Lyra navigated the alleyways of Ponyville to get back to her house unnoticed. Especially to avoid the notice of a certain pink ball of excitement that she really didn’t want to run into right now.
Luckily, the tactic worked, and Lyra made it back home without drawing any attention to the human baby she was carrying.
After entering the house, Lyra used a spell to muffle the baby’s hearing and shouted, “Bon-Bon? You home?”
“In the kitchen, as usual!” her roommate’s voice replied. “Just making extra candy to help out with Nightmare NIght! I’m sure to make a bundle on this batch!”
“Okay! I’ll be in my room!” Lyra called back. “I may be a bit busy for a little while, but if you need me for some reason, come up to my room and knock lightly, okay? Don’t just call up to me!” The last thing she wanted was for the infant human to wake up in the middle of a nap. That often made babies cranky, regardless of race.
“Okay, Lyra!” Bonnie hollered. “I’ll try that!”
Lyra sighed in relief before removing the muffling spell from Jonnathan’s ears and carefully levitating him up the stairs with her following close behind.
After a short walk, she reached her room and opened the door. Her room was just how she’d left it: A large, comfy bed near the window, two desks: one for composing sheet music and the other for documenting her dreams about humans and comparing them to the limited information she could find in books; a stand for holding her sheet music while she practiced her lyre, and the case for her lyre sitting on a dresser with pictures of her family also sitting on it. Nothing had been moved, and everything was clean.
Now to find a place for him to sleep, Lyra thought to herself as she looked around the room. Finding nothing suitable except her own bed, she sighed and levitated an old pet blanket out of her dresser and used it to tuck the human boy in, the baby sighing happily in response.
After about an hour of practicing her lyre (which was luckily a soothing instrument that would definitely not wake a sleeping infant), Lyra felt the same sensation from earlier probing her mind, but this time, the words were utter gibberish to her since the translation spell had worn off a while ago.
The voice got more and more upset as Lyra quickly lit up her horn to recast the spell, then turned to face the fuming baby whose eyes and hands were once again glowing purple.
—and if you don’t stop ignoring me Mommy, I’ll—
“It’s okay,” Lyra told Jonnathan. “I just couldn’t understand you.”
What do you mean, you couldn’t understand me? You’re speaking the same language as my birth parents!
“Well, I’m using a translation spell right now,” Lyra explained. To prove her point, she cancelled the spell and said, “this is my actual language. I don’t think you can understand me right now.”
Jonnathan’s very young eyes widened in shock as Lyra recast the spell. That was complete gibberish! the infant’s telepathic voice exclaimed. And everyone here talks like that?
“Well there’s a few other languages, but most of the world speaks Equestrian,” Lyra giggled. “If you don’t want to have to rely on translation spells your whole life, I suggest you learn it.”
That’s three weeks of watching how my birth parents formed words down the drain… The young voice said sadly.
“Wait, why do you keep calling them your birth parents?” Lyra asked, puzzled.
Because you’re my Mommy now, remember? the voice replied. I can’t refer to both you and my birth mother as “Mommy”. That’s too confusing.
Lyra was deeply moved that the child was willing to only refer to her as “Mommy”, but a question still nagged at her. “Anyway, what was it you were trying to get my attention about?” She inquired. She was going to have to get used to raising an infant who could actually answer questions in words.
I’m hungry, Jonnathan’s voice replied. And I don’t have my chompers yet, so I can’t eat solid stuff. My birth mother breastfed me whenever I got hungry, but since you’re not human, I think it might be a bit weird for the both of us if you tried the same thing.
Lyra nodded in agreement. Though she thought that trying to imitate that might be an interesting experience, the baby had a point. It would feel odd. Also, how was this baby so smart for a three week old? Were human children naturally this intelligent, did it have to do with his strange magic, or was it something else?
“I doubt we have any foal formula, though…” Lyra sighed, shaking her head to help file the thought about the baby’s intellect for later. “But I can’t just let you starve, either!”
Then what can we do, Mommy? the voice asked in fear.
“I can’t reveal you to everypony yet,” Lyra said with determination, “but I know a pony who could help, as well as a pony who knows more about humans than I do. We’ll visit Fluttershy, first, and then I’ll show you to Princess Twilight.”
Well, I know absolutely nothing about this world, so I trust you, Mommy, the baby boy’s tiny voice said as the baby nodded. I’m going to stop the telepathy for now, since the glow might draw attention.
True to his word, the infant’s hands lost their purple glow, as well as his eyes, finally revealing the color of his irises: a brilliant electric blue.
“Well, Jonnathan,” Lyra said with a smile, “this is going to be tricky, but I snuck you to my place without notice, so I think I can do the reverse, too. We’re going to see Fluttershy. She should have something we can feed you.”
The baby giggled and smiled, showing his support.
“Now, remember to be quiet, okay?” Lyra pleaded “I’m going to drop the translation spell so you can try to learn language like you said, but please try to not get noticed.”
Jonnathan nodded, and after taking a deep breath, Lyra put on her saddlebags and opened the left one.
“I’ll have to hide you in here,” she said without the translation spell, instead making motions so the baby would get her intentions. “Hopefully, nopony notices the bulge you’ll make.”
Jonnathan sighed, but the infant didn’t struggle when Lyra levitated him into the left bag, only partially closing it so the baby could peek at their surroundings.
“Okay, let’s go,” Lyra said before leaving her bedroom and heading for the door. She pulled the door open and gently shut it behind her before trotting towards the road to the east, trying her best to look inconspicuous.
Jonnathan looked at his surroundings in amazement. Though he made sure to keep himself concealed enough so only his eyes would show, he was almost certain some of the ponies did a double-take when they saw the bulge in his Mommy’s bag.
Please let everything be alright, Jonnathan thought in his head, trying to invoke the aid of this person called “God” his birth parents mentioned a lot. All he knew was that apparently, “God” was even more powerful than his birth father, and that “God” had a good heart. Hopefully, “God” could hear him and would help.
As a pink pony with neither wings nor horn seemed to notice him and started to bounce towards his Mommy, he instinctively reached for the magic flowing through him and grasped the Mind Element (he seemed to be doing that a lot, lately) before constructing it into an invisible wave of mental static, which he sent at the pony, clouding her thoughts and making her forget what she’d just seen over the last few seconds. If he knew the spell’s name, he could at least think it to make it stronger, but it’d have to do. Mommy said she’d take care of him, and even though he was just three weeks old, he’d do his best to protect her, too.
The pony just stared blankly into space as he and his Mommy continued to get farther away. But right before they started to pass a building that would obscure her view of them and guarantee their escape, the pony broke out of her stupor and took notice of them again.
God, I don’t know who or what you are, but please help us! the baby screamed in his head as he prepared to cast the spell again.
“Hey! Lyra!” a voice Lyra really didn’t want to hear at the moment called out.
Lyra ignored Pinkie and started to pick up speed, not daring to look back as she broke into a full gallop.
“Lyra! Wait!”
No way am I listening to that request! Lyra thought grimly as she started to charge her horn for a teleportation spell.
“Lyra! I—”
Pinkie cut off mid sentence, and Lyra chanced a look back. What she saw was not at all what she was expecting: Pinkie was standing still, scratching her head and staring off into space as if she’d forgotten something. Next, Lyra looked at her saddlebag containing her new son, and saw a purple glow fade out.
Whatever he did, it stopped her, Lyra concluded. Well, I shouldn’t waste this chance! I’ll have to book it!”
Lyra finished charging her horn and cast the teleportation spell, taking her the rest of the way to Fluttershy’s cottage, and leaving Pinkie none the wiser.