Pulling Heartstringsby Nova ArcanumChaptersHitching A RideThis Is Eggs-actly What I NeededA Lunar MeetingHitching A RideAuthor's Note IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!! Hitching A Ride I looked up at the clock that hung on the wall next to the desk that I currently occupied and sighed tiredly, "Another day wasted looking at stupid posts on Facebook when I could've been working on that essay... Oh well, I've always got tomorrow to get it done. I've still got time before I should really head off to bed tonight; might as well try meditating a bit to clear my mind before I sleep and see where that takes me." With nothing else to do, I got up from the desk and made my way over to the bedroom. Sure, I could've had the desk in my bedroom, but the guys and I figured that it'd be more fun to have all of our desks connected to each other like they used to have you do whenever there was a group project in elementary school. That way there wasn't a huge hassle whenever we wanted to have a LAN party, and it would be easier to set more people up without much issue. With my destination in mind, I took the dishes that sat on my desk and placed them in the sink after I filled them with water and added a bit of soap to soak overnight. Better to leave them to soak overnight so that all the stuff breaks down over time than to fruitlessly scrub away at the baked on crap. After turning off the lights and locking the door, as the guys weren't coming back tonight, I walked over to my bed and sat down cross-legged. I closed my eyes and slowly breathed in, and out. I rested my wrists on my knees, and continued the breathing exercise, and eventually I felt myself enter a trance-like state. Moments later, I found myself mentally drifting through some unknown star system that looked absolutely beautiful, and I found myself wishing I could take a picture of it. Then the oddest of things happened, I heard a voice that wasn't my own speak within my own mind. "Well, what do we have here? It seems someone has managed to take a peek beyond the veil." What? "What you see before you is not a star system, but the hub that connects all of the infinite worlds to each other and to itself." I repeat my earlier statement; what? "Oh, you have absolutely no idea what you just walked into, my good chap." Wait a second, I know that voice... You sound exactly like this one actor I know, John De Lancie. "Well, it is possible that another incarnation of me was born without all the powers of chaos at their disposal, considering there are worlds that contain magic and worlds that don't." If you have all the powers of chaos and such, why aren't you going insane in the membrane? The voice chuckled darkly, "What is sanity, but perspective? Now then, I have a proposition for you: you will go to another world that is filled with magic, and I will grant you the ability to use that same power. The inhabitants are a little bit different than you, but I'm not telling you how - it would just ruin the surprise." Are they sentient? "Yes. You know, I would've thought that you might put up more of a resistance to this idea than just worrying about the inhabitants' sentience." Well, I kind of ran out of funding for my tuition for college, and I was planning on just sticking it out until the end of this year, but I'm honestly too interested to see this other world that you've mentioned. Our laws of physics suck anyways. "Oh, I believe we could become good friends in time." So what's the deal with this proposition? There's gotta be some sort of catch. "Oh, there's no catch at all. Just merely exist there, and watch the magic happen," the disembodied voice chuckled out at the end. So when do I leave, and how? "Right now, and I'll bring you there myself." Wait, wh- I didn't have time to finish my question, as a weird sensation had spread all over my body in a matter of seconds. I was ripped out of my trance state, and I opened my eyes... to see that I was still in my room, but a few of my things were floating around me. I blinked. "Well, at least he was nice enough to let me bring my iPoooooooho-ho-holy shit I hope you're the one that I was talking to a few seconds ago," I said to this weird amalgamation of creatures that had taken a seat upon the ceiling. It waved at me with it's.... eagle talon? Huh, cool. "Yes yes, I'm the one you had the pleasure of talking to. Just one thing; when I bring you, I want you to close your eyes. As much fun as it would be to see a human running around Equestria, all batshit crazy, it wouldn't have the effect I had in mind." "Equestria?" He just zipped his mouth shut and held out a sign that read, "Spoilers!" Literally, he closed his mouth with a zipper. This guy's funny, but I bet he must be a royal pain in the ass back where he's from. I blinked and the zipper disappeared along with the