"Are you sure you wouldn't rather Firelance keep you company for this?" Lyra asked. She worried for Twilight because even an alicorn couldn't handle three days without sleep with no repercussions. "He could ensure nopony bothers you."
"I'll"—Twilight froze as another yawn caused her to momentarily stop being able to function—"get Spike to take care of it or something. You go, ensure Den's representative has everything he needs." Immensely thankful for the foresight of writing her speeches in advance, Twilight shook her head as she started to waver while walking. "Sp-Spike? Lyra, could you teleport us both to our quarters?"
Knowing better than to bother trying to explain her plans for Alicorn Training to Twilight while she was in this state, Lyra waited for Spike to come running over and reached her magic out to touch both—running the calculations for a complex teleport in her head—then let loose with the blast of magic needed to rip three ponies through two points of space without bothering with intervening references.
Twilight, as Lyra and Spike realized, wasn't going to make it to her bed. Lyra caught her while Spike jumped onto the bed and pulled back the covers.
"Thanks. She should just bomb out for about eight hours. Just keep the door locked and I'll spread the word that she's recovering and won't be available." Lyra let Spike tuck Twilight in.
"And what if they ignore you?" Spike asked.
"Then I'll spread my wings and yell a lot. It seems to work for Luna." Reaching out a hoof, Lyra ruffled Spike's crest. "Don't forget. If you get overwhelmed, come find me."
"H-How will I find you?"
"Easy. I'll be escorting a griffon around all day. Just look for the explosions." Lyra gave Spike a salute and made her way to the door. There was an odd twitch in her step—something was going to go wrong today and she had no idea if it would be her fault.
Lyra dipped her head and bowed low. "Mayor Gavin, Her Royal Highness Princess Twilight Sparkle wishes you to have your own guide to Canterlot."
Gavin took a slow, deep breath through his nose and let it out with a slight whistle. "There must be some mistake. The other guests aren't getting… What rank are you?" He'd done a little research before arriving. Starting a new town hadn't exactly left any of the residents of Den with a lot of time, nor did it afford a mayor that could just sit in an office and do paperwork—but he'd made an effort.
Lifting a hoof, Lyra coughed into it and said, "Captain."
"You'll have to repeat that. I'm a little hard of hearing." Lifting a talon up, Gavin fussed with the feathers on the right side of his head.
"Twilight has exactly two guards. She thought it'd be a wonderful joke if she made me the same rank as the senior officers of all the other Guard divisions. So, my rank is captain."
"That also makes you a commander. Only two guards? Where's the other one?" Gavin was mildly distrustful now. None of the other delegates had a minder, let alone a princess' Guard commander. "And why me?"
"Firelance is checking on a few other guests for me. As for why you, Twilight decided it would be best if Equestria's newest mayor had an easy way to deflect the more insistent city leaders if they tried to push you around, not that I don't doubt you could push back, but this will be the worst kind of fight." It was Lyra's most diplomatic way of putting it, and she still felt ham-fisted.
"'The worst kind of fight'?"
"Politics," Lyra said. "They'll be all smiles while trying to get concessions. And that's just the other mayors. There will be worse predators here—nobles."
"Are they really that bad?"
"It depends. I can point out one or two who will play nice. Don't get me wrong, they're all fiercely loyal to the princesses and Equestria, but they didn't get where they are and stay there by being exceptionally generous." In her armor, and specifically on duty, Lyra felt relaxed and at ease. "So, if you see somepony approaching with more expensive clothes than your house, feel free to just defer to me."
A growl rose in Gavin's throat. He shoved it back, but not before Lyra gave him an odd look. "Sorry, predator urges. Challenging leadership and all that. I've got a grip on it."
"If you'd like to spar later, and test out your claws, I'd be happy to." Lyra could probably deal with Gavin, she thought, so long as he started at least four ponylengths away from her.
It caught Gavin off-guard enough that his primal emotions receded. "I'm a little rusty, but I think I would like that. Is this one dangerous?"
"Jet Set! Lyra stepped to the side to do introductions. "This is Gavin, mayor of Den. I'm sure the princess has you well-informed of their goings-on?"
Dipping his head slightly, Jet gave his best not-exactly-fake smile. "Of course. Princess Luna would not be pleased if I were to miss such an important new addition to Equestria. Population a hundred and fifteen griffons, thirty-eight ponies, and four diamond dogs. You produce some of the finest wool in the country, and if I'm not mistaken that will change to producing the actual finest wool within five years. The majority of your town, if I'm not mistaken, were griffons who were dissatisfied with the politics of your homeland. A most agreeable settlement and a new jewel in the crown of Equestria."
Gavin just stared. Even he didn't have all their population numbers to heart like that.
"Jet, I'm sure you prepared well for this meeting, but there's no need to show off. Gavin, this fine gentlepony is Jet Set, Princess Luna's seneschal. He is one of the nobles you can actually count on to play nice." As she spoke, Lyra heard an exasperated sigh from Jet. "Though, if his wife is with him, be careful. She's every bit the shark he is not."
