Chapter 1: The Bus Ride to Ponyland
The country side was passing me by as I stared out of the window, I adjusted my hair out of my eyes and sighed, I was about to go back to staring out when a Czech accented voice to my side asked.
“So, what is this Musical centre like?” Lucy smiled at me as I turned to face her. “After all I would hate to find myself lost and unable to see you perform your remixes on the stage.” She giggled and smiled at me again.
“It’s just that new one in Newcastle. I don’t really know a lot about it myself but it should be pretty easy to find our way around.” I giggled and leaned into her. “Love ya Lucy.” I said and hugged her.
She hugged me back and giggled. “Aw, I love you to Lyra.” She gently snuggled into me and me into her too, then we both started blushing as we realised there were three pairs of eyes looking at us.
All three started giggling as soon as they realised we saw them.
Nathan peeked over his seat back at us. “That was pretty adorable.” He said and smiled, I threw my hat at him and it hit him on the nose.
“I’m cool not cute!” I said and pouted before chuckling.
Jordan, Nathan’s younger brother, peeked up next laughing. “Wow you seriously remind me of Vinyl sometimes you know that right?” he said and laughed even harder. He looked almost identical to his older brother but he was taller than him, with full blue eyes and his hair was both thicker and darker than his brothers hair was.
I reached to throw my hat at him too but realised I already threw it at Nathan. “You got lucky Jordan.” I looked down at my lap in embarrassment.
“Oh come on sis, it’s not that bad is it?” I looked up and stared at the speaker. My sister Tamzin was staring back at me with a cocky smile, her hair was dark brown and eyes even darker. I started laughing and looked away again.
“Wow the day my sister tries to make ME less embarrassed.” I chuckled softly before blushing more and putting my hood up over my head and moved my hair to cover my face. “All of you, This girl isn’t listening’ anymore be goooone.”
I felt Lucy lean on me, this I liked.
Nathan sighed “Fine you two be cute more we won’t disturb you.” He said and giggled softly to himself before looking forwards, shortly both Tamzin and Jordan were also looking away, and I sighed with relief.
“They are so annoying sometimes.” I heard Lucy mutter. I sighed and moved my hair so I could look out the window again.
We were just about to go onto the main motorway towards Newcastle, that is not what interested me though, what did was something I had never seen before in my life, a large glowing crack in the ground tearing towards us from the side opening up to a bright orange light. I instantly shot up in my seat, accidentally hitting Lucy on the nose with my arm, and looked again. It was definitely not an illusion.
“OH MY GOD!” I screamed, Nathan and Jordan looked to the left and as soon as they saw it they started screaming in fear as it got very close to us. Tamzin stared in silence too shocked to make a sound.
The Driver of the Minibus we were in slammed on the gas pedal and we sped up, the Security guard ran to the back to look out the large window.
“HOLY HELL, MIKE FASTER OR WE WONT CLEAR IT!!” he yelled loudly and ran back to the front.
The driver yelled. “WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M DOING JEREMY!?” The tear broke onto the road ahead of us, and widened to over 6 meters wide. And we were too close to stop now.
Mike slammed on the breaks but there was nothing we could do.
I closed my eyes but a sudden jolt and smashing of metal on rock was heard which made me look up, we had collided with the other side of the hole and were hanging over by our headlights and the bus sign.
Jeremy sprinted to the back and kicked the window out. “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” he screamed and climbed out and began trying to hold the bus in place.
Mike got out of his seat and was out of that window in less than 4 seconds, which then left us alone inside.
Nathan was the first up, but as soon as he moved the bus jolted and began to slide down the wall at the other side.
I heard Jeremy scream. “ITS FALLING, MIKE YOU IDIOT!”
I stood up and pulled Lucy up too. “Come on out Now!” but it was too late, as soon as we took one step the bus fell, I looked to the rear window as we fell and saw both Men staring over the edge at us with horrified expressions. Then the light and fog from the hole covered them, and all I could see was orange out of every window.
