The look of shock on Twilight's face couldn't be adequately described, In fact it seemed like it was laced with another emotion. But the shock so vastly overpowered it that nopony could tell what it was. That was where the issue arose as Twilight tackled Lyra. The girls yelled and rushed to stop her, as Lyra tried to quickly summon a shield against the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, even though she knew it would be useless due to that very fact.
Twilight reached her before her shield erupted outwards, only stopping the other girls from helping by mistake. Lyra closed her eyes and waited for whatever Twilight had in mind as the purple mare's forelegs wrapped around her neck and squeezed... softly. Then her friends slowly stopped their frantic beating on the shield as she began to cry.
"Lyra, I'm so sorry. We spent so much time together at school, you were my closest friend." She buried her head in Lyra's fur, her body shaking. "I forgot about you for so long after I made my new friends here. I never had time when you came over to see me, so we drifted apart." She pulled back and looked through watery eyes at the mint-green mare. "I tried to talk to you again but I never had the courage. I just hope you can forgive me for my past mistakes, and with your new Apprenticeship we should be spending a lot more time together again."
Lyra was speechless. Her and Bonbon had both been sure that Twilight had stopped seeing them because she didn't like them anymore. They had never thought that she would regret leaving them behind. With barely a conscious thought Lyra pulled her closer and returned the hug.
"Everything is gonna be fine Twilight. You now I could never stay mad at you." She lowered the shield, and Twilights friends poured in. They all joined in the hug content to stay like that for a while. Then an explosion lit up the library.
"You know what this calls for? A Party!" Somehow Pinkie pie had disappeared and now stood with the Party cannon in the doorway. Confetti, streamers, and balloons covered the room. A large cake sat on a central table, along with a punch bowl and some muffins. Pinkie stood behind it, and not in the doorway (as everyone was sure to check).
"ItsyourGongradulationsonbeingfriendsagainafterbeingseperatedforsolongandonbeingacceptedasthestudentofthenewprincewedidn'tevenknowexisteduntiltwentyminutesagobecausehewasallsecretiveandstuffthatApplejackdoesn'tapproveof Party!
7 days later [-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]
"Remind me again why you need all these clothes? We don't wear them very often... where did you even get these?" Bonbon stared down at the bags on the floor, all fully packed with Lyra's belongings, on the shop floor.
"I've always had them Bony." One last bag levitated out of the room and settled on top of the other three, this time just a simple lyre case.
"Why?" She had never been very into clothes, and had never been on the best of terms with Rarity because of it. They tolerated eachother's presence but they would never be true friends.
"Parents didn't want me leaving unprepared I guess." She snorted. "Don't ask me what they must have thought they were preparing me for, I've long since stopped trying to figure that out." Lyra's parents lived in Manehattan, they had been long since retired after publishing a series of books Lyra had never really gotten into. Still if everyone else enjoyed the tales who was she to say otherwise?
"Do you really need to go?"
"Yep, Prince Jord requested me personally." Lyra's bore a little smile as she walked out of the room.
"It won't be for very long will it?" Her eyes were almost pleading. "I don't want you gone for long." She began pouting and crossed her forelegs over her chest. They had grown close over their years together and Bonbon couldn't stand to be apart from her marefriend for very long.
"If its more than a week I'll take a few days off to come back and visit Bonbon." Lyra tilted her head as her eyes started to go the way of Derpy's. "Why aren't you coming again?"
"Because someone needs to run the shop Lyra." Bonbon nagged. They both knew it wasn't entirely true, they could afford to close up shop for a few days, but since they didn't know how long Lyra would be gone, it was the only real option available to them.
"Why not just let Pinkie Pie watch it?"
"Because she works at Sugarcube Corner."
"So?" Lyra gazed out the window at said corner. "Its not like candy and baked sweets are exactly rivals you know. Besides its Pinkie we're talking about, shes our best customer."
"Sure am!" came a mumble from the taffy barrel. Followed closely by the sound of munching and a rippling wave from the top taffies.
"See?" Lyra turned to the barrel. "How many you having Pinkie?"
"I actually bought the barrel, bits are on the counter." A grinding sound came from the bottom of the barrel. The it fell silently through a hole in the floor. The pink mare poked her head out of the hole and sealed it up before she pulled her head back down again. Lyra and Bonbon found themselves staring at the spot for a few minutes before finally working up the nerve to speak again.
"So not Pinkie?"
"Eeeenope." Bonbon responded imitating a certain member of the apple family.
"Oh hey Twilight you coming too?"
"Yah, I figured we could spend some time together on the train." Twilight smiled. "Oh and Vinyl offered to let us join them in their room for the trip."
"Oh they're going too?"
