Bon Bon
You hate being on this train as much as Lyra loves it.
You stare out of the window, while she's nearly bouncing in her seat. It’s a very good thing she can't see your expression. Fillydelphia's probably freezing at this time of year. Plus you're missing a baking convention in Canterlot to come here.
...She's going to spend all three days in the same museum, isn't she?
Who are you kidding, of course she is.
She finally notices you aren't smiling. "Come on, Bonnie, it's a whole new city! It's like an adventure!" As always, she's got intrepid spirit up to her eyeballs.
You snort. "More like a BADventure."
Two hours later, off the train, she pleads with you. "Come on, just a few minutes inside!"
"Lyra, we haven't even checked into the hotel yet!"
"That's why it'll only be a few minutes! I just want to get a good idea of the layout." She looks ridiculous with her heavy saddlebags still on. "Pleeease?" And then she looks at you with the Eyes.
Aw, fuck. Fuck! You bitch!
And so you're inside the Fillydelphian Alternate History Museum.
Another half an hour later, Lyra's still glued to the hoax exhibits. Some of them are grainy framed photographs, some are made of little plastic figurines. (Didn't you once see some foals playing with those?) She even spent ten straight minutes inspecting a big snowglobe full of sand.
The whole time she was softly mouthing words, like she always does, auditioning explanations to foist on you in the middle of the night.
"Lyra." You startle her from whatever corner she’s rifling through.
When she remembers you're there, she grins nervously and whispers. "Sorry."
You roll your eyes. "Lyra, we're the only ones here. I haven't even seen an owner. We'll come back."
"Yeah... Yeah, sorry." She finally gives, and heads for the door. You follow behind as she opens it.
...Outside, the sun isn’t shining. The buildings are different, squat, and thick mushy-wet grass has replaced the cobblestones.
In the distance, desert stretches to the horizon.
What.
ボンボンの奇妙な冒険
｢Bon Bon's Bizarre Badventure｣
"It can't be. It- there's no- oh my-..." Lyra stops trying to start sentences and takes a deep breath. Then, without warning, she bolts across the grass like a mare possessed.
"Lyra?!" You shout after her from the doorway, hesitating. But she's galloping toward the desert, so you run after her. "Lyra!"
To her credit, she doesn't leave line of sight. It won't affect the ear-pulling you perform later, though. And the buildings don't look any better the more of them you pass; they're all cream-colored and curvy like they were spun on some gigantic potter's wheel. You shake your head and keep running.
Lyra stops at the edge of the desert. A wind scatters the sand, redundantly. She follows the particles like she's going to catch one on her tongue.
"Lyra, what's-"
"This isn't Equestria! We're in another version of the present!"
Given your disorientation, you don't quite roll your eyes at that. "How would you tell?"
She looks at the sand like you look at flies before you swat them. Then her magic freezes a clump, allowing the rest to pull away. "Everyday sand is just tough rock that's been broken down by water over time. Under a microscope, each grain turns into a shell, or a gem. But here..."
She casts a complicated spell under her breath, and it takes a minute, but a large, ethereal magnifying lens shimmers within her magic. Through it, the grains zoom into new focus. They're all jagged, black, brittle.
She turns to you like she's expecting a sticker. "It's all the same! Nearly everything in Equestria was burnt somehow, and it was converted into an endless pony-made desert without water! Some explorers theorize it's the universe's warning not to stray too far from the beaten path! We're in the World of the Plastic Beach!"
You digest that.
"Then what's this?" You gesture to the... town?
She looks at it like she hadn't seen it before. "I, uh. ...Huh."
That's what you thought.
"Maybe I can help you two."
You jump and spin around, putting Lyra behind you. The speaker's a stallion, middle-aged, with a sunhat over his brow. Mostly he looks like the buildings, pudgy and beige. His cutie mark's a black rectangle, with a white dot on its top half and five on the bottom.
"Who are you?"
He smiles, and drawls an answer. "The name's Fats. Domino Fats." He tips the hat back and looks over you. "Welcome to ｢Strawberry Fields｣."
