//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three 
// Story: The Meaning of Life 
// by aCB 
//------------------------------//

Critius, Chapter λ




“It was then that the philosopher Starswirl the Bearded gave into his own madness. That which started as a seed, planted in his mind by unknown consciousness, hath fruited into a tree of great stature. The sanity of his speech declined, and he gave opinions on matters that were beyond the view of those who did not count themselves among the ranks of the genius, or the insane.

“Perhaps his most absurd, and retrospectively well-known, idea was that there existed a kingdom of strange creatures. He told both your writer and his closest confidants of the great human kingdom. As one might expect, this tale’s coherency suffered from the plague of illogicalities, and I am quite sure that many fairy tales and other thoughts pervade his narrative. It is the tale of Atlantis.

“This is my own name for it, for he changed the name of the kingdom with every retelling. He claimed that this kingdom knew the Meaning of Life more than any other. However, it did them little good, for they did not realize what their understanding amounted to. The king had decided to slaughter all of his people, for reasons I do not fully understand. Eventually, there were so few humans left that they lost their ability to raise the sun. The last human walked the land in sadness, and regret.

“In every retelling, he mentioned a character by the name of ‘Venus Blue’, of whose significance changes. The only thing that remains consistent about this character is the song that accompanies her appearance. (Editor’s note: See Timaeus)”




Timaeus. The princess had mentioned earlier today that there was information in it about Atlantis, as well. I scanned the short section of my personal bookshelf containing Clover the Clever’s work. Damn it. Unfortunately, it appears I would have to go back to the Royal Archives and get a copy.

A quiet knock came from my door. “Come in!” I called.

The door opened and Princess Celestia came into my room, a reserved smile on your face.

“Good evening, Twilight. I see you’re getting a lot of studying done, as usual.”

“Yes, princess.” I got up from my desk and bowed slightly. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, I’m sure there’s a few things. For one, have you seen Spike around?”

I glanced back to his bed basket. With a small note of panic, I noticed that he wasn’t there. Where had he gone?

“I don’t know. He might be in the bathroom. I’ll go check,” I said, trying to quiet the panic rising in my chest. After my failures of that morning, I didn’t want the princess to think I was so irresponsible that I would lose track of a child, as well.

“It’s quite alright, Twilight. I’ve had Spike doing errands for me this afternoon. He claims he told you.”

“I—” To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if he did. I’ve been told (mostly by the princess) that I can become dead to the world while engrossed in a book. I usually don’t see why that’s such a bad thing. I hung my head.

“It’s okay, Twilight,” the princess laughed, “Spike is fine. However, there is the matter of the order I gave you this morning, concerning what you were to do tonight.”

Oh yeah. Going out with that crazy unicorn. To be honest, I was hoping the princess would forget about it, or Lyra would. She hadn’t stopped by again, so I kind of thought that she had taken my non-answer as a rejection. Then I could tell the princess that she cancelled. Ugh, the best laid plans…

“I’m sure you’ve been doing something important and it slipped your mind,” she continued, “I took the liberty of having Spike track down Lyra Heartstrings and letting her know you graciously accepted her invitation.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. She will be by to pick you up at eight o’clock.” She glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. “Which is about half an hour from now. I thought I would give you a friendly reminder so you would have time to get ready.”

I closed Critius in frustration. Maybe a little more frustration than I had intended to show, but the princess graciously ignored me. I got up from my chair and headed for the bathroom.

“Where am I going to be meeting her?” I grumbled.

“I’ve instructed the guards to let Lyra come get you here,” the princess called as I grabbed my toothbrush, “I expect to hear all about your night tomorrow morning. Friendship isn’t just for the ponies with, ahem, ‘vapid social lives’, as I believe you usually call it.”

I heard soft hoofsteps as the princess left my room. I was continuing to complain to myself inside my head as I brushed my teeth. The door slowly squeaked open, then the hoofsteps stopped briefly.

“And Twilight?” Princess Celestia called.

“Mm?”

“Do try to have fun.”

“Mm.”

The door shut quietly. I spit my toothpaste out into the sink. Stupid princess. Stupid Lyra. Stupid friendship. At best, this night was going to be the most boring in my life. At worst, the most annoying. Lyra didn’t even tell me where we were going; I guess I was too tired and annoyed to really bother asking.

