The days trickled by for Lyra, and at such a seemingly slow pace too. After her unfortunate encounter with the ambassador, she had to make a huge decision in her life.
Trotting downstairs to her secret room, no longer secret by anypony's standards, she levitated a trash bag and began to fill it with her propaganda clippings, her plaster tracks, even tearing down the map that adorned an entire wall. All it went into the garbage bag, and all of it would be on the curb come pickup day.
"Lyra, what are you doing?"
Lyra turned around, seeing Bonbon enter her private room with a sense of worry. She looked around at the barren walls and shelves, and saw the pain with which Lyra discarded an entire lifetime of work.
"I'm moving on, Bonbon. I was right, they are real, they even have their own nation. I don't need any of this anymore," she said with regret heavy in her voice as she pushed an old book into her garbage bag.
"Honey, I know this is what made you happy. Are you sure that you want to just give it up so readily?"
Lyra sighed deeply. "It never made me happy, all this crazy obsession of mine did was keep me occupied and waste my time. Did I ever even tell you why I started believing in them, anyways?"
Bonbon shifted uncomfortably on her hooves. "You said it had to do with your lyre, but you never really went into detail."
Lyra tied off the current trash bag, opening another. "Yeah. When I was a little filly, I had trouble finding my cutie mark. And even when I attended school, I was always 'that weirdo', even before I knew about humans. I didn't make many friends, and I tried to cover that up by being tough and outspoken. But nopony ever really saw much in me. Until one day when we had an introduction to music course. And in the back of the music room, where nopony ever really went looking for an instrument, was this dusty, beaten lyre that hadn't been touched in years. The music teacher said that nopony wanted to play it, because the lyre was something that nopony could ever master. And I picked it up, and I strummed on that lyre. I plucked those strings like there was no tomorrow. And you know what? A little flash of light came from my flank, and suddenly I knew what I was meant to do in life."
"And what does that have to do with humans?"
Lyra gave a small smile as she tied up the second bag of trash. "Well, a few weeks after discovering my talent, I got to wondering. Why does nopony ever master the lyre? It's such a hard instrument to play, even with magic. And if it's so difficult for ponies to play, then ponies couldn't have invented it. That's the point where I began to do research. I poured myself into long hours at the library, trying to find the earliest uses of the lyre, and what race might have originally invented it. Gryphon claws can pluck the strings, but they almost always snap them when they try, so gryphons were off the list. Diamond dogs have the proper equipment to do it, but there has never been a racial need to create music with diamond dogs. And eventually, I came to the minotaurs. Their long, strong fingers are perfect for the job, and there are even lyres in their artwork. So by a stroke of luck I found a minotaur scholar on sabbatical in Canterlot, and I asked him if the minotaurs made the lyre. He said they didn't, they found the designs on an ancient fresco in their island capital at Knossos."
Lyra trotted out of the room, levitating something in with her magic. Folding it out, it turned out to be a sheet music stand. Walking back out, she brought back in a pair of velvet pillows, placing them on the floor. "And the old bull was kind enough to show me a picture of the fresco. On it were the outlines of creatures I had never seen before, strange creatures that stood upright, played the lyre and made sport of jumping over bulls. And I asked him what they were, and he told me that nopony knew what they were, that they were possibly mythological or fairy tales for little calves."
"Humans," Bonbon said quietly.
"Yup, those archaic humans jumping over a bull were the first time I had ever been truly fascinated with something. I saw another fresco, one with them playing a lyre. Even though it was frozen in time by the artist, I felt as though I could see their fingers slowly plucking the strings. So natural, so easy for them. And once I moved out of my parent's house and started saving money, I began to travel to find out where I might find more of these creatures who made the most impossible instrument for a pony to master seem like foal's play. Six years of travelling, six years of searching and finding nothing but the barest hints. I soon learned one common fact in the mythologies of all the places I went, that the creatures hadn't been seen in two millenia at the least. And when I came home to Canterlot, I looked in the Royal Library and found one word that changed my life forever, human. And you know the rest."
Levitating her bags of garbage out into the basement, Lyra looked at her remodeled conspiracy room. A pair of pillows sat on the floor, and sheet music stand between them. Posters of musical notes and simple songs decorated the walls, and a few of the easier to play instruments rested on the shelves. "Well, what do you think? I'm going to start giving lessons again, and put that silly little phase behind me."
Bonbon seemed to snap out of her fugue. "Lyra, I applaud you wanting to start giving music lessons again. But you can't just call your entire life a 'silly little phase'. Believing in humans was what made you....well, you!"
"Bonbon, a few days ago I got the ultimate wake up call! I've been acting like a stubborn little filly for fifteen years, it was about time I grew up. I may have been right, but what did that do for me? Did I get some reward or some kind of recognition? No! I just committed felony assault and battery on a creature I've wanted to see since I first picked up the lyre. I've been selfish, Bonbon, and I don't want to be a bad wife anymore. I put both our reputations and our lives on the line with my stupid, foolish little obsession. Don't you see? I'm doing this for both of us. And besides, I don't want to be known as 'that weirdo' anymore. I just want to be Lyra."
