Stare.
Lily stared. Two large golden eyes stared back.
On Lily's face, a look of confusion tinted with both worry and wonder. On the pony's face, the desire to go back to sleep with no further interruption.
"So..." started the unicorn slowly, a green glow that matched her coat forming around her horn as she pulled a pillow over to herself. "Would you mind being a little less... here?"
However, Lily was not concerned with this creature's demeanor. That green glow was all she needed to see in order for her still fresh, though sleepy-state memory to be jogged to life.
"Princess Unicornia!" the girl exclaimed, hugging the red blanket atop her fiercely and feeling totally confident that she was still dreaming, having no qualms about playing along with her imagination.
"... Lyra," the green pony deadpanned, yawning. "Heartstrings. Can I go back to sleep?"
If she was honest with herself, the pony named Lyra was hardly concerned with the fact that a random... someone had been sleeping in her bed. Of more concern was simply returning to sleep. Less pressing issues could be dealt with later. Although...
"Wait a moment," Lyra said, looking up and down Lily with appraising eyes. "I know who you are, now. You're that weird girl who was... yeah. You were calling me that weird name before, weren't you? In my sleep. Which means I'm still dreaming, I guess. Okay, okay."
Lily frowned, although in the back of her mind, some part of her was telling her her priorities were way out of order. At the front of her mind, however, she was disappointed that Princess Unicornia was not all she was apparently cracked up to be, and that that wasn't even her name, and that there was probably never any prince to whisk her away in the first place, although she supposed that may be for the best.
"Me too," the redhead finally replied, as she caught up to what Lyra had said. "I suppose I'll just sleep this off too, then."
"Good," yawned Lyra. "Good night."
And with that, both the human and the pony tucked in and went back to sleep.
~~~
...
Once again, some hard part of Lyn's body smacked Lily in the head, waking her abruptly and without warning. However, this time it continued happening for a few seconds, until Lily bolted upright to challenge her friend's actions.
"What, Lyn, what is--"
Stare.
Pony.
"Lyra," said the mint green unicorn for the second time that morning. The look on her face suggested a lot of confusion, covered by a mild amount of annoyance. "And yes, that was me," she continued, holding her hoof in the air to confirm that she had, in fact, been hoofing Lily in the forehead.
"Princ--" Lily started to say, cutting herself off at once and inadvertently yawning. "Um, no, that's not your name, okay."
A few seconds of silence passed, and the two stared at each other once more. This was quickly becoming a trend.
"I'm... not asleep anymore, am I?" Lily asked, as much to herself as to her company.
"You're not," Lyra said. "And neither am I, I don't think. I'm pretty sure I'm awake, at least."
The pony gently knocked a hoof against the side of her face; the old telltale sign of whether or not you can feel pain whilst dreaming. Lily followed suit, pinching herself harshly on the cheek. Neither of them seemed any better or worse off for their efforts, and decided that this was, in fact, real. They were awake.
Lily's thoughts immediately turned to Lyn. While she wasn't afraid for her best friend's safety or well-being, she was somewhat worried about what would happen when she woke up to find Lily wasn't there anymore. There was no way anybody would have found them at the mountaintop cabin, and there would be telltale signs if a creature had entered the house... as far as Lily could assume, there would be no signs whatsoever of her departure. She wasn't sure whether that would worry Lyn more or less than a worse alternative.
However, right at that moment, there was a talking pony in front of her. A unicorn, even. One whose name was, unfortunately, not "Princess Unicornia" and who still seemed a little upset at her intrusion.
"Um, I'm sorry," Lily mumbled, rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes and focusing properly on Lyra. "I don't really know how I got here, honest, but I didn't mean to intrude... and I certainly didn't mean to somehow fall asleep in your bed."
"Ehh," Lyra dismissed, seemingly less annoyed than she had been before. "Considering you don't seem to be here to hurt me, I'm not that upset anymore. I'm sorry if I was a little snappy before; I really hate being woken up."
