"WHAT IN CELESTIA'S NAME HAPPENED HERE?!"
The confused yell was from Bon. She stood in the doorway, her blue eyes running circles around the kitchen. She had some issues in recognizing the place. She vividly remembered having left it in order last night, right after she had put Lyra to bed.
What greeted her was in stark contrast to that memory. The term 'utter chaos' came to her mind instead.
Old magazines lay strewn around everywhere, covering the table and even the kitchen counter; peppered in between were the occasional torn pages and pieces of white paper. Actually, on second thought, there was a lot of white paper as well. Enough to make even the most soulless timberwolves hold a minute of pause and then cry out in pain.
That just wouldn't do; none of that would. Bon was certain she did not leave a veritable forest of dead trees in her kitchen last night. And even if she would have had, she wouldn't have made it look as if a hurricane had rampaged through said forest of dead trees.
She was looking at a disaster zone.
Most ordinary ponies would have panicked at the sight. Worried about how they were going to clean up, about who had left their beautiful house in such a miserable state, call the Royal Guard to catch the burglar... Bon, however, was beyond such notions. The long years she had spent in that household had taught her many things, and she had learnt her lessons well. She knew she only had to make one angry yell to find the culprit and the pony who was going to clean up. She opened her mouth, sucked in air until her lungs threatened to burst, held it down, then-
"LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!"
"Bon! Bon! Bon! You're awake! Ohmigosh, you're awake!"
The voice came from under a larger pile of torn magazines. The pile gave off a calm look in one moment, then burst into a whirlwind of colourful papers in the next; and in the middle of that maelstrom stood a cyan unicorn with baggy eyes, grinning as if she had glued her lips to her ears again.
Though on a second thought, Bon gave herself a correction. It was a little early to rule out that mishap having reoccurred. It was always a little early to rule out any possibility when it came to Lyra.
"How come you're up so early? Did you fall asleep at five yesterday?" Bon gave her friend a deeply suspicious look, then motioned her hoof around the room and switched to a more threatening tone. "And more to the point - just what did you do to my kitchen?!"
"Testing. Stuff," Lyra shuffled. She shook her mane and scratched her neck with her hooves, freeing some bits of paper from the long strands of hair. "Important stuff. Tee-hee!"
"Does that 'stuff' involve the limits of my patience?" Bon growled, her eyebrows developing deep wrinkles.
"Yes! No! Maybe? I don't know! It doesn't matter!" Lyra giggled. She spun around herself and ran a hoof through the pile of trash surrounding her. Bon had doubts whether her friend was looking for anything specific in particular. Whatever it was, Lyra found it quickly. The moment was marked by her bursting into laughter; then she lifted a crumpled piece of paper with a lot of scribbles on it, pushing it straight into Bon's face. "Look! I was having CONVERSATIONS with myself!"
Bon didn't even need the paper to know what had happened.
"To think I had even sent you to doctor yesterday," she squeezed her eyes closed and held a hoof against her forehead. "I really thought your head was okay though..."
"No-no! It's not that! I've discussed that with myself already, and I totally agree with myself that I'm fine!" Lyra bounced away excitedly, a short-lived rain of oversized confetti following her action. "I've got a second opinion, heheheh!"
"Second opinions only count when they are from somepony else," Bon groaned. What a wonderful start her day had taken, her best friend having had gone bonkers overnight.
"It IS somepony else! Well, kind of! I mean, it's not really talking to myself if I don't remember what I said to myself, right?" Lyra hollered as she fell flat on her back, her hooves pointed at the ceiling. "Seriously, try it! I promise you'll see how much fun it is!"
Bon had her misgivings on that claim, but she saw no reason to flat out refuse. She liked to keep an open mind; of all the craziness Lyra kept doing, some things were bound to turn out fun every now and again.
Why the heck not...
Lyra was obviously having a lot of fun, after all.
"Okay, I'll bite," Bon shrugged, working hard on maintaining her indifference. Best not be uppity about an idea she hadn't even tried yet. "What do I do?"
"Nothing much!" Lyra giggled and rolled around, hissing a little when she strained the stitches in her shoulder. "Owie. Just grab a paper and write something there! Anything! Well... okay, not anything. A complete sentence. As if you were talking to somepony!"
Okay, getting slightly weird, Bon rolled her eyes. She put a hoof onto the closest white paper anyway, then took the quill lying on the table. The long feather tickled her eye when she held it in her mouth, but she could live with that; especially since the other end was still dripping with ink. Not needing to refill the quill meant that she wouldn't have to put up with it for too long. She proceeded to draw a few blanks after that; she had no idea what she was expected to write. She chewed on the tasteless feather for a while, rolling it in her mouth... then shrugged and scribbled down the first thing that came to mind.
'I swear Lyra's really gone bonkers this time.'
It wasn't much, it wasn't really poetic, but it truly came from the bottom of her heart.
"Done?" Lyra grinned. The anticipation was clearly visible not just on her face, but on her whole being. "Good! SNOWY! DO EEET!"
Bon felt reassured in her initial assessment... then she recalled how Lyra seemed to have acquired a strange poltergeist recently. Wasn't that thing called Snowy?
