Project Heartstrings

You're swapping between pacing around your living room and sitting on your futon. Still doesn't change the fact you're still soaked. Sitting on the futon yet again, you decide to take a peek outside. You stand up, turn around, and walk past the kitchen bar, towards the small covered window at the back of your kitchen. You hesitate a bit before slowly sliding open the small curtained set that capped the window. The rain is clearing up, sun beginning to break through the cloudy layer. It's lifeless form comes into view.

Twitch. It moves.

Oh god it's still alive?

Quickly closing the curtains, you begin pacing around the kitchen, rubbing your chin. Well, I can't just leave the damn thing out there to rot! Or... Maybe it's for the best that I do... Another quick peek outside. Yep. Still there. Right. Just determine what to do. You slowly walk out of the kitchen, staring at the floor in front of you. Well, if I leave it out there, god knows if it has the will to survive... Decision made. You're going back outside to take a closer look. You reach out for your front door handle.

Who the hell...

Two men in the distance conversing with one another. Not black suits. Rather white lab coats. You'd like to ask them why they're here, but your gut says otherwise. You turn around away from the front door, and make your way over to your sliding back door. It seems rather vital to check on that thing.

If it is still alive, it seems best to at least check on it. Especially if it's just to check for health.

Opening the door, you take a full look around before heading further. The flatland lies untouched. You quickly head outside and off your porch. To the left, specifically. It comes into your point of view. You begin your way over to iy. You never took into fact that the rain had stopped next to completely. You're at your stopping point. Kneeling down, you get a good look at this thing.

Is that a projector?

You were attempting to take your eyes off of it's chest for now. All you were focused on right now was its head. But you take quick glances every so often. Your hand is lifted, hovering over to touch it's head.

After coming in contact, it whirs to life, having you stumble backwards, onto your buttocks. It's body begins to shake entirely now. That sounds like a radio... You listen for the source of what sounds like a radio talk show host. Of course you look over to your car. But when it changed stations is when you snapped your view back to it. "It's a... A radio?" you whisper to yourself.

You nearly forgot about the two men on the edge of your lawn. You quickly gaze over to your front yard and find that they've gone. No time to worry about that right now.

The head changes from station to station, all with bad frequencies. Should I help it? You are not much able to do much else for it. You reach your hand out for its green stomach. As soon as it touches the warm fur coating, its body goes into a sort of defense mechanism. Its hooves begin to swing at you, scared. You can practically sense how terrifying this must be for the suffering thing. Sympathy seems to be an okay response. Why wouldn't you feel bad for this thing?

A few minutes later, after observing it push it's body on it's side slowly away from you, it ceases moving.

As if it's... Lost all hope.

You approach it again, carefully. You reach your hand out again. When it meets the fur again, it spasms another time, but not nearly as defensive as the previous attack. In fact, it doesn't seem to be trying to attack at all. Only natural reflexes. You begin to rub it's side, your mind making a very desperate attempt to forget about it's sliced belly. It's body shifts around very slowly. As if it were enjoying the scratch it was receiving. Tears had begun to form from under your eyes.

What ungodly experiments had this poor creature gone under?

You remove your hand from its belly. It twitches again. This time, in a scared fashion.

I can't possibly leave... her out here to rot. You didn't check for a gender. It just felt somehow connected to that sex for a reason.

You slide both hands under her. She reflexes slightly to the unexpected type of contact made. Both arms are now under her right side, that of which was on the ground. You lift her up, and something catches your eye on her haunch. It looks like a lyre.

The fuck? People are cruel pieces of shit.

You make your way with her in your arms to the back of your home. Your nostrils are making attempts to avoid the smell she's giving off. You left your sliding glass door open, luckily. You take your entrance, and close it.

Where to put her?

The bedroom seems like a decent spot. You head down the hallway and take a right, into your bedroom. Setting her gently on the bed, you sit with her. You begin to rub her stomach again, carefully and smoothly. Her radio signal begins to fade to a gentle, quiet static. You just now notice her minty colored mane and tail. Beautiful colors. She seems accustomed to your hand. To trusting you. Lucky you. Because who would you possibly trust after someone performed this awful shit on you?

Is she sleeping?

You ponder to yourself as you view the motionless horse.

She *is** breathing, therefore she must still be alive.*

Alright. This will give you time to think. Your nose has adjusted to the smell miraculously. You had been scratching behind her belly for a good hour. You other hand rubbing her hoof. She staggered at times, but you assumed them to be only reflexes to you caressing her. You attempted to take a closer look at her sliced stomach, but she resisted whenever you tried to touch it. All natural reflexes. What you saw inside of her was a mortifying sight. Rubber and copper tubes covered nearly a quarter of her insides, along with some metal panels bolted together. Most of the organs to keep her alive were still in tact, thank God. At least she's able to get some rest, at last. You're thankful for that. Not because she was an annoyance. But that she could just let these worries pass by her. Let you worry about them, if anything.

