My Little Person: The Strange Case of Lyle Hartman

by Fernin

The Sounds of Silence

“So, this is where the magic happens,” I said, looking around distractedly. I took a few hesitant steps through the door, glancing from pile to pile of the heaped up detritus that littered Lyra’s practice room. Near a window, a somewhat uncomfortable-looking swivel chair faced towards what was probably a second- or third-hand folding music stand. Shelves ringing the room’s walls were loaded with all manner of things—replacement strings and other parts for the lyre, various musical books, and the like—giving the whole place a very… lived-in look, to put it delicately.

Practically hovering over my shoulder, Bon Bon once again played the concerned hostess. “Will you find everything all right? Do you need any help?

Why was Bon Bon showing me around my own house? Well. As it turns out, she’d been completely right about one thing for certain: this house wasn’t mine. It had quickly become clear to me upon returning from Twilight’s library that Bon Bon’s and Lyra’s house was not in fact my home, teleported somehow from Tacoma to Ponyville.

In my defense the earlier misidentification was an easy mistake for me to make—the resemblance to my place was uncanny. The layout and even a lot of the décor was the same, although pony-sized. Well, at least that explained how Bon Bon had so easily reached the counter while making breakfast earlier in the day…

“I should be fine. Yeesh, Lyra’s a bit messy, isn’t she?” I commented, starting towards the swivel chair. I winced as an incautious step sent a pile of boxed sheet music toppling over onto the floor.

“A bit,” allowed Bon Bon with a voice so deadpan that I had to do a double take just to see the twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

“Well, then I’ll definitely be fine; Lyra and I have so much in common,” I joked. “All right, Bon Bon. Thanks again… I think I can find my way around in here.”

As the earth pony nodded and hesitantly left me to my own devices, I settled into the creaky chair. To be honest, even Lyra’s practice room did have a vague sense of familiarity about it in one respect at least. Bon Bon’s influences were pretty clear through most of the house in the general lack of dirty laundry, empty pizza boxes, and the other debris that are the mark a bachelor’s natural habitat. Here, however, Lyra’s disorganized—or as I like to say, ‘differently organized’—piles of junk made sitting in the practice room almost like being back in my home office. The difference was more in the composition of the mess than in the level of cleanliness.

I rotated a half turn in the chair and contemplated the contents of the desk that was now before me. In contrast to the rest of the room, the surface of the desk was relatively free from clutter. It was easy to figure out why—this is where the musician kept her instrument. Despite the piled up papers elsewhere both in my cubicle and my home office, I always kept the area directly around my computer clean and neat. To do otherwise was to disrespect the tools of my trade and risk faults or malfunctions. I smiled. Lyra and I really were kindred spirits. Perhaps that was why we had switched places, or whatever it was that had happened.

The clasps of the lyre’s case clicked open under the careful touch of my hooves. I lifted the dark wood of the lid to reveal a small brass instrument much like the ones on Lyra’s—and currently my—flanks. Light shone dully off the surface of the lyre in its bed of black silk. I lifted it out slowly with my telekinetic grasp, listening to the strings sing a bit as the instrument vibrated at my magic’s touch.

I looked at the lyre, biting my lip as I thought about how to play it. I had taken up the guitar for a bit in college, but I had only learned enough to get by. And by “by” I mean “some,” heh heh. Well, it was college, after all, and some girls found it amazingly romantic for a suitor to play her favorite songs for her. Sure, it hadn’t actually worked that often, but… Eh. Regardless, that was a long time ago. Oh, and it had been a different instrument. And I’d been sporting hands at the end of my arms instead of hooves at the end of my forelegs.

Well, it wasn’t like I had to be any good, right? All I had to do was burn Lyra’s magic a bit trying to play the stupid instrument. As long as I figured out my way around Lyra’s special talent, I would be home free. Twilight would be able to do the aura scan properly, see that I was me, and presumably send me home... I was a bit foggy on how finding out, ‘oh gee Lyle, you were right and I was wrong’ was going to help Twilight solve Lyra’s and my little problem, but I wasn’t the magical expert, here.

