The sun had long since set over Canterlot city. The once bright blues of day, and the later oranges of evening had been replaced with the inky blackness of night. Barring a few night shift workers, the people of Canterlot had drifted of to sleep, leaving the city in a comforting silence.
In the suburbs, Lyra Heartstrings slept quietly.
She didn’t snore.
She didn’t murmur.
She didn’t toss or turn.
She didn’t kick, roll, or stir in the slightest.
She just breathed softly, in and out, and slept.
However someone, or something was awake, and the shadows beneath her bed began to take form. Slowly, the creature ebbed its way out of the home it had made for itself, barely brushing the sheets of the occupied bed above it.
It slid toward the center of the room, making no sound, and leaving no prints on the carpet. As it reached a less confined space it began to rise. It grew and grew until it stood the height of the room hunched over. From its shoulders, three scaly wings grew down to the floor, giving the appearance of a cape formed by the creatures own body. Its limbs were wiry and had joints in weird places, with its elbows below its waist and knees bending backwards.
Anyone who saw this creature would scream.
Nobody could resist the sheer terror that radiated from this beast of the shadows.
Fortunately, there was no one around to see it.
No one.
“Gotcha!”
Except for Lyra Heartstrings.
The lights clicked on, and two mint green arms in purple pyjama sleeves wrapped around the monstrous body. The thing didn’t even have a chance to react before the excited teenager was began screaming in joy.
“Iknewit!Iknewit!Iknewit!” Lyra excitedly yelled in to the back of the creature. “I knew you were real! I have so many questions!”
The teenage girl released the monster and ran to her nearby bookshelf.
As she tossed books over her shoulders, she bombarded the confused creature with questions.
“What are you? Where did you come from? Where is my notepad? Why are you here?”
The gears in the monsters head churned away,but it could not come up with a solution to its problem. How was it supposed to get out of this mess? One of the prime criteria for success was ‘remain hidden from everyone’ and yet it had been caught by the absolute worst person to be caught by!
“L-Lyra?”
“How did you fit under my bed ? WHERE IS MY NOTEPAD? Why couldn’t I see you under there? What’s your name?”
“Lyra I really- Ow!”
A stray dvd from the shelf crashed into the monster’s face with reasonable force, causing the thing to lose balance and topple over.
“A ha! There it is!”
Lyra wheeled around to see her new discovery flopped on the floor with a dvd on its face.
“Oh no! Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt you.” She helped the creature up to its feet, noting that its skin felt like velvet over metal. “I’m just a little excited is all. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long! I swear that my first plan for when I saw someone like you wasn’t to attack them with… A dvd copy of Bonnie and Clyde. Huh, I thought I returned that two years ago. Welp, too late now.”
Lyra once more tossed the movie behind her. This time it landed on the bed. She then scanned the guest in her bedroom up and down, trying to make notes on its appearance.
“Three wings... Long limbs... Green eyes? Weird, thought they would be red.”
The monster, now on its feet, looked around the room. There weren’t very many options for it, and even fewer that didn't hurt Lyra, which is the last thing it wanted to do. It appeared that it was trapped was with her.
“Lyra, you aren't supposed to see me. I know you're excited but could you please pretend this didn't happen?” The thing pleaded, “I’m supposed to protect you secretly, that's why I only come out when you're asleep.”
This stopped the girl in her tracks.
“Oh…” She started, clearly disappointed that in this turn of events. “Then I guess having you come to school for my science research project is out of the question?”
“Absolutely not, Lyra.” The monster said gravely. “Also, you don’t take any sciences.”
“But can I still ask my questions though? I have so many! Like, how do you know I don’t take science? I didn’t know I don’t take science!”
There was a deep pause as the monster weighed its options.
“Okay, you can ask the questions,” The creature sighed. “But you can’t tell anyone about this. Deal?”
The light returned to Lyra’s eyes.
“OKAY DEAL!” She flipped back a few pages in her notepad, back to where the questions began. “So! First, what’s your name? Because not having something to call you makes this feel too… laboratory.” She shuddered at the thought.
“I am Shade 01, Designation: Lyra.” The creature shrugged. “I suppose that’s as close to a name as I have.”
Lyra gasped. “What? No name? We need to fix that!”
She looked around the room for anything that could give make a good name for her new friend. Then her eyes fell on the movie that had become a projectile moments before.
“I’ve got it! Bonnie!” Lyra exclaimed, but quickly backpedalled. “Wait, that might get confusing. Clyde! How ya doin’ Clyde?”
‘Clyde’ exhaled softly. “Clyde it is then.”
“Okay, next question!” Lyra said with a clap. “What are you? Hang on you already said that. You’re a shade right? What’s a shade?”
“I’m a manifestation of the Coremistress’ power.” Clyde shrugged. “Since I’m not the full power of the Coremistress, I am a shadow of it. Therefore, I am a shade.”
Lyra’s eyes widened at this. “Woah! Coremistress? That sounds awesome! And good thing it’s a mistress too, it would be a little weird having a guy in my room while I’m sleeping. Although, I guess it’s not that weird, all things considered.” She started frantically writing in her note-pad. “So is that like a hivemind thing? Or a ‘I serve the great goddess McMuffu destroyer of fridges’ thing?”
The question seemed to confuse Clyde, even on its inhuman face that was evident.