"Captain Heartstrings, please, we are all friends here today. We are celebrating and reinvigorating the heart of Equestria's power—its communities." Jet felt his honor somewhat salved by the wince Lyra made when he used her title. "I'm surprised Princess Twilight isn't here."
"How often have you seen her over the last three days?" Lyra asked. When Jet raised an eyebrow, Lyra nodded. "She hasn't slept a wink for two full nights. It took Princess Celestia ordering her to bed to stop her constant need to adjust things."
"How did she even manage that?" Gavin asked.
"She's been trying to master her earth pony magic and that means stamina training. From what I've heard, there's a reason earth ponies don't often drink coffee in the morning—they just don't need it." Changing tack a little, Lyra turned her attention to Gavin. "So, what events were you planning to attend?"
Trying not to slump, but resigned to it, Gavin gestured around. "It's like you said before, the other towns, I'm sure, will have good ideas and plans, but I don't know how that will help Den. We need—Well, we don't need much, but ideas would help. Right now our wool sales combined with the lack of leasing fees are what keeps us going, but there are going to be bad years, and I don't want kittens, foals, and pups going hungry."
Jet cleared his throat. "Well, an outpost of the Guard might help with that. I believe there's a special stipend to towns supporting one. I didn't see the report on food supplies, but so long as you can keep, say, five ponies in food you can sustain an outpost."
"That—" Tilting his head a little to the side and trying to figure out the numbers, Gavin spoke his logic as he pondered it. "That might work. We do have plenty of pony food, it's keeping all the griffons fed that is the issue."
"I'll see about getting Captain Stiff Peaks to forward you the information before you leave." Jet sketched a bow, content that he'd convinced his first border town to accept the new idea Princess Luna had helped draft. "You'll have to excuse me, I believe I am needed by royalty."
"That means," Lyra said, conspiratorially cupping her hoof over her mouth, "that he just noticed Luna looking his way. Tethered at the flank, so some say. Kindred spirits."
When Jet had marched away quickly in Luna's direction, Gavin asked, "I thought you said he has a wife?"
"Yes, Luna and Jet took Twilight's friendship lessons to heart. I'm actually quite proud of having introduced them. Just don't believe Jet if he tries to explain my work as blackmail." Gesturing to the canapes table, Lyra was well aware of who was standing there. "You're in the south-east. You don't have any problems with dragons?"
"We're lucky, there. There's an old dragon in the hills outside town. We give her a few gems in payment to keep away any of her younger kin. Besides, it's not like she eats anything softer than soapstone—our sheep are perfectly safe." Gavin froze as his eyes narrowed on the end of the table. There were several large fish, even some finer seafood. "You—You wouldn't be offended by me eating, would you?"
Leading the way to the carnivore end of the table, Lyra picked up one of the lobster claws and made a show to Gavin of enjoying it. "Not one bit. I won't be eating too much, though. For all I enjoy the taste of seafood, unicorn bodies aren't equipped to deal with it in large quantities."
"I've never seen a unicorn eat it at all." Gavin, unlike Lyra, had a plate brimming with bits of seafood, not the least of which being two lobster claws. He watched her grab a few other things, more traditional pony food this time, from the table. In a moment of weakness he selected one of the little cupcakes as well. "Do you hear yelling?"
Lyra went on alert. Turning to put herself between Gavin and the calm crowd of ponies present, she was more than a little perplexed—until she remembered griffons had better hearing than ponies. "Where do you hear it?"
"Outside." Gavin had been surprised by the response. Griffons tended to raise their voices often, though in Den they had learned to keep such outbursts civil. "Just outside this window and down a bit."
As one of Twilight's representatives, Lyra knew it was partly her job to help deal with such things, but there was her duty. She managed to catch the eye of a Royal Guard and walked briskly over to her.
"Captain Heartstrings. What can I do for you?" Bottle Rocket remembered well the unicorn she'd joined the Guard with, though the serious expression on Lyra's face indicated that now wasn't the time to offer pleasantries.
"Sergeant"—Lyra racked her brain and came up with the right name—"Bottle Rocket, there may be a disturbance outside. I'm bound by orders to keep my charge safe—"
Giving a quick nod, Bottle turned to the stallion beside her. "Corporal Rhodolite, with me."
Watching the two march off, Gavin approached Lyra. "Am I a problem?"
"Nope. Not at all. In fact, you've been a help. Please, don't hold back telling me if you think something is going wrong." Doing her best to put a bright face on it, Lyra gestured to a quiet area in the huge ballroom. "Let's eat and I can try to figure out who would make a good connection next?"
The next few introductions were easily done. Lyra rounded up the ponies Gavin would need to boost his town's exports one by one: the Guard's quartermaster had been a wonderful first target, she then found Cadance, who was just talking up how much she'd been working to attract griffons to the Crystal Empire when Bottle Rocket returned. Lyra, feeling that Gavin was in good and safe hooves with Cadance, slipped aside for a moment to find out what had happened. "Bottle?"
"Captain I—"
"Speak freely, Sergeant."
