One of Us

by PxDnNinja

Chapter 1: Friendship From Magic

Lyra walked through the front door of her home and levitated her bag next to the couch.

"Mom! Dad! You home!" Silence answered her as she stood there for a minute. The silence wasn't a surprise as both her parents usually worked late, leaving Lyra with plenty of time to study and practice her lyre in peace. Today however she had other plans. Pulling books from her bag with her magic, she ran upstairs and quickly laid out everything she would need on her table.

"Ok, fresh new journal? Check. Notes on Humans? Check. Quill?" Lyra continued to spread out things across her desk but was unable to locate her favorite quill. Sitting in her comfy desk chair, she started searching drawers, under books, and even behind the lamp with no luck.
"Oh, where is it?!" She asked aloud, frustrated.

"Where is what?"

Lyra was far from athletic. Every single hobby she had involved sitting in a chair, either to play her lyre, or to study and research stuff in the library. Her most strenuous exercise came from the walk to and from school each day. Even with this detriment to her physical fitness, the speed at which Lyra left her seat and spun around in response to the voice was borderline world class athlete.

"Silver! Don't scare me like that!" Lyra yelled to her new friend, who was sitting cross legged on her bed. Unlike last time they spoke, this time his hood was down and Lyra could see that his mane seemed to flow down past his shoulders. His skins was very pale, and clearly didn't look like he spent much time outside either. He mentioned being a student last time, but his age was an unknown. He stood taller than Lyra, but he would be about the height of her mom. He also did not appear to be the same size as the drawing in the book, leading Lyra to guess he was still a child much the same as she was. Currently though, her main focus was on the grin he currently wore.

"I'm sorry Lyra. I just arrived as you were asking where something was. I guess I should warn you next time." He explained, having the good sense to look embarrassed. With the panic passing, Lyra moved back to her chair, but spun it around to face Silver.

"It's ok I guess. Just yeah, next time give me warning." She replied as she sat down and took a final relaxing breath.
"Why didn't it flash this time?" She asked, curious as to how come she didn't see a flash when he arrived. His blank expression spoke volumes.

"Flash? I haven't a clue. Probably because I left the ley line of the spell open when I left. It should allow me to return to the hook point when I need to. Last time such a path did not exist." Silver ventured as a guess. Lyra simply nodded, actually understanding roughly what Silver was talking about this time involving magic.

"That makes sense, but wouldn't that ley line have put you back in the library? Why did you arrive here?" She asked, a part of her mind suddenly growing embarrassed that this boy suddenly arrived in her bedroom.
'He is a human! There is nothing to be embarrassed about! Stupid hormones!' Lyra shook her head to clear it while she waited for Silver's answer.

Silver simply watched the quirky behavior of the pony before him with a smile before answering.
"Well, my spell latched on to your spirit as a focal point. So you were the destination of the spell, not the library. Though keeping that line open was a constant drain. I'll have to find a better way to handle travel back and forth." He answered and slowly moved onto his own tangent. Lyra watched as he started speaking of spirit binds, scrolls of summoning, and various other things. She recognized what he was doing, as she did it often herself. When she found a puzzle in her research often she would start thinking aloud to help deduce a solution. His voice slowly faded into the background as Lyra's mind wondered to the world he had come from. This world that, as of this moment, was connected to her bedroom by some magic she couldn't even begin to comprehend.

'I wanted so much to learn of this other world, and here is my chance! Why am I just sitting here?' Lyra thought to herself as she watched the human continue on his ramble. Something about his eyes kept drawing her as he looked around the room during his rant. Lyra's thoughts soon quieted as she just sat there looking at the creature in her room.

"Lyra?"

"Um... Lyra?"

"OH! Um, yeah?" Lyra realized Silver had stopped talking and was looking directly at her. Her face reddened slightly in embarrassment, which her teal coat caused to stand out much more than she wished. Silver grinned at his new friend as she recovered from her blush.

