Secret Service: Operation Anthropology

by Kaliann25

003

City of Des Moines, Iowa; Friday 2:18pm

The trip from the hospital was short but enough for Lyra to never forget about it. She wasn’t familiar with individual vehicles known as cars; of course back in Equestria she used the Secret Service private train that was five times faster than the normal one, but it wasn’t as fast as this thing.
And the times she was moved from the hospital to the police station and back to the hospital in an ambulance she was sedated so it didn’t count.

Audrey, in the sit next to her, just looked at her worried.

“Are you okay? You’re not going to puke, right?”

“No promises, I’m just… dizzy, probably I still have some sedatives in my blood”

“We understand dear, but if you feel you’re going to puke tell us to stop the car, okay?” Asked Audrey’s mom. A gently-looking woman in her late thirties.

Lyra made a small nod and closed her eyes, perhaps it’ll help her.

“I guess this whole experience must be overwhelming for you but while you stay in our place you can count on us” smiled the woman.

It was good to have that kind of support but Lyra couldn’t answer at the moment, she was pretty sure if she tried to spoke she’ll ruin Audrey’s car.
At the end Lyra felt the speed decreasing gradually until the vehicle finally stopped. Audrey helped her to get down.

“Are you gonna be alright?” Asked the girl.

“I think so, I just need to sleep and I’ll be fine tomorrow”

Audrey smiled gently and showed Lyra the way to the guestroom.
Walking in two legs was still pretty weird and still she didn’t understood how she was able to do it so easily; probably her new instincts kicking?
Anyway she went straight to bed and collapsed. This whole thing was exhausting from the very beginning and even without sedatives she needed a time to disconnect from the chaos in her head. Two things she was sure: she needed to see Bon-Bon and Sweet Pea was going to pay.

Saturday 8:29am

Audrey’s mom went upstairs to wake Lyra to check if she wanted some breakfast but she didn’t find her anywhere. Paling she ran to the dining room where her husband and daughter were already eating breakfast.

“Mom? Lyra isn’t going to join us?”

The woman shook her head.

“I didn’t find her… do you think she may escaped, right?”

Both Audrey and her father jumped out of their chairs to look for Lyra. Something could happen to this girl alone in the city.
Audrey’s parents decided to look for her on the street while Audrey, guided by a strange feeling decided to go check on the backyard.

And effectively she found Lyra with doing squats; suddenly jumping to send a series of roundhouse kicks to the nearest tree with one leg and then with the other one.

“Wow… ey Lyra, where did you learnt Kung-Fu?”

The green-haired girl shrugged. Kung-Fu? For her those were only earth-pony martial arts but apparently had a different name for it.

“I can’t really tell, I don’t remember anything, remember? But if there was something I was sure is that I needed a little exercise to clear my head”

Audrey glared at her, it was clear Lyra was lying and Lyra knew she knew but didn’t really care.
The girl thought in scold Lyra but at the end she just nodded. This girl had a dangerous past behind her, a past that Audrey had the feeling she didn’t wanted to know. And somehow, seemed to be in a lot of pain.

“For a moment we thought you ran away” finally said Audrey.

“I considered it but it may cause trouble to your family so I decided to do a little work-out instead”

Audrey sent Lyra a concerned look guessing what to say; but at the end she took her phone to tell her parents to stop looking, that Lyra was only exercising in the backyard.
Soon enough the whole family reunited to finish breakfast while Lyra took a quick shower. At the end she went downstairs with some old clothes she borrowed from Audrey.
The dark-haired girl smiled to Lyra:

“So my friend Nathan said he’ll join us to show you the city. He’s nice and all, you’ll like him”

“Thanks, but are you sure I’m not interrupting you or anything?”

“No, mom and dad told me to keep an eye on you, remember? Besides they don’t want me to spend the whole summer break watching TV or chickening Facebook”

“Right…”

Lyra had no clue what Audrey meant with that Facebook thing but still had the feeling that humans and ponies weren’t that different.

Sweet’s Veggies, canned products factory, Manehattan; Saturday 11:17am

Just another day in the factory. The Saturday shift was about to end and everypony kept going with the same old routine: can the vegetables, label the cans and prepare them for shipping to the different distribution centers.
And as usual, the company CEO Sweet Pea wasn’t there, probably taking care of his stupid research about humans while he left his employees with the hard work.

“At least he doesn’t interfere with the process like some other bosses I know” sighed the manager.

“And when he actually shows up he kind of saves us months of work, he’s pretty smart”

“I know, right?”

But suddenly a bunch of soldiers, leaded by Bon-Bon who was wearing a Royal Guard armor at the moment.

“Attention! Squad A: I need you to check on the machinery and the factory floors, you’ll report every anomaly to me! Squad B, follow me to the offices. I don’t think he’s here but all we need is a small clue!”

“MAM YES MAM!”

The manager walked to them.

“Excuse me but what the hay is going on?”

Bon-Bon showed him a letterhead parchment with the official seal of the Royal Guard and signed by Princess Celestia herself.

“Your boss is now a wanted pony. During his stupid research he endangered several ponies and one of our partners went missing. Now cooperate with us or you’ll be considered accomplices with him”

“What?”

“Yeah, Sweet Pea is being wanted for the charges of intimidation, foalnapping, stealing highly classified documents and high betrayal to the Crown and the Ponykind. Now, have any idea where I can find him?”

