Lyra awoke in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed, to the sight of an unfamiliar creature watching her from a stool in the corner.
“Oh, good! You’re awake!” a Canterlot accent-tinged voice proclaimed from the general direction of the creature, which, despite being a roiling mass of flesh and eyes, did not have any mouth Lyra could see. “I will go fetch the mistress and Miss Pinkamena, I am certain they will be overjoyed to see that you have recovered!”
Lyra watched as the thing flowed off of its seat and on to the floor, then made for the doorway.
“You, uh… You wouldn’t happen to be a relative of Pinkie’s, would you?”
It stopped. “Oh, no, madam! I am but a humble shoggoth, in the employ of Miss Maud.”
“Oh. Okay.” The shoggoth slithered out of the room.
Left to her own devices for the moment, Lyra wriggled her way out of bed and stood up, a chorus of clicks and pops accompanying her movements as her limbs stretched. She walked over to the room’s only window and pulled the curtains apart. What greeted her were the white buildings, purple roofs, and gold trimmings that could only belong to the city of Canterlot.
Here again, huh, Lyra thought to herself. It’s been a while. She sighed.
“Lyra! You’re okay!” She was suddenly pulled into a bone-crushing hug from behind. “I was so so so SO worried!”
“Pinkie! Can't… Breathe!”
“Oopsie! Sorry about that!” Pinkie released her from the death-grip. “How are you feeling?”
“Not too bad, all things considered,” Lyra replied. “Although most of last night is a blur. Care to fill me in?”
“Oh, sure! Well, after your little run in with Nghaniedydd, who is very, very sorry about what happened by the way; he was just really excited to meet another musician! But anyway, after you collapsed, he came and told us what happened. Although it took a little while for us to figure out what he was saying; he’s kind of hard to understand ’cause of the whole flesh-clarinet-mouth thing he has going, but once we did, Maud and I rushed over there as fast as we could, and we found Bon Bon on the way! So then we were all freaking out and I didn’t know what to do and Bon Bon was really angry at me and Maud suggested that we take you to see Dr. Dissonance here in Canterlot! She’s always been good under pressure like that! So, Maud and I used our awesome eldritch powers to bring you here, so that Dissy could rummage around in your noggin and fix you! Oh, and Bon Bon and Ditzy will be coming on the first train, so be ready for that!”
Lyra blinked, her head spinning slightly. “I only got about seven words out of all that. Could you say that again? A little slower this time?”
“Sorry!” Pinkie repeated her previous torrent of words at a more reasonable pace. As she spoke, two other ponies walked into the room. The first was an older, light-orange unicorn wearing a green sweater; his head was bald and the image of a thought bubble adorned his flanks.
Following behind him was a pony Lyra could only assume was Pinkie’s sister, Maud, with the shoggoth slipping in behind her. While Pinkie held a mostly pony-like shape with a few very noticeable alterations, her sister appeared more eldritch than pony (whatever that meant).
Maud’s face was almost entirely hidden by a curtain of long, twisting feelers; a single solid, unblinking eye nestled at their center. The tendrils hung down to the base of her neck, which was, unlike Pinkie, free of mouths. A blue-grey frock covered her midsection; from the back of the dress exploded a plethora of longer tentacles which aided her forelegs (hooves split, like Pinkie’s) in walking. Her skin was a smooth, leathery grey, which faded gradually into the purple of her coiling appendages.
Lyra had learned when she had first joined the Owls not to be frightened by appearances. When Maud caught her looking, Lyra gave her a small smile and went back to focusing on Pinkie’s story.
“...and Ditzy’s going to bring Bon Bon here on the morning train, which should be here in about two hours.”
Lyra sighed. “Guess there’s no chance of keeping this a secret from her now, is there?”
“’Fraid not.” For the first time, Pinkie seemed to notice they were no longer alone. “Ooh, introductions time! Lyra, this is my sister, Maud, Queen in Grey...”
“Hello,” Maud answered in an even monotone.
“And this is Boulder, Maud’s shoggoth...” She gestured to the shoggoth.
“A pleasure to properly make your acquaintance, Miss Heartstrings.”
Pinkie pointed to the unicorn. “And this is Dr. Cognitive Dissonance, Mindscaper! He’s the one who patched up your consciousness!”
“Very nice to meet you in reality, Miss Heartstrings. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to ask you a couple of post-operation questions, just to make sure everything is in order. Standard procedure, you understand.”
“Oh sure, go ahead.” Lyra thought for a moment. “Actually, I’m not entirely sure what you did do to me in the first place.”
“That’s to be expected. Try to think back to last night, specifically pertaining to the incident that brought you here.”
Lyra tried, and... “I can’t! It’s all just a blur.”
“That is because I dove into your mind and removed your memories of last night. You should still be aware of what transpired, but not be able to remember details. Does that sound about right?”
“Yes, and that’s amazing! You can enter other pony’s minds? How?”
“A spell I devised during my younger years,” he replied. “One which has made me an invaluable asset to many ponies, The Vigilant Owl included.”
Lyra frowned. “Wait, you don’t... mindwipe other ponies or anything, do you?”
Dissonance grew offended. “Of course not! Never without a pony’s express permission! I am a psychologist, Miss Heartstrings; I strive to help ponies by assisting them in dealing with trauma, and in very desperate cases by removing or altering their memories directly, as I did with you. I am not some heartless machine who would violate the highest sanctuary of another living pony simply because it was ‘convenient’ to do so.”
“Oh. Good!” Clearly there was some history here; Lyra decided it best not to pry, lest she risk another such outburst. “So when you said you were valuable to the Owls, you meant...”
“You are not the first pony to come to me who had something they wanted or needed to forget,” he replied simply. “And if you ever feel the need to remember what transpired last night, I do keep copies. Although judging by your response to whatever it was, I would advise against doing so.”
Lyra shuddered. “Yeah, no, I’m good thanks.”
“Indeed. Well, it appears everything is in order; if you begin to develop chronic headaches or discover you cannot recall any information not pertaining to last night, please contact me immediately. Miss Pie knows my address.”
“Will do, Doc.”