Over the next couple minutes, Mr. Fats takes you into a seemingly arbitrary building. The furniture inside was all part of the walls, undecorated and yawning. He and Lyra then proceed to have a rip-roaring Q&A session. You're occupied with exploring the barren house, but you catch most of it.
He visited the museum once, and had the same experience as you. When he arrived, there was only desert. He explored it, but couldn't find the door again. Since then, only two others have shown up, neither friendly, but the town provided him with stuff to scavenge. In fact, when he found it, he understood the name on instinct.
Lyra exclaims at that. "You mean the Stand phenomenon is real?!"
You reenter the main room from the equally empty upstairs. "'Stand phenomenon'?"
She has to calm herself down for a moment, fanning herself with a hoof. "It was coined by the only the coolest theoretical magician who ever lived, Stand Clear! He was a pegasus who went to the absolute top of the Canterlot university circuit just by giving unicorns new ideas, and the last thing he tried working on was the effect of changing history on cutie marks."
"Like... Princess Twilight?"
"Yeah! Except, y'know, he never got as far as her. But he thought that pony's marks, their destinies, all came together to make up the world, like a… a big sweater. And if somepony came into another one, their destiny would have to be resized and stitched into a new place somewhere, and there would be a big, unpredictable burst of magical energy tied to them!" She finishes with as much energy as she started, looking at you expectantly.
You examine your hooves, one at a time, and drone, "I don't feel it."
Before she can respond, Mr. Fats speaks up. "As interesting as this will all be to science, I think it would be for the best if we discussed our retreat." Lyra swivels towards him, and you pay much closer attention to his next words: "The door won't close automatically, but it won't stay open forever either. Unfortunately, I can't go through it yet, because of those two others I mentioned."
Lyra's face becomes a mask of complete sympathy. "You want to save them?"
He shakes his head. "They won't let me leave."
After he tells you about them, their demeanor, and the artifact they’re supposed to have, you excuse yourself and Lyra. Then, because she doesn’t get your meaning, you drag her outside.
When you’re out of earshot, you whisper to her, clipped. "You can't really think this is a good idea. Tell me you honestly think that."
She's giving you the Eyes again.
"No. No. We're not endangering ourselves to steal away some piece of magical - hoodoo - whatever!"
"But if they have a Waystone, they could totally be keeping him here, and us too!"
"Then why didn't he tell us that?"
"Probably to stop you worrying!" She boops your nose, and you glare longswords at her.
When she doesn't disintegrate, you huff. "I don't trust him." As a point of honor, you haven't trusted anything since you arrived.
"We're on an honest-to-Celestia adventure, Bonnie! If we stick with it a little longer, we'll be famous when we get back!"
Beneath the cheerfulness, she needs you. That's what you believe. Without you, Lyra Heartstrings would fall into a ditch and never find her way out to safety. That, and that alone, is why you agree to go along and obtain this "Waystone".
The two aren't hard to find. They're camped out in a cave just past the outskirts of town. Mr. Fats isn't eager to say how long he and they have been here, or to say much of anything more. Gritty, nasty sand gets everywhere on you.
Eventually, though, the three of you make it over.
You're looking for a big sapphire chunk of rock, bright and glowy. Trying to get the drop on them makes you nervous, especially because there's only one entrance. What if these guys have Stand, too? You don't see any signs of life or other towns around, but who knows?
When you actually reach the mouth of the cave, you discover the inside is lit by shards of green rock jutting from the walls. They're clearly enchanted, glowing more the closer you come to them. Lyra closes her eyes and uses her horn to illuminate the entrance anyway.
The inside looks like a real room, at least by the standards of the town at your flank. It's square, with hard edges on the walls carefully sanded away and a hallway leading further in. You look back at Fats, expecting some kind of tour, but he doesn't even meet your glance.
"They'll be in here somewhere..."
You take the lead through the hallway, for a lack of anywhere else to go. Curiously, you don't move downwards, into a deeper section of the rock. In fact, the chamber you enter would be too big to fit inside of a cave.
Although you thought you were hallucinating, there's grass. It's a blue-skied meadow, with the occasional flower. Lyra bounds out from behind you, taking it all in, and you almost expect her to recognize it by some six-word name.
But instead she starts looking at the flowers, smells one, leans in...
