//------------------------------// // 24 - Consequence // Story: The master and the windigo // by stupidswampdragon //------------------------------// "Hello? Hellllooo?" Lyra leaned against the cool tree trunk and hung her head low. She didn't like losing, of course; nopony did. Oddly enough, losing wasn't annoying her the most as she rested against the harsh outer bark of the Golden Oak. No, there was something worse than losing. It was being made to wait. That her defeat would come so drawn out, making her wait in the street for what felt like an eternity. She had enough time to reflect on her actions and regret everything all over again. At one point she even found herself wishing that she had never escaped the icy hills; that she had disappeared in the frozen forest, along with that accursed amulet and the ghost contained within. She could have spared the world so much pain that way. Then the moment passed and she recoiled in disgust. Naturally, Bon wouldn't have taken her disappearance quite well. Hurting the only pony who had always genuinely cared for her, just to escape her conscience - that was a new low. She shook her head wildly, trying to shake the imaginary scenario away. Stop looking for easy ways out, girl. Haven't you suffered enough for cheating already? She muffled a groan and banged her hoof on the door again. She was trying to remain civil, but her patience was just like the rest of her - in tatters. "IS ANYPONY HOME?!" "Maybe the librarian is out," Snowy wondered at the lack of reply, staring at the closed door much more relaxed than her master. "In fact, it would be weird to expect a librarian to never set a hoof outside her library." A frown was all that Lyra had to say. The windigo was right, of course; a pony so important as Celestia's top student likely had a lot of matters to attend to. Even so, Lyra doubted that anything could have matched the importance of her case. One way or another, she wouldn't leave until she got inside the library. If anypony could have undone the mess she had wrought, then it was Twilight Sparkle. Short of the Princesses themselves, of course - but Lyra held no rosy delusions about her chances of getting an audience. Especially with a story so ridiculous-sounding as hers. "Come on!" She hissed through her clenched teeth, squirming against the bark of the Golden Oak. "Please be at home! I really need your help right now...!" She pulled her hoof back and brought it forward. A loud bang reverberated, both in the air and through her aching bones. She was no longer sure if she was still trying to simply knock, or if she had progressed to breaking down the door. "Uh... if I may, Master ought to exercise a little more caution?" Snowy cringed at the increasingly desperate attempts. "We are in the open street, after all..." Lyra gave the windigo an exhausted glare, then peeked around. That part of town was indeed livelier than the streets surrounding the bank. So far nopony had bothered to stop and ask what she was up to, but some would surely take notice if she tried to keep up with the door-bashing. "Right." Lyra nodded, accepting reality with a sour face. "We'll come back late-" Something rattled on the other side of the door; faint metallic noises, like keys on a chain knocking against each other. Lyra had just enough time to give Snowy a brief glimpse; then the door opened up, revealing a small dragon instead of the pony she had been expecting. Lyra gave the scaly creature a lengthy, puzzled stare. So... just who are you and what are you doing there? She missed a few beats, just blinking vacantly until she could overpower the numbness gripping her. "Hey." "Hi there." The dragon gave her a token salute. "Were you the one making a racket?" "Yeah." Lyra nodded eagerly, completely lacking shame. "Is Twilight in there? I need to speak to her." The dragon hesitated to reply. He scratched the side of his head in obvious discomfort, then peeked back into the library. He really looked as if he had an embarrassing guest he wanted none of the 'outsider' ponies to see. "It's urgent." Lyra narrowed her eyes. She had no choice but to press her point. Her task was too important - there was no way she could let some random self-important buffoon delay it. "There is a serious problem Twilight needs to take a look at. I mean, like, right now." "Every problem is a serious one around these parts." The dragon rolled his eyes and leaned against the doorframe, settling for a longer chat. "You're going to have to tell me more than that, miss, uh..." "Lyra. I'm Lyra," Lyra tempered her introduction with a moan, born out of her lack of progress. "What's with you anyway? Just let me in already! Isn't this a public library? I have the right to enter! Isn't this place like, financed from my taxes?!" "Pleased to meet you too, Lyra. I'm Spike... and I would gladly let you in had you come looking for a book." The dragon pointed a claw at Lyra - quite accusingly so. "You're here to see Twilight though, and that's a completely different story. She's not on twenty-four-seven duty, you know!" Lyra pursed her lips and blew hot air out of her nostrils. She may have been silently brooding mere minutes ago, but the steadfast refusal was really making her exasperated. This stupid dragon probably doesn't even realize how important my visit is, she fumed internally. The chaos she had unleashed needed to be