• Published 20th Oct 2015
  • 2,213 Views, 171 Comments

Norrath, Earth, Equestria. A Construct's Journey - Nimnul



A strange construct, or fancy golem, is displaced to Equestria. But Landshark is no servant, no mere automaton. She claims to be a renegade Bellikos. What and Who is she, and why does she just want to settle down quietly now?

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Introductions, with Embellishments

True to Celestia's word, Landshark had been set up with two new workers, freshly released convicts needing a new start in life. The construct had figured that they should first meet her set of friends before worrying about settling in.

"Alright, lads. You'll be introduced to your other colleague when you start working, and maybe you heard the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony live in town. Real paragons of harmonious virtue, I'm sure." She paused for effect. "That's obviously not what we're shooting for. Let's do introductions."

They'd met one quiet morning at the candy store to meet Landshark's new workers. When Landshark called for introductions, they seemed to deflate slightly. Regular ponies probably preferred to avoid dealing with them. Although they had mentioned that the pink mare at the Sugar Cube Corner had treated them the same as any other customer. Not in any sane manner, but the same. Now however they likely expected to be asked what they had done time for and didn't expect the conversation to go well.

Before either of them spoke up, the construct beat them to it. "Alright. Friends, these're the ex-cons. Ex-cons, these are my friends. I'll introduce them in detail."

Landshark gestured at the assembled mares and snapped her jaws. "First we got Ditzy, also known as Morale Officer Whirlybird. She's also our eye in the sky and air-lift specialist. She can carry a grown stallion like someone else might a pair of saddlebags. You need the postal service, she's your contact. Most importantly she's good luck to the rest of us. She constantly grounds bad luck as minor property damage and scrapes before it can accumulate into real problems for the rest of us."

The construct paused and put real fondness into her voice. "One of the nicest ponies you'll meet who isn't going to be terrified of you. She's not going to judge you, getting along with her is an incredibly low bar to clear. Don't screw it up." Landshark was pretty sure that Ditzy could give Fluttershy a run for her money in terms of kindness, but that was a silly comparison to get into, so it generally seemed most diplomatic to talk of Ditzy as the kindest mare not also afraid of her own shadow.

Ditzy blushed slightly and nodded. "Nice to meet you." Nothing more needed to be said. She had initially assumed Landshark just wanted to make her feel better about accidents, but the construct had insisted that it was a perfectly natural superstition to have about friendship with someone like her.

Landshark continued her introduction by gesturing at Bon Bon. "Bon Bon the Enigma. Makes excellent candy. Ex-special forces, infiltration specialist. Quiet, a face that could be anypony's, can get lost in a crowd of two. She wrote the book on eliminating a Griffonian war chariot with nothing but a spade. Literally. Check the local library."

The other mares snickered, but Bon Bon just smiled. "Hey."

The stallions started to look confused. This was probably not how either of them had imagined the meeting to go. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"Lyra Heartstrings, a.k.a. Whimlark." The construct pointed at the unicorn. Lyra, of course, was playing up her usual manic grin as much as possible as Landshark spoke. "Great lyre player. Busking is a hard-knocks business, so she doesn't do subtlety as well as some other magic users. Her favorite spell is Fist. I think she got that from a minotaur wizard." Lyra ostentatiously picked up her smoothie with her magically projected hand. The difference between this and regular telekinetic horn use to take a drink was, naturally, largely aesthetic. "I don't know if it's true that she never sleeps, I've only known her for a couple months."

Lyra seemed to enjoy the description, and Bon Bon offered her a fond smile. The situation was, of course, slightly absurd.

Landshark continued with a nod to Berry Punch. "Berry Punch, or Weighty Brass. Best fruit drinks in the region. Strictly non-alcoholic. Great mare to stand next to when the wheels come off. Loving mother, usually docile, maybe not the strongest earth pony, but the dirtiest player in the game. She's got the bite force of a large crocodile, will tear a wing right off a guy. I'm told she once drove someone's horn into the ground like a tent peg and took a hammer to their skull. I guess as an earth pony she likes a level playing field."

The older stallion, a pegasus, eventually spoke up. "You're yanking our chains, right?" He seemed amused, and perhaps also confused.

Landshark tilted her head. "I admit there may have been embellishments."

"Yeah," Bon Bon allowed. "The librarian isn't cleared to carry my books."

"I'm not sure minotaurs can be wizards ... and it's Landshark that only sleeps like once a week," Lyra explained. "Fist is the best spell though. Pow!" She used her spectral hand to bang on the table for emphasis

Berry Punch just shrugged. "It was a changeling wing. I think they grow back." She paused. "Probably."

Landshark pretended to clear her throat to draw attention to herself. "In any case, the point is, if a band of nutjobs like us can be semi-functional parts of society, you two probably have a pretty fair shot at it as well. Anyway, your turn."

