Her alarm went off and Lyra smiled before opening her eyes.
“This is it,” she said. “Today is the day.”
She could feel it in her hooves, her blood, her very magic. It was going to work out. She grinned a little wider and opened her eyes.
“My first weekend off in five months.”
She’d been tempted to sleep in, rare as that opportunity was, but that would be tomorrow. Today, she wanted to get up early so she could relax.
“Bah bump bump,” she half-sang as she flipped off the covers. “Bah da-da dun!”
She trotted out in the hall, sliding on the rug into the bathroom still singing to herself.
“Great day, great day... Yeah,” she crooned, turning on the shower.
After a brisk and musical shower followed by a humming intense brushing of teeth, she trotted past her room, snagged her harp in her magic and slid down the banister, still singing. She idly plucked at strings as she went in the kitchen where Bon Bon was sipping on the coffee.
“Morning Bon Bon!” Lyra sang, trotting to the fridge.
“Morning, Lyra,” Bon Bon said. “Wow, you’re sure in a good mood.”
“Yup!” Lyra sang, her rump bobbing up and down to the little tune she plucked out on her instrument.
Sipping at her coffee, a lightbulb went off in Bon Bon’s mind. “Oh yeeeah. First day off right?”
“Yoooooou,” Lyra said, spinning around, juice and an apple added to her magical grasp. “Got it!” She bumped the door shut with her rump.
“What’re the big plans?”
“Today is relaxing, tomorrow is lazing about!” Lyra said excitedly as she trotted into the living room.
Bon Bon chuckled. Her roommate was always a little weird. Running off with Ditzy and Time Turner at the drop of a hat, working in that special team with “harmonic theory” or whatever. Other ponies would have probably given up and left Lyra Heartstrings to her own devices.
Bon Bon, however, understood Lyra was just particular. She was timely with rent and utilities and while her job kept odd hours, she always made time for her roommate. If she was asked far enough in advance.
“Plus, she ain’t bad to look at,” Bon Bon murmured stirring in some cream with her coffee.
Lyra plopped firmly down on the couch and stretched out.
“Aaaah,” she said, placing the juice and apple within easy reach. She popped a record loose and dropped it down on the player, relaxing as strings started wafting out. Fast and choppy, the melody was upbeat, experimental. It took Lyra back to her early jamming days in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
“Okay, I’m headed out,” Bon Bon said, trotting past the couch with her saddlebags on.
Lyra opened her eyes and looked upside down at her roommate. “Shame you can’t call in sick and enjoy one of my days off with me.”
Bon Bon smirked. “You can’t call in sick at all apparently. So, we’re even.”
“Have fun with your candy, Wrapper Rump.”
Bon Bon chuckled again. “Enjoy your day off, Harp Flank.” And the mare left to run her sweet shoppe.
“That’s the plan,” Lyra said, mostly to herself.
She strummed along with the record, eyes closed, mind at peace. Oh, this was the life. She heard other ponies had weekends off like it was a regular thing. She wondered if they always started this nice.
A knock broke through the reverie.
“Mmm?”
Lyra set down her harp and pulled the needle up on the player.
The knocking came again.
Sighing, Lyra rolled off the couch, bit into the apple and went to the door.
“Who the hay could-”
She stopped as she opened the door.
Ditzy Doo stood there, smiling and waving.
“Hi Lyra! Look, I know it’s your day off and all, but-”
The door slammed forcibly in the gray mare’s face.
“Shoot,” Ditzy said.
She knocked again.
“I’m not here, Ditzy!”
“Who am I talking to then?”
“A simulacrum!”
“A simulacrum who shuts the door in my face?”
“I’ve been practicing!”
“I told you she wouldn’t help. And she’s right! We work her hard enough as it is,” came a small voice from behind Ditzy’s mane.
“Hush now, Turner.”
A stallion, small, small as a mouse, poked his head out of Ditzy’s blond mane to scowl up at her giant face.
“I will not hush! I’ve been hush through you having to give directions back in Third Pegasus and then all the way through town and I say I can handle this!”
“You really can’t,” Ditzy said with an affectionate smile.
Turning back to the door, she said, “Lyra, I know you’re good with universal harmonics, but you’re not the unicorn who invented full contact simulacra.”
“I could’ve peeked...” Lyra grumbled, still braced on the other side of the door.
“Just a second Lyra. Really. One second and Turner and I will be out of your mane.”
The door opened a crack. Lyra’s gold eye poked out.
“Turner? I don’t-” Her gaze fell on the little brown stallion, sticking out of Ditzy’s mane.
“Hullo Lyra,” he said, his voice in miniature.
Lyra sighed, a slight, depressed smile on her face. The door opened up.
“C’mon in guys. Bon Bon’s out.”