Everyone was screaming, but myself. I grabbed Nathan’s seat, then Tamzin’s and Pulled myself forwards towards the driver seat, I forced myself into place on that seat and looked out the front window, just as I did so the orange fog cut away to a sudden blue sky and white ground with dark trees below. “Oh my god.” Was all I could say before I realised that we were flying forwards at about 100 Miles per hour with the ground getting dangerously close.
“OH GOD EVERYONE HOLD ON!!” I screamed and grabbed the Steering wheel, we collided with the snowy ground, sending a large groan of bent metal throughout the entire bus. I slammed my foot onto the breaks and swerved to not slam into a tree, The bus barely missed but I was now in a large clearing in which I could stop.
Once the breaks finally worked we had stopped in the very centre of the Clearing. I could see trees on all sides leading into pure darkness, the snow around looked undisturbed and very thick, there was a small frozen river ahead.
It didn’t take me long to realise my hands were shaking and I was struggling to breathe, that whole ordeal had been too much for me, way too much, I fell out of my seat and gasped for air, I was having a bad panic attack.
I soon found myself wrapped in a tight hug and my back being patted quite hard. After what felt like forever I took a large breath and my vision began to clear again. The first thing I saw was the worried and scared, but also relieved eyes of Lucy as she smiled at me.
“There you go, relax…we’re okay…” she said calmingly as I leaned against the side of the seat.
she then quickly walked back to the others to check on them to.
I breathed with pure relief when I saw that all of the others were pretty much ok, Nathan had a bleeding arm from a shard of glass and Tamzin had a cut on her face, but other than that everyone was the picture of health.
That relief turned to fear as we all heard a large thud on the roof of the bus. We all quickly climbed under our seats and made sure to be out of sight.
Something entered the bus through the hole in the back window and began to walk towards the front, I could only see the feet, or, foot and hoof of whatever it was and the long red tail.
“Hmm, where are they all, I was sure that some were still in this thing when it fell.” A deep voice spoke to them self. I knew this voice, and what I could see confirmed it, but I still couldn’t believe it.
“Maybe…down here!” I was suddenly staring right into a pair of yellow eyes with red pupils. A single fanged smile and a grey beard was on his face. It was him, It was Discord and he was staring right into my eyes. “Ah I found you!” he said and grabbed my arm, I squealed in fear and tried to pull away, but I had no chance. He was over double my size and very strong. Before I knew it he had gathered all of us up in his arms, which he now had 7 of, and carried us all outside, each of us was screaming and yelling.
“Hush now little humans I am not here to hurt you, I am here to help you!” he said with a serious tone.
Only Tamzin and I quietened down, the others got louder. So Discord quickly zipped their lips, literally.
“I had seen that you were in trouble with that large ravine formation, so I had used my magic to change it into a portal for you to come here instead of falling to your doom, isn’t that nice of me?” Discord gained a halo and smiled at us all.
“C-can you put us down….please?” I shakily asked, he complied and dropped us all in a heap on the ground and covered in snow.
Tamzin looked up at Discord. “So, you saved us? Or did you cause the Crevice?” she asked sounding unsure of herself and more unsure of him.
He bent down and smiled at her. “I saved you. The crevice was a large collapse in an old mineshaft that had a large chain reaction for a whole 30 mile radius.” He looked at us all and nodded.
I stood up and pointed at him. “Why save us then? If it effects such a large area why were we saved?”
He simply sighed, which surprised me. “You are the only ones I could get to in time, my magic is slow to cross to your world, I tried to save 5 other vehicles. Only your one had been saved.”
Nathan unzipped his lips. “How were you able to see and save us then?”
Discord chuckled “I am the god of chaos, I can see a few more places than my current world you know. You just got lucky I guess.”
I looked back at him. “So…what now?” I asked with a sad sigh.
“I cannot send you home, the worlds have pulled apart too far now, it will be another 2 years before they are that close.” Discord sighed as Lucy hugged me quietly and the others looked like their lives were over.
