Lyra and Bon Bon moved through the evening streets of Ponyville towards the station. Lyra glanced around as they went. "I... hope we cream that jerk fast."
Bon Bon swiveled an ear at her. "It's not too late to go home. You don't have to fight it."
Lyra huffed. "I'm in. That isn't changing. Even if it did take the Princess and her friends all day to subdue it before..."
A small figure emerged from the darkness, glimmering even in the dim light. It was Lucy. "Hey! What are you two doing out so late?"
Bon Bon raised a brow. "I could ask the same, little filly. Do you parents know where you are?"
Lucy snorted with choked back laughter. "We haven't met before, but I'm Lucy, and my parents are on another world, so I'm on my own." She sat on her haunches and looked directly at Lyra, who was trying to avoid her gaze. "What's wrong?"
Lyra looked up at Lucy. "So, uh, I kinda have to go..."
Lucy frowned. "You're saying that like you're not coming back. What's wrong?" She crossed her short forelegs. "You didn't spend all this time telling us to trust you for you to not trust us. Out with it."
Bon Bon moved between Lucy and Lyra. "Look, foal, we have to go. Nothing personal, in fact, it's for your own good. The longer we're here, the more trouble it'll bring to Ponyville."
Lucy shook her head defiantly. "So? Lyra was stepped on by a dragon--" Bon Bon quirked a brow at Lyra, who shrugged sheepishly. "--and she was saved by one of us. We once-humans are tough people, er ponies. We don't want to lose Lyra, and we'll fight to keep her, so whatever's scaring you has to get through us first, and that's final."
Bon Bon reached down with her snout and grabbed Lucy by the scruff. "Lyra, where does she live? I'll drop her off."
Lucy wriggled around in the grip. "This isn't a joke!" Bon Bon placed a fetlock over Lucy's snout, silencing her.
Lyra turned to the once-human house. "This way." She led the way even as dread built in her, unsure how things would turn out. "She's, uh, kind of their leader, second to me."
Bon Bon raised a brow. "How is a bunch of stallions and mares led by a little filly, crystal or not?"
"Well, you see, she's not really a filly. I mean, physically, yeah, but she has the mind of a full-grown mare, and she takes responsibility important."
Bon Bon's reply was cut off as she was bit by her passenger. With a yelp, she dropped Lucy, who dashed off ahead. Bon Bon frowned at her retreating form. "Well, fine, we can get going now? We're running late as it is."
Lyra gave a stiff nod. "Alright, next stop, train station." They turned together and walked through the town, but arrayed in front of the station were a collection of ponies. Once-humans.
Lyra hid behind Bon Bon, who glanced back at her, then at the crowd. "They're here for you, my musical roommate. Say goodbye, or stay with them. Either is fine."
Lyra peeked out at the crowd and rubbed her forehooves together before stepping forward. "So, uh, hey guys..."
Sam crossed his forelegs. "What's this about you skipping town on us?"
Robin Song pointed at Lyra. "You're invited to the wedding, where are you running off to?"
Lucy gave a little smile from on top of Sam. "Whatever this is, let us choose to fight with you, or not. Don't run away from us."
Lyra took a slow breath. "Alright, so... Did anypony here hear about the bugbear attack?"
Shattered Stone raised a hoof. "Yeah. I heard it was during a wedding, and Twilight Sparkle took care of it."
Lyra shuffled a little. "Well, it's back, and we have to fight it. Without Twilight Sparkle's help."
Sunny stepped forward. "I'm up for a scrap! I'll teach it a lesson or two trying to mess with my bestie, Lyra!"
Not everyone was as agreeable, some backed away, others stepped forward. Bon Bon shook her head. "This is insanity! None of you are trained in combat! Why are you all so eager to throw yourselves into danger when you don't have to?"
Thomas drew out a nasty looking cleaver with his magic from a saddlebag. "Someone's threatening a friend of mine, they're going to get cut. Do you think bugbears make decent meat?"