Oh no, she was going to take me to some human conspiracy theorist meeting, wasn’t she? Where else would she go on a Friday night? I can just see myself there now, sitting in the back of room as crazy, bug-eyed ponies spouted off their ridiculous “proof” that the government’s hiding evidence from then. Then everypony would look at me as Lyra introduced me as the princess’s student. I would have to stand up and say “Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle and I’m a human-believing nutjob.” “Hello, Twilight!” And then I would have to go into stupid mode and lie about believing in humans. Of course, my natural inclination would be to present archeological and historic fact disproving their “theories”, but then I’d probably get lynched from the giant hand statue they worship every night.

You know, my imagination tends to get away from me on occasion. Maybe I need to calm down, do some reading. Reading always calms everypony down. I walked back to the bookshelf and pulled out “An Enigmatic Mind: How Starswirl the Bearded enlightened our world and darkened his own”. It was the quintessential contemporary biography on the philosopher. I’ve read it several times before, naturally, but I wanted to refresh my memory on the circumstances of his final days. I skimmed through the last chapter, starting myself off at a random paragraph; I didn’t have time to read the whole things, after all. Stupid Lyra.

“There are contradictions in the historical record pertaining to Starswirl’s death. The conventional consensus is that Starswirl angered the ruling government and was forced to commit suicide by ingestion of poison hemlock. This is the account as written in Clover the Clever’s Euthyphro.




“However, there are some contradicting accounts. According to Xenopone, Starswirl went missing from prison on the night before his forced suicide was to take place. He suggested that an associate of Starswirl’s might have bribed the guards to let him go, this started Starswirl’s life in exile. There is…”




“Whatcha reading there, Twilight?” A voice asked from behind me.

Turning around, I found myself gazing into the amber eyes of Lyra Heartstrings. She wore a curious, happy expression, and she carried case of some sort that was strapped to her back. I instinctively threw a glance at the clock; she wasn’t due for another ten minutes. I turned back towards her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah… I had to come to the castle a little early. I had to do something before I came and got you,” she said, reading my expression, “I guess it didn’t take as long as I thought it would.”

“What…”

“I’ll tell you later,” she smiled, “Come on, the show starts at eight thirty, and I want to get there before it starts.”

I put my book back onto the shelf as I followed her out the door. “Show? Are we going to see one of those new moving pictures? You know, I really don’t see the appeal myself. I mean, yeah, D. W. Griffon’s work is pretty amazing, if racist, but besides him I…”

“No, we’re not going to a movie,” she laughed, “We’re going to a bar.”

“A show at a bar?” I frowned. Mental images of Lyra sitting by a projector showing slide after slide of fuzzy human “evidence” to drunk, cheering conspiracy theorists flashed through my mind. “What kind of show?”

“It’s like an open mic night. Anypony who wants to recite poetry or sing or dance or do whatever just goes up and performs. I usually play there every week.”

“You play an instrument? So that’s what’s in the case.”

“Yep, that’s my lyre. You think my cutie mark means I’m Irish or something?”

“Irish? What’s that?”

“Nevermind. I’ve played the lyre ever since I was a little filly.”

I was shocked, to say the least. As we walked out of the castle proper and through the gardens, I was beginning to feel the slightest bit of relief. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be so bad, after all. Okay, well maybe it’ll be bad, but at least it won’t be boring. Although I couldn’t afford a gramophone, I always enjoyed going to concertos with the princess. Maybe she knew something about tonight that I didn’t. I smiled to myself—that would be just like her.

“Whatcha smiling about?” Lyra asked me.

“Oh, nothing. I just thought that I’d be going to some weird thing about humans or something.”

“You don’t think that’s all I do, do you? Nah, it’s just a hobby. It’s fun, you know? Trying to find out stuff that nopony else knows so that someday they’ll look back and say ‘You know what? That pony wasn’t as crazy as I thought.’ At least, I can fantasize, right?”

“Yeah,” I laughed in spite of myself, “I’m not sure about your chances, though.”

She smiled good-naturedly. “Oh well. We should never seek knowledge just for the sake of other ponies. We should do it because we want to, whether that be for fun or betterment or just for the hell of it.”

“You know what, Lyra? You’re not so bad.”

“Thanks?”

“I mean… you’re a lot deeper than I thought.”

She grinned at my complement. “What about you, Twilight Sparkle? What do you do besides being the princess’s student?”