~
Time Turner sat on the coffee table in the living room next to a tea cup the size of one of the Apple family’s larger carts and a glass of juice that could be a second story walk-up. At least, that’s how they looked from his perspective.
Lyra’s horn passed in front of him, a silo with a massive star of energy at the end. He realized at this size that he could just make out the individual strings she plucked as she sought his personal harmonic frequency. It was terribly fascinating.
“How’d you do this?” Lyra asked.
“Well, it was just a basic job...” Turner replied, raising up so he could sip from his tea like it was the biggest trough of Strawberry Zinger he’d ever sipped.
“Aren’t they all,” Lyra said, sarcasm dripping from every word.
“I didn’t get any alternative vibes before we jumped,” Ditzy said. “I didn’t even realize we’d gone through morphological repercussions till we got back.” She grinned crookedly. “I resized after a few steps, but poor Turner here...”
“Can now use a tea cozy as a bed warmer,” the stallion finished, smacking his lips. “You know, tea grounds taste awfully strange at this size.”
“Ditzy, why didn’t you call on that intern... Whatshername?”
“She quit.”
Lyra’s head shot up, the light from her horn going out. “We had her a week! What happened?”
“Her coltfriend was turned into a potted plant for that week. She felt she was better off trying to master harmonic frequency in a lab. With safe paper. And a department that wasn’t underfunded.”
Ditzy shrugged, her expression sympathetic. “I tried to talk to her. Sorry.”
“No, it’s... It’s okay. Great.” She went back to probing Turner’s harmonic field. “Just another reason I can’t take a day off.”
“We can cover more for you,” Ditzy offered. “I mean, Turner and I don’t need as much DT.”
Lyra gave the gray mare a cool look.
Ditzy blushed, averting her gaze.
“I take my responsibility seriously, Ditz. Just like you guys. I just... Sometimes need some time off. Unwind, relax, you know? I mean, I love the work, but I was just a strings player till you and Celestia approached me.”
“Best decision the old girl ever made,” Turner said, smiling up at the mint green mountain. “You’re indispensable to us, Lyra.”
“Yeah, a musician who plays the best strings that aren’t there, a pegasus so sensitive to the air she can poke right through it to other air, and a perfect genius without a lick of sense. We’re a real crack squad.”
“Oy! I have sense!” Turner objected.
“Now, Turner,” Ditzy interjected. “You did try to see if you could get coffee to absorb through your rump last week.”
“It’s a sound theory! I just ran into some problems in execution...”
“Yep. Namely your butt,” Ditzy chided with a warm smile.
“No one appreciates what I do ‘round here.”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t show up two inches tall on my day off, we could.”
Lyra made one more pass with her horn and she felt the response when the string finally plucked back.
“Ah. Got it. Off the table, Turner, we have to get you back to Equestria Standard Harmony.”
“Brilliant!” he said, trotting over and hopping off. His reduced mass made the fall nothing and he landed easily.
Grinning, he said, “Wish I could’ve pulled that off on Plasdil 6. My hooves ached for days!”
“Yes, yes, all kinds of things happen at that size,” Lyra said. “Ready?”
“Shall I strike a gallant pose?”
Lyra smirked and started the spell.
The spell was a familiar one. Similar to how she strummed her other favorite instrument, her lyre, only, instead of plucking the strings of a melody, she plucked the strings of the very fiber of the universe.
So practiced was Lyra, she didn’t have to work hard to bring Time Turner’s personal strings back into vibration with the world around him. He currently had a sour note, one that kept him just off of himself and all Lyra had to do was tune it back to... What was that?
Time Turner grew and smiled as proportions slid back into place and he no longer felt like he was about to be overwhelmed by determined wads of dust. He made sure that if he ever kept mice again, he’d spend at least twenty minutes each day personally extolling their virtues and offering comfort. Celestia knew he’d wanted a hug.
As Lyra resolved from a mountain of mint green and white to a regular mare, Turner’s smile faded in the widening eyes of Lyra.
“What?” he asked, his voice satisfactorily hitting all the right volumes again. “Did my ears not go with me?”
Ditzy shared the same wide-eyed look and slowly shook her head back and forth, staring just past Turner.
“Got something on my face?”
Lyra shook her head this time, her gaze just past him and her expression tightening.
Turner’s face flattened out. “I know how this goes. I’m not turning around. As long as I look at you I’ll be-”
A hissing click made Turner freeze up. Turning slowly, he faced quite possibly the largest flea he had ever seen. Certainly the largest blue-purple flea he had ever seen. And especially large since it was just a few inches taller than him and quite a few pounds heavier.
“Oh. Well, hello,” Turner offered with a hopeful smile.
More hissing clicks and a threatening wave of proboscis and the giant flea thing lunged at Turner.
“Aaaah!” he replied, backpedaling and trying to dodge.
