"Ponyville! Train is bound for the Crystal Empire! Ponyville Station!" The train came to a smooth halt at the station as a well-mustached pony shouted out.
Lyra pointed to the exit. "Let's go! I can't wait to introduce you to the others."
“So just so I have this right,” began the Mage, “You have Thomas, who’s a butcher; Sam, who recently discovered he has magic hooves; Lucy, a teacher who’s enjoying being a kid again; Stephen, who is a photographer; Darrell or Robin Song, who is experiencing a viewpoint change of the gender variety, and there are others too?”
Lyra nodded a little. "Sure, plenty, but let's not swamp you with names. Besides, most of them prefer to talk about themselves, or not at all, so we'll let them introduce themselves as they want to." She hopped off the train and started for the town proper. "Are you alright with company?"
The Mage seemed to hesitate to answer, “I just hope they will be alright with me.” He turned to Lyra with an unsure smile, “My last meeting with my kind ended… badly.”
Lyra waved a hoof dismissively. "Just stop worrying about it and be the welcoming pony you can be. They want to be your friend, I promise. Especially if that, uh, whatever it was works for them." She suddenly frowned. "On second thought, maybe you should keep that to yourself. We could get into a lot of trouble spreading new kinds of magic around." She waved at a few friends as she passed by the market.
Rose Luck came rushing up with a collection of flowers. "Lyra! Lyra! I heard you're planning a wedding!"
Lyra looked shocked. "I didn't tell anypony that!"
Rose grinned. "You just did."
“Dang, she got you good.” commented the Mage.
Lyra flushed red in her cheeks and snout. "Rose… We're barely even talking about it. We don't have a date or anything yet."
Rose nudged Lyra gently with a knowing look. "Well don't forget who you're going to talk to about your flowers when you do, alright?" Rose looked past Lyra to her new companion. "Who's this? Are you enjoying the last of your bachelorette days with a bang? Lyra, two-timing?" She clutched her chest with seeming overwhelming shock, which would look fake, until she actually collapsed to the ground, one leg weakly twitching.
“Huh, some things never change.” observed the Mage, he then leaned over Rose’s body and explained, “Just so you know miss, Lyra is just showing me around your fine town, plus if her Bon-Bon found out I was doing anything uncouth… I don’t think I’d live long.” The Mage quickly leaned over to Lyra and whispered, “Seriously, in some universes, your Bon-Bon is a demigod.”
Lyra shuddered softly. "Was I still with her?" She glanced around as if to check for listeners. "I'd still want to be with her, whatever she was."
The Mage only laughed, “Oh trust me, you and Bon-Bon? Near universal constant, like Twilight and books, or Applejack and bondage.”
Lyra began to nod until Applejack came up and she jerked her head back. "Stop playing games with me." She reached to poke the Mage on the shoulder. "She'll kick you if she hears you saying bad things about her."
“Technically she likes it when you say bad things about her.” added the Mage before breaking into a series of guffaws. The were immediately silenced by a heavy glare from Lyra, “Gah, fiiiiiiine. I wasn't lying though.”
Lyra rolled her eyes before arriving at the once-human house. She reached up and knocked on the door, or meant to, as the door swung open just as her hoof was about to connect, causing her to fall forwards into Robin Song. "Hello Lyra! I was looking for you."
Lyra righted herself and smiled at Robin. "Hello dear. You're looking chipper today."
Robin put a hoof at her chest. "Why shouldn't I be? He proposed!"
Lyra's expression shifted to shock quickly. "And you accepted?"
Robin bounced up and down in place. "Once he woke me up from where I kind of fell over. I didn't know what to say, or think, but… but… he kissed me, and… I realized I was… I'm getting married!"
Lyra shook her head a little. "Congratulations, Robin, just… please, be sure you're ready for this. I want you both to be happy." She offered a leg, and soon the two were hugging.
Robin noticed a strange stallion standing there silently. "Um, hello?"
“Greetings, seems everyone is getting married recently,” the Mage absent mindedly commented, “Probably just something in the water, but congratulations to you miss… Robin was it?”
Robin shook her head a little. "I suppose if it was miss it should be the last name, so I'd be Miss Song? That sounds right." She pulled back from her hug with Lyra. "Are you a human too?"
Lyra rubbed behind her head lightly. "Got it in one, and yeah, funny how that works out. They say good things come in threes, so there's probably somepony else thinking about it in town."
“Not it!~” Sing-songed the Mage, “Though to be fair, I doubt that anyone would get hitched in these.” He added motioning to his current haggard attire. “Don’t suppose any of you guys are a skilled tailor?”
Lyra shook her head, "Well, there's always Rarity, she's kind of the head tailor of the town. She's made almost everypony's clothes come to think of it, when we wear clothes."
The Mage’s face slightly soured at the mention of the fashionista, “Ah, yes. Miss Elton John herself…” he muttered.
“Who?” asked Lyra.
“Nevermind, let’s just put that under a definite maybe for the moment.”
Lyra tapped her chin. "The Apples make their own clothes for working. They insist on doing it themselves, but I bet they'd do it for you if you asked nicely."
“Another possibility.” responded the Mage thoughtfully, “But that’s a future problem, for now, I’d like to meet this gaggle of groupies you’ve gathered here.”
Robin waved at Mage with a hoof. "I have to get going, but its nice meeting you, uh…"
"Mage," offered Lyra.
Robin blinked. "Huh, you already have a pony name?"
“Nah, that was just the name ponies stuck on me because my real name was a pain to write on posters.” the Mage offhandedly explained.
Robin squinted a little. "Why were they putting your name on posters?"
Lyra looked suddenly nervous. "Oh, uh, he was a performer!"
