One of Us

by PxDnNinja

Chapter 2: Humans

The rest of the week went by following the normal pattern. Normal being before Silver had appeared in Lyra's life. Thankfully he seemed to be busy, as Lyra's life had picked up quite a bit. The appearance of her cutie mark had occupied the entire following day at school with people asking questions about how she got it. Several of the fillies who already had theirs thought it odd that she got it while playing alone in her room, but Lyra was easily able to keep a straight face when saying that nopony had been present.

After all, noPONY had indeed been in the room, they just didn't need to know the rest of the situation.

With the appearance of her cutie mark, her family had arranged her cutecenera for the following Friday. That planning had taken her afternoons when she got home, along with homework and band practice.

Throughout the week, she would often be spotted gazing out the window, and the librarian had even asked why she had stopped coming by the library during lunch as she normally did. A brief explanation of deciding she needed to spend time outside exercising helped, especially when she said she read it in a fitness book.

Then came the party on Friday. Balloons and cake were had by all, and even a little bit of ice cream. Though, when only a few people arrive it isn't hard to feed everypony. Lyra's mom and dad were there, as was her grandparents and a couple of cousins. Her friend Bon-Bon who recently moved to town also arrived, and a young unicorn named Rarity made it as well, talking about never missing a party. Lyra didn't mind this however as she had hung out with Rarity a couple of times and while a bit 'high class' as her mother would put it that Rarity could be, she was a friendly pony who helped Lyra out a few times.

That had been yesterday. The party was well, and everypony left late in the evening so Lyra went straight to bed. Waking this morning, she decided it was a nice day to go walking around town. She first had made her way to the market square, a small spot in Ponyville where vendors would pull up carts and sell their wares. A few shops had buildings around the edge, including a nice looking pastry shop being built. Grabbing lunch from the apple vendor from Sweet Apple Acres, being ran by a young filly from Lyra's own class, Lyra headed out to the large open field just beyond town towards the Everfree. Plan was to sit down and read a book or practice her lyre while relaxing under the afternoon sun.

"Finally, peace and quiet. Every since I got my mark it has been nonstop." Lyra complained to herself as she relaxed and looked to the sky at the clouds hanging where the weather teams had placed them. As she lay there, her thoughts drifted back to the night she got her mark, though more specifically of the young human she had met. It was almost a week without a word from him.
"Well, he is a student as well. Maybe school picked up for him." Lyra rationalized as she sat up and picked up here lyre. As she touched it, she felt a power flush through her. The feeling was subtle, but made her jump nonetheless.
"What in the world?!" Looking over her instrument, Lyra tried to determine the cause of the feeling.
"Not here..." She sat the instrument down gently before standing and looking at the ground around her. Suddenly the feeling hit again.
"Hey!" Spinning in place, she expected to see another unicorn or something playing a prank on her. A small breeze was her only companion out here, when suddenly she realized what it was.
"SILVER! Oh yeah. So how did he say send a message back. Send magic into my cutie mark?" Lyra wondered what that meant. She couldn't just create magic, she had to focus it into a spell. The easiest spell she knew was levitation, so pointing her horn at her own flank, and hoping no pony saw how ridiculous this looked, she focused her magic on her cutie mark. She could feel the emblem warm for a moment before returning to normal while the magic itself did nothing to her.
"Hmm, I wonder if that..." A soft glow from a portal opened several hoofs from where Lyra stood and out came Silver, standing tall as he strode into the field, smiling at his friend.

"Hi Lyra. It's been a while." Silver joked as he approached his friend. Lyra smiled back and reared up to hug the human as he approached.

"Same to you. Where have you been?" She asked as the two embraced in a friendly hug. After separating, they sat together on the grass, looking around briefly to see that they were alone.

"Oh, you know how it is. Studies were a bit heavy. Master Sand really wanted to drill me on combat arts with all the issues politically going on. Soon I have to test for the Crown Service Exam." Silver explained as he laid back on the grass. Lyra plopped back next to him and watched the clouds as they spoke.

