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// 33 Home 
// Story: Lyra-7% 
// by Meep the Changeling 
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Fluttershy - 5th of Megan 17 EoH - Mid Afternoon

Multiverse Location: The Prime, Equis #0B

After Sky and Lyra had left, I spent a little more time at lunch with Ayna and Trixie. I liked them, they were very friendly ponies, if weird in their own way. Which is good! If everypony were normal the world would be very boring.

But as fun as talking to them and learning about the world was, I am still me. I can’t do too much talking to ponies I don't know for too long. It’s like running. A pony can only run for so long.

And for once, the ponies I was talking to completely understood! Ayna looked over at Trixie as I started to reply less and less and actually said, ‘We hit her socializing limit, hun.’ To which Trixie actually replied, ‘Oh! Ay has her limit too, but it’s bigger than yours. Here,’ then gave me the frequency of her messenger gem to use when I wanted to talk later and suggested Ayna lead Bon and I to our cabin.

Not even my friends back home were that considerate. And they knew me for years! It was amazing. Especially since Ayna didn’t try to make small talk while she led me through the hallway to the cabin we had been assigned. I was alone with my thoughts, free to recover from the hour of conversation.

I was going to fit in well here.

I must admit I was just a little irritated at Lyra for basically leaving me to set up a new house on my own. With a young child to look after on top of everything else. But I was there when Doctor Hooves diagnosed her, and well… Medically necessary operations are pretty important. You can’t blame someone for getting one as soon as they can.

Unless they are me. I could probably go a week or two with a broken part. Well, unless it was the brain. Hum… Yes, Lyra is definitely immune to being upset with here.

Not that I would be too upset. It’s mostly just that setting up an entire home is well, hard! Especially when you are doing it with someone you’ve known for just over a month. I knew a lot about Lyra, but not, say, what color she might prefer for curtains.

Then again, I could just make everything the way I like it and she could simply use her AR to tweak how she sees the colors and patterns and general decorations. Oh my goodness! That must totally be how her people do it! They just get like, plain white boxes for furniture and then decorate as necessary with the mental images. As long as all of the functional parts were there it wouldn’t matter how it looked because everyone could make it look how they wanted.

No wonder she thought Pony made things were a bit weird! All of our stuff is designed with form and function in mind. It would be a lot harder to make a bookshelf we made look different by changing its colors and textures. Especially since earth ponies grow trees with specific wood grains to form decorations on furniture later.

Which meant if I decorated the room in a way she could use, then I would be stuck with boring plain white function only furnishings.

Ponyfeathers.

“Are you okay?” Ayna asked, looking over her shoulder with a frown. “You taste kinda sad.”

Her words caught me by surprise. “Um, you can taste my emotions? I mean I know what changelings are but, uh, I mean I am an equoid.”

Ayna stopped and turned around to face me. “I thought that meant ‘brain bucket cyborg’. I take it that’s not correct. Can you explain what it means?” She asked politely.

“Um, well… I’m entirely inorganic. Even the brain. I’m not too good with technology, so I don’t know the proper words. Um, I’m a pony who was dead, revived into an entirely synthetic body,” I replied, hoping she understood.

“Okay, so, a consciousness transfer… Huh, well yeah, it is weird that I can taste your emotions then. You must be built to like, EXACTLY mimic a pony. That’s pretty cool,” she mused, turning back around. “At any rate, if you were worried about not really being alive, well, now we know!”

I giggled. “I wasn’t worried about that. But it is nice to know that organic changelings can sense us. It’s like um… Peer review!”

Ayna nodded. “Mhm, but anyways, that's sad. Why?”

“Oh,” I paused for a moment, stitching the right words together in my head. “I’m just worrying about decoration. Lyra’s not here, and Bon might want-”

“Skettios!” Bon exclaimed from behind me.

“Maybe later,” I replied reflexively before continuing. “Specific things too… I just don’t know what to do.”

“Well, she’ll be back soon. Just get a couch printed up and chill for a bit, then get to the nitty gritty. You’ll need credits for anything non-basic anyways,” Ayna poorly explained.

“Er, printed?” I asked with a frown.

“Oh… Um, I’ll show you, we’re almost there,” Ayna informed as we turned a corner into a wider hallway which had a nice green paint to give its walls a feeling of homey warmth.

