Secret Service: Operation Anthropology

by Kaliann25

006

Michakelos Residence, Philadelphia; Tuesday 7:03am

Miss Michakelos went to the backyard looking for Lyra, no, Laura; who was wearing her sports top, her hoodie and leggings but instead of fighting she was standing there, staring at the tree with two streams of tears coming from her eyes.
Laura turned when she felt her mother approaching but then concentrated again in the tree.

“I don’t remember when I passed out but I bet I slept a bunch of hours, right?”

The woman sat aside of Laura and doubtful tried to hug her; Laura gasped at first but accepted the contact, she even cuddled to her looking for comfort. She didn’t know what to believe now, at first she counted on the human science to clear the misunderstanding but things only got worse. No, wait, the misunderstanding cleared but it brought more questions than answers.
Lyra sobbed.

“I slept a lot but I’m exhausted” sighed Laura. “I don’t have any strength in my body; and if I had it not even my earth-pony martial arts can help me deal with what I’m feeling”

“Then why don’t you try share your burden with us? Your father and I lost you for sixteen years Laura, now that we recovered you we won’t lose you a second time; so please… tell me what’s going inside that heart of yours”

Laura sighed taking a rock and threw it, but it simply rolled over the floor; then turned to this woman who genuinely cared about her even if she didn’t believe she was her daughter at the beginning.
Again Laura sobbed.

“I hoped that the test had gone negative, the idea of me having to face the world all by myself was a thousand times easier to face than this whole thing. So all this time I had a family here in Philadelphia? My entire life had been a lie? A BIG FAT LIE! DAMN IT, WHYYYY?”

She stood suddenly and threw a kick to the air but her strength abandoned her again and Laura fell on her knees.
Her mother hugged her again.

“It’s okay Laura, it can’t be that bad. This life you assure had been a lie, can you tell us? Maybe we could help you”

“I can’t tell you anything without being taken as crazy” sighed the girl.

“I promise no matter what you tell me I won’t think badly about you darling. You were gone for a lot of time, and suddenly you’re back with green hair ember eyes and know Kung-Fu. At this point I would believe anything you tell me”

Laura shook her head slowly.

“That’s a promise you can’t keep, believe me. All I ask now it’s a little time”

The woman was about to protest but then the door opened again letting pass Chloe still in her pajamas rubbing her eyes half sleep.

“Mom, the guest woke me up again with her shouting. What are you doing here?”

“You see dear… I… I was speaking with Laura and I was the one who made her shout”

Chloe nodded yawning. Usually she awoke until seven thirty and being interrupted in her sleep by this stranger didn’t like it.

“Okay, how much time is she gonna’ stay with us?”

The woman smiled.

“I wanted to talk you about it later dear, I have some great news: from now on Laura will live here with us”

Laura gave her little sister an apologetic smile but she didn’t seem to notice it.

“You mean like always? Why? She’s too weird”

“Well you see Chloe… she’s actually your older sister”

The girl blinked several times processing the information. She looked at Laura then back to her mother.

“I’ve never heard of her. Why I never heard of her?”

“Well, it happened several years ago”

Chloe just ran upstairs back to her room.
Selena Michelakos looked at her sadly and smiled to her older daughter.

“She needs some time to get used to this”

“She’s not the only one”

Selena sighed again, but at the end she hugged Laura tightly.

“I have an idea, why don’t we go shopping? Your lack of wardrobe seems like the perfect opportunity to start rebuilding the mother-daughter bond”

“Okay, well… no, it sounds great!”

Mall; Tuesday 10:07am

“Okay, are you ready Laura?” Asked the woman smiling.

“Shopping isn’t really my thing but I suppose it’ll be fun” sighed the girl. “Where do we start, mom?”

“Let’s say casuals”

What followed was strangely nice for Laura; back in Equestria when she was still Lyra she barely stand shopping doing it only when it was absolutely necessary, but doing this along with her birth mother was a whole new feeling, it felt warm.