“That means that there is no point in coming back after that, too much time will have passed.” I sighed.
Jordan punched the snow and groaned.
Discord looked at us all and scratched the back of his neck. “That is why I have been thinking of some way to make you have a new life here.” Lucy looked at him with confusion.
“What is this Idea of yours then?” she said while holding onto me and me onto her.
Discord’s eyes narrowed slowly as he said. “I plan to use my magic to reduce your ages so that you could be at an age to go to schools here, and possibly have new parents.”
All five of us look at each other and scratch our heads. “you mean, make us little kids?” Tamzin asks him with hesitation.
He nods and looks us all over once. “I think if you were all under the age of 10 then you could have a good life here, as you would all be young enough to not be a threat in the eyes of Celestia and other ponies here.”
At the mention of Ponies all of us suddenly realised exactly where we were and what that meant.
I looked at him and gave a thumbs up. This was not the worst idea I had expected to hear from him.
Nathan thought about that for a little while before asking “So Boys and Girls not Colts and Fillies, right?”
Discord looked at him. “Yes changing your species would be a little much for you would it not?”
Nathan chuckled. “Hell no I wouldn’t mi-“ he was cut off as his brother elbowed him in the cheek. “OW!”
Jordan frowned at him. “Shut up Nathan.”
Tamzin Lucy and I all stare at them with irritation while discord started laughing. “Oh you two are fun, hurray!” he laughed happily for a few more seconds before asking us. “So what do you think of the idea?”
Lucy was the first to speak. “This means school with CMC I want school with CMC yes please!”
I had no idea of my opinion but if it would make her happy I’m okay with it, I love her enough to go for it. “I’m in too.”
Nathan and Jordan shrug “We don’t care.”
Tamzin looked at us all. “…right..well it can’t be that bad If you two are fine with it, I guess being the same age as you isn’t a problem.”
Discord nods. “Then I will do it now, then leave you to be found, Twilight and her friends saw you and are on their way to find that ..bus. and Zecora heard the large Boom from the portal opening and is on her way here too. So it will not be a long wait.” He smiled. “I will see you all soon, make sure to get good grades in school.” He started laughing before snapping his fingers.
Everything went white in a large flash, I felt like my whole body had been compressed, I felt my clothes change materials, and of course, the reversal of puberty.
When the light faded Discord was gone, and I saw everything at half the height as I was before.
I looked down at myself. I noticed my lack of a bust first and chuckled. “Wow.” My voice caught me off guard too. it was so much higher than before. “Wow I sound so …small!”
A little girl’s voice came from behind me. “You look so small too, seeing as you were taller than even me before that is incredible.” I turned around and saw Lucy, she looked like the cutest little girl I have ever seen but still looked like her older self.
her clothes had changed to now be a thick pink and gold coat with thick trousers, I saw on the front of her coat and on the trousers was a Golden heart with a Star in its centre and there was a magic wand over both. Her hair was still dyed blonde and in a similar styles to her older self.
Seeing her like this I had to look at myself again just to check, I was wearing the exact same clothes as her but my coat was Mint Green with purple stripes down the arms and the image on my clothes were a white musical note made out of pixels with a love heart behind it and a full moon with a claw mark on it. I saw I was wearing snow boots too, thick warm ones as well. “Hmm I like my boots.” I looked up again and hugged Lucy, it was at that moment that I realised exactly what she meant, she was taller than me, as I only came up to her shoulder.
“And I also like your baseball hat,” she said and smiled, considering I never noticed I had a hat made me look up at it in confusion, which she laughed at happily.
I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and was suddenly picked up. “Gaah! Another girl’s voice chuckled.
“Stop kicking little sis you’re going to make me drop you.” I looked up at my sister in surprise. She was definitely older than me now by a good few years it seems.
