Chapter 13
One day at a time. It was something Lyra was having to learn anew. She had ponies who would support her no matter what, even in her dreams, so all she had to do was ask for help and she got it. "Bonny, I need help."
"What's wrong?" Concern colored Sweetie Drops' voice as it did her entire being. Her first thought was that Lyra was dealing with another existential crisis—then, after following the direction of her wife's gaze, she saw it was much worse. "Oh. Pinkie does seem to be particularly high-energy today."
"Should we try to figure it out?" Seeing her friend somehow hiding a fully loaded wagon behind a tree was impressive.
Kissing Lyra's cheek to distract her, Sweetie used her hoof to turn Lyra's jaw for a more firm distraction. When she broke the kiss, she asked, "We already have a job, remember?"
Distracted for a moment, Lyra blinked a few times before she remembered how to breathe. Then she also remembered why they were out and about today. "Oh, right, the cake and stuff. I still can't believe they got their cutie marks at the same time."
"Come on, it was bound to happen. They spend half of every day together—well, when Scootaloo isn't with Firelance." The grin plastered on Sweetie's face was a natural reaction to how adorable she found the pair to be. "Which is why we can't mess this party up."
"Right. So we get the candles and get home to finish cooking. I don't care that they'll be getting two more parties, I want ours to be the best."
When they reached it, Sugarcube Corner was bustling. Carrot was behind the counter serving ponies as quickly as he could and the smell of warm ovens filled with delicious things permeated the room. The line progressed and soon Lyra and Sweetie were standing before Carrot. "What can I help you—Oh! The candles!"
"Thanks, Carrot. And if you don't mind, can we have, uh, seven muffins?" Sweetie asked.
While Carrot saw about getting everything, Lyra looked at Sweetie. "Seven? Why seven?"
"Two for you, two for me, and one each for the fillies so they don't fill-up on cake." It was the perfect plan with no holes—which is why Sweetie felt nervous. "Right?"
"Firelance will be around soon too. I don't mind sharing one of my muffins with him, that way I can fill up on cake." Lyra rubbed her hooves together in glee, but when Carrot returned with a box of candles and a huge tray of muffins, her hopes and dreams were dashed upon the rocky shore of good-will.
"Turns out we have a whole tray spare of orange and mango muffins. Cup told me to just give them away, and I happen to know somepony has a little filly who just got her cutie mark." Setting the tray down on the counter, Carrot taps the register. "That'll be five bits."
Passing over six, Lyra lifted the tray while she left the candles to Sweetie. "Thanks, Carrot." She did her best to keep her utter disappointment with causality out of her tone.
Tossing the candles on her back, Sweetie waved goodbye and followed Lyra out while Carrot got onto the next customer in the queue. Outside Sugarcube Corner, she (and Lyra) both had to jump back to avoid a flying pink missile with a delivery wagon attached—being paced by three familiar fillies. "Don't forget the party in an hour!"
"I doubt they heard." Lyra used her flank to bump Sweetie to a walk beside her. "Because the fillies would have acknowledged you and Pinkie would have instantly broken out of her state and demanded to know where the party was."
Nodding to the assessment, Sweetie said, "That means whatever she's up to is pretty serious. We should put on our armor."
"No. Not me. Twilight ordered me not to put it on unless Ponyville is literally on fire. Now, I could set some buildings on fire, but I think that would only make her inevitable ambush of me far worse."
Sweetie smirked at the mental image that conjured. "You know, I was worried at first. Worried that having a bookworm as a princess would not be the best thing. She has shown commitment to Equestria that has left me breathless. She didn't just train as a unicorn and pegasus in the guard, but she put up with my growling at her for four weeks. Hearing of her accomplishments with that training is a huge boost to my confidence in her. I know not all the Guard know what she did, but seeing her in a crisis, now, would be telling to anypony trained to lead."
"It's good to see, and it sure makes me more confident that she'll know where and how to use me in a fight." Nearing their home, something seemed off, mostly that there was a pair of ponies waiting at the front door—both trying to not look conspicuous. It only took the slightest poke with her magic to tell her both were powerful magic users—though one was exceptionally powerful. "Those disguises are terrible and, if Dinky was here, she'd spot you both in a heartbeat. Get inside, quick."
Looking between her wife and the two strange ponies, Sweetie raised an eyebrow but waited her turn to enter the house while trusting Lyra. When the door was closed, she asked, "What's going on he—?" She stopped when Cadance and Shining let go of the magic hiding them both.
Not stopping before she hugged both of her friends, Lyra waited for Sweetie to do the same before beginning her interrogation. "What's with the disguises?"
"We're trying to organize a surprise for Twily." Shining, without a doubt, couldn't take his eyes off Cadance. Ever since he'd gotten the news, even on the trip to Ponyville, his eyes had been glued to his wife.
Unable to hold in her excitement a moment longer, Cadance said, "We're having a foal."
Shining had expected them to not freak out anywhere near as much as they did. He wound up getting half strangled by Sweetie when she was done with Cadance, and Lyra seemed possessed of supernatural strength too. "The reason we came here first was we want to make this a surprise for Twily."
"And you want some help?" Lyra asked.