The pegasus sighed. He'd initially struck Landshark as the phlegmatic sort, but he'd nearly wept openly after having a coffee and a cupcake at the Sugarcube Corner. Landshark obviously would never get to compare the Cake's products to prison food.

"I'm Fleet Feather." He spread his wings. The mix of red, yellow and blue first made Landshark think of Rainbow Dash, but on closer inspection, the pattern, together with the stallion's otherwise red fur, seemed to be meant to resemble a parrot of some type. A dye job, Landshark judged. Fluttershy likely would have been able to narrow the similarity down further to a specific kind of parrot. Fleet's other distinguishing feature were some pronounced scars on the side of his neck.

"Mum always figured I'd join the guard, hah. I got a real knack for pulling chariots. Well, had. Spent twenty-five years inside for being involved in a bank heist that ended up killing three ponies." He paused to take a drink. "Twenty at Cold Radiance Panopticon up by Stalliongrad, another five in a medium security joint doing hard labor closer to Manehatten. They kept our wings clipped. Flight risk, heh." He folded his wings against his flanks again. "Well, they left enough to let us glide and not break our necks."

The younger stallion shook his head. He was a unicorn with a coat the color of dirty slush, but a pure white mane and tail. His torso and legs were covered with white markings which meant nothing to Landshark. "Grew up in Las Pegasus. Not much opportunity in the groundside neighborhoods." At this point, Berry Punch started nodding along. "I had a rap sheet as long as your leg by the time I turned eighteen, in and out of juvie. Drugs, gang violence, robbery." He shrugged.

Berry scrutinized the unicorn closely. To the construct's imperfect judgement, he seemed to be the youngest adult in the room. "What's your name then, kid?"

The unicorn slightly turned his head to look curiously at Berry. "Me?"

"Yeah, you." Berry did not seem to mind the question, and Landshark understood. Sometimes people had a difficult time believing others could be interested in them, if they'd been marginalized enough.

"Frostbite." He gestured at an ice crystal cutie mark. "Ice magic. I used to do freeze branding for other ponies in the pen."

"They let you keep your magic?" Fleet Feather seemed surprised. He pointed at his forehead. "Never seen a unicorn without the blocker on inside. 'cept for the screws, of course."

The unicorn shrugged. "They don't force the ring on you in juvi unless you're a flight risk or violent."

Bon Bon spoke up quietly. "Don't tell me your mother named you after something that unpleasant. We're not ones to talk about stupid nicknames, obviously, but come on. Let's have a real name."

The unicorn sighed but didn't seem particularly recalcitrant to Landshark. "Alright, fine. I'm Soft Rime." He seemed more vulnerable then.

Ditzy spoke up with a bright smile. "That's ... It's a good name. Rime is pretty. But is there a shorter version you prefer?"

Soft Rime looked down and idly traced patterns on the table with a hoof. "S'not shorter, but my mother ... whenever she wasn't mad at me over something, she called me Rimey."

Landshark, while still learning how to connect to humans and how humans connected with one another, had once read that secretly everyone just wants to be called whatever their parents called them when they weren't angry. She assumed it was true for ponies also, since they maintained about the same types of family ties. "Alright, Rimey, Fleet. You're here because Celestia asked me to give jobs to folk like you. I've got experience with ex-cons. If anyone gives you a hard time, you tell me and I'll see if I can't take care of it. You sign up with me, you have my support all the way."

She twitched her jaw, then pointed at her mouth. "See that? That's me trying to smile. Just for future reference." She repeated the jaw twitch then leaned forward. "All I ask is that you show up on time and put in the effort. In exchange you get to be around some people who actually treat you like ponies instead of time bombs."

"Sounds good," Fleet Feather agreed. "Just ... well, we've both never had to put together a respectable life, so we might need help, or at least patience."

Soft Rime reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, I guess he's right."

Landshark laughed briefly, but quickly stopped herself. "Sorry. That's almost exactly what I said a couple months ago. I never had to live a life before. I used to be ... well, not a civilian, not much call to manage my own affairs." She gestured at her friends. "These girls really helped me out when I was trying to settle in. We can help you guys too."

She paused, looking over her friends. "There's no judgement here. You aren't worth less for what you did. And obviously Celestia thinks you can handle a chance at a normal life. However ... both Berry and Ditzy have daughters. They're smart kids and can handle coarse language. Just be yourself around them, they like that."

She snapped her jaws. "I won't even care if for some reason you act like huge jerks to them, although Berry might make you swallow your teeth. I won't care. But if one of you actually physically injures them, I'll slit your throat and bury you in the Everfree." Her voice turned flat and monotonous. "I function on eight hours of sleep a week and I can run without tiring the entire time I'm awake. You'll not get away if you give me cause to hunt you."