“I—” What kind of a question was that? I liked to study, I guess, but that kind of goes under the category of ‘student’. I had no idea what she wanted me to say, so I just started blurting out whatever came to mind. “Nachos are my favorite food. Uhm, I really idolize the princess; she’s the most majestic pony I’ve ever met. My favorite musical period is baroque.” I glanced sideways at her to see if I was boring her with my rambling, but she was merely smiling and nodding. “I have a brother who’s a lieutenant in the royal guard. Uhm… my old foalsitter is Princess Cadence. I guess that’s interesting?”

“I guess it is kind of a hard question to ask. How much can a pony really explain everything about them, anyway? They probably wouldn’t even know which parts were the best, anyway. You know what I think is really great about you, Twilight?”

I shrugged.

“You will always try your absolute best at whatever you do. You, um, you don’t remember me, do you?”

“From that dress shop last year? Where you accosted me about keeping the truth from the public?”

“No, not that. You were actually in my class in magic elementary school. Remember?”

To be honest, no. I could only smile sheepishly at her.

“That’s alright,” she replied, never breaking her smile, “I wasn’t very memorable. I was just your average, dumb kid. You, on the other hoof, wow. You stuck out like a sore thumb.”

“Thumb?”

“What I mean is that you were a prodigy among imbeciles, Moondancer being the possible exception. You’d raise your hoof and ask questions the rest of us couldn’t even begin to fathom. Remember that project where we had to build a diorama of a buffalo teepee?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” I laughed.

“I wrapped some paper around some pencils like everybody else in class. You, though. I don’t even know how you did it. You had real canvass and you even made miniature grass to set it on. How did you even do that?”

“I learned a cutting spell and cut all the grass down to size and glued them all in place.”

“That’s amazing.”

I blushed slightly. “It wasn’t that much. The grass wasn’t the appropriate size for the Great Plains, and Cadance helped me a little bit.”

“Pssh. Stop being so modest. I’ve never met anypony else like you, Twilight Sparkle.”

I looked away, embarrassed and kept walking. After I moment, I noticed that Lyra had stopped. I turned around and looked at her questioningly. She stared straight into mine, her amber eyes lit up with happiness.

“You really are special, you know,” she continued, blushing slightly, “I know it. Princess Celestia knows it. I hope you know it, too.”

“I—” What was I supposed to supposed to say to that? I know? Uhm, thanks? I was saved from the awkwardness as she turned and looked toward the building we currently stood in front of. It was had no identifying signs and would have been completely inconsequential to anypony who wasn’t already going there. I looked at it hesitantly. There was no other word for it—it was seedy.

“This is the place,” Lyra said.

With some trepidation, I followed her as she trotted up to the door. The windows on either side of it appeared to have been spray-painted black, making the entire building appear as if there was no light coming from it. She pushed open the door and beckoned me into a tiny, empty hallway. As soon as we entered, I could hear the quiet roar of ponies coming from above us. Lyra gestured toward a rickety set of stairs, and I ascended. All along either wall of the narrow staircase were torn posters of local musicians of many different genres. I reached a black wooden door at the top and pushed it open.

My ears were instantly assaulted by the cacophony of hundreds of ponies holding dozens of conversations, each trying to be heard over the din. A dark-coated stallion sat on a stool beside the door. He looked over at the two of us entering.

“Over or under?” he asked in a bored voice.

“What?”

“Under,” Lyra responded. Putting her muzzle up to my ear, she whispered, “Hold out your hoof.”

I did as I was instructed and held out my hoof with her. The stallion grabbed a golden pen off a nearby podium and wrote a big, red ‘X’ on our hooves.

“No alcohol, no reentry,” he droned.

The nerve of that guy! I opened my mouth to give a vehement protest to the marking of my skin, but Lyra gently pushed me further into the bar.

“Why the hell did he do that?” I complained.

“It’s because we’re not old enough to drink. He made a magic mark on our hooves that will let the bartender know we can’t have alcohol. Don’t worry, it goes away as soon as we leave.”

“Really? Does every bar do this?”

“Only the ones that let minors in. If I had said ‘Over’, he would have used a different pen that would have turned red only if we were underage. Those don’t go away, and the guard keeps a lookout for minors who try to lie their way into bars. When I was younger, I got into trouble because I tried to cheat the system. I covered my hoof in glue, thinking I could peel the ink off with the glue after I got in.”

“That didn’t work?”

“Apparently, somepony’s tried that before, so there’s a failsafe built in.”

“Nihil sub sole novum.”

“What?”

