//------------------------------// // Movement // Story: Side Effects // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Movement Bon Bon was the first to wake up, jumping as a spider came into focus. It was hanging a few inches in front of her face, staring at her as it hung from a single thread. She slowly swung her hoof above the spider, catching the thread on her fur as she got up. Bon Bon attached the thread to the bedside lamp before she noticed that Lyra was no longer in her bed. Bon Bon debated calling out for a moment before she saw a patch of green and white mane poking out from behind Caramel. Figuring that Lyra must have had a good reason to disturb the guy, she took a closer look to find that they had wrapped each other in a hug at some point, although she doubted it was intentional. Bon Bon sat down in a rather uncomfortable chair and tossed a pen at the pair. Then she waited for the inevitably awkward moment. The two stirred at the same time, although Caramel was the first to open his eyes. Bon Bon heard a quiet grunt of pain and noticed the confused expression on his face, before it changed into a slight smile. His gentle blush didn't escape her, however. Lyra performed in much the same way, accepting a quiet 'thanks' from Caramel before he noticed Bon Bon's presence, and both of them turned a bright red. Bon Bon let out a laugh, getting to her hooves. "I sleep for one night, and you two lovebirds are already sharing a bed," she teased. "It- I- that wasn't it!" Lyra yelled back, stumbling over her words as her face continued to heat up. She carefully let go of Caramel and rolled out of the bed, standing on her hooves. "He kept seeing things, I couldn't just let him stay over there and scare himself to death." Bon Bon looked over at Caramel, who only confirmed with a shy nod. "You're serious?" She asked, her manner turning sober again as she grabbed a complimentary pad of paper from the bedside table and handed it to Caramel with a pen. "You mind drawing what they looked like?" "Uh... yeah, I guess." Bon Bon quickly changed verbal direction. "You don't have to, I mean-" "No, I'd rather just try to get it out of my system." He sat up and reclined onto a small pile of pillows, wincing heavily. "Is it getting any better Caramel?" Lyra asked. "I really hate seeing you like this." "Oh, don't worry. It's about a million times better already. My back just feels really sore with some pins and needle sensations, and my head kinda still feels under pressure." "How is that a million times better?" The mare asked, sighing before she climbed onto the bed and laid down next to his rear hooves on top of the covers. "It still sounds like hell." "Trust me, it's bearable now. Before it felt like parts of me were just going to explode." He shook the pen in his hoof, attempting to supply it with more ink. "Also, I'm with you two now, not in drug limbo or some operating room. As fucking pissed as I am that this happened, at least nothing else has changed." "Well, about that..." Lyra muttered, watching his ears perk. "I don't think that everypony will be happy to see another alicorn running around." "Yeah, I guess I don't want the folks to worry, that wouldn't be-" "No, that's not what I meant!" "Well then," he crossed his arms, a smirk threatening to spread before the blood drained from his face. "Oh my god, what if I'm seen as a threat? A loose cannon?" "I know, what if they pull you away to somewhere?" Lyra continued. "Guys!" Bon Bon yelled, surprising herself at how quiet the room became. "That won't happen, I'm sure they'll understand." "But what if they don't believe what happened? They'd call this misuse of magic, and then I'd be sent away as well!" Lyra yelled. "I'm too pretty to go to jail!" she cried out melodramatically, shaking a hoof at the ceiling. "Listen. We'll keep it under wraps for a while, because maybe you're right, by some strange accident. Even if it does seem ridiculous, I'm not going to gamble with somepony else's life here." She sighed, "I guess it's your call, Caramel." The stallion was silent for a while, either beginning to feel fatigued again or attempting to think his way through the ins and outs of the problem. Finally, he cleared his throat and both mares looked over once again. "I'm going to side with Lyra here, I just can't see this being good in any way. Even if I am all accepted and what not, I don't want to go do whatever it is Twilight does now and be treated like an alicorn, even if she is still living in Ponyville. I want to design houses, and do things with you two... My point is, I don't want the attention." "What you did before?" Lyra asked, slightly surprised. "Yeah. Without all of the fanfare or weird looks or consequences