Raison D'être

by mechafone

54 - Heartstrings And Secrets Part 1

"...And that's pretty much it." Sohl said. She, Spark Storm and Anorax had each taken turns telling Applejack and Lyra their own long, complicated stories. By the time they had finished, it was nearly lunch-time, and Applejack hadn't gotten any work done. It was a good thing Braeburn had come to visit earlier that week, or there'd be trouble. She figure'd still get an earful, but it had been a fascinating morning getting to know two of her friends better. Sohl was interesting as well, but she didn't really trust the harpy. Not many predators were that trustworthy.

"Welp," Applejack said as she got up and stretched her legs out. "This has been a mighty interestin' two hours o' my life gone by. Can't say it was wasted though, I do love a good story. Ah gotta get on back, check on them boys. Nice meetin' ya, Sohl." AJ tipped her hat to the harpy, then headed on back towards the farmhouse.

The three ponies and harpy each exchanged glances. After spending the morning together and swapping stories, there didn't seem much else to say. With a shrug of her shoulders, Sohl reached into her right wing and slipped out her small metal pipe. "Hey Spark," she said, her eyes partially closing in a sultry stare. Spark glared at her. Please don't...he thought. "I gotta tell ya, that preening you gave me earlier was divine. You've gotta do that for me again."

Anorax and Lyra turned their heads to stare at Spark Storm, who brought a hoof to his face. "I thought we weren't going to mention that again," he said after a moment, an embarrassed blush on his face.

Lyra broke out into laughter and clapped Anorax on the back, earning her an annoyed glare. "Haha! That's...wait, why's that funny?" Lyra eyed Sohl and Spark suspiciously before turning her attention fully to the harpy, watching her pack her pipe. Her eyes widened as the harpy brought the pipe close to her lips.

"Tennuis ignis," she said, then blew a thin trail of fire to light her pipe with from her mouth. Anorax stared with bewildered recognition, then started to turn to Lyra, saying, "Oh hey, Lyra, that's kinda like your...Lyra?" He looked around, as did Spark. Lyra had taken off down towards Ponyville. The three of them glanced at each other, then shrugged. Lyra always had been a bit...off.

---

It couldn't be. It couldn't be. Lyra's heart was racing a mile a minute, and it wasn't because she was running full tilt home. No, it was something the harpy had said. Well, did. Well...something she said then did. That spell she muttered to activate that neat little flame. She was sure she'd read it in that book, the book she took from the library.

She burst into her home with no reservations, and she was thankful that her parents weren't home as she raced up the stairs to her room. Still, she closed the door and locked it with a special sealing spell that she'd worked out herself. Only a stronger magic than hers could break it down, and Lyra had a special magic that few knew about. "Non motus!" she said, touching her horn to the door. Instantly, she felt magic leave her body and attach itself to the door.

Now that she knew she was alone and would not be bothered, Lyra went through the motions of removing several enchantments on her floor. A rug was swept away to reveal hard floor. Three layers of illusion were removed, revealing a trap door of a 3x3 square of floor. She announced "Motus!" and touched her horn to the square, which rattled in place for a brief second before settling. Now, she was ready. She levitated the square and laid it aside, then cast her magic to pull something out of the hole, revealing a large, old tome that was close to falling apart.

Lyra set the book on the floor and flipped through the pages at a manic pace. "Fire fire fire fire," she murmored to herself, her eyes wide with excitement. She had gotten to reading so fast that she forgot to activate her translating spell, so when all the words had become strange, jumbled shapes, she panicked before she realized her blunder. "Oh, Lyra, you idiot! Ok, calm calm...calm down..." she sighed and took a few breaths, then cast the translation spell that would allow her eyes and mind to understand the alien symbols.

Now able to read the book, she flipped through until she came to the section on fire spells. She had no real reason to learn about fire; she already had plenty of spells to conjure it for candles. Soon, her eyes fell upon a certain spell and she let out a long, over-exaggerated gasp. There it was...Tennuis ignis.