sign. "Now then, close your eyes, and we'll be off." "Dude, I need my clothes, I can't just go around without having a change of clothes while I do laundry." He stared at me for a moment, clearly annoyed, and then snapped his.... talons, "There, all your clothes are in hammerspace, which you can access from your bag that's behind you. Now, close your eyes so we can get going. The royal sisters are probably already running around like chickens without a head because of how long I've been gone." Without another word, the being clapped both his appendages together, and I could certainly feel that we were being transported through something. I couldn't help but open my eyes, and the sight I was greeted with looked insanely familiar... Then it hit me. "I can see into infinite, and I can hear the feathers' call. I hope she finds them all..." Then I heard the creature say something unexpected, "If I weren't bound by the rules that I am, I'd just give them all to her and her companion - the real one anyway. No one deserves to suffer as much as they have." "So if you're bound by rules to not interfere with things, why am I going to this other world then?" "The world I'm taking you to and your world are within the same plane of reality, whereas that certain group of people come from another. Their journey is through all the different planes, but no one is allowed to influence it from the outside. Besides the point, we're almost there. Hold on." "Hold on? Hold onto what!?" "Your pants." For whatever reason, I tightly gripped my pants with one hand, and my bag with the other. When we crossed into the other world, it felt a little weird for a moment. A couple of seconds later, and I was on solid..... floor? This is a carpet. I lifted my head up, only to bash it against what I would assume to be a table. With the grace of an eagle piloting a blimp, I crawled out from under the table, and stood up to take stock of my surroundings. It seemed I was in someone's home, though my observations were cut short when I heard someone scream. I looked in the direction of the noise, and saw...... a bright green unicorn? And a frying pan flying at me. I had time to say only one thing. "Shit." This Is Eggs-actly What I Needed(POV - Jason) Pain. All I knew was pain, and my world was dark. I floated through a void of nothingness, deprived of all senses. It was a few moments later that my faculties started to come back to me. The first thing to return was my hearing, for which I was glad, as I heard someone pacing around, muttering to herself(?). "Ooohhhh, what am I gonna do? Should I inform the guard? No, wait, then they'll just lock it up without question. But if I take it to the hospital, there's no telling what'll happen to it over there either. Oh, I wish Bon Bon were here to help. She'd know what to do with it." Next to come back was feeling, and my head fucking hurt, a lot. Then there was smell, touch, and finally, sight. While I got my senses back, the unicorn continued to pace and think aloud to herself. After a few more seconds, I couldn't take it anymore, and decided to interrupt her ramblings by getting up. "Ow, my fucking head. Next time, just pin me to the wall or something; you're lucky you didn't cause a concussion, or fracture my skull." It seemed I surprised her, because she screamed again, "Aaahhhh! What are you!? Why are you here? How'd you get into my house? Are you going to - " I put a finger on her lips to shush her so I could think clearly without getting an even bigger headache. "One, I'm a human. Two, I'm not sure why I'm here. Three, magic, I think. Four, no, I'm not going to hurt you. Just don't smack me with a frying pan again and we're all good." The unicorn looked at me sheepishly, her beautiful amber eyes clearly conveying the regret and sadness she felt over the action. "I'm sorry, I just reacted, and grabbed the closes thing to use, which incidentally was the frying pan. I was just really scared for a moment. You'd be too if some unknown creature came into your house suddenly." "Yeah, I guess I would..." I trailed off as I looked around what seemed to be a living room, or common room to all the weird people. There was a bookcase off to the right side of the room, a few pictures hung up on the walls around the room, and a window to the left of the room. I plopped down on the couch that was behind me, where the unicorn currently had herself curled up on, on the far left side. I politely gave her most of the couch as I sat down on the far right side, leaving the middle cushion empty. A coffee table sat just in front of the couch, and what seemed to be a cedar chest with a record player and radio built into either side of it sat in the center of the wall opposite to the couch, flanked by two more bookshelves. All of them were stuffed with what seemed to be varying degrees of books, if