“Oh, sorry. ‘There is nothing new under the sun’. King Solomane said it.”

As Lyra looked around the bar, I looked at the X on my hoof with newfound interest. I wondered how they did it. Was it an age spell of some sort? But then they would have to combine it with a location-detecting spell, which would be quite tricky. The ingenuity of ponies never ceased to amaze me.

“Come on, let’s find a seat as close to the stage as possible,” Lyra said as she grabbed my hoof, “I want you to be able to be able to hear when I go on.”

I let the mare lead me through the crowd. Nobody bothered to cast anything beyond annoyed glances as she pushed past everypony. Miraculously, we found a table near the front, only two rows back from the stage. She pulled out a chair for me, grinning all the while. Despite how uncomfortable I was being around so many ponies, I couldn’t help but smile as well at how happy she was. She sat down next to me and poked me playfully in the abdomen.

“I bet you’ve never seen any place like this before, huh?”

“I can’t say I have,” I admitted. I looked around. Apparently there were quite a few ponies who had decided to get a head start on things, and were already quite drunk. A few of them were even stumbling about so badly that they were spilling their drinks. “I’ve been to a few places like this, but they were academic lectures and nopony drank that much.”

“Yeah, this is a whole different circus. That other thing sounds pretty boring.”

I gasped. “Not at all! One of the scientists presented his thesis on the electroluminescence of elements as it pertains to the new idea of quantum theory. Why…”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” she interrupted, “But I have no idea what electroluminescence is. Or quantum theory for that matter. Would you enjoy it if I took you to a human theory meeting or something like that?”

“No.”

“Exactly, because you don’t know anything about it. That’s why poetry is so important.”

“You can’t learn anything from poetry…” I mumbled.

“To the contrary. Poetry is art, and like all good art, it illustrates philosophy. Art is there to help us understand life.”

“Huh.” I never thought of it like that before. It was true, that many of the great classical writers talked about something universal, like life and death, love and loss, happiness and regret. Maybe I could try to actually learn something.

Well, I could hope, anyway.

“I’m going to get some food. Be right back.”

“You need some bits?” I asked.

“No, that’s okay. I invited you out, remember? I’m happy to treat you.”

With that, she took off towards the bar. Even as she did, the lights in the room started dimming, and the dull roar of conversation around me faded into excited susurration. All eyes turned toward the stage, and mine with them. A pegasus stallion wearing a flashy green suit danced onto the stage, his smile a mile wide.

“Good evening, mares and gentlecolts!” he cried.

“Meh,” the audience mumbled back.

“I think someponies need to have another drink!” he said, his grin never fading, “Tonight is our weekly open mic night. We have a lot of new and familiar acts for you, but there’s still room on the list, so let the guy at the soundboard know if you want to strut your stuff on stage. Let’s see.” He consulted a clipboard nailed to the wall. “Our first act is going to be Carrot Top, who will be reading us some poetry!”

A polite applause rang out as a nervous looking earth pony mare walked onto stage, holding a sheet of paper in her mouth. She sat down on the stool in front of the microphone and gulped audibly. She transferred the paper from her mouth to her hooves and whispered into the microphone.

“My name is Carrot Top, and this is a poem.


“Water flows across the ground
Dancing through the hills and mounds
Dirt lays upon the Earth
Almost useless in its worth

“Blowing wind flows through my mane
On its own, just dry and plain
Bright sun shining in my eyes
Brought by the princess, strong and wise

Sprouts shoot up toward the sky
So that they may feed you and I.”


Ughhhhh…….

As Carrot Top timidly slipped off the stool and made her way offstage, a polite smattering of applause rang out. Well, except for the really drunk stallion near the back, who shouted “Boo! The real Carrot Top is more entertaining than you!” I would have felt bad for her, but she said “you and I” when the objective pronoun “me” should have been used. I had no sympathy.

Lyra levitated a plate of nachos in front of me, and my mood lightened considerably. She slid into the seat next to me. I munched on them gratefully. Oh Celestia, I love nachos so much. That Lyra girl wasn’t that bad, I guess.

“I thought you said poetry was art,” I pointed out dryly, “What did that…” I gestured wildly at the stage, “…teach me about life?”

Lyra smiled apologetically. “I said good art teaches you about life. Somepony needs to teach her about emotions and stuff, I think. Not bad to look at though.”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“Well, yeah, she’s no supermodel, but she’s alright. I’d hit it.”

“Lyra!”