Here went nothing. Cradling the lyre carefully against my body with one hoof, I started to reach for the strings with the other. I paused as a thought occurred to me. Wait. Lyra was a unicorn. What seemed natural to me—using my ex-hands to pluck the strings—probably wasn’t ‘right’ for her. Not to mention, doing it all ‘by hoof’ wasn’t exactly going to give me much experience with the mare’s magical powers, and that was the whole point of all this. I would be wasting my time. All right then, how would a unicorn do it..?

Obviously, I should be doing all of this with my magic. It stood to reason… but I wasn’t ready for that just yet. I mentally cringed at the thought of an irate Lyra cursing me across time and space for dropping her lyre when my magic flickered out in a moment of inattention. All right, a hybrid method then.

I wedged the lyre between my hooves and stared at it, trying to will my horn into life. Slowly at first, a green haze formed over the lyre. The instrument thrummed, every string singing its own distinct note. I grinned. Yeah. It was working!

The strings made an unpleasant sproingk noise as an incautious shift of my magical field brushed against the taut strings somewhat harder than was necessary. Whoops. I tried again. This time I lasted a little longer before my fumbling jerked at the strings again and the lyre complained with a dissonant, fading chord. I winced. Suddenly I was thankful that Bon Bon had gone about whatever other business she had. I was glad nobody had heard all that.

Instead of trying to pluck all the strings, should I just try for one? I looked at the lyre, focusing on a single thin strand. The glowing magical nimbus reached out from my slightly lowered horn. Carefully… carefully… Sproingk. Ugh…

Clearly I was going about this the wrong way. Well, when in doubt, read the manual, right? Surely Lyra still had some sort of book like Lyre Playing for Dummies or Baby’s First Lyre that I could use. Carefully setting the instrument back in its protective case, I started rifling through some of the various books that littered the room.

Much to my surprise, my search bore fruit after only a few minutes. Partway through the second pile I checked was Classical Lyre for Beginners by a Dr. Major Chord. The colorful cover proclaimed that the book ‘Makes it easy and fun to learn the lyre for unicorns, young and old alike!’

That certainly sounded like what I was looking for, although I had to wonder what a presumed expert like Lyra was doing with it. Never too good to go back and review the basics, I supposed. I could see dog-eared pages marking a few spots despite the relatively short length of the paperback.

Dr. Chord seemed to have his head on straight. There were even diagrams on how to hold the instrument correctly for younger ponies without enough skill to hold the lyre with magic and play it at the same time... like me, heh. But as I looked through the book, I came to the concerning realization that I was doing it essentially right. Sure, the finer points of my technique could use some work, but as far as the basics went, I was all right in Dr. Chord’s book…’s book. Great.

Oh well, that just meant I had nowhere to go but up, right? I could do this. I had to do this, if I ever wanted to see my home again. Or, for that matter, I had to do this if I wanted to avoid spending the rest of my life feeling horribly guilty for waltzing around in a body I’d inadvertently stolen from a little green unicorn mare.

I placed Classical Lyre for Beginners on the music stand and flipped the pages until I came to the discussion of elementary scales. All right. Time to start with something nice and simple, like a C scale…

* * *

The strings of the lyre sang slightly off-key. It was almost as though the instrument, tired from several hours of abuse under my fumbling and misguided magical touch, was groaning for relief. Grunting in frustration, I shut the instruction book. If the instrument could do with a break, so could I. I twirled the swivel chair to face the desk and slid the lyre back into its case.

Once that was done, I gently lowered my head until it was resting on both forehooves, closed my eyes, and let out something I’d been holding in for at least the past half hour and possibly most of the day. “Ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuu—”

“Lyle? Are you hungry? Dinner’s ready,” called Bon Bon’s voice. Behind me, I heard a rustle of papers as the earth pony mare pushed open the practice room’s door.

Jerking in surprise, I quickly amended my drawn-out exclamation. “—uuuudge! Uh, hi there.”

“…Fudge?” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow.

I would have whistled innocently if I’d thought it would get me anything besides more puzzled looks. “Nothing. But sure, Bon Bon. Thank you. I could do with a break right now.”

