//------------------------------// // 4 Self Discovery // Story: Lyra-7% // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Lyra Heartstrings - 16th of Firstbloom 18 EoH - Early Morning Multiverse Location: Neighpone, Equis #7 - The Anthroverse I sat on a field of gray dust beneath a black sky. Not one star speckled the blackness, showing me strange and alien view of a dark and unpopulated world. Over the horizon hung a blue jewel, forever out of my reach. It’s beauty kept from me by the bars of an invisible prison. A reminder of what had been taken away. A reminder of a terrible wrong where all held equal parts victim and villain. The endless field’s size did not matter. It may as well have been a single square foot. It was more empty than a wasteland, for there was nothing here to have gone to waste. Nothing existed here by my own anger, loneliness, and isolation. With only the rare cry for help from those I could never reach to remind me other people existed. Birdsong slowly pulled me out of the nightmare. My helmet’s HUD blinked high stress level warnings like they really mattered. Fucking hell… If my suit didn’t use sweat to help fuel itself I’d definitely be laying in a pool of it! That was the single worst fucking nightmare I had ever fucking had. Ever. Period. “Cheer.ly, save that dream before I forget it.” I asked as I sat up. That thing deserved to be remembered. It had to be some sort of record. Cheer.ly reported. I did my best to stretch the kinks out of my muscles as I sat up. Id’ never slept in this thing on the ground before. It had always been a ‘sleep while sitting’ situation. My neck definitely did not like resting on the helmet-suit seal at that angle for a whole night. I caught my first glimpse of the sun as I cracked my neck. I’d woken up at that perfect moment between sunrise and morning where the light shines through windows in those beautiful rays. Although, the sunlight seemed different here. On Earth, the sunlight was warm in color. Carrying the feeling of the glow of a campfire. Here, the sun shone more radiantly, no mere flame could ever hope to shine with such loving warmth as this! Hell, frankly, it was a lot like what you would get in orbit. You’re sitting down, watching over whatever station or sat you’ve drawn the short straw for, the earth whizzes by below, and then bam! Pure white sunlight washes over everything in a ‘Fuck you, concept of darkness!’ manner you just didn’t get on the surface. That’s what this sunrise was. It was kinda creepy. Shaking my head to clear the ‘just woke up stoned off my ass’ feeling from my mind, I felt Bon slide over my lap and reached down to give her a brief pet. The poor girl was pretty sluggish, normal for her having eaten a few hours ago, and was doing her best to slide off my lap to let me get up. I gently slid out from under her and stood up, immediately noticing the shimmer of silk on the floor in the patch of sunlight. Laying on the dark floorboards, was a very neatly folded jade silk… thing. I stepped over and picked it up, puzzling over the fabric before remembering Miyuki said she would get me a skirt like hers the other day. A nice gesture, but with how small ponies were, I doubted any skirt available could fit me. But not wanting to be rude, I gave the cloth a quick shake to unfold it. It wasn’t a skirt. It was a full outfit. And it was my size. The outfit resembled the uniforms from old karate movies, which I was relatively sure were called Gi. I had no clue what each part of the outfit was called, but it had pants, a jacket, a belt-sash-thing and some cloth wraps which I guessed were for tightening the ends of the sleeves and legs around your body. More impressively, through the collar I could see the inside had small ‘tubes’ sewn into the outfit with cords running through them to allow you to adjust the outfit. If I was seeing things right, you could quickly shorten the sleeves. A quick inspection showed the pants had similar cords. I assumed this was to expose more skin, err, fur on a hot day. Much more impressively was the silk itself. I’d seen some real fancy fabric before, that was obviously made from a bolt of cloth of one color, with a pattern of another color silk screened onto it. That meant when it was cut and sewn, the pattern was chopped up but looked somewhat uniform from a distance. This gi’s golden embroidery flowed organically over the entirety of the outfit. It had been done after the silk had been sewn into shape. The vines of flowers motif wasn’t overdone, but rather served as a nice highlight and a way to make the jade green not be overwhelming. Effectively it was a gold trim, with the occasional whirling bit of ‘art’ thrown in for looks, but never too much. The back was a different story. I’d expected there to be some sort of design on the back, like you’d see in any ARG, but I hadn’t expected it to be a yin yang stylized to look like Saturn. The crest was embroidered so one half was gold, the other half jade, and the slanted rings either filled or ‘erased’ as needed to pass over the symbol at an angle. This was admittedly a symbol I had seen before. Yesterday. On the Imperial Palace’s big ass family crest in it’s entrance hall. “Uhhh… Okay… Am I allowed to wear this?” I asked myself aloud. A faint tap on the door made me jump, almost dropping the insanely nice outfit from the shock. “Hello?” An unfamiliar voice called quietly. “Hi?” I asked in return. The door opened, sliding