“Hivemind, I guess? I have some free will and thought, but only really enough that the Coremistress doesn’t have to control us 24/7.” Clyde raised its sharp fingers and tapped its head. “Memories, knowledge, personality, that’s all from the Coremistress. It’s why I knew you didn’t take science, but I didn’t know you could fake sleep so convincingly. Heart rate. breathing, how did you do it?”
“Oh I was asleep, you just woke me up when you came out from under the bed.” Lyra explained, pride beaming out from her smile. “I’ve been studying sleep therapy.”
Clyde blinked its bulbous eyes.
“You’ve been taking sleep therapy.”
“Yep. Ever since I started trying to prove things go bump in the night!” She smiled matter-of-factly “If you want to see what goes bump! You’ve got to be awake when they go bump!”
“You researched sleep therapy, so that you could possibly discover me and use me for the research assignment you don’t have.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you just…” Despite Clyde’s unusual appearance, it appeared capable of face-palming. “Nevermind, I don’t no why I’m trying.”
Lyra laughed heartily.
“Man, you sound just like Bon-Bon! Are you sure I can’t introduce you two? You’d get along great!”
Clyde shook its head.
“I told you Lyra, I’m supposed to be a secret, even from you.”
With a sigh, Lyra’s shoulders slumped.
“Yeah, I know.” She lowered her head and kicked at the ground. “I just don’t like keeping things from my friends. Especially not Bon-Bon, we share everything.”
The mood in the room fell, and Clyde tried desperately tried to raise Lyra’s spirits again.
“Don’t you have a few more questions to ask me?”
As if the last conversation had never happened, Lyra’s head bounced up. Her grin had already returned, full force.
“Right, two more. Plus any follow up questions. I’m a thorough interviewer.”
She reopened her notebook, looking for the page with her next question.
“Okay! Why are you here? Do you intend to eat me? Feed off my dreams? Learn my habits to eventually replace me?” Lyra didn’t so much as flinch while reading her list of possible reasons for a monster being under her bed, even though most them were terrible. “New one, do you intend to absorb me into this ‘Coremistress’?”
Clyde didn’t speak, as if it was waiting for Lyra to tell it how to answer.
“Uhh, Clyde?”
“My goal is to protect you, Lyra. As you said, things go bump in the night. I’m here to make sure that the things that bump harder than I do don’t get to you.” Clyde bowed its already hunched head. “It’s what the Coremistress ordered me to do.”
“Wait, really?” Lyraa asked as she looked up from her notepad. “Why does she want to protect me? Am i, like, the chosen one or something?”
This response actually managed to elicit a laugh from Clyde.
“Because she cares about you, Lyra. She wants to keep you safe. So do I.”
“Are you going to tell me more about her?”
“No.”
Lyra laughed.
“Worth a shot.” She sighed as she calmed down. “Last question, and it’s one that’s been bugging me since you appeared.”
“And that is?”
“How on earth have you been hiding from me?! I must have turned this room upside down trying to find you, but was there any evidence of you? NOPE!” Lyra was visibly more frustrated now. It looked more like she was talking to herself than asking the monster standing in front of her. “You were under my bed, right? HOW? Firstly, I checked under my bed plenty of times, even when I wasn't looking for you. And secondly, You're huge! There is no way you could-”
“Anchored Hypo-Dimensional Compression.”
Lyra blinked. Then blinked again.
“What?”
“By anchoring myself in three dimensional space, and then compressing myself to the extent of losing my third dimension and becoming two dimensional, I can make myself completely undetectable.” Clyde Explained. “I can’t do it in the light. As i shrink photons can get trapped under my skin, and as I compress myself smaller they break out. The brighter it is, the more painful it is. If i were to try and hide fully in the light… well, I’d be like an egg in a microwave, except the egg would be getting smaller while it heated up.”
“That... “ Lyra began as she processed exactly what she was being told. Once she wrapped her head around what Clyde was saying, her eyes lit up. “...is so cool!”
“You think my monstrous powers are ‘cool’? ”
“Uhhh… Yeah! ” Lyra shrugged. “You're powers are awesome! Can you compress yourself only partly? Or, Like, make your hands reaaaaaalllly thin? Because if you can, you could turn your arms into the sharpest swords ever! Or you could make yourself harder than diamonds!”
Lyra gasped.
“I just had a great idea for my research project! I promise I won't mention you-oo-”
She was hit by a sudden wave of yawning, reminding her how late it was.
“but that can wait until the morning.” She flopped back into her bed and wrapped herself in the covers. “Goodnight Clyde!”
Clyde was dumbfounded.
“You're able to go to sleep? Just like that?” it asked. “After just finding out there are monsters that might come after you while you're asleep?”
“Yep, sleep therapy classes, remember? ” she said as she stretched out her body and settled into her bed. “besides, I have you protecting me, so there's no reason for me to worry.”
With it's inhuman face, Clyde smiled.
“You're right Lyra. There's nothing to worry about.” It reached over and turned out the lights. “Goodnight.”
For a few seconds everything was quiet. The only sounds were the trees moving in the wind and Lyra’s steady breathing.
“Hey, Clyde?” Lyra asked in a sleepy voice
“Yes, Lyra?
“we're friends, right?”
In the darkness, Clyde's smile grew.
“Yes Lyra, we are friends.”
“Good, good. I like having friends.” she shuffled around under her covers, finally getting comfortable. “Goodnight Clyde, for real this time.”
“Goodnight Lyra.”