The unicorn stood up on her bed, walking around in a small circle in a way that Lily felt she could liken to morning stretches. "But you don't know why you're here?" Lyra asked, finishing her circle and looking at the human again. "That's about as weird as the fact that I saw you in my dreams last night."
"But I saw you in my dreams," Lily protested, pointing her hand as she did. "Although... only sort of, I suppose. You were cloudy and I couldn't see your face, but your unicorn magic was clearly the same!"
Stop.
Brain, gears, whirrrrrrrrrr, click.
"Oh my gosh you have unicorn magic!" the girl exclaimed, the realization of her situation finally winning out over her post-sleep weariness. "I've heard of many creatures but I've never met one before. I wasn't sure if they were real at all! Oh, I can't wait to tell..."
Lily pictured Lyn in her mind again, and just like that the excitement dulled itself down, as mild worry crept into her thoughts once more. "Well," she continued, almost whispering to herself. "At least I hope I can."
Lyra just nodded her head, trying to examine the situation from a more scientific point of view. This girl in front of her -- whatever she was, Lyra realized -- seemed awfully sincere about the situation. She was probably speaking the honest truth about the things she was saying. But then, why...
"Say," the green pony said, converting thought into speech as her mind continued working. "You wouldn't happen to also be named 'Lyra' now, would you?" she asked, trying to put any pieces that she could together. "Or Lire, or Lime, or Lina, or Lenore, or something?"
"Lily," was the response, as she realized the connection between the names immediately. "And the person I was about to mention is Lyn."
"That's... probably close enough," Lyra said, nodding. "Okay, I think I can hazard a guess here, now. I'm not entirely sure, but it seems like a good start."
Hopping off the bed, Lyra turned her head back to face Lily. Now that the pony was standing upright on the floor, Lily realized that she came up to be just hairs shy of four feet in height, not taking the horn into account. This seemed small for a horse of any sort, but Lyra's build was also somewhat more stocky than any farm or riding horse Lily had ever seen. She was certainly much less spindly in the legs.
"Come on," Lyra gestured, waving with one hoof. "I need some coffee if I'm going to figure this out."
Nodding wordlessly, Lily moved the red blanket kindly off herself and onto the bed, standing and stretching her arms. Even if this wasn't a dream at all, there was no reason to panic quite yet. For all she knew, she was ten minutes away from the mountain cabin, or somehow not too far from home. Anything was possible, and even with worried thoughts of Lyn lingering at the back of her mind, Lily felt optimistic.
Lyra turned and exited the bedroom door, and Lily followed shortly after.
~~~
"Okay, there."
Bringing a full, steaming cup down to the tabletop, Lyra declared her readiness to the world. Of course, Lily was the only person around to witness it, but witness it she did.
"I might go about this in a really weird order," Lyra stated, looking across the table to her guest, who was quietly eating an orange. Both were sitting upright in comfy table chairs, having what essentially amounted to breakfast. "It might seem like I'm in the wrong places at first, but bear with me, okay?"
Lily nodded wordlessly, chewing a slice of orange as she did. She hadn't the slightest idea why things had gone the way they did, so she was perfectly willing to let Lyra have the spotlight if it meant finding any answers.
"First off, you really did see me in your dreams, right?" Lyra asked. Lily nodded. "What the hay was 'Princess Unicornia' about?"
"Oh, that was..." the redhead blushed a little, remembering the hours spent happily on the cabin roof. "Lyn and I were fooling around outside, and we were watching the shapes in the clouds. One of them looked like a pony, so I started making a joke about a unicorn princess and a prince come to sweep my off my feet. I guess... I was still thinking about it when I fell asleep, because all the cloud shapes were in that dream, including that one, which I'm certain was you."
"Okay, that definitely settles it," Lyra said, a decisive tone in her voice. "There's no way I can be wrong, now, barring a few really weird possible exceptions."
Lily stared between bites of the orange, in the kind of way that said 'I'm listening; keep talking' to Lyra, and that's just what she did.
