"What was the spring, Discord?"
"Hrmm? Whatever do you mean?" Fluttering his lashes, Discord sat in the room that'd had gravity reversed, sipping tea from an inside-out cup. "What spring?"
"I'm not going to argue, but I can feel like a tension is gone that I can't remember getting. You did it when you took me apart and removed a spring." Lyra sipped the tea from around the outside of her own cup and then smiled at Discord. "Thank you."
"What? No Spanish inquisition?" Discord had gained himself a red cloak and hat—and a monocle.
"You expected the Spanish inquisition?" Lyra's eyes twinkled and, with a flourish of her own magic, she gained a similar outfit but with a pair of goggles on top of her head. "Our chief weapon is fear! Fear and surprise!"
Naturally capable of looking into a million pasts, forgetting them all, and still pulling something appropriate out of nowhere, Discord made a comfortable pair of lounge chairs appear for them to sit on. "Comfy chairs are in order, then, because I find myself liking you more and more. Quite strange, given the trepidation I felt going into this meeting. So, what do you want to know about harmony?"
"Harmony I already have a handle on, thanks for offering. I want to know about chaos." Finishing her tea, Lyra bit the cup to find her guess had been right—it was marzipan.
"Ah yes, chaos. Sorry, I can't give it to you."
Swapping over to chewing on her saucer, Lyra shrugged her shoulders. "Did you intend to give me harmony?"
Flashing a toothy grin, Discord said, "No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"You're not going to stop, are you?"
"Nope! Please? I'll bake you a pie."
Discord's eyebrow raised—by three feet. He reached up and grabbed it, pulling it back down and attaching it to his face again. "You're negotiating a price?"
"If that's what it takes."
"Okay, two things." Discord snapped his beans and produced another two cups of tea. "You bake a banana cream pie and, tomorrow, you hit Celestia in the face with it."
"Is that all? Sure. You want to be there when I do it?" Lyra sipped the tea. It wasn't her favorite—she was a simple dark tea-drinking mare—but it tasted of caramel fudge with a lot of salt. "This is delicious. I'd ask how you made it, but that you made it for me is all I can really care about. Thank you."
"Well, not being there would make it hard to enjoy. Just say my name before you do it and I'll be there with bells on." Lyra, Discord had decided, was going to be too much fun to play with.
"But here's a counter-offer." The look Discord shot her made Lyra grin—he looked equal parts curious, infuriated, and elated. "I'll tell you why I'm doing all this if you'll teach me about chaos."
Looking around the room conspiratorially, Discord stood up from his chair and fluttered his wings to reach Lyra. He leaned down and whispered into one ear, "I am the lord of chaos and harmony. I already know why you're doing this, and it delights me to know that somepony will keep it all safe. But, to ensure you are the right somepony, I need to test you."
"Ugh!" Lyra tried to escape the trap, but it was too late. Discord's drool-covered lion digit was in her ear and he was twisting it this way and that. "Stop it!"
Pulling his digit free with a loud pop, Discord laughed. "Has anyone ever told you that your very being fizzes and pops with all the strange absurdities of your beginning?"
"Not today—until now. Ugh, I have draconequus drool in my ear." Turning her head to the side, Lyra heard a rush of water and watched as a veritable fire hose worth of liquid started thundering out of her ear.
Despite it all, and even though he was messing with her in ways that would make any serious pony livid, Lyra giggled. It was funny, but more than that it was fun. "What are you going to do next?"
"If I told you, it wouldn't be nearly as fun." Stretching out, Discord wiggled his butt on the seat a little. "These really are quite comfy."
As the flood of liquid from her ear tapered off, Lyra jumped up (or down, since they were floating near the ceiling and upside down) and jabbed at Discord with a cushion. "Confess!"
In response, Discord wiggled around to get more comfortable. After listening to the third "confess" from Lyra, he manifested a duplicate of himself that asked, "Have you got all the stuffing at one end?"
"It's no good, m'lord."
Rubbing his chin, Cardinal Discord sighed. "He must be made of sterner stuff. "Very well. Cardinal Pointy-head, read out the charges!"
"Twelve-pence!" Lyra shouted at the Accused Discord. "Confess!"
Pulling out a little coin purse, Accused Discord counted out twelve one-pence pieces and passed them to Cardinal Discord. "Can I go now?"
Overcome now with giggles, Lyra flopped onto her chair hard enough that it started to spin in midair. After settling her mirth back down, and her rotational inertia, she asked, "Apart from drive ponies crazy with your antics, what do you do with your spare time?"
"You mean when I'm bored?" When Lyra nodded, Discord shrugged. "Take a bath, usually."
Her mind racing, Lyra tried to remember the reference. It slipped and, unfortunately, she lost it. Hanging her head, she let out a soft whine. "I almost had it."
Wiggling his digits, Discord snapped them and produced a projector and screen. There was also a pair of blue and red lensed glasses sitting on the seat beside each of them. "Here, this is the one you'll want."
Putting on the 3D glasses, Lyra watched as a classic Monty Python skit started playing—in 3D. She stared, knowing for sure that it would never have been filmed in 3D. She was tempted to question it, but the fact was she wanted to enjoy the moment more than anything.
She hadn't seen this particular skit before. It was about a group of aristocrats discussing the difference between woody words and tinny words. By the end of it Lyra was giggling and eating the popcorn Discord had passed her (ignoring that it tasted like mint).
By the time it was done, she felt renewed. The popcorn had been delicious (once she got past the flavor) and the skit had left her laughing. "Thank you, Discord. I forgot how good it was to relax and experience some new—to me—Monty Python."
Sitting beside Lyra on a chair, Discord had a very tilted beret on and lensless glasses. He was also holding a clipboard and a pen. "There were periods where the jokes were a little thin on the ground, but overall one of their better skits. I give it four thumbs up." To reinforce his grade, Discord held out his paw and produced four thumbs on it, as well as nearly seven regular toes.
Examining his paw, Discord added, "I think I might have taken this gag too far. I appear to be AI generated—oh dear."
Lyra shuddered at the not-a-mental-image before her. "Some things were not meant to exist—But, Discord, you're not one of them. I think I figured out what you removed."
"Oh? Do you want it back?" Restoring his paw to something that could physically exist, Discord held up the tiny little gear. "It'd take just a second…"
"And if I told you I trust you to know if I would?"
A snap of his digits and Discord was sitting in a seat while Lyra was laying on a couch in what was the traditional psychiatrist and patient situation. "Tell me, when was the first time you thought the Lord of Chaos would make a good decision about your mental state?"
When he saw the gag had hit its mark, Discord sighed. "Life would be so much easier for everyone if they could simply remove the bits of themselves they don't like. It would be dull, but easier. This bit—"
"Dysphoria," Lyra said, smirking. "I figured it out."
"There wasn't much of it. You seemed to have it under control." Discord pinched the little gear between his fingers, causing the metal to flex. "Last chance…"
Rolling her eyes. Lyra snorted. "Send it to Tartarus for all I care." She grinned when he pinched and broke the gear. "It never helped me much anyway. At first it was a lot to deal with, but I like to think that friction over the years wore it down. So, what about chaos? I don't think I want to just let it in like I did harmony."