You tug her mane back before she can eat it, and she smiles at you sheepishly.
Fats speaks, and his voice echoes a little. "This is their place. It's all magic and illusions, which is why there's no sun in the sky." Now that he mentions it, there aren't any clouds either.
Lyra marvels. "The grass is real, though! It takes incredible magical talent to grow something like this!"
"Thank you." The voice is a mare's, a little squeaky.
From a rustling of grass on your left, you see the two of them. What surprises you more than their sudden appearance is that you've seen them before. No, not just before, around - these are ponies you kind of know.
A blue mare with a white-blue mane, a tan stallion with brown hair. A pair of hourglass cutie marks, and around the mare's neck, a necklace ending in a glowing blue stone.
The stallion speaks, and his voice is like a documentary narrator. "I see you've come to try stealing from the Caravan again."
Lyra Heartstrings
Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh. Are these time travelers?
Something even cooler than time travelers?!
Domino shouts back at them. "The ECR doesn't own anything! Hoof over the stone and we'll all go our separate ways!"
You give the gem a look. Huh… That looks familiar, like you read about it somewhere… Something about the World of the Plastic Beach, what was it?
Bonnie talks while you think. "We don't want trouble. We only want to go back where we came from."
The blue girl uptalks. "Then you shouldn't be walking on Caravan territory."
"We don't even know what this Caravan is, so-"
The chestnut guy cuts her off. "The Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation. This world belongs to us, and so does the Residuum that anchors it. If you don't already know that, ask Mr. Fats over there."
"The Residuum of Harmony!" That's it! "The remains of the Elements of Harmony in universes that don't have room for them any longer! They're the power sources theorized to keep unlivable realities within reach of travelers from harmonic space!"
Bonnie glares at you. Then she chews on what you just said and glares at everypony else. "You're saying we don't need that thing if we want to leave?"
Domino smiles apologetically.
Chestnut talks. "The Caravan has always existed, here and elsewhere. This--interloper, came in the hopes of stealing our treasure, only protected from retaliation by his Stand. He's never been so bold in broad daylight."
Each time they say "Caravan", Bonnie glances at you. But you've never heard of the Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation.
Domino retorts, "You've got no right to that stone anyway, when it could make a living world a much better place! And besides..." he smirks, "If you let these two go, they'll go back to the real world and tell all their friends about the ECR! Then you'll have tons of treasure hunters coming here!"
They really, seriously consider that.
Bon Bon puts her hooves up. "No, we really, really won't. Believe us, we're not interested in your Caravan or whatever it is you're after."
Blue, grim: "I'm afraid we still can't take that chance." Then her horn lights up and she shouts. "｢Pulling Teeth｣!" With intense, practiced speed, a bolt of magical energy flies straight for you.
"Augh!"
Bon Bon
Celestia, that smarts.
You threw yourself in the way of the spell, and it scorched you. Gritting your teeth, you look up at the two of them, fuming.
The mare, in a show of wisdom, gets alarmed. ”Hers is already developing! Quickly, I’ll deal with the other one!” Then, in a fluttering of grass, they’re gone.
The stallion’s suddenly in front of you, lashing out with a fetlock. You take a step back, but your hooves don’t move. Ducking the blow out of your own fighting experience, you see the grass has been tied around them, like manacles.
You tug against it, fruitlessly. He spins and unleashes another kick on you, and you press your body into the grass. You actually sink into the earth, flattening it like making a snow-angel.
Something flickers on the edge of your consciousness. For a moment, it even supercedes the sounds of Lyra and the mare trading spells. And suddenly, the ground lifts you back up. The hourglass stallion sneers at you, but you hardly notice.
What’s that name? The one, like a movie you can’t remember, like a song from another life? Pr…?
“｢Pram｣?”
He smashes a hoof into your face. When he pulls it back, your nose is bleeding, and your legs are shaking against the restraints. Unstopping, he throws another.
And misses.
His hoof strikes the ground instead, and he doesn’t know why either. ”What…?” He tries to pull it up, and can’t.
It looks like a bad pantomime, fake weight, and then he starts sweating. ”｢Neglected Space｣! The grass clumps together, forming a loop around your neck. Your restraints disappear as the green tentacle lifts you up into the fake-sky. You clutch at it with your hooves, kicking, as he watches.
