Secret Service: Operation Anthropologyby Kaliann25Chapters001002003004005006007008009010011012EPILOGUE001AnthroCon, Fillydelphya stadium; Friday 11:39 am Humans, truth of myth? Old and fake mythology for most of the ponies but still their tales still fascinated the ponykind since always. And for once a year the ponies who really believed humans coexisted in their world with them could be themselves without being judged and that day was today: the AnthroCon. A pretty famous event where fans of anthropology could share each other’s theories, buy some products and of course interact with the greatest personalities in the Anthropology field such as doctor Lyra Heartstrings, the greatest of the greatest. At the time Lyra was in her dressing room preparing for her big conference… and for something else, something more important and classified. It seemed like the usual conference about paranoid fantasies (as Lyra called everything related to humans) but in fact it was a distraction, they received an information that a terrorist group planned to take hostage everypony attending the AnthroCon and of course the Secret Service won’t allow it; and as part of the most secret military unit in Equestria Lyra was ready for everything and everypony. When she finished combing her mane she just took an earring and activated the secret transmitter. “Here agent Heartstring in my way to my position. Thirty two seconds. Girls?” In her console, the famous DJ-P0N3 Vinyl Scratch began to play ‘the wub’ as she called it. “How are you AnhtroCon? Ready for the main attraction? This if for doctor Heartstrings, I think you all know it, right?!! Come on, EVERYPONY SING ALONG!!” And she played the AnthroCon theme, sang by doctor Lyra Heartstrings herself: Anthropology. The crowd shrieked excitedly while Lyra nodded, that was the signal she agreed with her unit. Showtime! Lyra walked slowly to the stage and everypony (including Vinyl) muttered when she appeared and walked to the mic prepared just for her. After taking a small sip from a water bottle prepared for her, Lyra simply began: “Hello everypony, as you all know I’m doctor Lyra Heartstrings and I know humans exist” Cheers and more cheers. Lyra nodded and raised a hoof calling for silence again. One more time the excited crowd muttered and she simply took a small remote control and showed a slide of a well-known mirror in the world of anthropology. “As you all know this mirror is some kind of gate to a parallel Equestria, a ‘mirror version’ of our own world but inhabited by our human-selves. Yes, it was an important day on our field when we finally demonstrated we were right… but what if that isn’t the only human world? What if there was another human realm that has nothing to do with our human-selves but is still somehow connected to Equestria?” The crowd began to talk among themselves when Lyra passed to another slide showing an old newspaper FrontPage about a strange event from sixteen years ago where several beams of magic crossed all over the sky showing what it seemed like an unknown landscape in the sky. As a secret agent Lyra knew it was only one of Nightmare Moon’s attempts to free herself before the right time comes but of course the anthropologists believed almost anything. “Here, sixteen years ago a magic outburst from who-knows-where created several warp-holes to an unknown real; a human realm I think…” More and more excited mumbles around the crowd when suddenly a scream of pure madness and anger called everypony’s attention. Octavia Melody took a knife and pulled the nearest security guard from his shirt and began to shout in her nonsensical madness: “WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU HIDDING YOU PINK PEST? This whole time you’ve been bothering me and now that I want to kick your rump you disappear… come on, fight like a mare Pink Pest… FIGHT OR I’LL KILL EVERYPONY UNTIL I FIND YOU!!” Everypony walked backwards in fear, Octavia had a creepy smile on her face and her pupils somehow shrank to the size of two buttons. She was mad, completely mad. “Still not showing yourself? FINE!” And just like that she cut the security guard’s throat and began to scream in madness starting a massive evacuation. At the end the only ponies remaining in the stadium were a group of fifteen ponies dressed in black and seeming genuinely confused, Vinyl, Octavia and the deceased security guard. “What just happened?” Asked the leader of the ponies in black. Octavia’s mad face went back to normal. “It’s easy, in the name of the Secret Service you’re all under arrest!” “This was a trap!” The ‘dead’ security guard stood, showing it was no other than Bon-Bon who cleaned the raspberry jam from her uniform. “Indeed it was. Surrender now” Half of the ponies in black tried to escape for the main door but Bon-Bon took her spy-weapon: several super-sticky candies that she threw and they all got trapped. Another group tried to take Lyra as a hostage but she quickly got rid of them with her fighting skills. “Who do you thing I am? Do you really believe I’m into this nonsense of humans?” She asked cheerily. Finally the last five ponies tried to get the emergency exits but they were stopped by Vinyl and her laser-glasses. It was over, the Secret Service captured them all. “Mission accomplished!” Smiled Lyra. “Not bad being your first time leading a squad!” Complemented Bon-Bon. “Thanks!” “It was actually pretty cool, so, wanna celebrate on the train back home?” “Sound great for me!” And the four spies reported and went back to Ponyville celebrating a small ‘success party’ on the train. This was the life of the Secret Service, the most secret agents of Celestia’s most secret military unit; and they were happy to serve Equestria even if nopony knew. Once they arrived to their hometown, the two couples separated and went back to their respective homes, again they were happy to be secret agents. “You know Lyra? It’s pretty convincing when you start talking about humans, I actually believe you believe what you’re saying” chuckled Bon-Bon when they spotted their house. “I’m an artist inventing nonsensical stupidities what do you expect love?” Said Lyra proudly. They kissed and entered to their home where they were greeted by Princess Celestia herself. “Dang it, you startled us your Highness. What can we do for you?” Asked Lyra. The Monarch of Equestria dedicated the two spies a small nod and smiled warmly. “It’s complicated agents, first of all congratulations for your first time leading a squad agent Heartstrings. Your arrest saved countless of innocent lives. Next, agent Drops, do you mind if I talk to your partner alone? Bon-Bon nodded and went upstairs after dedicate Lyra an encouraging smile. The minty unicorn sighed and smiled shyly to Celestia. “Why do I have the feeling I messed up?” “Please calm down agent, I’m just curious about the article you chose for the distraction. Of all of the other articles, why that in particular?” Lyra shrugged innocently. “I can’t really tell, I was looking for some article that could help me inventing something convincing enough for the anthropologists and suddenly I jumped into something written the same day of my birthday. Is not big deal! “And you made an excellent job agent, I was just curious” Lyra made a firm military gesture to Celestia and bowed to her. “Princess as an elite soldier I was just following orders. Now your behavior is telling me that article is more than it seems, it’s okay, I also can see is something I don’t really want to know so don’t worry. I promise you I won’t look forward, I a soldier and I am loyal to the Crown until the end” Celestia smiled to her, “Thank you agent Heartstrings, I never doubted you but I had to be sure” “Whenever you need your Highness” Celestia teleported away and Lyra went upstairs to meet with Bon-Bon in bed. “Ey, what happened sweetheart?” “No big deal, apparently the article I used for my ‘new discoveries’ was more than it seemed and she came to make sure I won’t look forward. And as a loyal soldier I told her I neither know nor care. Just following orders” “As the way it should be. For a second I thought you ran into trouble” Smiled Bon-Bon. “No, a small mistake. No big deal darling” Location unknown; Sunday 10:45pm “So boss, what do you think about Doctor Heartstring’s conference?” Asked a pony looking to the brochure he grabbed at the AntrhoCon. The boss, a green earth pony with blond mane and a Cutie Mark of a can of peas just examined it. “It’s a shame she was interrupted by that wacko, but at least she proved she know the essential. Both Doctor Heartstrings and I are completely sure that day was crucial for Equestrian history, but still she doesn’t know as much as we do. We have to open her mind and recreate the event that brought her with us” “But boss Sweet Pea, are you really willing to go that far to reveal the truth?” The green pony laughed sadly. “You don’t understand my friend. The Crown will bury the truth as soon as the mass hysteria calms down. No, this is an act for mercy for the pony who showed me that there’s much more than it seems. Returning her home, her true home, will not only make her truly happy but also it’ll allow us to know the world of the other humans; the ones who aren’t mirror versions of ourselves but true humans” “As you wish boss. It’s all prepared, it will happen Wednesday at 3:00 o’clock” Books & More, Canterlot: Wednesday 2:57pm Lyra sent dissimulated look to the clock on the wall, her two hellish hours signing books about her new founds in Anthropology were about to end and only ten ponies remained. She smiled, pretend to be an idiot who believed in humans was sometimes exhausting but at least this was the last event as anthropologist in two months. She looked at the pony whose book she was signing. “Ey, did I know you from somewhere? I have the idea I’ve seen you face before…” The pony smiled to Lyra. “That depends, do you read the financial section a lot?” He asked with a smile. Lyra’s eyes widened. “Oh right! You’re Sweet Pea, the tycoon of canned veggies! Do you really believe in humans?” “Of course, as you say ‘the truth is out there’ right, doctor Heartstrings? I’m your fan!” Lyra nodded. “Glad you like my books” “I can’t have enough of them, right guys?” Sweet Pea asked to the nine ponies behind him. “Of course boss!” They said at the unison. Lyra looked at the nine ponies. “So they all work for you?” “My bodyguards. Having money is like having a target painted right on your back, you know doctor?” Lyra smiled relieved this was actually the last book she had to sign for the afternoon. Sweet Pea admired the autograph with a dream-like look and smiled to Lyra making her feel very, very uncomfortable. “Ehm, what else do you need?” He grinned. “You see doctor, you’ve inspired me. At first I was just a young colt with no idea what to do with my life… until I found your books and knew I had to become ‘somepony’ to research for the TRUTH without being caught. That’s when I started working in the canned veggies business becoming who I am now, and also researching for more evidence of human’s existence in Equestria. Doctor you saved me” Lyra gulped looking around. The bodyguards were positioning themselves to block every entrances and exists. She was a very skilled agent but she was not capable to fight nine ponies at the same time. Her only hope was to dominate Sweet Pea before the other ponies catch her. “For a while I doubted about your convictions doc, I thought you were inventing things out of nowhere just to sell more books… but at the AnthroCon you showed me my suspicions were unjustified. Your clues lead you to the same event that mines… what happened sixteen years ago!” Lyra then jumped to take Sweet Pea and escape but the bodyguards were faster and submitted her to the ground hopeless and without any chance to escape. And to make things extra sure, somepony putted an anti-magic ring on her horn. “I know I’m acting creepy doctor, sorry about it but you must listen to me please. I have a contact at the Royal Archives, and I don’t mean the Canterlot Archives, no, the real ones…” Lyra shivered. From all conspiracy theories among anthropologists at least there was one she knew was real: the Canterlot Archives were just a bait for Equestria’s enemies and Celestia’s real secret documents were kept underground in a location known as Royal Archives. Sweet Pea sighed and continued: “However, you know only half of the truth doctor Heartstrings. Effectively during that magic outburst from Nightmare Moon Equestria temporary fused with the human world… but what you didn’t knew was that a human baby was sucked into our world before Celestia fixed everything and when she realized the poor creature was trapped here in Equestria. Celestia had to transform her into a pony to protect her and trusted the poor baby to a family that desperately wanted a child for their own but they couldn’t” Lyra sighed in exasperation having a very clear idea where Sweet Pea was going. “Dude… I have issues but you…” Sweet Pea ignored her and continued: “However, that magic Celestia used to close the portals and turn the human baby into a pony foal leaves very noticeable traces for the right ponies. Traces both in the environment… and the psyche. How do you explain you’re the greatest expert in Anthropology in all over Equestria? How do you explain you could make such a great theory basing only in a document from sixteen years ago? In the bottom of your heart Lyra, you know you’re not from this world” “Pal you’re creeping me out, please let me go before you do something you’ll regret!” Cried Lyra. “Doctor Heartstrings this is for your own safety!” “HELP, HELP, HELP!!” This was the worst situation imaginable for a spy, not only she was captured but not in a mission, no; because of her fake identity. Why this idiot had to be so obsessed with humans? “Knock her down!” Ordered Sweet Pea. The four unicorns in the group of bodyguards aimed their horns to the minty unicorn and everything went black for Lyra. When she woke up she was in front of Canterlot Archives held by five of Sweet Pea’s bodyguards, surrounded by the other four and other unicorns she didn’t knew. Dang it, if she weren’t being held she could easily take off the anti-magic ring from her horn (something almost any unicorn was capable of but she was a trained soldier) and run away but this time she was helpless and at mercy of a crazy pony who didn’t know the difference between facts and fiction. And finally she looked up and noticed the unicorn held in front of her. “Dad!” “Lyra, I’m so sorry Lyra!” Mumbled the other unicorn. She shook her head. “No I am sorry dad, this idiot is obsessed with the nonsense of my books. LET US GO SWEET PEA, LET US GO!!” Her dad, Dewey, lowered his head. “Sorry Lyra but it is true. You’re not a pony, it was a desperate move Princess Celestia did after you accidentally ended up trapped in Equestria” “Dad it’s okay, I understand you’re scared from this idiot. I am too, you don’t have to lie to please him, I know he won’t’ change his mind so don’t worry. I trust you” Dewey was about to protest and tell her daughter the true again but he was interrupted by Sweet Pea who walked towards followed by a group of fifteen unicorns. “Are you ready to open the gate to the other world? Do you feel the magic trace guys?” The unicorns, hired from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns took a deep breath and tried to feel. At the end they looked at Sweet Pea very surprised. “Indeed we feel the signature of Princess Celestia herself” “Do you think you can activate the spell back?” “We’ll try” Sweet Pea looked at his watch. “Okay you better hurry because my bribes and influences only bought us ten minutes of peace. However take this, is a document my contact in the Royal Archives took for me, it’ll make things easier for you” The unicorns studied the piece of parchment and after a quick mumble among themselves they gave it a shot. They all prepared their horns and activated the ancient spell on that terrains. Lyra couldn’t believe it. “ARE YOU MAD O WHAT? YOU’RE GOING TO CREATE A DISASTER HERE!!” In her Throne Celestia felt the energy raising and raising. Funny, it felt like the same spell she used sixteen years ago but in reverse. Wait, what? “SHE PROMISED SHE WON’T LOOK FORWARD!” And flew to Canterlot Archives, the exact same place where she found the creature she had to transform in… no, it couldn’t it couldn’t… In the meantime Lyra was still struggling to free her and her dad. This was the last time she would ever write about humans, really. “Dude, you have problems! Please, with your money you can try every hobby you want, so please, please stop this right now!” Sweet Pea didn’t listen, he just looked at the portal. “We’re running out of time, and don’t worry doctor Heartstrings I’m not goona hurt you; I’ll just return you to your real home!” “YOU ARE FUCKING CRAZY!” Shouted Lyra. Again Sweet Pea wasn’t listening. “MY DAUGHTER IS NOT READY FOR THE TRUTH, PLEASE STOP THIS WHILE YOU CAN!” Shouted Dewey as well crying in desperation. Lyra looked at her father confusedly when suddenly a blue portal appeared before them. “Don’t worry, if you don’t transform we’ll go after you!” Said Sweet Pea. At his signal the ponies threw Lyra through the portal. Sweet Pea was waiting to see what happen when suddenly one of her bodyguards shouted: “CELESTIA IS COMING!” “Shit! Move, move, MOVE!” They quickly closed the portal and left alone Dewey who was crying in fear when Celestia appeared. “What happened?” “They, they found the truth… the truth about Lyra…” “What? And Lyra?” “She didn’t know anything, it was all him. The wacko who kidnapped my daughter and me and now Lyra is… Lyra is…” Location unknown; Wednesday 7:15pm Lyra opened her eyes and screamed in fear looking at herself: she had read a lot about humans enough to recognize one of them. Her fur turned into a white tank top and minty leggings. She looked at her… her hands… what just happened? She looked around but all she found was a sign in the middle of the road: WELCOME TO DES MOINES Still screaming in fear, Lyra fainted. Author's Note This is it. Anthropology is one of my favorite stories in the fandom and now that I’m reading it for the tenth time this came to me; what if my version of Lyra ended up in that situation? So this is it, a small tribute I hope you liked it and just to be clear: I’ll only borrow some characters and situations from JasonTheHuman’s story, but it’ll be a completely different fic. Read ya’ later!! 002Police station, city of Des Moines Iowa; Thursday 6:04am Lyra opened her eyes looking around. She was surrounded by… two humans? And where the heck was she? Then she looked at her hands beginning to panic again but took a deep breath and tried to concentrate in what was going on right now. Her left hand was assured to the chair she was with something that reminded her hoofcuffs, handcuffs maybe? Dear Celestia this whole thing was so weird. Finally she examined the two humans in the room, they were two police officers, the one in front of her was a gently-looking man about fifty and right behind her a young one in his twenties perhaps. Lyra wasn’t sure what was going on but she could tell those two seemed genuinely worried about her. “Are you alright young lady? Did you want us to bring you something to drink? Tea, or a cup of coffee… cold water?” Lyra shook her head gently happy that their somehow spoke in Equish. “No thanks. Where I am? What happened to me?” The older cop sighed and exchanged a look with his partner. “Where do I start young lady? You entered town screaming and running like crazy until you fainted. Witnesses thought you were high or something but when you were translated to the hospital they took some blood samples and the only drug you had on your system were the sedatives they gave you” “Okay, I was in shock, I get it. Where I am? What happened next?” “Right now we’re at Des Moines, Iowa. Do you have any idea how you arrived this town? Any idea who are you?” Lyra looked around again, this time to dissimulate. As a trained spy she was aware that she won’t have to tell everything she knew. Now, until she find more answers she must play along. “My… my name is Lyra and that’s all I remember. Sorry but that’s all I remember, I’ve never heard about Des Moines, Iowa or anything. I just want to go home please!” “Precisely… we don’t know where it is. We checked you while you were unconscious and we didn’t find anything; no cellphone, nor ID. Not even a wallet” Lyra was internally struggling to not to panic again. She have heard about many spies who ended up like her: stuck in a foreign country without any documentation and completely lost; but being stuck in another world was something new. The only thing she was sure is that Sweet Pea was going to pay, she didn’t know how or when but he was going to pay. I just hope I can see Bon-Bon again. “Young lady, young lady!” Insisted the older cop. “Eh, sorry I was just… trying not to faint again…” The cop nodded in understanding looking at the fear tears that ran from Lyra’s eyes. Seriously, what could they do in a situation like that? By her way Lyra was evaluating the choice to fight, knock down the cops and run away but considering the situation that could be stupid, especially considering she didn’t know anything about human weaponry or how many agents were in her current location. At the end she just cried in fear. “What I am supposed to do? WHAT?!” The other cop hugged her in a desperate attempt to calm her down. “Don’t worry miss. Ey, what about we give you a fresh cup of chocolate… take a blood sample and compare your DNA with the national database?” The older cop nodded. “We can give it a shot. Maybe we’ll locate some relatives” Lyra nodded, even if she knew all too well that they won’t find anything about her in their database. At least it’ll give her a chance to study the place and think in a plan to escape. She knew Sweet Pea will try to open the portal to the human world again, so she needed to be free in order to take her chance to return home. So she looked at the cops and smiled weakly. “Okay, take your blood sample” They moved to the forensics office where they took a new blood sample to analyze it. Lyra took a look of her surroundings, as a trained spy she quickly memorized every hallway and possible shortcuts to the main door. No matter what she had to escape but first she had pretend to gain the cops’ trust. Waiting, analyzing, she was a trained spy for something. They made her lay on a stretcher to put a needle in her forearm to collect some blood. Then they gently asked her to wait while they analyzed the sample. It was relatively quick but as soon as Lyra looked at the fifty-years-old cop she knew something bad happened. “What?!” She asked gulping. “We have a match… it was a unsolved case from sixteen years ago” “Eh?” They gave her a printed file about a strange case: Sixteen years ago a man called Thomas Michelakos, a relatively famous writer, lost his daughter under mysterious circumstances. No one knew what happened, the baby just disappeared after a lighting storm. The Michelakos called the police, hired the best detectives money could buy, even offered an extremely generous reward to whoever took their daughter but nothing; the girl was just gone… “…until now” mumbled the cop. Lyra paled and began to tremble in her chair. “No, no… NO! This is a joke, A SICK JOKE! THIS IS NOT TRUE!” All the officers ran to help Lyra but she fainted again. Secret Service Headquarters, Canterlot; Thursday 6:04am The Royal Guards guided Bon-Bon to a private office where Celestia and Dewey were already waiting for her. “What happened? Where’s Lyra?” Asked the cream-coated mare. Celestia shook her head sadly. “What happened?” Asked Bon-Bon crying. “We could say we lost her in action. A guy named Sweet Pea ambushed Lyra and sent her away” Bon-Bon began to hyperventilate. “No, her identity was compromised?” “On the contrary, he was an anthropology fan who tried to reopen the portals to the human world from sixteen years ago” And that detail made Bon-Bon raise an eyebrow. “What? It sounds like the nonsense Lyra said in her conference at the AnthroCon” Celestia showed Bon-Bon a couch. “Have a sit agent Drops. It’s a long story, but all began sixteen years ago when my sister, still imprisoned, tried to free herself… creating a crack between two worlds. Ours… and a human world…” Still the agent couldn’t believe it. “But that’s the exact nonsense Lyra said…” “Remember when I asked you a moments alone with agent Heartstrings? Because it was no nonsense, is exactly what happened… she was convinced that she made it up but now; somehow she still remembered” “Still remembered? But what Lyra had to do with that event” Celestia took a deep breath, this was going to be very difficult. “You see agent Drops, somehow Sweet Pea managed to learn the truth about agent Heartstrings. She had everything to do with that anomaly sixteen years ago… you see, during that anomaly something happened…” Des Moines hospital, Iowa: Thursday 12:46pm Lyra woke up again and once more she looked at her surroundings. She was in a white room with cardiac monitors connected to her body and in front of her a flat television. She looked at herself, wearing a hospital nightgown. At her right she looked at the night table where the anti-magic ring Sweet Pea make her wore was waiting. Still have my horn? She touched her forehead, nope, it wasn’t there. “So you woke up, hi there” said a voice at her left. Lyra turned her head. Looking at her was a girl about her age, with dark hair tied at behind. “Who are you?” The stranger smiled and offered her a hand. Hands, what a weird thing to have. Still Lyra shook the stranger’s hand as she was doing a normal hoofshake. “My name is Audrey, nice to meet you” “Hi, I’m Lyra” Audrey made a small nod. “Cool, I hope we get along since you and I will be living together for a little” “Eh? Why? No, this haves to be some kind of mistake” “No, no mistake. Social services contacted my parents and they agreed to take you in while the police and your real parents solve things up. Is just for a couple of days, maybe a week; I can’t really tell” Lyra shook her head. “No, no, no, this is can’t be. I cannot have a family here” “Ey, calm down a little. I was called here since they thought this whole thing will be easier with someone about your age but I can call the nurse if you want” “Please, I could use a sedative now” Audrey frowned. “If I were you I’ll try to stay away from drugs. Besides, aren’t you happy to finally meet your real family?” “I guess so. Is just that, I don’t understand… I really don’t. I have no memories of what happened to me and this whole ‘real family thing’ is just confusing me” Audrey sat on her bed and combed her hair that at least was still minty-green like it supposed to be. “So what, do you still want me to call the nurse?” “Maybe or maybe not; let’s change the subject. So, I’ll staying at your place for a couple of days?” “Yeah, my parents are great so don’t worry. Also they asked me to keep an eye on you and I can say you’re interesting enough so it’ll be great I guess” Lyra smiled. Then the nurse entered to the room to make Lyra a quick checkup. “Okay, you seem to be fine, I guess you’ll be out of here before you think” Police station, city of Des Moines Iowa; Thursday 1:34pm The chief was sitting checking on his desk checking on some delayed paperwork when suddenly his phone rang. “I told you not to interrupt me” he said to the secretary on duty. “I know sir, but I have Mr. Thomas Michelakos on line 4. He wants to talk about you know what” “Transfer him immediately” “Hi, I’m Thomas Michelakos. Tell me, is it true? Did you really find her?” “Yes sir, at least we think so. Is nothing conclusive but it fits the DNA sample you gave the police sixteen years ago” “How is she? Is she alright?” “Kind off. We found her in shock screaming and yelling on the street until he fainted. We made her some tests in the hospital and…” “So my daughter is a drug addict” “No sir, the only drugs present on her system were the sedatives that they gave her in the hospital. We question her but she insists doesn’t remember anything. When we did the DNA test, she fainted so we sent her back to the hospital where she’ll meet with a foster family” “Okay, I’ll book a flight to Philadelphia and a Paternity test. My daughter, I cannot believe it” “Is nothing certain sir” “I understand, but… I really want to believe Laura is back to our lives” Author's Note Like I said this will be its own story even if it shares elements with Anthropology. I really enjoy writing it, it opens a ton of exciting possibilities this new version of Lyra and her friends. Read ya’ later!! 003City of Des Moines, Iowa; Friday 2:18pm The trip from the hospital was short but enough for Lyra to never forget about it. She wasn’t familiar with individual vehicles known as cars; of course back in Equestria she used the Secret Service private train that was five times faster than the normal one, but it wasn’t as fast as this thing. And the times she was moved from the hospital to the police station and back to the hospital in an ambulance she was sedated so it didn’t count. Audrey, in the sit next to her, just looked at her worried. “Are you okay? You’re not going to puke, right?” “No promises, I’m just… dizzy, probably I still have some sedatives in my blood” “We understand dear, but if you feel you’re going to puke tell us to stop the car, okay?” Asked Audrey’s mom. A gently-looking woman in her late thirties. Lyra made a small nod and closed her eyes, perhaps it’ll help her. “I guess this whole experience must be overwhelming for you but while you stay in our place you can count on us” smiled the woman. It was good to have that kind of support but Lyra couldn’t answer at the moment, she was pretty sure if she tried to spoke she’ll ruin Audrey’s car. At the end Lyra felt the speed decreasing gradually until the vehicle finally stopped. Audrey helped her to get down. “Are you gonna be alright?” Asked the girl. “I think so, I just need to sleep and I’ll be fine tomorrow” Audrey smiled gently and showed Lyra the way to the guestroom. Walking in two legs was still pretty weird and still she didn’t understood how she was able to do it so easily; probably her new instincts kicking? Anyway she went straight to bed and collapsed. This whole thing was exhausting from the very beginning and even without sedatives she needed a time to disconnect from the chaos in her head. Two things she was sure: she needed to see Bon-Bon and Sweet Pea was going to pay. Saturday 8:29am Audrey’s mom went upstairs to wake Lyra to check if she wanted some breakfast but she didn’t find her anywhere. Paling she ran to the dining room where her husband and daughter were already eating breakfast. “Mom? Lyra isn’t going to join us?” The woman shook her head. “I didn’t find her… do you think she may escaped, right?” Both Audrey and her father jumped out of their chairs to look for Lyra. Something could happen to this girl alone in the city. Audrey’s parents decided to look for her on the street while Audrey, guided by a strange feeling decided to go check on the backyard. And effectively she found Lyra with doing squats; suddenly jumping to send a series of roundhouse kicks to the nearest tree with one leg and then with the other one. “Wow… ey Lyra, where did you learnt Kung-Fu?” The green-haired girl shrugged. Kung-Fu? For her those were only earth-pony martial arts but apparently had a different name for it. “I can’t really tell, I don’t remember anything, remember? But if there was something I was sure is that I needed a little exercise to clear my head” Audrey glared at her, it was clear Lyra was lying and Lyra knew she knew but didn’t really care. The girl thought in scold Lyra but at the end she just nodded. This girl had a dangerous past behind her, a past that Audrey had the feeling she didn’t wanted to know. And somehow, seemed to be in a lot of pain. “For a moment we thought you ran away” finally said Audrey. “I considered it but it may cause trouble to your family so I decided to do a little work-out instead” Audrey sent Lyra a concerned look guessing what to say; but at the end she took her phone to tell her parents to stop looking, that Lyra was only exercising in the backyard. Soon enough the whole family reunited to finish breakfast while Lyra took a quick shower. At the end she went downstairs with some old clothes she borrowed from Audrey. The dark-haired girl smiled to Lyra: “So my friend Nathan said he’ll join us to show you the city. He’s nice and all, you’ll like him” “Thanks, but are you sure I’m not interrupting you or anything?” “No, mom and dad told me to keep an eye on you, remember? Besides they don’t want me to spend the whole summer break watching TV or chickening Facebook” “Right…” Lyra had no clue what Audrey meant with that Facebook thing but still had the feeling that humans and ponies weren’t that different. Sweet’s Veggies, canned products factory, Manehattan; Saturday 11:17am Just another day in the factory. The Saturday shift was about to end and everypony kept going with the same old routine: can the vegetables, label the cans and prepare them for shipping to the different distribution centers. And as usual, the company CEO Sweet Pea wasn’t there, probably taking care of his stupid research about humans while he left his employees with the hard work. “At least he doesn’t interfere with the process like some other bosses I know” sighed the manager. “And when he actually shows up he kind of saves us months of work, he’s pretty smart” “I know, right?” But suddenly a bunch of soldiers, leaded by Bon-Bon who was wearing a Royal Guard armor at the moment. “Attention! Squad A: I need you to check on the machinery and the factory floors, you’ll report every anomaly to me! Squad B, follow me to the offices. I don’t think he’s here but all we need is a small clue!” “MAM YES MAM!” The manager walked to them. “Excuse me but what the hay is going on?” Bon-Bon showed him a letterhead parchment with the official seal of the Royal Guard and signed by Princess Celestia herself. “Your boss is now a wanted pony. During his stupid research he endangered several ponies and one of our partners went missing. Now cooperate with us or you’ll be considered accomplices with him” “What?” “Yeah, Sweet Pea is being wanted for the charges of intimidation, foalnapping, stealing highly classified documents and high betrayal to the Crown and the Ponykind. Now, have any idea where I can find him?” Bon-Bon’s eyes seemed to be bursting in fire making the poor manager to shake a little but still there wasn’t much he could tell. “I’m terribly sorry mam but we don’t know anything. Our boss use to disappear for longs periods of time… then reappears for a few days, takes care of the company as anypony else and disappears again. That’s all we know, please, I’m an innocent pony” Bon-Bon sighed. “I believe you, sadly I believe you. Any ideas where we can find a clue to lead us to Sweet Pea?” “Well… he still lives with his parents for some reason” “We know, we already sent a unit there” Veggie family home, Manehattan; Saturday 11:29am “Found something?” Asked Vinyl walking to the basement. Octavia showed her the enormous pile of human conspiracy books, ‘ancient’ human relics and a bronze plaque that read I WANT TO BELIEVE. “What can I tell you Vy? This idiot spent all his money reading and collecting things about humans. He even have the deluxe edition of Lyra’s books and a bunch of other assholes who actually believe what they write; but mostly Lyra’s. Even her autobiography, no, this guy haves serious issues” Vinyl chuckled. “I know, I know. I just questioned his parents and apparently they tolerate him only because he pays a more than reasonable rent along with the water and electricity he consumes” “This guy is rich, I mean… like filthy rich, why did he still lives with his parents?” The white unicorn shrugged. “According to his parents he doesn’t trust in the government so he lives here to avoid tracking in case he have to escape… you know, like right now” “You have to be bucking kidding me!” Face-hoofed Octavia. Vinyl nodded sadly. “And listen to this: when he was five his big sister ran away with her coltfriend, but he refuses to believe it and insists she was abducted” “Abducted?” “By humans” Octavia sighed. “Unbelievable, Lyra was defeated by that moron? Come on! However, unbelievably enough his last crazy theory was true. Can you believe Lyra is…?” “Yeah, I just hope she’s alright. Imagine that, alone and disoriented in the human world” “Well, Lyra is smart, she’ll know how to handle this. I hope” The two marefriends hugged each other when suddenly Vinyl lost balance and both fell on their backs along with the desk full of books and stupid theories. “Oh, look at this mess!” Complained Octavia. “Whatever, I’ll put everything back where it was with my magic, no big deal” Octavia nodded and Vinyl began to put everything back where it was when suddenly noticed a blueprint of a new factory still in project. “Wait, look at this” “This guy is a total moron but he owns a company, you know that right?” “I know but his documents from the company are in his office at the factory. Why is this thing among all this nonsenses about humans?” Octavia’s eyes widened. “Vy, you’re a genius!” The white unicorn smiled proud of herself and activated the transmitter. “Bonnie? It’s Vinyl. We may have a clue: city of Trottenaghe, outskirts. It’s nothing sure but it’s all we got” “At least you got something. Now, this operation needs to be highly undercover girls; Celestia won’t let us take care of this personally so we must disobey direct orders” “Whenever you feel like breaking the rules you can count on me!” Cheered Vinyl. “Lyra is our friend, of course you can count on us” assured Octavia. Audrey’s home, Des Moines; Saturday 11:38am A young human with dark hair tied in a short ponytail rang the bell and Audrey received him with an apologetic smile. The young human, Nathan, knew his friend and also knew that smile meant something was wrong. “What’s up? Where’s your visitor?” He asked a little unsure. “She’s on the backyard, but prepare to get a surprise” “A surprise? Okay, aren’t we going to the mall? What happened?” “I wish I know Nathan, I wish I know” sighed Audrey. She guided her friend over the house to the backyard where Lyra was practicing her earth-pony martial arts (or Kung-Fu as humans called it) with a tree. She had splinters all over her knuckles and was bleeding but Lyra didn’t care. She was too concentrated fighting an invisible enemy. “Ehem… what’s she doing?” Asked Nathan astonished. “Practicing Kung-Fu, according to her because it helps to deal with stress” Nathan nodded. “Right. Seriously, what happened?” Audrey laid in the wall helplessly. “I know mom told me to keep an eye on her but she’s not making things easier. I mean, at first everything seemed fine; she did a little Kung-Fu in the morning and then we were getting ready to go but then they called us from the police station” “And?” “They told us her biological family contacted them and wanted to meet Lyra so they booked a flight this Monday; so when she heard that, she began to train like crazy” Nathan scratched his head. “What? But isn’t supposed to be a good thing?” “I know, right?!” The two friends keep staring at Lyra practicing her martial arts for a while until Audrey approached shyly. “Uhm, Lyra? Do you still want us to show you the city?” “Eh, what? Oh yeah, I guess so” Then Nathan approached and offered his hand to Lyra. “So nice to meet you, I’m Nathan” “Lyra” she said shaking hands with him. “So I know is not my business but why are you so angry about meeting your birth parents?” She sighed. “Dude, I already have enough trouble for my own, last I need is to get involved in other people’s” “But…” “You seem like a great guy, really, but please this is my business. Now, aren’t we going to have fun around here?” Author's Note A quick transition chapter, I really hate those but this one helped me to introduce better the character of Sweet Pea, our main antagonist. Now in the original story Lyra and her new human friends deal with an old enemy from Equestria but again even if is a tribute I want to keep this story completely apart from the original material. Read ya’ later!! 