My mouth started to water as the heavenly smell of dinner wafted down the hall and into the practice room in Bon Bon’s wake. I wasted no time in following the cream-colored pony back to the kitchen. Sliding into my chair, I started tucking in as soon as it was polite to do so. For a few moments, only the quiet clinking of my floating fork to the plate was audible at the dinner table.

Bon Bon took a delicate bite from her plate, chewed, and swallowed. I smiled at her. She smiled back. Then the blue-maned mare cleared her throat and said, “I’m trying out a new recipe for sautéed bell peppers. What do you think?”

“Mmtph dlmmpsh!” I exclaimed. Whoops. I swallowed and tried again. “It’s delicious!”

I’d seen the look on her face before. Not on her face, mind you, but the look is always the same. Alarm bells should have been going off in my head, but I was too busy stuffing food into my muzzle to notice Bon Bon lead closer to her target with the next question. “Are you settling in all right?”

“Of course, Bon Bon,” I assured her. “You’ve been an amazing host, especially after all I’ve been putting you through. What about you? How were your errands?”

My efforts at polite conversation only drew me deeper into Bon Bon’s trap. She set the hook with, “Oh, they went all right. I just got back a little while ago. You’ve been so quiet in the practice room, I wasn’t even sure you were still here when I got back. How is it going?”

The fork froze halfway to my mouth. A bit of red bell pepper dropped back onto the plate with a plop as I tried to give Bon Bon a confident smile. “Oh! Fine… ha ha… Had a few snags earlier. I think I’m doing better, but after this I should probably get right back on the hors—er, should get back to practicing, though.”

“Oh… That’s no good…” Bon Bon murmured, pursing her mouth in a slight frown.

Well, what was I supposed to say to the mare? I was trying my best, but now I just had whatever was left of tonight and all of Sunday to get myself in gear. My ticket home—and as far as I could gather, Lyra’s ticket to bigger and better things in the music business in Equestria—was riding on me being able to perform at a level that was, frankly, probably beyond me. There was no getting around it. I’d hoped that some sort of muscle memory in my borrowed body would have made my work easier, but apparently there was no such thing as magical muscle memory.

Eager to avoid Bon Bon’s searching gaze, I looked down at my plate and toyed a bit with one of the smaller slices of bell pepper. How had the earth pony managed to slice them so thin, holding the knife between her teeth? I could ask, but that would require me to make eye contact and to say something to her, and then she might ask me something like…

“Lyle, are things really going okay? You seem worried,” murmured Bon Bon. Yeah, something like that.

“What? Of course! I’m fine. I just… I just…” I sighed. With the way Bon Bon was looking at me, I knew I might as well bow to the inevitable and tell her now. “I just don’t think I’m doing very well. Lyra’s been playing the lyre for who knows how long, and here I am trying to pick it up in a little over a day. I’m doing all right I guess, but…”

Chewing one last bite of food, Bon Bon nodded. She swallowed thoughtfully and said, “You can’t even manage a scale, can you?”

“…No,” I admitted. How the heck did Bon Bon do it?! Did I have some kind of neon sign on my forehead that broadcast my thoughts? I crossed my eyes, looking up in annoyance at my horn in case there were little minty green letters sparkling in front of it. Nope, nothing was there. The cream-colored mare was just that good.

Plates clinked as Bon Bon began to clear the table. “Here, Lyle. Let’s get the dishes done, and then I’ll see if I can help you with your music. Come on.”

I dithered for a moment. What exactly could an earth pony teach a unicorn—even a temporary one like myself—about magic? A brief flash of pride almost made me laugh off the idea… but I had to be realistic (in a cartoon world with talking animals and crazy magic. Yes, I know how silly that sounds). I sure as heck wasn’t getting anywhere on my own, so what could it hurt? Nodding, I shoveled the last of dinner into my mouth and helped Bon Bon clear the table and clean up from the meal.