”Bonnie!” Lyra’s voice cuts through your panic.
”Pr-...” You suck in air, try to shout. ”｢Pram｣!” It comes out in a gasp, but something connects, running from your hooves to the loop. It sags, falling back down to earth like it can’t hold your weight any longer. The stallion strains, but can’t seem to stop it.
After a moment, all four of your hooves touch the ground again.
｢Pram｣. Is this your “Stand”?
You rip the makeshift noose in half and stomp toward your attacker. He grits his teeth, and around you both, the grass tears out of the ground. Floating, brushing past you, it forms a patchwork cyclone.
You stomp on his head. But when your hoof would connect, he isn’t there any longer. Then, a kick to the back of your head sends you reeling.
You could’ve been at a baking convention right now!
Another throws your legs out from under you. Through the green fury, you see the constant moving figure, a tan blur. A kick to your side as you struggle up keeps you down. You turn over onto your back and look up at the constant spinning color.
”You might as well give up! There’s no way you can disable me if you can’t react in time!”
You grab a hoofful of the grass beside you, ripping it from the earth. Then you throw it into the air. It joins the cyclone, and you throw up another burst, and another.
”Is this your surrender?” Deep, throaty laughter. But she who laughs last…
“｢Pram｣.” The grass begins to consolidate itself. Blades gather and clump around the ones you’ve touched, and then onto each other. It gathers in a giant sphere, centering around his fetlock, around him.
”Wh-WHAT?!” The wind goes out. And, with a little strain on your part, it crashes down like it’s made of concrete.
So that’s your magical power, the ability to ｢increase gravity｣? ...Hmm.
You get to your hooves and rush to help-
Lyra
Your training at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns has kept you moving up to now. Most spells take a while, but a simple Shield is easy for anypony. It helps that Blue’s throwing the same basic projectile spells at you.
Bonnie jumps into the fray with you, heading for your enemy. She’s positively steaming!
”｢Pram｣!”
”Stay out of this! ｢Pulling Teeth｣!” Blue cries.
Bon Bon freezes in mid-leap, thrown sideways and tumbling into the landscape.
Your enemy smiles savagely, the kind of smile people make while running. ”I don’t need to land multiple blows like Turner does. ｢Pulling Teeth｣ lets me cause the same damage over and over again!” She’s so excited she stands on her back legs, shading her eyes with one hoof against the sunless sky and pointing the other straight at you. ”After I’ve landed a single hit, your defeat is inescapable!”
It takes her a moment to realize you’re not paying attention.
”Hey!” She calls after you as you run over to Bonnie.
She looks really not okay. “Are you alright?”
”Grrh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just lure her over here.”
“But she’ll-”
Bonnie grunts again. ”I know. Just let me handle the hurt, and try to bring her where I can touch her.”
Blue stares coolly at both of you. You stand up straighter. “No.”
”Don’t do anything foolish, Lyra.” Bon Bon says, like she’s your mom.
You crack your withers. “I’ve got this.”
You step, then walk, then run for your enemy. She fires a bolt of energy, and you throw up a Shield. It shatters, but you continue running. Then she turns and aims her horn away from you, and you see the attack build up in slow-mo. It’s aimed at the mare writhing on the ground behind you.
Still approaching her, you leap into its path. You call up another Shield, but it doesn’t assemble in time. Your front right leg bears the brunt of the blast, and you roll.
Bonnie shouts behind you. ”Lyra!” And that brings you a new sense of clarity. You’re certain now, 100%, that your Stand is with you.
Still tumbling, you push yourself to your hooves and keep running. Blue waits for you to level a punch at her head, and then you feel the blast again. Your fetlock goes wild, your body forced back, and you spin with it. Before she can react again, you smack her with your back hooves!
After you land, you take a breath and spin around, facing her. The name hits you, and you feel like if you don’t speak it the power will pass you by. Still sitting, you point right at her.
“｢Tag, You're It｣.”
For a tick, she stands there, frozen in place.
Then she laughs, hysterically. ”I feel better than I did before, you dolt!” With renewed vigor, she shoots three spells at once, all of them zooming towards you.
