The Parasprite Paradigm
"Lyra, what are you-" Twilight tried to ask, looking at her old school friend.
She was cut off by Lyra's whisper: "Hush, Twilight." Then the unicorn grabbed the librarian and pulled her into the shrub she occupied.
Twilight was placed on her back. At that point, she wasn't able to make any articulate sounds, only a variation on: "Mmmmmhm." Lyra just didn't give her the opportunity. Finally, her horn developed a shimmering lavender aura. A quick second of concentration later she finally willed Lyra's pressing hoof away from her mouth. "Seriously, Lyra, what kind of trouble are you getting yourself into this time?"
"I said shhh," Lyra retorted, in a sterner voice, "I'm tracking Pinkie Pie and I don't want anypony to blow my cover!"
Twilight looked the way Lyra was looking. There, indeed, was the pink party pony in question, playing in the park with a couple fillies.
Upon this realization, the eyes of Celestia's student shrunk to pinpricks. "Lyra! Stop it! You don't know what you're getting yourself into!" She shouted.
"Argh! Now she knows about us for sure! Why did you have to ruin it?"
"You can not simply study Pinkie Pie. Otherwise bad things happen! I can say from experience! Her pinkie sense just works, leave it at that!"
"I'm not going after pinkie sense," the mint unicorn retorted. In her mind, she added an afterthought: At least not primarily. There might be a connection I wouldn't mind uncovering as well.
"You're not? Then what are you after?"
"Parasprites."
"Parasprites?! Don't tell me there's another swarm coming! We finished repairs just yesterday! That reminds me, where were you hiding for the last week?" Twilight shifted from a panicked mood to a questioning one.
Lyra, for the most part, ignored the question. The only indication of her discomfort were slightly folded ears. "You saw how easily Pinkie took care of them. She played them out of town. They danced, like little musical notes. But the question is, what took her so long? I run an instrument building and repair shop, with a few samples of my work always up on display. Why did it take her so long before she showed up? And without me knowing, when I was at my long awaited cake break?"
A hint of a tear appeared in her eye, as she remembered the piece she almost had, before the parasprites struck. It was a special cake, only made once per year, as it was made from a rare, imported fruit.
A blink of an eye later, she steeled herself and went on: "I believe she was the one who brought those cute little balls of terror in the first place."
The lavender unicorn frowned. "That's preposterous. I thought better of you. This is very insulting to her, you know."
"The evidence is there, Twilight. And even if she didn't bring them, she knows something. She's always planning something. I'm not going to rest until I know what it is."
"I don't see any evidence. Just a load of unsubstantiated rumors. Sure, she may be eccentric, but how can that pony, basically the incarnation of joy and optimism, plan any nefarious schemes?"
"Well, that's what I was trying to find out, before I was revealed!"
Twilight shook her head, with a disappointed expression. She stepped out of the bushes, only to pause to address Lyra once more: "This will only end in tears."
As Twilight trotted off, Lyra thought: This isn't working out. Every time I hide to observe, somepony finds me. What else can I try?
"Hi!" a loud pink voice went off right next to the minty unicorn's ear.
"Gah!"
"You're right! I'm always planning something! And right now ' planning the most super-duper-pepper-sapper-liscious party! And I don't think I invited you yet! GASP! That's right! I didn't! So..."
Lyra retreated as discreetly as possible, leaving the hyperactive pony ramble on. I know you're hiding something. You knowing I know you're hiding something isn't going to stop me. And I will figure you out sooner or later.
"Isn't it too warm for that, miss?"
"Oh, darling, it's so bland! Why don't you come to my boutique and pick one which is at least a better color? I'll even let you pay just the difference!"
"Hey, dig the swell hoodie!"
Lyra couldn't take it anymore and left Sugarcube Corner, muttering: "This rag was supposed to make me blend with the background. Instead everypony who passes by comments and tries to make small talk! If I ever see this 'stealth general Scootaloo', I'll shove her false advertising where Celestia's magic doesn't reach!"
