• 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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...And a Smoke

Lyra's parents might not have any hired help, but their surroundings were anything but austere. Still, the place was clearly lived in, and every room seemed to have a selection of cushions or pillows for anyone who might want to rest on the floor, perhaps. That might not be Canterlot standard, though, it was hard to guess. Even the fanciest furniture had some signs of use on it, or the accumulated scuff marks of years worth of occasional carelessness. Clearly, the apartment had been furnished not just to look fancy, but to be lived in.

She couldn't begin to guess if that said anything in particular about the owners.

As she moved about, she could hear fragments of conversation between Lyra and her mother. Since the dinner conversation had primarily been about Lyra's parents, the younger unicorn was now being quizzed about how the previous months had been treating her.

Her inspection of the apartment did not last particularly long, however, as she saw Mutual Advantage standing on a balcony, overlooking the back yard of the building, despite the chill. Noticing that the stallion appeared to be smoking, she decided to join him. She was mildly curious whether he had a cigar or a pipe, all she could see from inside was the telltale smoke itself, and he didn't seem like a cigarette kind of guy. She detoured quickly to put on her coat.

She was patting down her pockets for her own cigarettes and matches as she stepped onto the balcony. This was show, of course, for the benefit of others. She always carried her gear the same way and could reach it with precision, if necessary. "Mind if I join you?"

"Of course not. Enny prefers that I smoke out here."

It was a pipe, after all. The cheap corn-cob thing might have been the most out of place item she had seen all day. Perhaps Lyra's parents got some kind of strange amusement out of being wealthy but doing it wrong. Enny certainly was no dainty lady.

She lit a cigarette with a quiet thought to her old friends, who probably would have found this city growing out of the side of a mountain unbearably ostentatious. Most of them hadn't been the type to appreciate architectural achievement, and Landshark herself suspected a lot of magic had gone into laying the groundwork for Canterlot.

Mutual Advantage seemed to give her a sidelong look, as if inspecting her for the first time. "You know," he eventually offered, "I think as far as props of normalcy go, smoking looks too incongruous to really work out for you."

She had to give the man credit for insight, at least. "I like the phrase, and might steal it." She leaned against the wall, pocketing her matches. "I got props like that, sure. This started with that intention, I suppose, but I'm keeping it up because I'm sentimental."

She could see the claim surprised him, at least a little. That was normal. Some people seemed to assume that someone who had to make an actual effort at seeming like a person might not be open to sentiment. She turned up her palms after carefully closing her mouth on the cigarette. "The one who gave me the idea passed away a few years back." She made a dismissive gesture. Elaborating would just raise more questions. "Sorry for the short notice, by the way. Lyra was pretty late in asking me to come along."

"No problem at all. We were happy when Lyra started mentioning more friends in her letters. We never did get to meet that Berry Punch mare, so it's nice to meet one of her Ponyville friends for once. I don't know where Lyra gets all this worrying about disapproval from. Makes parents wonder, that kind of thing." He seemed slightly subdued.

"Berry had a drinking problem until this year." Was she throwing her friend under the bus? Hopefully not, the earth pony was making an effort to own her past. "No way she would have agreed to be seen somewhere this upscale." She paused before adding. "Do not think less of her."

That might have sounded a bit too forceful. "Berry's not real sophisticated, but I suspect she would get along well with your wife. Her daughter is great, too." She tapped some ash from her cigarette over the balcony's railing before returning it to her mouth. "Do they have that saying here, that a friend will help you move, but a true friend will help you move a body? I think Lyra and Bon made those kinds of friends, this last year. Unpolished, all, but loyal to one another first."

"You heard Enny's story. I made my fortune on the far edge of civilization. I don't mind unpolished." He shifted his cheap corn cob pipe from one corner of his mouth to the other, as if to underscore his claim. After a moment, he seemed to change the topic. "How much do you know about Bon Bon?"

That wasn't quite the same as asking how well she knew the earth pony. "I know about as much about her as Lyra does, with exceptions. Private couple stuff." She tried to play it cagey, mainly because this might lead to questions it wasn't her place to answer.

"Hmm." There was another pause. "That's a mare without a past, you know? I'm just a businesspony, I don't have the connections to dig into it, and I'd like to respect her privacy. But I've seen a fair share of the world when I was younger, and I can tell when somepony has seen the wrong parts of it. Reminds me a bit of some of the mercenaries we hire for the caravans."