“What? I’m just being honest.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to come out and just say it…”

“You’re not…homophobic, are you?”

“No, I’m not. I don’t really think about romance and se…stuff. I’ve got better things to do than trying to chase romance and end up running around in circles like everypony else.”

“To each their own,” Lyra commented, “But maybe you should give it a try sometime. Sometimes having a pony around to give you emotional support and take an interest in your life can really make you happier.”

“I’m good,” I said as casually as I could, even though I was squirming with discomfort inside. Why was she talking about this? I tried to change the subject. “So if you’re not one to care about poems about farming, what else is there?”

“I have to admit, usually the poetry at these kinds of things are either really bad or really pretentious. The music isn’t bad though. If all else fails, you always have my act to look forward to. I don’t like to toot my own horn…” She giggled. “…but I’m not too bad a musician. Plus, I’ve planned something special.”

“Oh?”

“Yep! I’ve picked tonight’s song especially for you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” I said awkwardly.

“Don’t mention it!”

I turned my attention back toward the stage. A unicorn stallion sat on the stool now, holding a guitar. He plucked a few strings with his hoof, carefully listening to the sound they each made, adjusting the pegheads as he did. After he was satisfied, he gripped the neck in his magic, simultaneously pressing down on frets along its entire length. He carefully picked at the strings with his hoof, bringing forth musical harmony that was very mellowing.

“He’s really good at this,” Lyra whispered, “It’s not as easy as it looks to pick individual strings like that.”

I nodded. It was certainly easy to see that. I had nowhere near the hoof-eye coordination to play an instrument. I had great respect for those who could. I sometimes accompanied the princess to a concert, and though I feigned being upset at being away from my books, I secretly greatly enjoyed them. This event, though no orchestra, had the additional benefit of nachos. 

“I’m up next, by the way.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the carefully picked notes of the minstrel on the stage. I could see why Lyra enjoyed things like this so much.  It was almost as if the music was talking to me in its own language. I felt the chair beside me rustle, and noticed that she had grabbed her case and started walking toward the stage stairs. The stallion on stage hit his final tremolo and got up with a bow and raucas applause. The host jumped back on stage with his unwavering smile.

“That was Gibson Grey, everypony. Give him a round of applause!” He turned toward the clipboard and checked the list. “Next is a familiar face to the regulars here. It’s Lyra Heartstrings and her lyre!”

More applause rang out. Apparently Lyra was somewhat of a hit around this place. At least that meant she was good and wasn’t going to play songs about carrots or something. She grinned and waved before sitting herself on the stool and giving the lyre a few experimental plucks with her golden aura. She quickly transitioned into a soft tune, a combination of chords and individual notes to the effect of a very sad, haunting melody. The crowd was quiet, enraptured. Before long, she started singing lyrics that were every bit as melancholic as the melody.







The last line rang out in my mind like the resonating tone of a medieval church bell. Venus Blue? The words echoed through my memory of reading them that very same day. What was Starswirl’s obsession with this character? How did Lyra know about it? Did it have something to do with the Meaning of Life? Such a thing sounded preposterous, of course. The Meaning of Life is consistent across everything that lives, so how could a single individual affect it?

I was distracted from my thoughts by the sound of silence. Lyra had stopped playing and stood up to take a bow. The ponies around me continued to watch her with respect in every one of their eyes. Slowly, but steadily, applause started to crescendo. No cheering, no catcalling, just applause. She trotted off the stage and dived into her seat, grinning widely at me.

“Whatd’ya think?”

“It was… Lyra, that was really good. How did you know about Venus Blue?”

“I’m surprised you don’t. Starswirl the Bearded was the first one who mentioned her, after all.”

“I haven’t gotten around to reading too much about it yet. How do you about it?”

“The lyrics are in Timaeus. Clover said that Starswirl himself came up with them, but the melody was only recently invented. It was…”

Our conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a grey mare on stage. It seemed a steady neutral expression was chiseled onto her face. She didn’t bother sitting on the stool, but walked straight up to the microphone and started reciting her poetry.


“Grey. Hard. Strong. Old.
You are great. You are powerful.
You are rock.”


“Let’s get out of here,” I blurted.

“Right behind you,” Lyra replied.

We weaved our way through the crowd, who were all staring at the stage, a mixture of emotion on their faces. We passed by the pony at the door and down the narrow stairs. Just as we were about to exit the building, we heard an eruption of cheering and applause from upstairs.

