Unexpected Changes

Chapter 1: Friday

It was Friday.

Sketch loved Fridays.

Friday’s meant that upon returning from work, he would have an entire weekend ahead of him. An entire weekend he would usually spend happily, with Gears; his little brother, and Lyra; his wife and also the mare bearing his child.

Winter Wrap Up had ended only a week ago, and Lyra was rather annoyed that she had been asked to stay at home and rest, being pregnant and all, Sketch hadn’t wanted her to injure herself in any shape or form. However, after some persuasion and possibly the tiniest bit of friendly bribing on Sketch’s part, he had managed to get her to agree to stay at home with Gears.

Sketch trotted out of the gate that marked the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, his place of work. He had been making a good amount of money there recently, and despite the events of the year before, Applejack had managed to keep the farm running rather well and was generating some extra money.

He let out a contented sigh, his breath creating a cloud in the chilly air. Even though the snow had all been cleared away, it was still rather cold; and it would be that way for a while. He was about to start the trot back home, when he remembered something Lyra had told him.

“You need to fly more, Sketchy, you don’t exercise those wings enough you know, and I never see you use them.”

He smirked a bit as he remembered that particular part of Lyra’s rant. Due to her pregnancy, Lyra had a tendency to be rather…cranky, or opinionated, on top of the strange cravings, random magical outbursts, and constant need for being told to rest.

Twilight had said that Unicorns got like that often when they were pregnant; after she had gotten the excitement that Lyra was pregnant in the first place out of her system, she had said the strange behavior was attributed to the fact Unicorns could use magic, or something like that. Sketch didn’t remember the details.

Sketch inhaled and unfurled his wings, spreading them out to their full length. They were rather magnificent; or so he had been told. They were about as long as he was head to tail, and the feathers danced around in the cool breeze.

He exhaled as he brought them down with a loud “Wumph” Taking off into the air like a rocket, once he had gained some altitude, he maneuvered his wings and leveled out, gliding gently about forty feet off the ground.

Normally he wasn’t a big fan of flying, but Lyra’s pregnancy-induced, constant, prodding at him about him needing to fly more, had forced flying to grow on him a bit.

He didn’t mind her nagging of course, he knew why she got naggy and would have random outbursts, and he knew that he had to put up with it because, well, it was Lyra, he would put up with just about anything for that mare. Even so, Lyra; upon realizing she was having any sort of outburst, would stop herself and try to apologize for it. Then Sketch would tell her he didn’t mind at all, and that he loved her, and then everything would go back to the norm. Until the next outburst.

That had been the majority of his life at home the past month, since she had told him she was pregnant and the baby had started to develop. It was going to be a filly; the baby. At least that is what Lyra had insisted upon, claiming “Mothers just know this sort of thing.”

Again, the thought of Lyra’s words made him grin, Lyra’s insistence on the gender of the child was actually kind of cute.

He veered left, towards his home. As he did so he noticed the Ponyville Town Hall, it had recently been re-fitted with a new roof, due to a certain grey mailmare managing to drop quite a bit of bricks through the roof and glass windows.

Why exactly Derpy had been carrying bricks, nopony had any idea.

As Sketch flew by, he noticed something in one of the windows.

There was a figure, a shadowed one, he couldn’t make out the details both because he wasn’t very close to town hall, and because there didn’t seem to be any light coming from the window. He stared hard and tried to make out the figure, but before he could really start to make out any details, this figure seemed to notice him and a second later the window shutters were closed.

Sketch flinched a bit.

“Huh…”

He shrugged and flapped his wings, gaining some speed, not really caring to dwell on what he had seen.

The weather was rather pleasant, the Celestia’s sun was just starting to set, and the air was pleasantly chilly; something Sketch enjoyed immensely, having always favored the cold.

Eventually he arrived at his home. It looked significantly different than it had when he first moved into it.