Bonbon nodded solemnly, accepting Lyra's decision to move on with her life, to give up her insanity and just be a normal pony for once. Grabbing one of the bags, Bonbon hefted it onto her back. But before she could walk it up the stairs, it ripped and a book came tumbling out.
Setting down the bag, Bonbon took a look at the book. It was positively ancient, and the weathered surface had been cared for untold years by each person that had owned it. "Lyra, what's this one?"
Lyra dropped her bag to take a look. "Oh yeah, that's an old book of fairy tales. Each one tells its own little story and gives a lesson on life. A lot of the characters are humans. I think I may have borrowed it from Granny Smith or somepony else."
Bonbon lifted the ancient book with care. "But why throw it out? I mean, something like this could be really special or even valuable."
"Mm, okay. We can keep this one. Mostly because it isn't junk like the rest of this." Lyra levitated the ancient book upstairs and placed it in her bookshelf, hauling the rest of her junk to the garbage can. And indeed it was junk, why dwell on footprints and articles written by crackpot theorists when the real thing was her neighbor? And though she was technically the last pony Mr Patterson ever wanted to see again, and she felt terrible about the entire ordeal, Lyra felt like she should make it up to him, or at least try to wane his disposition to her.
After a little bit of time had passed, of course.
****************************************************
Weeks passed, and everypony began to get used to the strange bipedal creature that walked freely in their town. Apparently he was not only the ambassador of his race, he was some kind of doctor, though not of medicine. At least that's what the grapevine said. After obliterating most traces of her old life and old obsession, Lyra had taken her sweet time posting flyers around Ponyville, advertising her music lessons for colts and fillies of all ages.
With the extra money coming in, Lyra and Bonbon felt like they could relax and indulge a little more. Lyra had never been much of a girly-girl, but she discovered that she had a curiosity for the spa one day after Bonbon had said she was going.
"Are you sure, Lyra? The spa is kind of a fru-fru place, and you're more...rough and tumble."
"Hey, what's the worst that could happen? I get a hooficure and I smell nice for my Candyass, big deal."
Bonbon blushed at her bedroom name, the one Lyra screamed some nights. (That's right, Lyra is a screamer. But their mostly stallion neighbors have strangely never complained.)
Bonbon threw on a nice, frilly hat that was one of Rarity's creations, and proudly walked out the door with Lyra in tow towards the spa. "You'll have to try the clay facial, Lyra. It just cleans out your pores after a nice soak in a hot herbal bath. And of course we'll get our hooves trimmed and cleaned, and it just wouldn't be a day at the spa without a little work on the mane!"
As Bonbon prattled on about what she liked best about going to the spa, Lyra let her mind wander a little. Dr Patterson was the only human living in Ponyville, but he wasn't the only human left in the world by far. So maybe she hadn't completely blown her chances. If there were enough humans out there to form their own nation and require representation in Canterlot, there had to be lots of them. Maybe she would have a better chance with some other human.
But as she and her wife trotted towards the spa, Lyra saw an opportunity to make things a little better with the one human she knew. Dr Patterson himself was dragging a rather large cart full of lumber and building supplies, and appeared to be having trouble with it. "I'll catch up with you," Lyra said to her partner.
Approaching cautiously, Lyra altered her posture to appear as inoffensive as possible. "Um, hiya neighbor. Need a hand?"
Dr Patterson glared out of the corner of his eye. "I'll tell you when I see some hands that aren't mine."
"Ha ha ha!" she fake laughed, weeping on the inside for her lack of glorious digits. "That's a good one there. So, um, need any help?"
"I've got it," he growled, pulling on the small wagon and trudging down the street. Lyra felt like he wasn't as hostile as he could have been, which was a good sign. Taking up a light trot, she followed him, though not too closely.
"So, uh, what kind of a name is Patterson?"
"What kind of a name is Heartstrings?" he growled back.
"Point taken," Lyra said back. "So what is your doctorate in? I mean, my good friend Dr Whooves does all kinds of stuff, and he has several doctorates."
"Evolutionary Biology," he said through clenched teeth, barely tolerating the mare's presence.
Lyra had no inkling as to what an Evolutionary Biologist did or why one would become the ambassador of the human race, so as she trotted alongside the human pulling his cart, she tried something else. "So, whatcha building?"
"A bird house."
Lyra looked at the massive pile of lumber in the cart. "What kind of bird could you be building that for?"
"It's a rare bird called 'none of your business'."
Had any other person besides him said that, Lyra would have knocked him flat out and kept one of his teeth as a trophy. But like Bonbon said, you win more flies with honey. Reaching into her saddlebags with her magic, she pulled out a small box. "So, do you like candy? Bonbon makes the absolute best chocolates this side of Canterlot, and I just happened to have an extra box."
He stopped pulling the cart for a moment, turning his head and raising an eyebrow. Lyra had to control her smile as he took the box from her aura and opened it.
Score one for Lyra! Note to self, humans like candy!
He took a whiff of the chocolate candies within. "Do I smell coconut?"
Lyra nodded eagerly. "You sure do!"
He gave her a deadpan expression, closing the lid. "I hate coconut."
