A week has passed. She’s on the train to Ponyville.
It had taken her much longer than she would have liked to get back to her experimentation area. She applies a name to the place every once in a while- like ‘Marcy’ this last week- but they never stick. Not that she would want a name like that to stick anyways.
She can tell she’s getting mighty close to thaumic burnout. She should be fine until after she gets back to her house; as soon as she gets home, she plans to release her alibi. She’ll have to meter her thaumic use carefully tomorrow, when she’ll be showing the new pony around town.
Which reminds her. As it had turned out, the chaos caused by Tirek bordered on that which Discord had caused himself, back before he’d been reformed. She still doesn’t know how she managed to keep her experimentation zone secret- and away from all of the… strangeness he had applied to everywhere else. Perhaps he hadn’t known of it? In any case, he hasn’t seemed to have mentioned it even once, even though she knows he’d love to play with some of the things she’s discovered.
But she’s getting ahead of herself. Tirek had caused a lot of chaos. An outsider might think that everything returned to normal on its own, with astonishing speed- but she knows that’s simply not true. Ponyville’s rapid recovery from this event, much like the same from every other near-apocalyptic scenario the Elements attract, was not caused by ponies being used to it. Admittedly, that helped quite a bit- but in reality, the speedy recovery was thanks to a rapid- and well-practiced- recovery effort on the part of Mayor Mare and a couple volunteers, including herself. She’s volunteered in just about every one of those cleanup efforts in the past, as well; unfortunately, it seems she’s the only one. She and Mayor Mare had spent far more than they wanted of their effort trying to coordinate the other three volunteers’ efforts. Didn’t exactly help that, just like every other time, all the other volunteers were first-timers. Nopony else seems to have volunteered twice- except Fluttershy, of course.
The most memorable of the shy mare’s participations had been when the Parasprites attacked. During that cleanup, she’d been so focused on what she was doing she forgot anypony was watching- and accidentally proved that shy most certainly does not mean weak. She’d actually outdone some of the more experienced construction ponies Mayor Mare had hired to help.
Of course, they’d then received word of a pony that wanted to move in after the whole Tirek escapade. This new pony- an earth pony mare, apparently- had specifically requested a guide to show her around the entire town as soon as she got off the train. She’d even specifically asked that any welcome parties wait until after the tour was complete.
So, Mayor Mare had gotten in contact with Pinkie Pie. Told her about what was coming and, she understands, ‘convinced’ her not to explode in the new mare’s face.
She’s not sure exactly what that had involved, but she does know Pinkie had not been willing to play tour guide. Upon finding out, she’d promptly volunteered- and Mayor Mare had agreed. The new mare had been informed of the arrangement- and in turn, thanks to Lyra’s open schedule, they’d decided on a time for her to arrive.
That time is tomorrow morning, on the eight o’clock train. As far as she knows, no arrangements have been made for the new mare’s stay- like a bed to sleep in, and a place to work. She’ll have to judge the new mare for herself when she meets them, but there is one option she might just offer.
She does live alone in what might pass for a small mansion. Not nearly as extravagant as the crystal castle the Elements had given Twilight; no, that thing is a rule unto itself. She’s got four bedrooms, each equipped with two-pony-sized beds, more rooms than she can use, and insufficient basement space.
It’s not like she actually uses any of the secret areas of her home anymore. Except the hidden closet in the basement, with the magically-powered generator and equally unique hot water heater in it. But even then, she only opens that once a week or so- just frequently enough to keep the enchantment on the generator fully charged. As long as it keeps spinning, her water stays blessedly hot without manual intervention.
Which reminds her, her “luggage” contains a replacement for that generator, for installation tonight. Her experimentation area’s electrical grid is powered by some kind of geothermal generator, requiring no regular rechargings. As long as she’s careful, she should be able to get away with the installation of this tiny little geothermal generator under her house, as well- and never have to touch it again. Hot water forevermore, without having to manually heat up a large tank of water every time she wants a shower.
And without having to recharge the generator every week. She already doesn’t have to work manual heat on her hot water; that’s what the electrical heater next to her generator is for.
Oh- and having this new generator reduces the possibility of being found out, if she hosts the new pony in her home, to just about zero. There’s still a possibility she’d notice how she never heats up the water in the more traditional tank in a closet on the main floor. Or how that tank isn’t actually hooked up to her home’s plumbing.
But that’s about it.
Oh… and if she does end up hosting an earth pony, she’ll have to make sure she’s available for all the meals. Her kitchen only has unicorn appliances right now… Which, in terms of kitchen appliances, means the stove. Range, technically, but who’s counting? The fridge- and freezer- are powered by the same generator. Which could be another way she’d get caught; she doesn’t have to regularly freeze a tank of water to keep it working. Rather, it makes ice for her.
She’s still a couple hours away from home, though… She sends her alibi to the appliance store. Earth pony stoves are the most expensive, being intended for use by earth ponies, rather than by a unicorn or a pegasus. After all, unicorns can power a heat enchantment directly, and pegasi can funnel the thermal portion of their weather magic into a differently-crafted heat enchantment. An earth pony, however…
She doesn’t know exactly how earth pony stoves work, but she knows the spellwork to allow the conversion of earth pony magic to thermal energy is complex, to say the least. She trots into the appliance store, talks with the clerk… Turns out she has enough money saved up for an earth pony stove, but not much else. Oh well- she needs to find herself a companion sometime, or she’s going to go crazy.
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She gallops into the train station. She’s not late- the train is still pulling into the station.
The installation of her new generator had gone… successfully. She’d managed it- but come within a hair’s breadth of thaumic exhaustion in the process. She’d also finished up hardly fifteen minutes ago- and rushed herself through a quick shower before darting out here, using an illusion spell to disguise her exhaustion. If she doesn’t drop it by tonight, she expects, she’ll run into her endurance limit. The little rest she’d managed during her shower hadn’t been enough.
But she’s here. Even if she actually hits that endurance limit, her showers will stay hot and her fridge will stay cold. It’ll be a few days before she can start building a room around her latest discovery anyways; she has to wait for at least half of her reserves to regenerate. She plans to wait for a fully-rested horn and, probably, full recovery of her entire reserves before she goes. That way, she can spend much more time working on it before she has to return!
Eh. Sleep takes priority, but at least that takes less time than her thaumic parts. She’s been pushing it off too much these last couple days, making sure she could get home before she reached thaumic exhaustion, installing the generator… and now this. If she has to add a physical stimulation spell- the magical equivalent of caffeine- to her stack, she’ll exceed her natural production… and set herself to run out of magic sometime during the night, probably after her horn gives up anyways.
She blinks; she hadn’t even noticed the train’s doors come open, and several ponies come out. She adds that stimulation spell to her stack, letting out a sigh of relief as her mind clears up for duty. If only she had an alibi available- but if she did, she’d be reaching thaumic exhaustion sometime mid-morning… and disappearing into a puff of arcane mist is about as suspicious as it gets.
But hey- if she had been able to use an alibi for this… Those things don’t need to sleep. As a matter of fact, she can shamelessly cheat the dream world by using her alibi to do something while she takes a nap! Sure, she can’t draw on her real form’s brainpower when she does that, but so?
Oh- and increasing her thaumic use beyond her natural regeneration rate causes her horn to glow. She adds an aural dampener to the mix, muting the faint glow back to nothing… She’ll still be good until tonight; it doesn’t take much power at all to dampen THAT faint of an aura. She tunes it to only just barely dampen it out- so if she adds a levitation spell to the stack, it’ll look like the only one she’s using.
She makes a quick search of the train station. Earth pony mare… One, two, three. Four.
She lets out another sigh and waits. The new pony will probably come talk to either her or one of the uniformed station staff- all of which were made aware of the arrangement, and know where she’s waiting. She’d probably cause too much of an uproar if she tried asking them all if they were the new mare coming into town; she knows far too little about this new mare to ask targeted questions.
And, of course, two of the earth pony mares are talking to station attendants right now. One has a briefcase, a suit, and black glasses, making her think of the typical spy attire- but she strikes that out quickly. She could just be a businessmare with sunglasses.
The other has no fancy clothing, nor glasses. Not even a saddlebag.
Yet she finds herself somehow attracted to this simple, cream-colored mare. She spots the three wrapped candies on the mare’s flank- and quickly pulls her eyes away from the curly two-toned dark blue and pink mane, gazing at the ground. If that is the new mare, she won’t have any problem whatsoever in sharing her home.
Though… Making it not be creepy might be more than a little difficult.
She’s still staring at the concrete in front of her when somepony walks up to her.
“Would you be Lyra Heartstrings?” the mare asks, with an unfamiliar voice.
She looks up. “Yes,” she begins- but the rest catches in her throat. That cream mare is the new one.
Why can’t anything be easy? Now everything’s going to be awkward! … her eyes are beautiful. Gah! Can’t be thinking like that! Maybe in a month, but it’ll just be creepy if I say it now!
“So… How about that tour?”
“R-Right,” she stammers, lurching to her hooves and turning to the gate to ponyville in an effort to clear her mind. At least her blush is covered by the illusion spell. “Tour. Um- it was the entire town, right?”