//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Forgery // by DarthMaul22 //------------------------------// Last time, on Dragon Ball Z Forgery: “The point I’m trying to make is that you should try apologizing to Bon Bon. I’m sure it will work out.” “I guess it’s worth a shot…” I lay awake in- Just kidding. I was standing up this time. I wasn’t in my bed, either. Those facts didn’t help my nerves, though. I had left the restaurant in a hurry after seeing the ad, leaving Octavia alone and probably confused. I didn’t want it to be true. I knew what I had seen, but I refused to believe it. And now here I was, in the last place I ought to have been, trying to do the last thing I ought to have been trying to accomplish. I started forty-second-guessing myself before running out of time. Bon Bon opened her front door. “Lyra?” she asked, staring with a concerned look at the crazy mint-green unicorn (me!) standing on her doormat. I threw on the best smile I could muster at the time. That’s not saying much, by the way. “Uh…hey, Bon! I, uh… I saw the ad in the paper about a room available…” “Uh-huh…” she muttered, clearly unconvinced by my smile. Don’t worry, Bonnie. I wasn’t convinced, either. “So, I was wondering if, maybe… I could…?” My face was starting to hurt. She sighed. “Lyra… about that…” Oh, no. I had read those books from the bargain bin. This was the part where she would reject me and I would spend the rest of my life drinking sweet tea and eating ice cream! Initiate Plan BB! That stands for Bon Bon, by the way. Come on, brain, think of something! “I think we should just… go our separate ways for a bit, you know?” she continued, “Just until this all blows over.” No, no, NO! C’mon, Heartstrings, you’re losing her! Say something – anything! “Wait!” I practically screamed. She looked at me expectantly. Horsefeathers, now I had to follow up with something. For the love of Luna… “Please?” I gave her my best puppy eyes. Come on, work…work! She just sighed. “Sorry, Lyra. I’ll still see you around, right?” …It didn’t work… I sat on my haunches and hung my head in defeat. “Right…” I mumbled. She awkwardly shut her door with an awkward smile and left me awkwardly sitting on her doorstep. It was kind of awkward. I sat there for… actually, I don’t remember how long it was. I just remember eventually getting up and heading to Vinyl Scratch and Octavia’s house. At least there, I had a couch I could return to. I trudged into my temporary residence, head hung low and not really looking where I was going. Where was the couch? I was curious to see if the cushions would block all airflow if I were to shove my face into it. Fate, however, had other plans (again). Before I could reach the sofa, Vinyl walked by. “Hey, you’re back. How was your little walk?” I kept walking, trying to find the sofa without looking up. Do you have any idea how hard that is? Finally, I answered her. “Unsurprising.” “Uh, that’s cool… I guess.” “Yeah…” I muttered half-heartedly. Aha, there was the lamp! Now from there… “So, what happened?” “Bon Bon had an ad in the paper, renting out my old room. I went there, and…needless to say, she didn’t want me back.” The bookshelf? How did I manage to overshoot it that badly? Vinyl was probably having a field day watching me wander around the room, seemingly at random. “Harsh…you gonna be okay?” “Yeah, I’ll just…do somethin’…” Found it. Finally. But then the worst thing happened. “I know what you need. Some cheering up!” She proceeded to grab my hoof right as I was about to climb on top of the sofa, dragging me off to the kitchen. “No!” I just wanted to lay down! The couch wouldn’t judge me! Plus, I didn’t have nice memories of the kitchen. Going deaf (however imaginary) tends to scar you for a while. Despite my struggles, the pale DJ managed to plop me into a chair, her own rump taking the one opposite. “You need to turn that frown upside-down, and I know just the story to do it! It’s called ‘The Ugly Parasprite’.” “How is that supposed to-“ “Shushabububup!” She put one of her hooves over my muzzle, “I’m the one telling the story! You just sit there, and listen, ‘kay?” I sighed. “Fine…” I mumbled through a white hoof. She put her leg back down. “Good. Now… “Once, there was an ugly Parasprite. He was so ugly, everypony died. The end!” She flashed me her biggest grin and waited for my reaction. Me? I was struggling to comprehend what this had to do with anything, much less how it was supposed to help. “That didn’t help at all!” I exclaimed, giving her a moderately angry look and flailing my hooves about as if I expected to fly. Her smile was gone in an instant. “Oh. Well, I tried.” Before I could respond, there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it!” Vinyl almost