Dragons Can't Play Music

Lyra sat on a park bench on the outskirts of Ponyville. Her eyes surveyed all that they could before she slumped further in the seat. She was frustrated. She was regretful. She was tired. But, above all, she was heart-broken.

She scooted back up into the seat and retrieved a letter from her bag. The contents of the letter were not important, but what it started was something not even Princess Celestia could have imagined. In plain and fairly simple text it read:

Dear Lyra Heartstrings,

I must inform you that although we have reviewed your commendations and thoroughly examined your references, we simply cannot allow you to join this year's Canterlot Orchestra. In light of recent events, including a quite troubling magic flare-up at last years Canterlot's Annual Musical Festival; we are now having to deny entry of musician Unicorns' until a solution can be made. Again, we regretfully...

Lyra drifted from the letter and sighed morosely. The wind picked up and carried the letter out of her hooves and into the void of the empty night sky. It didn't matter anymore. The letter was just a reminder of everything she had lost in the past week. She simply closed her eyes and drifted into slumber. She did stir however, when something approached her.

She still didn't notice the absence of the note, all she noticed was the outline of a reptile, no larger than herself, slowly making it's way towards her. Normally, she would have turned tail and ran at the sight, but tonight was not one of those nights. Tonight, she had a reason to stand her ground, and face this figure. This reptile who, only a few weeks previous was nothing more than a face that made up the fabric of Ponyville. A face that belonged to Equestria's number one assistant, Spike.

~ That Morning~

Lyra took the key from out of her saddlebag and levitated towards the doorway. She wasn't used to her new loft, so having to lock the door every morning was a new and already tedious chore for her. She sighed as she returned the key to her saddlebag. It wasn't always like this. Even a few weeks ago, she was waking up every morning in her rightful bed, in her rightful home, right next to Bonbon. Sigh, Bonbon. Lyra mused the thought of her beloved marefriend. Lyra knew that she should say Ex-marefriend, but it still felt hollow in her head.

'After all,' Lyra thought, 'All I ever wanted was her support.'

'And all she ever wanted was a loyal marefriend,' she reprimanded.

Lyra was making it habit out of sighing that morning. She turned her head and smashed into a tall green figure. After a moments head-shaking, she refocused her attention to the figure in front of her. She glared when she came to the attention of the dragon who had the gall to even be within a mile of her. Lyra disregarded the fact that her loft was across the street from Twilight's Library.

"It doesn't mean he has to come and see me like I'm his chum or something,' Lyra argued internally.

She shook her head again to dispel her thoughts and get to her hooves.

"Would you care to explain yourself." She stated flatly.

"Gladly,"Spike retorted, returning the gaze, "you just haven't given me the time of day, until now."

"Maybe there is a reason for that, hmm. Did you think of that?"She rose her voice.

"Yeah, I did. Actually, I've had the luxury of thinking ever since the Festival-"

"Don't you dare bring that up!"

-A week before the Festival-

Lyra stared at the letter, as Bonbon returned from the kitchen.

"It's that bad, huh."

Lyra looked at Bonbon with tears in her eyes. Bonbon looked back at her with what she hoped was some sort of support. If the expression was ever recognized, Lyra sure didn't make any attempts to acknowledge it. She only returned her eyes to the paper and sighed.

"I was telling everypony how I was going to make it to Canterlot this year. I even practiced that stupid song of theirs for weeks. Now I'm being turned down because of some stupid technicality." She tossed the letter.

"It's just not fair that I get turned down just cause I can't be more like Octavia or Sapphire Shores, I mean, they're Earth ponies for Celestia's sake. I am just working with what I have."