Bon-Bon’s eyes seemed to be bursting in fire making the poor manager to shake a little but still there wasn’t much he could tell.

“I’m terribly sorry mam but we don’t know anything. Our boss use to disappear for longs periods of time… then reappears for a few days, takes care of the company as anypony else and disappears again. That’s all we know, please, I’m an innocent pony”

Bon-Bon sighed.

“I believe you, sadly I believe you. Any ideas where we can find a clue to lead us to Sweet Pea?”

“Well… he still lives with his parents for some reason”

“We know, we already sent a unit there”

Veggie family home, Manehattan; Saturday 11:29am

“Found something?” Asked Vinyl walking to the basement.

Octavia showed her the enormous pile of human conspiracy books, ‘ancient’ human relics and a bronze plaque that read I WANT TO BELIEVE.

“What can I tell you Vy? This idiot spent all his money reading and collecting things about humans. He even have the deluxe edition of Lyra’s books and a bunch of other assholes who actually believe what they write; but mostly Lyra’s. Even her autobiography, no, this guy haves serious issues”

Vinyl chuckled.

“I know, I know. I just questioned his parents and apparently they tolerate him only because he pays a more than reasonable rent along with the water and electricity he consumes”

“This guy is rich, I mean… like filthy rich, why did he still lives with his parents?”

The white unicorn shrugged.

“According to his parents he doesn’t trust in the government so he lives here to avoid tracking in case he have to escape… you know, like right now”

“You have to be bucking kidding me!” Face-hoofed Octavia.

Vinyl nodded sadly.

“And listen to this: when he was five his big sister ran away with her coltfriend, but he refuses to believe it and insists she was abducted”

“Abducted?”

“By humans”

Octavia sighed.

“Unbelievable, Lyra was defeated by that moron? Come on! However, unbelievably enough his last crazy theory was true. Can you believe Lyra is…?”

“Yeah, I just hope she’s alright. Imagine that, alone and disoriented in the human world”

“Well, Lyra is smart, she’ll know how to handle this. I hope”

The two marefriends hugged each other when suddenly Vinyl lost balance and both fell on their backs along with the desk full of books and stupid theories.

“Oh, look at this mess!” Complained Octavia.

“Whatever, I’ll put everything back where it was with my magic, no big deal”

Octavia nodded and Vinyl began to put everything back where it was when suddenly noticed a blueprint of a new factory still in project.

“Wait, look at this”

“This guy is a total moron but he owns a company, you know that right?”

“I know but his documents from the company are in his office at the factory. Why is this thing among all this nonsenses about humans?”

Octavia’s eyes widened.

“Vy, you’re a genius!”

The white unicorn smiled proud of herself and activated the transmitter.

“Bonnie? It’s Vinyl. We may have a clue: city of Trottenaghe, outskirts. It’s nothing sure but it’s all we got”

“At least you got something. Now, this operation needs to be highly undercover girls; Celestia won’t let us take care of this personally so we must disobey direct orders”

“Whenever you feel like breaking the rules you can count on me!” Cheered Vinyl.

“Lyra is our friend, of course you can count on us” assured Octavia.

Audrey’s home, Des Moines; Saturday 11:38am

A young human with dark hair tied in a short ponytail rang the bell and Audrey received him with an apologetic smile.
The young human, Nathan, knew his friend and also knew that smile meant something was wrong.

“What’s up? Where’s your visitor?” He asked a little unsure.

“She’s on the backyard, but prepare to get a surprise”

“A surprise? Okay, aren’t we going to the mall? What happened?”

“I wish I know Nathan, I wish I know” sighed Audrey.

She guided her friend over the house to the backyard where Lyra was practicing her earth-pony martial arts (or Kung-Fu as humans called it) with a tree. She had splinters all over her knuckles and was bleeding but Lyra didn’t care. She was too concentrated fighting an invisible enemy.

“Ehem… what’s she doing?” Asked Nathan astonished.

“Practicing Kung-Fu, according to her because it helps to deal with stress”

Nathan nodded.

“Right. Seriously, what happened?”

Audrey laid in the wall helplessly.

“I know mom told me to keep an eye on her but she’s not making things easier. I mean, at first everything seemed fine; she did a little Kung-Fu in the morning and then we were getting ready to go but then they called us from the police station”

“And?”

“They told us her biological family contacted them and wanted to meet Lyra so they booked a flight this Monday; so when she heard that, she began to train like crazy”

Nathan scratched his head.

“What? But isn’t supposed to be a good thing?”

“I know, right?!”

The two friends keep staring at Lyra practicing her martial arts for a while until Audrey approached shyly.

“Uhm, Lyra? Do you still want us to show you the city?”

“Eh, what? Oh yeah, I guess so”

Then Nathan approached and offered his hand to Lyra.

“So nice to meet you, I’m Nathan”

“Lyra” she said shaking hands with him.

“So I know is not my business but why are you so angry about meeting your birth parents?”

She sighed.

“Dude, I already have enough trouble for my own, last I need is to get involved in other people’s”

“But…”

“You seem like a great guy, really, but please this is my business. Now, aren’t we going to have fun around here?”

Author's Note:

A quick transition chapter, I really hate those but this one helped me to introduce better the character of Sweet Pea, our main antagonist.
Now in the original story Lyra and her new human friends deal with an old enemy from Equestria but again even if is a tribute I want to keep this story completely apart from the original material.

Read ya’ later!!