"We do. We'd hoped to get all the preparations done ourselves, but plans changed and now we need to distract Twilight while someone else scatters these clues." Shining held out a few slips of paper. "If you can't do it I can—"
Sweetie reached out her hoof and pushed Lyra in the direction of the door. "Shining, of course Lyra can do it. We only have a little work to go here and I can take care of that. Go on, get everything you need done finished so we can get this party started."
"Party?" Cadance asked, only now looking around to see streamers and a banner that had three pictures on it.
"Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom all got their cutie marks at the same time, plus they're all matching in a set. There's our party today, Sweetie Belle's is tomorrow, and then Apple Bloom's the day after. Those three are going to be caked-out by the weekend," Sweetie said.
Unable to help herself, Cadance danced on her hooves rapidly and let out a little squeal of motherly delight. "I can't wait until our little one gets their cutie mark."
Clearing his throat while doing his best not to get carried away with his wife's excitement, Shining held out a series of notes to Lyra. "These are the clues for a scavenger hunt. Twily loved them when she was a little filly, and I wanted to make today special for everypony, but the hitch is we don't have time to place the clues."
"And we'd be a little conspicuous doing it." Cadance stretched her wings out a little to prove her point. "You're not exactly the only unicorn in town who can spot disguise spells."
"What can I say, I love teaching ponies these weird little tricks." Lyra shrugged and took the offered clues. Reading through them, she giggled. "These are great. I bet Twilight will love this."
"How are the—uh—" Cadance flicked her wings again and nodded at Lyra.
"Oh, my wings? Well, you heard about my experiments with meditation and getting better connected with magic?" When Cadance nodded, Lyra went on, "It seems doing that makes them even more intense. So, I guess it's definitely going to happen."
There was still a note of reluctance that Cadance could hear in Lyra's voice. Though she wanted to tell her friend everything would be fine, she knew one way she could help. "You could stop, you know? You don't have to do this if you don't want to."
Lyra's eyes widened. Of everypony who'd been talking to her about the wings, Cadance's was one of the very few voices that had told her she had a choice. She thought about it, though, and let out a resigned sigh. "I'd be a complete hypocrite if I did stop it. All my life I've told ponies to keep their faces to the wind of fate and let their hearts guide them to their destiny. My heart is already pulling me along, as is my common sense—I'm just being stubborn. Don't tell Bonny, though, or she'll lecture me about responsibility."
"I can hear you, Lyra. Also, I've never lectured you on responsibility." Closeness and many years of marriage together meant that Sweetie knew a deflection when she heard one. She walked over to Lyra and pulled her darling into a cuddle. "Wings or no wings, I'll always be at your side."
"That means so much to me to hear that." Doing her best to squeeze back as hard as she was squeezed, Lyra couldn't help but add, "Even if I know your taste for wings."
Sweetie just laughed at that. "Go on, get this done for our friends and then get your wings back here for the party." She kissed Lyra on the cheek and, reluctantly, let her go.
"Right," Shining said, after giving the couple a chance to end their little moment, "we'll take our time going to the castle. How long do you think it will take you to discretely put these in the right places?"
Turning her attention to Shining, Lyra flicked through the locations where she had to leave clues. "I can get this started in no more than five minutes, and can complete the list inside twenty."
While her husband and Lyra discussed specifics, Cadance felt herself bubbling with far too much energy. Pregnancy, she'd found so far, definitely agreed with her—as did seeing two of her best friends so obviously in love after being married together by her. It was all she could do not to break into song. "We'll give you thirty minutes. I'm sure Shining can spend that much time catching up with Twilight and getting excited at everything she has planned."
From her loose stance to a sharp and precise at-attention pose, Lyra wasted not a single big of additional motion in sketching a perfect salute. "Yes, Your Highness!"
Leaning down a little, Cadance brought her head down so she and Lyra were at the same height. She reached up with her hoof and booped Lyra on the nose, then blew a raspberry at her.
Not breaking from her stiff position, Lyra waited until the last moment before booping Cadance back. "Come on, you have to let me get away with this for as long as these things"—she stretched the golden wings out through the cloak she had on—"aren't solid."
Thinking about it, Cadance could nod in agreement to that. "I know I would have poked more fun at alicorns, too, before I became one.—if I'd known any. Very well, you can keep poking fun at me, though I will return it three-fold when those do become solid."
"I know I'm in for a lot of teasing then, but I figure—being an alicorn—I'll just announce I am nocturnal. That way I only need to worry about Luna." Folding the wings back down, Lyra walked to the door. "Remember, twenty minutes at least."
"Got it," Shining said as she teleported. "Wait, why did she walk to the door if she was going to teleport?"
"Lyra," Cadance and Sweetie both said together, drawing a laugh from all three.
High in the sky above Ponyville, Lyra used small, very short distance teleports to keep herself relatively stationary (with error bars only about the size of one pony). The location for the first clue was on a little loop of paper wrapped around it. "Statue in the middle of town? Oh, I know that."
Turning her attention to the statue in question, Lyra spotted a safe place to land—and teleported directly there when she reached her apogee. She only dropped a hoofwidth to the ground, which wasn't enough to even faze her. "Okay, where will this—Ah! The mouth."