The hallway wasn't empty either. Plenty of changelings and a few ponies were walking to and from their own apartments, um, cabins, and there were even a few smaller circular spaces that made the hallway even wider with benches to sit on. I could see some ponies they're having conversations of just reading a book.

From what I could see, this hallway branched off into other smaller hallways every so often, which led to rows of four rooms each. Making the big hall way we were in now sort of like a river, with the smaller ones being the tributaries.

“You’re in Cabin Four-Two-Four-One,” Ayna said, trotting down the hallway on the left hoof side.

“Alright, is there anything important to know about-”

“Yes,” Ayna replied immediately. “Across the hallway is Cabin Four-Two-Four-Two. It is rented to a certain foreign noble as a ‘vacation from politics and other bullshit’ home. You will recognize her on sight- Oh. Right… Other universe, er, do you have Alicorns?”

I nodded. “Yes. It’s not Celestia’s is it? I know she has a house in Ponyville for that reason you mentioned. At least ours does.”

“No, Luna’s,” Ayna corrected. “It’s only important to mention because this is a place for her to get away from politics. So if you see her around, no using her title, and no idol worship. Just treat her like a normal pony. Everyling and pone here already do. Can you do that?”

I nodded quickly. “Yes. Thanks for letting me know, I would have used her title. Um, ours is different. She would insist on it. Is there anything else about the cabin?”

“No. Nothing atypical,” Ayna said, stopping at a white sliding double door set into the wall. Turning to face it, she held a hoof out to touch the door panel tapping it twice. “Touch the panel, please,” she requested.

I did, and the panel flashed green in response.

“That’s your ‘key’,” Ayna said happily. “Just do the same for anyone you want to have access to the room. I would delete myself from the lock’s memory, but um, yeah… Not allowed to. Bridge crew have to be able to access any door.”

“That’s okay, um, fire services and police can get in too, right?” I asked.

Ayna nodded. “Naturally. And if they can't open the door they’ll just break it. Emergencies are emergencies. Tap it again, let’s take you two on the tour.”

The tour was brief, but it showed me everything I needed to know. Cabin didn’t quite cut it. This was a small house.

The Cabin was divided into three equal sized sections. The one you entered immediately was a large room with a bar-counter divider to split it into a living room and a kitchen. While undecorated, it was a nice large room and felt very homey. To my delight, you could see out into the lovely Commons garden through an illusion spell built into the wall next to the door so it looks like the view out a window! There were even sunbeams that came through as if the garden was really on the other side of the wall instead of the hallway you entered from.

The third of the apartment on the right side of the Cabin was a large master bedroom, with its own large bathroom and walk-in closet. A closet the size of my old bedroom! It wasn’t that the Cabin was massive, it was maybe as big as the apartment Rarity had atop the Carousel Boutique. But my own little house had been quite tiny. It would have fit inside the living/kitchen area and the master bedroom section with just a little room to spare.

Which was good. My old home was cozy, but it would not really be comfortable for three.

As an added bonus, the master bedroom was soundproofed for reasons of, ‘family housing should not ignore adult needs’. Then we showed Bon how to use the doorbell on the master bedroom's door. Which locked. Now that was a much-appreciated feature.

The other third of the Cabin consisted of many smaller rooms, including another bedroom. Since it was perfect for Bon, I told her it was her new room. The adorable little thing honestly didn't understand what that meant. It took Ayna and I nearly fifteen minutes to explain to her that she had a place that was hers, to be customized and lived in. Once she got it, the idea stuck with her and she spent the rest of the tour slithering about her new room excitedly chattering about what to do with it.

I decided to not tell her that a tree wouldn't fit in the room...

That third also held a common bathroom, and a small utility room. The interesting things were in the utility room. Mostly because of the small conjurer, which Ayna spent about ten minutes showing me how to work.

I knew that Twilight had been talking about the devices existing in theory, and I could see why she insisted they were a game changer for many things. Basically, they let non-mages use conjuration spells to create things. The downsides being twofold. First, the Emeralds made it so you had to pay for the service since the energy for the spell to work came from the ship’s limited daily supply. Second, the things each individual unit could make were limited. Each device had ‘cards’ you stuck in it which contained the instructions for each individual conjuration spell it could cast for you.