stopped; the sooner the better. She had had enough of seeing how disastrous her meddling could be. "Twilight specifically told me that I could ask her questions any time," she tried a white lie. Twilight had never really said anything like that. She only kind of meant along those lines. Or thought about it. Probably. "Hmm. She did? I haven't seen you around... though I've been out a lot these days." Spike rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose it's worth a shot. A word of caution first, though - be really patient when talking to her, okay? She's been a little... highly-strung lately." Gee, no wonder. Lyra rolled her eyes as she gave a curt nod. Somepony's been wrecking havoc all around town lately. Of course Celestia's appointed student would be nervous about that! Especially since she'll be the one cleaning this up... "Fine then," Spike sighed, visibly anticipating his decision to bring little good. He opened the door anyway, standing aside, holding his hand at shoulder-height in a welcoming gesture. "Well, Lyra - welcome back to the Golden Oak." The distinct lack of a librarian was only the second thing that Lyra spotted; the complete disarray she found much more breathtaking. The Golden Oak looked as if a hurricane had gone through the middle of it... shortly after high-yield explosives had gone off beneath the bookshelves. The floor was almost completely covered by scattered books, colourful pages hiding the natural tint of the wooden tiles. The shelves made for a particularly sad look as a result; they looked like empty wooden boxes, clearly longing for some purpose. Those shelves that were still in place, that is - as quite a few had joined their former content on the floor as well. Whoa. Lyra observed the scene with her mouth hanging open. And Bon thought that my tantrums were bad! "It looks like a war has passed through here," Snowy remarked, crouched over a random book on the floor. "I wonder if Master could still receive the help she had expected? Whoever laid such ruin to a library would be no less dangerous than... ugh, than what we seem to be." Lyra closed her mouth, gave that line of thought some thinking... then slapped herself smack in the middle of the forehead. She didn't stop either. She kept pressing her hoof harder and harder, to the point where the dancing dots of pain filled her vision. No... no! NO! NO! For all the thousand fires of Tartarus, I've used Snowy's power on Twilight as well! She was practically screaming at her past self for the decision. She had no idea how making Twilight forget about Daring Do could lead to such a disaster, but she was eagerly waiting to find out. Despite the obvious reality in front of her, she saw no way that she - a musician with no musical skills left - could have so easily broken the top student of the Sun Princess. The mere idea sounded inconceivable. Ridiculous, even. "Ahem! Do pardon the mess." Spike re-announced his presence with a faint cough. He used the mildest manner possible, but still managed to make Lyra jump; for the pony had completely forgotten about him being around. "Now you have an idea why I didn't want to let you in, though." "Did Twilight do this?" Lyra muttered. She knew the answer, but was still secretly hoping she would be proven wrong. That Twilight was still well enough to provide her some help. "Yep!" Spike shook his head with a sour grimace. "I did try cleaning up, but she just demolishes everything all the time anyway. Oh sorry - it's 'looking for something', she says. It's really frustrating. I could really make this place shine if she would just let me!" Lyra closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wished she could say that she was disappointed, but she wasn't. She really wasn't, and she found that coolly resigned admission to be the worst. She had already come to expect ruining everything she had ever touched. If not even a pony so trained in magic such as Twilight Sparkle could escape unscathed... Damn it! Just what the heck is this power made of?! "I wonder what happened to her." Spike folded his arms on his chest. He raised his eyebrows as he peeked up, his gaze pointing at the second floor. "I mean, okay - this assignment to Ponyville and the whole reports-about-friendship have stressed her since day one. And well, she did come close to snapping a few times already! But... but she doesn't really look like somepony who has snapped." Why would you even bother telling me that now? Lyra gave the dragon a dark glare. She wasn't sure why she felt complaining, though. Had she had known about Twilight's issues before, she surely would have attempted to fix them with Snowy. The mere idea sent shivers down her spine. "Why did you let me in, then?" She spoke up, her own gaze climbing to the ceiling, following that of the dragon's. "It's obviously not the right time for asking her questions." "I had this idea that throwing something different at Twi would snap her out of it," Spike reached to scratch the scaled skin on his chin. The way he phrased his words made it sound as if he had had that plan all along; but his tone left serious doubts about that assumption. At that very moment, he wasn't exactly inspiring confidence. You're really just making this up as you go along, huh? Lyra rolled her eyes. Whoo, boy... did you invite the exact worst pony to help out! "By the way." Spike moved his gaze onto