//------------------------------// // Heartstrings // Story: A Lyre's Song // by TaviTurnip //------------------------------// It was about four in the afternoon when the front door to Lyra's home opened and an earth pony with pink and navy hair trotted out, followed closely by a girl of a different sort, who was very happy to get some fresh air for the first time that day. As things were, Lily had spent far too much time indoors that day, and even though the sun had been peeking in through the windows all day, she still winced as the bright star overhead shone onto her face directly. I'm too used to wearing my farmer's hat, she thought, after considering that she probably got more sunlight on a daily basis than most people did in the first place. It had been decided that Bon Bon would take Lily around Ponyville for a few hours to show her around, and just to get her outside for a little while. Lyra figured that most ponies probably wouldn't react to Lily in any especially outlandish way and that meetings and greetings would probably be perfectly civil. Although it hadn't been something Lily knew to worry about, it was a relief to her all the same. "Just bring her back before it gets pitch black out, okay?" Lyra spoke, standing in her front doorway to see the other two off. "And try not to be too forward with her, Bons. She's too shy for a direct confession, I'd wager." Snickering to herself, Lyra hastily slammed her door shut as Bon Bon stomped her hoof to the dirt in protest. The click of two locks being shut via magic could be heard from the outside, as well as a quick "okaybyehavefun!" before all went quiet. Bon Bon rolled her eyes and mumbled something, before turning back to her new friend and smiling once more. "Don't mind her," the mare said, walking ahead slowly. "Or me, for that matter. I'm told I get a little animated when I'm flustered, but Lyra usually knows where to draw the line. Usually." "It's okay," Lily replied, looking around at her surroundings for the first time. The place they were in was surrounded in small houses, each similar in size to Lyra's, only differing where some homes had one floor and some had two or even three. Lyra's was the sort that had two, as far as the girl had been able to tell. "Is Ponyville a very big place?" she asked, looking at all the houses and studying their outer details out of personal interest. "Sort of," Bon Bon said, continuing to walk in one direction and motioning for the other girl to follow. "By all rights, Ponyville is a 'small town' sort of place, even though we have more land here than we know what to do with sometimes. There are parks, playgrounds, running and training fields, several neighborhoods, and multiple farms, not the least of which is Sweet Apple Acres, one of the biggest farms you'll ever see." "It sounds a little like home," Lily mused, stepping quickly to catch up with Bon Bon, before falling in line with the pony's set pace. "We're considered just a little farming village, and yet we have enough farmland to make up a whole city, I'd say." As they cleared the circle of houses, Bon Bon led Lily to a more open part of the dirt road, with houses on one side and an open field on the other. The redhead's focus was mostly on the various dwellings, as they seemed even more simplistic than the ones she was used to seeing. It wasn't until the earth pony tapped her on the back did Lily think to turn around to look at the other side of the road, and when she did, the sight she was greeted with took her breath away. Across the open grassland were ponies, as far as the eye could see. All kinds of ponies of all colours and sizes, everywhere one looked. The first that Lily laid eyes on were two mares, walking across the path that cut into the park and talking amongst themselves. One of them had a pale yellow coat with an orange, poofy mane. She had a smile on her face as she spoke to the other, a plum-coloured pony with a more hardened expression. She was pointing ahead and scowling at something, but Lily wasn't concerned with what it could be, as she looked beyond the two earth ponies toward another part of the open grass. There were pony children jumping around with each other in the bushes, playing some kind of game. As one bumped the other on the behind, the colt that had been tagged turned around, chasing the offender into another bush. Another child pointed and laughed at the two boys, her laughter reaching all the way to Lily's ears, and she could have sworn she felt her heart melting right then and there. Before she had a chance to voice her feelings, though, something else caught her eye. From just beyond the girl's vision, something flew down almost too fast to be seen. A rainbow streak burst down from the sky, leaving a trail as it weaved