That meant I couldn’t just pull anything out of my imagination and have it made then and there. But it was still useful, especially because basic food item cards were already installed! It was like having a small market in your own house.

But still, it was basically useless without a job and money in the Phoenix's bank account, it did have something which could be made for free. Like simple sleeping ‘mats’ and bedding, very basic furniture… Nothing very ‘nice’ or even high quality. But we could have everything needed to furnish a home comfortably right away. Just, you know, only with things we would definitely want to replace as soon as possible.

After showing me how the conjurer worked, she then showed me how to use the illusion-window-thingie. It could be temporarily turned into a pretty sophisticated map that also provided directions, look up places that provided goods or services… A lot of things. Almost too much to take in.

Honestly, I was a bit surprised they even had normal markets still. Why have those if you can make a device that makes anything you can give it instructions for? But then I thought about it some more and I realized that ponies like to do things. Just sitting around doing nothing is boring, some changelings or ponies liked to make tables and chairs. Of course, there would still be shops! Especially since you still had to pay for things you ‘printed’ as Ayna called it.

Her explanation was stopped briefly as she frowned, holding her hoof out for a moment in a ‘wait’ gesture.

“Sorry about that,” Ayna apologized. “Sky called. Apparently, Lyra will be later than we thought.”

Oh no! Please be okay!

“Did he say why? It’s not anything bad is it?” I asked urgently.

Ayna paused for a moment, then shook her head. “She’s apparently fine, but ran into someone. … I really hate playing the messenger, do you have a radio?” She asked.

I nodded.

“Awesome, let's get you into the comms network, I’ll give you Lyra’s frequency and then we can just not have me relaying messages,” Ayna said in relief.

We spent a few minutes getting me logged into the ship. I didn’t think my radio could do it, but apparently with a little tweaking it was able to tap into the Phoenix's own transmitter and stuff. It would be nice to be able to call anypony I knew. And especially Lyra.

Not that I was going to right away. A good relationship needs trust, or so everypony told me. I would let her go do her thing and trust her to tell me about it later.

Once we were done, Ayna nodded in satisfaction. “Right, that’s that. Now I have to go track down Bonbon and get her to her own room. It’s just down the hall. We figured we’d split you guys off… I mean, I’d find it weird if Sky and Pinkie roomed with me. Siblings shouldn’t have to be roomies and such.”

“I appreciate that,” I thanked. “Um, one last question…”

“Mmm?” the changeling asked.

“It, um, it doesn't look like a lot of changelings here know about dimensional travelers,” I said timidly. “I uh, I don't know if you want me to pretend to be this universe's Shy, or a changeling, or just let everypony know…”

“Oh! Good point,” Ayna exclaimed, biting her lip in thought. “Well, you are very uncommon here. So it’s more like people just don't know that you can travel between alternate realities. It would be dumb to have you claim to be a changeling. We do have a few who prefer to stay morphed, but you won't fool a changeling by claiming to be one of us.

“Lyra will have to be explained that way, and you can do that if you want to. But if you want to avoid the attention, just say you’re an android and you were designed the way you look. It’s not a lie, and you’ll probably get a few hugs. Emeralds are universally geeks, you see?”

“Okay!” I said happily, deciding to go with her route. No need to get too convoluted with everypony.

“Hell, just say my brother built you and everyone will not even question you further. Right, I’m going to go now. Feel free to call me or Trixie if you need anything,” Ayna said as she slipped out of the door, leaving Bon and I alone. “Later.”

“Goodbye,” I said, the doors sliding shut, leaving Bon and I to set up the Cabin with the basics.

The two of us spent a few hours getting those basics together. For a young person, Bon really enjoyed helping others. And actually helping. Not foal helping, where you give them a toy hammer and ask them to bang on something for you. Bon actually liked to help, especially with moving things.

I wondered if maybe it was just a species instinct to help. Or if she simply enjoyed it as an individual. I’d have to get some books on Lamias. I knew enough about them to fight one, but raising them is a completely different matter.

Except for the tips on how to survive wrestling with one. I still remembered her pouncing Lyra and I a few weeks ago. Those tips would be very useful.

