Using the horn, you appear at the train station. Already ready to stop Twilight in her tracks as you catch the horn and plop it back in your saddlebag like a pro.
"Alright Twilight, I kno....huh?" You look around, the place was actually filled with ponies today as the train was arriving and coming to a dead stop. But Twilight wasn't among any of them.
"....ssshhhii...guh...she's gotta be here somewhere." You take a quick look around, she wouldn't be too hard to spot. Thanks to ponies pretty much being color coded. You only needed to look for a purple one.
Unfortunately, among the few purple ponies you spotted. none of them were Twilight.
....oh god.
"What if she's flying there?...ugh, don't tell me she outsmarted me. Did she expect me to come to the train station?....ugh...I should have went straight to the damn town. All I needed to do was buy a map with it on it to set a warp point. Ok...ok..let's see then."
You look at the train schedule, oh shit. What luck, The train was actually heading there at this time. Good. If Twilight was flying there, then you could easily outspeed her by train. Last you checked, she was a shitty flier. Or a not very good one at least.
You walk up to the booth, there was a small line so you waited your turn. You could already hear the passengers of the last train getting off.
When your turn came, you quickly reached into your saddle bag with the bits to pay for the ticket.
"A ticket for the end of the line please."
But as you look up, you notice that rather pathetic pony who ran the booth last time. And he seemed to remember you too. He gazed at you for a moment, then pointed to a sign that wasn't there before. "No foals allowed during school hours unless accompanied by a parent. That means you kid, I'm not going to let you through like last time. And you can't kick in the booth either. We plated it with metal...so nyeh"
"What?! Look you...I'll easily give you double, just give me the ticket!"
"Look, I can't and I won't. Sure i get some extra bits, but my boss will fire me. Besides, you're supposed to be at school aren't you? Ugh, where's a truant officer when you need one." The stallion leaned his head on his hoof, annoyed with you.
"Look, I really REALLY need that ticket, it's really important, It's related to Princess Twilight Sparkle"
"Really? I guess that makes me Princess Luna then, huh? Look, get out of here and get to school. You're holding up the line"
"What if I triple it? Quadruple even."
"Look, you could give me all the money in that saddle bag of yours, it doesn't matter. I like my job. I'm good at it. Deal with it."
Shit....shit! This fucker wasn't budging and you needed that ticket. Cripes, why didn't you just think this through better. Ugh, you could have probably ran here and made a ticket with your horn if you knew Twilight was going to fly. Or really. Upon realizing your own stupidity. You should have REALLY used a map to track it with your horn and make a warp point. Ugh, how could you be so stupid?! Things were looking pretty grim...
"Two tickets please, for me and my kid."
You hear a cheerful voice beside you, you take notice and look....it was....Lyra?
"Your kid?" The booth pony looked at her with doubt. "He doesn't even look like you"
"Yeah well, he takes after his father. Geez, I can't even send my kid to get a ticket without some sort of security check?" Lyra rolls her eyes at the pony.
"Hey, look. It's my job ok? And did you even know your kid pretty much muscled me with some filly last time he was here?"
"err....yes? I needed him and his......sister to pick things up for me" Lyra grinned sheepishly as a squee escaped her lips
".....at the end of the line?" The booth pony was filled with even more doubt.
"Well yeah, duhhh.They got the coolest stuff there. Come on, you know....stuff?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
"All I know is you need to keep a better eye on your son and daughter. And fix that attitude of theirs, little menaces is what they are. Here" The pony punches out two tickets and slides them to Lyra, and then takes her bits. "And next time this happens, I'm gonna see what our policy is on calling in some social workers. Got it?"
Lyra didn't answer him directly, she just stuck her tongue out at him. And then looked at you with a big grin. "Let's go son, we got a train to catch"
She giggled at you, but...you were awestruck. Where the fuck did she even come from? Was this how ridiculous cartoon deus ex machina really was? Holy shit thank god for it.
"U-umm..yeah"
You follow Lyra into the train. She doesn't say a word yet, she just keeps close to you. even giving you a kiss on the cheek in front of the other passengers and tells you to mind your manners. This keeps up until you both find a rather private spot to sit at.
"Whew....that was a close one. " Lyra flipped over her little coin purse, only a single bit fell out. "cost me though. yeesh. Anon, what's so important that I gotta come in to rescue you, huh?"
"I..."
Just...amazing.
"I, have to help a friend out. It's really important that I get to her soon."
"Well it's a good thing I showed up then. huh?" Lyra grins at you.
"Yeah...where did you even come from?"