Ok, Lyra. Don't freak out. It's probably just a coincidence. Right? The spell Sohl spoke could...no, no it couldn't! Say it! Say it right now! Do it! "ALL RIGHT ALREADY!" she shouted into the silence of her room. She sighed and brought a hoof to her face. This book was driving her crazy, or was she already a little loopy? She fell backwards onto her rump and leaned against her bed, the book in her lap. She closed her eyes as she tried to calm herself. She began to think back, back to that first day she found this confounded book.

Eight months earlier

"Bon Bon, I'm boooored," Lyra complained to her girlfriend as she laid partially laid out over the cream colored earth pony's back. Bon Bon laid on her belly, a special candy-making instruction book, part of her homework for cooking classes. She had big plans to open her own candy store, and Lyra was making it hard to concentrate.

Lyra groaned and rolled from Bon Bon's back towards the earth pony's flanks. With a grin she leaned down and nipped at her girlfriend's cutie mark. Bon Bon bit her lip to keep from squeaking and glared at the unicorn, who waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Not when my parents are here!" she hissed, fighting the blush back down with some effort. Bon Bon and Lyra's parents had been leery of the same sex relationship, but ultimately accepting and encouraging of their love. That didn't mean they could misbehave whenever they wanted.

"Lyra, I," she squeaked again as her girlfriend continued nibbling at her backside. Bon Bon groaned as her tail involuntarily twitched and lifted a bit to the side. "Y-you stop that right now..." Bon Bon stood up straight suddenly, making Lyra spin away from her until she ran into the nearby couch.

---

Lyra found herself outside Bon Bon's front door as it slammed behind her. "Go read a book! Come back later when you've cooled off, Lyra! Now I have to cool off, and it's costing me study time! Rrrgh!" Bon Bon yelled through the closed door.

Lyra smirked and released a chuckle as she turned to look at the closed door. "Won't be long now, Bon. You will be mine. Oh yes. You will be mine." The unicorn took off at a trot to find something to do around town. Hm, what to do, what to do...I suppose I could go to the library to check out a book, but...Emerald Skies works there, and he's kinda sweet on me. Lyra sighed, and with a shrug of her shoulders set out for the library. Watching Emerald try to flirt was definitely a way to cool off.

With it being the middle of January, it wasn't that difficult to cool off before getting to the library. Still, with the long walk it had been to get to the big hollowed out tree, Lyra figured she might as well see if the library had any interesting books. Upon opening the door, the bell attached to the door frame on the inside jingled. "Hello! I'll be right down," Emerald's familiar voice called.

Lyra rolled her eyes as she closed the door to the cold with her magic and looked around at the well-lit walls of the library. The same old books were all there, the same ones she'd seen last time she'd come here. It had been a while ago, of course, on account of Emerald hitting on her, although she hadn't made it clear that she was not of the straight persuasion.

She had just about made it to the center of the room where a big, boring reference book lay when Emerald flitted down beside her, an eager look on his face. "Oh Lyra, it's you! I was hoping you'd stop by," he said. Though he couldn't hide the blush on his face, he spoke with confidence and an air of professionalism that Lyra had to admire. "Is there something I can help you find? Some musical instruction maybe? I do believe we've gotten some special Taste Of Equestria© books in, I'm sure Bon Bon would appreciate the gesture, and -"

"Whoa, whoa," she interrupted, placing a hoof on Emerald's shoulder. "What's this about Bon Bon?" Emerald blushed both at the touch and at having to clarify himself. He wasn't an idiot, after all.

"Well, since you're dating Bon Bon, I thought it'd make for a special gesture, that's all." Emerald said. He turned his head away from Lyra's burning stare. It was bad enough that he had a huge crush on who he thought was the prettiest unicorn in Ponyville, it was worse that she wasn't into stallions. It actually hurt to find that she didn't think he knew.