Since most of the furniture we could print needed to be put together, she couldn’t help with everything. Though Bon did enjoy passing me parts too. After a few hours, we had a couch, a dining table with two chairs (Bon didn’t want one), basic eating utensils and kitchenware, and blankets for everyone.

But that was it. Still, at least it wouldn’t be a night on the floor!

With all of the rooms set up as best as the two of us could get them, I took Bon into her new room and told her stories until she fell asleep. Thank goodness she seemed to like sleeping almost as much as a cat. It would leave Lyra and I with plenty of time to ourselves.

Whenever she got home at least. Oh gosh! Do I really think of this place as home already?

Yes. Yes, I did. Why?

The park. One hundred percent that park. I should really see about finding somepony who can get me a job as a groundskeeper. Yes. Things were looking up. I was going to love it here.

 Lyra Heartstrings - 5th of Megan 17 EoH - Evening

Multiverse Location: The Prime, Equis #0B

I felt very lucky. Not only because I had found people who even if I wasn’t actually family (Though I was pretty damn sure they were now.), they treated me like I was. No, that was a bonus.

Right now I was on my way home. Walking through a starship. Guided to my home inside that starship by an AI. While carrying three large duffle bags of stuff for living in a home. Stuff that my dad had got me.

That was both a strange phrase, and a wonderful one. I had a dad. He got me stuff. The first time that ever happened. How could I not smile?

Hell, he’d gotten me stuff and my girlfriend stuff! Literally, first thing after setting foot inside a pony shop, ‘Hey, what’s your mare like? We’ll get her some stuff too. She’ll need shampoo and fur wash. Know what scents she likes?’

Ponies are so fucking nice. I’d need to do something nice for him, and soon.

I’d also need to invite my sister to meet my Bonbon. Also, dad should meet his grandkid. Grandsnake? Yes. Grandsnake. Heh, that was hilariously cute.

“On your left,” Sai said over the VM. “Number Four-Two-Four-One.”

“Thanks, Sai,” I replied.

I looked down the hall to my left, spotted the door number and paused for a moment, not quite wanting to touch the door panel. Just in case.

I mean, I know Sky said she was disassembled… But yeah, let’s not fuck up this really good day. Because knowing my luck over the last month and a half...

Deciding to knock on the door instead. I raised my fist and gave the door a few good smacks. After a few seconds the doors hissed open, and Fluttershy reared up to wrap her arms around my shoulders in a tight hug.

“There you are!” She said happily before giving me a quick kiss. “Did everything go okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered happily, returning her hug, then scooping her up into my arms so I could walk inside the rather spacious and flipping huge cabin. “Damn! This is huge! Did we get a luxury room?”

“Ayna said it was standard,” Shy replied.

I heard the door across the hall hiss open and reflexively stepped right to get behind the wall.

God damn military training! Ugh, it would be fine when this place wasn’t unfamiliar.

“Hello? Did someone knock?” A voice called from across the hall.

“Sorry! New neighbors, don’t mind us. Door didn’t open for me,” I called back.

"Oh, don't worry, they stick sometimes," she said. "The repair 'lings are pretty fast, just give them a call."

"Will do!" I called.

Not wanting to talk to the neighbors just yet, I looked over at shy and nodded towards the door panel on the inside. “Er, could you…”

Shy nodded, reached out, and shut the door. As it hissed shut, I noticed the rather nice looking couch and walked over to it, sitting down, shifting Shy into my lap as I did so, and also setting the duffle bags on the floor.

“Whew… That was a hell of a thing,” I sighed happily. “This couch is pretty soft, did they just give this away with the room?”

“Um, yes. There’s a printer, I’ll show you how to use it later,” Shy replied, nuzzling into my shoulder. “Um, do you really think this is soft?”

I paused for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Well, yeah. In my experience. Pretty comfy,” I explained.

“We're saving up and buying a nice couch. You need to have a better sense of scale,” Shy giggled.

“Pfff, no problem. I had good luck for once,” I said with a grin.

“Are those bags filled with bits?” Shy asked curiously, turning to look at the three bags.

“Nah, shampoo, fur cleaner, some candied oats, soaps. House stuff,” I said.

