Broken then Healed

by Tohshi


Chapter 1

Broken then healed

By Tohshi

CHAPTER ONE

“See I told you they were real!” exclaimed Lyra as she leaned back in her chair and swiveled to face the other pony in the room. “And you all thought I was crazy! Gosh, go on about Bipedals, and someponies think you need to be locked up.”

A large display through which a crowd of humans could be seen wandering a mall oblivious to their onlooker took up much of their basement. Bon Bon stood shocked for a moment. For all the years she had known her curious friend, she had thought her to be quite eccentric. Came with the whole being an artist. To have her theories proven acurte was a bit of a surprise.

“Well to be fair, it's not like you had proof till now. Besides we never locked you up. Nor would we,” stated Bon Bon. “Though it's scary to think of how right you were.”

“Even I have to admit I was strangely prophetic with that one” Lyra shot back at the beige pony. Turning back to the screen, her horn started to glow and her brow cinched with concentration. “Let's see if we can get a different view. Hmm can't seem to get it to move. Well, let's try something else.”

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I ran the washcloth back and forth across the counter top. Work was slow, and it had been all week. I guess what do you expect with the economy the way it was. The counter was already clean but I wanted to look like I was doing something productive, the boss was there, and I was a bit paranoid with him around. He had been a bit short tempered for a while now.

Popping his head around the corner from the back room of the Taco Bell, the boss called to me, “Hey Alex, would you come here for a second?”

Turning from the counter I deposited the washcloth into the sink behind me and walked into the back room. He was sitting at the computer. My boss had made a carrier out of Taco Bell. It was a fate that I was hoping to avoid but with my job prospectives being the way they were it seemed unlikely that I could find anything better right now.

“Yes, sir?” I inquired.

“Well I got bad news and there isn't a way to sugar coat this. Profits are down and we can't afford to have as many hands on deck as I would like to have. Sorry Alex but I am gonna have to let you go. Stop by next week on Thursday to pick up your last paycheck,” he said not even looking at me. For a man who had so much time in this job he was still very awkward about firing people.

“Ok,” I mumbled at him. Off to the side Veronica gave me a sorrowful look, but continued on with her work. I had liked working with her but we were nothing but acquaintances. No my heart lay elsewhere. I slunk out the backdoor of the Taco Bell. It was quite back here but now it felt so awkward being in the employee only area's of the mall.

Stumped on what to do next I sat on a bench for a while to think. Rent was due soon and I just lost a good four days of that check. I didn't think it would be enough to cover the rent. What was I going to do? Melody and I would figure things out though.

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“So do you think you can help me move the view around?” Lyra inquired of the purple pony who had joined them in Lyra's lab. Lyra was having trouble containing her frustration about her spell work. She was by no means a slacker when it came to magic and this problem was proving well beyond her. At least her former schoolmate, the Alicorn of Magic, lived in town to help with things like this. The two of them had never been much of freinds while they were in school but Ponyville seemed to have been good for both of them. It was nice to call her a friend now.

“I don't know if I can,” responded Twilight Sparkle. Her horn was lit with her magic as she poked and prodded the spell. “It's hard to tell if the view is of the location or following just one of them, and honestly I don't fully know how you manage to view this to begin with.”

“Well the idea came to me just a few hours after the Tirek incident. Not really certain where the idea came from but figured maybe they were on a different dimension. Different wavelength. But either way I channeled sensory magic through the two crystals there and vibrated the magic till it attuned to this world. At first I thought it didn't work. Had been pretty certain that I had messed up the spell but it cleared up with the fiddling.”

“I will have to study this for a while, maybe try to replicate it before I could say for certain but it may not be possible for me to change the view point. As I said earlier this could easily be attuned a specific one of them instead of the location,” said Twilight.

“Well thanks anyways, Twilight. I wouldn't try replicating it yet though I can't shut it off and it seems to have put a damper on my magic,” Lyra said.

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My job search had been going badly. The last three weeks had given me only one interview. Melody had told me time and time again not to worry. That work would come eventually. That it was just that it was spring and that most places weren't hiring. Despite her efforts I had started to freak out about money. Melody still had her job but we were likely to loose our apartment if I dint' find something soon.

The ding dong dong of Melody's grandfather clock reminded me that it was time to start dinner. I had taken up all the household chores. It seemed only fair. Her mother had help us cover the bills that which Melody's paycheck hadn't covered. I really like Mrs. Smith. She had been so much help for the two of us this last few years. After I had left my dad's house he didn't seem care as much anymore and rarely stayed in contact. I had gotten halfway through preparing that night's dinner when the phone rang. It was Melody's ring tone. I smiled as I walked over and answered the phone.

“Hello,” a strange voice answered on the other side. “Is this Alex?”

“This is him,” I replied. My brain fought between two conflicting ideas. Maybe she had just lost her phone but I had a feeling that wasn't the case. “How did you get Melody's phone?”

“I am from General Hospital, downtown,” the voice stated. “There was an accident.”

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Lyra sat watching and crying for hours. She hadn't left the room in a day. Bon Bon who sat next to Lyra sat comforting her while she cried herself. Their Biped was still up on the screen. Twilight had come by and tried to talk Lyra out of the room, and had only succeeded in further promising help in attempting to contact this other side.

The two worlds were quite different Lyra had noted, though they also shared a few similarity. The funeral procession was unmistakable for what it was. Her Biped hadn't left his house and it had been three days. It hurt her to see somepony in so much pain. To see him be so alone. Mixed in with her sadness was a frustration and anger that had been brought on by his world. How could so many bipeds let one of their own be so alone. Did they not care for one another?