"I guess it's natural for a parent to worry." Landshark herself had a blind spot when it came to the past. She rarely, if ever, was the first to ask about such things. Asking Bon Bon how she had learned to fight had been a breach of a long habit, perhaps caused by the hope of finding someone more similar to her than the average pony. "You've mentioned this to your wife?"

"Yes. But not recently." The stallion stared out at the view of Canterlot as he spoke with evident love for his wife. "In her mind, she basically adopted Bon Bon. Enny has her peculiarities. Part of her still lives in that cabin up in Iceclad, even after all these years. She will dote on anyone who lets her, or at least doesn't complain too loudly about it." He shook his head."Bon Bon is a private pony now, but at the start, she was even more withdrawn. She was not easy to like, and Lyra stalled a long time before introducing us. It hurt Enny a lot, that seeming lack of trust."

He started smiling at a memory. "She couldn't understand what had Lyra so worried. Then, she couldn't understand my curiosity. She didn't ask about Bon Bon's past. 'Ponies change', she'd say."

Advantage chewed on the stem of his pipe. Maybe that habit was the reason he used such a cheap one. "Around Iceclad, where Enny was born, ten months out of twelve the weather is murderous to the unprepared or the merely unlucky. There are few greater sins you can commit than turning away a stranger in need of shelter. But because the obligation is so strong, it is expected that those you invite to stay contribute in some way, if able."

He shrugged. "Maybe you saw the way Bon Bon deflects around ponies she doesn't know well, but you can't fool my wife, not in those matters. It became a matter of principle, of pride, to get her to accept that she was welcome here. Maybe she had something to prove to Lyra, too. In the process of figuring out how that earth pony ticks, I think she started seeing something of herself in our daughter."

Landshark interrupted with a guess. "They're not the sorts to go out and fix the world, but they can get real obsessed about specific cases?" Bon Bon had once joked that any other pony would have seen Lyra's initial persistence to be accepted as a friend as stalker behavior. That sort of thing was a ways removed from the construct's frame of reference, but it seemed to apply here.

"I don't think that's how they would put it, but I'm not arguing. Lyra brought this mare in, and although withdrawn, she was willing to make herself useful. Sure, it wasn't shelter from cold or starvation that she needed, but she still became Enny's responsibility too, in a way." He rubbed his forehead. "So when it turned out they'd skipped town to settle in Ponyville, it was pretty clear to Enny that our daughter had cooked that up." It was obvious that the memory wasn't real pleasant for him, either. "At least they're staying on top of those loan payments. You know, she could have just asked me for help. I would have charged less interest."

He cleared his throat. "Anyway. Don't misunderstand me, I like Bon Bon just fine. But I still sometimes worry about her past catching up to her and Lyra."

Well, at least he didn't seem to worry that Bon Bon would turn out to be a bad pony after all. Landshark imagined that his worries had perhaps been more colorful and varied initially.

"I understand." She switched her cigarette to her hand again. "Crossed my mind, too, but Bon said it's unlikely to happen. Still, my first impulse when my friends are in trouble is to hoist the black flag and start slitting throats." She snapped her jaws forcefully. "Rarely constructive, and not up to my preferred standards of behavior. Still, I guess there are contingencies."

To his credit, Mutual Advantage didn't visibly flinch as some ponies did the first time they heard the construct's jaw snap shut with real force. "Would have to be pretty generalized contingencies considering how little you know, no?"

"Sure, sure," the construct agreed easily. "We could ask Princess Twilight for help. She's protective of Ponyville and its citizens, and has a direct line to Celestia as well. I hate owing favors to the mighty, but I'd make an exception." She waved a hand in the general direction of the palace, then dropped it at her side.

"Or I could ask Berry Punch to help us out. She's a peaceful pony, really, but any plan the two of us would cook up would probably be ..." She paused and held up a finger to signal that she was considering her words carefully, then eventually shrugged. "Don't suppose you could recommend a good defense lawyer if we ended up needing one?"

"I could probably recommend somepony, in a pinch," Advantage agreed, shifting uncomfortably. "I like your first idea more, though. Hadn't seriously occurred to me that there's a connection to royalty. Never been to the Day Court either. There's all sorts of legal ways to settle business disputes, no need to bug a princess with that. Half the ponies you see waiting in line there every day just want to feel like Celestia is on their side, against some other pony."