“I found a note on the ground little sis, Discord seems to have had a little fun with us. He made you 8, me 11, Lucy 10 Nathan 9 and Jordan is the oldest at 12. So officially you are the baby of the group now, oh he also told us what the marks on our clothes are aaand that he has a bunch of surprises he left with each of us. But said we will find them out soon enough.” She smiled and poked my nose. “baby sis.”
I frowned and gave her my grumpiest stare, which made her laugh a lot and drop me into the snow, I now felt I have a backpack on which i never noticed before.
Lucy nudged Tamzin. “Do not drop her, she is very little now.” She said and helped me up.
“Are you girls done yet?” A little boy’s voice asked from my left. I turned to look at him and saw it was Nathan, he was taller than me. He was wearing a thick black jacket and jeans, his snow boots were black and the mark on his jacket was a pen and book with a shield behind them and a pair of glowing blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. I was confused by that.
I looked back at Tamzin to see what hers was, A red and black guitar with a fanged smile behind it. It looked cool to me.
Jordan walked up to us all and shook his head. “The day where I am taller than Lyra, Lucy and Tamzin. This is weird to me.” He laughed and looked at us all. I looked at him, he had similar clothes to Nathan but the jacket was dark blue and his boots were white, and his mark was a computer and an art pad. He had nothing else like the rest of us did.
“Jordan, you are the tallest here, I am the shortest. This is weird!” I yelled and started laughing.
Lucy began to shiver. “Actually can we all go back inside the bus, out here is so cold.” She said and began to walk back to the bus, I decided to go with her and when I checked the others had too.
A little while later we had managed to get the bus’s heaters working and had some warmth at the front, Nathan and Tamzin were routing through the bags of Mike and Jeremy to look for something useful, while me Lucy and Jordan decided to get all of our luggage to see if some of us brought some food.
It took quite a while to get everything inside the bus but once we had we began to check our own bags first.
My one had all my musical equipment, including my laptop and mp3 player, all of which was still intact thanks to my luggage being a hard case.
“Thank god it’s all okay.” I muttered to myself as I started to browse my music.
Nathan patted me on the shoulder.
“Hey, dudette, look at what we found in the security guy’s bags.” He gave me Jeremy’s bag, I opened it and looked inside. There was a pistol, a holster for it and 5 full magazines and a small pouch full of bullets for it. I gasped and looked up at Nathan.
“That man had a gun this whole time?” I asked, loudly. Nathan nodded and looked at the windows.
“I've seen where we are and I assume its somewhere in the middle of the Everfree forest, I based that idea on what Discord said about Zecora hearing us and the fact that all the trees are too thick to look past the first of them.
So I think that we may need that thing at some point if I am right about where we are.” He scratched his nose and adjusted his glasses. “I’m a little concerned now, we did not really think Discord’s suggestion through did we?” he asked and rubbed his eyes.
I sighed “No we did no but well, we’re little, in the middle of the Everfree forest, with a gun. We could be in a lot worse of a situation but this is a pretty bad one I think….I hope that he was right about the ponies or Zebra finding us soon…I’m not sure this bus’s battery is going to hold out long after all the damage this bus has… then we’re going to freeze to death.” I shuddered and looked back at Jeremy’s bag. “But we do have a good defense now if we have to try to find our way out of the forest, don’t you agree?” I smiled and picked the gun up, it was heavy in my small hands but nothing I couldn’t handle.
He shook his head. “What makes you think you’re the one going to be using that?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me with a smirk.
“Nathan I have been to a full target practice session while on a holiday to Texas, I am officially the only one here who knows how to use this, even though I am the youngest, now.” That wiped the smile right off his face.
“Fine, fine you can keep it, but don’t shoot me with it, I have enough to worry about.” He gave me a small salute then went back to searching in his own bag again.
I just finished getting all of my equipment from my hard case and into my backpack, which had my mark and name sewn onto it, when I heard some voices approaching from the far right of the bus, just behind the tree line.
