Reflectionby lunabronyChapters1: Humble Beginnings2: Strange New World3: Doctor Heartwell1: Humble BeginningsBZZZZZZZ! The plastic alarm clock sang out a droning shriek, a noise that disrupted whatever sweet dreams had been in the head of the girl sleeping next to it, and jolted her awake with the grace of a sledgehammer. Lara was jolted from a dream involving rolling waves and foreign marsupials. Groggily, she read the display: 6:30am. Ugh, just once she'd have loved to let the sun wake up before she did. "Get up Laura, we're eating in fifteen minutes, remember to wake up Sam or he'll end up sleeping late again!" Her mother called from downstairs. Not a moments peace, and not even the possibility of snoozing; her father had removed that button from this alarm due to abuse of it. The bus would be here in an hour. There was no time to waste. Daydreaming had taken its toll on her, and not necessarily always for the better. Her grades had been slipping and her attention span had been rapidly deteriorating. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She picked up a pile of clean clothes from the floor, quickly changed in the bathroom, and threw her pillow at her younger brother in his bedroom. "Wake up, doofus. I smell waffles, and I call dibs if you don't get up." He was going to kill her when he found out she was lying about the waffles, but she knew what motivated him. Laziness ran in the family, at least on their fathers side. He was sound asleep and wouldn't be up and about before 9, at least. Their mother didn't exactly have waffles ready. Nor pancakes. Nor fried eggs, bacon or other goodies. There was cereal. Joy... Things were coming back to Laura about today. School break was coming up and it was December. Which meant Christmas was approaching, of course. They wouldn't be celebrating at home, they'd be going up to their granny's for a bigger gathering there. Today was the last droll day at school, and tonight there would be a small ball and the younger classes would put on some crappy theatre play. Her little brother was the second flower on the right. "Good morning, Laura." Her mother greeted her; and looking a bit bleary eyed, she offered a mug and a jug of steaming coffee. "Morning." Laura was mumbling, as if she didn't particularly want to be awake. Despite being only fourteen, she took the coffee. She had been having a fantastic dream on which she was floating down a serene river filled with merkangaroos. Yeah, she didn't understand it either. But it made her smile, at least. The play her brother was in? She figured she'd sleep through that. After all, they went to the same school, and in her younger years she'd had to participate in it three times. Three. Horrible. Times. And every single time she'd been a rabbit, with the same lines. "Do I have to go to school?" She pleaded. "I could help out here!" No, those hadn't been her lines. Those were the pleas directed at her mother. "Not a choice, its law. You either go to school, or big men in strange uniforms start asking questions." Her mother drained her own cup and poured herself a second. Sam was not pleased that there weren't any waffles, and scowled at Laura. He'd warm up eventually, thankfully he'd put his crying days behind him. After a few threatening glares from mom, he eventually decided that oatmeal was a fine breakfast. "Any plans for today Laura, other than the Christmas Ball? I was thinking about picking you up after school, then we could head into town, your old dress… I think its time you've gotten something new." There was definitely a promise of clothes shopping. And her mother was restraining a smile. Sam mustn't know that big sister was getting an early present. It wasn't as big as the Fall Formal Ball, but it was the last time she'd get to hang out with her friends until some time in January. Without hesitation, she replied with a slight whine in her voice. "School AND shopping in the same day? God, mom. You trying to make me die of boredom or something?" But she caught the look her mother gave her, and returned it with an excited sort of spark in her eyes. "Besides, I have a hard enough time convincing everyone I'm cool enough without my mom picking me up..." She rolled her eyes. She hoped her mother would pick up on the facade. Laura's attempt at winning back her mom, with a quick retroactive 'being nice', apparently didn't work too well. Her mother put down the coffee jug, a tad bit hard and sighed. "We don't have to do it, Laura, but you need a new dress, and some new clothes for when we're visiting grandma." She looked tired again, more so than before. "You better get a bath and get properly dressed, bus will be here in forty minutes." Sam was appalled. "Laura's getting new clothes? What abou-" Her little brother began. Crap. So much for him not finding out. "You'll get new clothes when you outgrow the ones you're in." She said diplomatically and rubbed her temples. Laura sighed. She didn't want to argue with her mother, so just said "Yes, mom." And went to do exactly that. She didn't get much time to herself, as she'd barely been in the shower ten minutes before Sam was pounding on the door. "Mom says hurry up!" He yelled. Laura quickly dried off, changed into clothes that were a bit too small for her, and yanked open the door. She was worried about her mother, who seemed unusually stressed. After a few short minutes, the school bag was packed, just the essentials, history class, math class and literature. Her trusty music player loaded with a healthy library of good music. And of course some her mother hated just to annoy her when the situation called for it. A sack of other small things for the day. Sam rushed past her, on the way out of her bedroom. "Hi mom! Bye mom!" He yelled, and was fast on the way to the bus stop. Not that arriving there sooner would make the bus come any faster, but Sam was a bundle of energy. Her mother was rinsing the plates and glasses, putting them into the dishwasher. A simple enough task. Laura paused just long enough to pick up a couple dishes, and rinsed them in awkward silence. "Are you okay?" She asked after a couple moments, setting them in the top rack of the machine. She couldn't stay long, Sam wasn't supposed to be at the bus stop by himself. "Laura, I just don't know what to do with you sometimes… I try to do something nice for you, and you whine like an eight year old. I try to share a special day, helping you out. You're growing up and that means something, it does for me at least." She closed the water tap. "This month is a bit stressful, and I want the two of us to not drift apart." "I was only whining because if Sam found out I was getting new stuff he'd go crazy, and start kicking or something until you dragged him along, and I figured that was the last thing you needed right now." She set another glass in the dishwasher. "I'm grateful, really. And I don't think we're drifting apart. At least not like you and da-" She cut herself off, fell silent, and quickly started wiping the counter. They finished the last things together, and then her mother gave her a hug from behind. "Things will work out Laura, just give it time. Now you better head off, I'll pick you up at five. Go catch the bus, quickly now." Laura gave a weak smile, hugged her mother, and ran off to catch the bus. ***Later That Day*** The air was chilly, and her breath caused a mist everytime she exhaled. Laura blew smoke, without actually having smoked. There had been some quizzes, and the last class had been cancelled to help with the decorations of the gymnasium. The geek clique had erected large paper mache columns, and decorated it in a pseudo roman middeval mash up, and then the music crowd had placed lights everywhere. It was evening and the stars shone beautifully, a silver moon hung up above. Laura was looking forward to dress and gift shopping with mom for a few hours. Just the two, she seemed to want to say something important. Perhaps she and dad were breaking up, but it didn't sound like that. Sam was off watching a movie with dad. People had long milled by, out into cars and buses. She stood by near the big statue in front of the school like a bit of a doofus. Hanging around alone. Her ipod still had a good charge, so things weren't it wasn't bad. If you had good music in your ears you could wait forever for almost anything. Something suddenly shocked her out of her relaxed state. Quite rudely, at that. "Out of my way… whatever you are!" Someone pushed past her. Some orange fiery haired, leather wearing girl. She wasn't punk, but she wasn't nice. There was something odd about her, standing shakily on her legs and watching her fingers with odd delight. Drugs, probably. They weren't hard to get, though Laura would never touch them. The other girl marched off with strongly determined purpose along the road, not offering Laura as much as a second look. It wasn't one of the students from the school. At least Laura didn't recognize her. Perhaps she was one of the staff imported from various banquet halls around in order to cater the Fall Formal. Laura had no intention of chasing this person down, but she did make a point of yanking her earpods out of her ears. "Hey! An apology would be nice!" She hollered, although that was about the extent of her interaction with the rude girl. Laura was actually looking forward to spending time with her mother, she didn't get to do it very frequently anymore and she knew her mother worried that her daughter didn't bother making time for her anymore. Speaking of her mother, she was running a bit late. She was supposed to be here by now. Ten minutes later she still wasn't there. Laura kept track of time by how many music tracks had passed by. Still no sign of her. Had something happened? The time moved by, she hadn't gotten a text message either. Or had she? She did then three things which seemed natural at that moment. She took a few steps back towards the statue, fished out the phone, and leaned back against it as she had so many times before. Waaaaay too far backwards, with the sensation of breaking through an buzzing water line with a glittering splash, Laura was suddenly in horizontal free fall. The world was a kaleidoscope of whirling colors. While her head phones kept blasting out the latest number at full volume. Seizure! Was the only coherent thought she had time for, then she was ejected from whirling mass of colors, but she didn't have time to gather her surroundings before her head impacted a hard and unyielding marble surface. Then there was only darkness. 2: Strange New WorldPoor Laura was absolutely, completely disoriented, her head was pounding and her music player had gone skidding across the ground. Her vision still had not returned, and she was enveloped by a temporary world of darkness. Her hand blindly searched across the ground, seeking out her beloved music player. Clearly she'd misjudged the distance between herself and the statue, though she could have sworn she'd been leaning up against it. Her vision swam into focus again as she lay on her back. Her ear buds weren't in her ears, but she could hear the ipod blaring out the songs somewhere nearby. Everything felt off and wrong, her hands felt as if they were stuffed into tight mittens. Her right arm… or was it hand, lay across something soft. Her back was against something hard. As her hand searched around she heard a lot of hard clacks. Her hand felt long and weird and her fingers were stuffed into a weird casing. Was this the hospital? Was she in a cast? Her vision began focusing a bit again and she saw columns stretching up to a ceiling. The gymnasium? Was this the after party? Had she gotten drunk and passed out? Laura struggled to stand, but she felt drunk. Uncomfortable. Her vision was slowly returning, but not quickly enough. "Hello?" She called. "Mom?" How long had she been out? Had she been attacked? "Mom, are you there?" She tried to stand again, and this time somewhat managed to remain upright, though her legs felt like concrete. Her surroundings started to make sense as well, and at the same time make no sense. She wasn't in the gymnasium, this was a marble floor, there was a red carpet, a big throne. She was in some sort of throne room. Everything felt impossibly awkward. Since when had her feet become stilts? Why were her hands so long, and why had her shoulders slipped down from her back and onto her sides. Nothing cooperated and she fell onto her side, this time with a crash. She spotted her ipod nearby. Instinctively reaching out she saw a light teal… something… push it out of the way. She felt a mild thud against her 'fingers'. Or where her fingers should have been. She was starting to become infuriated, her fingers were numb and wouldn't respond. She focused intently on it, willing all powers of concentration for the thing to JUST cooperate and stay in her hand. She hauled herself up onto the large chair, using it as a support. "Hello?" She called