around the trees and the other ponies at unreal speeds, before coming to a perfect stop just above a water fountain near the center of the field. As Lily's eyes followed the prismatic trail, she realized it was yet another pony, this one being a cerulean, near-sky blue colour... and she had wings. The pegasus pony was flapping her great wings to stay afloat, as many of the children stared up at her, giving her their cries and coos of approval. "Oh my gosh," she whispered, her heart doing loops around itself. "This is real, isn't it?" "As far as we all know," Bon Bon giggled, expecting this kind of response. "Welcome to Ponyville, Lily." Standing and staring in unparalleled awe, it was all Lily could do not to explode into a confetti of hearts and rainbows as the various lives of the ponies unfolded before her. They came in all different colours, in all different sizes. Some were young, some were old, many had wings on their backs or a horn atop their heads. They were flying and playing and talking and relaxing and climbing trees, and doing all kinds of things that simply filled Lily's insides with the deepest warmth and excitement. "I've never seen anything like this," the girl murmured. "Oh, if only Lyn were here to see this with me." "I'm sure you'll have lots to tell her when you see her again," Bon Bon smiled, catching sight of another mare approaching them. "Ahh, it looks like somepony's seen us." Walking up to them was another earth pony, from what Lily could tell. This one had a dark, royal pink sort of coat, with a much brighter mane and tail, closer to bubblegum in colour. She looked at the two with a cheerful smile, before turning and addressing Bon Bon. "Hello, Bon Bon," spoke the mare, her pale green eyes looking back at Lily with a hint of wonder and curiosity. "I haven't seen you around Ponyville before, I don't think." "Hey Cheerilee," Bon Bon replied, looking upward toward the girl beside her. "This is Lily. She hasn't been to Ponyville before, and I'm showing her around before it gets too dark." "There's certainly plenty of daylight left," Cheerilee said, nodding to herself and raising a hoof. "It's nice to meet you, Lily. My name is Cheerilee, and I'm a school teacher here in Ponyville." "It's nice to meet you, Cheerilee," Lily smiled, shaking the hoof in front of her in much the same way as she had with Bon Bon. The pink mare in front of her returned the smile, and Lily felt what little uncertainly she had about meeting other ponies wash away completely. "Are you here in Ponyville very long?" the teacher asked, not thinking to pry about any details. "I'm always happy to be able to see a new face around town." "I'm... not quite sure yet," Lily replied a bit pensively. "I only just got here this morning, you see." "Ahh, I understand." Cheerilee nodded again, bringing all four hooves back to the ground and turning back to face the grassy park. "Well, don't let me keep you two. I hope to see you around, Lily!" Without saying anything in return, Lily stood and watched Cheerilee walk off, her eyes following the pony's hoofsteps all the way until she returned to her place on the grass. Even after the pink pony got back up and trotted somewhere behind the trees, Lily continued staring in the same general direction, no longer fixated on any one thing. "Lily?" Bon Bon asked, waving around a hoof to catch her friend's attention. "Oh dear, not again." "No, it's okay," the human girl replied, shaking her head a little. "I'm here, I'm here." "You were looking fairly elsewhere again," Bon Bon teased, peering out toward the same place Lily's gaze was looking. "There aren't any ponies where you're from, are there?" "There are," Lily said, realizing at once that it was going to be a little weird explaining the differences. "They aren't the same as ponies here, though. We have no unicorns or pegasi, for one..." "No?" Bon Bon considered this for a moment. "Only earth ponies?" "It's... hard to explain. I'll tell you about it in Lyra's company, okay? It'll be easier than having to explain twice. "Sure thing. Would you like to see someplace else?" Lily didn't immediately respond, taking one more sweeping look across the park. No matter how she turned and prodded the idea in her mind, it was one of the most amazing sights she'd ever seen in her life. There would probably never be another one like it so long as she lived. The red-haired girl closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth raising to their highest peaks, emphasizing the subtle freckles on her cheeks to anybody or anypony who would have been looking. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes, looking down to the cream-coloured mare staring back up at her. "Mmm, okay," she finally said. "I'd love to go anywhere else you'd like to take me." The two nodded to each other, turning away from the park and heading down another road into the heart of town. ~~~ About fifteen minutes had passed in total since Lily and Bon Bon left the park area, and since then they'd been seen by dozens of other ponies. Every now and then, a face familiar to the earth pony would come up and greet them, asking about Lily and wishing her well before returning to their own business. Nopony really thought much of her appearance, and even Lyra had said she expected a few ponies here and there to be curious, but it seemed like everypony was perfectly accepting of this strange new girl who they saw. "Ponyville is such a nice place," Lily thought aloud, after they'd started walking toward a less dense part of town again. "Everypony here is so welcoming, even more than the folks at home. And, you won't find a nicer bunch of people than the ones where I come from." Bon Bon listened and smiled as the girl spoke. "It almost sounds like you've ended up in... ahh..." The mare broke her sentence off awkwardly, as she strained to find a word she couldn't quite place. "There's some phrase Lyra's thrown around before when she used to read a lot," Bon Bon stated, using the explanation to buy herself a few more seconds of thinking time as Lily looked down to her curiously. "I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean," the girl said, holding a hand to her hair as a gust of wind blew across the street. "Oh!" Bon Bon suddenly exclaimed. "A... parallel universe. That's it, I think." She nodded her head to herself in agreement. "Yeah, Lyra used to talk about parallel universes for a time. She would talk about other worlds where everypony is the same as you, but completely different at the same time. Like how in our world, Princess Celestia is a fair and loving ruler, but in another universe, maybe she's a horrible tyrant." The mare visibly shuddered at this concept, and Lily couldn't help but giggle, thinking she understand where Bon Bon was coming from with the idea. "An alternate world where everybody is a pony," she thought, speaking playfully. "Is that where I've ended up?" "You tell me!" Bon Bon laughed, knowing her idea was a silly one. "Well, it could be true," the human girl put in. "Lyra reminds me so much of Lyn, right down to her voice. They act so similar, it makes me laugh. And she told me that I was a lot like you, before we met..." Lily looked down toward Bon Bon again, as she had done many times that afternoon. "What do you think about that?" "I can't say about Lyra," Bon Bon replied, gently wrinkling her nose in thought. "But I can see where she's coming from, with you and I. You seem like a kind and pure soul, Lily." The redhead blushed at this praise, eliciting a bit of a grin from the speaking mare. "The only difference I can see is that I love to tease my friends. I don't get that vibe from you, I don't think." "You haven't known me long enough~" Lily sang, having a thousand memories of the past to support her claim. "I tease Lyn all night and day, about anything and everything I can get her for. It's always so much fun to see her get flustered, especially when she's working in the shop around other people." A moment of silence passed, and Lily's imagination played out the scenes in her head as it always did. "And... I love it when she teases me back, too," the girl said, her voice dropping halfway to a whisper. "I don't like being teased by people too much, but when she gets me with something good, I can't help but feel happy no matter how embarrassing it is." Bon Bon watched Lily as she spoke a piece of her heart, nodding her head in a way that spoke of understanding, before making her response. "You too, huh?" "Mmhm." A moment passed, and Lily realized there was something in the mare's response, as the thoughts of her best friend left her mind to make room for new input again. "Wait, you too?" she echoed, wondering what exactly Bon Bon had meant. "Mmhm," the pony mimicked the other girl's previous response. "But, you first. I've been wanting to ask this for a little while now, but it hasn't felt right considering I barely know you... You really care about Lyn, don't you?" "I do," Lily replied at once, her confidence on the subject betraying her oft-flustered nature, even as her cheeks flushed. "I love her so much. She's my best friend in the whole world, and I wouldn't want to spend my life away from her for a moment. It's why I was so distraught when I thought I'd lost her... or, thought that maybe she'd lost me, as it were." Bon Bon nodded her head again. "Does she care about you in that way, too?" "More than you'd know," the other girl replied, a wistful undertone in her voice. "I'm the only person Lyn ever let into her life. She has a couple