into the wall as a tall, lanky, ice-blue pony girl pushed it open. To my surprise and delight, she had a pair of feathery wings folded neatly on her back, with each feather tipped with the same frost-white of her mane, tail, and the apron she wore. “Oh cool! Can you fly?” I asked, grinning behind my helmet like an absolute idiot. She blushed lightly and nodded. “Hai, I am a pegasus. I heard you moving and thought you were awake. Would you like tea?” The pony-girl gestured to the small tea trolley just behind her which I guess she had been pushing down the hallway. I shook my head no. “Sorry, but I need a spell to take the helmet off safely. Thank you for the offer though.” She gave me a polite bow and turned to leave. “I will inform my Emperor you have awoken, she wished to speak with you.” “Alright,” I said, quickly realizing I had an opportunity to get my question answered. “Wait! AM I allowed to wear this? It has the royal crest on it.” The maid turned back around and gave me another polite nod. “Hai. It was given to you.” “Okay. Thanks,” I said, letting her leave. I hated non-answers. There had to be some consequence of wearing a family crest in a Japanese-like society with a focus on honor and ancestry. I’d just wait to ask Miyuki directly. That opportunity came a few minutes later. Right after I had gotten all of the grogginess out of my system, Miyuki knocked on the still open door’s frame to politely announce her presence. “Good morning, Heartstrings-sama,” she said with a tiny bow. “I see you found your gi. Is it sized correctly?” Looking over I noticed that Miyuki hadn’t changed clothes, or really even looked like she was tired, or morning groggy. It was rather impressive. “Morning,” I returned, “I haven’t put it on yet… Is there any cultural connotation to wearing your family’s crest? Like, if I put this on, I’m not drafted, am I?” Miyuki raised one eyebrow in complete bafflement. “Uh, my court mage is good, but he’s not ‘make a jacket that turns you into wind’ good.” I facepalmed immediately after she said ‘wind’. “Oh man… Sorry, this would be way easier if I naturally spoke your language. I meant ‘conscripted’.” “Ah! That’s far more comprehensible. No, all wearing my crest means is you are a part of the Imperial Family. Which includes more than myself and my theoretical lover and children. The crest marks you as someone important to the Emperor. It is appropriate for someone to have saved my life to have the right to bear my crest,” Miyuki explained. “Oh! So it’s a badge of honor thing?” I asked, eyes brightening up at the thought. Miyuki nodded in response. “Exactly!” Deciding to see if it fit, I opened the jacket and carefully unpinned the pants from it before slipping it on. With the belt-sash-thing drawn tight, it fit quite well. Once it was on, I moved my arms through their range of motion to see if it stopped me from moving in any given way It would definitely fit better without my flight suit on though. “It fits very well,” I said decisively. “It would definitely feel nice on the skin too. This silk looks really high quality.” “Oh yes… Would you like me to fetch a mage for you so you can try it without the suit on? I could show you how to properly wear it for various tasks, did you notice the trailing cords?” Miyuki asked sounding a bit eager. I blushed behind my helmet, grateful for the faceplate blocking me from view. “Um… While I appreciate that… Humans do not like to be naked in front of people we are not romantically involved with…” The Empress frowned, ears tilting to the left as she asked. “Why?” “Embarrassment… Shame… Feelings of being vulnerable… Take your pick. Can we walk about something else?” I asked quickly. “That’s so…alien! Wait, are we bothering you by being undressed?” She asked with a bemused giggle. “A bit, but I mean, you guys have fur, so it’s fine. Kinda. I mean… I’m not going to think less of an alien culture for not doing things the human way. At least, not something simple like clothes,” I said awkwardly. Miyuki shook her head slowly, smiling for a moment before she took a step back into the hall. “At any rate my amusing friend, would you like to walk to my family’s shrine with me?” “Sure!” I agreed, eager to prevent the budding awkward conversation. The two of us began the fairly long walk to her family’s shrine. It was all the way up the side of the dormant-ish volcano, perched atop a flat ledge that overlooked the entirety of the Imperial Isle. The path up to it was well made, not tiring to walk, but according to Miyuki, would definitely take a good ten minutes of time. Along the way, we talked about our various species. Essentially trading simple questions back and forth. She told me about her species three kinds, I told her about robots. She told me about her nation’s love of nature and their history with working the land, I told her about mankind’s total domination of every lifeform on the planet. “Wait, so your people rule over all others?” Miyuki asked me with a suspicious look. I shook my head. “Nah. We only have the one sapient species, remember?” “I see. So then, what do you mean? I don’t quite understand,” she asked with some concern. “Well, you guys can shoot a laser from your forehead and throw objects with your mind,” I began, “Humans…have hands. You guys seem to fit right in with the natural order, with a lovely balance. Which is awesome! But Humans… All we have is our brains. We are the third most intelligent species