Best of tubular's Flashfics

by tubular

RESONATE

“Twang. FWISH. Fppbbt.”

A pause.

“TWANG.”

Lyra snapped. “SHUT UP!”

“D’aww.”

“No, seriously, Harpie, I’m trying to focus here.”

“Well... watcha doin’?”

“By Celestia! I told you, I’m trying to write some music here.”

“You don’t write music, silly! You, like, play it or something... Right?”

The image of Pinkie Pie floated into Lyra’s head, the similarities to Harpie’s facial features highlighting and stand out. She pushed the image out with as much force as her irritation bestowed. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t enough. It came back, like some sort of horrendous ghost.

See, Harpie and Pinkie did have some similarities, yes. They were both scatterbrained, and had blue and yellow in their cutie marks. But that’s really where it stopped. Whereas Pinkie possesses this almost lovable randomness that made you feel like you’re best friends, even if you only talk every now and then on your way to work, Harpie was just stupid.

Like, her harp was probably more intelligent. Heh, Lyra thinks, I wouldn’t even be surprised.

“Look, Harpie, here’s the deal.” Harpie turned her gaze from the ceiling over to Lyra, rolling back onto her belly to get a better view.

“Bonbon and I are having our anniversary soon, and I need to make her a present. Wi--”

“So why aren’t you gluing and pasting things together at the crafts center, then?” she interrupts, leaving Lyra’s mouth hanging in a sort of stupor and her hoof sort of hanging weakly in midair. “Like, I mean, that’s what I do, and everypony loves my presents. You should know, you love them too!”

Lyra sighs deeply, accepting that she wasn’t going to get any work done with her around.

“A gift doesn’t have to be something tangible, Harpie. It’s not restricted to something you can actually hand to the person, is what I mean. For example, a hug is a gift; you can’t actu--” You pause, realizing you can actually give a hug to someone, but not in the usual sense. “Okay, bad example.”

“...What does ‘tangible’ mean? Like, it sounds like ‘tentacle’, but you did it like an adjective, so I’m like, ‘huh, what is this, I don’t even,’ you know?”

“‘Tangible’ pretty much just means existing. An object is tangible if you can touch it with your hooves or see it and be able to physically measure things about it with tools.”

“So, like, the piece of paper you’re writing on is tangible, but the song you’re writing on it isn’t, right?”

Lyra blinked. That’s got to be the smartest thing she’s ever said, she thought. Slowly, not wanting to ruin the moment, Lyra responds with a careful ‘yes’.

She then decided to push her luck with Harpie. “Would... would you like to help me write it?”

“Sure!” she said as she got up and walked over to the table Lyra sat at. “Hey, what are all these lines, though? I thought you were writing music!”

[2011-07-06]