Something inside of Lyra snapped in frustration, and her eye began to twitch. "Well then, maybe Twilight will like them."
"Doubtful, she likes caramel, and so do I."
Lyra tried to think of who he knew that would like it. "Well, maybe...um..Rarity would enjoy them."
His deadpan expression never wavered. "Truffle."
"Fluttershy?" she asked, growing more desperate.
"Cherry."
Rainbow Dash?"
"Peanut butter."
"Pinkie Pie?"
"Allergic to coconut. And before you say Applejack, think for a moment."
Lyra positively fumed at her failed attempts, and she could almost feel the steam coming from her ears.
Despite her grinding teeth, Lyra managed to choke out, "Well, I have to go now, nice chatting with you." Bolting off towards the salon, Lyra threw open the doors, charged past Lotus and Aloe as they tried to greet her, and shoved her face completely underwater in the herbal bath. A dulled scream of frustration could be heard by all the ponies in the spa, the bubbles furiously churning around Lyra's head.
A bath-robed and mud smeared Bonbon pulled her out before she could drown herself. "Lyra! What in Celestia's name are you doing?"
"Of all the unique flavors that you make, you made the one he hates! Coconut, damn you coconut!" Lyra shrieked to the heavens.
***************************************************
Five days passed since the infamous 'coconut scandal'. Well, it was infamous in Lyra's book. Nopony else really knew or cared. But she continued to give music lessons to the colts and fillies of Ponyville. A difficult thing to do, since most of them stopped coming after not earning music cutie marks.
Things seemed to be tanking for Lyra's little homebound music classes, and it was starting to show. She hadn't had a single appointment in three days, and her sagging eyelids told a story of complete boredom at home. Without human chasing as her hobby, she really had nothing to do but lean back in her couch and strum on the lyre with her magic.
Even the smell of melted chocolate, normally something that drove her mad with hunger, was starting to smell repugnant as it constantly drifted in from the kitchen. Bonbon bustled in, her apron covered in small chocolate stains.
"Lyra, even though the ambiance is nice, I think you should try going out or something. I mean, how long has it been since you left that couch?"
Lyra shifted a little bit. Judging by the perfectly formed mold the couch left around her flank and the amount of sweat down there, at least nine hours. "Meh," Lyra replied.
Bonbon trotted over to her, pushing the unicorn off the couch. "Alright, lazy bones, you're gonna go take a bath and then we're going grocery shopping. It'll give you something to do."
Lyra grumbled as she shoved her lyre back in its case. Taking a quick bath, she left the house with a full purse and empty saddlebags. To her surprise, it was still fairly early as both mares took a leisurely and lazy walk through Ponyville towards the market.
Bonbon checked the list in her hoof, making sure she had written down everything she needed at the various market stalls. "M'kay, we need some apples, carrots, potatoes, some more toilet paper, a few heads of lettuce, and about a pound of white chocolate for me. Did I miss anything, Lyra?"
"Eh," Lyra grunted back, having to shield her eyes from the late morning glare.
"Lyra! Speak like a civilized pony!" Bonbon hissed back.
Lyra grumbled to herself. "Coffee beans."
"Coffee beans, how could I forget?" Bonbon scribbled that down on the list. Taking her wife on the circuit of the market stalls, Lyra thought about her melancholy, and why she was having this crisis in her life. Walking just behind Bonbon, she tried to think of a way to overcome this early life crisis. Maybe she needed a change of scenery? No, wait, that was why she moved to Ponyville, that, and she had traveled quite a bit in the past.
Perhaps she needed a new hobby? Probably not, her lyre practice was enough for anypony. Heck, she was even thinking about tossing her name around Canterlot, maybe seeing if she could get an agent to book her for some posh gala or something. There was just something missing in her life, and for once, it wasn't humans.
Bonbon continued to chatter as she shopped, weighing down Lyra's saddlebags with groceries. Occasionally the unicorn would say 'uh huh' or 'really?' just to avoid the suspicion that she wasn't listening. Bonbon never seemed to catch on, even commenting at one point as to how good of a listener Lyra had become.
"Lyra!" Bonbon shrieked, her face glowering at the unicorn.
"Huhwhowhat!?" the unicorn stammered, coming out of her mental distraction.
"I just asked you what you thought about seeing a play next week and you answered 'really'!"
"Oh, um, uh huh?" Lyra answered sheepishly. Bonbon groaned, rolling her eyes and trotting towards her favorite cafe for a late morning cup of tea and maybe some small tea biscuits.
Ordering a cup for herself and her partner, Bonbon groaned as she sat down on her plush pillow, rubbing her hooves as if she had been doing all the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, Lyra set down her bulging and sagging saddlebags, sighing with relief as they fell to the ground. "Ah, such a nice morning for a walk. Speaking of walking, did I tell who walked into the store yesterday? It was your friend Golden Harvest, and you know who was with her? Comet Tail! That's right, Comet Tail! I don't know if they're an issue or not but I have to say they look cute together. I always heard Ms Harvest was more into pegasus ponies, something about the cloudwalking." Lyra managed to smile a little bit at the juicy gossip, even though she never really got in on it. "So, did I break your spell of melancholy or are you still a Depressed Daisy?" Bonbon asked.
