After an amazing goodnight sleep, Lyra woke up to the start of a new day. She took a shower and had a nice breakfast with her roommate, Bon Bon. After getting themselves ready for the day, they exited their house to open the candy shop. Bon Bon was the owner while Lyra was her assistant. Since the Canterlot Orchestra was on break, she had enough spare time to lend a helping hoof to her best friend. Lyra noticed something strange about the ponies' attitude today. It wasn’t a surprise that at least one pony would insult her about her beliefs about humans being real. It had been the same since that day she finally decided to share her beliefs with everypony.
Of course, nopony believed her superstitions. Soon, many started calling her 'Humaniac', 'Human Lover', 'Hupsycho', or her personal favorite, 'Humony'. She didn’t care what they all thought about her. After all, she was completely sure that humans exist. And someday she would find one and they would be best friend forever and ever!
Back to the topic, there wasn’t a single day without at least one pony calling her by one of those mean nicknames. But so far today... nothing. Instead of the usual daily routine, many ponies were waving their hooves at her and smiling. Some even giggled and bowed to her, like they were sympathetic or something.
Bon Bon also took noticed of this as well.
“Wow, Lyra, are we really in Ponyville?”.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around that too, Bon Bon”.
They decided to ignore the strange feeling and resumed their trot to the candy shop. Once they arrived, they found some notes attached to the door which said;
“SORRY FOR CALLING YOU A CRAZY HALLUCINATING PONY”
“YOU WERE RIGHT AFTER ALL!”
“I’M SO SORRY LYRA, NO HARD FEELINGS RIGHT?”
There were some others, but Lyra ignored them and tossed every note in the trash can next to the front door. This joke has started to go a little too far. She didn’t even know why were they doing this. Were they trying to make her feel welcome before bullying her again when her guard is down? As if she'd be stupid enough to fall for that lame joke.
“What do you think they're planning, Bon Bon?”
“What? What you mean, Lyra?”
“Oh please, it’s pretty obvious that they're up to something. Suddenly everypony started treating me nicely and apologetic? Well, I don’t buy it!”
“I don’t know, Lyra. They seemed pretty sincere to me. Maybe it's for real.”
“But why? It doesn’t make any sense! It’s not like a human just showed up in front of them, proving that I was right all along!”
Bon Bon chuckled, “You're right Lyra. Seriously, what are the chances of that happening anyway?”
“Umm... excuse me for my impatience, but... are you going to open up the shop now? I’d like to buy some sweets for these lovely fillies.”, a voice said from behind them.
“Oh! Just give us one moment, sir. Your voice doesn't sound familiar. Are you new in tow...”
Bon Bon turned to see her customer and her eyes widened to impossible levels. Her mind didn’t have enough time to process what she was looking at; a furless and hornless minotaur with three little fillies next to him.
“Bon Bon, what happened? Why are you...”
Lyra also turned around to see. Bright, the Crusaders and Dinky, who was in his arms, relived the familiar sense of déjà vu. Not knowing what to do with 2 unconscious mares who faint after seeing the human. They decided to go to Sugarcube Corner for their snack.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“They'll... they'll will be alright... won't they?”
“Sure, they’ll be fine. As you could tell from yesterday, many ponies can be really overdramatic in this town.”
“Yeah! Not to mention she's the only pony who ever believed that your kind exist. Now that ah think about it, yah might've broken her.”
“What? You mean she's a Heart... what was their last name? Can you tell me their names, girls?”
“Yeah, the earth pony's name is Bon Bon and the unicorn's name is Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Oh! So she's a descendant of Scroll Heartstrings! Well... she seems nice to me.”
“She is, but... she can be a little obsessive with your kind. I would suggest you to watch your back from now on, at least until she calms down and gets use to you.”
“Noted, Sweetie Belle. Now let’s go! I really need something sweet to bite!”
“Yay! Let’s go, Bright!” the trio said.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Lyra and Bon Bon were waking up, they nuzzled their head and opened their eyes.
“Owwww, my head. Wha... what happened?”, Bon Bon said and turned to see Lyra, who was just staring at the place where Bright was before she fainted.
“Lyra? What are you looking at?”, she then notices Lyra was sweating and a huge smile was adorning her face.
“Bon Bon... you saw it too, right? I know you did! After all, you fainted too!”
“Saw what?... Oh, now I remember! Yeah! I saw it!”
“That’s all I wanted to hear!”
Lyra then started running in the direction where the human might've gone off to, while ignoring Bon Bon's screams to stop.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bright and the little fillies were having a nice conversation while enjoying their milkshakes. He was pretty impressed with all their crusades. How in Tartarus were they still in one piece? Bright told them a little more about himself as well, but decided not to tell them about his powers unless it would be necessary. Seriously, the last thing he needed was to answer thousand of questions from everypony in town. Not to mention the thought of what these three cuties asking him what he'd do for a 'crusade'.