Lyra, his green eyes betraying equal amounts of curiosity, hope and worry. "What are you going to ask of her?" "Magic," Lyra blurted out curtly. She found no sense in telling the dragon about Snowy; in fact, she might have gotten thrown out if she had done so. It was quite unlikely that Twilight's dragon would let a stranger bother the ailing librarian with obviously insane stories, after all. "Good topic." Spike nodded aloofly to himself. "I'll just-" Lyra felt as if the air had shifted around her. Her natural reaction was to ignore it - she had never cared much for loose air currents. She only started taking earnest interest when she saw Snowy turn around and jump, obviously alarmed by something. She spun around, but was too late; or rather, the purple unicorn was simply too close. Two hooves dug firmly into Lyra's side and she was thrown off her legs. Torn pages scattered around her as she skidded on and among the many books, stopping only when she crashed into a larger pile. Depression or not, Lyra's survival instincts kicked in. Where did that pony even come from! She raced to make sense of her situation, even as she gasped for air. There wasn't a single soul down here! I didn't hear the door open either - and there's no way anypony could have come down the stairs! Did... did somepony really just appear out thin air?! She didn't need to wonder long. She tried to roll around and get back up, but a hoof landed on her chest, pinning her against the books. She winced in pain and glanced up by instinct; she also readied a leg to knock her attacker off balance- -only for her fighting spirit to depart once she saw who her opponent was. "Twilight?" She mumbled with a low, hoarse voice. "What-!" "You! I remember you! You're that- that Lyra!" Twilight sneered. She looked about as calm and collected as Rarity had been, but with less depression and incomparably more fury. With painfully higher amounts of comprehension too, as her following accusation hinted. "You - you did this to me!" Lyra's heart jumped, and she felt her heartbeat through the bulging veins in her neck; she gaped with an open mouth, but couldn't utter a single word. At that very moment, she had completely forgotten how she had come to make that very confession. Her instincts had completely overridden all the higher thoughts of hers. She was just a scared little pony, and she wanted nothing else than to be safe. And at that moment, being safe felt very synonymous with being silent. Twilight wasn't amused by that passive kind of resistance, however. "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?" She boomed and smacked a hoof between Lyra's ribs. "I know that you planted that Daring Do stuff in my head! What is it? A code? A keyword? Will it trigger me to do something at Shining's wedding? TALK! OUT WITH IT ALREADY!" Whaaaaaat? Her eyes bulging in shock, Lyra was pretty sure she had either misheard or had finally gone mad. Seriously, what?! "Who sent you?" Twilight demanded, her voice raspy from all the screaming. "How did you sneak into my house? How many times have you been here, actually? C'me on, TALK! Talk before I make yo- ow- ow! OW! Spike, cu- OW! CUT IT OUT! SPIKE!" Twilight arched her head all the way up, until her neck couldn't bend any more; then she began inching backwards, slowly and grudgingly. "Sorry about that! I really thought she couldn't teleport in this state!" Spike sputtered an apology as he backed away, dragging the wincing Twilight by her mane. "And you - would you just calm down already? Lyra had only come to ask you a question! There's no subliminal messaging involved!" "Spoken like someone who's already been brainwashed!" Twilight grunted and shook her head wildly. She failed to break free; Spike's grip was simply too strong. Stronger than her tolerance of pain, anyway. "Ack- oww! Ouch! ARGH! SPIKE! LET! GO! ALREADY!" Panting next to the pile of worn and torn books, Lyra had all the time in the world to pull herself together and scamper away. She did none of those, however. She was staring at the fit Twilight was throwing, her dumbstruck face showing her shock like a pony-sized billboard display. Her being a force of misfortune was nothing new, but she couldn't comprehend how that particular disaster had come about. "No-one has gotten brainwashed! You're just paranoid!" Spike struggled to keep a firm grasp on Twilight's mane. It wasn't an easy task, holding onto a pony that was thrashing around. "Seriously Twi! Just sit down and talk! Weren't you big on rational solution- whoa!" The dragon broke into a yelp as Twilight yanked her head hard to the side. Despite his surprised cry, Spike didn't let go though, his hands clenched around Twilight's mane all the while. His resilience paid off - kind of. He was holding a handful of indigo hair once he scampered back to his feet. Lyra gave the sight a pained face. She knew how bad it was, pulling on her mane when she combed herself in the morning. To see a handful of hair get torn out, that made her shiver. Ow! Ow! Ow! Even just looking at that hurt! "Looks like somepony will need a lot of ice," Snowy winced and looked away. "Whoa... okaaay?" Spike proceeded to stare dumbfounded, measuring the torn strands of mane in his hands. "So that... wasn't really what I had in mind..." Twilight was decidedly less amused. She crouched to the ground and hissed loudly, struggling to pat