"I asked if that was your lyre?" Silver pointed to the lyre across the room. Lyra nodded as she looked where she had laid it against the wall as she arrived.
"Play something? I would love to hear your worlds music." Silver's request was accompanied by one of the warm smiles that Lyra was coming to really appreciate about her otherworldly friend.

"Sure." A faint glow surrounded the lyre as it floated over to it's owner, who sat in a position to play. Silver leaned back to get comfortable on the bed and watched as Lyra used her hoofs and magic to work the strings into a beautiful song. The notes filled the room, drawing all the attention of the two occupants, one focused on playing, and the other focused on the music being played.

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Downstairs, the front door opened as a dark cyan mare walked in with bags from the market across her back. Once she was inside with the door closed, she paused as she heard the familiar sounds of a lyre coming from upstairs. A simple smile found it's way to her face.

"She must be practicing for a recital." Cheer said aloud to herself as she levitated her bags to the kitchen to put away, a proud smile on her face when thinking of her daughter's natural ability with that instrument.
"She seems to be putting more emotion into it this time. Guess it's a big recital." With that final thought, Cheer focused on the task of putting away groceries and starting dinner.

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The final notes of the song echoed through the room as the filly and...whatever a human of Silver's age was called...sat in silence, savoring the last bits of the song. After the last note's echo finally faded, Silver opened his eyes which he had closed part way through the song. Lyra opened her eyes at the same time, having closed them from the start to focus on her playing. Normally she would have simply played a basic song and been done, but something told her to go all out. It felt as if this was the most important thing she had ever done, and all her emotion went into the song. Her excitement about her new friend and his world, her passion for the music she played, and her passion for the instrument in general. The two smiled at one another for a moment before Silver finally spoke up.

"That was amazing. World class minstrels where I'm from don't have that level of talent." He spoke, his warm smile never faltering. Lyra levitated the lyre in the air and walked it over to its resting spot on the wall.

"Well, I've been playing for a few years now. I'm still just a filly so hopefully I'll be even better when I'm older." Lyra couldn't help but have a large smile across her face at the performance she had just given. She knew it was her best yet. Once her lyre was in place, she noticed her research books open on her desk and realized she had yet to really ask Silver anything.
"So, I really wan to ask you questions." Lyra turned to her friend, starting to drop into researcher mode. Unfortunately the confused look on his face nearly caused her to stumble.
"What?"

"What's that?" Silver asked, pointing at Lyra with the question. It was the most confused she had heard him sound since he first arrived in the library.

"What's what?" Lyra followed his finger point behind her and saw nothing odd. The desk was in perfect condition with nothing out of place. Her chair was part out sure, but it was just a chair. Continuing to look, she finally looked down at herself, or more specifically, her flank.

Her non-blank flank.

She inhaled a sharp gasp as her excitement level nearly peaked. She had her cutie mark! She finally had it! And it was of a golden lyre, proving something she had always know about her special talent! She turned to look her friend in the eyes, excitement pouring off of her expression and nearly screamed like the young schoolgirl she was. The only thing to stop her was the continued confused look Silver wore. A confused look that was slowly mixing with a smile. He might not know what it was, but clearly it was an exciting thing.

Lyra finally calmed down enough to speak without cracking her voice or just shouting.
"That is something very exciting Silver! It's my cutie mark!" She at least thought she wouldn't shout. Thankfully she didn't shout very loud, but still spoke louder than normal.

"What's a cutie mark? Looks like a tattoo." Silver asked as he craned his neck to get a better look at it, obviously not realizing what social connotations staring at a mare's flank, filly or otherwise, held in Equestria. Shaking a blush from her face, she explained to the human.

"A cutie mark appears on a young pony when they discover their special talent. Mine clearly means my lyre is my special talent. Getting one is mark of growing up. Adults look at you differently, and the kids at school who don't have one tend to get picked on. Oh Celestia I'm so excited!" Lyra was having a hard time thinking straight, but the shock and excitement was slowly bleeding away, allowing her to begin to think straight again. Silver simply nodded with a smile.

"Well Congratulations then. We will have to celebrate at some point. But right now, your cutie mark might have solved our problem." He explained, eyes shifting from Lyra's eyes to her flank. The thought crossed her mind that she should tell him exactly what he was doing, but she quickly quieted that part.