passing friends and a great relationship with her parents, but she never let anybody in. I was the one she chose to hold in her arms and share her secrets and happiness with." "She came to you first?" Bon Bon asked, hoping she wasn't pressing too much, as she was genuinely interested in the story. "I mean, if you're the sweet and shy sort, that's to be expected." "Actually, you're wrong again~" Lily tilted her head playfully as she sang the words. "It was only just over a year ago when someone told me that he saw Lyn acting very differently around me. I don't think she realized it herself, but she was so very bored and listless most days I wasn't around. Wake up, eat, get behind the counter, smile and wave to the customer, go to bed. She was by no means depressed, but on a normal day, her life was dull for her. The motions were all there, but her heart felt nothing for the daily routine." From somewhere above, the chirps of several birds pierced the air. Lily looked up to see a small group of bluejays flying overhead, passing her by and heading toward a nearby cluster of trees. A yellow pegasus floated by after them, seemingly attempting to keep up with the flock. Lily gave a small giggle at this sight, using the diversion to consider where to take her story next. "That person who said that to me, he told me that he saw the life flare up in Lyn's eyes each time I was around, and said that I was probably the person that made her the happiest. Any time I was in the shop, suddenly the things around her were interesting again. I didn't really know what it meant at the time, but she was already my best friend, and I knew that I wanted to make her happy in any way I could. It felt like the right thing to do, you know? She deserved to smile as much as the rest of us." Lily stopped herself, realizing how much talking she was doing. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she suddenly exclaimed, looking toward Bon Bon in hopes that she wasn't boring the other girl. However, the look on Bon Bon's face was anything but disinterested, and Lily couldn't help but blush a little at her own silliness. "Don't be," the earth pony told her, smiling softly. "I want to hear the rest. Please keep going." "There's not too much left to the story," Lily continued, picking up where she'd cut herself off. "Every month, Lyn would go up north to her family house in the mountains, where they had a small wooden cabin with a hot spring. She would always go there alone and spend a weekend for herself, to get away from the town life and to be with her thoughts, with nothing to bother her. That same weekend, she asked if I would go with her, and I felt completely shocked. Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever went there with her. It was her personal getaway. Her precious time for herself each month. I had no right imposing on that... but she insisted I go with her to be a part of that special time. "The whole way there, I'd never seen Lyn laugh and smile as much in my life as she did that night. It was possibly the best time I'd ever had with her before. When we got there, she showed me around and we went straight to the hot spring to relax together. We got to talking under the moonlight, and... I told her how much I enjoyed seeing her so happy, and she told me how happy I made her in return. And before I knew it, we... well... " After a moment Bon Bon looked up, wondering why the story had paused again, only to see Lily looking in a different direction entirely, trying to hide the growing redness in her cheeks even as she was grinning in such a way as to betray any truly deep embarrassment. As if Lily could feel the eyes on the back of her head, she resigned to finishing her thought. "We kissed each other," she half-whispered, swallowing her courage and turning to face forward again. "From that point on, Lyn knew she had someone in her life she didn't have to hide her true faces from. She completely opened up her heart to me, and in turn I did what I knew I could to give her a reason to keep doing so. She smiled every day of her life, even when I wasn't around... everything was suddenly better, and before long, it just naturally became love." A single tear threatened to leave the redhead's left eye, not out of any sadness, but out of a strange joy she felt at being able to tell her story in that way. Looking to Bon Bon, she immediately put a hand up to her face as she realized the earth pony at her side had already shed a tear or two. Or twelve. "Oh, goodness," Bon Bon muttered, caught off guard by Lily's gaze and wiping her face with a hoof. "I'm sorry, don't mind me. That was just..." No words felt appropriate to her as she tried to finish the thought, reluctantly settling on the lowest common denominator, as