"Basically, there have been a few theories over the years about magical creatures bringing their hopes and dreams to life, more or less. This happens most often with unicorns, though also with other creatures with magical prowess, and in general there are about thirteen recorded cases of it happening, with roughly that many more unconfirmed stories."
Lyra paused for a moment, taking a sizeable drink of her still hot coffee. As soon as her mind got into thinking mode, if that caffeine wasn't there to move it along, things could get really slow... fast. "What the theory is is that, although unicorns usually have total conscious control over their magic, sometimes being asleep has a rare chance of sort of... how should I put this. Basically the magic goes behind the user's back, if you know what I mean? It acts on its own. Does what it wants or what it thinks the magic user wants. In some cases, ponies have woken up in the beds of the ones they love the most, or have woken up with the object of their dreams laying beside them. In just two of these cases, the ponies claimed to have been taken to other worlds entirely, completely separate from Equestria or the surrounding areas. Worlds that ought only to exist in the imagination, you know?"
A moment of silence passed, and Lyra hoped that all this theory wasn't overloading the girl's brain, but Lily seemed to be doing perfectly fine for herself, leaning onto the table and listening intently. She was a good listener, someone like Lyn would have definitely attested to.
"Considering the credibility of the two ponies in the two rarest cases, their peers chose to believe them, and these stories went into much study and consideration. This was a long time ago, and I don't think anypony has decided to pursue the topic in a long time, but it's not something that's been outright dismissed, either."
"So..." Lily began, thinking she understood everything thus far. "You're basically saying that if someone with magic really wants something, or has a dream about it, he or she could somehow make it real?"
"In a way, yes," Lyra stated, leaving the obvious gaps in that summary unstated. "There's another theory that all dreams are real and that one's imagination is the key to reaching dream worlds, but this theory is less widely accepted, for the time being. It basically suggests that all dreams are real and all places and events in dream worlds really happen, and that even if they're all only in our minds, that doesn't make them any less genuine. The idea ends with the fact that only magic users have any ability to tap into these worlds willingly. Anypony else can only visit these places whilst asleep, with little or no control over it."
"But I don't have magic," the girl put in, looking toward Lyra's horn as if knowing it was the source of a unicorn's powers. "I'm just a simple girl. I've never even seen that sort of thing."
"Hrmm." Lyra went into thought again, looking at the situation from a few angles before deciding she thought she knew which one was correct. "Well, that second theory doesn't hold much weight anyways, I'd say. I've been here since long before you ever dreamed me up, and I can only assume the same about you. You've had a whole life before now, correct?"
"Of course I have," Lily smiled. "I'm perfectly real."
"Of course," the unicorn agreed. "I like the first theory better anyways. You said you were talking about the cloud shapes earlier that day? Was it a really nice memory for you? Was there some reason why you dreamed about it?"
"It..." Lily blushed a little, simply viewing the time as being well spent with Lyn. "It was a happy memory, but I have lots and lots of those."
"Maybe that's where I come in."
Lyra smiled for the first time that morning, and the redhead realized just how much this rough-sounding unicorn reminded her of Lyn. She was slow to start the morning, very cranky, but get her in the right mood and her voice and face were suddenly beautiful.
Lyra's smile was replaced once more with words, and they took on a warmer tone of voice as she continued. "The only connection I have on my side is basically the same kind of thing, I think. Yesterday I was thinking about what it might be like to meet another pony or anyone else with my name. A little silly, right? But maybe that's you. You don't have quite the same name, but I saw you in my dream anyways. Everything about you was the same as you are now. Then when I woke up, there you were all of a sudden. It could all be a coincidence, but, I mean, here you are in my house talking to me."
"Which means... since I don't have magic, it was your magic that made my dream -- or both our dreams -- happen," Lily concluded. "But whose dream came to life? I was playing along with the joke about Princess Unicornia and the prince, but I wouldn't ever want that to happen for real. Lyn would be crushed if that was all really true..."