Walking over, Derpy watched as Lyra fitted the scroll into the statue's mouth. "Hi, Lyra, whatcha doing?"
This was exactly why Lyra had allowed herself so long. "Hey, Derpy. Just helping some friends set up a scavenger hunt for Twilight. Could I ask a huge favor?"
"I have to be in Canterlot in two hours, but I can spare a little time for my best friend. What can I do?"
"Twilight will be along in about ten to thirty minutes. Just make sure nopony takes that scroll out of the statue's mouth until then." Lyra spared her friend a hug by way of payment.
Squeezing for all she was worth, Derpy did an excited little dance. "I can do that! I bet you'll never guess who I'm going to see in Canterlot."
"Well, my second guess would be to see Dinky, but she's probably got classes today. My third guess would be Donut Joe"—grinning when Derpy gasped, Lyra knew she'd guessed right about that little rumor—"but my first guess would be Princess Luna."
Derpy's mouth formed an O of surprise. "How did you know?!" She couldn't help herself from giving her wings a little flap.
Grinning like a maniac, Lyra winked. "I'm a wizard, Derpy." The skeptical look she got back told Lyra what she was selling wasn't being purchased. "Would you believe a wizard who has tea and cake with princesses every now and again? No? What about a wizard who makes suggestions to princesses who are curious about all the mechanisms of modern Equestria and how they function?"
Now Derpy's wings weren't just flapping, they shot straight up in shock. "What?"
"And, I figured I knew a mare who knew a lot about Equestria's postal service, so dropped this hero's name to Luna as somepony she might want to talk to. I take it you're visiting her for afternoon tea?"
"Y-Yeah. It was such a shock and—I can't believe you did this." Grinning, Derpy dove on Lyra to give her another hug. "Oh, but you have to keep working to get this scavenger hunt set up, right?"
"I always have time for a hug with a friend." Squeezing Derpy again, Lyra loved setting up these little moments for ponies. Giving her friends a chance to shine always made her feel good. "But I do have to go. This next one needs to go to the school."
"You'd better hurry, then! Good luck!"
Trotting, then cantering, and finally galloping, Lyra made her way quickly to the Ponyville schoolhouse. With the building in sight, Lyra checked the note. "Wait." She screamed to a halt with all four legs planted. "'Put it somewhere obvious'?" She recognized Shining's writing. "This is—"
"Extra, extra!"
Her head snapping around, Lyra spotted the foal walking around with newspapers and rushed over. "Excuse me, could I borrow—"
"One copper bit," Pipsqueak said.
"How many papers do you have there?" Lyra asked, fishing around for the pocket in the cloak she kept a few coins in.
"Twenty-five!" Proud as punch, Pipsqueak held up the papers to show her. "Because nopony has purchased any yet."
"Ooookay. Here is three silver bits. That's five coppers more than they're worth. I want to just change your papers a little—and when my friend shows up, you have to give her one, okay?" Holding out the silver coins, Lyra watched the foal's face run through a series of mental calculations. "You can sell the rest after you're done giving Twilight Sparkle one, okay?"
Understanding now, Pipsqueak nodded. "Give one to Twilight Sparkle, then sell the rest. Okay!" He took the silver coins just as Lyra plucked the newspapers out of his grip with her magic. He watched in awe as she held a scroll up to them and the words seemed to flow off the scroll and into the newspapers. "Wow!"
"Now, she won't be long, about fifteen minutes. Got it?" With Pipsqueak nodding and taking the papers back, Lyra felt secure in the knowledge that he actually had an idea what she wanted done. "Thanks. Now, I need to go to…" Taking out the next scroll, Lyra read it. "Town hall!"
No sooner did Lyra reach town hall than she spotted Twilight and her friends reaching the statue. "Shining was meant to give me thirty minutes," she said under her breath. "I better get this done fast and—Why is Pinkie rushing them? Oh no."
Avoiding eye contact, Lyra rushed into city hall and almost plowed right into Mayor Mare. "Please! I need your help!"
Mayor Mare knew Lyra only passingly, and mostly because of the Scootaloo incident (which she had to admit had turned out exceptionally well), but she also knew the mare to be a close friend of Twilight Sparkle's. A friend of Twilight Sparkle's being in this big a panic was usually significant. "What's the matter?"
"I need you to hide this letter, taped to the back of Applejack's birth record." Lyra thrust out the small piece of paper. "And please, when Twilight arrives, try to delay her a little. I'm helping Shining and Cadance with a surprise for Twilight, to celebrate their upcoming foal."
Eyes widening, Mayor mare held up a hoof. "Say no more! I'll have it done at once." Taking the note, and glancing at it quickly, Mayor Mare realized that this was some kind of surprise for the local princess, arranged by her brother and sister-in-law. Approaching the correct filing cabinet, she opened it up and slid the paper into the appropriate spot. "There," she said, turning, "all—done…" Lyra was already gone. That's when the words Lyra'd said connected. "Baby—"
The furniture store was as easy as paying Davenport a few bits to put up with whatever cyclone of an event Pinkie Pie would inflict on his store, and giving him the note to affix to a crib. The last stop, of course, was Sugarcube Corner, though she had no note to deliver there.
