//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 - Adam, Lyra Heartstrings // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// In a field full of sagebrush sat a man, a woman, and a rock. The man’s name was Adam, the woman’s Lyra Heartstrings. The two of them were an odd couple. In his early life, Adam had been raised by the streets, surviving by whatever means he could, wherever food and shelter took him. After being snatched like a wild animal by an unethical scientific organization, he had then been coerced into being their test subject for a teleportation experiment. Lyra Heartstrings had been a run of the mill Equestrian mare until she had rescued Adam from drowning in one of the Everfree Forest’s many rivers, after he had been accidentally tossed to her parallel universe by a teleportation malfunction. She had taken him in against the wishes of her housemate, Bon Bon, but the earth pony had eventually grown accustomed to his alien presence. The two had been through a multitude of experiences together; they had both been imprisoned by Bunsen Burner as potential hostiles to the order of the Equestrian nation, and had discovered that Equestria had been created as one last act of benevolence by the human race, who were now extinct. Adam had saved Lyra’s life from a vicious Timber Wolf at the cost of his arm, only to have it replaced by a human created prosthetic that could channel magic, called the Dominion Gauntlet. Lyra had then been transformed into the form of a human being by an alien called ‘The Doctor’, and his wondrous time machine called the Tardis. After being returned to Adam’s universe, the two of them had settled in the small town of Hollow Wood, Montana, where they had lived the past few months. They had had to remain careful at all times to not let slip that anything was unusual about themselves to the populace, so they were somewhat withdrawn from the citizens of the town. The locals didn’t seem all that interested in them, but as they became more aware of the two new strangers, odd, unexplainable things kept happening around them. It was never anything major, but little things like broken gutters, dying plants, and cracked windows would be in their usual state of brokenness or abandonment. During the night, though, it was as if a squad of well-meaning gremlins was going throughout the town, because in the morning dead flowers had come back to life, and little home repairs were being made all over. The observant folk noticed these little acts of goodness had begun when the new people had come into town, and while the two of them were nice, if not reclusive people, there was something very strange about the two of them. The man always wore long sleeves and work gloves, no matter the heat of the day. The woman always carried a small pointed green rod on her person, and while no one had ever seen her use it for anything, she was extremely protective of it. She also had stunningly green and white locks of hair, and she would occasionally play a small golden harp for passerby, sometimes for money or for amusement. Some figured they were a traveling hippie couple; it would explain their hardly owning anything. Others didn’t particularly care what they were. The fact that they were new and a little mysterious made them the subject of one or two fanciful rumors, though. Adam sighed heavily as he looked at the rock in front of him, “How many more times do I have to try this?” Lyra continued to lie on her back and stare up at the brilliant blue sky. Without even glancing at her frustrated student, she smiled a little and said, “You know you’re not gonna get anywhere if you look at it like it’s a chore, right?” Adam threw his hands up in the air and whirled to look at Lyra, “Come on, you know that this isn’t easy for me! If you had asked me a few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed that magic was even possible, let alone that things like talking horses or dragons existed!” “Watch the language, red face,” Lyra said as she looked over and grinned at Adam. Adam frowned angrily, making sure his face was comically prudish as possible, and his frustration broke a little as he too smiled, “Shut up, horn head.” Lyra put her hands to her face in mock astonishment, “Sweetie, don’t use my private nickname in public! What would the children say?” “You started it!” “And now I’m finishing it. Break time is over, so you can stop stalling now.” Adam exhaled through his nose and pouted a little, “So you saw through that, huh?” Lyra paused for a moment before vigorously nodding, “Completely, yeah. Do you want me to go over the basic ideas of magic again? Maybe that will help.” Adam sarcastically replied with a scoff, “No I mostly get it, Obi-wan; I’m a Jedi, and just have to channel the Force through me for it to work! I must trust my instincts!” Lyra’s eyes clouded over slightly, “I’m assuming you’ll tell me what the other half of that sentence that I didn’t understand meant later?” “Sure.” Lyra got up from where she had been lying, came over to Adam’s side, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She placed her left hand around his mechanical arm, and brought it up to point at the rock. “It’s not enough to just put willpower behind the spell. You have to find that little doorway inside you and put a little belief behind what you’re doing.” “I don’t think there is any magic here in this world,” Adam said, “I mean, you still have yours because you’re from a world full of the stuff. This place, well. The only magicians here are illusionists and those who try to take advantage of others.” “And that’s part of your problem; you’re letting other’s actions determine your own ability. Come on. You’re the real deal,” Lyra turned her head to look her skeptical boyfriend in the eyes and let go of his arm, “Give it one more try, and have a little faith.” Adam looked at Lyra, and then back at the rock. He shook his arm to make it a little more comfortable, and he willed the Dominion Gauntlet to life. The rock didn’t move, even though he tried to reach out to it with all his might. A grey light enveloped the rock. Adam wasn’t sure if it was wishful thinking or him straining himself, but he could almost swear that the rock was begin to wobble from its perch. “Come on,” Lyra cheered, “Believe it will happen. Don’t just will it, believe!” He tried to; tried so hard to believe he could do it, but he just didn’t have the hope that Lyra told him to look for. He lowered his arm in defeat, and the aura dissipated away from the rock. “I’m sorry Lyra,” Adam sighed once again, “I just don’t have it. You said yourself not every unicorn is amazing at magic, and I guess that includes me too in a roundabout way.” Lyra didn’t answer. He turned to look at her. She was staring off into the distance; her golden eyes now clouded over as they stared into some eternity he could not perceive. “Lyra. Hello?” Adam waved his hand in front of her eyes, “Are you there?” “I see something.” Adam glanced in the direction Lyra was looking, “What?” She continued in a monotone voice, as if she was in a trance, “All worlds find foundation in the Song, but some express it in one of the multitudinous ways. The Conductor is presiding over Equestria’s music, and he is reaching out. Our verses are now intertwined, each holding time equal to the other, and the time of his revelation is coming.” “Ma’am? We’ve had another spike,” a technician called out to his superior, who then came to look at his computer monitor. “More Heisenberg radiation?” the Executor asked aloud. “Yes ma’am, and from a second source in the state of Missouri. The second is leaps and bounds larger than the first.” “Interesting. I think it’s time to find out what these sources of radiation are. Send a pickup crew to each location, and be as discrete as possible.” “Do you think these irradiated locations have something to do with the work we’re doing here?” “Oh undoubtedly. Alert me once you’ve done all the precursory checks before sending in the squad in full force.” “Yes ma’am.”