“How’d you get it? Sky?” Shy asked.

“No… You’re probably not going to believe this, but I found my dad!” I exclaimed happily.

I had a fucking dad. How cool was that?

“I thought you said he was dead,” Shy said with a confused frown and head tilt.

“I thought he was, and that’s what my mom said. I never saw him once. Because that’s a bullshit lie,” I explained. “Turns out he’s alive. He’s also a pony. It’s complicated. But apparently, my mom managed to come here… And was a colossal cunt,”

Fluttershy winced, opening her mouth to probably tell me I shouldn’t call her that. I quickly continued so she couldn’t interrupt. “Yes I know, I’m talking about my mother. Yeah, that’s a really offensive thing to call someone. But it’s the only accurate word to use and I’m a soldier. We’re allowed to curse.”

Shy’s wince increased to what had to be the maximum size her face would allow. “W-what could possibly make it ‘accurate’ to call somepony that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, according to dad she is responsible for an act of terrorism that claimed like over a hundred lives. So yeah…” I finished, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

“Oh… Okay. But um, maybe not use that word around Bon?” Fluttershy asked politely.

“No problem sexy,” I promised,

“She’s not a good person. I sort of knew that, but the scale is now like… Well… Let’s just not talk about her, okay?” I asked.

Fluttershy nodded. “So um, you found your dad?” She asked curiously.

“Mhm! He’s a great guy. I also met my sister too! I got a Twin sister, she grew up here. So yeah, heh… I’m related to the human obsessed ‘me’. That’s pretty hilarious,” I said with a giggle.

“Seriously?” Fluttershy asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

“Seriously! I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to,” I said, giving her a loving scratch behind the ears before eeping. “Uh! Sorry, is that okay to do with you?”

Shy nodded. “Of course silly, we’re a couple. And it feels nice.”

Oh good. No need to mention we do that to our dogs… It’s just sort of what you do to a quadruped in your lap.

“Besides, I like pet play,” Shy said with a wink.

“Oh! Well, alright. I um, I don't know how to do that though. Never knew anyone into it. We’ll work on that later, okay?” I asked.

“Looking forward to it,” Shy said, leaning in to give me a loving kiss.

Right, accidental fuckup went better than expected! Good. Lady Luck is apparently over her period. About fucking time if you ask me.

“Anyways, we need to make up a list of furniture we need,” I said, continuing what I had been trying to say all along. “Dad wants to throw us a house warming party. I cleared that with the higher ups… Apparently, we can just throw a party. Isn’t that cool? Anyways, the point is, dad’s going to gets us furniture. Good stuff too. Which is great because a bed for someone my size is going to need to be customized, apparently.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Mhm. Since we usually sleep with our legs folded up pony beds are pretty short.”

I tilted my head curiously. “But I fit in yours…”

“I like to stretch my legs when I sleep. So I got a custom bed size,” she explained. “And why I put two sleeping mats end to end in our room.”

“Oh! Yeah, that makes sense,” I said with a nod.

Before I could continue, my VM beeped at me. Unsure of what the beep meant, I flipped the cover open and realized that this screen was probably displaying an ‘incoming call’. Squinting at the words on the screen, I pressed the text box on the right, hoping it was the ‘answer’ button.

“Sorry sexy,” I apologized. “I think this is a call.”

“Uh, yeah… I am your sister you know,” Lyra’s voice said over the VM.

Oh shit! That meant ‘answer NOW!’ not ‘accept the call and prepare to transmit’. Gotta remember this tech is not built to transition between conversations in meatspace and digital space.

“But I mean, you are human and Bonbon and I are open, and twins are cool. So maybe if I’m reaaal drunk... Sure!” Lyra joked.

“Haha, very funny. I was talking to my marefriend whose in my lap, not you sis,” I answered, rolling my eyes.

Shy giggled. “It’s okay, you're not interrupting anything. But don't call back this evening, okay?”

“Holy crap! You weren't joking, she does sound just like Fluttershy,” Lyra exclaimed. “Hey Roboshy, how’s it hanging? Is that an actual human greeting? It doesn't seem like it would be but a lot of ponies in certain clubs I frequent think-”

“It is,” I replied. “But it’s meant for a guy. Cuz the ‘it’ in question is a dick.”