Rushing through town, Lyra did her best not to draw looks or questions, but it was impossible not to. She was almost to Sugarcube Corner when she heard commotion behind her. "They're coming!"
She didn't often do precise, point-to-point teleports, but Lyra needed to get inside as quickly as possible, and nothing beat a teleport for doing so. The math was rough, but she put together a pattern before she got two strides and activated it.
*Pomf!*
Panting, Lyra looked between Shining, Cadance, Cup, and Carrot. "They're almost here! Pinkie's been leading them through the clues like a bloodhound! I gotta skedaddle!" With another puff of magic and air, Lyra was gone again—leaving her friends to their special moment with Twilight.
Lyra wasn't exactly winded, but the combination of intense concentration on mathematics while running had left her feeling a little drained. "I don't know how Twilight can do this." She stood still for several seconds before she remembered what her plans had been before offering to help Shining and Cadance.
Though, she decided to just trot home rather than anything fancy. When she reached the front door, she opened it up and slipped inside—almost knocking Sweetie Belle over. "Oops. Excuse me."
"Here she is! We can eat cake now!"
It wasn't a surprise to hear it, or to watch Sweetie Belle pronking over to the table where Sweetie Drops was defending a cake from a group of ravenous teens, but Lyra still felt a little put-out that her only reason to be here was a signal to eat cake. Then she remembered what she'd been like as a mid-teen, and pronked her way to the table as well. "Yay! Cake!"
Scootaloo noticed when Lyra pronked over and raced to tackle her in a hug. "You made it!"
Wrapping a foreleg around Scootaloo, Lyra hugged her back. "Like I'd miss this? Scoots, I'm so proud of you and your friends. I could just burst!"
"Please don't burst. I prefer my moms in one piece. How are the W-I-N-G-S?" Giving her own a little wiggle, Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.
Flying with Scootaloo was one reason Lyra was never actually entertaining the idea of giving up her wings. The few times she'd worked the spell and made them manifest again had been almost exclusively spent learning flying to fly from, in her opinion, the best flier in Equestria. "There's a reason I'm wearing this cloak everywhere that has nothing to do with the weather. They just won't turn off since I—"
"Scootaloo! You need to help us cut the cake!" Apple Bloom shouted.
Letting go of Scootaloo, Lyra walked slowly around the crowd of young ponies until she could stand beside Sweetie Drops. That also gave her a great spot to admire the work that'd gone into the cake, not the least of which being the three young mares in question done in miniature on large disks that were their cutie marks. "Wow, Bonny, the cake's amazing."
Leaning closer to Lyra, Sweetie Drops kissed her wife on the cheek. "I know. Now, cut that cake!"
The party, unsurprisingly, was a huge success, and even as the couple cleaned up once everyone had left, they continued to brush against one another, steal kisses, and then Lyra decided to play her ace in the hole. The spell she'd made was as simple for her to cast as any she memorized—but seeing as she'd created it that was trivial.
A little friendship, a dash of emotive, a big lump of change, and a heap of motion.
She knew full well that the complexity of the spell pattern was impossibly for any unicorn to memorize, but that didn't matter. Lyra cast the spell and her wings became manifest and solid. She did the pose—the one she'd watched Sweetie Drops almost literally start drooling at when Wonderbolts did it. Wings up and out, stretched above her so the tips of her last primaries almost touched, Lyra puffed out her chest and tilted her head to the side.
When Lyra opened her eyes and gave Sweetie Drops a wink, she couldn't help herself and rushed over for a hug. "I love you, you silly unicorn."
Leaning into the embrace, Lyra embraced Sweetie Drops with a wing and said, "I love you too, you—"
Loud knocking on the front door startled them both. Lyra looked at Sweetie and Sweetie looked at Lyra—each hoping there wouldn't be another knock. More knocking came, followed by Rainbow Dash calling out, "You need to come up to the castle, quick!"
"We'll be right there!" Lyra called back and, hearing the sound of wings pumping hard outside, turned to Sweetie. "Do you think we have time for armor?"
"I still don't have mine completed yet. Let's just go. If something needs us armored, well, it can take a number." Marching to the door, Sweetie opened it and made room for Lyra. "Uh, the wings?"
"Are timed. I can't get rid of them for four hours." What annoyed Lyra even more was that she'd been careful to make the spell not ruin clothing, so there were holes in her cloak to let her wings out. "Nopony will notice them anyway, let's go." She shut the door and started cantering with Sweetie—soon breaking into a full gallop.
When they reached the castle, it wasn't to find any invasions in progress or indeed anything attacking at all. Screeching to a stop, Rainbow yanked open the doors and let Sweetie go ahead of her. "Eyes peeled."
Nodding, Sweetie didn't so much as blink at seeing doors open and close as she passed. She spared a glance for each and continued all the way to the map room. Squaring up on the doors, Sweetie nodded to Lyra and stepped in as they opened to her magic.
Lyra froze. The map room was filled with Twilight and her friends, as well as Shining and Cadance. There was cake and drinks and a very surprised looking Twilight. "Rainbow said we needed to come as quick as we could."