"I assure you I'm no princess," Lyra chuckled, taking another drink of her coffee. She saw her guest look down at the table, and realized the subject of her friend was probably worrying her a little. "I'm just a unicorn with a bit of a thing for weirdness. I'm definitely not here to take you away from anypony."
Lily nodded, realizing for the first time that Lyra had used the word "anypony" several times by that point. If that was the case, and given everything she'd heard at that point about theories and other creatures, there was a fair chance that she was much further away from home than she'd first hoped.
"Eq... Equestria?" the human asked, backtracking her memories to the point where that name had been spoken.
"Yeah," Lyra confirmed, nodding. "Welcome to Ponyville, Equestria. You really did come from somewhere else, didn't you?"
Silence passed again, and Lily wasn't sure what else to say on the subject. It was all starting to come down on her that she was far from home, and she hoped that Lyn wasn't too worried about her. Even aside from her best friend, the folks back home would probably be upset with her if she disappeared forever and left all the farm duties to them. That wouldn't be fair at all, and she wouldn't ever want anyone to have to work harder because of her.
"Hey," Lyra spoke, breaking the creeping silence. "I can tell you're worried, but it'll be okay, okay? Any magic that can be done can be undone. You really want to go back home, don't you?"
"Yeah..." Lily whispered, nodding her head once more. "There are just things and people that I can't afford to suddenly leave behind. I'm still sort of hoping I'm dreaming, I'm afraid."
"You're probably not," the pony replied, moving to take another drink of coffee, only to find her cup empty. "I'm sorry, but this is definitely real. We'll figure something out, though... at least, assuming my theory is correct. I don't see why it shouldn't be, though."
Lyra hopped out of her chair, her mane and tail flopping about as she moved over to the counter to pour herself another cup of coffee. "By the way," she said, holding the coffee pot in place for the moment. "Considering how long I've been looking at you, I have to ask: what are you?"
"What... am I?" Lily echoed the question, not knowing how deep it did or didn't go.
"Like..." Lyra thought of how to clarify. "I'm a pony, and you're a... ?"
"A human," Lily answered, not at all realizing how funny the situation could have been under different circumstances. However, when Lyra nearly dropped her mug, Lily's thoughts snapped back to attention.
"You're a human!" Lyra exclaimed, forgetting about her drink and trotting over to the other side of the table, looking up and down the girl with appraising eyes. "Oh, this makes so much sense now. I mean, not the dream problem, but you, looking at you."
"I'm sorry?" Lily asked, her worries being shunted out of the way to make room for the laughter she felt coming out. "Yes, I'm a human! And you're a talking horse!"
"Oh, it's just... humans are the subject of some discussion, at times. Some ponies claim they probably aren't real, but it's less about not being believable and more about a lack of hard evidence. There are a lot of things in Equestria to suggest that humans are real in other parts of the world, but nopony seems to be able to trace back any information to any reliable source. The origins of the subject of humans remain a complete mystery, but considering how sensible of a topic it is, nopony knows why it's a mystery."
"Oh," said Lily, having several questions on the subject and ending up asking none of them. This wasn't a problem, as Lyra kept talking.
"There are a lot of creatures here, like minotaurs, and some dragons, who are most often referred to as bipedal, but every now and then the term 'humanoid' surfaces and everypony realizes they have no idea why the word has come into use. It's really... well, it's something, to say the least."
"I suppose that would be quite a mystery," Lily agreed, thinking about that sort of thing back home. "It would be awfully strange if back home, we referred to all cats and dogs as 'pony-shaped' or something to that effect. There are all kinds of other animals on four legs, after all."
"Right! Now you get it." The pale-maned pony smiled again, although at the same time, she tried not to view this so much as an interest of study. Lily was clearly a person with a heart, and it would be much more proper to treat her like any other pony instead of some object of curiosity. Still, Lyra couldn't help but feel a little excited at discovering a real human. Anypony who had done any research into the subject would have been utterly astounded and flying off their hooves, and Lyra felt she was doing a great job keeping herself very tame about it. "Even so," she continued after a few moments. "I promise not to escort you to the research facilities, but you'll have to forgive me if I seem a little excited for a while."
