Harmony's Thieves

by 4428Gamer

Enter the Unicorns

Sweetie’s POV
Ponyville Roads

---

…

I shrunk into my side of the taxi as I watched Big Mike. I felt a little guilty as he was rolling his shoulders or bending his arms. He wasn’t tugging at the bandages but I knew that I wasn’t the best at using them.

I wanted to find something else to focus on. However, aside from staring at the empty houses we were passing by, there weren’t any distractions. So that meant that I had nothing to stop me from asking my dumb question.

“Are you alright?” I asked him. I already knew the answer. His arms were wrapped up like a mummy.

Still, Big Mike gave me a strained grin. “Yeah, Big Mike’s fine. It’s just.” He paused to open and close his claws. “Big Mike’s arms feel...stiff.”

“Stiff?” I blinked. “Are the scratches getting worse?”

“Don’t think it’s the scratches,” he told me. “It’s his elbows and fingers. It’s like it’s a little hard to move them for some reason.”

He put one claw around the other and pushed, making this small collection of popping noises before switching the claws and doing it to the other one.

I shivered from the sound. I don’t know why but that sound kept making me flinch. Probably because that was the third time all those popping sounds rang out.

“Sorry.” His frown deepened. “Big Mike doesn’t do that often. And. He doesn’t think fingers are all supposed to crack that many times.”

I glanced down at my own claws. I kept them in my lap this whole time but now that I was looking at them... “Does...Does it hurt to do that?”

“Nah, not usually. Big Mike just does it because...Well, because...Huh. Big Mike’s not sure why he does it. Maybe it just feels nice.”

“It feels nice?” More out of curiosity, I folded one of my claw’s fingers around the other claw like Big Mike did and tried to squeeze. I didn’t feel anything aside from pinching the top of my hand.

But after a few seconds.

pop, pap!

I closed my eyes, thinking I broke something but no. I felt which finger made the sound but it didn’t feel bad or good. It didn’t feel different at all, really. It was kind of a let down if I’m honest.

Too bad that didn’t stop me from switching claws and trying again.

Pop, tkk, pap!

“Woah. This is so weird,” I told myself.

“Right?” Big Mike chuckled a little. “It takes a while before your fingers can do it again. And if you force it you might hurt your hands.”

“Hands?” I blinked. “What are hands?”

“These things,” Big Mike told me, flapping around his claws, err, hands, like they were tiny wings. It would have been funny if they hadn’t cracked a little every other time.

He stopped and stared at them for a second. His face twisted into confusion as he stared at them. “Maybe Big Mike shouldn’t do that.”

Suddenly, the taxi came to a full stop, with me nearly falling forwards out of the seat. I probably would have had Big Mike not caught me.

“Thanks.” I nodded at Big Mike before facing forwards. Big Mac was standing in place with one hand against his brow to keep the sun from getting in his eyes.

“Big McIntosh? Is everything alright?”

It took him a few seconds as I saw him take in a deep breath and look towards us with a smile. “Eeyup.” Then he pointed ahead of us.

Both Big Mike and I leaned forward, noticing the large hill that the Ponyville neighborhoods were built around and on top of. The path up that hill had a sharp turn halfway up which meant that there was a steep cliff on the way down.

Although it wasn’t that dangerous. After the hoof-full of runaway strollers and carts that nearly rolled down that hill, it was something everypony grew used to.

Well, everypony got used to it after the safety rail was put in.

And then a few months later reinforced.

Then about a month after that when they replaced the wooden rail with a metal one.

Come to think about it, I thought. We’ve had a lot of accidents with that cliff. Why did Ponyville build the hospital up there again?

“Oh, Big Mike can see it!” He shouted. “There’s someone up there!”

“Huh?” I tried to follow where Big Mike was pointing and it took me some time but I was able to spot it. Leaning on the cliff’s safety rail was something that looked taller than a pony. Maybe somepony that turned into the same thing all of us are.

“Who do you think it is?” I asked aloud.

“Dunno.” Big Mike shrugged. “Maybe someone else who’s lost?”

“Maybe Applebloom,” Big Mac wondered. Then, without a warning he grabbed the cart’s handles and started running us up the hill’s trail.

I fell up against the back wall while Big Mike hung onto the side to keep leaning forward. Before I could even sit up I felt the taxi lean back at a sharp angle but Big Mac not losing speed.

“Uh, Big Mac? You want Big Mike to get out first?” Big Mike asked. “I think the hill’s gonna get steeper.”

“Eenope,” Big Mac told him. He sounded determined.

When I finally sat up I turned around to look out the back window. Big Mac wasn’t going as fast as a pony would but since he didn’t slow down, I could already see that there was going to be a long ride if he lost his grip.

