Lyra was enjoying her day off, just hanging out with Sweetie Drops and helping to make and wrap candies and not worrying about her patients for a change.
"What if..." started Bon Bon as she pulled a tray out of the oven and set it on the counter, releasing the thick cloth from her snout that let her hold the hot metal. "What if ponies are getting lost the same way?"
Lyra raised a brow. "Wouldn't somepony notice?" She used her magic to grab a pizza slicer and cut into the candy, making it into nice squares for Bon Bon to work with. "I haven't heard of anypony vanishing like that, and if it was, you know, just as frequent, somepony has to see that."
Bon Bon tapped her chin thoughtfully a moment before she got to taste testing the first square, and offering the second to Lyra. Both satisfied, she pulled over the wrappers and started wrapping them up with Lyra's help. "What if they aren't removed?"
"Come again?" Lyra asked as she tidily made each caramel chunk into a little wrapped treat. "I don't understand your idea."
Bon Bon waved at Lyra. "What if it's not moving them from place to place, but copying them instead? What if your once-humans are actually home, right now, and don't even know there's a copy of them lost here in Equestria."
Lyra's expression darkened. "That could be the worst possible answer in a lot of ways... It means they really have no home to go back to, no matter how hard we try."
Bon Bon's thoughts wouldn't be stopped. "But what if we're lost like that? Gosh, I'd hope we were together at least."
Lyra moved over to Bon Bon and hugged her tightly from the side. "I'd be alright anywhere if it was with you, Bonnie."
They went quiet a moment, staying close together as they finished wrapping up the candies. "I think you and the Princess should focus on getting their... bubble? away, before more ponies get lost back and forth. It's not good for anypony, human or not."
Lyra threw up an arm. "Yeah, of course, but... Come on, Bonnie. This is my one day off."
Bon Bon gently nuzzled her Lyra. "You're doing a very important thing. I'm very proud of you."
Lyra melted into the attention and let out a sigh. "I'll go." She leaned in and kissed Bon Bon perhaps a bit more firmly than strictly required before turning for the door and departing.
Lyra made her way swiftly to the train station, grumbling softly to herself along the way. She had really wanted to relax and forget about everything for a bit, but Bon Bon was making good points. Things could be becoming worse, and more souls cast out into the world, lost and scared.
She imagined herself become a human overnight, with no way back, in an alien world. The thought that, somewhere, her Bon Bon wouldn't even know she was lost, still snuggling up with an alternate Lyra. It was infuriating and sad, and could already be happening. Would the humans even have professional friends? Not from what she had gathered from her precious wards. They needed love as much as any species, but were a lot more timid about giving it out. She would be well and truly alone, abandoned in that awful place.
She put some bits down on the counter, buying a ticket up to Canterlot and dropping herself onto a seat to wait for the next train. "She'd better be there..." There was no assurance Luna would be available to talk to her, but she'd try. She had to...
Sam was doing well! He had fingers, and clothes, arms, legs, feet! All his parts were in order! Sure everything seemed a little too bright and the proportions were kind of off... but he was human, and everyone around him was too! With a nervous laugh, he hopped up and clicked his heels together before coming down.
A high-schooler walking past gave him a thumbs up before moving on. He returned the gesture, giddy that he could perform the simple gesture that had been denied to him in Equestria. Alright, he had to get a place to live, and somewhere to work. He guessed the second would have to come first to pay the former. Crossing his fingers, he walked down the street in search for a wanted sign.
The first one he saw rested in the window of a music store. Why not? He wandered in to find a man polishing some guitars. "Hey? I saw the sign in the window? What's the position?"
The man turned to regard Sam with a bright smile. "Oh fantastic! I need someone to help run the store. You know, clean-up, open, closing, helping customers and running the register. How's that sound?"
Sam was a little surprised. The man was a little... eager sounding, like he was the first and only person to be interested in it. "Sure, I can do all that. What's the pay?"
The shopkeep shrugged. "I confess, I thought it would be a high-schooler applying, so I've only set aside $10/hr for it. It's not quite minimum wage, but it's close to it. We really can't afford to pay much more than that. Full-time, if you want it, or part-time if you don't?"