The room was still as Lyra looked at the floor. Suddenly, a spark flashed in Bonbon's head at the sound of the name 'Celestia'. Bonbon turned Lyra towards herself, "There may be a way around this..."

~~~~

"Are you sure she won't mind helping me?" Lyra asked.

"Twilight is one of the most helpful ponies I know, granted I haven't been able to talk to her as of late."

Twilight had be making it a habit of sleeping during the day and working at night due to her new studies with Luna, so it had taken a pretty large toll out of her already fragile social life. This meant that it was up to her assistant,Spike, to make up the 'heavy traffic' of ponies that went to the Library.

What this really meant was that Spike was now free from doing house chores, which meant more time to spend with Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. He was just about to go to Rarities boutique, when he stumbled into Lyra.

"Oh, Jeez. I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," Lyra apologized.

Spike clambered back to his feet and shook his head. Lyra took a casual look at the purple dragon. He was alot tall than she first met him. His lanky frame was accentuated by his long spinal scales, which were almost the size of Lyra's head. When he stood on all fours, he was almost the exact size as Bonbon, with only a few inches of difference between them. His turquoise eyes wandered aimlessly in his head as he tried to get his bearings.

"No, it's alright. I was in a hurry to get to Rarities...Oh! It's you two. How can I help you?"

Spike looked at Lyra as her features suddenly became crestfallen. She mumbled a little before she gave a clear answer.

"I-I need to talk to Twilight about some magic stuff, or something." Lyra stared at the foor.

"I would like to get her, but she is sleeping. If I wake her up she gets really scary and I don't think it's good for my scales to be scared..." He frowned.

Lyra looked back at him," Oh. Well, then I guess we'll come back ano-"

"Hold on," Spike interrupted, "if you know exactly what you're looking for we can just find a book on it."

Lyra pondered for a moment what exactly a book could do in her situation, but she shrugged. "I guess it's worth a shot."

Spike returned the weak smile Lyra gave him, as he led the two indoors.

'I hope I still get to Rarities...' Spike thought, as he shut the door.

~A few hours later~

Spike stared at the clock on the wall and mumbled glumly as another minute passed. He missed his appointment with Rarity by quite a large margin, and he had no idea how he was going to explain it to her.

Bonbon had made a large fort out of spell and scrolls detailing how to shut off magic usage, but they were all only for medicinal purposes. Bonbon figured that if Lyra wasn't allowed to have magic at the festival, then they were just going to have to turn it off. She knew that Lyra could use her lyre with out the aid of magic, she was just too nervous to play that way in public. She smiled at the thought of her blushing marefriend playing her a quiet lullaby all those years ago. Bonbon loved how simple, yet elegant their relationship was.

Lyra, on the other hoof, was still scanning 'Ways to woo your Mare' for the fifth time. She didn't know why, but she was so frustrated with not having any leads to help her with her magic dilemma. She figured she might as well do something useful. She finished the same chapter again and closed the book. Her eyes once again scanned the shelve, trying to see if anything stuck out to her. When again nothing did, she closed her eyes and concentrated in frustration. What she didn't expect, was Spike coming up from behind her and tapping her back. Bonbon watched as the fireworks sent both Lyra and Spike in opposite directions.

Lyra had shot a spell at Spike in her panic, which then propelled her into as shelf. Spike landed on Twilight's lab table, which sent all of her potions into the air, mixing in with Lyra's spell.

For a moment, no one could see through the thick layer of smoke and magical afterglow. When they did, they all simultaneously gasped, waking up Twilight.

'Spike's getting it this time,' Twilight grumbled as she opened her door. She drew in a breath as she exited the doorway and looked over the landing.

"SPIKE!" She yelled.

"Y-yes Twilight?" Spike asked nervously.

"What did I tell you about..rough.. housing." Twilight lost all of her frustration as she say the sight before her.

The figure that had spoken to her sounded like Spike, but looked nothing like him. The voice instead came from a purple pony with a long green mane and deep green eyes. His pegasus wing shuffled nervously at his sides at the sound of her voice. When she didn't answer, he turned his attention to the other figure that loomed across the room, and he stared with trepidation.

Spike didn't know how she did it, but Lyra had manage to turn from a simple unicorn musician into a a full sized mint green dragon. She looked at her claws and followed them to her belly,, and then to her tail. Her short mane had been transformed into a set of small green and white scales. Her horn was missing, and her teeth had been introduced to a new feature, canines.  For a moment, she looked almost ecstatic at the development, before the other three realized that she had simply passed out from shock. The two mare rushed over to her aid, but Spike stayed rooted to his spot, transfixed at his wings.

"How am I going to explain this to Rarity?" Spike said, turning back to look at himself...his ponified self...

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2