Grinning, Bottle relaxed a little. "The weirdest stuff is going on. There are construction ponies just standing around a broken water pipe, watching it. There was a pony there to trim the trees, but he was just standing around too. The actual noise was a group of attendants complaining about being lumped together. When I asked everypony what was going on, I was told it was Princess Twilight's orders." There was, in her mind, nothing better than being asked by a higher up what was going on—it meant she wouldn't have to figure out what was going on, just how to fix it.
Lyra stopped and tried to focus on the facts, but when she saw Cadance finishing up with Gavin, she had to surrender her time back to the griffon. Mentally filing away talk to Twilight about better use of resources for a later conversation, Lyra sighed. "I'll ask somepony to go and find out what's going on. Thanks, Bottle." Pausing a moment before walking back over to Gavin and Cadance, she said, "The armor looks good on you."
Clicking her forehooves together, Bottle Rocket snapped off a salute. "Thank you, sir."
Returning the salute, Lyra turned and made her way over just before Cadance managed to get away. "Oh, Your Highness?" Grinning, Lyra swept her best deep bow to Cadance. "Might I trouble you for a favor?"
"Lyra, knock it off. I even managed to get Gavin to just call me Cadance." It had been a long day already for Cadance, and it wasn't even halfway through the afternoon. "Spit it out."
"There's a lot of strange stuff going on outside, apparently at Twilight's orders. I don't suppose you could…?" Trailing off at the confused expression on Cadance's face, Lyra wound up just raising an eyebrow.
"I asked Spike if he could make sure nopony bothered Twilight. I guess there isn't much else for it but to send out a Royal Guard to take up the post and ensure she can get a little sleep for tonight's big event." Cadance was not appreciating the role of foalsitter today. She'd already spoken to Spike once, and though he technically counted as a hero in her homeland, she had to remind herself that he was still just a baby dragon.
Left once more to stew in the inner ballroom with Gavin and a bunch of other city leaders, Lyra let out a sigh. "So, if I don't miss my guess, your largest neighbor is Baltimare, right?"
"Yeah. It's a long way north up the coast, though. What we really need is a railway spur to Den. If we could extend the Dodge City line…"
"Hayseed Swamps put a nix on that. You could have a team of unicorns blasting that muck for a year and still have whole lengths of track just disappear into the mud. Why not a dedicated line down from Baltimare—along the coast?" Lyra focused for a moment and, instead of using her magic to sketch a spell pattern in its lowest power, she instead drew a map of the region with her gold light.
Taken aback at first, Gavin tried to ignore the fact the pony he was with just made a map mid-air with her magic and focused on her suggestion. "That would help us tie in better with Baltimare and Fillydelphia. That's still a lot of track, and you'd need a bridge at the river."
"Right, but you could skirt the swamp down the coast and have it come right into town. Would you like me to find somepony you could talk to about this?"
"You can't tell me there's going to be someone from the Equestrian Engineers here." Glaring at Lyra, Gavin dared her to just summon said pony from thin air.
"Nah. We'd be better off talking to Princess Luna anyway. Since she's been back, she's become quite a patron of Equestria's public services. The railway, the post office, and even the office of records have all found her to be an excellent figure for them to liaise with." Gesturing forward, Lyra started a slow prancing walk.
"Do you know all the princesses?" It was starting to become a little unbelievable. Gavin could sort of get that she'd know one or two, particularly when she was the captain of one of their guards, but the familiarity with Cadance had him a little confused. "Who are you again?"
"If I told you I was just a happily married mare with a filly and a neat job, would you believe me?" The look in Gavin's eyes told Lyra that no, he hadn't believed her. "Well, it's true, but I've also done some stuff for Equestria, helped out a pony or two, and now I'm helping out a nice griffon who only seems to want what's best for those that depend on him."
Gavin wanted to argue, but it was becoming apparent to him that Lyra literally knew everyone he needed to be in contact with to get the town what it needed. He pulled out the notepad he'd brought with him and examined everything he'd set in motion so far. Trade deals, money flow from setting up a Guard outpost there, and now he was going to see a princess about a train. "Th-Thanks."
"No problems. Remember, Equestria is all about friendship. We all grow stronger as each pony, dragon, griffon, and diamond dog grows stronger." Spotting Luna about to duck down a hallway, Lyra had to speed up to catch her before she escaped. "Princess Luna! What a surprise!"
Luna froze. It wasn't that she wanted to shirk her duty, but she was a little sick of ponies coming directly to her for minor problems when any of her carefully appointed aides could perform the task without having to describe each and every problem to her. Lyra Heartstrings, however, had a pass. Having found most of Luna's aides for her, the mare knew what each of them could handle and what needed to go to her directly. "Yes?"
"Trains." Lyra smiled, her grin growing as it was answered by one on Luna's face. "The griffon mayor of Den, on the south-east coast of Equestria, would like to know if it would be possible to build a railway line to his town."
"Will there be a bridge? What line did you think to extend? Would we have an excuse to vaporize that whole swamp? Can I do it?" Luna was trying not to bounce up and down in excitement. Equestria's railways were a delight to her. The timing of them combined with the sense of impossibly large motion with so little magic was itself a special kind of magic to her. "Can I drive it?"