"Crown Service Exam? What's that?" She asked, hoping to jump straight into learning about her friend instead of the random stuff they had talk of during previous encounters. Silver had placed his hands behind his head, which Lyra noticed now had silver bracers with a strange image embossed on them. It appeared to be a circle, but his movements had hidden much of the detail.

"The Crown Service Exam? It's a test all wizards take to prove that they have the skill to defend the Lord we are assigned to if an attack comes, and to attack any enemy of the state. We also have to display any special skills we have as magic users to the council of magisters so they can record our abilities, strength in magic, and other information in case a war breaks out or a wizard figures out how to turn on the crown." Silver explained. The information was clearly every day knowledge to the human as something you would learn when you really young, even younger than he was. Nonetheless he sounded friendly instead of demeaning as he understood Lyra was from a different world.
"What about you? Don't you have a system for maintaining your wizards. As a fellow wizard I assume you have a master teaching you?" He asked, thinking back to the library he had first arrived in. Lyra shook her head back and forth, not actually checking that Silver was watching her.

"No nothing like that. All unicorns can use magic and you just learn as you go. It really is more innate than studied." She explained.
"There are unicorns who study magic and learn powerful spells and such, but things like levitation are just as natural as using your hoofs..er..hands." Lyra hoped that made sense to the human. She didn't realize he had to go through so much to learn magic in his world. How did they do things without magic?

"Interesting. Sounds like magic works alongside nature in this world as opposed to being a separate entity." Silver spoke, sounding more like he was talking to himself instead of Lyra, who simply nodded.

"And it sounds like magic is a job in your world that you decided to follow. What do you mean about 'figuring out how to turn on the crown'?" Lyra asked. When he had first made that comment it confused her, but she didn't want to interrupt. The human this time turned his head to face her, the smile he had worn vanishing.

"You don't choose magic in my world. If you are born with it, you go to a wizards school or find a master, and then are enrolled in the military as a magic user. When you reach a certain level of power, you are bound via magic to the Crown, and by his order you follow whatever lord you are assigned to. We study history and politics as well as magic, so many lords will use us as advisers." Silver spoke, appearing to recall his own assignment to Master Sand. Lyra mimicked the humans somber appearance as she listened.

"So you are a slave?" Lyra was surprised to hear about such an act. To force somepony into service just because they had magic seemed barbaric. Silver shook his head indicating that Lyra didn't quite understand.

"It seems like slavery, but really it is just to protect everyone. Years ago, wizards lead armies and subjugated people with their powers. The binding process is to prevent such a dark time from returning to our lands." Silver explained as he removed one of his hands from behind his head to show one of the bracers he wore.
"These bracers bind us. They use my own magic to latch together, so it is impossible to remove as long as I am a wizard. Basically if I'm not a threat as a wizard, I won't be bound to the crown." The bracer in question appeared to be made of a dull silver metal. Lyra noted she couldn't see any seam around which the bracer could be removed, but most likely that was how the magic worked. The design on the bracer was that of a lion's head surrounded by various icons. This most of all drew Lyra's attention about the bracer, and wasn't missed by Silver.
"The emblem is the crest of the King. When we are bound to a lord under his service, it will transition into that houses crest. This allows us to prove our identity no matter where we go without question." Silver explained. Lyra absently nodded as she thought about all he had told her. His world certainly seemed fantastic, but just like Equestria, there were also darker aspects to it.

Nonetheless she found herself wanting more and more to visit this world.

"That sounds useful, and I guess if magic isn't as wide spread in your world I can understand the need for control. It's just sad that you have to be trapped." Lyra's voice expressed her depression about the subject better than her words, and Silver smiled in thanks for her caring.

"Hey now. I'm fed, well protected, educated, and I have plenty of freedom. After all, I have time to come visit here." Silver explained, drawing a smile from Lyra, who laughed at his comment.

"I guess that's fair. So, tell me more about your world. What kind of food do you have?" Lyra asked, deciding to get things back to a lighter note.

--------------------

Bon-Bon had just stepped out of town to the rolling fields where she knew her friend sometimes liked to relax. They hadn't had time to hang out since Lyra's party, and with all her chores done for the day, she figured the two could go play at the school playground, or even practice music.

If she could find her at least.

