Michalekos Residence; Saturday 11:48am
Laura entered to the living room with a tray with a teapot and two cups for her parents followed by Chloe caring a jar of juice for the guests. The adults hadn’t say a word since the arrival of the ponies, they just automatically followed their daughters and sat on one of their couches constantly staring cautiously at the three ponies.
On the other side the three ponies were waiting for her friend to break this uncomfortable silence.
But Octavia finally decided take the initiative and introduced herself.
“So sorry for the inconvenience, and seeing we started with the wrong hoof, why don’t we introduce ourselves? Nice to meet you, my name is Octavia Melody… ehem, I am a cellist and I’ve been a good friend of Lyra since Military Academy. Anyone else? Girls?”
Vinyl winked an eye and dedicated the Michakelos her characteristic half-smile.
“Cool! What’s up? I’m the world-famous (well, my world) DJP0N3 and the name is Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch; and also I’ve been Lyra’s friend since we got in trouble over and over back in Military Academy. We practically spent our afternoons doing disciplinary chores like clean the bathrooms with toothbrushes; but that’s why we became really close right pal?”
Laura couldn’t help but chuckle and do a high-five/high-hoof with the unicorn.
“Give me a brake Scratch, you were the worst; weren’t your nickname ‘Headache Scratch’.”
“Go to hell Heartstrings” said Vinyl crossing her hooves and pouting. “You now well I was called ‘Toothache’ not ‘Headache’. Toothache”
Octavia took a sip from the glass of juice Chloe just gave her and raised an eyebrow.
“Vy, they’re supposed to like us”
Vinyl blushed shyly but soon enough began to laugh out along with Octavia and Lyra.
“Oh girls you have no idea how much I missed you” smiled the green-haired girl. “But just one thing: I learnt that my true name is Laura, and is a beautiful name so would you mind call me Laura from now on? Please”
Vinyl shrugged.
“It isn’t that different from Lyra so I think we can try”
And at this point Selena Michalekos finally was recovering from all this madness.
“Enough, please! What’s going on here? What are you? Is this a dream? Are we getting insane because of Laura’s return? Someone explain please!”
Bon-Bon raised a hoof asking for peace.
“I know it isn’t easy for anyone, okay? Also I get that living in a world without magic is very hard to fully understand for you but try to keep an open mind please. And do you think this has been easy for us? Because until Lyra disappeared, humans were nothing but a fantasy for us”
And to prove her point she took a book from her saddlebag. Laura’s face grew red when she recognized it: in the cover it had the picture of a minty-green unicorn with a smirk. For all the books, did Bon-Bon had to choose that one? Sweet Celestia!
Thomas Michelakos better took the book and examined it:
“Humans: truth or reality?” He scratched his head in confusion and checked the back cover. “Are we really alone in the universe? Who really built the great monuments of the ponykind? Is the Crown aware of everything? Doctor Heartstrings explores the world of conspiracies seeking for the right answer to all this questions and everything else; however you have the last word. Wow, just wow. It sounds like the UFO stuff you find in the science-fiction section in the library”
Octavia nodded.
“I don’t know what a UFO is but at least you get the idea what a humans meant for us: nothing but paranoid fantasies of this guys who live on their parents’ basement with hats made of aluminum foil constantly afraid to be caught by the government”
“Precisely, UFO fantasies” confirmed Selena taking the book. “And this Doc…”
Her eyes moved to the author’s name and then to the picture in the cover; finally stoped at her older daughter. No way… the eyes, the mane/hair… no… no! It couldn’t be.
Laura nodded sadly.
“That’s right, the one in the book is no other than me. It was taken last year”
Soon her father took the book from his wife to examine the picture. It sounded like madness but like his wife he began to find the similarities between this ‘doctor Heartstrings’ and Laura. What the hay was going on?
“Was that really you Laura?”
“Yes”
Chloe was jumping around her parents desperately trying to get the book from them but they were too astonished looking at the picture to pay attention to her.
Noticing this Bon-Bon called Chloe and from her saddlebag took a picture that she offered Chloe. It was the picture they took to commemorate Lyra’s first time leading their squad after their mission in the AnthroCon; and there was Lyra, in the center of the group showing a proud smile on her face.