He snorted in contempt. "I'd guess maybe two or three out of ten petitioners actually have a good reason to see Celestia herself. The rest are sycophants who want to be seen or entitled fools treating the Princess as their personal small claims court. If I were wrong, the Night Court would see more petitioners, but it mostly gets ponies that don't have another option. Still, it's a good option to keep in mind."

Landshark seriously doubted that Bon Bon's past would ever catch up with her in any menacing way. The bugbear had just been another monster as far as she could tell by the stories, and those were no longer the earth pony's responsibility. Sure, she assumed good things about Bon Bon's training and experience, but that probably didn't make the mare unique. In the construct's mind, being a monster hunter wasn't particularly shady, either.

Maybe if Bon Bon had claimed to be an international superspy, there might be cause to worry about someone wanting to silence her permanently for something she had done or knew about, but at the end of the day, being a monster hunter just wasn't that political, and a retired one with a case of post-traumatic stress just couldn't possibly be that interesting.

That didn't make the concerns Lyra's father had voiced less real, the stallion knew less about Bon Bon than Lyra and Landshark, after all. She hoped she had been able to set his mind at ease. Besides, he had known Bon Bon for a few years now and he hadn't sounded particularly urgent in his worries. A good sign, likely.

She was tempted to tell him that she and Berry Punch would likely be willing to engage in serious premeditated violence on behalf of Lyra and Bon Bon, but she had only just met him and didn't have a confident guess how he would take that. "Princess Twilight remembers that she and Lyra got on fairly well in the past, and I've been told she knows more about Bon Bon's past than either of us."

That was only a guess, and even then, probably only true on a technicality, because it simply hadn't occurred to Landshark to quiz Bon Bon about her career in any real detail. Still, she had heard that Twilight had made some inquiries, although the construct didn't know how detailed the answers she had found were. "In any case, no better place to live or pony to know if Lyra ever found herself in real trouble. Twilight prides herself on being approachable."

She stubbed out the rest of her smoke on the back of her other hand and resisted the childish urge to flick the butt over the railing, just to do some littering in Celestia's shiny capital. The backyard was private property, after all.

Mutual Advantage scooped the ashes out of his pipe with a small application of telekinesis and dumped them into an ash tray. "Huh," he muttered. "I guess I'll be traveling a lot less. Maybe I should get a nicer pipe for home." He seemed to inspect it thoughtfully before grinning. "On the other hoof, it'd be awful disappointing for Enny to see me conform too much. It amuses her to be somewhat unconventional. I'm sure she is already looking forward to what your visit does for local gossip." He shook his head. "Good to finally get to talk to one of Lyra's more recent friends."

Landshark deposited the remains of her cigarette in the same tray her host had used. "Just for the record, her other friends are all ponies so far." She crossed her arms. "Lyra asked me to tag along because she wants to introduce Bon to her old Canterlot friends. I'm pretty confident that Bon's not so fragile as to need me to back her up, but maybe Lyra just wants me there as a distraction. I'm one of a kind, you know."

Either Lyra had written in great detail about the construct in letters to her parents, or the stallion had been more weighted down by his worries than he had let on – Landshark had gotten used to expecting at least some curiosity about her nature., but there had been very little of that, so far.

"Hmm. Doesn't sit quite right with me when you put it like that." He frowned and rubbed his chin. "She's just worrying again, isn't she?"

"Edge case, I'd say." Landshark shrugged. "She knows I do like meeting new ponies, but maybe she's just telling herself that's why she invited me. It had her awfully riled up when it was pointed out that she was being sort of isolated in Ponyville, with only one close local friend. There was Berry, and then Pinkie because she's everyone's friend, and then, just friendly acquaintances, I guess."

The construct produced a weary sigh. "She thinks she knows what ponies expect of a unicorn with her background, and she is too aware that she's not up to these standards she imagines." She looked out over the city. "How was I going to notice that? I'm an alien to this culture. Her other new friends didn't ask about her past and had their own problems. Only when Twilight took an interest in her life, that's when she got mad. Defensive."

She put her hands on the balcony's railing, but as far as idle gestures went, it was an awkward one, the railing was scaled for ponies, not vertically oriented bipeds. Taking a step back, she instead gestured animatedly to underscore her points, and counting off on her fingers. "I told her to take some pride in ... everything, really. Her parents, her friends, her music, her partner, their shop. Her relationship with Bon Bon. How far she helped her come. Being modest and humble only gets you so far. If those detractors she worries about actually exist somewhere, chin up and spit 'em right in the eye. Because frankly, how dare they?"

