Celestia's sun was high in the sky as Lyra walked down the road in Ponyville leading back to her house. Despite the brightness of the great star, it was a reasonably cool day, with a very welcomed breeze blowing in from the north. Although Ponyville was full of houses, the wind had no trouble twisting its way between the buildings, reaching each and every pony who could want a cool escape from what could otherwise be warm early autumn weather.
Beside Lyra were two other mares, both of which she felt were the correct ponies to consult about what had happened earlier that morning. To her left, a cream-coloured earth pony with wavey pink and dark blue hair. This was, of course, Bon Bon. Although she would have fetched Bon Bon regardless, Lyra felt eager to put her and Lily in the same room to compare their behaviour. It was a silly personal pursuit, she fully acknowledged, but it was a worthy one nonetheless.
To Lyra's right, a very purple unicorn walked. This mare had light purple eyes and dark purple hair, with a lavender coat and horn. Everything about Twilight Sparkle was very purple, save for the pink streaks and her Cutie Mark, and she was perfectly happy this way. Lyra had gone to Twilight in the interest of having somepony who was as into study and magic as she was. In fact, Twilight may have been the only pony in Ponyville whose studies outmatched Lyra's own, and outmatch they did. At least Lyra got out of the house each day and led a very normal life, but the lavender mare beside her was known for being stuck in her house for days at a time, working herself half to death on some experiment or subject of research.
As the three ponies approached Lyra's dwelling, the green unicorn idly kicked a pebble beneath her hooves, sending it flying above the roof of the house and over the chimney. As she watched the path of the rock, she noticed very brief amounts of grey smoke coming from one of the windows. Sniffing the air, Lyra caught the scent of heat, and although it was very faint and seemingly either weak or distant, there was smoke coming from her window, and she decided to panic anyway.
"Uh, Lyra," Twilight spoke, having watched the flight path the pebble had taken and also spotting the smoke. "Is something on fire?"
At once Lyra broke into a canter, her two friends following suit behind her, and from a distance Lyra opened her front door with her horn before charging through the doorway, intent on finding the source of the smoke and making sure both her house and her guest were safe.
~~~
Not long after Lyra had left the house, Lily decided to occupy herself by exploring the little home, although she never even ended up leaving the kitchen more than once. As soon as the girl had opted to look inside the refrigerator, she realized that she was still hungry, and that there may have been enough resources to create an actual meal. Considering that a sink, an oven and stove combination, the aforementioned refrigerator, and several cupboards were present, Lily determined that cooked meals were probably something that happened in Ponyville. Somehow, the idea of talking horses possessing household appliances and furniture went right over her head as her thoughts aimed for larger truths altogether.
As things were, Lily found out pretty quickly that Lyra's food stores contained a very pleasing selection of choices. There were lots of familiar fruits and vegetables, things like canned preserved food, bread, and milk, as well as an entire spice cupboard, although it looked somewhat untouched compared to the other shelves. What made Lily laugh was the presence of breakfast cereal, boxed and contained exactly as it would be at home, although far more old-fashioned in presentation. On the other hand, of notable absence was any kind of meat or fish, although there were three or four eggs present in the refrigerator.
After considering the nature of whether ponies ate meat or not, the red-haired girl realized that she wasn't actually sure what qualified as food and what qualified as "a meal" for someone like Lyra, and presumably any pony. For all she knew, a vegetable medley was considered shrug-worthy food, even if it seemed like something horses should be eating. Regardless, however, Lily hadn't eaten much during her time at the mountain cabin. She was quite hungry, and a meal had to be prepared in spite of the fact that it may be something Lyra wouldn't eat.
That's awfully presumptuous of you, Lily! came the voice in her head. Lyn's mock-chiding voice had come to tease her again. Do you always take apart peoples' kitchens and make meals out of their food?
"We both know that if I didn't, you'd barely eat when your parents aren't home," Lily remarked, speaking to her inner thoughts as if they were the real Lyn. "You should be thankful that Lily Reyn is so willing to invade your home!"
