“Randall?”
He was probably the last person Lyra expected to see here. She had only a vague notion of where New York was, but if that’s really where she had ended up, she would be hundreds of miles away from Des Moines.
“What are you doing out here, Lyra? You’ve heard about what’s going on, right?”
“This… isn’t Des Moines,” she said.
“Uh, you okay?” Randall squinted at her. “I know people have been getting a little weird lately, but are you feeling alright?”
“Weird? Weird how?”
“Well, there was my cousin. I was staying with him, but…” Randall’s voice trailed off. “You really don’t look too good.”
“It’s fine. I guess you could say it’s been a rough day. But it’s fine. It’ll all be over soon.” She took a look around. “Is this New York?”
He nodded, still eyeing her strangely. “You didn’t know that?”
“Well, no.” Lyra looked around her. “What are you doing here?”
“Like I was saying, I’ve got a cousin out here. Said he knew some people out here, I might be able to take the band farther. Then he started getting weird, just earlier today. Started yelling at me, said that I was trying to take advantage of him. I was out for a walk to see if he’d cool off later, and that’s when stuff started getting really weird.” Randall shrugged. “Maybe I’m the one who’s going crazy.”
Lyra shook her head. “No, it’s not that,” she said. “But your cousin… He’s not usually like that, is he?”
“No, he’s usually pretty cool. Don’t know what got into him.”
“It’s just like last time…” Lyra said. Discord really was trying to corrupt humans. She hadn’t seen it yet, but this proved it.
“What time?”
“It’ll be fine.” Lyra looked up at the sky. A couple minutes ago it had gone to night again. It was hard to tell how long she’d actually been here.
“If you think so.” He shrugged. “Some people are saying it’s the end of the world. I dunno, I was thinking that would be more fire, and demons rising up out of the ground. Earlier I saw some street lamps that had turned into peppermint. Like, actual candy.”
“That’ll happen,” Lyra said.
“You’ve seen it too, huh? Well, I guess everyone has.”
“Yeah…”
“You know, it wasn’t until after you had left town that it really hit me. You’re Lyra Michelakos. I mean, you really must’ve hit it big when you got back home,” Randall said. “And you came out to my house that one day practically begging for money.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty good,” Lyra said absently.
“We had another guitarist for a while, but he just wasn’t as good. Didn’t show up to practice, didn’t seem serious about it. If you wanted to, Lyra – “
“Lyra!” She turned her head up at the voice, which had come from above her. “Finally. I’ve been looking all over for you,” Rainbow Dash said, swooping down next to her. “All these humans look the same. Good thing your mane stands out so well, huh?”
“Dash? What’s going on?” Lyra said. “Wait, did you…”
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. “See, that’s the problem… The Elements weren’t any good against him. He was too strong.”
Lyra’s jaw dropped open. “What?”
“Uh, Lyra…” Randall said. “There’s a… flying horse… talking to you.”
Rainbow Dash turned to him, then looked back at Lyra. “Do you know this human?”
“Yeah, we were in a band together back in Des Moines. But what were you saying about Discord? The Elements had to work. They had to.”
“The others said I should go ahead and try to find you. We need to get back to Equestria, and fast.”
“I’ve seen some pretty insane things before. But this probably takes it,” Randall said. He pointed at Rainbow Dash. “Lyra, you realize that’s not normal, right?”
“Yeah, I’d like to see what you humans consider ‘normal,’” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t wait to get out of this place. There’s just no room to fly with all these buildings everywhere.”
“Randall, this… This is Rainbow Dash. She’s a friend from... back home.”
“I thought you were from Pennsylvania,” Randall said.
“Well, yes, but…” She groaned. “I’ve already explained this enough times today,” Lyra said. She turned back to Rainbow Dash. “I don’t care what you do, but we need to stop Discord. There has to be some other way.”
“The Elements were at full power. If they didn’t stop him, I don’t know what would.”
“I don’t know,” Lyra admitted. “But we’ll come up with something.”
