She Came from the Train One Day
Celestia's sun was high in the sky the day the train stopped at Ponyville and the only passenger, a tall creature in a duster coat walking on two legs, stumbled out, as though in a daze. As she took in her surroundings, ponies at the train station couldn't help but turn their heads and stare.
Bon Bon had been passing through at just that time. Perhaps she didn't know much about what was going on, but being in her line of work had taught her that, sometimes, it was better to act than to think. "All right, all right, everypony!" she called as she made her way to the stranger's side. "Keep moving! Nothing more to see here; go on!" Her voice was powerful enough to make everypony in hearing range do just as she said. With that, she was able to herd the creature to a more secluded part of Ponyville, where she would hopefully feel less overwhelmed.
"Thank you," she said, smiling down at her.
"Sure; anytime." Bon Bon had seen many unusual creatures in her years as a monster hunter, but this was the first time she couldn't recognize one. "What's your name?" It sounded considerably politer than "What are you?" In her experience, nocreature responded well to that question.
The creature, some kind of mostly hairless ape with pinkish skin, gazed down at her thoughtfully. "I've gone by many names in the past..." Her voice was deep and musical. "For the last few years, people have called me Red Lucy."
People. All right, now Bon Bon was getting somewhere. "All right then...Red Lucy. I'm Bon Bon." It wasn't technically a lie; by this point in her life, she responded to that name much more readily than Sweetie Drops. "Where'd you come from? What are you doing here?"
"I come from a...harsh land. It used to be called Nevada, but nowadays it goes by The Mojave Wasteland. Many dangerous creatures reside there; nightstalkers, cazadores, deathclaws...and of course, humans like myself. The most dangerous animal of all." She smirked in a way that told Bon Bon that she'd just told an old inside joke.
Humans. The word was the only one Bon Bon recognized; it sparked something in her memory. The newest princess, Twilight Sparkle, had once told a story about an alternate world much like their own, one Hai Skool or some place like that. There, she'd been turned into one of these humans, and met several ponies she knew, who were also humans.
All things considered, it wasn't the strangest thing Bon Bon had ever heard. Neither was this story, or what the stranger before her was telling her.
"Rather than run from them, I've chosen to embrace them. I own the Thorn, a place where we do not fear death, but actively chase it. I raise them, I pit them against each other, and those who want to test their mettle often offer to fight them, themselves."
"Huh," said Bon Bon, frowning thoughtfully. "That's a lot more creative than what I do." She'd once knocked out a full-grown bugbear, blindfolded a basilisk, and stung a manticore with its own stinger. Even ursa majors weren't immune to her specific set of skills; she'd made a trophy out of one of their teeth. It now hung above the headboard of her bed. It had never occurred to her to take these creatures and pit them against each other in combat, though; she was almost positive that sort of thing was illegal here, or at least frowned upon.
It occurred to her that she was dangerously close to revealing her secret double life to somecreature who was essentially a stranger, but she found herself not caring. Something deep in her gut told her she could trust this Red Lucy; despite how different they looked from one another, Bon Bon was beginning to get the impression that they had a lot in common.
"As for what I'm doing here...it's a strange story. I was on the train leading from here to the Capital Wasteland, since it recently started running again. I fell asleep; when I woke up, I was here. Your train had stopped ...here...and uncertain of what else to do, I got off."
"I see." It was something magical, then. That, she was less knowledgeable about; most of the magic she was familiar with was the sort that monsters and demons used, and what could be used against them, in return. Alternate universes and worlds were outside her area of expertise.
Thankfully, there was a pony right here in town who could probably help this stranger out.
"In that case, Twilight Sparkle might be able to help. She's met yoo-mans before, even been to a world that had them. Maybe she can help you get back to yours." She blinked rapidly. "Assuming that's what you want, of course."
The human nodded. Perhaps it was an odd thought to have, considering that Bon Bon had grown up surrounded by ponies who came with coats and manes and tails in colors of all sorts, but she couldn't help thinking that Red Lucy looked striking. Her short, messy red hair and hazel green eyes were lovely to look at, and the duster coat she wore looked rather stylish, even if it was covered in stains Bon Bon didn't want to think too hard about the origins of. "In time, Ms. Bon Bon." Her voice was attractive, too; it sent shivers down Bon Bon's spine. "But I think I would like to get to know this place better. I've never seen so much color in one place before." She kneeled, placing one of her appendages (it looked a bit like a paw, but Bon Bon wasn't sure if it could be called that) and ran it through the grass. "I've never seen grass so thick and lush and...green." The human chuckled. "It's...beautiful! Itchier than I would have thought." The human's laugh was infectious; it made Bon Bon smile, despite her misgivings. "It smells wonderful..."
"I've been all over Equestria, you know," Bon Bon said as she laid down next to Red Lucy. "Outside of it, too. I've seen plenty of deserts." She nosed an extra thick patch of the grass between her front hooves. "I guess it takes a fresh pair of eyes to realize just how beautiful Ponyville is, though." She'd had her own misgivings when Princess Celestia had stationed her in this small town. It had felt like an insult to her profession and her skills; just what, exactly, could be plaguing such a small, safe town? Why would it possibly need her? At the time, she'd found herself hoping to be spending a lot more time in the Everfree Forest; that, at least, was a place with some backbone.
Then the Sun Festival fiasco had happened. Then Discord. The events of the royal wedding in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire had quickly made their way back to the town.
To think, the most exciting thing Bon Bon had expected upon receiving that assignment years ago was coming across an escaped bugbear! Which...she still hadn't managed to capture. She'd tracked it down many times, but the thing was more wily than she'd thought.
"It is. It truly is. It feels like a place I saw in my dreams once..." Red Lucy sighed, leaning back. She seemed to find the clouds in the sky particularly interesting. "Possibly in a book I saw as a child. I did not read it; that was a skill I didn't have the privilege of picking up until later on in my life. At least some of the pictures were in tact."
Bon Bon frowned. She didn't have a whole lot of experience with other worlds, but nothing good could possibly come from one where teaching children to read wasn't high on lists of priorities. "I'm...glad you like it here," she said carefully. She made a careful mental note to count her blessings at a later date.
Twilight could wait, in more than one sense of the word. The sun was still high in the sky, Bon Bon had nothing to do the rest of that day, and even with the constant threats she'd lived through, she had to admit, this was one of the safest places in their world.
Things could always be worse, and the mysterious yet alluring stranger at her side was living proof of it.
"Let's see..." Twilight hummed thoughtfully as she flipped through the pages of the book she levitated in front of her face. "Ah! Here we go...'Spontaneous universal teleportation.' See also 'Spontaneous worldly travel.'" Bon Bon watched as the unicorn's deep purple eyes ran over the old pages. "I'm afraid I don't know much about your world, Ms...?"
"Red Lucy."
"Right. So I can't speak for your end. But on ours, it looks like the remaining magic from from both the return of the Crystal Empire and the events of my experience with Celestia's magic mirror are responsible for this. This is why you woke up on the train leading to Ponyville instead of the one at..." She frowned, letting the book hover back down to its place on the table. "I'm sorry, where did you say you were from?"
"The Mojave Wasteland." The words didn't sound any less strange, no matter how surely the stranger said them in her beautiful deep voice.
"Apparently she owns an arena called The Thorn," Bon Bon added in a way she hoped was helpful. In her line of work, it helped to know as much as possible about whatever creatures might be present.
"I see..." Twilight frowned as Red Lucy's eyes gazed around the library, taking in the sight much like a foal in a sweets shop. Bon Bon assumed it was all of the perfectly intact books. Or maybe it was the fact that there was such a large, living tree, and they were all standing in the middle of it. "Well, you're in good hooves; this town's full of good ponies who will do whatever they can to help you, but from what I've just read, eventually this magic will wear off on its own. When it does, you'll wake up back where you came from."