You want to uncover the truth on what actually happened to her. You begin to get up off of the bed, when a light is suddenly shone upon the closet next to your bed. You look behind you, out one of your windows to find the source of the light. That's when you heard voices over a radio. You turned your view to the horse. Her head was the product of both a radio and projector. Your head turns back to the closet, the light still being cast upon it. Nothing. For a minute or two at least.

Suddenly, a rippling static shows up. A loud wavy static sound erupts from her head.

Is this her... dream?

You decide to sit down quietly on the floor, scooting a bit to the side to make way for the projection on the closet. It ripples continuously. It's actually beginning to form something. It's forming a picture, but changes to the next every few seconds.

Are these... memories?

The static is forming a cartoonist environment. Too cartoonist to be even memories. Color begins to show. The static noise produced by her is morphing into audible sentences.

Voices?

What you see in the projection seems almost unreal. Did someone animate this? You begin to doubt what you see. She seems to be walking down a path on a sunny day. This is too clean and smooth of an environment to even exist in this reality. You determine this by the forest she's walking down. You notice someone next to her. It seems to be a poofy maned pony. As the colors come in clearer, her coat color is a sand yellow. And her mane is both pink and dark blue. The one major difference from the sand coated pony and the one you have with you is that the sandy one's head is larger and far more comforting. Eyes larger than the stomach, along with a cute nose.

"... going to... later..."

The voices produced are beginning to become much clearer.

"... come up... sorry sweet..."

They're having a conversation. Talking horses in a cartoon world. You don't want to believe it, but nothing else could explain what this creature is. The sand coated pony has another one of those marks on one of her haunches. Although this time, it's three candies.

That couldn't possibly exist in this world... Or in this universe, for that matter. This is a phenomenal breakthrough beyond science itself...

The picture changes. This time, the sandy coated pony is still with her. They look as to be in a cafe. They're conversing with one another. The voices are next to audible now. Although, it sounds like they're in the middle of a conversation.

"So wait, Lyra,-" Lyra seems to be the one she's speaking to. You automatically assume that Lyra is your visitor's name. "-won't this interfere... your performance at the Brock tonight? "

"No, of course not! I've had... planned months back. Definitely not gonna... this. All of Equestria will be there!"

Interference every now and then, but you're still able to make out the most of it. And after hearing "all of Equestria will be there", you assume Equestria is her previous home.

"That's great to hear, love! I'll be-"

The segment cuts out.

She seemed to be leading a very happy life before. What the hell happened to her?

A new scene appears on the projection. Lyra and a gray coated pony are to be sitting down in a park.

The gray coated pony looks over to Lyra and says "You're positive, Lyra, that I won't... to help you out with your upcoming performance?"

"I've practiced... many months, Octy. I think I'm ready to take-"

Back to reality. Lyra twitches once behind you. It was slight, but noticeable. You turn back to the projection to see the view looking at the right side of a mountain in the distance. The camera quality is really screwed up and morphing on the bottom right of the mountain. Doesn't take you long, but you notice it's not coming from the mountain-- it's covering that part of the mountain, but it's in the park, no more than half a mile away from the two. The warping of the camera becomes larger. High pitched static becomes more audible from Lyra's head behind you at this point. It's becoming larger now. Lyra's view is locked onto it. Her view is suddenly shaken. She turns around to see the gray pony from just minutes earlier.

"Lyra! Snap out of it! Come... I don't know what that thing... but we mus..."

That's not interference. You see her lips trembling. Her voice trails off, looking behind Lyra with a stunned face and dilated pupils. She begins to back away slowly, yet faster with each step back. Lyra turns around right as the gray one darts away. Her gaze is met with that of a human-like form... Not only that, but with a type of spacesuit you've never seen. His hands slowly reach out to Lyra.

"Please come home."

The projector shuts off abruptly, along with the radio-like noise. You turn around, seeing Lyra, shaking uncontrollably. Standing up, you quickly put your hand on her stomach and begin to rub it. Your other hand accompanying her right hoof.Her shaking ceases, and is off to sleep in a matter of quick minutes this time.

"Please come home..." You whisper that to yourself. Who said that? It didn't sound like it came from the events that were unfolding from what you saw. It came in with static, but did not have the noises that were originally being made within the segment. You were not sure, but it seemed obvious to you: humans had achieved access to a completely different dimension. One far apart thought. One far beyond imagination.

You doze off to sleep, cuddling the pony that was upon your bed covers. It was for the best. You weren't sure if you were going to be able to get her home, but one thing was for sure: You were going to take care of her, even if it meant to the ends of the planet.