herself on the neck. Well, she's gotta be in some pain, Lyra sighed and rubbed her aching ribs. There was some sweet taste of revenge in seeing Twilight in pain; but that taste was easily overshadowed by the sourness of her guilt. It was she who had wrecked Twilight, after all. She had really deserved that beating-down she had received. If anything, she would have deserved way more than a few stomps. "Snowy," Lyra whispered to her windigo, moving her eyes so she gave the creature an overt glimpse. "Can't you help somehow? You can still make things cold, right?" Snowy jolted and snapped to Lyra, so fast as if the pony had prodded her with something sharp. "I- I suppose I could? I haven't lost my skills yet," she stuttered, shifting around in obvious discomfort. "But does Master truly want me to interfere? So far, our actions have proven to carry some... unintended consequences." Lyra bit onto her lip and hummed to herself, rolling her eyes back to the librarian. Twilight had lost her fighting spirit; she was simply hugging the ground, hissing and cursing at variable levels of loudness. The target of her ire was invariably Spike; a fact that did not go amiss by the dragon, as he was trying to tend to the angered pony, mumbling things in a placating tone. It really wasn't a happy scene. Lyra groaned and rubbed her head, hard. A few days ago, she would have rushed there without so much as an afterthought. She had always preferred action to deliberation; that she had to ponder on such a clear-cut case was frustrating her. "It's just some torn hair," she finally decided and motioned with her nose at the ailing Twilight. "Just apply some chill on her neck, m'kay? Don't overdo it. Just a little." "As Master wishes." Snowy nodded dutifully and sprang into action. Despite her earlier misgivings, she seemed to be fully committed to her task. Her moves were fast and determined, betraying absolutely no doubt or hesitation. She's like, devoted to a fault. Lyra smirked wryly as she watched the windigo hop over to Twilight. She's never once disobeyed me... not even in words. She's like The Perfect Servant. At that point did Lyra realize that she was still resting on her side; so she rolled around and pulled her hooves under herself. It wasn't comfortable, moving on a carpet made of books; the hard covers and the sharp edges pushed and prodded her. Such lowly considerations barely got her attention, however. Lyra was so uncaring that her smirk had turned into a chuckle by the time she got up, in fact. Not because she was so happy, obviously. She was simply losing her nerves under the pressure. She remembered what she had come for - and with each passing moment, she was getting closer to her confession to Twilight. Please be in your better moods. Lyra interrupted her incessant giggling to take a jagged breath, just as she saw Snowy lean over Twilight's aching neck. Pretty please be in a good mood! "I told you it's not a big deal," Twilight sighed. She didn't stop giving her neck some extra-careful patting, though. "It doesn't even hurt so much any more, I swear!" "As if anypony believes that." Spike rolled his eyes. He threw another book onto the pile, then dragged the wobbling unicorn over to it. "There, lie down." "Aha... thanks," Twilight mumbled and collapsed next to the makeshift cover. She groaned as she hit the ground, and let herself slide as gravity dictated. She wound up leaning against the cover Spike had just put together, her weight resting against the makeshift pile of books. It was a truly savage way of handling her prized possessions - and that she didn't care was a good indicator of her state. At least that was what Lyra could immediately grasp from the scene. "Maybe you're in a tiny bit of shock." Spike scratched his chin thoughtfully. Slowly moving his head around, he studied the mess that used to be the Golden Oak library. He realized the futility shortly afterwards; he exhaled loudly and shook his head in disbelief, then headed towards the stairs leading to the upper level. "You stay here! I'll go get some blankets." "Shock, huh..." Twilight nodded aloofly, then curled up tightly. "Now that I think about it, I did feel pretty cold for a moment there." Stumbling left and right as she made her way across the sea of books, Lyra found the time to chuckle dryly at the comment. She stepped on a thick brown tome, but the book gave away and slid from beneath her hoof; only a panicked stomp saved her face-planting herself into the floor. She gave the unreliable stand an angry glare and knocked it away. The brown tome drew a shallow arc in the air, bounced on a few different obstacles, finally disappearing from sight behind a low ridge of assorted newspapers. "Nice kick. Three points." Twilight snickered tiredly at the sight, holding a little pause at the muffled cracking noise - the sound of the unfortunate tome landing. She seemed to have calmed down completely; her face only betrayed exhaustion. Her stare was unfocused and her blinks were lengthy, her movements sluggish and uncertain. Whatever fires had fuelled her had died down, leaving scant more than smouldering ruins behind. "Three points, huh..." Lyra paid the compliment a confused snort. She also stopped in place, scanning the floor with a disapproving expression. She didn't feel like wading through more books at the moment. She was freshly healed, she didn't want to get injured again. She could talk to Twilight just fine from the spot she was standing in, after all. She breathed in, loudly and deeply- held it back, steeled her nerves- then clenched her teeth, squeezed her eyes and let the words flow freely from her mouth. Well, here goes nothing...! "I need to tell you something." She blurted out. Her voice was flat and dull; she didn't keep the act any more. "I haven't been honest with you. When I came to ask about magics - for my novel - I was really-" "I know what you were doing." Twilight nodded. She also stretched her legs, pulling them back to herself afterwards. "I'd be more interested in knowing why." Whoa. Lyra flinched at the reveal, then grinned darkly - mostly to herself at her own expense. Well, as expected of Celestia's student... she's really sharp. "Believe it or not, I've only been trying to help." She giggled bittersweetly. She reached out with a hoof and poked a book closer to her; one with a vivid red cover. She was getting so nervous, she needed something to fiddle with. "I just... didn't think it'd end this way, haha." She may have been preparing for that speech, but she couldn't help being extremely nervous as she admitted to all her crimes. She needed a way to vent all those feelings; so she gave the red book a more powerful nudge. The thin tome flipped over and came to a rest all sprawled out, its open pages crumpling against the wooden floor. "The cat's really out of the bag now," Snowy murmured and pat her master on her back. "It may not mean much, but I'm sure Master will be all right. Good intentions aren't ought to be punished harshly." Lyra looked at the book longingly. She broke into a sombre chuckle, almost tearing up. Her intentions were the very last thing anypony would care about. Especially in the light of her misguided rampage. She may get off lightly if Twilight could fix everything - but she wouldn't escape unscathed even then. She wouldn't tell any of that to the windigo, however. Not for now. The least such a loyal servant deserved was the right to hope. "Helping, huh... I see." Twilight glared at Lyra, her violet eyes full of dull disapproval. "What can I say? I'm... surprised, Lyra. I really hadn't taken you for one of those ponies." Lyra let go of a single, hollow chuckle, then looked away as her teeth sunk into her lips. She hadn't taken herself to be a monster either. To be honest, she had no idea how she had become one in the first place. "At least you came clean about it. Yeah... I've heard enough I think. Off with you now! I don't want to see you ever again." Twilight glanced away with a snort. She didn't sound upset; disgusted would really have been the best description. "I can accept that some ponies can't accept my brother marrying Cadence, but to actually use me to break up their wedding? You've gone really too far. Be glad I'm letting you off with just a warning!" "Ha, well... I-" Lyra began her relieved thanks at being let off the hook, but the words froze to her tongue once her brain caught up to the conversation. Her eyes sprang open and her lower jaw dropped, the surprise completely numbing her senses. "Wait, what? Your brother? Cadence?" What ARE you on about? ...was what Lyra had been meaning to ask, but dared not in the end. You just told me you knew what I was up to! Marriage?! Just... just what are you even talking about?! She had the creeping suspicion that she had misunderstood something along the conversation. "Playing daft won't net you any favours!" Twilight hit a more fierce tone again, sending a piercing glare at the dumbstruck musician. "I know it was you! Don't even deny it! You mentioned that Daring Do stuff, so it had to be you! You snuck those manuscripts into my drawer, didn't you? What were you even thinking - that I would be fooled into believing that I wrote novels? That I would read those obvious attempts at subterfuge, fall victim to whatever spell you had planted among those innocent-looking words?" Lyra smiled. Not because she enjoyed the ludicrous claims, but because she couldn't do anything else. How could she even protest against such paranoid delusions? She had no idea about magic in the first place! Of course, trying to explain that would be pouring oil onto the fire - after all, tacitly denying everything is what a true hitmare would do. But her own innocence was peanuts compared to the realization of how ridiculously she had screwed up earlier. Just let that librarian enjoy a good read! Snowy, get rid of that Daring Do thing! It's not like she'd miss some light novels, right? A giggle was lurking at the corners of Lyra's mouth, waiting in the bottom of her throat, ready to break free at a moment's notice. She could barely contain herself; she really wanted to break into laughter, to laugh until she cried from the pain. She was losing her mind. She was sure of it. How could I have known that it was her who wrote that freaking series?! "And to think you were bold enough to mimic my hoofwriting! Didn't you think that I would remember if I had written that stuff myself?!" Twilight slammed a hoof onto the empty bookshelf next to her. "Look what you made me do! I had to tear this place apart, make sure you hadn't left any other traps around! All because you don't like the idea of a Princess marrying below rank! To think so lowly of my brother! To use me to disrupt the wedding, just because