After their questioning, the Crusaders decided to show their club’s president their headquarters... a tree house. It was quite the walk before they arrived, but suddenly, Bright felt a sense of danger and immediately jumped high. He made it just in time to dodge a mint green ball of fur.
“What was that?”, he thought.
Whatever it was landed several meters away on the ground. He and the Crusaders immediately noticed that the furry mass was a pony. Even though she landed hard on the ground, the mint green pony immediately stood up and sharply glared at Bright. Suddenly, her horn glowed. Bright was blinded by her magic while she tackled him again. The second later he had two powerful hooves against his stomach and a little cute pony face nuzzling his chest.
“I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!! I KNEW HUMANS EXISTED!!”
“What the f...?”
“OH, BUT FEAR NO MORE, MY DEAR HUMAN! I KNOW YOU MUST FEEL LONELY AND LOST IN THIS PONY WORLD, BUT NO ANYMORE! COME WITH ME!”
Bright raised his head and saw that it was the same mint unicorn who fainted earlier from seeing him. She had a grin in her face that would easily match Twilight’s when she finds a new book she hasn't read, only... that sight was enough for him to know that troubles was afoot... Er, ahoof?
“Uhm, excuse me, miss, but... would you kindly let me go, please?!”
“AHA! I KNEW I WASN’T WRONG WHEN I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU! YOU CAN TALK! THAT’S SO AWESOME!!”
Bright was starting to feel really uncomfortable now. This pony's grip was really strong. He tried to pull her away, but she was too strong. He knew he couldn’t use his powers or strength against her. The last thing he needed was to be known as the human prince who hit a mare, no less one of his subjects. That would not look good on his resume.
Bright did the only thing he could think of: scratch the pony's ears.
“What are you... ohhhhh, that feels so good... so relaxing... if this what hands are capable of... mmm. I so have to bring you home with me.”
Little by little, Lyra loosened her grip on Bright, enough for him to get free. He then started to make a run for it, but his escape was interrupted when he found himself being levitated by this pony’s magic.
“Ah ah ah! You're not going anywhere! Especially since I'm more curious about what those beautiful hands of yours can do!”
Bright facepalmed for his own stupidity. He made himself more desirable after that ear-scratching stunt he pulled.
Lyra grinned and started to skipping towards her home with her new human until the CMC stood in her way.
“Hey, Miss Heartstrings! What do you think you are doing with our friend!”, Sweetie Belle asked, clearly pissed off.
“Yeah! The other two added.
“Oh, I’m just taking him to his new home. MY home! Don’t worry, I promise you he'll be treated very well and I'll give him tons of love!”
“Uh?... Miss Lyra, you do realize who he is, don't you?”
“He's a human! You know, the species I always said existed, but everypony always made fun of me? Now I have a solid proof and a new friend! Isn’t that fantastic!”, Lyra said with a grin while clapping her hooves.
The girls looked at each other in confusion, but immediately understood her. It was clear that she didn’t know who he is or who his mother was. After all, until yesterday, almost nopony in town knew about Prince Bright. Their thoughts were interrupted when they noticed Lyra and Bright were gone.
Lyra kept skipping happily to her home. Everypony who saw them couldn’t help but watch them in confusion. Lyra, by her part, kept repeating:
“In your faces! I told you so! Who is the crazy pony now, huh?!”
Bright didn’t say or do anything. As any unicorn, Lyra’s aura was strong, but it was nothing he couldn’t break with his strength alone, but he decided to let her be. After all, it's not every day you can prove to a whole town that you weren’t crazy.
“Oh, I have so much I want to ask you, my dear human! Just you wait, you will love your new home!”
Bright chuckled a little and asked:
“And why do you think I need a home? Wouldn’t you have stopped to think that maybe... I already have one?”
“Ahahahahaha! Oh, my dear human, you don’t have to pretend. I know very well that you are one of a kind and knowing this town, I’m pretty sure all of them haven’t treated you very well.”
“What make you think... oh, I see. You just arrived in town, didn’t you?”
“Huh? How did you know that? Are you a psychic? Human are psychics? Please tell me your kind are psychic!”
“...No, not really. You see, I already presented myself to everypony yesterday, with Mayor Mare's help. What I want to say is that everypony here already knows me.”
“What? So that means...”
“Yeah... you're embarrassing yourself right now. Can you please let me go?”
Lyra thought for one moment about the human's words, but...
“I... I don’t believe you! You're lying!”
“No, I’m not. Please, lady, isn’t strange that nopony is shocked at seeing me right now? In fact, I think they are more shocked to see you kidnapping me.”
“What... why would they be?”, Lyra said, but also noticed everypony looking at her way. The human was right. Instead of looking at him, they were looking at her as if she were committing a criminal act.
“Umm... why is everypony looking at me like that?”
Bright thought for a moment about what to say to her in this situation, but decided to being honest.
“Well, you see, my mother... well, my adopted mother is... Princess Celestia.”