I could read them. "So, one question: where's my bag? The black thing I had on my back with two straps on it?" The unicorn's eyes lit up, "Oh, that thing. I moved it into another room for safe keeping until I could figure out what to do with you. I still don't know what to do about you." "Uh, that's got all of my belongings in it. As in literally, all I own is in that bag. I have nothing else to my name. For all I know I'm stuck here, and I have no idea how to get back." "For not being able to go home, you seem pretty calm." "There's not really much for me to go back to, aside from failing out of college, and no one else in my family. I'm the last of them. The way I see it, I'd have a much more interesting life here than back home anyway, so not being able to get home doesn't really bring me down." She scrunched her nose at me in confusion, which looked absolutely adorable. "You're weird." "Well if I wasn't weird, I'd be having a very different reaction to being here, and I don't think either of us would like it." We both shared a laugh at the thought, and I held out a hand to her after we calmed down, "I'm Jason, and it seems that you have me at a disadvantage, miss..." The unicorn looked at my hand with trepidation clearly on her face. She seemed calm before, though that could've just been her feeling that I wasn't deceiving her while talking. Giving a hand (hoof?) shake was on another level, as she had yet to physically come into contact with me. She still seemed a little shaken up from not knowing what to do with me, though talking did seem to be helping a little bit with that. It looked as though she still didn't know whether to trust me, but also looked as if she wanted to at least try. Finally, after several seconds, she slowly sat up on her haunches and extended her right foreleg to my hand. She jumped a little when I grasped her hoof in my hand, but caught on when I slowly shook our appendages up and down. When she seemed to be calm enough, she finally gave me a name. "Lyra, my name's Lyra Heartstrings. Do you have a surname, or is that even a part of your culture?" "Oh no, I have a surname, it's just too complicated for even me to pronounce so I just don't bother with it." I let go of her hoof, which she just noticed I had still been holding, and blushed a little, "Come on, it can't be that bad." I sighed and slumped a little, "Ok fine; my surname is Kakukiyashi..... Holy crap I managed to not butcher it this time." Lyra laughed a little, "Yeah, I can imagine why you choose to not say your last name. That would be a nightmare for me to remember how to pronounce." A couple moments of silence passed between us, though neither of us minded. It was a minute later that I had decided to say something. "While I was coming to, I heard you mention some sort of guard. Judging by that, one would expect it to either be a stand-in for a police force, or actually be some sort of royal guard. Going from there, this country or whatever you want to call it would then be ruled by a king and queen, or something similar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were considering handing me over to the guard, but were afraid of what the rulers would think of me, right?" It seemed I had broken Lyra, as she just sat there with her mouth open. I couldn't help myself and brought my hand over to just under her jaw, and closed her mouth. "Don't do that, you'll catch flies." Lyra just continued to stare at me for another few seconds before she started sputtering what seemed to be an attempt at a response. She finally nailed it after a few tries. "How? How were you able to come up with that from just one thing?" I patted her on the head, "Elementary my dear pony friend, elementary." She scrunched up her nose in frustration and I just laughed, "Ok ok, no, it was lateral thinking. Normally, one wouldn't have guards in a town unless it's close to the capital of the country, which in turn facilitates that there is a ruling body instead of another type of government that doesn't involve royalty." Lyra moved her head away from my hand, "I guess that makes sense when you think about it, but it's still crazy that you picked up on all that from a single thing." I pulled my hand back to my side and put it into my pocket. "Human intelligence can be a scary thing sometimes, but that doesn't automatically mean that I'm evil. Like the saying goes: "It's not the power you have that makes you evil, it's how you use it that does." What if I were granted an audience with the ruling bodies? Then we wouldn't have to dance around the issue of whether to trust me or not." "But what about the guard, or or," I put a finger on her lips again to stop Lyra from panicking and going into a spiral with her thoughts. "It'll be fine; just go grab a guard, tell them that you have something to show to whoever rules here, and