Breaking into laughter wasn't enough for Discord, he had to break his whole body up into tiny little pieces that then evaporated into a raucous cacophony of giggles. He quickly reconstituted himself. "You could try, but I wouldn't suggest it. There is one pony you could learn from."
That was news to Lyra. "Who?"
"Whom. Honestly, you serve the princess of books and you don't know your grammar?" The word Who appeared in the air and Discord used a red pen to correct the speech balloon that formed around it. "But, if you must know, my daughter."
Lyra froze at that bit of information. "You have a daughter?"
"Doesn't everyone?" The snaggletoothed grin Discord delivered spoke volumes. "It was an accident, but aren't all such accidents just darling? I wouldn't change her for the world—and by that I mean I can't. She's stubbornly capricious and seems able to shrug off my magic with absolute impunity. Her name's—"
"Screwball?" Lyra asked.
Pink coat, violet eyes with swirl patterns in the pupils, inky black mane and tail, and black eyeshadow. Screwball let out a sigh. "Dad sent you, didn't he?"
Lyra nodded, then started walking into the nondescript Ponyville home that she'd never noticed before. "He's really your dad? I mean, it's not that I doubt it, but—"
"There wasn't any biology involved, if that's what you mean, but yeah. He made me." Today, in Screwball's home, the walls were the floor. That meant it was a Thursday. She walked toward the kitchen while hiding her surprise that Lyra didn't seem fazed by the way gravity was distorted. In her usual monotone, she asked, "Do you want some tea?"
"Uh, sure." Lyra had felt a little stymied by Discord's evasive attitude after mention of his daughter, both on the topic of said daughter and chaos magic itself. "Your dad said you'd be the best pony to ask about chaos magic."
"Did he?" It didn't take a huge expenditure of chaos to give herself the idea, five minutes previous, to put her kettle on and prepare two cups of tea. Screwball often had urges to do things that would later prove important, and she now realized she'd actually made the tea moments before Lyra had arrived. "Or did he tell you that your head would implode, explode, and implode again if he explained it?"
"He likes making jokes." Finding a seat was easy. Catching a seat, though, was a little harder. Lyra managed to grab an armchair that had been grazing on a picture of a grassy field and sat on it.
"Yes. Jokes." Screwball carried the tea into the living room, gave a chair and table a death-stare until they crawled over and arranged themselves near the chair Lyra had mounted, and offered one of the cups over. "Careful, it's a little cold."
The tea, Lyra noticed, wasn't simply cold—it was frozen solid. She carefully used a trickle of magic to warm it up.
"Don't do it that way," Screwball said. "That will take more magic than you have. Here."
The magic didn't originate in Screwball's horn, since she didn't have one, but Lyra could see the mare build a spell out of pure chaos magic. The stuff, as soon as it was bound to a form, exploded into life and rejected the confinement. It rushed into the cup, heated the tea to a warm plasma, then cooled it back to a liquid just shy of boiling. "Can you show me that again?" Lyra asked. "Please?"
"No. It wouldn't work now. Chaos magic only works at the time it is cast for a given state of the universe." Lifting her cup and sipping at it, Screwball let out a happy sigh. "Black like my soul."
"…" Lyra wasn't sure how to reply to that, but she was thankful Scootaloo hadn't hit such a phase as Screwball seemed to have going on. Shaking her head, she focused back on the magic. "So it needs to be created on the spot?"
"Mmhmm. It requires you to put all the knowledge of the universe into it, then tell it what outcomes you don't want." Tilting her head in thought, Screwball added, "But, sometimes that doesn't work. At least half of Dad's chaos magic goes wrong, he just rolls with it and pretends it was exactly what he wanted."
"And yours?" Lyra asked.
"About the same. Chaos is chaotic. Give it a try."
The idea of giving chaos a try without any preparation beyond the meager information that Screwball had given her already seemed completely mad to Lyra, which is why she figured on something right away. In the middle of the coffee table she pictured a small lamp—
"No, that's not right. You're thinking of what you want. Imagine what you don't want."
"But how do I know what I don't want if I don't visualize what I want first?" Looking at her current mentor, Lyra watched her shrug. "Okay, so I visualize everything I don't want to appear on the table. Dogs. Cats. A chainsaw."
"Good, good, and good. More broad. You can rule out a lot of things by shoving a concept there. Nothing alive. Nothing that has been alive."
"Ah. This is how you build up overlapping protection to narrow down the possibilities. Okay." Centering herself, Lyra pictured the table with… Living thing. Dead thing. Things that can hurt me. Things that will destroy Ponyville. Things that can never make light. Things that can—
Lyra continued working over as much as she could, narrowing it down more and more. Finally, she felt a little tickle in her horn. Capricious, chaos magic unlike what she'd been taught to use at school started bouncing around—wanting to be used. She let out what she hoped was more than the minimum required to make a candle but not too much.
"Perfect. You even used the same trick on the—Oh, a broom." Looking at the broom, Screwball narrowed her eyes. "Do you know who I am?" she asked the inanimate object, before it quickly became a candle in a lovely candlestick made of twisting, impossibly-shaped brass. "Good. No student of mine will ever fail on her first real spell."
"Student?" Lyra and the candle asked at the same time.
"Hey," Lyra said, gesturing at the candle. "I specifically thought nothing alive."
"Oh. Sorry." And, with that, the candle was finally a normal candle.
"Ugh. Of course student. Why else did you think Dad would send you to me? You want to learn how to do real chaos, this is real chaos. You literally just did exactly what I said and used chaos to do something rather than a spell. It failed, like I said things do, but you rolled with it. Congratulations, you have graduated. Hooray." Around halfway through the speech Screwball completely changed her outlook on life. Her mane changed from black to violet again, but now it hung in scraggly waves down one side of her face and covered one eye and she had gained a pair of torn jeans covering her back legs and rump. "Or, like, whatever. I don't actually care anymore."
The shift had surprised Lyra, but when she reflected on it, she realized it was probably in the mare's nature. "So, uh, any other tricks?"
Screwball let out the most epic sigh in history. It would have devastated anyone to have their creative work be the target of the sigh, and if anyone but Lyra had heard it, it probably would have made them cry for a decade in sympathy. But, having been a training sergeant in the E.U.P. Guard, Lyra was immune to such attempts to derail her—and Screwball somehow sensed that imperiousness and recoiled from it. In an instant her grunge phase was gone and she was a regular pony for a change.
"Well," Screwball said, feeling a bright little ball of joy in her heart for the first time all day, "the more you use chaos, the more it messes with you. I think you know what I mean. I've been in existence for several years, and it catches me by surprise still. Dad… You know what a few thousand years with no one to talk to but chaos will do?"
"Uh." Lyra didn't have to think hard. Discord was pretty much the poster boy for Don't Do Chaos. "Yeah. I might bake him some cookies some time."
"He likes chocolate chips. I'll see you tomorrow at the same time." Standing up, Screwball gestured to the door.