Lyra thought for a moment and then said, "Yes, Baltimare, no, no, and probably. I don't know as anypony in the Engineers would stop you, though you might need to get some training first."
Eyes widening more, Luna trembled for a moment before her wings shot out in surprise. "I COULD DRIVE TRAINS?!"
The Royal Canterlot Voice was something to behold. For Lyra—at point-blank range and in her armor—that meant being forcefully slid back a full ponylength. For Gavin, it meant stopping and clamping both his talons over his ears—not that it helped.
"Come! We must go to the train room!" Luna reached out with her magic to catch up Lyra and Gavin while they were still both stunned by her voice, then teleported all three of them to a huge room in Luna's own tower.
Whatever Lyra had expected, a full layout of Equestria built in miniature, with trains zooming around it, wasn't it. She knew Luna loved trains, but this was a level of devotion to them that Lyra found both amazing and adorable. "Wow."
"Now," Luna examined her map while levitating some fresh new track, "where is this town and how do you propose we build a railway out to reach it?"
Walking up to the massive map, Gavin tapped the shore south of Horseshoe Bay, where the land bulged out the most. "Here's where Den is. Lyra was saying that the swamp was too much to try laying track into, and we'd be better off going up the shore to Baltimare."
Narrowing her eyes, Luna nodded. "Yes. Then we need a bridge"—she reached out with her magic to her collection of assorted rail-bridges and plucked out one of the modern ones—"and we may have to destroy some of the forest along the edges of the shore. The last thing you want is a track where the trains have to run slow from start to end."
Lyra managed to resist helping the pair for nearly twenty seconds—basically the moment Luna produced the awesome little suspension bridge, Lyra became invested with the project. "If you have the bridge too close to the mouth of the bay, and too low, won't it obstruct boat traffic from reaching the docks up here?"
"You are correct, Lyra Heartstrings." Luna swapped out the small bridge for something far taller and more grand. She set it down and started adjusting the railway yard for Baltimare so it had a new outbound track, but also had a split back that allowed it to join the main line back to Canterlot.
Carefully placing the track, joining it up with absolute precision, Luna soon had the new line curling slowly out along the shore of Horseshoe Bay in what she knew was a slow enough curve not to impede the speed of a train. "This is the tricky part. A straight line from here down the coast would be optimal, but without knowing how problematic the swamps are, I simply cannot plan this correctly. Come, we must inspect the swamp!"
"Wait!" Gavin barely got the word out, which halted Luna's teleport a fraction of a second before she carried it out. "I appreciate this, but don't we need to notify the Engineers to let them know to start planning?"
"While Lyra only has moderate engineering experience," Luna said, "I have taken it upon myself to obtain a civil engineering degree for just such a purpose." She started connecting the little tracks on the map and carefully moving aside the flock and working it around the track she placed. "I happen to also have a diploma in railway layout and bridge design."
"Really?" Lyra asked. When Luna nodded, Lyra let out a sigh. "That's so cool! So, do you think we can build the railway along the shore?"
"I will have to inspect it. Unless it is mangrove swamp or, worse, peat bog, there should be a suitable substrate to support a train." Luna gave a little nod of self-assurance that her plans would work. "And, if there isn't, I will ensure there is. And I will get to build a bridge!"
Gavin was at a loss. Somehow he'd managed to get royal authority to begin constructing a railway line to Den, and it wasn't even something he'd hoped to accomplish. "How did that happen?" he asked.
Leading the way out of the royal suites, back down to the symposium, Lyra asked, "What, Princess Luna teleporting us?"
"No. Well, yes. This was nothing like I expected. I thought I'd be welcomed and then politely pushed to the back while the bigger cities discuss important things." Pulling the scroll from the pouches he wore over his back, Gavin shoved it at Lyra. "This is going to keep the town busy for years!"
The panic and enthusiasm combined reminded Lyra of Twilight and, she had to admit, herself. "That's a bad thing?"
Taking the list back from Lyra, Gavin gave his wings a good fluffing up before letting loose with a squawk. "No. And that's the worst bit. I came here expecting very little beyond acceptance." He looked at Lyra and narrowed his eyes. "I'd almost wonder if this was a set up, if everyone wasn't so—so sincere."
"They are."
"I know! That's what makes this hard to figure out. When we left the griffon lands, we didn't expect any kind of welcome. We asked around, we set down roots where no one else was, and even had some non griffon friends join our family.
"And it is a family. When you spend a year or two struggling to live, each giving up food so others could eat, it brings you closer together. We expected to be left alone if not shunned. We were okay with that, so long as we didn't have to deal with the greed of other griffons again.
"So, coming here, I expected ceremony and welcome, but I didn't expect"—he waved the scroll in the air—"this." Stopping dead in his tracks, Gavin looked around and then gestured in the direction of a wall. "I hear a lot of water."
Knowing there was a hallway on the other side of the wall and then the dining room on the other side of that, Lyra instead aimed her teleport at the dining room's front door. "Hold on." When she felt Gavin's talon clutch at her back, Lyra finished up the calculations and teleported from point to point without traveling through the intervening walls.