Lyra had taken it upon herself to tend to the yard; or transform it more like. She had planted neat rows of flowers in front of the house on either side of the door, the grass was cut to perfection, each blade exactly the same height, and bushes had been planted along the outside of the small whitepicket fence that encompassed the tiny yard. She was rather proud of those bushes.

As he trotted up the small path leading to the door, an angelic sound reached his ears; albeit it was muffled, due to it being on the other side of the door, but it was heavenly nonetheless.

Lyra was playing her Lyre.

Sketch smiled lazily, slowly opening the door and trying to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to interrupt Lyra’s playing. He slid his saddlebag off as he entered the house, cringing a bit when it hit the floor a tad louder than he had wanted it to.

Lyra’s music continued however, letting him know he hadn’t disturbed her. The music was emanating from the bedroom, the door was open and he could almost see the music notes floating out of the room.

He crept silently up and peeked through the bedroom door, and sure enough she was there.

She was seated on the bed, eyes closed, wearing a relaxed expression. Her horn was glowing a color reminiscent of aquamarine, and her Lyre was enveloped in her magic. Learning to play an instrument with magic, was actually about the same as learning to play it with hooves; or so Lyra had told him.

She had said magic was like an extra limb, and you learned to use it just like you learned to walk, from an early age and it took practice.

Lyra however, didn’t have to practice, at least not as much as other ponies would. Her musical abilities weren’t simply limited to her Lyre however; though it was her favorite. She was rather talented with other stringed instruments, it had been only last week, she had gotten ahold of Applejack’s acoustic guitar, and after about ten minutes of fidgeting with it, was strumming out a bouncy tune that ended up getting the whole Apple Family dancing.

She was extremely gifted.

When they had first met, Lyra was afraid that Bon Bon would get mad at her if she tried to find a job, she thought Bon Bon would think that by doing so, she would say Lyra didn’t think they had enough money. This was actually true, Bon Bon had indeed said that in the past to Lyra, and scared her out of getting a job, however Sketch had recently convinced Lyra to “put herself out there” in the way of music.

She had played music for quite a few shows around Ponyville, and after she had gotten pregnant, she was offered a job playing music at a party in Canterlot. She turned it down however, deciding it best if she didn’t do much traveling due to the baby.

“Hello, Sketchy.” She said softly, a smile growing on her face as she set down her lyre, the light blue glow around it dissipating once it touched the bed.

“How did you-“

“Because you smell.” She giggled a bit, looking over at him with her golden eyes.

“Oh…” He rubbed the back of his neck, a tad embarrassed.

She slid off the bed, trotting over to him and planting a deep kiss on his lips, smiling as she pulled away.

“How was work?” She asked, her voice undeniably happy as she slipped away from him, over to the bed.

Sketch raised a quizzical eyebrow at her mood.

“Pretty normal actually.” He leaned on the doorframe as he spoke, watching as Lyra put her instrument away in a small black case under the bed, a visible bounce in everything she did. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

“Well!” She drew out the word, exaggerating each step she took as she strode towards him.

“Do you remember, when I told you the other day, how one of my friends from when I was in Magic School, ended up making it big as a music producer in Canterlot?” By now she was only inches away from him, she had wrapped her hooves around his waist and was gently swaying side to side with him in the doorframe.

“I do remember, you told me you hadn’t seen her in a while.” He said, playing along with Lyra’s mood.

“Well. Guess who called me today, and said that she was coming down here this weekend to discuss music possibilities that would be played in establishments aaaaallllll over Canterlot, not only getting my name into the system, but also making me an official, published musician.” She looked Sketch in the eyes as she spoke, her smile only getting bigger with each word.

What! Lyra, that’s fantastic!” Sketch almost shouted in his excitement.

“I know! Sketchy this is huge, oh my Celestia I’m so damn excited!” Lyra was now bouncing up and down with glee, in turn, forcing Sketch to bounce with her due to the fact that she was gripping him so tight; although he didn’t mind.