Red Lucy raised a deep red-brown eyebrow. These yoo-mans seemed to have much more defined brows, Bon Bon noticed; it made her even more expressive, despite her fairly even monotone. "And how long do you suspect this will take?"
"That, I'm less certain about, I'm afraid. It could be a few days; it could be a week." To the new princess's credit, her large purple eyes were incredibly apologetic. "At the very least, I'm afraid you're stuck here for at least a day. To top that off, I don't know how time works where you're from; there's no telling how long you'll have been gone in your world. I was in a situation similar to this once."
"Where you went to Hai Skool?" asked Bon Bon. Word traveled quickly around Equestria, and as long as she'd lived in Ponyville, the grapevine here had always been particularly thick and fruit-bearing.
"High school. And yes; I was in that world for two nights, but when I came back, I'd only been gone for two hours. Give or take a minute."
"All right." Red Lucy frowned thoughtfully. "That...is troubling...I prefer to oversee the growth of my beasts, myself." She sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "Even so, I can see there isn't much I can do."
Twilight's ears flicked backward, clearly in distress for the potential trouble this stranger was in. She might not have personally known her or her world, but she was the Princess of Friendship for a reason. "Again, I truly am sorry. I'm not certain what else I can do to help." She opened one of her new wings and spread it, indicating the rows upon rows of books in her cozy library. "I can keep researching, if you like; I'll be happy to share anything new I learn with you."
Red Lucy smiled down at Twilight. "You've done a great service for me, already. I don't think I can thank you enough." Bon Bon watched as she took one of her paws, clad in what appeared to be the same material as her duster coat, and slipped it into one of her pockets. "Where I come from, we do not let good turns go unrewarded. What can I do for you, Princess?"
Twilight responded with a tight, forced laugh. "Oh, it's fine; really. I didn't do this for any reward; what kind of princess would I be if I didn't help somepony who needed it?" She realized her faux pas and quickly cleared her throat. “Somecreature, I mean.”
Bon Bon gazed quizzically at what Red Lucy had just pulled out of her pocket. "Are those...bottle caps?" she asked.
"Yes. Ah...yes." The smile on Red Lucy's face grew sheepish. It occurred to Bon Bon that, since she'd stepped off that train, this was the first time she'd seen her look anything other than unflappable. "I suppose I should have realized...you must have a different currency than we do, yes?"
"You buy things...with bottlecaps?" Twilight looked baffled. It was one thing she and Bon Bon had in common, right now.. "All right, now I'm confused." She used her magic to lift a wooden stool up and place it behind Red Lucy, pulling it forward, making the person fall onto it with what Bon Bon assumed was her rump. It was an awkward sight, to be certain; the stool was much better suited for a small pony, not a tall yoo-man. "If you're up for it, and you really want to thank me for my research, perhaps an interview will suffice?"
"An interview? With...me?" The stranger looked even more uncomfortable, fidgeting with a loose thread in one of the seams of her duster. "I'm...well, the truth is, I've never been comfortable in the spotlight. Even in my line of work, I prefer peoples' attention elsewhere." She glanced between Bon Bon and Twilight. "Ponies', too. That is what you are, correct?"
"Yes! I can keep you anonymous, if you like." Twilight grinned up at Red Lucy, eyes sparkling in the candlelight. "None of this is for clout; I'm simply curious about you and where you come from. It sounds so different from what I experienced." Bon Bon saw a roll of parchment and a quill hovering in front of Twilight's face, awash in magenta light. "More than anything, I simply love learning! About...everything, really."
As the Princess of Friendship prattled on, Bon Bon watched Red Lucy closely. Her shoulders hunched in closer to her neck, which she seemed to be trying to pull her head down further into, as well. As Twilight grew closer, the person seemed to try to pull further away.
"Um, Twilight..." Bon Bon took this opportunity to get between the two of them. "It's getting late, and our friend here has had a long day."
"Oh. Oh!" Twilight's ears pricked backwards. "You're right, of course; I'm sorry." Bon Bon could see the skin beneath the lavender fur of the princess's cheeks turn pink. She smiled; Twilight was one of the ponies who, more often than not, meant well. It was just that her thirst for knowledge and love of learning could overwhelm that. "Ms. Lucy, do you have a place to stay for now?"
"Yes." Bon Bon spoke before anycreature else could. "She can stay with me until she goes back." She glanced over her shoulder; since Red Lucy was sitting down, it was easier to look her in the eye. "If she would like."
"I...yes." Red Lucy gave her a grateful smile. "I very much would like."
"All right, then. It's settled. Thanks again, Twilight; you've been a big help." Ponies had been talking in the last few years; many of them were sure that Twilight's relocation had been what started bringing all this danger to their small town. Maybe it was true; maybe it wasn't. But her eagerness to help and her strong bond with those five other ponies were what almost always got them out of trouble. She was all right, in Bon Bon’s book.
"Thank you," Red Lucy murmured to her as they made their way to Bon Bon's cottage. There were still a handful of ponies out and about, and they did occasionally stop and look over at the human, but since Luna's moon was now slowly rising in the sky, they were much fewer.
"Don't mention it." Bon Bon shifted her withers in a shrug. "She's a good pony, really. Couldn't be the Princess of Friendship, if she wasn't."
Red Lucy's chuckle was deep and throaty, and for the first time in years, Bon Bon felt butterflies at the center of her belly. "Princess of Friendship...this place really does feel like it came out of a storybook. Or a dream." Red Lucy gazed off to the west. "I've never seen such a beautiful, clear sunset before..."
"I'm glad you like it."
They were here. It wasn't much compared to Twilight's library, Fluttershy's cottage, or the Apple Family's ancestral home, but it was hers and it had all the comforts of home. She mouthed open her saddlebag to retrieve a key, which she used with her mouth to open her door. "Ladies first!" she joked through clenched teeth.
Red Lucy did as she was told, though her eyes lay on the sight of the key in Bon Bon's mouth for a bit longer than Bon Bon really thought they should.
Once inside, she nosed up the lightswitch on the nearest walls, washing her living area in deep, warm yellow light. "Make yourself at home! Kitchen's there..." She lifted a hoof to the left of her. "My room's there..." She shifted her head to her right. "And the spare bedroom's upstairs. Once you get up there, head to the right, the door will be there." A thought occurred to her, and she hurriedly added "J-just don't go to the end of the hall; the door there leads to my junkroom. Open that, you'll get covered in an avalanche of...stuff." She'd let the stranger know more than she should about her double life, but that didn't mean she was ready to show her her Monster Room, filled with weapons and forbidden books and scrolls.
At least, not yet.
"Thank you, again." Red Lucy had stopped looking overwhelmed; now she gazed around her, as though she were looking at the walls inside the Canterlot palace. "Perhaps it's too much to hope, but...do you have a restroom?"
Bon Bon frowned, liking the world her new friend came from less and less by the minute. "Yeah; two. The one down here has a toilet and sink; the one with the bathtub should be across the hall from your room."
Red Lucy nodded at her. "That's far more than I would have hoped for. Please excuse me; I believe that's where I'll be spending the next few hours."
"All right, then; if that's what you want." The stranger did have a scent to her, though it wasn't what Bon Bon would have called bad; just different. Unlike anything or anycreature she'd ever come across. Perhaps that wasn't what it was about, though; after her trip, perhaps she needed to relax in a tub filled with hot, bubbly water just that badly.
With that, Bon Bon began her own winding down ritual for the end of the day. Hot green tea, porridge made of barley and oats topped with a fried egg, and a book. It was one she'd read many times before, but one she never tired of looking through. Creatures: Equestria, and Beyond, a collected omnibus that was several volumes long. The pages were yellowed and many were dog-eared, proof of how often Bon Bon had used it.
