out onto the concrete station, a wave of scents slammed into her nose. The choke of acrid smoke, the heavy taste of metal in the air, and a hint of some rot, like a compost pile was nearby. It smelled of industry in full swing, and like a people pushing to their limits to fill some quota.

Over to the side, Dr Patterson appeared to be having trouble corralling his six excited charges. "Okay, alright! Rainbow, stop pushing Applejack! Now, did everyone get their bags?"

"Yes!" they answered in unison, the unicorns hefting their considerable baggage in their auras.

"Alright, it's going to be a bit cramped in the ambassadorial quarters, so some of you might have to share beds for a few days. Does everyone have the address just in case you get lost?"

"Right here!" Twilight answered, pulling out a small scrap of paper.

"Good, now let's stay together and try to get there without to much hassle." He stepped off to the side for a moment, dropping his bags to speak with a certain social worker. "So, Ann. I guess this is goodbye for now."

The stunning blonde smiled, reaching into her case and pulling out her clipboard. "Just remember, I live downstairs in government housing. Block D, apartment 82. Pick me up at five," she whispered, coming close and slipping her address into his pocket.

A big, goofy smile spread on his face when she turned and left, and he clutched the scrap of paper in his pocket like it was solid gold.

A certain tangerine farmpony sidled up to her human friend. "Now if she ain't the darn prettiest thang I've ever seen on two legs, call me a hog. Should Ah schedule the weddin' fer spring? When can Ah expect a bunch a' little human critters ta bounce on Auntie Applejack's knee?"

He choked on that those last two sentences, damning Applejack and her conservative views on dating. "Applejack! Bad pony! We haven't even gone on one date yet! Just for that, you're sleeping with Fluttershy!"

"Aw horseapples," she muttered, trotting off.

"Alright, I'm back home for a party that is completely political in nature, and I have to share my house with six of the craziest ponies in the world. Grin and bear it Aaron, grin and bear it. Big smiles all around," Aaron huffed to himself. "Eh, at least I have a date with a gal who should have been a Playboy Bunny."

Whilst he rambled to himself, the pink and blue maned candymaker meekly tugged on his sleeve. "Um, Mr Patterson, sir?"

"Oh! Mrs...Heartstrings, the other Mrs Heartstrings. How can I help you?"

"Well," Bonbon replied. "Lyra and I don't really know our way around, and we kind of need a place to stay. Do you know any good hotels, or maybe even an inn?"

"I'll ask," he replied. Spying a transit authority information booth, he walked over and knocked on the window. "Hey pal, where's the nearest hotel?"

The clerk behind the information desk opened up a ledger, scanning the listings of businesses in Lazarus. "Well, we have the Marlon Hotel, but word has it that it's booked full for the next week."

"Damn, anything else? Maybe an inn or even a spare apartment downstairs?"

Again the help desk clerk scanned his logbook. "Nope, booked solid for the gala. And the Undercity is off limits to unescorted creatures."

"Crap," he murmured. "Thank you for your time sir," he told the clerk. Turning back to Bonbon, he rubbed his neck and sighing. "All the hotels have already been booked for the next week, and there are no spare government apartments."

"Oh no!" Bonbon lamented. "What are we going to do?"

"What is it?" Lyra asked, appearing by her wife's side.

"All the hotels are booked, there aren't any places where we can stay!"

"Now now, hon, we'll find something," Lyra comforted, wrapping a hoof around Bonbon's neck.

Aaron felt a certain need to be altruistic today. "You can stay with me," he blurted out. Slapping a hand over his mouth, he wondered why in the hell he had said that. Then he remembered, :Oh yeah, mental link with a god. STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY THOUGHTS!:

Don't be so mean about it. You needed to do something kind for once.

"Mr Patterson?" Bonbon asked. His eyes appeared to peer off into the distance, until he snapped out of whatever fugue he had entered. And the sour expression told the mares that he had just lost some kind of argument.

"Alright, you can stay with me for awhile. But don't cause any trouble! And you'll have to share a bed."

"That's not an issue for us, we're married," Lyra said with a smirk.