“Is that really you Laura?
“Yes Chloe” smiled the girl.
“You looked beautiful!” Cheered the little girl. “But what your Cutie Mark meant?”
At this point Chloe had heard so much of Equestria that she was perfectly aware of what a Cutie Mark was. Laura just smiled and shrugged.
“I would show you if I could”
“By the way, I brought something with me that I’m pretty sure you missed” said Bon-Bon opening back her saddlebag.
Laura’s eyes widened in delight.
“Give it to me!”
Vinyl then used her magic to levitate the golden instrument that went straight to Laura.
“Is that unicorn magic?” Asked Chloe delighted.
“Sure it is, really useful when you’re lack of hands” said Vinyl.
But then Laura took her old lyre and began to play.
Before she turned human she used to play with her magic but now her fingers remembered the right movements. The beautiful melody filled the room relaxing everyone communicating Laura’s own happiness. First her friends, now her music; she was finally complete.
But suddenly Selena stopped her.
“My only question is: how did this happened? How did you ended up in that world full talking horses and how you came back? That’s why you didn’t believe the paternity test would get positive right? Because you thought you always were a talking pony?”
Laura nodded.
“It’s a long and strange story mom. How do I start? Girls… any help?”
Octavia combed her bow tie.
“I understand that Ly, I mean Laura, have been telling you about our world as it was a fairy tale, right? Did she ever mentioned Nightmare Moon?”
“Chloe mentioned her a couple of times” said Thomas. “Princess Celestia’s sister who is trapped on the moon”
Vinyl nodded and continued:
“She was, but once purified by the Elements of Harmony she’d been ruling Equestria along with Princess Celestia. The thing is that the original Prison-Spell was meant to last one thousand years, no less”
“But that didn’t stopped Nightmare to try to escape more than one occasion” continued Bon-Bon. “And the last time she tried it was sixteen years ago. Her imprisonment was about to end but maybe she lost the track of time; however this time the magic outburst was worse than the other times. She used a very specific spell that Sweet Pea is trying to replicate”
It was when Vinyl took the chocolate wrapping paper Bon-Bon delivered to them a little ago and passed a streak of light from her horn through it; projecting the spell Sweet Pea was using.
“What? Ancient magic? Is Sweet Pea crazy or what?” Asked Laura.
Octavia nodded.
“What Nightmare tried to do was to create a wrap-hole through this dimension to then get back to Equestria. As a result several portals between Equestria and this world opened. Princess Celestia managed to close them all before something bad like the two worlds collapsing to each other”
“Now this sounds like a sci-fi novel” mumbled Thomas Michalekos.
“Nothing major happened” explained Vinyl. “And there was only one small incident; but it those involved got their lives changed forever. After Princess Celestia closed the last of the portals, she realized a human baby got trapped in Equestria”
The Michelakos family gasped.
“You need to understand this spell in particular is very unstable and Princess Celestia won’t risk to open the portals under any circumstances. That’s why she decided to transform the baby into a pony and trust her to a family she knew that tried to have children of their own but they couldn’t”
Silence, Laura’s parents looked at Laura who lowered her head in sadness.
“What happened with the girl? Let’s say her adoptive family truly loved her and she was happy. And one day she discovered she had talent for music but her adoptive parents couldn’t afford the music academy so she enrolled in the Military Academy since it was the only one that offered complete music scholarships. She graduated at twelve (the usual among ponies) with the rank of corporal and was recruited by the Secret Service; an elite military unit that under fake identities protect Equestria from all kind of threats”
“So that’s where you learnt Kung-Fu” mumbled Selena.
“In Equestria it is called Earth-Pony Martial Arts”
Again silence.
Then Laura showed the book to her parents.
“And my secret identity was an idiot who believed in the ‘Human Conspiracy’. My real job was to encrypt top-secret messages to other field agents; but for most of the ponies I was just Lyra Heartstrings lyrist and a celebrity among the group of paranoid idiots known as Anthropologists. All I had to do was disguise the messages to my fellow agents as part of what I thought it was a bunch of nonsense”
“What you mean you thought?” Asked Vinyl.