“Lyra you have no idea how proud I am of you.” He hugged her lovingly once she had stopped bouncing, burying his muzzle into the fur of her neck as me spoke.

“Thank you…” She hugged back, the previous state of bouncing turning into a gentle swaying side to side once again, only slower than before.

Sketch removed his muzzle from Lyra’s neck, staring into her eyes for a moment before kissing her softly, then angling his head so that their foreheads pressed together gently.

“How’s our little girl?” He said with a smile, looking down towards Lyra’s stomach, where a small; barely noticeable bump had formed.

She’s making me want strange foods, randomly need to vent out large quantities of magical energy and have sporadic emotional outbursts that I cannot seem to control.”

Sketch grinned. “So she’s doing well then.”

Lyra let out a soft giggle, her forehead still pressed against Sketch’s. “She’s doing fantastic.”

The two of them stood there silently for a while, sharing another one of the many “warm and fuzzy” moments; as Lyra liked to call them.

However, as it turned out, the moment wouldn’t last. Gears saw to that.

“You two are weird.” Came the voice of Sketch’s younger brother; who was sitting on the stairs up to his attic room, watching the scene before him with a look of disgust.

Lyra and Sketch both stifled a laugh. “I’m gonna start on dinner.” Lyra whispered softly, before pulling away from him.

“How was school, Gears?” Sketch asked, nuzzling Lyra one last time before turning to look at his brother.

“Extremely School-ish.”

“So…is that good or bad?”

“It’s School-ish.”

“Uh huh…” Sketch grinned a bit.

I thought you said Ms. Cherilee was acting…what was the word you used?” Lyra called from the kitchen.

Oh!” Gears’ ears perked up a bit. “Ms. Cherilee was acting rather abnormal today though.”

“How so?”

“Well…she was…I don’t know, it was like she didn’t know any of our names…”

“Maybe she just had a rough day or something?” Sketch suggested.

Gears shrugged.

"I have something to show you though!” Gears exclaimed before suddenly and without warning, racing up to his room, not even giving his brother time to respond.

A cacophony of noises ensued. Metal clattering, papers rustling, something rolling across the floor, then turning out to be a large metal ball as it fell down the stairs.

Then there was silence.

A moment later, Gears came running down the steps once again, carrying what appeared to be a remote control and something else Sketch couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

“Ok, ok, ok. SO! I saw this spider the other day, right?”

Gears stared eagerly at his brother, awaiting a response. When he didn’t get one he made a “hurry up” motion with his hoof.

"OH! Uh, yes right.”

“Ok so it got me thinking, I have never, ever, seen a remote controlled spider in any toy store, anywhere. SO!” Gears set the contraption down on the carpeted floor and pushed a button on the remote. “I built my own.”

The contraption on the floor, suddenly sprouted eight spindly legs from its top, each leg giving off a click as it set down on the floor.

“Gears…how did-“

Gears held up a hoof. “There’s more.” He pressed another button on his remote, and the spider-bot suddenly lept a few inches into the air. Sketch let out a yelp of surprise, but Gears didn’t seem to hear him, he was fully focused on his invention.

Sketch watched as the spider shuddered a bit and then froze up, there was a grinding noise, and then suddenly a loud “POP” as a small plume of smoke floated up out of the spider and dissipated into the air.

Gears was silent for a moment, then he let out a loud, long, exasperated groan.

“Hey, if it means anything, I thought it was pretty impressive up until it…you know…exploded…” Sketch tried to console his brother; who had buried his face in the carpeted floor.

“You’ll get it eventually, bud, it just takes time is all!” Now Lyra was trying to console Gears from the kitchen.

He sat up on his flank and dragged his front hooves down his face, letting out another groan of displeasure. “I know, I know. It’s just annoying is all…” He collected the broken invention up in his hooves, then turned towards the staircase leading up to his room.

“I’ll be upstairs working, call me when dinner’s ready, I guess.” The young colt wore an annoyed expression as he disappeared up into the attic.