Her first stop had been the market square. Applejack, a farm pony they were in class with, mentioned selling some apples to Lyra before watching her head out of the market, but had no other viable information. This lead Bon-Bon to assume Lyra was either at the school reading books, or out in the field she tended to visit, and on a hunch she decided to check the field first.

The field provided a challenge in both it’s size and layout. Due to fear of the Everfree, people stayed well clear of the forest, leaving this massive field between the village and the forest. This itself wouldn’t be a problem but the landscape was built out of several rolling hills. Without a pegasus, the only way to find somepony in the field was to search each hilltop, which is what Bon-Bon currently found herself doing.

“Darn it Lyra. Did you go into the Everfree Forest again?” Bon-Bon slowly made her way towards the forest where her friend had more than once been caught playing, or exploring as Lyra would call it. As Bon-Bon reached the top of another hill, she heard a voice in the distance, indeed further in the direction of the Everfree.

“That sounds amazing!” The voice, clearly Lyra’s, exclaimed. Bon-Bon stopped moving at the shout. It sounded like she was talking to somepony, but Bon-Bon couldn’t hear any other voices.
“I say we explore the Everfree next time.” Lyra spoke after a moment, her voice still loud from excitement. Bon-Bon started towards where she heard her friend who was just over the next hill.
“Ok, I’ll see you next week, same time. Goodbye, Silver.” Lyra spoke again, this time with less volume. Bon-Bon paused before looking over the hill.

‘Silver? Who is that?’ Bon-Bon tried to remember anypony in town with such a name with no luck. After a moment of thought, Bon-Bon decided to just jump up and see who it was. The view surprised her. Lyra was packing up a bag with her lyre and a couple of books, and a few apple cores littered the ground, but there was no pony around.
‘Who was she talking to?’ The thought cycled through her head over and over as she watched her friend pack up. She was so caught up in this that she failed to notice her friend turned to head to town and look her directly in the eyes.

“Bon-Bon? What are you doing out here?” Lyra asked, surprise in her voice covering any hint of the panic she actually was feeling. Bon-Bon snapped back to reality and gave her friend a slightly forced smile.

“Oh, I was just looking for you. I thought we could hang out. Where you talking to somepony out here?” Bon-Bon decided to just come right out with the question, hoping to surprise Lyra into just explaining what in the world that was about.

“Who? Me? I don’t see anypony out here for me to have been talking to, do you?” Lyra asked, a nervous laugh in her voice. Bon-Bon glanced around and agreed, there was nopony else out here, nor any tracks of somepony leaving.

“Odd, I swear I heard you talking to somepony named Silver.” Bon-Bon explained, causing Lyra’s ears to droop as she winced at the fact that Bon-Bon had heard so much. Being caught so redhandedly, Lyra decided to come clean to her best friend.

“Well, here’s the deal. I found a book a week ago that described this wonderful race called Humans, and one of them has been teleporting from his world into ours and we have been sharing history and such about our homes with each other. His name is Silver, and he uses magic just like a unicorn. But this is a HUGE secret, so please don’t tell anypony!” Lyra begged her best friend after dropping such an explanation. Bon-Bon just leaned back in disbelief of the description. Silence hung between the friends for seconds that felt like minutes before Bon-Bon broke it.

By laughing.

“Lyra, you are as ridiculous as ever. I tell you, you read too many of those books. Humans? Come on.” Bon-Bon rolled her eyes as she turned from her friend to lead them back to town. Lyra simply stood there, mouth open in surprise. A part of her was glad Bon-Bon didn’t push for more information, but still a part deep down hurt that her own best friend refused to believe her.

‘Oh well, at least she isn’t pushing about Silver. I’m glad he left when he did, otherwise we would have a lot more explaining to do.’ Lyra thought as she began to follow her friend back to town, her own thoughts on what she and Silver would do and discuss in the future, and a smile forming on her face.

Comments

[sierra_seven_]

Human tag?

[PxDnNinja]

1839820 Odd, it used to have it. Site update must have dropped it somehow. When I get back home to a computer that is easier to use, I'll update that again. Thanks for bringing it to my attention

[Da_Spy]

hmmmm