When secret agent Sweetie Drops is captured by the Mare with the Emerald Hands and taken to her secret underwater base, she thinks she knows how things will go. She’ll be imprisoned. She’ll nearly lose all hope, then she’ll find the inner strength she needs to defeat the villain in a climactic battle.
But then Lyra makes it weird.
There are no series tags for James Bond or Austin Powers, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.
Second Place winner in Bike's Lyrabon contest.
The two often go hand in hand for unicorns. Especially Lyra.
Delightful bit of madness. Thank you for it.
very nice, got me a good laugh!
If Lyra needs to petsit for extra bits, how the hell can she afford an underwater lair complete with submarine?
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DIY. Plus, rent in Ponyville is certainly shooting through the roof, with all these new buildings popping around... An academy and a royal castle? They're gentrifying the entire city!
Lyra, you're really selling yourself short. Most of us wouldn't manage to get past an X-acto knife crazy-glued to a goldfish.
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Unicorns going archvillain as a result of friendship problems is sort of an ongoing problem in Equestria. They're probably lucky that Moondancer didn't try to invade Ponyville with an army of clockwork golems or something.
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It's a money laundering issue. She funded the base with those jewel heists she mentioned. This chaotic neutral version of Lyra has enough contacts in the underground villain economy to be able to get base supplies, hire henchbeasts, contract with evil logistics corporations for food and such, etc.
Converting those suspiciously sourced gems into clean bits she can pay her landlord with, however, is beyond Lyra's level of executive functioning. Better call Ponysaul, I guess.
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This is why Ponyville needs to upzone, build more housing, and increase tenant protections- to massively drive down rents and displacement:
https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/new-apartment-buildings-low-income-areas-decrease-nearby-rents
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Haha, fair enough.
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I'm idly considering a sequel where Lyra is able to karma Houdini out of most of her legal troubles because of her and Bon Bon's top-level connections, but the Canterlot Geological Survey (which I've elsewhere given broad law-enforcement powers) is very concerned about what happened to those gems. This is probably unnecessary, however.
Thank you, this site desperately needs to be more spy-themed Lyra/Bon-Bon, Agents of S.M.I.L.E. stories.
https://derpibooru.org/images/2446980 << example
And that is how Lyra got her mojo back.
This is just pure adorableness.
Good
Pfft. Very nice. Got a good laugh outta me. Also:
C'mon, can't make that reference and not expect someone to post it.
I think this might be one of the most horsewords horsewords I've ever horsewords-read. Especially the part about building an enmormous secret supervillain base out of duct tape and epoxy glue, complete with (mostly) working submarines, but still not getting around to fixing the hinge on the rental's back door.
I mean, I (choose to?) believe that there are people on this website whose love lives really work a lot like this.
Opal?
Wet, Sandy with a hint of cannery row... Sea food tonight?
Opal said "I want tuna I want liver I am hungry please deliver...."
Should of used the lasers
As long as I pick the place
cool, Twi can cat sit Opal too
I'm kind of surprised I hadn't looked into spy fics with these two sooner. Was not expecting the megalodon with a rail gun. Then again, nobody expects a megalodon with a rail gun. Definitely a fun read!
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*whistles innocently*
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I am honored by your approval!
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I am reluctant to say how much I like the idea of playing this concept straight. I deny opening a Scrivener document to explore it right now.
was that a ww2 u-boat reference? Because their top submerged speed was around 7 knots
Was expecting the I Expect You to Die joke.. was pleasantly suprised!
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It totally was, and not just me pulling a number out of my butt without checking to see if that was actually fast for a diesel sub. Thank Harmony it's an actual reasonable top speed; I'm a military history nerd with a terrible memory so maybe I read it somewhere and subconsciously remember? Maybe?
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I got that out of the way in the title lol. Whole thing is inspired by the Genghis Khan video, of course.
I'm partly surprised that this isn't a ridiculous roleplay Lyra cooked up.
Man pony Odd Job really doesn’t take the hench work seriously enough.
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I hate how those movies are as old as the james bond movies they were parodying were when austin powers came out. I'm old :(
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Pleased to see your user name is based on the third best horse cartoon. Best one that doesn’t have unicorns.
Unicorns are key I guess.
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That looks like a good game.
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From what I've seen of it, it is.
Typo in the first sentence
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Got it. Thanks!
hehe, “medium sneaky”
dang she is so cool!
a mare with… hands!?!?
hehe, “handy signs”
oh hey i get this reference!
a fitting opponent for Agent Sweetie Drops’s bipedal martial arts skills!
amazing mental image
yeah i was thinking exactly that!
ahaha this is just great! and Opalescene does make a very good supervillain’s cat somehow…
oh yeah that is exactly how a cat would act! especially preferring Bon Bon’s energy to Lyra’s
honestly executing a global domination plan involving expensive secret construction and henchmen is exactly how i expect Lyra to get Bon Bon’s attention
aww, Lyra’s skills aren’t monetizable!
ADHD moment
just love Lyra’s use of her magic hands to express emotion. also, yes, Lyra’s underlying anxiety about this is such an important part of the LyraBon dynamic!
aww! love this couple moment
love the comedic beats here, classic!
hehe, is this a meta thing with the author having to look this up? because i also don’t know if sharks have tongues or not and refuse to look it up
aww, she really does need to learn to do that!
augh, just delightful! the James Bond pastiche was fun enough but on top of that you really have both the silly and the meaningful sides of the LyraBon dynamic down! i thoroughly enjoyed this from top to bottom. thank you so much!
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Thank you! Also. Thanks for the second place win?! Honored!!!
This is the second time I've written Lyra as 'neuroatypical former gifted child who struggles with adult life' (based entirely on her being a non-famous classmate of Twilight's in the show) and I like it a lot. Not that I know anything about that. The 'Daniel Craig borderline feral Bond' interpretation of Bon Bon is the exact opposite of the 'as-peaceful-as-possible caregiver' characterization of BON-80n I used in Pillars of Society and, oddly, both seem to work for her.
Thank you for encouraging me to write with these two more! They are an adorable couple.
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If you ever get this a sequel make it an antology and call it "Lyra, get the meg!" and make it be around Lyra, Bon Bon, Luna and Opalescence
You can has review!
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'Pretty Good'? Yeah, I'll take it.
reread this and loved this again! Lyra's very selective executive function is so relatable let me tell ya. also i love LyraBon so much
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I have an outline for a longer, much more serious LyraBon spy thing that I abandoned for leaning too heavily on Casino Royale (the book and the movie, tho this is definitely one of the rare 'the film is better' situations). I'm not sure that was justified.