again. Nobody was answering, and the room appeared deserted. The ipod clattered again to the floor. In the middle of her frustration it glowed yellow, stopped playing and flew directly into her face with a slap, knocking her backwards. Things were turning stranger by the moment. Standing up she got a look at herself, her winter jacket hung tight on her, making motion even more difficult, feeling a size too small. Looking down her chest was teal. Yet it wasn't a costume, she could feel the air against her… fur? She stood on her hooves… horse legs? What in the hell was all this? Finally a door opened. And a creature came charging in on all fours, wearing golden, roman like armour. A light beam went out from his horn, illuminating her. "Ma'am? What are you doing in here? Who are you?" The horse thing said, he sounded surprised, yet authoritive and firm. If this was a joke, it was the joke of the year. Naturally, Laura screamed. She was sitting upright on the the large decorated chair, a look of absolute terror on her face. She pointed a blunt hoof at him accusingly, the color quite literally draining from her face, turning it black and white. "Horse..." She said in a dull squeak of a voice. "You're...horse..." "Ma'am are you alright?" He asked with some concern. To add to the insanity, another guard came down from above. "Night Light? Need help?" He was flapping a set of wings, descending next to the other. Each flap, brought a small gust of wind across Laura's face. He folded the wings as he landed. "She seems confused-" Night Light said, but the other approached her, as if reassuring her. "Are you alright there? You don't look too good." There was no angry reproach, he seemed authoritarian, he had a shining gleam to his armor, but he was surprisingly helpful. "You're shaking," he noticed. "Here, come support yourself against my back." "No, don't touch me!" She insisted, backing up against the hard throne. She wasn't trying to run anywhere, in fact she seemed to be having a difficult time getting her forelegs to work properly in the first place. They just seemed to be flailing about half-hazardly. "Horses... you're horses..." She seemed to be stuck on that. "Hallucinating... I'm hallucinating..." She reached for her music player again, and after several attempts of barely being able to lift it off the ground, it flew up towards the ceiling, hovered there for a moment, and flew down like a bullet to smack her in the face. She cried out with pain, a red mark appearing on her cheek. "Back... I have to get back... just ignore them, Laura... just ignore them... they'll go away..." She fell back on her rump, which sent a jolt of pain up her spine. Some part of her down there wasn't meant to be sat on. Her arms flailed in the air. The ipod no longer supported, clattered to the ground against the hard marble floor. The nightmare wasn't dispelling. How had she gotten here in the first place, nothing around here seemed out of place, except that she was here. Laura wouldn't notice anything unusual about a nearby horseshoe shaped mirror, except as part of the background. "Ma'am? Ma'am? Can you calm her down, Night Light, she's panicking." The grey armor wearing winged horse thing told the one with the horn. The guard closed his eyes, and his horn erupted into a calm color which changed from red, to green and blue, in a slow rhythm. He went in front of Laura and held the kaleidoscopic horn out to her. A calm light show that drew in her eyes. The change in colors seemed so gentle and seamless. As she watched it she felt her muscles relax. The feeling reminded her of lying in a warm bed and hearing her mother sing her a sweet lullaby, of being gently hugged. It was lulling and safe. Laura wanted to be afraid, but didn't seem to be able to summon the willpower for it. She didn't understand why, it was as if some sort of barrier had been put up between her emotions and her mind. That frightened her more than anything, and her eyes were fixated on the appendage growing out of his skull. Laura asked a strange question in a shaking voice, a question which was very strange coming from a unicorn. "That thing growing out of your head... it's glowing... what is that?" She asked quietly. But at the very least, she wasn't in hysterics anymore. There was a moment of hesitation, but he didn't raise his eyes "Its magic, I'm using a spell to calm you down." He explained cheerfully, she was partially aware of her being taken off the throne by the winged one.. she balanced precariously on her legs, until she got to balance off the back of the winged Guard with her…forelegs? Night Light stopped the spell, and she began to feel her anxiety, and fears come back. "Ma'am, I'll turn it on again if you start panicking," he warned.. "You're inside the throne room of Canterlot Castle, do you know how you got here?" She seemed insistent on walking on two legs, even if it meant using the two guards to support herself. Her back legs were shaking, but she managed it. "Answer me honestly," she said, as if she didn't believe him. "Magic doesn't exist, there's no such thing!" As for the rest of his question, that she had to think about. "I was at school, waiting for my mother. She's expecting me, and I don't where this is but I need to get home. I want to speak to your manager!" She tried to stomp her hoof to emphasize this, but this only resulted in her nearly falling over. Her legs seemed to be stretched when she stood up, as they were bending unnaturally (for a pony) far back. Her response made them look slightly worried. "Ma'am, first of all we must escort you out, this room is used for official business." Night Light offered. The other was more sympathetic. "Night Light and I are guards here, so we have some duties to fulfill. Such as looking into ponies in places they shouldn't be in." He explained. "We heard screaming in here, and we found you. My name is Plume, what is yours?" Laura stopped in her tracks in the middle of the throne room. Further efforts to remove her were met with resistance. "Now wait just a moment!" She said. "My name is Laura Hastings." She responded. "Did you... say.... ponies? Are there MORE of you?" They both seemed to smile at this and looked at each other with a smirk, rolling their eyes a bit. Her attempts at resisting weren't exactly helpful, they seemed both stronger, and more able than her to take her along. Night Light gently butted and pushed her from behind, while Plume let her keep her balance. The two stumbling hooves she put to the ground didn't offer much of a leverage. Plume ears perked up. "Night Light, has an age progression spell been used on her? Maybe she's one of the students from Celestia's school." "Excuse me one moment ma'am." She felt the tip of his horn touch her back. "Hmmm, this is odd, she's been through a lot of magic recently. Ma'am, did you attempt teleportation without proper authorization or training?" Laura finally caved and landed on all fours. She found, quite oddly, that this position meant the aches that had been building up were dissipating. She stayed on all fours for the time being, trying very hard to keep the tears that were building up in her eyes from falling down her face. "What are you two nutcases rambling about? There's absolutely no such thing as magic, of course I've never teleported before!" She was beginning to sound annoyed. "I'm a student at Canterlot High, and I was waiting for my mother. Now I don't know what shenanigans you're trying to pull but I'm not having it!" Oh, poor thing really didn't know. She must not have ever used magic in her life. "Canterlot High… is that a pegasus school?" Night Light asked Plume. Plume shook his head and gave Laura a look of sympathy. "I can't say I've ever heard of it, but she must be from around here if she knows about Canterlot. A slip of the tongue will tell a keen listener many things." "We don't know of a school like that, Canterlot's a real place, but Canterlot High… there's nothing like that here, but we will check for you," Night Light said. "Perhaps you should lie down, you don't look so good." he said as the door closed behind them. They had been insistent on getting her out, but not forcefully so and she had walked with quite a stumble. The hallway was richly decorated, with banners and flowers. The banners proudly declared the 'Summer Sun Celebration'. Sitting down on her flank on a lush red carpet, Laura's ipod hung from her neck, really the only safe place for it at the moment, and somehow she had successfully turned it off. Night Light and Plume were whispering to each other, and Laura caught only fragments of conversation. "…barking mad disease? … magical mishap … doctor …zebra remedy?" The name Celestia was mentioned once or twice. Laura stopped listening in on them and sort of kept to herself. They didn't seem to worry about her running off, after all, she could barely stand. She didn't have anything to stick her music player in so nudged a small decorative bag off the wall with her nose and after much trial and error, got her music in the bag and the bag wrapped around her leg. She then attempted walking on shaking legs, which resulted in falling more than a few times. But determined to not make a fool out of herself she continued her efforts. Her ignorance was only further displayed when she pointed to a large mural of Celestia and asked "Who's that?" Neither of the guards were shocked, but she got a look of sympathy again and Night Light approached her. "Ma'am, that is our ruler. Celestia." He said of the large mural of a regal looking pony creature, with a flowing rainbow colored mane. Laura noticed that she had both wings and a horn. "I'm not sure what happened to you." He began. "Or where exactly you're from, but we don't want to hindkick you out of the castle. You look like you've had a rough start, so if you want I can put a sleep spell of on you and me and Plume will get you somewhere safe. We'll make sure to pack your clothes and that… jewelry of yours." He offered. "Oh." Laura was slowly starting to put things together, and glanced at the horn on the mural. "Does she do magic as well?" The tone was almost a mocking one, as if she still didn't particularly believe it. "I would really rather you not do anything to me, I'm not comfortable with that... and don't you dare touch my music. Though if you have an outlet I can plug it into, that'd be fantastic." Something clicked then, and her eyes widened a few moments too late. "Did you say castle?" She sounded a mix of surprised and horrified. She had heard the word several times already, but it hadn't particularly clicked until now. "All of the city of Canterlot is part of the castle, technically, but you're inside the royal palace section." Plume explained with glee and no small measure of pride. "This is where her royal highness Princess Celestia rules Equestria. Tall spires, all in hoof crafted marble by earth pony hooves, flown in by the pegasus tribes… and with some finishing touches by unicorns." Night Light went back into the throne room and came back, with her clothes floating gently behind him in a whispy light. There was a light shimmering sound as they hung suspended behind him. Earth, unicorn, pegasus... it was all too much. She felt faint, and slowly sank towards the floor. The explanation seemed to have overwhelmed her. "If this Celestia person is in charge, then I want to speak to her. Maybe she can get me home. My family will be extremely worried!" She was beginning to become upset, and her horn was glowing, giving off sparks of all sorts of different colors. A large unidentified blast shot from it, leaving a pattern of scorch marks on the wall. "What the hell was that!?" This shocked the guards, and their calm sympathy became worry. They quietly talked among themselves. "Ma'am, did you intend for that to happen or did it happen accidentally?" Night Light asked her quickly. "...What... exactly... happened?" She asked. "I don't even know what I did! Okay... look...this whole horse thing is weird. I'm just gonna go." She said, and started stumbling towards a large set of doors, which she could only assume led outside. "You guys have fun. Thanks for the help." She got only so far that she saw the wide double doors swing open to a large marble clearing. And then she got a look at the view, one half was of an emerald city, with strange spires and spiral colored domes, the other side was of water falls with several beautiful rainbows. A yellow pony with wings flew by. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't been absolutely terrifying. As for Laura, Night Light didn't have to put her to sleep with a spell at all. Laura fainted. She woke up. She was in a white cotton bed tugged up around her. For a moment before her eyes had opened, she could have dreamed that she was back home. Yet even lying there she knew it wasn't so. How long had passed? Her mom must be going out of her mind by now. Opening her eyes she saw a small room, with a door nearby. She became aware of an odd feeling from her horn (which is what it was), looking up as best she could she saw something was tugged around it tight. It felt oddly dampening, without being sure how else to describe the feeling it was giving her. A new voice hissed at her. "Pssst, hey… Lyra is it? I read the name the nurse wrote on your bed." She heard the voice from the bunk above. "I'm Screwloose, are you okay?" Seriously? Screwloose? These poor creatures had such weird names. "I'm Laura." She said, her face still buried in her pillow. "Where are we? Are we prisoners in Celestia's dungeon?" She suddenly sat up, her eyes widening. "My music!" She exclaimed. A pony head looked down from above, a pale blue colour. Her hair was a mess. "Music? Oh you have that glowy thingie, wait a moment." Her head disappeared and came back with the ipod in her mouth. "Here mou mo!" She offered. Laura tried to decipher it for only a few moments before giving up entirely. Laura breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, that's fine, just set it on the table." She said politely. She could only hope Screwloose hadn't pressed Play by accident, seeing as she had a lot of music on there that her mother didn't exactly approve of. Rebellious teenager, and all. Not exactly pony appropriate. "Thank you." She said. "Hey, how come you don't have one of those magic things?" She gestured to her forehead. "Everyone I've seen so far has one. Did Celestia banish you and take it away?" "Oh I'm an earth pony, we don't have wings or magic, we've got good strong hearts and we're close to nature. I didn't do anything to it, it just glowed when I pressed it. I thought maybe you were an enchanter… or maybe you are… since you don't know what a unicorn is. The nurse put a dampener on your horn, so I figured maybe something magical went wrong." "I totally know what a unicorn is! My books say they live in forests and eat rainbows." She didn't sound like even she believed it. "My horn..." She tasted the words, they felt strange. "I think it works, are sparks and fire supposed to come out of it?" "Well…" She stroked her chin. "If that's what you wanted to happen then yes, but I guess it happened by itself… and that's a big no no. Magical spells are really dangerous, even when you unicorns know what you're doing. So, do you have amnesia? That's what I've been guessing." "I do not have amnesia!" She insisted. "My name is Laura Hastings. I'm 14, and a student at Canterlot High. My older brother is a senior and plays for the Wondercolts. I like to draw and horses don't-" She paused. "Uh..." Perhaps that was sensitive information. "My horn has just... been... acting up. That's all. Now what can you tell me?" "Well, I can tell you that you're in Canterlot hospital. That you arrived maybe an hour ago, and you were asleep when you got here." Screwloose said and jumped down, extending a hoof. What was she waiting for a… a handshake? Did they even know what handshakes were? "Laura seems like an odd name, the nurse might not like calling you that, I think she misheard and wrote Lyra instead. I'll call you Laura if you want though… friends?" She extended the hoof again. "Sure. Um..." She stuck out a foreleg, but wasn't entirely sure what to do. Instead she posed there awkwardly for a moment, before bumping her light seagreen hoof against Screwloose's. "If you help me get back home, Lyra it is." 3: Doctor HeartwellLyra had an odd dream about a horse snorting mixed with snoring. It turned out to be her own snoring. The hard sound of a hoof rapping at a door woke her out of the slumber. Waking, Lyra found that post-sleep crankiness was universal across all dimensions. "Wake up call! Breakfast in an hour!" Some orderly said, keeping the door open. The sound of hooves against the floor outside, and the everpresent smell of horses brought Lyra back to her senses. Her odd sense, anyway, as nothing seemed to make much sense around here. It took only a moment to reconfirm that nothing about her body was in its proper place. Screwloose jumped down from the bed above her, shaking herself off. "Wake up, Lyra! Trust me you don't want to get late for the bath. They serve breakfast only for an hour and if you miss it, then you don't get any." Lyra, who was barely half awake, mumbled something about that not sounding very fair. She slid out of bed, landing perfectly on all four legs without even really thinking about it. Actually walking, however, was still something that still gave her trouble. She stumbled a little bit here and there, but wasn't remarkably terrible at it. "This place is starting to feel like a detention center," she said quietly. "My mom would serve breakfast and keep it warm until I got to it, even if that took two hours." She sighed, rubbing at her face with a foreleg to wake up. She lingered a moment on her horn, still unable to shake the feeling that it didn't really belong there. Screwloose graciously helped her take a good shower, which quickened her. The patient shower was just a large room with hot water jetting down from the ceiling, so it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as Lyra had anticipated. Pony or not, waking up took a while, and a hot shower always helped. "Wow, you really do look like someone who's not used to anything like this," Screwloose yelled over the roar of the full body pony sized hair dryer, which was blasting all the moisture off the two ponies. If Lyra hadn't been awake before they turned on that thing, she certain was now. The roar died down, and with her mane sticking out like cotton candy for a moment before collapsing down, she stood clean. Screwloose had helped her brush the undersides of her hooves which were clean enough now. This took a long time, however, as Lyra kept fidgeting. She didn't really like being touched all that much. Showering with another pony was very strange, and Lyra kept herself very stiff and rigid. She asked at least twice where the clothes were, which had earned her odd looks from a couple other horses lingering for their turn at the hair dryer. She was clean and wide awake now, and shook herself off to get the last few stubborn ends of her mane to lie flat. "Alright, great, we're clean. Can we go get food now? I'm absolutely starving for bacon." She looked a bit nostalgic for a moment. "Though nobody makes it like my older brother, he's got the cooking talent in my family." A few moments later she was sitting down with a healthy plate of… sliced apples, four carrots, some salad leaves and a bell pepper, generously sprinkled with salt. No utensils. Screwloose regarded her own serving, for a moment and dug with with her muzzle, munching up some of it. Lyra had asked where the bacon was, but upon being met with a few blank looks of confusion and a few looks of disgust, she decided it best not to pursue that line of questioning any further. "Eh, not the best morning meal," Screwloose was saying. "But satisfactory." An orderly approached Lyra from the wings, and stopped at their table. "Hello, I'm just here to tell you that Dr Heartwell will see you after breakfast in his office, he'll tell you all about why you're here and wants to examine you to see how you're doing and whether you'd want to be let out." It probably didn't help that at the moment the orderly approached her, she was busy stabbing pieces of fruit with a straw like a spear. She had tried picking up the food with her hooves, and the results were littered on the floor around her chair. The straw she held determinedly in her mouth, and stood in rapt attention upon being addressed with a piece of apple violently impaled on the drinking appendage. "...Do I have to?" She asked. "I'm fine, really, I just want to go home. That's nothing to bother a busy doctor with. Just send me on my way, and we'll be just peachy." "You tell him that, you seem fine enough… besides, Just Peachy's appointment isn't until tomorrow." He said looking a bit uncertain. "But remember to clean up after yourself, you're getting food everywhere." Screwloose looked over to see the orderly leave, and regarded Lyra's behavior. "Maybe you're really from Manehatten, they eat kinda fancy over there, here in Ponyville? We just chow in, there's really nothing to it." She made a practical demonstration of that by munching of the rest of her plate's contents and swallowed it all in a good gulp. Lyra looked stunned. "What?" Screwloose asked. "Ponyville?" "Yeah, didn't they tell you? You were moved to Ponyville while you were knocked out. Better healthcare and facilities. Better equipped for dealing with... unusual cases. "Dr Heartwell is a nice pony, you'll probably like him." "If you say so," Lyra looked again down at her plate, and noted that several of the others were doing the same thing. It didn't feel right, but it didn't seem out of place. Not wanting to go hungry, she buried her nose in what was left of the fruit and munched as much as she could. It was near the end of her plate clearing that something Screwloose had said finally clicked, and she slowly raised her head. "...You meant Manhattan, right?" A bit salty, but not bad, the salt worked surprisingly well with the acidic sweetness of the apples and it made the otherwise boring leaves go down a lot easier. Could have used a proper dressing though. This was definitely rabbit food. "That's right! Manehatten! You're remembering something from that place?" She asked, hopefully. She still seemed to think Lyra had memory loss. Lyra's heart sank. "Not MANEhattan, MANHATTAN!" She stomped a forehoof on the table and suddenly realized she'd been shouting. She honestly wasn't trying to be so difficult on purpose, she was just upset. Everything was different, and it didn't seem like any of these horses cared if she got home or not. She pushed the rest of her plate away. "I'm sorry, not hungry. You can have it." She began to walk away from the table in the direction the orderly had gone, while poor Screwloose just looked on in exasperation. "What'd I say?" *** The office of Dr Heartwell was easy enough to find, the orderly was more than happy to guide Lyra to the right door. It had his name and a big cute heart next to it along with a temperature. A few knocks, and the door suddenly shimmered red and opened on its own. "Lyra, is that you? Please, do come in." The voice belonging to Dr Heartwell was soothing and elderly, and when she entered she saw an older pony standing comfortable in the middle of a fairly cozy office. The walls were filled to the brim with the pictures of hundreds of ponies of all ages. He nodded to Lyra as she entered and closed the door behind her, with that strange telekinesis she had seen before. "Goodmorning, Lyra." he said kindly, once she had entered. "Please, take a seat if you want to, the couch is well worn but it's comfy as well." "It's..." She paused. Arguing her name wouldn't help her position at all. "Yes, it's me." She said. She jumped slightly as the door closed by itself, staring at it for a few moments before approaching the couch. She seated herself in the fashion she was used to, upright, with two hooves on the floor, a foreleg clutching the arm of the couch for balance. Her back protested, but she ignored it. "Let's make this quick, I'd hate to waste your time, and I really think I'll be perfectly fine. I just to need to figure out where I am, that's all." He took his time and folded himself into an armchair, tugging his legs up under him. He nodded to the things Lyra said. "You're wasting no ones time, for the next hour and a half my time is no one's but yours." He said reassuringly. "First of all I want you to know that we're doing everything we can to figure out where you came from. The guards will alert her Highness Princess Celestia herself, you can be confident that once we know how you got here and from where, we'll tell you." "But I have to ask you some questions. The guards told me you were acting erratically, and that your horn was discharging involuntary magic. Lyra… don't be afraid of telling me anything. Put into your own words what happened if you could." "You promise nothing I say will result in you pasting a giant 'CRAZY' stamp in that notebook in red ink and hauling me away to never be seen again?" She asked He chuckled "We do not use the word crazy, and its not thinking or believing weird things that makes a pony mentally abnormal, its how they process information and its whether they are dangerous. Which why you are wearing a dampener right now right, involuntary magic is dangerous. So tell me the story." Although she had initially wanted to hold back her origin, Lyra launched into everything. Canterlot High, her family, her best friend Bonnie at school. How her mother was probably worried sick and going to kill her because she was supposed to be watching Sam. Horses and ponies didn't talk, didn't do magic, didn't fly. They were fast animals, but compartively stupid animals. (She