Taking the hint, Lyra stood as well and walked along the wall to the exit. "Do you have a favorite flavor of cookie?"
"How good are you at baking?" Screwball asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Pretty good."
"Salted caramel."
"Got it. Thank you again, teacher." Leaving the house, Lyra felt normal gravity exert itself on her again. It felt a little odd for a moment, but since the universe wasn't going to bend any natural laws simply for the sake of one unicorn's discombobulation, she had to put up with it.
Back inside the house, Screwball let out a sigh. "You can come out now."
Stepping from behind a photon, Discord had a smile from ear to ear. Opening a bag he put the mouth and pair of ears away for later. "That went well."
"You deliberately made that fail."
"Who, moi?" Discord held his paw to his chest in mock outrage. "Well, a little. But it needed to be done. If she'd gotten upset at this point, better she slip quickly into madness than keep pursuing her goal."
"She made a candle appear on her first try. She's good at this." Screwball sipped her tea some more.
"Of course. It's her destiny. There are some hard times ahead, and she'll hold all this together when it would have otherwise fallen apart. I don't envy her—it's a lot for one pony." Discord shrugged. "Now, you're going to keep teaching her?"
"Yeah, yeah. If it's so important, I guess I can keep going. She made me smile."
"Really?" Rushing forward, Discord produced a tape measure and started checking his daughter's face. "I can't see one."
"It was there. You missed it."
"Huh. Well, I'm glad you have time to smile again. I miss how happy you were when I first made you." About ready to zap himself back to his home, Discord was surprised to find himself being hugged. "What's this?"
"Shut up for one second, please?" Screwball said, squeezing her father. "And by second I mean until the hug is over." She let out a little sigh as a paw and a talon met behind her neck as he hugged back.
"Okay," Bread Basket started, "I got the cake. Of all the ponies in Equestria, the princess loves her cake—and that's an impressive one—but why are you also baking a banana cream pie?"
"Well, I am under orders to do a particular thing, and as part of that thing I need to do something completely silly and somewhat disrespectful. The cake, you see, is how a captain of the E.U.P. Guard apologizes for performing their duty to the letter." Carefully using the icing bag, Lyra wrote sorry in cursive on what would be the topmost tier of the cake.
"Does the size of the cake matter?" Bread asked.
"Yup! Bigger the cake, the bigger the apology." Smirking and looking at her friend, Lyra let out a laugh. "So you will probably want to be there when I give her the cake."
Sizing up the three-tiered cake, Bread got a fit of the giggles. "Can I help carry it?"
"Do you want to be involved in this that much?"
"I wouldn't miss this. You're a menace to be around, Lyra, but a fun menace." Helping her friend finish the cake and transfer the pie (that Lyra still hadn't explained) to a paper tray, she set both onto a tray and started wheeling them toward the door. Seeing Lyra cleaning up the workstation reminded her that despite all the hijinks, Lyra was dependable.
Bread wheeled the cake while Lyra carried the pie. Lyra announced herself to the scribe and waited her turn. It wasn't long before her name and full title was announced, and she led the procession of two into the throne room.
Celestia was having a day. Lots of bickering between nobles had led to her having to play mother to several of the more important individuals in Canterlot. Hearing Lyra be introduced filled her with hope that her afternoon might be saved. A pie being carried into the throne room was nothing new—Celestia was well aware of her reputation for sweets, she'd cultivated it carefully after all—but seeing the three tier cake wheeled in as well filled her with actual worry. "All non Guardponies can please leave." Her eyes flickered over Bread Basket and she smiled. "My favorite chef can be present too."
When the room was clear and the main doors sealed, Celestia turned her full attention to Lyra. "Niceties out of the way, the tradition of bringing me cake to apologize worries me as the size of the cake is excessive. Your cake is bigger than the one Shining baked for me after my seat of power was infiltrated and I was captured. What have you done, Captain Lyra Heartstrings?"
The tone might be icy, but Lyra was not going to ruin the moment by being too relaxed. Snapping a salute, she stood as straight as a die. "Ma'am, I have not done the thing the cake is to make reparations for yet. I am still going to do it, however, because I promised it on my honor while carrying out my duty as ordered by yourself."
"And what—?" Celestia had never trained for combat in the modern style (something she vowed to correct if she survived the day). When a lance of magic came at her from one side, burning and golden, she had to dodge it thanks to the damage potential she sensed in it. All around her, Guards were moving to act only to be hemmed back by more spells from what they all knew was probably one of the greatest wizards the Guard had ever had.
The whole room was alight with spells that seemed deadly, but Celestia finally let one graze her and found it didn't even have enough potential to singe her coat. She froze in place. "Lyra Heartstrings, if you don't tell me what the meaning of this game is immediately, I'll—" The pie hit her in the face. The shock of the cream and banana filling spreading over her features sucked the fire out of her retaliatory spells that were thus far building. "What?"
Sitting to one side of the room, his eyes closed and his arms raised, Discord mimed directing an orchestra. He wove his head sinuously back and forth, while a beatific smile painted his face.
The mere sight of Discord told Celestia all she needed to know. "You taught her chaos magic?"
"No, but there was still a price for my help." With utmost reluctance, Discord opened his eyes and looked at the face glaring daggers at him. "And it required this. It needed this. Chaos wouldn't accept anypony who wasn't ready to stand behind their conviction to mayhem enough to plant a delicious banana and cream pie in your royal face. The rest"—gesturing at all the still-alert Guardponies, Discord seemed to be squeezed into a chef uniform as he kissed two pinching digits—"bellissimo!"
The magic, the attack, everything had been a ruse to get Lyra close enough with that pie to make hitting Celestia with it a joke. She could see that, and took solace in Lyra's dedication to the task set for her. "Bring that cake here and make sure everypony in the room gets a piece. Lyra, you'll be apologizing to all of them." Summoning a mirror to inspect the damage to her person, Celestia could hold herself back from it no longer—she laughed.
Bread had to remind herself to breathe. Having watched her friend wade through a room of Royal Guards only to assault Celestia herself, she had no idea how she should respond to the peals of laughter. Falling back on her training, she drew out a knife and started cutting up and serving the cake. She even got a piece for herself that calmed her down a little.
Cleaning off her face, Celestia tried to examine the situation as objectively as she could. Lyra had been following her orders, had been careful not to harm the guards, and had still accomplished enough with her magic to move Celestia herself into an adventitious position for a direct attack. "Also, I expect you to work closely with Captain Bright Feather on new strategies and training for the Royal Guard that would be able to prevent even you from doing that again. Also, I will require a private word with you at a later date about personal training."
Work. Lyra could live with it, particularly since she had magic she needed to learn from Celestia. "Yes, Ma'am!" Since Twilight had absconded with her, Lyra was far more comfortable taking such tasks. They didn't stack up and, ultimately, she could always fall back on her duty first—and begging Twilight to save her from the task.
Leaving her guards to eat most of the cake, Celestia instead opted to treat the pie with more grace than its creator had. Picking around the broken pieces that she had collected from her face, she took a piece and started eating. "And, Discord? In future, if you have dirty work you wish to accomplish, do it yourself."