I was not the only one to hear them as everyone inside the bus went silent and quickly finished moving what they needed into their own backpacks and hid down below the windows so that they can peek out. I moved up to the front and peeked over the steering wheel just as Zecora left the trees and stepped out into the clearing, closely followed by six ponies that we all could recognise as soon as we saw them. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle.
Seeing them in the flesh made my heart speed up even more than when I was staring Discord in the face.
They were all pretty much what I expected to see, a more real version of what you could see in SMF or GMOD. What did surprise me about them is that they were a lot taller than I expected, as in they would be the same height as me even when I was my original age.
Twilight had her wings which meant there was a high chance that she would be really surprised to see us all here. Well, if equestria girls actually happened that is.
Pinkie stopped first and looked at the bus. “Ooooooooohh! Look at that, its all metal and white and has wheels and I’ve never seen one before! Twilight can you see this!?” she started jumping up and down on the spot and began to hop towards us when Twilight pulled her back with magic. As I saw magic in action I smiled.
“Cool, just like the show.” I chuckled and kept watching.
“Pinkie, yes I do see it now please calm down, there could be anypony inside!” Pinkie blushed and looked ashamed.
“Sorry Twilight I’m just excited.” She stepped back behind Twilight and kept staring at the bus from where she was.
I suddenly noticed the lack of a certain blue Pegasus. When a sudden voice boomed into my ear. “HEY I WHAT ARE YOU!?!” I span and was nose to muzzle with Rainbowdash herself, I shrieked in shock and surprise, which made me stand up, slip on the stairs of the bus and land on my face in the snow, I looked up dazed to see Pinkie right in my face smiling. I screamed from her sudden appearance and got to my feet and stumbled backwards.
Suddenly Nathan, Lucy, Tamzin and Jordan all sprinted out of the bus’s open door and grabbed my arm and started running towards the trees.
They had made it about 14 metres before we were all picked up in a large purple bubble.
We were suspended in the large bubble with all the locals below us, staring.
“Hey Ly, you were a bit of a baby before, you know that right?” Nathan’s sarcastically commented.
“Nathan if I wanted your opinion I would have ASKED!” I yelled and sat on the floor of the bubble arms and legs crossed.
Twilight’s voice then interrupted us. “Humans, HERE? I so need to talk to Sunset about this later… who are you?” I looked at her, she was very confused, and her friends were mostly looking at her with interest.
Rarity looked up at us. “So this is what the people through the portal look like, rather interesting.” She tapped her hoof to her chin in thought.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa you’re telling’ me that through that portal there is a ME who looks like THAT? Am I the only one who is surprised by this here?” Rainbow asked in energetic confusion.
While Twilight gave Rainbow a quick briefing about what the other her is like, Fluttershy flew up to the bubble and smiled at us cutely. “You guys don’t look that old, and aren’t you all so cute.” She giggled happily and looked at us all. Rainbow suddenly pulled her away, causing her to squeak in surprise.
“Jeez, Shy, Don’t get so close to them they could do anything!” she waved her hooves around to gesture the importance of her statement.
Twilight then tapped her. “Rainbow other than a few other dietary habits I have seen the Humans are almost identical to us in every way, so no, they cannot do anything.” She then smiled at the unamused Dash and came up to the bubble. “So, Who are you, and how did you get here?” she sat and got out a small notebook.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m Lyra, this is my sister Tamzin!” I was about to introduce the others when Twilight asked. “how old are you all?”
Tamzin answered. “I’m 11, she’s 8. Lucy here is 10, Nathan is 9 and Jordan there is 12.”
Twilight nodded slightly. “Ah you are only colts and fillies, Not mares and stallions yet.” We all shared a slight look of amusement before nodding. Twilight jotted down what she found out about us into her book then looked up at us again. “And how you got here?”
Nathan yelled out. “We fell through a magical hole Discord made to save us from being exploded to death from falling into a crevice of death!”
All of us collectively face palmed, and Jordan muttered, "Idiot."
Twilight frowned. “Discord is involved in this??” she asked, sounding quite peeved.