"From the train"
"From..the train? You were on the train?"
"Yup! just got back from my trip too" Lyra giggles "Would have been here a day sooner but I got the train schedules messed up. I hope BonBon isn't too sour about me not showing up at the station yesterday. Oh boy, just look at me. Just came back and already having another adventure. So, how about letting me in on this? You can't just expect me to sit here the entire trip wondering what exactly is going on. Does it really involve Princess Twilight? Because if it does, I'm all for excitement!"
You sift through your bag and pull out a mass of bits and place it next to her.
"I'll tell you in a bit. Does that cover what you paid by the way?"
"Awwww. Anon...thanks." Lyra chuckles nervously as she scoops up and starts counting the bits. Seems she felt rather silly giving away all her bits like that in the first place "Tell you the truth, that was my grocery money for the week. Wow, you're super loaded huh?"
you give her a light-hearted smile
"Well, it's just my allowance money actually. Ya know, when you're the son of a chaos god..."
"Lucky! oh hey!" Lyra takes notice of your flank "You got your cutie mark! Awesome!" She just stares at it with a happy smile, then her eyes shift towards yours while still keeping the grin "....what does it mean exactly?"
Dammit Lyra, you weren't in the mood to laugh right now. But dammit, that struck the right chord.
"haha, oh..mnn it's a Chaos cutie mark."
"No kidding? huh, now that I think about it. Your life does seem to be prettttttyyyy crazy. So, whatever is going on must be pretty "chaotic" huh?"
You nod, giving her a gentle grin. You actually felt pretty at ease around her. While not balls off the walls like Pinkie. She still gave off a relaxing vibe of overall friendliness. And right now, she was your hero.
"Yeah, I got a friend. Her name is Starlight Glimmer. She kind of did some bad stuff in the past that got Twilight's attention."
"What kind of bad stuff?"
You felt you could trust Lyra, she didn't have an affiliation to Twilight and therefore wasn't really something to worry about. Plus, she did just save your ass.
"She was taking everypony's cutie mark away for the sake of equality. Even though she herself kept hers."
Lyra grimaced at that "Yeeaahhh, that's kinda bad. So....why is she your friend exactly?"
"Well, to tell you the truth. She foalnapped me, it went wrong. We got stuck together for a night. I learned her tragic past. And..well, all she needed was an actual friend who cared and understood her. Somepony she could trust."
You rub the back of your head with your hoof as you grin nervously
"That doesn't sound too bad, does it? Because I know that sounds kind of suspicious"
"Yeah it does. But you're sure she's ok now?"
Huh, Lyra wasn't asking about her backstory or any extra details. That struck you as odd. But certainly helpful in keeping things simple.
You nod "Pretty sure"
"Well then what's the problem exactly? "
"Well, Starlight still kind of has a chip on her shoulder about Twilight. See, it was Twilight and her friends that managed to set things in motion to stop her plans. And she's kind of not over that yet."
You tilt your head and raise an eyebrow at Lyra "None of this sounds weird to you?"
Lyra shrugs "pfft, no. Your dad is Discord. If that guy can change then anypony can. You just have to believe in them. That's why me and Bonbon are such good friends. We believe in each other. And even if we go through a rough patch. We know we'll get through it in the end. And from the sounds of it, you believed in Starlight. And even though you're just a colt, you're pretty darn smart. So you got it figured out. Though, gotta admit. It still sounds a little sketchy if Princess Twilight is involved. What is she doing...exactly?"
"She wants to talk to Starlight. She's suspicious of her and thinks she may have fooled me in order to regain control. That's why I have to reach Starlight before she does. To try to make sure things don't go crazy. Twilight can be pretty insistent and she's always suspicious of something. I just don't want anything to happen"
Lyra laid back on her seat in a humanish fashion and bounced her leg on her knee "So it's a race. Gee Anon....I really don't want to be against any of the Princesses. But, if you really think you're right then I'm behind you all the way. Kind of have to anyway, already on the train" Lyra giggles again and reaches into the saddlebag she had been carrying around "And since we got some time to waste waiting to get to our destination. You wanna see some of the cool stuff I bought?"
You feel a sense of relaxation gently wash over you. Lyra was something else. Selflessly helping you out even when it took the rest of her bits. Being calm about the whole situation despite the fact of how you described it. And now she was just making a casual suggestion of just showing you stuff she collected on her trip. And it being so calm. You don't even answer. Which made it seem like you were tense.
While lost in thought, Lyra pulls out a small ball, it was perfectly clear and see through. "Come onnnn, don't be so uptight. Let's relax and enjoy the ride. I got this coooool ball. Wanna see what it does?"