I can never understand ponies.

The streets weren’t near as busy as they had been when we first set out for the evening. It wasn’t quite at the hour where they were deserted, but there were noticeably fewer, and noticeably drunker, ponies about. I looked toward my host for the evening, wondering if she was done for the night.

“Sorry about that,” Lyra said, “It’s usually not that bad. You, uhm… want to get some coffee or something?”

“I shouldn’t really be having caffeine so late. Plus, I promised the princess I’d talk to her tomorrow morning.”

“Please?” Her eyes widened pleadingly as amber irises begged me to capitulate. I was helpless.

“I guess. Fine,” I grumbled.

“Yay!” she exclaimed, grabbing my hooves and pulling me up on my hind legs while doing a little dance. I couldn’t help but smile. As unbelievably annoying as she was, she could be adorable sometimes. I mean, nevermind. She gently dropped me down and trotted forward. “Come on, my favorite coffee house is a block this way!”

I followed after her as she led with enthusiasm, her lyre case that was strapped to her back bouncing in her rhythmic pace. After a few minutes of silence, the reached a plain brick building, much like many on the dark street. A small sign, just barely visible in the light of the oil lantern street lamps, read simply “Coffee”. Lyra deftly pushed the door open and beckoned me in. I did as she directed and entered the smoky, dimly lit interior.

It was then that I realized what kind of a coffee house it was. Every table was occupied by two, exactly two, ponies, each pair attached at the hip. They whispered into each other’s ears, hooves wrapped around waists, giggling, drinking, laughing, kissing… I could feel my face flushing. I hope it wasn’t giving Lyra the wrong impression. I was flushing out of embarrassment, not anything else. I mean, yeah, I was enjoying myself more than I thought I would, but not that much. I sat down stiffly at an empty table, my mind in a fog as to what to say.

“I’ll go get us some coffee,” she said as she went to the register.

How was I supposed to tell her I wasn’t interested in romance without making things awkward? What if she started snuggling up to me when she came back? That would get really weird, really fast. Yes, she’s a nice mare, and she’s not as strange as I first expected, but whether she be mare or stallion, strange or normal, I wasn’t into it. I would just have to tell it to her straight, and hope I was somehow tactful enough not to make this awkward.

Yeah, right.

Lyra levitated a small cup of coffee onto the table in front of me. I looked up at her nervously, but she simply smiled kindly as she sat down across the table from me, rather than next to me. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“I thought this was, I don’t know, a couple’s place or something.”

“What made you think that?” Lyra asked. I gestured to the store in general. She looked around and blushed slightly. “Oh, that. I guess that’s just a weekend thing. It’s usually not near as crowded in here during the day.”

“You come here that often?”

“I guess you could say that,” Lyra smiled, “Seeing as how I work here.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t think you the barista type.”

“What did you think I did?”

“Honestly, I thought you played for a living. You’re really good with the lyre.”

“Thanks! I love music. It’s the best way to express your feelings, or to understand what somepony else is feeling. A single chord can express more emotion that a hundred words.”

“I suppose. I still think it’s more effective to just express with words. Words can be easily repeated and quantified; music changes with everypony that hears it.”

She looked at me with mild annoyance. “And that’s what makes it so great! Music is more than what it is because the listener adds their own emotions to it. There are some things that words just can’t express. Take the song I played tonight, for example. When you heard it, what was the first emotion that came to mind?”

“…sadness.”

She smiled. “And do you know what ‘Venus Blue’ was about?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You said it had something to do with humans, and that Starswirl the Bearded wrote about it.”

“Yes, it’s a song about the last human kingdom…”

“Atlantis?”

“I’m impressed, Twilight—I had no idea you knew about Atlantis.”

“I did some reading earlier.”

“I can see that. Anyway, Starswirl said that when this song was sung, they were the last words ever uttered by a human. It’s the last human song, a song of sorrow.”

“Really? How did he know this?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he ever wrote it down; this is all secondhand from ponies who knew him or from historical hearsay. I was kind of hoping to find out if he said something about it in that book we found in the library yesterday.”

“Yeah, it’s too bad we lost it.”

She bore an unreadable expression on her face, and we sipped our coffees in silence for a few minutes. I had so many questions about Starswirl and his strange obsessions at the end of his life, but it was getting late, and the coffee didn’t do much to awaken my tiring brain. Besides, I could probably find out more by finishing my reading than asking Lyra about his human obsession—that would be like asking a fox about the ethics of raiding chicken coops.