They were just in time to see Fancy Pants yank the door open and let a wave of water come rushing out. Not one to be caught off-guard, Lyra put up a shield to keep the pair of them dry while the water rushed down the hall. When the wave had passed, she let her golden magic evaporate with a small pop.
What surprised Lyra more was a literal mob of city dignitaries rushing into the room all shouting about something. She headed in with Gavin by her side.
And that's when the arguments really started. "Is this normal?" Gavin asked, looking to Lyra.
With the way everyone was yelling about Twilight, Lyra was sure that the issue would be dealt with shortly. "Nah, this is extra normal. I would have been surprised if nothing had gone wrong."
"Is this really something to be calm and dismissive about? What were they angry about?" Walking around the room that now had a high-tide mark at around head height, Gavin spotted the pile of precious stones and his heart caught in his chest.
Walking over to the stones, he picked up the one from Den. "This is normal?"
"Sometimes things have to be allowed to dip a little before you can see how good it can become." Looking down at the rest of the gems, Lyra felt a stir of magic among them. "I can promise one thing, if you trust Twilight, she'll fix everything."
They didn't have long to wait. Not five minutes later Twilight, Cadance, and Spike walked back into the hall with all the furious ponies behind them. When Gavin looked at Lyra, hoping to see some semblance of the super-resourceful mare that had been helping him all day, he saw her smile.
"There's a reason Twilight became a princess, and it isn't entirely because she is exceptionally good at magic. Watch." When the crowd came in, and Twilight gave Spike a little talk about responsibility, Lyra could feel a huge whirlpool of harmony magic swirling around the room.
What was obvious about the situation was that Spike had gotten in over his head. His confused description of what he'd done wrong appeased the guests, and doubly so when he apologized repeatedly for it.
Leaving Spike to finish making amends, Twilight noticed Lyra looking satisfied with herself. Edging around the stage, she dropped off the side. "I'd ask how this happened, but I remember giving you marching orders and instructions not to spend the day guarding me."
Reaching her hoof up, Lyra gave Twilight a gentle boop on the nose. "Right. So I did what you asked me to do and trusted you to sort this mess out when you woke up—which you did. I'd call that teamwork."
"How was Gavin? Any problems with him?" Seeing the ponies, and the griffon in question, reassembling the gemstone statue, Twilight was relieved that things at least ended the right way.
"No problems at all, in fact. I believe you should ask him yourself, though." Twilight's glare didn't exactly cow Lyra, but it did prompt her to explain. "I talked with him to find out what his town, Den, needs. They need bits, they need trade partners, and they need a way to grow both. I had them connecting with other nearby cities to arrange exchanges of goods. I arranged for an assessment to have a Guard garrison there, which will earn the town bits from the Guard to maintain it, and it will mean more ponies with bits will live there. Plus I might have gotten Luna excited about building a railway line there."
"A railway line? Why would you go to Princess Luna with that?"
"Twilight, do you know which of the currently reigning princesses has a civil engineering degree? I'll give you a hint, the same one who has graduate diplomas in railway engineering and has become the patron figure of the Equestrian railway service." Lyra watched Twilight's confusion turn to incredulousness by the time she finished talking. "You get just one guess."
"She got an engineering degree? It's only been—Oh. It's been five years, hasn't it?" Slumping a little, Twilight let out a groan. "It's hard to remember what's going on in the world for others when—"
"When you're saving the world every other weekend?" Lyra asked helpfully.
"How are your wings coming, Lyra?" Twilight asked, changing the topics. "I wonder how it will go with you. Inventing a new kind of magic? Saving an entire town from disaster? Maybe even—" Twilight managed to laugh around Lyra's hoof pressed to her mouth.
"If you must know, it's getting harder to banish them. Even hours after using magic they're still there. Twilight, is this really what's happening to me? Am I really going to—I can't even say it." Lyra reluctantly removed her hoof from Twilight's mouth.
Twilight didn't reply verbally. Instead, she stepped closer to Lyra and, ignoring the armor her friend wore, she hugged Lyra tightly. When Twilight felt Lyra returning the hug, she let out a happy sigh. "Lyra, you live to help others—every day of your life. If it were up to me, I'd give you every power in Equestria to keep doing that for as long as you possibly can—just to see how far you can go and grow with it. I am sure there is something big in your future. I don't think you'll just wake up one day and, bam, alicorn. Harmony has plans for us all."
"You're just saying stuff I already said." Squeezing a little tighter, Lyra finally felt returned to herself and leaned back from Twilight. "Thanks."
"It's what friends are for." Booping Lyra back, Twilight rolled her shoulders and yawned. "What does Sweetie think of it?"
"The wings?" Lyra snorted and shook her head. "If she had her way, I'd have the spell up all the time. You know, the first time I took her out on a date, I begged Cadance for help to arrange something special?"
"You told me this one before. It's why I asked, you goof." Twilight realized then that a crowd was starting to gather that seemed far more focused on her than any of the other issues that'd happened. "I think play time is over. I don't suppose, Lyra, you could find me something to eat?"