All eyes focused on Rainbow for a moment, and even by Twilight's estimation her friend looked very sheepish. "Sorry if we interrupted anything. That wasn't exactly the wording I used, but if you'd like to stay we were just enjoying a celebration for Shining and Cadance."
Realization struck Cadance about what the pair had been up to when she put together the memory of Sweetie's love for all things winged, the fact Lyra's wings were actual wings, and that they both had an air of frustration about them. "Shiny, let's never ask Rainbow to give somepony a message for us," she whispered to Shining.
"Way ahead of you." Shining was careful to keep his own reply quiet too. He was a smart stallion and took advice from his wife in all things social. "Okay, who wants cake?"
Despite the interruption to their private time, Lyra was determined to enjoy the party. She got some cake and a drink and was relaxing when she noticed Twilight surreptitiously approaching. She pretended not to notice until the grinning alicorn was right beside her. "Your eyes are twinkling, you look like you just got told your favorite brother and sister-in-law are having a foal, and you won't stop giggling at me. I know you can see them and I know nopony else seems to have noticed. This will be going in your next paper, won't it?"
Twilight nodded excitedly. "Even Shining and Cadance aren't saying anything about them. I—"
"Darling, if those wings are permanent, we're going to need to schedule you to have an entirely new wardrobe made." Having moved up silently, like a gorgeous fashion-shark, Rarity flanked Lyra and had produced her emergency measuring tape to start planning out a wardrobe.
"What? No, they're temporary. I used the spell for some pr—private research!" Catching herself before she let slip something private, Lyra had to tug her wing back from Rarity's magic grip to fold it back at her side.
Nonplussed, Rarity gripped the wing a little firmer and went back to taking measurements. "Be that as it may, you are going to need clothes to wear if you want to conceal these, aren't you?" When the wing stopped fighting her, Rarity knew she'd won. "There, not so hard now, was it?"
Lyra let out a defeated groan. "When do I need to come in for fitting?"
Eyes dancing with mirth, Rarity used her magic to summon a gorgeous chase lounge to pretend-feint onto. "Oh, be still my beating heart. A client that knows their way to a seamstress' good graces."
"Rarity, if you don't tell me when—"
"Tomorrow, dear, just after lunch so we can make an afternoon of it. Bring the wings." Rarity got up from the couch and used her magic to send it back to whence it'd come. "Hold on a second. Is this another test of your little theory about wings and horns?"
"Not exactly. We were just about to test something for the Guard when Rainbow got our attention with her, uh, request. The spell has a duration, and while I could dispell it, it would have left me with the biggest headache ever." That's when it occurred to Lyra that Rarity had seen through the cognitive bias. "Wait, you recognized I had wings." Looking at Twilight, Lyra grinned. "Rarity saw my wings."
Thinking on it, Rarity interrupted before a huge and headache-inducing conversation broke out between the two. "Well, yes, but I was looking for them. That would ruin your data, yes?"
Twilight, who'd been getting ready for a good discussion with Lyra about the effect, slumped visibly. "You're right. This datapoint is meaningless." She used her magic to return the charts and tables back to her study. "Wait! You're having a foal!"
"Can't keep anything from you, huh Twily?" Shining had been curious about the research the two had spoken of. Having an alicorn wife had made him more aware of how ponies treated her and, to a greater extent, how they treated him for being in proximity to her.
"Behave," Cadance said, prodding Shining with a feather.
Smirking at his wife, Shining bumped her back with his hip.
The party, despite being an interruption to some fun time, was enjoyable. Lyra kept running it through her head to distract her from—
"Darling! What are you doing waiting out here?" Rarity flashed her best smile, knowing full well why Lyra wasn't coming into her boutique. "I have some afternoon tea laid out and ready for us while we discuss options and take measurements."
Walking in behind Rarity, because she was given no choice with an open door that brooked no rejection, Lyra remembered the time she'd spent in the same room to get fitted for her wedding. "I don't know why I have an aversion to getting new clothes from you, Rarity. It's not a reflection on you so much as me."
Stopping and looking back at Lyra, Rarity couldn't help but smirk. "I appreciate the honesty, but you cannot win over this fashionista's heart with mere platitudes and self-blame. You know what makes me truly happy, Lyra?" When Lyra shook her head, Rarity let her smile grow more warm. "Letting me create things that make you more beautiful than you already are."
Lyra blushed. This was a form of combat she had never expected to fight, had never really trained for, and could already foresee her own loss as the outcome of. "Rarity, I'm—"
"Married. Yes, I'm only flirting. A lady likes to keep in practice, and so many of the mares in town all have stallions on their mind." Letting out a laugh, Rarity gestured toward the parlor where some cakes and tea were sitting. "Go, relax, and take that cloak off before somepony reports me to the Guard for harboring a fashion tragedy."
"It's not—Okay, I see your point. This was the best I could do, though." Using her magic, Lyra lifted the cloak off her back to reveal the wings there.
"Where in Equestria did you find something that…" Rarity fished around for a word suitably powerful enough to convey her horror. "Frumpish? Plain? Unkempt? No. No I simply do not have words to describe it sufficiently. That—is—hideous."
