Raison D'être

by mechafone

55 - Heartstrings And Secrets Part 2

Still eight months ago

Lyra hummed happily to herself as she crept up the stairs into her room and closed the door. And now, it was time to get comfortable and read up on these fascinating new creatures. Lyra set the book on her bed, closed her eyes, and cast the translation spell she had learned two years ago.

Lyra kept her eyes closed. She's learned long ago not to open her eyes so quickly after activating that translation spell; it did funny things to her vision and made her dizzy. After ten seconds of waiting, she opened her eyes and stared wide-eyed at the title of the book, now understandable to her mind.

The Magic Of Humans:

Spells Of Light And Darkness Volume One

Lyra crept closer to the book, her heart pounding in her chest. Human? Was that some kind of creature? Was this...a spell book? Lyra could feel her body tremble with anticipation and excitement. She reached down and opened the book, and was greeted by a drawing of one of these human creatures, posing as if singing, an arm directed to it's chest, the other arm oustretched, one of those wonderful soft "claws" poised as if reaching for the heavens. It appeared to be singing.

On the opposite page, the figure was described as chanting a spell to create a current of air. That was something that Lyra already knew how to do, but she'd never heard of any magic that could be created or performed through singing. It was an intriguing notion. She decided to give it a try, and put her hind hooves on the floor and mimic'd the human's pose in the book and chanted the words listed: "Vento!"

...Nothing happened. Lyra frowned, disappointed. Did she do it wrong? Did she not have the right natural tools to use human magic? Wait...magic. Maybe there needed to be a catalyst. Becoming excited again, Lyra lit her horn in it's natural green glow and repeated the words. "Vento!" Lyra gasped as she felt her hair billow just a little past her face. She had definitely felt some magic leave her, and that bit of wind at her back was telling.

Ok, now we're getting somewhere, she thought to herself. She decided she'd try it one more time. She closed her eyes like the figure in the book and concentrated. She filled her horn with magic, and let the pressure in her head for release build until it started to hurt. She raised her forelegs once more to match the drawing, and once more said, "Vento!"

Lyra let out a shriek as gale force winds blew from out of nowhere against her back and pushed her onto her bed, then pressed her against the wall as papers, sheets and random objects in her room were picked up and blown around in the contained room. After a moment it was over. A lump on Lyra's bed slowly emerged, revealing the unicorn with a wind-swept mane, her eyes wild. She looked around on her bed until she found the book again. A wild, excited grin spread over her face as she hugged it to her chest. "Hoh my gawds! You're never going back to the library again!"

---

Over the next week, Lyra spent many hours a day looking through the book, learning new spells and practicing the ones that really interested her. There were many spells that could be used in battle, which was confusing to her since Equestria hadn't seen any major battles in hundreds of years. Just how old was this book?

One of her favorite spells to read about was aequivalere perturbare, a spell that could rob it's victim's sense of balance. At least, that's what the spell said it did. She had no way of knowing without a test subject.

So one day, while visiting with her friend Anorax, she had decided to try it out.

"Ok. Now, I have to warn you, I really have no idea what this is going to do to you. It might make you puke. But if you do, I promise I'll help you get to the bathroom in time," she told him as he stood at the far wall of her living room. "...You better not puke on my parents' rug, Anorax."

The pegasus frowned at Lyra with worry etched on his face. "If you make me puke that's not really my fault, is it? Whatever. Let's get this over with. For science?"

"For science," Lyra said in agreement. She closed her eyes and focused her magic appropriately. She had discovered with the wind spell that putting too much magic into a spell was both draining and put more strength into it. After making sure this spell wouldn't come out disastrously strong, she inclined her head towards her friend and said, "Aequivalere perturbare." She felt the familiar magical drain as the spell hit Anorax. His eyes immediately started roaming as his senses started swimming.

"Wh...whoa! Oh, this is weird...Oh wait, wait, Lyra, turn it off! Turn it-" he didn't have time to finish before his body started to change, no longer in control of his Halfling ability to remain a pegasus. His body was alight with red fire as he turned into a hairless form that Lyra had never seen before. She let out a scream and started running around in panicked circles.

"Ohmygoshohmygosh what did I do?! I transformed my best friend into a monster!" Lyra stopped running around in circles long enough to try and reverse the spell, calling her magic back. Even after her magic had returned to her and Anorax was no longer dizzy, he remained on the floor where he'd fallen, his face covered with his hard-shelled hooves. "Oh NO you're stuck like that! Ohhhh this isn't good, I'm so sorry!"

"It wasn't your spell, Lyra," he said quietly. His voice was the same, but...he looked so different. Lyra watched, partly in confusion and partly in horror as Anorax lifted his face to show her his big red eyes, his pointed horn - wait, horn?! Where were his wings? Wasn't he a pegasus? She stepped closer to her friend, curiosity overriding her fear.

Anorax frowned as Lyra got closer. It was over, it was all over for him. She'd tell someone, and he'd be chased out of Ponyville for being a monster. He closed his eyes to await her judgement. A gentle touch on his shoulder surprised him, and when he opened his eyes he was further surprised when he saw his best friend smiling comfortingly. "Aren't...aren't you afraid of me? Or...gonna yell at me for keeping this from you?" he asked, daring to hope that she might be kind after revealing his actual form.

Lyra sat down next to her friend, a worried and confused look etched on her face. "'This'? I don't get it. What is 'this'?"