apologized here, her face having turned a shade of red upon admitting this.) She spoke of doing homework, going to the mall, leaning against a statue and tumbling through some sort of hallucination vortex, waking up in the throne room. She spoke of being scared and confused and not knowing anything or anyone. The first thirty of her minutes flew by, words pouring out of her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "And I happen to know you're all lying to me despite all this, because Screwloose TOLD me that some ponies have horns and some ponies have wings and some ponie have neither, so then what's the deal with THAT one?" She pointed to a mural behind the table, a rather small one admittedly, but which featured a large equine that very clearly had both a horn and wings. "Someone obviously never told the artist." She smiled triumphantly, as if she'd just figured out Watergate. He listened, and neither added to anything nor condescended. In fact he didn't ask any questions, he simple listened to her, as she emptied herself. Her question made him look up at back at his diploma, which carried a big silhouette of Celestia with spread wings. "She's the royal princess, which means she's an alicorn. Have you heard of that word before?" Lyra just sat in stunned silence. She felt like she'd made an idiot out of herself, and slowly shook her head. "And this princess takes care of an entire world of horses and magic by herself? That sucks..." He marked something down, at the last remark. "She's our princess, she rules Equestria and she's passed out responsibilities. For instance, I'm one of the overseers of this ward," he told her. "Above me is the mayor of Ponyville, she got her position by being a capable leader, and above her is Celestia." He summed up Equestrian politics for her. "That's not the first time I've heard that... Screwloose mentioned Ponyville too. Is that the capital?" "Ponyville?" He looked over to the windows and the curtains whisked open. Outside were curving hills, and flower filled patch, a pond lay beyond that and from there a curving dirt road snaked into a village of houses. In the middle could be a seen a large circular building with extremely fancy dresses in the windows. She saw a few pegasi flying through the air. She could barely read the words 'SOLD OUT' on a muffin cart, nearby which the vendor was trying to comfort a crying grey pegasus. Far in the distance she saw a castle nestled against a cliff side with waterfalls. "Welcome to Ponyville Lyra… you've never heard about this place before?" "In case you're confused, you were taken from Canterlot to here. While Canterlot has the biggest hospital, Ponyville is renowned for its mental hospital. The quiet airs here and the cheerfulness of the town has helped many melancholics, and calms many who have bad nerves." "What?!" She suddenly looked angry. "You can't do that!" She felt her heart start racing, and looked frightened. "I told you, I don't know what Ponyville is, I don't know who Celestia is, and I don't know what alicorns are! All I know is I woke up in Canterlot, which means Canterlot is my best chance of getting home. You have to magic me back there! If I could just get back in the big throne room, I'm sure I can find my way out!" "Lyra." His voice was calm but firm. "Calm down right this instant, you were taken here because you were judged to be a danger by the guards. Canterlot is no more than four hours away by train, so you're in no hurry. You also don't have to assume that I think you're lying, I don't. You don't talk the way a pony who's intentionally lying would be." He stood up and put down his notes. "In this conversation I wanted to fill you in on everything that's happened to you, because you've got a right to know them, as a patient. And its to evaluate whether you're safe to be let out. I don't understand the memories you have, but by themselves they're not dangerous. Lyra… if I let you go, I want to know that you won't start barging into places where you don't have permission to be." He raised a hoof. "Before you consider asking, yes, her Highness will be informed about this. She's been busy lately due to the Summer Sun Celebration efforts I'm told. This year is the One Thousandth Celebration, so we've all been busier than usual." Lyra shook her head. "Look, I'm not making threats to your princess or whatever. I swear I'm not. She doesn't even have to BE there. I just need to examine the room, maybe some security footage, you guys have to have security cameras right? I mean it's a princess palace. There's bound to be loads of evidence that I'm not a threat! I just want to get back, that's all! You can't keep me here, and either way, even if it takes days or weeks or months, I WILL find my way back. And that starts with Canterlot." She had an annoyed tone now, and rose for the door. "We're done here." Her temper had flared, a bit overly dramatic perhaps, but she wanted out of here. "Lyra, before you dramatically exit my office…" He began shaking his head and turning around. "Wouldn't you want to have the dampener removed? I'm not keeping you here, you're neither hurting me nor anyone. I don't know if you're delusional, but I do know that you're not insane. Its a bit odd of you to just storm out of here, do you know the way to the train station if what you say is true? I can tell you that if you follow the path into Ponyville and stick due north you'll find it, but most ponies will help you along if you want. Secondly, there's plenty of guided tours of the palace, if you get one of those you'll be able to inspect the throne room if you want." After her big show he wasn't even angry at her, at worst he seemed to look at her as if what she was doing was odd, but he didn't seem angry at all. There was a look of confusion. "But I have no idea how to do magic, and my horn keeps shooting off lightning bolts. Even if I wanted it removed, are you honestly going to tell me you'd remove it and allow me out into public?" She asked. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and if it's taken off... who's to say I won't?" She asked. "As for the train station, I'm assuming it's near the tracks," she said. At least her humor was intact. He approached her calmly. "Lyra, do you want me to remove the dampener? You might not realize this right now, or believe me, but you're a unicorn and with your horn subdued you'd be like a gryphon with her claws tied to her back. Now you said you kept shooting sparks and doing bad things… that's unintentional. Can you look at me and try to stay calm as I remove it?" "Yes." Her response was quick and firm. "I want it removed." She sounded slightly worried, but fairly confident. At the gryphon remark, her ears twitched. "There are gryphons here as well, or are you being sarcastic?" She asked. "Next I suppose you're going to tell me to watch out for dragons and zombies." Her caustic remarks went on deaf ears, though his mouth pursed in a smile. He went over to her and levitated a fine key into the damper. "Now Lyra, I want you to simple relax and think of a little beach ball on some hot sand. Picture the crashing surf, and the sound of seagulls." He instructed he as he levitated off the damper. A measure of relief could be felt, as if a yoke had fallen off her somehow. He took a pencil and levitated it onto the desk. "Now Lyra… I want you to reach out and grab hold of that pencil, and lift it into into the air." "Pencil... right... no big deal. Just a pencil. Just using magic. Totally normal..." She focused every announce of her attention on the writing instrument, and severely mentally commanded it to obey her instruction. UP! There was a short and quick sensation of magical energy escaping through her, surging for it. It flipped up into the air spinning around itself. He grabbed it magically and put it down again. "This time breathe deeper, and imagine that you're picking it up." He instructed patiently and put it down. "Deeper..." She took a calm breath, and allowed her heart to stop racing. Perhaps up was too violent a command. She had an excited, doofy looking grin on her face. "Okay... less power..." Float! It wobbled on the table, rolling too and fro. It was almost as if… she could feel it. As if she was touching and caressing it lightly with fingers she no longer had … almost able to feel its surface, without touching it at all. She heard a shimmering sound from her horn and saw that the pencil was glowing with a small white light, but still it wobbled without lifting. "Sometimes I need to imagine literally picking it up for it work," the doctor offered patiently. Frustrated, Lyra stepped closer to the table. She was embarrassed, there were probably small children who could already do this. But, as they said, when in Rome... she tried to imagine a large hand coming down from her horn to pick the pencil up, and became momentarily distracted. She missed her hands, but this magic thing would have to be an adequate replacement. Which brought her to yet another question. "How do the horses without horns do this?" She asked. The first imagine of a gigantic hand coming down from Heaven didn't work so well… but it did help her a bit, just the idea of picking something up with her hand… she had done that many times. Remembering the feeling of fingers folding around a pencil was easy. And before she knew the pencil was suspended in the air right in front of her. Amused the doctor reached out with a hoof, took hold of the pencil and put in back in a drawer before shutting it. Using only his hooves. "I think you'll be alright now. If you start to have involuntary magical discharges again and you're worried that they will be dangerous, please contact a guard and they will send for a dampener. I see no reason not to discharge you now. Will you be alright?" Lyra rubbed her neck with a hoof. "Should I be worried about food or lodging or money or anything like that? I'm guessing I'll be here for a while, but if I got here through some magic vortex, I can always get back again. It's not like there's a time limit or anything..." "Hmmm, your case is a bit special, as we still don't know where you're from. You're welcomed to eat and sleep here until you've found out these things, and heard from the princess, or from the castle. Now lets see here…" He opened a small book and flipped through it. "Sometimes some of our patients who are doing better ask to be able to help out and work in Ponyville. Its a good way to earn bits… where is she… yes, Bon Bon. She runs a taffy shop, and could use an extra hoof. Its a good enough place to start if want to earn a quick bit. Celestia's letter will arrive here… and Lyra, lighten up, this is the Summer Sun Celebration. If I were your age I'd be in Ponyville and help out with the preparations. Good luck!" He held out his hoof. Right... just because I'm a talking horse doesn't mean I can't have fun with the Summer Sun Celebration," she teased, but held out her hoof in an instinctual handshake. "Uh... is there a trick to this, or...?" She eventually just gave up and sort of bumped it. "I'll do my best," she said. "Can I have this?" She asked, gesturing to the pencil. "It might help." He placed he nestled it behind one of her ears. "There, unless you want to twirl it. The clothes you arrived with are still in Canterlot for the Princess's inspection, but all the pockets were emptied and the contents can be requested. You were wearing one of them, something that played music… its in your room. Come back any time you feel like having a conversation. Lyra, I hope you sort things out for the best." Lyra had completely forgotten about the music player. Upon arriving, it had been her most important possession. And although she still insisted on keeping it since it was the only link she had to home, it didn't seem quite as important any longer. "Thank you," she said, and left the office. She had only been gone a few minutes before she poked her head back in. "Um... taffy shop?" She asked sheepishly. He smiled. "A sweet shop, she specializes in taffy. Just ask for Bon Bon, Ponyville is small enough that everyone knows everyone. It's as good a day as any to arrive, and I'm sure Bonbon could use the helping hoof. If I were you I'd help her out, earn a few bits, and enjoy the evening and watch the traditional sunrise by Celestia. If you're lucky you'll be able to ask her questions then." Lyra sighed. It seemed she had enough information now to at least get her started. With a final glance down the hall and a thank you to the doctor, she retrieved her music player and tied the earphones around her neck. Then she departed the room and pushed open a set of plain double doors, cringing in the sudden light as she thrust herself straight into Ponyville. Author's Note As always, if there are any grammatical errors or confusing sentences, please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them. This last update is the biggest chapter I've ever done and I'm SURE there are errors I missed during editing. Thanks!