"Yes, actually it was Jord's idea." Twilight levitated a small flyer over to Lyra, letting her own green magic grasp it. "Its for some kind of competition I guess. All the musicians of Equestria have been invited to compete, not sure why though."
"Huh, you don't think hes going to have me compete as well do you?"
"You think you could win?"
"Well yeah, my music comes from the heart and soul unlike most of today's bands."
"Then you'll be fine either way." She smile reassuringly. "Now come on lets get on before it leaves us behind,"
The train wasn't the usual one that Twilight and her friends caught, it had come from much farther along the track. Bringing Ponies from all across the realm of Equestria in answer to Jord's summons. Rather than the more colorful steam train they were used to, this was a black and blue monster. It had been commissioned by Luna herself as the first overnight train upon the tracks. Luna was for anything which helped boosts her subjects opinions of the night - whether she realized all it accomplished was allowing them to use up less of the daylight for travel - or not. It still made ponies feel better about her in general. Jord was likely taking the brunt of their mistrust and misplaced hatred at the moment anyway.
They stopped after a few cars and opened their door just as the train started moving again. Vinyl and Octavia sat amidst there already. Vinyl's seat was covered in a disarray of solar batteries, amplifiers, and her personalized mixing setup. Octavia's seat was far more organized, as all she had was her cello.
"Lyra good to see you girl, we haven't played together in ages. How come I don't see you at the club anymore?" Vinyl smirked. "Was it because little Bony didn't approve of her cold bed?" She then proceeded to laugh her flank off while Lyra turned a very unnatural shade of pink.
"Oh Vinyl there's no need to be so crude. Though if your relationship with Bonbon is going somewhere I'm terribly glad for you Lyra." Octavia interjected before Lyra could lash out at Vinyl. "Vinyl and I finally got married a few weeks back actually. It was a private affair - I insisted - we still haven't gotten up the nerve to tell everypony yet."
"I knew! I was there." A flash of Pink yelled from alongside the train before disappearing from view. Vinyl stared after it and glared playfully over at Octavia.
"I told you we should have just invited her Octy. She came anyway, probably her party sense, or maybe her pinkie sense tingled."
"It was actually my pinkie wedding sense!" said the same pink blur from before. It flashed white, likely because she had begun to smile. "Just give the world and I'll trow you guys a big shebang. Same goes or you and Bonbon, Lyra."
"Just go home Pinky!" Twilight sighed.
"Okie Doki Loki, Bye!" The blur once again disappeared from view, and the group settled in for the long ride with Ponyville slowly disappearing into the distance and Canterlot suspended majestically upon the horizon.
[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]
"We're here everypony." Twilight nudged Lyra awake as the train rolled into station. The group stepped out into a crowd larger than the entire town of the population of Ponyville.
"Right this way Ms Sparkle and Heartstrings." A guard beckoned them to follow as he made his way towards the Palace. The crowds would have parted before him like wheat if they hadn't been so excited. Everypony in sight seemed to be a musician of some description with instruments ranging from voice to drums, and lutes to banjos. The guard stopped when the crowd gasped and refused to move any further, too distracted by something.
The guard motioned that they may as well watch the proceedings since they were stuck for the present. Twilight and Lyra almost gasped themselves as they saw a now familiar green Alicorn hovering off to one side of the crowd, surrounded by a contingent of both lunar and celestial guardsponies.
"I have called you hear today because since my mother's departure from the land, one of the world's most beautiful and powerful magics has been forgotten by Pony kind. To my knowledge I am the sole remaining guardian of this power. Just like any power it has the potential to be abused, which is why I seek three apprentices to pass on this gift for the time being. One of those has already been chosen and goes by the name of Lyra Heartstrings."
"As for why you in particular have come, it is because of your music and your sense of heart. You will be testing your skills against," An old red-wood guitar was elevated from out of the group of guardsponies. "Myself." The crowd gasped again. "But first I will give you example of this magic's power."
[url=As Jord began to play] and the words of the song left his mouth, nothing happened for a few seconds. Though the Ponies weren't about to say anything to a Prince. Suddenly though as he began the second verse a glittering wind swept forth and washed around everypony present. The non-pegasi gasped as wings of gossamer sunlight erupted forth.
Twilight couldn't help herself as she and Lyra hovered into the air, closely followed by Vinyl and Octavia. The four friends laughed as the music washed over them. All the air around Twilight was filled with unicorns and earth ponies soaring through the air, as if they had been flying all their lives. The pegasi reactions were mixed it seemed. Many were helping their friends along, but others were glaring around in distaste.
As the song ended and the wings began to fade everypony got back to earth long before the wings left entirely. They all turned as Jord cleared his throat. "Let the auditions begin."