“So, are we finish yet?” Asked Laura when they had like ten bags completely full. “Because I’m starving”

“Just one, and I assure you you’ll forget about your hunger at least for a little”

Her mother took her by the hand and guided the girl to a sports store.

“You train a lot so I thought we can get you the right equipment to do it more comfortably”

This was strange but stranger was how excited Laura felt about it. Without further explanation she practically ran to the story and began to try different kinds of leggings, shoes of all shapes and sizes, protective gloves, etc.
At the end they ended up buying like three bags full of all kind of articles for Laura to exercise freely.

“This is it?” Asked a girl at the counter.

“I think so, or is there anything else you want Laura?” Asked Selena.

Laura shrugged a little ashamed of how much she made her mother bought.

“No, I’m fine mo…”

Laura’s eyes were fixed at a beautiful bo-staff, made of graphite to give it the perfect balance. Like hypnotized Laura took it in her hands and began to maneuver it with mastery. Back in Equestria she trained a lot to use one of those with her magic ironically visualizing the magic aura as human hands; but now that she had hands of her own it was much easier, and funnier.

“Amazing, great balance, the weight is just right; but no, I already have enough” she said putting it back where it was.

“You want it?” Offered her mother.

“Yes, I mean, no thanks. No, I already bothered you enough”

Her mother smiled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll but it for you with two conditions”

Laura gulped.

“Okay?”

“First: you’re forbidden to train to exhaustion as you’ve been doing this week, understood?”

The green-haired girl nodded.

“Sure, I can do that”

“And second: you’ll stop waking Chloe. We want you to get along well; but it’s kind of difficult when you wake her too early everyday”

Laura chuckled.

“Deal!”

Her mother made a small nod and turned to the counter.

“Then please add us the bo-staff please!”

For half second Laura felt as a young girl again, she didn’t remember having a moment like this since she was eleven and was about to move by her own (the usual age for ponies) when her adoptive father Dewey bought her a lyre.
A lyre, now that she thought about it, how long since she played her beloved instrument for the last time?

Her mother noticed something was wrong.

“Are you alright Laura?”

“Yeah, sorry, I just spaced-out”

“Fine then, so let’s go to eat something and then back home”

Equestria, location unknown; Tuesday 1:48pm

Bon-Bon cleaned her mouth with a napkin and gently lowered her head.

“Thank you for the lunch Mr. Sweet Pea, it was great”

“Is the last I can do for Doctor Heartstrings’ especial somepony. Besides what I have to ask you is a little dangerous and please consider you have all the right to refuse”

Bon-Bon gulped.

“Officially I’m scared”

The green pony grinned.

“I can notice how long you spent with doctor Heartstrings. Please follow me Miss Bon-Bon”

One more time Bon-Bon gulped and walked behind the green stallion. He began to show her several parchments he stole from the Royal Archives along with several modified by the unicorns he recruited from Celestia’s academy.
Bon-Bon studied it in detail, perhaps she knew little of magic but she lived enough with a former student of Celestia’s school and perfectly recognized ancient magic, the most dangerous of all.

“What’s this?” She asked.

“This is the project my new employees are working on. Right now we have a small idea of how to open a portal to the human world using the traces from the last time; but it’s a one-way ticket, how to open it from the other side? We don’t know and as long as we don’t figure that out we can’t move”

This made Bon-Bon doubt. Go back? And why was he showing her this spells?

“So you don’t want to live in the human world?”

“With the monsters who abducted my sister? No, I want to recover her and go back”

“And why don’t you ask Celestia for help?”

Sweet Pea frowned.

“She’s part of the conspiracy. The Crown and the Human race have being cooperating from the very beginning. Trust no-one Miss Bon-Bon, you don’t know when they’re going to make you disappear to keep you quiet- the only human I tolerate close is Doctor Heartstrings and only because she’d been between us for a very long time and is more pony than human”

“What happened with Lyra was an accident, she was just a baby Sweet Pea”

The green stallion nodded.

“Believe what you want and I’ll do the same Miss Bon-Bon. I’m sure Doctor Heartstrings had nothing to do with her entrapment in Equestria; but the Crown is a complete different story”

The cream-coated pony shivered.