1: Humble BeginningsBZZZZZZZ! The plastic alarm clock sang out a droning shriek, a noise that disrupted whatever sweet dreams had been in the head of the girl sleeping next to it, and jolted her awake with the grace of a sledgehammer. Lara was jolted from a dream involving rolling waves and foreign marsupials. Groggily, she read the display: 6:30am. Ugh, just once she'd have loved to let the sun wake up before she did. "Get up Laura, we're eating in fifteen minutes, remember to wake up Sam or he'll end up sleeping late again!" Her mother called from downstairs. Not a moments peace, and not even the possibility of snoozing; her father had removed that button from this alarm due to abuse of it. The bus would be here in an hour. There was no time to waste. Daydreaming had taken its toll on her, and not necessarily always for the better. Her grades had been slipping and her attention span had been rapidly deteriorating. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She picked up a pile of clean clothes from the floor, quickly changed in the bathroom, and threw her pillow at her younger brother in his bedroom. "Wake up, doofus. I smell waffles, and I call dibs if you don't get up." He was going to kill her when he found out she was lying about the waffles, but she knew what motivated him. Laziness ran in the family, at least on their fathers side. He was sound asleep and wouldn't be up and about before 9, at least. Their mother didn't exactly have waffles ready. Nor pancakes. Nor fried eggs, bacon or other goodies. There was cereal. Joy... Things were coming back to Laura about today. School break was coming up and it was December. Which meant Christmas was approaching, of course. They wouldn't be celebrating at home, they'd be going up to their granny's for a bigger gathering there. Today was the last droll day at school, and tonight there would be a small ball and the younger classes would put on some crappy theatre play. Her little brother was the second flower on the right. "Good morning, Laura." Her mother greeted her; and looking a bit bleary eyed, she offered a mug and a jug of steaming coffee. "Morning." Laura was mumbling, as if she didn't particularly want to be awake. Despite being only fourteen, she took the coffee. She had been having a fantastic dream on which she was floating down a serene river filled with merkangaroos. Yeah, she didn't understand it either. But it made her smile, at least. The play her brother was in? She figured she'd sleep through that. After all, they went to the same school, and in her younger years she'd had to participate in it three times. Three. Horrible. Times. And every single time she'd been a rabbit, with the same lines. "Do I have to go to school?" She pleaded. "I could help out here!" No, those hadn't been her lines. Those were the pleas directed at her mother. "Not a choice, its law. You either go to school, or big men in strange uniforms start asking questions." Her mother drained her own cup and poured herself a second. Sam was not pleased that there weren't any waffles, and scowled at Laura. He'd warm up eventually, thankfully he'd put his crying days behind him. After a few threatening glares from mom, he eventually decided that oatmeal was a fine breakfast. "Any plans for today Laura, other than the Christmas Ball? I was thinking about picking you up after school, then we could head into town, your old dress… I think its time you've gotten something new." There was definitely a promise of clothes shopping. And her mother was restraining a smile. Sam mustn't know that big sister was getting an early present. It wasn't as big as the Fall Formal Ball, but it was the last time she'd get to hang out with her friends until some time in January. Without hesitation, she replied with a slight whine in her voice. "School AND shopping in the same day? God, mom. You trying to make me die of boredom or something?" But she caught the look her mother gave her, and returned it with an excited sort of spark in her eyes. "Besides, I have a hard enough time convincing everyone I'm cool enough without my mom picking me up..." She rolled her eyes. She hoped her mother would pick up on the facade. Laura's attempt at winning back her mom, with a quick retroactive 'being nice', apparently didn't work too well. Her mother put down the coffee jug, a tad bit hard and sighed. "We don't have to do it, Laura, but you need a new dress, and some new clothes for when we're visiting grandma." She looked tired again, more so than before. "You better get a bath and get properly dressed, bus will be here in forty minutes." Sam was appalled. "Laura's getting new clothes? What abou-" Her little brother began. Crap. So much for him not finding out. "You'll get new clothes when you outgrow the ones you're in." She said diplomatically and rubbed her temples. Laura sighed. She didn't want to argue with her mother, so just said "Yes, mom." And went to do exactly that. She didn't get much time to herself, as she'd barely been in the shower ten minutes before Sam was pounding on the door. "Mom says hurry up!" He yelled. Laura quickly dried off, changed into clothes that were a bit too small for her, and yanked open the door. She was worried about her mother, who seemed unusually stressed. After a few short minutes, the school bag was packed, just the essentials, history class, math class and literature. Her trusty music player loaded with a healthy library of good music. And of course some her mother hated just to annoy her when the situation called for it. A sack of other small things for the day. Sam rushed past her, on the way out of her bedroom. "Hi mom! Bye mom!" He yelled, and was fast on the way to the bus stop. Not that arriving there sooner would make the bus come any faster, but Sam was a bundle of energy. Her mother was rinsing the plates and glasses, putting them into the dishwasher. A simple enough task. Laura paused just long enough to pick up a couple dishes, and rinsed them in awkward silence. "Are you okay?" She asked after a couple moments, setting them in the top rack of the machine. She couldn't stay long, Sam wasn't supposed to be at the bus stop by himself. "Laura, I just don't know what to do with you sometimes… I try to do something nice for you, and you whine like an eight year old. I try to share a special day, helping you out. You're growing up and that means something, it does for me at least." She closed the water tap. "This month is a bit stressful, and I want the two of us to not drift apart." "I was only whining because if Sam found out I was getting new stuff he'd go crazy, and start kicking or something until you dragged him along, and I figured that was the last thing you needed right now." She set another glass in the dishwasher. "I'm grateful, really. And I don't think we're drifting apart. At least not like you and da-" She cut herself off, fell silent, and quickly started wiping the counter. They finished the last things together, and then her mother gave her a hug from behind. "Things will work out Laura, just give it time. Now you better head off, I'll pick you up at five. Go catch the bus, quickly now." Laura gave a weak smile, hugged her mother, and ran off to catch the bus. ***Later That Day*** The air was chilly, and her breath caused a mist everytime she exhaled. Laura blew smoke, without actually having smoked. There had been some quizzes, and the last class had been cancelled to help with the decorations of the gymnasium. The geek clique had erected large paper mache columns, and decorated it in a pseudo roman middeval mash up, and then the music crowd had placed lights everywhere. It was evening and the stars shone beautifully, a silver moon hung up above. Laura was looking forward to dress and gift shopping with mom for a few hours. Just the two, she seemed to want to say something important. Perhaps she and dad were breaking up, but it didn't sound like that. Sam was off watching a movie with dad. People had long milled by, out into cars and buses. She stood by near the big statue in front of the school like a bit of a doofus. Hanging around alone. Her ipod still had a good charge, so things weren't it wasn't bad. If you had good music in your ears you could wait forever for almost anything. Something suddenly shocked her out of her relaxed state. Quite rudely, at that. "Out of my way… whatever you are!" Someone pushed past her. Some orange fiery haired, leather wearing girl. She wasn't punk, but she wasn't nice. There was something odd about her, standing shakily on her legs and watching her fingers with odd delight. Drugs, probably. They weren't hard to get, though Laura would never touch them. The other girl marched off with strongly determined purpose along the road, not offering Laura as much as a second look. It wasn't one of the students from the school. At least Laura didn't recognize her. Perhaps she was one of the staff imported from various banquet halls around in order to cater the Fall Formal. Laura had no intention of chasing this person down, but she did make a point of yanking her earpods out of her ears. "Hey! An apology would be nice!" She hollered, although that was about the extent of her interaction with the rude girl. Laura was actually looking forward to spending time with her mother, she didn't get to do it very frequently anymore and she knew her mother worried that her daughter didn't bother making time for her anymore. Speaking of her mother, she was running a bit late. She was supposed to be here by now. Ten minutes later she still wasn't there. Laura kept track of time by how many music tracks had passed by. Still no sign of her. Had something happened? The time moved by, she hadn't gotten a text message either. Or had she? She did then three things which seemed natural at that moment. She took a few steps back towards the statue, fished out the phone, and leaned back against it as she had so many times before. Waaaaay too far backwards, with the sensation of breaking through an buzzing water line with a glittering splash, Laura was suddenly in horizontal free fall. The world was a kaleidoscope of whirling colors. While her head phones kept blasting out the latest number at full volume. Seizure! Was the only coherent thought she had time for, then she was ejected from whirling mass of colors, but she didn't have time to gather her surroundings before her head impacted a hard and unyielding marble surface. Then there was only darkness.
2: Strange New WorldPoor Laura was absolutely, completely disoriented, her head was pounding and her music player had gone skidding across the ground. Her vision still had not returned, and she was enveloped by a temporary world of darkness. Her hand blindly searched across the ground, seeking out her beloved music player. Clearly she'd misjudged the distance between herself and the statue, though she could have sworn she'd been leaning up against it. Her vision swam into focus again as she lay on her back. Her ear buds weren't in her ears, but she could hear the ipod blaring out the songs somewhere nearby. Everything felt off and wrong, her hands felt as if they were stuffed into tight mittens. Her right arm… or was it hand, lay across something soft. Her back was against something hard. As her hand searched around she heard a lot of hard clacks. Her hand felt long and weird and her fingers were stuffed into a weird casing. Was this the hospital? Was she in a cast? Her vision began focusing a bit again and she saw columns stretching up to a ceiling. The gymnasium? Was this the after party? Had she gotten drunk and passed out? Laura struggled to stand, but she felt drunk. Uncomfortable. Her vision was slowly returning, but not quickly enough. "Hello?" She called. "Mom?" How long had she been out? Had she been attacked? "Mom, are you there?" She tried to stand again, and this time somewhat managed to remain upright, though her legs felt like concrete. Her surroundings started to make sense as well, and at the same time make no sense. She wasn't in the gymnasium, this was a marble floor, there was a red carpet, a big throne. She was in some sort of throne room. Everything felt impossibly awkward. Since when had her feet become stilts? Why were her hands so long, and why had her shoulders slipped down from her back and onto her sides. Nothing cooperated and she fell onto her side, this time with a crash. She spotted her ipod nearby. Instinctively reaching out she saw a light teal… something… push it out of the way. She felt a mild thud against her 'fingers'. Or where her fingers should have been. She was starting to become infuriated, her fingers were numb and wouldn't respond. She focused intently on it, willing all powers of concentration for the thing to JUST cooperate and stay in her hand. She hauled herself up onto the large chair, using it as a support. "Hello?" She called again. Nobody was