With both Bon Bon and me working on the chore, the dishes were soon dripping dry on the rack and we were once again back in Lyra’s practice room. After seeing far too much of it over the past few hours, I was beginning to hate the sight of it. Fortunately, dinner had been enough of a break to make the room at least tolerable despite raw, fresh memories of horrible-sounding music and hours of frustration.

Bon Bon sat down next to a more-stable-than-average stack of clutter and smiled encouragingly to me. “All right, Lyle. Go ahead.”

I’ve never enjoyed having too large of an audience watching me work—‘too large’ being defined as ‘a number of watchers greater than zero.’ A programmer doesn’t usually attract adoring fans to cheer him on while he codes, and it always felt as though anyone watching was silently judging me. But…

I wanted to get home and to fix things for Lyra and Bon Bon, right? If that was true—and it was—then this was something that I had to do whether I enjoyed it or not. Plus, Bon Bon was planted there in the room, quite obviously ready for the long haul, so she wasn’t really giving me much of a choice. I flipped open Classical Lyre for Beginners and turned to a page of scales. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly. All right. I could do this.

The lyre felt like it was almost ready to leap out of my hooves. I held onto it as best I could. Narrowing my eyes as I concentrated, I felt my magical powers wrap around the strings and—sproingk.

Bon Bon winced at the discordant sound. I tried to ignore my poor start and keep going, but each note was as awful as the last. Finally I slowed to a stop halfway through the scale, ears drooping and heat rising to my cheeks.

“Wow,” said Bon Bon, her tone almost as flat as my lyre’s.

“Yeah,” I agreed, somehow managing to meet the earth pony’s gaze. Amazingly, she didn’t seem hurt or disappointed. In fact, it seemed almost like Bon Bon was barely suppressing a laugh.

In a moment, Bon Bon wasn’t holding back her mirth any more. She giggled into one hoof and said, “Where did you learn to hold the lyre like that?!”

“Like this? It was in the book. That’s how it says to do it,” I replied, feeling a bit defensive. What, was I wrong? Did Lyra just keep incorrectly written instructional books around as a trap for anyone who wanted to sneak into her practice room and play her lyre when she wasn’t looking?

Bon Bon approached and grabbed my one of my forehooves with both of hers. I gulped as the lyre dropped from my grasp, snagging the instrument with a hasty telekinetic nimbus before it could before it could tumble off my lap. The earth pony nodded in satisfaction at that and adjusted my other hoof so that both were poised over the strings. This done, she returned to her seat on the floor and said, “There. That’s how Lyra always holds it. Try it like that.”

I looked down at the lyre, held aloft as it was in the glowing green field. My hooves hovered over the strings, ready to pluck them and bring the instrument to life. It felt natural. How…? I gave my question voice in the form of a rather whiny protest. “But this is basically how I was going to do it to begin with, and Dr. Chord’s book said it was wrong!”

“Lyra’s always had her own way of doing things,” Bon Bon replied with a shrug and a slight smile.

“All right.” Biting my lip a bit in concentration, I reached out with both hooves and plucked the first string. The note rang out strong and clear. I blinked in surprise and continued with the next. And the next. And the next… This was going unexpectedly well.

While I didn’t know anything about the lyre, I did have at least some awareness of playing stringed instruments. It was impossible that something as clumsy as a set of hooves could be plucking the strings properly. How the heck was I doing this?

I was half afraid to look down, but when I did I almost laughed aloud. There, glowing at the ends of my hooves, were faint outlines of magical force just like the field keeping the lyre positioned in what passed for my lap. Thin tendrils reached out from the clouds enveloping my hooves, responding to my commands almost like the fingers I’d worried were lost to me for good.

By the time I’d finished the second octave, I was practically bouncing in my seat with excitement. Bon Bon was somewhat more subdued and simply gave me an approving nod. “There, see how much better that was?”

I beamed and flipped the page. Time flowed like water as I worked my way through Classical Lyre for Beginners, dutifully playing every exercise at least once as I grew in confidence. I went through scale after scale and exercise after exercise until finally…

Eagerly turning to the next page in the instruction book, I found myself staring at the colorful back cover. ‘Learn to play an ancient and beautiful instrument in only ten easy lessons!’ proclaimed the text filling one bright yellow starburst. ‘Recommended by the Canterlot Musical Conservatory for the instruction of young unicorns!’ said another. Huh. Fancy that… I’d finished it.

