34: The scars of your love remind me of us. (MMC)
The scars of your love remind me of us
Chapter published 18th January 2014
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June AC 1217
Ponyville, dead of night.
A low fog rolled past the window, making it hard to see even as far as Lero’s workshop on the other side of the street. Unusual, Lyra thought, for this time of year.
Seated as she was at the bedroom window, she idly watched the fog as it floated aimlessly around outside the house, her eyes taking in the sight though her mind was elsewhere.
Behind her she could hear the breathing of two of her herdmates as they slept, neither of them deeply nor soundly. Lero had been out of sorts since his best friend's wedding just a few days ago. He’d been complaining of occasional bouts of nausea and dizziness, but in the last twenty four hours it had been joined by brief, though still distressing, crippling headache attacks and sudden nosebleeds. Doctor Vital Signs had done what he could, but with no other humans to compare against even the nation’s resident expert (by default) in human physiology was drawing a blank. No pun intended.
It hadn’t helped that the nation’s other expert had locked herself away in the library for the past few days, ranting on about how ‘everything’ was her fault and how she’d 'ruined everything’ and that she was just going to make everything worse if she stayed too close. They’d all tried to talk her down, but it was as if Twilight couldn’t even bear to be in the same room as her herd without looking like she was going to throw up. She’d even sung a little song about how she’d made some kind of mistake, though no other pony had any idea what she could be talking about.
RD had reacted badly - unsurprisingly. She’d practically accused Twilight of abandoning them when they needed her most, almost punched her fellow unicorn right in the face before the purple mare had levitated her herd out of the library and sealed the doors behind them. Rare Deluge could be so impulsive at times... and so strong too. Must be the earth pony father; even a thoroughbred earth pony and Shattered Stone Grandmaster like Lyra had a hard job holding her back at times.
A sudden low groan caught Lyra’s attention and she turned her head to her herdmates. Lero was muttering and mumbling in his sleep again. Without waking from her fitful rest, RD pulled him closer against her pure white coat, her shoulder length deep purple mane - free as it was from its ever present stubby-though-functional ponytail - falling over her withers to rest free against her stallion’s chest.
“Dashie...”
Rare hugged the human tighter as Lero called for this ‘Dashie’ once again. Lyra’s heart ached at hearing the name. Whoever this mare was, Lero had been calling for her in his sleep for the last few nights, though try as they might not one of them could fathom who this mystery mare could be.
Neither they, nor any of their friends, knew of a ‘Dash’ or ‘Dashie’. The only pony that even came close was Rainbow Connection, who had been known as Rainbow Dash once upon a time. She hadn't used that name in over a decade now, abandoning it long before she’d ever found poor Lero lost and alone out in the Everfree all those years ago.
Even while asleep the white unicorn was careful not to poke her stallion with her horn as she pushed her mane up against her slumbering companion’s chin. She could be so careful, Lyra thought, so gentle, so different in private from her public persona, that of a brash and outspoken Thunderbolt cadet and the best unicorn weather mare equestria had ever seen. But then she’d had to be confident and self assured in public all these years, she’d never had made it as the first - and still only - unicorn to ever captain her own weather team otherwise.
But brash as she was, she cared deeply about her stallion and her herd... they all did. Even with Twilight’s whole ‘lock yourself away so you don’t make him worse’ thing going on, there was still a lot of love there... more than Lyra had even been a part of before.
Lero had been so unwell since his friend’s wedding, but then again they’d all been out of sorts these past few days. None as much as the bearer of the element of honesty though. Pink Lady Apple had always been a bit... ornery, but since the loss of her ‘brother’ to one of her best friends she’d been what could only be described as downright foul tempered.
Foul tempered?
Foul tempered!
Why did that phrase ring a bell?
Like falling down a deep hole of memories, Lyra found her mind pulling her into a recollection of a moment long ago - almost a decade gone - of a shared apartment in Canterlot, of the night after yet another stallion had broken her heart.
Her best friend Bon Bon had convinced her to move back to Canterlot-
...back to?
-so she could return to her musical studies while the fledgling confectioner finished her own training. While she’d not much cared for structured learning in the musical arts, returning to the city had at least made it easier to be near her sensei as she embarked upon her journey along the path of Shattered Stone. Unfortunately it had also put her closer to her birth herd... not that they’d ever noticed... probably hadn't even noticed she'd ever left.
But her mother lived in Ponyville... had done until the day she died! This didn't make any sense!
Lyra remembered a night of tears; another stallion that had used her, played with her emotions, broken her heart before leaving her broken by the wayside. Sensei had been right, she’d been looking for love in all the wrong places. Why did she never listen? Why did she never see the truth? Not even nineteen yet and already so many mistakes in her life.