The magi-lectric audio store looked less and less promising each second. The mint-colored unicorn wondered if it's endorsement by such names as Sapphire Shores or DJ-PON3 wasn't a conspiracy itself. Perhaps the store bought those so they could charge outrageous prices for some less than adequate equipment.
"This one even comes with an input volume. But if you ask me, I've no idea why they bothered t'put it there. I think it's better t'keep it off the microphone and control everythin' down the way."
"Yeah, they're nice, but don't you have some wireless ones? Some that can send to a receiver over a long distance."
"Right, I've a few back. I've one that can transmit to up to a hundred hooflengths, but usually the sixty hoof models work better. Less interference, y'know?"
"A hundred? Is that the best you can do? Don't they make ones for even more than a double of that length?"
"Pardon me for bein' blunt, but you certainly don't look like you'd be able t'pay for those, unless you shed bits when you shake. Whatever'd you use them for, anyway? Stick'em 'round town and collect gossip?"
Bon-bon struggled with her groceries. The market had more special offers than usual and she just couldn't resist. Even if it meant she spent more bits than usual. But that was not exactly a problem. She could count on her niece. If either one of them was low on bits, the other would help, and then be helped when the tables turned.
This reassuring feeling was somewhat shot down as she closed near her home. The good thing was that the house was still standing, with no visible damage. However, all the windows were opened, and in each one of them a telescope was placed. And from the looks of it, they weren't the cheap, four-bits-a-piece ones, either.
And every few moments, a pony-shaped, minty shadow passed near each of the windows with a pause.
Nervously, the earth pony opened the front door. Immediately, she heard her relative's greeting: "Welcome home, auntie!" That made her relax a little, as it meant the unicorn was paying attention and didn't sound like a nerve-wreck.
"Good afternoon to you too, Lyra. Could you help me with these vegetables, please?"
"Sorry, not now. Need to observe."
"Observe... what exactly? If it's the sun, then I don't think you need to move as much as you do," Bon-bon noted, listening to the clip-clopping coming from the upper floor.
"Of course I'm not observing the sun. I know as well as everypony else that it's just a giant hive of space fireflies. I'm observing Pinkie Pie."
"Well, I doubt that's very successful. We're on the other side of Ponyville from Sugarcube Corner, where she's been all day, not to mention the neighboring houses must get in the way of your observations." I'm actually kind ofa surprised nopony came around to complain about what looks like the beginning of Lyra's voyeurism...
The clip-clopping suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by the hammering hooves of a trotting pony. In a few seconds, the unicorn appeared on the stairs, asking: "You know where she is? Do you know what she's doing?"
"Well, yes. I had a chat with her- well, she did most of the talking, as usual- and I learned that she's taking care of sales this afternoon."
Lyra got her faraway look, the one Bon-bon knew meant trouble for anypony involved. With a sigh, she listened to Lyra ramble: "Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious! And so time saving! I don't need to stalk Pinkie Pie myself! I'll just be asking everypony else!"
She then set off in the direction of the exit, only to be blocked by a cream colored hoof.
"Three things before you leave and embarrass yourself again. One, help me store these in the kitchen. Two, get rid of those telescopes if you don't need them anymore. Hopefully back where you got them, with a refund. And three, close the windows, or the draft will make me catch a cold."
"... so you have no Idea where Pinkie Pie spent the previous day."
"No! I don't! As I told you like a gazillion times before! How would I even know? Do I look like I'm Pinkie Pie's marefriend?!" snapped Rainbow Dash, rudely awaken from her nap by Lyra's barrage of questions.
It made Lyra feel disappointed. So far, the ponies she asked either did not know of the pink mare's whereabouts, or they did, but not to the level of detail she was after. Then, a steadily growing number of ponies would not even stop to answer her. On the contrary, they sped up. She expected such behavior from the brown earth pony with the hourglass cutie mark, who seemed to do an awful lot of running regardless of the reason. But when others behaved the same way, and with today not being any town-wide celebration day for outdoor physical activity, she was starting to get the suspicion they were avoiding her.