Lyra frowned as she realized that she had been underestimating Emerald Skies for a long time, and had just insulted his intelligence. "Oh...Emerald, I'm...sorry. I-I don't know what to say." She really didn't, but she wanted to sound and look sincere, so she looked him in the eyes. He really wasn't bad looking. For a stallion. He kept himself clean, well dressed (that vest he wears is adorable!), his glasses made him look intelligent and as far as boys went he was actually pretty cute and oh Celestia I'm staring at him and I can't stop and it's getting weird I LIKE GIRLS. Lyra looked away finally, the blush on her face made her uncomfortably warm. It was time to go.

Emerald, thankfully, had been too immersed in his own self pity to notice the brief crisis his unicorn crush had been going through. He finally returned his gaze to her, and before he could notice her blush she had grabbed the nearest book, the thick book on the desk in her magic and started to walk off with it. "Well, uh, thanks, Emerald, I think I got what I came for-"

"Wait!" Emerald flew up and over Lyra, demonstrating an impressive mid-air turn and landing and held a hoof out for her to stop. "That book won't be of any use to you, I'm afraid."

Forgetting for the moment that she was trying to get out of the library as fast as possible, she held the book out in front of her to examine it. "What? Why not? It's a book, isn't it?"

Emerald shook his head and politely took the book from her magic hold and set it on the ground, facing her so she could see what he was talking about. He flipped open to the middle of the book and ran a hoof over some strange symbols that she couldn't read. No problem, she had a translation sp...wait. What were these amazing bipedal creatures? What were those...things at the ends of their forelegs? Tools that looked like they could grasp? Teats on the females chests? Crazy!

Screw the translation spell, I've got inspiration! Lyra brought the two ends of the book together with a loud CLOP sound, a big, crazy grin on her face. "Who cares if I can't read it, Emerald, I've gotta take this book home!"

Emerald frowned and rubbed the back of his head uncertainly. "I dunno, Lyra. I'm not supposed to let anypony check out the reference books..."

Lyra held the book to her chest, intending to pander to his obvious affections for her, but decided against it. She'd insulted him enough today. "Please, Emerald? It's not like anypony can actually read this. I just really like the drawings in here, I'd like to take it home and sketch them, maybe get some artistic inspiration."

"Well, I...I guess." he finally said with a shrug. "Just try to have it back by next week, or my boss'll have a conniption and blame it on me, heheh." Emerald stepped to the side to allow Lyra to leave, his face a mix of dejection and pride.

"Thanks, Emerald. You're a good guy." She picked up the book in her magic and started to leave, then turned and pointedly stared at him. "...I'm sorry I can't think of you the same way you think of me. You're a cute stallion, you know. There's a lot of mares in this town that'd be lucky to have you crushing on them. Keep looking and don't give up, ok?"

Emerald blushed hotly while nodding his head wordlessly. Oh Celestia STOP LOOKING SO CUTE. Lyra made her way out of the library and into the cold winter air, which felt great against the heat growing in her face. What was wrong with her in there?! She wasn't...she couldn't possibly find a stallion attractive...could she? She scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Ew, straight." Nah.

---

Emerald sighed to himself as he closed the door. Had he done the right thing? His special talent was deciphering and translating languages, written and spoken, and there was some really intense things in that book that could be used for terrible things. Good thing Lyra was just going to use the book for drawing...right?

Comments

[mechafone]

And here we have the cause for Lyra's crisis:
i48.photobucket.com/albums/f202/Kibasbane/Ponies/EmeraldSkies-Teen.png

[Jacensolo43]

Not bad looking actually. So... I'm guessin' that's how she discovered humans. And, why didn't she return the book? What kind of things are in that thing?

[Melody Brush]

Soul Of Songs, Lyra what kind of trubble are you getting yourself into? And she's bi without realizing it. Hehe. What's next?

[mechafone]

2155441 What's next, you ask? Well keep on readin' and continue to be amazed!