make sure to tell them that I'm intelligent so they don't do something stupid." Lyra nodded, and I took my finger away from her lips... which were incredibly soft. I wonder if that's a trait of all ponies, or something that she does with her coat or whatever. It felt really nice. Lyra got up from the couch and walked to the front door. "Oh, leave your bag here when we go to the captial; I don't think you'd want the royal sisters going through your personal belongings," She called behind her as she walked through and closed the door to the house. (POV - Lyra) I walked out the door just after I advised Jason to leave his bag where I had put it while we're out having an audience with the princesses, if we even manage to get one that is. I still don't know what to do about this whole situation though. Sure, I've talked with him and he seems nice enough, but I don't know how to deal with what's going on overall - I have no idea what's going to happen with the rest of the town, whether or not I'm going to be either punished or commended for attempting to befriend an unknown creature that just happened to pop into this world and right into my house without any forewarning or fanfare. I'm still hesitant on asking for an audience with the princesses, but it seems to be the only logical thing to do in order to ease tensions the fastest without any misunderstandings happening. I shook my head to clear myself of the negative thought spiral I was about to get myself into, 'No Lyra, getting into those thoughts will do you no good. Just get to a guard and see what can be done.' Without another thought, I started to gallop into the direction of a guard that seemed to be quite bored. After a second I thought better of the action and slowed my pace down a bit before he noticed my hurried pace - wouldn't want a guard thinking that there was any actual trouble going on, or things could be a pain later. With a smile I trotted up to the guard and greeted him. "Hello, I'd like to speak with you for a minute." The guard took a second to see if I was talking to anyone else, and then gestured to himself. "You're talking to me?" The royal guard looked a little confused, as if no one had even bothered with his existence let alone at least give him a friendly hello. "Yes, I was talking to you. I have a bit of an issue - it's nothing bad! It's just that I've come into a situation that would benefit from having one of the princesses give their opinion. If you would follow me, I'd be able to give you a little more insight into what's going on before anything else is done." The guard took a minute to weigh his options, and eventually agreed to follow me back to my home, "Alright miss, lead the way." With the guard following, I made my way back home. Ultimately, the whole thing still made me a little nervous, but it was a better idea than to just barge into the castle and have Jason in tow. Who knows what would've happened if we did that instead. Teleporting itself isn't a difficult spell, but the power requirement grew exponentially base upon distance in all dimensions; this is why most unicorns don't bother with learning how to teleport. They're just incredibly lazy when it comes to exercising their mana capacity. Eventually we reached my home, and I turned to the guard before I opened the door. "Just promise me one thing: before you do anything, think and use your common sense." The guard shifted uncomfortably, "Ma'am, what is it that you've got in your home? If it's a dangerous creature, then I'm going to have to arrest you for attempting to bring harm to a guard." I shook my head at the statement, "No, it's not a dangerous creature... As far as I can tell... But it's something that Equestria hasn't seen before, and I just wanted your word that you wouldn't unnecessarily try to hurt him as soon as you see him." The guard raised an eyebrow, "Him," he asked questioningly. I sighed and opened the door, "Let's just go inside. It's easier if you just see him first before I try to explain any more." The two of us walked inside, and what we saw would have been funny if it weren't for the current situation at hoof. Jason sat on the couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table as he munched on an omelet with what looked like provolone cheese, green and red peppers, and spinach. He swallowed what he was currently chewing on, and put down the knife and fork as he smiled and waved at us from the couch. "Oh hey, you're back. And you brought a friend along, how cuuuute!