answering, and the room appeared deserted. The ipod clattered again to the floor. In the middle of her frustration it glowed yellow, stopped playing and flew directly into her face with a slap, knocking her backwards. Things were turning stranger by the moment. Standing up she got a look at herself, her winter jacket hung tight on her, making motion even more difficult, feeling a size too small. Looking down her chest was teal. Yet it wasn't a costume, she could feel the air against her… fur? She stood on her hooves… horse legs? What in the hell was all this? Finally a door opened. And a creature came charging in on all fours, wearing golden, roman like armour. A light beam went out from his horn, illuminating her. "Ma'am? What are you doing in here? Who are you?" The horse thing said, he sounded surprised, yet authoritive and firm. If this was a joke, it was the joke of the year. Naturally, Laura screamed. She was sitting upright on the the large decorated chair, a look of absolute terror on her face. She pointed a blunt hoof at him accusingly, the color quite literally draining from her face, turning it black and white. "Horse..." She said in a dull squeak of a voice. "You're...horse..." "Ma'am are you alright?" He asked with some concern. To add to the insanity, another guard came down from above. "Night Light? Need help?" He was flapping a set of wings, descending next to the other. Each flap, brought a small gust of wind across Laura's face. He folded the wings as he landed. "She seems confused-" Night Light said, but the other approached her, as if reassuring her. "Are you alright there? You don't look too good." There was no angry reproach, he seemed authoritarian, he had a shining gleam to his armor, but he was surprisingly helpful. "You're shaking," he noticed. "Here, come support yourself against my back." "No, don't touch me!" She insisted, backing up against the hard throne. She wasn't trying to run anywhere, in fact she seemed to be having a difficult time getting her forelegs to work properly in the first place. They just seemed to be flailing about half-hazardly. "Horses... you're horses..." She seemed to be stuck on that. "Hallucinating... I'm hallucinating..." She reached for her music player again, and after several attempts of barely being able to lift it off the ground, it flew up towards the ceiling, hovered there for a moment, and flew down like a bullet to smack her in the face. She cried out with pain, a red mark appearing on her cheek. "Back... I have to get back... just ignore them, Laura... just ignore them... they'll go away..." She fell back on her rump, which sent a jolt of pain up her spine. Some part of her down there wasn't meant to be sat on. Her arms flailed in the air. The ipod no longer supported, clattered to the ground against the hard marble floor. The nightmare wasn't dispelling. How had she gotten here in the first place, nothing around here seemed out of place, except that she was here. Laura wouldn't notice anything unusual about a nearby horseshoe shaped mirror, except as part of the background. "Ma'am? Ma'am? Can you calm her down, Night Light, she's panicking." The grey armor wearing winged horse thing told the one with the horn. The guard closed his eyes, and his horn erupted into a calm color which changed from red, to green and blue, in a slow rhythm. He went in front of Laura and held the kaleidoscopic horn out to her. A calm light show that drew in her eyes. The change in colors seemed so gentle and seamless. As she watched it she felt her muscles relax. The feeling reminded her of lying in a warm bed and hearing her mother sing her a sweet lullaby, of being gently hugged. It was lulling and safe. Laura wanted to be afraid, but didn't seem to be able to summon the willpower for it. She didn't understand why, it was as if some sort of barrier had been put up between her emotions and her mind. That frightened her more than anything, and her eyes were fixated on the appendage growing out of his skull. Laura asked a strange question in a shaking voice, a question which was very strange coming from a unicorn. "That thing growing out of your head... it's glowing... what is that?" She asked quietly. But at the very least, she wasn't in hysterics anymore. There was a moment of hesitation, but he didn't raise his eyes "Its magic, I'm using a spell to calm you down." He explained cheerfully, she was partially aware of her being taken off the throne by the winged one.. she balanced precariously on her legs, until she got to balance off the back of the winged Guard with her…forelegs? Night Light stopped the spell, and she began to feel her anxiety, and fears come back. "Ma'am, I'll turn it on again if you start panicking," he warned.. "You're inside the throne room of Canterlot Castle, do you know how you got here?" She seemed insistent on walking on two legs, even if it meant using the two guards to support herself. Her back legs were shaking, but she managed it. "Answer me honestly," she said, as if she didn't believe him. "Magic doesn't exist, there's no such thing!" As for the rest of his question, that she had to think about. "I was at school, waiting for my mother. She's expecting me, and I don't where this is but I need to get home. I want to speak to your manager!" She tried to stomp her hoof to emphasize this, but this only resulted in her nearly falling over. Her legs seemed to be stretched when she stood up, as they were bending unnaturally (for a pony) far back. Her response made them look slightly worried. "Ma'am, first of all we must escort you out, this room is used for official business." Night Light offered. The other was more sympathetic. "Night Light and I are guards here, so we have some duties to fulfill. Such as looking into ponies in places they shouldn't be in." He explained. "We heard screaming in here, and we found you. My name is Plume, what is yours?" Laura stopped in her tracks in the middle of the throne room. Further efforts to remove her were met with resistance. "Now wait just a moment!" She said. "My name is Laura Hastings." She responded. "Did you... say.... ponies? Are there MORE of you?" They both seemed to smile at this and looked at each other with a smirk, rolling their eyes a bit. Her attempts at resisting weren't exactly helpful, they seemed both stronger, and more able than her to take her along. Night Light gently butted and pushed her from behind, while Plume let her keep her balance. The two stumbling hooves she put to the ground didn't offer much of a leverage. Plume ears perked up. "Night Light, has an age progression spell been used on her? Maybe she's one of the students from Celestia's school." "Excuse me one moment ma'am." She felt the tip of his horn touch her back. "Hmmm, this is odd, she's been through a lot of magic recently. Ma'am, did you attempt teleportation without proper authorization or training?" Laura finally caved and landed on all fours. She found, quite oddly, that this position meant the aches that had been building up were dissipating. She stayed on all fours for the time being, trying very hard to keep the tears that were building up in her eyes from falling down her face. "What are you two nutcases rambling about? There's absolutely no such thing as magic, of course I've never teleported before!" She was beginning to sound annoyed. "I'm a student at Canterlot High, and I was waiting for my mother. Now I don't know what shenanigans you're trying to pull but I'm not having it!" Oh, poor thing really didn't know. She must not have ever used magic in her life. "Canterlot High… is that a pegasus school?" Night Light asked Plume. Plume shook his head and gave Laura a look of sympathy. "I can't say I've ever heard of it, but she must be from around here if she knows about Canterlot. A slip of the tongue will tell a keen listener many things." "We don't know of a school like that, Canterlot's a real place, but Canterlot High… there's nothing like that here, but we will check for you," Night Light said. "Perhaps you should lie down, you don't look so good." he said as the door closed behind them. They had been insistent on getting her out, but not forcefully so and she had walked with quite a stumble. The hallway was richly decorated, with banners and flowers. The banners proudly declared the 'Summer Sun Celebration'. Sitting down on her flank on a lush red carpet, Laura's ipod hung from her neck, really the only safe place for it at the moment, and somehow she had successfully turned it off. Night Light and Plume were whispering to each other, and Laura caught only fragments of conversation. "…barking mad disease? … magical mishap … doctor …zebra remedy?" The name Celestia was mentioned once or twice. Laura stopped listening in on them and sort of kept to herself. They didn't seem to worry about her running off, after all, she could barely stand. She didn't have anything to stick her music player in so nudged a small decorative bag off the wall with her nose and after much trial and error, got her music in the bag and the bag wrapped around her leg. She then attempted walking on shaking legs, which resulted in falling more than a few times. But determined to not make a fool out of herself she continued her efforts. Her ignorance was only further displayed when she pointed to a large mural of Celestia and asked "Who's that?" Neither of the guards were shocked, but she got a look of sympathy again and Night Light approached her. "Ma'am, that is our ruler. Celestia." He said of the large mural of a regal looking pony creature, with a flowing rainbow colored mane. Laura noticed that she had both wings and a horn. "I'm not sure what happened to you." He began. "Or where exactly you're from, but we don't want to hindkick you out of the castle. You look like you've had a rough start, so if you want I can put a sleep spell of on you and me and Plume will get you somewhere safe. We'll make sure to pack your clothes and that… jewelry of yours." He offered. "Oh." Laura was slowly starting to put things together, and glanced at the horn on the mural. "Does she do magic as well?" The tone was almost a mocking one, as if she still didn't particularly believe it. "I would really rather you not do anything to me, I'm not comfortable with that... and don't you dare touch my music. Though if you have an outlet I can plug it into, that'd be fantastic." Something clicked then, and her eyes widened a few moments too late. "Did you say castle?" She sounded a mix of surprised and horrified. She had heard the word several times already, but it hadn't particularly clicked until now. "All of the city of Canterlot is part of the castle, technically, but you're inside the royal palace section." Plume explained with glee and no small measure of pride. "This is where her royal highness Princess Celestia rules Equestria. Tall spires, all in hoof crafted marble by earth pony hooves, flown in by the pegasus tribes… and with some finishing touches by unicorns." Night Light went back into the throne room and came back, with her clothes floating gently behind him in a whispy light. There was a light shimmering sound as they hung suspended behind him. Earth, unicorn, pegasus... it was all too much. She felt faint, and slowly sank towards the floor. The explanation seemed to have overwhelmed her. "If this Celestia person is in charge, then I want to speak to her. Maybe she can get me home. My family will be extremely worried!" She was beginning to become upset, and her horn was glowing, giving off sparks of all sorts of different colors. A large unidentified blast shot from it, leaving a pattern of scorch marks on the wall. "What the hell was that!?" This shocked the guards, and their calm sympathy became worry. They quietly talked among themselves. "Ma'am, did you intend for that to happen or did it happen accidentally?" Night Light asked her quickly. "...What... exactly... happened?" She asked. "I don't even know what I did! Okay... look...this whole horse thing is weird. I'm just gonna go." She said, and started stumbling towards a large set of doors, which she could only assume led outside. "You guys have fun. Thanks for the help." She got only so far that she saw the wide double doors swing open to a large marble clearing. And then she got a look at the view, one half was of an emerald city, with strange spires and spiral colored domes, the other side was of water falls with several beautiful rainbows. A yellow pony with wings flew by. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't been absolutely terrifying. As for Laura, Night Light didn't have to put her to sleep with a spell at all. Laura fainted. She woke up. She was in a white cotton bed tugged up around her. For a moment before her eyes had opened, she could have dreamed that she was back home. Yet even lying there she knew it wasn't so. How long had passed? Her mom must be going out of her mind by now. Opening her eyes she saw a small room, with a door nearby. She became aware of an odd feeling from her horn (which is what it was), looking up as best she could she saw something was tugged around it tight. It felt oddly dampening, without being sure how else to describe the feeling it was giving her. A new voice hissed at her. "Pssst, hey… Lyra is it? I read the name the nurse wrote on your bed." She heard the voice from the bunk above. "I'm Screwloose, are you okay?" Seriously? Screwloose? These poor creatures had such weird names. "I'm Laura." She said, her face still buried in her pillow. "Where are we? Are we prisoners in Celestia's dungeon?" She suddenly sat up, her eyes widening. "My music!" She exclaimed. A pony head looked down from above, a pale blue colour. Her hair was a mess. "Music? Oh you have that glowy thingie, wait a moment." Her head disappeared and came back with the ipod in her mouth. "Here mou mo!" She offered. Laura tried to decipher it for only a few moments before giving up entirely. Laura breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, that's fine, just set it on the table." She said politely. She could only hope Screwloose hadn't pressed Play by accident, seeing as she had a lot of music on there that her mother didn't exactly approve of. Rebellious teenager, and all. Not exactly pony appropriate. "Thank you." She said. "Hey, how come you don't have one of those magic things?" She gestured to her forehead. "Everyone I've seen so far has one. Did Celestia banish you and take it away?" "Oh I'm an earth pony, we don't have wings or magic, we've got good strong hearts and we're close to nature. I didn't do anything to it, it just glowed when I pressed it. I thought maybe you were an enchanter… or maybe you are… since you don't know what a unicorn is. The nurse put a dampener on your horn, so I figured maybe something magical went wrong." "I totally know what a unicorn is! My books say they live in forests and eat rainbows." She didn't sound like even she believed it. "My horn..." She tasted the words, they felt strange. "I think it works, are sparks and fire supposed to come out of it?" "Well…" She stroked her chin. "If that's what you wanted to happen then yes, but I guess it happened by itself… and that's a big no no. Magical spells are really dangerous, even when you unicorns know what you're doing. So, do you have amnesia? That's what I've been guessing." "I do not have amnesia!" She insisted. "My name is Laura Hastings. I'm 14, and a student at Canterlot High. My older brother is a senior and plays for the Wondercolts. I like to draw and horses don't-" She paused. "Uh..." Perhaps that was sensitive information. "My horn has just... been... acting up. That's all. Now what can you tell me?" "Well, I can tell you that you're in Canterlot hospital. That you arrived maybe an hour ago, and you were asleep when you got here." Screwloose said and jumped down, extending a hoof. What was she waiting for a… a handshake? Did they even know what handshakes were? "Laura seems like an odd name, the nurse might not like calling you that, I think she misheard and wrote Lyra instead. I'll call you Laura if you want though… friends?" She extended the hoof again. "Sure. Um..." She stuck out a foreleg, but wasn't entirely sure what to do. Instead she posed there awkwardly for a moment, before bumping her light seagreen hoof against Screwloose's. "If you help me get back home, Lyra it is."
3: Doctor HeartwellLyra had an odd dream about a horse snorting mixed with snoring. It turned out to be her own snoring. The hard sound of a hoof rapping at a door woke her out of the slumber. Waking, Lyra found that post-sleep crankiness was universal across all dimensions. "Wake up call! Breakfast in an hour!" Some orderly said, keeping the door open. The sound of hooves against the floor outside, and the everpresent smell of horses brought Lyra back to her senses. Her odd sense, anyway, as nothing seemed to make much sense around here. It took only a moment to reconfirm that nothing about her body was in its proper place. Screwloose jumped down from the bed above her, shaking herself off. "Wake up, Lyra! Trust me you don't want to get late for the bath. They serve breakfast only for an hour and if you miss it, then you don't get any." Lyra, who was barely half awake, mumbled something about that not sounding very fair. She slid out of bed, landing perfectly on all four legs without even really thinking about it. Actually walking, however, was still something that still gave her trouble. She stumbled a little bit here and there, but wasn't remarkably terrible at it. "This place is starting to feel like a detention center," she said quietly. "My mom would serve breakfast and keep it warm until I got to it, even if that took two hours." She sighed, rubbing at her face with a foreleg to wake up. She lingered a moment on her horn, still unable to shake the feeling that it didn't really belong there. Screwloose graciously helped her take a good shower, which quickened her. The patient shower was just a large room with hot water jetting down from the ceiling, so it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as Lyra had anticipated. Pony or not, waking up took a while, and a hot shower always helped. "Wow, you really do look like someone who's not used to anything like this," Screwloose yelled over the roar of the full body pony sized hair dryer, which was blasting all the moisture off the two ponies. If Lyra hadn't been awake before they turned on that thing, she certain was now. The roar died down, and with her mane sticking out like cotton candy for a moment before collapsing down, she stood clean. Screwloose had helped her brush the undersides of her hooves which were clean enough now. This took a long time, however, as Lyra kept fidgeting. She didn't really like being touched all that much. Showering with another pony was very strange, and Lyra kept herself very stiff and rigid. She asked at least twice where the clothes were, which had earned her odd looks from a couple other horses lingering for their turn at the hair dryer. She was clean and wide awake now, and shook herself off to get the last few stubborn ends of her mane to lie flat. "Alright, great, we're clean. Can we go get food now? I'm absolutely starving for bacon." She looked a bit nostalgic for a moment. "Though nobody makes it like my older brother, he's got the cooking talent in my family." A few moments later she was sitting down with a healthy plate of… sliced apples, four carrots, some salad leaves and a bell pepper, generously sprinkled with salt. No utensils. Screwloose regarded her own serving, for a moment and dug with with her muzzle, munching up some of it. Lyra had asked where the bacon was, but upon being met with a few blank looks of confusion and a few looks of disgust, she decided it best not to pursue that line of questioning any further. "Eh, not the best morning meal," Screwloose was saying. "But satisfactory." An orderly approached Lyra from the wings, and stopped at their table. "Hello, I'm just here to tell you that Dr Heartwell will see you after breakfast in his office, he'll tell you all about why you're here and wants to examine you to see how you're doing and whether you'd want to be let out." It probably didn't help that at the moment the orderly approached her, she was busy stabbing pieces of fruit with a straw like a spear. She had tried picking up the food with her hooves, and the results were littered on the floor around her chair. The straw she held determinedly in her mouth, and stood in rapt attention upon being addressed with a piece of apple violently impaled on the drinking appendage. "...Do I have to?" She asked. "I'm fine, really, I just want to go home. That's nothing to bother a busy doctor with. Just send me on my way, and we'll be just peachy." "You tell him that, you seem fine enough… besides, Just Peachy's appointment isn't until tomorrow." He said looking a bit uncertain. "But remember to clean up after yourself, you're getting food everywhere." Screwloose looked over to see the orderly leave, and regarded Lyra's behavior. "Maybe you're really from Manehatten, they eat kinda fancy over there, here in Ponyville? We just chow in, there's really nothing to it." She made a practical demonstration of that by munching of the rest of her plate's contents and swallowed it all in a good gulp. Lyra looked stunned. "What?" Screwloose asked. "Ponyville?" "Yeah, didn't they tell you? You were moved to Ponyville while you were knocked out. Better healthcare and facilities. Better equipped for dealing with... unusual cases. "Dr Heartwell is a nice pony, you'll probably like him." "If you say so," Lyra looked again down at her plate, and noted that several of the others were doing the same thing. It didn't feel right, but it didn't seem out of place. Not wanting to go hungry, she buried her nose in what was left of the fruit and munched as much as she could. It was near the end of her plate clearing that something Screwloose had said finally clicked, and she slowly raised her head. "...You meant Manhattan, right?" A bit salty, but not bad, the salt worked surprisingly well with the acidic sweetness of the apples and it made the otherwise boring leaves go down a lot easier. Could have used a proper dressing though. This was definitely rabbit food. "That's right! Manehatten! You're remembering something from that place?" She asked, hopefully. She still seemed to think Lyra had memory loss. Lyra's heart sank. "Not MANEhattan, MANHATTAN!" She stomped a forehoof on the table and suddenly realized she'd been shouting. She honestly wasn't trying to be so difficult on purpose, she was just upset. Everything was different, and it didn't seem like any of these horses cared if she got home or not. She pushed the rest of her plate away. "I'm sorry, not hungry. You can have it." She began to walk away from the table in the direction the orderly had gone, while poor Screwloose just looked on in exasperation. "What'd I say?" *** The office of Dr Heartwell was easy enough to find, the orderly was more than happy to guide Lyra to the right door. It had his name and a big cute heart next to it along with a temperature. A few knocks, and the door suddenly shimmered red and opened on its own. "Lyra, is that you? Please, do come in." The voice belonging to Dr Heartwell was soothing and elderly, and when she entered she saw an older pony standing comfortable in the middle of a fairly cozy office. The walls were filled to the brim with the pictures of hundreds of ponies of all ages. He nodded to Lyra as she entered and closed the door behind her, with that strange telekinesis she had seen before. "Goodmorning, Lyra." he said kindly, once she had entered. "Please, take a seat if you want to, the couch is well worn but it's comfy as well." "It's..." She paused. Arguing her name wouldn't help her position at all. "Yes, it's me." She said. She jumped slightly as the door closed by itself, staring at it for a few moments before approaching the couch. She seated herself in the fashion she was used to, upright, with two hooves on the floor, a foreleg clutching the arm of the couch for balance. Her back protested, but she ignored it. "Let's make this quick, I'd hate to waste your time, and I really think I'll be perfectly fine. I just to need to figure out where I am, that's all." He took his time and folded himself into an armchair, tugging his legs up under him. He nodded to the things Lyra said. "You're wasting no ones time, for the next hour and a half my time is no one's but yours." He said reassuringly. "First of all I want you to know that we're doing everything we can to figure out where you came from. The guards will alert her Highness Princess Celestia herself, you can be confident that once we know how you got here and from where, we'll tell you." "But I have to ask you some questions. The guards told me you were acting erratically, and that your horn was discharging involuntary magic. Lyra… don't be afraid of telling me anything. Put into your own words what happened if you could." "You promise nothing I say will result in you pasting a giant 'CRAZY' stamp in that notebook in red ink and hauling me away to never be seen again?" She asked He chuckled "We do not use the word crazy, and its not thinking or believing weird things that makes a pony mentally abnormal, its how they process information and its whether they are dangerous. Which why you are wearing a dampener right now right, involuntary magic is dangerous. So tell me the story." Although she had initially wanted to hold back her origin, Lyra launched into everything. Canterlot High, her family, her best friend Bonnie at school. How her mother was probably worried sick and going to kill her because she was supposed to be watching Sam. Horses and ponies didn't talk, didn't do magic, didn't fly. They were fast animals, but compartively stupid animals. (She apologized here, her face having