shouted, practically bouncing toward the front door. I just put my head on the table and covered it with my hooves. I wanted to be depressed in peace, and I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the couch. Oh, well. The table would have to do. “Hey, Lyra? There’s somepony here for ya.” Vinyl called from the foyer. I grumbled and lifted my head. Who would want to talk to me? Could it be…? No, that was stupid. Bon Bon was rather clear. But then, who? I sighed. Only one way to find out. Trudging up to the door, I finally looked up and spotted one of the last mares I expected to see. Sadly, no, it wasn’t Bonnie. Instead, it was somepony I had pretty much forgotten about in all the marshmallow-and-egg-induced madness. “Hello, Lyra.” Twilight greeted me. “Twilight?” What was she doing here? “I just wanted to check up with you before going ahead with anything. How’re things on your end?” My end of what, now? “My end of what, now?” “Your human I’m helping you make?” she deadpanned, “You were going to look into their physiology, remember?” “’Make a human’?” Vinyl interjected, “Wow, you really didn’t learn anything from that angry mob, did you?” “One time! That was one time!” I glared at her. “But you did read up on it, right?” Twilight interrupted. That’s right… wasn’t I going to read those books from the library? What happened to that? I headed to my room, levitating my vegetable-stocked saddlebags to the table as an afterthought. I entered my room, ready to start looking. I had my work cut out for me, really. I was fully prepared to turn my room upside-down, too. Except they weren’t under my bed. They were resting right on top, in neat piles. I narrowed my eyes. “Bon Bon…” Regardless of the legitimacy of that last part, I had plum forgotten about those things with everything else that happened (hint: marshmallows). I had no idea where they would be. “Lyra?” Twilight broke me out of my thoughts. Oh, Luna, she was still expecting an answer! Time for Deception Mode. “Of course! Did it all in one night.” I had on my best smile (which was much more convincing than earlier, if I do say so myself). She quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t go into it any further. “So, is everything else okay? Bon Bon told me you were staying here for the time being…” She knew about that? Actually, she would’ve gone by Bon’s place first, so it did stand to reason. “Nah, everything’s good.” I kept up my façade. Just keep it together a little longer… “Well, if you’re sure…” she trailed a bit, “Just come into the library tomorrow around noon, and I’ll get everything started.” “Awesome, thanks for telling me.” We exchanged goodbyes, and Vinyl shut the door. She turned to me. “You didn’t do any of that research you said you did, did you?” she asked in a knowing tone. I didn’t bother lying to her. “Oh, hay, no.” “Do you at least know where the books are?” I sighed. “No…” “Aren’t they library books? You know, as in ‘you have to return them at some point’? I groaned this time. How was I supposed to know where they were? When I was leaving Bon’s place, I just stuffed everything into bags… I looked over to my stuff, still completely packed and lying next to the couch. It was only a few bags, but everything was in there. I walked over to the pile with cautious optimism. I was prettysure I had packed them. Slowly, hesitantly, I started to unzip the first. I didn’t remember what I had put in which bag, so it was just a matter of guesswork. As the zipper continued further down, my shadow of a doubt remained. “So, any particular reason why you just took five minutes to slowly open one bag?” Ah, that would be Vinyl, questioning my methods like everypony does. Although, her question was still valid. Why was I taking a long time? I shook my head to snap myself out of it. “Not really.” “Cool.” She said, stone-faced. With that, my fellow unicorn walked up the stairs to her room. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” “Alright.” ‘Okay, back to book-searching…’ I thought to myself, looking back to the bag I had just opened. I caught a glimpse of the first item, lovingly placed on top of everything else, and paused. “You decorated the entire kitchen?” “Of course!” “But it’s just the two of us…” “It’s your birthday, Lyra. You deserve some cheering up for today.” “I don’t need cheering up…” “Lyra, please. You’ve done nothing but mope since your lyre broke.” I didn’t really have anything to say to that. “Well?” she said, attaching a party hat to my noggin. The elastic string dug into my skin a bit. “Aren’t you gonna check out the cake?” “I guess…” Walking over to the table, I started to examine the admittedly large cake. It was a rectangle, mostly white but with a border of mint green – the color of my coat. In