004Vinyl & Octavia’s home, Ponyville, Sunday 10:25pm The three mares were studying the blueprint they got from Sweet Pea at Vinyl’s work room since it was the only one in the house that was completely soundproof. At first it seemed like a normal factory under construction, but for some reason it had two basements instead of one. This detail was reported as an addition for extra storage room but it could be used for some more obscure business. “So we have a possible location but not much more” mumbled Vinyl thoughtful. Octavia shook her head. “What worries me isn’t that we could be wrong, on the contrary, what if we’re right? What if we have the right place and Sweet Pea is waiting along with his team of unicorns? Even with the four of us we can’t win this” Bon-Bon smiled sadly to her friends. “No girls, I’m going all by myself” The two mares looked at Bon-Bon as she was crazy. “What the hay is wrong with you?!” Shouted Octavia. Vinyl just nodded in agreement. “Bonnie, pal, you’re one of the best agents on the field and all, but are you out of your mind? I mean, I don’t think that Sweet Pea will be too happy to see you if you just show up there” Bon-Bon just grinned. “No, of course he will, because I won’t present myself as agent Sweetie Drops of the Secret Service, but as Bon-Bon; Lyra’s special somepony who is desperately looking for the love of her life” Vinyl chuckled nervously. “Okay now I kinda’ see why Celestia didn’t want you to take care of this. However, do you realize if we don’t stop this guy he’ll end up doing something far more dangerous that just send Lyra to the human world?” “Vinyl is right, this is only the beginning” Bon-Bon nodded slowly and took a deep breath. This mission was suicidal and she knew it, but she had to find Lyra no matter what. Besides she had the feeling that finding Lyra was the key to defeat the wacko. “You don’t understand girls, this is the only chance we have to get closer to him and understand what his plan is. You know I’m the only one who can do it, right?” Octavia shook her head in disbelief but soon enough she winked an eye to Bon-Bon. “You are completely out of your mind, but also I’m pretty sure that Lyra will do everything to help any of us if the roles were switched. You can count on us” “Yeah, you can ask us what for anything you need pal!” Jumped excitedly Vinyl. Bon-Bon looked gratefully at her friends grinning. “He’s going to find what I’m up to, there’s no doubt of that. So I need you as close as possible to pass you all the information I can collect before it’s too late for me. Also if our partners of the Secret Service find Sweet Pea they’ll spoil the only chance I have to see Lyra again so I need you to keep them as far as possible from us” “Supposing that our lead is correct” said Vinyl. Nopony said more and they shook hooves, this mission could cost them their jobs but still they knew their friend would do anything for them as well. “FOR LYRA!” Des Moines airport, Iowa; Monday 6:17pm Lyra sighed unsure what to do next and looked behind, Audrey and her mother were looking at her still worried but Lyra just smiled to them and after examine her boarding pass for the last time, she entered to the building. Following the instructions that the police gave her she approached to the first security employee she found and handed him a letter the cops provided her. The man examined the letter then Lyra then the letter again to finally indicate the young girl to follow him to a private check room. Once there they checked Lyra and her luggage, an old backpack full of Audrey’s old clothes she gently lent her. They examined the note for the last time and finally gave Lyra a temporary ID. “It’s done, sorry for the delay miss; everything seem to be in order. Please present this ID along with your boarding pass and there will be no problem” Lyra nodded and a guard guided her to gate G-4 to wait for her flight. A flight, she could see the machines she supposed to get into in order to fly to… Philadelphia, her supposed home. Seriously, what she was going to do once it was proven that she had nothing to do with Laura Michakelos? Until now she only followed the directions humans gave her but sooner or later she’ll have to think in a real plan. Attention all passengers of flight DL958 of Delta Airlines to Chicago and connections; please start boarding, starting by elders, families with little children and members of Club… Lyra looked at her ticket, it read section C. Why humans had to be so complicated in such things? No, she just shook her head, it wasn’t the time to think about it; right now she had to concentrate in her plan. What to do next? It wasn’t like she could instantly go back to Equestria without her magic so she was forced to stay in the human world. What could she do? She knew how to play the lire and fight but that didn’t seem useful. Before she could notice they were calling for passengers of section C so she quickly entered to the machine. What to do next, what to do next? That question was running in her head over and over. Once Lyra was inside the machine she looked for her seat, that was next to a human a little older than her; it was a male, beige hair with green eyes. He just received Lyra with a huge smile that she somehow managed to answer and sat without a word. The paternity test was going to fail obviously, after all she was a unicorn playing to be human stuck in the human world. So what she could expect? “Ey, are you gonna be alright? Cause’ last thing I need I you throwing me up during the flight” Lyra looked at him. “I-I’ll be fine, thank you” “You don’t look like it. First time flying?” Lyra took half a second to process that question, throwing up, first time flying… yeah, it seemed like an excuse this human could understand. “No… I’ve flight plenty of times. Just… not in one of these” “Right, you’re either high or really crazy” “It was a hot air balloon, okay? Geez!” She said slightly annoyed. The boy chuckled. “Okay, okay, I get it; please don’t hit me. To tell you the truth I was also nervous first time I flew but of course I was with my mom and my siblings but that’s not the point. What you need to do is control a little your nerves, okay? Because unless you’re going to Chicago you still have to board one of these” Lyra took a deep breath and buried her nails on the seat. Great, her anger levels were raising again but she couldn’t practice her earth-pony martial arts in that reduced space. And then the flight attendant began the explanation of the security procedures in case of emergency. Great! Just what she needed for her nerves! The human noticed this and offered her a magazine. “Here, take this” “Sky-Mall?” “I always look forward to read it. Go on, it’ll help you to calm down a little” Lyra just took it and began to read. It was practically a catalog of useless stuff like a face for trees; you put it on your trees and they suddenly have a face. Also available in bush size. She kept reading. “A hand fitness trainer? What the hay is that supposed to work?” “No one knows, I bet not even the guy who designed it. Oh, by the way, my name is Paul. Paul Chandler” “Lyra, just Lyra” “Just Lyra? Come on, do you actually believe you don’t have a last name?” The plane began to move. At the beginning it wasn’t too fast but then it kept accelerating and accelerating and Lyra screamed: “CELESTIA HELP ME!” Damn, and she thought the cars were the worst of this world. A flight attendant approached. “Are you okay miss?” “We’ll be fine, I take care of this!” Assured Paul. The woman smiled and left, so Paul offered a small package to Lyra. “Take this, a little gum for your nerves” Lyra accepted it and yeah, the chewing gum was exactly what she needed to calm down a little. “Thanks a lot” “So you were telling me that you had no last name” “It’s a long story” “It’s a long trip to Chicago” So Lyra gave up and told him everything: about how she woke up in a police station in Des Moines with no memories of her past and from then they made her a DNA test that said she was the long lost daughter of some guy called Thomas Michelakos and that she was in her way to do a paternity test. Of course she omitted the part where she was completely sure that the test would end up negative and how she released her frustration practicing a martial art that humans called Kung-Fu. “Interesting” said Paul at the end. Lyra raised an eyebrow, she knew that face. “You don’t believe me” “Because it seems like you’re making all that up. You say you’re Thomas Michelakos’ daughter, the Thomas Michelakos. How do you expect me to believe that?” “So you know my supposed father?” “Are you kidding?! He’s a local celebrity, and a lot of people…” “It wasn’t my idea genius; I already have enough problems of my own and… you know what? Forget it, thank you for helping me but I think I’m fine now. Thank you” “Ey, I didn’t mean to upset you, sorry. Is just that this whole thing is too strange” “Anyway thank you for helping me Paul” “No, thank you. You’re the most interesting person I met in a plane. And who knows, if you truly are who you think you are then we’ll probably meet at Philadelphia” “It wasn’t my idea!” Paul shrugged and winked an eye to Lyra, and the girl had no clue but smile. Impertinence aside, Paul seemed like a nice dude and she had to admit her attitude was very suspicious. The plane finally landed and she and Paul got down along with the rest of the passengers. They chatted for a while in the waiting room but when they arrived to the next plane they were on different seats. The second flight was as awful as the first one but this time she knew what to expect this time so she closed her eyes and waited. So finally she arrived to Philadelphia. Lyra god down of the plane dragging her feet, she was tired but she still had her instructions. She gave a second letter to the first security officer she found in the airport who again guided Lyra to a spare checking room. After the tedious check she was then guided by a guard to a brown-haired woman with chocolate-like eyes, a warm smile and a sign that read LAURA. “So I leave you here miss, I have to go back to my functions” apologized the agent leaving Lyra alone with the woman. The two of them looked to each other for a while until the woman ran to hug Lyra. “Laura! Is that really you?” The green-haired girl didn’t know how to react to this, she just lowered her head but had no clue what to do next. “That’s the problem, I’m not sure of anything anymore” The woman gently caressed her face. “Your eyes…” “What about them?” “Nothing, they’re beautiful. So shall we go home?” Factory under construction, Trottenaghe; Monday 10:14am Sweet Pea was examining his notes about the human world expecting the moment when his unicorns finally open the portals so he could see the world he dreamed about. And why not? Save his older sister from that monsters, oh his beloved older sister. And suddenly one of his bodyguards interrupted his thoughts. “Boss Sweet Pea, we have a visitor” he announced. Sweet Pea smiled ironically. “Oh, from the government?” “We’re not sure. Shall we bring her to you?” “Please!” Asked Sweet Pea impatiently. The muscular pony made a small nod and at his sign, his partners pushed a cream-coated mare with a cloth bag on her head. Sweet Pea raised an eyebrow. “A mare? Did she brought something with her?” “Just this!” Said one of the henchmen passing a saddlebag to his boss. Sweet Pea opened it and began to look the content: a make-up kit, some pieces of candy and a wallet. The green stallion opened the wallet paying special attention to the photographs she carried. Interesting… what? No, no! “Release her!” Ordered Sweet Pea. “Boss?” “You heard me, release her and leave us. That’s an order!” The bodyguards nodded nervously and obeyed, leaving Bon-Bon alone with Sweet Pea. Once they were far enough he gently took the bag out of her head and offered the mare a hoof. “I think you and I have to talk Miss Bon-Bon” The cream-coated mare looked at Sweet Pea pleading. “So my lead was right! You know where’s Lyra. please, please take me to her; I’ve been looking for her as crazy since she disappeared. You see, she’s my…” Sweet Pea nodded sadly. “I know, I saw the photographs in your wallet. I’m terribly sorry for what happened Miss Bon-Bon but I had to do it for doctor Heartstring’s own safety. I can send you to her but as long as Celestia is still looking for us I’m unable to. Sorry I took her for you, I truly am miss Bon-Bon; if I knew you two shared that especial bond I would sent you too” Bon-Bon sobbed. “I forgive you mister, but you have to promise me you’ll make send me back to Lyra your top priority” Sweet Pea looked at the desperation in Bon-Bon’s eyes and bowed to her. This mare was being reckless but she had a good reason to. He bowed to her. “You have my word as a gentlecolt” Author's Note The plane scene is one of the most faithful to the original story, however the discussion with Paul takes a different direction at the end. Anyway I hope you liked it; the two worlds are about to collide. Read ya’ later!! 005Michelakos residence, Philadelphia Monday 11:57am The car stopped in front of a huge white house with two floors, a balcony and a huge garden right in front of the woods. “We’re here” announced the woman turning to the green-haired girl. “Laura are you okay?” Lyra shook her head, damn cars. “I’ll be fine as soon as I get off this thing” she mumbled taking her backpack. The woman nodded slowly and opened the door for her. Lyra thanked the gesture with half smile and got down; now, the sooner this misunderstanding clears the sooner she’ll be free to plan her next move. In fact, why don’t tell her from now that there was no way she was her long-lost daughter so she could go now? She didn’t had to involve this family into her problems, they had suffered enough already. “Excuse me… Miss Michakelos, you see, truth is I was thinking and…” But the main door suddenly opened interrupting her, letting pass a dark haired man a little chubby with a gently-looking face. He seemed pretty excited and just like the woman first thing he did was catch Lyra in a deep embrace. “Laura, oh Laura, I thought I would never see you again, that you were dead but look at you now! You’re back and… green hair? Okay that’s something, but you’re here! Oh Laura I can’t believe is that really you!” Seriously, things weren’t getting any easier for Lyra. How could she tell this man this was all a huge misunderstanding? Luckily enough Miss Michakelos came to the rescue and placed her hand on the man’s shoulder. “Okay, let’s calm down a little. Even if we both are happy to have you back Laura, we’re still unsure if that’s really you so until we do the test we better keep this between the three of us. When you disappeared the media made a big deal of it and didn’t make things easier for us so let’s keep this as quiet as possible” “Agreed!” Exclaimed Lyra tired. Mr. Michelakos recovered composure and nodded. “You’re right dear, not a word to anyone. And that includes Chloe, I hope you understand” “Who is Chloe?” Asked Lyra. “Your younger sister” explained the man. “She’s at school right now but you’ll met her later, I’m pretty sure she’ll be happy to have you around but still don’t tell her” “No problem, now, is there any room where I can rest for a while? I had a long flight and for the first time I’m in a plane it was a little too much” “Oh, sure, come on in!” So she was guided inside the house by the two adults. In the living room first thing called her attention was the giant painting of a dragon sleeping over a treasure, a small detail that reminded Lyra her true home. The creature was unbelievably well done since she was pretty sure that there were no dragons in the human world. So beautiful, the dragon itself seemed alive. “Amazing” mumbled Lyra. “Your mother made it” explained Mr. Michelakos. “We met when she began drawing the illustrations for my books” Lyra nodded and walked a little backwards to appreciate the painting better. His books, now that she reminded someone mentioned that her supposed father was a relatively famous fantasy author; honestly she didn’t mind but now it was kind of a relief. Then her eyes moved to a plastic figurine on the coffee table. She had to use all her self-control to not scream and faint again. Instead she took the small thing between her fingers to look it closer. “No way” Miss Michelakos smiled. “Oh, that’s Chloe’s. You know how little girls are. Just about everyone goes through a unicorn phase, at least for a while. Personally I never outgrew mine” Lyra gulped and put the figurine back where it was for her sanity’s sake. “So is there somewhere I can sleep for a little?” “Oh, right, sorry. Come this way please” They showed her a room upstairs and gave her a moment alone. Lyra sighed, this entire day had been exhausting, but the toy was just too much. In an adrenaline rush she threw her backpack on the bed and began to make push-ups with just one arm. She didn’t know much she spent on a single arm, but when it began to hurt she switched to the other and kept going. Someone knocked at the door. “Laura are you awake?” “Yes, come on in!” Selena Michelakos entered to the room taking a small surprise when she saw Lyra exercising. “What are you doing?” “Training. Is the only thing that kept me sane during this days” The woman shook her head. “Well, since my husband just left to pick up Chloe I wanted to speak with you alone. During the last years at least three girls have presented claiming to be Laura, money is a powerful…” Lyra stopped and sat on the bed. “Miss Michalekos we both know that the test result will be negative, still this wasn’t my idea, it was those cops’ from Des Moines. First thing I wanted to tell you when we arrived was that this whole thing was a huge mistake and there’s no way I can be your daughter. But then your husband showed up and seemed really excited so I couldn’t help but play along. If I leave now I don’t know how he’ll take it” The woman sighed. “I know, that will affect him a lot” “I’m sure I’m not that Laura, but he needs some proof. But believe me, as soon as the results arrive I’ll leave” Selena looked at this girl’s eyes and smiled. “So we have a deal, you can stay until Thomas’ doubts are clear” Lyra nodded. “Thank you” “Thank you for understand” They both sat on the bed. “So what’s your real name young lady?” “I’m Lyra and that’s all I remember” The woman raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to pretend with me” “I’m not, I have no idea who I was or where I was when I first arrived to Des Moines; but still I can assure you I’m not your daughter” The woman looked at her worried. “So you don’t remember anything?” “Nothing I can share without being taken as crazy. Anyway that’s why the cops sent me here even if I have enough problems for my own, last I need is to get involved in yours as well” Selena Michelakos nodded still worrying for this girl but decided to walk to the door. “Okay, so Chloe an Thomas will be here any minute now so please go take a shower so you can join us for lunch” “Sure thing!” So when Selena left Lyra did as she was told. Tomorrow she’ll do that so called paternity test and then she could continue with her life. But she was stuck with the Michakelos until the results arrive, how long would it take? Anyway she just changed her clothes and ran downstairs where the family were already eating. “Excuse me” she said joining them. A little girl with dark brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes turned to Lyra. Again the former unicorn had to use all her self-control to not to shriek at the sight of her blouse with a unicorn picture. “Who is she?” Asked the little girl. “Chloe, remember we told you we have a guest? This is Laura, she’ll be staying with us for a few days” smiled Mr. Michakelos. “Hi Chloe” said Lyra softly offering her a hand. “Ehem… as your father told you I’m Laura but my friends call me Lyra” “Why is your hair like that?” “It grows naturally this way” “Liar!” Chuckled the little one. Lyra blinked surprised unsure how to react, but then she remembered that human hair only grew in a limited pallet of colors. Humans who had colorful hair (she’d seen green, pink, even cyan) had to dye it to make it that way. It was kind of weird. But at the end Lyra managed to smile at Chloe. “Got me, I just dye it recently” Chloe smiled. “I like this color” “It’s because it’s cool” All introductions done they ate lunch normally. “So Lyra” mumbled Thomas Michakelos, “is that a nickname for somewhere?” “I’m not sure, recently I’m not sure of anything anymore” sighed Lyra. Tuesday 05:39am “At which hour you booked the paternity test?” Asked Selena Michelakos. “Well, seven thirty, why?” “We better wake her up, don’t you think?” The man nodded and were about to go upstairs but suddenly he bumped into Chloe. “Chloe, why are you awake?” “The guest is doing funny noises in front of my window and woke me up” “What?” Chloe’s room faced the backyard, what was Laura doing there? The former unicorn was of course training her earth-pony martial arts with a tree, wearing an old hoodie, a black top and a legging Audrey gave her. Seriously, why humans had to wear clothes for almost everything including exercising? It was when she noticed she already had public. “Oh, good morning” Thomas Michelakos didn’t know what to think about this. “Is that Karate or Kung…?” “Kung-Fu, is no big deal. This is just the way I deal with my nerves” The marriage stared at Lyra, this girl was full of surprises. “Whatever, let’s eat and we’ll go to do the test” This trip was the longest she had in human earth transportation but Lyra was getting used to. Then they arrived to the hospital, seriously did she had to spend all her time in the human world in those buildings? Anyway this time the procedure was fast: they took a sample of saliva, a quick reflex examination and released her. “So you don’t remember anything?” Asked a doctor. “How many times I have to say it? NO!” “Fine, fine. Anyway, I know a certain psychiatrist who specializes in cases of children reunited with their birth parents. I’ll pass the number to your parents in case they decide to get you some help” Your parents, the doctor seemed unsure of that part; but of course Lyra knew he was right. “So how much until the results come?” “A week more or less” A week! Damn, but at least it’ll give her some time to think. So the so called family returned home. One more week and she’ll stop dragging people into her problems, then she could find Sweet Pea and properly ‘thank him’ for what he have done once she return to Equestria. A week more, just one more week. Soon enough the Michakelos family was getting used to Lyra’s routine such as she was getting used to theirs. As a writer and an illustrator Thomas and Selena Michakelos worked at home, the only few times they go out was to buy groceries and go to Chloe’s school to drop her or pick her up, but this was about to end soon as long as Lyra new. By her way she spent most of her days practicing, always practicing. A couple of times Mr. Thomas and Miss Selena showed her the city but that was it, nothing that caught Lyra’s interest. One day she was reading one of this novels her supposed father wrote when Miss Michakelos interrupted her gently. “So tell me Lyra, don’t you want to go out by yourself or something?” The green-haired girl shrugged. “I’m fine, thank you. Maybe a little tired since I spent two full hours practicing ‘Kung-Fu’ but other than that I’m perfectly fine, I don’t need to go anywhere at the time” The woman sighed sadly. “Precisely, you’ve spending your days exercising to exhaustion, then reading and then exercising again. Maybe I’m not your mother but still you’re worrying me Lyra. Go to take some fresh air, try to have fun please” “I’m perfectly fine, don’t worry” “No you’re not. Please, do me this little favor okay? Go outside for at least an hour. Here, take some money, just do it for me” Lyra took the bills the woman was offering her. “Are you sure? You and your husband are doing more than enough taking me in” “Still go, for my sake go outside for a while, please. Try to have fun” Lyra nodded sadly and walked to the main door unsure what to do to have fun at the human way. She wandered for a few minutes until a little store called her attention: BELFIELD, used books. Shrugging Lyra entered, reading was one of the few hobbies enjoyed by humans and ponies alike. “Welcome to Belfield” greeted a human girl a little older than her. “Something especial you’re looking for?” Lyra scratched her head, what to read now? That was a good question. Then it came to her, now that she was in the human world, why don’t try to verify how much of her nonsenses was actually accurate? “History Books?” “Any period or country in particular?” “All of it?” “World history then. Right this way” She began to check the books passing pages paying especial attention to the illustrations. It seemed so familiar, it was practically the same stupidities she used to invent at home; but apparently she weren’t making all that up, no, it was almost completely accurate. No, Lyra had to take this book no matter what. Then she noticed another book in the fiction section that called her attention: the last unicorn. Again she had to take it no matter what. On the counter the employee raised an eyebrow. “Unicorns and history, an interesting taste you have” “However, I prefer this to stare at the black box humans have on their living rooms” The girl smiled. “You’re a dying breed. It’s always nice to find another find of good reading. I’m Monica” “Lyra” And suddenly Monica’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, you exist. You actually exist” “What you mean?” Monica chuckled. “A friend of mine told me the other day he bumped into a strange girl with green hair claiming to be Thomas Michelakos’ daughter” Lyra frowned in annoyance. “So you know Paul. Look, I don’t know what he told you but I’m not claiming to be anyone. The police told me that; in the meantime I’ll have to play along until this misunderstanding clears up” Monica looked at Lyra suspiciously. “He also said you lost your memory” “I did” “No you don’t” “Got me, still I can’t tell anything to anyone without been taken as crazy” Lyra frowned when she noticed Monica’s eyes, what was that expression on her face? Concern. She was starting to get pissed of this situation. Why did everyone gave her that look? Audrey, the Michelakos family and now this stranger. Monica noticed the girl’s anger and raised a hand. “I know it’s not my business but if you have some grief in your heart the sooner you share it with the people you love the sooner you’ll feel better” “That’s the problem, I don’t have anyone in here” So Lyra paid and ran before Monica could say anything else. Damn it, usually she wasn’t that rude with people but this situation was too much for her to handle. She checked the watch the Michelakos lend her, she had being out only for fifteen minutes. Forty five to go. Sighing Lyra wandered all over downtown until the hour finally passed. She returned to the house pretty sure Miss Michelakos was going to scold her for not being out more, but again, what else she could do? But when she entered to the house immediately noticed something was off. The Michelakos marriage were at the couch looking at a piece of paper, apparently a letter they just received. “Ey, did I miss something?” Asked Lyra. “Laura?” “Actually my name is…” The Michelakos didn’t gave her time to explain herself, they just ran to catch her in a deep embrace like preventing her to leave them again. “Sixteen years, you were gone for sixteen years” said the women with a trembling voice. “What you’re talking about?” Asked Lyra, but then her eyes placed on the letter. It was a large compilation of data that she couldn’t understand. However what was important was the number at the bottom of it: Probability of parentage 99.124% The whole world froze for Lyra. the girl returned the embrace the best she could but she was all sweaty and trembling. Her parents noticed the change and freed the embrace so Lyra took the chance to move to the backyard with robotic steps. “Lyra where are you going?” Asked her father. She turned. Her eyes were red trying to hold back the tears; not tears of joy nor sadness, of panic. “I-am-going-to-keep-training” she said as an automat. “Excuse-me” “You trained your Kung-Fu the entire morning” said her mother starting to worry. “Still-I-need-to” And at this point Lyra finally broke, she fell on her knees and began to scream while the tears were flowing throw her face. “Laura!” Shouted her parents running to her. “Damn it, damn it, DAAAAAAAMN IIIIIIITTT! WHAT’S GOING ON? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Her parents hugged her. “Laura… “THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT SWEET PEA! BUT WAIT, WAIT UNTIL I GET YOU!! I’LL SHOW YOU WHO IS LYRA HEARTSTRINGS, I SWEAR TO THE DEVIL!!” Author's Note In this chapter Lyra's reaction differs the most from the original story even if I added a coulpe of winks too. Still I hope you liked it, and now the two worlds are closer than ever to colide. Read ya' later!! 006Michakelos Residence, Philadelphia; Tuesday 7:03am Miss Michakelos went to the backyard looking for Lyra, no, Laura; who was wearing her sports top, her hoodie and leggings but instead of fighting she was standing there, staring at the tree with two streams of tears coming from her eyes. Laura turned when she felt her mother approaching but then concentrated again in the tree. “I don’t remember when I passed out but I bet I slept a bunch of hours, right?” The woman sat aside of Laura and doubtful tried to hug her; Laura gasped at first but accepted the contact, she even cuddled to her looking for comfort. She didn’t know what to believe now, at first she counted on the human science to clear the misunderstanding but things only got worse. No, wait, the misunderstanding cleared but it brought more questions than answers. Lyra sobbed. “I slept a lot but I’m exhausted” sighed Laura. “I don’t have any strength in my body; and if I had it not even my earth-pony martial arts can help me deal with what I’m feeling” “Then why don’t you try share your burden with us? Your father and I lost you for sixteen years Laura, now that we recovered you we won’t lose you a second time; so please… tell me what’s going inside that heart of yours” Laura sighed taking a rock and threw it, but it simply rolled over the floor; then turned to this woman who genuinely cared about her even if she didn’t believe she was her daughter at the beginning. Again Laura sobbed. “I hoped that the test had gone negative, the idea of me having to face the world all by myself was a thousand times easier to face than this whole thing. So all this time I had a family here in Philadelphia? My entire life had been a lie? A BIG FAT LIE! DAMN IT, WHYYYY?” She stood suddenly and threw a kick to the air but her strength abandoned her again and Laura fell on her knees. Her mother hugged her again. “It’s okay Laura, it can’t be that bad. This life you assure had been a lie, can you tell us? Maybe we could help you” “I can’t tell you anything without being taken as crazy” sighed the girl. “I promise no matter what you tell me I won’t think badly about you darling. You were gone for a lot of time, and suddenly you’re back with green hair ember eyes and know Kung-Fu. At this point I would believe anything you tell me” Laura shook her head slowly. “That’s a promise you can’t keep, believe me. All I ask now it’s a little time” The woman was about to protest but then the door opened again letting pass Chloe still in her pajamas rubbing her eyes half sleep. “Mom, the guest woke me up again with her shouting. What are you doing here?” “You see dear… I… I was speaking with Laura and I was the one who made her shout” Chloe nodded yawning. Usually she awoke until seven thirty and being interrupted in her sleep by this stranger didn’t like it. “Okay, how much time is she gonna’ stay with us?” The woman smiled. “I wanted to talk you about it later dear, I have some great news: from now on Laura will live here with us” Laura gave her little sister an apologetic smile but she didn’t seem to notice it. “You mean like always? Why? She’s too weird” “Well you see Chloe… she’s actually your older sister” The girl blinked several times processing the information. She looked at Laura then back to her mother. “I’ve never heard of her. Why I never heard of her?” “Well, it happened several years ago” Chloe just ran upstairs back to her room. Selena Michelakos looked at her sadly and smiled to her older daughter. “She needs some time to get used to this” “She’s not the only one” Selena sighed again, but at the end she hugged Laura tightly. “I have an idea, why don’t we go shopping? Your lack of wardrobe seems like the perfect opportunity to start rebuilding the mother-daughter bond” “Okay, well… no, it sounds great!” Mall; Tuesday 10:07am “Okay, are you ready Laura?” Asked the woman smiling. “Shopping isn’t really my thing but I suppose it’ll be fun” sighed the girl. “Where do we start, mom?” “Let’s say casuals” What followed was strangely nice for Laura; back in Equestria when she was still Lyra she barely stand shopping doing it only when it was absolutely necessary, but doing this along with her birth mother was a whole new feeling, it felt warm. “So, are we finish yet?” Asked Laura when they had like ten bags completely full. “Because I’m starving” “Just one, and I assure you you’ll forget about your hunger at least for a little” Her mother took her by the hand and guided the girl to a sports store. “You train a lot so I thought we can get you the right equipment to do it more comfortably” This was strange but stranger was how excited Laura felt about it. Without further explanation she practically ran to the story and began to try different kinds of leggings, shoes of all shapes and sizes, protective gloves, etc. At the end they ended up buying like three bags full of all kind of articles for Laura to exercise freely. “This is it?” Asked a girl at the counter. “I think so, or is there anything else you want Laura?” Asked Selena. Laura shrugged a little ashamed of how much she made her mother bought. “No, I’m fine mo…” Laura’s eyes were fixed at a beautiful bo-staff, made of graphite to give it the perfect balance. Like hypnotized Laura took it in her hands and began to maneuver it with mastery. Back in Equestria she trained a lot to use one of those with her magic ironically visualizing the magic aura as human hands; but now that she had hands of her own it was much easier, and funnier. “Amazing, great balance, the weight is just right; but no, I already have enough” she said putting it back where it was. “You want it?” Offered her mother. “Yes, I mean, no thanks. No, I already bothered you enough” Her mother smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll but it for you with two conditions” Laura gulped. “Okay?” “First: you’re forbidden to train to exhaustion as you’ve been doing this week, understood?” The green-haired girl nodded. “Sure, I can do that” “And second: you’ll stop waking Chloe. We want you to get along well; but it’s kind of difficult when you wake her too early everyday” Laura chuckled. “Deal!” Her mother made a small nod and turned to the counter. “Then please add us the bo-staff please!” For half second Laura felt as a young girl again, she didn’t remember having a moment like this since she was eleven and was about to move by her own (the usual age for ponies) when her adoptive father Dewey bought her a lyre. A lyre, now that she thought about it, how long since she played her beloved instrument for the last time? Her mother noticed something was wrong. “Are you alright Laura?” “Yeah, sorry, I just spaced-out” “Fine then, so let’s go to eat something and then back home” Equestria, location unknown; Tuesday 1:48pm Bon-Bon cleaned her mouth with a napkin and gently lowered her head. “Thank you for the lunch Mr. Sweet Pea, it was great” “Is the last I can do for Doctor Heartstrings’ especial somepony. Besides what I have to ask you is a little dangerous and please consider you have all the right to refuse” Bon-Bon gulped. “Officially I’m scared” The green pony grinned. “I can notice how long you spent with doctor Heartstrings. Please follow me Miss Bon-Bon” One more time Bon-Bon gulped and walked behind the green stallion. He began to show her several parchments he stole from the Royal Archives along with several modified by the unicorns he recruited from Celestia’s academy. Bon-Bon studied it in detail, perhaps she knew little of magic but she lived enough with a former student of Celestia’s school and perfectly recognized ancient magic, the most dangerous of all. “What’s this?” She asked. “This is the project my new employees are working on. Right now we have a small idea of how to open a portal to the human world using the traces from the last time; but it’s a one-way ticket, how to open it from the other side? We don’t know and as long as we don’t figure that out we can’t move” This made Bon-Bon doubt. Go back? And why was he showing her this spells? “So you don’t want to live in the human world?” “With the monsters who abducted my sister? No, I want to recover her and go back” “And why don’t you ask Celestia for help?” Sweet Pea frowned. “She’s part of the conspiracy. The Crown and the Human race have being cooperating from the very beginning. Trust no-one Miss Bon-Bon, you don’t know when they’re going to make you disappear to keep you quiet- the only human I tolerate close is Doctor Heartstrings and only because she’d been between us for a very long time and is more pony than human” “What happened with Lyra was an accident, she was just a baby Sweet Pea” The green stallion nodded. “Believe what you want and I’ll do the same Miss Bon-Bon. I’m sure Doctor Heartstrings had nothing to do with her entrapment in Equestria; but the Crown is a complete different story” The cream-coated pony shivered. “And I guess you haven’t advanced with your attempts?” “Actually I may have something” And at this point Bon-Bon understood why Sweet Pea wanted her. “You want me to try it” Sweet Pea nodded. “As I told you at the beginning you have all the right to refuse. Now: the current prototype will send you any part in the human world, but with enough time we can send you as close as possible of Doctor Heartstrings. What do you think? Even if you’re unable to go back you’ll be with your especial somepony” Bon-Bon lowered her head. “As long I am with Lyra I don’t care if I never return” “I promise you I’ll tell you as soon as we’re sure that the next prototype is ready; I gave you my word that I’ll make my top priority to reunite you with her so trust me. I’m not a bad pony miss Bon-Bon, I just want to have my sister back” The flames of craziness burned in Sweet Pea’s eyes, this guy was very dangerous. Still Bon-Bon kept control under her nerves and examined one of the documents. “Do you mind if I check this first Mr. Sweet Pea? I’ll feel better if I see what I’m getting into” “Go on! All yours Miss Bon-Bon” The earth pony quickly took a chocolate from her purse, unwrapped it and offered it to Sweet Pea, who gently refused. She nodded and ate the sweet to then examine the parchment. Fifteen minutes later she gave it back to Sweet Pea. “Thank you Mr. Sweet Pea” “You’re welcome Miss Bon-Bon. One of my bodyguards will escort you back home, this way please” Vinyl and Octavia’s home, Ponyville; Tuesday 2:56pm An envelope slipped under the door. It had no address nor anything on it. Octavia took it and after check it they opened it. Nothing, nothing except of the wrapping paper of a chocolate. Octavia gave it to her marefriend. “Vinyl” The DJ created a stream of light out of her horn and passed it through the wrapping, projecting in the wall an exact copy of Sweet Pea’s spell. “O hay no” mumbled the unicorn. “What’s going on, Vy?” Asked Octavia. “This moron is dealing with a very unstable spell, if it’s used too much it’ll make that the two worlds collapse with each other” “WHAT?” “No, Bon-Bon better figure how to reach Lyra soon because we must inform Princess Celestia about this. We’re talking about a disaster of apocalyptic levels” Human world, Michakelos Residence; Tuesday 3:01pm Laura was sitting on the backyard, reading instead of training; but the bo-staff was aside her waiting to be used. But according her parents Chloe was taking her nap at the time so her training must wait. Instead she concentrated on the Last Unicorn novel; interesting reading, she could identify herself with Almathea at being frustrated to be trapped in a human body. Then a little voice interrupted her thoughts. “Which book is that?” Asked Chloe. The girl shrugged. “This one? Is called the Last Unicorn, it’s kind of interesting” “You like unicorns too?” Smiled Chloe. Laura grinned enigmatically. “You have no idea” Chloe walked closer to Laura. “And what’s about?” “It doesn’t matter, it knows anything about real unicorns” “What you know about it?” Laura took a deep breath and smiled dreamily. “Have you heard about Equestria?” “Equestria? What is it?” “Well, Equestria is where unicorns, the real unicorns, live. But there aren’t only unicorns; no, there are pegasi and earth-ponies as well. And they’re all equally important” “Tell me!” Cheered Chloe sitting aside this girl who claimed to be her sister. “Where do I start?” And she told her about Canterlot, the beautiful capital; about the Princesses who controlled the Sun and the Moon; the six Bearers of Harmony who protected Equestria from all evil. But mostly about a charismatic group of friends who had fun at their way: a cool DJ with more mouth than brain but a great heart; an elegant and refined cellist; a confectioner as sweet as her creations… and of course a cheerful lyrist called Heartstrings. Author's Note And officially I changed Lyra’s name for the story’s sake. The detail about the Last Unicorn was a wink to the original story just as Lyra telling Chloe about Equestria. I hope you liked it and: Read ya’ later!! 007Human world, Michakelos residence; Wednesday 5:15am Laura looked at the clock, damn too early as always since she arrived to this world. But simply she couldn’t sleep. Obviously her stress was taking the best of her, but what else she could do? The girl from the book store advised her to share her grief with the people who loved her; at that time she didn’t knew she actually had a family in that world but now it almost seemed like a good idea, almost; but if she tell the truth to her parents they’ll take her as crazy. But her fake memory lost caused suspicion too and she wasn’t fooling anyone. God damn it, what she could do? Still dealing with her troubles Laura dressed quickly and went to the front door for an early running. That was what she needed, exercise; and since she promised not to wake her little sister this seemed like the best option. Her new home was separated from the town by a small path in the middle of a small forest, the perfect view to relax the green-haired girl before see her family on breakfast. After fifteen minutes she entered to the city outskirts. The streets were almost empty, just a few pedestrians and fewer cars. Laura spotted a girl opening a book-store, ey, it wasn’t the same girl from the other day; the one who advised her? What was her name again? The young counter girl called Monica made a small yawn before put her key on the keyhole. She liked her summer job but having to wake this early on her vacation was kind of annoying but again, the job worthed it. But suddenly a shadow appeared right behind her followed by a threatening voice: “Give us your phone and wallet and you won’t get hurt, understood?” Monica turned slowly to see two scary-looking men; one of them threatening with a knife. “Your phone and wallet” demanded the one of the knife. The girl got so nervous that she dropped her keys. The robber with a knife made a sign to his partner who began to revise Monica when a sudden voice called: “STOP IT!” The two robbers turned, what was this, a modern example of heroism? But before they could react the girl her made a flying kick right to the robber revising Monica’s face. The one with the knife aimed his weapon to this intruder and tried to stab her but she punched him on the forearm followed to one kick straight to the hand holding the knife making him drop it. Disarmed and confused he was finished by Laura with a punch to the jaw. The other robber stood slowly looking for something on his waist but Laura reacted quickly and kicked him on the knee making him lost his balance and like his partner was finished with a punch to the jaw making him fall unconscious. “Are you alright?” Asked Laura offering a hand to Monica. “Yeah, thanks to you” mumbled Monica. “Lyra, right? That was amazing” “Just a little Kung-Fu, and my name is now Laura apparently” “What now?” Asked Monica. “Long story: the paternity test tot positive meaning my whole life has been a lie and…” She shook head sadly. “Sorry, I was running to deal with my stress and told you too much. Anyway, take care and better call the police to deal with those two” “Ehm, sure. But ey, do you want a cup of coffee?” “What? Sure, thank you. But just like that?” Asked Laura shyly. Monica chuckled. “Is the least I can do for saving me. Besides you seem like you need a friend” Laura nodded and followed Monica inside the story, where the called the police and Monica turned on the coffee maker on the back store. “Are you sure I’m not interrupting you?” Asked Laura when Monica offered her a cup. “No, we don’t open until seven so I always eat my breakfast here” “I see” They sipped their coffee in silence for a while until Monica smiled to her warmly. “So you were telling me about your new name” Laura sighed. “What can I tell you? It seems like I really have family here; I never thought it was possible” “But why were you so sure that you the paternity test would fail?” Asked Monica unsure if she was asking too much. But Laura needed to tell someone; even if it wasn’t the whole story she couldn’t handle all of that on her own. “How do I explain? Let’s say certain idiot I met had this crazy theory about me; I don’t know how he came with the idea but at the end… no one believed him, not even me. But at the end he was right, all this time he was right proving someone I trusted my whole life have been lying to me since the very beginning. But I can’t give you too much detail without you taking me to the nearest psychiatric facility” “Okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to” smiled Monica. “Besides I’m not the one you should share this, don’t you think?” “You may be right. Anyway I have to go home so thank you for the coffee and everything” smiled Laura walking to the front door. Monica waved her hand to the girl and finished her coffee. What an interesting case. In the meantime Laura returned home, she didn’t know how much she was outside but when she opened the door her family were in chaos. Her father was talking desperately through the phone while her mother was trying to concentrate in making breakfast but she couldn’t. “Ey, what did I missed?” Asked Laura entering. Half of a second later her two parents ran to trap her into a tight hug. “What…?” “Where have you been?” Shouted her father. “Do you have any idea how your mother and I felt when we saw your room with the door open and empty? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Laura gulped, not even Bon-Bon get this mad whenever she returned home late. But then her parents hugged her again. “We already lost you once Laura, we can’t stand the idea of losing you again” sobbed her mother. The green-haired girl simply lowered her head. “I’m sorry, I woke up early and since I promised you not to wake Chloe again I went out for a morning jugging” The Michelakos released their daughter sighing. “That’s it, we’re going to get you a phone” mumbled Thomas. “Definitely,” agreed Selena, “it’s okay if you like to exercise darling but until we get you a phone leave us a note. Please” “Sure” said Laura weakly. Back in Equestria she was considered old enough to be a soldier; not to mention go out by her own whenever she wanted. But now she was just a human teenager and she better get used to it soon. Then they heard small footsteps coming closer. Laura sighed. “I guess we woke Chloe again” Mister and Miss Michakelos chuckled. “Sorry we woke you again Chloe” apologized Thomas when his younger daughter walked to the room. “But I promise when our situation with your sister normalize we’ll stop doing it” The seven-year-old girl rubbed her eyes sleeply. “It doesn’t matter. Laura, can you keep telling me about Equestria?” Laura smiled. “Sure, but first I need a shower since I’m just returning from running” “Can we shower together?” Asked the little one. That was a new one but still Laura smiled and they both moved to the main bathroom. In the meantime the two adults were scratching their heads confusedly still on the living room. “Since when they get along this well?” “What on earth is Equestria?” In the bathroom Laura was washing Chloe’s hair while she was lost in her memories telling her sister about Equestria as it was just another fairy tale. “Just imagine Chloe: the poor Heartstrings was about to eat Mr. Cake’s Deluxe Red Velvet, so delicious that he only made three at day and you had to be incredibly lucky to get just one” “It sounds delicious” smiled Chloe dreamingly. “Yeah, pure perfection! But right when she was about to try it for the first time, a horrible creature ate it all. The worst of monsters, the horrid Parasprites” “Parasprites?” “Parasprites, cute little fur balls with amazing glittering eyes and beautiful wings that reflected all the colors of rainbow” “That doesn’t sound that horrible” said Chloe confusedly. “Don’t get fooled by their cuteness. They have the power to multiply infinitely and just eat, eat and eat. They’re always hungry!!” Laura kept telling her about that adventure, and Chloe especially enjoyed the part where Twilight Sparkle used a spell that switched their appetite for food by an insatiable hunger for buildings, furniture and such. “And the worst part, after all that effort for Celestia not to know about it was a waste of time since Mayor Mare had to write her asking for founds to repair the town” Chloe laughed happily. “And what Twilight said?” “No one had ever tell her, the poor thing still thinks Princess Celestia have no idea of what really happened” Again Chloe laughed. “That Princess Celestia sounds really good” Laura frowned but Chloe didn’t seem to notice it. “Yeah, that’s why almost all her subjects love her” “Almost?” Again Laura frowned realizing she had to learn to control her recently found feelings about Celestia in front of Chloe; this girl was sharper than Laura thought, but it somehow made her proud. “Yeah” continued Laura, “from time to time you have evil ponies who doesn’t like her like King Sombra and even her own sister turned against her turning into the horrid Nightmare Moon” Chloe’s eyes brightened. “Tell me!” “Right after you get back from school, we’re taking a really long shower” Chloe nodded satisfied and after the two sisters were they walked downstairs to have breakfast. “Since when you two get along this well?” Asked Miss Michelakos. “Let’s just say I’m good inventing funny stories for Chloe” smiled Laura. “They’re great!” Cheered Chloe. Laura sat and slightly lowered her head thoughtful; it was kind of nice having a way to talk about Equestria without being taken as crazy and also win Chloe’s friendship. It was a good thing, but she still felt a little guilty for having to lie about it. Equestrian was real, was her home… and still she couldn’t tell anyone how she missed it, at least openly. And suddenly her father interrupted her thoughts: “So, Laura, since your sister is now happy to have you around, would you like to join us to drive her to school?” “What? Huh? Oh, sure!” The idea seemed good at first but Laura automatically regretted since she had to grab to the seat with her nails. Damn, stupid cars. “Do you get dizzy with cars?” Asked Chloe. “A little, I’ll be fine” Thomas laughed. “I suppose the driving lessons are out of the question, at least for now” Laura made a forced smile. Driving lessons? Great, that meant a lot of trips on that chariot of hell. They arrived to school, luckily it wasn’t that far from her home. “Come on Laura, I want my friends to meet my elder sister” Laura looked at her father who smiled and nodded, walking out of the car with her. The sight of a green-haired girl walking with Chloe Michalekos was something that no one in the school understood, but right after her was the father so it tranquilized the teachers a little. “Mister Michelakos?” Asked Chloe’s teacher. “Who is that?” “It’s a long story Miss Smith, please let me introduce you to Laura; Chloe’s elder sister” The teacher looked at the teenage girl not believing what she heard. Really? The story of the Michelakos’ lost daughter was famous all over Philadelphia, so did her really found her after all this years? This strange girl? Laura just smiled shyly and waved her hand. “What’s up?” “For real? You’re Laura Michelakos? Where have you been all this time?” “No idea, can we leave now dad?” Asked Laura nervously. Thomas noticed Laura’s discomfort and agreed. Finally they got back in the car that much for Laura’s surprise was a relief. “Sorry, I shouldn’t introduce you out of nowhere like that but I’m just too happy to have you back Laura” “I know, I know, but you should understand this whole thing is just too weird. Just give me some time” They began driving back home when her father took an unexpected turn. “This is not the way home” mumbled Laura scared. “I know, we’ll get you a new cell phone young lady. You won’t scare me again” If they weren’t on the damn car Laura would chuckle. Maybe she couldn’t tell the truth yet, but it was good to have a family. Author's Note The end is near, an apocalyptic bottom line but it’s true. And like the original Anthropology by JasonTheHuman the two worlds will collide but instead of an old enemy, we have a new one: the conspiracy wacko Sweet Pea. I hope you liked it and Read ya’ later!! 008Michakelos Residence; Saturday 9:32am Oddly enough Laura was woke up by the sun rays coming through her window right to her face. She moaned in protest trying to cover her face with a pillow but at the end she sat on the bed totally disoriented. Weird, since she arrived to the human world this was the first time she woke up after sunrise. She looked at her new alarm clock and sighed. “This late already? Whatever, I feel like this time I actually rested” Then she walked downstairs to have breakfast, for a minute she considered go do some training first but then remembered it was a weekend so she could relax. In fact telling Chloe about her home was helping to release her stress more than the actual exercise. When Laura finally arrived to the dining room she surprisingly found her parents still on pajamas as well. “Good morning Laura” greeted Thomas. “Did you slept well?” “Yeah, thanks. And where’s Chloe?” Her mother shrugged. “Still sleeping, it’s weekend so it’s okay” Laura nodded and fixed herself a bowl of cereal, some kind of chocolate cereal Chloe really liked so as Laura; but the former unicorn was pretty sure that Bon-Bon would faint if she see this along with the other several packaged sweets humans consumed. Then she froze, Bon-Bon. She haven’t thought about her marefriend since the arrival to this world, how was she? Surely worrying about her. “Are you okay Laura?” Asked her mother. “Sorry, I just… kind of spaced out” “Oh, it’s fine then” And again Laura knew her mother knew she was lying. However the woman quickly changed the subject: “By the way, once we have all your documents in order we’ll have to start thinking about school” “School?” Asked Laura. “Oh, right… I haven’t thought about it” Great, another subject to worry about. Back in Equestria she was considered an adult already; old enough to live by her own and work for the Royal Guard but here she was just a teenage girl and apparently had to start attending school all over again. Seriously, how many disadvantages had to have being a human? “Considering the circumstances we’re thinking about home-school for a semester or two. With a little luck you’ll be attending to a regular school before two years, what do you think? “Luck and hard work” reminded Selena. “Tell me dear, do you remember some of your education? Which grade are you?” Laura better shook her head in silence but of course she reminded everything: first she spent at least five years in Celestia’s Academy for the Gifted Unicorns where she learnt advanced magic techniques. Then she found her special talent was play the lyre so she matriculated in the Military Academy since it was the only one with music scholarships; and there Laura learnt hoof-to-hoof combat, attack and defensive spells, music theory and advanced codification. In fact her main job in the Secret Service was to send secret messages to other agents disguised as anthropology books; the best part was that if anypony find the secret message between all the rambling about humans, he or she will be taken as another conspiracy fool that nopony will take seriously. “We’ll hire a tutor as soon as the next academic cycle starts” “Sounds great” smiled Laura. They kept eating for a while when suddenly Chloe ran to hug her big sister. “Morning! Can you tell me something about Fluttershy?” Laura laughed happily, always the same; since the very beginning the Bearer of Kindness was Chloe’s favorite pony. “Let me think, Fluttershy… Fluttershy… I think I told you everything already, give me some time” Thomas took a sip from his coffee and smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about Equestria during the last days, where did you get this stuff Laura?” Selena nodded. “Yeah, did you invented all that stuff all by yourself? Because if one day you decide to publish something I’ll be more than happy to make the illustrations” The green-haired girl blushed. “Thank you mom” “Fluttershy!” Demanded Chloe. “Fine, fine… I think I have something. Did you know about the minotaur Iron Will?” “The monster who ate magic?” “No, that was Lord Tirek and I think he was a centaur; no, minotaurs are considerably smaller than centaurs and this guy wasn’t evil just mean and grumpy. And he gave really bad advices to ponies, you see it all started one morning at the market” And she told her as much as she could. In fact Laura just heard about it from Bon-Bon so she wasn’t sure which parts were truth and the only time she interacted with ‘mean-Fluttershy’ was when she was pushed out of the line in Sugar Cube Corner; a little annoying but she was too busy being confused to get mad with the shy Pegasus. “…and just like that Fluttershy repeated the rime from that rude creature and pushed everypony out of the line without a second thought. But again, everyone in Ponyville knew Fluttershy from a very long time and seeing her acting like that confused them more than upset them. Even Heartstrings limited to scratch her head instead of complain, and she never stays quiet” “Laura! You always mention Heartstrings” “Oh, really?” “In all your stories” confirmed Selena. “Sorry, is just my favorite character” Chloe giggled. “It’s fine, what were you telling me about Iron Will and Fluttershy?” “Fine, then the minotaur…” Equestria, location unknown; Saturday 9:47am “You called me mister Sweet Pea?” Asked Bon-Bon walking shyly while holding a saddlebag against her. “Please have a sit Miss Bon-Bon” politely asked the billionaire. “I have great news!” Bon-Bon’s eyes widened in delight. “You figured out the spell and will send me to the human world?” “Then I have two great news Miss Bon. Yes we figured how to send you as close as possible of doctor Heartstrings but first I have something to ask you and for your own good you better answer me with honesty” Two of Sweet Pea’s bodyguards moved towards the cream-coated mare. Bon-Bon sighed and after carefully placing her saddlebag on the floor made a quick backflip kicking the jaw of the nearest one; the pony was about to fall but Bon-Bon hold him on time and used as a living shield to receive a punch of his partner. Then released him to fall and caught the other one in a powerful hold that broke his back-legs. More of the bodyguards approached but Bon-Bon didn’t mind. “So you admit you work for the Secret Service, Agent Sweetie Drops” said the green pony unimpressed. Bon-Bon shrugged: “Let’s put all our cards on the table Sweet Pea: yes, I work for the Secret Service and yes, I used its resources to find you. However I always knew you were going to find the truth about me” “Then why you risked?” Asked Sweet Pea. “Because I was telling you the truth when we first met, I came here not as an agent but as Lyra’s marefriend who has been looking for her since you foalnapped her. Then, if it wasn’t for me your little operation would failed already. Celestia won’t let me take care of this operation since I’m emotionally involved with it; so I prepared fake leads to keep the other agents walking in circles while I find Lyra” Sweet Pea smiled and raised a hoof making his bodyguards relax as well. “One last question Miss Bon. Did you worked with anypony else in this solo-operation?” “My two best friends of course” Sweet Pea nodded and looked at the head-guard, who soon enough moved the two mares tied behind him. Bon-Bon face-hoofed. “What the hay are you doing here idiots? I clearly told you not to interfere!” Vinyl struggled but it was pointless so she just grinned. “Sorry Bonny but this moron have no idea what’s he’s dealing with. This ancient magic is very powerful and very dangerous… this whole plan haves the potential to destroy our plane of existence!!” Octavia nodded. “This isn’t all about you and Lyra anymore, is about Equestria’s safety!” Bon-Bon looked at Sweet Pea. “This idiots came here on their own, I swear” “I believe you” said the green-pony making a sign to his bodyguards. “Like I said I trust you Miss Bon, but I don’t trust in the Secret Service and my contact told me they’re on their way here” The ponies began to spread several cans of lantern oil all over the floor. The green pony sighed but quickly gave an apologetic smile to the three mares. “And this is good bye for a factory in project, it’s a shame but is no big deal. When your little partners arrive they’ll find nothing but a pile of ashes. Do you really think this was my operation base? I moved the whole equipment to another location as soon as Miss Bon-Bon found me” “Typical from a conspiracy-fool” grumped Vinyl. “You’re afraid of your own shadow” Sweet Pea laughed. “There’s nothing as paranoid ponies; there are only some ponies more informed than others. Go on!” The ponies began to set the factory on fire. “This is the point of no-return” said Sweet Pea. “Unicorns, do your thing!” Three unicorns appeared behind Sweet Pea. They created a portal while the heat was increasing all over the place. “There’s only two ways out of this place, through this portal or the main door but of course I’ll make sure you don’t use it. Farewell Miss Bon-Bon, taking this two with you or leave them here to die is up to you. It was a pleasure, I never doubt of your intentions and I think I won’t ever see you again. Bye!” “Bye Mister Sweet Pea, I always thought you were crazy but always knew you meant no harm to Lyra” So billionaire and secret agent shook hooves in agreement and Sweet Pea left them in the fire and disappeared along with his mercenaries. Once alone, Bon-Bon untied her friends and the three mares jumped through the portal before the fire reached them. Outside the factory the bodyguards checked the perimeter until Sweet Pea appeared. “Anything new?” “Yes, we got a message from the operations center, they made it” Sweet Pea grinned. “Perfect, are you ready to open the portals?” “Sir yes sir!” The head-guard laughed. “And we got rid of Agent Drops without she suspects a thing! You’re great boss Sweet Pea!” “What you mean? I gave her my word to send her with Doctor Heartstrings and I sent her with Doctor Heartstrings. They know nothing about my true intentions and I plan to keep it that way; besides in some cases is better to give your enemies exactly what they want” Human world, Michakelos Residence, Saturday 11:04am “Come on! Let’s go!” Shouted Chloe. “We’re coming, we’re coming!” Laughed Thomas. “Calm down, Chloe, the amusement park will be there when we arrive!” “Your mother isn’t ready yet” explained her mother. “Laura, hurry! Your sister can’t wait any longer!” “Sorry, sorry” said Laura running downstairs showing her new phone. “Sorry I lost it, I’m not really used to carry this thing all over the place” The family then entered to the car much for Laura’s discomfort. She HATED those things, really. “Laura, tell me about Nightmare Moon again!” Asked Chloe. But Laura raised a hand apologetically. “Maybe later Chloe. Sorry but I… I don’t think I can speak without throwing up inside this thing” Chloe pouted but Laura didn’t seem fine. “You’ll get used to it soon” assured her mother. Laura moaned. “Why don’t you better tell me about this amusement park, Chloe? You seem pretty excited about it” So Chloe began to tell her about this great park and everything cool about it. Laura was happily listening when suddenly the sky darkened with several green lightings crossing through it. Laura shivered, it seemed like that time when she got trapped in the human world. “A storm?” Asked Thomas. “A storm with green lightings?” Questioned his wife. Thomas didn’t know what to answer when suddenly one of this strange lightings stroke right in front of them. Thomas Michelakos lost control of his car and crashed to a tree. Laura shook violently opening the door to throw up in the road. This was too much for her. Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID CARS! Several green and red shades crossed the sky. The Michelakos froze in horror, it was the same phenomenon… the same strange storm that happened sixteen years ago when their daughter disappeared. “Laura get in the car!” Shouted Thomas. But Laura was frozen, it was the same traces of magic that sent her to the human world in the first place. What? Sweet Pea sent anypony else to this world? Why? Then her mother pulled her back inside the car. “No, I WON’T LOSE YOU AGAIN” But Laura pushed her mother away and ran to the lights. Finally three equine forms appeared inside it and Laura ran to their encounter. “LAURA!” Cried her mother running after her daughter. Still Laura didn’t listen, she was shocked looking at the three ponies who just appeared. “Wait, it can be dangerous!” Continued Selena. Ignoring her mother, Laura walked towards them. By their way the three ponies shook their heads and began to look to each other in confusion when they spotted a human girl approaching. “Behind me!” Commanded Octavia, who was the best fighter. Laura just opened her arms in a welcome embrace. “Girls… look at me… I know I am human but it’s me… it’s…” “LYRA!” Screamed the three mares. Finally the four friends hugged. “You have no idea how hard it was to find you” cried Bon-Bon. “But we’re together again and nothing will separate us ever again” Octavia smiled. “Look at you, a whole human. They’re just as you imagined them” Laura chuckled. “But girls, why haven’t you changed as well?” “Because unlike us, you belong to this world Lyra” explained Vinyl. “You better take a seat because this is hard to digest pal” Laura lowered her head. “What? That the idiot of Sweet Pea was always right about me and I am really a human? After all what happened it wasn’t too hard to deduce, but it’s kind of a long story” “We also have a lot to tell you Lyra” said Bon-Bon. At this point the Michalekos family was already out of the car approaching carefully to this strange apparition. The adults seemed scared but Chloe was excited. “Look mom! They’re ponies! Equestrian ponies!” Laura grinned. “Seeing that our little family trip is ruined I think is time to tell you about where I was for sixteen years. In other circumstances you would take me as crazy but seeing that my friends are here, maybe you believe me now. For sixteen years I was a pony from Equestria, the magical land of ponies. Remember the tales I’ve been telling Chloe and said it was all invented? I lied!” The adults couldn’t believe it but Chloe not only accepted this as true but she also seemed amused by this. “So you were a pony? “Exactly” Bon-Bon aimed her hoof to her saddlebag. “In fact I have several pictures with me. But Lyra, who are them?” “My human family, my real family” Nopony said nothing, no one said anything. And then Chloe excitedly realized something. “So that’s why you always talk about Heartstrings!” The green-haired nodded. “Exactly, for many years my name was Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings” Author's Note So as I promised, the two words collided. I hope you liked it and as you guessed this story is about to end. So the final battle is near. Read ya’ later! 009Michalekos Residence; Saturday 11:48am Laura entered to the living room with a tray with a teapot and two cups for her parents followed by Chloe caring a jar of juice for the guests. The adults hadn’t say a word since the arrival of the ponies, they just automatically followed their daughters and sat on one of their couches constantly staring cautiously at the three ponies. On the other side the three ponies were waiting for her friend to break this uncomfortable silence. But Octavia finally decided take the initiative and introduced herself. “So sorry for the inconvenience, and seeing we started with the wrong hoof, why don’t we introduce ourselves? Nice to meet you, my name is Octavia Melody… ehem, I am a cellist and I’ve been a good friend of Lyra since Military Academy. Anyone else? Girls?” Vinyl winked an eye and dedicated the Michakelos her characteristic half-smile. “Cool! What’s up? I’m the world-famous (well, my world) DJP0N3 and the name is Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch; and also I’ve been Lyra’s friend since we got in trouble over and over back in Military Academy. We practically spent our afternoons doing disciplinary chores like clean the bathrooms with toothbrushes; but that’s why we became really close right pal?” Laura couldn’t help but chuckle and do a high-five/high-hoof with the unicorn. “Give me a brake Scratch, you were the worst; weren’t your nickname ‘Headache Scratch’.” “Go to hell Heartstrings” said Vinyl crossing her hooves and pouting. “You now well I was called ‘Toothache’ not ‘Headache’. Toothache” Octavia took a sip from the glass of juice Chloe just gave her and raised an eyebrow. “Vy, they’re supposed to like us” Vinyl blushed shyly but soon enough began to laugh out along with Octavia and Lyra. “Oh girls you have no idea how much I missed you” smiled the green-haired girl. “But just one thing: I learnt that my true name is Laura, and is a beautiful name so would you mind call me Laura from now on? Please” Vinyl shrugged. “It isn’t that different from Lyra so I think we can try” And at this point Selena Michalekos finally was recovering from all this madness. “Enough, please! What’s going on here? What are you? Is this a dream? Are we getting insane because of Laura’s return? Someone explain please!” Bon-Bon raised a hoof asking for peace. “I know it isn’t easy for anyone, okay? Also I get that living in a world without magic is very hard to fully understand for you but try to keep an open mind please. And do you think this has been easy for us? Because until Lyra disappeared, humans were nothing but a fantasy for us” And to prove her point she took a book from her saddlebag. Laura’s face grew red when she recognized it: in the cover it had the picture of a minty-green unicorn with a smirk. For all the books, did Bon-Bon had to choose that one? Sweet Celestia! Thomas Michelakos better took the book and examined it: “Humans: truth or reality?” He scratched his head in confusion and checked the back cover. “Are we really alone in the universe? Who really built the great monuments of the ponykind? Is the Crown aware of everything? Doctor Heartstrings explores the world of conspiracies seeking for the right answer to all this questions and everything else; however you have the last word. Wow, just wow. It sounds like the UFO stuff you find in the science-fiction section in the library” Octavia nodded. “I don’t know what a UFO is but at least you get the idea what a humans meant for us: nothing but paranoid fantasies of this guys who live on their parents’ basement with hats made of aluminum foil constantly afraid to be caught by the government” “Precisely, UFO fantasies” confirmed Selena taking the book. “And this Doc…” Her eyes moved to the author’s name and then to the picture in the cover; finally stoped at her older daughter. No way… the eyes, the mane/hair… no… no! It couldn’t be. Laura nodded sadly. “That’s right, the one in the book is no other than me. It was taken last year” Soon her father took the book from his wife to examine the picture. It sounded like madness but like his wife he began to find the similarities between this ‘doctor Heartstrings’ and Laura. What the hay was going on? “Was that really you Laura?” “Yes” Chloe was jumping around her parents desperately trying to get the book from them but they were too astonished looking at the picture to pay attention to her. Noticing this Bon-Bon called Chloe and from her saddlebag took a picture that she offered Chloe. It was the picture they took to commemorate Lyra’s first time leading their squad after their mission in the AnthroCon; and there was Lyra, in the center of the group showing a proud smile on her face. “Is that really you Laura? “Yes Chloe” smiled the girl. “You looked beautiful!” Cheered the little girl. “But what your Cutie Mark meant?” At this point Chloe had heard so much of Equestria that she was perfectly aware of what a Cutie Mark was. Laura just smiled and shrugged. “I would show you if I could” “By the way, I brought something with me that I’m pretty sure you missed” said Bon-Bon opening back her saddlebag. Laura’s eyes widened in delight. “Give it to me!” Vinyl then used her magic to levitate the golden instrument that went straight to Laura. “Is that unicorn magic?” Asked Chloe delighted. “Sure it is, really useful when you’re lack of hands” said Vinyl. But then Laura took her old lyre and began to play. Before she turned human she used to play with her magic but now her fingers remembered the right movements. The beautiful melody filled the room relaxing everyone communicating Laura’s own happiness. First her friends, now her music; she was finally complete. But suddenly Selena stopped her. “My only question is: how did this happened? How did you ended up in that world full talking horses and how you came back? That’s why you didn’t believe the paternity test would get positive right? Because you thought you always were a talking pony?” Laura nodded. “It’s a long and strange story mom. How do I start? Girls… any help?” Octavia combed her bow tie. “I understand that Ly, I mean Laura, have been telling you about our world as it was a fairy tale, right? Did she ever mentioned Nightmare Moon?” “Chloe mentioned her a couple of times” said Thomas. “Princess Celestia’s sister who is trapped on the moon” Vinyl nodded and continued: “She was, but once purified by the Elements of Harmony she’d been ruling Equestria along with Princess Celestia. The thing is that the original Prison-Spell was meant to last one thousand years, no less” “But that didn’t stopped Nightmare to try to escape more than one occasion” continued Bon-Bon. “And the last time she tried it was sixteen years ago. Her imprisonment was about to end but maybe she lost the track of time; however this time the magic outburst was worse than the other times. She used a very specific spell that Sweet Pea is trying to replicate” It was when Vinyl took the chocolate wrapping paper Bon-Bon delivered to them a little ago and passed a streak of light from her horn through it; projecting the spell Sweet Pea was using. “What? Ancient magic? Is Sweet Pea crazy or what?” Asked Laura. Octavia nodded. “What Nightmare tried to do was to create a wrap-hole through this dimension to then get back to Equestria. As a result several portals between Equestria and this world opened. Princess Celestia managed to close them all before something bad like the two worlds collapsing to each other” “Now this sounds like a sci-fi novel” mumbled Thomas Michalekos. “Nothing major happened” explained Vinyl. “And there was only one small incident; but it those involved got their lives changed forever. After Princess Celestia closed the last of the portals, she realized a human baby got trapped in Equestria” The Michelakos family gasped. “You need to understand this spell in particular is very unstable and Princess Celestia won’t risk to open the portals under any circumstances. That’s why she decided to transform the baby into a pony and trust her to a family she knew that tried to have children of their own but they couldn’t” Silence, Laura’s parents looked at Laura who lowered her head in sadness. “What happened with the girl? Let’s say her adoptive family truly loved her and she was happy. And one day she discovered she had talent for music but her adoptive parents couldn’t afford the music academy so she enrolled in the Military Academy since it was the only one that offered complete music scholarships. She graduated at twelve (the usual among ponies) with the rank of corporal and was recruited by the Secret Service; an elite military unit that under fake identities protect Equestria from all kind of threats” “So that’s where you learnt Kung-Fu” mumbled Selena. “In Equestria it is called Earth-Pony Martial Arts” Again silence. Then Laura showed the book to her parents. “And my secret identity was an idiot who believed in the ‘Human Conspiracy’. My real job was to encrypt top-secret messages to other field agents; but for most of the ponies I was just Lyra Heartstrings lyrist and a celebrity among the group of paranoid idiots known as Anthropologists. All I had to do was disguise the messages to my fellow agents as part of what I thought it was a bunch of nonsense” “What you mean you thought?” Asked Vinyl. “Since I arrived to this world I’ve been investigating and I kind of guessed everything right” explained Laura. “No way! Even the part about the invisible net they use to communicate around the world?” Asked Octavia raising an eyebrow. “I think they call it internet, I really don’t get it” “So all your ‘nonsensical rambling’ were really repressed memories?” Asked Bon-Bon. “Apparently” Selena Michalekos had to sit to process all of this. Seriously, it seemed like a twisted fairytale. But still managed to ask: “And how did you get back here Laura?” The young girl sighed. “It started when I was named leader of my squad. A terrorist group tried to attack in the middle of the AnthroCon, where my stupid conferences were considered the main attraction and…” She told them everything: since how she found the old newspaper telling the event that brought her to Equestria sixteen years ago, but without suspecting a thing she chose it because it seemed perfect for the ‘Human Conspiracy’ theorists. Of how as soon as they accomplished their mission she got a surprise visit from Princess Celestia who came to make sure she didn’t tried to investigate further about what happened… and then how Sweet Pea foalnapped her to send her back to this world. Then about the experience in Des Moines, she already told her family about it but now Laura was free to fully share the experience of a unicorn trying to adapt to human society. Her friends also listened very carefully, after all they hadn’t knew anything about Lyra/ Laura until now. At the end Bon-Bon shook her head disapprovingly. “What worries me the most is the fact you still use to exercise to exhaustion to deal with your stress Lyr… I mean Laura. Don’t you realize how dangerous it is?” Laura frowned. “Aha, I have news for you Bonny: that’s what kept me sane all this time. For a while I began to think I was actually crazy. That my whole life had been a lie. When the paternity test came back positive I… I… I was afraid that the girls were a product of my imagination… that you and I never… loved each other” Laura cried but Bon-Bon hugged her firmly. “I missed you the most Bonny. You too girls but…” Vinyl shrugged. “Get it pal, Bon-Bon is your especial somepony; Scratch understands” “And she felt the same way, after all she was the one who found Sweet Pea; we just followed her” assured Octavia. Thomas Michelakos almost faint, this was too much to handle on a single afternoon. “Laura, please tell me you don’t have a romantic relationship with one of this colorful horses…” “Dad, for a long time I was also a colorful horse, and ponies from Equestria aren’t like the ones we have here: they’re smart and civilized. Ask Chloe! They’re people! And same-sex relationships are very common in Equestria” “We get it Laura but…” Bon-Bon advanced towards him. “Sir I understand you love your daughter and only are trying to protect her; but also I need you to understand me as well: since Lyra or Laura vanished I dedicated every minute of my life to get her back. I don’t care she is a human now; if there’s something I’m completely sure is that I want to be with Laura. And for this two… I still don’t know why they’re here with me. Seriously, you were perfectly capable to escape from Sweet Pea’s fire, why did you crossed the portal as well?” Laura giggled and kissed Bon-Bon’s forehead. “You really have no idea?” Laura’s mother protested. “Please don’t do that in front of us. We get it, you love each other, and you’re soulmates… but please this thing among you two way too much for us right now. Can you save this when you’re alone please?” “My apologies” said Bon-Bon. “But what you mean Laura?” The green-haired girl nodded. “Vinyl have more mouth than brain” “Ey!” “But her brain is enormous as well. They followed you here because Sweet Pea isn’t a fool and we need all the squad together in order to stop him” The other two mares did a high-hoof. “Got us, we need you Lyra, you’re the only one who can approach safely to Sweet Pea. Obviously he’s not the idiot he made Bon-Bon think he was… and if there’s a pony smart enough to read between lines and guess his true intentions that’s you Lyra” “Once a spy always a spy, and sending you here was only the beginning. Sweet Pea is up to something big and we need our leader. So Mister and Miss Michakelos, we know you just recovered your daughter… but we need her for a last mission” “A mission to save the two worlds” Author's Note Sweet Pea is more dangerous that he seems and Laura’s parents finally learnt the truth about their daughter. Like I said the two worlds collided and this is only the beginning. What’s Sweet Pea’s final goal? Read ya’ later!! 