your stupid threats couldn't get it cancelled...! You, the likes of you...!" Lyra's hooves dug into the ground. The soil was as concrete, baked dry and hard from the dry weather; but her momentum was such that she still managed to tear chunks of it, just by abruptly changing her direction. She threw herself to the right, narrowly avoiding the book that zipped by her left. It was close, very close; she felt the wind ruffling her coat there. She managed to duck nevertheless. She had arrived in the best possible spot too, just behind the door of the Golden Oak. She threw her back against open door and pushed. The hinges moved silently and without resistance; another push and the door was slammed shut. Only then did Lyra allow herself a momentary breather. She dropped to the ground and panted, drops of sweat running down her neck. "Che... close," she gasped, barely managing to utter the word before she had to do a dry swallow. "I don't think I ever saw a pony being that angry!" Snowy whistled. Her crimson eyes were stuck at the door - though she was really thinking about the librarian on the other side. "To think that she even shared Master's opinion on class equality!" "Ironic, ain't it..." Lyra giggled faintly - then jumped with a yelp. The door behind her rocked, the vibrations accompanied by disturbingly loud bangs. Is she throwing books at the door? Lyra backed off, keeping her nervous eyes on the door. Is she this mad at me? She got a clear answer to that question mere seconds later, when Twilight's raspy scream hit her ears. "...AND NEVER COME BACK!" Casting all rational considerations aside, Lyra stopped backing away. She had no idea what to do. She hesitated for a few minutes and finally collapsed to a sitting position, staring at the Golden Oak with empty, glassy eyes. She couldn't think of anything, apart from one nagging fact: that she wasn't going to get any help from there. That she was left on her own, to deal with the fallout of her misguided actions. That the damages she had caused had just become permanent. That her last hope had just sent her away - all because of the most stupid mistake she could have done. She had no idea how long she sat there, staring and pondering in silence. It must have been for a while, because a half dozen ponies had gathered around her - gawking at her, prodding her, asking if she was all right. Such nonsense questions those were. Of course she wasn't all right, duh. She had nothing to share with bystanders, however. She sprang to her hooves once she had enough of the curious stares and cut across the small crowd, heading in a random direction. She was lost, in all possible senses of the word. "Master?" Moving down the shadowy alleyway, Lyra peeked to the side and gave the windigo a bleak glare. "Where are we going?" Snowy asked. She sounded worried - genuinely worried, almost terrified. Try as she might, Lyra couldn't recall the ghost ever sounding like that. Perhaps back when we've first met, she rummaged through her memories. Back when I fell into that hole. It should have been disconcerting, hearing the same tone again. The bad memories had lost their special grip on Lyra however; their power paled in comparison to the absolutely shoddy present she was 'enjoying'. "We aren't going anywhere," she grumbled her answer. She didn't snap; she wasn't really angry. She wasn't even depressed any more either. She was only feeling empty - so completely empty. Snowy didn't seem to like that answer much. She drooped her ears, visibly mulling over what she should have done. Lyra didn't care much. The outside world barely interested her. The alley, the windigo, the rubbish bins she had just passed; all those details were compressed into short, dream-like pictures, hastily sewn together by a mind that could only care about images from the past. She had barely been back, but had caused so many problems already. It was unbelievable. She had broken lives, broken friendships. She had even turned her sole possible help against her. There was no way back either; the bridges behind her were already ablaze. No, not just the bridges - she had set the whole town on fire. She had destroyed everything she had touched. She had done so blindly, too. Happily, even. She had been living a delusion, only waking to reality once the ashes had buried her. She wanted to confess, she really did; but she had no-one to confess to. No-one who could make a difference. She wanted to undo her mistakes, but she was worried she would only wind up repeating them. She wanted to rid herself from that terrible gift she had been given, but she knew that the memory of Snowy would haunt her forever... if she could have abandoned that loyal ghost in the first place. I have no idea what to do. Someone please tell me what to do... "It's not Master's fault." Snowy finally spoke up. "Master had only wanted to do good." "Just who in Tartarus cares about what I wanted?! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!" Lyra growled, passing a rubbish bin so close that her side actually bumped against it. "Look at what I've done! That's the only thing everypony else can see! What would they think, huh? They would think I'm some monster, that's what they'd think! A real, honest-to-Celestia monster... damn it." She stumbled and careened off, walking sideways until her nose bumped into a wall. She took a paused there, leaning against the bricks and the flaking paint. She stared in front of her silently, her expression vacant. Then her lips turned into a snarl, her hoof slamming against the wall. "DAMN! IT!" A piece of paint fell off where her hoof had hit, landing on the ground, making a small cloud of white. Lyra looked at the porous cloud of grime, breathed in, tasted it; but she didn't really understand any of that experience. She was too busy reliving the past few days. "Would it have been better not to try?" That question was a box of high-yield explosives, derailing Lyra's thoughts without the slightest effort. She blinked in confusion, her mind adjusting to the new dilemma... until a strange feeling got hold of her, made her look up. She found herself locking stares with Snowy, the windigo observing her from the opposite side of the alley. Observing and holding silent, waiting for her response. "Don't look at me like that," Lyra mumbled. "I don't know, all right? I really don't know." "Perhaps we have approached the issue the wrong way, then." Snowy squinted to the side, then bounced her crimson eyes back to her master. "Would Master have felt better had she not even tried? Could Master not even have tried?" Squeezing her head back against the wall, Lyra furrowed her forehead. Such a strange thing to ask! Of course she would have been better had she never lifted a hoof. She would have been spared so much grief, both for her own self and for so many ponies around her. -and yet, at the same time, she could distinctly recall her conviction from earlier. That she would help others if she were capable of doing so. That she would do the right thing, whenever she had a choice. The right thing, huh? "Just what was... just what is that 'right thing' I should have done, Snowy?" Lyra slumped to the dirty ground. "How could we end up here, when I always meant well?" There was only one obvious answer to that, and Lyra chuckled when she found no ways around admitting to it. "I've never been meant to be a hero." She laid a leg across her face. She didn't need anypony to see her anguish - not even her servant, if she could help it. "I wish I'd never tried to play- I wish I'd never tried to be something I never was...!" Not being a hero left her with a nagging question, however. What does that leave me, then? She had nothing left she definitely was. Music was her everything, but she had already lost that as well. She only had Bon left, but a friendship with a singular pony a life didn't define. Lying at the base of the flaking wall, Lyra Hearstrings bumped a hoof against her head. Then she pretended her tears were because of that pain. There was nothing Lyra could have claimed as her purpose. She had completely ruined her own life, just so that she could ruin that of others' as well. There was nothing heroic or even tragic about her ordeal; she only felt stupid and hollow over her story. She felt so hollow she was ready to just lie next to that wall until she disappeared completely- Then something blue appeared in her vision, waving and nagging at her until she had no choice but to break her melancholic gaze. "Then let's try returning to what Master had meant to be," Snowy smiled straight into her face. "If collateral is Master's foremost worry, then surely playing music would be a fine choice? A safe choice, too." Her side scraping against the flaking wall as she breathed, Lyra couldn't help herself. She burst into a loud, raspy cackle. "A choice, she says!" She lunged her head forward then snapped it back, slamming it hard against the exposed bricks. The impact disoriented her, but as she was already lying on the ground, she had no fear of stumbling or falling again. That was good; for it allowed her to focus on what was really at the forefront of her mind. Anger, specifically. Anger born out of her inability to follow that advice. She would have given anything to play music again. To feel normal, even for just one more time. "Snowy, I have less than a week until I'd have to perform at Major Mare's festival! And I- I can't remember ANYTHING from playing music! It's impossible, you know? Discord would sooner pop out of the sky in pink overalls and declare me the Pony Princess of Numbskullery than me managing to master the lyre in one single week!" The outburst didn't bother Snowy much. She raised her translucent eyebrows and leaned to Lyra, her mouth pulling to a grin as the distance between them decreased. "I exist to help Master achieve whatever dreams Master may have." She winked slyly at the distraught musician. "If recovering Master's old life is our desire and there's only one week to prepare... then we will succeed with what we have." "Yeah. That's totally how it works," Lyra rolled her eyes. "Hah! I always forget how easily this works for you," Bon giggled. She was sitting on the bed and waved her front legs as if she was a maestro. She had no idea what she was doing, though; she simply looked like a filly who was having a lot of fun. Lyra tried to pay that no mind. Music did that. It was a powerful force, more than most gave it credit for. Ponies were easily lost in good music. The tones, the rhythm - they acted like some sort of hypnotizer. Not just ponies, actually. The few times she had held concerts outside of Equestria, she saw the same reactions in the crowds. Heck, she had a gryphon propose to her after one particular- A really odd