Lyn's voice coughed gently, choosing not to comment on this response, to which Lily smiled to herself. At the same time, she knew that it was probably stepping over a line, but maybe Lyra would be pleasantly surprised to have a meal cooked for her... and frankly, Lily just really really really needed something to eat.
One thing Lily did notice, reading some of the labels on things such as the breakfast cereal, was that the written language where she was was decidedly not English, nor any other language she'd seen, not that there were many of those. Sometimes familiar words formed in the letters, but in general, it seemed to suddenly become something illegible almost completely randomly and without prompt. It was different enough that she wasn't able to read anything of any notable length, which wasn't really a problem since she didn't need to in the first place.
After circling the kitchen once more for ideas, Lily finally settled on the thought of making a stir-fry, minus the meat component. Aside from the stir-fry, she also thought that a quiche might be a good idea, since she could put vegetables in that as well, but there didn't seem to be any premade pie shells and Lily didn't know if she had enough time to make her own from scratch. She was a great cook, but Lyra sounded like she wasn't going to be gone from the house all that long, and Lily wanted this to be something at least close to being a surprise.
And of course, she was reeeeeeeeeeally hungry.
Twenty minutes later, everything was well underway. Lily had settled on making the stir-fry, as well as preparing some smaller omelettes in lieu of any quiche. While the stove was heating up (thankfully, it seemed to function the same as the ones back home), Lily set to chopping the vegetables. Part of her wondered why Lyra had kitchen utensils, and this eventually circled back to wondering what was considered normal for most ponies, but she was thankful nonetheless when there were a multitude of available knives for her to use.
Before long, a colourful array of vegetables were scattered across the counter. Carrots, celery, green beans, and unpeeled sliced potatoes made up the bulk of the mixture, mostly because they were what Lyra had the most of, and Lily had no idea about the availability of the more scarce ingredients, so they were used sparingly or left alone altogether.
As the pan of vegetables and spices was set atop the stove, Lily quickly set to finishing the omelettes. One thing she didn't realize until somewhat too late was the absence of a cheese grater, and in the end she spent six meticulous minutes slicing and dividing the orange cheese with a knife. She didn't need very much anyways, so it wasn't really a problem.
About the time Lily finished with the cheese, the contents of the pan already on the stove had started cooking, light smoke rising to the ceiling as the vegetables and oil made a fierce hissing noise. Putting down her knife, the girl quickly attended to the pan, turning and shaking the mixture inside, and making sure the vegetables were cooking properly. Realizing that there was no ventilation, Lily looked toward the window above the sink, intending to open it and making no conscious effort to consider that it could have been different from the windows she was used to, as she leaned over and slid it open without a second thought. The smoke started blowing harmlessly away, and Lily returned to the table where she had left the eggs and cheese.
A few minutes later, and the human girl was just moving to set a second pan on the stove when she heard what she thought was a door slamming open. "Lyra?" she asked, speaking loudly enough for someone to have been able to hear her from another room and not really taking care to realize that the front door wouldn't normally be opened so fiercely by the person -- or pony -- who owned the house. As her head had just a few spare moments to realize it could have been an intruder, the line of thought ceased when Lyra's face appeared from behind the opposite doorway, a look of fear in her golden eyes as a green aura surrounded her horn.
"Oh," the unicorn spoke quite loudly, closing her eyes and breathing outwardly. "You're cooking something, okay." Stepping into the kitchen, Lyra's horn dulled out as she looked around to make sure nothing was on fire. "Do you have all the burners on or something? Too much oil? I could smell the heat from outside."
Lily did have three of the four stove top burners on, as she'd intended to use that many pans at once. "Er, yeah," she mumbled, holding one of the pans in her right hand and blushing as if it was some evidence of an embarrassing crime. Beside her, the vegetables continued to sizzle and hiss on the stove, and Lily realized how it may have looked with the smoke and the window.
"Lyra, is everything okay?" came a distant voice, a little deeper but also more kind than Lyra's usual tone. From the same entrance the mint pony had used came a second unicorn's head, this one coloured purple all over. "Oh, the kitchen," this new pony exclaimed, sighing in much the same way as the former. "That's a relief. And..."