010Michalekos Residence; Sunday 08:14am That was a strange morning for Thomas and Selena Michalekos; both woke up with the ood feeling that they had the exact same strange weird, but neither of them dared to mention it even if they kept trying to pretend it was nothing. However, the thing was that they were woke up by the delicious smell of recently made pancakes; but who prepared them? Chloe? Obviously not, she was too young. Then Laura? No, she couldn’t; during her short time with them they learnt their older daughter didn’t cooked. Then who? Fearing the worst they ran to the kitchen to see who did it. Of course it was no other than a cute little cream-coated horse who was whistling a cheering melody while she careful poured the pancake mix in a pan and then cover it. And just if it wasn’t strange enough the marriage turned their attention to the table where a little white unicorn with electric-blue mane was drinking a cup of coffee along with a gray mare with black mane who was reading the newspaper. “Ey Tavi, when you finish can I see the comics?” “If you want but I warn you this aren’t the comics you read back home Vy” “I know, that’s why I want to read them, I’m curious with what humans entertain themselves” Bon-Bon shook her head in disapproval. “It must be better than what they eat, when I checked they had tons of canned, frosted and packaged food. I mean, did anyone cook in this world anymore? I almost have a stroke” “Relax Bonny” smiled Laura entering to the kitchen behind her parents. “Is just normal life, even if I must admit those things aren’t as good as the homemade they aren’t that bad if you try it” Bon-Bon crossed her hooves. “There’s NOTHING as homemade food and that’s final” scolded the cream-coated pony then smiling to Laura’s parents. “Oh, and good morning for the two of you. Please take a seat, breakfast is ready” Both Laura’s parents sighed in defeat. “So it wasn’t a dream” they mumbled at the unison. Laura smiled gently to them. “I know is weird. First time I arrived to this world I was completely disoriented, but I promise you it’ll end soon. Really?” “Then what Laura?” Asked her mother. “Would you go back to Equestria or stay here with your real family? Because you can’t have both world” Laura didn’t knew what to answer. Anyone could notice her mood had bettered a lot since she reunited with her old friends and judging by the ‘please don’t go’ expression in her parents’ face it concerned them a lot. Laura could only smile weakly to her parents: “Mom, dad, whatever happens from now, I promise you that I’ll follow my heart and it’ll guide me in the right direction” “That’s what worries me, what if your heart guide you away from us?” No one knew what to say so they better sat to have breakfast. Luckily Chloe’s arrive relaxed the tensions since she shrieked excitedly when she realized it wasn’t a dream and her sister was truly an equestrian pony. Equestria, ManeHattan residential area, House of the Sweet family; Sunday 4:12pm Sweet Pea’s parents, Crunchy Spinach and Tasty Carrot were relaxing before dinner when somepony called to the door. Crunchy answered only to bump into Princess Celestia and a pair of intimidating soldiers serving as her bodyguards. Both earth ponies bowed to her. “Princess Celestia, we had the feeling you’ll show up sooner or later. Any clues about our son?” “Nothing yet, he knows how to cover his tracks. We don’t have anything, anything!” Tasty sighed. “We shouldn’t allow him to keep living with us” The Princess shrugged. “Yeah, I never understood why he insisted in living with you since he’s one of the richest ponies in the city?” “We never really understood. He said his businesses all over the Kingdom kept him traveling constantly and as a matter of fact he was rarely at home, so having a place of his own was going to be a waste. We gladly accepted him here as long as he paid us in time and he did. He didn’t even cared when we raised his rent, no, he paid what we asked and even offered more” Princess Celestia grinded her teeth. “Damn it!” Tasty Spinach smiled weakly. “We never knew anything about his conspiracy theories and that stuff that he did it because it was easier to disappear in case the government began looking for him. Whenever he was home he seemed pretty normal, all he talked about were his business and life… ad of course he bought some strange packages from time to time his hobbies weren’t our business” Princess Celestia couldn’t deny this guy was pretty clever: in front of the people who loved him Sweet Pea acted like a very clever and straight-forward businesspony. No one would suspect a thing about his activities. He was a true master in the art of pretending. And then it hit her. Of course! “The art of pretending…” “Princess Celestia?” The white alicorn frowned. “What if this whole conspiracy-theory thing is just an excuse? He made us underestimate him by taking him as crazy; but all this time he was diverting our attention to his true intentions; but what are them?” Celestia turned to her bodyguards. “Quick! What do you have in Sweet Pea’s profile?” One of the soldiers made appear a folder and began: “Twenty four years old, graduated in agronomy, successful businesspony; he owns several properties all over Equestria most of them factories. He also possesses the biggest brand in canned products. Oh and keeps repeating to everypony that his sister was abducted by humans even if everypony keeps telling him she ran away with her coltfriend” “Hold it!” Called Celestia. “Wasn’t his sister the first victim registered in ‘the incident’ sixteen years ago?” Tasty and Crunchy exchanged a saddened look. “Precisely… she died…” “At least Yummy didn’t suffered” That horrible memory slowly came back to Celestia: sixteen years ago after Nightamare’s magic outburst opened several portals all over Equestria; most of them were harmless and the Royal Guard isolated the areas, but two in particular had really bad consequences. One of them teleported a human child to Equestria (agent Heartstrings) and the other one opened directly over a teenage mare killing her in the process. Celestia offered a huge amount of bits to the mare’s family in exchange of their silence. But they accepted mostly because of their younger son’s sake, Sweet Pea. “He knew” mumbled Crunchy Spinach when he understood. Celestia nodded slowly. “Yeah, sixteen years ago several portals opened all over Equestria; causing a young human to get trapped here and killing a little pony. Today that mare’s younger brother is a respected billionaire who foalnapped the human-turned-pony was trapped here and steal a dangerous spell from my personal archives. This was no coincidence, this is all about Yummy Beans” Suddenly several green lightings appeared all over the sky followed by short earthquakes and purplish clouds in the sky. “Damn he’s using the spell!” So the Princess ran to the street followe by his bodyguards. All this time all she was mislead by Sweet Pea but now she had a vague idea of what he as up to. The only problem was she still had no idea of where he was using that spell in particular. “Damn it, damn it!” They ran through a park where ponies began to panic seeing the strange phenomena. “Where is he using it? WHERE?” A pony sitting in a bench reading the late edition of the newspapers smiled sarcastically. “Come on, you don’t need to be a genius, is obviously happening in Canterlot” Celestia and her soldiers froze and turned to the pony who spoke. It was no other than Sweet Pea. “Don’t be that surprised, all this time I hid here in ManeHattan since I knew it was only a matter of time you go to interrogate my parents. Now that my contacts told me you were close I ordered to my team to go to stage three of my brilliant plan” The soldiers tackled Sweet Pea and immobilized him to then proceed to put on the hoofcuffs. “Come on, I didn’t plan to resist. Are you okay showing this brutality in front of your boss?” The soldiers kicked Sweet Pea’s ribs. “Don’t touch his face nor head, he still had a lot to explain” said Celestia coldly. The soldiers nodded and kicked his back. Sweet Pea resisted everything always showing a smile of self-confidence that began to irritate Princess Celestia. “You know your Majesty? I would love that you show this face of yours more often” “Shut up Sweet Pea. If you’re going to talk then tell me, what you’re up to? You wanted me? You have me. Now what’s the idea?” Sweet Pea grinned and the guards kicked him again. “The truth sweet Pea” commanded Celestia. “Okay. I want precisely the truth” “You mean your sister” Sweet Pea nodded. “Close enough. I knew that truth from a while now, you see: I was there, I saw her dying” Princess Celestia felt a wave of guilt. “Then why you never said anything?” “Why did anypony ever told me anything? My parents knew my dear sister died in a horrible way but they told me a lie; I get it, I was just a kid! But then I noticed they told the same lies to my aunts and uncles, my grandparents; how do you think I felt? And then I noticed you suddenly gave them an insane amount of money; I never understood the connection until I became a teenager, you bought their silence! Why? MY SISTER DESERVED MORE!!” The soldiers softened their hold feeling a little sorry for this pony. Even Celestia felt guilty about him. “I understand, my actions were for a greater good but I wasn’t fair with you who really loved your sister. But if you already knew that truth what’s the truth you’re after? And what’s the relation with agent Heartstrings in all this?” Sweet Pea sighed. “Nothing I do will give me back my sister, I know that. I got obsessed with my sister’s case; I investigated about what happened that day and I found that Yummy wasn’t the only victim, so I thought that the least I could to honor her was to do something for the other victim” Celestia sighed in shame. “Release him!” The soldiers obeyed happily, in fact they felt truly sorry about this poor pony. He wasn’t evil, just suffered too much. But then the green lightings and purple clouds demanded Celestia’s attention. “I’ll admit what happened to your sister, now stop this Sweet Pea!” Sweet Pea chuckled and raised his hooves to be cuffed again. “Is not that easy. As a last favor to Yummy I got deeper in my research and I found that my family weren’t the only one affected by your dirty little secrets. How many? I don’t know, there’s a lot of cover-ups I found digging in your personal archives. So I decided to put you in your place. You say you use lies to protect your little ponies, fair enough, but if you’re going to do the least you can do is suffer a lost of your own. My team modified the spell to work only in one location: your Palace, where somepony’s sister is trapped inside. In a matter of time she’ll end up like my own sister. Let’s see if you can keep lying after that” Princess Celestia froze in horror. “You… YOU!!” Sweet Pea grinned again. “You cannot stop me at this point, I only revealed myself to enjoy your reaction. I may not live to see if you deny your sister’s murder as you denied lots of deaths before; but I assure you: from now on whenever you even consider cover anything you’ll think in me and what I’ve done. Ha-ha” Human world, Michalekos Residence; Sunday 5:03pm Family and ponies were playing UNO when suddenly the green lightings followed by small earthquakes began to be felt all over Philadelphia. Vinyl looked through the window: “Ey Laura, are green lightings common in here?” The green-haired girl prepared her bo-staff but first looked at her parents who shook their heads. “Of course not, Sweet Pea is making his move” “It looks like it’s coming from downtown” commented Thomas Michelakos. Laura hugged her parents. “Whatever it happens, it ends right now” “Please come back Laura…” mumbled Selena. “I will, I promise” Chloe hugged her sister. “You better keep that promise” “And whatever it happens, even if you don’t… you know… please never forget your family here in Philadelphia, and we’re proud of you” Laura hugged her family one last time and joined her friends. “Don’t worry, I decided already: I’ll be back” Author's Note So I delayed a little but I’m back and ready to finish this story that’s finished already in Spanish in FanFiction. This protagonist is very funny to write, he doesn’t wings or magic, his intelligence is more than enough. Read ya’ later! 011Equestria, precinct of ManeHattan police; Sunday 5:17pm The two Royal Guards pushed the beaten but satisfied Sweet Pea inside the cell along with gang members, noisy drunks and even a recently captured mob boss (Mas-Carpone a cheese trafficker who made millions during the prohibition). Princess Celestia advanced slowly and threatening behind her two soldiers, but still Sweet Pea stayed as calm and arrogant as before. He had a stupid self-confidence smile on his face since he revealed his true intentions and kept it during the beating; but Celestia was determined to erase it from his face, no matter how he will pay. “Ladies and gentlecolts” she announced to all the prisoners. “I brought you a piece of fresh meat, please feel free to release your darkest impulses on him since he have to learn his lesson, but you better hurry because we won’t stay here for long” Sweet Pea laughed. “So you realized I’m the kind of pony with the right contact in the right and not-so-right places, huh?” Celestia’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. “Listen to me you bastard: as soon I have news from my sister we’ll translate you to a maximum security prison where I’ll make sure you won’t see any kind of light ever again, understood?” Then she faced the other prisoners. “Anyway, as I was saying, I’ll concede freedom to whoever erase that stupid smile from his face, understood?” The rest of the prisoners scratched their heads in confusion not getting why their beloved Princess was acting this way, what did this pony ever did to her? At the end Celestia and her bodyguards left the room with Sweet Pea still smiling at the door. Suddenly a hoof placed on the billionaire’s shoulder. “Ey, I think I remember you. Weren’t you from the same neighborhood I was?” Sweet Pea turned, it was the mob boss. “Indeed, such a wonderful memory mister Carpone. You used to date my sister, remember?” “Oh yeah! Yummy Beans! Good, kind, generous… before she disappeared I was working hard willing to change my ways… but then she disappeared and everypony began to blame me for that. They said I got her pregnant forcing her to run away even if I respected her wish to wait until we get married. The only one who ever supported me, the only one who believed I had nothing to do with her disappearance was her annoying little brother” Sweet Pea chuckled. “Like I said to the Princess, I’m the kind of pony with the right contacts in the right and not-so-right places. Is everything ready for my escape?” “As you requested old friend” confirmed Mas-Carpone. “Begin now!” The rest of the prisoners began to work. In the meantime in the sheriff’s office Princess Celestia was doing her best to contact Luna. The fastest way she knew as to communicate through little Spike but he was still not able to reach Luna what was making Princess Celestia more nervous every second. And for her guards they were just staring to her unsure what to do. But at the end one of them approached shyly. “Princess Celestia, sorry but I was thinking about the situation with Sweet Pe and it seems a bit unfair. We already beat Sweet Pea… there’s no need to allow this ponies to almost kill him” “Yes Princess, killing Sweet Pea won’t give you back Princess Luna in case he succeeded” joined the other. “HE WON’T!!” Shouted the white alicorn, but a few seconds later she managed to control herself. “But you’re right, I’ll order the ponies to stop the beating” So she moved to the precinct’s cell only to find the captured ponies destroying a rag and hay doll. “What happened here?!” “The mob boss is missing too” observed one of the soldiers. “What? THAT BASTARD!” In the city outskirts Sweet Pea offered a bag of bits to Mas-Carpone who in exchange took some kind of crystal from a saddlebag. It was a magic object called ‘Jump-Crystal’ a device that allowed to teleport at long distance designed for single ponies or groups and it could be used by everypony, not only unicorns. “It was really hard to get one of these, I hope you succeed because I won’t be able to help you a second time” “I will, don’t worry about me” smiled Sweet Pea. “However, this is what we agreed and a little extra for the troubles I caused you” “Don’t worry about it, I also want justice for Yummy” “Still take it, payed bills build strong friendships, especially when you’re friend with a mobster” Mas-Carpone laughed. “You’re right! Good luck my friend” “Thank you Carpone. And I promise you I’ll make justice for Yummy” Human world, city of Philadelphia; Sunday 5:21pm “Hurry Monica, it’s about to downpour here” complained Paul. His friend offered him an apologetic smile. “Easy pal, I just forgot my wallet at work and isn’t that far from the disco” Paul groaned in protest but didn’t say anything obediently following Monica to the bookstore she worked at. The clouds were crowding around more and more looking more threatening by seconds. “Monica…” “Stop complaining now moron!” “Not that, look over your work!” He shrieked pointing to the roof. Monica looked at the direction he was aiming and screamed. Over the place there were several black clouds with green lightings were creating several flashes of light showing different views of different kinds of landscapes; it was almost like magic. Both teenagers froze in the place wondering what was going on when suddenly they heard the roar of some kind of enormous animal trapped inside the small store. “What the…?” It was when they saw a giant wolf-like creature made of wood through the glass of the windows. And apparently the monster saw them too because at that very moment began to charge against the walls in a desperate attempt to get them. “What the heck is that?!” “DO I LOOK AS I NOW?” Then they heard the sound of some kind of animal trotting towards them. They turned only to see a familiar green-haired girl along with a bunch of horses who seemed they fell on a bucket of paint. “LAURA! What you’re doing here? RUN, SAVE YOURSELF!” Shouted Monica. But the girl didn’t listened, she just exchanged a small look with Paul and stood in front of the book store manipulating her bo staff. “Don’t worry, I know what we’re dealing with. Open the door!!” “ARE YOU CRAZY OR WHAT?” Shrieked Monica. “Whatever, Vinyl I’m counting on you!” The little unicorn DJ grinned happily turning Paul and Monica’s attention to the little ponies who were with Laura. What the hell? Vinyl opened the door with her magic. “IT’S TIME FOR PARTY! FEEL THE WUB!” Shouted Vinyl excitedly. The monstrous wooden-wolf-thing roared in anger and jumped to destroy everything in its way. The first thing he noticed was the small unicorn and the green-haired human aiming a gray staff to him. Roared and tried to get them both with his paws. Vinyl created a small force-field while Laura jumped and roundhouse kicked the monster in the nose irritating him and turning herself into the main target of the beast who lost all his interest in Vinyl to concentrate fully in try to eat Laura. The wolf began to send chomps to Laura who simply back-flipped every time irritating more and more the Timberwolf, but it won’t last forever. “Bon-Bon! Octavia! NOW!” It was when the wolf almost reached her with one of his paws but Laura rolled away just in time. Next she jumped to gain a little distance and hit him on the nose with the bo. “In moments like this I miss my unicorn magic” Two small pony figures jumped on the creature’s back making it lose balance and fell right before Laura, the girl grinned and smashed his forehead with her bo using all her strength. It was enough to startle the monster giving Bon-Bon and Octavia time to smash his head again to the floor with all their earth-pony strength. A small tremble ran all over the Timberwolf’s body and finally turned into a pile of branches in the middle of the street. Paul gulped. “Is it dead?” Octavia shook her head calmly fixing her bowtie. “Nope, the only way to kill one of this things is to burn it, I just knocked this thing for a few hours since I won’t kill it, after all it was just a scared animal in a strange enviroment. Vy, care to send it back where it came from?” Vinyl levitated the branches with her magic and lead the group inside the bookstore that had a strange green portal floating in the middle of it. The girls exchanged a small look and then Vinyl threw the Timberwolf to the portal to then follow it. Bon-Bon and Octavia also jumped through the portal leaving Laura alone with Paul and Monica. “Seriously, what the fuck?!” Asked a very agitated Paul. “I’ll explain everything any other day. Right now I have to find certain pony to thank him for something” And she disappeared inside the portal as well. “No one would believe what just happened” mumbled Monica. For a few moments Laura was afraid to end up in the middle of the Everfree forest (of course a trained agent like her would handle it but they won’t make it in time to Canterlot to stop Sweet Pea); but luckily enough the portal sent them precisely to Canterlot; in the middle of the city zoo to be more precise. “So we were lucky I guess” mumbled the young human looking around. “Thank Celestia” said Bon-Bon. “But Laura, why didn’t you changed back to unicorn? We could use your magic right now” “I have no idea Bonny. But right now we must concentrate in finding Sweet Pea” Vinyl looked at the sky, it was covered in the strange green lightings all over it. She frowned. “Any ideas where to start Laura?” “Shall we follow the lightings?” Suggested Octavia, “There are too many of them” said Vinyl. They stayed in silence for a while, it was obvious that Sweet Pea opened that may portals to keep them busy figuring out where to go. “I have a feeling we must go where everything started” suddenly said Laura. “At Canterlot Archives” “Are you sure?” “No, like I said it’s just a feeling” “Is better than nothing” mumbled Vinyl. “TO THE ARCHIVES” So the group ran to the building hoping to find Sweet Pea there. All over Canterlot the Royal Guards were doing their best evacuating the ponies in order. It was a well done process; no pony would get hurt, or at least that was the group expected. But casually on of the ponies noticed Laura and screamed: “LOOK! A MONSTER!” And the mass panic began much for Laura’s exasperation. Several soldiers approached gently, as she was some kind of wild animal. “Come on, right over here little one… we’ll take you back to your environment in no time…” Laura punched him with the staff. “Fuck you” “I can make you invisible if you want” suggested Vinyl charging her magic. “Don’t worry about me, I need to be visible for Sweet Pea” The group nodded and resumed the march to the Archives. Nothing else mattered now. When they arrived the first thing the girls noticed was the magic dome protecting the building. Unicorn units were strategically placed around it in desperate attempts to break it was useless. The young unicorns hired by Sweet Pea did a magnificent job reinforcing the shield. Again somepony got alarmed with Laura’s appearance. “Monster! Monster! Laura face-palmed. “Ey idiots, cross to my world to see what the humans say about you. Fucking morons” A soldier approached. “Sorry ladies but you can’t stay here with this creature” Bon-Bon showed her badge. “Secret Service. Shut up and let us pass” The solider looked at Laura. “Got it, but what is this thing?” Laura showed her badge as well. “Squad leader, got hit by a transmutation spell and now look like this. Any other stupid question?” The soldier smiled apologetically and better walked back with his partners. “Morons” mumbled again Laura. The girls stayed there looking at the worthless attempts to break in. “Suggestions?” Asked Octavia. “Squad Leader?” Laura nodded. “That building is connected to the secret Royal Archives, we can enter through it” The girls made a quick high-hoof; high-five and ran towards the city dump. There were three main entrances for Celestia’s personal archives: the first one connected to the Princesses headquarters; the second one through the Canterlot Archives and the emergency only entrance, the one they were about to enter. In the dump a soldier disguised as the guardian of the place stopped them. “Hold! If you want to recover you…” Again the girls showed their badges. “Secret Service, let us in” The guardian nodded but keep staring to Laura. “And this creature?” Laura sighed and showed her badge as well. “Agent Lyra Heartstrings, I was hit by a transmutation spell. I’ll deal with it when our mission is over okay?” This made the soldier doubt so he use his magic to examine the authenticity of the badge but it was authentic. He just mumbled his sympathies for Laura wishing her a quick recovery and let them in to the secret entrance to the Royal private Archives. The girls quickly ran through a long tunnel that lead to a large underground constructions; with several hallways full of the Crown’s biggest secrets: from the existence of the Secret Service (along with all the information about agents and missions) as well as several other information too dangerous for the ponykind. The ultimate treasure for any conspiracy theorist. Walking to the secret exit to the Canterlot Archives Laura bumped into a box causing it to spread all its content. “Damn! I didn’t see it” “Maybe you’re a little too tall for this reduced spaces” suggested Bon-Bon. “Think so?” Asked a very annoyed Laura. Her friends quickly began to help her to order the documents when Vinyl noticed something: “Guys this isn’t any secret info, is just an old newspaper” “What?” “Yeah, check it out” said Vinyl showing it to the girls. Laura frowned. “This is suspicious but we don’t have time for this! We must stop the idiot of Sweet Pea while we can” So they finally reached the door to Canterlot Archives. Entering carefully since several of Sweet Pea’s mercenaries must be patrolling the area. Effectively several ponies ran to receive them but the girls pushed a bookshelf to fall on them incapacitating all in a minute but also compromising their location. They stood in fight position ready for everything, when finally the well-known green earth pony walked to them calm and unbelievably very happy to see them. “Oh it was only a matter of time to the Secret Service to show up, but the three of you? And a human? That’s certainly unexpected” chuckled Sweet Pea. The human girl put aside her bo-staff and smiled to Sweet Pea. “Come on Sweet Pea! Weren’t you my number one fan? How you don’t recognize me?” And that caught Sweet Pea’s attention. How could he be so blind? “Doctor Heartstrings? What are you doing here? You supposed to be in the human world!” “Don’t call ‘Doctor Heartstrings’ anymore Sweet Pea, thanks to you now I know my true name: it’s Laura. Laura Michalekos” Sweet Pea nodded. “It’s a beautiful human name doctor. I’m so glad you reunited with your real family, I bet my sister would be proud. Now putting that aside, what do you want from me doctor Michalekos?” Laura shrugged happily. “First of all I came to thank you old friend: thanks to you I figured I’ve been serving the wrong person, after all you showed me that Celestia has been lying to me all this time. And who knows how many ponies” Laura’s friends looked at her not believing their ears, was she serious? Was she really on Sweet Pea’s side? However Sweet Pea interrupted their thoughts with an evil grin. “But that my dear is about to end. As soon she arrives we’ll have a serious talk” Laura nodded in agreement. “After all this started with the three of us: you, me and Princess Celestia” “Four, my sister participated as well but you see: she couldn’t make it” Laura nodded again sympathetically. “So now what?” Asked Bon-Bon. “Aren’t we going to stop this?” “Girls, don’t you see?” Asked Laura. “Sweet Pea will stop this on his own, when the right time comes” “Allow me to correct your statement doctor: not when the right time comes, when Celestia comes” said Sweet Pea checking a watch he brought. And after five seconds of confused silence, finally the entire structure shook and Sweet Pea’s force field got reduced to anything. And then she arrived; powerful and anger as nopony had seen her before, Princess Celestia appeared literally covered in flames of pure anger. “SWEET PEAAAAA! Human and pony laughed. “So the guest of honor is here!” Author's Note And this is it, like I said before, the enemy is a completely different character than the one in the original story. I hope you liked it and as always: Read ya’ later!! 012Equestria, Canterlot Archives; Sunday 5:43pm Princess Celestia seemed as threatening and angry as nopony have seeing her before; flying over Canterlot at great speed right to the Archives. No matter how she had to stop Sweet Pea, that damn little earth pony managed to become her most hatred enemy. She was so angry that her eyes usually pink and cheerful turned orange because of the rage, her mane usually as beautiful as the Aurora boreal turned into a bursting flame; yes, she was furious. Then she spotted it, the Force Field around the Canterlot Archives. No problem, she destroyed it with a single magic beam and looked down to her soldiers. “What are you waiting for? GO NOW!” No need to repeat, the several squads broke into the building in no time, so Princess Celestia looked at the windows and as soon she felt Sweet’s presence, she broke in through it. “SWEET PEAAAAAAA!” She shouted. The green earth pony just laughed calmly along with a… human girl? “So the guest of honor is here!” The both said. The sight of that human made Celestia stop, slowly the confusion was replacing her anger. Celestia’s expression even softened while she remembered the events of sixteen years ago. She couldn’t believe this, so she had to go through all this again? However the human girl smiled gently to her and made a military salute. “Holy Deja-vùs, right?” Said Laura cheerfully. “How are you your Majesty? After several failed attempts Agent Heartstrings finally reports back after my unwilling excursion to the human world. Sorry if I look like this but somehow I changed when I arrived to the other world, sorry about that. But what matters is that I’m back and ready to serve!” Princess Celestia couldn’t believe this. Lyra Heartstrings was back? Anyway she forced a smile, she was happy that this human weren’t any stranger but also something inside told her this wasn’t quite right. “Agent Heartstrings!” Finally managed to say Celestia. “Is so good to see you, but how did you managed to come back?” Laura shrugged like it was nothing and hugged her friends. “It was all thanks to the Magic of Friendship and Sweet Pea’s portals: you see my friends arrived looking for me and then all we had to do was wait for him to connect the worlds again” Bon-Bon lowered her head a little ashamed. “Sorry I had to disobey a direct Order your Majesty but as you know, Laura is my special somepony and I had to recover her no matter how. Luckily everything is solved now” And in perfect timing, right after she spoke the Royal Troops arrived dragging several unicorns they captured in several spots of the building. After they saw the threatening version of Princess Celestia they did their best and now everything was back to normal since every time they neutralized a unicorn a portal got closed in the act. So at the end the Princess of the Sun stared to Sweet Pea with a grin. “So everything is back to normal now. I don’t know what you were after Sweet Pea but you lost. Now bring me the students who betrayed me, please” The soldiers just pushed the poor bunch of unicorns to the front who seemed very afraid to their teacher’s anger. “Too easy your Majesty” said the captain. “If it wasn’t for the plan they were following we could finish this earlier, these idiots aren’t fighters, they’re just academics” Princess Celestia laughed. “So you keep smiling after your defeat, Sweet Pea?” The billionaire shrugged. “I don’t really care. Your Palace suffered several damages because of my brilliant plan and with a little luck you and I are both sisterless now. So go ahead, do me whatever you want, I already won!” Celestia’s mane turned into fire again. “When I lock you in the deepest part of the Tartarus I swear you won’t see the sun again. ANY KIND OF LIGHT!” But her anger didn’t last because again in perfect timing, a soldier arrived with a letter. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Sorry for interrupting you but a letter from your sister just arrived. She says that sorry if she didn’t answered but she was in the middle of a very important diplomatic meeting in the Minotaur Republic and is asking what happened” That was it, Celestia finally calmed and began to laugh at Sweet Pea’s misery. “Ahahahahahaha! So this is it, you lost Sweet Pea! All this plan for nothing!” That was it, Sweet Pea fell on his knees and began to cry: “Oh no… all this effort, all my plans… FOR NOTHING! I FAILED YOU DEAR SISTER! I FAILED YOU YUMMY!!” And began to cry in desperation. A little too forced for anypony; so Vinyl finally face-hoofed. “Dude, not even your mom would buy it” the DJ sighed annoyed. Bon-Bon nodded. “Somepony like you can’t fail because such a basic error” “Yeah, no more farces, what were you really up to, Sweet Pea?” Asked Octavia calmly. “All of this was planned, we get it. But please stop it already. The truth Sweet Pea!” The green pony effectively calmed and smirked with satisfaction. “Yeah, sorry about that but I planned this moment for so long that I just had to play along. Oh, I wish there’s a way to keep this moment forever” he said dreamily. Laura took her new phone from her jacket. “I can record it if you want” One more time the tension filled the room while the Princess of the Sun stared to the smiling earth pony, who was enjoying every second of what was happening. For some reason Celestia shivered, this pony was by far the most unpredictable enemy she ever had; no, this whole thing won’t end well… for her. At the end she managed to recover a little and confront Sweet Pea. “So what was your real plan all this time Sweet Pea? Why you threatened my sister?” Sweet Pea grinned and Laura pressed the RECORD button on her phone, she didn’t want to miss anything. “You see: you were all too busy trying to locate Princess Luna and evacuating the city and the Castle, that you didn’t noticed the ponies carrying several documents I recovered from your personal Royal Archives, that are connected to this place” Everypony’s eyes widened in realization. “So you replaced all the secret documents by old newspapers” mumbled Laura admired by Sweet Pea’s intelligence. “Of course! I took everything: from every cover-up you ever made, to all the especial information about the Secret Service and several other secret agencies you run. That information include the data of all agents, all the missions and objectives. I kept the cover-up-things but the other one, the military info is ready to be delivered for free to the other Kingdoms. I wonder what would happen if the Minotaur President or the Yak Royalty find out about you spying on the from decades… even the Changelings may have a word with you if they know about the refugees you hide from their evil Queen” Laura almost drop her phone for the surprise and admiration; all her friends’ jaws fell to the floor and even Celestia had problems to stay stood at the revelation of this mad pony. “Imagine every single nation in the world turning against Equestira… ponies would be doomed in a matter of days” sighed Sweet Pea. “If only there’s a pony who can stop this tragedy with a single order… but of course in exchange he would demand his freedom, clearance of all criminal record for him and his associates; and of course that certain pony admit in public every single cover-up she ever made in all those years. And I mean everything in front of everypony” The soldiers looked at Celestia who fell on her knees crying in frustration. “You! You! You! YOU BASTARD! “Me what?” Laughed Sweet Pea. “You actually defeated me…” cried the Princess. “I have no choice but… give you what you want…” Sweet Pea shrugged in delight. “I know, right? Truth may hurt but lies may kill. From now on you’ll think twice before you try to cover anything because of me. Now my sister is avenged” So Sweet Pea offered a hoof to her. “Do we have a deal?” “I hate you” sighed Celestia but still accepted it. “By the way, I’ll keep some secret files just as a life insurance. You know, in case you want some revenge; and judging by your face I better take other measures as well” The ponies at Sweet Pea’s service screamed in joy, cheering for their boss and the soldiers looked at the earth pony with a mixture of admiration and disgust. Enjoying so much attention Sweet Pea bowed to his public. “So now to finish all this, guys open a last portal. I’ll pay you tomorrow in the morning as we agreed” The unicorns began to glow their horns but Celestia wasn’t going to allow it. “Oh no, DON’T YOU DARE BASTARD!” The leader of the unicorn unit just bowed respectfully to her teacher. “Princess, we’ve been working in this spell for weeks and it’s pretty safe to use now. Besides that’s our last order, to send Agent Heartstrings back home” “What? Princess Celestia looked at Laura who lowered her head to the unicorns as thanking them and then looked back to the white alicorn. “So do you actually thought I didn’t know? At the beginning of this madness I really hated Sweet Pea for what he did, but that experience in the human world reunited me with my family, my true family. A family that had been looking for my for almost sixteen years; wondering what happened with their daughter; and now that we’re back together I don’t allow us to separate again. In fact I came all the way here just to witness how this pony kick your flank and presenting you my resignation. I am a teenage human girl and I plan to keep it that way. Thank you for everything your Majesty, now fuck you very much” Princess Celestia sighed and shrugged in defeat. Yeah, what else to do now? This was a total defeat and she must go along with all its consequences. “Okay, I’ll let them open the portal. I owe you at least that agent Heartstrings” “Not an agent anymore, and the name is Michalekos” declared Laura. So the unicorns combined their powers to create a last portal to the human world; this was finally over. “We’ve been practicing a lot doctor so don’t worry. This portal will send you to the last spot we memorized, the place where we sent your friends last time. But if that doesn’t work we have several other places we can lead you” Laura smiled. “Oh that’s my new home. Thanks a lot guys” The green-haired girl then approached to the portal turning to her friends one last time. “So this is good bye girls. I spent great moments with you guys, but now is time for me to go home. Thank you for everything girls” Vinyl and Octavia trotted to hug Laura, who returned a quick hug and then looked at Bon-Bon who was staring at the portal holding back her tears. “So that’s what you decided? Live as a human among humans? Laura let escape a few tears and ran to kiss Bon-Bon for the last time. The cream-coated mare returned the kiss but they separated quickly. “That felt a little odd…” mumbled Laura. “Yeah, let’s never mention it again” shivered Bon-Bon before turning to the Princess. “So Princess Celestia, I’m also presenting you my resignation and need a big favor from you” Celestia rolled her eyes, great, another one. “Yeah? What do you need agent Drops?” “Turn me into a human too!” The white alicorn nodded tiredly. “Normally I would lecture you but it’s been a really long day so whatever, I’ll turn you. But just let me warn you: if you ever make a step in Equestria again your body will remember which world does it really belong and you’ll be turning back into a pony. Are you okay with it?” “Sure!” Then the Princess concentrated her magic power in the young earth pony wrapping her into a white light that slowly transformed her forelegs into arms and hands, then her back hooves were turned into two firm feet. The tail vanished and the fur turned into a beige dress that fit the young woman perfectly. “Bonnie, you shouldn’t” mumbled Laura. “I had to my love. You’re my especial somepony and nothing will change that. Our bodies may change but we’re still us and that’s what matters” Laura blushed and kissed the new human girl, this time being actually good. “Ehem, do you mind to wait until you cross the portal to make-out? We’re kind of tired here!” Protested one of the unicorns. The girls mumbled a quick apology and ran to the portal right after their waved a hand to say good bye to their friends. “Take care!” Said Octavia. “Please never forget us!” Smiled Vinyl. So Bon-Bon crossed the portal to a brand new world and Laura was about to follow her when Celestia stopped her. “Wait, young Lyra I just want to apology for everything. But I want you to know I did it for the sake of my little ponies and…” Laura stopped her with a warm smile. “Don’t worry Your Highness. I think I understand. Thanks God it’s all over now” The Princess sighed sadly. “Indeed, I’m not used to be defeated but I guess I kind of deserved this” “And this!” The human teenager closed her fist and before the white alicorn could react, Laura threw a punch that broke the Princess’ nose. “It doesn’t compensate sixteen years of lies… but damn it felt good” So Laura disappeared in the portal that the unicorns closed this time forever. In the floor Celestia was rubbing her nose trying the blood to stop coming. “Officially my worst night ever!” Human world, Michalekos Residence; 6:07pm The entire family were in the living room without saying a word, waiting in silence; they stayed like that since the green lighting stopped coming. Would they see Laura again? Someone called at the door. Thomas Michelakos moved as an automat to the door. When he opened it the entire world seemed to freeze. “LAURA!” The rest of the family ran to join him “LAURA, YOU’RE BACK!” Cried her mother. “You’re really here! Laura nodded. “I made a promise, remember?” smiled the girl. Chloe just sobbed holding to her sister’s leg. They stayed like that for long minutes but at the end they had to slowly separate. “For a moment we thought you would stay in Equestria, you know, since you… sorry I still don’t fully believe you had a pony girlfriend” said Selena Michalekos. “Yeah, what happened with that girl?” Wanted to know Thomas. Laura smiled and waved her arm to a blue-haired girl who was looking at them at distance. “That’s what I wanted to tell you: mom, dad, Chloe; I brought some company. Do you remember Bon-Bon?” “Of course we remember her, come here!” Smiled Selena. So the group hug resumed plus one. “Now what? Should I read your books to learn about human customs?” “That make two of us but it’ll be easier that way” assured Laura. It was the end. “But you can’t be called Bon-Bon” said Chloe. “It sounds weird” “So how shall we call you then Bonnie?” Asked Laura. Selena’s eyes sparkled. “That’s it! Bonnie! It sounds cute and it’s more human than Bon-Bon” smiled the woman. Bonnie nodded happily. “So it’s decided then, from now I’m on Bonnie” “Welcome to the family dear” Author's Note So this is it, Sweet Pea won and Laura is reunited with her family along with Bon-Bon, a lot different from the original story but at least was funny to write. I hope you liked it and there’s only the epilogue is left. Read ya’ later!! EPILOGUEEquestria, city of ManeHattan; Wednesday 9:28 That was an especially rough morning for Tasty Carrot and Crunchy Spinach (parents of the well-known billionaire Sweet Pea). It all started when Princess Celestia announced an especial press conference open to everpony where she’ll reveal something very important to all her little ponies. The two mature ponies assisted only to hear her admit that several times she considered it was better to hide the truth instead of facing the consequences of past mistakes, including what happened with their daughter Yummy Beans. Apparently she spent the past week considering the pros and contras between keeping her image or well, tell the truth of what really happened in several events starting from fifty years ago. So at the end the old marriage were walking slowly back home (after having to listen condolences from almost everypony they met in the press conference. It had been an exhausting morning and all they wanted was to this day to end. They agreed to never talk about Yummy again, why did Princess Celestia had to open the wound again? But when they returned home they noticed several ponies packaging boxes in several carriages. What was going on? They ran thinking the ponies were stealing but they noticed it was only their younger son packing his things. The young stallion greeted them with a warm smile. “Mom, dad! Long time no see you! How was Celestia’s tour of shame? Anyway, sorry I came without calling you first but It’s been a while and I’ve been thinking; why a ground and wealthy pony such as myself is still living with his parents? How pathetic is that? So I decided to move. I got a pent-house in Trottenaghe, quiet, peaceful; a very nice neighborhood and the best part, I can administrate my new factories from there” The two older ponies finally recovered from the surprise. “Sweet Pea! We thought we won’t ever see you again after Princess Celestia said those things about you: that you were conspiring against the Crown and… Sweet Pea grinned. “I was conspiring against the Crown and I won. That’s why Celestia is doing her tour of shame, I just didn’t gave her an option” Both of his parents’ shivered at Sweet Pea’s self-satisfactory grin. Was he serious? Indeed he was, Sweet Pea only changed his smile for a frown and confronted his parents. “All this years you’ve been dirtying Yummy’s name with an awful lie. I understand that Celestia forced you to stay silent about what really happened… but why did you had to invent such a horrifying lie as she ran away with her coltfriend, huh? She deserved more, much more. I know I won’t ever see my sister again but the least I could do was to unravel the truth to everypony; her truth along with several other truths that Sun-Butt tried to bury. Not anymore, she’s finally avenged” Crunchy Carrot approached to her son. “Oh dear, why didn’t you tell us you knew the truth all this time? We would talked to you and…” “Convince me to support you with the lies? Sorry but no. Now she haves what she deserves: Celestia can’t hide truths anymore, it is her name the one is dirtied now; not Yummy’s. I would never forgive you for lying to me, so from now on we’ll take separated ways. You can keep lying to yourselves, it’s not my problem anymore” So he left leaving their parents in sadness and shame, the last step of his sweet revenge was accomplished. From that moment Sweet Pea could continue with his life “We did it sist” Human world, Michalekos Residence; Wednesday 10:02am Thomas Michalekos stood after two long hours writing, with all what happened in the last weeks due-date was approaching faster that he expected and now he had to do twice the effort to have his last novel in time. Luckily enough the bizarre experiences gave him more than enough material to keep writing. But seriously, he needed a rest and a glass of water so he walked to the kitchen yawning. “Busy morning?” Asked his wife Selena. He sighed and nodded. “Where are the girls?” Selena pointed to the backyard and Thomas couldn’t help but smile. Since school was finally over, Chloe spent every minute she had with Laura and Bonnie; listening to old stories about their lives in Equestria or practicing martial arts. “No, no, no, Chloe… your hand goes this way” said Laura correcting her sister’s position. “Think about it as a knife” “Like this?” “Exactly! Now attack us!” Little Chloe obeyed and her attack was stopped by Bonnie, who smiled to her. “That’s the way! If we keep it like this, you’ll be a black belt in Earth-Pony martial arts when you return to school!” “Kung-Fu Bonnie, we must adapt to the human way” The two parents smiled. They never imagined having their daughter back meant accept another daughter as well but it could be worse; Laura could chose to stay in Equestria at Bon-Bon’s side. “Ey, and what about we go to that library after this?” Suggested Bonnie. “Do we really have to?” Complained Laura. “I still don’t know how I’ll see to Monica and Paul to the face again after what happened” “Sooner or later you’ll have to” “I know, I know” Bonnie chuckled and kissed her girlfriend’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll be at your side no matter what” “Forever…” Author's Note A happy ending for everypony except for Celestia. I know is a bit strange but I liked it and even the final product have nothing to do with the original source it was funny to make. I hope you liked it and: Read ya’ later!!