the center was a slightly larger-than-life depiction of my cutie mark. It was a fairly standard concept for cakes, but as I looked closer, I started to notice slight imperfections here and there. She had made it herself. I just stared at it in awe. Attempting to fill in the silence, Bon Bon spoke up. “It’s your favorite: chocolate.” Now that got my attention. I whirled my head around to face her, my eyes wide. “Seriously?!” My reaction must have pleased her in some fashion, because she smiled. “Yep.” I allowed myself a small smile of my own. Looking at the cake, I zoned in on one of the pieces with the most frosting – a corner, naturally. “Can I get that piece?” I asked, pointing a hoof at it. “Sure. But first…” she trailed off as she reached behind the table, presumably grabbing something. She hoofed over a box covered in wrapping paper. The paper itself was a mix of bright colors, resulting in a chaotic mish-mash of neon. I grabbed it in my hooves. “What’s this?” “It’s your present,” she said, rolling her eyes with mirth, “You’re supposed to find out what it is when you open it.” I decided that the most intelligent (not to mention logical and efficient) course of action was to do just that. Grabbing one of the corners with a hoof (because that’s always the best place to start), I pulled it down, resulting in a satisfying tearing sound. Oh, and the paper came off. That happened, too. Slightly entertained by the sound of tearing paper, I proceeded to rip off more and more of the horrifyingly-bright wrapping. Eventually, I tore the last bit off to reveal… “A black box? Cool… I guess.” Bon Bon facehooved. “Open the box, Lyra.” “I already took the wrapping paper off. Why are you making this so complicated?” “Just open it.” “Fine…” Keeping the box steadily floating in midair in front of me, I used a hoof to undo the latch. Lowering it back into my hooves, I lifted the lid. I was speechless. After a moment, Bon Bon spoke. “Do you like it?” I couldn’t talk. I was too busy getting over the shock of the box’s contents. “Lyra?” Carefully, I lifted the contents out of the container up to my face, which was wide-eyed and slack-jawed in shock. “This is…” It was a lyre. It wasn’t strung, but I had plenty of those. And by the feel of it in my magic… ‘This is real gold…’ She had gotten me a new lyre… and this stuff wasn’t cheap. I put the lyre back in the case, and the case back on the table without closing it. Then, I turned to face Bonnie. Before she could get a word out, I had her wrapped up in a tight hug. After a moment of actually being able to get a breath, she put one of her own hooves behind my back. A moment later, I broke the hug. Broke it into a bajillion little pieces out of excitement. I had a new lyre! I had wanted to play mine for so long, but it was broken! After letting out a small squeal of excitement, I was rushing up the stairs, lyre in tow. I opened the door once I reached my room. Now, where were those strings? I snapped out of my little flashback with a start. After I remembered where I was, I looked back down at what had triggered said flashback. There it was, in all its glory. My lyre. I sighed. Great, now I wasn’t going to be able to look at that thing for a while without it bringing up sad memories. I just set it aside for now. Underneath my lyre, there was a small, unmarked book. It wasn’t one of the ones I was looking for; I could tell mainly because the cover was a different material. I would almost say it was leather, if it weren’t for the fact that I knew better. I had made sure if it when I bought it. It was my diary. Considering the reaction I got just from seeing my lyre, of all things, I knew I wouldn’t be able to take what would happen if I were to open this. Instead, I spied a small corner of… something poking out the side. Curious, I slipped it out enough to get a glimpse at what was printed on it, but not enough to take it out completely, lest I lose its place. Printed at the end was a date. I knew exactly when this was. The curtain finally closed, allowing all of us to relax after hours of playing. As I waited for the after-show high to wear off, I shared glances and approving nods with just about everypony else in the strings section. After waiting a few more seconds, I decided to finally pack up. It doesn’t take much to put a lyre in a case, so I was up and making my way offstage pretty quickly. Making my way to the foyer area, I started scanning heads for a certain pink-and-blue mane in the crowd. Where was she? I couldn’t see her anywhere. Did she not come? No… she said she would. Then where was she? “Hey, Lyra.” Startled by the sudden voice behind me, coupled with the sudden prod at my side, I whirled around to see the very mare I had been looking for. I also may