on our world-” “You just said you were the only sapient species…” Miyuki said half darkly and half confused. Mentally cursing my love of Douglas Adams stories, I quickly held up my hands. “We are! There are no other species which form civilizations and cultures on our homeworld. Though, the blue ringed octopus and a genetically modified mouse species are far more intelligent than humans in terms of problem solving. It’s just that they are not people, just clever as hell animals motivated by their instincts alone. “In terms of problem solving, you can expect those animals to complete a task of which they are physically capable before a human could do the same.” “Ah, I see. So you’re recognizing their problem solving as superior to your own species,” Miyuki mused. “Yeah,” I agreed, ass successfully covered from having to explain my accidental use of a reference. And with completely factual information! Point for me! “Anyways, All we have is our minds. No physical advantages, or at least, our ancestors didn’t. So our species survived by making tools and reshaping the world around us to our advantage. “You guys live in harmony with nature, we made nature our servant. And I sense the ‘I see how that turn out for you’ coming, and to be fair, that wasn’t our fault. It’s not like we launched the meteor at ourselves.” “So you're kind does things the hard way… It seems odd that a species like yours would evolve without any magic whatsoever. With your lack of physical advantages and with the intellect you have described to me, you should have some form of magic,” Miyuki mused, glancing up to see how much further we had to climb the mountain path for. “My Emperor,” a passing orange stallion greeted with a bow as he passed by, carrying a large pack down the trail. “Good day,” Miyuki greeted by reflex. That’s when it hit me. Absolutely no one had called Miyuki ‘empress’ ONCE since I got here. She even referred to herself as ‘Emperor’. I frowned behind my faceplate, composing my next question in words which wouldn’t make me an asshole while I finished up my previous point. “Meh, I think we are doing just fine without it,” I dismissed. “We invented the first heavier than air flying machine, landed on our moon sixty four years later. Seven years after that, we’d landed on our neighboring planet, well, we landed a robot. And then just a few years later we had a guy work out a mathematically sound super-luminal drive system, and all that shit happened two hundred years before today!” “Wait, your species has spaceflight?!” Miyuki asked, eyes widening. “Yeah,” I said with a smile. “We’ve been doing it for-” “Without magic!?” she asked again. I nodded. “Purely technological spaceflight… How?” She demanded. “It’s what humans do. We punch god in the eye with science until we get to do what we want,” I explained with a shrug. “You guys have to have some cool stuff. You said you nation is twelve thousand years old. That’s longer than my species has been doing agriculture and tools.” Miyuki’s ears drooped while her tail raised in a sort of distressed alarm. “You mean to tell me that the entire history of your people, with all those thousands of civilizations, fills less than twelve thousand years!? How long do you live? Have your great inventors been alive for thousands of years and working nonstop?” I laughed, “Haha! No… That would be cool though. Until recently, we lived around eighty years. I don’t know what my maximum lifespan is… No one does. With how our biomods work it’s at least three hundred years.” “A hundred years... Within the span of one lifetime, your species developed the entirety of a purely technological means for space travel and landed a ship on your moon… By Saturn, how can your species keep up with your own technological development!? That’s insanely fast!” I giggled. “Hey, we had two global scale wars that got in the way for about… three decades I think. Imagine how fast we could have done it if that didn’t happen.” “How long did it take you to get from the invention of machines to create goods until your first flying machine?” Miyuki asked quickly. “Um… About five hundred years.” I answered, amused by the completely losing it look on her face. Her face twisted into alarm, and amazement, flipping between the two for a few seconds before settling on ‘amazed’. “What?” I asked curiously. “Your species literally progressed more than my own has in two pony lifetimes than we have in two thousand years…” Miyuki said in awe. “I can't believe you did that without magic. You have to have something! You just don't know about it.” “We do,” I said, cracking a grin. “What is it!? I must know!” Miyuki begged. “We call them Engineers,” I said, playfully sticking my tongue out at her, since she couldn’t see it through my helmet. She gave me a dirty look then shook her head. “If our species come into official contact, I will likely be contracting out technical help.” “Good idea. We’re the kind of species who invents a self-navigating drone to bring you pizza. Humans, the smartest lazy bastards ever! If you have even a minor inconvenience, we will engineer a way to not have to do it,” I quipped happily. “So, can I ask a question now, before we get to the shrine?” “Of course! Sorry for getting hung up on…your species insane rate of development. It has to be your short lives! You just can’t afford to waste any time,” Miyuki exclaimed. “Eh, maybe,” I mused before pursing my lips as I did my best to be