“It’s getting late,” I noted as I tossed away my empty coffee cup.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” she said while disposing of her own, “Can I walk you back to the castle?”

“I know the way,” I responded obliviously.

“Aw, come on! I have something I wanted to give you.”

“I guess.” She squealed and walked alongside me as I made my way back home. Truth be told, I was curious as to what she could possibly be giving me. I had seen the inside of her lyre case when she played it, she didn’t have anything else in there besides a few bits. She wasn’t wearing saddlebags, so whatever she meant to give me, she didn’t have it. I thought about it for a few minutes, but I found that my eyes began to droop, and my brain found itself too busy just focusing on staying awake. Our journey was relatively quick, and we soon stood outside the palace gate, which was flanked by two stone-faced guards. She turned towards me.

“Well, I guess this is it,” she said.

“Yeah,” I responded, eager to get to bed.

“I had fun with you tonight.”

“Yeah, it was a nice change of pace, I guess. The coffee sure didn’t do anything though.” As if in point, I yawned involuntarily.

“It was decaf. You said that you had somewhere to be tomorrow morning.”

“I guess that explains it. The princess just wanted to talk with me.”

She stepped closer to me, and I had to fight the impulse to back away. I leaned away as her muzzle came within inches of mine. “You’re really something special, Twilight Sparkle,” she whispered with half-lidded eyes. I gulped. Before I had a chance to do anything, she rapidly closed the distance between us and pecked me on the cheek.

I felt a fire burning in my face as she pulled back quickly. Lyra was blushing as well, although looking quite pleased with herself. I just stared at her with wide eyes.

It’s said that in moments of extreme stress or discomfort, our minds run on autopilot. That must have been the case, because if I had been thinking clearly, I would have run away screaming. However, I just stood rooted to the spot as we both determinedly avoided each other’s gazes. Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, I said the first thing that came to mind—

“So I guess that was what you were planning to give me?”

She blushed even deeper. “No, that was just a spur of the moment thing. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I responded mechanically.

“I actually left the thing I was talking about in the castle. Go to the public restroom closest to your room, and look behind the tank in the stall furthest from the door.”

“What? Why in Celestia’s name would you put something there?”

She shrugged, but I could see a hint of a smirk on her face. “I really did have fun tonight, Twilight. If you ever want to stop by and say hi, I work day shift in the coffee shop on weekdays.”

I nodded, not sure what to say.

“I guess I’ll see you later?” she asked hopefully.

“Yeah, I guess,” I responded mindlessly, still somewhat in shock.

“Cool. Bye, Twilight.”

“Bye, Lyra.”

I watched as she walked off, turning around to look at me once she reached the street's bend. She waved timidly, which I timidly returned, before disappearing around the corner. I sighed deeply and went into the castle through the main entrance. I took a few steps in the direction of my room, but stopped. Lyra had said she left something for me in the bathroom. I had no idea what it was. It could be something stupid, or it could be something embarrassing like a love letter. If the cleaning staff found something like that, there would be no end to the rumors. Groaning softly with frustration, I continued on, but took a right at the hallway intersection vice a left.

As I trudged forward, my tired mind began wandering.

Despite how insane that mare is, tonight was kind of fun. It was interesting to see all the ponies on stage, even if some of them weren’t talented. That one guy was, and Lyra was, at least. The coffee shop may have had too many couples to be interesting, but the decorum was nice, and Lyra was easy to talk to. And then she…

Desperately squinting my eyes shut, I tried to banish the thought from my head. As hard as I tried, though, the insufferable feeling of her soft lips wouldn’t leave me alone. And then she blushed ador… Dear Celestia, the fatigue was making me start to think weird things. I would probably start hallucinating soon. Not a moment too soon, I arrived at the restroom and pushed the door open.

The moon gave just enough light through the window to let me see the dark outlines of the stalls. I cautiously approached the last one and pushed it open. The whole place smelled like cleaning chemicals, so it must have been just cleaned. I hope they didn’t look behind the tank. I hesitantly reached my hoof behind it and felt something thick wedged between the tank and the wall. It definitely wasn’t a love note.

Grabbing it in my magic, I levitated it out and carried it over to the light of the moon coming through the window. It was a book. Squinting at the cover, I gasped as I read—


Mirror of the Mind, XII
Starswirl the Bearded
New Equestrian Translation