note broke out of the lyre and shattered her idle musing, forcibly returning her focus to the instrument. "Whoa," she cringed, trying to clear that offending sound from ears. She immediately knew what had gone wrong, though. Her thoughts had wandered off and she had failed to pay attention to what she was doing. Which was pretty much just mimicking what Snowy was showing. That feint was what they had been practising for almost eight hours straight at that point. It was cheating - the worst kind of cheating a musician could stoop to - but it was the only way Lyra could appear in front of a crowd next week. She had no choice but to take it. In the span of one and a half day, the windigo had advanced from zero understanding in music to being able to follow a score - even play the simpler songs. That didn't make Snowy an accomplished musician, of course; she couldn't deal with anything difficult and got lost in just trying to read the more complicated instructions. The pace was still nothing sort of breakneck, however. Lyra had found herself completely floored when Snowy had first begun guiding her. The windigo had understood Lyra's training notes on at mere second read, to the point where all the pony had to do was follow the cues. Though for a scatterbrain such as Lyra, that had proven challenging from time to time. Her mind could jump tracks and wander onto the wildest fantasies with minimal outside provocation. "Peing!" Bon tried to echo the glitchy sound, then drooped her ears and left her hooves hanging. "That didn't sound like you wanted that. Getting tired yet?" "Nah... just got a little distracted," Lyra scratched her head with an embarrassed giggle, placing the lyre to the floor at her side. "It's no big loss, Master. I think I was a little off anyway," Snowy hummed. She eyed the old notebook closely, her crimson gaze zig-zagging back and forth on the lines of squiggly symbols. She must have stumbled onto something though, for she clicked her tongue and nudged at a specific part with her nose. "Ah-ha! A switch of pace, right here! How sneaky. Allegro moderato... hmm. That's about a hundred and ten beats a minute, right? So that would go like... pam, pam, pam-pam-paaam, pam..." Lyra knew she couldn't ever explain why, but she found this side of Snowy a lot scarier than when she was erasing memories. The windigo made all her years spent learning look wasted in retrospect. She couldn't help but shake her head at the rapid development. Losing her music was quite bad enough, but seeing the ease with which she was overtaken? That wasn't just pouring salt on the wound. That was putting her in a salt-filled barrel and then dropping her off in the nearest ocean. Then dropping a meteor of pure salt on her, just to be on the safe side. "You're like, completely insane... learning everything in bloody hours and days," Lyra grumbled to herself as she picked the lyre back up. She raised the instrument to her eye level and checked the strings, making sure they were all tight enough. She couldn't help but chuckle dryly at the ingrained routine; while she had forgotten how to play the darned thing, she was still very clear on how she could maintain it. "Whuh?" Bon perked her ears. She noticed that Lyra had said something, but thankfully couldn't figure the hushed mumbling out. "You said something?" "Nup." Lyra bit onto her tongue with haste, huddling closer to her lyre. She had wanted to spare herself from a good head-bashing and had never told Bon about how she had forgotten how to play music. It didn't feel like such a good decision now, a few days down the road. She couldn't exactly just bring it up any more either, however; that ship had already sailed. Coming clean would have to wait for the next, natural-seeming opportunity. "I simply have a lot of practice, I suppose!" Snowy giggled happily, uncaring for the latest hole her master was digging herself into. The windigo kept on studying the old notebook closely, the small bobs of her head accenting the various notes her gaze wandered over. "Given my powers, I must have lost my memories a number of times... so I had to re-learn everything from scratch a lot of times, too." "Practice makes perfect, huh?" Lyra raised her eyebrows with a resigned sigh. She ran her tongue down her lips, breathed in, hugged the lyre and- "Are you still not hungry?" Bon groaned from the bed. With her head dug into the blanket, it was hard not to tell how disapproving she was. "Lyra, lunch is now a full hour overdue. I understand your love for your trade, but I'm really going to drag you to the kitchen at this rate." Lyra paid that remark an absent-minded nod. She would eat - once she and Snowy had managed to play that song from start to finish. If they could do that much, then they could advance to a more difficult lesson in the afternoon... and then playing in front of a crowd next week wouldn't be an impossible nightmare either. "Just one more time." She squeezed the words out, her face stiffening as she forced herself to focus properly. Her vision narrowed onto Snowy's legs; that moment, Lyra's world was nothing but her lyre and the two ghostly hooves that kept prodding at it. She inhaled loudly, kept the air down, and began following the motions. Music filled the air around her, and she felt her nerves calm a tiny bit. It may have been brief, but it was still nice, being her old self again.