"What problem?" Curiosity pulling her attention from her new cutie mark to his comment.

"The problem about keeping the spell active. There seems to be some sort of magic associated with your cutie mark, and I can key my spell to that. Doing so should allow me to come here without having to leave the spell active and draining my magic." He explained, excitement at the prospect creeping into his own voice. Lyra wasn't sure what he meant by draining his magic, since Unicorns simply had magic, not an object called magic. Magic was similar to a muscle, not a fluid. Clearly it was different for humans, and was something she intended to ask about as soon as this was squared.
"I could also communicate to you when I planned on arriving. A small pulse and you would sense it, then you could pulse your magic at your mark to let me know it was ok. This is fantastic!" Silver was getting as excited as Lyra herself was about the cutie mark at this point, though for clearly different reasons. Lyra grinned at her friend and profiled herself towards him so he could clearly see the mark.

"Well, do what you need to do. Sounds like the best way to handle things now. Last thing you want is to be caught and hauled to some research center." Lyra explained, though in her own mind a doubt about her own plans flared. She was originally wanting to do just that with the human, research on him.
'He is a friend now, and we aren't going to do that. We will just learn from him what we can, but nothing more.' Lyra chided herself and quickly brought herself back to the issue at hand. Silver had placed his hands in front of him as though holding a large hoofball, and a single golden stream of magic flowed into her cutie mark. As soon as the two touched, Lyra could feel the magic mixing with her own and a warm sensation flowing from the mark on her body.

Moments later, the stream left Silver's hand and the remaining magic flowed into Lyra. The effect left no lasting feeling, but Lyra could tell it worked.

"There we go. Now I should be able to appear near you with no problem." Silver explained, smiling proudly at his accomplishment. Lyra hoofpumped in response.

"Awesome! This is going to be great!" Lyra exclaimed loudly. She was about to continue speaking when the door to her room suddenly shook for a moment then opened as Cheer poked her head in from the hallway. Lyra's eyes shot to the door as it opened in panic.

"Lyra dear. Who are you talking to up here?" Her mother asked as she stepped into the room, looking around confused. Lyra's eyes bounced to the bed beside her and found nothing but her blanket.

"Oh, um. Well..nobody actually." Lyra stumbled over the words as she was shocked Silver managed to disappear fast enough not to be discovered. Cheer, on the otherhand, looked at her daughter oddly. She was acting odd, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

'Probably some imaginary friend. I really thought she would be too old for them by now.' Cheer thought as she shook her head then smiled to her daughter.
"Well, dinners ready. Your father is going to be late, so it's just us tonight." She explained to Lyra as she started to turn to leave. Something caught her attention that stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Wait! Lyra! Is that what I think it is?" Cheer pointed to the mark on her daughter's flank, her smile growing rapidly in excitement for her daughter. Lyra simply smiled and nodded back with pride.
"That's fantastic Lyra!" Cheer scooped her daughter up in her arms with a fierce hug. Lyra returned the hug with an equal amount of emotion, resting her head on her mother's shoulder and looking towards her bed.

'Well, good dodge Silver. I'll see you next time.'

Comments

[leafz pegasus]

I enjoy this.

It amuses me.

Continue.

[PxDnNinja]

1786712 I have every intention to. Unlike my other stories which have a few key points I want to hit and the rest is just sort of winging it, this story I know exactly where it is headed and mostly how to get there. I have a couple weeks off for the holiday after this week as well, and should get some stuff uploaded even faster once that happens.

Thanks for sticking with it, and I'm glad you are enjoying the tale thus far.

[PxDnNinja]

As a side note, I am currently looking for an artist to create some cover art for this story. Clearly whoever does this will be told the future of the story so a fitting piece of work can be created. If you are an artist and interested in this, please send me an IM.

[Da_Spy]

Yay!

[Nima55]

imgur.com/0ech3.jpg

Keep up the good work

[PxDnNinja]

1803095 Thank you I'll do my best.