Bon Bon went pale and turned to Lyra. "Your patients are barbaric!"
Lyra smiled a little. "Yeah... But they're mine." She held out her hooves wide and she was swept up in a crushing hug from all sides. "I'm sorry for trying to sneak away..."
Steven cuffed Lyra on the back of the head. "You always were a silly unicorn, you know that. We love that about you."
Lyra stomped a hoof. "I think it's settled, Bon Bon. We should let the bugbear come, and he'll learn how bad an idea it is to mess with Ponyville."
Bon Bon looked from one hopeful face to the next before sighing, sagging in place. "There's no reasoning with you when you're like this..." She nuzzled her way through the crowd and pressed her nose to Lyra's. "We'll just have to make sure this place stays safe your way."
Bugbear? Well, it's not like we don't have ponies that can take care of that issue. But at least I can use this quote for something.
The fic is tagged complete.
How?
6170496
Epilogue :
Humans are pack predators. We learned value of the pack from the wolves, and like with wolves, you mess with one of us, you'll get a fangs.
wallpapervortex.com/ipad_air_wallpapers/ipad_air_35315_funny_courage_wolf_courage_wolf.jpg
blog.parkermoore.de/images/it-lives.jpg
Yay!
Also, two quick typos I spotted:
6170551
6170553 Fixed!
Heh. The thing about humans... we're omnivores. We farm, grow, sow, reap, yes - but we are also predator; we track, stalk, hunt, kill without mercy; eat the flesh of our prey and wear their skin, their teeth, their bones. Everything we touch is a weapon; rock, stick, blade; clockwork and chemicals and steel. In our world, we have no regular predators, because we killed them all, and their descendants exist today only by our grace. We have literally poisoned diseases out of existence, destroyed entire ecosystems, and genocided thousands of species - sometimes by eating them.
To a purely herbivorous, herding species, we're mental nightmare fuel. Scratch our friendly, social surface, and you find insane bloodthirsty monkeys made of knives and rage and death. Follow the most unhinged, violent, mentally distorted pony down into the collective broken wasteland their psyche has splattered itself upon, and at that level you will find humans strolling about quite at home, baring sharp canines in sharper grins and saying "Hyello leetle pony. Is nice of you to veesit. But iz not goot place for ponies. Hyu get all fixt up and go be happy pony, ve take care of bad things for hyu, no problem."
I imagine it would be a little disturbing to talk to what seems to be a normal civilian pony, only to mention some kind of external threat and have them suddenly turn into the pony equivalent of the Joker. Even if they defeat the threat, save the town, and go back to smiling innocently and doing their day job, it'd be hard to think of them as normal again, having seen what apparently lies beneath the facade.
6170626
Humans = Jägermonsters?
Hm...
Oh, Shock Twist!!!!!
The Bugbear comes for a fight, gets one. But is easy defeated, in its final moments it points out to the true evil mastermind behind everything so far; the reason for the displaced once-humans and how the bugbear escaped again.
The evil mastermind is; Typo's!!!!!
6170967 It all makes sense. Headcannon accepted.
Both Amour Ardour and the Mage roll their eyes at this.
"Filly please, Amour has war experience, and I've faced more multi-dimensional abominations then should be humanly possible."
6171105
Heh, yeah.
Meanwhile, Simon catches up to everyone with a carriage containing all kinds of bombs, landmines, arrows, and if he can find it, tranquilizer.
6171172
"Where the heck did you get all this stuff?! Did you rob an armory or something!?"
"Nah, I just found some stuff lying around, a little tinkering and... well I like to build things."
6171179
Sounds about right.
Oh yeah, I kind of want to build a little 'Letters to a Changeling Queen' offshoot fic, but I'd like for someone other than me to act as Chrysalis so it seems more real. You wanna try to play the part? Anyone else who reads this is fine too, as long as they can make a good Chrysalis.