“Right…”

“Should you go…I don’t know, talk to him or something?” Lyra said after a moment; sounding concerned.

Sketch shook his head as he stood up off the couch, trotting over to his wife and nuzzling her neck before responding. “He always gets like that when his inventions don’t work, he’ll be fine. It’s best to just leave him alone and let him work.”

“If you say so.” Lyra let out a soft sigh before returning to her cooking. “Can you grab me the lettuce out of the fridge, hon?” She asked as she pulled a knife out of a drawer.

Sketch gave a hum of affirmation and trotted over to the fridge; they had managed to keep it decently stocked, he dug around for a bit, then pulled out a few raw leaves of lettuce that Lyra had put in a bag.

“These?”

“Yes, thank you.” Lyra gave a smile as she levitated the bag over to the counter, taking out the lettuce and beginning to wash each leaf.

“So, tell me about this old friend of yours, the one coming down tomorrow.” He said, leaning into the fridge, searching for something to drink, then deciding against it a moment later.

“Not too much to tell really. She and I were very close when we were younger, then I guess life had different paths for us and we went our separate ways, we would send letters to each other for a while, but eventually it died off and we stopped contacting one another completely.”

Lyra paused for a moment, having finished washing the lettuce and setting it down on a cutting board, she began chopping the lettuce.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t want to contact one another, it just ended up not happening. She just happened to call me the other day, wanting to see how I was doing and all. I dunno. It’ll be really nice to see her. Music stuff aside, I’m excited to visit with her.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re excited. I hope everything works out for you.” He planted a kiss on her lips, holding it for a moment before she put a hoof to his chest and gently pushed him away; an action that earned her a pout.

“None of that, I have to get dinner ready.” She giggled a bit.

“Oh fine, if you insist.” Sketch gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before backing up a bit. “Do you need help with dinner or anything?”

Lyra shook her head “Nope, I’ve got it.”

“You sure there isn’t anything I can-“

“I’ve got it! Jeeze!” Lyra suddenly snapped, Sketch instantly recognized it as one of the pregnancy induced emotional outbursts.

“Alright, whatever you say, hon.” He smiled at her and ruffled his wings a bit.

She glared at him with annoyance for a moment. “You go sit in the living room, and stay out of the damn kitchen. Got it?”

“Got it, honey.”

He turned and went into the living room, slumping down on the couch and waiting for the inevitable.

He counted down to himself.

“3…2…1”

“Wait, no. Shit I did it again.” Lyra said from the kitchen.

There it is.

“Sketchy I didn’t mean to snap I just-“

“Its fine Lyra, don’t apologize. You can’t help it.” He smiled a bit as he opened a magazine that was on the table.

“Love you.” Lyra said from the kitchen, self-annoyance tainting her voice.

“Love you too.” He said, still smiling at his wife; although she didn’t see it.

----------@----------

Dinner was ready about an hour later, the sun had set completely and Luna’s Moon shone down over all of Equestria. Lyra had made salad and some sort of garlic bread; she had been wanting garlic all day and the garlic bread was probably more garlic than it was bread. Sketch didn’t mind however, and neither did Gears apparently, as he was ravenously devouring it.

“This is pretty good!” Sketch nodded as he took another bite of his salad.

“It’s awesome! Like this bread, my gosh.” Gears spoke through a mouthful of food.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, what would Scootaloo think?” Lyra said sweetly, knowing the mention of Gears’ recent infatuation would hit home.

Indeed it did, and Gears’ eyes widened a bit and then he was silent.

Lyra had sort of slipped into a motherly role with Gears’ she hadn’t necessarily tried to, nor had she been asked or had it ever been hinted. It just had kind of happened. Sketch didn’t mind of course, to be honest she was pretty good at playing that role and Gears rarely did anything but listen to what she had to say and try to follow her suggestions as best he could, So Sketch had taken it as a good thing and let Lyra do her thing.

“Speaking of Scootaloo…” Sketch drew out the words, deciding to tease his brother a bit.