You look back at her as she grasps your attention. "Sure"
"Ok, so when I put it close to my horn like this" Lyra, with a single hoof brings the ball to her horn. "And zap it with just a bit of magic..." Her horn glows for just a moment. The ball starts to grow a smaller ball of rainbow within itself. It floats gently away from Lyra's hoof and shines the immediate area with gentle rainbow colors. "It becomes a neato floating light. It doesn't really do much for anything, but it's cute."
It floats near you, the lights didn't make you cover your eyes or cover your face with your leg. Somehow, the light was soft and nonintrusive.
You give it a gentle bump of the hoof. and it begins to float in the opposite direction towards Lyra. She catches it gently and puts it back in her saddle bag. And pulls out another object, it was a pencil. "See this?"
You nod "Yeah, it's a regular old pencil."
Lyra gives you a shifty grin "or is iiittt?" Lyra uses her magic to spin the sharp end of the pencil like a bottletop and disconnects it from the pencil.
"Oh it's a fake?" intriguing "What does it actually do? ohhh"you chuckle "Is it a joke pencil? does it shoot something out or something?"
Lyra shook her head and took out a pack of sharp ends from her bag. "nope, it's still a pencil. But check it out! you can just replace the sharp end instead of actually using a sharpener. Pretty convenient if you're good at not losing your pencil. Just quickly replace the end instead of the whole thing!"
You knew your world had better things than that. But using those shitty plastic sharpeners was pretty crap. So, relatively speaking. That was pretty useful.
"That's actually pretty useful, I gotta get me one of those."
Lyra hovers the pencil with a few packs of sharp ends towards you. "There you go"
huh? wait...
"Lyra, didn't you buy this for yourself?"
Lyra nodded "Yeah, I bought a whole bunch for myself. But I realized I may have bought too much. So you can have that one and I can give Bonbon one of the other ones I got. OHHH, speaking of Bonbon. I got her something super special, wanna see?" Lyra seemed pretty giddy about this one. It was really endearing. It made you smile
"Yeah."
"Ok! sooooo....whatcha think of...." Lyra was sifting through her bag, trying to find it. When she does, she pulls out a bottle of small pink balls "of these!"
What in the? little balls? Why would Bonbon need those?
"What are they?"
Lyra giggled at you "Well, I can see you’re pretty confused. You must be thinking "Why would Bonbon need these balls?"? That's what you're thinking right?"
She was right on the money
"Heh...yeah, so. They must do something special right?"
"Yep, these are special little powder balls. You just toss them and they explode into a pink cloud. They are meant for most of the beasties you can find in the wilderness. One whiff of this and their senses give out for awhile, they can't even walk around. Well...that's what it says on the bottle at least. Pretty neat huh?"
"Yeah...but....why does Bonbon need them?" You ask as if you didn't know. It probably had to do with her secret agent work.
".....oh wait" Lyra just realizes she probably didn't think this whole reveal through "...well...you know" She grinned as she began to sweat "...pests"
You give a gentle smile to Lyra, you could probably mess with her alittle. but she was being very sweet. So you decided to be straightforward about knowing about Bonbon.
"You mean like.....bugbears?"
"Ermmm....are those pests? I mean...I guess" Lyra began to sweat harder, shifting her eyes left and right.
"Relax Lyra, I already know Bonbon is a secret agent."
".....you...do?" Lyra squinted her eyes at you "..if she was a secret agent...what would her name be?"
"Sweetie Drops"
".......woah..." Lyra just that there, motionless for a moment, then she frowned "...well, actually. now that I think about it. I knew her for years and she never told me until recently. I guess you must have done something really cool for her to tell you so soon..."
...oh...you could tell what she was feeling. She was feeling hurt thinking that Bonbon trusted you more all of a sudden.
"Oh no, it's nothing like that. Actually, it's a really funny story on how I found out"
"Is it?" Lyra says with a soft forlorn sigh.
"Yeah. I was dressed up as a secret agent. And she saw me at the door....and I guess my costume must have been really convincing because she kidnapped me and held me hostage. Lyra, you should have seen her face when she realized it was me. You would have died"
"W-wait" Lyra seemed confused "Bonbon thought you were some sort of enemy agent pony? Really? Did she tie you up or something?"
You nod "Yep, the whole tie up and interrogate dealie."
Lyra grinned, then sputtered, then started laughing out loud, uncontrollable mirth overtaking her as she fell over.
You smiled, her reaction was better than what you could have ever hoped for.