Sam shook his head a little. He felt like the shopkeep was trying to sell him the job instead of the other way around. Is that just how this world worked? "Well... sure, let's try out full-time and see how it works from there?"
The shopkeep offered a hand. "Deal! The name's Fine Tune, by the way."
Sam accepted the hand and shook it, wondering at that very pony-sounding name. "Sam, nice to meet you. When do I start?"
$10 is not even minimum wage? Wonder how inflated are other prices to compensate...
Also, I don't think this might end well for Sam, seeing as how everything is probably going to add up little differences and could finally unsettle him enough for him to want to leave. Or he might not want to leave, and having been given a taste of human(?) life, become unstable once returned to Equestria.
this chapter is down right scary just stop and think about what is implied for a bit and let it sink in.
yep still scary.
Harts Fire
6048930 No no, he meant it was a little over minimum wage. Perfectly good for a high-schooler, great even, but maybe not what an adult is looking for.
My favorite multiversal musing is that there is a set of universes definable by the shared quality that if someone says "What's the worst thing that could happen," the entire universe blows up.
That place is still just pony land but with humans! It's not going to work out for him.
*cue knowing and evil laugh*
Not that I actually know anything about how this story is set-up ... really. I have no idea. I just, uhm, LOOK! SQUIRREL!
EQG universe seems like it could be riskier than a full pony universe. It's still a different universe with different rules, but it's just familiar enough to catch you with your guard down. If you wake up a quadroped, you know you're in some crazy. Sam THINKS he's found a safe spot of sanity, which makes him all the more vulnerable when things go BOOM! Crazy, crazy, crazy, in your face, all the time.
Twist the paranoia dial to eleven, why don't you?
6048965 What do you mean specifically? It was definitely eerie.
6048930 $10 is more than minimum wage unfortunately, but very very inflated even so. The economy might be better in EQG verse though. Or just creepier and more uncanny.
You might say so. For a particular value of friendship, anyway. Unfortunately, they tend to get paid by the quarter hour.
Honestly, the idea that Equestria actually has a kind of vocation that can be reasonably described as being a "professional friend" to people is both really funny to me and ridiculously appropriate to the setting. Of course they would have that. I mean, why wouldn't they? It's literally what they use to raise the sun in the morning, after all.
Depending on where you live, anyway. Ours is nine fifty.
6048930
The prices aren't necessarily too much higher, or indeed higher at all.
For comparison 10$/hour would be bellow minimum wage in France and yet the cost of consumables plus rent in France is actually lower than in the US. (the price differences varies a lot on individual things of course, for instance restaurants and Gasoline are significantly more expensive while Rent and alchohol is significantly cheaper in France).
(note: France was picked because it was the first country whose minimum wage was above 10 US$ [according to Wikipedia] that had a lower cost of living compared to the US.)
All of this is assumming that the dollar in question is best compared to the US dollar and not one of the 23 other kinds of dollars in use today.
In conclusion: economics are complicated.
I do agree that Sams excursion are unlikely to go well for him, but here's hoping to be surprised.
That's quite a disturbing thought. Duplication opens up all the issues of cloning. Still, there's no data on whether or not that's the case, and separating the two world-bubble complexes—assuming that's something Luna has any control over—would remove any hope of getting the former humans back where they belong. I'll have to wait and see what comes of this.
Also, Sam never stopped being a thing. He seems to be doing decently for himself. Here's hoping he doesn't collapse spacetime in the process.
One more thing:
Extraneous "a".
6051422 Oh no, extra letters are slipping through the bubble membranes!
Well that's totally not freaking me out. Having a copy of you, with all your memories and everything that makes up you, gets put in another dimension with no way back home? That would be absolutely terrifying... and what if it's happened in real life, in more than one dimension? Congrats, you have blown my mind. Wait! No, it's been blown for quite some time...
And so far, Sam's doing pretty well...
6135031 Funny thing? A central aspect of my gaming headcanon/daydream involves that exact principle! Though, THOSE "me"s would be able to use limited dimensional travel, fuse together, and split apart, so they'd be less like clones and more... being in two places at once? In any case, they couldn't come here, no hotspot to travel to...