Lyra's aura engulfed her horn as she once again as she repeatedly attempted to send a message through the viewport. The book Twilight had given her of communication spells didn't contain an interdenominational spell, so Lyra had been trying the only ones she capable of casting to try to contact the Biped, to no avail. All it was acomplishing was giving her a head ache as spell after spell failed.

A small knock on the door and Twilight came walking into the room her saddle bag laden with scrolls both new and old. She had a look of determination on her face. Lyra knew that Twilight was as invested in this as she was at this point. It had grown far beyond a simple curiosity about strange new creatures and into one of needing to save somepony from the dark clouds that surrounded them.

“I let myself in. I hope you don't mind,” Twilight said. The sight of her friend's state saddened her. Lyra was showing the signs of magical exhaustion. “I brought over the most powerful communication spell I could find I was gonna try that now if you don't mind, Lyra.”

“Do you think this will work? He has gotten worse," Lyra said. "We have to save him."

Nodding her head, Twilight began to cast her spell. A brilliant glow filled the room as Twilight poured as much as she could into her spell. Again her spell failed. Even Twilight was starting to feel the frustration at the magic's refusal to cooperate.

“I am sorry. I will have to fiddle with the spell's matrix to see if I can't integrate it into your spell. Why don't you go get some sleep, Lyra, while I do that,” Twilight stated calmly.

Lyra tried to protest but Bon Bon dragged her marefriend of to their bed for some much needed rest. Hours passed to no avail. On the screen, though something had changed. The Biped had left his apartment and had headed up to the roof of his large building.

Lyra came stumbling back down to the basement. She brought with her some sandwiches that Bon Bon had made for her and Twilight. She didn't really feel like eating but every bite felt so right that she ignored her brain's protests.

“Maybe he is getting better he left his room,” Twilight said hopefully. She grabbed one of the sandwiches with her magic and started to munch on it.

The spark of hope danced in Lyra's eyes as she nodded in agreement. Change had to mean improvement, right?

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There wasn't anything left. Nothing. I stood on the edge looking down and although fear should have ruled me a strange sense of peace was all that filled me. Twenty stories should be more than enough. Images of her face flashed through my mind. Hmm maybe I will see you too. And I took the step off.

Though my mind told me that the fall would only last a few moments, it seemed to take much longer than that. The wind was strong but not as much as I had expected. I felt like something else had grabbed me and was pulling me up trying to stop my descent. Still the ground was about to embrace me one more time. They say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die but so far all I could think of was going to see her. And then for a second there was pain and then nothing more

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“NO!” screamed Lyra. Her horn lit up a brilliant but light green aura engulfing it. Her magic hit the viewing spell and for half a moment lingered there before bursting through it. Why it was working this time was beyond Lyra but she didn't even give it a second thoguht. Her magic engulfed the falling biped.

Abandoning her lunch to gravity, Twilight burst into action. Her magic surrounded and blanketed Lyra, at first attempting to break the connection though her friend's will was steeled. She turned her magic to the view point. Maybe there she could stop her friend from hurting herself.

“He's going to die! I have to save him.” Lyra shouted at Twilight. The aura of her magic glowed brighter than it had ever before as she poured more magic than she had ever used before into her spellwork. It was too late though as the bipedal boy hit the ground. Everyone winced at the imagined thud. There was still time though thought Lyra. She could still save him if she could just bring him to her for healing.

Despite her friends stubbornness, Twilight continued her attempts to sever the connection between Lyra and the boy. Snaking out into the other world following Lyra's own magic, Twilight's magic made it to the other world. Her magic mixed with Lyra's engulfing it. This was not a simple task but one that the Alicorn of Magic found easy enough. Yanking on Lyra's magic, Twilight tried to sever the connection once more or at least pull her friends magic from this other world. Her friend was more powerful than she had expected and so Twilight tapped into her vast reservoir of magic, connecting to her element. Rising into the air as her magic came pouring out of her. Twilight pulled Lyra's magic back first from the body then from that world. It didn't come alone. With one last tug the two's magic popped back into their own world.

As the light faded from Twilight's eyes where once stood a screen into a different world floated a dimly glowing light engulfing in a blend of purple and green magic. Coming to her sensing after a brief mental stumble, Lyra realized her folly. Her magic had only brought his spirit. Turning to Twilight, she stated with an exhausted tone, “We have to make him a new body. I can't let go yet I have to save him. Please?!”

“I will try.”

For a second she just paused and stared, deep in concentration. Coming back out of her thoughts, she turned to Lyra, and explained, “I don't have any of his old body to build off, I will have to make him a new one from what we have here. I need a piece of you, something special to make him a new body. After all it takes two to make life.”

A confused Lyra sat there looking at her hooves. The light switched in her brain and she understood, replying, “Go ahead. Whatever you need. Please just save him.”

Gathering all her might, Twilight began to channel the power of the cosmos. Both her eyes and horn started to glow and she rose from the floor once more. Reaching out with her mind, she took from Lyra a piece of her, and then combined it with a piece from herself. Grabbing a hold of the boy's spirit she buried it inside the amalgamation of hers and Lyra's. And then she poured magic using the small bead as a baseline to build upon. Pushing her magic to its limits, she created a body.

As the swirling and brilliantly bright magic subsided, a final burst of light emanated from her work. Twilight collapsed from exhaustion from the effort. The light faded fully revealing Twilight's work. Upon the floor laid a small pony. Her ribs were visible through the lilac color fur that covered her body, and on her head through the scruffy though short and almost white purple hair protruded a horn.

Bon Bon ran over to Twilight. Scooping up Twilight's head, Bon Bn gently cradled her friend's head. Twilight whispered, “Get...Celestia...Spike.”

Gently setting Twilight's head down she looked over to Lyra who stood standing over the new unicorn. After a brief moment she ran out of the house to go find Spike.

Standing there dumbstruck Lyra whispered, “It's a filly.”