If You Let Go of the Controller, Lyra Steers to the Right
Desert – South of Appleloosa – Late Afternoon
A scorpion fled on skittering little legs, barely avoiding the green hooves of a disgruntled unicorn marching her way south over an arid plateau.
Lyra snorted, her jaw locked in an endless frown.
"'Lemon Hearts, hero to friends,'" she muttered. Her lime brow furrowed. "More like 'Lame Whore, whore to freaks.'" She broke her frown—if only to smirk at herself. "Yeah. That's right. I said it. Double-whore. More like... whore squared... when a hussy multiplies with slut..." Her ears twitched. "Trollop cubed?" At last, she hung her head with a moaning sigh. "This is why I never write lyrics..."
She passed by a stalk or two of cacti. Her fetlock brushed past a pile of stones, causing pebbles to rattle down the steep incline of rock behind her.
"So what if I jumped ship years ago?" Her muzzle scrunched as she glared daggers at the ground. "Can you blame me for knowing a hopeless case when I see it?" Her tail swished in the dry, heated air. "It's not like I've g-given up on Minuette and Twinkleshine... right?" She gulped. "I just... can't stand to feel miserable all the time... just 'cuz..."
The mare closed her eyes... and sighed.
"... ... ...Bon Bon's going to kill me when I get home." She bit her lip. "Who cares about Lemmy... I owe Bonnie everything. Ah jeez... what am I going to do?"
She felt a shift in the ground's curvature.
Scuffling to a stop, Lyra reopened her eyes. Her muzzle hung agape slightly.
The mare had reached the crest of the plateau. Before her, a deliciously flat plane of barren rock stretched east to west—broken intermittently by sparse cacti, boulders, and the occasional shrubbery. Large mesas loomed in the distance; layers of eroded rock glinted prismatically in the slowly dying sunlight.
Lyra blinked. Slowly, her muzzle curved into a mischievous smile.
"Well... guess I've got lots of ground to cover before my roommate murders me..."
Lyra was alone, and it was only a few hours until sunset. Traversing into the desert at this time of the day would have been the stupidest thing she could ever have done—especially if she was completely by herself.
Shifting the weight of her saddlebag, she took a bold step forward... and trotted boldly into the arid vastness.
Lyra Heartstrings trotted south.
She wandered past boulders... seas of gravel... gnarled deadwood...
A fine layer of sweat covered her body, but she didn't seem to mind. The mare had a thick canteen full of water, and she kept herself decently hydrated. When there was a particularly crooked rock formation offering shade—she took a few minutes to relax in the coolness before continuing on.
The mare wasn't entirely certain what she was looking for—but every moment she contemplated turning back, she'd spot newer intricacies in the otherwise barren landscape and she would press on.
About an hour into the trek, Lyra wandered past the decrepit remains of a collapsed cabin. The wooden beams were almost completely missing—with only a faint rectangular outline denoting where the structure had once been erected. A pile of stones was all that remained of the building's chimney, and vultures had evidently build a nest in the remaining stack—a nest that was also abandoned.
In the next hour, Lyra strolled past a series of scattered bones. The skull of the petrified beast was massive, with narrow spaces in the calcified surfaces for long-deteriorated cartilage. After drawing a blank, Lyra realized that it had to have been the fossils of a dragon that fell dead in the desert countless years ago. It was a scary, frightening sight.
Lyra kept trotting.
The skies were clear, and yet Lyra heard the distinct roar of thunder. Curious, she spun a full three-sixty, glancing all around. At last, she saw a column of dust rising high to the east. Squinting... she made out several dark round figures stampeding through the desert. It was the first time she had ever seen a herd of buffalo, and although they swiftly vanished over the edge of the adjacent plateau, Lyra couldn't help but stare the entire time in mesmerized silence.
In the third hour, a dumb smile had spread across Lyra's muzzle that would not leave. She was lost in the moment... in the ecstatic emptiness and spatial grandeur of the desert arena. Lyra trotted past steep rock formations, her eyes scanning the various darkening lines brought forth from the decay of time. She was a lone mortal swallowed by eternity, a miniscule speck of dust floating through the desolate enormity of everything.
And while it should have filled her with ennui... it didn't. The whole trek felt like her casual stroll through Canterlot weeks ago—except one glaring thing was missing: ponies.
Lyra couldn't remember the precise time and place when being alone had become a precious commodity. But on that dying afternoon—with civilization unseen and voices unheard—she didn't care to keep score.
"Grnnngh..." Sweating, covered with dust, Lyra pulled herself up a short cliff to a bouldery promontory on the edge of a plateau. She used her teeth, clamping her jaws over the exposed root of a dying tree. At last, after much gruntwork, she ascended the stony edge and stood victoriously on the narrow patch of raised rock.
The mare brushed herself off—using her tail as a duster for the hard-to-reach spots along her mint green coat. Pivoting about, she took one look northwest of her... and she exhaled heavily.
The sun was setting, and its burning red rays illuminated the heart of a gaping canyon in a crimson sheen. Various layers of rock shimmered from yellow to orange to scarlet. If somepony had told Lyra that the canyon housed a river of wine, she would have believed it in a heartbeat. Pivoting west, Lyra squinted, watching as the sharp mesas sliced the setting sunlight in rigid, geometric swaths, allowing a shadowed patchwork of cool haze to bathe the desert stage as if some cosmic curtains had fallen. The air grew cooler... softer... and—looking straight up—Lyra watched in real time as the sky turned to a melting purple, with only the barest hint of stars.
"Hmmmmm..." The mare smiled deliriously, her eyelids hanging heavy. She was tired from her walk... but not sleepy. Even still, if the universe willed it, Lyra would gladly fall asleep right then and there, never to wake for a million years. "Therapy my bouncy green butt." She grinned. Teeth glinted.