far as she was concerned. "It was beautiful," she whispered, smiling as best she could. "That was such a touching story, and it just makes me wish that you can see her again as soon as possible. I promise I'll support you and the others in finding a way to get you home, Lily." The girl blushed again, realizing how deeply she'd moved the mare beside her. "Oh, you don't have to do that... I really feel happy just having been able to talk about it. Thank you for listening, Bon Bon." "Think nothing of it." Bon Bon wiped her face again and nodded, making sure her tears were done. "Thank you for sharing, Lily. I couldn't be happier to have heard it." As the two girls continued walking for a few moments, they both realized at the same time that they'd somehow left Ponyville behind completely. While they weren't technically out of the territorial reaches of the town, they were several minutes out on a path that led nowhere in particular. "Oh," Bon Bon mumbled sheepishly, figuring out what path they were on after a moment's look. "We can just take the scenic route back to Lyra's place. This road will take us right by that side of town, although it'll be a long walk." She looked up to Lily for affirmation. "Do you mind?" "Not at all," the human answered, attempting to see how far the path went and not really being able to tell from a glance. "Besides," she said, a touch of her assertive side feeling itself through, to which she smiled playfully. "This gives me time to hear your story too." "My story?" the pony asked, before remembering a prior moment in their chatter. "Oh, you must mean Lyra and I," she thought aloud. "I said something, now didn't I?" "You did," Lily chuckled. "Is it okay for me to ask?" "Of course," the mare replied. "I'll be happy to share, although I'm afraid we don't have so much of a story as you." Up above, the sun was still high in the sky. Despite the amount of time the two girls had spent outside, it was still only the early evening, and it was still the summer season even if autumn was creeping closer. As far as Bon Bon could tell, it would still be light out even after they took the long path, which she didn't mind in the slightest. "Truth be told," she started, staring into the clouds as if they would help her share her thoughts. "There's not a whole lot to tell, I don't think. Things aren't quite the same." Lily didn't respond, not wanting to make any vocal assumptions out of fear of being mistaken. She figured it was probably best to let Bon Bon talk about it how she wanted to, and the earth pony realized after a few moments that she was being granted full room to speak at her own pace. "Lyra and I are best friends, like you and Lyn are," Bon Bon spoke. "Since we were little fillies in school, we'd always been together. She was always coming to me with curious things she found, rambling eagerly about how 'awesome' they were. My interests were usually more reserved and down-to-earth, and I thought somepony like her might find them boring, but she always listened with a smile when I shared things with her. "As we grew up, this pattern never really changed, and neither of us wanted it to. It did mean, though, that we had to separate when we got a bit older and our pursuits took us in different directions. I stayed in Ponyville to continue being a baker and to open up my candy shop, and Lyra went to Canterlot to continue her studies for a couple years. We didn't get to see each other much, but we did a lot of writing. We never lost contact, and since Canterlot's only a train ride away, it wasn't hard to take visits." Bon Bon took that moment to point her hoof toward the sky. Lily wasn't sure what to expect to find as she followed the hoof's path, her eyes soon catching sight of a grand structure along a mountainside, far in the distance. Her eyes lit up as she realized just how close she was to Canterlot Castle, but her inner thoughts told her to wait until Bon Bon was done her story to start getting excited. "Lyra's made a lot of friends from school," the pony continued, knowing Lily had spotted the castle by that point. "She would often spend time with ponies like Twilight, or Amethyst, or Twinkle. Other unicorns that shared her deep interest in study. But for some reason, Lyra would always come to me first with anything she found curious, just like she had back when we first met. I asked her just one time, wouldn't it be better to share these things with other ponies who had the same goals and ideas as her?" Lily caught the sound of a muffled chuckle, and turned to see Bon Bon stifling a bout of laughter. Concealed beneath her hoof, the corners of her mouth were curved upward, and the human girl recognized the gesture as one of remembering fond memories. It was the same sort of outward feeling