Bon Bon stifled a yawn as I closed the instruction book and put it to one side. She blinked sleepily and managed to hold back another yawn just long enough to say, “It’s getting pretty late… Did you want to go to bed?”

I shook my head, managing to suppress a yawn of my own. “No, I think I’ll keep going for a little longer here. I’m not too tired yet. Let me know if I’m too loud, okay?”

“Okay… Goodnight then. See you in the morning?” Bon Bon waited for a moment as though expecting something beyond the smile and wave that were my response. Looking somewhat sad, the cream-colored mare made her way around the piles and boxes and closed the door carefully behind her.

I sighed, letting out tension I hadn’t known had been building. Despite my growing enthusiasm, it had been a little awkward performing for an audience instead of simply playing for myself. It was probably something Lyra was completely comfortable with, but for someone used to being hunched over a nice, peaceful keyboard, the solitude was a relief. Fortunately for me my audience had been the kind and encouraging Bon Bon. Still. Now that the blue-maned mare had given me the key, it was time to really get to work. I fought back another yawn and began looking for my next challenge.

* * *

The latest yawn threatened to dislocate my jaw. Ouch. I waited until my mouth was once again under my control and promised myself, “All right, Lyle… just one more and then bed. Couch. Whatever.”

I could already hear the soft upholstery of the couch in the living room calling my name. While Bon Bon had offered to let me use the bed, it hadn’t felt right to take her up on the suggestion. Besides, sleeping on the couch had a sort of symmetry to it. In effect I had started my first bizarre day in Ponyville on that couch, and now I could end it on the same. But first, a final song.

Looking over the recently disturbed stacks of books, I chuckled dryly. I probably wasn’t anywhere near Lyra’s level of expertise, but whether through some half-remembered skills from my college days with the guitar or through some kind of natural aptitude in the unicorn’s body, I now was at least able to play the correct notes nine times out of ten. Well, four times out of five, at least.

I yawned again. Okay, maybe that ‘one last song’ had been the one I’d just played. It had been a mistake to play something called “Nocturne of the Moon” when sleep was already dragging at my eyelids. Yeah, some rest was sounding pretty good right now.

Just as I was about to put the lyre back in its case, I noticed a brown folder to one side of the desk. In tight yet somewhat sloppy script, the label read, ‘Running of the Leaves Concert Piece—Draft Four.’

“Huh. What were you up to, Lyra?” Curiosity getting the better of my fatigue, I laid the lyre carefully in its box and slid the folder into the middle of the desk. Inside were a few sheets of music, all carefully written out on pre-inked staves. There were even lyrics written below the notes in the same small yet unruly lettering.

I read through the music, humming the notes as I went—and stopped. The tune seemed familiar somehow. I scanned through it again from the beginning, this time singing the lyrics under my breath as I did so.

My eyes widened as I looked through the lyrics and notes for a third time. There were a few small differences, but in effect I was reading a carefully transcribed score for my favorite song of all time. There was only one thing to say to that, and without thinking I said it at the top of my lungs. “HOLY F—ING S—, IT’S SIMON AND GARFUNKEL!”

The profanity-laden shouting echoed even with the poor acoustics of the practice room. I froze. Whoooops. It was late, probably after midnight. I hoped Bon Bon was a sound sleeper.

As it turned out, Bon Bon was not a sound sleeper. After a few moments I heard the thumping hoof beats of a half-awake pony hurrying down the stairs. By the time the bleary-eyed mare had burst through the door and into the practice room, I was looking apologetic to say the least.

Bon Bon was surprisingly alert for someone just woken up out of a sound sleep. “Whuzzat? Lyra? Lll…lyle? Urgh… Are you okay?”

“Uh… I’m really really sorry,” I murmured, belatedly finding my ability to speak softly again. “I just… Sorry. Something just surprised me, is all.”