"Okay, I would have answered the second one, if it wasn't so cutesy and kind of demeaning."
Bonbon sighed. "What am I going to do with you Lyra? What can I do to pull you out of this?"
"Not much you can do," the minty mare replied. "Just have to power through this on my own."
"Is this still about the Ambassador? I heard a pegasus chariot stopped by a few days ago and he went along with them. Ms Sparkle was grumbling something about a "Civil War" that he still needed to tell her about when she came in to buy some candy yesterday."
Lyra sighed, propping her head onto a hoof and staring out at the marketplace. "It's not him anymore. It's just...what do I do with my life, huh? I mean, I never really planned for anything. I figured I would just play the lyre at a few parties, maybe even an orchestra or two, and just chase humans for the rest of my life. I'm a little bit too old to start thinking about my career, and I'm too young and don't have the money to just ride out life."
The unicorn sighed at the quandary of this crisis. She'd completed her life's entire purpose, married the mare of her dreams (much to her parent's protest and chagrin), and now all she had to look forward to was going to bed at night. What could she do? Start a new business? That couldn't work, she wasn't an entrepreneur. Take a vacation? Nope, that would just delay the imminent fall back to this rut.
The whistle of a familiar song snapped Lyra out of her fugue, and a familiar biped walked cheerily past, not noticing Lyra. The unicorn dove under the table to hide herself, lest she ruin his apparently good day by just being around.
"Lyra! What are you doing this time?" Bonbon asked quietly to not draw any attention.
"Shh! Look, he's so happy right now, and I don't want to spoil Mr Patterson's day by just being around, okay?"
Bonbon forcibly yanked Lyra out from under the table, pushing her back onto her pillow. "Alright, I can't take this anymore! You take this box of chocolates," Bonbon placed a box of her specialty candies onto the table, caramel this time, "And you go make a damn good impression on that man! Its been days since you last talked, and I don't know a pony that can easily hold a grudge that long."
"That's the problem, he's not a pony! HE'S A BUCKING HUMAN! And from some rumor I heard, he personally held a pretty mean grudge against Princess Luna for two thousand years."
Bonbon rolled her eyes, slapping a hoof to her forehead. "Lyra, do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Nopony can live that long except a Princess. Look at him, does he look as old as Princess Celestia?"
Lyra leaned over to glance at the whistling human being as he walked with a bounce in his step towards Sugarcube Corner. "Well, not really I guess. But I haven't seen another human to compare his age to. For all we know, he could just be in some kind of larval stage, or he could possibly be two millenia old," Lyra said to stall for time. She had given up on her dream of having a human friend. And he seemed to have almost forgotten about his kidnapping and mild torture at the hooves of Lyra. But constantly pestering him was something that she had decided wasn't something she wanted to do to the ambassador of Equestria's newest allies.
"Lyra, you give that man this box of candies, or I won't do that one thing anymore."
Lyra gasped loudly, and despite her normal boldness in public, she blushed. "You wouldn't dare! You enjoy that as much as I do! And besides, he just walked into Sugarcube Corner, he won't want anymore sweets!"
Bonbon began to pull the box of chocolates back into her saddlebag. "Fine, I can go cold turkey."
Lyra began to sweat, seriously considering the health of her bedroom life. "Wait! You win." Lyra grabbed the box of chocolates in her aura, standing from the table and trotting away. "Stupid sexy Bonbon," she muttered under her breath.
Lyra tried to mentally prepare herself for this, something that she almost never had to do, not even when she proposed to Bonbon. Okay, I can do this, he's just a human. Wait, just?! What in the flaming Gates of Tartarus am I thinking?! Of course he's a human! But he's not just some human, Dr Patterson is some kind of magic using, species saving, war ending, and race representing human! Oh goddess, my legs are shaking!
Indeed Lyra's knees had once again become like jelly, and the closer she got to the door of Sugarcube Corner, the thinner that jelly got. Dr Patterson himself stood at the counter of the bakery, chatting mildly with Pinkie Pie. Sweat poured down the unicorn's brow, and her shaking limbs were a trembling blur underneath her with how nervous she was.
"On second thought, I can live without," Lyra reasoned to herself, spinning around and bolting for the cafe patio where Bonbon sat. The custard earth pony shook her head in disapproval.
"And to think I praised you for your boldness. You've gone soft, honey bun."
Lyra sat down, slamming her face onto the table and sighing. "Maybe I'll try quilting or something...." Lifting her head up, she heard something that was common in the town of Ponyville, the trundle of carriage wheels on the packed earth of the streets and markets. But her instincts told her that there was something different about this as a wagon pulled into town square.
It was a long distance carriage, one that ponies would use when traveling over huge expanses at a leisurely pace. And for some reason, this carriage seemed taller and made for a longer trip. Two burly earth ponies pulled the wagon, coming to rest in the center of town, breathing a sigh of relief that their trip was over.
And when the door to that carriage opened, Lyra lightly bit her own leg to make sure this was not a dream.
"Are you seeing what I am seeing?" Bonbon asked quietly.
"Another human," Lyra whispered.
