Ray sat in his car and stared at the stars above as Lyra Heartstrings waited in the front passenger seat and said nothing. The San Antonio sky was especially clear tonight, despite Ray’s confused mind. It was a cool night and the edge of the local park was a great place for him to clear his mind. No one strolled about, which left him a chance to talk. That is, if he finally decided to. Lyra stood up on her little back pony legs, hooves held down in front of her almost dog-like as she stared at Ray. She put her forehooves on the gearshift and waited for him to say something. When he stayed still for almost five full minutes, Lyra sighed and put her head down on her hooves. Only when he saw how bored she was did Ray finally speak.
“You know what bothers me the most?” Ray said. Lyra picked up her head and waited. “That I have no purpose. That after all those years in the military, putting my life on the line, I get back home and become a nobody. Somehow I black out and find myself in the middle of a truck accident, and then get put on vacation leave when you show up. And last night the dream came back where I was stuck in the Middle East all over again.”
Lyra didn’t know what to say, so she waited.
Ray continued. “I guess the problem is that I’ve never really aimed that high to begin with. And now here I am. Age thirty and still unsure of what to do with the rest of my life. Feels like I’ve just been surviving this whole time.”
“You’re thirty?” Lyra asked. “I never would have guessed that. I’m actually…”
“Yeah. I probably look ragged for my age,” Ray said. “You look tiny, though. Like a puppy. What are you?”
“I am a full-grown mare, good sir,” Lyra said with the slightest bit of offense. “Just because I’m slightly under two feet tall doesn’t mean I’m some inexperienced foal.”
“And how small are children in your society?”
“Almost a foot tall,” Lyra said, putting her hoof at the height she mentioned. “I bet you could fit a foal in your pocket. I wouldn’t though. You’d get arrested quick.”
“By who? What could they possibly do?” Ray said. He moved to grab Lyra and she dodged. “Stay still for a moment.”
“No, you’re gonna do that creepy thing again where your hand goes through my body!”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about!” Ray said. He looked around at the park. No one was around to see him argue with what was essentially an empty seat to everyone else. “I’m the only one that can see you. To everyone else, they see this car has one guy talking to himself. But why is that? Why aren’t you out here, physically sitting next to me if you’re real?”
“I don’t know,” Lyra said. “I only know how to talk to you. I don’t know why it works.”
“But this means that Equestria exists in my head. If I die, doesn’t all of Equestria die?”
Lyra sat back. Her eyes seemed to focus on something Ray couldn’t see. She exhaled at the heaviness of the idea. “That can’t be right. You said you’re thirty.”
“Yes. Thirty years old.”
“But Equestria has been around as a nation for thousands of years, and the world longer than any one pony can remember. You’re not thousands of years old, so how did all that history happen in all this extra time that you can’t account for with your short life span so far?”
Ray sat back. “I don’t have an answer for that.” He stared at the stars. “Objectively, we can all only be certain of things existing as long as we existed, until you start bringing evidence of other things existing through scientific experimentation. But how in the world can I test out your existence, Lyra? You aren’t a physical being.”
“Yes I am!” Lyra said. She stood up on the seat. “I can feel my body and the ground around me when I run through Ponyville. And every meal has flavor and every day I spend with Bon Bon…” she blushed. Ray’s eyebrows raised. Lyra continued. “I feel these things. How do I know YOU’RE real, Ray?”
“Because everyone else here can see me,” Ray said. He looked around at the park. “Okay, well maybe not right now. But no one can see you, Lyra. How do you explain that?”
“I can’t…” she said. She looked discouraged.
“I was told to see a psychiatrist,” Ray said. “I’m afraid if I do, they’ll lock me up somewhere. Think I’m crazy. And who knows, maybe I am. But do I really deserve to have my entire life ruined because of something that was thrust upon me? I can’t trust these professionals with this. None of them will understand. And who knows what drugs they’ll give me and what they’ll do to my system.”