001AnthroCon, Fillydelphya stadium; Friday 11:39 am Humans, truth of myth? Old and fake mythology for most of the ponies but still their tales still fascinated the ponykind since always. And for once a year the ponies who really believed humans coexisted in their world with them could be themselves without being judged and that day was today: the AnthroCon. A pretty famous event where fans of anthropology could share each other’s theories, buy some products and of course interact with the greatest personalities in the Anthropology field such as doctor Lyra Heartstrings, the greatest of the greatest. At the time Lyra was in her dressing room preparing for her big conference… and for something else, something more important and classified. It seemed like the usual conference about paranoid fantasies (as Lyra called everything related to humans) but in fact it was a distraction, they received an information that a terrorist group planned to take hostage everypony attending the AnthroCon and of course the Secret Service won’t allow it; and as part of the most secret military unit in Equestria Lyra was ready for everything and everypony. When she finished combing her mane she just took an earring and activated the secret transmitter. “Here agent Heartstring in my way to my position. Thirty two seconds. Girls?” In her console, the famous DJ-P0N3 Vinyl Scratch began to play ‘the wub’ as she called it. “How are you AnhtroCon? Ready for the main attraction? This if for doctor Heartstrings, I think you all know it, right?!! Come on, EVERYPONY SING ALONG!!” And she played the AnthroCon theme, sang by doctor Lyra Heartstrings herself: Anthropology. The crowd shrieked excitedly while Lyra nodded, that was the signal she agreed with her unit. Showtime! Lyra walked slowly to the stage and everypony (including Vinyl) muttered when she appeared and walked to the mic prepared just for her. After taking a small sip from a water bottle prepared for her, Lyra simply began: “Hello everypony, as you all know I’m doctor Lyra Heartstrings and I know humans exist” Cheers and more cheers. Lyra nodded and raised a hoof calling for silence again. One more time the excited crowd muttered and she simply took a small remote control and showed a slide of a well-known mirror in the world of anthropology. “As you all know this mirror is some kind of gate to a parallel Equestria, a ‘mirror version’ of our own world but inhabited by our human-selves. Yes, it was an important day on our field when we finally demonstrated we were right… but what if that isn’t the only human world? What if there was another human realm that has nothing to do with our human-selves but is still somehow connected to Equestria?” The crowd began to talk among themselves when Lyra passed to another slide showing an old newspaper FrontPage about a strange event from sixteen years ago where several beams of magic crossed all over the sky showing what it seemed like an unknown landscape in the sky. As a secret agent Lyra knew it was only one of Nightmare Moon’s attempts to free herself before the right time comes but of course the anthropologists believed almost anything. “Here, sixteen years ago a magic outburst from who-knows-where created several warp-holes to an unknown real; a human realm I think…” More and more excited mumbles around the crowd when suddenly a scream of pure madness and anger called everypony’s attention. Octavia Melody took a knife and pulled the nearest security guard from his shirt and began to shout in her nonsensical madness: “WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU HIDDING YOU PINK PEST? This whole time you’ve been bothering me and now that I want to kick your rump you disappear… come on, fight like a mare Pink Pest… FIGHT OR I’LL KILL EVERYPONY UNTIL I FIND YOU!!” Everypony walked backwards in fear, Octavia had a creepy smile on her face and her pupils somehow shrank to the size of two buttons. She was mad, completely mad. “Still not showing yourself? FINE!” And just like that she cut the security guard’s throat and began to scream in madness starting a massive evacuation. At the end the only ponies remaining in the stadium were a group of fifteen ponies dressed in black and seeming genuinely confused, Vinyl, Octavia and the deceased security guard. “What just happened?” Asked the leader of the ponies in black. Octavia’s mad face went back to normal. “It’s easy, in the name of the Secret Service you’re all under arrest!” “This was a trap!” The ‘dead’ security guard stood, showing it was no other than Bon-Bon who cleaned the raspberry jam from her uniform. “Indeed it was. Surrender now” Half of the ponies in black tried to escape for the main door but Bon-Bon took her spy-weapon: several super-sticky candies that she threw and they all got trapped. Another group tried to take Lyra as a hostage but she quickly got rid of them with her fighting skills. “Who do you thing I am? Do you really believe I’m into this nonsense of humans?” She asked cheerily. Finally the last five ponies tried to get the emergency exits but they were stopped by Vinyl and her laser-glasses. It was over, the Secret Service captured them all. “Mission accomplished!” Smiled Lyra. “Not bad being your first time leading a squad!” Complemented Bon-Bon. “Thanks!” “It was actually pretty cool, so, wanna celebrate on the train back home?” “Sound great for me!” And the four spies reported and went back to Ponyville celebrating a small ‘success party’ on the train. This was the life of the Secret Service, the most secret agents of Celestia’s most secret military unit; and they were happy to serve Equestria even if nopony knew. Once they arrived to their hometown, the two couples separated and went back to their respective homes, again they were happy to be secret agents. “You know Lyra? It’s pretty convincing when you start talking about humans, I actually believe you believe what you’re saying” chuckled Bon-Bon when they spotted their house. “I’m an artist inventing nonsensical stupidities what do you expect love?” Said Lyra proudly. They kissed and entered to their home where they were greeted by Princess Celestia herself. “Dang it, you startled us your Highness. What can we do for you?” Asked Lyra. The Monarch of Equestria dedicated the two spies a small nod and smiled warmly. “It’s complicated agents, first of all congratulations for your first time leading a squad agent Heartstrings. Your arrest saved countless of innocent lives. Next, agent Drops, do you mind if I talk to your partner alone? Bon-Bon nodded and went upstairs after dedicate Lyra an encouraging smile. The minty unicorn sighed and smiled shyly to Celestia. “Why do I have the feeling I messed up?” “Please calm down agent, I’m just curious about the article you chose for the distraction. Of all of the other articles, why that in particular?” Lyra shrugged innocently. “I can’t really tell, I was looking for some article that could help me inventing something convincing enough for the anthropologists and suddenly I jumped into something written the same day of my birthday. Is not big deal! “And you made an excellent job agent, I was just curious” Lyra made a firm military gesture to Celestia and bowed to her. “Princess as an elite soldier I was just following orders. Now your behavior is telling me that article is more than it seems, it’s okay, I also can see is something I don’t really want to know so don’t worry. I promise you I won’t look forward, I a soldier and I am loyal to the Crown until the end” Celestia smiled to her, “Thank you agent Heartstrings, I never doubted you but I had to be sure” “Whenever you need your Highness” Celestia teleported away and Lyra went upstairs to meet with Bon-Bon in bed. “Ey, what happened sweetheart?” “No big deal, apparently the article I used for my ‘new discoveries’ was more than it seemed and she came to make sure I won’t look forward. And as a loyal soldier I told her I neither know nor care. Just following orders” “As the way it should be. For a second I thought you ran into trouble” Smiled Bon-Bon. “No, a small mistake. No big deal darling” Location unknown; Sunday 10:45pm “So boss, what do you think about Doctor Heartstring’s conference?” Asked a pony looking to the brochure he grabbed at the AntrhoCon. The boss, a green earth pony with blond mane and a Cutie Mark of a can of peas just examined it. “It’s a shame she was interrupted by that wacko, but at least she proved she know the essential. Both Doctor Heartstrings and I are completely sure that day was crucial for Equestrian history, but still she doesn’t know as much as we do. We have to open her mind and recreate the event that brought her with us” “But boss Sweet Pea, are you really willing to go that far to reveal the truth?” The green pony laughed sadly. “You don’t understand my friend. The Crown will bury the truth as soon as the mass hysteria calms down. No, this is an act for mercy for the pony who showed me that there’s much more than it seems. Returning her home, her true home, will not only make her truly happy but also it’ll allow us to know the world of the other humans; the ones who aren’t mirror versions of ourselves but true humans” “As you wish boss. It’s all prepared, it will happen Wednesday at 3:00 o’clock” Books & More, Canterlot: Wednesday 2:57pm Lyra sent dissimulated look to the clock on the wall, her two hellish hours signing books about her new founds in Anthropology were about to end and only ten ponies remained. She smiled, pretend to be an idiot who believed in humans was sometimes exhausting but at least this was the last event as anthropologist in two months. She looked at the pony whose book she was signing. “Ey, did I know you from somewhere? I have the idea I’ve seen you face before…” The pony smiled to Lyra. “That depends, do you read the financial section a lot?” He asked with a smile. Lyra’s eyes widened. “Oh right! You’re Sweet Pea, the tycoon of canned veggies! Do you really believe in humans?” “Of course, as you say ‘the truth is out there’ right, doctor Heartstrings? I’m your fan!” Lyra nodded. “Glad you like my books” “I can’t have enough of them, right guys?” Sweet Pea asked to the nine ponies behind him. “Of course boss!” They said at the unison. Lyra looked at the nine ponies. “So they all work for you?” “My bodyguards. Having money is like having a target painted right on your back, you know doctor?” Lyra smiled relieved this was actually the last book she had to sign for the afternoon. Sweet Pea admired the autograph with a dream-like look and smiled to Lyra making her feel very, very uncomfortable. “Ehm, what else do you need?” He grinned. “You see doctor, you’ve inspired me. At first I was just a young colt with no idea what to do with my life… until I found your books and knew I had to become ‘somepony’ to research for the TRUTH without being caught. That’s when I started working in the canned veggies business becoming who I am now, and also researching for more evidence of human’s existence in Equestria. Doctor you saved me” Lyra gulped looking around. The bodyguards were positioning themselves to block every entrances and exists. She was a very skilled agent but she was not capable to fight nine ponies at the same time. Her only hope was to dominate Sweet Pea before the other ponies catch her. “For a while I doubted about your convictions doc, I thought you were inventing things out of nowhere just to sell more books… but at the AnthroCon you showed me my suspicions were unjustified. Your clues lead you to the same event that mines… what happened sixteen years ago!” Lyra then jumped to take Sweet Pea and escape but the bodyguards were faster and submitted her to the ground hopeless and without any chance to escape. And to make things extra sure, somepony putted an anti-magic ring on her horn. “I know I’m acting creepy doctor, sorry about it but you must listen to me please. I have a contact at the Royal Archives, and I don’t mean the Canterlot Archives, no, the real ones…” Lyra shivered. From all conspiracy theories among anthropologists at least there was one she knew was real: the Canterlot Archives were just a bait for Equestria’s enemies and Celestia’s real secret documents were kept underground in a location known as Royal Archives. Sweet Pea sighed and continued: “However, you know only half of the truth doctor Heartstrings. Effectively during that magic outburst from Nightmare Moon Equestria temporary fused with the human world… but what you didn’t knew was that a human baby was sucked into our world before Celestia fixed everything and when she realized the poor creature was trapped here in Equestria. Celestia had to transform her into a pony to protect her and trusted the poor baby to a family that desperately wanted a child for their own but they couldn’t” Lyra sighed in exasperation having a very clear idea where Sweet Pea was going. “Dude… I have issues but you…” Sweet Pea ignored her and continued: “However, that magic Celestia used to close the portals and turn the human baby into a pony foal leaves very noticeable traces for the right ponies. Traces both in the environment… and the psyche. How do you explain you’re the greatest expert in Anthropology in all over Equestria? How do you explain you could make such a great theory basing only in a document from sixteen years ago? In the bottom of your heart Lyra, you know you’re not from this world” “Pal you’re creeping me out, please let me go before you do something you’ll regret!” Cried Lyra. “Doctor Heartstrings this is for your own safety!” “HELP, HELP, HELP!!” This was the worst situation imaginable for a spy, not only she was captured but not in a mission, no; because of her fake identity. Why this idiot had to be so obsessed with humans? “Knock her down!” Ordered Sweet Pea. The four unicorns in the group of bodyguards aimed their horns to the minty unicorn and everything went black for Lyra. When she woke up she was in front of Canterlot Archives held by five of Sweet Pea’s bodyguards, surrounded by the other four and other unicorns she didn’t knew. Dang it, if she weren’t being held she could easily take off the anti-magic ring from her horn (something almost any unicorn was capable of but she was a trained soldier) and run away but this time she was helpless and at mercy of a crazy pony who didn’t know the difference between facts and fiction. And finally she looked up and noticed the unicorn held in front of her. “Dad!” “Lyra, I’m so sorry Lyra!” Mumbled the other unicorn. She shook her head. “No I am sorry dad, this idiot is obsessed with the nonsense of my books. LET US GO SWEET PEA, LET US GO!!” Her dad, Dewey, lowered his head. “Sorry Lyra but it is true. You’re not a pony, it was a desperate move Princess Celestia did after you accidentally ended up trapped in Equestria” “Dad it’s okay, I understand you’re scared from this idiot. I am too, you don’t have to lie to please him, I know he won’t’ change his mind so don’t worry. I trust you” Dewey was about to protest and tell her daughter the true again but he was interrupted by Sweet Pea who walked towards followed by a group of fifteen unicorns. “Are you ready to open the gate to the other world? Do you feel the magic trace guys?” The unicorns, hired from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns took a deep breath and tried to feel. At the end they looked at Sweet Pea very surprised. “Indeed we feel the signature of Princess Celestia herself” “Do you think you can activate the spell back?” “We’ll try” Sweet Pea looked at his watch. “Okay you better hurry because my bribes and influences only bought us ten minutes of peace. However take this, is a document my contact in the Royal Archives took for me, it’ll make things easier for you” The unicorns studied the piece of parchment and after a quick mumble among themselves they gave it a shot. They all prepared their horns and activated the ancient spell on that terrains. Lyra couldn’t believe it. “ARE YOU MAD O WHAT? YOU’RE GOING TO CREATE A DISASTER HERE!!” In her Throne Celestia felt the energy raising and raising. Funny, it felt like the same spell she used sixteen years ago but in reverse. Wait, what? “SHE PROMISED SHE WON’T LOOK FORWARD!” And flew to Canterlot Archives, the exact same place where she found the creature she had to transform in… no, it couldn’t it couldn’t… In the meantime Lyra was still struggling to free her and her dad. This was the last time she would ever write about humans, really. “Dude, you have problems! Please, with your money you can try every hobby you want, so please, please stop this right now!” Sweet Pea didn’t listen, he just looked at the portal. “We’re running out of time, and don’t worry doctor Heartstrings I’m not goona hurt you; I’ll just return you to your real home!” “YOU ARE FUCKING CRAZY!” Shouted Lyra. Again Sweet Pea wasn’t listening. “MY DAUGHTER IS NOT READY FOR THE TRUTH, PLEASE STOP THIS WHILE YOU CAN!” Shouted Dewey as well crying in desperation. Lyra looked at her father confusedly when suddenly a blue portal appeared before them. “Don’t worry, if you don’t transform we’ll go after you!” Said Sweet Pea. At his signal the ponies threw Lyra through the portal. Sweet Pea was waiting to see what happen when suddenly one of her bodyguards shouted: “CELESTIA IS COMING!” “Shit! Move, move, MOVE!” They quickly closed the portal and left alone Dewey who was crying in fear when Celestia appeared. “What happened?” “They, they found the truth… the truth about Lyra…” “What? And Lyra?” “She didn’t know anything, it was all him. The wacko who kidnapped my daughter and me and now Lyra is… Lyra is…” Location unknown; Wednesday 7:15pm Lyra opened her eyes and screamed in fear looking at herself: she had read a lot about humans enough to recognize one of them. Her fur turned into a white tank top and minty leggings. She looked at her… her hands… what just happened? She looked around but all she found was a sign in the middle of the road: WELCOME TO DES MOINES Still screaming in fear, Lyra fainted. Author's Note This is it. Anthropology is one of my favorite stories in the fandom and now that I’m reading it for the tenth time this came to me; what if my version of Lyra ended up in that situation? So this is it, a small tribute I hope you liked it and just to be clear: I’ll only borrow some characters and situations from JasonTheHuman’s story, but it’ll be a completely different fic. Read ya’ later!!
002Police station, city of Des Moines Iowa; Thursday 6:04am Lyra opened her eyes looking around. She was surrounded by… two humans? And where the heck was she? Then she looked at her hands beginning to panic again but took a deep breath and tried to concentrate in what was going on right now. Her left hand was assured to the chair she was with something that reminded her hoofcuffs, handcuffs maybe? Dear Celestia this whole thing was so weird. Finally she examined the two humans in the room, they were two police officers, the one in front of her was a gently-looking man about fifty and right behind her a young one in his twenties perhaps. Lyra wasn’t sure what was going on but she could tell those two seemed genuinely worried about her. “Are you alright young lady? Did you want us to bring you something to drink? Tea, or a cup of coffee… cold water?” Lyra shook her head gently happy that their somehow spoke in Equish. “No thanks. Where I am? What happened to me?” The older cop sighed and exchanged a look with his partner. “Where do I start young lady? You entered town screaming and running like crazy until you fainted. Witnesses thought you were high or something but when you were translated to the hospital they took some blood samples and the only drug you had on your system were the sedatives they gave you” “Okay, I was in shock, I get it. Where I am? What happened next?” “Right now we’re at Des Moines, Iowa. Do you have any idea how you arrived this town? Any idea who are you?” Lyra looked around again, this time to dissimulate. As a trained spy she was aware that she won’t have to tell everything she knew. Now, until she find more answers she must play along. “My… my name is Lyra and that’s all I remember. Sorry but that’s all I remember, I’ve never heard about Des Moines, Iowa or anything. I just want to go home please!” “Precisely… we don’t know where it is. We checked you while you were unconscious and we didn’t find anything; no cellphone, nor ID. Not even a wallet” Lyra was internally struggling to not to panic again. She have heard about many spies who ended up like her: stuck in a foreign country without any documentation and completely lost; but being stuck in another world was something new. The only thing she was sure is that Sweet Pea was going to pay, she didn’t know how or when but he was going to pay. I just hope I can see Bon-Bon again. “Young lady, young lady!” Insisted the older cop. “Eh, sorry I was just… trying not to faint again…” The cop nodded in understanding looking at the fear tears that ran from Lyra’s eyes. Seriously, what could they do in a situation like that? By her way Lyra was evaluating the choice to fight, knock down the cops and run away but considering the situation that could be stupid, especially considering she didn’t know anything about human weaponry or how many agents were in her current location. At the end she just cried in fear. “What I am supposed to do? WHAT?!” The other cop hugged her in a desperate attempt to calm her down. “Don’t worry miss. Ey, what about we give you a fresh cup of chocolate… take a blood sample and compare your DNA with the national database?” The older cop nodded. “We can give it a shot. Maybe we’ll locate some relatives” Lyra nodded, even if she knew all too well that they won’t find anything about her in their database. At least it’ll give her a chance to study the place and think in a plan to escape. She knew Sweet Pea will try to open the portal to the human world again, so she needed to be free in order to take her chance to return home. So she looked at the cops and smiled weakly. “Okay, take your blood sample” They moved to the forensics office where they took a new blood sample to analyze it. Lyra took a look of her surroundings, as a trained spy she quickly memorized every hallway and possible shortcuts to the main door. No matter what she had to escape but first she had pretend to gain the cops’ trust. Waiting, analyzing, she was a trained spy for something. They made her lay on a stretcher to put a needle in her forearm to collect some blood. Then they gently asked her to wait while they analyzed the sample. It was relatively quick but as soon as Lyra looked at the fifty-years-old cop she knew something bad happened. “What?!” She asked gulping. “We have a match… it was a unsolved case from sixteen years ago” “Eh?” They gave her a printed file about a strange case: Sixteen years ago a man called Thomas Michelakos, a relatively famous writer, lost his daughter under mysterious circumstances. No one knew what happened, the baby just disappeared after a lighting storm. The Michelakos called the police, hired the best detectives money could buy, even offered an extremely generous reward to whoever took their daughter but nothing; the girl was just gone… “…until now” mumbled the cop. Lyra paled and began to tremble in her chair. “No, no… NO! This is a joke, A SICK JOKE! THIS IS NOT TRUE!” All the officers ran to help Lyra but she fainted again. Secret Service Headquarters, Canterlot; Thursday 6:04am The Royal Guards guided Bon-Bon to a private office where Celestia and Dewey were already waiting for her. “What happened? Where’s Lyra?” Asked the cream-coated mare. Celestia shook her head sadly. “What happened?” Asked Bon-Bon crying. “We could say we lost her in action. A guy named Sweet Pea ambushed Lyra and sent her away” Bon-Bon began to hyperventilate. “No, her identity was compromised?” “On the contrary, he was an anthropology fan who tried to reopen the portals to the human world from sixteen years ago” And that detail made Bon-Bon raise an eyebrow. “What? It sounds like the nonsense Lyra said in her conference at the AnthroCon” Celestia showed Bon-Bon a couch. “Have a sit agent Drops. It’s a long story, but all began sixteen years ago when my sister, still imprisoned, tried to free herself… creating a crack between two worlds. Ours… and a human world…” Still the agent couldn’t believe it. “But that’s the exact nonsense Lyra said…” “Remember when I asked you a moments alone with agent Heartstrings? Because it was no nonsense, is exactly what happened… she was convinced that she made it up but now; somehow she still remembered” “Still remembered? But what Lyra had to do with that event” Celestia took a deep breath, this was going to be very difficult. “You see agent Drops, somehow Sweet Pea managed to learn the truth about agent Heartstrings. She had everything to do with that anomaly sixteen years ago… you see, during that anomaly something happened…” Des Moines hospital, Iowa: Thursday 12:46pm Lyra woke up again and once more she looked at her surroundings. She was in a white room with cardiac monitors connected to her body and in front of her a flat television. She looked at herself, wearing a hospital nightgown. At her right she looked at the night table where the anti-magic ring Sweet Pea make her wore was waiting. Still have my horn? She touched her forehead, nope, it wasn’t there. “So you woke up, hi there” said a voice at her left. Lyra turned her head. Looking at her was a girl about her age, with dark hair tied at behind. “Who are you?” The stranger smiled and offered her a hand. Hands, what a weird thing to have. Still Lyra shook the stranger’s hand as she was doing a normal hoofshake. “My name is Audrey, nice to meet you” “Hi, I’m Lyra” Audrey made a small nod. “Cool, I hope we get along since you and I will be living together for a little” “Eh? Why? No, this haves to be some kind of mistake” “No, no mistake. Social services contacted my parents and they agreed to take you in while the police and your real parents solve things up. Is just for a couple of days, maybe a week; I can’t really tell” Lyra shook her head. “No, no, no, this is can’t be. I cannot have a family here” “Ey, calm down a little. I was called here since they thought this whole thing will be easier with someone about your age but I can call the nurse if you want” “Please, I could use a sedative now” Audrey frowned. “If I were you I’ll try to stay away from drugs. Besides, aren’t you happy to finally meet your real family?” “I guess so. Is just that, I don’t understand… I really don’t. I have no memories of what happened to me and this whole ‘real family thing’ is just confusing me” Audrey sat on her bed and combed her hair that at least was still minty-green like it supposed to be. “So what, do you still want me to call the nurse?” “Maybe or maybe not; let’s change the subject. So, I’ll staying at your place for a couple of days?” “Yeah, my parents are great so don’t worry. Also they asked me to keep an eye on you and I can say you’re interesting enough so it’ll be great I guess” Lyra smiled. Then the nurse entered to the room to make Lyra a quick checkup. “Okay, you seem to be fine, I guess you’ll be out of here before you think” Police station, city of Des Moines Iowa; Thursday 1:34pm The chief was sitting checking on his desk checking on some delayed paperwork when suddenly his phone rang. “I told you not to interrupt me” he said to the secretary on duty. “I know sir, but I have Mr. Thomas Michelakos on line 4. He wants to talk about you know what” “Transfer him immediately” “Hi, I’m Thomas Michelakos. Tell me, is it true? Did you really find her?” “Yes sir, at least we think so. Is nothing conclusive but it fits the DNA sample you gave the police sixteen years ago” “How is she? Is she alright?” “Kind off. We found her in shock screaming and yelling on the street until he fainted. We made her some tests in the hospital and…” “So my daughter is a drug addict” “No sir, the only drugs present on her system were the sedatives that they gave her in the hospital. We question her but she insists doesn’t remember anything. When we did the DNA test, she fainted so we sent her back to the hospital where she’ll meet with a foster family” “Okay, I’ll book a flight to Philadelphia and a Paternity test. My daughter, I cannot believe it” “Is nothing certain sir” “I understand, but… I really want to believe Laura is back to our lives” Author's Note Like I said this will be its own story even if it shares elements with Anthropology. I really enjoy writing it, it opens a ton of exciting possibilities this new version of Lyra and her friends. Read ya’ later!!
003City of Des Moines, Iowa; Friday 2:18pm The trip from the hospital was short but enough for Lyra to never forget about it. She wasn’t familiar with individual vehicles known as cars; of course back in Equestria she used the Secret Service private train that was five times faster than the normal one, but it wasn’t as fast as this thing. And the times she was moved from the hospital to the police station and back to the hospital in an ambulance she was sedated so it didn’t count. Audrey, in the sit next to her, just looked at her worried. “Are you okay? You’re not going to puke, right?” “No promises, I’m just… dizzy, probably I still have some sedatives in my blood” “We understand dear, but if you feel you’re going to puke tell us to stop the car, okay?” Asked Audrey’s mom. A gently-looking woman in her late thirties. Lyra made a small nod and closed her eyes, perhaps it’ll help her. “I guess this whole experience must be overwhelming for you but while you stay in our place you can count on us” smiled the woman. It was good to have that kind of support but Lyra couldn’t answer at the moment, she was pretty sure if she tried to spoke she’ll ruin Audrey’s car. At the end Lyra felt the speed decreasing gradually until the vehicle finally stopped. Audrey helped her to get down. “Are you gonna be alright?” Asked the girl. “I think so, I just need to sleep and I’ll be fine tomorrow” Audrey smiled gently and showed Lyra the way to the guestroom. Walking in two legs was still pretty weird and still she didn’t understood how she was able to do it so easily; probably her new instincts kicking? Anyway she went straight to bed and collapsed. This whole thing was exhausting from the very beginning and even without sedatives she needed a time to disconnect from the chaos in her head. Two things she was sure: she needed to see Bon-Bon and Sweet Pea was going to pay. Saturday 8:29am Audrey’s mom went upstairs to wake Lyra to check if she wanted some breakfast but she didn’t find her anywhere. Paling she ran to the dining room where her husband and daughter were already eating breakfast. “Mom? Lyra isn’t going to join us?” The woman shook her head. “I didn’t find her… do you think she may escaped, right?” Both Audrey and her father jumped out of their chairs to look for Lyra. Something could happen to this girl alone in the city. Audrey’s parents decided to look for her on the street while Audrey, guided by a strange feeling decided to go check on the backyard. And effectively she found Lyra with doing squats; suddenly jumping to send a series of roundhouse kicks to the nearest tree with one leg and then with the other one. “Wow… ey Lyra, where did you learnt Kung-Fu?” The green-haired girl shrugged. Kung-Fu? For her those were only earth-pony martial arts but apparently had a different name for it. “I can’t really tell, I don’t remember anything, remember? But if there was something I was sure is that I needed a little exercise to clear my head” Audrey glared at her, it was clear Lyra was lying and Lyra knew she knew but didn’t really care. The girl thought in scold Lyra but at the end she just nodded. This girl had a dangerous past behind her, a past that Audrey had the feeling she didn’t wanted to know. And somehow, seemed to be in a lot of pain. “For a moment we thought you ran away” finally said Audrey. “I considered it but it may cause trouble to your family so I decided to do a little work-out instead” Audrey sent Lyra a concerned look guessing what to say; but at the end she took her phone to tell her parents to stop looking, that Lyra was only exercising in the backyard. Soon enough the whole family reunited to finish breakfast while Lyra took a quick shower. At the end she went downstairs with some old clothes she borrowed from Audrey. The dark-haired girl smiled to Lyra: “So my friend Nathan said he’ll join us to show you the city. He’s nice and all, you’ll like him” “Thanks, but are you sure I’m not interrupting you or anything?” “No, mom and dad told me to keep an eye on you, remember? Besides they don’t want me to spend the whole summer break watching TV or chickening Facebook” “Right…” Lyra had no clue what Audrey meant with that Facebook thing but still had the feeling that humans and ponies weren’t that different. Sweet’s Veggies, canned products factory, Manehattan; Saturday 11:17am Just another day in the factory. The Saturday shift was about to end and everypony kept going with the same old routine: can the vegetables, label the cans and prepare them for shipping to the different distribution centers. And as usual, the company CEO Sweet Pea wasn’t there, probably taking care of his stupid research about humans while he left his employees with the hard work. “At least he doesn’t interfere with the process like some other bosses I know” sighed the manager. “And when he actually shows up he kind of saves us months of work, he’s pretty smart” “I know, right?” But suddenly a bunch of soldiers, leaded by Bon-Bon who was wearing a Royal Guard armor at the moment. “Attention! Squad A: I need you to check on the machinery and the factory floors, you’ll report every anomaly to me! Squad B, follow me to the offices. I don’t think he’s here but all we need is a small clue!” “MAM YES MAM!” The manager walked to them. “Excuse me but what the hay is going on?” Bon-Bon showed him a letterhead parchment with the official seal of the Royal Guard and signed by Princess Celestia herself. “Your boss is now a wanted pony. During his stupid research he endangered several ponies and one of our partners went missing. Now cooperate with us or you’ll be considered accomplices with him” “What?” “Yeah, Sweet Pea is being wanted for the charges of intimidation, foalnapping, stealing highly classified documents and high betrayal to the Crown and the Ponykind. Now, have any idea where I can find him?” Bon-Bon’s eyes seemed to be bursting in fire making the poor manager to shake a little but still there wasn’t much he could tell. “I’m terribly sorry mam but we don’t know anything. Our boss use to disappear for longs periods of time… then reappears for a few days, takes care of the company as anypony else and disappears again. That’s all we know, please, I’m an innocent pony” Bon-Bon sighed. “I believe you, sadly I believe you. Any ideas where we can find a clue to lead us to Sweet Pea?” “Well… he still lives with his parents for some reason” “We know, we already sent a unit there” Veggie family home, Manehattan; Saturday 11:29am “Found something?” Asked Vinyl walking to the basement. Octavia showed her the enormous pile of human conspiracy books, ‘ancient’ human relics and a bronze plaque that read I WANT TO BELIEVE. “What can I tell you Vy? This idiot spent all his money reading and collecting things about humans. He even have the deluxe edition of Lyra’s books and a bunch of other assholes who actually believe what they write; but mostly Lyra’s. Even her autobiography, no, this guy haves serious issues” Vinyl chuckled. “I know, I know. I just questioned his parents and apparently they tolerate him only because he pays a more than reasonable rent along with the water and electricity he consumes” “This guy is rich, I mean… like filthy rich, why did he still lives with his parents?” The white unicorn shrugged. “According to his parents he doesn’t trust in the government so he lives here to avoid tracking in case he have to escape… you know, like right now” “You have to be bucking kidding me!” Face-hoofed Octavia. Vinyl nodded sadly. “And listen to this: when he was five his big sister ran away with her coltfriend, but he refuses to believe it and insists she was abducted” “Abducted?” “By humans” Octavia sighed. “Unbelievable, Lyra was defeated by that moron? Come on! However, unbelievably enough his last crazy theory was true. Can you believe Lyra is…?” “Yeah, I just hope she’s alright. Imagine that, alone and disoriented in the human world” “Well, Lyra is smart, she’ll know how to handle this. I hope” The two marefriends hugged each other when suddenly Vinyl lost balance and both fell on their backs along with the desk full of books and stupid theories. “Oh, look at this mess!” Complained Octavia. “Whatever, I’ll put everything back where it was with my magic, no big deal” Octavia nodded and Vinyl began to put everything back where it was when suddenly noticed a blueprint of a new factory still in project. “Wait, look at this” “This guy is a total moron but he owns a company, you know that right?” “I know but his documents from the company are in his office at the factory. Why is this thing among all this nonsenses about humans?” Octavia’s eyes widened. “Vy, you’re a genius!” The white unicorn smiled proud of herself and activated the transmitter. “Bonnie? It’s Vinyl. We may have a clue: city of Trottenaghe, outskirts. It’s nothing sure but it’s all we got” “At least you got something. Now, this operation needs to be highly undercover girls; Celestia won’t let us take care of this personally so we must disobey direct orders” “Whenever you feel like breaking the rules you can count on me!” Cheered Vinyl. “Lyra is our friend, of course you can count on us” assured Octavia. Audrey’s home, Des Moines; Saturday 11:38am A young human with dark hair tied in a short ponytail rang the bell and Audrey received him with an apologetic smile. The young human, Nathan, knew his friend and also knew that smile meant something was wrong. “What’s up? Where’s your visitor?” He asked a little unsure. “She’s on the backyard, but prepare to get a surprise” “A surprise? Okay, aren’t we going to the mall? What happened?” “I wish I know Nathan, I wish I know” sighed Audrey. She guided her friend over the house to the backyard where Lyra was practicing her earth-pony martial arts (or Kung-Fu as humans called it) with a tree. She had splinters all over her knuckles and was bleeding but Lyra didn’t care. She was too concentrated fighting an invisible enemy. “Ehem… what’s she doing?” Asked Nathan astonished. “Practicing Kung-Fu, according to her because it helps to deal with stress” Nathan nodded. “Right. Seriously, what happened?” Audrey laid in the wall helplessly. “I know mom told me to keep an eye on her but she’s not making things easier. I mean, at first everything seemed fine; she did a little Kung-Fu in the morning and then we were getting ready to go but then they called us from the police station” “And?” “They told us her biological family contacted them and wanted to meet Lyra so they booked a flight this Monday; so when she heard that, she began to train like crazy” Nathan scratched his head. “What? But isn’t supposed to be a good thing?” “I know, right?!” The two friends keep staring at Lyra practicing her martial arts for a while until Audrey approached shyly. “Uhm, Lyra? Do you still want us to show you the city?” “Eh, what? Oh yeah, I guess so” Then Nathan approached and offered his hand to Lyra. “So nice to meet you, I’m Nathan” “Lyra” she said shaking hands with him. “So I know is not my business but why are you so angry about meeting your birth parents?” She sighed. “Dude, I already have enough trouble for my own, last I need is to get involved in other people’s” “But…” “You seem like a great guy, really, but please this is my business. Now, aren’t we going to have fun around here?” Author's Note A quick transition chapter, I really hate those but this one helped me to introduce better the character of Sweet Pea, our main antagonist. Now in the original story Lyra and her new human friends deal with an old enemy from Equestria but again even if is a tribute I want to keep this story completely apart from the original material. Read ya’ later!!