"Well...where do I even begin?" Anorax frowned. His best friend's curiosity was bewildering. He'd expected the first ponies to discover his secret would be running, screaming, maybe hitting him or something, but this...totally unexpected. "Have you heard of the Changelings?"

"Nope. What are those? Er...are you a Changeling?"

"Yes and no. My..." he paused, wondering if he should give away his father's secret. Well, he'd come this far, and he wanted to keep Lyra as his friend. It might actually help him feel better about his situation if she knew everything, it'd be nice to have somepony to share it with. "...my dad is a Changeling. They look like I do now, except they have horns and wings. Mom is a true pony, though. So...I'm kinda half and half. The Princess says I'm a 'Halfling'..." he trailed off as he saw the shocked look on Lyra's face.

"Y...you know the Princess?" she asked, her heart speeding up with excitement. This was turning out to be a very strange day.

"She helped set my dad up here in Ponyville. The Changelings are usually...well, not very nice. But my dad's different, he just wanted to have a happy, normal life, you know? So Celestia set him up here, he met my mom and they had me. I'm kind've in between the races. The Anorax you know, the pegasus, it's the only other form I've ever been able to take, even though my dad can take pretty much any form he wants. I'm...I'm still Anorax." He got to his hooves, closed his eyes and concentrated, and in a moment the red fire returned, encompassing his body for an instant. When it was gone, the pegasus form had returned, smiling sheepishly at his friend.

Lyra just smiled at Anorax and patted his shoulder comfortingly. Still unable to believe that his best friend was so accepting of this secret he'd been keeping from her, he continue to press on her, determined to get just why she was so calm about this. "I don't get it. I just told you that my dad and I are both monsters that can change their form. You're not freaking out, and it's making me freak out a little."

The unicorn grinned and held up the book of human spells she'd pilfered from the library. "I'm learning to cast magic that for all I know is forbidden in Equestria. As far as I'm concerned, we're even, buddy."

---

And so it went. Lyra studied the book thoroughly, skimming here and there where she found spells that she wouldn't be needing, mostly attack spells that used the elements of nature to harm. She learned about spells that would help her keep her secrets, especially the spell that allowed her to disguise objects in whatever form she wanted as long as the size and shape was similar to whatever she wanted to hide the object as. Say, for instance, the spell book. She had to take it back to the library or Emerald would get in trouble.

So, after spending a couple hours in the attic of her home, she found a suitable replacement, a good-sized dictionary that probably hadn't seen the light of day in years. After getting back to her room and setting the two books side by side (with a bookmark lying underneath the dictionary to tell which was which) she closed her eyes, concentrated, then softly chanted, "Phantasma duplex." Then she touched her horn to the spell book, the one she wanted copied, then leaned over and released the spell onto the dictionary.

Lyra opened her eyes and couldn't believe it. Two spell books! She giggled and clopped her hooves together excitedly. Time to check out my work, she thought as she opened the book on top of the bookmark. The pages were completely identical, down to the last unreadable symbol. She didn't know how long the illusion would last, but it was enough for now.

Later that day, she took the enchanted dictionary back to the library. Her heart was pumping with apprehension. What if Emerald could see a difference? What if she was the only one to notice the changes?

As Lyra walked into the library, she noticed Emerald sitting at the desk in the middle of the ground floor. When he saw her, an expression of horror became painted on his face. Lyra made a face like 'what?' when a voice from the upstairs, an older, feminine voice, called, "Emerald? Who's here? Is it someone with information on that stolen reference book?"

Thinking quickly, Lyra concentrated on a book on one of the far shelves and whispered, "Vocare libro!" The book immediately shot towards her. She caught it in a magic field with her horn, then extended the magic field to encompass the disguised book. "Redire!" The enchanted book shot across the room and slid into the empty slot, then winked at Emerald Skies, who stared at her open-mouthed. He had just witnessed her spoken-spell casting first hand, and he had been under the impression that she couldn't read the book!

An older pegasus mare stepped out of the room upstairs to see who had come. Lyra turned to the current caretaker of the library, Mrs Pea Soup. She was a green pegasus like Emerald. Actually, Lyra was pretty sure they were related somehow. The unicorn held up the book she had switched with the fake spell book and smiled. "Oh hello, Mrs Soup! I was just returning this..." she turned the book to glance at the title. "Uh...advanced physics studybook." She walked in further and set the book down in front of Emerald Skies, then started on her way out.

"Oh, darn it...I really wish we could find that reference book, it's driving me batty!" the older pegasus complained.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll turn up eventually..." Lyra said as she waved goodbye to Emerald Skies and bolted home.

---

Present - Lyra's room

Lyra sighed as she looked down at the book in front of her. These last eight months had been crazy, learning all kinds of spells, incantations, and even a few charms. Now that Sohl had appeared, all the studying, everything she'd learned about humans and their magical abilities, it was all put into question all over again. She needed to get Sohl into a quiet, private place and have her teach her everything she knew. After reading through this book, she had so many questions about what the humans were like, and why they weren't around anymore, at least not in Equestria.

With eyes closed, she concentrated a tiny bit of magic in her horn. After a moment, she whispered the words she'd been dying to speak for the last hour: "...Tennuis ignis..." She drew in a breath, then let it out, a smile playing across her lips as a thin, concentrated tower of flame erupted from her mouth.

Comments

[Jacensolo43]

A clever girl, Lyra is. I certainly hope she does not become corrupted by the book's power, for like all things, if it is abused, there'll be hell to pay.

[Melody Brush]

1124233 In one of my stories, she used a spell she learned to try and find out about a new unicorn she doesn't trust.