As Twilight Sparkle set her eyes on the redheaded human girl, all the wiring in her head stopped sending signals, her every thought process directing themselves to one mindset, homing in on the only thing she could think to say at the sight of Lily.
"O-oh my gosh, is that a human?" she stuttered, inching into the kitchen with an apprehensive step. Behind her, Bon Bon also appeared, and her concern with the possibility of Lyra's house being on fire was dismissed as quickly as Twilight's had been as she too spotted Lily and the hot stove top.
"I told you someone special was waiting at home," Lyra grinned, allowing herself a small bout of delight at seeing her friends' surprised expressions. "But, she's as much of a pony as -- well, I mean..." Lyra attempted to locate an appropriate descriptor for her human friend, but none came to mind. "You know what I mean," she continued, waving her hoof sheepishly. "Treat her like you would anypony. I promised her that we would be civil and not jump on her like some amazing scientific artifact, so, behave."
Turning to look at the subject in question, Lyra smiled and nodded her head. "Lily, these are my good friends, Twilight Sparkle and Bon Bon." She indicated each with a point of the hoof. "Girls, this is Lily."
Lily, for entirely what it had been worth, had remained quiet as the pony count suddenly tripled in front of her eyes. Despite having met Lyra not long before, the prospect of now having three magical ponies instead of just one sent a feeling of excitement through her bones. Every part of her just wanted to drop the still-cold pan of food in her hand and break into a gigglefit, surrounding herself with these new guests and finding out more about them.
Well, every part of her that wasn't being amazingly timid, of course. Overtaking the desire to introduce herself properly to the new faces was Lily's incredible shyness, also deciding to act in spite of already having gotten along fine with Lyra. As someone like Lyn would attest to, the change between Lily's assertive face and her meek side was as plain as day and night.
It's also completely random and confusing, the voice of Lyn spoke in the shorter girl's head. Go on, you goof, say something!
"Uhm, h-hi," Lily muttered, raising her free hand and attempting to smile behind her blush. The continued audible interjections of the cooking meal beside her did little to draw any attention away from the girl.
"Hey there," Bon Bon spoke up, apparently in far less shock than Twilight as she trotted the rest of the way into the kitchen, smiling kindly. Her voice was extremely sweet and her words clearly spoken. "It's nice to meet you, Lily," she said, looking upward and extending a hoof. As the girl in front of her tentatively shook the hoof, Bon Bon tilted her head, closing her eyes, her smile beaming.
W-whoa, Lyn's voice spoke, apparently developing a mind of its own. She really is pony you, girl. It's like seeing double.
Lyra had a seemingly similar response to this, her cheeks lighting up as she watched her friend displaying her sweetness in full force. "Wait, Bons," she said, nearly stuttering. "I know I just said to act normal, but aren't you at least a little excited about this?"
"What's to be excited about?" Bon Bon asked, having little idea about the kind of weight the unicorn viewed this situation as having. "I've never met a human, but this isn't any different from meeting a goat or a griffon, is it?"
With that answer, Lyra realized how things were on several levels. "Oh, uh... I guess that makes sense," she said quietly, feeling her prior self-indulgence slipping away quickly. "This wouldn't be striking to anypony who hadn't read up on human theory, now would it? As far as you could be concerned, she could be a draconequus or a minotaur and it wouldn't make any difference."
Meanwhile, at the edge of the kitchen, Twilight Sparkle was still silent with surprise, certainly for the reasons Lyra had said. She hadn't spoken another word, nor made any motion to move, having simply stood there watching Lily's movements. Lyra realized she still had room to seize a few gratification points at teasing her friend.
"On the other hoof," the minty unicorn grinned, looking toward the entranceway. "Twilight here is an even bigger bookworm than I could hope to be. The only thing that would have struck you harder is if this girl had wings and a halo, isn't that right?"