"Right," he said with a grimace. "Here's the address, I'll go ahead and have your luggage delivered. Why don't you two take a tour and come to the house when it's over? Here, I'll even spot you some money." He stopped after handing them a hefty sack of bits, coming to a realization. "Stay out of my head, damn you!"

"Uh, right. Let's take a little tour, shall we Bonnie?" Dr Patterson grabbed their bags and walked away, practically arguing with the invisible presence that was playing with his conscious thoughts. Taking a look around the station, they spied something extremely convenient. A human man leaned against a wall, a cigarette plugged into his mouth and a small sign advertising guided tours of the city in his hands. He had sun-browned skin, and an odd little hat adorned the top of his head. "Nifty," Lyra commented. "Sir! Excuse me sir! Are you doing a tour?"

The man flicked the cigarette out of his mouth, his face sweeping into a smile as he spied two marks for his business. "Yes miss! Guided tours through the entire city, exclusive access to the most off limits areas of Lazarus! All your questions answered and sights seen for just twenty dollars!" he said excitedly in some strange accent.

"What are 'dollars'?"

"Or fifteen Equestrian bits, whichever comes first," the tour guide commented.

Bonbon shilled out the thirty bits for their tour, but their guide didn't leave just yet, waiting for more creatures to join in to maximize his profits. Only when two minotaur merchants, three gryphons and a handful of other ponies paid did he start.

"My name is Simcha, and I will be your guide today. Now, before we begin the our tour of the grandest city in the world, any questions?"

Lyra raised her hoof.

"Yes, the young dame with the green fur."

She lowered her hoof. "What's with your voice?" she asked with real curiosity.

Bonbon squeaked, wanting to punch Lyra for bringing up such an odd and possibly sensitive question.

"Ah, my accent! To me, you are the one with the funny accent, but I am originally from Israel in the old world. I emigrated to New York City only two months before those bastard Syrians and Iranian dogs blew most of the Holy Land into radioactive dust! Any other questions?"

Lyra raised her hoof again, Bonbon resisting the urge to simply find a hole and crawl into it.

"Yes again."

"What does 'Lazarus' mean?"

"A good question! I'll explain on the way to our first destination." Simcha began to herd his group towards one of the large factory complexes near the train station. "Lazarus was a person in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. A friend of the Christian messiah, it was said in the book of Luke that Lazarus died of an illness only days before the messiah arrived in Lazarus's home town of Bethany. Lazarus's sisters begged Jesus of Nazareth to do something, and so Jesus came to Lazarus's tomb and he whispered to the dead man's ear, "Lazarus, come forth". And Lazarus rose from the dead, brought back by the word of Jesus. Or so they say. To the Republic, it is a name that means 'rebirth' and being given a second chance at life, and it was the original name for the scientific endeavor that allowed us to enter hibernation for two thousand years. Project Lazarus, the cryo-stasis endeavor that would allow us to survive any apocalypse short of the actual destruction of the planet!"

The group came to the entrance of one of the factories, and Simcha stopped them. "Here is our first destination, I must ask that you all stay on the catwalk and try not to get separated from the group!" He stepped inside the door, the group of ponies, gryphons and minotaurs following. "This is the main center of the Terran steel industry! A factory complex called the 'Slagworks' by the workers!" Lyra looked down from the catwalk at the inside of the factory. It was incredibly dark inside, and the only light seemed to come from the crucibles being heated to several thousand degrees to melt the raw iron ore within. Several human workers shoveled a carbonaceous black powder into an open crucible, another human in a silver heat suit approaching and taking a purity sample.

Only when Lyra's eyes adjusted to the dark inside of the Slagworks did she see the hulking figures that worked down on the production floor. "What are those?" she asked their guide, pointing to a figure as it single-handedly lifted a heavy cart full of raw ore and dumped it into a crucible.