"And you're absolutely certain of your answers?" she tried again.
"Ugh!" The pegasus facehooved, "you're even worse than Twilight! If you're so curios, why don't you just ask her yourself?" She then motioned in the direction of the unicorn, and took off.
Lyra could only imagine what the gesture meant as she followed the rainbow trail with her sight. Then she turned around, to find another pony, one that would hopefully have the information she needed, only for her nose to touch the nose of a certain pink pony.
"HI!"
The sudden combination of sound and touch made Lyra neigh and topple over on her back.
"I heard you were asking ponies about where I am and where I was and where I will be and since I am now free because Sugarcube Corner has an afternoon break I went to find you and answer those questions because I know them best well not where I am going to be I mean predicting the future is not that easy but I will try my best anyway!"
It took a while before the unicorn's heartbeat slowed down to its normal rate and before she processed the verbal onslaught. "Oh, are you?"
"Yepperoni macaroni! Oh, don't you just love macaroni? I know I do! But I never managed to figure out how they make the hole. Do they first make it whole? Hey, these are fun words! Whole, hole, whole hole! A whole donut hole! Oh! The mole has dug a whole hole!"
"Pinkie, stop." Surprisingly, the earth pony mare paid attention to her. She only stopped for half of a second, though.
"Huh? Why? Don't you like moles? Gasp! Don't let Fluttershy know! And be careful around her shed, too! That's where most of the moles have their territory!" Pinkie continued, with a more urgent voice, closer to the unicorn.
"What? Are you threatening me?!"
"I'd never! Threats are no fun!"
Lyra didn't let the closeness of Pinkie intimidate her. Instead, she pointed her hoof right at the baker's snout. "Yeah, right. I see right through you. I know you're up to something. Who are you working for?"
"I work for the Cakes! And I told you I'm always up to another party! But I haven't seen you at any of the recent ones. Don't you like my parties?" Suddenly, by whatever magic at play, Pinkie seemed less energetic. "Come to think of it, I haven't really seen you smile lately at all. Did I somehow rustle your jimmies?"
"You did! With your parasprites! You're in league with them! All the instruments you used were at my shop. But it took you so long before you appeared there. You thought nopony would notice. Well guess what. I did. And I told some ponies too, so-"
"But the door was locked."
It was Lyra's turn to back away in shocked confusion. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"Yeah. There was a sign, too. 'Too many commissions, ask later'. You never answered my knocking. I would never try to work my way around a locked door. Do you take me for a burglar?"
That answer was so simple, obvious and true that Lyra could not find a counter-argument. "But..."
"And then, after Twilight cast her hey-parasprites-stop-eating-all-the-food spell, the locked door wasn't a problem anymore, because there was no door anymore!"
The conspiracy theorist could only blink, mouth agape, staring at the grinning earth pony.
"So now that we cleared up any miscommunication and accusations, can we be friends again?"
"Uhm..."
"Pleeeease?"
The mint-colored mare steeled herself against the sad face. She managed to hold that for a full two seconds before buckling. "Oh, okay."
Those two words then caused Lyra to find herself in a Pink Hug of Suffocation, fortunately not long enough to start seeing spots before her eyes. Then, as she listened to the next party invitation, only one thought was present in her mind: You're still not off the hook, pink menace. I shall still be watching you.
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anyone else think of sauron's eye when you saw the cover
Good chapter. I didn't get all the references, but that's no biggie. I really love how Lyra could stand Pinkie's sad face for two whole seconds.
Must have been a tough challenge. 
Oh, and I didn't know voice colors could be pink.
2178591
*Raises hand*
Dragon
2179079
Well, I'm not hoing to name them, as it's more fun when you find the original and it pops up at you unexpectedly.
And since it's Pinkie Pie, she can have anything she wants, even a surprising voice color
2178591
One Thing to rule them all, One Thing to find them,
One Thing to bring them all and in the friendship bind them
In the Land of Equestria where the Sun does rise.
But yeah, It wasn't the first thing in my mind when I drew it, but the resemblance became apparent very soon.