Returning from his brief sojourn as a chef, Discord saluted in imitation of Lyra. "Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!" He waited a few beats before sighing. "Ah, dismissal. I was never good at reading such cues." And, with that, he vanished.
"If Discord isn't teaching you, who is?" Celestia asked between mouthfuls of pie.
"A mare and a house in Ponyville I wasn't aware existed before a week ago. Screwball is her name, and she claims to be Discord's daughter—a fact he supported. From what she said, he created her when he first reached Ponyville, but unlike the rest of his creations that were banished by the elements, she stuck around." Lyra selected a piece of cake for herself and levitated it on a plate. "Thank you, Bread. Sorry for all this."
Glancing toward Celestia and seeing her happily eating the pie still, Bread let out a sigh. "Next time, warn me?"
"Would you have told somepony I'd take on a room full of Royal Guard and assault the princess?" The guilty look told Lyra all she needed to know. She grinned and shrugged.
When the cake was gone—but not before Celestia had secured herself a slice—she dismissed her guards and Bread. Once she was alone with Lyra in the room, Celestia slumped. It wasn't that she was always at alert, but with one little show Lyra had demonstrated that she, the ruler of Equestria, had let herself grow lax. "You trained Twilight through subterfuge. Would it work again?"
"Yes and no. I can arrange it, but I can't have anything to do with it and they know all my illusions. Be ready in a week, and you'll need to have Luna cover for you. That includes standing at the foot of the entrance to watch the new recruits run by." Lyra was already doing calculations in her head. "I will be present, in case something strange happens. There's an unimpeachable reason for me to be there."
In barely a week Lyra had spent time tracking down the most elusive illusionist in Equestria, had her visit Canterlot, and arranged for two new recruits to enter the E.U.P. Guard's training program. One, Shining Star, a flaxen-maned unicorn who was a little out of shape for Lyra's liking, but who was going to get a crash course in running. The second was a pegasus mare named Scootaloo.
Lyra wasn't there to be the primary teacher for magic, but she was taking on a few temporary duties in running the recruits around. Specifically, she had offered Stiff Peaks a month of leave—during which time Lyra would fill his horseshoes—for the first run. It wasn't entirely to watch Celestia sweat, either.
"Listen up, recruits. I have the duty of welcoming you to your training in the greatest tradition of the E.U.P. Guard—running. There is no finer way to show your dedication than, when given a task, running to do it. So we run everywhere. Today, we'll be running around Canterlot. Form up!" Having not just a few maturing ponies from the Cadets but a few veterans among their number to get their quarterly training done, Lyra was pleased to see the new recruits forming up loosely behind those who knew what running was all about. In her best sergeant voice, she gave the command, "Move out!" and set the pace to a canter.
The running was good, once she'd built them to a gallop, but Lyra could see several ponies not looking their best already. As they wheeled around the outer circle of Canterlot, ponies had already given them room to make their run—knowing what would be happening in advance.
As they swung by the castle's entrance, Lyra turned her head and gave Luna a nod, getting a return before the princess scanned the recruits. Illusion magic of a quality used on Celestia had required a genius level understanding of light and dark magic. Luna would be able to spot one, but not the other, and that was the key. They blended so well that they covered for each other's weaknesses.
The last look Lyra saw on Luna's face was confusion. "That's that problem under wraps. Let's swing around and settle into a nice run." Rounding them back to the training fields, Lyra called, "Okay, let's try another. Keep it up!"
She kept a close eye on the recruits. The veterans and the former cadets all seemed fine. Scootaloo barely looked like she was getting a workout. The recruits were ranging from doing horridly to not so bad. She got the majority of them around two more times before she could see several were about to drop. "Alright!" she called out as they rounded back toward the training grounds, "I haven't stretched my legs enough yet, and I can see some of you haven't either. This isn't a requirement, but I'm going to keep running—you can try to keep up."
The extra two laps she ran at a full gallop, her hooves thundering across the streets of Canterlot. Behind her, the older guards kept pace for the first one with ease, though two dropped out before the second lap. Scootaloo, she was unsurprised, kept pace easily. Of the three other recruits, two made it all the way around one loop at a gallop, but only one made the final lap.
When she slowed at the end and trotted the group over the line, she was happy to see the group were mostly all fine and weren't simply trying to show off. "Good work. Head over to the mess." She walked with the group, ensuring each got in and had a drink and something to eat.
"Have your fun?" Stiff Peaks asked.
"Mmhmm. Keep an eye on that young gun there. He moves like the wind itself is in his hooves. Started to waver on the last lap, though." Sitting at the officer table, Lyra set a plate of food she'd fetched before her. "The reserves are in good order."
Rolling his eyes, Stiff asked, "And your filly?"
"Scoots can look after herself. She can outrun me and do it for half the day. Don't let any of the sergeants challenge her to a race or a serious combat." The scalloped potatoes were, as always, a shining product of a military filled with good cooks. Lyra made appreciative noises. "Did you make these?"
"No, but it is my recipe. We have a new head chef in the kitchen." It was a position of pride to be a chef in the Guard, particularly under a commander who was a renowned chef in and of himself. "Are you staying with us for the afternoon?"
"Nope. I have penance to pay for a little stunt in the castle."
Nodding, Stiff knew too well Lyra's well-earned position and freedoms sometimes cost her. "Is she really that bad? Your filly, I mean."
"I wouldn't want to fight her," Lyra said, pleased to see the statement earned a frown from Stiff. "Remember that young gun of a unicorn you had thought that I snatched up? They have been training together in methods to tackle unique threats. I caught them dueling a week ago—she curved a lance spell back on him and made him have to shield against his own directed attack."
It was a feat Stiff looked forward to seeing. He whistled appreciatively. "Tell her to write a manual on it. I'll get Bluebelle to start teaching it as soon as possible. Are you spending the night here?"
"No, commander. Despite my desire to ensure a particular student does well, I will stay away—but within earshot, if you know what I mean? If you have any word, I'll either be at my apartment here in Canterlot or at the Royal Guard training grounds." She could see, the moment she'd mentioned the Royal Guard, that she had Stiff's attention. "You're not going to let me get away without telling you why I'm up there, are you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Captain." Stiff gave Lyra a big grin.
"It was a three tier cake apology," Lyra said, and watched Stiff's eyebrows rise. "And a banana cream pie."
"And she asked more of you? I am glad you're not part of my chain of command. What's the officers' creed regarding chain of command?"
Lyra smirked and closed her eyes to recite it. "Horseapples go down, headaches go up." She bowed her head solemnly. "But on the plus side, I only have one subordinate, so there's not many headaches that I don't make myself."
"Of all the ponies I know, you seem to be one of the best—short of an alicorn—at creating headaches." Stiff could see that his comment had startled Lyra only by the slight widening of her eyes. He had to give it to her, she was hard to read. "But enough business. Have you gotten any new recipes lately?"