for this." Caramel leaned back with a light grunt, redirecting his view towards the ceiling. "At least promise me this, that you'll still treat me like the run of the mill pony I'm supposed to be. Maybe I'll learn magic or fly, but it's not like I'm any different. Not really, anyway." Lyra sniffled slightly, trying to beat back her emotions to no avail. "I'm still going to use this as teasing material when we're not around other ponies," the mare responded with a slight smirk, shaking Caramel's outstretched hoof. "I wouldn't want it any other way," he replied with a chuckle, turning to look at Bon Bon. "Like you really need to check," The other mare said, shaking his hoof. "You're still the same guy." "Let's just hope it stays that way," he mumbled. "I can deal with the physical changes, but I swear, if it starts screwing with my brain..." He felt hooves wrap around him, and couldn't help but grin as he embraced his two friends. Somehow, things felt like they would work out. After all, with friends like these, what did he have to fear?" ____________________________________________________________________________ "You really think you can walk," Lyra said, her face deadpan. "You could hardly move last night, let alone do anything like walk to a train station." "Lyra, stop worrying. I just took a nap, and it's getting late anyway. Plus, I'm sick of laying in this bed. No matter where I move, some part of it still feels sweaty from when I got here." He shifted uncomfortably. "And I gotta use the bathroom." "Fine, whatever. We have to come up with a way to hide your wings anyway. Your mane's messy enough to hide the horn I think, so that's all taken care of." She watched him extract himself from the bed, along with a symphony of grunts and cracks. She moved to help before he waved her away, slowly bending this way and that to stretch out his unused muscles. "Oh, that feels so much better," he mumbled, looking rather content as he began stumbling off towards the bathroom. Lyra smiled, glad to see him on his hooves once again. She only allowed herself a brief moment of similar contentedness before looking around the room for any form of way they could cover Caramel's back without hurting him. She looked at her saddlebag, but that was still probably too heavy to put on the things, painful as they were. And it probably didn't fit Caramel in the first place. Any form of illusion spell was out of her league, at least when it needed to apply to the populace of such a large city. Not that she had to work it on them specifically, but that it would need to look better and hold for longer. So unless she could pull something out of her ass, that wouldn't work in the slightest. That meant that she would need to figure something new out herself. Not that it was a big deal, she loved improvising. Whether she was playing the lyre or making another featherbrained invention in her basement didn't matter too much to her. Lyra grabbed an extra sheet from the table, biting at the edge and tearing free a sizable strip. She could worry about explaining the ripped sheet later. Now she just needed to fit it onto Caramel like a bandage, and then add her own touch. As she opened her mouth to call his name she heard a dull thud. It took a moment before she realized that it was probably Caramel, an annoyed but still pained groan filtering under the door. She ran over to the door and stopped, lowering her hoof from the door knob. "Are you okay?" She asked, heart rate picking up when he took a second to answer. "I'll live." He replied. "I'm getting a nasty bruise though, I can already tell." She heard the sounds of rushing water, making her way back to the main part of the room as the door opened and Caramel returned to the bed. It was then the Lyra realized just how unlike himself he looked, with his bloodshot eyes and his matted fur. She could already see the bruise forming on his cheek, reaching out carefully with a hoof to stroke along his other cheek. "I feel so sorry for you, Caramel." The mare said, leaning against his neck as she sat down. "I don't need you to feel sorry for me Lyra," he replied, rolling his eyes. "Wasn't that your creed to live by? Don't accept pity, fix the problem that causes ponies to feel it?" "I'm not so sure if that applies anymore." She said, a knot for in in her throat. "Snap out of it Lyra." He cooed, putting an arm around her. "Stop acting sad because of me." "Fine, you jerk." She replied after a moment, wiping her eyes. "I just care about you, it's hard being tough when your best friend hurts like this." "Yeah, I know." He said, getting quiet all of a sudden. "How do you think I felt that time you got your arm pulled into those gears while you were building