“And I guess you haven’t advanced with your attempts?”

“Actually I may have something”

And at this point Bon-Bon understood why Sweet Pea wanted her.

“You want me to try it”

Sweet Pea nodded.

“As I told you at the beginning you have all the right to refuse. Now: the current prototype will send you any part in the human world, but with enough time we can send you as close as possible of Doctor Heartstrings. What do you think? Even if you’re unable to go back you’ll be with your especial somepony”

Bon-Bon lowered her head.

“As long I am with Lyra I don’t care if I never return”

“I promise you I’ll tell you as soon as we’re sure that the next prototype is ready; I gave you my word that I’ll make my top priority to reunite you with her so trust me. I’m not a bad pony miss Bon-Bon, I just want to have my sister back”

The flames of craziness burned in Sweet Pea’s eyes, this guy was very dangerous. Still Bon-Bon kept control under her nerves and examined one of the documents.

“Do you mind if I check this first Mr. Sweet Pea? I’ll feel better if I see what I’m getting into”

“Go on! All yours Miss Bon-Bon”

The earth pony quickly took a chocolate from her purse, unwrapped it and offered it to Sweet Pea, who gently refused. She nodded and ate the sweet to then examine the parchment.
Fifteen minutes later she gave it back to Sweet Pea.

“Thank you Mr. Sweet Pea”

“You’re welcome Miss Bon-Bon. One of my bodyguards will escort you back home, this way please”

Vinyl and Octavia’s home, Ponyville; Tuesday 2:56pm

An envelope slipped under the door. It had no address nor anything on it. Octavia took it and after check it they opened it. Nothing, nothing except of the wrapping paper of a chocolate.
Octavia gave it to her marefriend.

“Vinyl”

The DJ created a stream of light out of her horn and passed it through the wrapping, projecting in the wall an exact copy of Sweet Pea’s spell.

“O hay no” mumbled the unicorn.

“What’s going on, Vy?” Asked Octavia.

“This moron is dealing with a very unstable spell, if it’s used too much it’ll make that the two worlds collapse with each other”

“WHAT?”

“No, Bon-Bon better figure how to reach Lyra soon because we must inform Princess Celestia about this. We’re talking about a disaster of apocalyptic levels”

Human world, Michakelos Residence; Tuesday 3:01pm

Laura was sitting on the backyard, reading instead of training; but the bo-staff was aside her waiting to be used. But according her parents Chloe was taking her nap at the time so her training must wait.
Instead she concentrated on the Last Unicorn novel; interesting reading, she could identify herself with Almathea at being frustrated to be trapped in a human body.
Then a little voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Which book is that?” Asked Chloe.

The girl shrugged.

“This one? Is called the Last Unicorn, it’s kind of interesting”

“You like unicorns too?” Smiled Chloe.

Laura grinned enigmatically.

“You have no idea”

Chloe walked closer to Laura.

“And what’s about?”

“It doesn’t matter, it knows anything about real unicorns”

“What you know about it?”

Laura took a deep breath and smiled dreamily.

“Have you heard about Equestria?”

“Equestria? What is it?”

“Well, Equestria is where unicorns, the real unicorns, live. But there aren’t only unicorns; no, there are pegasi and earth-ponies as well. And they’re all equally important”

“Tell me!” Cheered Chloe sitting aside this girl who claimed to be her sister.

“Where do I start?”

And she told her about Canterlot, the beautiful capital; about the Princesses who controlled the Sun and the Moon; the six Bearers of Harmony who protected Equestria from all evil.
But mostly about a charismatic group of friends who had fun at their way: a cool DJ with more mouth than brain but a great heart; an elegant and refined cellist; a confectioner as sweet as her creations… and of course a cheerful lyrist called Heartstrings.

Author's Note:

And officially I changed Lyra’s name for the story’s sake.
The detail about the Last Unicorn was a wink to the original story just as Lyra telling Chloe about Equestria. I hope you liked it and:

Read ya’ later!!