"Well," Advantage cautioned, "I think growing up in Canterlot showed her pretty well what too much pride can do. Vanity and arrogance are everywhere. But I'll admit I wish we had taught her better, to not worry so much. I thought we had done that, but maybe we messed it up. I never meant for her to feel like she had to measure up. I just wanted her to have more choices, you know? I don't care that she and Bon Bon run a small store in a small town, nopony else should, either. Raising her elsewhere would have limited her choices, that's all we were thinking about."

He gestured out at the city. "Here, she had her pick. The schools are very good compared to the Equestrian average. The school for gifted unicorns was an option. Canterlot University. Making connections for a career in politics, or making a living off her music, that's all easier done here in the capital." He heaved a sorrowful sigh. "But we never had our hearts set on any of those, I swear. Just that she find something to do with her life and be happy. Thinking that I'd be disappointed if she didn't follow me into business, or that we'd disapprove of her having a marefriend, that was all in her head. I thought we did a pretty good job, but maybe the environment here shaped her, too. I just don't know."

It was really rather uncomfortable to stand there and listen to a stallion wonder if he'd raised his daughter right, if he'd made the right choices. That sort of thing wasn't exactly her area of expertise. "For what it's worth, she speaks well of her parents, when she does mention you. I assume your acceptance of Bon Bon has pulled the rug out from under her worries regarding your expectations long before I met her. Maybe it's not unreasonable to think growing up here in Canterlot colored her development, though."

She paused to run her fingers through he hair. "I'll admit pride can go badly wrong, but I still think she could use more of it. There's nothing wrong with having pride in things you didn't achieve personally, it's just not acceptable to look down on those who haven't benefited from similar achievements. If she's proud to be your daughter, that's to your credit, isn't it?"

She was proud to be a renegade, but she hadn't personally had a hand in kicking off the uprising, she might still toil away for the First if that hadn't happened, and it would be nonsense to hold anyone else to that sort of standard. "I hope she manages to free herself from these worries, once she has introduced Bon Bon to her old friends. She should find the confidence not to flinch away when her choices are challenged. Intellectual combat, defending her ideas or preferences, that's just another struggle to strengthen the Self."

"Besides," Advantage offered an interpretation he was likely more familiar with, "I think once somepony is willing to seriously engage another point of view like that, they'll notice quicker if the other party didn't actually intend to offer a challenge or mean offense. Lyra should know that, too. It's important not to get tripped up by misunderstandings. Or your own worries."

Landshark nodded. It was her habit to think in terms of conflict, as she had recently explained to Trixie as well, but the unicorn stallion's phrasing was likely more fitting, more constructive, and, she admitted, probably a better prediction – she didn't really think there'd be any kind of problem between Bon Bon and Lyra's friends. She didn't share Lyra's concerns.

And hadn't Lyra claimed to have stayed in touch better than Twilight had? "You know what, I think we'll just see how this shakes out." She stuck her hands into her pockets and tilted her head. "I'm not sure it was necessary to come along. I mean, these girls still get along with Twilight and if you asked me, Lyra is a lot easier to like. I guess we'll see soon."

"It might sound cold, but I've gotten the impression that Lyra has all she needs to be happy in Ponyville. Should she have to cut her losses here, she'll recover." The stallion shrugged. "I remember those friends, back when Lyra was still attending school with them. Seemed nice enough." As an afterthought, he added, "I'll soon have more time for Enny and me to visit Ponyville, as well."

"It's kind of funny. We only picked Canterlot because we wanted the best for Lyra and it would be safe. Now she's found happiness elsewhere and one of the few times she came back here she got mixed up in the changeling attack. So much for safe." He snorted. "Ah well, I think it all worked out well enough. I could hardly be happier for my daughter."

Shivering, he turned towards the door. "Let's go back inside before I freeze my tail off. We can't all be machines or woolly barbarians. Speaking of which, you've got to tell us a little more about yourself."

"Sure, just ask. I don't know what Lyra already told you." It was getting to be very familiar ground to tell ponies her story. Still, she certainly didn't mind talking about herself. She was prideful, after all.

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