He was another human being, a male that looked older and stronger than the one she already knew. His short, dark hair was peppered with grey, but he looked like he could still take on a much younger and more spry man. But the two mares were not the only ones to notice the new arrival. The door to Sugarcube Corner burst open, the brass bell nearly being taken off the wall as Dr Patterson ran out to greet his fellow human.
Both met in the town square, damning formality and tossing dignity to the wind. Aaron threw both arms around the other man's shoulders, his fellow returning the crushing hug. The younger man whispered something into his fellow's ear, and they broke apart, giving a more dignified handshake as well as some of the most sincere smiles that Lyra had ever seen.
And once they got over the thrill of seeing one another, the older male opened the door to the carriage, offering a hand to somebody inside. A more slender, delicate creature stepped out, long black hair gently caressing her more shapely body. Even across the barrier of species, there were just aspects of that creature that seemed enchanting and beautiful, even though she was dressed in such simple clothing as a skirt and a button up blouse.
"Is that.....a female human?" Lyra said to nopony but herself. But something about the female human caught her eye more than anything. Resting in her arms was a small bundle of swaddled cloth, a chubby pink face poking out. The female gently rocked the bundle in her arms, softly coddling the small creature. "Oh my goddess, it's a human foal. They're a.....family."
Lyra's stare of incredulousness began to change into something else, a smile of pure joy. Her eyes shimmered as she and Bonbon both looked on at the immigrant human family. A thought occurred to Lyra, and she grabbed the box of candies, levitating them in her aura and proudly trotting over to the carriage.
"Lyra! What are you doing!?" Bonbon hissed as her partner walked away with her head held high.
The unicorn stopped, flashing a joyous grin to her love. "Going to meet the new neighbors. We don't want to be rude, now do we?"
Bonbon looked unsure of herself, only having interacted with a human once or twice when the ambassador came to buy candy. Nervously she joined Lyra and trotted over to the wagon. Dr Patterson and his fellow human male stood off to one side, chatting idly.
Even as she got closer, the human female seemed to just become even more beautiful. Not in a way that invoked lust in the unicorn; no, this was the pure beauty of motherhood, the love between mother and child that spilled over into the world around them, brightening the day and bringing smiles to everypony's face.
Lyra thought about what she might say. She had screwed up her first contact with the first human she knew, and she was not going to buck this up again. She decided that it was easiest to just go with a casual greeting.
"Hello there!" she said to the female human. Unlike her husband, who seemed almost uneasy around so many ponies, the woman looked down at her with a generous smile and glittering eyes that displayed far more trust than Lyra had ever received in a first greeting. "My name is Lyra, and I would like to be the first to welcome you to Ponyville. This is my partner, Bonbon."
"Hello," Bonbon said sheepishly, not sure how to greet the strange human.
"Hello Lyra," the woman responded. "My name is Sara, and over there is my husband Frederick." She extended a hand, her long, delicate fingers entrancing Lyra like none had ever before. In retrospect, Aaron's hands almost seemed unwieldy and meaty as compared to Sara's long and light fingers. Holding back her eagerness, Lyra gently took the offered hand and shook it in her hoof. "And this is my sunshine and my flower, Sophia."
Though she came up to the shorter female's shoulder, Sara had to lean down a little for Lyra and Bonbon to glance at her baby. Both ponies let out a long awwww upon viewing the tiny human infant. Little Sophia opened her eyes, looking at the brightly colored ponies. The infant smiled, giving a gurgling laugh and reaching out with a tiny hand.
"I think she likes you, Ms Lyra," the human woman remarked.
Lyra took a step closer, letting the tiny baby place her hand on her muzzle. Sophia giggled at the soft green fur of the pony. And for Lyra, something much deeper than any desire for a hobby and overcoming of any boredom awoke within her. Something she never knew she had in her. A warm and comforting feeling, something that she felt she should embrace with every moment of her life from here to eternity. And with a glance to Sara, she knew the human woman felt the same feeling as she held her own child with such care and comfort.
A feeling that Lyra knew only through hearsay. A deep instinctive desire...for motherhood. Maternal instinct had completely taken over the unicorn, and from what she saw, Bonbon also seemed to fall under its seductive spell. Gently, Lyra leaned in and nuzzled the squirming pink baby, feeling as though she needed to protect her and provide for her.
"M'am, she's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," Lyra said quietly. Only when she leaned back to let Bonbon nuzzle the baby did she notice something odd on the baby's forehead. "Um, this may seem like an odd question, but what's that silver mark on her head?"
Sara shrugged just a touch. "We're not sure. It's one of the reasons we came out here, so we could hopefully find some people who could help us understand it."
"Well is it a birthmark-" Lyra was cut short by something she thought she would never see. The mark on Sophia's head took on a tingling light, a light aura of sky blue encompassing a lock of Sara's hair and gently tugging on it.
Sara grimaced as she removed her hair from her baby's arcane grasp. "No no, no pulling on Mommy's hair."
Both Lyra and Bonbon sat aghast, their jaws slack and fallen. "It's a horn," Lyra said. "Or like a horn." She thought for a moment about how normal unicorn parents went through the magic phases of their foal's development. It would be a very stressful and tumultuous upbringing for the nonmagical parents.