Big Mike and I shared a worried look before he shuffled himself beside the open space next to him. He didn’t try to argue with Big Mac anymore though. Instead, he just kept looking up the hill.

“Uh,” Big Mike hummed. “Okay. Big Mike’s almost sure that it’s a person. They don’t have a heavy jacket like Joe does though. They look taller than Ball— oh. W-Wait, uh...Bell? Bell! They look taller than Bell!”

After another half minute or so of holding onto whatever I could reach for, we were almost at the safety rail. And by this point we were able to get a better look at it.

“Yep, definitely a person,” Big Mike called out. “I think...It’s a lady, maybe? She’s got some bangs and a stripe in her hair and...Big Mike thinks she has a pointy hat thing, like Bell has.”

“Pointy hat?” It took me a second before I stared at him with a doubtful look on my face. “Do you mean my horn?”

“Horn?” He turned to me. “So that isn’t one of those tiny fashion hats?”

“Tiny fashion hats.” I wasn’t asking him to clarify. I just had to repeat those words to know if it sounded as confusing as I thought.

It was.

What?

Big Mike kept staring at my horn and I watched as his head started leaning heavily to one side. “...Did you say horn? Is that a real horn?”

I nodded slowly, to which Big Mike returned the nod. Probably because he was watching the horn with a blank stare. “Yes. This is a real horn.”

“...Woah.” That was all he could muster.

Well, that and a gasp as it seemed everything began to click for him.

“Wait a second!”

“Let me guess? Am I a unicorn? And yes, I am,” I revealed to him.

“Huh? No, not that.” Big Mike shook his head. “Big Mike just realized something important!”

My expression twisted to anger for a second. Me being a unicorn’s not important?

“And that is?” I urged him to go on without a speck of emotion.

“Those ponies and werewolves,” Big Mike said, taking in a shaking breath. “They...They were talking!”

I couldn’t stop my hand from smacking my brow before it slid down to cover my mouth as I screamed, “you just now noticed that?!”

“Big Mike didn’t think about it,” he whined. “They kept talking about funnel cakes, and then Big Mac brought up his sister, then the werewolves scratched Big Mike so he thought he was gonna become a werewolf, which might’a been cool ‘cause Big Mike can’t even grow a mustache, but Big Mike forgot to think about it! Okay?!”

I tried figuring out exactly how to respond with that. But I didn’t. Instead, I just let out this loud, angry cry to which Big Mike shrunk into the opposite corner of the seat, looking entirely pathetic.

“WAAAAAAGH!”

Oh. It also made the lady at the safety rail notice Big Mac running towards her at full speed while pulling a giant taxi behind him.

Needless to say, that was reason enough for her to start running away.

“Hey, hold on!” I shouted. “Please, don’t run!”

Big Mac hit the imaginary brakes the second we were on flat land, nearly sending me flying out the front of the taxi, again, only for Big Mike to catch me. Again.

Neither of us bothered wasting time on that though. Once I was okay, both of us ducked out of the sides of the taxi.

The lady tried to look over her shoulder at us but that only made her trip and sprawl out across the floor. Obviously she wasn’t used to being one of whatever we are yet.

It did let me spot the horn sticking out from her bangs though. It was a shade of purple which was drastically different from the color that her coat, or, well, skin was.

Big Mike tried to approach first. Noticeably much slower than Big Mac’s running. “Are you oka—”

“Stay back!” She shouted. “Stay back...w-whatever you are!”

“Oh. Uh.” He looked to me, to which I only shrugged. I still hadn’t gotten him to tell me what we were called yet. “...Big Mike?”

“What in Equestria is a Big Mike?” The woman asked as she crawled back.

“Uh...me?” Big Mike ‘clarified.’ “This is Bell, by the way. Big Mike knows her name.”

I gave an awkward wave. “Um, hi?”

She stared at me for a second, then recognized my horn and stopped crawling away. “Are you a unicorn?”

I gave her a smile as awkward as my wave. “Uh-huh. Or, well, I was one. I don’t know what I am now.” I took the chance to try stepping forward a little bit. “My full name’s Sweetie Belle. Big Mac’s a friend of mine and Big Mike’s been helping us look for our families.”

I took one last step forward and held out my hand. “What’s your name?”

She looked down at my hand and recognized what I was trying to do. So, after running the idea over in her mind, she reached out and took my own hand.

As I struggled to pull her up to her back legs, I spotted her Cutie Mark; a simple purple and white star pattern with a blue trail above it.

When she was standing like we were, she was somewhere short of Big Mac in terms of height. She had a cyan green T-shirt, some gray pants and the things around her feet looked as sturdy as whatever Big Mac wore.