"And a drink. Coming right up, Your Highness." Lyra gave her best courtly bow (which she'd been practicing), and then backed her way out to let the group approach Twilight without committing a social faux pas.
The day wore on to evening and, soon enough, the first mayors were begging their leave from the first Grand Equestria Pony Summit to get rides home on trains or skyships. Gavin, with all his business taken care of, edged his way over to where Lyra and Firelance were standing.
He'd been forced to eat a little of his pride during the event, thanks to Lyra getting him exactly what he needed. Now, though, he had just one favor left to ask. "I was all set to leave when I realized something—we didn't get a chance to spar."
Raising her eyebrow, Lyra smiled at Gavin. "You saw a little of what I could do today. Are you sure?"
"I saw a mare with some good teleportation skills. I did talk to Captain Stiff Peaks a little earlier, and he seemed interested in seeing how well a griffon would do against a trained unicorn." Flicking his tail in excitement now, Gavin looked between Lyra and the younger stallion present.
Lyra, for just a moment, considered telling him that Stiff Peaks was trying to set him up. "You don't mind if I wear armor? It takes a while to remove this when I have it tacked as a dress uniform."
"It will mean I can use my claws and teeth a bit more. Is there somewhere particular for it?"
Nodding toward a nearby Royal Guard, Lyra waited for him to march over before asking, "Is there somewhere in the castle grounds where we could do a little sparring?"
Glancing over to Bottle Rocket, Pace Setter got her attention and she walked over to them. "Captain Heartstrings asked if there was somewhere she could spar."
"The training hall would be best. Follow me." Bottle had overheard Lyra and Gavin talking, and she was excited to see any demonstration that her former fellow cadet would put on. Marching them out to the attached garrison and training area for Royal Guards, she led them inside. "This will do?"
Lyra had heard Scootaloo talk of the Royal Guard garrison and some of their training. It felt like she was walking on hallowed ground to cross the dirt floor and turn to face Gavin. In his eyes she could see someone trained to fight and a natural predator. "Bottle, can you give us a count?"
Bottle was more than a little curious to see how the mock battle would go. She'd made her own assumptions on Gavin, combining the natural prowess of a griffon with the likelihood that he'd had training on top of that. She didn't like the idea of having to fight him herself, and would have called for backup the moment things had gotten serious. Lyra, however, was a unicorn who'd literally written the book when it came to modern unicorn combat techniques. "Five. Four. Three. Two. Go!"
For Lyra, starting just five ponylengths from Gavin was too close, but it was the standard distance for such sparring sessions. So, to correct this grave injustice, she teleported back and at a slight angle to triple that distance.
Gavin had expected some quick magic, but the teleport threw him off his initial idea of pounce-tackle-win. Lyra had put herself out of easy pounce range, which meant he would have to telegraph any attack to get within range. Griffons, though, were not land-based predators. Spreading his wings, he coiled his legs and jumped into the air.
"Unsurprising," Lyra muttered under her breath. She already had a teleport readied, but firstly she wanted to give Gavin some things to think about. First was a combat shield that would appear opaque from the outside but was fully transparent from within. Second was an illusion of a copy appearing on the other side of the arena, likewise putting up a shield. Finally, she grabbed at Gavin's body and pulled down.
Having gravity become twice as strong was not on Gavin's to-do list. He lashed out with his talons at the magic field and jerked backward hard with his wings. When the grip of Lyra's telekinesis broke, he gave a screech of excitement. Not all griffons used dragon scales to strengthen their claws, but the guards of Den did—plying the old dragoness with gems for access to her cast-off scales to make them far more effective in combat against magic users. "Going to have to do better than—"
It was instinct that made Gavin throw himself aside as a beam of coherent magic shot toward him. His claws could cut through magic readily enough, but there was a lot of griffon that wasn't wrapped in them.
More and more beams. Lyra made them dance around the room as she, cheating a little, burned vast amounts of magic to create weak spells. Not that they were all weak—some were strong enough to give a nasty burn. Another teleport fakeout, and another barrier up—then to make it more tricky she actually teleported into that shield.
Gavin knew it was only a matter of time before he would miss a swerve from one of the beams. He'd already had one sear a few hairs on his tail, and had worked up his adrenaline to the point where everything was slowing down. Here and there a beam was about to touch him, but a casual wave of his talons not only stopped the beam but made that one fail and sputter out completely.
Lyra barely had a single second to come up with a teleport calculation when she realized Gavin was diving at her shield—talons first. This time she appeared out in the open and snapped another shield up. More and more and more beams, flickering and dancing, weaving and searing the air as they swept around in pseudo-random patterns.
As his peripheral vision started to strain to the point where he couldn't keep track of the beams anymore, Gavin felt something grab him and realized he was done. "I cede!" No sooner did the words leave his beak than all the beams and all the shields vanished and a very overworked unicorn with glowing golden wings lowered him to the floor.
