//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: A Beacon of Light // by Nobrains //------------------------------// Chapter Five Titus slept somewhat well. Of course, it was the waking up that was the worst. He stirred and shook himself out of sleep. He almost forgot where he was until he saw a certain green unicorn handling his armor and placing it neatly by his side. He pushed himself up groggily and rubbed his eyes, yawning. "Hurry up!" He heard Lyra say. "I got a lot to show you today!" She trotted off to the other side of the small house while Titus grumpily put on his armor, piece by piece. When the last boot was on, he found his footing on the ground again and walked over to see what Lyra was doing in one of the many cupboards that littered the walls on that side of the house. She seemed intent on finding and getting something put together. Probably breakfast or something of the such, Titus thought. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a rogue sandwich hit Titus blank in the face. He staggered back and grabbed the glowing green meal. It was two pieces of bread, with daisies and other flora amidst the two slices. He looked at it gratingly. He was about to throw it with a force only the Light could imagine when he caught Lyra staring up at him expectantly from the cupboard. He sighed, looked down at the thing in his hand, and took a cautious bite. The crunch from the stems of flora was what got him. With a hack and a cough he forced the food down, fighting back tears. He never thought he'd tasted anything so bad in his life, but then again, there was that time he ate uncooked boar meat. The memories still caused him distress from time to time. Lyra seemed to notice his difficulty with the makeshift sandwich. "I know its not "meat" or anything humans like to eat..." She said naively "...but that’s all we've got around here." Titus didn't want lie to her since he had already been caught, but there was always the urge to be polite... It just wasn't at this particular instance of time. "That... was awful." He said, irritated. Lyra pushed by him, and went to the door. "Okay, fine. What else do humans like to eat besides meat?" She opened the door, rays of light shooting through doorway and drenching her small chairs in yellow sunlight. Titus followed after her out of the door. Luckily Lyra already racked her mind for the answer from last night's discussion. "Oh! How about some fruit? Like apples?" She said hopefully. Now that was something Titus could eat, something nice and crunchy (in a good way, unlike those daisy stems, yuck.) "Sure. I don't mind apples." Titus said, the bitterness within him finally dissipating. "Great! Then you're going to love Sweet Apple Acres!" She exclaimed happily. Now that sounded like a great place, and Titus was not disappointed. The Apple family of ponies were more than happy to let a stranger partake in a few of their apples, being the friendly bunch that they were. They had enough that Titus could probably eat Apples for breakfast, lunch, and supper, and still not make a dent in the monstrous amount that the many trees in the orchard sustained. Lyra partook in the fruit as well, and soon both she and Titus were walking back to Ponyville, with satisfied full bellies. Titus noticed how out of place he looked amongst the throng of passerby. He still felt a bit out of place, but he was once again reassured that his presence wasn't worth concern as the ponies gave him nods and ignored Lyra almost altogether. Titus's neck and arms hurt from all the nodding and waving to the travelers along the road. He was on the verge of voicing his plight when they arrived back at the familiar streets of Ponyville. The bright colors of the world and town still were a bit much for him, but he was at least finding it bearable at this point. He soon found a spot to stop at and rested against a tree in an island of grass off the cobbled street. Lyra joined him on the opposite side of the tree, and they chatted for a short while about the people of Ponyville. Even she couldn't explain why they all seemed to acclimatize to his presence so quickly. She seemed just as surprised as him at all the friendly faces and attitudes towards him. "You know...” She said laying back on the oak. "What?" Titus asked. "I’m kind of jealous. Everypony seems to like you already." she said. "They really just nod at me, and pretend they're listening." "Don't be." Titus said quickly. "There's a whole coalition of races dedicated to hating my kind back in my world." Lyra laughed slightly at that. "I suppose you're right..." She switched sides of the oak to sit by Titus. She found him with his eyes closed. "I can't have you dozing off again." she nudged Titus on the head with a hoof. He stirred slightly. "I'm not gonna fall asleep again, I was just resting my eyes." He yawned. Lyra smiled. "Yeah, sure." She soon stood up. "We got other places to go! Come on, lazy!" Titus grumbled