Gears sensed the inevitable teasing and visibly braced himself, tensing up a bit and looking over at his older brother.

“How is your crush, these days?” He smirked a bit as he spoke.

“I don’t have a crush on her! She’s just my friend…and she’s doing well…we went to the park the other day to test out inventions…” Gears huffed a bit, shoving another slice of bread in his mouth.

“So it was a date then?”

Gears sputtered and coughed for a moment before managing to swallow his bread.

“N-No! It wasn’t a date!”

“Sounds like a date to me.”

“Lyra, help me out here?” Gears looked over at Lyra, who was holding back her giggles.

“Oh leave him alone Sketchy.” She ruffled Gears’ mane as she spoke. “Don’t tease him about his love life.”

“Alright, alright if you insist.” Sketch shook his head with a smile, then was just about to take another bite of salad, when Lyra spoke.

“That does sound like a date though.” She said hurriedly, letting out a small giggle.

Sketch laughed and Gears simply groaned and buried his face in his hoof.

“Hey, I think it’s great you and Scootaloo are such good friends. Honestly, not even teasing.” Sketch put a hoof on his brothers back, comforting him a bit. “I’m sorry I teased you alright?”

“Really, it’s great you two are so close and that she likes your inventions, bud.” Lyra chimed in, her voice sweet and soft.

Still looking a tad annoyed, Gears removed his face from his hoof and took an angry bite from his bread. “We were testing out her new scooter. I made the engine better so she could go faster.” He said, sounding a tad annoyed, apparently wanting to pretend that the teasing had never happened.

“Sounds like fun, you two didn’t like…get into any trouble did you?” Lyra asked.

“What? No of course not, I always make sure she’s perfectly, one hundred and one percent, safe as can be. I don’t want her to get hurt you know…”

Sketch and Lyra both looked at Gears with silly grins on their faces.

“N-not because I like her like that! I just don’t want her to get hurt.” He let out a harrumph and ignored their grins.

“Right.” Sketch nodded and withheld his smile, taking another bite of salad as he did.

-------@------

After dinner was finished, Sketch cleaned the table and left the dishes in the sink, not really feeling like doing them at that moment; despite Lyra’s disapproval on the matter.

Gears had retreated to his room as soon as he had finished dinner; as per the usual. He had wanted to work on his inventions as long as he could, knowing he couldn’t stay up too late due to the fact his noise kept the other residents of the house awake.

“Are you already asleep?” Sketch asked as he trotted into the bedroom, looking around for Lyra.

“Yes, I’m already asleep.” Her voice came from the bathroom.

“Oh alright.” He smirked a bit, trotting into the bathroom to find Lyra brushing her teeth.

He took a rag off of a hook on the wall and got it wet in the sink, using it to wash his face.

“You gonna shower?” She asked out of curiosity, removing the toothbrush from her mouth for a moment to speak.

“Eh. I’ll shower tomorrow.”

Lyra shrugged. “Fine by me.”, rinsing off the toothbrush as she spoke.

“Hey…Where’s my toothbrush…?” He looked around the sink, searching for his missing toothbrush.

“Oh, Gears took it earlier today, said he needed it for something.”

Sketch furrowed his brow. “Right.”

“Here, Sketchy.” Lyra levitated her Toothbrush over in front of him.

“This is your-“

“Honey, our mouths have been just about every place you can think of on each other’s bodies, I don’t think sharing a toothbrush is gonna hurt anypony.” She put the toothbrush in his mouth with her magic, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she trotted by, into the bedroom.

“Good point…” His cheeks were a bit red.

Sketch brushed away, the sound becoming all he heard for a while as his mind drifted to some of the more...devious...things the two had done. Upon finishing he rinsed the toothbrush and trotted into the bedroom.

“So I was thinking-Uh…Lyra?”

Lyra was lying face down on the bed, she let out an unpleasant groan into a pillow.