"You really pushed me, there," Lyra said as she approached Gavin. "I was kinda cheating, using weaker than normal beams, but I think you have to explain those talons to me." Something, though, felt off to her. For one thing Gavin was staring at her with flagrant awe in his eyes. When she turned to look around the room, three things became apparent. The first thing she realized was she'd gained an audience that included Celestia, Cadance, and a group of guards—all of which were looking on with shock on their faces. The second and third things were the glowing wings on her back that were barely visible at the edges of her eyes. "Oh dammit."
Walking forward, her hooves making a slow clopping noise on the stone before she reached the gravel of the arena, Celestia wore a big smile and focused both eyes on Lyra. To her sight she could see that Lyra wasn't an alicorn, but magic itself was making its claim known. "Well, well, well. I had wondered that you and Twilight were a little too quiet in Ponyville. We will chat about this later, Lyra Heartstrings."
Gavin had the distinct impression that he shouldn't have seen this. When Celestia turned her smile toward him, he definitely knew it. He was at a loss as to what to do or say, and in the end just shrugged his shoulders. "It was a good spar."
Celestia cleared her throat. "This was a surprise for everyone present, except for one pony. I hope you understand that, until we know better how this affects Equestria, we would rather it not be—"
"I don't think Gavin is going to say anything." Lyra had spent far more magic than she'd expected to in dealing with him. "I do have some questions about his talons, though. Mostly I want to know how he deflected my magic with them."
Holding up one of his talons, Gavin let Lyra inspect it. "You don't need much, and it's not easy to do, but if you can powder dragon scales and eat a little every other week, your talons will end up resistant to magic."
"Oh wow." Lyra energized her horn and tried to grab his talons—and succeeded. "Huh?" Then her magic evaporated. "You can control this?!"
"Griffons have, traditionally, not had any quarrels with ponies. The griffons of Griffonstone would have no reason to tell you about it—not that many there can afford to acquire dragon scales." Setting his talon back on the gravel floor, Gavin felt proud that he'd actually surprised her in the spar. "So, that makes a secret traded for a secret."
Unable to help herself, Celestia laughed. "Very well done. I am sure that Lyra will have more questions for you about acquiring some dragon scales of our own. In the meantime, though, if you'd like to retire I believe I have my own questions for her."
Rolling her eyes, Lyra made an effort to fold her wings and turned to Gavin. "Don't sweat seeing me before you leave, I might come visit Den and we can have another little spar—this time with a bit more room. I think that would even things out."
"Probably not, but I'd like to find out. Thank you, Captain." Strutting from the arena, Gavin didn't feel the least bit defeated by the spar. When he was outside, a Royal Guard escort guiding him back to the castle, he did have a moment to reflect on the fact that he'd had a mare—almost a princess—escort him around for the whole day and work to ensure he felt as welcome as any of the ponies did.
Holding her gaze on Lyra, Celestia let out a sigh. "When did this start?"
"You're really going to grill her here, Auntie?" Cadance walked over, trying her very best to provide a little wiggle-room for her friend. "Why don't we retire to a nice, private waiting room and discuss this over tea?"
"Of course." Celestia used her magic to put together a note that she sent to her seneschal and led the way out of the Guard building, into the castle, and down a side corridor to one of the castle's more cozy rooms. There was a large glass window that let the evening sunshine in. There was also two alicorns already waiting there along with two mares pouring tea—they were castle maids, but both were also former Royal Dragoons. Once the door was closed behind her she settled down and accepted a cup of tea. "Please, Lyra, start at the beginning."
"What's this about, Sister?" Luna asked. She'd gotten a hasty summons and had arrived only a moment before Celestia had. "I was in a very important meeting."
"Trains?" Lyra asked.
Nodding, Luna smiled just a little. "I was discussing the pending work of an extension to the Baltimare line down to the growing city of Den. I'd escorted some railway engineers in to help decide the finer aspects."
"Lyra," Celestia said, "please spread them again."
Twilight groaned and closed her eyes.
Needing to give her magic another jolt, Lyra spread the golden wings on her back. "I didn't mean to get them. Personally, I consider it an attack on my liberty directly by friendship magic."
Luna, now seeing there was a good reason to be pulled away from her trains, lifted a cup of tea in her magic and took a sip. "Please explain how you got wings."
"It was when Twilight and her friends went to Our Town and were stripped of their cutie marks. You got the reports we wrote on what happened in Ponyville with magic?" Seeing nods from each of the princesses, Lyra continued. "It probably should have burned out my magic doing that, but having so much friendship magic pouring through me started this change.
"The form of the wings is thanks to a spell I've been using that allows me to grow wings if I need to. It stores the condition and form in my body's etheric field so that exercise and training carries over between casting of the spell. This"—she gestured to her back—"is a visual representation of my etheric field.
"Now, whenever I do magic, they manifest again and—"
Twilight cut in. "And, it's happening more often and I believe they're brighter. Lyra now has sixty-five percent of the magical capacity of an alicorn and is gaining more each week. My own hypothesis is that when she can channel the other forms of magic to an equal extent as she did friendship, her magic will quicken and she will become an alicorn."