turned a shade of red upon admitting this.) She spoke of doing homework, going to the mall, leaning against a statue and tumbling through some sort of hallucination vortex, waking up in the throne room. She spoke of being scared and confused and not knowing anything or anyone. The first thirty of her minutes flew by, words pouring out of her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "And I happen to know you're all lying to me despite all this, because Screwloose TOLD me that some ponies have horns and some ponies have wings and some ponie have neither, so then what's the deal with THAT one?" She pointed to a mural behind the table, a rather small one admittedly, but which featured a large equine that very clearly had both a horn and wings. "Someone obviously never told the artist." She smiled triumphantly, as if she'd just figured out Watergate. He listened, and neither added to anything nor condescended. In fact he didn't ask any questions, he simple listened to her, as she emptied herself. Her question made him look up at back at his diploma, which carried a big silhouette of Celestia with spread wings. "She's the royal princess, which means she's an alicorn. Have you heard of that word before?" Lyra just sat in stunned silence. She felt like she'd made an idiot out of herself, and slowly shook her head. "And this princess takes care of an entire world of horses and magic by herself? That sucks..." He marked something down, at the last remark. "She's our princess, she rules Equestria and she's passed out responsibilities. For instance, I'm one of the overseers of this ward," he told her. "Above me is the mayor of Ponyville, she got her position by being a capable leader, and above her is Celestia." He summed up Equestrian politics for her. "That's not the first time I've heard that... Screwloose mentioned Ponyville too. Is that the capital?" "Ponyville?" He looked over to the windows and the curtains whisked open. Outside were curving hills, and flower filled patch, a pond lay beyond that and from there a curving dirt road snaked into a village of houses. In the middle could be a seen a large circular building with extremely fancy dresses in the windows. She saw a few pegasi flying through the air. She could barely read the words 'SOLD OUT' on a muffin cart, nearby which the vendor was trying to comfort a crying grey pegasus. Far in the distance she saw a castle nestled against a cliff side with waterfalls. "Welcome to Ponyville Lyra… you've never heard about this place before?" "In case you're confused, you were taken from Canterlot to here. While Canterlot has the biggest hospital, Ponyville is renowned for its mental hospital. The quiet airs here and the cheerfulness of the town has helped many melancholics, and calms many who have bad nerves." "What?!" She suddenly looked angry. "You can't do that!" She felt her heart start racing, and looked frightened. "I told you, I don't know what Ponyville is, I don't know who Celestia is, and I don't know what alicorns are! All I know is I woke up in Canterlot, which means Canterlot is my best chance of getting home. You have to magic me back there! If I could just get back in the big throne room, I'm sure I can find my way out!" "Lyra." His voice was calm but firm. "Calm down right this instant, you were taken here because you were judged to be a danger by the guards. Canterlot is no more than four hours away by train, so you're in no hurry. You also don't have to assume that I think you're lying, I don't. You don't talk the way a pony who's intentionally lying would be." He stood up and put down his notes. "In this conversation I wanted to fill you in on everything that's happened to you, because you've got a right to know them, as a patient. And its to evaluate whether you're safe to be let out. I don't understand the memories you have, but by themselves they're not dangerous. Lyra… if I let you go, I want to know that you won't start barging into places where you don't have permission to be." He raised a hoof. "Before you consider asking, yes, her Highness will be informed about this. She's been busy lately due to the Summer Sun Celebration efforts I'm told. This year is the One Thousandth Celebration, so we've all been busier than usual." Lyra shook her head. "Look, I'm not making threats to your princess or whatever. I swear I'm not. She doesn't even have to BE there. I just need to examine the room, maybe some security footage, you guys have to have security cameras right? I mean it's a princess palace. There's bound to be loads of evidence that I'm not a threat! I just want to get back, that's all! You can't keep me here, and either way, even if it takes days or weeks or months, I WILL find my way back. And that starts with Canterlot." She had an annoyed tone now, and rose for the door. "We're done here." Her temper had flared, a bit overly dramatic perhaps, but she wanted out of here. "Lyra, before you dramatically exit my office…" He began shaking his head and turning around. "Wouldn't you want to have the dampener removed? I'm not keeping you here, you're neither hurting me nor anyone. I don't know if you're delusional, but I do know that you're not insane. Its a bit odd of you to just storm out of here, do you know the way to the train station if what you say is true? I can tell you that if you follow the path into Ponyville and stick due north you'll find it, but most ponies will help you along if you want. Secondly, there's plenty of guided tours of the palace, if you get one of those you'll be able to inspect the throne room if you want." After her big show he wasn't even angry at her, at worst he seemed to look at her as if what she was doing was odd, but he didn't seem angry at all. There was a look of confusion. "But I have no idea how to do magic, and my horn keeps shooting off lightning bolts. Even if I wanted it removed, are you honestly going to tell me you'd remove it and allow me out into public?" She asked. "I don't want to hurt anyone, and if it's taken off... who's to say I won't?" She asked. "As for the train station, I'm assuming it's near the tracks," she said. At least her humor was intact. He approached her calmly. "Lyra, do you want me to remove the dampener? You might not realize this right now, or believe me, but you're a unicorn and with your horn subdued you'd be like a gryphon with her claws tied to her back. Now you said you kept shooting sparks and doing bad things… that's unintentional. Can you look at me and try to stay calm as I remove it?" "Yes." Her response was quick and firm. "I want it removed." She sounded slightly worried, but fairly confident. At the gryphon remark, her ears twitched. "There are gryphons here as well, or are you being sarcastic?" She asked. "Next I suppose you're going to tell me to watch out for dragons and zombies." Her caustic remarks went on deaf ears, though his mouth pursed in a smile. He went over to her and levitated a fine key into the damper. "Now Lyra, I want you to simple relax and think of a little beach ball on some hot sand. Picture the crashing surf, and the sound of seagulls." He instructed he as he levitated off the damper. A measure of relief could be felt, as if a yoke had fallen off her somehow. He took a pencil and levitated it onto the desk. "Now Lyra… I want you to reach out and grab hold of that pencil, and lift it into into the air." "Pencil... right... no big deal. Just a pencil. Just using magic. Totally normal..." She focused every announce of her attention on the writing instrument, and severely mentally commanded it to obey her instruction. UP! There was a short and quick sensation of magical energy escaping through her, surging for it. It flipped up into the air spinning around itself. He grabbed it magically and put it down again. "This time breathe deeper, and imagine that you're picking it up." He instructed patiently and put it down. "Deeper..." She took a calm breath, and allowed her heart to stop racing. Perhaps up was too violent a command. She had an excited, doofy looking grin on her face. "Okay... less power..." Float! It wobbled on the table, rolling too and fro. It was almost as if… she could feel it. As if she was touching and caressing it lightly with fingers she no longer had … almost able to feel its surface, without touching it at all. She heard a shimmering sound from her horn and saw that the pencil was glowing with a small white light, but still it wobbled without lifting. "Sometimes I need to imagine literally picking it up for it work," the doctor offered patiently. Frustrated, Lyra stepped closer to the table. She was embarrassed, there were probably small children who could already do this. But, as they said, when in Rome... she tried to imagine a large hand coming down from her horn to pick the pencil up, and became momentarily distracted. She missed her hands, but this magic thing would have to be an adequate replacement. Which brought her to yet another question. "How do the horses without horns do this?" She asked. The first imagine of a gigantic hand coming down from Heaven didn't work so well… but it did help her a bit, just the idea of picking something up with her hand… she had done that many times. Remembering the feeling of fingers folding around a pencil was easy. And before she knew the pencil was suspended in the air right in front of her. Amused the doctor reached out with a hoof, took hold of the pencil and put in back in a drawer before shutting it. Using only his hooves. "I think you'll be alright now. If you start to have involuntary magical discharges again and you're worried that they will be dangerous, please contact a guard and they will send for a dampener. I see no reason not to discharge you now. Will you be alright?" Lyra rubbed her neck with a hoof. "Should I be worried about food or lodging or money or anything like that? I'm guessing I'll be here for a while, but if I got here through some magic vortex, I can always get back again. It's not like there's a time limit or anything..." "Hmmm, your case is a bit special, as we still don't know where you're from. You're welcomed to eat and sleep here until you've found out these things, and heard from the princess, or from the castle. Now lets see here…" He opened a small book and flipped through it. "Sometimes some of our patients who are doing better ask to be able to help out and work in Ponyville. Its a good way to earn bits… where is she… yes, Bon Bon. She runs a taffy shop, and could use an extra hoof. Its a good enough place to start if want to earn a quick bit. Celestia's letter will arrive here… and Lyra, lighten up, this is the Summer Sun Celebration. If I were your age I'd be in Ponyville and help out with the preparations. Good luck!" He held out his hoof. Right... just because I'm a talking horse doesn't mean I can't have fun with the Summer Sun Celebration," she teased, but held out her hoof in an instinctual handshake. "Uh... is there a trick to this, or...?" She eventually just gave up and sort of bumped it. "I'll do my best," she said. "Can I have this?" She asked, gesturing to the pencil. "It might help." He placed he nestled it behind one of her ears. "There, unless you want to twirl it. The clothes you arrived with are still in Canterlot for the Princess's inspection, but all the pockets were emptied and the contents can be requested. You were wearing one of them, something that played music… its in your room. Come back any time you feel like having a conversation. Lyra, I hope you sort things out for the best." Lyra had completely forgotten about the music player. Upon arriving, it had been her most important possession. And although she still insisted on keeping it since it was the only link she had to home, it didn't seem quite as important any longer. "Thank you," she said, and left the office. She had only been gone a few minutes before she poked her head back in. "Um... taffy shop?" She asked sheepishly. He smiled. "A sweet shop, she specializes in taffy. Just ask for Bon Bon, Ponyville is small enough that everyone knows everyone. It's as good a day as any to arrive, and I'm sure Bonbon could use the helping hoof. If I were you I'd help her out, earn a few bits, and enjoy the evening and watch the traditional sunrise by Celestia. If you're lucky you'll be able to ask her questions then." Lyra sighed. It seemed she had enough information now to at least get her started. With a final glance down the hall and a thank you to the doctor, she retrieved her music player and tied the earphones around her neck. Then she departed the room and pushed open a set of plain double doors, cringing in the sudden light as she thrust herself straight into Ponyville. Author's Note As always, if there are any grammatical errors or confusing sentences, please let me know in the comments and I'll fix them. This last update is the biggest chapter I've ever done and I'm SURE there are errors I missed during editing. Thanks!