“Like what?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Look, Twilight just told me to find you so that we could go back and report to the Princess. I’m going to go find her, so don’t go anywhere. Got that?”
Before Lyra could get another word in, Rainbow Dash had already flown off. She turned back to Randall, who was still wide-eyed in disbelief.
“So… what was that about?” he said.
“It’s a long story, but all this chaos is being caused by someone called Discord. He’s trying to… well, drive humans to extinction. Again. That’s another long story. Rainbow Dash and the other ponies were supposed to stop him. I can’t believe it didn’t work…” Lyra crossed her arms and stared at her feet.
"You're friends with talking horses."
"I used to be one, kind of."
“It’s the end of the world and talking horses are going to save us,” Randall said. “I guess that’s not the strangest thing I’ve heard today.”
“Good. I don’t feel like explaining it again,” Lyra said.
That seemed to be the end of the matter for now. Randall just couldn’t think of anything else to say. He ran his fingers through his scraggly hair. Lyra glanced around trying to see if Rainbow Dash or anyone else was coming back. Nothing, except for a bright yellow car walking past underneath the bunches of bananas that had probably once been stoplights.
The others were just going to give up on humans and let this happen. Lyra couldn’t believe it. Of course, they didn’t know any humans here… She just couldn’t let this happen to her friends. Her family. Humans were good, or at least a lot of them were, and Lyra just couldn’t let that go so easily.
It was a few minutes before the others showed up, Rainbow Dash leading the way.
“There’s more of them,” Randall said, looking up. His tone was flat.
“Lyra…” Twilight said. “I’m sorry. But we couldn’t do anything.”
“I heard everything,” Lyra said, frowning.
“Lyra, I really am sorry. But you have to let us go back,” Twilight said. “You have your necklace, right?”
Lyra’s hand reached into her pocket for the necklace, then she stopped. “No. You need to find another way. There has to be something else we can do.”
“The only other time the Elements didn’t work was when we weren’t… well, ourselves,” Applejack said. “They should of worked here, but they didn’t. I can’t believe it myself, but we just weren’t enough to stop him this time.”
“You heard what Princess Celestia said before we came here. Discord draws too much power from humans. And here he is in a world with tons of them all giving him power…” Twilight looked up at Randall, as if she’d just noticed him standing there.
Something flashed across Lyra’s mind. She glanced at the necklace Rainbow Dash wore. “That’s just it, isn’t it…” She rubbed her chin.
“What is?”
“I’m going to need to borrow your necklaces. And your crown,” Lyra said, turning to Twilight.
Twilight’s jaw dropped open. “What? Borrow them? What are you talking about?”
“The Elements of Harmony. I’m going to need them for a little bit,” Lyra said.
Twilight shook her head frantically. “Lyra, do you even know what you’re saying? You can’t just borrow the Elements of Harmony!”
“In the time I’ve been human, I’ve made some friends who are just as good as any pony I ever met. If humans are giving Discord his power, then we can take it away,” Lyra said.
“Um… What exactly is going on?” Randall said.
“You’ll help me, right?” Lyra spun around to face him. “I mean, we can’t do this unless we have everyone…” She counted out on her fingers, muttering something under her breath. “How quickly do you think Audrey could get here? Nathan, too.”
“Those kids you were staying with back in Des Moines?” Randall scratched his head.
“Yeah.”
“That’ll be a while. They shut down the airport, at least the ones around New York.” He glanced at the ponies again, then back at Lyra. "I still don't know what's going on here."
“They could still drive, right?”
“I… guess, but what do we need them for?” Randall said.
“We’ll need… six of us. I think I can get this to work…” Lyra said. She nodded. “Yes. If we can just get everybody together. I’ve got some phone calls I need to make.”
Twilight shook her head. "Not just anypony can pick up the Elements of Harmony. These are very powerful magical artifacts that - "
"You used them after you'd known each other for a day," Lyra pointed out.
"Well, yes, but... Still, you're a human. You can't even use basic magic!"