or may not have let out a squeal when she snuck up on me. I guess we’ll never know. “So, you saw the performance?” “Yep.” She flashed me her ticket stub. “I still think it’s ridiculous that the school charged five bits for attendance, but it was worth it.” “So, you liked it?” I couldn’t help but let a little excitement creep into my voice. “It was pretty good, for a college orchestra. I have to ask, though… do you know the name of the piece you played?” “I… er, that is to say…” “Uh-huh. Thought so.” “Whatever, that’s not important. What is important is that during the concert, I thought up a new way that hands could work!” Bon Bon just sighed and rolled her eyes. “Either way, it’s getting late, and I want to get to bed. Can we head back to the dorm, now?” “Sure.” With that, we started heading out of the building. We passed a trash can in the hall, and Bonnie threw her ticket stub in without a second thought. For some reason, though, I lingered. Bon Bon hadn’t noticed, and kept on walking as I stared at the trash can… thinking. After another moment of that utterly pointless activity, I yanked the ticket stub back out with my magic, rushing a bit to catch up with my roommate. Memories of happier times, those were. Times of when my greatest fear was that upcoming test that I would probably screw up. After sliding the stub back into it, I put the diary aside. At this rate, I was never gonna get over her. I just had to accept that she and I were over. ‘Easier said than done…’ I braced myself for the next item in the bag. What was next, a framed picture? Actually, to my surprise, it was the books I was looking for. And yes, they were the books I was looking for. Your mind tricks can’t work on me! Now, these… these brought back memories. Humans were only ever mentioned at the edges of folklore. Nopony ever talked about them, but if you looked hard enough in the right places, you could find references to them. They had always fascinated me, and research on them had been a hobby all throughout school. It wasn’t until the past year or two that I could actually try out my half-formed theories. They got more logically sound as time went on, to be sure, but I never once let failure deter me. I let that thought sink in. Something about it felt… off. For the life of me, though, I couldn’t figure out why. But then, that nagging feeling turned into a nagging thought, and that thought caused even more thoughts in a domino effect until I’d had a full-fledged epiphany. I had an… unusual hobby growing up. It had caused me to be victim to no small amount of teasing and mockery. Nothing, not even flat-out failure could deter me from seeing if humans were real. I had never given up. So then… just what the hay was I doing, letting a small incident get in the way of my friendship with Bon Bon?! What the hay was I doing, moping around and taking advantage of two of my other friends?! And just why the hay was I thinking about raiding Vinyl’s cookie stash before leaving tomorrow?! I stood there, being mad at and mentally berating myself. I had proven to be crazily tenacious, yet here I was, ready to give up my best friend at the drop of a hat! For the love of Luna, what was wrong with me?! I put on a determined expression. It was settled. I was going to get Bon Bon back, even if it killed me! …Except I couldn’t really do anything right now. A glance out the window told me it was indeed getting very late, and Bonnie was most likely about to go to sleep at this point, if she wasn’t already. “Lyra? Are you still up?” I turned to the source of the voice to find Octavia at the base of the stairs. How had I missed her coming in? I must have really been out of it while going down memory lane… “Yeah,” I answered, “I’ve still gotta read these books for another human thing tomorrow.” “As long as it isn’t another one of those portals.” I let out a long groan. I was not going to live that down, was I? “Just… try to get some sleep, alright?” “Alright. Goodnight, Octavia.” “Goodnight.” With that, she retreated back up the stairs. After waiting a moment to make sure she was out of earshot, I scooped up Humie from his position slouching against the couch. Levitating the little traitor close to me, I attempted to extend an olive branch. “Look,” I told him, “I know we both said a lot of things you’re going to regret, but I think we can put our differences behind us. For science.” ‘You monster.’ I added internally. After a moment of silent contemplation, he nodded. “Alright,” I started, facing toward the books, “There’s at least ten of these things to get through, but I’ve come up with a solution that I honestly think works best for one of both of us.” I smiled, memories of college flooding back to me. “Time for an all-night cram session.”