Lyra looked out the window at the stars. Her eyes were sad as Ray spoke. Ray could feel her concern, her sadness. “I’m worried about what you said now.” She turned to Ray. “What if anything that happens to you somehow happens to Equestria? What if you’re somehow…a holder of my entire world?” Lyra looked down. “I don’t want to be snuffed out by something I couldn’t control…”
“You and me both,” he said. “Lyra, I’ll need some evidence from you.”
“What evidence?”
“It’s been over twenty-four hours since I had that meeting where I saw my boss and you first appeared. I fell asleep and then went through the day to finally see you here. Tell me: what did you do between the time you saw me in front of my boss yesterday and our moment today?”
“Like, what were those two days like for me in Equestria?” Lyra asked.
“Yes. Prove to me you have a life separate from me.”
“How?” Lyra asked. “Besides meeting with you, yesterday and today really weren’t that special. I spent time at home, watched a movie with Bon Bon. Then, I went to work today…”
“Where do you work?” Ray asked.
“I’m a traveling musician,” Lyra asked. She pointed to her cutie mark. “I make money playing for ponies during special events and celebrations. Business is tough right now, but Bon Bon is really keeping it together at home. She’s a party planner and culinary artist.”
“So if I asked you to describe even more than that, could you?”
“Yes, but I don’t understand how that proves anything,” Lyra said. “If you want proof, you’re going to need something that is undeniable. Something that shows that my world is not contingent upon your existence. Heck, we have thousands of years of knowledge.”
“What?” Ray asked. “What knowledge?”
“EVERYTHING,” Lyra asked. “Mathematics. Literature. Science. You name it, we have it.”
Ray sat up suddenly in his seat. Lyra squeaked and fell into the floor space in front of the passenger seat. “Lyra quickly. Tell me what I’m bad at?”
“Giving warnings before scaring ponies?” she asked, crumpled into a heap of hooves and twitching tail upside down on the floor.
“No, all those things you just said. I don’t know ANY of them. Science is provable by experimentation and research. Things like understanding periodic tables or the proper formulas for chemical mixtures. And mathematics even more so. That can’t be faked! It can’t be made up!”
“Yeah. So?” Lyra asked as she pulled herself back onto the seat.
“So if you’re real, then the research your society has made is real, and I can benefit from that by having you tell me things that I couldn’t possibly know. I can’t ‘magic’ new knowledge. But if you are real, then you can tell me knowledge that I currently don’t know which is one hundred percent factual. If you aren’t real, then you wouldn’t be able to give me any new information I don’t already know.” He held out his hands. “I’m a genius.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Lyra said. “You’d need to give me a day to research anything though.”
“What? Why?” He asked. “Why can’t you tell me instantly?”
“Because I’m here with you, silly!” She said and jumped into his lap. He suddenly felt her small fluffy body padding his stomach with her hooves. “I have to focus wherever I am in order to contact you. Right now, I’m at my house, lying in bed, using my focusing abilities to reach you.”
“Huh,” Ray said as he put his hand down on Lyra’s head. Her little ears flicked at his touch and he could distinctly feel the sensation of pony fur under his hand. He poked the top of her horn and felt a prick on his finger. He looked at it. It was red, but not bleeding.
“That tickles!” Lyra said. “Unicorn horns are very sensitive and that is rude, sir.”
“How…?” he poked her horn again and looked at his finger. She giggled and he noticed his finger was more red than before.
“Hey! Stop!” She said, her face red.
“Lyra, how can I feel you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe cause I’m ‘in your head’ as you say.”
Ray held up an empty bottle over Lyra. “Catch.” He dropped it.
“AH!” Lyra said as she jumped out of the way. The bottle hit Ray’s lap. “I can’t! I can only touch you.” She motioned for him to remove the bottle from his lap. He flicked it away and she sat down again, the warmth of her body causing him to blush.
“I…I need to keep track of this. With a journal or some sort of research. We have to figure this out together.”
“Cool. I’ll get Twilight to help too.”
Ray nodded and held up Lyra to his chest. Her warm filled him with peace as she snuggled close and fell asleep. He stared at the stars and thought he finally had a plan to prove that something fantastic had happened to him after all.
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