It was exactly the thing that Lyra was prepared for. Reaching into her saddlebags with her magic, she pulled out a notebook and flipped it to the first page. "You remember that Gala a while back where all the nobles were guzzling water and milk like it was going out of fashion?"
"I heard a very cunning mare provided the recipes to the castle's chefs. There were some rumors that several of those chefs were in a panic over how spicy the food was." Glancing at the recipe, Stiff's grin widened more and more by the second. "How much do you want for that book?"
"Let's start the negotiation with that potato recipe," Lyra said, gesturing at her empty plate with a fork held in her golden magic.
After an afternoon discussing non-lethal take-down strategy with the Royal Guard sergeants, Lyra had slept about as soundly as any mare could. She'd promised herself she would keep away from Scootaloo and Celestia's training, and instead made her way back to the castle. Today she had a new topic.
With Luna wishing to sit in on the talk, it had been moved to the large field beside the meeting hall of the castle. There was a small contingent of E.U.P. Guardponies on the gate today, which left Lyra with three hundred and one pointy ears turned in her direction. Her first observation was the grizzled training sergeant, missing an ear, who stood to one side with his armor on despite the casual situation.
She opened her mouth to address the assembled ponies, when magic screamed a warning at her. Eyes widening, Lyra felt friendship magic recoil from the loss of its source and rush to her for assistance. Gasping, she spread her wings and opened herself to the lost magic and started to channel it.
There wasn't much else that would stir a hundred and fifty Royal Guard into a panicked circle of defense quite as much as a winged and horned mare screaming in shock. The unicorns among them rushed to the center of the formation with Luna beside them while the pegasi took to the sky and the earth ponies planted themselves to repel any threat.
Luna didn't have to ask what was wrong, she could feel the source of friendship magic pulse inside Lyra, held together by a force of will and magic that was more capable of the task now than before. "Do you require my help?"
"NO—!" Lyra was braced with her hooves slightly wider than she'd usually stand to brace herself and lock her knees. "No, thank you. I have this." The magic roaring through her was less a huge hurricane in a paddling pool and more like a strong wind over a lake. Centering herself, Lyra took slow and deep breaths. "Somepony, please, check on Twilight."
Bright Feather could hear the pain and worry in Lyra's voice. She was a newer commander of a newer guard than he, but the agony of her situation was something he could sympathize with. "Bottle Rocket, Sure Fire—get yourselves harnessed and get Bartlett and Long Shift to the castle of friendship. Citron, pick your best twenty-squad and commandeer a train or teleport to—"
"I will teleport you once your first squad arrives," Luna said, drawing on her authority to assist in a way that an alicorn was uniquely suited for.
Bowing his head, Bright Feather said, "Thank you, Your Highness." Turning back to his assembled guard, he gave the order, "Move!"
Part of Lyra's mind processed the orders given and sent a silent thanks to Bright Feather for sending his best—and she knew the best of the Royal Guard were good indeed. But that was a small part. The first time she'd borne the weight of friendship, it had been a far simpler magic.
Few ponies used friendship magic the first time, but now there were a lot more. Each spell cast was a flicker of request and assent. Again and again. She had to allow for all of them and it took a lot of her to manage it. Then her ears perked. "Sorry, what?"
"I asked if you could walk with me inside," Luna said. "I could teleport us."
Testing her legs, Lyra carefully shook her head. "I can walk. Why does Twilight never seem to have this much trouble controlling friendship?"
"Don't control it."
Lyra opened her mouth to challenge that when she realized it was exactly the problem she had. Each spell—each approval. Relaxing herself slowly, further, Lyra simply let the magic flow. The sigh she let out got a chuckle from Luna. "I'm a bit new at this."
"And, being a guardpony, you want to be in control. Of all the magics, friendship is the least of your worry." Gesturing along the path, Luna walked at Lyra's side. "Your wings look good."
It shouldn't have made Lyra smile, but it did anyway. "Thank you. I had to get my daughter to teach me how to preen them."
"Getting easier? It looks like you're doing better."
Nodding, feeling more comfortable in her role, Lyra was able to think clearly. "Yes. Also, I feel bloated. There is so much magic." The path they took was through the main entry hall. Normally Lyra would have screamed bloody murder rather than walk in public with her wings out, but the hallway was empty of petitioners. "This is a symbolic thing, isn't it?"
"I am glad I don't have to point that out to you. You're walking into the throne room of Canterlot, your wings proud and your grip on a magic source sure. The rest is just ceremony and celebrations." Luna nodded up at the two thrones when they walked into the hub of government. "Would you like to try one on?"
It was too much for Lyra and cut through the seriousness of the moment and the environment. She laughed a joyous laugh with Luna echoing her. When a palace maid poked her head in to one side and then stepped fully into the room, though, it caught Lyra up short.
Luna smiled at the young mare who had been checking on them. "Coffee and some cakes, if you would. Thank you."
A fervent wish of Lyra's was that she could chase off after the maid, make her way into the kitchen, and bake a cake. The expansive wings she couldn't seem to fold up made a counter argument. "I'm scared that one day I will wake up with all of it."
"You may." Luna didn't aim to climb the dais to her throne, but rather settled on the lower level and then sat down. "I will do my utmost to ensure you never have to, but it may happen. If it does—" She tapped her chin as a plan started to form. "You need to practice."
"Huh?" Lyra asked.
"You are a Guardpony. You weren't instantly the best wizard in the Guard, were you?" Luna waited for Lyra to shake her head. "Exactly. It took training and effort to grow your skill set to what it is today. You are experiencing your second time in control of something only an alicorn or greater being should be able to withstand—and doing a fine job of it. Practice makes perfect. Once this is resolved and Twilight has her magic domain firmly back under her own control, we shall do some training. You can carry darkness for a week. Feel how it ebbs and flows. Like friendship, I believe it is not widely used."
"Except by me when trying to hide from my responsibilities?"
"You don't hide from them. Lyra, you gallop at them head-on and, when you smack into one, you look for another." Noticing the maid approaching with a tea cart and a group of Guards entering the room. "Thank you for the coffee on such short notice."
Bowing her head, the maid fled as quickly as she could (in a not-running-away-to-gossip manner, too) and got through the side door to find the hallway full of maids, chefs, and more. "I will not speak a word of what I saw, but…"
Luna smirked at the mortified expression on Lyra's face. "You've been in the kitchen. How much did they gossip about every little thing?"
"I doubt they waited that long," Lyra said.
The little tracking spell she'd placed upon the pegasi let Luna know the Guards from earlier were still in flight. "They haven't arrived yet," she told those still waiting. "And, no, I doubt she waited until she reached the kitchen. But don't for a second forget that everyone working in the castle has sworn to not share castle business outside."
"I know. That's why I'm not flying around the room, upside down, screaming." Sparing a smile at Luna, she fetched a cup of coffee from the cart and a piece of cake. Both would help her stay sharp and maintain her physical energy levels. Her magic, right now, felt like she'd eaten a dozen cakes. Bloated was a small word compared to the fullness of an entire type of magic.