The cream-colored mare managed to force her eyes open long enough to give me a long-suffering look. She sighed. “Well. As long as I’m up…”

I watched rather guiltily as Bon Bon took a seat between two piles of books and waited patiently. She wanted me to play. Actually, the earth pony probably wanted me not to shout human curse words at ungodly hours while she was trying to sleep, but it was a little late for that.

Looking over the sheets of music to refresh my memory, I hummed along and moved my hooves slowly over the strings. All right… I cleared my throat nervously, trying not to think about how irritated my audience must be with me right now. “This is something Lyra was working on for the concert, I think. But it’s also kind of a classic, back home. This is ‘The Sounds of Silence.’

“Hello darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again…

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping.

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence…”

I closed my eyes, my hooves sliding at will over the strings of the lyre. Singing softly, I let my tenor voice linger over lyrics long remembered as I wove my way through the song.

With my mouth and hooves practically on autopilot, I could have mulled over how it was possible that Lyra had managed to channel one of my favorite bands of all time and somehow transcribed my absolute favorite song ever. I could have worried about whether Bon Bon was enjoying the song, especially after the rude awakening I’d given her. Instead, I simply played. Nothing existed for me but the music.

“…And whispered in the sounds of silence,” I sang, letting the lyre’s last notes die on the strings. I exhaled. That had been nice. Hearing the familiar song was almost like a little piece of home.

Opening my eyes, I said, “So, Bon Bon! What did you—Gah!”

Tears in her eyes, the cream-colored mare had closed the distance and was hugging me before I could react. Somehow I managed to maintain my telekinetic grip on the lyre as Bon Bon’s warm, strong embrace pulled me close. “Oh, that was wonderful! What a beautiful song!”

“Bon Bon,” I whispered. I found myself returning the close hug almost without thought. My muzzle drifted closer to hers, and hers to mine. I breathed deeply, savoring the earth pony’s warm, spice-laden scent and—paused. No. No, I couldn’t do this. It wasn’t right.

As if on an unspoken signal Bon Bon and I pulled apart. I could see a growing blush on her face and knew it mirrored the one on mine. I managed a tepid, “Thank you, Bon Bon. I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

“Oh. You’re welcome Lyle. Of course. Um. That was lovely, but I think I should go to bed. And I think you should, too. On the couch, I mean,” Bon Bon said, adding the last bit in what I felt to be somewhat of an unnecessary rush.

I nodded. “Of course. Sorry again for waking you. I’ll get back to practicing tomorrow.”

“Yes. Thank you. Uh, good night?” The mare smiled at me.

I returned the smile with an embarrassed wave. “Goodnight, Bon Bon. Sleep well. See you in the morning.”

* * *

The polished lyre glinted in the yellow light of Monday morning as I finished wrapping it in the black silk cloth and closed the carrying case with a snap. I grinned. All right! That was that. Even though Lyra’s timeline would be short when she got back, she couldn’t say I hadn’t done everything I could to set her up for success in the concert. Everything was ready to go… including me.

Today was the day I was finally going home. Sunday had been full of uneventful yet still enjoyable practice and fairly unexciting conversations with Bon Bon, my long-suffering host. Now however we were off to Twilight Sparkle’s library and my eventual return to the world of cloudy skies and late-night programming sessions was assured. Woohoo!

…Woohoo. I sighed. Ponyville’s colorful ponies and beautiful vistas had definitely deadened my homesickness effectively. In a way, I was going to be sorry to leave it all behind me. I would even have been willing to stay longer if not for… I looked down at the body that I had been borrowing without permission and sighed again. If not for that, yes.

“Are you ready?” Bon Bon asked as she rapped on the door to the Books and Branches library.

I simply nodded. I was definitely ready. I was still a bit worried for Lyra—after all, she’d be coming back here with a scant half a day before her big performance—but there was nothing I could do about that and even less that I could say. Thankfully I didn’t have to say anything as the door opened and Twilight waved us inside. “Come in, Bon Bon… Lyle. Is everypony ready?”

“Ready as I’m going to be,” I agreed. “Should I do anything special?”

