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// 128. Over Before it Began? 
// Story: Short Shorts 
// by Coranth 
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“You don't get it do you?" Bon-Bon bluntly stated. "Ponies now recognise the two of you as a herd, basically Lyra owns you now. If anypony has any business with you then it goes through her, because she’s your alpha.”



It was the worst thing that Bon-Bon could have said. With a quiet murmur of apology to Lyra, I stood up from the breakfast table, the Earth Pony trembling with fear as I towered over her. Slowly, deliberately - as Lyra looked on, appalled by what her friend had said - I walked over to Bon-Bon, then crouched down before her to whisper softly into her ear.

"I am no woman's - mare's - slave," I whispered to her dangerously as she quivered. "If you ever refer to me as property again; if you so much as imply that I am not equal to you, that I am not allowed the same rights and privileges that you are... I will snap off a hoof and then jam it into a certain place. I will jam it in there so hard, in fact, that you will never be able to have foals again! If you - or any mare for that matter - refer to me as property again then I will prove to you exactly why my species are the Apex Predators of my world! Are we clear?"

Utterly terrified, Bon-Bon nodded - and then she urinated upon the floor; a fear reaction - before she turned and bolted back upstairs. Before it could start to smell, with a hint of my latent psychic power I lifted the mess from the floor then evaporated it with psychic plasma-flame. Shortly thereafter, I approached a stoic Lyra, only her training as a ninth-dan Still Way Master keeping her from doing the same as Bon-Bon. "What... what happened?" the unicorn mare whispered. "What did you say to frighten Bonnie so badly?"

"I cannot abide slavery, Lyra," I softly intoned. "Bon-Bon" - I spoke the mare's name with disgust - "seemed to think that I was now your property. I... informed her that this is not the case. You do not 'own' me. You never will 'own' me. You are not my alpha. We are not, and never will be, a Herd; not if you intend to treat me like a second-class citizen, as your friend implied. I'm sorry. Goodbye." With that - before a shocked Lyra could voice a protest - I turned and left the house. Once I was a good distance away, I softly spoke in Khalani, "my friend, Recall. Target: Me. Location: Weyrhome."

The air around me shimmered visibly, the Weyrmind preparing to pull me into the Warp just as - "WAIT, PLEASE!" - a tearful Lyra burst from the house and ran towards me, one hoof outstretched - "Please, don't go! Bon-Bon's comment was thoughtless; I wouldn't treat you like that at all, please..." - but it was too late. A wail of despair escaped Lyra as I vanished into the Warp, seemingly never to return. Later - much later - Lyra, utterly furious; her eyes near-blind from crying - confronted Bon-Bon in her room. "You idiot!" she raged. "You utterly thoughtless mule!"

"What?" Bon-Bon questioned. "Everything I said was true..."

"Ponyshit!" Lyra cursed, cutting her off. "It may have been true in ages long-past, but it isn't true now. Celestia abolished all of that shit ages ago, even though some ponies still think the way you do." Sadness and rage guided Lyra, body quivering so furious was she as she paced back and forth before her scared friend. "I find the one stallion who doesn't need my protection, the one stallion who could be with me as an equal, the One Without Fear... and with one thoughtless comment you drive him off! I... Celestia-bucking DAMN IT BONNIE, YOU RUINED EVERYTHING..."

"I'm sor--" Bon-Bon started to say.

"Save it!" Lyra snapped harshly. Taking up a spare saddlebag - with mind honed from her years of training - the aquamarine unicorn mare began furiously packing 'the essentials' and various other things... things she would need for an extended stay... Eyes widening the earth pony mare followed her friend as the unicorn tore through the house like a hurricane-wind, near tearing the place apart in her haste to find what she needed.

"Wh-Where are you going?" Bon-Bon stuttered.

"To fix your mess!" Lyra snarled in reply as she packed a final few items. "To see if anything can be salvaged from your thoughtless idiocy!" And then, with those last words - SLAM! - Lyra was out the door, racing towards the human's great Pyramid Ship - the Dragon Weyr, he called it - but even as she reached the outskirts of the Everfree Forest she despaired for she was already too late! "Wait!" she cried, tears streaming from her eyes as the colossal vessel ascended into the sky, "Please, wait! Don't go! Don't go!" the poor mare cried; then in desperation she tore her Lyre from her saddlebag and played the key, - the five note sequence - as if her very life depended upon it, making the notes as loud as she could via a hasty amplification spell.

"Re, Mi, Do, Do, So.
Re, Mi, Do, Do, So,
Re, Mi, Do, Do, So,
Re, Mi, Do, Do, So
Re, Mi, Do, Do, So..."

Lyra Heartstrings played those notes, over and over and over again, until her horn was sore - but even then she kept on playing with her hooves, continuing to amplify the notes until at last,

"Re, Mi, Do, Do, So,"

The great pyramid answered. Lyra wept openly with relief - hope for her yet remained - and then, seconds after her fresh tears began to fall, the unicorn mare vanished in a blaze of cerulean light...