polite. “Miyuki, I’ve noticed that everyone refers to you as ‘My Emperor’-” “Of course,” she interrupted, “I serve them by guiding our nation safely into the future. The ‘my’ is a reminder of my status as a public servant and symbol of our content.” “Actually, I meant the ‘Emperor’ part. Though it’s cool to know there’s a cultural meaning for the ‘my’ part,” I corrected. “What about it?” She asked as we rounded a corner in the path to reveal the shrine. I had been expecting a little mini Japanese style temple. Instead what we had here was a ring of two meter high standing stones, each a different sort of semi-precious stone, which had carvings of various ponies set in them, all ringing a massive black and white marble statue of a vaguely pony shaped figure throwing a massive six armed dragon with a Judo flip. The same loving care that the Neighponese put into everything was in this shrine. The carved out sections of rock had gold, silver, and brass set into the chiseled marks to add color to the very precisely cut and highly polished stones. The central statue itself was only two colors, the pony shaped figure was white and done in a vague, abstracted form. The Kaiju was done in black and carved out in great detail to look as fierce and dangerous as possible… While being judo flipped by a figure smaller than its foot. “That should be hilarious looking, but it’s awesome!” I said reflexively. Miyuki nodded. “It is, but one moment please. What is it about the Emperor part of my title that bothers you?” Something in her tone made me realize she assumed I had a problem with her position as, well, an autocrat. While that wasn’t even remotely the case, it would be very dangerous to have someone with her power believing you were offended by their mere existence. “Nothing like that. Frankly, I wish there was one definitive person at Central to petition for change,” I said quickly, holding up my hands to ward off her possible hostility. “It's just that your biology is female, but you are called by and use a male title. Are you transgender? I don’t want to be rude and continue thinking of you as female if-” Miyuki laughed, throwing her head back for a moment, before drying her eyes. “That never gets old! Every foreign pony I ever get to talk to asks that. No, I’m a mare. My title is Emperor because my great great Grandfather decided gendered titles are stupid and asked everypony to stop using them.” “Oh, well good,” I sighed in relief. She gave me another smile as she shook her head with even more laughter. “Heartstrings-sama, I am the Emperor of Neighpone. Did you not realize if I wished to be a stallion, even for but an hour, that I would have a line of mages at the door, happy to provide their services merely for the honor of having helped the Imperial Family?” I blushed and nodded slowly. “Er, no. I did not think of that.” “It always amuses me how people never realize that. Heh… Come on, this won’t take long.” Miyuki said as she trotted into the circle of elaborately carved stones. I watched as she opened her skirt to remove a small willow wand and a black silk bag from a pocket and knelt before a small jade alter, about a cubic foot in size, and began to replace the small gold candles that burned atop it with fresh ones from the bag. It was an interesting little ritual. She’d light one candle with the ‘about to burn out’ one, and replace it, blowing out the old one and setting it aside, only to put them all into the little bag once finished. “Is some sort of magic protecting those from the elements?” I asked as she finished and stood up. “Yes,” Miyuki answered. “The candles are symbolic of my duty to Neighpone’s people. They last for exactly one day and one hour. If I fail to relight them the standing stones send a pillar of light into the heavens, as a sign that I have abandoned my duty. Those under me are instructed to act accordingly.” I winced. “Ouch, that seems a bit harsh. What if you are ill?” “I can send ponies to do it for me,” she chuckled. “If I am ill or not here the duty is given to another. But if I stay in the palace the previous night, I must do it myself. It’s long standing law. I’m glad we have this system, to be honest.” I took a few seconds to think about what any benefits of a ‘forfeit my position’ device could be. “Well… I guess it does mean whoever is in charge has to keep your country's traditions at heart,” I said at last. “That is a part of it,” she agreed, nodding to me as she turned to leave the shrine, “but more importantly, as long as this shrine stays dark, my people know their Emperor watches over them. Ponies need heroes. We are not a violent race, and so those of us who can stomach battle must keep the monsters at bay for the rest. “This shrine lets my people know if their heroes still stand in times of war. It lets them know if their heroes are standing guard in times of peace. Simply by looking to the north, the whole of Neighpone can see a clear sky and rest easy.” Well fuck. That was an excellent system. “You’re people are very lucky,” I said as honestly as I could. “Humankind has a distinct lack of visible heroes. The best we have is the military as a whole… But all operations are classified. No one ever learns who did what, or why… Sometimes not even if they are also in the military.” “That is shameful behavior on your leaders part! What use is classifying an operation after it has happened? The enemy knows what you did, so should your people,” Miyuki