Ditzy rolled her eyes, a rather asynchronous act which sometimes disoriented observers, then playfully shoved Landshark with a hoof. "Oh hush, Shark, don't try to, try to scare them." She smiled brightly at the stallions. "They seem like nice guys. I'm sure we'll be fine." She frowned briefly, lining up her thoughts. "You got brothers or sisters, Rimey?"

The stallions had been slightly unnerved by Landshark, but Soft Rime latched onto this new question as a way to change the topic. "One of each." He nodded, then hastened to add, "but they're good ponies!"

Ditzy frowned again. "I'm sure you're good too, Rimey. You just made mistakes." She paused, struggling for words, before giving Landshark a pleading look. "We need nice Shark. Please?"

Landshark nodded and smiled.

'Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.'

She didn't think Ditzy would think it that way, but she usually lived it. Landshark felt a little humbled. "I'm sorry. I'm not always fit for polite society. Anyway, what I think Ditzy wants to get at is this: You've got to come to terms with what was done to you AND what you did. You gotta learn to love your Self, so next time life takes a cheap shot at you, it won't topple you."

There was nodding from the mares around the table. Berry spoke up. "S'what Shark helped me with when I couldn't figure out a way out of the bottle. I mean, I still had to do all the heavy lifting."

"Yep." Lyra nodded. "Shark's not gonna fix you or anything. She, and us, we're just gonna treat you as if you're worth just as much as any other pony, you gotta figure out the rest. But look at us, pals. Berry is less than three months sober and Bon Bon has a list of issues like woah. Ditzy..." She looked at the mailmare.

"Well, you heard me talk," Ditzy muttered, sounding sheepish. Then she shrugged. "But that's just ... just information here." She squinted one eye closed and focused the other on the stallions. "Give us a fair chance, please?"

Landshark watched carefully for any sign of amusement from the newbies. Ditzy might seem a bit slow when she took her time reasoning and lining up her sentences, and maybe her voice did sound a bit odd compared to other mares, but she wasn't thick, and the construct was tempted to pick a fight every time someone claimed otherwise.

Bon Bon threw up her hooves. "Celestia's fat flank! The point of all this is that if you need to see a shrink about anger issues or trauma or I don't know what, you tell us, Shark sets it up with your rehab or parole ponies, and anyone who makes an issue of it, we'll make them stop." She banged a hoof on the table and glared. "Not saying you have problems, but if you do, this is your chance to get them treated at no personal cost. Do it. Trust me, it sucks not to."

Landshark thought Ditzy had put it best. For this thing to work, the stallions needed to accept her and her friends, not the other way around. At this stage in their lives, both would be well numb to the question whether ponies accepted them. But if they accepted the construct and her friends, they'd also accept that these five weirdos did, in fact, care about them and wanted to see them succeed. "I don't have to like you, and you don't have to like me, for me to back you up while you're my responsibility. It helps, though. But just do your job and we're square."

The stallions nodded, but then Soft Rime frowned. "Look, this all sounds nice and all, but what about the rest of town? I'm glad you ladies are making us feel welcome and I do wanna change and not go back to the pen, but I'm pretty sure that red guy with the yoke was mad-dogging me somethin' fierce from across the street."

Fleet just laughed at his companion. "The guy looked half asleep, kid. This ain't the pen and it ain't your neighborhood. No one's sizing you up to shank you for being in the wrong place, y'know. The guy probably has something to lose. Regular ponies don't just pick fights in the street, you know." He spread his wings. "I mean, even if he was giving you a look, we look like trouble. You got all your markings and everypony knows pegasi don't get their wings clipped for a fashion statement. You need to mellow out if you're going to stay out of the pen."

Bon-Bon nodded slightly. "I'm sure Big Mac is going to try and give you a fair shake. He doesn't talk much. Apple family are solid farm ponies." She paused. "They're not trained like me or nasty like Berry but they do physical labor day in and day out. Him and his sister are good ponies to know when trouble sneaks out of the Everfree or something." She tilted her head. "Honestly, for being so close to Canterlot, this place used to be such a backwater, most ponies here probably won't even make the connection and think 'ex-cons' when they see you two."

"In any case, you being here has been set up from the very top of the ladder so even if they grumble, they can't do much." Landshark shrugged again. "And c'mon, they apparently reformed the living epitome of chaos in this town without the regular citizens starting a riot over it. This must be the most jaded population in all of Equestria by now." She snickered. "I think half of those tools that beat me up when I was new were called in from Canterlot or something."

The construct stood up. "Well, we've kept my friends from their jobs for long enough. Really sorry about that, Ditzy."

"It's okay," the mailmare reassured her. "Dinky'll get lunch at Berry's place while I make up for lost time."

Berry Punch nodded. "Yep, no worries. You go and get the newbies sorted out, Shark."

The construct nodded and gestured sharply towards the door. "Up and at it, lads. It's time to be respectable working ponies."

The stallions got up, thanked Bon Bon and Lyra for the hospitality and followed Landshark out into the streets. The mares also went back to their respective homes or jobs.

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