Twilight scrunched her face up, her feelings torn between making a light comeback, and fully accepting Lyra's words as the truth. "Well I'm sure you acted this way at first too," she retorted, hoping at the back of her thoughts that her random accusation was true and deciding to bet all her chips on red. "You probably went into lecture mode the moment you realized it, Lyra."
"You wish I did!" Lyra shot back, blushing in a way that betrayed the snark on her face. Everypony in the room knew that Twilight's words had hit home, and before long the faux-tension devolved into light laughter between the friends.
For Lily, who had merely chosen to watch the scene in front of her, it reminded her very much of times when Lyn's mother and herself would combine their efforts to tease the older girl, particularly when there were other customers at the Summer family shop. It was very, very easy to catch Lyn red-handed about something or other, no matter how harmless, and the blush that would cross Lyn's cheeks always made Lily's insides tingle with laughter and love.
As such, the unexpected reminiscence caused the young girl to giggle alongside the ponies in her company, and this response caused enough attention for Lyra to take notice. "Ahh, I'm sorry," Lyra spoke, her voice easing out and returning to normal. "We shouldn't talk about you so much as if you aren't here, Lily. I just wanted to poke fun at the girls a little."
"It's okay, it's okay," Lily assured the unicorn, a smile remaining from her bout of laughter. Finally putting the second pan on the stove, she turned to the others and gently bowed her head. "It's nice to meet you... um, everypony." She tacked the last part onto her thought, hoping it was the right thing to do.
"It's good to meet you," Twilight returned the spoken gesture, approaching and standing beside the other two mares. "I'm sorry about being silly, but I'm sure Lyra's told you at least a little bit about humans in Equestria... or the lack thereof, I suppose."
"Something like that," Lyra confirmed, nodding. Before she had a chance to say anything else, the sound of frying eggs in the pan rose into the air, as if trying to compete with the perpetual hiss of the cooking vegetables, and Lyra realized properly for the first time that her guest was preparing a meal to eat.
"Uhm," she started, standing on two hooves and leaning atop the counter to get a look at the pans on the stove. "Well, now that we know you aren't burning the house down, what have you been making in here?"
"Hopefully something ponies eat," Lily replied, managing not to let her uncertainty on the subject carry through her words. "I'm sorry if I worried you... or if you'd prefer I didn't touch your things."
Before the girl had a chance to further apologize, her stomach finished her thoughts for her, rumbling loudly enough to carry throughout the kitchen and overcome the sounds of cooking food. The three mares all turned to her, Bon Bon in particular spending every ounce of energy she had not breaking into another laughter fit... At least, until her stomach also growled, causing the mare's demeanor to instantly shift from amusement to utter embarrassment.
"Sounds like you had the right idea," Lyra smirked, lowering herself off the counter and back onto three legs, rubbing Bon Bon's mane with her remaining hoof. "Don't worry, Bons, we'll fill that tummy of yours."
The cream-coloured pony looked away with a sheepish smile. "It smells great, at least," she remarked, the scent of the spices having long since filled the kitchen. "Why don't we sit down and you can tell us why you brought us here, Lyra?"
"Aside from the obvious, of course," Twilight put in, hopping onto one of the table chairs and sitting down, looking toward the human girl. "Would you be willing to tell us a bit about yourself, Lily? I'd love to learn at least a little bit, for the time being."
"Of course," Lily replied happily, her eyes and hands back on the stove. "I'd love to learn all about you all, too. From what Lyra's already said, I have a feeling there's a lot to know about... Equestria," she finished, taking a moment to remember again where she was.
"You mean, you've never been here?" Twilight asked, realizing at that point she had no idea where Lily had come from, or how she'd come to be in Lyra's home.
"Ah ah," Lyra cut in, grabbing a container and pouring some dark liquid into a fresh cup. It was the coffee pot from earlier that day, and Lyra didn't seem to mind that it was probably cold by that point. "One thing at a time. We should have lunch first, anyways."
Taking a sip from her drink, Lyra immediately stopped. Reluctantly she swallowed, making a face at the mug in her hoof.
"And I'm going to need a fresh pot of coffee."