“Hey, you alright?” He was at her side in an instant, sitting on the bed and stroking her mane.

Letting out another groan, she sat up and buried her muzzle into his chest, allowing Sketch to see the cause of her displeasure.

She was venting magical energy

.

Lyra’s horn was glowing, enveloped in her magic, except the magic looked like glowing water, it flowed down from the tip of her horn like a waterfall, running over her fur and mane, only to dissipate once it had traveled a bit; leaving no trace afterwards.

“It’s alright.” Sketch wrapped his front legs around her, holding her as she vented magical energy, unable to control it. To his surprise the magic was very warm, and when it occasionally touched him it was rather pleasant, although Lyra would have said differently.

“This. Sucks. Ass.” Lyra groaned, muffled as she buried her muzzle further into his chest.

“It’ll stop soon, just push through it, ok?”

Lyra let out a pained and muffled “Mmhmm.”

A moment later, the flow of magic slowed down noticeably, then eventually it stopped completely with a soft “pop” and a tiny plume of smoke.

Lyra was still for a moment, not removing herself from Sketch’s embrace.

“You alright?”

“Yes…sorry…” Lyra sighed and rubbed her forehead, sitting up next to him.

“Don’t apologize, you can’t help it.” He kissed her on the cheek, hoping it would reiterate what he had said.

“I know…thank you.” She smiled warmly and rested her head on his shoulder. “Being a Unicorn sucks sometimes…I mean I like my magic and all but this is a pain in the ass…that one actually kinda hurt a bit.”

“I’m sorry.” He rubbed her shoulder.

“It’s worth it though.” She smiled up at him, pressing her hoof on his chest as she spoke.

“Oh?”

Lyra let out a giggle and pushed him down on his back, lying next to him on the bed.

“Yes, it’s very worth it. Because you and I are going to have a wonderful child, and when she’s older, I’ll complain to her about how much of a butthead she was in the womb.”

“Indeed.” He replied with a chuckle.

Lyra slid up on top of him, straddling him and placing a hoof on each side of his head to support herself.

“Indeed, Indeed.” She gave a playful smirk before leaning down to kiss him.

A kiss he happily received, and was just about to reward Lyra for it, when she let out a wince of pain.

“You alright?” He looked up at her, concern tainting his eyes.

“I just…ughh…my horn hurts from the magic venting…” She sighed with annoyance as she slid off of him and laid on side next to him on the bed.

“Your horn hurts huh?” A cheeky smile forming on his lips.

Lyra nodded.

“Well…” He scooted closer to her on the bed, his chest pressed against her back, feeling her warmth. “Would…this help?”

“NYAHH!” Lyra let out a half gasp half cry of surprise, her entire body shivering for a moment as he quickly dragged his tongue up her horn.

“Oh my, S-Sketch, bad, bad Sketchy.” She turned and playfully bopped his nose, her face a bright red. “N-none of that tonight…I’m way too tired…sorry…” She looked a bit disappointed in herself.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind one bit.” He smiled lovingly at her.

“I’ll make it up to you I promise…”

“Like you did on Hearthswarming Eve?”

“Hey now, I already made that one up to you, remember the barn?”

A devious grin spread across his face as he remembered the…steamy…half hour they spent in Applejack’s barn.

“Yeah, I can tell by that smile, you remember it.” She scoffed at him teasingly.

Sketch’s grin only grew wider.

“Now, if you’re done fantasizing, we need to go to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow you know, and I want you to meet this mare.” She gave him a devious lick on the neck before using her magic to turn the lights off, then crawling under the bed sheets a moment later.

“You know what I just realized?” Sketch said softly as he climbed under the blankets, cuddling up next to Lyra and wrapping his front legs around her, her warmth melding with his.

“Hmm?”

“You never told me the name of this mare you’re meeting, you said she was a big shot in Canterlot, maybe I’ve heard of her.”

“Huh…I guess I never did tell you her name, did I?”

“Nope.”

“Her name is Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch.”