"That is a diamond dog. I think they call themselves the 'Stoneclaw' pack or something. Interesting story behind them, months ago an engineer by the name of Richard Mattson drove the Terran railways northward to secure a source of iron ore for our people. Unfortunately, the Stoneclaws already owned the iron mine, and so Mr Mattson did the only logical thing. He blew them to Kingdom Come! A few weeks later, the Stoneclaws showed up at the gates of Lazarus, starving and flea bitten, looking for Mr Mattson. By diamond dog logic, since he defeated the entire pack, they look up to him as their new alpha! Mr Mattson didn't want the additional responsibility, so he put them to work in the industrial district, and they've been happy doing work that they do naturally!"

It was a true story, the Stoneclaw pack had indeed been defeated by a few well placed sticks of dynamite. And like Simcha had said, the Stoneclaws wandered around for weeks before deciding that they needed a new leader, and since Rich had blown away all the upper echelons of the pack, he was the most logical choice. And since diamond dogs are nursed the ways of metalworking along with their mother's milk, it took very little effort to teach the Stoneclaws about the human metal industry.

Their tour guide continued to regale the group about the superior purity of Terran processed iron and the strength and quantity of their steel while parading them through the factory. And it occurred to Lyra, He's doing a sales pitch. That's why the Terrans had invited all the rich nobles, to build a customer base.

The group exited the factory and had to shield their eyes from the bright light of day. "Next stop on our tour of Lazarus is the market district!"

Lyra spied another factory, one that didn't seem to spout any smoke, but let off a damp smell of fresh flesh and a tang of blood. "What's in that building?" she asked their guide.

Simcha winced. "Um, I don't take tours through that building for a reason. But I may be able to supply our gryphon and minotaur friends with a free sample!" Knowing that smell by heart, the gryphons licked their beaks at the prospect of a free meal after the tour. The gorge rose in Lyra's throat as they passed by Lazarus's slaughterhouse.

The market stood in stark contrast of the industrial district, even though it was just a stone's throw from the entrance to the Slagworks. Several newly built buildings, built in architectural styles that rang of Trottingham, Canterlot, Hoofington and even Ponyville and Appaloosa all lined the streets of the market district. And unlike the industrial district which seemed slightly polluted and even dead in some places, the market was a place that lived and breathed. Hawkers called out the superiority or low price of their goods. People of several species dealt in wares both familiar and alien to Lyra. Flocks of chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys were shepherded around the market and off to various buyers or even to the slaughterhouse in the industrial district.

So much sound, so much color and new scents. It reminded Lyra of the market days in Canterlot, when all the merchant ponies of Equestria gathered for the heart of trade and economics. And, she thought with a little smile, the market of Lazarus reminded her more of home than most places in Ponyville.

"On our right we have a point of interest!" Simcha pointed out a rather plain looking building to the tour group, with a profile picture of one of the ugliest human beings Lyra had ever seen swinging on a post above the door. "Abraham's Pub, Lazarus's premiere alcohol serving institution. Abraham's was originally going to be a nameless, government run officer's club for the military. When the builders broke ground for the foundation, one of the workers found a strongbox containing several hundred dollars in ancient American money. An entrepreneur decided to buy up the lot and named it Abraham's, after one of the greatest presidents of the old United States of America, and one whose face happened to be on most of the money in that strongbox! Abraham's is one of three bars in Lazarus, but it serves only the best quality drinks."

Lyra glanced into one of the windows of Abraham's Pub, and took notice that most of the inhabitants were humans. No, not mostly, humans were the only patrons of the bar. "Must be the time of day," she mused. The march through the market was short, with Bonbon excitedly whispering to Lyra about the absolutely criminal low price they were selling some spices at one stand, and how she vowed to come back and get some if they had any free time and money.

"Our next destination is the central hub of Lazarus, Fort Greenewell, the bastion of military might for all of Terra!" Unlike the other two districts they had passed through, the entrance to Fort Greenewell was heavily guarded by human soldiers with some extremely heavy ordinance. Simcha stopped at the entrance. "Greetings, fellow Terrans!" he practically shouted to the stoic pair of soldiers in their urban camouflage. "These creatures are under my escort, and we would like to enter Greenewell."

"Identification?" one of them said.

"Oh, of course!" Simcha patted around his pockets, fishing out a small plastic card and presenting it. The soldier pulled out a device, swiping the ID card through a slot. After a second it gave a beep, and the soldier handed the card back.