spat bitterly. I nodded in ironclad agreement. “You’re damn right it’s bullshit! Hell, I got court martialed over that policy. Only barely kept my job, and got knocked down a rank. “One of our species greatest weapons sits way up in the sky and basically drops huge spikes. They go so fast that they will hit the ground with enough force to knock buildings flat for miles. The enemy had managed to stealth one into orbit and had been sneaking it around to get a line of attack on one of our major cities… Mine, to be specific. “They blew their cover though, took a potshot at a civilian transport and lit up our sensor grid. So we took it out. I was at a restaurant later that day, grabbing a bite after flying a combat patrol and I overheard a couple teenage girls worried about a rumored attack on the city by one of them. “Well, I’d just taken the weapon in question out. Personally. My squadron was assigned that mission, I was the only one who had a clear shot at the satellite through the enemy's fighters. I knew that there was no danger to the city anymore. So I told them. ‘Hey, it’s okay. I’m a pilot. We shot that son of a bitch down six hours ago.’ “Central finds out about that via some bullshit and then boom. I’m in trouble. Just for wanting to make sure those girls could sleep that night.” I kicked a loose rock with the toe of my boot, sighing bitterly at the memory. “It sounds to me as if you wished to protect others, not only physically, but emotionally,” Miyuki mused thoughtfully, reaching up to stroke her muzzle in thought. “Yeah. I do. There’s little point in keeping people safe if they still feel in danger. Yeah, they won't be killed, but they will still act like they are going to be. And what kind of life is that?” I grumbled, “I’ll be honest. One reason I thought a first contact would be needed is because for all humans have going for us, we need to get some shit together still. “Knowing our species isn’t alone might be what we need to take the last step and unify as a species. We only have two nations now. We could do it. We just need a reason. Humans have always need a good reason to shove us along.” “A noble goal, heartstrings-sama,” Miyuki said giving me a polite smile. “I believe I have found a way to give you a proper reward for your heroism. It will take well into tomorrow to be ready, but I think you will quite enjoy it.” “What is it?” I asked curiously, falling into step alongside her. “According to tradition, I can only tell you when it is time for you to help make it,” the Emperor insisted, not saying another word about it the rest of the way back to the palace. Lyra Heartstrings - 17th of Firstbloom 18 EoH - Afternoon Multiverse Location: Neighpone, Equis #7 - The Anthroverse Bonbon cried. I noticed the shred of the Impactor hull scything towards us just in time to roll our hull aside, the debris scraping along our belly, sending vibrations through the hull. I exclaimed, actively checking fore more debris heading our way. None. Good. Bonbon objected coyly. I asked. Bonbon reapplied after a quick check. It looked like the ECN fighters were trying to break off, but my squad had them occupied. This battle was over. I ordered, gunning our main engines to reposition. A blinding red light filled my vision! Burning pain blossomed along our left wing! Someone was touching our hull. “Heartstrings-sama.” Miyuki’s voice yanked me out of the flashback, throwing me firmly back into the chair in the palace’s library. “Huh? Wha? Oh! Hi!” I stammered, jerkily moving to face my sorta-friend. The pink pony-girl flinched at my tone, her eyes conveying a deep heartfelt sorrow. “Remembering the past?” She asked. I nodded, grateful she understood, but also sad that she knew what it was like. “Yes. What do you want? Is it dinner?” “It’s not quite yet time for dinner, though my chef tells me you skipped lunch to read. It’s a shame you didn’t arrive in Equestria. Princess Twilight would get along with you very well,” Miyuki teased, flashing me a quick grin. “I wanted to read up on your world. Since that Trigger guy is delayed, well, figured this was the best use of time. Besides, I can scan written text to memory and found a few translation guides. Also a surprising amount of inter-species etiquette guides. So, well, I read them,” I said awkwardly, still trying to shake off the memories of almost dying twice in ten seconds. Miyuki nodded slowly. “We share our world with many cultures and many species. It’s important to know that, for instance, if Neighpone was at war with Drake, they would only agree to a peaceful resolution to the war if I slept with whoever their leader is at the moment, because of a long standing tradition that wars must be fought to the end, unless the love of High Chiefs is on the line.” I triple blinked and looked back at the book. “I guess I didn’t get quite that far…” “Trust me, I’m probably the only Head of State to know that particular cultural…oddity,” Miyuki said in an oddly suspicious tone. “Moving on to more important topics, it is time for you to help prepare your reward!” “It is?” I asked, standing up and closing the book I had been staring at for who knows how many minutes. “Hai. Will you accompany me to the garden, please?” She asked stepping aside to allow me to walk past her to the door. I nodded and the two of us walked out to her garden. We followed a twisting path through tunnels of trees and banks of flowers until we reached a small clearing