"Oh stop fretting! Glory to the brave! What kind of a windigo are you anyway? Meekdigo, more like!" Lyra snorted angrily and turned to a random direction. From the way Bon saw it, her friend was talking to the stove... an amusing, if slightly distressing sight. "I'm a pony, Bon's a pony, we're all ponies down here! It worked on me, so it'll work on her just as well! Besides, I thought I was your master or something! If I say go, then it's a-go!"
As she put the puzzle-pieces together in her head, Bon found that monologue way less amusing.
"Wa- wait a sec! Are you testing your ghostie on me?" she yelped and glanced around. She didn't feel strange whatsoever, but she grew incredibly nervous all of a sudden.
"Nup! Just playing a game," Lyra turned back to Bon with an aloof grin, waving a hoof as the universal sign of 'chill out'. "I've already done all the testing on me, hehe! You may want to read that paper next to you, by the way. Fufufu..."
The way Lyra struggled to contain her laughter - and kept failing at every turn - went a great way to ease Bon's unease. Lyra's relationship with responsibility had been a rocky one; one could say she had a restraining order against the mere concept of it. On the other hoof, the easy-going musician had always meant well; she wouldn't do anything that would harm anypony. Especially not her closest friend.
With such reassuring thoughts in mind, Bon turned to the paper next to her.
"Okay, so what should I look for?"
Annoyingly enough, Lyra kept silent; so Bon frowned, shook her head, and began reading.
There were a bunch of lines that looked like somepony arguing with herself. They didn't convey anything useful, however; they only made Bon wonder if Lyra had a latent case of dissociative identity disorder. Then her gaze wandered onto the last line. It looked more recent than the rest - the ink hadn't had time to dry yet.
'I swear Lyra's really gone bonkers this time.'
Got that right, Bon growled to herself. There's absolutely no making sense of her-
She paused. Then, after a few seconds had passed, that pause grew into outright hesitation.
The last sentence had been written in a markedly different style to the rest. All the preceding lines were made by the same pony; but the last one, the very last one, that was the work of a different one. Not just any either...
Bon could easily recognize her own writing.
Rearing her had back as if the sight had burnt her nose, she felt more confused than ever. That line was obviously written by her. It wasn't a forgery either; she could feel the lingering taste of a quill in her mouth. Only she couldn't recall writing anything there - or writing anything in the last few minutes, period.
The ghost...!
"What sort of trickery is this!" Bon boomed, shooting a piercing glare at - and through - her friend. She had an idea what had happened, and that idea was absolutely not to her liking. She had done something she had no recollection of... even if Lyra had enjoyed that sort of thing, that was no joke.
"Aww," Lyra sat down and hung her head low, dejected. "I really thought you'd enjoy it the same much as I have. Ah well..."
The smell of coffee began to permeate the air. Thin lines of mist rose from the two cups, only extinguished when the cold milk brought the drinks to room temperature.
"So you found your ghost can induce selective amnesia," Bon recapped, wholly ignoring the milk bottle that floated past her head. "And right after that, the first best thing you could think of was... that you could have a real conversation with yourself? By repeatedly performing small-scale lobotomy on your own memories no less."
"Don't tell me you never wanted to try that out," Lyra slammed the fridge closed after she had the milk move back inside. "It's pretty mind-blowing! It was really like exchanging lines with another pony... only she agreed with everything I said. Usually."
"My sweet everything..." Bon cracked at the aloof reply. Her eyelids dropped and her head fell to the side, her mouth contorted into a disbelieving grin. "Who on Equestria saw you fit to command such a dangerous power?"
"I think that's offensive towards Master," Snowy scratched her neck. She was listening into the conversation from her usual spot, from the top of the stove.
You think? Lyra wrinkled her eyebrows. She didn't do any berating this time however - while the windigo's odd interpretations were wearing her nerves thin, the discovery of Snowy's potential went to great lengths in comforting her.
"You're just jealous," Lyra turned her attention back to her friend, throwing a sly wink at the other pony. "Admit it, that was a pretty funny game."
"Only it's not a game," Bon groaned and stared at her wobbling reflection in the coffee, her hooves pressed against her cup. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this could be? This is a tremendous power, Lyra! This needs to be reported to the Guard! Heck, I bet even the princesses would want to hear of this!"
"Slow down there," Lyra grabbed her own cup of coffee, her magic keeping the brown porcelain cup hovering next to her mouth. "Do you think I would really want to involve the nobility in my case? It worked out really well the last time, I mean."
"Oh, really?" Snowy jolted at her master's reaction. "I thought Master was harassed by assassins and was almost killed on three different occasions. I thought we had also concluded that Master may have been forced to utilize my latent abilities back there already?"
Sarcasm. I'm definitely teaching her sarcasm as soon as we're done with the alphabet, Lyra gritted her teeth and lifted the cup to her mouth. She forgot how she had a drinking problem whenever she was angry; but life was happy to remind her once again, a thick stream of coffee running past her muzzle, down her neck and finally her legs.
"ARGH!" she swore and threw the cup back onto the table. The shiny piece of porcelain didn't care much for the action though - it flipped over and spilled completely, painting all the magazines and papers on the table brown.
"You need help, that's for certain," Bon sighed and took a sip from her own cup. "Besides, I doubt you could really compare a backwater viscount to either of our princesses. I know it's getting fashionable to mistrust those with power, but I've never heard anything bad about them. Quite the contrary, in fact. Even Luna is supposed to have cooled down lots. I heard she can even talk properly nowadays."
