Lyra sat in her crude camp. Her stomach rumbled. She'd tried to ration out her supplies carefully, but right now she had a lime, a half-empty canteen, and some curry powder.
Right about now, she thought Bonbon would be whipping up something complicated with cream, or would be warning her not to burn the eggs while she tried to concentrate on cooking. Bonbon always listened to her human theories, even if she thought they were a load of horse apples.
That was another thing she hadn't planned on, the loneliness. Lyra loved listening to spooky stories and she liked camping out, but it was easier to listen to cracking twigs and wailing wind when there was somepony to talk to.
She jiggled her tooth-jar. It pointed in a direction. She was deep enough into the forest that night and day looked pretty much the same. The only sign of the sun was the faint green glow near the canopy and the flickering red light bouncing around in the middle distance.
Wait, flickering red light?
Maybe this was another campfire. Maybe she was near Zecora's hut or another campsite. She wanted to see SOMEPONY, or Some Zebra, even if she couldn't admit to herself that she just wanted to go home.
Nandi nandi nandi.
“H-hello? Is anypony out there?” Lyra called.
The red light hopped closer.
Lyra gulped. She wasn't an expert in creatures, outside of the cryptozoological realms, but it did bring to mind a certain passage in an open bestiary.
Something that lived only in deep, wild places. Something fierce and hairy, with a beak as well as teeth, and the glow of Tartarus leaking like drool from its maw. Something with a listing, deceptively-fast hopping motion, that could break trees like matchwood with its magically strengthened claws.
The Nandi Bear was coming. Lyra fumbled through her pack, looking for something useful in the human capture supplies.
#
Twilight Sparkle had let the find of a century slip through her hooves. That hurt.
A lot.
“Tea and cookies?” Spike said. His voice didn't sound very enthusiastic.
According to the catalytic theory of possible worlds, her own thaumic field would exert a kind of pull on a universe that coincidentally happened to emulate her own life story. What was that dream she had, about asking a lot of humans to line up for a chance to get eaten? Only she was a human herself in that dream, communicating across the planet with bird noises. That might be one of what Von Cloppenheimer called Side-Resonances.
“Hmm?” Twilight said, when something bonked alongside her head.
“I said the tea is getting cold,” Spike said. “Please? Eat something?”
Side-Resonance...maybe that was something that could be exploited in both directions.
Now Spike was saying something again, and the tray was gone.
“Could you repeat that?” Twilight said, prying her face away from the tome.
“Is there anything I can do?” Spike said. He didn't have to say “to cheer you up” because every line of his body said it.
“I would appreciate a chance to try out that Irish Coffee recipe,” she said. She wanted to ease away the failure, but she still wanted the energy to focus. Even if it threatened a precious first-edition, she was still academically fascinated by its problem. It wouldn't cost her anything to keep on trying to solve it.
Anyway, if she could figure it out, then maybe she could find some way of retrieving...things, from the other side.
She finished her mug of Irish Coffee. She looked up to say thank you, but Spike had gone back to the kitchen.