with a mosaic pattern made from colored tiles and bits of white quartz. The mosaic was a hexagon. It measured about eight feet across, not counting the small half circles on each side of the hex. Those were just big enough for someone to stand or sit in. The hex itself was filled with an intricate, clearly technical pattern with a small circle in the middle that all of the stacking patterns flowed to. The tiles themselves formed patterns too. The blacks, whites, blues, and reds all formed specific shapes and were placed with care and precision. It just screamed ‘magic circle’. “So um, what are we doing?” I asked hesitantly. “You’re not going to turn me into a pony, are you?” “Oh! Would you like that?” Miyuki asked in surprise. “It would take some time but I could probably find somepony capable of such a feat.” Admittedly, that might be fun… But well, yeah. Not something I wanted at the moment. “No, I don’t want that,” I said as simply as possible so there would be no way for the translation to get messed up. “Ah, good. Because that one might be tricky,” Miyuki sighed in relief. “This is magical in nature, as you may have guessed, and it does involve you. But we are not transforming you. You will be transforming something else.” “But, I don't know any magic,” I pointed out, holding up a finger in objection. “That’s what this rune circle is for,” she explained, pointing to the center of the circle. “You sit there, I put a charged gemstone in each of the slots, and the runes do their job. Earth Ponies have used this, and they cannot consciously control their magic. You can use it too. Unless your species has no magic at all, but given how fast you progress, I find that impossible.” I rolled my eyes. “Alright, and if this fails?” “Then I’ll do this part myself. But it will work best with you doing it,” she answered. I nodded, and bit my lip, not wanting to waste the time. Ah well, at least I would see a cool magic ritual. “Alright, and what exactly are we doing?” I asked, hoping for an answer at last. “We are attuning a crystal to you,” Miyuki said as she swept an arm around the massive crystal rock garden I hadn’t noticed before thanks to studying the mosaic in detail. “Choose one. Any one will do. If you feel a particular one is ‘calling’ you, you should use it. The more significant to you the crystal is, the better.” I gave her a quick nod and looked out over the small field of finger sized crystals. I was pretty sure they were all quartz, but there was a literal rainbow of colors in addition to white. The crystals were arranged in rings, first white, then pink, then violet, blue, indigo, green, yellow, red, and at last, orange. The more significant, eh? I looked over the crystals carefully. None of them especially jumped out at me. Maybe the magic wasn’t working? A crystal calling to you had to be magic right? I paused, fingers moving beneath my silk jacket to the belt pouch I had slipped the rose quartz the gardener had passed me. That was definitely a significant crystal. That little thing had shown me there was more to physics than the four fundamentals. I gently retrieved the crystal from my pouch and held it out to Miyuki. “Will this do?” Miyuki blinked in surprise as I held the small crystal out to her. “Is that the bit of quartz I used to demonstrate magic to you?” I nodded, smiling behind my faceplate. “That will do very well,” she confirmed with a satisfied nod. “Now, what you do, is you sit in the circle at the center and hold the gem tightly, covered so you can not see it.” I quickly complied, moving into a somewhat uncomfortable cross legged position in the central circle. “Face the path we took to get here,” Mysuki instructed as she took six small, glowing pieces of crystal from a skirt pocket and began to place them carefully inside each semi-circle. As she placed the last crystal, I clenched the quartz tightly between my palms, making sure I couldn’t see it at all before adjusting my position to be a bit more comfortable. “Alright, now what?” I asked adding, “And what are we doing?” “I can not tell you yet, if you are occupied thinking about the result of this ritual, the spell will not work as intended,” Miyuki sighed. “Please humor me, I can tell you once this is finished.” “Alright,” I agreed with a weary sigh. “Let’s do this.” She nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Close your eyes, and meditate on the questions I ask you. Do not speak the answers out loud, but focus on them, and keep the answers at the front of your mind. Only you are to know what your answers are.” “Er, okay…?” I said slowly, closing my eyes and pretending I knew how to meditate. Meditating was just thinking really hard right? Pretty sure that’s how that worked… At least, I hoped it was. “What is the root of your fear?” She asked in a sincere voice. The root of my fear? What did that even mean? Like, what made me afraid? Lot’s of things… Or did she mean what was a common theme between all my fears? Was there even such a thing? I thought about it as hard as I could, thinking back to all the times I had been afraid. There was a common theme. Loneliness. I feared being alone. But why? I feared being alone, because when I died, I wanted someone to remember me. I wanted to leave a mark on the world that others would notice. The thought of failing to do that was horrifying. “What matters most in your life?” Mysuki asked in the same voice. Well, I just established that I’m really