Lucy moved her hands up quickly to try to calm her down. “No, no he saved us from a big boom! He is the hero!” she went up against the bubble and looked right out at Twilight. “He saved us.”
Twi and the other mares looked at each other and began to whisper. Meanwhile Zecora came up to us and peered inside the bubble closely. “Hmm, In all my days I thought it untrue that mythical humans exist like you.”
Tamzin chuckled and smiled. “And I never thought I would ever meet a talking zebra.”
Zecora smiled. “Then I am glad we have all met, though if an accident, or fate. It is undecided yet.” She smiled with a friendly grin and went back to the ponies.
Twilight and the others turned to face us and the bubble faded away, and we all were gently lifted down onto our feet. “Come with me back to my castle, once there I can send a letter to Princess Celestia and we can talk more about what to do with you after she replies.”
Jordan stepped forwards and nodded. “Okay then, you lead the way.”
Twilight nodded and began to walk back towards the way she came. “follow me then, Rainbow, you Pinkie and Applejack stay behind them, okay?”
With that We began to walk, three ahead and three behind, with Zecora to the left of us. I was at the back of the group, close to pinkie, who was staring at me with the largest smile I have ever seen.
“I am so going to throw the biggest party ever for you all,” I heard her mutter, I giggled quietly and kept walking.
Half way there I had gotten bored of the awkward silence of both groups so I reached back into my pocket and pulled out my MP3 player and began to browse the songs I was looking at earlier, I selected “Five nights at Freddy’s 3 It’s time to die” and put my headphones on as we walked, I could feel Rainbowdash staring into the back of my head in interest at the sounds coming from me, very loudly now that I think about it, but If she asked me something about it or not I did not hear, because I was wearing headphones playing loud music.
I noticed that everyone had looked at me at least once while I was listening to the music, I do not know if it was jealousy or confusion as to why I was playing it at full volume, but I didn’t care.
After another long-time of walking we breached the forest. I removed my headphones and gasped. “Whoa Ponyville looks gorgeous this time of year!” I said aloud and stared at the Town over the hills.
“How do YOU know of Ponyville?” Rainbowdash asked, before quickly getting nose to nose with me again. I was scared by her being right in my face suddenly again. So I simply decided to say the truth just to get her out of my face. “I saw it on TV and found it quite pretty!”
Applejack suddenly pulled Rainbow back and frowned at her. “Would ya do that t’ mah sister and her friends? Would ya??” She asked, getting close to Dash with a frown.
Dash looked at her with confusion. “What do ya mean?!” she asked and frowned.
Applejack got right in her face. “That there filly is 8 years old and yer right in her face like this, d’ ya like me asking questions right in yer face, d’ ya?” with each question she got closer to Dash, who in response went into herself and looked guilty.
“No..” she replied quietly.
Applejack nodded, “Now imagine that feeling but to an 8 year old little ‘un.” Rainbow looked at me and quietly muttered she was sorry before going back behind us.
After about a minute of looking at each other and some whispers from the other ponies we began walking again, and I felt terrible.
I kept looking back at the saddened Rainbow every few seconds, wishing I had something to say to make her feel better, but I was too down myself to think of anything.
I felt a soft hand take my own and I looked up, it was Lucy.
“Hey, do not get that look, I know that look, it’s the ‘I’m bad’ look.” She said and poked my nose with her free hand.
I slightly smiled and held her hand tighter, then looked back at Dash.
“Rainbow..” I said quietly.
Rainbow looked up at me. “Oh come on, now you know my name when It wasn’t even mentioned?” she shook her head and raised her eyebrow.
I chuckled slightly, “Like I said, TV. Does it help to say I am a fan?” That definitely did help as Dash’s ego took over from that and she began to hover again with a smug smile.
I nodded and began to walk forwards again.
I already liked this place a lot more than home, and I haven’t even reached town yet.
Author's Note
Been a bit busy lately c:
