Lyra followed the manastream, her eyes deeply attuned to the colors and shapes that magic had, each pony had a hoofprint, colors mixing and shifting through the color spectrum with their shifts in emotion. It was like seeing the world in a kaleidoscope, the colors telling her what she needed to know at a glance.
Sure there were issues, lots of people all at once made her senses become jumbled, the aura sense mixing into a putrid brown and it felt like she was wading in quicksand. But she grew to use her knowledge of magic well enough to pick out certain things about the new world that made her an above average vigilante.
"I see you, Spike."
Lyra had been trying to track Spike down for the last few days, her mind had raced for a while trying to come up with how exactly to catch a dragon who could turn into living energy. Though it wasn't her idea to go dragon hunting, if it was up to her, she'd have let the dragon have a nest and cordon off the city and just let him be.
She felt the buzz of an incoming call and she picked it up, the voice clear and concise on the other end. Bon Bon's dulcet tones and general annoyance coming through loud and clear. --Lyra, don't let him get away.--
Lyra scoffed and zipped up her hoodie. "Yeah, Yeah. I got it. Celestia as my witness, I'm going to catch him."
Silence came from the other end.
"Okay, more like Celestia as my witness, I'm catching him to not look incompetent. So any new news on our busy dragon or has he just been sitting around twiddling his claws like a good drake?"
--Well besides him stealing as I quote, "priceless dresses from my fall fashion line" from one Rarity Belle, and rampaging through Manehattan's Hooflyn borough, I'd say this last few days has been a highly productive day for a dragon. And from the reports he's larger than before. So get this animal control issue done or else we might have a Celestia sized or Element sized problem on our hooves.--
Lyra cringed at the thought. "Roger. I'm going silent for this mission so if you hear from me, things went south."
Lyra could almost hear the dripping sarcasm from her eyes and ears back at base. --So like every night--
The green unicorn sighed and activated her hoof bands, the fists armoring her shoulders and her front legs. She dropped off the side of the building nearby Spike's nest, her descent slowed by letting her armor grip onto the building and letting her fingers dig into the stonework. She steadied her back hooves and pushed off the building, her mind running the trajectory calculations in her head as she dropped, each moment passing like eons as she swung her fists forward and braced for impact. She felt the jolt of her landing as she used her fists like a cushion, letting her fall's energy be diluted by a greater area.
It still hurt though. Lyra checked for bruises as she checked out the roof of the building. "Okay, that's step one." She quietly ran through her checklist of things to do, her recent failures through the last few months steeling her resolve and resourcefulness. She noticed the Mare in the Moon still sitting there as the stars twinkled down their light.
"Now if I was a giant dragon, where would I be?" Lyra's eyes scanned the ground for any clues. Discarded bits, half finished gems, copper wire, if it was worth money and was anything close to shiny- dragons would have a need to steal it. It made Manehattan a mess during dragon mating season, but Lyra heard of the reports of dragons gambling their hoard away to impress the lady drakes. Lost in thought, Lyra almost fell directly into a massive rend in the power station.
"Horseapples." Scanning the hole, she noticed pieces of Spike's claws deep in the metal. Hard to miss the aura color of a dragon- the mana itself came in different shapes, almost as if pony magic was a circle and dragons were triangles. Things didn't fit together too nicely and it was like Spike was lighting up the Manehattan skyline whenever he moved. Lyra backed up and dialed Bon Bon.
"Hey, just found traces of the dragon here. You definitely should call the Guards."
Bon Bon grumbled through the line. --So you don't have to? Cause it feels like it--
Lyra twiddled her mechanical thumbs. "Okay, so maybe I might be pushing a lot of the less savory bits of my job on you but hear me out. If you go and dial Flash Sentry and his goons, then I will bring back that pizza you like."
--Fine, but next time you talk to Flash.--
"Cross my heart and all that stuff. Now I'm going to be awesome and fight a dragon. Wish me luck." Lyra could hear Bon Bon berate her as she hung up, her voice echoing in her head. Lyra always liked her voice. It reminded her of taffy, low and quiet and Bonny usually stretched out an argument to the point of breaking, but had a sweet heart. Lyra chuckled as she jumped into the hole- all the talk of food and the late hour made her hungry.
Bon Bon sighed as she wheeled her chair into the next room and dialed Flash Sentry. She rubbed her forehead as his answering machine picked up and she heard him sing some Feather Bangs tune. She let the answering machine play and waited to see if he'd pick up. "Come on."
A breathless voice came on the line. "Sorry, sorry, had to do some exercises to keep me in shape, you dig?"
Bon Bon groaned. "At this time of night? I would so hate to interrupt your session, but this is Bon Bon, and I just heard there was a dragon down at the Hooflyn Power Station so if you could take a few moments out of your time and gather up some recruits or something. Don't want Manhattan to have another dragon attack on its hooves."
Flash's jovial tone dropped. "Low blow, Wheels. But sure, I'll gather some dudes and dudettes and try and fix it."
"Awesome." Bon Bon hung up on him and slammed the phone down. She pushed herself to the window and stared down at the world, her wheelchair sitting there, metallic and chrome glinting in the light, her back legs unable to move. She laid her head back and stared up at the ceiling. "New personal record, Bon, you finished a conversation with Flash. Small miracles." Bon Bon laughed wistfully. She awkwardly reached for a drink and rubbed her temple. "Lyra, I hope you know what you are doing out there."
Lyra didn't know what she was exactly doing. Sure, she could easily improvise ten solutions to a problem on the fly if she had to, but it didn't mean she actually knew what she was doing. She followed the hallway, a big metal cube of blank space that her eyes could only see in brief moments, the interference of the bouncing magic clouded her vision. She could deal with corridors. They were obnoxious to navigate, but the slight imperfections of casting let her see glimpses of the hallway, the way was lit up with tiny motes of green- almost like she was following a trail of stars.
"Here, dragon, dragon." Lyra frowned and clicked her tongue, the sound travelling around the room in brief flashes. Sure it was less refined than her "magic sense" Bonny liked to joke about, but she was running blind and this time it was just a unfortunate fact. She quietly followed the trail of broken computers and Core Industries hardware, the room gave her nothing else to work with. Bending down, she picked up a small coin and ran her hoof over it, the sense of touch tracing an image in her brain of the regal portrait of Celestia, the only Princess of Equestria. Lyra chuckled as she noticed the brief hint of a smile and almost motherly figure of the Princess. As if that was completely true. Tossing the coin aside, she stretched and carefully kept some low hum to keep her mind both at ease and so she wouldn't come home to Bon Bon with a broken nose cause she ran into a wall again.
"Come on, Spike's a big dragon, why in the name of Tartarus can't I find him?"
Her voice echoed and resent the room layout to her brain and she noticed something vaguely strange. The wall was moving. The wall wasn't a wall and the jagged edges of the wall that she had been following for about five to ten minutes were just hints at the dragon, each hole a stage of growth.
"Awesome. I'll just pull out my nonexistent sword and stab the sleeping dragon."
Laughter peeled out through the factory, like church bells ringing, light and airy yet containing some sense of majesty. "And I thought I was the only one looking for a dazzling dragon that stole some maiden's goods."
Lyra grimaced at the voice, the manasight she could muster in this space told her of a very unique mana signature. "Hey, Radiance, long time no see. Heard you fought the Candymare and won."
A light step told her of Radiance's gliding presence. "Yes, well I was in the area and I thought that her sense of criminality was a punishable offense. But less about me, what about you? I mean word on the street is that you're supposedly the absolute worst hero. Now I can't say for sure cause there's heroes like the Prankster and Magicmare who are positively dreadful at their je ne sais quoi. But you at least are something rather exciting even if you tend to cause more damage than the villains you fight." Lyra could see Radiance create a nail file and she could just feel the slight satisfaction that the mare had.
Lyra tried to play it off. She at least tried to look cool, slightly leaning closer to her unwanted super acquaintance. Crossing her forehooves, she smiled and wondered how ridiculous she looked. "I mean it's not like I fight small time villains."
Radiance's voice rose and fell with slight hints of sarcasm. "I mean when you help blow up the Lower East Side with a massive fireball. . ."
Lyra cringed as she remembered fighting Solar. "Which I wasn't the cause of. My tech doesn't cause massive explosions. That was the other mare." The mint green unicorn whistled as she felt Radiance's eyes on her. "Okay so maybe I punched her in the face first, but she was also trying to break into the Gallopheim Museum and that didn't burn down. So slight win there and I totally made up to her about it."
The other mare's voice was incredulous. "You did what?"
Lyra shrugged. "Solar was a good mare and well, I don't exactly agree with her methods, I think she's more of a hero than a villain but you know, semantics and all that and while I'd love to debate the ins and outs of supermorality or whatever you'd like, but I'm going to wake this dragon up and be really cool while doing it." Lyra hoped she didn't come off as too confident.
"I don't think that's a fantastic idea."
Lyra summoned her gauntlets again, their tank like power wrapping around her hooves. "Sure, but if somepony hadn't invented the Sparkle Generator, we wouldn't even be in this situation. So on the list of bad ideas, this is like a five on that ten point scale." Lyra grunted as she powered up her fists, her body wasn't made for punching things and the rudimentary lessons that Bonny had given her ran through her head. Winding up her punch, she leaned forward and punched the dragon with all of her magical might. A large bang sounded as she punched the mountain of muscle that Twilight's little guard hound had become.
"See? That wasn't too bad, you wuss." Lyra shot her worried acquaintance a grin. "I mean if that didn't wake him up-"
That was when the entire power station fell apart as Spike stood up and stretched.
Lyra just stood there dumbfounded as she could sense things falling down around her and saw the swirling trail of magic that led towards the city. She could almost hear Bon Bon's shrill complaints as she accepted the call ringing on her headset.
--What was that?--
"Nothing important." Lyra turned off her headset and tossed it in her hoodie, her worry about Bon Bon calling again and again as she saw the live report that the news would just love to cover. She could see the headlines now if she didn't do anything- "City Menace Doesn't Handle Situation With Care" or some horrible pun that belittled her. She knew that it was just her own mind running with the worst scenario, but it felt like it rang true somewhere. And she had some inklings of guilt since she was the one who just punched Spike awake.
She would definitely blame this one on Radiance once she had to explain this mess to Bonny.
She could vaguely feel Radiance shaking her back to reality as the world spun around her. "-on, we have to do something."
"Give me a moment." Lyra's world was colors and sounds that muddled her senses. She unzipped her hoodie and let her lungs take in air, letting each moment pass as she counted to ten. The world reformed around her, its colors muted and pastel compared to the vivid colors she was accustomed to. She'd have to deal with it, since a giant dragon trumped disorientation. Giving a hoof's up in Radiance's general direction, she tried to smile as she said something she'd probably regret later. "You want to try something crazy?"
"Not particularly."
Flash Sentry, Manehattan's best and brightest, and still normal, guard stared up and quietly cursed under his breath as he saw what could only be Twilight Sparkle's one and only dragon swooping down and almost leveling Savoy Row. It wasn't like the Spike he vaguely remembered, slightly intelligent for a dragon, less puppy more like a well mannered border collie. Still a dragon, but less savage. Sure there was that one time Spike had almost leveled Ponyville, but that was an inconsequential town and Sparkle said she had him under control.
"Captain, what do we do?"
Flash Sentry glanced over at his trembling second in command, Party Favor, barely holding it together, his magical aura fritzing out all over his horn as he tried to stare anywhere but up. Flash sighed and placed a hoof onto the stallion.
"Favor, look at me. We are the last line of defense in Manehattan. What do you think we do in this situation?" Flash didn't wait for his begrudging friend to answer and continued. "That's right, we stand here and keep the city from falling into complete and utter chaos. So you take a small moment and think of your happy place and come back to me in a few seconds cause I need somepony to coordinate the magic side."
Party Favor gulped and slowly nodded. "Y-yes sir."
Flash looked up as he put on his helmet as fast as he could, fidgeting with the straps. He stopped for a moment, not because a dragon was rampaging through the center of town, far from it. It was seeing one of the city's supers toss a pink ball at the dragon as fast as she could, the salmon colored construct zipping towards Spike. And as he saw the glinting sphere cross the half mile distance, as it passed he could hear a high pitched scream at the corner of his hearing. A very familiar voice.
"What is going on, sir?" Party Favor looked up incredulously at the scene, his Guard training still trying to square up with the fact that Manehattan was almost too strange now for a normal guard contingent.
"I don't want to know."
Lyra screamed as she felt the world zip past her, her mind barely keeping up as the images kept repeating. One moment she'd see a glowing pink bubble surrounding her as her manasight reflected off Radiance's construct. The next she'd see the same view, just maybe she had her hooves in front of her face, preparing for the fall to her death. It was disorienting, her senses amped up to eleven and yet it felt like she was running truly blind.
Her world was just what was in front of her face in her little bubble and she hated each and every moment as she cursed her horrible idea.
Her horizontal motion was stopped as she collided full force with fifty tons of dragon; her neck jolted as she felt the forward momentum stop as she could feel Radiance try and keep her from going through with a deadly stunt. Lyra almost praised her acquaintance. Almost. Her nose made contact with the edge of the dissolving bubble, its forward momentum transferring to her as she was jostled around, her nose felt wet and sticky as she was tossed towards Spike, her mana sight showing him in neon purple green as she tried to dodge his spikes. She placed her gauntlets in front of her face and hoped that the secret military tech she had cribbed from Canterlot held up to a greed fueled dragon.
She found out immediately as she was bounced around like she was a skipping stone upon a lake, each bounce onto some hardened scales bruising both her ego and her sides. She laid on Spike's back for a moment, her body aching, legs weak, and mind cloudy with a growing headache. Lyra gingerly ruffled around her pockets and looked at what she still had, hoping that the jostling hadn't caused some of her homemade weapons to activate prematurely. She grasped onto each thing with her green aura checking for dents and magic leaks. Finding none, she barked out a laugh, her chest on fire as she handled her liquid rubber explosive.
Bonny had said she was crazy to even hope for a stable rubber compound and putting that into a bomb, but she had forgotten one thing. She was usually bored and crazy enough to think of the fun possibilities of melting a ton of rubber and keeping it hermetically sealed within a highly condensed magical field so it would expand and cover its target in rapidly cooling rubber.
"This is so dumb. So, so, so very dumb." Lyra groaned as she went hand over fist up the dragon, each rung was one of the spikes that had sprouted over Spike, each one far longer than her own horn. "But hey, maybe I'll be on the news. Bonny would love that."
She lifted her hoodie and looked over Manehattan, the glitz and glamour of the city twinkling up at her in a rainbow of mana signals. She almost chuckled, imagining it in normal color, her memory filling in the blanks that her eyes couldn't. It was dazzling there, every color of the rainbow and looking at ponies without seeing them in some ghostly afterimage due to their signals they sent. She shook her head as the thought came, the months of coming back into the world steeling herself from the emotional weight. She briefly felt a buzz in her hoodie, most likely Bon Bon.
"I wonder how I'll explain this to the Guards." Lyra laughed as the wind whipped her face. "Probably just invoke Celestia and see where that gets me." She could hear the shaking tremble of the street below as Spike lazily walked through semifamiliar territory- Lyra's mental map and directional knowledge meant that they were strolling down Twilight's little street or close to it, the mogul of Sparkle Labs designating the entire street to magical research through loopholes and knowing Celestia. Look how well that turned out, the buildings in this section empty and barely used now, blasted out front doors where ponies stole magical tech for a laugh, and still no Twilight Sparkle as far as her eyes could see.
Lyra grinned as she saw the moon up above, full of glyphs and dancing mana. At least the Mare in the Moon was watching her reckless behavior. She felt Spike shift as his claws rent through panes of glass, each footfall breaking parts of the quiet complex. She slunk up his neck and quietly sat on his head looking down at the dragon, his breath dancing around him as electric static heated the air with possibility. Lyra took a short breath and gathered her focus, drawing mana from her surroundings as she chanted slowly under her breath as quietly as she could. Breath control was an important thing to magic, drawing in mana and breathing out stress. She felt her body slack as she let the world control her for a short moment, her body unused to this spell and her senses screaming at her as she imagined what would come next.
She opened her eyes and teleported up. She couldn't say anything as she felt the air hit her lungs with force as she was shot up into the sky in what felt like entering space, her body hit weightlessness for a moment as things balanced out for a brief second, her mind showing her hundreds of feet in the air.
She silently cursed as she realized that the next few moments might end in a very painful splat if not timed correctly. She felt her body spin as she tried to kick her hooves, trying to assume her arc and change it, even slightly while barely glimpsing Spike through the neon colored wind that brought something to focus her mind on.
She levitated her little bomb, rolling it gently in her aura, trying to activate it's explosive with a flicking motion. She held it there just looking at its spherical form in her mana, the endless possibilities that it held deep within due to hopefully negligible imperfections within the creation itself bringing her close to screaming at herself within her head and throwing the thing as far away as she could.
And then she tossed that thought away and channeled the remaining magic deep within her well of magic towards her fists, the metal gleaming, heat emanating from her fists as she shaped the air around her, the entire dancing feel of magic partaking in her performance, heating the air and forcing it into faux fire. The superheated air danced around her as she felt it lick her mane and hoodie with living heat.
She tossed the little bomb, its round, purple magic mixing ever so nicely with Spike's triangular aura. Sure both were purple, but by that point she just had to look for the shape that stuck out. And a second later, she connected with Spike's head, the force of her strike physically forcing his neck down, his steps grew unsure as his brain registered pain, claws digging into the glass and masonry as his mind tried to recognize what had happened. Spike's body shifted briefly from tangible to living electricity, his body buzzing with stored energy he had taken from hiding in power plants and subways, his body registering pain and wanting to trigger the fight or flight response that dragons of a certain size were unaccustomed to.
Lyra groaned as she looked around her and watched the liquid rubber bloom, the explosion almost running in slow motion as her body drew in deep breaths of air. The rubber gushed over Spike , a waterfall of molten rubber coating his scales as she looked at it. It was almost beautiful in its facsimile of nature, the dark purple mana to her eyes mixed well with the night sky, blue and gleaming down upon her.
Spike recoiled from the pain as he tried to run away, his form shuddering as he tried to zap away, his body contorting into painful shapes as he screamed in agony as his scales became dull and black, liquid rubber coating him and hardening almost as fast as it cascaded down.
Lyra shook her head, her mind had run through that sound in her head, the cry of a wounded animal as it slowly tried to escape from a hunter's trap, its leg caught fast within. She had expected some noise like that and run through it again and again, trying to desensitize herself to the reality of stopping a lightning drake. And yet, the reality of the sound stuck with her as she slid down the dragon's back, his form slumping as entire limbs were covered in black tar-like rubber.
Sometimes stopping a routine villain felt terrible, but this time it was like being animal control. She didn't like being animal control, it felt too one note. She could try and talk to villains and maybe get them to stop or at least invite them to off the clock parties. Animals with powers felt wrong somehow, more primal and like a bystander that had just been minding its own business while its home had radically been ripped out beneath them.
It didn't make her happy about it.
She turned and looked at the street she was on, broken glass crunching underhoof, carts and stalls overturned, houses destroyed and yet she won. With some help, but she did it. Lyra felt a hoof on her shoulder as she shook her head and felt a microphone being shoved in her face.
"Hello, Manehattan Channel Six news, I'm Fleur Dis Lis and our watchers just saw you go toe to toe with a dragon. Now, how are you feeling and who are you? I mean with the glut of supers around it's hard to keep track."
Lyra saw her questioner in hazy yellow. "Just call me the Handler and I feel awful. I mean there's a part of me that still has this adrenaline high for what I just did, but I just hurt. And if you need me, I'm going to get pizza cause I'm tired and hungry and I promised to get pizza before fighting a dragon. So yeah, situation has totally been handled." Lyra knew she had to most likely sound both insane and look it, her mind wondering where she was looking exactly and how the camera picked it up. And then she remembered she was, for all intents and purposes, blind and she had to at least crack a smile.
Fleur just sounded confused. "Yes, well. You sure did handle that situation with only a medium to large amount of property damage."
Lyra didn't care to stay around much longer after that, her mind wandering as she heard the newsmare trying to shout her superhero name as she walked towards the pizza place on 122nd Street. She powered down her gauntlets and slunk into the night, bruised ribs and all as she heard the city start back to life again, broken windows helped ooze out a melange of sounds- the newest Sapphire Shores track overlayed by DJ Pon-3's newest banger with a refrain from some up and coming garage band. It was music to Lyra's heightened senses.
She fished out her connection back to Bon Bon and slid it firmly into place. She heard the hum of her world getting back to normal. "Equestria to Bonny, looks like the mission was a success. Now what pizza toppings do you want?"
She heard Bon Bon's frantic fumbling over her headset. --Do you know how long it's been since you've gone radio silent? Like forty minutes and I've seen the news, so I know exactly what you've been up to.--
Lyra walked in between a crowd of passerby, blending in as best she could as she went back and forth with her best friend. "Come on, I beat the dragon. So let's get past that stuff. Now if I remember correctly, you liked that anchovy, hay, and daffodil pizza we got last time so-"
--I tolerated it. You should know by now that earth ponies don't like fish.--
Lyra threw up her hooves. "Come on, you know you liked it. Plus I thought Cheese Sandwich was on the level. I mean it's not like I can see him make the pizzas."
--You probably could. I mean you are blind but it doesn't stop you from fighting villains or a freaking dragon.--
Lyra smiled. "Hey, I don't get the choice of when my powers work. And that stallion is super quick with his hooves, so I doubt I could have kept him honest with the order." Lyra rolled her eyes. "And anyway, it gave us something to talk about." Lyra crossed the street, feeling on top of the world. "So you want just a daffodil one cause after tonight I feel like some relaxation time is totally earned. Which means no weird toppings even though I would love trying those hot peppers from the south of Equestria. Heard those were great."
Lyra heard a groan from the other end. --Fine, but if its not just daffodils, I'm going to not let you hear the end of it. You can get whatever you want, but then you need to get it half and half cause I don't like heat all that much. I mean how hard is it to get pizza in Manehattan?--
Lyra looked up and saw Radiance's aura somewhere from above her. "It's harder than being a superhero. I mean have you seen the lines? Like I'd rather fight the Candymare again instead of waiting an hour for a ten bit pie. No matter how awesome the newspapers and crowds say these places are, if I'm not out in fifteen minutes I get antsy."
The two mares shared a laugh. --I know. And Lyra?--
The mint green unicorn's ears perked up. "Yeah?"
--I'm glad you're safe.--
Lyra grinned. "Well what did you expect? That was only a fifty or hundred foot dragon. Like I was only scared a little bit." Lyra puffed up her chest as she tried to regale her friend with her own spin on the news.
--You were totally scared. I mean I know your high pitched scream from anywhere and I thought I heard you scream bloody murder over the skies of Hooflyn.--
Lyra felt the playful jab and feigned offense. "I totally was not. And if I was, I plead the fifth. But seriously, have you actually seen Radiance's pitching hoof? It was like she was actually trying to kill me."
Bon Bon chuckled. --How long were you talking to her? Five minutes? Cause I've timed your conversations with other ponies and they tend to dislike you by that point. Any longer than that and I wouldn't doubt she try and toss you as far away as she could.--
Lyra laughed as she zipped up her hoodie, feeling the chill night air nip at her hooves. "It's my secret superpower. Sarcasm." The mint green unicorn stretched and cradled her side as the two friends continued their banter. Manehattan was safe for now and that's what mattered to Lyra. Things returning to some degree of normalcy, even if her new normal was playfully bantering over pizza toppings after saving the city. It kept her sane and after the last few crazy months she had? That's all she needed. She whistled some Songbird Serenade tune as she walked down the street, basking ever so nicely in general anonymity. Sure she was on the news barely ten minutes ago, but every super got on the news.
All things considered, life was pretty good.