She let it open to a random page. The D section; a black and white illustration of a fire-breathing dragon was near the top of the page. As always, the section was disappointingly short; despite all the resources at ponykind's hooves, they'd simply never learned much about this powerful, solitary race.
Absently, she remembered Spike, Twilight Sparkle's assistant. Bon Bon had always wanted to ask how he'd come into her care, but had always resisted doing so. Nopony, not even her close friend Lyra, knew what she did for a living, and she was determined to keep it that way.
Of course, the stranger upstairs was not a pony, and not even from their world...
With that thought, Bon Bon's mind began to wander as she ate, drank, and turned pages. Cazadores...nightstalkers...deathclaws...Those were the sort of creatures that lived in Red Lucy’s world. Each word sounded more dangerous and deadly than the last.
Curiosity burned bright in Bon Bon's mind as she finished her dinner and returned her dishes to the sink. She meant to hoof-wash them, but opted for the lazier route and filled her sink with warm, soapy water, placing her mug and plate inside to soak. They'd still be there when she came back; she'd clean them properly then.
She filled a tall glass with water, cold this time, and made her way upstairs. She knocked on the bathroom door. "Red Lucy?" she called. "Do you need anything? You've been in there a while; are you thirsty?" She kept her ears pricked; a few silent seconds passed.
She was about to head back downstairs, deciding to give her guest her privacy, when she heard "Come in."
Bon Bon complied. The bathroom smelled heavily of lavender, lemon, and coconut; it was like Red Lucy had used generous amounts of every soap, oil, and bubble bath concoction that Bon Bon owned. The only reason Bon Bon even knew she was in her tub was because of the fiery red poking out of the massive amount of bubbles. "Having fun?" she asked, unable to keep the humor out of her voice.
"Yes. More than you know." Red Lucy laid back in the tub; as she did, a pair of pale, hairless knees rose above the white foam, rosy red from, Bon Bon assumed, scrubbing. "This feels...so ridiculously indulgent, you have no idea." The human giggled, an odd sound from someone who seemed so stoic.
"Yeah...it sure sounds like it." Bon Bon stepped a bit closer and placed the glass of water on the counter closest to her. "I think I understand why you weren't comfortable when Twilight asked you about your home. But I have to admit...I'm curious now, too."
"I suppose I can't blame you. Awfully bold of you, asking while I'm so vulnerable." Bon Bon cleared her throat, cheeks suddenly burning. "What, exactly, would you like to know?"
"Well...first off, I think I need to be straight with you." As straight as I can be. The joke was stupid and it would not do to say it here and now. Not while one of them was naked in the tub; Bon Bon felt a bit ashamed, since it hadn't occurred to her that these yoo-mans had no fur to cover them up when they weren't wearing clothing. In fact, Red Lucy seemed more comfortable than she did. It was only fair she be honest with her, right? "My name isn't really Bon Bon. It's Sweetie Drops. I'm..." She thought carefully; what could she say that the stranger before her would understand? "I guess you could say I'm a...monster hunter."
"Oh?" Red Lucy sat up, now looking far more interested.
"It's a secret, though. No one else in this town knows." Not even my best friend, she shamefully thought. "It was an assignment one of our other princesses gave me. So, uh...I guess I'm a secret agent, too?"
"Really? How...exciting." Red Lucy leaned forward against the porcelain rim of the bathtub. Her thick red brows had raised, almost disappearing into the soaked forelock that now stuck to her forehead. Did they even call them forelocks? Bon Bon knew other creatures had manes; not all of them called that part a forelock.
"Not really," Bon Bon said with a shrug. "I haven't been doing a lot of monster hunting lately." Not since those six other ponies had learned that they were the embodiments of the Elements of Harmony. It wasn't jealousy, really; more than anything, Bon Bon had been feeling bored lately, not liking the feeling of not being needed.
"I understand; I've been focused on taking care of the eggs, training them as they hatch. It's been a while since I've hunted anything, myself."
Bon Bon frowned. She had a feeling she knew how to relate to this stranger; there was one thing above all others that they seemed to have in common. "Earlier, you mentioned these...creatures...that you faced before. Cazador-ehs? Nightstalkers? Deathclaws?"
Red Lucy nodded. "My area of expertise. Very different from one another, but the one thing they've got in common is that they didn't used to be so dangerous."
"How do you mean?"
"They're all mutated by radiation."
Bon Bon blinked rapidly. "I'm...understanding about every other word here." Mutants? Radiation? Maybe it would have been a better idea to sit back and let her talk to Twilight, after all.
Red Lucy sighed. "Many years ago...just over two hundred years, I believe...war happened. I don't know all the details; war is complicated that way. All I know is that it culminated in bombs being dropped on my country."
Dread was beginning to spool at the center of Bon Bon's core. "Bombs? You mean, like...those things you light and throw? Grenades? Th-the things you put in cannons?"
A grave look was on Red Lucy's face. "No...nuclear bombs. They put all you just mentioned to shame. They...changed everything. Damaged so much...killed so many..."
Bon Bon's ears lay back against her skull.
"But not everyone. Despite the devastation, life found a way to continue. But nothing was ever the same. The creatures left, including we simple humans, were never the same. But some changed more than others." Red Lucy gazed to the side, no longer meeting Bon Bon's gaze. She was right there, but she looked far away. "Wasps, apparently, used to be much smaller. Still dangerous, if you were allergic, or if there were many in one place, but manageable. Then they became cazadores; very venomous, very fast, very aggressive..." She looked straight in Bon Bon's eyes. "Even bigger than you."
Bon Bon nodded. "Wow..."
"Nightstalkers are, from what I understand...artificially made. Someone, somewhere, was experimenting. Why? What were they hoping to accomplish? I cannot say." She laughed, a sound that had no joy or humor. "You'd think, by this point, we'd learn that the ends don't justify the means when it comes to scientific curiosity, but here we are. We're all living in a radioactive wasteland, and large coyotes with rattlesnake heads and rattlesnake venom travel by the pack." Red Lucy leaned back, and from the brief moment she raised up, Bon Bon could see several scars, some older than others, all along her shoulders and neck.
"They sound a bit like chimeras or manticores," Bon Bon said absently. Equestria was filled to the brim with creatures that looked like they'd been stitched together from other creatures, though to her knowledge, nopony had ever made them; they'd just always been that way. "And deathclaws?"
Red Lucy made a sound deep at the back of her throat, a thoughtful sort of noise. "How to describe Deathclaws...Your princess has a little dragon friend, yes?"
Bon Bon nodded. "Spike? Yeah." She smiled; like most of the other ponies in town, she was fond of the little guy. "She says he's her assistant, but we all know he's much more like a little brother to her."
"Dragons exist in this world...remarkable." Red Lucy sounded like she meant it. "Imagine a dragon without wings; one that stands on two legs, has sharp, hard claws on its hands and feet that are each a foot long. Imagine curved horns, flat faces with inches-long teeth, and eyes that show nothing but feral, aggressive anger. You've got a deathclaw. I know I joked that humans are the most dangerous animal where I'm from, but these..." Despite the human's experiences in this apparently harsh world, a shudder ran through her body. The fear and dread were palpable; Bon Bon was beginning to feel it, too. "Humans can reason. Humans can make logical decisions. Humans can talk. Deathclaws only ever see potential threats to their territory."
"So...all of these creatures are territorial?" Bon Bon frowned. "That makes no sense...here, even the wildest monster can usually be dealt with non-lethally."
"Yes." Red Lucy reached behind her for the glass Bon Bon had carried up, taking a deep swig. Bon Bon watched the liquid move down her throat; her eyes widened at the sight of a scar, more faded than the others. It almost looked like...like something had been fastened there. Like a choker necklace or a shackle or...maybe a collar? "I'm sure you realize by now...where I come from is harsh. It makes sense, in a perverse way, for every creature to band together and want to protect what they own, however little it might be."