“Lyra, I understand why you wouldn’t want to leave this place, but we don’t have any choice, now do we?” Rarity said. “I recommend you come with us.”
“And do what? Just wait for Discord to finish up here and follow us back to Equestria?” Lyra said. “We’ve got one more shot at this. We need to try.”
Twilight exchanged a glance with the others.
“Uh, Twi, I think you understand how the Elements work better than any of us. I’m leavin’ this one up to you,” Applejack said.
With some effort, Twilight finally managed to speak. “Well… fine. But we have to stay here.”
“Wh-what? I really don’t want to stay here much longer…” Fluttershy said. She cringed. “Actually, I want to leave. Right now.”
“Well, we can’t just give the Elements to the humans and leave,” Rainbow Dash said. “This better not take too long.”
"We're staying here while Discord's got all of his kooky stuff going on?" Pinkie said. "This'll be fun!"
"Actually, when you put it that way..." Lyra thought for a moment. “Randall, do you have your car here? The big one we moved all of the band equipment in?”
“Well, yeah.” Then he added, “If it hasn’t sprouted wings and flown away.” On any other day, that would have sounded like sarcasm.
“Great. We’ll go back to Philadelphia for a while. I think it’d be dangerous to stay around here much longer. Paul and Monica are there anyway, and I think we'll need them…”
“And we’re taking… your friends here?” He gestured at the ponies.
“Of course.”
"They've usually got trailers for moving around horses. I don't have one of those."
"They aren't like horses from our world. It'll be fine." She looked over the group. "It might be a tight fit, though."
"What do you mean?" Twilight said. "Horses?"
“But… where are we going?” Fluttershy said.
Lyra was reminded of something that happened months ago. Strapping herself into the front seat of Nathan’s car and nearly having a heart attack when they started rolling backwards into the street. This time they wouldn’t even have the benefit of seat belts.
“This’ll be your first time in a car… Just sit back and try not to panic too much.”
Towards the end of the school day, a few mentions had been going around about weird stuff happening on the East Coast. Mostly New York, but some surrounding areas too. Audrey hadn’t thought much of it at the time. It had sounded like a joke.
It was later in the evening now and she’d been in front of the computer looking at updates and photographs for a few hours. New posts seemed to keep on appearing as soon as she finished reading one. It was all over the place.
This particular photo was showing a section of the street that had turned into rolling hills, swooping up and down like a roller coaster. The pharmacy and the department store behind it seemed unaffected. She zoomed in, leaned close to the screen, squinted. It didn’t seem edited, though she was no expert.
Her cell phone rang.
She picked it up and flipped it open. “Hello?”
“You’ve seen this, right?” It was Nathan’s voice. “The stuff over in New York?”
“Yeah… Whatever it is,” she said. She read what the photographer said about the image – that the formation in the street had just appeared suddenly, as solid as if it had always been like that. It was possible to drive over it, provided nothing had happened to your car. Some vehicles had been affected by whatever it was - anything from turning plaid to suddenly coming alive.
“I was thinking it was a hoax – some elaborate prank, but I don’t know,” he said. “It’s coming up on CNN and stuff too. I don’t think they’d be able to hack all the major news networks.”
Audrey clicked a link to some other photos. A message board where people were raising a lot of the questions she herself was wondering.
“It’s all kind of…” She looked for an adequate description. “Cartoony.”
“I’m still not sure if I’m convinced, but you’ve gotta admit, it’s starting to look like it’s for real,” he said.
“I hate to admit it… but yeah,” she said.
One poster on this board was raising their doubts. Photoshop, mass fake accounts all run by a few people, and of course hacking. They weren't the only ones to think that way. But it was seeming more and more like a desperate attempt to deny what was right in front of them.
“And did you see those pictures of Times Square?” he asked.
“Which ones?" Audrey tried to remember. "The billboards that came to life, or the flying hot dog stands?”
“No, these are the new ones. The herd of unicorns. A bunch of people had pictures of them.”
“Unicorns…” That stirred something in Audrey’s memory. “No, I haven’t seen that yet.”