"Splendid. I'm relieved she won't damage my eardrums as she announces how her sister will banish me to the moon," Lyra rolled her eyes as she tried to keep the coffee away from her bandage... with varying degrees of success. She mostly just smeared the brown liquid all over her front.
"Did you seriously just roll every negative stereotype about them into one sentence?" Bon facehooved. "But anyway, you need somepony to look after you, Lyra. This power of yours... if anypony hears of it, you'll be in trouble."
"Nuh-uh! I mean well and everypony knows that," Lyra gave up on cleaning herself and threw the coffee-stained papers onto the floor. "I mean, okay, I've just played a silly game so far. But imagine the possibilities, Bon! I could be a world-renown therapist! I've even thought of a cool slogan - FORGET YOUR WOES, START ANEW! Lyra Heartstrings, the cure for every ill that poisons the mind!"
"Catchy," Bon made a serene nod, then turned to Lyra with a bored expression. "Hey, before I... heh, forget. Could you spare me some bits? I kinda' burnt through my purse yesterday."
"Heh! And I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one," Lyra cackled. She hopped to her hooves and limped out of the kitchen, shouting as she rummaged through her saddlebag. "But this is special, got it? Only because I've made a mess!"
"Don't even remind me," Bon mumbled morosely, then gulped another mouthful of a coffee.
Lyra hobbled back into the room in the meantime. The musician had a dark-blue purse float before her; she threw it onto the table just as Bon put her cup down.
"Help yourself," she exclaimed as she moved around the table, back to her overturned cup. She lifted the brown porcelain and gave it a longing look. "Aww, all gone. I was kind of looking forward to this..."
"Make a fresh batch, then. Hmm... three hundred bits. Not bad," Bon examined the purse. She glanced around afterwards, looking for something in the mess that were their kitchen. "Lyra, is your ghost still around?"
"Don't say 'ghost'. She's got a name you know! She's Snowy," Lyra growled absent-mindedly, most of her thoughts focussed on determining whether she wanted to go through the pains of cleaning the coffee pot. "But yeah, she's around me. Like always. She's sitting on the stove right now."
Noting she had been brought up, Snowy gave the ponies a wide-grinned wave. Everypony in the room was aware how Bon couldn't see the move, but the gesture was nice anyway.
"Sitting on... the stove? Ugh. Gotta' buy some disinfectant," Bon rubbed her temple, then shook her head in earnest. "Ah, anyway. Lyra, I'm taking this purse of yours, m'kay?"
"Wha- the whole thing?" Lyra yanked her head towards her friend, her ears dropping at the news. "But I... I kinda' had plans for that money..."
"Correct! Had. Past tense. Because now I'm using my ghostly powers to make you forget that you ever gave your purse to me!" Bon raised her hooves and wiggled them, suspiciously like how a third rate actor would play a magician.
Lyra turned around completely, her jaw hanging.
"You... you can't do that! That's not fair!"
"Sure isn't. You'd think you had lost it somewhere. You'd never suspect me - you'd never have a reason to," Bon flung the purse back to its proper owner. "And you're right, I couldn't do it. I don't have inexplicable magical powers. You can, however. You can do an awful lot of things, Lyra. I mean, I trust you! You hadn't even thought of this. You're a good pony, Lyra... but."
That 'but' evoked a dry gulp out of Lyra. She could easily figure what was going to follow up.
"I doubt every single pony is as reserved as you are. Many would see opportunities in your abilities," Bon carried on, staring Lyra in the eye. "Once word gets out, you may be in trouble. Maybe nothing bad will happen... that would be lucky. Until ponies will start to doubt, anyway. Quite a few are weary of the princesses even, remember? Even Celestia, who had repeatedly proven herself time after time."
Bon took a momentary pause.
"You are, in turn, a blank card with a power comparable to theirs... literally popping out of nowhere," she continued, turning to her emptying cup. "What would happen whenever somepony forgot something, I wonder? How would they react? Would they think of you? Would they suspect you being behind their woes? Perhaps blame you? What do you think?"
"I think they would keep writing everything down so they didn't forget so easily," Snowy pondered aloud, completely missing where the question was going.
"Of course they would blame me," Lyra muttered, her lips trembling. Her face readily told how much the realization shook her rosy dreams. "Anypony who doesn't know me as good as you do... would definitely blame me."
It would only be natural.
Bon nodded serenely, then rose her cup to her mouth again. Lyra watched in silence; though in truth, her thoughts were such a tangled web that she couldn't really think of anything to say anyway.
"Talk to the Guard," Bon cleared her throat and placed the empty cup back onto the table. "That's what I would advise, anyway. You're a grown mare, so I leave the decision in your hooves. I'm going to stand by your side, no matter what you do..."
Bon's mouth contorted into a wry grin as she took another pause. She visibly hesitated in finishing the sentence.
Lyra had no idea what her friend may have weighed inside her head. She didn't truly care either. The mere fact that Bon was being forced to judge so carefully served as a good alarm to her. Rarely did Bon act like that - and always with good reason when she did.
"But please understand that I'm just an everyday pony," Bon finally decided on going ahead and speaking her mind. "One of the million, you could say. I would gladly move every rock for you when push comes to shove... but this isn't an everyday prank. This once, you can get so deep I won't be able to pull you out. I think. So... so whatever you do, be careful, m'kay?"
"I never get to enjoy anything," Lyra sighed with overflowing weariness. She timed the comment carefully, making sure the front entrance had been closed by the time she spoke; she wouldn't have wanted Bon to overhear the remark. The warning she had been given was sensible, after all. She couldn't fault her friend for giving her a reality-check.
Even so...
"Master's friend leaves quite frequently," Snowy remarked, the windigo standing next to her master in the narrow hallway.
"Probably some business she's trying to keep me out of," Lyra shrugged and turned around, taking her first hobbling step toward her room.
Bon's surprise departure hadn't taken her by much surprise. She had suspected some foul play after the almost day long 'shopping' trip of yesterday; but with Bon opting to disappear again, her suspicion was all but confirmed. Not that she really cared. Bon was a big girl, too; she had no reason to inform Lyra on every move of hers. She was most likely looking for a job again. Unlike Lyra, who had a more or less comfortable employment with managers setting her schedule and performances, Bon was more of a freelancer. She jumped from job to job, taking opportunities as they presented themselves.
It wasn't unusual for Bon to disappear every now and then. It wasn't something either of them enjoyed; but it would have been hard to pay for their house and other expenses otherwise. No matter how many bits Lyra earned with a performance, those shows were irregular and couldn't be truly relied upon. She was a queen in some months, yes; but she was also a beggar in others. It was those thin months when Bon's help was really handy.
Heh, handy.
Limping from the hallway into her room, Lyra snickered with thinly veiled satisfaction. Bon had already promised to smack her silly were she ever to use that word again. Too bad, really. That had put a damper on her wittier puns...
...maybe I could make her forget about that, Lyra thought to herself, but immediately rejected the proposal. This is exactly the thing I should NEVER be doing, duh. And certainly not on Bon anyway. Bad Lyra, bad! Never think about this-
A flash of blue made Lyra pause. Snowy leaped over her, landing in front of the dumbstruck pony.
She sure has a way of demanding my attention when she wants to, Lyra raised her eyebrows. She was continuously impressed with the displays of ghostly acrobatics.
"Master, if I may inquire..." the windigo began softly. The tone, coupled with the preceding leap, proved how uncertain she must have felt. Snowy moved slowly whenever she felt comfortable, only using speedy manoeuvres when she felt threatened... or really excited. "What is Master planning to do now?"
"Heck if I know," Lyra put all her honesty into a shrug. "I'm not big on the whole 'planning' thing. I prefer improvising."
"If Master's friend is proven correct, then Master may be in danger," Snowy cocked her head to the side. Her eyes narrowed, giving her a much more - almost dramatic - demonic presence. "I can not allow that. No matter what happens, Master must not be put into danger."
Lyra glared back at the windigo with a similarly questioning, almost suspicious expression.
Not even a single thought to your own well-being, huh...
She wasn't sure if she approved of such single-mindedness. It felt unnatural. Which Snowy kind of was, being a servitude-bound ghost and all that; but she had also acted in a way that poked at Lyra's care-for-others feelings.
Acting on those feelings was difficult, however. She had started trying - letters were a nice beginning - but her options were always limited. She couldn't simply break those invisible chains off and let Snowy go. Especially not now.
Can't release a confused creature with this kind of power, Lyra bit on her lip and turned away. She didn't want to look at the subject of her internal debate.
As much as she had enjoyed letting her imagination run wild with the possibilities of the newfound power, she couldn't help but feel how it also served as a big reason why Snowy would never be truly released of her bonds. As far as consequences went, Lyra didn't enjoy that one. It made her feel like a slave owner, even more so when she had no actual benefits to keeping Snowy around.
Happy thoughts, she tried to calm herself. Happy thoughts. I'm doing the right things. Totally am.
"Master," Snowy pleaded again, "Master, please. This is important."
"I know," Lyra scratched her head and glanced down the hallway. She wasn't really looking for anything in particular - she was just a little lost, and hoped to stumble onto her answer by pure random chance. "I know. I mean, Bon's usually right, isn't she? She thinks everything through. But this once... I don't know. I'm not convinced. She says ponies would be afraid of me... of you... of us. That they would fear a wildcard that had just popped up."
"Sounds very plausible," Snowy confirmed her stance on the issue.
"Sure does. IF we remain unknown," Lyra twisted her neck again, then drew a deep breath and steeled her will. "That's not our only choice, though. I could walk around town... help ponies, you know? Of course I'd need to keep a low profile. Look natural, do my stuff from the background. But ponies would surely notice that things become better when Lyra hears of their woes, right? They'd connect the dots after a while."
"So Master would make the populace think Master is kind of a... good luck charm?" Snowy rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "A quite peculiar way to use an ability that can only destroy memories, if I may say so myself."
Lyra frowned at that defeatist attitude, even if it was technically correct. They had tested a lot of situations over the night; and as it had turned out, Snowy could only make her forget about things. The windigo couldn't alter memories or implant fake ones. Still, that singular skill was scarily powerful on its own. Snowy could work it with pinpoint precision after a little practice, going as far as blanking out mere articles out of a magazine in Lyra's head.
"Good luck charm... heh. Why not? Though in actuality I was more thinking of becoming a hero," Lyra smirked and stepped closer to her ghostly servant, doing her darnest to look the windigo in the eyes.
"Ha! I never took Master as such a vain pony," Snowy cackled with a hollow tone and dropped to the floor. "Master is saying things just for my sake again... this will lead to no good."
"I can be vain if it's for a purpose. I'll gladly be a hero if it's for good ends," Lyra explained. She had approached the ghost, standing so close that she could put a hoof through the creature. She crouched to the floor and looked up, finally managing to establish eye-contact. It was a little strange, but it served as a great way to underline the meaning behind her words. "Once I'm unquestionably a hero... once I have proven I only did all that to help others... ponies will accept me. Just look at Celestia! Everypony reveres her. They may grumble about her, but it's not like that really mattered - ponies always grumble about everything anyway. And once I am... once we are established as good folks... then I can reveal you to the world. Safely. Without repercussions."
She followed that promise up with a wink. She had no idea what to expect, but Snowy still managed to surprise her.
The windigo turned her head a little and eyed her master back, obviously waiting for something more to follow. She didn't understand Lyra's rationale, and her question only served to make that fact painfully obvious.
"So... Master would try to become a nameless do-gooder - then later try to claim all the fame, once it's safe?" Snowy pushed her muzzle upwards with a hoof, the crimson eyes glancing directly upwards. "I suppose that is a pretty good plan. One with minimal risks, too. I suppose I cannot object to something like that, indeed!"
Lyra felt glad that she was lying on the ground already, for the answer had cracked her a little. Nothing too bad, just another notch on her feelings. Snowy hadn't known her for too long though, so she could easily forgive the windigo for misunderstanding.
She didn't want fame or anything like that. She didn't even care for it. It was all a means to an end: to establish the strange windigo and somehow present her to the world. To set her free, to save her - just as she had saved Lyra, back in the depths of a collapsed mine.
Tit for tat.
Having Snowy understand that plan was just an optional bonus, however. As long as she played along and lent her powers appropriately, Lyra was fine with moving ahead. She was sure that as long as she kept trying her best, things would work out on their own. That was how she had lived her life, after all - and it hadn't really led her astray.
A tried and tested method, if there ever was one.
"Right," she made a wry smirk and pushed herself back to a standing position. She was a little wobbly at first, but corrected her stance quickly; she was already good at standing on three legs. "Let's get going, then."
"Get going... where?" Snowy asked with a blank stare. "I gather Master will not follow the wish of Master's friend, so we're not going to the Guard..."
"Got that right," Lyra deepened her smirk to a full-blown grin. "We're going to visit the only place where I can learn more about you. I need to know the limits of this ability if I'm going to rely on it so much. I mean, testing using magazines is nice and all that... but we're not magicians, right? There could be issues we couldn't possibly think about. I mean, there probably are issues we hadn't thought about! So... I'm thinking, why not ask an expert if there's one in town?"
The door opened in complete silence. Lyra paid that feat an amused nod; she hadn't thought hinges could work so quietly.
Gonna' have to ask somepony to take a look at the doors in my house, she mused to herself as she moved through the doorway. Shouldn't be too expensive either, I guess? Eh, like it matters. We have a lot of bits left over after that botched vacation.
That line of thought ended when she moved inside the building. She hadn't been there many times before; she never had any reasons to visit. She was already subscribed to all the magazines she held interest in, and those arrived directly to her mailbox; other materials she very rarely read. Other than music sheets, which were unlikely to be found in a public library.
All in all, her banging steps marked her long overdue return to the Golden Oak library.
"Whooaa," Snowy exhaled. She wandered with unsure steps, randomly striding to one side then to the other, completely under the spell of the dozens and dozens of books laid out in front of her. "Astounding..."
"So many books, eh? Welcome to the modern Equestria! Dead trees and bottles of ink to everypony," Lyra snickered at the windigo's reaction. She was careful to remain natural-looking though - she talked without as much as moving her eyes. She didn't want the owner of the library to think she was crazy. Nopony else either, for that matter... but at that precise moment, the librarian was top priority.
"It's not the amount of material. Old Master used to have a library ten times of this size," Snowy muttered absent-mindedly and sped ahead of her master, sizing up the various bookshelves with hasty twists of her neck. "But it's strange this one isn't under lock and key. In the old times books were prized possessions... a sign of how the chosen towered above the plebs. To have all this wealth available to anypony bumbling in from the street... words fail me."
I'll be so glad once you've stopped living in the middle ages, Lyra rolled her eyes and opted to let that comment go unanswered. She had better things to waste her time with, such as finding the fabled Twilight Sparkle, who should have been running the place. Who was also a smaller celebrity and the chosen student of the Sun Princes... or so the magazine wrote.
"Hello? Anypony home?" Lyra yelled, finally giving up on the silent approach. Modesty was great and everything, but her patience couldn't last long in front of her excitement. She wanted to jump to the 'doing things' part of her day already - waiting for confirmations rapidly began feeling like 'wasting time' in her mind.
She would have been throwing a tantrum were she in the library of anypony other than Celestia's favoured student. Even then it was a real challenge for Lyra to keep her cool.
"So many books without supervision," Snowy inched close to a shelf and bumped her nose against a thick, brown tome. "T... h... e... hhh... is...to... ray..."
The faltering spelling really wasn't much of an achievement, but for a moment, Lyra's mind was catapulted higher than the clouds. It took the windigo more than a dozen seconds to spell out a dozen letters, but that was an undeniable milestone right there.
Lyra needed no other proof. She was on the right path, she was sure of it.
"Oh! Hello there. Sorry, I kind of missed you coming in."
The greeting came from the purple unicorn descending down the stairs, and Lyra recognized her in an instant. That pony was the subject of her search.
"Finally!" Lyra brushed aside all the rules of etiquette, impatience ruling over her mind supreme. "You're that Sparkle, right? I've been looking for you! Listen, you've got a book on windigos? Actually, scratch that. You got a book on spells that cause amnesia?"
That question must have been one of the odder ones, because Twilight stopped in the middle of the stairs, blinking at Lyra with an honest-to-Celestia weirded-out expression.
What, Lyra shifted in discomfort. That wasn't a promising reaction. Isn't this place for like, throwing books at ponies?
"How quaint," Snowy mused aloud. She was still standing at the same shelf, progressing from one book title to the next at a mind-numbingly slow pace. "I thought Master wanted to conceal the true nature of my ability... at least until we were established as beneficial and morally upstanding heroes of sorts."
Oh. Ah, errr... well shoot? Lyra forced her lips into the most bittersweet grin possible. Thinking before you do things, right? When was the last time I promised myself I'd do that, again?
"That's one fairly specific request," Twilight found her voice after the period of dumbstruck silence. "Is there any reason I shouldn't be worried?"
There was nothing threatening in the tone, but it still helped Lyra remember how that very librarian made toasted-pony out of Princess Luna roughly two years ago.
Right. She has the power of the... thingies of harmony or whatever, Lyra bit onto her lip and struggled to make a more encouraging face. Okay girl, get it together! You better stop screwing around now. A few more lines like that and you'll find yourself extra-harmonized!
"Nuh-uh! I'm just, uh, on a vacation... and I'm looking into, er..." she began to explain her situation - slowly, giving almost every word a review before letting them escape her lips. "Well, I'm looking into strange... tales! See, I frequent the Opera and I was kinda' wondering if I could... er... if I could, well, try myself in writing plays. Something new, you know. Something up the proverbial ladder."
"I may have mentioned it before, but Master is unashamedly good at lying to other ponies straight in the face," Snowy remarked as she broke her gaze away from the bookshelf, turning her head slightly upwards.
Oi! Normally I'd take offence to that! But right now I'd rather lie than taste the painbow! Lyra glared at the windigo. She managed to keep her façade throughout her internal rant, a marked improvement in her acting skills over the previous days. Actually, wait! I'm still taking offence to that! I'm the good pony here! Besides, didn't you forget that we're in the same boat?
"I wish Master had lived during my previous time of activity. She really would have made a great disciple of Hassan," Snowy carried on, only falling silent because she managed to latch onto the higher shelf. She climbed upwards like a blue kitten, balancing on a thin wooden pane that in no way could have supported a real pony's weight.
Wait, what? Did you just commend me on lying well? Stop that! Also, stop breaking the rules of physics as well! ...or at least don't be so obvious about it! You're being super-distracting right now!
Gulping as sneakily as she could, Lyra turned her gaze back to stairs and the librarian on them. A few drops of sweat rolled down the side of her head, and she really, REALLY hoped that getting the ghost out of her vision would ease her efforts at maintaining her focus.
She was never ever meant to fool ponies to begin with. She may have made performances in the Opera, but only as a musician, not an actor.
I don't need the extra difficulty!
"Oh. So research, huh? That's nice," Twilight hummed and continued her way down the stairs, moving as gracefully as Lyra only wished she could. Stupid stitches. "It's been pretty long since I had to do some proper research. I mean of the 'read books and draw logical conclusions' kind, of course! Princess Celestia really favours giving me field tasks as of late."
Yeah, no wonder. I imagine it's hard putting a death-ray to use in a library, Lyra beamed, hoping she looked like a shining beacon of innocence. Please don't try to prove me wrong, by the way. Think of all your books that would get in the crossfire!
"So, mind control magic... in a drama no less. That's interesting! Writing a new villain, are you?" Twilight mused aloud. She also stopped in the middle of the library and began scratching the side of her head, apparently being at a slight loss in regards to the request. "I wonder which would serve you better... a good history book on famous villains, or something more technical on magic? I've never written anything like plays myself, so it's really hard to decide."
I don't think I like how you compare me to villains, Lyra wrinkled her eyebrows.
"Master should pick the latter! I don't like the sound of checking out famous villains," Snowy offered her opinion. "Going by the reactions, my ability must be of the rarer variety. More ponies would know of mind-control if a famous villain did it - so I think we should opt for checking out the lesser ones!"
Oi! Why do you raise an objection that only puts me into an even worse light?!
"Whichever you think would work out better," Lyra laughed nervously. In the end, if Twilight believed a book on villains helped her the most, then she couldn't really complain on the matter. Information was information, no matter where it came from. Talking about information, though... "Actually, could you maybe do a brief run-down on those mind-control magics? I mean, if you have time. I know you're an important pony..."
It was a last moment realization, but Lyra figured that a book might fail getting her closer to what she sought. She had absolutely zero training in the ways of wizardry; she had no powers apart from the telekinesis all unicorns could innately use. She couldn't see herself settling next to a book, diving into that vast, unknown area... and still managing to understand a thing. She couldn't even ask Bon for help, as earth ponies had no ties to magic.
She needed something like a crash-course. In which case she might as well asked from the best.
"You mean, how mind altering magics work?" Twilight paid her visitor a curious look. "Why would you even need that? That's such a rare magic, even trained professionals such as myself would have a hard time thinking up the rules for it. I don't think there has been any attempts at putting it to use in the last thousand years, give or take. Hmm, that reminds me... wasn't the last known user some ancient, evil king? Something with S. S... som, something... Sombra? Eh, whatever. It doesn't matter. Though now that I think about it... a slumbering lich king in his icy domain in the north! Sounds real fitting for a drama indeed, haha!"
The smile was banished from Lyra's face as she refocused her efforts on getting her shivers under control. She couldn't stand the mere idea of an evil overlord in the icy northern tundra.
"Most excellent! How prestigious!" Snowy burst into a triumphant yell. She threw herself into the air and sailed across the library, finishing her leap with an unrealistically graceful landing. She made a perfect tumble and bounced right back up, taking her place at Lyra's side. "Master, isn't that wonderful? Our magic is one of proud history, after all! A king of whom legends whisper... isn't that a distinguished pedigree?"
That's some real selective hearing, right there! Which part of EVIL old king did you miss? Lyra furrowed her eyebrows. She had figured that becoming a hero would be a difficult road to walk, but she never once thought she'd have to worry about an insider saboteur as well.
Faint claps rose Lyra from her internal grumbling. Twilight had moved away from in front her; the librarian was at a nearby drawer and was scanning the shelves one by one, bottom to top. Blocking out Snowy from her mind - both for the sake of preserving her sanity and not to appear as a raving lunatic - , Lyra also made her way there. Her hoofsteps were noticeably louder than those of Twilight; even when she used her right leg to support herself a little, she still had to put way too much weight on the left. Her movements, while normalizing, were still more akin to hobbling than walking; each step a miniature jump, followed up by a miniature landing.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
She was loud enough to get Twilight's attention. The librarian peeked back, eyeing her visitor with thinly veiled curiosity; the noise must have caught her by surprise. She returned to surveying the bookshelf shortly afterwards; an injured unicorn either didn't catch her interest, or she was too well-behaved to react so shamelessly to an obvious injury.
"Sorry about that... I'm kinda' loud," Lyra giggled anxiously once she took her place on the librarian's side. "Skiing accident, hehe."
"Happens to all of us," Twilight nodded emphatically. She closed her eyes and made a toothy grin soon afterwards, running a hoof down her long, indigo mane. "Well, not with me, obviously. I don't ski."
"Lucky you," Lyra brought all her honesty to bear.
"Yeah, well... I don't like snow all that much. It's cold and it sticks to your coat. Then you get muddy and wet... then you bring snow into your house and get everything around you wet as well. All while I could just stay inside and read something good," Twilight broke into something of a rant. Her lines had all the formal qualifications of being a rant - but she sounded so distant and formal that it was hard to believe she had actual strong feelings on the matter.
"Why don't you do that, then?" Lyra raised her eyebrows as she squinted at the other unicorn. "Surely somepony so close to Cel- Princess Celestia could do that much?"
"Yes, well, I'd rather not worsen my shut-in tendencies," Twilight looked away and rubbed the back of her head. Long indigo strands of hair appeared in the air, lazily floating around the two ponies. "That and... well, it's boring to stay inside so long. There's not much to read here. I mean, this is a pretty nice library... it's cosy and everything! But it's also small. Whereas I could spend my life reading through the Canterlot Archives and never actually finish, I don't think there's anything here I haven't read at least once already. Such a shame too. I liked a lot of the books in here... it's a pity I can't experience them again like the first time. Ah, er... how did we get here from snow?"
"Beats me," Lyra shrugged. She got to hear a fascinating piece of personal detail she hadn't asked about; a fairly common occurrence in Ponyville. She was already so used to the fact that she didn't even bat an eye. "You were looking for some book about old villains. To, you know, help my research."
"Ah, right. The mind-wipy stuff. Haaa, I wish you bumped into me in Canterlot! I could probably give you tons of great reference materials," Twilight smacked herself on the head. She packed a vicious punch; her teeth clattered against each other. "SPIKE! Where did you put the Great Encyclopaedia of Historical Figures You Should Never Bring Up? I thought I was clear on us using the decimal system!"
"You could explain to me in your own words as well," Lyra proposed, but joined in the book-hunt anyway. The shelves in front of her were packed full with various tomes; just skimming through a few titles was enough to make her feel all sorts of funny. She definitely was no bookworm.
"I already told you - there isn't much to explain about it. Oh for the love of every quill and inkpot, did this book really just sprout legs and walk away?" Twilight grumbled and threw herself to the floor, inspecting the lowest shelf with utmost devotion. Lyra had all but given up on getting her easy lecture; but Twilight had proven her wrong, exhibiting multitasking skills the musician could only dream of. "As far as mechanics go, that magic is pretty standard. It belongs to the school of transmutation... not that it would mean much to you, huh? To simplify things a great deal, transmutation magic turns things into different things. There is only one firm requirement - one has to understand two points of the altercation. That is the starting composition of the subject matter and the exact structure of the outcome. Understanding the actual process is a bonus, but isn't strictly needed; the magic itself can act as a catalyst and get the transmutation going. Being a good chemist - or well, in our case, psychologist - helps with the spell and lowers the strain on the magician... but isn't a requirement in itself."
"Ah, I see," Lyra tilted her head forward and then pulled it back, doing something that resembled a nod. She really wanted to keep her appearance as a good audience.
Even if she hadn't understood a single word of what she had heard.
"So if I understand correctly - to get my ability working, I would need to have a rough understanding of what memory I'm dealing with?" Snowy butted into the conversation, popping up on the other side of Twilight. "Or rather, Master would have to do so in my stead."
Lyra's heart missed a few beats. It was very rare for Snowy to best her in comprehension and actual logic. So very rare that she couldn't think of a previous occurrence. She figured she should have felt nice about that... that she should have been proud that her windigo was growing up so fast. Only she couldn't. There was no way she could feel fine about her own stupidity.
"So let's see if I got you right. Were I the, er... villain... of this story, I'd need to know what I'm erasing from ponies' heads?" Lyra bounced the question off Twilight anyway. She may not have understood the descriptions, but that didn't prevent her from acting as a transmitter of sorts.
Heh. I'm establishing contact between a ghost and a living pony, she mused on her situation briefly as she waited for Twilight's response. I've become a medium without realizing it!
In all honesty, she wouldn't have thought that being a medium could feel so... mundane, though.
"It only makes sense, doesn't it? The spell would need to have a well-defined tar- targ- taaaa... CHOOO! 'scuse me," Twilight apologized and rubbed her nose with a hoof. She glared at the thick layers of dust sitting on the lowest shelf of books, the disapproval radiating from every inch of her grimace. "Anyway, you'd need a well-defined target, yes. Though 'well defined' is a really badly defined phrase itself, when you think about it."
"How so?" Lyra lowered her head to the floor as well. She hadn't had problems with hearing the librarian before either, but she hoped she could maybe understand better up close. It was a minuscule chance, but it was still worth a shot. "Well defined... isn't that like, a synonym to exact?"
"Not really. Strictly interpreted, it only means 'clearly matching an arbitrary criteria'. So your character couldn't just wave a magic wand and declare 'I make thee forget about all your happy thoughts!'... because, well, happiness as such is pretty vague," Twilight explained. She didn't stop fiddling for a second meanwhile; her magic pulled out a few tomes at random, but her prize eluded her still. "On the other hoof, something like 'I make thee forget everything about thyself' would be perfectly valid... because it targets a certain pony, and that's very much an exact criteria."
"So much for just making ponies forget about their sad memories," Snowy sighed wearily and turned to Lyra. "Looks like Master will have to do a lot of investigation for that plan to work."
"Yep. Sounds like my plans suddenly got really complicated," Lyra mumbled absent-mindedly... and out loud. She then straightened up and pat Twilight on the back, the move eliciting a twitch and a puzzled glare from the librarian. "Hey, Sparkle... uh, thanks. I think I have an idea now, so you can give that book a rest... seems like it doesn't want to be found anyway."
"You sure?" Twilight bounced back onto her hooves. Her next move was sneezing loudly, followed by another - even louder - sneeze; the dust seeped deep into her nose, apparently. "There's a- ACHOO! - really good read you're missing o- ou- oh for the love of, my nose is killing m- AACHO!"
"Yep, sure. You've pretty much told me everything I was curious about anyway," Lyra winked at the dazed librarian and turned around. "Thanks a lot, I owe you one!"
Lyra barely saw anything of the library as she made her way out. All sorts of thoughts filled her head. They refused to join into a cohesive whole, though; they formed a veritable maelstrom instead, leaving her with broken and partial ideas. She had imagined a few ways she could put Snowy to use; but those plans were now declared null and void, leaving her with pretty much nothing.
I need to think of a new approach, Lyra groaned to herself as she hobbled to the door, getting around a small, purplish dragon on her way out. Maybe I was thinking too big. This obviously won't work if I try to help too many ponies at once. I'll have to narrow my focus down... try one? Surely it would be easier to be 'well defined' if I'm only dealing with a singular woe.
That sounded like a plan. She just had to decide where to start. The first attempt would be more of an experiment than a real bout of heroism anyway - that much she had already understood on her own.
It should be something that's really straightforward, she mused as she walked through the doorway, onto the busy street outside. Only, I don't really know of any easy cases. Or well, any cases in general.
She only really knew of Bon's troubles... but she couldn't start with Bon of all ponies. She needed somepony else. Somepony she didn't fear of... and didn't rely on either.
"Master!"
The yell pierced the fog of thoughts surrounding Lyra. She propped her head and snorted angrily, snapping her gaze back to the windigo who had disturbed her so rudely... just as an apple-filled cart and a red stallion passed her, only missing her by a hair's breadth.
"WHOA!" Lyra gasped and took a hasty step backward, the wind of the contraption fuzzing her mane. You again! What, are you-
She didn't finish that thought. The apples on the cart caught her eye, and her lips curled into a mischievous grin.
Bingo.