she'd felt telling her own story, and she could appreciate the pony being caught up in her own thoughts in that way. "She just hugged me wordlessly," Bon Bon finally continued. "Then she went on about whatever we were talking about as if I'd never asked at all. "After that, I knew Lyra felt I was somepony special, even if she never once said it, and I was happy to let her go on the way she was. There have been dozens of times where I could have asked her about it, especially since she's come back to live in Ponyville again, but I just... never felt the need, you know?" "So that means..." Lily spoke up, feeling it was alright to interject at that time. "You two have never actually... ?" She left out any verbs that came to mind, partially out of respect and partially out of the continued fear of making a wrong assumption of some sort. "We've never said a single word to each other about our feelings," the cream mare said, filling in the gap in Lily's question. "But I know that Lyra feels something special for me, and she knows I do in return. And if I ever thought it was something she needed to hear aloud, I'd say it in a heartbeat. But as things are now, everything's perfectly fine. There's no need to change something that makes us both happy, right?" The human girl took a moment to consider this. She thought back to herself and Lyn, and how even after their night in the hot spring bath, it wasn't until a month later that their relationship moved forward in any way. Just being together and seeing each other was enough to bring the grandest of smiles to both girls' faces, and in the end, it was Lyn who'd spoken up and asked if they could take things one step further. If she hadn't, though, Lily felt that it would have been the same regardless. Their friendship would have continued to blossom just as it had, taking its natural course wherever they went. "I understand," Lily replied, after a few moments. "I really do. Whatever you two have right now is making you both perfectly happy, right? I'm sure you're growing closer all the time, even now." "Mmhm~" Bon Bon smiled, nodding. "We've fallen asleep on the couch or in bed together dozens of times, and with the number of new discoveries and pursuits that that mare has, we see each other all the time. Even when she knows I'm behind the counter at work, she'll just burst into the shop and express her newfound interest in some star pattern or some field of magic she wants to show me. My customers are so used to it by this point that they all greet her as if it was nothing." Lily felt herself grin, realizing an amusing similarity in Bon Bon's story. "I guess there's one difference between us," she said, earning a look from the pony beside her. "I'm the one who's always visiting Lyn's shop, and since we live in such a small town, everyone there knows me when I arrive. But Lyra's the one invading your shop, instead of the other way." "I guess this isn't a parallel universe after all, Lily," Bon Bon chuckled. "It's okay; you wouldn't make a very good Lyra anyways!" They both laughed, and as Lily looked down the path they were walking, she saw the town inching closer. They still had a ways to go, but it wouldn't be too much longer. As expected, the sun was still shining brightly overhead, persisting even through the clouds that threatened to dim its light. "You know," Bon Bon continued, closing her eyes for the moment as she walked. "Lyra came to my house first, today, before she went and got Twilight. She lives closer to me, so it makes sense, but she would have done so if I lived on the other side of town. Unless she's already in the room with other ponies, I'm always first when it comes to new things. It's never been any other way, not even since we were fillies." The earth pony opened her eyes again, a dozen memories filling her thoughts as she looked to make sure she was still walking along the road. Straightening herself out, she chose one memory to continue speaking with. "When I was visiting her in Canterlot last year, the hotel I was staying at was on the opposite end of the city. It was twenty minutes' walking to get from where I was to Lyra's living space at the university. More than once, she still ran across the city just to get me, before we'd double back all the way to the school, where we would then knock on Amethyst's door to talk to her about what Lyra had on her mind that day." A large, red leaf chose that moment in time to blow right in front of the girls' faces, as if sent by Celestia herself to grant Bon Bon the perfect pause in her speech, before she was to deliver the final line of her story. The mare closed her eyes once more, speaking her last words softly as if they were the most precious thing in the world. "They lived next door to each other."