“What is that?” Lyra shouted dodging around it as it chased Turner.
“Looks like a giant flea to me!” he shrieked, climbing the couch. The flea followed in hot pursuit, knocking over record player, cups, dishes, all the furniture. “Fascinating how it moves! If he weren’t trying to do... Whatever he’s doing, I’d like to ask him a few questions!”
“You can’t?” Ditzy asked flying up to get a pegasus eye view.
“Not really!” he said, sliding behind a curtain and out. “He’s just saying ‘Hungry, hungry, eat, eat.’ Think he’s base instinctual!”
“He’s wrecking my living room!” Lyra said, grabbing a flying lamp, a cup, and an end table in her magical grasp. She started sweating under the weight and speed with which she was catching hurtling objects.
“Can’t you put him back with his own harmony?” Turner asked zipping past her.
“He needs to be a whole lot stiller!” Lyra responded, ducking a probing whatever from the flea.
“On it! Distract him!” Turner said and dove for the kitchen.
“Oh fab,” Lyra grumbled and magically flicked the giant flea’s shell as hard as she could.
That stopped it in its pursuit of Turner only to shuffle around and regard Lyra.
“Hey gorgeous,” Lyra said, hoisting a candlestick in her grip. “Wanna pick on somepony with a little more gumption?”
The giant flea responded appropriately.
As Lyra whanged on it with the candlestick, backing up the whole time she grumbled, “This was supposed to be my day off!”
~
In the end, it took Turner making a batch of something foul smelling in the kitchen, Ditzy riding the flea rodeo style and a few feet of rope to latch the flea down and get it shrunk back to its correct size. Ditzy said she’d go back to where they last jumped and drop it off.
“Sorry about this,” Ditzy said, carefully holding the jar Lyra had got from Bon Bon’s spares cabinet. Inside, the flea scuttled and jumped.
“Very,” Turner said. “Got lucky this one didn’t try a leap. Would’ve ruined the house.”
Lyra’s fatigue with everything kept her from laughing at how Turner’s mane now stuck in even more directions and was burnt pink on one side. This usually happened when he worked with something other than his lab. It never failed to earn a chuckle from the mares.
“Yeah, well...” Lyra shrugged. “Whatcha gonna do?”
Ditzy’s right eye went loose at that point and started looking around. Lyra sighed and smiled.
“Hi Princess,” she said.
“Hello Lyra, Turner,” Princess Celestia’s voice said out of Ditzy’s mouth. “My. Looks like there was some fun going on here.”
“Just a stowaway on Turner, ma’am,” Lyra said. “It prevented him from re-tuning to Equestria and when I forced the field back on him, the stowaway came with him. Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
“And on your day off no less,” Celestia commented, her voice warm and reassuring. “You are truly an asset to the Outlier Department, Miss Heartstrings.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Lyra said with a blush. The Princess was generous with praise, but it never felt any less than a lover’s kiss on Lyra’s cheek each time.
“I just wanted to check in on Miss Doo and Mister-”
“Doctor,” Turner interjected.
“Of course. Doctor,” Celestia said, smiling Ditzy’s face in a kind manner. “I just wanted to check in on you, see how the trip to... What did you name this world?”
“Microbis 12, highness,” Turner said. “Aptly named after this fellow tagged along. Hello you.” With a friendly smile, he tapped on the jar’s glass.
“Microbis 12. I’ll be sure your files are added to the official library by the end of the week.” Ditzy’s right eye moved about some more. “And I think I’ll see about some hazard pay from Miss Pincher for Lyra and her house.”
Lyra cringed. Penny Pincher was an ash-gray unicorn with a hard stare who handled Canterlot Departmental accounting. She was aptly named, because any time Celestia had to step in and direct funds to “the stinking sinkhole, Outlier” Penny was certain to drag her hooves and direct her ire directly at the members. Ditzy and Turner often took her anger in stride, but Penny scared the cutie mark off of Lyra.
Knowing Celestia was personally asking for funds would mean Penny would call Lyra to her office and ask for documentation to prove the warranted hazard pay. Because Penny couldn’t possibly bother the Princess any more for details on behalf of an ungrateful, would-be musician who somehow lucked into the most useless department in all of Equestria. Lyra cringed inwardly at the future meeting.
“Thank you... Highness,” Lyra said with the appropriate decorum.
Celestia tilted Ditzy’s head in regal acknowledgment.
“Now, I must go,” Celestia said through Ditzy’s mouth. “More of my attention is being called, but worry not, my little ponies. You are always close to mind and your work is appreciated.”
Ditzy blinked and her eye came back in line.
“How do you get used to that?” Lyra asked.
Ditzy shrugged and smiled. “She makes me feel like sunshine inside. I don’t mind.”