“No, just stand where you did before and we’ll get started,” replied Twilight.

I did as I was told. As before, Twilight’s horn flared and I felt the odd sensation of poking and prodding by unseen forces all around me. The pressure was building behind my horn again, but I closed my eyes and focused on quieting it. My emerald magical field, which had been leaking out to press away at Twilight’s amethyst one, receded once again. It was working. I could feel it.

With nothing better to do, I let my mind drift a bit. I wondered what Lyra had been getting up to this whole time. Had she been trapped in my body just as I’d been in hers? Perhaps I should have written her a quick note thanking her for her ‘hospitality.’ Or maybe I should have been threatening dire warnings if the unicorn mare had done anything too crazy while living my life the way I’d been living hers. I shuddered to think of what I would be returning to if she had tried driving my car. Well, whatever, I was probably too late now.

Abruptly the pressure released and the glowing nimbus around Twilight’s horn faded. She swayed a bit. Bon Bon and I both rushed forward with cries of, “Twilight?!”

“Oooh… I’m all right. I’m all right,” the lavender mare assured the both of us. In a moment, Twilight almost seemed to be telling the truth as she straightened up and shook off some of the fatigue… but she still seemed a bit weak.

Bon Bon and I helped Twilight Sparkle over to a table. Bon Bon stayed with the unicorn while I hurried to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water. Twilight drank it down greedily.

When Twilight had finished her water, the two of us looked at her expectantly. She looked back and hesitated. A horrible expression of uncertainty—horrible for me at least—was plain on her face.

“I’m… not sure about the results of the spell,” Twilight admitted slowly.

I felt my heart seize up and drop into my stomach. “W-what?”

“The results of the scan were inconclusive. I’m not sure what they mean yet. I’ll have to do more research,” the librarian elaborated tiredly.

“What does that even..?” I started.

Twilight Sparkle shook her head in the manner of a doctor telling a patient that he won’t be seeing the next sunrise. “I’m sorry, Lyle. I don’t think I’ll be getting you home today.”

---

A/N:It should be obvious, but if it's not... the music Lyle's playing is "The Sounds of Silence," one of my favorite songs by the band Simon and Garfunkel.

This, despite the fact that for most of the writing I've been doing on this fanfic, I've been listening to White Zombie's "More Human than Human" set to loop. I felt it was appropriate.

Comments

[ThatBastard]

I wonder where this is going...

[JasonTheHuman]

Part of me wants to say that Lyra actually is delusional, but I really can't tell. Keep up the good work!

[Creideiki]

Hmm... Simon and Garfunkel and ponies...

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a foal
In the company of strangers
In the hustle of the railway station running scared
Living large, forced into the richer quarters
Where the fancy ponies go
Waking up without the hearty rooster's crow

Could work. And now I'll be doing this all day instead of getting anything useful done. Well played, sir. Well played.

[Creideiki]

103928
In the clearing stands a farmer
Applebucker by her trade
And she carries the reminders
Of ev'ry tree she failed to reap
Or mocked her 'til she cried out
In her anger and her shame
"I can't do this, I can't do this"
But the farmer still remains

Ponify ALL the lyrics!

[The Rogue Wolf]

"I get the news I need from the weather pegasi.
Ohh, I can gather all the news I need from the weather pegasi.
Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile.
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da, and here I am
The only living mare in Manehattan.

Bon-Bon, get your cake done on time.
I know that you're eager to bake now.
Hey-y-y, let your Cutie Mark shine, shine, shine now
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da
Like it shines on me,
The only living mare in Manehattan...
The only living mare in Manehattan."

[FanOfMostEverything]

I do love a good bit of songfic now and again. A shame I confused Simon and Garfunkel with Gilbert and Sullivan for a moment. I do that sometimes.
Anyway, another fine chapter, especially the little details like Lyra's "magic fingers". Eagerly looking forward to more.

[Super_Big_Mac]

Code Monkey. Good Song. I live in Enumclaw. Scary close.

West Lander, signing off.

[tsaukpaetra]

🎶 but my words, like silent raindrops fell.... 🎶