“And they hang?” Lyra asked in surprise.

I rolled my eyes again. Sis, I am pretty sure I like you, but yeah… Bit of a motormouth.

“What did you call me for?” I asked.

“Oh! Right!” She exclaimed, the sound of hoof meeting face punctuating her exclamation nicely. “I was thinking. Between the two of us, maybe we could track down mom. See about finding some answers. There’s got to be more to it than ‘I want to reap the benefits of two systems’. I mean, it seems kind of weird to keep hopping between entire universes like that. She’s gotta have some kind of scheme, and I feel like it’s something we should stop. Or at least discover. You in?”

I paused, taking a second to think about it.

No. No, I was not in. At least, not yet. Not if I didn’t have to.

“How long do ponies normally live?” I asked.

I remembered Fluttershy said her fuel cell would last a lifetime between refills, and that was about two hundred and fifty years. But that didn’t mean ponies lived that long in this universe.

“Well, depends on eating, exercise, and health. Between two hundred seventy and three hundred years on average. Why?” Lyra asked.

“Okay, and how old would she be now?” I asked again.

“Um… Well, she looked about one twenty when I was fifteen… Dad said she looked older than she was sooo… I’d say she’s about one fifty, probably. Again, why?” Lyra asked in confusion.

“Then we have plenty of time,” I said with a relieved sigh. “No offense meant Lyra, but I’m kind of adventured out for a while. I got a girlfriend who I really want to get to know while not being shot at. And I also have a kid to take care of at least until she’s old enough to stay with her aunt for a few weeks… Actually, where is BB?”

“Oh!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “She has her own cabin, it’s down the hall a ways. Four-Two-Five-Eight.”

“Good to know,” I thanked. “But anyways, sis, I think I need to stick around home for a while. Put my boots down. Set up the fort before I ask someone to hold it. I don't want to go riding straight off into the sunset again. I just got here.”

“Um, I didn’t mean like literally right now,” Lyra replied. “I was thinking next month.”

“How about we wait a few years?” I countered. “I seriously have a little kid.”

“What’s a pet goat have to do with anything?” Lyra asked in annoyed confusion.

Shy snorted as she tried not to laugh. “Um, Lyra, that’s the human term for a foal.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed. “Oh! Got it. Sorry! I understand. I uh, mostly wanted to use that as an excuse to hang out… I was going to really just get some contacts looking for her and we could like have weekly coffee and be all espionagie while reading up on the latest intel and hanging out. I didn’t mean literally go comb the planet looking for her by ourselves.”

“Oh. Well in that case, sure. I promised you we would hang out anyways,” I laughed. “You could have just said so in the first place.”

“Yeah, but that’s less fun than playing spy. A filly’s never too old to play spy!” Lyra giggled. “Oh yeah! Mind if I ask some more questions? I sort of wrote a few down before I called…”

Shy gave me a look indicating she would like me to get off the comms. I gave Shy a look agreeing with her look.

How to get out of a conversation as quickly as possible? Ummm-

“She’s busy,” Shy informed. “I learned how to do her thing so tonight she learns how to do my thing.”

Well, that’s one way to do it...

“Oh! Got it, I’ll call some other time then. Later!” The VM chirped as Lyra hung up.

I slipped it off my wrist and set it on the end table closest to me before giving Shy another head scritch. “Thanks, hon. Awkward… But it worked.”

“Not to a pony,” Shy replied. “It’s maybe a bit impolite to say it like that if in a formal setting, but not in everyday life. Spending time with a special somepony is a perfectly normal thing to do. But we don't have to jump right into that… Wanna cuddle for a bit then have a tour of our little home? Bon has her own room, and we have our own bathroom and walk in closet!”

“T-there’s multiple bathrooms?” I asked in surprise.

Shy nodded.

“I don’t care what anyone says, this is a luxury suite,” I stated firmly. “If only because it comes with my marefriend.”

That word seemed silly. But I didn't care much about that anymore.

Shy smiled and gave me a tight hug.

I was sitting on a couch in my apartment, getting a hug from my girlfriend, while my kid presumably was chilling in her own room, after spending a day with my dad and sister.

Life, you took me on one hell of a road to get here, but thanks. I really needed this.