“Yeah. All different colors. A couple were flying,” Nathan said. “People only started mentioning them about half an hour ago, but there’s dozens of photos.”
She typed the phrase “times square unicorn” into the search bar and looked at images. Sure enough, there were plenty of different photos. If it had been photoshopped, it probably would have taken someone a lot of time and effort.
“I’m just not sure what to make of it,” Nathan continued. “I’ve heard some people are heading out there to see it for themselves. Photographers, mostly, but also just some sightseers.”
“Wait a minute…” Audrey clicked one of the images. Zoomed in. The herd of whatever they were was in the distance, but there was a person standing it the midst of them.
“What?”
She stared at it for a few moments, then slowly raised a hand to her mouth. “She wasn’t lying,” she said softly.
“Huh?”
Audrey shook her head. “It’s crazy. I told her she was crazy.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan said.
“Lyra. Back when we found her parents, I told her I needed to know where she came from. And... Well, she told me.”
“What does Lyra have to do with any of this?” Nathan said. “I mean, she was pretty strange, but all of this is on a whole different level than that.”
“Lyra insisted that she used to be a unicorn. I don’t remember everything, but her story was pretty detailed. Something about turning into a human. But… she’s in these pictures, and I think she has something to do with all of what’s going on over there.”
The other end of the phone was quiet, then, “Wow. I mean, really, wow. I wondered if this was some kind of bizarre alien invasion. That idea’s been tossed around online a bit. And you made first contact, Audrey! Heck, you let her stay at your house!”
The home phone rang. It went a few times, then stopped. Someone else must have answered it.
“I wish I remembered what she told me…” Audrey said. “I mean, it sounded crazy. It still does.”
“Coming from Lyra, I’m not too surprised. She always was kind of odd.”
“Audrey, it’s for you.” She turned around to see her mother standing in the doorway, holding the phone out towards her. “It’s Lyra.”
“Huh?”
“She said it was important.”
Audrey lifted her cell phone back to her ear. “Listen, Nathan, I’m going to have to call you back.”
“Wait, what – “ She closed it and put it on the desk. Then she stood up and took the phone from her mother. She lifted it to her ear slowly. It was the perfect opportunity to find out what was happening, but she had no idea what to say.
“Audrey!” Lyra's voice was familiar enough.
“Uh, hey, Lyra…”
“Good. I tried to reach your cell phone, but it didn’t work,” Lyra said. “Listen, I need you to come to my house. As soon as possible. It’s really important.” There was a faint voice that was hard to make out through the background noise, then Lyra said to whoever it was, “It’s a phone. I’ll explain later, alright?" Then, speaking to her again: "Sorry about that, Audrey.”
Lyra’s house? She meant in Philadelphia, probably… Unless it was the other place. Ponyland or whatever. Audrey finally found her voice. “What’s this all about? Was that you in New York?”
“How did you know I was there?” Lyra sounded surprised.
“There were pictures of you on the Internet. With these unicorns. You weren’t making that up when you told me, were you?”
“No. I wasn’t. I tried to tell you,” Lyra said. “But listen. It’s really important that you get to Philadelphia right now.”
“Right now? You realize how far that is, right?” Audrey said, rubbing her forehead. “And, on top of that, it’s a school night, I can’t just go halfway across the country – “
“I made it here in half a day last time,” Lyra said. "What's the problem?"
“You flew. We booked it days in advance. I could try that, but even then it would be – “
“That’d take too long…” She heard Lyra sigh. “Look, the entire survival of the human species is at risk here. I need you and Nathan here, now.”
Audrey was taken aback by that. Lyra sounded serious enough, though she did have a tendency to overreact to things… Then again, those photos. Audrey spun around in her chair to see it still up on the monitor. “The survival of the human race,” she repeated.
“Yes,” Lyra said.
“This has something to do with everything that’s been going on in New York today, doesn’t it?”
“That’s just the beginning. But you’ll come, right?”
Audrey sighed. “I’ll see what I can do, but… You are halfway across the country.”