Sara gently rocked her child, trying to get her back to sleep. "And to think, without Aaron I wouldn't be here today. And...well, neither would she." Sara looked with a glimmer of gratitude to the young man talking with her husband.
The door to Sugarcube Corner opened with a crash, and a gasp loud enough to startle birds in the Everfree rang in the air. "MRS COPPELL! It's me, Pinkie Pie!" The pink mare flashed over to the human woman, leaving a trail of confetti and frosting in her wake. Pinkie's frantic bouncing only got worse when she saw little Sophia. "SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Sophie! It's me, your Auntie Pinkie!"
The human infant giggled at the energetic and somehow familiar pink pony. "Omigoshomigosh! You've gotten so big! Did you miss your Auntie Pinkie? 'Cause I missed you! We're gonna have so much fun together, and you have to meet Pound and Pumpkin!"
"Hello Ms Pie," Sara calmly replied to the sugary mare. "I have the strangest feeling of having met you before," she said with a wink, remembering a certain event involving a transfiguration spell and a more human Pinkie Pie, along with all her friends.
While Pinkie was obsessed withe making Sophia feel welcome to her new home, even taking her inside for a quick diaper change, Lyra continued her chat with Sara. "Ehem. Anyway, my partner Bonbon makes the absolute best chocolates this side of Canterlot and I just happened to have an extra box. Once again, welcome to Ponyville." Lyra levitated the box over to Sara's waiting hand.
"Why thank you Ms Lyra." She opened the box and popped one of the chocolate delicacies into her mouth. "Mm, that is good," she complimented.
Lyra took a side step closer to her partner, giving the earth pony an affectionate nuzzle. "Only the sweetest chocolates from the sweetest mare in Ponyville, right dearest?"
"Lyra, not around the new neighbors," Bonbon said, her words saying 'no' but her tone saying 'yes'.
Finally realizing just what the relationship between the ponies in front of her was all about, Mrs Coppell blushed. "Oh! You mean that kind of partner. That is...um... different."
A little flicker of flame began to burn in Lyra's belly, tempered by years of having to publicly defend her sexual preferences for mares and stoked by the need to defend her own honor and her wife's honor. "And do you have something against filly-foolers?" she said with a certain venom.
"Filly-foolers?" the woman asked, obviously confused.
Bonbon immediately covered for Lyra, pushing the more aggressive mare back. "A mare-mare couple. She didn't mean anything by it, right Lyra?"
Lyra snapped out of her tiff, seriously scolding herself for almost bucking this up. "I'm so sorry, it's just that I've gotten a lot of harassment for it in the past and-"
Sara raised her hands to silence Lyra. "No need to explain, I understand completely. A very close friend of mine was attracted to other men and he never did quite get the peace and quiet he deserved."
Phew, what a relief, Lyra thought to herself. "Well, this has been nice. Hope to see you and your wonderful family around town. And if you ever need somepony, sorry, somebody to chat with or just to be a friend, I live with Bonbon at the candy store."
With a few goodbyes, both mares walked back over to the cafe, Lyra feeling as though she were a thousand feet tall. She had made a friend today. And more importantly, that friend was a human. And with Sara Coppell as a friend, she couldn't care less about Dr Patterson.
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The new immigrants paid off their drivers, unloading their fairly meager supplies and taking a break inside of Sugarcube Corner. Aaron sat the Coppells down at an empty table, paying for an early lunch courtesy of the Cakes. With their daughter being carefully watched and played with by Pinkie Pie, Aaron had to get a few answers from his fellow humans.
"So, you two need to tell me a little story. What's the news on the homefront?" he asked.
Fred stirred a little bit of sugar into his coffee, taking a slow sip before starting. "We're civilians, so they don't keep us as informed as they should, typical government. But things are going slow. Even after Equestria signed the armistice with the Republic, the military still wouldn't let us go out onto the surface for a week. I tell you what, living in those cramped vaults is a special kind of torture. But anyways, after the soldiers reported 'all clear' in our loosely defined boundaries, we were allowed to go on up and get some fresh air and exercise. After that, General McGoff got all the civilians together and stated that with huge loans from Equestrian banks, we were going to start rebuilding."
"Good," Aaron said, nodding. "And how is that coming along?"
"Well, the first thing we did was elect a basic Congress, since we don't have any defined territories yet it had to be done Roman style, by assigned tribe. And then McGoff basically got elected President in a landslide. They really wanted you to do it though. If you actually ran for office, you would have destroyed any opposition, Aaron."
One of Aaron's finger's flared with a small stream of magic, reheating his cup. "Don't buy into the hero crap, I would have made a terrible leader. My place is here, making sure everything stays chipper between Equestria and the Republic."
"I don't think those people would have cared. Anyways, after the elections the army boys started dragging out these prefabricated buildings and setting them up. But wouldn't you know it, most of them were garages, barracks and all that kind of stuff. Only a few residential style buildings. But after they got those built, the ponies started showing up."
"After only two weeks? What were they after?"