004Vinyl & Octavia’s home, Ponyville, Sunday 10:25pm The three mares were studying the blueprint they got from Sweet Pea at Vinyl’s work room since it was the only one in the house that was completely soundproof. At first it seemed like a normal factory under construction, but for some reason it had two basements instead of one. This detail was reported as an addition for extra storage room but it could be used for some more obscure business. “So we have a possible location but not much more” mumbled Vinyl thoughtful. Octavia shook her head. “What worries me isn’t that we could be wrong, on the contrary, what if we’re right? What if we have the right place and Sweet Pea is waiting along with his team of unicorns? Even with the four of us we can’t win this” Bon-Bon smiled sadly to her friends. “No girls, I’m going all by myself” The two mares looked at Bon-Bon as she was crazy. “What the hay is wrong with you?!” Shouted Octavia. Vinyl just nodded in agreement. “Bonnie, pal, you’re one of the best agents on the field and all, but are you out of your mind? I mean, I don’t think that Sweet Pea will be too happy to see you if you just show up there” Bon-Bon just grinned. “No, of course he will, because I won’t present myself as agent Sweetie Drops of the Secret Service, but as Bon-Bon; Lyra’s special somepony who is desperately looking for the love of her life” Vinyl chuckled nervously. “Okay now I kinda’ see why Celestia didn’t want you to take care of this. However, do you realize if we don’t stop this guy he’ll end up doing something far more dangerous that just send Lyra to the human world?” “Vinyl is right, this is only the beginning” Bon-Bon nodded slowly and took a deep breath. This mission was suicidal and she knew it, but she had to find Lyra no matter what. Besides she had the feeling that finding Lyra was the key to defeat the wacko. “You don’t understand girls, this is the only chance we have to get closer to him and understand what his plan is. You know I’m the only one who can do it, right?” Octavia shook her head in disbelief but soon enough she winked an eye to Bon-Bon. “You are completely out of your mind, but also I’m pretty sure that Lyra will do everything to help any of us if the roles were switched. You can count on us” “Yeah, you can ask us what for anything you need pal!” Jumped excitedly Vinyl. Bon-Bon looked gratefully at her friends grinning. “He’s going to find what I’m up to, there’s no doubt of that. So I need you as close as possible to pass you all the information I can collect before it’s too late for me. Also if our partners of the Secret Service find Sweet Pea they’ll spoil the only chance I have to see Lyra again so I need you to keep them as far as possible from us” “Supposing that our lead is correct” said Vinyl. Nopony said more and they shook hooves, this mission could cost them their jobs but still they knew their friend would do anything for them as well. “FOR LYRA!” Des Moines airport, Iowa; Monday 6:17pm Lyra sighed unsure what to do next and looked behind, Audrey and her mother were looking at her still worried but Lyra just smiled to them and after examine her boarding pass for the last time, she entered to the building. Following the instructions that the police gave her she approached to the first security employee she found and handed him a letter the cops provided her. The man examined the letter then Lyra then the letter again to finally indicate the young girl to follow him to a private check room. Once there they checked Lyra and her luggage, an old backpack full of Audrey’s old clothes she gently lent her. They examined the note for the last time and finally gave Lyra a temporary ID. “It’s done, sorry for the delay miss; everything seem to be in order. Please present this ID along with your boarding pass and there will be no problem” Lyra nodded and a guard guided her to gate G-4 to wait for her flight. A flight, she could see the machines she supposed to get into in order to fly to… Philadelphia, her supposed home. Seriously, what she was going to do once it was proven that she had nothing to do with Laura Michakelos? Until now she only followed the directions humans gave her but sooner or later she’ll have to think in a real plan. Attention all passengers of flight DL958 of Delta Airlines to Chicago and connections; please start boarding, starting by elders, families with little children and members of Club… Lyra looked at her ticket, it read section C. Why humans had to be so complicated in such things? No, she just shook her head, it wasn’t the time to think about it; right now she had to concentrate in her plan. What to do next? It wasn’t like she could instantly go back to Equestria without her magic so she was forced to stay in the human world. What could she do? She knew how to play the lire and fight but that didn’t seem useful. Before she could notice they were calling for passengers of section C so she quickly entered to the machine. What to do next, what to do next? That question was running in her head over and over. Once Lyra was inside the machine she looked for her seat, that was next to a human a little older than her; it was a male, beige hair with green eyes. He just received Lyra with a huge smile that she somehow managed to answer and sat without a word. The paternity test was going to fail obviously, after all she was a unicorn playing to be human stuck in the human world. So what she could expect? “Ey, are you gonna be alright? Cause’ last thing I need I you throwing me up during the flight” Lyra looked at him. “I-I’ll be fine, thank you” “You don’t look like it. First time flying?” Lyra took half a second to process that question, throwing up, first time flying… yeah, it seemed like an excuse this human could understand. “No… I’ve flight plenty of times. Just… not in one of these” “Right, you’re either high or really crazy” “It was a hot air balloon, okay? Geez!” She said slightly annoyed. The boy chuckled. “Okay, okay, I get it; please don’t hit me. To tell you the truth I was also nervous first time I flew but of course I was with my mom and my siblings but that’s not the point. What you need to do is control a little your nerves, okay? Because unless you’re going to Chicago you still have to board one of these” Lyra took a deep breath and buried her nails on the seat. Great, her anger levels were raising again but she couldn’t practice her earth-pony martial arts in that reduced space. And then the flight attendant began the explanation of the security procedures in case of emergency. Great! Just what she needed for her nerves! The human noticed this and offered her a magazine. “Here, take this” “Sky-Mall?” “I always look forward to read it. Go on, it’ll help you to calm down a little” Lyra just took it and began to read. It was practically a catalog of useless stuff like a face for trees; you put it on your trees and they suddenly have a face. Also available in bush size. She kept reading. “A hand fitness trainer? What the hay is that supposed to work?” “No one knows, I bet not even the guy who designed it. Oh, by the way, my name is Paul. Paul Chandler” “Lyra, just Lyra” “Just Lyra? Come on, do you actually believe you don’t have a last name?” The plane began to move. At the beginning it wasn’t too fast but then it kept accelerating and accelerating and Lyra screamed: “CELESTIA HELP ME!” Damn, and she thought the cars were the worst of this world. A flight attendant approached. “Are you okay miss?” “We’ll be fine, I take care of this!” Assured Paul. The woman smiled and left, so Paul offered a small package to Lyra. “Take this, a little gum for your nerves” Lyra accepted it and yeah, the chewing gum was exactly what she needed to calm down a little. “Thanks a lot” “So you were telling me that you had no last name” “It’s a long story” “It’s a long trip to Chicago” So Lyra gave up and told him everything: about how she woke up in a police station in Des Moines with no memories of her past and from then they made her a DNA test that said she was the long lost daughter of some guy called Thomas Michelakos and that she was in her way to do a paternity test. Of course she omitted the part where she was completely sure that the test would end up negative and how she released her frustration practicing a martial art that humans called Kung-Fu. “Interesting” said Paul at the end. Lyra raised an eyebrow, she knew that face. “You don’t believe me” “Because it seems like you’re making all that up. You say you’re Thomas Michelakos’ daughter, the Thomas Michelakos. How do you expect me to believe that?” “So you know my supposed father?” “Are you kidding?! He’s a local celebrity, and a lot of people…” “It wasn’t my idea genius; I already have enough problems of my own and… you know what? Forget it, thank you for helping me but I think I’m fine now. Thank you” “Ey, I didn’t mean to upset you, sorry. Is just that this whole thing is too strange” “Anyway thank you for helping me Paul” “No, thank you. You’re the most interesting person I met in a plane. And who knows, if you truly are who you think you are then we’ll probably meet at Philadelphia” “It wasn’t my idea!” Paul shrugged and winked an eye to Lyra, and the girl had no clue but smile. Impertinence aside, Paul seemed like a nice dude and she had to admit her attitude was very suspicious. The plane finally landed and she and Paul got down along with the rest of the passengers. They chatted for a while in the waiting room but when they arrived to the next plane they were on different seats. The second flight was as awful as the first one but this time she knew what to expect this time so she closed her eyes and waited. So finally she arrived to Philadelphia. Lyra god down of the plane dragging her feet, she was tired but she still had her instructions. She gave a second letter to the first security officer she found in the airport who again guided Lyra to a spare checking room. After the tedious check she was then guided by a guard to a brown-haired woman with chocolate-like eyes, a warm smile and a sign that read LAURA. “So I leave you here miss, I have to go back to my functions” apologized the agent leaving Lyra alone with the woman. The two of them looked to each other for a while until the woman ran to hug Lyra. “Laura! Is that really you?” The green-haired girl didn’t know how to react to this, she just lowered her head but had no clue what to do next. “That’s the problem, I’m not sure of anything anymore” The woman gently caressed her face. “Your eyes…” “What about them?” “Nothing, they’re beautiful. So shall we go home?” Factory under construction, Trottenaghe; Monday 10:14am Sweet Pea was examining his notes about the human world expecting the moment when his unicorns finally open the portals so he could see the world he dreamed about. And why not? Save his older sister from that monsters, oh his beloved older sister. And suddenly one of his bodyguards interrupted his thoughts. “Boss Sweet Pea, we have a visitor” he announced. Sweet Pea smiled ironically. “Oh, from the government?” “We’re not sure. Shall we bring her to you?” “Please!” Asked Sweet Pea impatiently. The muscular pony made a small nod and at his sign, his partners pushed a cream-coated mare with a cloth bag on her head. Sweet Pea raised an eyebrow. “A mare? Did she brought something with her?” “Just this!” Said one of the henchmen passing a saddlebag to his boss. Sweet Pea opened it and began to look the content: a make-up kit, some pieces of candy and a wallet. The green stallion opened the wallet paying special attention to the photographs she carried. Interesting… what? No, no! “Release her!” Ordered Sweet Pea. “Boss?” “You heard me, release her and leave us. That’s an order!” The bodyguards nodded nervously and obeyed, leaving Bon-Bon alone with Sweet Pea. Once they were far enough he gently took the bag out of her head and offered the mare a hoof. “I think you and I have to talk Miss Bon-Bon” The cream-coated mare looked at Sweet Pea pleading. “So my lead was right! You know where’s Lyra. please, please take me to her; I’ve been looking for her as crazy since she disappeared. You see, she’s my…” Sweet Pea nodded sadly. “I know, I saw the photographs in your wallet. I’m terribly sorry for what happened Miss Bon-Bon but I had to do it for doctor Heartstring’s own safety. I can send you to her but as long as Celestia is still looking for us I’m unable to. Sorry I took her for you, I truly am miss Bon-Bon; if I knew you two shared that especial bond I would sent you too” Bon-Bon sobbed. “I forgive you mister, but you have to promise me you’ll make send me back to Lyra your top priority” Sweet Pea looked at the desperation in Bon-Bon’s eyes and bowed to her. This mare was being reckless but she had a good reason to. He bowed to her. “You have my word as a gentlecolt” Author's Note The plane scene is one of the most faithful to the original story, however the discussion with Paul takes a different direction at the end. Anyway I hope you liked it; the two worlds are about to collide. Read ya’ later!!
005Michelakos residence, Philadelphia Monday 11:57am The car stopped in front of a huge white house with two floors, a balcony and a huge garden right in front of the woods. “We’re here” announced the woman turning to the green-haired girl. “Laura are you okay?” Lyra shook her head, damn cars. “I’ll be fine as soon as I get off this thing” she mumbled taking her backpack. The woman nodded slowly and opened the door for her. Lyra thanked the gesture with half smile and got down; now, the sooner this misunderstanding clears the sooner she’ll be free to plan her next move. In fact, why don’t tell her from now that there was no way she was her long-lost daughter so she could go now? She didn’t had to involve this family into her problems, they had suffered enough already. “Excuse me… Miss Michakelos, you see, truth is I was thinking and…” But the main door suddenly opened interrupting her, letting pass a dark haired man a little chubby with a gently-looking face. He seemed pretty excited and just like the woman first thing he did was catch Lyra in a deep embrace. “Laura, oh Laura, I thought I would never see you again, that you were dead but look at you now! You’re back and… green hair? Okay that’s something, but you’re here! Oh Laura I can’t believe is that really you!” Seriously, things weren’t getting any easier for Lyra. How could she tell this man this was all a huge misunderstanding? Luckily enough Miss Michakelos came to the rescue and placed her hand on the man’s shoulder. “Okay, let’s calm down a little. Even if we both are happy to have you back Laura, we’re still unsure if that’s really you so until we do the test we better keep this between the three of us. When you disappeared the media made a big deal of it and didn’t make things easier for us so let’s keep this as quiet as possible” “Agreed!” Exclaimed Lyra tired. Mr. Michelakos recovered composure and nodded. “You’re right dear, not a word to anyone. And that includes Chloe, I hope you understand” “Who is Chloe?” Asked Lyra. “Your younger sister” explained the man. “She’s at school right now but you’ll met her later, I’m pretty sure she’ll be happy to have you around but still don’t tell her” “No problem, now, is there any room where I can rest for a while? I had a long flight and for the first time I’m in a plane it was a little too much” “Oh, sure, come on in!” So she was guided inside the house by the two adults. In the living room first thing called her attention was the giant painting of a dragon sleeping over a treasure, a small detail that reminded Lyra her true home. The creature was unbelievably well done since she was pretty sure that there were no dragons in the human world. So beautiful, the dragon itself seemed alive. “Amazing” mumbled Lyra. “Your mother made it” explained Mr. Michelakos. “We met when she began drawing the illustrations for my books” Lyra nodded and walked a little backwards to appreciate the painting better. His books, now that she reminded someone mentioned that her supposed father was a relatively famous fantasy author; honestly she didn’t mind but now it was kind of a relief. Then her eyes moved to a plastic figurine on the coffee table. She had to use all her self-control to not scream and faint again. Instead she took the small thing between her fingers to look it closer. “No way” Miss Michelakos smiled. “Oh, that’s Chloe’s. You know how little girls are. Just about everyone goes through a unicorn phase, at least for a while. Personally I never outgrew mine” Lyra gulped and put the figurine back where it was for her sanity’s sake. “So is there somewhere I can sleep for a little?” “Oh, right, sorry. Come this way please” They showed her a room upstairs and gave her a moment alone. Lyra sighed, this entire day had been exhausting, but the toy was just too much. In an adrenaline rush she threw her backpack on the bed and began to make push-ups with just one arm. She didn’t know much she spent on a single arm, but when it began to hurt she switched to the other and kept going. Someone knocked at the door. “Laura are you awake?” “Yes, come on in!” Selena Michelakos entered to the room taking a small surprise when she saw Lyra exercising. “What are you doing?” “Training. Is the only thing that kept me sane during this days” The woman shook her head. “Well, since my husband just left to pick up Chloe I wanted to speak with you alone. During the last years at least three girls have presented claiming to be Laura, money is a powerful…” Lyra stopped and sat on the bed. “Miss Michalekos we both know that the test result will be negative, still this wasn’t my idea, it was those cops’ from Des Moines. First thing I wanted to tell you when we arrived was that this whole thing was a huge mistake and there’s no way I can be your daughter. But then your husband showed up and seemed really excited so I couldn’t help but play along. If I leave now I don’t know how he’ll take it” The woman sighed. “I know, that will affect him a lot” “I’m sure I’m not that Laura, but he needs some proof. But believe me, as soon as the results arrive I’ll leave” Selena looked at this girl’s eyes and smiled. “So we have a deal, you can stay until Thomas’ doubts are clear” Lyra nodded. “Thank you” “Thank you for understand” They both sat on the bed. “So what’s your real name young lady?” “I’m Lyra and that’s all I remember” The woman raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to pretend with me” “I’m not, I have no idea who I was or where I was when I first arrived to Des Moines; but still I can assure you I’m not your daughter” The woman looked at her worried. “So you don’t remember anything?” “Nothing I can share without being taken as crazy. Anyway that’s why the cops sent me here even if I have enough problems for my own, last I need is to get involved in yours as well” Selena Michelakos nodded still worrying for this girl but decided to walk to the door. “Okay, so Chloe an Thomas will be here any minute now so please go take a shower so you can join us for lunch” “Sure thing!” So when Selena left Lyra did as she was told. Tomorrow she’ll do that so called paternity test and then she could continue with her life. But she was stuck with the Michakelos until the results arrive, how long would it take? Anyway she just changed her clothes and ran downstairs where the family were already eating. “Excuse me” she said joining them. A little girl with dark brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes turned to Lyra. Again the former unicorn had to use all her self-control to not to shriek at the sight of her blouse with a unicorn picture. “Who is she?” Asked the little girl. “Chloe, remember we told you we have a guest? This is Laura, she’ll be staying with us for a few days” smiled Mr. Michakelos. “Hi Chloe” said Lyra softly offering her a hand. “Ehem… as your father told you I’m Laura but my friends call me Lyra” “Why is your hair like that?” “It grows naturally this way” “Liar!” Chuckled the little one. Lyra blinked surprised unsure how to react, but then she remembered that human hair only grew in a limited pallet of colors. Humans who had colorful hair (she’d seen green, pink, even cyan) had to dye it to make it that way. It was kind of weird. But at the end Lyra managed to smile at Chloe. “Got me, I just dye it recently” Chloe smiled. “I like this color” “It’s because it’s cool” All introductions done they ate lunch normally. “So Lyra” mumbled Thomas Michakelos, “is that a nickname for somewhere?” “I’m not sure, recently I’m not sure of anything anymore” sighed Lyra. Tuesday 05:39am “At which hour you booked the paternity test?” Asked Selena Michelakos. “Well, seven thirty, why?” “We better wake her up, don’t you think?” The man nodded and were about to go upstairs but suddenly he bumped into Chloe. “Chloe, why are you awake?” “The guest is doing funny noises in front of my window and woke me up” “What?” Chloe’s room faced the backyard, what was Laura doing there? The former unicorn was of course training her earth-pony martial arts with a tree, wearing an old hoodie, a black top and a legging Audrey gave her. Seriously, why humans had to wear clothes for almost everything including exercising? It was when she noticed she already had public. “Oh, good morning” Thomas Michelakos didn’t know what to think about this. “Is that Karate or Kung…?” “Kung-Fu, is no big deal. This is just the way I deal with my nerves” The marriage stared at Lyra, this girl was full of surprises. “Whatever, let’s eat and we’ll go to do the test” This trip was the longest she had in human earth transportation but Lyra was getting used to. Then they arrived to the hospital, seriously did she had to spend all her time in the human world in those buildings? Anyway this time the procedure was fast: they took a sample of saliva, a quick reflex examination and released her. “So you don’t remember anything?” Asked a doctor. “How many times I have to say it? NO!” “Fine, fine. Anyway, I know a certain psychiatrist who specializes in cases of children reunited with their birth parents. I’ll pass the number to your parents in case they decide to get you some help” Your parents, the doctor seemed unsure of that part; but of course Lyra knew he was right. “So how much until the results come?” “A week more or less” A week! Damn, but at least it’ll give her some time to think. So the so called family returned home. One more week and she’ll stop dragging people into her problems, then she could find Sweet Pea and properly ‘thank him’ for what he have done once she return to Equestria. A week more, just one more week. Soon enough the Michakelos family was getting used to Lyra’s routine such as she was getting used to theirs. As a writer and an illustrator Thomas and Selena Michakelos worked at home, the only few times they go out was to buy groceries and go to Chloe’s school to drop her or pick her up, but this was about to end soon as long as Lyra new. By her way she spent most of her days practicing, always practicing. A couple of times Mr. Thomas and Miss Selena showed her the city but that was it, nothing that caught Lyra’s interest. One day she was reading one of this novels her supposed father wrote when Miss Michakelos interrupted her gently. “So tell me Lyra, don’t you want to go out by yourself or something?” The green-haired girl shrugged. “I’m fine, thank you. Maybe a little tired since I spent two full hours practicing ‘Kung-Fu’ but other than that I’m perfectly fine, I don’t need to go anywhere at the time” The woman sighed sadly. “Precisely, you’ve spending your days exercising to exhaustion, then reading and then exercising again. Maybe I’m not your mother but still you’re worrying me Lyra. Go to take some fresh air, try to have fun please” “I’m perfectly fine, don’t worry” “No you’re not. Please, do me this little favor okay? Go outside for at least an hour. Here, take some money, just do it for me” Lyra took the bills the woman was offering her. “Are you sure? You and your husband are doing more than enough taking me in” “Still go, for my sake go outside for a while, please. Try to have fun” Lyra nodded sadly and walked to the main door unsure what to do to have fun at the human way. She wandered for a few minutes until a little store called her attention: BELFIELD, used books. Shrugging Lyra entered, reading was one of the few hobbies enjoyed by humans and ponies alike. “Welcome to Belfield” greeted a human girl a little older than her. “Something especial you’re looking for?” Lyra scratched her head, what to read now? That was a good question. Then it came to her, now that she was in the human world, why don’t try to verify how much of her nonsenses was actually accurate? “History Books?” “Any period or country in particular?” “All of it?” “World history then. Right this way” She began to check the books passing pages paying especial attention to the illustrations. It seemed so familiar, it was practically the same stupidities she used to invent at home; but apparently she weren’t making all that up, no, it was almost completely accurate. No, Lyra had to take this book no matter what. Then she noticed another book in the fiction section that called her attention: the last unicorn. Again she had to take it no matter what. On the counter the employee raised an eyebrow. “Unicorns and history, an interesting taste you have” “However, I prefer this to stare at the black box humans have on their living rooms” The girl smiled. “You’re a dying breed. It’s always nice to find another find of good reading. I’m Monica” “Lyra” And suddenly Monica’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, you exist. You actually exist” “What you mean?” Monica chuckled. “A friend of mine told me the other day he bumped into a strange girl with green hair claiming to be Thomas Michelakos’ daughter” Lyra frowned in annoyance. “So you know Paul. Look, I don’t know what he told you but I’m not claiming to be anyone. The police told me that; in the meantime I’ll have to play along until this misunderstanding clears up” Monica looked at Lyra suspiciously. “He also said you lost your memory” “I did” “No you don’t” “Got me, still I can’t tell anything to anyone without been taken as crazy” Lyra frowned when she noticed Monica’s eyes, what was that expression on her face? Concern. She was starting to get pissed of this situation. Why did everyone gave her that look? Audrey, the Michelakos family and now this stranger. Monica noticed the girl’s anger and raised a hand. “I know it’s not my business but if you have some grief in your heart the sooner you share it with the people you love the sooner you’ll feel better” “That’s the problem, I don’t have anyone in here” So Lyra paid and ran before Monica could say anything else. Damn it, usually she wasn’t that rude with people but this situation was too much for her to handle. She checked the watch the Michelakos lend her, she had being out only for fifteen minutes. Forty five to go. Sighing Lyra wandered all over downtown until the hour finally passed. She returned to the house pretty sure Miss Michelakos was going to scold her for not being out more, but again, what else she could do? But when she entered to the house immediately noticed something was off. The Michelakos marriage were at the couch looking at a piece of paper, apparently a letter they just received. “Ey, did I miss something?” Asked Lyra. “Laura?” “Actually my name is…” The Michelakos didn’t gave her time to explain herself, they just ran to catch her in a deep embrace like preventing her to leave them again. “Sixteen years, you were gone for sixteen years” said the women with a trembling voice. “What you’re talking about?” Asked Lyra, but then her eyes placed on the letter. It was a large compilation of data that she couldn’t understand. However what was important was the number at the bottom of it: Probability of parentage 99.124% The whole world froze for Lyra. the girl returned the embrace the best she could but she was all sweaty and trembling. Her parents noticed the change and freed the embrace so Lyra took the chance to move to the backyard with robotic steps. “Lyra where are you going?” Asked her father. She turned. Her eyes were red trying to hold back the tears; not tears of joy nor sadness, of panic. “I-am-going-to-keep-training” she said as an automat. “Excuse-me” “You trained your Kung-Fu the entire morning” said her mother starting to worry. “Still-I-need-to” And at this point Lyra finally broke, she fell on her knees and began to scream while the tears were flowing throw her face. “Laura!” Shouted her parents running to her. “Damn it, damn it, DAAAAAAAMN IIIIIIITTT! WHAT’S GOING ON? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Her parents hugged her. “Laura… “THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT SWEET PEA! BUT WAIT, WAIT UNTIL I GET YOU!! I’LL SHOW YOU WHO IS LYRA HEARTSTRINGS, I SWEAR TO THE DEVIL!!” Author's Note In this chapter Lyra's reaction differs the most from the original story even if I added a coulpe of winks too. Still I hope you liked it, and now the two worlds are closer than ever to colide. Read ya' later!!
006Michakelos Residence, Philadelphia; Tuesday 7:03am Miss Michakelos went to the backyard looking for Lyra, no, Laura; who was wearing her sports top, her hoodie and leggings but instead of fighting she was standing there, staring at the tree with two streams of tears coming from her eyes. Laura turned when she felt her mother approaching but then concentrated again in the tree. “I don’t remember when I passed out but I bet I slept a bunch of hours, right?” The woman sat aside of Laura and doubtful tried to hug her; Laura gasped at first but accepted the contact, she even cuddled to her looking for comfort. She didn’t know what to believe now, at first she counted on the human science to clear the misunderstanding but things only got worse. No, wait, the misunderstanding cleared but it brought more questions than answers. Lyra sobbed. “I slept a lot but I’m exhausted” sighed Laura. “I don’t have any strength in my body; and if I had it not even my earth-pony martial arts can help me deal with what I’m feeling” “Then why don’t you try share your burden with us? Your father and I lost you for sixteen years Laura, now that we recovered you we won’t lose you a second time; so please… tell me what’s going inside that heart of yours” Laura sighed taking a rock and threw it, but it simply rolled over the floor; then turned to this woman who genuinely cared about her even if she didn’t believe she was her daughter at the beginning. Again Laura sobbed. “I hoped that the test had gone negative, the idea of me having to face the world all by myself was a thousand times easier to face than this whole thing. So all this time I had a family here in Philadelphia? My entire life had been a lie? A BIG FAT LIE! DAMN IT, WHYYYY?” She stood suddenly and threw a kick to the air but her strength abandoned her again and Laura fell on her knees. Her mother hugged her again. “It’s okay Laura, it can’t be that bad. This life you assure had been a lie, can you tell us? Maybe we could help you” “I can’t tell you anything without being taken as crazy” sighed the girl. “I promise no matter what you tell me I won’t think badly about you darling. You were gone for a lot of time, and suddenly you’re back with green hair ember eyes and know Kung-Fu. At this point I would believe anything you tell me” Laura shook her head slowly. “That’s a promise you can’t keep, believe me. All I ask now it’s a little time” The woman was about to protest but then the door opened again letting pass Chloe still in her pajamas rubbing her eyes half sleep. “Mom, the guest woke me up again with her shouting. What are you doing here?” “You see dear… I… I was speaking with Laura and I was the one who made her shout” Chloe nodded yawning. Usually she awoke until seven thirty and being interrupted in her sleep by this stranger didn’t like it. “Okay, how much time is she gonna’ stay with us?” The woman smiled. “I wanted to talk you about it later dear, I have some great news: from now on Laura will live here with us” Laura gave her little sister an apologetic smile but she didn’t seem to notice it. “You mean like always? Why? She’s too weird” “Well you see Chloe… she’s actually your older sister” The girl blinked several times processing the information. She looked at Laura then back to her mother. “I’ve never heard of her. Why I never heard of her?” “Well, it happened several years ago” Chloe just ran upstairs back to her room. Selena Michelakos looked at her sadly and smiled to her older daughter. “She needs some time to get used to this” “She’s not the only one” Selena sighed again, but at the end she hugged Laura tightly. “I have an idea, why don’t we go shopping? Your lack of wardrobe seems like the perfect opportunity to start rebuilding the mother-daughter bond” “Okay, well… no, it sounds great!” Mall; Tuesday 10:07am “Okay, are you ready Laura?” Asked the woman smiling. “Shopping isn’t really my thing but I suppose it’ll be fun” sighed the girl. “Where do we start, mom?” “Let’s say casuals” What followed was strangely nice for Laura; back in Equestria when she was still Lyra she barely stand shopping doing it only when it was absolutely necessary, but doing this along with her birth mother was a whole new feeling, it felt warm. “So, are we finish yet?” Asked Laura when they had like ten bags completely full. “Because I’m starving” “Just one, and I assure you you’ll forget about your hunger at least for a little” Her mother took her by the hand and guided the girl to a sports store. “You train a lot so I thought we can get you the right equipment to do it more comfortably” This was strange but stranger was how excited Laura felt about it. Without further explanation she practically ran to the story and began to try different kinds of leggings, shoes of all shapes and sizes, protective gloves, etc. At the end they ended up buying like three bags full of all kind of articles for Laura to exercise freely. “This is it?” Asked a girl at the counter. “I think so, or is there anything else you want Laura?” Asked Selena. Laura shrugged a little ashamed of how much she made her mother bought. “No, I’m fine mo…” Laura’s eyes were fixed at a beautiful bo-staff, made of graphite to give it the perfect balance. Like hypnotized Laura took it in her hands and began to maneuver it with mastery. Back in Equestria she trained a lot to use one of those with her magic ironically visualizing the magic aura as human hands; but now that she had hands of her own it was much easier, and funnier. “Amazing, great balance, the weight is just right; but no, I already have enough” she said putting it back where it was. “You want it?” Offered her mother. “Yes, I mean, no thanks. No, I already bothered you enough” Her mother smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll but it for you with two conditions” Laura gulped. “Okay?” “First: you’re forbidden to train to exhaustion as you’ve been doing this week, understood?” The green-haired girl nodded. “Sure, I can do that” “And second: you’ll stop waking Chloe. We want you to get along well; but it’s kind of difficult when you wake her too early everyday” Laura chuckled. “Deal!” Her mother made a small nod and turned to the counter. “Then please add us the bo-staff please!” For half second Laura felt as a young girl again, she didn’t remember having a moment like this since she was eleven and was about to move by her own (the usual age for ponies) when her adoptive father Dewey bought her a lyre. A lyre, now that she thought about it, how long since she played her beloved instrument for the last time? Her mother noticed something was wrong. “Are you alright Laura?” “Yeah, sorry, I just spaced-out” “Fine then, so let’s go to eat something and then back home” Equestria, location unknown; Tuesday 1:48pm Bon-Bon cleaned her mouth with a napkin and gently lowered her head. “Thank you for the lunch Mr. Sweet Pea, it was great” “Is the last I can do for Doctor Heartstrings’ especial somepony. Besides what I have to ask you is a little dangerous and please consider you have all the right to refuse” Bon-Bon gulped. “Officially I’m scared” The green pony grinned. “I can notice how long you spent with doctor Heartstrings. Please follow me Miss Bon-Bon” One more time Bon-Bon gulped and walked behind the green stallion. He began to show her several parchments he stole from the Royal Archives along with several modified by the unicorns he recruited from Celestia’s academy. Bon-Bon studied it in detail, perhaps she knew little of magic but she lived enough with a former student of Celestia’s school and perfectly recognized ancient magic, the most dangerous of all. “What’s this?” She asked. “This is the project my new employees are working on. Right now we have a small idea of how to open a portal to the human world using the traces from the last time; but it’s a one-way ticket, how to open it from the other side? We don’t know and as long as we don’t figure that out we can’t move” This made Bon-Bon doubt. Go back? And why was he showing her this spells? “So you don’t want to live in the human world?” “With the monsters who abducted my sister? No, I want to recover her and go back” “And why don’t you ask Celestia for help?” Sweet Pea frowned. “She’s part of the conspiracy. The Crown and the Human race have being cooperating from the very beginning. Trust no-one Miss Bon-Bon, you don’t know when they’re going to make you disappear to keep you quiet- the only human I tolerate close is Doctor Heartstrings and only because she’d been between us for a very long time and is more pony than human” “What happened with Lyra was an accident, she was just a baby Sweet Pea” The green stallion nodded. “Believe what you want and I’ll do the same Miss Bon-Bon. I’m sure Doctor Heartstrings had nothing to do with her entrapment in Equestria; but the Crown is a complete different story” The cream-coated pony shivered. “And I guess you haven’t advanced with your attempts?” “Actually I may have something” And at this point Bon-Bon understood why Sweet Pea wanted her. “You want me to try it” Sweet Pea nodded. “As I told you at the beginning you have all the right to refuse. Now: the current prototype will send you any part in the human world, but with enough time we can send you as close as possible of Doctor Heartstrings. What do you think? Even if you’re unable to go back you’ll be with your especial somepony” Bon-Bon lowered her head. “As long I am with Lyra I don’t care if I never return” “I promise you I’ll tell you as soon as we’re sure that the next prototype is ready; I gave you my word that I’ll make my top priority to reunite you with her so trust me. I’m not a bad pony miss Bon-Bon, I just want to have my sister back” The flames of craziness burned in Sweet Pea’s eyes, this guy was very dangerous. Still Bon-Bon kept control under her nerves and examined one of the documents. “Do you mind if I check this first Mr. Sweet Pea? I’ll feel better if I see what I’m getting into” “Go on! All yours Miss Bon-Bon” The earth pony quickly took a chocolate from her purse, unwrapped it and offered it to Sweet Pea, who gently refused. She nodded and ate the sweet to then examine the parchment. Fifteen minutes later she gave it back to Sweet Pea. “Thank you Mr. Sweet Pea” “You’re welcome Miss Bon-Bon. One of my bodyguards will escort you back home, this way please” Vinyl and Octavia’s home, Ponyville; Tuesday 2:56pm An envelope slipped under the door. It had no address nor anything on it. Octavia took it and after check it they opened it. Nothing, nothing except of the wrapping paper of a chocolate. Octavia gave it to her marefriend. “Vinyl” The DJ created a stream of light out of her horn and passed it through the wrapping, projecting in the wall an exact copy of Sweet Pea’s spell. “O hay no” mumbled the unicorn. “What’s going on, Vy?” Asked Octavia. “This moron is dealing with a very unstable spell, if it’s used too much it’ll make that the two worlds collapse with each other” “WHAT?” “No, Bon-Bon better figure how to reach Lyra soon because we must inform Princess Celestia about this. We’re talking about a disaster of apocalyptic levels” Human world, Michakelos Residence; Tuesday 3:01pm Laura was sitting on the backyard, reading instead of training; but the bo-staff was aside her waiting to be used. But according her parents Chloe was taking her nap at the time so her training must wait. Instead she concentrated on the Last Unicorn novel; interesting reading, she could identify herself with Almathea at being frustrated to be trapped in a human body. Then a little voice interrupted her thoughts. “Which book is that?” Asked Chloe. The girl shrugged. “This one? Is called the Last Unicorn, it’s kind of interesting” “You like unicorns too?” Smiled Chloe. Laura grinned enigmatically. “You have no idea” Chloe walked closer to Laura. “And what’s about?” “It doesn’t matter, it knows anything about real unicorns” “What you know about it?” Laura took a deep breath and smiled dreamily. “Have you heard about Equestria?” “Equestria? What is it?” “Well, Equestria is where unicorns, the real unicorns, live. But there aren’t only unicorns; no, there are pegasi and earth-ponies as well. And they’re all equally important” “Tell me!” Cheered Chloe sitting aside this girl who claimed to be her sister. “Where do I start?” And she told her about Canterlot, the beautiful capital; about the Princesses who controlled the Sun and the Moon; the six Bearers of Harmony who protected Equestria from all evil. But mostly about a charismatic group of friends who had fun at their way: a cool DJ with more mouth than brain but a great heart; an elegant and refined cellist; a confectioner as sweet as her creations… and of course a cheerful lyrist called Heartstrings. Author's Note And officially I changed Lyra’s name for the story’s sake. The detail about the Last Unicorn was a wink to the original story just as Lyra telling Chloe about Equestria. I hope you liked it and: Read ya’ later!!