Reaching out with her magic, Luna could feel the guards had landed in Ponyville. She looked over at the Royal Guard and nodded to them. They didn't need to move into formation, she realized, because they were already in it. With a gust of magic that would stagger unicorns, she sent them to the location her tracker had ultimately sent her before it ended. "They will do their best, and from what I've seen, their best is very good."
"I know." Lyra had to temper the fact she could beat a room full of them with the knowledge that she wasn't a normal threat. But, anything that could remove Twilight from control of friendship wasn't a normal threat either.
"How is my sister taking to her new training?"
It was a welcome distraction, and Lyra let herself be distracted. "She handled her first run with aplomb. When I offered everypony to partake of extra laps, she declined. That was my request. I know she could run all day with the amount of magic she could channel toward her earth pony self, but nopony else there needs to know that. About now, she should be learning basic command structure and undertaking her tests to see if she will be a competent magic user."
For nearly ten seconds Luna managed to not laugh. It gave her time to swallow the cake she'd taken a bite of before giggles took hold of her. "C-C-Competent!"
"Twilight went through the same test." Lyra kept her own mirth to a smile. "She passed, and I believe Celestia will."
Getting a hold of her giggles, Luna managed a great impression of trying to keep a straight face and failing as she asked, "You believe she will?"
"I literally wrote the book on it, remember? It's a small handful of spells to learn and memorize, and she'll be well into—" Lyra cut herself off at Luna's renewed giggles. "What?"
"I don't know as anypony outside this room knows this, Lyra, but my sister isn't the best at memorizing new spells." Moving on and ignoring Lyra's shock, Luna sighed. "I wouldn't normally pass that on, but you'd have found out soon enough. What would happen if she cannot memorize all the spells?"
"Her casting ability would get narrowed down to a more basic support role. She wouldn't count as the mandatory squad wizard, and she'd have her special talent reevaluated to see if it gives her—her any combat advantage." The more she spoke, the more Lyra had to fight off the giggles until she finally surrendered to them.
After a minute of laughing and wheezing, they finally recovered—then they started to giggle again. Finally, when a side door opened, each snapped from their laughter and looked over to see who'd walked into the throne room without invitation.
Luna recovered first. "Moon Danc—"
Her nose in the broadsheet newspaper she was hovering before her face, Moon let out a grunt. "Luna, you know it's too early. Why are we working like this for the whole week?" She was, of course, getting a vague idea of what had the press of Canterlot's attention for the day. "Wait, there will be no court today? Well, that'll mean we might actually be able to catch up on some paperwork." Walking past Lyra, Moon noticed her friend's legs. "Hi Lyra."
Straining to pull her wings down, Lyra let out a little squeak and said, "Hi, Moon," back.
Stopping at the bottom of the dais, Moon Dancer finally lifted her head above the paper to look at Luna. "You've been crying?"
Struggling to hold her laughter in, given Lyra was now deliberately pulling silly faces behind Moon, Luna shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Her eye twitching now, Moon turned around and looked at Lyra—taking in her completely-not-innocent expression. She caught the gag, though. "Nice wings." She turned back to look at Luna doing her best to maintain a deadpan. It didn't work for long. "Your wings? They're solid now?" Turning and glaring at a very guilty-looking Lyra, Moon tossed the newspaper on the floor in exasperation. "First Twilight, and don't for a second think I am not stuck living in that shadow, and now you?"
"It's not my fault, but if you want a pair, I have a spell that—" Lyra was now actually crying with laughter thanks to Moon's magic aura tightly pinning her mouth closed.
"I—" Luna stopped herself from saying another word as Moon turned to glare at her too. "It's not actually Lyra's fault. You remember the incident some time back where Twilight was involved in that little kerfuffle in a tiny town where her cutie mark was removed?" A short, sharp nod was her answer. "That almost cost the world friendship magic. Lyra caught it and, with the help of all of Ponyville, nursed it until Twilight regained her control."
With the slightest flick of her magic, Lyra banished Moon's grip on her snout. "And that began something. I've become a backup for magical sources. Friendship first, then Luna's darkness and now Discord's harmony."
"Stop that," Moon said.
"What?" Lyra and Luna asked at the same time, each grinning.
"The thing you do where I ask a question and you give an answer that only creates more questions." Frowning more as the pair started to smirk, Moon reached down and picked up her paper with her magic. "So, where is Princess Celestia and why are Lyra's wings up like that despite her apparent desire to lower them—or use the bathroom, I am not entirely sure?"
"Something's wrong with Twilight and I'm holding up friendship magic again." Saying it like that felt so much like a this is my job thing to Lyra that it shocked her how plainly she could put it. "It's easier this time. I think it keeps getting easier the more these"—she nodded to her back—"become more and more part of me."
"So— Wait! No! I'm not going to ask that one." Moon closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. "Most important question first. Is Twilight okay?"
Lyra felt her worries creep back at the question. "We don't know, but I can't exactly rush off and help because then we risk me losing control of friendship magic. Luna could go, but then that would leave Canterlot with me to defend it—again, not the best."
"We sent two squads of Royal Guard to the scene. If anything can be done, they will do it." Luna could practically hear Moon winding up for the next one. "My sister is involved with something elsewhere right now. Sending her is not an option." She didn't add that, in a pinch, she trusted Twilight's instincts better than her sister's.
"Sometimes," Moon said with a bemused expression, "I wonder why I work here. Then I remember that you've gathered our whole class and the alternative to working here seems to be baking or becoming a princess." She gave a significant look at Lyra.
"So we wait," Lyra said.
At first, with only minutes ticking by, Lyra was confident that Twilight would have whatever it was under her control. She had herself and two squads of the most reactive and highly trained guardponies that existed, after all. But, as the minutes slipped into an hour and then two, concern grew stronger. She was down to counting seconds and minutes, working the numbers in her head in place of the worry that was held at mathematical bay.
Then a note appeared in a burst of green fire.
"Dragon fire? Spike!" Lyra tried to catch the letter out of the air, but Luna's cobalt aura was like a steel fist compared to her limp noodle of gold. "What's it say?" But, Lyra missed Luna's words. The pull within her was gentle and insistent, drawing back on friendship. She could have fought the pull of Twilight but she had no intention of it. Passing control of her magic back to her, Lyra let out a happy sigh, folded her wings down, and relaxed at last. "She's home."
"I was just— Were you not listening?" Luna asked.
"Sorry! I felt Twilight trying to take back her magic. It took a bit out of me to do so." Lyra smiled in apology.
Luna reminded herself this was a new experience and mentally added another underline to teach Lyra to manage her talent. "She was involved with a battle with the same mare as last time she lost access to her magic. This time she says a very troubling spell was involved and she's asking you to meet with her at your first convenience." Grinning, Luna added, "Seeing as she is both a rank higher than you are and your charge, you should probably go there right now. Would you like a fast ride?"
"Ye—"
Moon relaxed. She hadn't realized that there had been tension binding her up while Lyra was in the room. "It's unnerving the way my classmates seem to work."
"I agree." Luna poured herself another coffee, heated it up with her magic, then took a sip. "But I am glad to have them."