After hearing that, Lyra froze in place. Those words echoed in her head until...
“WHAT!?”
“Yep. Sorry for not telling you sooner, but I wanted you to have your fun.”
“But... but... no! You're lying. There is no way that you're Celestia's son!”
“But that was we were trying to tell you, Miss Lyra”, Applebloom, who just arrived with the rest of the Crusaders, said.
Lyra narrowed her eyes and smirked.
“Ha! Do you really expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true, Miss Heartstrings”, another voice intervened.
Everypony looked who said that. It was Mayor Mare. Alongside her was Bon Bon. Lyra was shocked. Somehow she knew that she was in serious trouble.
“He indeed is Princess Celestia’s son. Now I will not say this twice; release Prince Bright now!”
“But... but...”
“Please, Lyra. I know you were excited about seeing a human, but you're taking this too far. Just look at the prince - he is terrified!”
“What? I am not!”
“You're not? Oh.. Well, anyways, Lyra, please, release him. You could go to jail if you don’t.”
Lyra, ashamed, nodded and released the human. Mayor Mare approached the mint unicorn slowly, terrifying Lyra until the human stood in between her and the Mayor.
“Prince Bright, what are you doing? This mare just committed a grave crime against royalty. She tried to ponynap you. I think she deserve some form of punishment.”
Lyra, sobbing, said:
“I’m sorry... I didn’t know he was Princess Celestia’s son. I... I was so happy to finally discover a real human... I just wanted to prove to everypony that I wasn’t crazy, Please... forgive me.”
Bright noticed the little unicorn’s tears and he sighed.
“Mayor... ahem, this was all just a misunderstanding. You see, Miss Lyra here was just giving me a ride with her magic. I gave her my consent so no crimes against me or royalty has been committed here.”
Mayor Mare looked at the Prince with confusion. She was about to protest, but Bright interrupted her again.
“But... there has been another crime going around in Ponyville!”
Everypony present looked at Bright, confused.
“A crime of bullying! You see, my unicorn friend here was always aware of the existence of my kind, but instead of receiving the respect she deserved, she was made fun of and humiliated! And as Prince of Equestria, I cannot allow that!”
Bright looked a little pissed. Everypony was a little afraid of what he was planning to do. He made it very clear, yesterday with Ditsy, that he hated bullying. Bright looked at them, knowing that he had them right where he wanted.
“So I demand that everypony, who ever made fun of Miss Lyra Heartstrings, apologize to her!”
Everypony, including Lyra and Bon Bon, gasped. They all thought he was joking, but his serious stare made them think otherwise. Without wasting time, everypony approached Lyra.
“We're sorry, Lyra.”
“You were right all along.”
“Sorry for being so mean to you.”
"We won't doubt you ever again."
Those were some of the comments that ponies gave her. Even Mayor Mare apologized to her. After everything settled down, everypony returned to their homes or jobs, leaving only Bright, Bon Bon and Lyra.
“Well... I guess that solves everything.”, Bright said, waving his hand and proceeded to return to his home.
“Why?”
“Huh?", he turned around, “Why what?”
“Why did you helped me? I just tried to take you home with me! I held you against your will! So why did you helped me?”
Bright sighed, “You want my honest answer? Okay... because, as I said, I know what you went through I know the pain of being bullied for being different or having strange beliefs.”
Bright approached the melancholy unicorn and scratched her ear again.
“But now you don’t have to worry about any of that anymore, now that everypony knows. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“...Yes...that’s what I... oh, thank you! I'm so happy!”
Lyra tackled Bright in a hug... again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come live with me? I mean, as a roommate! I could get use to this!”
“Sorry, but I can’t. I’m just passing by. I'll eventually have to return to Canterlot.”
“I see. Well... could you at least come over to my home and answer some questions regarding your species?”
“Just like Twilight and Sunset”, Bright thought.
“Okay, as long as you don’t try something crazy again. Promise?”
“I promise! Oh, I forgot, we were never formally introduced; My name is Lyra Heartstrings and this is my best friend Bon Bon.”
“Nice to meet you, Prince Bright.”, Bon Bon said as she bowed.
“Please, no bowing. I don’t really like the formalities. It's nice to meet you both too! Okay, Miss Heartstrings, lead the way!”
Lyra nodded rapidly and started skipping towards her and Bon Bon's home. She couldn't be any happier. Not only she managed to prove she was right all along about humans, but she also made a new friend... A NEW HUMAN FRIEND!
Bright didn’t know why, but, he suddenly felt very cold... as if he just made a pact with the devil. He proved this to be true since he didn’t sleep the next night, for the little unicorn literally asked him hundreds of questions. Almost the 80% of the questions were focused on his hands and what they were capable of. Lyra begged for dozens of ear scratches throughout the whole thing. Yep, he had screwed big time!
“Correction; she's even worse than Twilight and Sunset put together.”, he thought.