"It's a cloak the Guard use when we're in colder climates to keep us warm while wearing armor." Lyra wasn't of course, wearing armor. The cloak had been huge on her and she had to admit it didn't do anything for her. Rarity, she knew, probably didn't approve of any clothing that wasn't somewhat fashionable. "I need something to hide both the magic wings and the real ones, but—"
"… but be able to unfurl wings from at a moment's notice in case you actually need them." It wasn't a question because Rarity knew exactly what her client required—such was her gift. "You'll need several pieces for casual wear, you'll want one dress for special occasions, but I'll talk you into three, and you need me to design some specialist armor for which I will have to travel to Canterlot and discuss strategies for concealment with whomever is the talented armorer who creates your protective garments."
Battered by words, Lyra was losing the fight just as she'd foreseen. She tried to be somewhat graceful as she took a seat, but the truth of it was Lyra was stressed. She liked having the wings when it came to seeing the playful smiles her wife gave her with them, but the moment someone else noticed—really noticed—she had to spend the better part of ten minutes explaining. "Rarity, I'll take four dresses if you can help me."
Taking a deep and obvious breath, Rarity closed her eyes. "Now who's flirting with whom?" When she opened them again, Lyra was blushing once more. "A little pink in your cheeks does wonders for your complexion. Have you considered wearing a little blush?"
"If you can get me something better than that cloak to wear home tonight, I will let you show me how to put on makeup."
Rarity almost dropped the teapot she was carefully preparing. "Darling..." The word spilled out in a purr. "You have never learned to put on makeup?"
Settling back in the chair, Lyra took the offered tea and sipped it. "I'm not as much of a tea sn—connoisseur as my mum, but this tastes very good. Thank you." With another sip, Lyra began her story. "You know most of this already, but not the details. I grew up in another world that had no magic. I grew up as a young man."
Rarity had heard bits and pieces of Lyra's past before, but she'd never focused on it. With the mare showing a predisposition toward becoming an alicorn, she felt it her duty to listen to the full story—but the last two words spoken shocked her. "So you—?"
"Bonny tried to teach me, but she wasn't exactly an expert in it either. We both got ours done by a professional for the wedding, but that taught me nothing. So, if you want to show me a few things, and those things might make my Bonny smile a little more, I would be honored."
Sipping her own tea, Rarity carefully selected two pieces of cake and placed one on each of two plates before passing one to Lyra. "Your training in the feminine ways is lacking, but understandably so. Plus, you have come to the ideal location to correct it. Today we will work on designs, and get you something to wear in the meantime, then tomorrow we'll be going to the Ponyville Spa first thing in the morning—that's ten, sharp, just so you know."
"Rarity, ten in the morning isn't first thing," Lyra said.
"Pish-posh. It's in the spirit of being first thing in the morning. Oh, and don't plan anything for the day. Aloe and Lotus will put their staff at our beck and call for bathing, massaging, a mud bath, some steam time—Lyra, you won't believe how good it will feel."
Resigned to go through everything Rarity said, Lyra remembered one plus point. "And new armor?"
Sighing, Rarity nodded. "I am absolutely dedicated to providing the best clothing I can, be it formalwear, a simple dress, or a suit of armor. I absolutely cannot make the latter myself, of course, not if you want it to work to any degree. Therefore I must collaborate." Even though she put on airs that it would be so terrible to lower herself, Rarity felt a little more excitement at working with a peer—be it a peer in a rather distant part of fashion. "So I will ensure you have the very best suit of armor possible for an alicorn who wishes to conceal her wings. After all, you will be Twilight's Guard captain in the meantime."
"So, what outfits did you have in mind?" Lyra asked, once more seeing Rarity reach new heights of excitement.
Measurements were taken, and styles discussed (even if Lyra was more than a bit lost in the descriptions), and Rarity managed to put together a simple long shirt with concealing pleats along the back that completely hid Lyra's wings.
"I must admit to a certain amount of jealousy," Rarity said while Lyra admired the fit of the shirt.
Lyra stopped in her tracks. "I could teach you the spell, but I don't think that will cause—"
"Not the wings, darling. I've already had one friend spontaneously develop the royal genes. No, I mean what you've done to my little sister." Seeing Lyra look, somehow, even more clueless, Rarity sighed. "She was progressing toward what some would call a greater stature, while the less generous would call rotund."
"Oh." Lyra had a moment to herself to smirk at the wording and plan how to respond to it. "Rarity, that wasn't my doing."
"Nonsense. I see her running along with your family as often as not."
"Well, yeah, but it wasn't me who encouraged that. The target of your appreciation should be a touch shorter with smaller wings and a better use of them." Deliberately circumspect, Lyra waited until she saw the light of realization on Rarity's face. "Scootaloo is a good friend."
Making a thoughtful noise, Rarity nodded to that. "She is, and her mothers have done an excellent job raising her to be one. I'll see you here just before ten."
"Thank you, Rarity." Lyra was unable to hold back the urge to hug—nor did she particularly want to hold it back. Hugging Rarity and showing the emotional level of her thanks felt better than anything right then.
"It's really nothing." It wasn't, Rarity was perfectly aware, really nothing.
Squeezing a little tighter at the downplay, Lyra finally felt like the energy that sprung the hug upon her was down to normal levels again. "Just make sure to send me the bill."