Mimicking Luna's action, Moon nodded. "Same. Ugh, could you imagine what would happen if Twilight and her friends or Lyra weren't around?"
"I spent a thousand years in a fever dream of insanity fantasizing about it. A good friend helped me to see that it wouldn't be anywhere near as fulfilling as I'd hoped. That opened the way for the elements of harmony to fix me rather than break me." Another sip. "This is good coffee."
"Mmhmm." Whilst some days it was hard to find the logic in Luna's statements, today Moon was in complete agreement. "It is good coffee."
By the time Lyra arrived in Ponyville, everypony was singing. Lyra wanted to be concerned and get to the bottom of it all, but with Twilight, her friends, and a new mare in the center of everything—harmony took control, and she started to dance and sing with them.
There wasn't much left in the song, but from what she heard it was all for the new mare. Lyra tried to get close to Twilight, but everything was too crowded in the early afternoon. Just outside the effects of the song, though, she could see the Royal Guards. They looked stoic but without the edge of violence she'd dreaded finding here in Ponyville.
"Lyra!" No sooner did the song end and Twilight spotted her friend than she tackled her with a big hug. "You did it! I was so worried when the spell took me away and I lost friendship again."
Squeezing back for all she was worth, Lyra gave voice to her own fears. "You were worried? I was beginning a lecture I'd prepared for some of the Royal Guard when I felt friendship rush to me. You owe Luna a hug, too, as well as at least half the Royal Guard, one maid who brought us all refreshments, and maybe Moon Dancer; she really didn't take the wings-thing well."
"Oh! Lyra, this is Starlight Glimmer." Twilight let go of her friend with one foreleg to pull her around and aim Lyra at her newest friend. "She, uh, will be my new student."
Student, Lyra knew, was a big deal for Twilight. She squinted at the nervous unicorn for a moment before leaning close to Twilight again. "Just for the record, she was the bad guy, wasn't she?"
"Yeah," Twilight said.
"Got it." Leaning back out of the two-pony-huddle, Lyra walked over to Starlight and put on her best smile. "Welcome to Ponyville!"
Looking this new mare in the eyes, Starlight was full of nerves and concerns she thought would make her explode. "Hello!" The word came out so loud, sudden, and with false cheer that for an instant she considered detonating all her magic and moving on to what might come afterward. She wondered if the mare could see all her fears and everything she'd done. "C-Can we start over?"
"Welcome to Ponyville!" Lyra could see nerves, and had no doubt that they stemmed from causing Twilight so much trouble, being defeated by whatever crazy move an alicorn with more power than sense could deploy, and then getting forgiven after it. "Would you like to relax, chat, and have a cup of tea?"
It might be true that Starlight hadn't had a lot of experience in peer-groups, but she could recognize a lifeline when one was offered. "Yes!" When the word came out a bit loud, she lowered her voice and repeated herself. "Yes, please."
Pondering a moment, Lyra decided the castle was probably the last place Starlight wanted to be, so she led the way back to her home in a simple silence she hoped wasn't burning a chasm between them. Once she had Starlight in her front door, she closed it behind her and used the noise to smash the silence. "You've got so many questions and I'm fine answering all of them. Head through to the kitchen while I get this armor off."
It was one of the first things Starlight wanted to ask about, so taking the offer at face value she did. "You wear armor?"
"Comes with being captain of Twilight's Guard, though today I was wearing it to give a lecture to other guardponies in Canterlot." Using her magic to speed the task, Lyra unhitched herself from the straps and lifted her enchanted plate off and carried it to their spare room that all three of them used as an armory. "They keep telling me I don't need to wear it, but I like to think it's my business suit."
"Y-Yeah." Feeling a little out of place, Starlight looked over Lyra and it took her several glances before what she was looking at finally sunk in. "You're an alicorn!"
"Weird, huh? For Twilight it took creating an entirely new type of magic to get her wings. I kinda stumbled into it by making a spell that let me fly with my daughter." Walking through to the kitchen, Lyra used her magic to turn the kettle on and got some cups ready. "How do you take your tea?"
"Milk with two sugars. How many alicorns are there?" Following along and feeling more skittish than ever, Starlight took an offered seat at the normal kitchen table—at any moment wondering if it would sprout wings too.
"Uh, officially there are four. Cadance, Twilight, Luna, and Celestia. We're biding our time letting everypony know about me. It's probably for the best given my role." Sitting down, Lyra created a hand with her magic and held up one finger to forestall Starlight. "Twilight trusts you, which means you're going to find this one out from her anyway. I act as a reserve for the sources of magic. When you—whatever you did with Twilight—it cut her off from magic and left friendship without guidance." The look of shock Starlight gave her was enough that Lyra could see there were holes in the mare's magic lore. "You know each of the types of magic?"
"Change, motion, chaos, emotive, harmony, light, and dark?" Starlight asked, her curiosity shoving aside panic and nerves for a front seat.
"Exactly. When Twilight got her wings, it was because she'd founded a new one: friendship." Simply saying the name of it sparked the little piece of friendship living inside her to swell with pride. "For each type of magic there is a source. A wellspring that has control over it. Twilight is the wellspring for friendship.
"Celestia carries the sources for light, change, and motion. Luna has darkness and emotive. Discord carries chaos and harmony. Cadance is on the verge of founding love, I know it, but she's probably going to need a push."
"What happens if a source isn't sustained by a wellspring?" Starlight feared she already knew.
"Most of them would be able to go some time before they would begin to degrade, but eventually that form of magic would drain out of the world and be gone. Being new, friendship still needs a lot of maintenance. So, when this happened the first time"—Lyra wanted to show Starlight that this wasn't exactly the first time it had happened, so she put extra emphasis on a pause—"I grabbed friendship and held onto it. It almost broke me, but my sergeant backed me up, then the whole town took turns assisting me. That's when I started to develop the wings on a more permanent basis."
Starlight was relieved at the distraction from her own situation, plus she liked knowing that a horrible thing she hadn't realized she'd done actually had a way to recover the situation. "So you act as a backup for friendship magic?"
"Friendship, harmony, and darkness. I'm working on chaos, but it's still a bit elusive in leaving Discord for long enough to give me part of itself." When the kettle let out a little whistle, Lyra poured the water into a teapot and lifted it and the rest of her tea set over to the table. "As far as any of us can tell, that will be my destiny—protecting any of the magic sources from being lost."
Taking her cup when Lyra poured it and added what she'd asked for, Starlight sipped the tea and let it diffuse into her. "Have there been times in the past when magic was lost?"
"There have certainly been times when the source of a magic was adrift for some time. A recent example was when Chrysalis defeated Celestia in combat and secured her in a pod. Nopony noticed the loss since it was only for a short time and we were all too busy trying to fight changelings." She took a moment to sip her own tea.
"You're really going to answer anything." It made the opportunity more distracting from her other problems.
"Well, to be honest, there are some things I'd still need to check with various ponies about, but unless you ask for any of that, I don't have to tell you no. It comes with the job."
"So if I asked what Twilight's weakness is?"