Sara took up the slack where Fred dropped off. "They were looking for work. Most of them were construction workers, architects, engineers or just laborers. They brought huge wagons full of supplies, and actually did us a favor by cutting a road through the forest and all the way to that frontier town near the Equestrian border, completely free of charge. It must have been some kind of gesture of good will."
"Appleloosa? They built a road that long in such a short time?"
She shrugged. "Industrious little guys, the ponies. Their magic makes building things incredibly easy. They didn't even bring heavy machinery, just hand tools and their muscle. And President McGoff used our limited treasury to start writing contracts and getting some homes built. There's a neat little city springing up out there, and people are starting to move back to the surface."
Sara stopped to glance over at Sophia, the little infant enjoying a tame playtime with the Cake twins under the careful eye of Pinkie. Fred picked back up where she left off. "Don't get me started on the agriculture situation out there. The soil is tough to plow, and some of our seeds won't take as well as we would like. The science divisions claim that it will be several months before the cryogenically frozen embryos will be mature enough to actually bring out and auction off. Not that we're worried about that, some of the ponies that migrated in brought flocks of chickens and geese with them and gladly sold them off."
With a particularly loud giggle from the children, Fred glanced over at the overjoyed Pinkie Pie, who struggled to liberate a doll from two sets of magical auras. "Call me crazy, but she seems incredibly familiar. She almost has the same hair as that young woman back in the hospital in Lazarus."
Aaron gave a little smile. "Let's just leave it at 'you've met before', although the circumstance was rather odd. So tell me, what are you two doing out my direction? The Republic bursting at the seams already?" he asked jokingly.
"It's not that, and it's not that we don't have any room. There's plenty of territory in Terra to settle, and there's rumors floating around the ranks that the Terran legislation is working with the Equestrian ambassador, looking for places that might make suitable colonies when our population begins to rise."
"Doesn't explain why you're here in Ponyville."
"I was getting to that," Fred commented. "The first reason we came here was because we trusted your judgement that the ponies were good and decent people. Second, we immigrated so that we might be able to understand Sophia's gift a little more, you know, unicorn magic and such. And third, we're going to start a little operation out here."
Aaron leaned back in his chair. "Oh? And what do you have in mind?"
"Fish farming," Sara replied. "The human populace is going to need protein, there's no doubt about that. And the ponies seem to have less of a stigma for us eating fish than say...beef or chicken. They're easier to raise and farm, they don't need as much space or food to grow, and we can have two shipments of fish ready by the time one shipment of cattle is ready. Cost effective and delicious, they should sell like hot cakes. And with the controlled weather around here, the climate is much more suitable for such an operation."
Aaron nodded, thinking this to be sound judgement. "Sounds good, I'll see what I can do about getting you guys a loan and maybe a breeding population of decent fish. Local fish would probably be the best place to start, I can get you some catfish to start off with if you need it."
They nodded eagerly. "Sounds great!" they replied together. Frederick reached over the table and clapped a hand on Aaron's shoulder, giving him a grateful nod. "What would we do without you, kid?"
"Don't mention it. It's all a part of the job, try to make life as easy and happy for people as possible. Still have to find you folks a place to live until we can get you a house built. And I have to talk with the Equestrian and the local governments to get you registered as citizens. It's all a very tedious process, but thankfully Equestria doesn't suffer from the bureaucratic inefficiency that we once did."
Sara took a sip of her drink, the pleasant warmth of a pony made tea making her smile after enduring the freeze dried and preserved foods in the underground human city of Lazarus. "You've done so much for us, is there anything we can do to make it up to you?"
Aaron shook his head. "Nah, it wouldn't be right if I expected something in return. All I want is for you guys to be happy and healthy, and as for learning about Sophia's gift, I'll see if I can't ask one of the Princesses a favor when she comes of age." Turning back to the playing children, Aaron summoned an orb of his magic, shaping it and forming it into something they would enjoy. Releasing a spectral green butterfly from his hand, he gave it a little breath and a little push to flutter around the delighted children.
***********************************************************
Bonbon hummed gently as her forehooves dipped into the bubbly, warm water in her kitchen sink. Holding the sponge in her hoof, she scrubbed in neat little circles on the stubborn caramel spots on her dishes. Bonbon was in a great mood, and there was one truly defining reason for that.
Lyra was happy again.
Simply seeing something so heartwarming as an infant human was a better pick-me-up for the aquamarine mare than anything Bonbon had tried to do over the weeks. Certainly it worked better than her experimental voice changing candies. The doldrum harp plucking had ceased from the living area in the back of the shop, and Bonbon could have sworn she heard the contented hum of the unicorn daydreaming about something.
Bonbon finished scrubbing the dish in her hoof, placing it on the rack to dry while humming a little ditty. One dish down, a mountain left to go, she thought to herself, staring at the large, precarious stack of dirty dishes. Well, maybe her mood was going to take a little dip towards the 'frustrated and annoyed' end of the emotional spectrum.
But the normal, negative aspect of her career was not going to put a damper on today. It was a truly memorable day, the one where Lyra's lifelong obsession had truly come to fruition. She had met a human, and made friends with that human.
