The Star in My Eye

Chapter Three

Shrapnel Repellant

"You sure you wanna try this?"

Lyra scoffed.

"Is that doubt I hear?"

I continued to hesitate, and she gave me an incredulous look.

"Come on cowboy, I got this."

I laughed.

"'Cowboy'?  Really?"

I selected 'new game' on my tablet.  The menu fell away to my Fruit Ninja background, and Lyra leapt onto the face of the device.  A watermelon popped into the wcreen and collided with her hooves, falling away in two.  The game went through it's cycle, and she slid the tips of her hooves across the screen, hitting most of the fruit.  Suddenly a bomb flew in.

"Holy--"

She hopped over it and stepped out of the way as it sailed back out of sight.

"I assume the bombs are bad."

I laughed.

"So you try to stay away from explosives.  That's good."

She swiped a mango, banana, and strawberry at the same time and leapt over another bomb.

"I wouldn't go that far."

A barrage of fruit and bombs assaulted the screen and she yelped in surprise, falling on her back and landing on top of a bomb.  The screen exploded in a white haze and she stood back up, shakng herself off.

"Damn."

She looked up at me, stepping off of the tablet.

"Anyway, I wouldn't go that far.  When a molotov cocktail's involved... well, I like fire.  Just leave it at that."

I cocked my brow.

"Okay, so you stay away from shrapnel.  That's still good."

She laughed and waved me off, my mind taking advantage of the moment for itself.

I need to get to know her better if she's staying long-term, which I really hope she is.  She seems to enjoy electronics, so... why not?

"What in kinds of music do you like?"

She gave me a blank look as she wat down.

"I play a lyre..."

I bit my lip and mentally hit myself.

"... Right.  But I have a few songs on my playlist that I think you'll enjoy."

Lyra shrugged.

"Sure.  Whatcha got?"

She watched me reach to the headboard of my mattress and pick up my headphones, which were hanging on aforesaid headboard.  Connected to the other end of their cable was an outdated Walkman.  I put the headphones down next to her, set the volume to a civilized level, and began digging through the collection of songs that I'd accumulated over the four years I'd owned the device.  It had an exposed headphone jack, w fractured screen, and the printed icons on the buttons were completely worn away.

"Is... it supposed to look like that?" Lyra asked, craning forward to see into the gap in the corner.

I laughed.

"This thing's been through a lot.  I actually fell into a lake with it in my pocket, and the earbuds I had at the time wouldn't work anymore.  This quit for awhile too, but after it dried it started working again.  I love it."

She paused.

"Why would it stop working?"

I realized she probably didn't know what electricity was, and more than likely assumed that all the power around here was magic.

"Mm.  What do you think powers this and the PlayStation?"

My assumption was correct.

"Magic.  Duh."

"Wrong."

"... Huh?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

I smiled.

"You have got a lot to learn."

I shifted on the bed, setting my headphones to the side and picking my Walkman back up.

"This isn't powered by magic.  It's powered by electricity."

She didn't move for a second, but perked up as I was about to continue.

"You mean like lightning?"

I snapped my fingers.

"Yes.  Exactly.  A long time ago, humans, as in my species, learned to use lightning rods, as well as the electricity provided.  Then we learned to generate it in large buildings called power plants.  These buildings create electricity, which is then transported to a town via powerlines hanging in the air.  These powerlines connect to houses through underground cables and feed electricity into outlets..."

I pointed to an unused outlet next to my bed.

"... like that one.  Then we connect things like this..."

I wiggled my MP3 in the air.

"... to the outlet with a cable that will charge the battery.   That way we can carry devices like this everywhere we go until it runs low on power, at which point we have to plut it in again."

Once I'd got to "power plants", her head cocked again and it hadn't moved since, save blinking.  After a moment she straightened back out thought for a second.

"So electricity is like magic, except it has to be created?"

"Prrretty much, yeah."

She nodded, somewhat slowly.

"Can humans handle it?  Or does it have to be controlled with wires and stuff all the tme?"

"Oh, it'll more than likely kill you if you touch a live wire."

Her expression went blank, and I decided to change the subject.

"Alright, so this song's called Islands, by a band called Hey Ocean..."

Lyra sighed.  She laid curled on my chest, with me just lying on my bed bored with nothing to do.  We'd been through drawings, music, idle conversation, and everyhing else I could think of.  Besides Bon Bon.  Lyra didn't want to talk about Bon Bon.  The earth pony was somewhere else in the house with Zane, possibly to avoid those of opposing opinions.  Suddenly an idea for another conversation crashed through my mind.  I say crashed, because this is often a touchy subject, and could very well be taken the wrong way.

"Do you have a coltfriend?"

She hesitated.

"No."

After a few more minutes of silence, she sighed again.

"I used to have a marefriend though."

She stood up, stretched, and laid back down facing me.

"What about you?"

I smiled at the thought of my girlfriend, probably swimming in her family's forest pond.

"I've fallen for somebody, yeah."

"Which way?"

I frowned.

"Huh?"

"Are you straight?"

I laughed.

Of course.  She's different.

She paused, and looked at her hooves.

"I used to be with Bon Bon, but as it turns out she's not as much of a fillyfooler as she thought."

Well that explains the tension between the two of them.

"That's rough, man."

Lyra smiled.

"Thanks Brade."

She looked up at me thoughtfully.

"You know, I've never really liked silent ponies, but you're a good listener.  You can hold a conversation without talking too much.  It's hard to explain, but you're cool."

I grinned.

"Thanks, Lyra.  I'm glad we're bros."

Then one of the coolest things happened.

Lyre offered a hoof and I took it, lifting my little finger for her to bump.