whatever that was? That was the most scared I'd ever been about anything, even more than I have been with this. I hate to use the clichéd 'I know how you feel' line, but I was thinking the same exact things when I saw your mangled arm and they told me that you might never walk right again. But you beat those odds, and even though everything turned out fine the worry was still real. And you're the same mare." "Heh." Lyra chuckled, her throat dry. "That sounded so corny." "I don't know what you expect from me, I'm hardly good with emotions." He said with a shrug. "Yeah, we both are. It's probably one of the reasons we get along." "And that we're both so unbelievably gorgeous." Caramel filled in seriously. "I thought that went without saying." She responded, keeping her face straight for a moment before they burst into laughter. "So where's Bon Bon?" Caramel asked, looking around. I was only out for like twenty minutes." "Caramel, you were asleep for hours," Lyra said with a laugh. "Same exact pose the entire time." She fell backwards onto the bed, letting a hind leg stick up into the air with her mouth wide open. "Never even moved, it was hilarious." Caramel felt blood rush to his face, making Lyra giggle as she noticed his blush. "I was tired!" He retorted, annoyed that he wasn't able to come up with a better comeback. "Yeah, I probably shouldn't make fun of you for this. Chances are if you'd moved something would've gotten hurt." "That's like the first time you've ever backed down from something like that Lyra," he noted. "Are you sure you're okay?" "Yeah, I just feel like I'm kicking you while you're down. That's another part of the Lyra code, if you haven't forgotten. 'Don't kick somepony while they're down, unless they deserve more than what got them there,'" Lyra preached with a joking smile, holding a hoof to her chest as she tried to look important. "Alright but seriously, Lyra, ever since I woke up again you never seemed to be back on your game, like there was something bothering you. You can talk to me, you know." "It's nothing," she said quickly, studying his eyes. She couldn't talk to him, it wasn't even as if she herself knew what she was feeling towards Caramel. Something had changed though, and as far as she could tell it wasn't just the sudden influx of worry. Lyra looked for something, anything that would allow her to change the subject. "Did you ever finish that drawing?" she asked, quickly turning towards the bedside table. "I'm interested to see what it was that managed to freak you out so much. Not that it takes that much, really." "Thanks," he replied, deadpan. He walked over to the table, brushing past her to reach for the paper. Caramel picked it up, beginning to reach for it as a wing caught on Lyra's side and he yelped in unexpected pain. He pulled downwards to try to unstick it more on reflex then from conscious thought, but that only made things worse as it bent upwards over the edge of her back. Lyra shifted away, suddenly feeling guilty as he stood up straight again with a loud groan, trying to reach for the wing with a hoof. The action put him off balance, and she tried to catch him before he fell, sliding an arm under his form and only succeeding in being brought down along with him. "Ow," he said, his voice cracking as something wet hit her cheek. "Fuck these things." He tried to blink away tears she knew were there, pushing himself back to his hooves. "And you wonder why I feel sorry for you," Lyra mentioned, getting up as well. She gestured for him to move onto the bed, and he eventually coalesced. "You mind if I look at them?" she asked as he flattened himself on his stomach, watching as one of his wingtips twitched. Caramel shook his head, wiping at an eye and trying to make it look like he had gotten something in it. Lyra didn't waste any time, climbing on the bed beside him to try to get a better look. They were definitely still growing, the tiny foal sized wings she had seen initially replaced by a much larger but probably still foal sized set. Not a small foal though, they were really starting to become something. Lyra decided she liked the wings, reaching out a hoof to slide under the leading edge and pick up the feathered appendage, hearing a sharp intake of breath that she assumed was pain. "Sorry," she said, before allowing herself to become immersed in the way the feathers all threaded their way around one another. Lyra set her hoof down gently in the middle of his wing, trailing it towards the tip of the longest primary as she held up the wing with her other hoof. The feathers felt unbelievably soft, although it wasn't as if she'd really held a wing like this before anyway. And she'd definitely not expected to be holding