“Thanks,” she told me, already having some good balance on two legs. I figured that if she had been awake as long as we were, she probably had to figure that out.

“My name,” she began. “Is Starlight Glimmer.”

---

Shining Armor’s POV
Outside Ponyville

---

…

Scootaloo kept going down the path, taking in the sights around her while I travelled behind, lugging the cart that Morgue had brought to the manor.

I didn’t have a watch with me and my magic was still out of commission so I had no idea how long it had been since we split up. So I guessed maybe an hour.

In that time, I made sure that both Scootaloo and I adjusted to what we had turned into. My magic helped me adjust to the transformation faster, which was a pleasant surprise, and Scootaloo figured out how to use her wings to help keep her balance.

When we got outside the manor and on the road, Scootaloo tried to actually fly around. She was able to get off the ground and stay in a low hover if she tried but that was it. Still, apparently she seemed to be excited about that. Silver linings, I guess.

I looked at the loose bandage I had wrapped around the cart’s handle. Since I was pulling the cart with both hands, I let the bandage hang there so I could try levitating it. Or manipulating it.

Or, hay, even burning the edge of it would have been a success by this point. No matter how much I focused on my magic or my horn, nothing was happening.

“There’s the bell tower.”

I glanced up in time to see Scootaloo pointing a fist up at what was probably visible five minutes ago. Although, it didn’t look in too good a shape.

“Huh. Where’d the bell go?” Scootaloo asked aloud.

The bell, and by extension most of the belfry in general, was destroyed. We still had a hill to go over so we couldn’t see the base of it but I was pretty sure a giant bell couldn’t have gone far.

I narrowed my eyes at the destruction. “I’m not sure. Whatever happened, it wasn’t small.”

Scootaloo took a second to try flying up in the air but as her wings were practically a blur, she only made it a little bit off the ground before letting out a deep breath and falling back to the ground.

“Ugh...Man,” she muttered. “I can’t see anything.”

I tightened my grip on the cart handles and started forward, motioning for Scootaloo to stay close as I walked past. She got the meaning but rather than walk next to the cart she used her wings to help hop into the cart I was pulling. Then she hid herself amongst the blankets and bandages.

When we got close to the crest of the hill, I moved as slow as I could so the cart wouldn’t give me away. None of the stuff inside was tied down so up until now it had been rattling around.

Thank Celestia we’ve been on an open road, I thought. We might be loud but it’s hard for anything to follow us out here.

As I reached the top, I could hear Scootaloo peak up from her hiding spot to look at what I saw. Exactly as I thought, beside the bell tower was a mountain of bricks, shingles, and a massive brass bell partly embedded into the ground.

Then, standing beside the bell, was the last thing I expected. Another human. They had a heavy jacket with a hood on it and blond hair that from here looked like it ended in mint green tips similar to Scootaloo’s hair ending in purple.

The human wasn’t standing still. Actually, she was trying her hardest not to jump and cheer like a maniac as she kept admiring her reflection in the bell. She kept staring at her hands and holding her mouth open so she could stare at her teeth.

While both of us watched her, she tried spinning around on one foot only to start teetering back and forth, losing her balance. It went on like that until she tripped, falling backwards, headfirst into the—

DNNNnnnnnnnnnnnng~!

...bell.

I flinched, able to imagine the pain that was probably going through her skull as the bell’s hum faded. If this was somehow still a Changeling, I think we’re going to be okay.

Author's Note:

And the cast keeps growing.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter 'cause I had some fun writing it! I actually ended falling into a groove so I have some of the next chapter already written! So here's to a fun chapter next time too!

QotC: Let's give the background ponies some love huh? Who's best background pony? I got mine at least.

Until next time everyone! Which this time around will be three days! (Oct. 8th)
Cheers!

Comments

[CyberDragon89ponies]

Lyra she's cute has a cute name is my favorite color plays a classy instrument and loves humans.

[4428Gamer]

10468009
Nice pick!
That said though, you may either love this next chapter or hate it. I don't write Lyra often but she'll be here this time around. XD

[CyberDragon89ponies]

10468641
I'm Excited I love tell you portrayed Lyra in a brony life. I also really liked your angle about bonbon sharing her fascination of humans just not as much. Normally I read about her being annoyed by Lyras Passion.

[4428Gamer]

10468675
I always imagined Bon Bon getting a little frustrated from time to time but still listening in on Lyra's stories. I mean, at minimum, they're roommates and best friends (again, at minimum). Besides, Lyra needs at least somepony else to have some interest in humans. It's lonely to be so right all the time.