007Human world, Michakelos residence; Wednesday 5:15am Laura looked at the clock, damn too early as always since she arrived to this world. But simply she couldn’t sleep. Obviously her stress was taking the best of her, but what else she could do? The girl from the book store advised her to share her grief with the people who loved her; at that time she didn’t knew she actually had a family in that world but now it almost seemed like a good idea, almost; but if she tell the truth to her parents they’ll take her as crazy. But her fake memory lost caused suspicion too and she wasn’t fooling anyone. God damn it, what she could do? Still dealing with her troubles Laura dressed quickly and went to the front door for an early running. That was what she needed, exercise; and since she promised not to wake her little sister this seemed like the best option. Her new home was separated from the town by a small path in the middle of a small forest, the perfect view to relax the green-haired girl before see her family on breakfast. After fifteen minutes she entered to the city outskirts. The streets were almost empty, just a few pedestrians and fewer cars. Laura spotted a girl opening a book-store, ey, it wasn’t the same girl from the other day; the one who advised her? What was her name again? The young counter girl called Monica made a small yawn before put her key on the keyhole. She liked her summer job but having to wake this early on her vacation was kind of annoying but again, the job worthed it. But suddenly a shadow appeared right behind her followed by a threatening voice: “Give us your phone and wallet and you won’t get hurt, understood?” Monica turned slowly to see two scary-looking men; one of them threatening with a knife. “Your phone and wallet” demanded the one of the knife. The girl got so nervous that she dropped her keys. The robber with a knife made a sign to his partner who began to revise Monica when a sudden voice called: “STOP IT!” The two robbers turned, what was this, a modern example of heroism? But before they could react the girl her made a flying kick right to the robber revising Monica’s face. The one with the knife aimed his weapon to this intruder and tried to stab her but she punched him on the forearm followed to one kick straight to the hand holding the knife making him drop it. Disarmed and confused he was finished by Laura with a punch to the jaw. The other robber stood slowly looking for something on his waist but Laura reacted quickly and kicked him on the knee making him lost his balance and like his partner was finished with a punch to the jaw making him fall unconscious. “Are you alright?” Asked Laura offering a hand to Monica. “Yeah, thanks to you” mumbled Monica. “Lyra, right? That was amazing” “Just a little Kung-Fu, and my name is now Laura apparently” “What now?” Asked Monica. “Long story: the paternity test tot positive meaning my whole life has been a lie and…” She shook head sadly. “Sorry, I was running to deal with my stress and told you too much. Anyway, take care and better call the police to deal with those two” “Ehm, sure. But ey, do you want a cup of coffee?” “What? Sure, thank you. But just like that?” Asked Laura shyly. Monica chuckled. “Is the least I can do for saving me. Besides you seem like you need a friend” Laura nodded and followed Monica inside the story, where the called the police and Monica turned on the coffee maker on the back store. “Are you sure I’m not interrupting you?” Asked Laura when Monica offered her a cup. “No, we don’t open until seven so I always eat my breakfast here” “I see” They sipped their coffee in silence for a while until Monica smiled to her warmly. “So you were telling me about your new name” Laura sighed. “What can I tell you? It seems like I really have family here; I never thought it was possible” “But why were you so sure that you the paternity test would fail?” Asked Monica unsure if she was asking too much. But Laura needed to tell someone; even if it wasn’t the whole story she couldn’t handle all of that on her own. “How do I explain? Let’s say certain idiot I met had this crazy theory about me; I don’t know how he came with the idea but at the end… no one believed him, not even me. But at the end he was right, all this time he was right proving someone I trusted my whole life have been lying to me since the very beginning. But I can’t give you too much detail without you taking me to the nearest psychiatric facility” “Okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to” smiled Monica. “Besides I’m not the one you should share this, don’t you think?” “You may be right. Anyway I have to go home so thank you for the coffee and everything” smiled Laura walking to the front door. Monica waved her hand to the girl and finished her coffee. What an interesting case. In the meantime Laura returned home, she didn’t know how much she was outside but when she opened the door her family were in chaos. Her father was talking desperately through the phone while her mother was trying to concentrate in making breakfast but she couldn’t. “Ey, what did I missed?” Asked Laura entering. Half of a second later her two parents ran to trap her into a tight hug. “What…?” “Where have you been?” Shouted her father. “Do you have any idea how your mother and I felt when we saw your room with the door open and empty? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Laura gulped, not even Bon-Bon get this mad whenever she returned home late. But then her parents hugged her again. “We already lost you once Laura, we can’t stand the idea of losing you again” sobbed her mother. The green-haired girl simply lowered her head. “I’m sorry, I woke up early and since I promised you not to wake Chloe again I went out for a morning jugging” The Michelakos released their daughter sighing. “That’s it, we’re going to get you a phone” mumbled Thomas. “Definitely,” agreed Selena, “it’s okay if you like to exercise darling but until we get you a phone leave us a note. Please” “Sure” said Laura weakly. Back in Equestria she was considered old enough to be a soldier; not to mention go out by her own whenever she wanted. But now she was just a human teenager and she better get used to it soon. Then they heard small footsteps coming closer. Laura sighed. “I guess we woke Chloe again” Mister and Miss Michakelos chuckled. “Sorry we woke you again Chloe” apologized Thomas when his younger daughter walked to the room. “But I promise when our situation with your sister normalize we’ll stop doing it” The seven-year-old girl rubbed her eyes sleeply. “It doesn’t matter. Laura, can you keep telling me about Equestria?” Laura smiled. “Sure, but first I need a shower since I’m just returning from running” “Can we shower together?” Asked the little one. That was a new one but still Laura smiled and they both moved to the main bathroom. In the meantime the two adults were scratching their heads confusedly still on the living room. “Since when they get along this well?” “What on earth is Equestria?” In the bathroom Laura was washing Chloe’s hair while she was lost in her memories telling her sister about Equestria as it was just another fairy tale. “Just imagine Chloe: the poor Heartstrings was about to eat Mr. Cake’s Deluxe Red Velvet, so delicious that he only made three at day and you had to be incredibly lucky to get just one” “It sounds delicious” smiled Chloe dreamingly. “Yeah, pure perfection! But right when she was about to try it for the first time, a horrible creature ate it all. The worst of monsters, the horrid Parasprites” “Parasprites?” “Parasprites, cute little fur balls with amazing glittering eyes and beautiful wings that reflected all the colors of rainbow” “That doesn’t sound that horrible” said Chloe confusedly. “Don’t get fooled by their cuteness. They have the power to multiply infinitely and just eat, eat and eat. They’re always hungry!!” Laura kept telling her about that adventure, and Chloe especially enjoyed the part where Twilight Sparkle used a spell that switched their appetite for food by an insatiable hunger for buildings, furniture and such. “And the worst part, after all that effort for Celestia not to know about it was a waste of time since Mayor Mare had to write her asking for founds to repair the town” Chloe laughed happily. “And what Twilight said?” “No one had ever tell her, the poor thing still thinks Princess Celestia have no idea of what really happened” Again Chloe laughed. “That Princess Celestia sounds really good” Laura frowned but Chloe didn’t seem to notice it. “Yeah, that’s why almost all her subjects love her” “Almost?” Again Laura frowned realizing she had to learn to control her recently found feelings about Celestia in front of Chloe; this girl was sharper than Laura thought, but it somehow made her proud. “Yeah” continued Laura, “from time to time you have evil ponies who doesn’t like her like King Sombra and even her own sister turned against her turning into the horrid Nightmare Moon” Chloe’s eyes brightened. “Tell me!” “Right after you get back from school, we’re taking a really long shower” Chloe nodded satisfied and after the two sisters were they walked downstairs to have breakfast. “Since when you two get along this well?” Asked Miss Michelakos. “Let’s just say I’m good inventing funny stories for Chloe” smiled Laura. “They’re great!” Cheered Chloe. Laura sat and slightly lowered her head thoughtful; it was kind of nice having a way to talk about Equestria without being taken as crazy and also win Chloe’s friendship. It was a good thing, but she still felt a little guilty for having to lie about it. Equestrian was real, was her home… and still she couldn’t tell anyone how she missed it, at least openly. And suddenly her father interrupted her thoughts: “So, Laura, since your sister is now happy to have you around, would you like to join us to drive her to school?” “What? Huh? Oh, sure!” The idea seemed good at first but Laura automatically regretted since she had to grab to the seat with her nails. Damn, stupid cars. “Do you get dizzy with cars?” Asked Chloe. “A little, I’ll be fine” Thomas laughed. “I suppose the driving lessons are out of the question, at least for now” Laura made a forced smile. Driving lessons? Great, that meant a lot of trips on that chariot of hell. They arrived to school, luckily it wasn’t that far from her home. “Come on Laura, I want my friends to meet my elder sister” Laura looked at her father who smiled and nodded, walking out of the car with her. The sight of a green-haired girl walking with Chloe Michalekos was something that no one in the school understood, but right after her was the father so it tranquilized the teachers a little. “Mister Michelakos?” Asked Chloe’s teacher. “Who is that?” “It’s a long story Miss Smith, please let me introduce you to Laura; Chloe’s elder sister” The teacher looked at the teenage girl not believing what she heard. Really? The story of the Michelakos’ lost daughter was famous all over Philadelphia, so did her really found her after all this years? This strange girl? Laura just smiled shyly and waved her hand. “What’s up?” “For real? You’re Laura Michelakos? Where have you been all this time?” “No idea, can we leave now dad?” Asked Laura nervously. Thomas noticed Laura’s discomfort and agreed. Finally they got back in the car that much for Laura’s surprise was a relief. “Sorry, I shouldn’t introduce you out of nowhere like that but I’m just too happy to have you back Laura” “I know, I know, but you should understand this whole thing is just too weird. Just give me some time” They began driving back home when her father took an unexpected turn. “This is not the way home” mumbled Laura scared. “I know, we’ll get you a new cell phone young lady. You won’t scare me again” If they weren’t on the damn car Laura would chuckle. Maybe she couldn’t tell the truth yet, but it was good to have a family. Author's Note The end is near, an apocalyptic bottom line but it’s true. And like the original Anthropology by JasonTheHuman the two worlds will collide but instead of an old enemy, we have a new one: the conspiracy wacko Sweet Pea. I hope you liked it and Read ya’ later!!
008Michakelos Residence; Saturday 9:32am Oddly enough Laura was woke up by the sun rays coming through her window right to her face. She moaned in protest trying to cover her face with a pillow but at the end she sat on the bed totally disoriented. Weird, since she arrived to the human world this was the first time she woke up after sunrise. She looked at her new alarm clock and sighed. “This late already? Whatever, I feel like this time I actually rested” Then she walked downstairs to have breakfast, for a minute she considered go do some training first but then remembered it was a weekend so she could relax. In fact telling Chloe about her home was helping to release her stress more than the actual exercise. When Laura finally arrived to the dining room she surprisingly found her parents still on pajamas as well. “Good morning Laura” greeted Thomas. “Did you slept well?” “Yeah, thanks. And where’s Chloe?” Her mother shrugged. “Still sleeping, it’s weekend so it’s okay” Laura nodded and fixed herself a bowl of cereal, some kind of chocolate cereal Chloe really liked so as Laura; but the former unicorn was pretty sure that Bon-Bon would faint if she see this along with the other several packaged sweets humans consumed. Then she froze, Bon-Bon. She haven’t thought about her marefriend since the arrival to this world, how was she? Surely worrying about her. “Are you okay Laura?” Asked her mother. “Sorry, I just… kind of spaced out” “Oh, it’s fine then” And again Laura knew her mother knew she was lying. However the woman quickly changed the subject: “By the way, once we have all your documents in order we’ll have to start thinking about school” “School?” Asked Laura. “Oh, right… I haven’t thought about it” Great, another subject to worry about. Back in Equestria she was considered an adult already; old enough to live by her own and work for the Royal Guard but here she was just a teenage girl and apparently had to start attending school all over again. Seriously, how many disadvantages had to have being a human? “Considering the circumstances we’re thinking about home-school for a semester or two. With a little luck you’ll be attending to a regular school before two years, what do you think? “Luck and hard work” reminded Selena. “Tell me dear, do you remember some of your education? Which grade are you?” Laura better shook her head in silence but of course she reminded everything: first she spent at least five years in Celestia’s Academy for the Gifted Unicorns where she learnt advanced magic techniques. Then she found her special talent was play the lyre so she matriculated in the Military Academy since it was the only one with music scholarships; and there Laura learnt hoof-to-hoof combat, attack and defensive spells, music theory and advanced codification. In fact her main job in the Secret Service was to send secret messages to other agents disguised as anthropology books; the best part was that if anypony find the secret message between all the rambling about humans, he or she will be taken as another conspiracy fool that nopony will take seriously. “We’ll hire a tutor as soon as the next academic cycle starts” “Sounds great” smiled Laura. They kept eating for a while when suddenly Chloe ran to hug her big sister. “Morning! Can you tell me something about Fluttershy?” Laura laughed happily, always the same; since the very beginning the Bearer of Kindness was Chloe’s favorite pony. “Let me think, Fluttershy… Fluttershy… I think I told you everything already, give me some time” Thomas took a sip from his coffee and smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about Equestria during the last days, where did you get this stuff Laura?” Selena nodded. “Yeah, did you invented all that stuff all by yourself? Because if one day you decide to publish something I’ll be more than happy to make the illustrations” The green-haired girl blushed. “Thank you mom” “Fluttershy!” Demanded Chloe. “Fine, fine… I think I have something. Did you know about the minotaur Iron Will?” “The monster who ate magic?” “No, that was Lord Tirek and I think he was a centaur; no, minotaurs are considerably smaller than centaurs and this guy wasn’t evil just mean and grumpy. And he gave really bad advices to ponies, you see it all started one morning at the market” And she told her as much as she could. In fact Laura just heard about it from Bon-Bon so she wasn’t sure which parts were truth and the only time she interacted with ‘mean-Fluttershy’ was when she was pushed out of the line in Sugar Cube Corner; a little annoying but she was too busy being confused to get mad with the shy Pegasus. “…and just like that Fluttershy repeated the rime from that rude creature and pushed everypony out of the line without a second thought. But again, everyone in Ponyville knew Fluttershy from a very long time and seeing her acting like that confused them more than upset them. Even Heartstrings limited to scratch her head instead of complain, and she never stays quiet” “Laura! You always mention Heartstrings” “Oh, really?” “In all your stories” confirmed Selena. “Sorry, is just my favorite character” Chloe giggled. “It’s fine, what were you telling me about Iron Will and Fluttershy?” “Fine, then the minotaur…” Equestria, location unknown; Saturday 9:47am “You called me mister Sweet Pea?” Asked Bon-Bon walking shyly while holding a saddlebag against her. “Please have a sit Miss Bon-Bon” politely asked the billionaire. “I have great news!” Bon-Bon’s eyes widened in delight. “You figured out the spell and will send me to the human world?” “Then I have two great news Miss Bon. Yes we figured how to send you as close as possible of doctor Heartstrings but first I have something to ask you and for your own good you better answer me with honesty” Two of Sweet Pea’s bodyguards moved towards the cream-coated mare. Bon-Bon sighed and after carefully placing her saddlebag on the floor made a quick backflip kicking the jaw of the nearest one; the pony was about to fall but Bon-Bon hold him on time and used as a living shield to receive a punch of his partner. Then released him to fall and caught the other one in a powerful hold that broke his back-legs. More of the bodyguards approached but Bon-Bon didn’t mind. “So you admit you work for the Secret Service, Agent Sweetie Drops” said the green pony unimpressed. Bon-Bon shrugged: “Let’s put all our cards on the table Sweet Pea: yes, I work for the Secret Service and yes, I used its resources to find you. However I always knew you were going to find the truth about me” “Then why you risked?” Asked Sweet Pea. “Because I was telling you the truth when we first met, I came here not as an agent but as Lyra’s marefriend who has been looking for her since you foalnapped her. Then, if it wasn’t for me your little operation would failed already. Celestia won’t let me take care of this operation since I’m emotionally involved with it; so I prepared fake leads to keep the other agents walking in circles while I find Lyra” Sweet Pea smiled and raised a hoof making his bodyguards relax as well. “One last question Miss Bon. Did you worked with anypony else in this solo-operation?” “My two best friends of course” Sweet Pea nodded and looked at the head-guard, who soon enough moved the two mares tied behind him. Bon-Bon face-hoofed. “What the hay are you doing here idiots? I clearly told you not to interfere!” Vinyl struggled but it was pointless so she just grinned. “Sorry Bonny but this moron have no idea what’s he’s dealing with. This ancient magic is very powerful and very dangerous… this whole plan haves the potential to destroy our plane of existence!!” Octavia nodded. “This isn’t all about you and Lyra anymore, is about Equestria’s safety!” Bon-Bon looked at Sweet Pea. “This idiots came here on their own, I swear” “I believe you” said the green-pony making a sign to his bodyguards. “Like I said I trust you Miss Bon, but I don’t trust in the Secret Service and my contact told me they’re on their way here” The ponies began to spread several cans of lantern oil all over the floor. The green pony sighed but quickly gave an apologetic smile to the three mares. “And this is good bye for a factory in project, it’s a shame but is no big deal. When your little partners arrive they’ll find nothing but a pile of ashes. Do you really think this was my operation base? I moved the whole equipment to another location as soon as Miss Bon-Bon found me” “Typical from a conspiracy-fool” grumped Vinyl. “You’re afraid of your own shadow” Sweet Pea laughed. “There’s nothing as paranoid ponies; there are only some ponies more informed than others. Go on!” The ponies began to set the factory on fire. “This is the point of no-return” said Sweet Pea. “Unicorns, do your thing!” Three unicorns appeared behind Sweet Pea. They created a portal while the heat was increasing all over the place. “There’s only two ways out of this place, through this portal or the main door but of course I’ll make sure you don’t use it. Farewell Miss Bon-Bon, taking this two with you or leave them here to die is up to you. It was a pleasure, I never doubt of your intentions and I think I won’t ever see you again. Bye!” “Bye Mister Sweet Pea, I always thought you were crazy but always knew you meant no harm to Lyra” So billionaire and secret agent shook hooves in agreement and Sweet Pea left them in the fire and disappeared along with his mercenaries. Once alone, Bon-Bon untied her friends and the three mares jumped through the portal before the fire reached them. Outside the factory the bodyguards checked the perimeter until Sweet Pea appeared. “Anything new?” “Yes, we got a message from the operations center, they made it” Sweet Pea grinned. “Perfect, are you ready to open the portals?” “Sir yes sir!” The head-guard laughed. “And we got rid of Agent Drops without she suspects a thing! You’re great boss Sweet Pea!” “What you mean? I gave her my word to send her with Doctor Heartstrings and I sent her with Doctor Heartstrings. They know nothing about my true intentions and I plan to keep it that way; besides in some cases is better to give your enemies exactly what they want” Human world, Michakelos Residence, Saturday 11:04am “Come on! Let’s go!” Shouted Chloe. “We’re coming, we’re coming!” Laughed Thomas. “Calm down, Chloe, the amusement park will be there when we arrive!” “Your mother isn’t ready yet” explained her mother. “Laura, hurry! Your sister can’t wait any longer!” “Sorry, sorry” said Laura running downstairs showing her new phone. “Sorry I lost it, I’m not really used to carry this thing all over the place” The family then entered to the car much for Laura’s discomfort. She HATED those things, really. “Laura, tell me about Nightmare Moon again!” Asked Chloe. But Laura raised a hand apologetically. “Maybe later Chloe. Sorry but I… I don’t think I can speak without throwing up inside this thing” Chloe pouted but Laura didn’t seem fine. “You’ll get used to it soon” assured her mother. Laura moaned. “Why don’t you better tell me about this amusement park, Chloe? You seem pretty excited about it” So Chloe began to tell her about this great park and everything cool about it. Laura was happily listening when suddenly the sky darkened with several green lightings crossing through it. Laura shivered, it seemed like that time when she got trapped in the human world. “A storm?” Asked Thomas. “A storm with green lightings?” Questioned his wife. Thomas didn’t know what to answer when suddenly one of this strange lightings stroke right in front of them. Thomas Michelakos lost control of his car and crashed to a tree. Laura shook violently opening the door to throw up in the road. This was too much for her. Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID CARS! Several green and red shades crossed the sky. The Michelakos froze in horror, it was the same phenomenon… the same strange storm that happened sixteen years ago when their daughter disappeared. “Laura get in the car!” Shouted Thomas. But Laura was frozen, it was the same traces of magic that sent her to the human world in the first place. What? Sweet Pea sent anypony else to this world? Why? Then her mother pulled her back inside the car. “No, I WON’T LOSE YOU AGAIN” But Laura pushed her mother away and ran to the lights. Finally three equine forms appeared inside it and Laura ran to their encounter. “LAURA!” Cried her mother running after her daughter. Still Laura didn’t listen, she was shocked looking at the three ponies who just appeared. “Wait, it can be dangerous!” Continued Selena. Ignoring her mother, Laura walked towards them. By their way the three ponies shook their heads and began to look to each other in confusion when they spotted a human girl approaching. “Behind me!” Commanded Octavia, who was the best fighter. Laura just opened her arms in a welcome embrace. “Girls… look at me… I know I am human but it’s me… it’s…” “LYRA!” Screamed the three mares. Finally the four friends hugged. “You have no idea how hard it was to find you” cried Bon-Bon. “But we’re together again and nothing will separate us ever again” Octavia smiled. “Look at you, a whole human. They’re just as you imagined them” Laura chuckled. “But girls, why haven’t you changed as well?” “Because unlike us, you belong to this world Lyra” explained Vinyl. “You better take a seat because this is hard to digest pal” Laura lowered her head. “What? That the idiot of Sweet Pea was always right about me and I am really a human? After all what happened it wasn’t too hard to deduce, but it’s kind of a long story” “We also have a lot to tell you Lyra” said Bon-Bon. At this point the Michalekos family was already out of the car approaching carefully to this strange apparition. The adults seemed scared but Chloe was excited. “Look mom! They’re ponies! Equestrian ponies!” Laura grinned. “Seeing that our little family trip is ruined I think is time to tell you about where I was for sixteen years. In other circumstances you would take me as crazy but seeing that my friends are here, maybe you believe me now. For sixteen years I was a pony from Equestria, the magical land of ponies. Remember the tales I’ve been telling Chloe and said it was all invented? I lied!” The adults couldn’t believe it but Chloe not only accepted this as true but she also seemed amused by this. “So you were a pony? “Exactly” Bon-Bon aimed her hoof to her saddlebag. “In fact I have several pictures with me. But Lyra, who are them?” “My human family, my real family” Nopony said nothing, no one said anything. And then Chloe excitedly realized something. “So that’s why you always talk about Heartstrings!” The green-haired nodded. “Exactly, for many years my name was Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings” Author's Note So as I promised, the two words collided. I hope you liked it and as you guessed this story is about to end. So the final battle is near. Read ya’ later!
009Michalekos Residence; Saturday 11:48am Laura entered to the living room with a tray with a teapot and two cups for her parents followed by Chloe caring a jar of juice for the guests. The adults hadn’t say a word since the arrival of the ponies, they just automatically followed their daughters and sat on one of their couches constantly staring cautiously at the three ponies. On the other side the three ponies were waiting for her friend to break this uncomfortable silence. But Octavia finally decided take the initiative and introduced herself. “So sorry for the inconvenience, and seeing we started with the wrong hoof, why don’t we introduce ourselves? Nice to meet you, my name is Octavia Melody… ehem, I am a cellist and I’ve been a good friend of Lyra since Military Academy. Anyone else? Girls?” Vinyl winked an eye and dedicated the Michakelos her characteristic half-smile. “Cool! What’s up? I’m the world-famous (well, my world) DJP0N3 and the name is Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch; and also I’ve been Lyra’s friend since we got in trouble over and over back in Military Academy. We practically spent our afternoons doing disciplinary chores like clean the bathrooms with toothbrushes; but that’s why we became really close right pal?” Laura couldn’t help but chuckle and do a high-five/high-hoof with the unicorn. “Give me a brake Scratch, you were the worst; weren’t your nickname ‘Headache Scratch’.” “Go to hell Heartstrings” said Vinyl crossing her hooves and pouting. “You now well I was called ‘Toothache’ not ‘Headache’. Toothache” Octavia took a sip from the glass of juice Chloe just gave her and raised an eyebrow. “Vy, they’re supposed to like us” Vinyl blushed shyly but soon enough began to laugh out along with Octavia and Lyra. “Oh girls you have no idea how much I missed you” smiled the green-haired girl. “But just one thing: I learnt that my true name is Laura, and is a beautiful name so would you mind call me Laura from now on? Please” Vinyl shrugged. “It isn’t that different from Lyra so I think we can try” And at this point Selena Michalekos finally was recovering from all this madness. “Enough, please! What’s going on here? What are you? Is this a dream? Are we getting insane because of Laura’s return? Someone explain please!” Bon-Bon raised a hoof asking for peace. “I know it isn’t easy for anyone, okay? Also I get that living in a world without magic is very hard to fully understand for you but try to keep an open mind please. And do you think this has been easy for us? Because until Lyra disappeared, humans were nothing but a fantasy for us” And to prove her point she took a book from her saddlebag. Laura’s face grew red when she recognized it: in the cover it had the picture of a minty-green unicorn with a smirk. For all the books, did Bon-Bon had to choose that one? Sweet Celestia! Thomas Michelakos better took the book and examined it: “Humans: truth or reality?” He scratched his head in confusion and checked the back cover. “Are we really alone in the universe? Who really built the great monuments of the ponykind? Is the Crown aware of everything? Doctor Heartstrings explores the world of conspiracies seeking for the right answer to all this questions and everything else; however you have the last word. Wow, just wow. It sounds like the UFO stuff you find in the science-fiction section in the library” Octavia nodded. “I don’t know what a UFO is but at least you get the idea what a humans meant for us: nothing but paranoid fantasies of this guys who live on their parents’ basement with hats made of aluminum foil constantly afraid to be caught by the government” “Precisely, UFO fantasies” confirmed Selena taking the book. “And this Doc…” Her eyes moved to the author’s name and then to the picture in the cover; finally stoped at her older daughter. No way… the eyes, the mane/hair… no… no! It couldn’t be. Laura nodded sadly. “That’s right, the one in the book is no other than me. It was taken last year” Soon her father took the book from his wife to examine the picture. It sounded like madness but like his wife he began to find the similarities between this ‘doctor Heartstrings’ and Laura. What the hay was going on? “Was that really you Laura?” “Yes” Chloe was jumping around her parents desperately trying to get the book from them but they were too astonished looking at the picture to pay attention to her. Noticing this Bon-Bon called Chloe and from her saddlebag took a picture that she offered Chloe. It was the picture they took to commemorate Lyra’s first time leading their squad after their mission in the AnthroCon; and there was Lyra, in the center of the group showing a proud smile on her face. “Is that really you Laura? “Yes Chloe” smiled the girl. “You looked beautiful!” Cheered the little girl. “But what your Cutie Mark meant?” At this point Chloe had heard so much of Equestria that she was perfectly aware of what a Cutie Mark was. Laura just smiled and shrugged. “I would show you if I could” “By the way, I brought something with me that I’m pretty sure you missed” said Bon-Bon opening back her saddlebag. Laura’s eyes widened in delight. “Give it to me!” Vinyl then used her magic to levitate the golden instrument that went straight to Laura. “Is that unicorn magic?” Asked Chloe delighted. “Sure it is, really useful when you’re lack of hands” said Vinyl. But then Laura took her old lyre and began to play. Before she turned human she used to play with her magic but now her fingers remembered the right movements. The beautiful melody filled the room relaxing everyone communicating Laura’s own happiness. First her friends, now her music; she was finally complete. But suddenly Selena stopped her. “My only question is: how did this happened? How did you ended up in that world full talking horses and how you came back? That’s why you didn’t believe the paternity test would get positive right? Because you thought you always were a talking pony?” Laura nodded. “It’s a long and strange story mom. How do I start? Girls… any help?” Octavia combed her bow tie. “I understand that Ly, I mean Laura, have been telling you about our world as it was a fairy tale, right? Did she ever mentioned Nightmare Moon?” “Chloe mentioned her a couple of times” said Thomas. “Princess Celestia’s sister who is trapped on the moon” Vinyl nodded and continued: “She was, but once purified by the Elements of Harmony she’d been ruling Equestria along with Princess Celestia. The thing is that the original Prison-Spell was meant to last one thousand years, no less” “But that didn’t stopped Nightmare to try to escape more than one occasion” continued Bon-Bon. “And the last time she tried it was sixteen years ago. Her imprisonment was about to end but maybe she lost the track of time; however this time the magic outburst was worse than the other times. She used a very specific spell that Sweet Pea is trying to replicate” It was when Vinyl took the chocolate wrapping paper Bon-Bon delivered to them a little ago and passed a streak of light from her horn through it; projecting the spell Sweet Pea was using. “What? Ancient magic? Is Sweet Pea crazy or what?” Asked Laura. Octavia nodded. “What Nightmare tried to do was to create a wrap-hole through this dimension to then get back to Equestria. As a result several portals between Equestria and this world opened. Princess Celestia managed to close them all before something bad like the two worlds collapsing to each other” “Now this sounds like a sci-fi novel” mumbled Thomas Michalekos. “Nothing major happened” explained Vinyl. “And there was only one small incident; but it those involved got their lives changed forever. After Princess Celestia closed the last of the portals, she realized a human baby got trapped in Equestria” The Michelakos family gasped. “You need to understand this spell in particular is very unstable and Princess Celestia won’t risk to open the portals under any circumstances. That’s why she decided to transform the baby into a pony and trust her to a family she knew that tried to have children of their own but they couldn’t” Silence, Laura’s parents looked at Laura who lowered her head in sadness. “What happened with the girl? Let’s say her adoptive family truly loved her and she was happy. And one day she discovered she had talent for music but her adoptive parents couldn’t afford the music academy so she enrolled in the Military Academy since it was the only one that offered complete music scholarships. She graduated at twelve (the usual among ponies) with the rank of corporal and was recruited by the Secret Service; an elite military unit that under fake identities protect Equestria from all kind of threats” “So that’s where you learnt Kung-Fu” mumbled Selena. “In Equestria it is called Earth-Pony Martial Arts” Again silence. Then Laura showed the book to her parents. “And my secret identity was an idiot who believed in the ‘Human Conspiracy’. My real job was to encrypt top-secret messages to other field agents; but for most of the ponies I was just Lyra Heartstrings lyrist and a celebrity among the group of paranoid idiots known as Anthropologists. All I had to do was disguise the messages to my fellow agents as part of what I thought it was a bunch of nonsense” “What you mean you thought?” Asked Vinyl. “Since I arrived to this world I’ve been investigating and I kind of guessed everything right” explained Laura. “No way! Even the part about the invisible net they use to communicate around the world?” Asked Octavia raising an eyebrow. “I think they call it internet, I really don’t get it” “So all your ‘nonsensical rambling’ were really repressed memories?” Asked Bon-Bon. “Apparently” Selena Michalekos had to sit to process all of this. Seriously, it seemed like a twisted fairytale. But still managed to ask: “And how did you get back here Laura?” The young girl sighed. “It started when I was named leader of my squad. A terrorist group tried to attack in the middle of the AnthroCon, where my stupid conferences were considered the main attraction and…” She told them everything: since how she found the old newspaper telling the event that brought her to Equestria sixteen years ago, but without suspecting a thing she chose it because it seemed perfect for the ‘Human Conspiracy’ theorists. Of how as soon as they accomplished their mission she got a surprise visit from Princess Celestia who came to make sure she didn’t tried to investigate further about what happened… and then how Sweet Pea foalnapped her to send her back to this world. Then about the experience in Des Moines, she already told her family about it but now Laura was free to fully share the experience of a unicorn trying to adapt to human society. Her friends also listened very carefully, after all they hadn’t knew anything about Lyra/ Laura until now. At the end Bon-Bon shook her head disapprovingly. “What worries me the most is the fact you still use to exercise to exhaustion to deal with your stress Lyr… I mean Laura. Don’t you realize how dangerous it is?” Laura frowned. “Aha, I have news for you Bonny: that’s what kept me sane all this time. For a while I began to think I was actually crazy. That my whole life had been a lie. When the paternity test came back positive I… I… I was afraid that the girls were a product of my imagination… that you and I never… loved each other” Laura cried but Bon-Bon hugged her firmly. “I missed you the most Bonny. You too girls but…” Vinyl shrugged. “Get it pal, Bon-Bon is your especial somepony; Scratch understands” “And she felt the same way, after all she was the one who found Sweet Pea; we just followed her” assured Octavia. Thomas Michelakos almost faint, this was too much to handle on a single afternoon. “Laura, please tell me you don’t have a romantic relationship with one of this colorful horses…” “Dad, for a long time I was also a colorful horse, and ponies from Equestria aren’t like the ones we have here: they’re smart and civilized. Ask Chloe! They’re people! And same-sex relationships are very common in Equestria” “We get it Laura but…” Bon-Bon advanced towards him. “Sir I understand you love your daughter and only are trying to protect her; but also I need you to understand me as well: since Lyra or Laura vanished I dedicated every minute of my life to get her back. I don’t care she is a human now; if there’s something I’m completely sure is that I want to be with Laura. And for this two… I still don’t know why they’re here with me. Seriously, you were perfectly capable to escape from Sweet Pea’s fire, why did you crossed the portal as well?” Laura giggled and kissed Bon-Bon’s forehead. “You really have no idea?” Laura’s mother protested. “Please don’t do that in front of us. We get it, you love each other, and you’re soulmates… but please this thing among you two way too much for us right now. Can you save this when you’re alone please?” “My apologies” said Bon-Bon. “But what you mean Laura?” The green-haired girl nodded. “Vinyl have more mouth than brain” “Ey!” “But her brain is enormous as well. They followed you here because Sweet Pea isn’t a fool and we need all the squad together in order to stop him” The other two mares did a high-hoof. “Got us, we need you Lyra, you’re the only one who can approach safely to Sweet Pea. Obviously he’s not the idiot he made Bon-Bon think he was… and if there’s a pony smart enough to read between lines and guess his true intentions that’s you Lyra” “Once a spy always a spy, and sending you here was only the beginning. Sweet Pea is up to something big and we need our leader. So Mister and Miss Michakelos, we know you just recovered your daughter… but we need her for a last mission” “A mission to save the two worlds” Author's Note Sweet Pea is more dangerous that he seems and Laura’s parents finally learnt the truth about their daughter. Like I said the two worlds collided and this is only the beginning. What’s Sweet Pea’s final goal? Read ya’ later!!
