Chapter 1
Of everything that could have happened tonight, this was the worst possible thing.
It wasn’t ‘just a few of her friends’ as her roommate had implied. It was all of them. Every, single one of them was there in her living room. Shoulder to shoulder, most of Canterlot Highschool was there. Lyra’s whole family was there. Her father, standing stoically beside her weeping mother, her grandparents on both sides, her remaining great-grandmother who had to be a hundred by now, cousins and uncles she barely knew. Even a few people she was sure she’d never met before were all jammed into her living room like sardines. She hated sardines. Principle Celestia, stood in the center.
“Not again, Bonbon. Not again.” Lyra whispered.
“Just listen, okay?” Bonbon implored. Lyra rolled her eyes.
“Miss Heartstrings?” Celestia asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room when Lyra entered.
“Yes, Principle?”
After a long and pregnant pause, the principle spoke. “Your roommate informs me that you have been spending an inordinate and unhealthy amount of time pursuing fantastical pass-times. Normally, this falls outside of my circle of influence, but she’s worried about you. All of your classmates are.”
“Yeah,” all the attendant classmates muttered.
“I’m fine.” Lyra insisted.
“No you’re not.” Bonbon said. You’re up all night with your ‘pony’ chatrooms, you’re ignoring your family, your homework, your job—your third job this year, even the hobbies you used to love… you’re spending more time with imaginary ponies than you are …with me.”
“Oh, so I have to choose? You or my little ponies?” Lyra said. She sounded amused, but Bonbon could see the traces of anger under a tired, practiced smile. Lyra had stopped listening.
Bonbon's pleading expression soured instantly. “Lyra, please!” Bonbon shouted. Lyra ducked her head back in shock—these had rarely evolved into yelling matches, since Bonbon almost never yelled. “I think this obsession with your sick little fantasy world is beginning to be unhealthy. We love you, we want you to come back to us—the Lyra who wanted to be with real people.”
“Yeah.” The rest of them chorused
Lyra was silent for a long time, staring at her feet, refusing to meet their eyes. Bonbon was relieved—usually the mere mention of that ‘pony’ world was enough to get Lyra to launch into explanations of magic, harmony, government cover-ups, and wormholes. This was the first time she’d ever actually silenced Lyra; maybe this time she’d listen.
“Sick, huh?” Lyra finally whispered, and she spun on her heels, and stormed out of the building.
And into the courtyard of the highschool.
"But…Doorknobs? Lyres? Saddles?! What the buck are saddles for if not for being ridden? There’s evidence everywhere that you ponies are just ignoring, and you, princesses, are covering it up!” Lyra’s barrel heaved as she pointed a hoof dramatically to Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence, and the newest princess (and her one-time friend) Twilight Sparkle, in the middle of the huge group that had ambushed her with an intervention.
This trip to the Crystal Empire was supposed to have been a vacation.
Celestia calmly nodded to Twilight.
“Bonbon, these ponies are genuinely worried about you. You have to give this obsession up. You’re just believing what you want to believe. Try to see that.” Twilight said.
“But…Corral 51? Project Blue Book?”
“I wouldn’t …lie to you, Lyra.” Twilight said, but Lyra saw pain in her eyes, and heard the catch in her voice as she spoke.
“Oh no? Alright, then. Pinkie Promise.” Lyra whispered.
“What?”
“You heard me, princess,” Lyra said, spitting the word ‘princess’ out like something vulgar, “After all the research projects you helped me with, all the time I spent in your library, I consider us friends. I want you to swear right here that there are no such things as humans. If our friendship means anything to you…” Lyra was fuming as her rant trailed off. The whites of Twilight’s eyes were showing, and she glanced furtively around the room.
Pinkie was standing to her left, and when Twilight’s eyes fell to her, Pinkie solemnly whispered “Forever.”
“I…” Twilight began. She looked up to Princess Celestia, and past her to Cadence, but Celestia was watching Lyra, and Cadence just shrugged. Twilight’s eye twitched.
“I can’t.”
“HA!” Lyra yelled, pointing another accusatory hoof at the princesses.
“Lyra, stop!” Bonbon yelled. Lyra would have continued back into a rant—the princesses couldn’t gainsay her—but there was an odd echo in Bonbon’s voice that held her tongue. “I think,” Bonbon continued, “we all think, that this obsession with your sick little fantasy world is beginning to be unhealthy. We love you, we want you to come back to us—the Lyra who wanted to be with real ponies.”
“Yeah.” The rest of them chorused
Lyra dropped to all fours and was silent for a long time, staring at her hooves, refusing to meet their eyes. Bonbon was relieved—usually the mere mention of that ‘human’ world was enough to get Lyra to launch into explanations of magic, harmony, government cover-ups, and wormholes. This was the first time she’d ever actually silenced Lyra; maybe this time she’d listen.
“Sick, huh?” Lyra finally whispered, and she spun on her rear hooves, and bolted out of the room and into the labyrinth of hallways that was the Crystal Palace.
And up into a long forgotten tower.
It was only a few hours later, though it seemed like days to Bonbon, worried that she’d pushed too far this time to get her best friend’s head out of the proverbial clouds. Bonbon reclined dejectedly on a sofa in a room Princess Cadence had made available at the palace. Twilight hadn’t said anything to Bonbon after she’d failed to convince Lyra; She’d just looked ashamed and left. A yellow, pegasus guard wearing Twilight’s cutie mark as a crest had found her after Twilight left and led her to this opulent, beautiful, empty room in Cadance's palace. Bonbon shot to her hooves immediately when the door opened.
“Lyra! You came back! We were so worried about you!”
A mint-colored unicorn shuffled slowly into the room, blinking in the light from the overhead chandelier, which glared back at her from not only the fixture itself, but from every solid surface—the downside to crystals as construction material. She slid her hooves carefully along the marble floor as if she didn't trust them to hold her up. She had obviously been crying as much as Bonbon had, swollen, red eyes and damp coat shone in glaring detail that filled Bonbon again with a surge of guilt and worry toward her friend. Despite adjusting to the light, amber eyes went wide when the unicorn looked to Bonbon, still standing, relieved, near the sofa.
“Bonbon?!” she whispered, almost reverently. She pushed her way past the heavy door and took slow, tiny steps toward Bonbon, her red and swollen eyes darting everywhere in the room, returning frequently to take in Bonbon's every detail, as if for the first time.
Bonbon took a few, cautious steps toward her friend, worried that she might bolt away again. Those amber eyes watched her carefully, even as they flickered around the room. When they finally met, Lyra leaned in close to Bonbon, to a distance normally reserved for lovers, stopping only a hair’s breadth away to peer at her through squinting eyelids.
Bonbon leapt up on her rear hooves, and wrapped her forelegs around her best friend.
“I’m sorry I got so angry, Lyra. We meant to be gathering to support you. You don’t have to stop thinking about humans if you don’t want to, just don’t let it take over your life, okay?” she sobbed.
The mint pony just returned the hug, and laughed.