How? How could one so young have been hurt so often?
Through these memories she played her part in this little stage production, her arms around Bon Bon’s body as she wept into her friend’s mane, strong hooves running through her own mane, a soft voice telling her that everything would be alright.
But in her mind she now played both roles; the young mare that needed comforting, the equally young mare who stayed strong for her friend.
She had cried, cried so hard into Bon Bon’s shoulders, the white unicorn brushing her mane, cooing soothing words into her ears, but now Lyra saw the scene though Bon Bon’s eyes, could feel the distraught unicorn’s horn push against her neck, could see the strands of green hair as her hooves moved over them.
But she’s not green, and neither’s Bon Bon. Why would she remember a green mane?
In her memories she was playing both parts in this little play, acting as both sides of the coin; hugging, being hugged, doing the hugging.
And there was anger... even as she stroked her friend's mane, kept her voice soft and motherly... such strong, overwhelming anger, welling up from deep within.
She’d known that Piston Broke was a bad boy, that he was just the kind of guy that Lyra would fall for. She knew she should have watched out for her better, kept a closer eye on the little bucker, not let Lyra fall for his horseapples.
The guy was no good, she’d thought Lyra knew that, knew better than to let him get into her heart, the risk would be just too great and he would only break it one day. Bon Bon had just been playing with him to keep him close - as he had undoubtedly been playing with her - but Lyra, she’d left herself open... and he'd hurt her... hurt her badly.
And now Bon Bon was angry... so very very angry.
She remembered sneaking out that night, once Lyra had cried herself to sleep. She’d tracked the guy down, cornered him, given him a few home truths, told him exactly what would happen if he didn’t shape up, the depths of the despair that she would drop him into if he didn’t mend his ways.
Oh she would burn him, burn him like no stallion had ever been burned before. But she wouldn't lay a hoof on him, she wouldn't even touch him. Oh no, no mare should ever lay a hoof on a stallion, it just wasn’t done. But she wouldn't need to touch him because, in the end, after she’d finished with him, she’d leave him wishing that she’d gone with physical punishment instead.
She’d left him there, a huge earth pony stallion, standing alone in an alleyway, weeping like a tiny child. And she’d felt good about it. He’d hurt her friend, he’d hurt Lyra. No pony did that.
No pony!
As she walked away, leaving the weeping behind her, she saw herself reflected in a darkened shop window.
Cream coat, blue and pink mane, an earth pony physique.
If these were these are Bon Bon’s memories, why did she see her own body and not that of the white unicorn. And how did she know any of these things... she wasn’t Bon Bon... was she?
These memories, they did help explain why Bon Bon had laughed so much when Lyra had slammed the door in the guy’s face the next day. Why she’d gleefully opened it again, pulled the flowers out of his hooves and slammed it in his face for the second time.
Well, those these flowers looked expensive, no sense in letting them go to waste.
Other memories came to her, older memories... disinterested parents, jealous taunts about her rapidly blossoming curves from her less-developed peers, the panic that flooded her heart and soul as her first heat came much too early, her young mind not yet ready to deal with such adult concepts, her family not interested in helping and her friends too young and immature to know what to do.
Lyra’s jaw dropped as her memory of the months before her seventeenth birthday came to mind; the stallion, the rooftops, the feelings of despair and worthlessness... the loss, the falling, the emptiness, that sweet whisper of that final fall’s siren song, the promise that it would welcome her with open arms if only she’d take that last step.
This wasn’t right... this wasn’t her life.
Crossing the room, Lyra looked at herself in the full length mirror, bright moonlight taking the opportunity to pierce through the fog outside to illuminate the room. She was as she always was: a cream coloured earth pony... she’d never been anything else.
As she caught her own gaze, the reflection wavered, a mint green unicorn meeting her eyes.
The mailmare... the unicorn mailmare with the odd eyes.
Derpy... Her name was Derpy Heartstrings... wasnt it?
Lifting a hoof she pushed it against the mirror’s surface. An aquamarine hoof pushed back.
Suddenly Lyra’s mind cleared, like a great fog had lifted, though it still felt like it was trying to come back, pushing here and there against the edges of her brain
She wasn't Lyra, that wasn't the cutie name she had chosen for herself, back when she'd rejected the name Sweetie Drops.
No, her cutie name, it was...
It was...
Bon Bon! She was Bon Bon!
Her best friend, that crazy white coated blue-maned unicorn that ran Bon Bon’s Bon-Bons, she wasn’t Bon Bon... she was... was... oh what was her name? Her birth name, the name she’d given up long ago? Vinyl something? How could she not remember after all these years?