"Neighponese food and books. If you bring her a bowl of golden fried rice, some pocky, and a copy of something she's never read before, she might just propose to you."
It took Starlight a moment before she realized the super serious pony before her had told a joke. "What do you think I'll have to do to make amends?"
"With Twilight? Make friends. Be a good friend. Learn what harmony has in store for you. Live your life the best you can." Floating the cookie jar over, Lyra opened it and took one out. "Help yourself."
"How can I start that with what I almost did?" Starlight asked, but then continued before Lyra could answer. "I used a scroll to go back in time to undo the sonic rainboom that gave Twilight and her friends their cutie marks. All of them. I—" She stopped when she saw the horror on Lyra's face. "You too?"
Nodding, Lyra nibbled on her cookie with her eyes closed. "I wasn't even a pony at the time. I'd stumbled into this world and didn't have any idea what I'd do. One minute I was just having fun with Pinkie, the next we looked up and saw it."
Shaking her head, Starlight buried her face in her hooves. "How can I have been so stupid?!"
"I don't think Twilight would have asked a stupid pony to be her student. Ignorant, maybe, but ignorance has a cure."
Starlight jerked her head up and stared at Lyra. "Knowledge." As soon as she said it the growing smile on Lyra's face made her realize what this was in aid of. "Did you teach Twilight?"
"We teach each other, though we were both students at Celestia's school. If you ask me, I sometimes feel like we never left. She always has a lesson for us." Smirking a little, Lyra remembered recent events. Her smile waned a little as she reminded herself it was one thing she wasn't able to talk about.
"So, if I keep asking questions, you'll keep answering. How do you know all this?"
"You keep asking questions about things I've personally researched. What can I say, the old ideal of the career military commander with a thirst for knowledge is alive and well. Can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer it."
Rolling her eyes, Starlight had a fair idea that the question would be a sensitive one. "Like it wouldn't be hypocritical if I said no. Go ahead."
It wasn't time for heavy stuff, Lyra was trying to keep it light so made sure to tangent. "How much magic training have you had?"
"I—" Starlight hadn't expected that question. "M-Mostly self-taught. My friend sent me his old books for a while, but then I started asking around for more. Then I found out how to remove cutie marks."
Stories combined and built a map of what had happened. Lyra was aware of Twilight's report from Our Town, but she hadn't realized this was the same mare. "Ah."
"Yeah. I wish I'd never—"
"Don't say that. Everything happens for a reason, Starlight. We will have to work at finding out why you are good at this one thing." A knock at the front door interrupted whatever else she was going to say, but someone knocking meant they could wait. "Starlight, if you want to talk about it, I would be interested in hearing about how it works."
Starlight had expected to be dragged off in chains and locked away in a dungeon somewhere. After learning how important individuality was from Twilight, or at least starting to, she found her former goal of equalization should be abhorrent. "But—" And that was when she realized Lyra had gone to answer the door.
"Is Starlight inside?" Twilight asked.
Listening, Starlight wasn't sure if she was terrified of Twilight or relieved that she didn't have to hold her grudge against a princess any longer. "I'm in here."
Walking through, Twilight nodded to Lyra before stepping into the kitchen and finding Starlight with an empty cup of tea and a half-finished cookie. "Do you have a preference for where you'd like to stay tonight?"
The question confused Starlight. She looked from Twilight to Lyra as the latter walked into the kitchen too. "Oh, uh, I don't think I have anywhere to—"
"You can stay here if you'd like," Lyra said. "We have a spare room."
Starlight heard the we and had questions, but she felt like more questions might be a bit much now that the talk was over. "Th-Thanks, but I think I might go and stay in the castle— Uh, if that's okay with you, Twilight?"
"Sure!" Twilight said, then realized there was a weight gathering in the air. She'd learned, after a few years of focusing on her social skills, that there were times where people wanted to talk but were worried to. "What's wrong?"
"Twi, she's all wound up because we were chatting and she thinks you want her to leave so I can give you my report on her." Turning her head from Twilight to Starlight, and filing away their name similarities for later, Lyra raised one eyebrow and watched Starlight look down. "But I want her to hear my report too. She's inquisitive, sharp, and from what little I got her to say about her past—a brilliant magic user. She is terrified of her own power, though, and I think that's wrong, but it gives us something to work with. I'd like to spend some time teaching her magic theory and learning what strides she's made herself—because I know she's done some revolutionary work with cutie marks.
"But, above all, I'm excited to see how Starlight will grow. My preliminary estimation of her magic ability puts her in the top five percentile of unicorns based on raw talent, though I'd place her a little lower than some of my students. I think she will be in the top one percentile with some dedication and work.
"You know what has me most interested?" Lyra waited for Twilight's nod while she looked at Starlight. "What drew my full attention to her is that you chose her to be your student, Twilight. Your intuition on all things friendship related are beyond compare."
Starlight was still trying to take everything in when Twilight led her out of Lyra's house. What confused her the most, now, was that neither Twilight nor Lyra seemed to be lying when they said they wanted to help. "So, uh, did I pass?"
Twilight herself was still a little nervous around Starlight, but the light of her friendship shone through that uncertainty and focused on her newest friend. "You picked up on that? Well, she didn't tie you up in knots and ship you off to the secret vault where all the terrible ponies get hidden, did she?"
"You have a place where terrible ponies get hidden?" The description had been so plain that Starlight was half believing it before seeing the silly grin on Twilight's face. "She said she was the captain of your guard. Why wasn't she… guarding you?"
"That's not the job of my guard. She has already ensured that I am guarded to the best of her abilities by training me. You think I could have fought you like that if I hadn't had the best teaching possible?" Not that Twilight had been fighting to defeat Starlight, she'd been holding some in reserve during their fight, but Starlight didn't need to know that. "Lyra would have gotten to talk to you at some point, and I figured sooner rather than later would be for the best.
"She's blunt sometimes— Actually, no. Lyra's blunt all the time, it's only sometimes she uses jokes to hide it. If she considers you worth teaching herself, that's the highest praise you could ever ask for."
Starlight tried to follow Twilight's logic but still caught herself up on one thing. "Could she? Tie me up in knots, I mean."
"Lyra, on top of her game and with five minutes of planning, stopped Tirek in his tracks and denied him his objective." When Twilight saw a touch of confusion on Starlight's face, she asked, "Did you become weakened about a year back? Lose all your magic." When Starlight nodded, Twilight continued. "The monster that did that, Tirek, was hunting down the foals of Ponyville. Lyra hid them so well I couldn't find them afterward, then led him off on a chase that ensured they will never remember losing their magic like that."
"You defeated him?" Starlight asked.
"No. I had all the magic of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance—and it wasn't enough. He took that from me and started gloating." The battle had seen Twilight use many of the tricks Lyra had taught her but, the most important by far, keeping a cool head had been why she'd been able to get the better of Tirek. "I gave up all that power to protect my friends. Tirek, for all his double-crossing, gave me back what would be his undoing."
"What did he give you?"
"My friends. With friendship, I could probably even defeat Lyra." Twilight let out a little laugh and then asked, "Do you like to run?"