one now of all times. Lyra pulled the wing upwards ever so slightly as a crack echoed throughout the room and Caramel let out a groan. She must've broken it, oh no no no no no... "Oh, do that to the other wing too." He mumbled out, making her notice how much more relaxed he seemed all of a sudden as the wing seemed to stretch out a little further than it had before. Lyra reached over and grabbed his other wing, watching it intently as she lifted it. Everything seemed normal, until two of the joints along his wing seemed to pop into position, along with another crack. "Ohhh, wow..." "Feel better?" "Like you can't even believe." He said, enjoying the sudden lifting of pain. Lyra smiled widely, feeling happy that she had actually done something useful for a change. She reverted her attention to the now more stretched out wing, which she could feel spreading and contracting ever so slightly under Caramel's power. She brushed the leading edge of his wing with a hoof again, feeling at the downy feathers as Caramel shivered beneath her. "Does that fell good?" she asked, genuinely surprised that a long stroke of his feathers felt better than the simple feeling of her hoof along a bone. "Yeah, you could say that." He replied, breathing getting faster. "You okay?" He nodded. "Feels so good," he murmured, one of his hind legs twitching slightly as he heard the door open. "Hey Lyra, I'm-" Bon Bon paused, looking at the scene in disbelief as she dropped her saddlebag with a thud. "Lyra, what are you doing?!" "I asked him if I could touch his wings and I actually made them kinda fix themselves, and now they hurt a lot less," she said proudly. "And apparently he likes it when I pet them like this." "Yeah," Bon Bon began, putting a hoof to her forehead. "That's because what you're stroking at is an erogenous zone for pegasi." Lyra paused, staring down at Caramel for a moment before she took away her hoof, frowning. "Wouldn't that have been a good thing to say earlier?" Lyra asked. "How can you not know? I thought that was like a thing that everypony was familiar with!" Bon Bon yelled back. "Oh yeah, cuz with my only colt friends being earth ponies and unicorns I'm bound to know." "Well how was I supposed to work that into conversation anyway? Hey Caramel sorry you feel like shit all the time, but at least you can get aroused by your wings?!" "It would have been nice to know either way." Caramel mumbled, sitting up slowly. His face was red as a beet, and one of his wings was sticking out to one side. "But it's kinda stuck now anyway, so I'm not really sure-" He was interrupted by a loud groan from Bon Bon. "Listen, I'm only going to go through this once, since apparently you've never come into intimate contact with pegasi before, or heard a dirty joke about them. If you touch the wing, where depends on who, that happens." She pointed to Caramel. "For some reason they stay erect like that, but doctors still don't know what the point of that is." Lyra and Caramel edged away from each other, blushes worsening. "And I thought waking you up that other time would be the awkward part." Bon Bon sighed, picking up her saddlebag and dumping the contents on the bed. "I got some food, figured that since you two practically empty the icebox whenever you do something at our house, that you might want more than hotel mints and those random candy bars Lyra keeps with her." "Yeah, sure..." Caramel replied nervously, his wing limp at his side once again. "What did you grab?" he asked, starting to sort trough the pile of things the mare had bought. "Just sandwich stuff, a little of the amateurish candy that they sell around here." "I dunno Bon Bon," Lyra said through a mouthful. "Tastrs firn ta me." "Lyra! This isn't for you!" "Yeah, but he ate my candy bars and I'm hungry now..." Lyra complained, shoving another piece of candy into her mouth when she thought Bon Bon wasn't looking. "It's fine anyway, I'd rather skip having a sugar rush later. It's not like I can do much with he energy." Caramel said, pausing briefly. "And besides, I'd probably just be all hyped up and hurt myself." "Good thingh arm immune." Lyra responded, causing the three to chuckle. "The only reason you don't appear to have sugar rushes is because you're always full of energy." Caramel said, poking her chest with a hoof. "The day I see a mellow Lyra is the day pigs fly." "Pfft, that could be soon." He crossed his arms. "Like you're ever going to get that thing to do more than glide." "Hey, I got the propeller to spin for a while the other day, and I think only one of the parts blew this time!" "Oh, only one?" Caramel replied, crossing his arms. "Just you watch, one day it'll be possible for me to fly around like a pegasus, and