6171194
Sure, note me the details.
6171233
Sent.
6171105
6171172
And Amanda raises a hoof. "I set myself on fire once, and climbed up a dragon and kicked it in the face. Granted, those were all acts fueled by undiluted terror, but if you're going after a creature from Tartarus--which I know is another word for Hell--I'm not going to stand by and let you attack alone..."
Actually, hold on, I got a thought I be thinking.
love the final a perfect ending.
6171381
I know, but it's kind of like if halfway through one of Holmes mysteries Watson got a job offer in another province and moved away, and never told you how the case ended.
The added chapter, while still leaving on something of a cliffhanger, is a more satisfying end. To use my Watson analogy, it's adding a chapter about Holmes' reaction to the news and how it impacts him and what final touches he enacts to impact Watson (hopefully for the better).
Nooooo don't end it!
MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORREEE they didn't resolve why humans appeared in Equestria.. and I wanna see what happens between the bugbear and ponies. I wanna see the wedding. I don't wanna see a stupid sentence that finishes the whole story. I want moooreeee am chapter hungryyy muhahhahaahaha
Ignore that, that was my evil twin that doesn't have a true form, but exists in my brain.
6180130 They have excellent company.
6180148 Pleeaaasee one more chapter at the very least? I want to see the full ending :(
6180188 We may be working on something.
6180201 YAYYYYYYYYYYYY MOAAAARRRR (I shit myself with excitement xD)
The end!?
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Eh, show pandering. Not really my thing. It's a fun story regardless.
6192417 I have no idea what you mean by that.
6192947
Where you retcon your story so that it caters to what the show has recently aired. Like how artists redraw their pictures of Twilight, with wings.
6193683 I have never done this.
6193705
I highly doubt you anticipated Bonbon being a secret agent on the case of a Bugbear escaping Tartarus.
6194872 I never said one way or the other, because I knew nothing and didn't make up anything for her. Then stuff happened.
Well, that was fun. An entertaining idea that grew into some very enjoyable character arcs and general wackiness. Nice work, David. Thank you for it.
6204473 Quite welcome, and thanks for reading this amazing train-wreck.
I like this series. Much more a fan of humans getting turned into ponies when they get to Equestria than of them just still being human. Opens up way more story arcs.
6261957
When it first came online and i bookmarked it to read later, start...
This wasn't really good enough for me to upvote or bad enough to downvote. A fair number of obvious strengths and weaknesses alike.
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Could I suggest a story after this one concerning the continued adjustment of the once-humans into Equestrian life and coming to terms with their various issues?
It seems there are still many unresolved issues, as well as there still being the unexplored plotline about why the once-humans are in Equestria. I was hoping to find out who's behind that and what their motives are.
It's a great story, but it seems like we're in the middle of it, not at the end. If I were to guess, I would think you had a lot more planned for this story, but you either lost your motivation to continue with it, or other things have taken priority with your time and attention and you've decided to focus on those things instead.
6310913 Plans? What are these things? I don't tend to have plans in my stories. I let my muse run wild. I 'watch' stories instead of making them up. When it works right, I'm watching a show of the story and just writing down what I see as it happens.
6310934
I still get the overall impression that we're stopping mid-way through. I was hoping for more resolution for... well, everything. There are so many loose ends.
6349876 I'm know reding the next chapter, rite now, and saw that you put
Please tell me if you make a other chapter.
6350800 Subscribe to the story.
6350822 How do you do that ?
Do you mean click Tracking ?
6350830 That's the one, looks like a bookmark.
6350849 I C !
Yo dude what's up? When's the next chapter gonna pop? Also I've been meaning to throw an idea at you, if'n I already haven't.
6376816 I gave off the chapter to my collabers to do.
Since the story skips over the confrontation, I'm going to assume the bugbear was delicious with bbq sauce.
When I heard that you ended the story I stopped tracking it.
So many regrets.
Beautiful.