~" The guard facehoofed, "Sometimes I feel I don't get paid enough to deal with some of the stuff that happens in this town..." A Lunar Meeting(POV - Jason) As soon as Lyra had left, I was finally free to do something about the number one problem that was on my mind: I was insanely hungry! I got up from the couch and walked over to the room where I thought I heard Lyra scream when I arrived. One of my footfalls didn't sound like it should have, and it felt like I stepped on something - I looked down, and saw the frying pan that Lyra had smacked me in the head with. I picked up the pan and walked over to what I was sure was a stove; sure enough, it was. Next on my list of things to do was to check the fridge for anything. I silently hoped that Lyra at least had some eggs and some other things to with them, as I was damn sure that she didn't own any meat. I opened the fridge and sure enough, there was a bunch of food in the fridge. I looked through and grabbed what I thought was provolone cheese, a green and red pepper, and some spinach. Next was to cut up the peppers and spinach, while I cracked and beat the eggs in a bowl with a bit of milk, and heated the frying pan on the stove. After the pan was heated a bit, I cut a piece of butter off the stick and made sure the pan was nicely coated before I put the egg on. Then the peppers and spinach got sprinkled on while I ripped the cheese into small pieces and dropped it on the egg. Just before I folded the egg over, I checked the window, and saw that Lyra was about a minute out from the house. I made sure the omelet was fully cooked, and placed it on the plate right after I turned off the stove and moved the pan to one of the other elements on the stove. I snagged the knife and fork I grabbed earlier, and took the omelet to the living room, where I reclined on the couch and took a bite of the omelet. 'Holy crap, that's good!' The omelet was like a little piece of food nirvana; soft and fluffy eggs, flavorful and crisp peppers, the cheese was insanely stringy, and the spinach accented the whole thing wonderfully. I expected the food to taste at least a little different, but I never expected it to taste this amazing. I suddenly knew what the Planet Express crew felt when they tried Bender's food after he trained under that old chef who gave him that bottle filled with "the essence of pure flavor." To taste ordinary mundane food your whole life, only to taste something this awesome, it was like heaven. Just then, Lyra and the guard came in through the door; I couldn't help myself and said the first thing that came to mind. "Oh hey, you're back. And you brought a friend along, how cuuuute!~" I could see that Lyra had to fight to keep herself from snickering, and the guard just facehoofed. "Sometimes I feel I don't get paid enough to deal with some of the stuff that happens in this town..." Lyra just walked inside, "Come on, this town's not that bad... most of the time..." She looked over to the guard, "So what happens now?" The guard took a look at me for a few seconds, and then pulled some sort of crystal from... behind him? Oh, hammerspace. "What happens now, are a couple of things. I'm going to use this to alert Princess Luna, and she's going to come straight here. When she gets here, you two will greet her with respect, and she will quite obviously ask a few questions. If all goes well, I'd say that our newest guest will be given a free pass." I listened to what the guard had said, and couldn't help but bring up something. "Wait a sec, I heard that this place is ruled by two princesses; what happened to the other one?" "Princess Celestia is currently out of the country on foreign affairs. Princess Luna has been temporarily granted Princess Celestia's authoritative position on matters that happen during the day," the guard said curtly. Shortly after the guard had finished his latest comment, there was a blinding flash, and a sort of snap sound. Seconds later, a literal royal blue pony came into view, with a regal billowing mane and tail that looked like a beautiful night sky. Princess Luna stood in front of me, clad in decadent silver armour; the designs looked embossed right into the armor during forging, which would require either a very good smithy, or someone well versed in the arts of smithing with magic. What seemed to stand out though was her crown, which looked as if it were made from the very fabric of darkness itself. Her very presence demanded attention and respect, while extruding a very commanding presence. One could say that she wasn't just the guardian of the night, but was night itself, personified. Needless to say, when she pointed a hoof at me, I was very nervous as to what was about to be said. "You, who seems out of place in this realm; where did you come from? You reek of Chaos magic, and leave me in a very precarious position." Though I wasn't as nervous as before, I still had a little niggly feeling that wouldn't leave me alone, and it was really annoying. It really showed when I spoke to Luna. "I came from another world, Your Highness, and was brought here by another being named Discord. I was offered a one-way trip here, and the ability to