"Be still my beating heart! A customer who offers to pay on time? Where have you been all my life?" Despite her protests, Rarity didn't have a problem with clients paying. For one, she had several royals among her clientele, and the crown always pays its debts on time. Nobles could be a little more problematic, though the divide between families had somehow resulted in a game of one-upmareship when it came to paying on time.
Lyra rolled her eyes at the extravagance of Rarity's pantomime. "I'll see you in the morning, Rarity." Finally managing to depart Carousel Boutique, Lyra walked home feeling light and airy, in no part due to the shirt she was wearing and the anonymity it gave.
She felt like trotting, like strutting, and perhaps even prancing. After all the years she'd spent as a mare, Lyra was finally casting off the one thing she carried over from her younger years that she didn't need anymore—her ignorance toward femininity. Rarity had given her a quick course in eye shadow, eyeliner, and adjusting the sheen of her hooves to better match her coat.
Of the three new skills, it was painting her hooves that felt strangest. Her hooves had always been reliable platforms from which to move about. She had galloped so much distance with them she was sure she could circle Equestria twice and still have some running left over.
But, all that made it seem more magical. So Lyra gave into her urge and started prancing. She started humming and, by the time she made it back to her home, she felt as light as a feather.
The house was empty, but there was a note for her.
Mum (uh, Lyra), is it okay if I bring Firelance over tonight for dinner? Oh, right, you can't answer to a note. Well, I'll leave it here anyway and you can read it and hopefully not get mad when we show up.
Scoots
Walking through to the kitchen with the note floating along beside her, Lyra reread it and only felt happier, lighter. When she looked at the warm part of the refrigerator, that kept room-temperature things from going off as quick (cheating with magic), she spotted some nice tomatoes and had her mind made up right from the start.
Chopping up onions and garlic, she got the former sizzling in a large pot before she added the fine chopped onion. A quick deglaze with some red wine and she tossed the tomatoes in—after a suitable amount of cheating was done to cut and peel them using magic.
With the pasta sauce simmering and building flavor, she moved on to make some pasta. It was an easy process, and rewarding. Lyra kneaded the dough she formed and started working it thinner and thinner. Eventually turning her pasta roller to its cutting setting and passing it through to make nice, long pasta noodles.
Fully expecting a pair of ponies to come bursting through the front door, Lyra was surprised when there was knocking instead of a stampede. "Come in!" she called, turning and finding Cadance and Shining entering. "Oh! I didn't expect you both to still be in Ponyville."
"You're our last stop before going home, actually." Shining Armor couldn't help sniffing the delicious scents coming from the kitchen, though he hoped his stomach wasn't too audible.
Jabbing Shining's stomach with a feather, Cadance shook her head. "Not that you're the last on our list for an important job—you're first, actually." She poked Shining a little more.
"Huh? Oh!" Clearing his throat, Shining executed his best courtly bow. Diplomacy had come late to his career, but he ensured he learned the actions of it so he wouldn't embarrass his princesses or his wife. "Lyra Heartstrings—"
"That's over the top. Shiny, just ask her."
Straightening, even blushing, Shining gave Lyra his best pleading look. "We have to plan for a foal, and that's so much more responsibility on top of running and protecting a city-state, but we can handle that. What we can't handle is if something happens to us and—and our foal needs somepony we trust to look after her. While she grows—" It was a hard subject for him to contemplate because it meant he had to start at Cadance isn't around anymore, but for his foal he summoned his legendary bravery. "Please?"
Opening her mouth, Lyra nearly said yes right off the bat. She would say yes, she knew, but this wasn't something to take lightly. "It's a yes from me, but this is a family decision. Bonny and Scoots have a say in things too. There is one thing to consider—our lives aren't all that separated. For something bad to happen to you, it will usually have already happened to those who put themselves between princesses and danger.
"I'll talk to Scoots tonight and Bon Bon when I next see her. Hey, I could come out to the Crystal Empire and visit, to give our answer."
Still frazzled from having to ask his friend to do something so important, Shining felt most of the tension go out of him. "When did this happen to us?"
"Huh?" Lyra and Cadance both asked.
"We became adults! We have—or are having—kids! We run countries and become alicorns. We ask each other important questions that are so unfathomable to think of that they make me have nightmares." Shining waved his hooves around to emphasize his points, but from the grinning expressions on Cadance and Lyra, the gravity of his distress wasn't translating. "We're being adults!" He let loose a panicked whinny at the end that seemed to finally get through to the pair.
"Okay, you have a point." Lyra tapped her chin. "Maybe I should do something foalish?"
Cadance grinned and nodded. "We all should. What about if we go to a concert before we have our foal?"
"What, like one for young ponies?" Getting into the idea, Lyra felt a burst of glee. "But who?"
"Uh, isn't that new pop star going to be performing in Ponyville next month?" Shining asked. "What was her name? Colora—"
"Countess Coloratura?" Scootaloo asked as she stepped through the door, somehow no longer overwhelmed by having princesses, princes, and alicorns around. "She's coming to Ponyville?"
"Who's Countess Coloratura?" Firelance asked, almost jumping back out the door again when he saw the contents of the living room. "S-S-S-Sir!"