"Stay within the tour parameters, and don't cause any trouble."

"Of course, sir," the guide responded, giving the odd salute of the Israeli Army.

Leading them through the checkpoint, the entire group passed through a pair of odd pillars topped by spheres with coiled wires running down the entire device. And when she passed through, Lyra felt a fuzzy feeling overcome her mind, dulling and dampening her magic. Passing the strange energy field groggily, she shook off the feeling of having cotton stuffed into her head.

"What was that?" she asked to nopony.

"A Tesla device!" their guide exclaimed. "During the War, scientists from this very base ran into the problem of blocking and containing magical attacks. The Tesla Tower was the perfect answer to the problem, and human forces once again gained the upper hand in combat! Well, at least the forces from Fort Greenewell, the armies were scattered and fractured into near uselessness. That barrier is there to make sure none of us are harboring any magically bound weapons, or to make sure that none of us are nasty changelings in disguise!"

Once again justified by mentioning changelings, if anypony ever figured that part of her out, they could justify anything.

Beyond the outer fences of Fort Greenewell, life within the compound once known as Stronghold took on a different notion than either the industrial or market districts. Whereas the factories were serious and dead feeling, and the markets were carefree and lively, the center of the city was a mixture of both, yet unique. Soldiers ran in formation, repeating the lyrics to a song chanted by a sergeant leading their column.

A flag snapped in the breeze on a flagpole, the image of a phoenix with its wings spread on a field of deep blue. The firebird clutched a star in a talon, the other talon carrying a lightning bolt and a broken arrow. Lyra glanced at soldier as he walked by, and sure enough, the same symbol of the phoenix was stitched onto the shoulder of his fatigues.

More of those hideous looking black flying monstrosities sat idle on a large field meant solely for aircraft. Metal beasts the size of Ursa Minors, painted in desert and forest camouflages sat inside of machine shops or in rows outside. Both Lyra and Bonbon had only ever seen anything comparable to this once, when they attended Bonbon's brother's advancement ceremony for being promoted into the Royal Guard.

"This is Fort Greenewell. Thousands of years ago this military base was placed discreetly at this location as a top secret research facility by the American government. The Army maintained a very strong presence here, as well as a Marine Corp company and sizable flight of Air Force vehicles. Greenewell was one of the most secure bases in the world in the days of the old United States. And even today she seems to emanate a sense of power, even in these times of weakness. Our next destination is that building over there!" The tour guide pointed to a small out building near the center of the base.

Stepping inside of the moderate little building, it appeared to remain empty except for one soldier standing next to a control panel and lever. "Undercity please," Simcha said to the soldier.

The grunt private gave a smirk. "Watch your hands and hooves and please stay towards the center of the lift." He punched a code into the panel and gave the lever a yank. The floor beneath Lyra's hooves lurched, and the ceiling began to rise up and away. Or rather, the floor seemed to be falling into the earth, carrying the tour group with it.

"This lift is one of many spread throughout the entire city of Lazarus," Simcha shouted over the deafening din of machinery as it moved the lift downwards. "They act as cargo lifts and elevators down to the portion of the city known as the Undercity. The Undercity is itself almost an entire city, built two hundred feet underground! The tunnels and vaults stretch under every district of Lazarus, and are completely impervious to anything short of a direct orbital strike." The lift shuddered to a halt, the soldier manning his post lifting up a gate and allowing the passengers to pass onwards.

And even the stoic, silent minotaurs let out gasps of incredulousity at the main area of the Undercity. A high ceiling stretched up several stories, carved and polished smooth from the natural bedrock under Lazarus. A pony soldier could have shot an arrow down the length of the great chamber, and it would have fallen short at only around halfway down.

And everywhere, literally every catwalk lining the multiple stories, every stretching hallway, every glass paned office and even the floor of the great chamber was covered in humans. Thousands of them simply milled about. A few dozen shipped crates from a lift to one of the large vault chambers lining the side of the main chamber, dozens of soldiers patrolled the area, omega detectors at the ready and scanning each chamber periodically for the dreaded enemy. Bureaucrats ran messages from building to building, running messages and memos to other branches of the Terran government.