use magic, with absolutely no strings attached. If me being given magic upsets you, I'd hate to disappoint, because I'm sure that it was fused with me as soon as I crossed over here. I'm going to take a guess and say that if it were to be removed, you'd end up killing me in the process. Humans don't normally possess magic, so our bodies have no idea how to interact with it. The only place for the magic to go would be our souls, so removing it would make it insanely dangerous for us." The Princess looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping a hoof on her chin. Lyra looked distressed and had started pacing as I finished talking to the Princess. The guard just stood right next to Princess Luna, as stoic as ever. Finally, after a few minutes, Princess Luna spoke again. "I have one thing to ask of you, Human. What are your intentions for this world?" "To be perfectly honest, Your Highness, I just plan on trying to make a life for myself here; either find someone I can stay with for a few days as I get on my feet, or go out and find some sort of forest and possibly build a home for myself out there. Then it's off to look for some place to work at. Once I get over that hurdle, I don't think I'd have many more goals. I just want to be able to live a happy life somewhere. To give you a straight answer about what you're possibly asking in an unsaid question: no, I have no intentions to cause harm to this world, nor to any of its people or government bodies. I'd rather not start something I would have no way to finish. Even if I did have the ability to finish it, it wouldn't be worth it in the long run to begin with; it gets lonely at the top, so I want to stay far, far away from it." Princess Luna nodded sagely, and Lyra looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. Probably because of the direction my little speech went. She really needs to learn to chill out sometimes. "One last thing, Human: We must ask you your name. If you wish, you may give Us a name you would like to use in place of your given name. But be warned, once We go back to Canterlot to file the paperwork, you cannot get it changed. There have been many cases that were thrown out because criminals have changed their names just after committing crimes, thus leaving the court systems with an enormous mess in their hooves in terms of legal paperwork that had to be filled out and filed to different offices just to retrieve the criminals' previous names. We and Our sister finally put a ban on the practice of changing names, so the courts wouldn't have to deal with the nightmare of legal paperwork to go through." That... I didn't even know what to think of that. Sure, I could give a different name, but I had to make sure that it was one that I wanted to stick with me for the rest of my life here in Equestria... I started thinking of a name, when there was suddenly a small whisper that seemed to be carried on the wind, or magic. It took a minute for me to figure out what it was saying, but I concentrated on it for a minute, and I was finally able to make it out: 'Nova.' Huh. I should probably put a last name to go with it though, or else it'd just be weird. For whatever reason, the only last name I could think of was 'Strider.' "I've decided. Princess Luna; I, Jason, request that my name from now on be Nova Strider." Lyra looked at me with a very confused face, whereas Princess Luna just raised an eyebrow, "Art thou sure, Sir Jason, that you wish to forsake your name and go with 'Nova Strider?' Once We reach Canterlot, We cannot change it for you later." "Yes, I'm sure, Princess Luna; I'd like to change my name to Nova Strider." The Princess smiled gently, "Very well, We will make the preparations necessary for the citizenship registration to take place. You can expect it to come in your mailbox within a couple of days, Miss Heartstrings. For now, We bid thee farewell." With that, the Lunar Princess teleported out of the house, leaving Lyra and I with the guard from earlier. After a moment of awkard silence, the guard left the house as well, trotting out the front door with a "Good day, Heartstrings and Strider." (POV - Lyra) Finally, the guard left the house, so it was just Jason - err, Nova and I. When Nova was telling the Princess about his intentions, I just couldn't help but get nervous. The things he said, it just made me start to panic; I really thought that the Princess was going to just blast him right there. Just, poof, done. But no, she took it in stride and seemed to understand where he came from with his explanation. I'm actually really glad the way things turned out. The only issue now would be to figure out where he could stay until he gets his own lodgings... Although, seeing that I don't have a flatmate now since BonBon left, I guess I could put him up here for a little while. It couldn't