“We'll deal with that. When do you think you can get here?”
She went through the options in her head. Flying on such short notice would be impossible. She didn’t have her license, though even if she set out on the road now it would take – what? An entire day or two. Not to mention having to explain this to her parents. They'd seen what was happening on the news, but had just shrugged it off.
Audrey scratched the back of her head. It was odd, but she felt like Lyra really wasn’t exaggerating the importance of this. “I don’t suppose you or your friends have any magic that would help here, would you?”
“No, Twilight says it’s way too far to teleport.” Lyra sounded oddly casual, talking about teleportation like that.
“I don’t know, then,” Audrey said with a sigh. “Like, two days. That might even be generous.”
“Seriously?” Lyra said.
“Look, I don’t know how people get around where you’re from, but this is a long trip,” Audrey said.
She heard Lyra sigh. “You’re right. Cars are a lot faster than Equestrian transportation. Just hurry, alright?”
“Sure, I’ll see what – “ The line went dead. Lyra must have hung up already. Audrey set down the phone, leaned back, and ran her fingers through her hair.
Audrey had always known that Lyra wasn’t quite normal. The way that she’d acted that first day, for the entire duration of her stay afterwards. She wasn’t exactly human, was she?
But as for what to do now…
It sounded important. For whatever reason, Lyra had chosen her to do… something. Maybe that’s why she had come to this world. Even thinking about “this world” as if there really was some magical land beyond it sounded ridiculous. What exactly did Lyra expect Audrey to do here? And why couldn’t she have found someone else closer?
Lyra had also mentioned Nathan. It might be good to call him. Figure out what to do. Audrey was about to pick up the phone again, but it rang before she even touched it.
“Hello?” She half expected it to be Lyra again.
“So I just got a call from Lyra. Interesting story,” Nathan said.
“She just called me too,” Audrey said. “Uh… What are you going to do?”
“Well, first of all, I thought the end of the world wasn’t for a couple more months.”
“Seriously, Nathan.”
“Alright, alright. Well, I’m heading out to the car now. I’ll swing by your place in a few minutes. Pack some snacks if you want them, there’s a long drive ahead of us.”
Audrey was shocked. “You’re just leaving?”
“She said it was urgent.”
“You know how long it’s going to take to get out there, right?”
“I told you to pack something to eat. And are you okay with driving part of the way? It’ll count towards getting your license. Your parents will be happy about that,” Nathan said. “Besides, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Something weird is going on out there, and we’re involved! You’ve gotta admit, that’s pretty cool.”
“Sure,” Audrey said, shrugging even though he couldn’t see her. “Maybe it is.”
“Alright. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Lyra sat in the front seat next to Randall, staring at the road in front of her. It was a “highway” – she’d never actually driven on one, though it seemed kind of like the first place she’d seen in the human world. They passed a sign that said “Philadelphia.” They’d be home soon.
“Are you done talking to yourself yet, Lyra?” Pinkie asked.
“I told you. I was talking to my friends in Des Moines. That’s what phones let humans do.”
“So when can they get here?” Twilight said. She stared out the window, still getting used to how fast everything flew by. “It seems like human transportation is as fast as you promised. I’m amazed this is possible.”
“The talking purple unicorn in the back seat is impressed that I can drive at sixty miles an hour. Because that’s weird,” Randall muttered.
“It is if you’re from Equestria,” Lyra told him. “Anyway, Audrey said… maybe two days.”
“Two days?” Twilight said.
“Ugh. This morning I didn’t even know what ‘humans’ were, and now I’m stuck here for the next two days?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Am I the only one who’s ever heard of humans? Bon-Bon’s always talking about them at Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie said.
“She does?” Lyra turned around.
“Well, she talks about you always talking about them. But that means she’s talking about humans. Kinda.”
“Two days seems like a mighty long time to wait around…” Applejack said. “You sure you still wanna try this, Lyra?”
“Sure. We’ll just… wait at my house for a while,” she said. “At least my sister will be excited to meet all of you.”