Bonbon's thoughts were cut short when the door to the kitchen creaked open. "Oh, Lyra, could you be a dear and help me out with the dishes? I'm a bit swamped here."
The aquamarine unicorn walked slowly, yet deliberately over to the sink. "Sure thing," she replied. There was something to that reply that made Bonbon feel warm. A suggestion that Lyra had something she desired very near to her.
Standing on her hindlegs, Lyra slipped her forelegs around the barrel of Bonbon's chest, working her hooves slowly down Bonbon's legs and into the soapy water. The warm press of the unicorn's body sent loving waves of pleasure down Bonbon's back, and she leaned back into the unicorn's embrace.
Leaning in, Lyra slowly nuzzled the earth pony up and down her neck, pausing to drink in the candied scents of her pink and blue mane. "Lyra," Bonbon giggled. "What's gotten into you?"
Lyra placed a delicate kiss on the other mare's neck, covering her lips with a soapy hoof. "Shh, don't talk. Just let it flow." Bonbon twisted around in Lyra's hooves, pulling the other mare closer and kissing her deeply on the lips. Her tongue flicked into Lyra's mouth, tasting the gorgeous mare and all she had to offer. Lyra's hooves ran down the soft fur of her lover, caressing her along every sensitive spot. Bonbon's body was a safe, and Lyra knew just how to crack it.
Lyra's soft lips moved down Bonbon's body, gently nibbling on every inch of the warm and inviting earth pony. A moan escaped Bonbon's lips as Lyra worked her soft lips over her chest. And Bonbon knew what made Lyra reach nirvana, and with Lyra's horn hovering so close to her face, she flicked out her tongue and caressed the spiraling horn.
Waves of warm pleasure radiated from Lyra's forehead, and she stopped to moan with the absolute pleasure that only unicorns could experience. Her amber-gold eyes caught a reflection of light coming from the neighbor's window, and Lyra could have sworn she saw a shadowy figure holding a pair of binoculars ducking down below the windowsill of the neighboring home. She stopped to give a smirk. "Let's go somewhere a little more private."
The two mares practically ran upstairs to their bedroom, Lyra's horn glowing with magic as she closed all the curtains.
********************************************
"Ahhhh..." both mares sighed in rapturous content.
Lyra leaned against the headboard of her bed, her hooves folded triumphantly behind her head. A victorious grin of sexual conquest adorned her flushed and warm face, and her lover's head lay draped on her chest. Lyra freed a foreleg to wrap around Bonbon's shoulder and stroke her mane.
Bonbon basked in the afterglow of this sporadic and spur of the moment passion, feeling the soft beat of Lyra's heart as her head rested on the unicorn's chest. "Lyra, that was amazing. What possessed you?"
Lyra let her expression of conquest fall, considering how to proceed from here. "I've been thinking, and I think I've finally figured out how to get out of this funk."
"Some more of that TLT? Tender loving tongue?" Bonbon said suggestively, winking and flicking out her own tongue.
Lyra responded with a quick peck on her partner's lips. "Not really. But I want for this to be for both of us, and if one of us doesn't want to do it, I can live in miserable boredom for the rest of my life."
"Oh geez, is this going to be one of those things that you will only tell me what it is after I agree to it?"
"No! Not at all. But this is something huge, something that will change both of our lives forever. And if you don't want to change your life, I can understand that."
Bonbon rolled her eyes. "Just tell me already, the suspense is killing me," she said with a tone of sarcasm.
"Bonbon..." she bit her lip, having another of her increasingly common moments of questioning herself. "I want to have a baby."
Bonbon leaned up, looking into Lyra's amber-gold eyes with with confusion and some slight amount of shock. "Lyra..."
"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said anything," she quickly replied. "It's just that we're such a happy couple, and I want to make us more than just a couple. Bonbon, I want to be a part of a family with you. We have so much love for each other, and I want to share that love with a child that we can proudly call our own. Remember today when we saw that human baby? Do you remember what you felt when you got to see her, touch her and even when you fantasized about holding her? It just felt so...right. It just felt like it was what I was meant to do. It felt like some deep, repressed part of me got to come out and see the true beauty of life, even for a few moments."
Bonbon blinked a few times, considering what kind of a life changing responsibility it would be for both of them. "Lyra, are you sure? I mean, a child isn't a pet. We don't just have to love a child, we have to support it and help it grow. We have to be responsible with who we are, and we'll have to change our lives. And I'm not really sure if either of us are parent material."
"I've never felt so sure about anything in my life. I want to be a mom. I'll even carry the foal, and go through all the pain of childbirth. Think about it, we make more money than we can spend, and it'll be one of the greatest things we can do with our lives."
Bonbon sighed. But a tiny glimmer of a smile peeked out of the corners of her lips. She straddled Lyra, looking deep into her eyes. "To be honest, I thought you would never ask." Lyra pulled her in for a kiss, loving this mare for all she was willing to give for her partner's happiness. Cuddling with her lover, Bonbon felt guilty for what she had to say next. "Um, Lyra?"
"Yes, my honey bun?"
"If you're going to bear the foal, that means we have to find a stallion to....donate...to our cause."
Lyra's eyes shot wide open. "Shit."