and stood up, once again following after her. They wandered through the streets for several minutes while Lyra searched for their next destination. Titus's belly was still full and he wasn't too glad to be back on his feet just yet, but what else was he going to do today? He couldn't sleep and rest his life away. They finally arrived at what appeared to be some sort of parlor. Lyra called it 'Sugar Cube Corner'. Titus was about to inform Lyra that his stomach had not settled from their last meal when she shot into the building. Titus shuffled after her, and the aroma of delicious pastries bombarded his senses. Every last delicacy that was sitting on a display or behind the counter looked delicious, but Titus couldn't even think or look at one without being reminded of his current state. He found Lyra already up by the counter chatting with an older looking mare. "Two sundaes, Mrs Cake!" she said happily. Titus caught up to them."I wasn't hungry, you know." He commented wearily. The blue, older looking mare greeted him warmly. "You must be that human that everyone is talking about!" She beamed a warm smile. "Well, it’s always good to have a new friendly face in town!" "That's all great, Mrs. Cake, but can Titus and I get those sundaes now?" Lyra asked anxiously. "Of course, dear. We'll get it right to you. Why don't you go take a seat at one of the tables?" Mrs. Cake said, Titus caught just a hint of disrespect in her voice. Before Titus could make his way to join Lyra, Mrs. Cake began to speak discreetly to him, just out of earshot of the unicorn. "You may want to think about who you make friends with, dear. That mare is a little... off, and who knows what she'll be like now that she knows that your kind actually exists?" With that, she made her way into the backroom to prepare the cold treats. Titus just stood there in disbelief. They really did think she was weird! Titus felt bad for minty green pony, fumbling around with one of the sprinkle shakers at the booth, having difficulty due to her hooves. She didn't deserve that kind of disrespect, especially for believing in something, but he couldn't just tell Lyra what he had heard, that would just upset her and that probably wasn't the wisest thing to do at the moment. So he just joined her at her booth, awkwardly fitting himself in opposite seat of Lyra. "So what do you think of this place?" Lyra asked ardently. Titus looked around, admiring the place. "It’s not bad. You come here often I assume?" Lyra's eyes lowered, and she frowned. "Not really; I had no reason to. Most ponies just stare and talk about me." She looked back up to Titus and her smile was back. "But now that you're here, I don't have to worry about that anymore." "Uh huh.." Titus said roughly. Now he really couldn't tell her what he heard. It could really crush her self-esteem. The sundaes finally arrived and Lyra indulged in her's quickly while Titus poked and at his sparingly, not wanting to be mean, but not eager to really eat. Titus kept feeling like there was something he needed to do or someone he needed to see, but his mind couldn't wrap around it, too many feelings and other thoughts were muddling his thoughts. His mind kept bringing him back to the Parlor. Unfortunately, his mind wasn't able to continue its delve, as he caught Lyra staring at him again. When they locked eyes, she broke contact and looked down blushing. He really didn't want to say anything as he wasn't quite sure what had happened to make her react so. He assumed it was because he was still new to her and just a bit too curious. He still did look out of place even if nobody else wanted to say so. Lyra reverted back to her darting gaze and fumbling hooves. Luckily, the moment was over thanks to the appearance of a pink blur at the table. A pink pony came flying into the booth beside Titus studying him curiously. "Wow! He really does look different from other ponies!" She said, her mouth gaping. Titus pushed the pony back softly and was about to take the time to explain that he wasn't related to anything of the equine family, but Lyra beat him to it. "He's not a pony, he's a human." She said coldly. "But isn't that a kind of Pony?" She asked innocently. "No, because he's a human." "Oh, okay...” She quickly hopped out of the booth. Titus had thought that Lyra had hurt her feelings but her energy and smile quickly returned. She presented an outstretched hoof to Titus. "Sorry about that! I’m Pinkie! I haven't seen anything like you around here before!" She waved her hoof expectantly. Titus reluctantly gripped her hoof and shook it. "Nice to uh, meet you, Pinkie." "It’s nice to meet you too! Do you like parties? You probably like parties and that’s what you're going to get!" She looked around and began running around the Parlor. Titus stood there staring into the blank nothingness where she had been standing, utterly confused and unable to object. It seemed that Lyra was mellow compared to some other ponies around Ponyville. He was about to call out and explain why he didn't want such festivities in his honor when Pinkie said something about streamers and quickly left to the outside streets. He remained staring for just a second until he heard giggles coming from Lyra. "You better stop that." She laughed. "You look pretty silly." Titus shook his head and turned back to Lyra. "I’m not sure what just happened." "That’s okay." Lyra sighed. "There’s some nuttier people than me out there. You just met Pinkie, and that automatically makes you her friend." She hopped out of her booth. "We better get going to Twilight's now, we gotta make sure we have time left for your party. I hope you don't mind coming back here later." Titus frowned. "But I didn't want a-" "There's no fighting it, you might as well just look forward to it." She trotted out of the Parlor, with Titus following quickly in pursuit. "By the Light, I can't believe all of this..." Titus said while they navigated the streets once more. Lyra smirked up at him. "Hey, it could be worst." "How so?" "You could be obsessed over a race of people you had never met until yesterday." He sighed. "I could one-up you, you know." "Then let’s hear it!" Lyra joked. "Nope. It’s not even fun to talk about." Titus said painfully. Lyra seemed to get the indication and stopped talking about it. After a few more streets, (and a few more human jokes, coined by Lyra) they arrived at a giant tree that had been hollowed out to be housed. Titus thought about how the Night Elves did the same thing. The entire city of Darnassus was a hybrid of elf-made structures and simply hollowed out trees. They had a certain beauty to them, and Titus had only been there on occasion, but he was glad he had gone. This tree was a sore reminder of the world he was missing. He pushed the thoughts back as best as he could and followed Lyra up to the door. She tapped on the wooden door leading in. Waiting for an answer but got none."Hey! Twilight! It’s Lyra!" She called out. Titus could hear some shuffling and sighs. Then he heard tiny footsteps, and soon the door was open and Titus was surprised to see the first familiar creature since his sudden arrival. It was a baby dragon. Its purple scales littered its body when its spine was laced with green. The dragon seemed to be glaring, and able to comprehend everything around it. It surprised Titus, the infant Dragons back in Azeroth were little more than whiny whelps. "She'll be right there." He said, irritated. Titus heard muffled shouting coming from within the house. "I’ll be just a second!" The voice lowered in sudden anger. "This better not be another thing on humans, Lyra!" Lyra grinned excitingly and gestured for Titus to step up to her side."Oh yes it is!" She said happily. Grumbles and muttering were heard all throughout the library. Titus looked into the hollowed oak to reveal its true nature. Then a purple unicorn, with a straightened mane and two dyed strands of hair, one dark purple, and another light pink poked out around a corner, her head to the ground. "I don't know why you keep doing this Lyr.." She stopped in front of the Paladin and looked up. Her eyes instantly dilated and shock stretched across her face. "Y..you’re a..." She stammered. Titus sighed. He should have been used to this, but the general acceptance of his presence around town had not helped him take a sudden reaction like this any easier. "Yes. I’m a human." He said, a hand on his face. "Come in! Both of you!" She gestured violently for Titus and Lyra to follow her in. Inside she cleared some room in the main part of the library by shoving books out of the way frantically. She seemed to be even more out of it then the last Pony Titus had met, and that was saying something. She turned back to them, using her horn to control a quill dipped in ink and a piece of parchment to write on."Where do you come from.....?" She asked expectantly. "Titus. My name is Titus." He answered. "What a unique name! Does it mean anything? Does it refer to anything about you? Or perhaps its just a name?" "The latter." Titus simply said. The quill began marking down notes, but her eyes remained on him. "You never did tell me where you came from?" Titus was about to explain everything about his world in one big sermon, when Lyra cut him off. "He's from Azeroth, a huge land, Twilight. It’s filled with many races and many creatures. He's part of this group of people called the 'Alliance'." Twilight eyed her suspiciously until Titus confirmed the fact. The writing on the parchment grew even more frantic as she tried to keep up with flood of information Lyra poured out. It followed this format for quite a bit of time, with Lyra doing the majority of the talking (to Titus's relief) and with him giving nods of confirmation while Twilight frantically wrote on her parchment. He was about to just get up and leave as he was tired of sitting all day, when Lyra abruptly ended the conversation. She stood up. "We better get going. Titus has a party he needs to get too." Twilight frowned. "Oh, okay." She got up and put away her pen and floated the parchment over to her small dragon friend, who was organizing books out of the way, grumbling the whole time. "Think you could get this to Celestia, Spike?" she asked. The dragon quickly snatched the parchment in his claws and rolled it up. " Yeah, sure thing, Twilight." He blew a gust of green fire, engulfing the parchment, and it was gone. Quite the strange type of delivery, Titus thought. With that, Titus and Lyra left the Library and makeshift home. They began to head down familiar streets until they came back to Lyra's small house. She walked up to her door. "You know where Sugarcube Corner is right?" she asked. Titus nodded. "Well you have fun at the party. I'll be waiting here when it’s all over." She sighed. "Whoa, wait a minute." Titus walked up to her. "Why aren't you coming?" She frowned, and her eyes reflected the sadness. "It’s your party; not mine. I wouldn't want to make things awkward for you." "I’m not going if you aren't." She looked up at him. "What?" "You heard me. You're the only sane person here, it seems. If you don't come along, I'll probably go crazy or something." She laughed and hopped to Titus's side. "We wouldn't want that, huh?" Titus grimaced. "No, I'd prefer to stay sane, lest I end up like those poor fools in the Scarlet Crusade..." Lyra looked at him curiously. "Huh?" "Nothing. Just Azeroth stuff." "Fine." Was all she returned. When they got back to Sugarcube Corner, the place barely looked the same, with streamers and like hanging from any available footing it could find along the building. The most surprising thing he found was the sheer amount of party-goers that seemed to have chosen to attend this celebratory occasion (apparently). He wondered how so many people had found out about this so quick. Everyone greeted him warmly once he entered the Parlour and was immediately bombarded with a huge “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!” He was flattered, but still found his social anxiety crippling in this place. He stayed close to Lyra, since she was the only familiar face at the party, but he still chatted with some of the guests. They all seemed polite and nice, the pink pony responsible for the party seemed to move around crowds with uncanny speed and eventually got everyone laughing and enjoying themselves even more than the initial start of the party. She eventually came to Titus and Lyra, who were seated in their familiar booth, used only hours previous. “So what do you guys think of the party? Isn't it just awesome?!” She was shaking with excitement and it was really throwing Titus off. “Its great. Thank you.” Titus said, leaning on the table in the booth. “Oh, I'm so glad! I wasn't sure what humans liked, but It’s good to see I got it right!” She hopped off to mingle with some other crowd, to his relief. The party wasn't that bad, however. Titus was soon enjoying all the treats he had seen in the shop previous. They were as delicious as they had looked and it put even him in a good mood. He and Lyra were soon joking and hooting from their booth, and that got everyone around them laughing even more. Overall, the decision to go to the party had turned out to be a positive one and when the time came for them all to pack up and leave. He was reluctant to leave his booth where he and Lyra had been conversing. The whole party had reinforced his belief that Lyra was the only true normal one here. Perhaps she was considered strange by the others due to the fact that she wasn't as flamboyant as the other residents of Ponyville and that made him feel tinge of pity for the little unicorn. She seemed to be more human than pony in personality. If only she could see what it was like back in Azeroth, where there were strange characters, but they were always in the darker reaches of the world. She would've fit right in. They left the party and soon found themselves back at Lyra's small home. They dived in quickly, trying to get away from the late night chill. Lyra quickly hopped into her bed, seeming to be just as exhausted as Titus was. As soon as Titus had removed himself from his armor, he couldn't help but feel her eyes upon him again. He quickly caught her, and she blushed and looked away, apologizing furiously. “What’s the big deal?” He asked, honestly curious. “Nothing! I swear!” She buried her head under a pillow to hide her red face. “You can't keep doing this.” He got into his provisional resting area on the ground near Lyra's bedside. “I haven't even taken off any of my clothes.” She scowled at Titus from behind the pillow. “Don't say that!!” She roared. Titus just chuckled. He turned his back to her and tried to fall asleep. He knew her eyes were on him, they always would be as long as he was here. It wasn't that bad, though. Worst things could be watching him in his sleep.