fucking freaked out about not being remembered and being isolated from others. So obviously the most important thing to me would be- No. No it wasn’t that. I had something more important to me than simply being remembered as a person. I wanted to be the force which gave someone else the same sense of meaning, something to the world that I was so afraid of never having myself. Well… There’s an interesting revelation for you, Lyra. “What do you do when you fail?” Came the next question. Easy. Back off. Take a good hard look. Plan. Try again. There’s always a way. You just have to find it. I’m not afraid to spend a lot of time searching for the solution. “What would you change about yourself?” Miyuki asked, prompting me to focus on the surprisingly hard question. What, like, physically? I’d definitely get a pair of pony ears. Maybe a tail. No definitely a tail. I’d look super cute like that. I’d probably also get some breast work done. I was pretty toned, had some good musculature. I was still curvy and female in shape, and plenty of girls like a woman who could bench press them, but a better chest-hip ratio might draw girls eyes in better. Oh shit! That’s what I would change. I’d have a companion. Like, a proper romantic companion. Maybe two… Definitely two. But why two? Because with two partners, we could each be devoted to one another, but would never become completely co dependent, maintaining a level of independence via the other partner and the need to spend time with them as well as with the group. So then, having a lover would be amazing… Provided the relationship wouldn’t dominate my life, but rather be a part of it. Woah! Now that was a fucking revelation! Meditation was awesome! I should do more of this. Holy crap can it sort your life out real goo- “What hopes have you for the future?” Miyuki asked with a tone of finality. Well I fucking knew the answer to that now! Thank you! I wanted to have a good, loving relationship that didn’t consume my life, but was intimate and loving. So that a part of me would survive in others and I would leave a tangible mark behind when I eventually went. Idealy, one who would help me leave that mark, and be adorable, while allowing me to help her leave a mark on the world as well. A partner in adventure! Someone to grow alongside and support as they grew with me. A Miguel to my Tulio. “We are finished,” Miyuki said calmly. “Awww… But I was learning about myself,” I lamented sadly. She giggled, “Have you never meditated before? Perhaps I should have explained a technique. At any rate, I can give you a booklet of questions to think upon. But, for the matter at hand, look at the crystal.” “Alright,” I said cheerfully, still delighted in the revelations I’d had. I opened my hands. The pink quartz cupped within my palms shown a bright gold, like burning sodium. Its strong aura flickered around the gem, like an arc of plasma between two electrodes. I yelped, almost dropping the crystal, expecting it to burn through my hands. Realizing just before I dropped it that it was only slightly warm to the touch. “Woah!” Mysuki exclaimed in disbelief. “I’ve never seen one get an aura like that… May I see it? I need to see if it works properly.” I nodded and passed the magic expert the magical thing I had somehow made. “So uh, what did I do?” She took the crystal from me gently and inspected it closely before tapping it to her horn lightly and nodding to herself. “It works, it’s just unusually strong… Er, what we did is connect this crystal to you, and you essentially poured yourself into it. You put a representation of your hopes, fears, and desires into the crystal, making it uniquely your own via the magical inscribing of your nature. Thus creating the main component for your reward. Which, will be a very good one… “Oh, and by the way. This proves your species has some sort of magic. You simply must not be aware you do.” “How does it prove that? And what are you making?” I asked, needing to know. “If your species possessed no magical ability at all, then you could not be used as a conduit for the runes to work through,” she explained, carefully pocketing the glowing gem. “Alright… So… How would we figure out what it is?” I asked with a confused frown. “I wouldn’t know,” Mysuki said apologetically. “As for your reward, be at my throne room in one hour. I must finish my work.” I gave her a disbelieving stare. “Aw come on! I did magic and you are making me wait to know what that is for!?” She smiled at me and shook her head. “It’s funny, I remember you saying twenty eight is fully grown for your species. But you still act like a young filly.” I sputtered angrily. “But… Magic! Building! Thing!” “One hour, Heartstrings-sama,” Mysuki laughed, turning and walking off into the garden. I spent the next hour walking around her palace and asking every single servant I could find what the Emperor could possibly be doing. They knew. They all had to know. Because they all told me ‘Patience, is the humblest of virtues.’ She had prepared them. Clever girl. As the hour started to roll over into the next I made my way to Mysuki’s throne room, having memorized the palace layout on yesterday’s tour. I spent a good five minutes eagerly waiting at the iron shod dark oaken double doors. Brain practically overheating as I tried to think of every last thing that magic could possibly be used for and would need to somehow know me in a deep way. The doors creaked open, moving under a light orange aura as a unicorn stallion opened the doors for me with a polite bow. “My Emperor, will see you now, Lyra Heartstrings,” he announced. The throne room itself was very simple. Like all rooms it was perfectly square, with it’s walls painted with images of Neighponese history, though these murals looked especially glorious. It’s floor was covered in soft cushions for sitting on, with a raised dais on the far side of the room, with a larger, softer, super amazingly comfy looking whitish pink tasseled cushion I wanted to steal and use as my mattress sat. That was her throne. Fuck golden chairs. That was comfort and luxury! Mysuki nodded as I entered. “Come forward. This is not formal. I am here because there was a brief meeting to attend to.” “Ah, alright,” I said as I walked forward, stopping just shy of the dais. Mysuki reached behind her pink cushion of win and picked up a cherrywood box. It was about a foot long, six inches wide, and three inches deep, and had a silver latch. She held it out to me, hands cupping the bottom of the box. “Open it,” she instructed. I nodded and gently flipped the latch and opened the lid. Inside the box, sitting in a recess atop pale blue velvet was the hilt of a sword. It was something like a katana, but the handle was shorter, clearly meant for one hand, but able to fit two in a pinch. The hilt was made from polished and colored metal, an elaborate forest green snakeskin pattern covered the hand grips, with a dark brass cap featuring the Imperial Crest on the butt end, and a guard shaped like the head of a snake which seemed less about protecting your fingers, and more about keeping your hand from slipping onto the blade I assumed was attached to it later, after this breathtaking presentation. “It’s beautiful!” I gasped, gingerly lifting the hilt from the box. “Be careful. The brass stud near the hilt activates the spell,” Mysuki warned as I started to turn it over in my hands to examine its details closely. “Right! Magic!” I exclaimed turning away from the art-object of a weapon to look at the golden maned mare. “What does it do?” “That is a Meiji no ken, or Soul Blade. You wielded mine on the beach the other day,” she began. “The name is simplistic, but that is literally what you hold in your hands. A sword whose blade is a reflection of your own soul. “The spell you helped create forges a blade of magical energy, and mimics a metal unique to each blade and it’s original wielder. It is a strong as your greatest fear, as sharp as your desires, and as bright as your hopes. “A blade that is the perfect reminder of your own resolve. A weapon befitting the true heroes of my nation. Take it as a badge of your honor, and should the opportunity arise, use it to bring more honor to your family name.” I turned the sword over in my hands, holding it reverently. “I- I don't know what to say.” “Turn it on,” Miyuki instructed with a kind smile. I nodded, pointed the end away from the two of us, and pressed the bronze stud. Unlike the Empress’s blade, mine simply appeared. A three foot long slim, straight, double edged blade made of golden light, solidified in one place, with a crackle of blue vapor drifting off of the shining blade. There was no metal core with this one, but rather a light blue inner layer that formed a core for the gold hard-light blade to rest upon. The blade hummed lightly, shimmering under the light of the paper lanterns. “This is awesome!” I giggled, giving the blade a flick and marveling at the balance. It was like the sword had been made just for me! Oh. Right… “It’s one of the better ones I have seen. Fitting for a hero such as yourself,” Miyuki said honestly as I shut the blade off. “At the least, if you never wield it, you will have physical proof of your journey here to show your people. Though, I hope I got the aesthetics of the hilt to your liking?” I nodded dumbly. “Yeah! I love snakes… You probably realized that almost immediately.” “Well, you do carry around a snake big enough to eat somepony…” She said with a chuckle, “Come, Trigger-san will be here tomorrow. This is our last night together. I would like to share another dinner with you.” I tucked the sword into my jacket’s belt, making sure it was secure before looking back up. I did NOT want to lose this. I’d get rid of a belt pouch later so I had a proper magnetic clip free for it later tonight. “That sounds awesome! Will there be more of those rice things?” I asked hopefully. Miyuki gave me an affectionate, but amused stare. “Yes, there will be my nation’s most basic food stuff at dinner.” I blushed lightly under my helmet. “I can’t help it, they are delicious…” Myuki shook her head and stood up. “It’s a pity you must return to your own world. I rather enjoy your company. I haven’t smiled this much in a long time. Shall we play the question’s game as we walk to dinner?” “Only if we keep playing at dinner,” I said decisively, “it’s a short walk.” “Deal,” the Emperor said, beginning to walk out of the throne room. “You mentioned your species space flight earlier. Why did you decide to go to your moon?” “Well, short answer, because it was there and it was a challenge,” I explained. “Long answer… well…” I spent the next twenty minutes telling an alien pony-girl all I knew about the pre-quantum vacuum thruster space program. An alien pony girl who gave me a goddamn light saber which I helped to make. For the first time in a long time, I felt happy with my life.