“And on that, we will leave you to study our newoooaaw!” Turner winced as Lyra bit his ear to keep him from running off.
“Not so fast, Slick,” Lyra said. “You two are helping me clean up.”
“Of course!” Ditzy chirped. “I’ll get the broom.” She flew into the kitchen to raid the supply closet.
“And you can help me set the furniture back to rights, mister I-Have-To-Climb-Everything-To-Get-Away-From-The-Giant-Bug.”
“Of course,” Turner said, rubbing at his sore ear.
~
Bon Bon arrived home to find Lyra almost exactly where she left her that morning. Only now, her roommate had half a glass of juice and the record player was set to an entirely different genre. Something slow and soothing, Bon Bon noticed.
“Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra said, one foreleg draped over her face.
“Hey. I see relaxing is working out for you,” Bon Bon said, trotting through the living room to drop her saddlebag in the kitchen.
“Sort of?” Lyra said. “Work kinda followed me home today.”
“Ugh, that sucks,” Bon Bon replied, sticking her head back into the room. “How bad?”
“Had to chase a giant bug around, deal with Turner and Ditzy. We cleaned up for you. Look good?”
Bon Bon glanced about the space and realized that, yes it did look cleaner. The floor shone as if somepony had seriously buffed it. Though she didn’t remember those marks in the floorboard before. Must have been what Lyra meant by chasing a “giant bug.”
“Looks great. Thanks for that.”
“No problem,” Lyra groaned from the couch.
Bon Bon cocked her head to the side and smiled. She’d just had a long day, but business had been good and Lyra looked like she could use some cheering up...
“Hey Lyra,” Bon Bon called, going back into the kitchen. “How would you feel about my famous dark chocolate drops to round out the night?”
Lyra lifted the foreleg from her eye to look through the portal to the kitchen at her roommate, who was already pulling some specialty ingredients from the cupboard.
“You really don’t have to...” Lyra protested. Weakly.
“It’s not a hassle. I had a long day. Sounds like you did too. A little chocolate should perk us right back up.”
Lyra smiled and rolled off the couch to go into the kitchen. She wrapped a forearm around Bon Bon in a half hug. The earth pony reciprocated in kind.
“Thanks, Wrapper Rump,” Lyra said.
“Welcome, Harp Flank,” Bon Bon replied.
Lyra then released her friend and asked, “Okay. How can I help?”
Following candy preparation, which had been cheerful and only involved a minor dabbing of flour on snouts, the roommates relaxed on the couch with their results. Lyra picked chocolate out of a bowl with her magic and fed it to herself and Bon Bon.
“Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the best day off, ever,” she admitted around another delectable delight. “But it’s sure ending on a good note.”
“Here here,” Bon Bon agreed and raised her glass of milk. Lyra’s mug of cocoa came up in a mint-green magical glow and clinked against Bon Bon’s glass.
The pair lay in the warm glow of a fire Lyra had started, enjoying each other’s company.
“Besides,” Bon Bon pointed out, balancing a chocolate drop on her nose before rolling it into her mouth. “You still have tomorrow. And after this week, I’m doing a half day. Wanna catch a movie in the afternoon?”
Lyra grinned wide, relief flooding through her expression. “Bon Bon, that sounds like an awesome idea.” The unicorn then flopped back against the other side of the couch lazily. “What’re you in the mood for?”
“I’m good for whatever. What about you?”
“Maybe a comedy,” Lyra said. “I could use some laughs.”
A knock came at the door.
Bon Bon sat up and Lyra’s eyes widened in fear.
“Who could that be at this hour?” Bon Bon muttered, rising to go.
“No,” Lyra said, stopping her.
“Lyra?” came Ditzy’s voice. “I saw the light- Is anypony home?”
“No,” Lyra said, grabbing Bon Bon around the middle and slinking off the couch.
“Lyra, what are you- ulp!” Lyra put a chocolate drop in her roommate’s mouth to silence her. She was carrying the bowl of candy in her magic as she crawled across the floor to the stairs, Bon Bon still in tow.
“Lyra, it’s just a liiiitle thing. Won’t take more than a few minutes,” Ditzy said from the door.
“No no no,” Lyra said, crawling up the stairs as quietly as she could.
Bon Bon gave up asking and just let Lyra do whatever she was doing. She certainly didn’t mind being held so close and getting to smell Lyra’s scent.
Lyra reached out with a last bit of magic and poked at the fire, crumbling it, lowering the glow in the room.
“Lyra, I can tell you’re in there,” Ditzy said.
“It’s. My. Day. Off!” Lyra called and ran up the rest of the stairs, barricading her and Bon Bon in her room for the rest of the night.
Author's Note
Inspired by and dedicated to my hardworking sweetie, Jess, who is looking forward to her first weekend off in a few months. Hopefully, it will go smoother than Lyra's.
