Beantown Bug

Glimmer and Sage sat in a small boat while Clarity and Dustup flew nearby, tugging the vessel across the water, with a couple lengths of rope. Glimmer kept her focus on the wagon, and occasionally gripped it with her magic, adjusting it so that it wouldn’t get any ideas about going for a nice swim in the cold, morning harbor. Sage turned over a miniature of the massive statue they had arrived beside, taking in its details with wide eyed wonder.

“Lady Liberty,” Sage mumbled to herself, as she read the etching on the base of the figurine for the tenth time. Glimmer couldn’t help but roll her eyes, which drew Sage’s attention. “What do you think she’s like?”

Glimmer let out a long breath, as she looked at the figurine between Sage’s hooves, then back at the island they’d departed some minutes ago. “I don’t know,” she said, after a while, “Whatever she’s like, people obviously liked her enough to build a huge, metal statue.”

“Do you think these,” Sage wiggled the figurine, “Are like some sort of shrine idols?”

“Like the little Celestia woodcarvings from late eighth century shrine houses?”

Sage nodded. Vigorously.

“Maybe. We could always ask.” Glimmer shrugged, and leaned back in her seat. She took a moment to jostle the wagon, and make sure it was still stationary. “Probably.”

“Probably?”

“Yeah, probably.” Glimmer was silent for a second longer, taking on a contemplative pose with her chin on her hoof. “You remember how Luna briefed us on the mechanics of the spell? How it would only return a human to Earth once their soul was ready for their new body?”

“Uh, yeah.” Sage tilted her head. “What about it?”

“What if nopony’s ready yet?”

“What? No way!”

“Think about it.” Glimmer rolled onto her back and looked over to Sage. “That island we were just on, with the statue. In Equestria, that island had a statue of Celestia to welcome visitors from across the ocean. There were always tourists around. Then we come here, and nopony’s around to greet us? Not even a couple guards? We were walking around the island for a couple hours, and nopony came.”

Sage pursed her lips and looked back down to the figurine in her hooves.

“And all the time we’ve been out here, I haven’t seen any signs of activity. Equestria, the port’s busy at all hours, but here?” Glimmer waved her hoof all around. “It’s quiet. Too quiet. Don’t you think?”

Sage leaned back and planted herself against the wall of the boat. For a few seconds, she looked off into the distance, with a thoughtful expression on her face. Her ears flicked back and forth, tracking the sounds of the waves and sea birds. She turned back to Glimmer, with a small smile. “Maybe they’re still asleep.”

Glimmer’s muzzle scrunched up, and she rummaged through her saddlebags. “I don’t think so,” she said, as she levitated a small clock in front of her, “It’s a quarter to ten.” She turned the clock around to show Sage. Nine fortyfive, on the dot. “Somepony should be awake by now, especially in a city this big.”

Sage sighed, and watched as Glimmer adjusted the wagon again. Her fellow groundpounder had a point. It was the middle of the morning. Around this time, she’d be on her way to the noon market, with a cart of her freshest herbs. In the briefing, they had been told there were over seven billion(!) of these humans on the whole planet—and there were millions(!!) of them living in Earth’s equivalent of Manehattan. The numbers were far larger than anything she could grasp. Her lips formed a little O shape as it sunk in. If there were really millions of humans on the shore just a few minutes away, she would have heard something—anything. But in the past fifteen minutes they’d been on the water, they hadn’t seen any evidence of the city's inhabitants. “You think we scared them when we warped in?”

“At seven in the morning?”

“Maybe?”

“Come on, Sage!”

Sage licked her lips and looked down to the figurine in her hooves. She turned it around and looked into the face of Lady Liberty. “Well, uh…” She rolled onto her side. “There has to be somepony out there. Right?”