"You're...not talking about monsters anymore, are you?" Bon Bon realized, with a start, that with each thing the stranger said, she'd been edging closer to the tub.
"Yes. No. Maybe neither; maybe both." Red Lucy smirked at Bon Bon. "What do you think, my little pony?"
Bon Bon leaned her chin on the rim of the tub, thinking carefully. "I think...that you've had a really tough time in your life." She blew some of the bubbles, making them float whimsically in the air. "I'm sure this setback was inconvenient, and I'm sorry about that." Red Lucy had said she was going to a place called the Capital Wasteland, which didn't make Bon Bon feel any better. From one wasteland to another...what sort of life was that? "But I'm also glad you wound up some place so safe." The stranger had lifted her hand at some point. Without thinking, Bon Bon leaned forward, leaning her nose into it. The human smell was now covered in the flowery, perfumed scents of all of Bon Bon's soaps and oils. She tried to memorize the scent as best she could. "You can stay here as long as you like. I'm glad you're relaxed now; I think you deserve it."
Red Lucy chuckled. "Thank you, Bon Bon. I'll do what I can to help out around your house and your town."
"I appreciate that, and I'm sure everypony else will, too. For now, is there anything I can do?" Reluctantly, she removed her nose from Red Lucy's hand and glanced over her withers. The humans' belongings were in a neat pile on a chair near the door. "Like, uh...can I wash your clothes for you?"
"I...think I'd like that. I'd like that a lot." With that, Red Lucy sank back into the massive pile of bubbles.
Bon Bon left the human to soak in the tub and gathered her clothing in one foreleg. Before she did anything, she removed everything from the pockets of the coat and trousers. There were bottlecaps, like she'd seen before; a couple hundred of them, at least. There was an array of hunting knives, some with worn handles, but all lovingly sharpened. There were a few syringes filled with some unknown liquid. Bon Bon was especially careful with those; she'd had diabetic family members before, and she knew better than to tamper with whatever might be in them.
She tried to ignore them as she placed them to the side, along with a shiny, long thing with a wooden handle she'd never seen before. Something told her that that was the most dangerous of them all.
She made her way down to her laundry room, trying to ignore what she'd seen, and the fact that the boots, trousers, and coat were made of stitched-up, patched leather.
She didn't want to know where, or who, the leather had come from.
Red Lucy's story for Twilight was much like the one she'd told Bon Bon the night before, though some extra details were added, while others were made softer or removed entirely. Much of what she said, Bon Bon didn't understand, like why in their world they used bottlecaps as currency. Twilight asked a lot of questions about that, none of which were worded in a way Bon Bon understood; she was far from stupid, but this was something she knew little about. From what Red Lucy was able to discern, it had to do with how hard it was to forge them.
Bits still made much more sense to Bon Bon, but she supposed it wasn't her place to say.
It was the topics regarding creatures that especially caught her attention. Her ears pricked up as Red Lucy mentioned feral ghouls. "Ghouls?" she asked, eyes wide. "You've got ghouls in your wasteland?" As if this Mo-ha-vee Wasteland hadn't sounded horrible enough.
Red Lucy opened her mouth, but then closed it. "What are ghouls in your world?" There was caution, patience, thoughtfulness, and considerable curiosity in her words.
"They're like zombies," Bon Bon said. "But worse. Ponies talk about zombie apocalypses, but the truth is they're pretty easy to deal with, if an outbreak gets caught early enough. They're about as strong as the average pony, but much slower. And much dumber. Mostly, they're only dangerous if there's a whole bunch of them in one place. Plus, it helps that only ponies, horses, zebras, and others are affected." She'd never heard of sphinx or dragon zombies, thankfully; just one of those would have been much more dangerous than a whole town full of zombie ponies. "Ghouls are a lot like zombies, but...worse. See, they're still fast, and they're still smart. If they still have teeth, tongues, and their throats, they can...talk. Trick you into opening the door or coming downstairs, just by sounding like an average pony. Even one you might know and love."
Twilight blinked rapidly at Bon Bon. "You sure know an awful lot about this," she said.
Bon Bon realized her mistake, and cleared her throat into one of her fetlocks. "It's, uh...kind of a hobby of mine," she admitted. As Twilight looked from her to Red Lucy, she couldn't help but sigh in relief. The stranger wasn't about to blow her cover, and Twilight seemed to accept that reason as well as any other.
"I...see." Red Lucy looked shaken. "The ghouls from my world are...less mythical. Many of them are victims of...experimentation. A virus was forced into their systems. Then they, and many others, received mass doses of radiation. They grew sick, their flesh became twisted or fell off, and they lost many parts of their bodies...but they did not die." Red Lucy sighed, making the steam of her mug of tea billow around her mouth. "Some of them, in time, go feral. I suppose those are the ones that closest match the ghouls of your world. But many of them do not; many of them maintain their minds. They are merely people who look...unfortunate. Who can be killed by being stabbed or shot, but not by sickness or old age. Many that I have met over the years were well over one hundred years old; even two hundred. Some of them were alive before the war."
Twilight frowned as she turned the page of her notebook. "That's so...incredibly tragic," she said, beginning to write again.
Red Lucy nodded. "It is, indeed. Some who approach the Thorn suggest we keep feral ghouls as a possible foe." She sighed. "I recognize this is...not a pretty topic of conversation. If you're judging me right now, I'll understand." Both Bon Bon and Twilight were about to speak, but Red Lucy held up a paw. No, not paw, hand. That action alone was enough to quiet the two ponies; the human had that kind of presence about her. "But I do have my limits; I'd like to think I'm not a complete monster. The humans who fight in my arena are there because they choose to be there. But while feral ghouls can no longer be called 'human...' they still used to be. They did not consent to being like that, and they cannot consent to fighting in an arena."
A silence fell upon the library, heavy and somber. Twilight was the first to break it, closing her notepad with a sigh. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Lucy," she said. "I...imagine a lot of this can't have been easy for you to discuss."
Red Lucy smiled at the alicorn. "On the contrary. I found it...enlightening. It even feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders." She sipped her tea. Bon Bon wondered if that was yet another luxury she'd been taking for granted. Edible things did grow in deserts; she'd been to enough of them to know that. But they were in short supply. What could possibly grow in a desert wasteland infected with...radioactivity, whatever that was? "I suppose it helps to talk about these things. I'm enjoying learning about your world, too."
The rest of the afternoon in the library passed by pleasantly enough. Red Lucy seemed to have an especially good time playing with Spike, Twilight's baby dragon. She also picked books out at random; she was tall enough to reach the tallest shelves. Lunchtime consisted of cucumber sandwiches. They were some of Bon Bon's favorite food, and she was glad that her new houseguest could digest them, as well; evidently humans were omnivores, not herbivores like ponies, and Bon Bon didn't have any leftover meat to feed her. In fact, she often gave the leftovers of her more deadly hunts to the Apple family or Fluttershy. They didn't usually ask questions; they were only grateful for food for their chickens and pigs and Fluttershy’s carnivorous, omnivorous animals.
A few ponies turned and looked as they made their way back to Bon Bon's house, but not as many. Ponyville was a small town, but a resilient one; give them enough time, they could get used to just about anything. "That was an interesting story you told Twilight," Bon Bon noted.
"Everything about this is interesting, I think." Red Lucy was amused again, in that quiet, thoughtful way of hers.
Bon Bon frowned. Something was bothering her. "It's just...I get the impression you haven't given either of us the full story."
Red Lucy shrugged. "Can anyone ever really know the full story of where they live? I'm only one person, and there's always something going on somewhere."
For all the certain things she'd told them, she also seemed to be fond of non-answers. "You know what I mean," Bon Bon said, hoping she didn't sound too impatient.
"Yes. I do." Red Lucy placed a hand on the back of Bon Bon's mane and began running her fingers through it. "There's an...innocence to this place. To all of you. Dragons, colorful talking ponies, magic...I'm still not certain all of this isn't a fantasy."
Bon Bon couldn't help herself. Despite how nice the nails against her skin felt, Bon Bon bristled. "Look, don't talk down to us, all right? Maybe we're not a wasteland, but we've got our own dangers to deal with! Maybe, whatever else you have to show us, we can handle it. Did you ever think about that?"
"I did." Red Lucy's voice was just as smooth and even as ever, and in a foalish way, it was making Bon Bon angrier. "It's not that I think you can't...it's that I think you shouldn't have to." They stopped short outside of Bon Bon's door. Red Lucy sighed as she kneeled, now able to look Bon Bon right in the eye. "The truth is...I don't want to ruin the beauty and purity of this place. Of...you." She leaned her forehead against Bon Bon's, and this close up, Bon Bon could see every freckle, every mole, every pockmark and scab and scar on the human's face. "I worry that my being here...has already begun doing so."
Bon Bon lightly brushed her nose against Red Lucy's. The sharp pink point pressed into her broad, soft one. "Why don't you let us be the judge of that?" She smiled. "I don't know about you, but your coming here has made things way more exciting for me. I've been missing excitement lately."
"You ought to be careful what you wish for." Red Lucy pulled away, green eyes shining sadly in the bright afternoon sun. "I haven't told you the worst parts...like the political unrest, or the raiders. Or the slavers." She pulled down the collar of her now clean duster, and Bon Bon couldn't help herself. She gasped as she saw the scar around her neck, now much closer. "Or their slaves."
"Y...you were a...?" Big, powerful monsters...Bon Bon knew all about those. She didn't pay much attention to politics, but she knew of corrupted politicians, both past and present. She knew of selfishness and desperation.
But this...this most basic, most unthinkable of evils...
"For a brief time, yes. I didn't make it easy for those who took me; I was bought by a kindly person from a farm nearby. As soon as he safely removed my collar, that's when I began throwing punches. It wasn't just pure animal desperation or rage...I relished in it. I bathed in it." The gentleness of Red Lucy's hand against Bon Bon's cheek didn't negate the harshness on her weathered face. "I. loved. it."
Bon Bon opened her mouth, but then closed it again. What could she possibly say to that? What were the words?
"Tell me, Ms. Sweetie Drops..." Red Lucy's lips now brushed against her ear. The deep sound made her tremble. "Do you know what goes into making an atomic bomb? Because I do."
"N...no," Bon Bon managed to whisper.
"And I'm not going to tell you. They say that knowledge is power. I say that no one needs that kind of power."
"We might figure it out ourselves." The words nearly died in Bon Bon's throat. She wasn't sure how she was able to force them out.
Red Lucy wrapped her arms around Bon Bon's neck, and buried her face in her mane. Bon Bon only barely managed to hear what she whispered.
"And for your sake...I hope you never do."
Bon Bon greeted the rising of the sun warily. She hadn't slept well after her conversation with Red Lucy; troubled thoughts had made it hard for her to sleep, and troubling nightmares kept waking her up. To make things worse, when she finally gave up on getting a full eight hours and headed to her kitchen, she'd found that she was nearly out of her favorite tea.
A trip to the market would do her some good, she decided. She wouldn't be gone long, so she didn't bother to leave a note for Red Lucy before heading out into the chilly morning. Tea and scones from her favorite shop; that was just what her frayed nerves needed.
She nearly dropped her bag of goodies as she passed the Apple Family's stall in the main square. "Had a hard night last night," she caught Applejack saying. "Timberwolves seem to be on the move; was just barely able to keep 'em movin' away from the farm. Dunno where they are in the Everfree Forest."
Bon Bon grit her teeth harder and broke into a canter.
Red Lucy was already up and sitting on her couch. "Bon Bon?"
Bon Bon set her bag down on the counter. "Just heard about a...a monster attack."
There was no questioning in Red Lucy's eyes; she merely squared her jaw and nodded. "Lead the way." Without a word, Bon Bon led her upstairs to her Monster Room, the first creature to ever see what was inside besides Bon Bon.
That's how the two of them found themselves trekking through the cool, damp depths of the Everfree Forest. "Stay close," Bon Bon warned as she moved the branches of a bush aside with a foreleg. They weren't dangerous; they didn't need to be cut down with her machete. "The Everfree Forest is one of those 'once you get lost, you stay lost' kind of places."
"Ah. I'm familiar with those sorts of places." Red Lucy fingered the strap in front of her duster coat. From it, the long, shiny metal thing she'd found in the bathroom hung on Red Lucy's back. “It's been a while since I've been faced with a real challenge."
Bon Bon chuckled. "You and me, both." She'd begun to worry that she was growing too soft, living in Ponyville. The stranger's arrival had begun exacerbating those worries last night. "Do you have timberwolves where you're from?"
"We have coyotes and dogs; it stands to reason that wolves may still be alive somewhere."
Bon Bon shook her head. "Not wolves...I promise, you've never seen these before." She shifted her saddlebags. "These are much bigger. Much more aggressive, a lot like the creatures you were just telling me about. They're..." She bit her lip, trying to think of how to put this in words Red Lucy would find more familiar. "They're not...flesh and blood, like wolves. They're made of wood and leaves and stuff, which means they can't be killed the same way."
"I see. What is it that makes them get up and move?" Red Lucy didn't sound scared; if anything, she sounded intrigued.
"Dark magic. Not like unicorn magic; this is untamed stuff. Which is why they live in the Everfree Forest. It's...not like other places in Equestria. Ponies control everything everywhere else; animal populations, what'll grow, how fast it'll grow, the wind, the rain...one of our princesses even raises the sun, and another raises the moon." She was as familiar with the old mares' tale of the Mare in the Moon as anypony else. Absently, she wondered why Princess Celestia wouldn't have talked more about the fact that she really did have a little sister who'd lived on (or was it in?) the moon for a thousand years. Maybe it had been a painful time for her; Bon Bon was an only foal, but if she'd had siblings, she liked to imagine she'd have loved them; maybe she wouldn't like to talk about it, either, if she'd had to be in Celestia's place. "The Everfree Forest isn't like that. Everything in it just...does its own thing. And it works. It's been around a long time before Ponyville, and it really hasn't changed since then." She chuckled. "A lot of ponies really don't like that. They're even afraid of it."
"The entire country I live in is just like that." Red Lucy skillfully ducked beneath a branch of a nearby tree. "I don't doubt that others of my kind have tried the sort of control you're talking about, but it's never worked. Despite everything, life continued. It...how did you say it? It did its own thing. Despite that utter failure, people are still there." She placed a hand on her chest. "I'm still here."
Bon Bon nudged her upper arm with her nose. "And I'm glad.”
They found the tracks about half an hour in. Red Lucy was the one to discover the massive pawprint in some recently-disturbed soil. Bon Bon raised her nose in the air; she made out the horrific stench of the foul creatures' breath, a smell of rot and decomposition. Between the two of them, it didn't take long to follow the trail.
The pack was small, only made up of four. For the time being, they were still, all laying in the thicket; Bon Bon couldn't see the green lights of their eyes.
"What's the plan?" Red Lucy whispered.
"We have to disassemble them, then destroy the pieces. Otherwise they'll just put themselves back together," Bon Bon whispered back. "But we've got surprise on our side; I don't think they know we're here."
Red Lucy reached behind her, taking the long metal thing into her hands. "This is a long range weapon. Powerful. It's loud, though; there's no possible way they won't wake up once I start firing."
Bon Bon nodded, beginning to form a strategy in her mind. "Well then, you'll have to make every shot count." She raised a hoof, pointing somewhere in front of them and behind the timberwolves. "If you hold this spot, I'm going to go around and attack from the other direction. I think that'll give us an advantage." She gave her a smirk. "Think you can fire without hitting me?"
Red Lucy smirked back at her. "I wouldn't be alive if I weren't a good shot."
Bon Bon believed her.
She knew how to be stealthy when she needed to; she kept her hooves on the softest grass and loamiest soil to muffle her footsteps, keeping a close eye on any movement the timberwolves made. Other than the occasional twitch of a wooden ear or paw, none of them stirred or made any indication that they knew they weren't alone.
Once across the clearing, she looked into the brush where she'd left Red Lucy. The human had climbed a tree; the only way one could make her out was by looking up and noticing her red hair against the deep green of the leaves. She had the metal thing held to her face. Taking aim, Bon Bon noted.
The long-distance weapon aspect was already taken care of; though she'd only known her for a few days, Bon Bon trusted Red Lucy. She supposed it was only fair if she take care of the close-range combat. She nosed open one of her saddlebags, shuffling through knives, vials, and a crossbow, before pulling a hatchet by the handle with her teeth.
It worked on trees; it would do the job, separating wooden limbs and heads from bodies.
The first kill went smoothly. With a swing of her head, the red blade of the hatchet sliced through the vines holding one of the foul creatures' heads to its body. The green lights of its eyes blinked once, then twice, before darkening. Hopefully for good; from here it was a race against the clock to set the damned things on fire, permanently removing their threat from the world.
She thought she had the perfect view and angle to do the same to another, but too late she realized she didn't. She was halfway through her trajectory, and she was seconds too late to change it.
The blade nicked the inside of the wood of the creature's head with a hollow-sounding thunk.
The creature's eyes flooded with neon green light.
The sound of the growl emanating from the creature's massive wooden maw made something click somewhere deep in Bon Bon. Her old monster hunting instincts kicked in, and without thinking, she was on her feet, deftly swinging her hatchet and kicking out with her legs. Timberwolves were bigger, heavier, and stronger than even the strongest of earth ponies, but her small size and agility worked to her advantage; as the creatures still struggled to get up on their legs, Bon Bon weaved in and out of them, cutting at whatever joints she could reach.
She'd dispatched one of the beasts, and had made good on one of the others; its head was still attached, still snarling and snapping and growling at her with that putrid rotting breath, but it was missing both of the legs it had on its left side now, so all it could do was awkwardly try to stagger up and pathetically claw at her.
So focused was she on what she was doing, she wasn't fast enough to clock the one that had approached her from behind. She grit her teeth in pain as she felt sudden sharp pain behind one of her ears. The damned thing had just grazed her with one of its claws. She'd have to get Red Lucy to check if the gash was infected with its sappy saliva once this was all over. She whirled around, glaring defiantly up at the creature straight into its soulless glowing eyes.
As if on queue, that was when the sudden sound rang out. Despite herself, she flinched, ducking down, as if to get away from it; it reminded her a lot of thunder, but it was much louder, much more concentrated, and she could have sworn it had passed one of her ears. Red Lucy's weapon, she absently remembered. She hadn't been kidding; she'd never heard anything so loud before.
Trying to get past the ringing in her ears, Bon Bon looked up just in time to see the green light go out of the timberwolf's eyes just before it collapsed in a pile of lumber. A smoking hole was right between its eyes. "You are a great shot!" Bon Bon called out, probably louder than she needed to, since her ears weren't working at the moment. Adrenaline pumped through her system; all of her other senses were sharp and clear. Extreme excitement, almost giddiness, was making her vibrate almost out of her skin.
This was what she'd been missing.
She reached down, where her hatchet had fallen at some point during the commotion, picked the handle up with her teeth, and turned. There was only one more to deal with.
The timberwolf prowled around her, stepping over the severed limbs of its pack. Unimpressed and unintimidated by the size and strength, Bon Bon galloped. She aimed her hatchet for the vines in its shoulder, jumping and rearing. The creature hadn't seemed to be expecting that, despite what she'd just done to two of its littermates; it stuttered forward, right foreleg bending and cracking beneath it in a way that would have been painful for any other creature. While it was still down, she leapt again, this time aiming for its hip. Her aim was true, but not precise enough; the vine attaching the leg to the hip was only partially severed.
That temporary distraction was all the creature needed from Bon Bon; its whip-like tail struck to its right, catching Bon Bon in her chest, knocking her backwards.
Some ponies in Bon Bon's life had talked about seeing your whole life flash before you in near-death experiences. Bon Bon couldn't be sure that that's what she was experiencing right now, but it certainly was something; ever since she'd picked this career path, she'd known that this was a possibility. She stared into the opening maw of the timberwolf who'd turned while she was knocked down, getting a faceful of breath that reminded her of rotting moss and decaying, moldy leaves. It was an odd feeling of calm that overtook her as she stared headlong into her death.
The sound, the concentrated thunder sound, rang through the air yet again. This time Bon Bon was able to see it; the whole scene before her seemed to happen in slow motion. The metal tube whizzed through the air, clean and gleaming, and straight into the temple of the beast. This one didn't go down immediately; its head whipped to the side, and Bon Bon saw that the area the thing hit was smoking and black around the hole it had made. Its left eye flickered in and out, between green and black.
Then another shot, into the vines between its head and neck. Its head whipped even further away, only partially attached to its shoulders now. Another shot, into the joint above its paw, making it topple over, where it growled and struggled to get back up.
A few more shots, and it was silent.
Bon Bon got to her feet, shaking her head to try to lessen the ringing in her ears, and turned. Red Lucy had climbed down from her perch and was making her way to her.
The giddiness threatened to overflow. Bon Bon found herself laughing, pure with happiness and relief and excitement, the combination of life. As she galloped to Red Lucy, she saw the same look on her mouth, open in a wide grin that met her eyes. As they met, Bon Bon reared up on her hind legs, standing almost at full height with the human, throwing herself at her. Red Lucy caught her with ease.
There were no words, no complications, no pondering or hemming and hawing. Adrenaline still coursed through Bon Bon's body; she was still going by pure instinct, at this point.
Her lips were on Red Lucy's, who'd leaned her head in at the same time she saw Bon Bon coming towards her. The human had lived in a dry, hot desert; one might have thought her full, plump lips might have been chapped, but they weren't. They were soft and warm against Bon Bon's. They didn't fit exactly right; her flat human face wasn't built with a longer pony face in mind.
But they managed. For whatever time they had left, they could keep managing.
"Here's the last of 'em." Bon Bon tossed the short stack of timberwolf lumber, chopped into manageable bits with her hatchet, into the now roaring fire.
"Excellent." Red Lucy smiled at the dancing flames. While Bon Bon had tended to the timberwolf corpses, Red Lucy had started the fire. She'd chosen a patch of dirt a distance away from the thicket, fairly clear of trees, bushes, and other flora. It warmed Bon Bon's heart to see such skills; she supposed it made sense that Red Lucy would know how and where to start a campfire so that it wouldn't burn down the rest of the forest.
She decided she wanted no damage to come to the Everfree Forest. She made a mental note to come here more often, if only to keep her skills sharp.
Red Lucy leaned back on her hands. The heat from the fire had made her roll up the sleeves of her duster. Bon Bon couldn't stop looking at them; up close, she saw that the human wasn't completely hairless, after all. Little red hairs glinted in the fire's light. The skin was paler there; perhaps they saw less of the sun's light than the rest of Red Lucy. Every so often, she saw a scar or two, most of which were faded white, but some of which looked recent. "What did you think?" Bon Bon asked with a smirk. "I know timberwolves aren't your deathclaws, buuuut..."
Red Lucy chuckled. "I must say, I'm impressed. They were quite formiddable." She looked back at the fire with a contented smile on her face. "The Thorn rejoices in the spilling of blood, but this is far more pleasant."
"Yeah; the nature of a lot of things here means there can be a lot of bloodless carnage." Not that Bon Bon hadn't seen her fair share of blood; the bandage behind her ear was just her latest. "Still, with the right know-how, you've seen that we ponies can handle ourselves, huh?"
Red Lucy's face fell ever so slightly. "You can, indeed..." She sounded thoughtful.
A comfortable silence passed between the two of them. Bon Bon took the opportunity to snuggle into the human's side, despite the fact that the fire was already warming her. "Are there...any ponies where you're from?"
"I've never seen them." Bon Bon gulped as Red Lucy draped an arm over her back and began stroking the beige fur over the right side of her withers. "If there are, none of them are like you."
"You mean, uh...that ponies there don't talk?" That was one of the odder things she remembered from Twilight's story about the human world; that, aside from Spike, none of the other creatures she came across could talk.
"I don't think they do, but that isn't what I mean." Red Lucy turned to her. With her other hand, she cupped Bon Bon's cheek with with such tenderness that it made her heart ache. "You're one of a kind...Sweetie Drops."
Bon Bon couldn't help herself. She leaned forward and kissed her again, tilting her head to try to get the angle right this time.
They spent the next few minutes like that, softly kissing each other, stopping, only to come forward again, exploring each others' lips, marveling at what was different and what was the same.
It didn't take long for the serotonin in Bon Bon's brain to simmer down as they pulled apart. "This...isn't going to last, is it?" She gestured with a hoof between the two of them. "This...whatever this is. It can't last, can it?"
"No. It can't."
Bon Bon heaved a heavy sigh and leaned forward, resting her forelock against Red Lucy's forehead. "So...what do we do?"
She felt fingers running through her mane. She found that she was beginning to like the feeling. How unfair, that it would be taken away soon after. "We enjoy it while we can. Life is too short not to enjoy what comes your way, no matter where you are."
Bon Bon smiled against Red Lucy's lips. "Sounds like a date." Was that what this was? A first date? She supposed she'd been on worse before.
Wordlessly, they decided to stay there for the night. The grass felt soft and cool beneath Bon Bon's back, and Red Lucy's body was warm next to hers as they watched the sky together. They both got to see the sun set in the pleasant quiet that was the Everfree Forest.
"Well...how about that..." Red Lucy said rather than asked. "The sun sets in the west here, too."
Bon Bon smiled, appreciating how lovely the human looked in the orange light of the setting sun. "I guess some things are the same, no matter where you are."
They needed no further words, pressed together as the red and pinks of the sunset gave way to Princess Luna's beautiful night.
The next few days were wonderful. Bon Bon would later on call this the 'honeymoon period' of Red Lucy's arrival and stay in Ponyville.
In the mornings, they'd spend their time in the kitchen. Red Lucy introduced her to recipes that were incredibly creative, no doubt from a lifetime of having to make do with what she had; Bon Bon introduced her to some of the freshest ingredients around. Grains, oats, corn, and barley grown right on the Apples' land, fresh milk, butter, and cheese from the cattle ranch nearby, and herbs that Bon Bon grew in windowsill planters with her own hooves. They laughed as they worked, Bon Bon pointing out the flour in Red Lucy's hair, Red Lucy licking her thumb and wiping away some muffin batter away from the corner of Bon Bon's mouth, making her blush.
The muffins weren't perfect, nothing like what one could purchase from Sugarcube Corner, but there was satisfaction in knowing they were eating something that they'd made by hand and hoof. "Curious," Red Lucy said, looking down at a half-eaten muffin in her hand generously slathered with butter. "Your butter tastes so different."
"I think they just churned it a few days ago. I got it fresh." Bon Bon beamed.
"Did they, now..." Red Lucy sighed. "I wonder if this is what dairy products tasted like centuries ago..."
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow, immediately knowing what Red Lucy meant. "You don't have cows in your Mo-Ha-Vee Wasteland?"
"They used to be. Now they're brahmin; the radiation mutated them, giving them two heads, making them all hermaphroditic."
Bon Bon blinked rapidly. "Huh," she said, trying to imagine what Red Lucy had just described.
"They've all got udders; they all still make milk. But it tastes different from this." Bon Bon watched as Red Lucy sank her teeth into the still steaming muffin.
She said nothing, just resting her chin against Red Lucy's shoulder, wishing not for the first time that she didn't have to go back. Red Lucy would be so much safer here. She could be happy here.
Couldn't she?
In the afternoons, they wandered around Ponyville, browsing the stalls and the shops in the town square. At one of the shops, at an aisle filled with jarred and canned produce, Red Lucy stopped short. With a gloved hand, she pointed at one of them, and upon seeing the name, Bon Bon snorted. "Sweetie Drop Peppers," they said in unison before bursting into giggles at their inside joke.
It was the only thing they left with. Bon Bon had paid with bits; once out of the shop, she handed the bag to Red Lucy, who slipped the small glass jar into her duster pocket.
No matter what was going on, they would always watch the sunset together. Red Lucy insisted, and really, who was Bon Bon to deny her?
One night, they were washing the dishes. Red Lucy kept smiling at the plates and mugs with designs on them; apparently most of her kitchenware was made of old metal. The window was open, allowing the cool summer night breeze to flow in over Bon Bon's sink.
One of her ears perked towards another sound coming from outside. Somewhere nearby, a pony was singing. She smiled fondly as she recognized the voice. Pinkie Pie. The eccentric party planner always seemed to have a song in her heart; it made sense that she liked sharing it with everypony she liked.
Red Lucy dried her hands on the dish towel tied to the oven door. Once she was finished, she turned to Bon Bon, offering her a hand. "May I?"
Bon Bon smiled. "You may," she said, rearing up on her hind legs, draping a foreleg over Red Lucy's shoulder and placing a hoof in her hand.
It was a strange feeling, waltzing along from the kitchen to the living room; it was strange, how a human body seemed to be able to fit with that of a small pony.
But, like they'd been doing up to now, they worked at it. Red Lucy led, as though she'd been doing it all her life. Maybe she had. Bon Bon had always considered herself more of a leader than a follower, but she found that she liked this, so she focused on not stepping on Red Lucy's feet, on the feeling of her new lover's strong, warm arms around her, on the feeling of her smooth skin against the fur of her cheek.
"I wish you could stay." The words slipped out of Bon Bon's mouth without any thought.
The pause was particularly poignant, with Pinkie's song floating on the cool breeze all through Bon Bon's cozy living room and Bon Bon's lips right at Red Lucy's ear.
"Me, too." There was so much unspoken in Red Lucy's reply, so many things Bon Bon suspected she wanted to say, but wasn't sure how, or if she should.
That was all right. Bon bon wouldn't pry. The human had been right; all there was to do was enjoy each other's company until they no longer could.
They danced late into the night, holding on tight, wishing they never had to let go.
They'd been sleeping together for the last few nights. Not in the carnal, "we waited for our wedding night" sense, but merely taking up space in Bon Bon's queen-sized bed at the same time, falling asleep in each others' forelegs and arms.
Bon Bon woke one night, covers slightly pulled down her side. With a frown, she rolled over, and saw that Red Lucy was sitting at the other edge of the bed, staring out the window. "Lucy?" Bon Bon murmured, brow furrowed.
"Mmm."
Bon Bon slipped the covers down the rest of the way and crawled over to Red Lucy's side. Humans wore garments under their regular garments, she;d learned; light grey clothing covered her lower unmentionables, as well as the mammaries that were curiously on her chest. I guess they really are apes, Bon Bon had thought when she'd seen Red Lucy without her coat for the first time. At her side, she rested her head against her shoulder. Almost instinctively, Red Lucy wrapped her arm around Bon Bon, as though it were meant to be there. Luna had brought the moon a good deal around in its rotation, far enough that the two of them could see it from Bon Bon's window. It was fat and full tonight; it illuminated Red Lucy's pale skin, bringing all of her scars and blemishes to stark light. "What are you thinking?"
"I've been...restless lately."
Bon Bon nodded, having a sinking feeling she knew where this was going. "I know the feeling." She whispered the words, but they sounded loud in the still air of morning this early. That restlessness, that need to keep moving and do things with her hooves, was what had led her to the monster hunting profession, in the first place.
They really were two of a kind. Perhaps that was why there weren't meant to be.
"I've got the feeling I'm...not where I should be."
"Maybe there's no ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t," Bon Bon weakly suggested. "We ponies talk about destiny a lot, but...what if you chose your own?"
"You know I'd love to stay here." Her fingers had begun stroking the fur on Bon Bon's right foreleg, index finger gently rubbing in small circles. She'd really begun to like that. "But I have another life back there."
"But it sounds so...horrible." There really was no other way to put it, in Bon Bon's mind.
"I understand why you think so." If Red Lucy felt insulted, she didn't let that on. "But that life back there is mine. It's made me who I am."
Bon Bon felt a little guilty. She loved Red Lucy just as she was, scars and all.
"And despite everything...I dare to hope that I can make it better. Even just by a little."
Bon Bon turned her head to the left and heaved a heavy sigh against the grooves of Red Lucy's long, slender neck. "I can respect that." She didn't like it; didn't suspect she'd ever like this. But she understood.
How could the harmony, quiet, and peace of Ponyville not encourage someone to try to make other places better?
"You...you'll tell me when it's time to go, right?" Bon Bon tried to swallow past the lump she suddenly found in her throat. "It'll be hard, but...I'll want to say 'goodbye' properly. You know?"
"Of course, my little pony. My Sweetie Drops."
"Thank you, Red Lucy."
"Lora."
Bon Bon blinked. "Hmm?"
"You've told me your birth name; I suppose it's only fair if I do the same. My name is Lora."
"Lora..." Bon Bon blinked the tears from her eyes and smiled. "It's lovely. I like it."
"Are you sure you've got everything?"
Red Lucy smiled down at Bon Bon, making her satchel rise with her shoulder. "I've checked three times, Bon Bon. I promise, I've got everything."
"Just...making sure." Bon Bon laughed sheepishly, anything to fill the uncomfortable silence as they made their way to the Ponyville train station. Not even the sounds of the town could break it for them.
"I appreciate it. It's been a long time since anyone's looked out for me this way." Bon Bon believed her.
They both walked slowly, gazing out and around at everything and everypony in the town they could lay their eyes on. Anything to prolong the time they had together.
It didn't stop the brightly-colored cars of the train from eventually appearing, or growing closer. Bon Bon's heart sank further and further down with each step closer to the station. "You're sure you're prepared for what you're gonna find in the...what was it? The Capital Wasteland?" According to Red Lucy, that whole place used to be called Washington, DC. It was, evidently, an important place in the history of Red Lucy's country. From the sounds of it, it was in even worse shape than the Mojave Wasteland. To say Bon Bon was worried was an understatement.
"Yes." She reached behind her and patted her weapon in something that almost resembled fondness. "You've seen that I can handle myself when things get rough. I'll be fine."
"I know, I know." It wouldn't stop her from worrying.
The wooden boards of the station clunked heavily beneath her hooves and Red Lucy's boots. Bon Bon watched eagerly as Red Lucy handed the ticket taker her ticket. Bon Bon had been half tempted to not get that ticket at all, give off some fake excuse or wild story, but had stopped herself short.
"Well. I suppose this is 'goodbye.'"
"Yeah...I guess so." Bon Bon squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to burst into tears in front of everypony.
She gasped as she heard shifting on the boards near her and felt warm arms wrap tightly around her. "Thank you for all you've done for me," Red Lucy whispered in her ear.
"I..." Bon Bon sniffled before she turned, burying her face in Red Lucy's hair. "I'll never forget you. You...you won't forget me, either, right?"
"I couldn't. Not even if I tried." They pulled away, and Bon Bon realized, with a start, that the human's eyes were glittering with unshed tears, too. She leaned forward, and so did Bon Bon, and the two of them shared one final kiss.
And then she was gone, duster flowing in the breeze behind her as she stepped onto the train. Bon Bon sat there for what felt like hours, staring off after the train until she could no longer see it.
With nothing else planned for her day, Bon Bon wandered somberly back into town, not having a specific place in mind. Her hooves seemed to have minds of their own as they carried her.
When she finally looked up, her eyes widened. She was at a grassy hill just outside the town's borders. The one she and Red Lucy had spent several evenings on, watching the sunset together.
She sat on her haunches, then lay down all the way, crossing her front hooves over each other. It was then that the tears began to fall in earnest. She lost track of how much she spent there, sniffling and sobbing and pondering just how unfair it all was.
When Bon Bon finally opened her eyes, she gasped. Celestia was pushing the sun down, yet again, in the west. Despite her pain and sadness, Bon Bon smiled.
It helped to think that, wherever Red Lucy was now, she might be watching the sunset at the same time she was.
The train had stopped when Red Lucy opened her eyes. She blinked sharply as she glanced around. The cozy interior of the Ponyville train was gone; there was no wood or pastel colors or soft, comfortable seats to be found. Instead, there was nothing but cold, rusty metal.
She exited the train, reaching behind her and gripping her hunting rifle firmly. The train station, just as metallic and rusty and grimy as the train, was curiously empty. Holding her breath, she pushed open the doors.
Just as she expected, she was met with the sight of once-majestic buildings reduced to piles of rubble, and the sounds of gunfire, laser shots, and the roaring of supermutants. Somewhere, she swore that she could smell the sickeningly sweet scent of ghouls' rotting flesh; knowing her luck, whatever ghouls might be nearby were of the feral sort. They went down easily enough, but they could be troublesome if they were in a pack. And feral ghouls were usually found in packs. She heard a creaking, clicking noise, and looked down. A radroach was pushing insistently at her boot, clearly demanding to make a meal of her flesh.
Home sweet home, Red Lucy thought with a sigh. She cocked the rifle in her hands and, looking back up, lifted her left foot and brought it down hard. No sense in wasting valuable ammo on something so tiny, weak, and insignificant.
Did Equestria even have cockroaches? She hadn't seen any there.
Had it all been a dream? A miraculous, cozy dream her subconscious had cruelly concocted for her as she travelled to a new, unknown place? She'd never had such wondrous dreams before in her life, but then again, there was a first time for everything.
She turned and began sneaking around the building, staying close to the wall so she could watch, listen, and learn.
As her hip brushed against the building, she heard something clink. Blinking in confusion, Red Lucy reached down to her pocket.
The jar. The jar of sweetie drop peppers. She reached to her side to slip her hand into her pocket, and sure enough, her bare fingers touched cool glass.
"So it wasn't a dream," Red Lucy murmured, chuckling to herself.
She'd make her way deeper into the DC area. Hopefully she'd find her way out through the elaborate system of sewers. She had confidence she would; she had experience with getting herself un-lost. Once she was in the midst of sweet, simple wilderness again, she'd find her bearings again. She'd seek out what sort of critters the Capital Wasteland had to offer and take as many eggs as she could fit into her satchel.
And before nightfall came, she would make herself a camp. She'd set a fire and surround it with traps.
And there, Red Lucy would watch the sunset, which she just knew Bon Bon would be watching. Though they were no longer together, it was something she knew they would always share from now on.