It took awhile for Lyra to stop giggling. "Woooo, so I guess we can be a little more open with each other now. Sorry if you felt left out on that, it's a real big secret."
You shrug "Eh, I don't mind. It's a pretty important job right? I can understand if even her own mom doesn't know."
"Awwww" Lyra found you adorable "You're so mature for your age. I guess that's why you've got all this pretty figured out then. So, is Starlight nice?"
You nod "She's cool, she's pretty smart too. And really powerful."
"Yeah, you said she could take cutie marks away. That's pretty scary. But if she's your friend then that means I can trust her too. In fact. I know what I can do when we get there"
What she can do?
"What do you mean?"
"Well you gotta make sure things don't go bad, right? Well...I don't think you can really stop a princess from doing what they wanna do. And the best you could do is just get Starlight ready for when she shows up, right?"
You nod
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to hustle with that. I need to find her before Twilight does. That's the most important thing actually."
"Well, then I'm gonna run interference for ya"
Wow, that was pretty cool of her.
"You’re gonna get in Twilight's way? Really?"
She nods "You bet, I allllwwways wanted to ask her a few questions anyway. And by few, I mean a lot"
"Ohhh, oh I get it...."
You sigh, and smile at her
"Thanks Lyra, you're a real good friend"
"you don't have to thank me Anon, I'm just doing what friends do and..." Lyra yawns "And this friend is a little tired. Didn't get any sleep on the way over to Ponyville so......I'm just gonna take a little nap. That’s ok with you right?"
You nod
"You go right ahead, I'm just gonna look out the window and enjoy the sights"
Equestria....
It really was a beautiful marvel to look at. Though sometimes you wondered if you just didn't give Earth enough credit for it's natural beauty. You never got to travel much. And whenever you did, it was always more city and more lights. Here, everything was virtually undisturbed and new things you've never seen before would pop out whenever you got to see it.
You look at the napping Lyra. She looked really cute and sweet. If it wasn't for your "Age", she'd probably be perfect waifu material. Though, you hoped that if she ever does end up with someone, that that pony makes her happy. Or if it...for whatever reason..ends up being Bonbon.....hmm...seemed to be getting some lewd thoughts mixed in there.
You sighed, shook your head of those thoughts and leaned back. You decided to sit more like a human yourself. If only to remind yourself as to what it was like.
It wasn't as comfy as you remember, or maybe that was due to your pony body. You look at your hoof...no fingers. You could remember when you couldn't even grip a cup. Now you can't even remember what it was like to have fingers. It was almost depressing.
You looked through the window again. Seeing if Twilight was anywhere nearby. She wasn't, maybe you both got ahead of her without noticing? or maybe she was flying another route. Whatever the case. You were sure you could reach Starlight before she could.
After a long while, the train finally comes to a halt. Though there was something different now about the end of the line.
There was an actual structure built around it now. It wasn't much. It just had waiting benches and all that. Were they building a train station here? How odd, considering the train literally has to go backwards to leave.
"Lyra...hey Lyra..were here." You hop off your seat and give her a little shake
"hmm?..huh? " Lyra yawns and looks at you with dreamy eyes "...we're there already?"
You nod "Mhmmm, you ready?
Lyra doesn't answer at first, she slowly leans up, takes a deep breath, and gives her face a few light slaps before looking determined. "Yeah! I'm gonna ask Princess Twilight so many questions that she'll probably get bored and fall asleep! Which I hope she doesn't because I actually want them answered! And-"
"WE HAVE ARRIVED AT OUR DESTINATION, ALL PASSENGERS PLEASE LEAVE IN A ORDERLY FASHION!"
You could hear the conductor over the intercom
"Huh?"
Lyra gets interrupted by the conductor, it makes her look around and notice there were no other passengers but you two. The rest got off at the other stops.
The conductor pony tried to hurry you two along "I mean you two. You better hurry along now, we don't usually stay here for very long since nopony usually gets on"
"Alright, thank you sir. umm..come on mom"
"Right...yeah. let's go son."
You and Lyra step out.
Lyra looks upon the empty landscape. The town was below down a cliff a few ways off. So her initial reaction was one of surprise and worry. "...Hey Anon...you sure wherever we're going exists? Because I don't see anything."
You nod and step ahead, beckoning to her. "Yeah, it's down this way. we just need to find a way down near a cliff and we're golden."
Lyra nodded and followed behind you. and put on a hopeful grin. "Alrighty then, I'll just follow along. and..." She puts her hoof over her eyes to block the sun's light while she looks around "I'll keep my eyes peeled for Princess Twilight."