then you'll be jealous." Caramel wiggled one of his wings slightly, looking rather proud of himself for a moment. "We'll just have to see who figures out flying first then." "You want to bet on that?" Lyra asked, more than just a hint of competition in her eyes. "Guys!" Bon Bon yelled, taking the ripped slice of sheet and throwing it at Lyra. "Get something that works to cover his wings and horn, and let's get back to Ponyville. We've already missed a day, I don't want to miss too much of another one." "I told you, once I get the claw thing working we can just live in luxury," Lyra said, her gaze getting far off for a moment. "So long as I find a way to create a longer lever arm and use the limited torque created by hooves to open and close the whole thing." Bon Bon looked at Caramel, her expression giving away the fact that she had no idea what Lyra was talking about. Caramel sighed, a slight smile spreading on his lips. "You know how we can kinda grab stuff with hooves, because of whatever pony magic?" She nodded, gesturing for him to continue. "Well Lyra wants to use the power there to grab something easily, and translate that through the power of physics into a larger force further from the point of rotation. But she kinda ran into a wall making it small at the same time, and allowing for ponies to walk while wearing it." "Maybe you could just show me?" Bon Bon asked, still looking confused. "Sure thing." Lyra replied quickly, sketching madly at the back of the pad of paper. She paused for a moment, flipping it over and gasping slightly. "This is what you saw?" "Yeah." Caramel said, trying not to drag up too many visions. He looked over her shoulder at the bipedal blade armed thing, shivering slightly. "So was this in your dreams too?" She queried, taking a closer look at the rather detailed sketch. "Yeah." He repeated. "I don't really want to talk about it." "Come on, I-" she saw the look on his face and realized that he was serious. Lyra dropped the subject and sighed, picking up the partial sheet and throwing it over Caramel. Then she dug into her saddlebag, pulling out a bag of flour. "You keep flour in your saddlebag?" He asked, furrowing his brow. "No, this is Bon Bon's. She didn't really put everything away before we had to find help for you." She moved overto her own saddlebag, digging past the food and looking through all the pockets before she found a cough drop that had obviously seen better days and pulled it out. Lyra didn't waste a moment, the sounds of running water sounding as she ran to the bathroom, returning with a cup full of steaming water. "Ah, the fake bandage approach?" Caramel asked. "Sometimes I begin to think that you know me too well." She giggled, face flashing red as she looked back down and realized how that could have sounded. Not that it mattered, it wasn't as if he didn't actually know her better than anypony in the first place. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts as she poured a glob of flour inside the cup, stirring it around as it turned into a semi-thick slurry and the cough drop dissolved. It didn't seem dark enough, but she wasn't sure what else to use. Then she grabbed a small piece of black licorice, mentally berating herself for not seeing it earlier. "Just have to make this all dissolve, then get you fitted and leave." "What about the horn?" Caramel asked, touching its tip with a hoof as it protruded slightly from his mane. "A hat?" "I guess, just make sure it doesn't fall off." She shrugged at Bon Bon's look. "What? I don't want to over complicate things." "Fair enough, I guess," she replied, watching Lyra put a thin piece of plastic wrap over the cup from the wrapper that it had come in. She stuck it against Caramel's side, nodding her head as she ripped off some more pieces of sheet, fitting a now more stuffed looking 'bandage' around his back. Lyra returned to the bathroom, dumping out the cup until she figured she wouldn't be going overboard. Then she carefully placed the cup under the bandage. "Go ahead and frolic, Caramel. I know you want to." She said with a smirk, catching his slight amusement as he carefully hopped a few times, moving around the room as he felt some 'blood' slosh out of the cup, making a stain that looked more realistic than if they had done it themselves. Lyra removed the cup again, patting along the bandage gently to make sure that there were no serious problems that needed to be resolved before they left. "You good? No problems, crooked feathers or anything?" "Just an extreme version of growing pains and a headache." He replied, touching his horn again. "I feel like this is all a dream, that it's too weird to actually be happening." "I know what you mean. 