“Since I arrived to this world I’ve been investigating and I kind of guessed everything right” explained Laura.
“No way! Even the part about the invisible net they use to communicate around the world?” Asked Octavia raising an eyebrow.
“I think they call it internet, I really don’t get it”
“So all your ‘nonsensical rambling’ were really repressed memories?” Asked Bon-Bon.
“Apparently”
Selena Michalekos had to sit to process all of this. Seriously, it seemed like a twisted fairytale. But still managed to ask:
“And how did you get back here Laura?”
The young girl sighed.
“It started when I was named leader of my squad. A terrorist group tried to attack in the middle of the AnthroCon, where my stupid conferences were considered the main attraction and…”
She told them everything: since how she found the old newspaper telling the event that brought her to Equestria sixteen years ago, but without suspecting a thing she chose it because it seemed perfect for the ‘Human Conspiracy’ theorists. Of how as soon as they accomplished their mission she got a surprise visit from Princess Celestia who came to make sure she didn’t tried to investigate further about what happened… and then how Sweet Pea foalnapped her to send her back to this world. Then about the experience in Des Moines, she already told her family about it but now Laura was free to fully share the experience of a unicorn trying to adapt to human society.
Her friends also listened very carefully, after all they hadn’t knew anything about Lyra/ Laura until now.
At the end Bon-Bon shook her head disapprovingly.
“What worries me the most is the fact you still use to exercise to exhaustion to deal with your stress Lyr… I mean Laura. Don’t you realize how dangerous it is?”
Laura frowned.
“Aha, I have news for you Bonny: that’s what kept me sane all this time. For a while I began to think I was actually crazy. That my whole life had been a lie. When the paternity test came back positive I… I… I was afraid that the girls were a product of my imagination… that you and I never… loved each other”
Laura cried but Bon-Bon hugged her firmly.
“I missed you the most Bonny. You too girls but…”
Vinyl shrugged.
“Get it pal, Bon-Bon is your especial somepony; Scratch understands”
“And she felt the same way, after all she was the one who found Sweet Pea; we just followed her” assured Octavia.
Thomas Michelakos almost faint, this was too much to handle on a single afternoon.
“Laura, please tell me you don’t have a romantic relationship with one of this colorful horses…”
“Dad, for a long time I was also a colorful horse, and ponies from Equestria aren’t like the ones we have here: they’re smart and civilized. Ask Chloe! They’re people! And same-sex relationships are very common in Equestria”
“We get it Laura but…”
Bon-Bon advanced towards him.
“Sir I understand you love your daughter and only are trying to protect her; but also I need you to understand me as well: since Lyra or Laura vanished I dedicated every minute of my life to get her back. I don’t care she is a human now; if there’s something I’m completely sure is that I want to be with Laura. And for this two… I still don’t know why they’re here with me. Seriously, you were perfectly capable to escape from Sweet Pea’s fire, why did you crossed the portal as well?”
Laura giggled and kissed Bon-Bon’s forehead.
“You really have no idea?”
Laura’s mother protested.
“Please don’t do that in front of us. We get it, you love each other, and you’re soulmates… but please this thing among you two way too much for us right now. Can you save this when you’re alone please?”
“My apologies” said Bon-Bon. “But what you mean Laura?”
The green-haired girl nodded.
“Vinyl have more mouth than brain”
“Ey!”
“But her brain is enormous as well. They followed you here because Sweet Pea isn’t a fool and we need all the squad together in order to stop him”
The other two mares did a high-hoof.
“Got us, we need you Lyra, you’re the only one who can approach safely to Sweet Pea. Obviously he’s not the idiot he made Bon-Bon think he was… and if there’s a pony smart enough to read between lines and guess his true intentions that’s you Lyra”
“Once a spy always a spy, and sending you here was only the beginning. Sweet Pea is up to something big and we need our leader. So Mister and Miss Michakelos, we know you just recovered your daughter… but we need her for a last mission”
“A mission to save the two worlds”