"That would be one hypothesis," Celestia said. "Another would be that she requires earth pony and pegasi magic. Your own quickening, Twilight, involved the magic of two pegasi and two earth ponies, therefore—"
"Actually," Cadance began, feeling tiny mentally, when sitting there with Twilight and Celestia, but she had one advantage over Celestia in this one case, "Twilight's newest book regarding the magic of earth ponies suggests that it is all the same magic."
Head snapping around, Celestia pinned Cadance with a stunned look, then turned back to Twilight. "You sent a new book to Cadance first?"
"I needed the viewpoint of an alicorn who wasn't quickened from a unicorn. This is amazing new research and the mare who's teaching me this new style of magic is astoundingly astute." It was Twilight's new, favorite topic. "Watch!"
Celestia was watching, also trying to feel-out what Twilight was doing. There was a sense of warmth and earth, and then Twilight's hoof was glowing—without a hint of unicorn magic present. She looked a little deeper, though, and saw a definite skew of light magic toward Twilight. "That goes against everything we know. Earth pony magic can't—it shouldn't…"
"Remember the mare who calmed down the Smooze at the gala? She had a few more tricks." Lyra nodded her head toward Twilight. "So, anyway, right now Twilight has suggested I take things as they come and trust that harmony has something planned. When it comes to things like this, I trust her."
Twilight was aware that all her mentor's attention was on her. Looking anywhere but directly at Celestia, she felt like the heat of the midday sun was beating down on her, razing her with its gaze. In that moment she feared that if she looked at Celestia, she would damage her eyes every bit as quickly as if she looked at the sun.
"Twilight?" Celestia asked.
"Y-Yes?" The trick was to turn her head to look at Celestia, but then dodge her gaze by looking at her teacup.
Lifting her leg and booping Twilight on the nose, Celestia chuckled. "I believe you have everything well in hoof. Far be it from me to get between a teacher and her student."
"Student? But Lyra's older than me and knows—well, we both know a lot about magic. She also seems to be friends with everypony in Equestria, somehow. How can I teach her anything?" Twilight looked askance at Lyra, sharing a worried smile with her.
"I think I can answer this one." Folding her wings, Lyra walked over to Twilight and pulled her into a hug. "You started teaching me the moment I arrived in Canterlot to learn at the school. You helped me build my knowledge of magic, you helped me make friends, and you helped me understand what it is to be a pony. If I have to grow wings, I want to learn what it means to do so from the only other unicorn I know who did so.
"Remember, Twilight, I was almost at the point of a nervous breakdown. I spread myself so thin you could see daylight through my ears. Learning to keep myself for me as well as help ponies has been the latest lesson—but it's one I appreciate just as much as you teaching me about magic itself.
"You're the best teacher I could have hoped for."
Squeezing Lyra back, Twilight spread her wings in pure joy. She had no words, though, so settled with just giving the support she could without breaking into tears.
Returning to Ponyville was a relief for all involved. Lyra sat with a dress covering her armored back (because her magic use from the spar with Gavin was still showing), watching as the station lunged toward the train to divest it of its precious cargo of ponies. When the train started to slow, she stood up and gathered her bag with her magic. "I can't help but think we're forgetting something."
Twilight, with two bags stuffed with paperwork that she was gleeful to get working on, practically bounced in place. "Whatever it is, I'm sure Princess Celestia will send it to us."
"I just hope it won't be via dragonfire." Spike yawned cautiously, hoping nothing would come out now that he'd jinxed himself.
Firelance, hauling most of Twilight's actual luggage, marched along beside the two mares and the dragon. It was an odd life he'd found himself in. Still, he had to admit the promotional opportunities were vast—if only he could get someone else to sign up to be the token corporal.
He was content to keeping an eye out while the others talked, absorbing the sights of Ponyville. He had learned the ebb and flow of Ponyville after several months now, and he felt he could mostly identify terrible things about to happen just by how the other ponies of the town responded.
It was quiet but there was a little noise, which meant there was nothing too bad going on, Firelance knew, if it was silent, that would be a sign of big trouble. "Oh, I just remembered what you're forgetting."
Reaching the castle itself, Lyra used her magic to open the doors as she turned to look at Firelance. "What's that?"
"Oh! Hello, Blue!" Twilight said, walking inside and giving Blue Blood a wave. "I hope you weren't too lonely here?"
Bread Basket rounded the corner and felt a little timid on seeing Twilight, but she had to remind herself she'd been invited to spend time in the castle. "He shouldn't be. Welcome back, Your Highness."
"Please, just Twilight is fine." It wasn't the first time she'd tell a pony, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last. Normally, though, Twilight didn't get ponies giggling from her saying it. "What—?" She turned just in time to see Lyra hiding a sign. "You know what, you'll have your own issues to deal with eventually. Just remember that."
Lyra shivered, at Twilight's counter. Trying to shy away from the questioning gazes, she gave Firelance a nod. "Want to grab some lunch? I'm sure Twilight has a lot of paperwork to do." At the renewed expressions on Blue and Bread's faces, she nodded to them too. "Might as well make it a party."