And...
Thwump!
...the mare plopped down on her haunches.
With a calm breath, Lyra levitated her lyre free and floated it beside her. She faced the distant canyon, embracing the amber colors as her sacred audience for the evening.
One string after another, she plucked harmonic notes into the dry air, delighting as the cooling wind carried the melody far and wide.
"Mmmmmmm... 'Ballad of the Princess,'" she addressed her own unfinished opus like it was a shy sibling. "Take me away."
And it did.
Lyra sank into the music, eyes closed and sighing.
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Guh! Its so close, I can taste the premise happening! Why must you tease us so?
Well, someone had to pick that direction at some point...
Deserts.
Far larger on the inside than on the outside.
Lyra.
Desert bus.
Got the Buffalo three hours in instead of the fly with a suprised look on its face on the windscreen?
She's on the edge of the Badlands, I can just see a Changeling coming out from behind a boulder and capturing her or something like that, I can't wait to see what happens next to Lyra. I bet when that League tries to recruit Twilight she will turn them down flat and want nothing to do with them at all, heck I bet she will want them to leave her friends be also.
Almost there!
Well, at least it's not Rainbow Dash.
Austraeoh: mint edition
Any takers on what cliff she is sitting on?
Though she may run into the correct one on her way back.
Hmm wonder how everyone is taking the fact she is now basically missing as she didn't go back to town, I can't imagine the others taking her leaving well.
Hey, wait a minute—
Oh, you absolute tease. You know how much that bothered me in Austraeoh.
She might as well hang a string of sausages around her neck.
Welp, that was a very Lyra idea.
Almost there...
This chapter makes me feel comfey. I don't know why but I just love the scenery you've placed in it. Also, I may have missed some Astraeoh references. It'll be a long time before I'm caught up on that lovely work of art.
So very very close now! I'm getting super excited!
Im rooting for Lyra to get what she needs to finish Ballad of the Princess!
7571481
Same over here!
166,000 words and we're finally getting to the main event. Maybe. Possibly. It remains to be seen
Wow Lyra... just... wow.
Well, this is one way to move the plot along. Slightly disappointed though, was looking forward to Tree Hugger being Chrysalis
If Daring trots North, Lyra trots South, Applejack trots West, Rainbow flies East, Scootaloo flies into Space, and Twilight is going to fly East, then who trots east?
7575179 Spike.
This is a poorly written hodge-podge of three equally underdeveloped, meandering plotlines that is not only bad as its own unit, but taken within the context of the author's wider portfolio, seems downright insulting.
Excessive use of onomatopoeia, inconsistent application of italics and bolding, thin characterization, a barely-disguised Batman insert and all of the characters who have good points being transformed into jerks whenever it's time to espouse those good points are only some of the many problems this story has. Compared to such masterworks as Background Pony, it's hard to believe this is the same author.
And that's without even mentioning that, at over 160,000 words, the actual main premise of the story, as advertised in the long and short description, has yet to be delivered upon, which despite everyone's constant assertion that this is consistent with the author's style, could not be further removed. Yes, Skirts' other works take a long time to reach their conclusion, but they usually deliver on at least the skeleton of the basic premise within the first chapter, or at the very least within the first 10,000 words.
I am still a fan of this author. I still love their work. But this is not their best work. Hell, it's not even that good. It's just a poorly written mess that doesn't know what it wants to be.
So, congratulations, your cutting allegory for the comic book industry is a rousing success.
7580686
Hm, that's a shame, I happen to like it, everyone has their tastes after all.
I like it for a number of reasons.
It's a well written piece, I never felt like slogging through the very bad works of fanfiction, it's easy to read so it's alright to do. And the characters really delve into interesting directions...I'm rather sad about the unclear shipping, and dislike the idea of Lyra being possibly paired with Flash Sentry, mostly because it doesn't make sense. I appreciate he at least takes the time to develop and connect different characters in interesting ways.
And for the 'takes time to deliver to it's point', I can get that, fact is I have found the common formula of 'into the thick of it' a dull process, read the description, pop into the story, a chapter or two and we have reached the hook.
Here? It develops in really interesting ways, we have the League, interesting monster hunting characters, a backstory of shady dealings from different companies, a possible draw from the main cast and several side characters, in a way, it's making me all the more excited to when we GET to that turning point described in the description.
Instead of making it the entire theme or one line description of the series, it's actually a subtle hook that draws us through the many layers of the story and possible places Lyra, has a new superhero figure, can exert her new talents to.
And as for the characters...it's interesting, there is only so many times you can hear 'awww, nice ponies', and 'awwwwwwww, Lyra/BonBon being a couple!' before you want MORE.
I want more moral grey sides to a character! I want to know their insecurities! I want to know their angry and bad sides! While still tugging along the niceties of what drew us there!
Flash is a nice guy?
Lyra is eccentric?
Bon Bon is a secret agent?
Lemon is a kid with a beaker on her head?
NO!
Flash is a soldier with a rebellious heart, struggling between doing the RIGHT thing, and doing the SMART thing.
Lyra is a crippled bugphobic cynical mare down on her luck, wishing she could be a better mare and wrestling with her own insecurities with a humorful air!
Bon Bon is a orphaned veteran of war who is caught between the lines of politics or a recovering secret agency, caught between the quiet life she has established, or her lifelong duty as a protector!
Lemon Hearts is a girl who is fighting her own guilt as her friends are hurt and traumatized, forcing them to take classes to get better and forcing herself into believing they will work, bitterness and frustration at her own lack of being the confident member of the group others can depend on...
So, it's not for everyone, fact is I get a quality treat that updates near daily at times, and that makes me happy.
And what an appropriate chapter for
an Austraeoh referenceseveral Austraeoh references.Beautiful scenery, beautiful introspection.