010Michalekos Residence; Sunday 08:14am That was a strange morning for Thomas and Selena Michalekos; both woke up with the ood feeling that they had the exact same strange weird, but neither of them dared to mention it even if they kept trying to pretend it was nothing. However, the thing was that they were woke up by the delicious smell of recently made pancakes; but who prepared them? Chloe? Obviously not, she was too young. Then Laura? No, she couldn’t; during her short time with them they learnt their older daughter didn’t cooked. Then who? Fearing the worst they ran to the kitchen to see who did it. Of course it was no other than a cute little cream-coated horse who was whistling a cheering melody while she careful poured the pancake mix in a pan and then cover it. And just if it wasn’t strange enough the marriage turned their attention to the table where a little white unicorn with electric-blue mane was drinking a cup of coffee along with a gray mare with black mane who was reading the newspaper. “Ey Tavi, when you finish can I see the comics?” “If you want but I warn you this aren’t the comics you read back home Vy” “I know, that’s why I want to read them, I’m curious with what humans entertain themselves” Bon-Bon shook her head in disapproval. “It must be better than what they eat, when I checked they had tons of canned, frosted and packaged food. I mean, did anyone cook in this world anymore? I almost have a stroke” “Relax Bonny” smiled Laura entering to the kitchen behind her parents. “Is just normal life, even if I must admit those things aren’t as good as the homemade they aren’t that bad if you try it” Bon-Bon crossed her hooves. “There’s NOTHING as homemade food and that’s final” scolded the cream-coated pony then smiling to Laura’s parents. “Oh, and good morning for the two of you. Please take a seat, breakfast is ready” Both Laura’s parents sighed in defeat. “So it wasn’t a dream” they mumbled at the unison. Laura smiled gently to them. “I know is weird. First time I arrived to this world I was completely disoriented, but I promise you it’ll end soon. Really?” “Then what Laura?” Asked her mother. “Would you go back to Equestria or stay here with your real family? Because you can’t have both world” Laura didn’t knew what to answer. Anyone could notice her mood had bettered a lot since she reunited with her old friends and judging by the ‘please don’t go’ expression in her parents’ face it concerned them a lot. Laura could only smile weakly to her parents: “Mom, dad, whatever happens from now, I promise you that I’ll follow my heart and it’ll guide me in the right direction” “That’s what worries me, what if your heart guide you away from us?” No one knew what to say so they better sat to have breakfast. Luckily Chloe’s arrive relaxed the tensions since she shrieked excitedly when she realized it wasn’t a dream and her sister was truly an equestrian pony. Equestria, ManeHattan residential area, House of the Sweet family; Sunday 4:12pm Sweet Pea’s parents, Crunchy Spinach and Tasty Carrot were relaxing before dinner when somepony called to the door. Crunchy answered only to bump into Princess Celestia and a pair of intimidating soldiers serving as her bodyguards. Both earth ponies bowed to her. “Princess Celestia, we had the feeling you’ll show up sooner or later. Any clues about our son?” “Nothing yet, he knows how to cover his tracks. We don’t have anything, anything!” Tasty sighed. “We shouldn’t allow him to keep living with us” The Princess shrugged. “Yeah, I never understood why he insisted in living with you since he’s one of the richest ponies in the city?” “We never really understood. He said his businesses all over the Kingdom kept him traveling constantly and as a matter of fact he was rarely at home, so having a place of his own was going to be a waste. We gladly accepted him here as long as he paid us in time and he did. He didn’t even cared when we raised his rent, no, he paid what we asked and even offered more” Princess Celestia grinded her teeth. “Damn it!” Tasty Spinach smiled weakly. “We never knew anything about his conspiracy theories and that stuff that he did it because it was easier to disappear in case the government began looking for him. Whenever he was home he seemed pretty normal, all he talked about were his business and life… ad of course he bought some strange packages from time to time his hobbies weren’t our business” Princess Celestia couldn’t deny this guy was pretty clever: in front of the people who loved him Sweet Pea acted like a very clever and straight-forward businesspony. No one would suspect a thing about his activities. He was a true master in the art of pretending. And then it hit her. Of course! “The art of pretending…” “Princess Celestia?” The white alicorn frowned. “What if this whole conspiracy-theory thing is just an excuse? He made us underestimate him by taking him as crazy; but all this time he was diverting our attention to his true intentions; but what are them?” Celestia turned to her bodyguards. “Quick! What do you have in Sweet Pea’s profile?” One of the soldiers made appear a folder and began: “Twenty four years old, graduated in agronomy, successful businesspony; he owns several properties all over Equestria most of them factories. He also possesses the biggest brand in canned products. Oh and keeps repeating to everypony that his sister was abducted by humans even if everypony keeps telling him she ran away with her coltfriend” “Hold it!” Called Celestia. “Wasn’t his sister the first victim registered in ‘the incident’ sixteen years ago?” Tasty and Crunchy exchanged a saddened look. “Precisely… she died…” “At least Yummy didn’t suffered” That horrible memory slowly came back to Celestia: sixteen years ago after Nightamare’s magic outburst opened several portals all over Equestria; most of them were harmless and the Royal Guard isolated the areas, but two in particular had really bad consequences. One of them teleported a human child to Equestria (agent Heartstrings) and the other one opened directly over a teenage mare killing her in the process. Celestia offered a huge amount of bits to the mare’s family in exchange of their silence. But they accepted mostly because of their younger son’s sake, Sweet Pea. “He knew” mumbled Crunchy Spinach when he understood. Celestia nodded slowly. “Yeah, sixteen years ago several portals opened all over Equestria; causing a young human to get trapped here and killing a little pony. Today that mare’s younger brother is a respected billionaire who foalnapped the human-turned-pony was trapped here and steal a dangerous spell from my personal archives. This was no coincidence, this is all about Yummy Beans” Suddenly several green lightings appeared all over the sky followed by short earthquakes and purplish clouds in the sky. “Damn he’s using the spell!” So the Princess ran to the street followe by his bodyguards. All this time all she was mislead by Sweet Pea but now she had a vague idea of what he as up to. The only problem was she still had no idea of where he was using that spell in particular. “Damn it, damn it!” They ran through a park where ponies began to panic seeing the strange phenomena. “Where is he using it? WHERE?” A pony sitting in a bench reading the late edition of the newspapers smiled sarcastically. “Come on, you don’t need to be a genius, is obviously happening in Canterlot” Celestia and her soldiers froze and turned to the pony who spoke. It was no other than Sweet Pea. “Don’t be that surprised, all this time I hid here in ManeHattan since I knew it was only a matter of time you go to interrogate my parents. Now that my contacts told me you were close I ordered to my team to go to stage three of my brilliant plan” The soldiers tackled Sweet Pea and immobilized him to then proceed to put on the hoofcuffs. “Come on, I didn’t plan to resist. Are you okay showing this brutality in front of your boss?” The soldiers kicked Sweet Pea’s ribs. “Don’t touch his face nor head, he still had a lot to explain” said Celestia coldly. The soldiers nodded and kicked his back. Sweet Pea resisted everything always showing a smile of self-confidence that began to irritate Princess Celestia. “You know your Majesty? I would love that you show this face of yours more often” “Shut up Sweet Pea. If you’re going to talk then tell me, what you’re up to? You wanted me? You have me. Now what’s the idea?” Sweet Pea grinned and the guards kicked him again. “The truth sweet Pea” commanded Celestia. “Okay. I want precisely the truth” “You mean your sister” Sweet Pea nodded. “Close enough. I knew that truth from a while now, you see: I was there, I saw her dying” Princess Celestia felt a wave of guilt. “Then why you never said anything?” “Why did anypony ever told me anything? My parents knew my dear sister died in a horrible way but they told me a lie; I get it, I was just a kid! But then I noticed they told the same lies to my aunts and uncles, my grandparents; how do you think I felt? And then I noticed you suddenly gave them an insane amount of money; I never understood the connection until I became a teenager, you bought their silence! Why? MY SISTER DESERVED MORE!!” The soldiers softened their hold feeling a little sorry for this pony. Even Celestia felt guilty about him. “I understand, my actions were for a greater good but I wasn’t fair with you who really loved your sister. But if you already knew that truth what’s the truth you’re after? And what’s the relation with agent Heartstrings in all this?” Sweet Pea sighed. “Nothing I do will give me back my sister, I know that. I got obsessed with my sister’s case; I investigated about what happened that day and I found that Yummy wasn’t the only victim, so I thought that the least I could to honor her was to do something for the other victim” Celestia sighed in shame. “Release him!” The soldiers obeyed happily, in fact they felt truly sorry about this poor pony. He wasn’t evil, just suffered too much. But then the green lightings and purple clouds demanded Celestia’s attention. “I’ll admit what happened to your sister, now stop this Sweet Pea!” Sweet Pea chuckled and raised his hooves to be cuffed again. “Is not that easy. As a last favor to Yummy I got deeper in my research and I found that my family weren’t the only one affected by your dirty little secrets. How many? I don’t know, there’s a lot of cover-ups I found digging in your personal archives. So I decided to put you in your place. You say you use lies to protect your little ponies, fair enough, but if you’re going to do the least you can do is suffer a lost of your own. My team modified the spell to work only in one location: your Palace, where somepony’s sister is trapped inside. In a matter of time she’ll end up like my own sister. Let’s see if you can keep lying after that” Princess Celestia froze in horror. “You… YOU!!” Sweet Pea grinned again. “You cannot stop me at this point, I only revealed myself to enjoy your reaction. I may not live to see if you deny your sister’s murder as you denied lots of deaths before; but I assure you: from now on whenever you even consider cover anything you’ll think in me and what I’ve done. Ha-ha” Human world, Michalekos Residence; Sunday 5:03pm Family and ponies were playing UNO when suddenly the green lightings followed by small earthquakes began to be felt all over Philadelphia. Vinyl looked through the window: “Ey Laura, are green lightings common in here?” The green-haired girl prepared her bo-staff but first looked at her parents who shook their heads. “Of course not, Sweet Pea is making his move” “It looks like it’s coming from downtown” commented Thomas Michelakos. Laura hugged her parents. “Whatever it happens, it ends right now” “Please come back Laura…” mumbled Selena. “I will, I promise” Chloe hugged her sister. “You better keep that promise” “And whatever it happens, even if you don’t… you know… please never forget your family here in Philadelphia, and we’re proud of you” Laura hugged her family one last time and joined her friends. “Don’t worry, I decided already: I’ll be back” Author's Note So I delayed a little but I’m back and ready to finish this story that’s finished already in Spanish in FanFiction. This protagonist is very funny to write, he doesn’t wings or magic, his intelligence is more than enough. Read ya’ later!
011Equestria, precinct of ManeHattan police; Sunday 5:17pm The two Royal Guards pushed the beaten but satisfied Sweet Pea inside the cell along with gang members, noisy drunks and even a recently captured mob boss (Mas-Carpone a cheese trafficker who made millions during the prohibition). Princess Celestia advanced slowly and threatening behind her two soldiers, but still Sweet Pea stayed as calm and arrogant as before. He had a stupid self-confidence smile on his face since he revealed his true intentions and kept it during the beating; but Celestia was determined to erase it from his face, no matter how he will pay. “Ladies and gentlecolts” she announced to all the prisoners. “I brought you a piece of fresh meat, please feel free to release your darkest impulses on him since he have to learn his lesson, but you better hurry because we won’t stay here for long” Sweet Pea laughed. “So you realized I’m the kind of pony with the right contact in the right and not-so-right places, huh?” Celestia’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. “Listen to me you bastard: as soon I have news from my sister we’ll translate you to a maximum security prison where I’ll make sure you won’t see any kind of light ever again, understood?” Then she faced the other prisoners. “Anyway, as I was saying, I’ll concede freedom to whoever erase that stupid smile from his face, understood?” The rest of the prisoners scratched their heads in confusion not getting why their beloved Princess was acting this way, what did this pony ever did to her? At the end Celestia and her bodyguards left the room with Sweet Pea still smiling at the door. Suddenly a hoof placed on the billionaire’s shoulder. “Ey, I think I remember you. Weren’t you from the same neighborhood I was?” Sweet Pea turned, it was the mob boss. “Indeed, such a wonderful memory mister Carpone. You used to date my sister, remember?” “Oh yeah! Yummy Beans! Good, kind, generous… before she disappeared I was working hard willing to change my ways… but then she disappeared and everypony began to blame me for that. They said I got her pregnant forcing her to run away even if I respected her wish to wait until we get married. The only one who ever supported me, the only one who believed I had nothing to do with her disappearance was her annoying little brother” Sweet Pea chuckled. “Like I said to the Princess, I’m the kind of pony with the right contacts in the right and not-so-right places. Is everything ready for my escape?” “As you requested old friend” confirmed Mas-Carpone. “Begin now!” The rest of the prisoners began to work. In the meantime in the sheriff’s office Princess Celestia was doing her best to contact Luna. The fastest way she knew as to communicate through little Spike but he was still not able to reach Luna what was making Princess Celestia more nervous every second. And for her guards they were just staring to her unsure what to do. But at the end one of them approached shyly. “Princess Celestia, sorry but I was thinking about the situation with Sweet Pe and it seems a bit unfair. We already beat Sweet Pea… there’s no need to allow this ponies to almost kill him” “Yes Princess, killing Sweet Pea won’t give you back Princess Luna in case he succeeded” joined the other. “HE WON’T!!” Shouted the white alicorn, but a few seconds later she managed to control herself. “But you’re right, I’ll order the ponies to stop the beating” So she moved to the precinct’s cell only to find the captured ponies destroying a rag and hay doll. “What happened here?!” “The mob boss is missing too” observed one of the soldiers. “What? THAT BASTARD!” In the city outskirts Sweet Pea offered a bag of bits to Mas-Carpone who in exchange took some kind of crystal from a saddlebag. It was a magic object called ‘Jump-Crystal’ a device that allowed to teleport at long distance designed for single ponies or groups and it could be used by everypony, not only unicorns. “It was really hard to get one of these, I hope you succeed because I won’t be able to help you a second time” “I will, don’t worry about me” smiled Sweet Pea. “However, this is what we agreed and a little extra for the troubles I caused you” “Don’t worry about it, I also want justice for Yummy” “Still take it, payed bills build strong friendships, especially when you’re friend with a mobster” Mas-Carpone laughed. “You’re right! Good luck my friend” “Thank you Carpone. And I promise you I’ll make justice for Yummy” Human world, city of Philadelphia; Sunday 5:21pm “Hurry Monica, it’s about to downpour here” complained Paul. His friend offered him an apologetic smile. “Easy pal, I just forgot my wallet at work and isn’t that far from the disco” Paul groaned in protest but didn’t say anything obediently following Monica to the bookstore she worked at. The clouds were crowding around more and more looking more threatening by seconds. “Monica…” “Stop complaining now moron!” “Not that, look over your work!” He shrieked pointing to the roof. Monica looked at the direction he was aiming and screamed. Over the place there were several black clouds with green lightings were creating several flashes of light showing different views of different kinds of landscapes; it was almost like magic. Both teenagers froze in the place wondering what was going on when suddenly they heard the roar of some kind of enormous animal trapped inside the small store. “What the…?” It was when they saw a giant wolf-like creature made of wood through the glass of the windows. And apparently the monster saw them too because at that very moment began to charge against the walls in a desperate attempt to get them. “What the heck is that?!” “DO I LOOK AS I NOW?” Then they heard the sound of some kind of animal trotting towards them. They turned only to see a familiar green-haired girl along with a bunch of horses who seemed they fell on a bucket of paint. “LAURA! What you’re doing here? RUN, SAVE YOURSELF!” Shouted Monica. But the girl didn’t listened, she just exchanged a small look with Paul and stood in front of the book store manipulating her bo staff. “Don’t worry, I know what we’re dealing with. Open the door!!” “ARE YOU CRAZY OR WHAT?” Shrieked Monica. “Whatever, Vinyl I’m counting on you!” The little unicorn DJ grinned happily turning Paul and Monica’s attention to the little ponies who were with Laura. What the hell? Vinyl opened the door with her magic. “IT’S TIME FOR PARTY! FEEL THE WUB!” Shouted Vinyl excitedly. The monstrous wooden-wolf-thing roared in anger and jumped to destroy everything in its way. The first thing he noticed was the small unicorn and the green-haired human aiming a gray staff to him. Roared and tried to get them both with his paws. Vinyl created a small force-field while Laura jumped and roundhouse kicked the monster in the nose irritating him and turning herself into the main target of the beast who lost all his interest in Vinyl to concentrate fully in try to eat Laura. The wolf began to send chomps to Laura who simply back-flipped every time irritating more and more the Timberwolf, but it won’t last forever. “Bon-Bon! Octavia! NOW!” It was when the wolf almost reached her with one of his paws but Laura rolled away just in time. Next she jumped to gain a little distance and hit him on the nose with the bo. “In moments like this I miss my unicorn magic” Two small pony figures jumped on the creature’s back making it lose balance and fell right before Laura, the girl grinned and smashed his forehead with her bo using all her strength. It was enough to startle the monster giving Bon-Bon and Octavia time to smash his head again to the floor with all their earth-pony strength. A small tremble ran all over the Timberwolf’s body and finally turned into a pile of branches in the middle of the street. Paul gulped. “Is it dead?” Octavia shook her head calmly fixing her bowtie. “Nope, the only way to kill one of this things is to burn it, I just knocked this thing for a few hours since I won’t kill it, after all it was just a scared animal in a strange enviroment. Vy, care to send it back where it came from?” Vinyl levitated the branches with her magic and lead the group inside the bookstore that had a strange green portal floating in the middle of it. The girls exchanged a small look and then Vinyl threw the Timberwolf to the portal to then follow it. Bon-Bon and Octavia also jumped through the portal leaving Laura alone with Paul and Monica. “Seriously, what the fuck?!” Asked a very agitated Paul. “I’ll explain everything any other day. Right now I have to find certain pony to thank him for something” And she disappeared inside the portal as well. “No one would believe what just happened” mumbled Monica. For a few moments Laura was afraid to end up in the middle of the Everfree forest (of course a trained agent like her would handle it but they won’t make it in time to Canterlot to stop Sweet Pea); but luckily enough the portal sent them precisely to Canterlot; in the middle of the city zoo to be more precise. “So we were lucky I guess” mumbled the young human looking around. “Thank Celestia” said Bon-Bon. “But Laura, why didn’t you changed back to unicorn? We could use your magic right now” “I have no idea Bonny. But right now we must concentrate in finding Sweet Pea” Vinyl looked at the sky, it was covered in the strange green lightings all over it. She frowned. “Any ideas where to start Laura?” “Shall we follow the lightings?” Suggested Octavia, “There are too many of them” said Vinyl. They stayed in silence for a while, it was obvious that Sweet Pea opened that may portals to keep them busy figuring out where to go. “I have a feeling we must go where everything started” suddenly said Laura. “At Canterlot Archives” “Are you sure?” “No, like I said it’s just a feeling” “Is better than nothing” mumbled Vinyl. “TO THE ARCHIVES” So the group ran to the building hoping to find Sweet Pea there. All over Canterlot the Royal Guards were doing their best evacuating the ponies in order. It was a well done process; no pony would get hurt, or at least that was the group expected. But casually on of the ponies noticed Laura and screamed: “LOOK! A MONSTER!” And the mass panic began much for Laura’s exasperation. Several soldiers approached gently, as she was some kind of wild animal. “Come on, right over here little one… we’ll take you back to your environment in no time…” Laura punched him with the staff. “Fuck you” “I can make you invisible if you want” suggested Vinyl charging her magic. “Don’t worry about me, I need to be visible for Sweet Pea” The group nodded and resumed the march to the Archives. Nothing else mattered now. When they arrived the first thing the girls noticed was the magic dome protecting the building. Unicorn units were strategically placed around it in desperate attempts to break it was useless. The young unicorns hired by Sweet Pea did a magnificent job reinforcing the shield. Again somepony got alarmed with Laura’s appearance. “Monster! Monster! Laura face-palmed. “Ey idiots, cross to my world to see what the humans say about you. Fucking morons” A soldier approached. “Sorry ladies but you can’t stay here with this creature” Bon-Bon showed her badge. “Secret Service. Shut up and let us pass” The solider looked at Laura. “Got it, but what is this thing?” Laura showed her badge as well. “Squad leader, got hit by a transmutation spell and now look like this. Any other stupid question?” The soldier smiled apologetically and better walked back with his partners. “Morons” mumbled again Laura. The girls stayed there looking at the worthless attempts to break in. “Suggestions?” Asked Octavia. “Squad Leader?” Laura nodded. “That building is connected to the secret Royal Archives, we can enter through it” The girls made a quick high-hoof; high-five and ran towards the city dump. There were three main entrances for Celestia’s personal archives: the first one connected to the Princesses headquarters; the second one through the Canterlot Archives and the emergency only entrance, the one they were about to enter. In the dump a soldier disguised as the guardian of the place stopped them. “Hold! If you want to recover you…” Again the girls showed their badges. “Secret Service, let us in” The guardian nodded but keep staring to Laura. “And this creature?” Laura sighed and showed her badge as well. “Agent Lyra Heartstrings, I was hit by a transmutation spell. I’ll deal with it when our mission is over okay?” This made the soldier doubt so he use his magic to examine the authenticity of the badge but it was authentic. He just mumbled his sympathies for Laura wishing her a quick recovery and let them in to the secret entrance to the Royal private Archives. The girls quickly ran through a long tunnel that lead to a large underground constructions; with several hallways full of the Crown’s biggest secrets: from the existence of the Secret Service (along with all the information about agents and missions) as well as several other information too dangerous for the ponykind. The ultimate treasure for any conspiracy theorist. Walking to the secret exit to the Canterlot Archives Laura bumped into a box causing it to spread all its content. “Damn! I didn’t see it” “Maybe you’re a little too tall for this reduced spaces” suggested Bon-Bon. “Think so?” Asked a very annoyed Laura. Her friends quickly began to help her to order the documents when Vinyl noticed something: “Guys this isn’t any secret info, is just an old newspaper” “What?” “Yeah, check it out” said Vinyl showing it to the girls. Laura frowned. “This is suspicious but we don’t have time for this! We must stop the idiot of Sweet Pea while we can” So they finally reached the door to Canterlot Archives. Entering carefully since several of Sweet Pea’s mercenaries must be patrolling the area. Effectively several ponies ran to receive them but the girls pushed a bookshelf to fall on them incapacitating all in a minute but also compromising their location. They stood in fight position ready for everything, when finally the well-known green earth pony walked to them calm and unbelievably very happy to see them. “Oh it was only a matter of time to the Secret Service to show up, but the three of you? And a human? That’s certainly unexpected” chuckled Sweet Pea. The human girl put aside her bo-staff and smiled to Sweet Pea. “Come on Sweet Pea! Weren’t you my number one fan? How you don’t recognize me?” And that caught Sweet Pea’s attention. How could he be so blind? “Doctor Heartstrings? What are you doing here? You supposed to be in the human world!” “Don’t call ‘Doctor Heartstrings’ anymore Sweet Pea, thanks to you now I know my true name: it’s Laura. Laura Michalekos” Sweet Pea nodded. “It’s a beautiful human name doctor. I’m so glad you reunited with your real family, I bet my sister would be proud. Now putting that aside, what do you want from me doctor Michalekos?” Laura shrugged happily. “First of all I came to thank you old friend: thanks to you I figured I’ve been serving the wrong person, after all you showed me that Celestia has been lying to me all this time. And who knows how many ponies” Laura’s friends looked at her not believing their ears, was she serious? Was she really on Sweet Pea’s side? However Sweet Pea interrupted their thoughts with an evil grin. “But that my dear is about to end. As soon she arrives we’ll have a serious talk” Laura nodded in agreement. “After all this started with the three of us: you, me and Princess Celestia” “Four, my sister participated as well but you see: she couldn’t make it” Laura nodded again sympathetically. “So now what?” Asked Bon-Bon. “Aren’t we going to stop this?” “Girls, don’t you see?” Asked Laura. “Sweet Pea will stop this on his own, when the right time comes” “Allow me to correct your statement doctor: not when the right time comes, when Celestia comes” said Sweet Pea checking a watch he brought. And after five seconds of confused silence, finally the entire structure shook and Sweet Pea’s force field got reduced to anything. And then she arrived; powerful and anger as nopony had seen her before, Princess Celestia appeared literally covered in flames of pure anger. “SWEET PEAAAAA! Human and pony laughed. “So the guest of honor is here!” Author's Note And this is it, like I said before, the enemy is a completely different character than the one in the original story. I hope you liked it and as always: Read ya’ later!!
012Equestria, Canterlot Archives; Sunday 5:43pm Princess Celestia seemed as threatening and angry as nopony have seeing her before; flying over Canterlot at great speed right to the Archives. No matter how she had to stop Sweet Pea, that damn little earth pony managed to become her most hatred enemy. She was so angry that her eyes usually pink and cheerful turned orange because of the rage, her mane usually as beautiful as the Aurora boreal turned into a bursting flame; yes, she was furious. Then she spotted it, the Force Field around the Canterlot Archives. No problem, she destroyed it with a single magic beam and looked down to her soldiers. “What are you waiting for? GO NOW!” No need to repeat, the several squads broke into the building in no time, so Princess Celestia looked at the windows and as soon she felt Sweet’s presence, she broke in through it. “SWEET PEAAAAAAA!” She shouted. The green earth pony just laughed calmly along with a… human girl? “So the guest of honor is here!” The both said. The sight of that human made Celestia stop, slowly the confusion was replacing her anger. Celestia’s expression even softened while she remembered the events of sixteen years ago. She couldn’t believe this, so she had to go through all this again? However the human girl smiled gently to her and made a military salute. “Holy Deja-vùs, right?” Said Laura cheerfully. “How are you your Majesty? After several failed attempts Agent Heartstrings finally reports back after my unwilling excursion to the human world. Sorry if I look like this but somehow I changed when I arrived to the other world, sorry about that. But what matters is that I’m back and ready to serve!” Princess Celestia couldn’t believe this. Lyra Heartstrings was back? Anyway she forced a smile, she was happy that this human weren’t any stranger but also something inside told her this wasn’t quite right. “Agent Heartstrings!” Finally managed to say Celestia. “Is so good to see you, but how did you managed to come back?” Laura shrugged like it was nothing and hugged her friends. “It was all thanks to the Magic of Friendship and Sweet Pea’s portals: you see my friends arrived looking for me and then all we had to do was wait for him to connect the worlds again” Bon-Bon lowered her head a little ashamed. “Sorry I had to disobey a direct Order your Majesty but as you know, Laura is my special somepony and I had to recover her no matter how. Luckily everything is solved now” And in perfect timing, right after she spoke the Royal Troops arrived dragging several unicorns they captured in several spots of the building. After they saw the threatening version of Princess Celestia they did their best and now everything was back to normal since every time they neutralized a unicorn a portal got closed in the act. So at the end the Princess of the Sun stared to Sweet Pea with a grin. “So everything is back to normal now. I don’t know what you were after Sweet Pea but you lost. Now bring me the students who betrayed me, please” The soldiers just pushed the poor bunch of unicorns to the front who seemed very afraid to their teacher’s anger. “Too easy your Majesty” said the captain. “If it wasn’t for the plan they were following we could finish this earlier, these idiots aren’t fighters, they’re just academics” Princess Celestia laughed. “So you keep smiling after your defeat, Sweet Pea?” The billionaire shrugged. “I don’t really care. Your Palace suffered several damages because of my brilliant plan and with a little luck you and I are both sisterless now. So go ahead, do me whatever you want, I already won!” Celestia’s mane turned into fire again. “When I lock you in the deepest part of the Tartarus I swear you won’t see the sun again. ANY KIND OF LIGHT!” But her anger didn’t last because again in perfect timing, a soldier arrived with a letter. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Sorry for interrupting you but a letter from your sister just arrived. She says that sorry if she didn’t answered but she was in the middle of a very important diplomatic meeting in the Minotaur Republic and is asking what happened” That was it, Celestia finally calmed and began to laugh at Sweet Pea’s misery. “Ahahahahahaha! So this is it, you lost Sweet Pea! All this plan for nothing!” That was it, Sweet Pea fell on his knees and began to cry: “Oh no… all this effort, all my plans… FOR NOTHING! I FAILED YOU DEAR SISTER! I FAILED YOU YUMMY!!” And began to cry in desperation. A little too forced for anypony; so Vinyl finally face-hoofed. “Dude, not even your mom would buy it” the DJ sighed annoyed. Bon-Bon nodded. “Somepony like you can’t fail because such a basic error” “Yeah, no more farces, what were you really up to, Sweet Pea?” Asked Octavia calmly. “All of this was planned, we get it. But please stop it already. The truth Sweet Pea!” The green pony effectively calmed and smirked with satisfaction. “Yeah, sorry about that but I planned this moment for so long that I just had to play along. Oh, I wish there’s a way to keep this moment forever” he said dreamily. Laura took her new phone from her jacket. “I can record it if you want” One more time the tension filled the room while the Princess of the Sun stared to the smiling earth pony, who was enjoying every second of what was happening. For some reason Celestia shivered, this pony was by far the most unpredictable enemy she ever had; no, this whole thing won’t end well… for her. At the end she managed to recover a little and confront Sweet Pea. “So what was your real plan all this time Sweet Pea? Why you threatened my sister?” Sweet Pea grinned and Laura pressed the RECORD button on her phone, she didn’t want to miss anything. “You see: you were all too busy trying to locate Princess Luna and evacuating the city and the Castle, that you didn’t noticed the ponies carrying several documents I recovered from your personal Royal Archives, that are connected to this place” Everypony’s eyes widened in realization. “So you replaced all the secret documents by old newspapers” mumbled Laura admired by Sweet Pea’s intelligence. “Of course! I took everything: from every cover-up you ever made, to all the especial information about the Secret Service and several other secret agencies you run. That information include the data of all agents, all the missions and objectives. I kept the cover-up-things but the other one, the military info is ready to be delivered for free to the other Kingdoms. I wonder what would happen if the Minotaur President or the Yak Royalty find out about you spying on the from decades… even the Changelings may have a word with you if they know about the refugees you hide from their evil Queen” Laura almost drop her phone for the surprise and admiration; all her friends’ jaws fell to the floor and even Celestia had problems to stay stood at the revelation of this mad pony. “Imagine every single nation in the world turning against Equestira… ponies would be doomed in a matter of days” sighed Sweet Pea. “If only there’s a pony who can stop this tragedy with a single order… but of course in exchange he would demand his freedom, clearance of all criminal record for him and his associates; and of course that certain pony admit in public every single cover-up she ever made in all those years. And I mean everything in front of everypony” The soldiers looked at Celestia who fell on her knees crying in frustration. “You! You! You! YOU BASTARD! “Me what?” Laughed Sweet Pea. “You actually defeated me…” cried the Princess. “I have no choice but… give you what you want…” Sweet Pea shrugged in delight. “I know, right? Truth may hurt but lies may kill. From now on you’ll think twice before you try to cover anything because of me. Now my sister is avenged” So Sweet Pea offered a hoof to her. “Do we have a deal?” “I hate you” sighed Celestia but still accepted it. “By the way, I’ll keep some secret files just as a life insurance. You know, in case you want some revenge; and judging by your face I better take other measures as well” The ponies at Sweet Pea’s service screamed in joy, cheering for their boss and the soldiers looked at the earth pony with a mixture of admiration and disgust. Enjoying so much attention Sweet Pea bowed to his public. “So now to finish all this, guys open a last portal. I’ll pay you tomorrow in the morning as we agreed” The unicorns began to glow their horns but Celestia wasn’t going to allow it. “Oh no, DON’T YOU DARE BASTARD!” The leader of the unicorn unit just bowed respectfully to her teacher. “Princess, we’ve been working in this spell for weeks and it’s pretty safe to use now. Besides that’s our last order, to send Agent Heartstrings back home” “What? Princess Celestia looked at Laura who lowered her head to the unicorns as thanking them and then looked back to the white alicorn. “So do you actually thought I didn’t know? At the beginning of this madness I really hated Sweet Pea for what he did, but that experience in the human world reunited me with my family, my true family. A family that had been looking for my for almost sixteen years; wondering what happened with their daughter; and now that we’re back together I don’t allow us to separate again. In fact I came all the way here just to witness how this pony kick your flank and presenting you my resignation. I am a teenage human girl and I plan to keep it that way. Thank you for everything your Majesty, now fuck you very much” Princess Celestia sighed and shrugged in defeat. Yeah, what else to do now? This was a total defeat and she must go along with all its consequences. “Okay, I’ll let them open the portal. I owe you at least that agent Heartstrings” “Not an agent anymore, and the name is Michalekos” declared Laura. So the unicorns combined their powers to create a last portal to the human world; this was finally over. “We’ve been practicing a lot doctor so don’t worry. This portal will send you to the last spot we memorized, the place where we sent your friends last time. But if that doesn’t work we have several other places we can lead you” Laura smiled. “Oh that’s my new home. Thanks a lot guys” The green-haired girl then approached to the portal turning to her friends one last time. “So this is good bye girls. I spent great moments with you guys, but now is time for me to go home. Thank you for everything girls” Vinyl and Octavia trotted to hug Laura, who returned a quick hug and then looked at Bon-Bon who was staring at the portal holding back her tears. “So that’s what you decided? Live as a human among humans? Laura let escape a few tears and ran to kiss Bon-Bon for the last time. The cream-coated mare returned the kiss but they separated quickly. “That felt a little odd…” mumbled Laura. “Yeah, let’s never mention it again” shivered Bon-Bon before turning to the Princess. “So Princess Celestia, I’m also presenting you my resignation and need a big favor from you” Celestia rolled her eyes, great, another one. “Yeah? What do you need agent Drops?” “Turn me into a human too!” The white alicorn nodded tiredly. “Normally I would lecture you but it’s been a really long day so whatever, I’ll turn you. But just let me warn you: if you ever make a step in Equestria again your body will remember which world does it really belong and you’ll be turning back into a pony. Are you okay with it?” “Sure!” Then the Princess concentrated her magic power in the young earth pony wrapping her into a white light that slowly transformed her forelegs into arms and hands, then her back hooves were turned into two firm feet. The tail vanished and the fur turned into a beige dress that fit the young woman perfectly. “Bonnie, you shouldn’t” mumbled Laura. “I had to my love. You’re my especial somepony and nothing will change that. Our bodies may change but we’re still us and that’s what matters” Laura blushed and kissed the new human girl, this time being actually good. “Ehem, do you mind to wait until you cross the portal to make-out? We’re kind of tired here!” Protested one of the unicorns. The girls mumbled a quick apology and ran to the portal right after their waved a hand to say good bye to their friends. “Take care!” Said Octavia. “Please never forget us!” Smiled Vinyl. So Bon-Bon crossed the portal to a brand new world and Laura was about to follow her when Celestia stopped her. “Wait, young Lyra I just want to apology for everything. But I want you to know I did it for the sake of my little ponies and…” Laura stopped her with a warm smile. “Don’t worry Your Highness. I think I understand. Thanks God it’s all over now” The Princess sighed sadly. “Indeed, I’m not used to be defeated but I guess I kind of deserved this” “And this!” The human teenager closed her fist and before the white alicorn could react, Laura threw a punch that broke the Princess’ nose. “It doesn’t compensate sixteen years of lies… but damn it felt good” So Laura disappeared in the portal that the unicorns closed this time forever. In the floor Celestia was rubbing her nose trying the blood to stop coming. “Officially my worst night ever!” Human world, Michalekos Residence; 6:07pm The entire family were in the living room without saying a word, waiting in silence; they stayed like that since the green lighting stopped coming. Would they see Laura again? Someone called at the door. Thomas Michelakos moved as an automat to the door. When he opened it the entire world seemed to freeze. “LAURA!” The rest of the family ran to join him “LAURA, YOU’RE BACK!” Cried her mother. “You’re really here! Laura nodded. “I made a promise, remember?” smiled the girl. Chloe just sobbed holding to her sister’s leg. They stayed like that for long minutes but at the end they had to slowly separate. “For a moment we thought you would stay in Equestria, you know, since you… sorry I still don’t fully believe you had a pony girlfriend” said Selena Michalekos. “Yeah, what happened with that girl?” Wanted to know Thomas. Laura smiled and waved her arm to a blue-haired girl who was looking at them at distance. “That’s what I wanted to tell you: mom, dad, Chloe; I brought some company. Do you remember Bon-Bon?” “Of course we remember her, come here!” Smiled Selena. So the group hug resumed plus one. “Now what? Should I read your books to learn about human customs?” “That make two of us but it’ll be easier that way” assured Laura. It was the end. “But you can’t be called Bon-Bon” said Chloe. “It sounds weird” “So how shall we call you then Bonnie?” Asked Laura. Selena’s eyes sparkled. “That’s it! Bonnie! It sounds cute and it’s more human than Bon-Bon” smiled the woman. Bonnie nodded happily. “So it’s decided then, from now I’m on Bonnie” “Welcome to the family dear” Author's Note So this is it, Sweet Pea won and Laura is reunited with her family along with Bon-Bon, a lot different from the original story but at least was funny to write. I hope you liked it and there’s only the epilogue is left. Read ya’ later!!
EPILOGUEEquestria, city of ManeHattan; Wednesday 9:28 That was an especially rough morning for Tasty Carrot and Crunchy Spinach (parents of the well-known billionaire Sweet Pea). It all started when Princess Celestia announced an especial press conference open to everpony where she’ll reveal something very important to all her little ponies. The two mature ponies assisted only to hear her admit that several times she considered it was better to hide the truth instead of facing the consequences of past mistakes, including what happened with their daughter Yummy Beans. Apparently she spent the past week considering the pros and contras between keeping her image or well, tell the truth of what really happened in several events starting from fifty years ago. So at the end the old marriage were walking slowly back home (after having to listen condolences from almost everypony they met in the press conference. It had been an exhausting morning and all they wanted was to this day to end. They agreed to never talk about Yummy again, why did Princess Celestia had to open the wound again? But when they returned home they noticed several ponies packaging boxes in several carriages. What was going on? They ran thinking the ponies were stealing but they noticed it was only their younger son packing his things. The young stallion greeted them with a warm smile. “Mom, dad! Long time no see you! How was Celestia’s tour of shame? Anyway, sorry I came without calling you first but It’s been a while and I’ve been thinking; why a ground and wealthy pony such as myself is still living with his parents? How pathetic is that? So I decided to move. I got a pent-house in Trottenaghe, quiet, peaceful; a very nice neighborhood and the best part, I can administrate my new factories from there” The two older ponies finally recovered from the surprise. “Sweet Pea! We thought we won’t ever see you again after Princess Celestia said those things about you: that you were conspiring against the Crown and… Sweet Pea grinned. “I was conspiring against the Crown and I won. That’s why Celestia is doing her tour of shame, I just didn’t gave her an option” Both of his parents’ shivered at Sweet Pea’s self-satisfactory grin. Was he serious? Indeed he was, Sweet Pea only changed his smile for a frown and confronted his parents. “All this years you’ve been dirtying Yummy’s name with an awful lie. I understand that Celestia forced you to stay silent about what really happened… but why did you had to invent such a horrifying lie as she ran away with her coltfriend, huh? She deserved more, much more. I know I won’t ever see my sister again but the least I could do was to unravel the truth to everypony; her truth along with several other truths that Sun-Butt tried to bury. Not anymore, she’s finally avenged” Crunchy Carrot approached to her son. “Oh dear, why didn’t you tell us you knew the truth all this time? We would talked to you and…” “Convince me to support you with the lies? Sorry but no. Now she haves what she deserves: Celestia can’t hide truths anymore, it is her name the one is dirtied now; not Yummy’s. I would never forgive you for lying to me, so from now on we’ll take separated ways. You can keep lying to yourselves, it’s not my problem anymore” So he left leaving their parents in sadness and shame, the last step of his sweet revenge was accomplished. From that moment Sweet Pea could continue with his life “We did it sist” Human world, Michalekos Residence; Wednesday 10:02am Thomas Michalekos stood after two long hours writing, with all what happened in the last weeks due-date was approaching faster that he expected and now he had to do twice the effort to have his last novel in time. Luckily enough the bizarre experiences gave him more than enough material to keep writing. But seriously, he needed a rest and a glass of water so he walked to the kitchen yawning. “Busy morning?” Asked his wife Selena. He sighed and nodded. “Where are the girls?” Selena pointed to the backyard and Thomas couldn’t help but smile. Since school was finally over, Chloe spent every minute she had with Laura and Bonnie; listening to old stories about their lives in Equestria or practicing martial arts. “No, no, no, Chloe… your hand goes this way” said Laura correcting her sister’s position. “Think about it as a knife” “Like this?” “Exactly! Now attack us!” Little Chloe obeyed and her attack was stopped by Bonnie, who smiled to her. “That’s the way! If we keep it like this, you’ll be a black belt in Earth-Pony martial arts when you return to school!” “Kung-Fu Bonnie, we must adapt to the human way” The two parents smiled. They never imagined having their daughter back meant accept another daughter as well but it could be worse; Laura could chose to stay in Equestria at Bon-Bon’s side. “Ey, and what about we go to that library after this?” Suggested Bonnie. “Do we really have to?” Complained Laura. “I still don’t know how I’ll see to Monica and Paul to the face again after what happened” “Sooner or later you’ll have to” “I know, I know” Bonnie chuckled and kissed her girlfriend’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll be at your side no matter what” “Forever…” Author's Note A happy ending for everypony except for Celestia. I know is a bit strange but I liked it and even the final product have nothing to do with the original source it was funny to make. I hope you liked it and: Read ya’ later!!