"The Undercity is the seat of all Terran power. This is where our government is based, where our technological wonders are stored, and where all of several thousand years of knowledge and culture are stored and being replicated. Over there is the Lazarus Library, home to a good portion of human literary and scholarly achievement. It is being cleaned today, so no tours there. So, we're going to take a little trip to the research departments and the Lazarus hospital!"

Simcha led the group into a side hallway, under a sign with a large red cross over the doorway. "Welcome to Lazarus General Hospital, the most advanced medical facility on the planet." A nurse appeared around a corner, reading a chart when she bumped into the mixed group. Looking up, she shrieked at the sight of a party of ponies, gryphons and minotaurs, then calmed herself.

"Sir, the hospital is off limits to visitors! Move along before I call in security!" she said acidly to the tour guide.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, Simcha pulled her off to the side. "Look Miss..."

"Doctor Roberts!" she said.

"Dr Roberts, this is government commissioned, I've been approved to guide these tours by President McGoff himself! It's all a part of the plan."

Dr Roberts rolled her eyes. "You political brown nosers and your damn plan. Fine, since McGoff himself gave you the green light, I guess you can see the maternity ward. But stay the hell away from O.R. and Emergency Treatment. If I so much as catch hair or hide of one of these creatures in there, it's your head on a pike!"

"Thank you for your cooperation," he whispered, letting her go and getting back to the group. "She digs me," he declared to his tour group. Several of the males of the group laughed.

"Pig!" Dr Roberts shouted over her shoulder.

"Oh! The nerve of that woman!" Simcha declared. "Calling me as foul as swine! Eugh!" After shaking off the insult to his person, the tour guide took them down a hallway. And it was in this hallway that Lyra's life would change even more than it already had. Simcha stopped them in front of a large window into a sterile room. Inside were carts containing at least twenty squirming infant human beings, bedecked in either a red or a blue blanket.

"This is the maternity ward for all Lazarus," Simcha whispered. "Within that room rests the next generation of the human race, each and every little soul more precious to our race than any pile of gold or gems."

Lyra and Bonbon looked inside the window, and both were absolutely speechless. "Oh my Celestia," Lyra whispered. They were so adorable, so small, so.....so.....innocent. And within her heart, that warm feeling of love blossomed and spread throughout her body.

"Really brightens up my day, coming here and looking in this window," a woman's voice said behind her. Lyra glanced over her shoulder and was greeted by an older human woman. Her graying blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a smile that could conquer nations. She extended a hand to Lyra. "Dr Evelyn Mcentyre, Lazarus research and development."

Lyra took the woman's hand and shook gently. "Um, Lyra Heartstrings, musician."

"Oh, you must be here for the gala in two days. You picked a good time to come downstairs, five of these little tykes were born just today and yesterday. Jacob over there is only four hours old." She pointed a long finger over at a baby swaddled in blue, resting in his incubator. "I used to have a baby boy of my own, but..." She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "He's with God now. And coming here gives me that feeling that I had when I first held Brandon in my arms."

"I'm so sorry," Lyra said. "My partner and I," she gently lay a hoof on Bonbon's hoof. "We've been trying so hard to have one of our own. But I know that it can't compare to losing your own child."

Dr Mcentyre chuckled. "He lived a happy life, and I know he's happy where he is now." Eve glanced around, watching the tour group continue down the hallway without Lyra and Bonbon. "So, you gals want to go in and see 'em?"

"Really?"

Eve nodded and grinned like a child up to no good. "Yeah. You girls look trustworthy, and those children need whatever love and attention they can get."

"Are you sure we won't get caught?"

"What are they gonna do to us, huh? I hold so much clout around here I get salutes from General Pilotte, not to mention blushes from President McGoff. And to think I could be a few smooches away from being First Lady of the Republic. So whaddya say, all we need to do is put on some medical gowns and just walk on in."

Lyra smiled broadly. "I'm game!"

Bonbon however was not so enthusiastic. "Lyra, we need to stay with the tour group! He'll notice we're gone and then those guards will get involved! Even if we don't get caught, we'll still be lost in a foreign city!"

Eve leaned back against the wall and folded her arms patiently. "Simcha takes the same route with every merchant and minor noble that comes through the city. Right about now he's taking the group across the Undercity and to the bureaucratic offices. And even if the guards do get involved, I'll tell them to piss off. And if Simcha gets angry...well there's not much I can do about that, that son of a bitch knows Krav Maga."

Bonbon bit her lip, unsure of whether to do this or not. Who knows, it might even be illegal! While Lyra may have had a misdemeanor or two on her record, Bonbon was completely clean. And committing a crime in a foreign city was not the way to start a vacation. With a sigh of resignation, she crumbled. "Alright, I'll go in."

"Splendid, this way please." Dr Mcentyre led them down a small hallway, opening a door and tossing them a pair of medical gowns and hair nets. "Put 'em on, we don't want to expose them too much." With some difficulty, the mares pulled the medical gowns onto their forlegs, draping the rest over their backs. "And to heaven we arrive," the human woman said, opening the door to the maternity ward.

They entered quietly, walking on the tips of their hooves so as not to wake the sleeping young of the human race. Lyra peeked over the edges of each little cradle, marveling at each baby. They all looked so helpless and lovable, and Lyra resisted the urge to just scoop one out and cuddle with it. "They're so precious," Lyra whispered.

She passed from one cradle to another, this one containing a baby girl by her red swaddling. And on that little girl's head lay a silver mark, just like Sophia Coppell. "She's a magic user," Lyra said in mild surprise.

Eve leaned down to whisper to Lyra. "Yeah, it's so odd, they've been coming more frequent recently. All these little mage babies have a lower birth weight than normal human babies, and they only start using their magic at around two months of age."

"What kind of baby?"

"Mage. It's an old word we humans used to use when describing a fictitious person that could use magic, but wasn't strong like a wizard or something. My boy Aaron Patterson was the first mage human, and shortly after that Sophia Coppell became the second." She looked around the room, her gaze falling on several more magically potent infants. "And now we're up to about thirty, with about one hundred and fifty new children total."

Eve walked over to another cradle and looked down at its inhabitant with slight pity. "Then there's this poor little girl."

"What's wrong with her?" Bonbon asked, peering into the cradle at the brown haired infant. She looked a little older than the others, and more developed. The silver swirl on her head confirmed her as a mage, but from her inspection there was absolutely nothing wrong.

"There's nothing wrong with her personally, she's an orphan. Her mom died in childbirth, and her dad was unfortunate enough to be one of the soldiers on duty when they found the Ursa den in our northern frontier. Poor little dear doesn't have parents."

"That poor child!" Lyra leaned into the crib, gently nuzzling the infant child in her rest. And something happened, a little flow of magic sprang from the infant, seeking a companion flow to comfort her. Lyra felt she had to, and she summoned a little tendril of her own magic, touching the baby's mind and soothing her with a memory of a lullaby. "You poor little thing, you just need a mommy," she crooned.

"And the absolute worst part, nobody is willing to adopt her." Eve took a risk, gently stroking the sleeping infant's head with her thumb.

Lyra felt two emotions that threatened to boil over. Compassion for the lonely and orphaned human child, and rage that humanity would cast aside such a sweet and innocent child. "Why will nobody adopt her?"

Eve sighed, turning to leave and motioning for the ponies to follow. "Because she is a mage. Magic is still new to us, so new that it frightens people that don't have much experience with it. People are afraid of a sweet little baby, all because she can make pretty lights."

**********************************************

Both Lyra and Bonbon quickly caught up with the group, and just in time to return to skip over the boring parts of the bureaucracy. Simcha seemed to take no notice of their absence, prattling on about their next destination, a place known by some as the Hall of Steel.

Leading them through a massive entryway, large enough to drive a pair of tanks through, they came to another titanic room. "This is the Hall of Steel! The mechanical megaplex! The abode of all things alloy! The-"

"Get on with it!" one of the minotaurs growled.

"Right then! The Hall of Steel is the main center in Lazarus for our locomotive and military might. This is where all of our tanks, transport vehicles, helicopters, and even our steam engines were stored and where they come to be serviced and maintained. There's even a few auto shops down here that are retrofitting some military machines to work with magic."

Though the ponies maintained indifference, the three gryphon nobles were absolutely fascinated. "What is your method of forward propulsion? How do you manage to extract so much power into such a small engine?!" Their eyes could have popped out of their heads, and one even took wing to take a look at an engine on a rack.

"Please rejoin the group sir!" Simcha barked. The gryphon growled, then rejoined his companions. Their guide turned and led them out of the gigantic machine shop, promising that more interesting things were on the final leg of the tour.

Taking another lift back to the surface, the group came out of a building in another district on the far side of Fort Greenewell. "This is the residential district of Lazarus, there are not many sights to see here other than the various churches built to accommodate the various religions, including the Jewish Temple that I attend every Saturday. And if you follow me please, I will show you the best part of this city!"

Simcha led them through the rows of homes, homes built by ponies to accommodate humans. Many were styled like houses from Ponyville, little town cottages with thatched roofs and painted in all warm colors, but everything was taller. Finally, after a brisk fifteen minute walk and a few "shortcuts", they reached the edge of the residential district.

"And this, my friends, is the park. The true center of human art and culture." A thin forest stretched out in front of the group, with sunlit pathways bordered by flowered meadows. Their guide led them along the path, naming what he knew of the uses of the park. "Each Friday night you can get tickets to a Shakespearean play in the park, it's quite a treat, trust me! They aren't true professionals, but the spirit of the show is still the same. And over in those fields, we can vent a little steam by playing some futbol or some American football. They tried to recruit me for their soccer team, but I am busy most days they practice. Over here, Allan Sedgway spends his days carving statues from solid marble blocks, donating each one to the people of this city to decorate the park. Here are his two most famous works right now!"

They passed within very close range of a marble statue depicting a human woman bereft of clothing. The model didn't shield her nudity, she seemed to embrace it. The detail was so fine, Lyra expected her hair to flow in the breeze or for her to blink at any moment. The statue's hand reached across the path to another statue, one that stood as the ultimate contrast. A solitary human soldier, his gun hanging by his side and his fatigues bearing the marks of war. His hand clutched a shred of a flag, and though his face was carved from stone, Lyra could see the marks of tears as they came down his war scarred face.

Two sides of the coin of humanity. On one hand, the beauty of the human being in her most natural form, and across from her was her sorrowed partner, wed to her by circumstance, her groom of pain and regret. A duality of peace and war, the purest beauty and the ultimate ugliness. And it seemed that the woman reached to comfort the soldier in his torment.

"And over here, in the center of the park, is Lazarus's greatest mystery: the gazebo."

"What's so mysterious about a gazebo?" Lyra asked.

"Who built it, for one." The group stepped into a clearing that formed a perfect ring around a gazebo. The wood was not painted, yet it was an alabaster white, and each beam seamlessly flowed into the others. Tendrils of ivy and rosebushes grew around its base, intertwining with the supports and blossoming on the roof of the gazebo. "There isn't a nail or screw anywhere on it. It is as if it was...grown. Like someone took the decades to slowly bend each branch to conform and become one with each other. And some people say that if you come here at night, you feel a comforting presence that banishes all of your fears and worries. There's no record or evidence of anyone ever coming here to build it, in fact...we found it this way. Like it was left here for us. Some even say that angels left it here as a sign from God. A sign that we need not be afraid anymore."

The tour guide nodded in respect to the little shrine that some said was consecrated by a higher power. "Well, would you look at the time. That's the end of our tour, and once again the people of Lazarus welcome you with open arms to our city." Simcha directed the various creatures in the group towards their hotels and with the address from Aaron he directed Lyra and Bonbon to the ambassador's home in the above ground residential district.

****************************************************

The sun had fallen, and it was late before the mares managed to find the right house. It was rather sizable, even for a human residence. But it still had the charm and architecture of a Ponyville cottage home.

Lyra was exhausted, and she stumbled up the step and tapped her hoof on the door. "Think this is the right one?" she asked almost drunkenly.

"Oh Celestia I hope so, those people at the last house were pissed when we just walked in on their dinner."

Lyra knocked again, louder this time. The thumping and crashing noises coming from inside told them someone was home, but had probably been asleep. The door swung open, Dr Patterson standing in nothing but his boxer shorts. "What are you doing at my front door at ten o'clock at night?" he said sleepily.

"Uh, you invited us to stay with you?" Bonbon said.

"I did? Huh, that explains the extra luggage. Okay, come in." They both trotted inside, only to be regaled by the most stunning collection of artifacts they had ever seen. Shelf after shelf of rare gifts from lords of far away nations, entire bookcases with replicas of human literature of every genre. Curios ranging from dragon claws to a Saddle Arabian scimitar and even a Gorgon eye encased in crystal all made a macabre yet fascinating display.

"Wow, where did you get all this stuff!?" Lyra exclaimed.

"I'm an ambassador, other ambassadors and dignitaries give me shit to hopefully get in good with me and my people. So I ship it all back here to be dumped with the rest of the stuff. Plus I buy a lot of stuff, anything that piques my curiosity. I get paid quite the salary as ambassador to Equestria."

"So I see," Bonbon said.

Mr Patterson flopped down on the couch in his living room. "There's some leftovers in the kitchen if you're hungry, and the first door on the right upstairs is your room. Well, it's actually my room, but the girls are taking up every other bed in the house." Waving a hand coated in magic, he lay down, summoned a blanket and flipped off the light switch.

Both mares wearily walked up the stairs, taking the first door on the right into the master bedroom. A large bed with a plush comforter practically invited them to simply leap in. Slipping under the covers, Lyra slid up to Bonbon, cupping her form wihin her own. With a sigh she closed her eyes, wrapping a foreleg around her wife's barrel.

But she couldn't sleep yet. Not until she said something first.

"Bonbon?"

"Yeah Lyra?"

"I think I've made my decision."

**************************************************************

Congratulations readers, you've just managed to slog your way through KLONDIKE'S LONGEST CHAPTER YET!!!! I don't know if you guys like it or not, and at this point I don't care. I was possessed by the devil and wrote for nearly six hours straight. My brain hurts, not my head, MY BRAIN!

Comments

[Iron Sides]

*cackles like an idiot" i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/000/681/what-you-did-there-i-see-it.thumbnail.jpg

This chapter... I hope you throw some more goodies in there for me. When you throw richard in there, have him be like, planning the trek into the north. This is so cool! Hall of Steel!

[Lone Wolf]

I did initially imagine the soon to be adopted human child to be a boy.It had something to do with a random idea that popped into my mind when I first heard of this story.I could share it if you want me to.

[PegasusKlondike]

1548931 Go ahead, all ideas are welcome.

[Detective Chmilewsky]

I like the chapter so much that I would have a one night stand with it, but paper prices being the way they are...

[La Vallett1]

So Terra is technically at war with the changelings? And about the Diamond Dogs, I was hoping that one day, the dogs will once again be the man's best friend. And I'm a little curious about the gazebo, who put it there, the Mother, the Sun spirit, or some other unknown diety?

Anyway, hope you write more soon!

[PegasusKlondike]

1550795 Not truly at war, changelings are considered a dangerous, verminous and pestilent species. They just found a new source of food and tried to infiltrate it.

[La Vallett1]

1550941 So just pests like rats and locusts?

[Lone Wolf]

1550941 Okay the idea that came into my mind upon getting word of this story was if Lyra and Bon Bon adopted a boy,then maybe he would end up being let's say special to Sophia.This could be implied in the sequel to WotFR since you told me it would take place five years after the first.To be honest,the Heartatrings couple adopting a girl was kind of predictable to me.Hope that didn't sound bad to you.

[PegasusKlondike]

1551066 Dangerous pests that can put people into comas.

[PegasusKlondike]

1557426 I didn't imply that the Iranians started it, but they sure as shit finished it.