They smash through your shield like a flimsy windowpane, and you’re thrown back like a ragdoll, scuffing against the grass. At least the stains won’t show.
Then each hit happens again, pushing you further away from her.
”My Stand’s powerful enough to deal with a pony in one blow! Can yours?!” She laughs again.
Then she stops, grasping her chest like she lost something on it. She breathes out in one long exhale, and then she falls over - K.O.’d.
Bon Bon
As soon as the mare falls over, your wounds heal. It feels wet and disgusting.
Lyra stands up nearby, trotting briskly over to observe her fallen attacker. Not all of your damage came from that Stand, but you make it there too.
She’s inspecting her own hoof. Mumbling to herself, she touches the necklace around the mare’s neck. It starts madly spinning like it’s been possessed by a ghost. The stone, residue-um, whatever, snaps off and goes flying over your head. And then Lyra touches it again, and it stops.
”We’ve got superpowers, Bonnie.” She says this with the same gravity as announcing a death.
You answer in an equal tone. “We should go home.”
Having had her adventure, she nods. Both of you turn to go back the way you came.
Then you see that the stone’s gone. And Fats is in the distance, galloping for the mouth of the cave.
Domino Fats
Luck, as ever, has been on your side the whole time. It just took a couple years of patience and a quick wit, and priceless magic is yours. The damn Caravaners’ll be hounding you to the end of time - that is, if you stick around. You’re perfectly happy to get back to the Museum and slam the door shut.
Not that these two beautiful mares wouldn’t get your attention if things were a little different… But ｢Strawberry Fields｣ will keep them lost until you get out. That certainty’s been your only saving grace against anything, here. After you’re out, the universe will probably fall down around their eyes without this lovely jewel to keep it running.
Shame.
They’re hurrying after you through the sand, shouting words you can’t make out. You press on.
Suddenly, something lodges itself in your back leg in a burst of pain. You stop to look at it, still trotting against the sand: a black stone, jagged and heavy, embedded into you.
Over your shoulder, you can see Bon, the cream one with candy on her flank like a dirty joke from the universe. In the air above her, grains of sand are compacting and swirling into a single object, another one of these ash-black spheres. Her bouncy green compatriot leaps and smacks it like a volleyball player, rocketing it straight for you.
You leap out of the way, dislodging the first projectile, and the second crashes into one of your houses. They rush after you, but it’s pointless. You might be bleeding, tired, holding the Residuum in your mouth, but you’re already on the threshold.
You gallop inside, putting a few buildings between your pursuers and beelining for the door. Without a clear line of sight, they won’t be able to follow you.
Aha, there it is! Standing wide open, in the middle of the street and all! You nearly jump for joy.
”Not so fast!”
You startle, and see they’re right behind you, running side by side. Behind you, you see your bloody hoofprint patterned against the grass. Damn your eyes, you should’ve thought of that.
Too late now! Just run!
Bon Bon
”Get him, Bonnie!” Lyra slaps her hoof on your back, and you feel energy pouring into you. Like an extra wellspring of power inside you has been unlocked.
He’s already through the door and turning around. You pull away from her, kicking up clumps of wet grass around you. As he slams it shut, you jump and kick against it.
”｢PRAM｣!” It freezes halfway to closing, and he shoves his whole body against it. You can hear him strain as your blood rushes in your ears. Then Lyra’s next to you, and she kicks it too.
The door flings itself open again, and Fats goes flying into the museum. You race in after him.
Inside, the air feels much cooler, more humid. He’s smashed into the exhibit Lyra was so interested in, the sand-globe. You guess you recognize it by name, now.
The “World of the Plastic Beach”.
Behind you, the door shuts itself.
Domino
You’re on terra firma, but so are they. You still have the Residuum, which is the important thing. Your Stand’s gone, though. You’ll get another one as soon as you’ve adjusted, you bet..
They’re glaring down at you. You can feel their power, still; they’ve got Stands that don’t need adapting.
“Strong souls. Don’t need a lot of rearranging in the big multiverse mix-up.” You chuckle, but neither of them appreciate it.
”Hand over the stone.” Bon says, stepping over.