Turning his head to see Firelance snapped at attention, Shining looked back between Cadance and Lyra. "Boop!"
Poked on the nose by the most distinguished Guardpony he knew, Firelance felt more panicked now. He was unprepared for this situation. When they were at the castle, and he was in his armor, everything was by the book—he knew how Shining was meant to be treated. "S-S-S—"
"Firelance!" Lyra didn't often have a use for her parade ground voice, but snapping young Guardponies out of mindlock was a key feature of it. "At ease!"
Relaxing, Firelance blinked a few times. "I—What happened?"
"We're both out of uniform, Firelance," Shining said, trying not to laugh from his silly reaction to be more foalish with the young stallion. "You don't need to salute or follow rank."
"Yeah, but—but you're you!"
"He's also," Scootaloo said, "an off-duty officer. Just relax. Hey, what smells good?" She started to gravitate toward the kitchen, attracted by her olfactory sense and the emptiness of her stomach combined.
Lyra rolled her eyes at Scootaloo's antics. "I'm making spaghetti. There's enough for two more?"
Opening his mouth to beg for the chance to stay, Shining was delivered a look from his wife that told him, under no uncertain terms, that they were leaving. "Sorry, but we really have to go. What about a rain check?"
It was, honestly, a relief for Lyra. She would have had to stretch the sauce a lot more and make more pasta. "That's too bad, but sure. Maybe we'll have to meet up in Canterlot and make a double-date of it." She glanced at Scootaloo, who was trying to dip a wooden spoon in the slowly bubbling pot without being noticed. "Or a triple-date."
Pushing her husband out the door, but stopping to give Lyra a hug, Cadance said, "And, thank you for taking this matter seriously."
"You thought I'd make a joke?" Without missing a beat, Lyra hugged back. "Besides, if I'm going to be that important to them, I get to spoil them as much as Shining's mum does."
Squeezing just a little tighter, Cadance let out a little laugh. "I'm all to pieces over this. Don't put off your visit, please?"
"I promise, I'll be up there before you know it." Letting go of the hug only when Cadance did, Lyra gave her friend a wave. "Don't hurt him too much on the ride home!"
With Cadance's devilish wink still in mind as she turned back, she spotted (in the reflection of her fridge) Scootaloo and Firelance sneak a quick kiss in the kitchen.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
762 users online
859,396 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Lyras gonna get Bad Wolf Chaos?
This is gonna be gooooood.
Wolf verses human insanity.
At least Lyra never had to worry about Pinkie going the Full She Who Pronks Behind on her.
What's the alternate universe tag for?
Update!!! Wasn't expecting one till February.
Du-dun. Du-dun-du-dun.
Pretend-faint
Hooboy. That ask discord question has all kinds of fun attached to it.
11487292
Keeps the complainers down that get annoyed that this particular fictional fantasy setting isn't perfectly accurate to their fictional fantasy setting.
Wolf? handleable, maybe a Tasmanian Devil ?? ([* she does know about the Rabbit/Taz contests, and there's a Bat backing her) ...
11487292 From the start of the series, this Lyra is an ex-human. Bat ponies originated from Earth. Monty Python skits are fair game. Also, Twilight puts down the idiot ball a little more often without passing it to Celestia.
11487318 I once put it on a fic when people complained because Twilight liked cheese.
11487379 Devils aren't a problem. Wombats are freakin' scary. Also, last time Tufts tried to do anything in Lyra's head, he got a week-long migraine. (Something tells me that a wolf might find more than its fair share of predators in that place—and they all shout NI!)
Question for Lyra
What about having a biofoal with SD witha a little help of magic hehhehe?
If there's one thing many myths of prophecies teach us, it's that it's always better to own one's fate than try to avoid it.
Yeah, Pinkie's taking care of the self-disassembly today.
Rarity's forge is meant for softer metals, after all.
To say nothing of the Best Young Flier incident.
Ah yes. The only thing more existentially disturbing than having to adult is looking back and realizing that you've already been adulting.
Big steps forward for a lot of the ponies in Lyra's life, herself included. Plenty to look forward to... and a fair amount to dread as well. The time battle approaches, and goodness knows how that might ripple outward. But it's still a ways away.
Shining and Cadence, congratulations! ... You have told Shining's parents, right?
11487746
Damn that looks awesome.
This was a great chapter and I like how you combined the Crusaders getting their marks with Cadance's pregnancy.
A question for Missus Heartstrings: would you consider yourself a background mare extraordinaire, or on par with a center stage star?
Lyra invites a wolf into her head... and gets Moon Moon.
Princess Celestia: Tell me, how are you handling the third (technically fourth if you count screech) new Alicorn in a single generation?
Had to do a quick re-read before new chapter, had this one sneak up on me.
11517379 Thanks! Fixed.
Ha! Three parties in a row? Surprised they didn't just make it a one-off town holiday.
Wait, hold up, when did Derpy start seeing Joe?
Having a town full of disguise-detecting foals could be useful, assuming lings still show up like that.
Wonder if Rarity will get a kick out of the artistry that goes into armor?
11784635
That does bring up a good point. CelestiaXJoe was quite adorable a few books ago. It's been 10-12 years in pony-time though. I imagine things can change.