'Course, that was more back when you were out cold and I thought it was a nightmare, but same idea I guess." "How do you feel?" Bon Bon asked, trailing a hoof along the ground. "About what's happening, I mean? You've got to be glad on some level. I mean here you are, plain Earth Pony, and then suddenly you develop wings and a horn? It seems like all the pain might not be for nothing." Caramel nodded, making his wings twitch again. "Yeah, but I've only ever been an Earth Pony, I haven't had either of these things before, and even trying to figure out how to move my wings seems like it's going to be a challenge. That sounds weird. My wings and my horn." "You've got flight eventually though, right? That's something at least." The cream mare asked. "I can't say I'm not looking forward to a working pair of these babies, so I guess you're right. I should just start looking at this from the 'I might be able to fly and move things with my mind' point of view, rather than the whole annoyance that I'll have to keep it a secret. I'm too young to complain about all this stuff, I've got my entire life ahead of me." "And suddenly, tons more possibilities." Lyra added. "I'll probably just keep my regular job, actually. I like it, it's not as if it isn't my favorite thing to do." "Minus throwing objects." Lyra mentioned, shooting him a grin. He chuckled. "It's funny how most ponies are all like 'I got my cutie mark and now I know what to do with my life!' And I'm just like, I built this thing." He paused. "I'm going to throw something at it and see how hard it is to destroy." "It's no wonder you always get bug eyed when we start testing your little balsa wood buildings." "Hey, I don't like to just destroy things, my whole point is to beat the previous one." "And then destroy other things with projectiles." "Yeah. It only took me a good throw and a horseshoe to win this thing," he said, looking at his cutie mark. "Three horseshoes couldn't have really gotten me very far by itself though." "I've seen your trick shots." Lyra said, packing stuff back into their saddlebags and quickly throwing together a giant sandwich, which she handed to Caramel. "I'm still pretty jealous." "Alright, you want to talk about jealousy? You can play the Lyre better than anypony, the harp as a kind of added bonus, and you keep mentioning that my talent is better." He took a bite of the sandwich, letting out a groan of approval. His stomach seconded his feelings with a groan of its own, and a giggle from Bon Bon filtered out of the bathroom. "Yeah, but you could practically decapitate somepony with a throw if you did it right, and the way you got your mark was way cooler." "I got suspended from school." "Yeah, but that bully got suspended from consciousness." Caramel broke into laughter, spewing a few pieces of greens onto the floor. "Fuck, why is this so funny to me?" He asked, before beginning to laugh again. "I dunno, I kinda thought that one would fall flat, to be honest." He nodded, beginning to calm down as he let out a few residual laughs. "I've got to remember to use that somewhere." "Lyra, you got everything packed out there?" Bon Bon asked, passing with a toothbrush and stowing it in her saddlebag. "Yeah, you mind telling me why you're so OCD about brushing your teeth?" the aquamarine mare queried. "I dunno, why do you work in the basement for hours on end?" "Touché, I guess." Lyra responded, stifling a yawn. "Now come on, we should actually get moving." "This looks pretty good," Caramel said about the bandage, looking a little surprised. That kind of annoyed Lyra. "Of course it does, do you really think that I would make something crappy!?" she asked, poking him none too softly in the neck. "No, that's not what I meant at all, it was just that you didn't have much to work with, and I thought this was surprisingly good for what you had." "Oh..." She said, bowing her head slightly. "Sorry." "Why are you apologizing? I mean, normally you just kinda stop at the 'oh' part and look embarrassed..." "Look, it doesn't matter what I'm thinking. Let's just go." "Alright." Caramel replied, still looking at her strangely. "I'm taking off this hat." "But what if-" Lyra began. "Don't worry, I can just slap the thing back on. Nopony that we know will be here anyway." He opened the door and walked shakily outside, the irregular heavy thuds of his hooves making it more than obvious that he probably shouldn't be walking in the first place. Lyra sighed, before grabbing her saddlebag and beginning to walk after Caramel. She couldn't see how things could possibly end up going well through any of this. But it was bound to be an adventure. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, however, she couldn't be quite sure.