You smile wide and hold it up. “What, this old thing? I’ve gotta donate it to science, remember? I don’t know if I can trust you two with it.”
Her expression doesn’t change. It’s matched by Lyra’s as they stand together. How long has it been since they discovered that other universes existed?
Strong souls, indeed…
You sigh and hold it out. “Well, here, take it.”
Bon looks at you like she’s been in standoffs before, but she hasn’t. She reaches out for it...
And with your other hoof, you fling sand in both of their faces.
As they recoil you jump to your hooves and scurry for the door. In one solid motion, like a dancer, you throw it open, spin through, and shut it behind you.
...It’s only afterwards that you realize you’re not in Equestria, or the Beachworld. Above you, the sky is violet, and the stars are out. Beneath, there’s grass, and herds of buffalo roaming in the distance.
You turn around to go back, but the door’s already gone.
You seethe. But. You’re still holding the Residuum.
You can make a way out, given time. And maybe, just maybe, there are some nice pilferables in this reality, too.
With that thought to warm your heart, you pick a direction and start walking.
This won’t be the last Equestria’s seen of Ol’ Uncle Domino.
Bon Bon
When you and Lyra went back out onto the street, Fats was nowhere to be found. And when you spun around and looked back in the museum, nothing had changed.
It took a moment of experimenting on rocks outside to prove you had Stands. Which meant there were other universes, or alternate histories, or whatever they were called. It meant there were ponies in them who wanted power, and others who wanted secrecy.
Are there “Caravan” ponies in Ponyville? (Dumb question. You recognized them, didn’t you?) For that matter are there any here, in Fillydelphia, on this street, around that corner?
You feel the warmth and energy of Lyra press against your side. She leans on you, and you stay upright.
”So...” she looks up at you with a lesser version of the Eyes. ”How about that hotel room?”
You snort. “Yeah, let’s get checked in.” And then, side by side, the two of you beat hooves in the afternoon air.
You weren’t wrong. That was all a “badventure”, alright.
But, hey... at least she enjoyed it.
Stand: ｢Hyacinth House｣
User: Fillydelphian Alternate History Museum
Ability: Manifests in the doors of the museum, opening them for adventurous spirits into other universes. If someone damages any of the contents of the museum, the doors will take them to progressively more dangerous locations.
Stand: ｢Strawberry Fields｣
Former User: Domino Fats
Ability: Location Stand. Anyone in range of the Stand becomes naturally 'lost', only able to traverse to any specific point if the user permits it. Additionally, targets gradually lose sight of their goals and motivations, unless somehow reminded of them.
Stand: ｢Pram｣
User: Bon Bon
Ability: Increases gravity on objects the user touches.
Stand: ｢Tag, You're It｣
User: Lyra Heartstrings
Ability: When the user touches something, it fills up with ridiculous levels of energy until it breaks or they touch it again. When used on another pony, it accelerates their heartbeat until they have a heart attack or touch the user again.
World: The World of the Plastic Beach
A common terminus for travelers who go too far, sparsely populated even compared to other apocalyptic worlds. Nothing exists on it besides blasted landscapes and ashy sand, and the only livable material on it is magically created by other travelers.
Group: The Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation
Members of the ECR are historical constants, recognizable by their hourglass cutie marks and their appearance in nearly all Equestrian timelines, regardless of whether or not they "should" be in them. All seem to be generated by the cosmos instead of born, but their ultimate purpose is hotly debated. Some see themselves as quiet stewards of history, while others seek power and prestige, or wish to foster some sort of multiversal empire. Through an affinity for powerful magic they pool information with agreeable versions of themselves, and some reproduce by entering and fracturing new timelines, actualizing thousands of their own possible futures. Although individual Caravaners naturally age and die over time, membership stays roughly constant.
Stand: ｢Neglected Space｣
User: Time Turner
Ability: The user can ignore natural spatial limitations within range, making things larger inside than they are outside. There is no upper limit to this power, but larger spaces take proportionally more time to expand. Any space made in this way is under the control of the user, allowing them to manipulate its environment and teleport themselves and what they’re touching to any point within it.
Stand: ｢Pulling Teeth｣
User: Minuette
Ability: Damage inflicted by the user repeats.