The Mage snickered at Lyra’s Words, “Yeah, I was great at pulling the disappearing act.” He then straightened up and held out a hoof toward Robin Song. “However, if you want a less simple title, I can go by Mage McFinnigan.” The Mage finished his introduction with a slight bow.
Robin nodded her head, looking curious. "I'd like to see your show sometime. I should go though. I'm glad I ran into you, Lyra, and nice meeting you, McFinnigan. I'm moving out, by the way."
Lyra smiled. "That makes sense. I hope you two are happy together, but don't feel like you're trapped. If you want to come back, you just say the word."
Robin held up a hoof. "I'm sure." And off she went with a smile.
“And there goes somebody who never thought they’d experience the miracle of childbirth,” commented the Mage, “I wonder when that’s going to sink in for em.”
“Hey now,” warned Lyra, “I’m sure she’s plenty ready for anything in their relationship. And besides, its not like you would either.” Lyra added with a wink. There were other factors that made childbirth not assured, but Lyra felt no need to share them.
“Don’t be so sure now.”
“W-what?”
“Changelings… let’s leave it at that.” stated the Mage as he trotted inside leaving a confused and baffled Lyra in his wake.
Lyra moved to catch up with him. "What do you mean by that? Please don't tease them. I know you think you've suffered the most out of anypony, but they have their own struggles, so let's try to be nice, alright?"
The Mage stopped and took a deep breath before turning to Lyra, “I swear on my word that I will not overly attempt to harass or demean my fellow compatriots in strife...much.” Lyra gave the Mage another one of her ‘looks’. “Ugh, fine, I’ll be on my best behavior, ma’am. Happy?”
It would have to do. Lyra nodded as she called out to the house. "Once-human, coming in!"
Sunny came rushing out. "A new one?!" Her eyes fixed on Mage curiously as she quickly approached. "Hi! I'm Sunny! What kind of human world did you come from?"
“Um, Nice too meet you? And, a normal one I guess?” the Mage answered surprised by the exuberant mare.
Sunny shook her head quickly. "I've heard at least four different kinds of ones now. There's the Canterlot High one, and the one with people that have all shades of brown skin and computers, and one where everything's old fashioned and they're all formal and everything… See that's three right there. What kind is yours?"
The Mage pondered her words for a moment before he began, “I guess if you put it that way, I’m from one like the second, though if that’s true I wonder how many other magic users you have…”
Sunny pointed at Lyra. "She's a magic user. I saw her turn a pony into--"
Lyra slapped her hoof over Sunny's mouth. "We don't need to share that story, ah heh, right?"
“Transformation magic, eh Lyra?” the Mage chuckled, “I won’t pry though.” He turned back to Sunny with a hoof motion. “Actually I meant ‘human’ magic users, from Lyra’s reaction to me earlier, she made them sound rare or something.”
Sunny shook her head. "I don't know any others, unless you count pony magic? One of them's a unicorn like you and he uses it to cut up meat. Its kind of gross but cool too." She smiled brightly, looking quite giddy about the entire conversation. "Lemme see?"
“Hrm? You want to see some human magic?” asked the Mage. Sunny furiously nodded her head, and the Mage looked to Lyra for her approval.
Lyra held up a hoof. "So long as nopony, or their things, are hurt, go ahead." She feigned casual interest, though she wanted to see the human magic as much as Sunny did.
“Alright, what to do that won’t result in torn limbs.” he glanced at Lyra with a devilish smile, “Kidding.” With that said, the Mage took a hoof and held it upward, a sphere of energy seemed to coalesce around the tip of his hoof. With a quick jab he plunged the energy into the front of his barrel and held it there. A moment later a series of glowing runes similar to the ones Lyra had seen before began to glow around his hoof and with a flash of light, disappeared, leaving the mage standing looking no different.
Sunny blinked owlishly. "What did you do? Did you do something so fast I couldn't see it, because that would be pretty cool…" She says it in a tone that implied she would believe that could have happened. Before anypony could respond however, Lyra felt someone poke her from behind.
“Hey!” exclaimed a shocked Lyra, “What’s the big… idea?” she and sunny both turned around to see, the Mage, standing right behind them waving a hoof. They looked back and forth between the mage in front of them and the mage behind them, Lyra in curiosity, and Sunny in amazement.
Sunny clopped her forehooves together excitedly. "You made two of you! Oh wait." She reached for the original to poke it on the nose, checking if it was real or not. Her hoof however did not come into solid connection with anything instead phasing right through the other Mage. He quickly backed up however with a laugh.
“That tickles a little.” said the phony Mage.
“So you can do illusions?” asked Lyra.
“Illusionary constructs.” corrected the Mage as he walked up next to his doppelganger. Side by side they looked entirely the same. “While one of me is the real one-”
“-the other is a projection of both my mind and my energy. Effectively it's like-” completed the phony mage.
“-splitting your focus into multiple parts-”
“-and working with two or more bodies-”
“-instead of just one.” finished the real Mage and the fake one fizzled out of existence. The Mage slumped back after the spell ended and he started breathing heavily. “Whew, okay, I’m still way too exhausted to do stuff like that. Ha, sorry I can’t show you any more… uh, Summer was it?
Sunny pointed at herself. "Sunny, and let's get you into a bed. After you get some sleep, we can go over that cool human magic." She nudged Mage along without giving much room to argue. "Welcome to Equestria! You'll like it here, promise."
“Oy oy! Watch the robes, please!” begged a started Mage as Sunny pushed him in.
Lyra waved goodbye to the two of them and decided to head home for the evening. Things had certainly gotten more interesting lately. And she had a wedding to plan.