"I'll... I'll try," the human giggled, finding the situation more sincerely funny than anything. "But... what do we do about me? Am I stuck here?"
"That," Lyra started, with a look in her eye. "Is something we're going to have to find out soon."
The unicorn returned to the other side of the table, reaching and grabbing the forgotten cup of coffee off the countertop. Bringing it to her mouth and downing the entire mug in one gulp, she slammed the now empty container down onto the table. "Okay!" she exclaimed. "Lyra's awake and ready to take on the day. Nothing's gonna stop me now."
At this, Lily burst into laughter, being unable to control herself at all. Lyra looked across the table in amazement and confusion, wondering if she'd done something hilarious as she watched the red-haired girl seemingly have a good time. "What, what?" she asked, waving a hoof. "Did I do something funny?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just..." Lily caught her breath, wiping some moisture from her eyes. "More and more, you remind me so much of Lyn. It makes me miss her already, and at the same time it feels all too familiar to me. You're someone I feel like I've known for some time, even if we've just met."
"That's... kind of funny, actually," replied Lyra, apparently in thought once more as she put a hoof up to her chin. "To be perfectly honest with you, you remind me of somepony else too. You and Bons are a lot alike, at least as far as I can tell."
"Bons?" the human girl asked, wondering if that was short for some name like "Bonnie" or something else.
"Bon Bon," Lyra clarified, smiling warmly. "She's my best friend, and she's sweet as a button. Sweeter, even. So sweet that if you put her up on display in front of her own shop, ponies would forget they were there to get candy and buy her instead."
"That is..." Lily couldn't help but giggle even more, holding a hand up to her face in a desperate attempt to stifle herself. "That's something Lyn would say to me," she managed between laughs. "Completely."
"Then you and Bons are probably more alike than I realized," Lyra chuckled, floating the empty coffee mug across the air into the kitchen sink. As the pale green magic enveloped the cup, Lily couldn't help but watch, like a child who'd just seen an airplane or a butterfly for the first time.
"Anyhow," said Lyra, noting the girl's interest in magic use and tucking that information away. "I actually have a few days off right now, which means I can spend the time looking into the issue of whether you're stuck here or not. There are a couple ponies I want to talk to about it, so I'll be back later, okay?"
"Oh, you're going to leave?"
"I promise I won't be too long," Lyra reassured her. "Can't leave you to mess up my house too badly, now can I?"
The thought of being left in Lyra's house unnerved Lily somewhat. She wasn't afraid, per se, but being left all alone wasn't something she was ready for quite at that time. She was barely used to her circumstances as things were, and still had a million questions for Lyra about where she was, and having alone time would just lead to worrying about Lyn again.
Hey now, came a familiar voice in her head. Why are you being such a silly worrywart?
It was Lyn's voice, which after spending over an hour in Lyra's company, Lily found both oddly fresh and seemingly far too familiar, as if she'd been hearing it the whole time.
Even if Lyn's in a panic, it's no good for you to be in a panic too. That's not going to help anybody. Lyra seems like a cool pony. I'm sure that if you keep your head, you two can figure it out.
It was odd hearing Lyn's voice refer to herself by name, but Lily couldn't deny the words spoken. The real Lyn would have said the exact same thing, followed with what would probably be a shove on the shoulder and a tight hug. Time to buck up, Lily thought to herself. How am I supposed to tell Lyn about this if I never see her again in the first place?
There you go, girl.
"I'll be back soon, Lily," came Lyra's voice from another room. The sound of a door closing followed shortly after, and the human girl realized she was on her own for the time being.
"Well..." she whispered to herself, sliding back from the table for the first time since she sat down. She looked around the kitchen for anything of note, setting her eyes on the egg white refrigerator as the first point of interest.
"Time to explore the house a little!"