But that shop, the confectionary store... that was her shop, her mother had left it to her, not her unicorn housemate. Her mom - bless her even with her tribalist ways - would never in a thousand years have left the shop to a unicorn.
And this house... this home... this herd. This wasn't where she was meant to be!
As she looked towards her sleeping herdmates - the human twitching as if he was in pain, the troubled unicorn hugging him tightly against against her chest - the earth pony’s jaw dropped.
This wasn't her herd, she shouldn't be here, Lyra was supposed to be here.. the real Lyra, not her, this fake Lyra that she had become.
Turning back to the mirror, this time she caught her own earth pony reflection, a lone trickle of blood running from her nose, marring the cream fur around her mouth.
Without another thought the earth pony bolted out of the door. She had to get to the library, had to get there right now, before the fog rolled back into her brain and made everything cloudy again.
Twilight had been right all along... this was all very very wrong.
Bon Bon prayed it wasn’t too late to fix it.
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Well... This is interesting and foreshadowing for the other active Lero fic.
Wow. That was fuckin' trippy. It really tied itself into knots, and made me stop several times to work out just what was going on.
Great chapter, and really got the feeling of confusion and wrongness Bon-Bon had across.
My god... just how messed up did things end in this world?
WTF?! You broken my brain!..
Was that Bon-Bon or Lyra?
So is this like the cutiemarks of the Mane 6 switching ala season 3? Definitely got those vibes here, but then what did Twilight do this time? This is assuming of course (because I haven't read the other chapters in a while) that this chapter is after that point in the actual show.
I know that this practically nothing but a marketing campaign, but I'm actually starting to get kind of scared of Divided Rainbow. This just isn't right.........
I was confused at first but I got it eventually and wow that was tense. Its an an oddly dark twist on the events of Magical Mystery cure. I cant wait to see where this goes.
Ugh. Hard to read, really. For me it would worked out much more better in an animation. Just Lyra-Bonbon turning in the end into actual looking Bonbon....reading it was confusing for me like hell. English is not my language, so much confusion make this chapter...well hard as hell to read and properly enjoy. Nice ideas(reminds me of Butterfly effect) but I didn't liked it. Why I listed it before. Too hard.
derpicdn.net/img/2014/1/17/526841/large.jpg
R.I.P Princess Molestia.
Welp, goodbye chances of the other fic fitting into this canon. Oh well.
I like this. Got a real Bioshock Infinite vibe from it, what with the nosebleeds and whatnot. I got goosebumps.
3806372
Well, the problem is that if you're writing about a character being confused about something complex and weird, it might be hard to understand if the language it's explained in isn't your primary language- especially since it might be confusing for people who it is. So that begs the something. If something that's intentionally confusing is confusing, is it a success or a failure?
3807372
If you're referring to Divided Rainbow? Yeah, we came to that conclusion a while back, and while we've been stealing ideas from each other, we've made no attempt to make the timelines compatible.
Not to mention that DR's about to get a huge amount of it's own back story dropped soon, so yay, further incompatibilities!
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Big Sexy and Gamer Luna will never die. Long live the princesses!
I'm so very confused. I thought this may have been the time Twilight switched their cutie marks but it can't be cause others are affected too. Does it have something to do with that blank plague thing? I was thinking about stopping reading this fic, now I think I might have to stop for sure.
So... is this the event mentioned in the equivalence to the Magical Mystery Cure? That chapter mentioned Bon Bon and Rarity being temporarily with Lero, and if this version of Twilight's spell was much farther reaching... I shudder to think of the fridge logic this induces for the rest of the series!
took me a minute to figure out what was going on, but I got it by the end.
Guys, I think this is continued in divided rainbow. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/98472/divided-rainbow or maybe this chapter came from divided rainbow, not sure.
***edit*** I appear to be wrong, oh well.
Ooh, Bioshocky, I like it! And it does a much better job of conveying Juxtaposition (which is totally just the name I came up with for it, but doesn't it fit?) than the game actually did.
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Yes. The following image may help:
derpicdn.net/img/2013/4/3/286685/medium.png
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That's what I thought too, but what is it? No one appears to be explaining this properly yet. ^^;
Okay I get it now in the last chapter, Twilight was going to follow the Magical Mystery Cure Plot, but she didn't do it until the end of the last chapter. Now that she has cast the spell, it looks like another version of Divided Rainbow has finally began.
Go Bon Bon and seek the truth! And don't stop until you find it!
Author’s note needs to be updated. Because of the April Fool’s crossover, ‘Seeds of love’ is now two chapters ago.