be all that bad, having him live with me for a while. I'd have to set some ground rules and establish some boundaries. That comes later though, because I still have a few errands to run. "So, Nova, I've got a few things I still need to do today." Nova took a second to catch on to what I said, and then turned to face me. "Alright, what's on your list of things to do? I've got nothing to do all day today." "Actually, I'd like to just go do them myself right now; I could use some fresh air and a bit of time to myself to reflect on things. It's not that I don't want to be around you, but having Princess Luna over was the last thing I needed today." I sort of expected Nova to have some sort of problem with me leaving him on his own, but surprisingly he just shrugged and gave an "Okay, be careful though." Did he not care about me or something? "Just so you know Lyra, it's not that I don't care about you, I just happen to understand that sometimes it's good to have time to yourself and just think." "Wait, how-" "Ponies' faces are a bit larger than human faces; adding that to the fact that you as a species tend to be a bit more expressive with your ears and other facial features, it makes it a lot easier to read you and gague your reactions." Ponies are more expressive than humans? Huh, you learn something new every day, I guess. I turned to the door and headed outside, "I'll see you later, Nova. I'll try and not be more than an hour or two at most." "See ya later, Harp-Butt!" I facehoofed and groaned at what was hopefully a one-time joke, before I headed out and closed the door behind me. (optional YouTube background video: A Normal Day in Ponyville - FurtherProof (Neighsayer) It was still a beautiful evening out in Ponyville, and judging by the position of the Sun, I still had time to make it over to the market and grab a few things and catch up with some of the townsfolk. I trotted off at a comfortable pace and went straight to the market square; the first stop on my list of places was AppleJack's cart - I needed a few Macintosh apples for the apple pie that I was asked to bring to Ponyville's neighborhood association meeting next Monday. It was a couple of minutes before I made it to the stall, and it seemed that good ol' AJ was free of customers at the current moment. Perfect. AppleJack waved at me as I approached, and I greeted her with a smile. "Hey there, AppleJack, what's new with you?" "Not too much, sugarcube. Me n' Big Mac just finished harvestin' the last o' the apples from the orchard yesterday, an we have a might bit more than we thought we woulda' this season. We got so much that we've been sellin' em for a bit less than usual. The customers love it." "That's good to hear. Say, how much for a bushel of Macintosh apples?" AppleJack tapped her chin for a second, "Well, normally it'd be about six bits, so Ah'd say four bits oughta do it." I lit up my horn and called over my bit bag to give AppleJack her four bits, and a second later I was the proud owner of a dozen delicious Macintosh apples. "Pleasure doin' business with ya, sugarcube!" "Likewise. I'd better be off though, I've got a few more stops for today before the market closes." AJ waved goodbye, and I turned to head to my next stop: the Flower Sisters' shop. I was about to head over to the shop, when I bumped into somepony just as soon as I turned around. A familiar voice reached my ears. "Yo, Lyra, when are you gonna come over for that recording session so I can get some sweet vocal samples?" "Actually, I was going to come over tomorrow, though something's come up so I might have to push that back." Vinyl's ears drooped a bit, "Aww, I was so looking forward to that. You know how much I'd love to mix your voice into a few songs of mine." A second later they perked back up, "Hey, if you're not that busy, can I tag along with you?" I thought about that for a second, before just rolling with it. "Sure, you can come with. I've just gotta go to the Flower Sisters, and then Zecora's. Then it's back home for me. If you want, you could come over for dinner tonight. I'm going to warn you now though, I've got an extra guest, so it might be a little weird." Vinyl just laughed, "Lyra, we live in freakin' PONYVILLE! Nothing can top the weirdness of this town, not even a random creature showing up out of nowhere that nopony's ever heard of before!" It was now my turn to laugh, but a bit awkwardly because of Vinyl's last comment. Vinyl just pumped a hoof into the air, "To the Flower Sisters, awaaaaAAAAAAYYYYY!" I facehoofed and sighed for the second time that day, before turning back and heading off with Vinyl to the Flower Sisters' shop for some herbs. The rest of today is going to be very interesting... Author's Note Sorry bout this being so late. I've been trying to work out Luna's character for this chapter, and originally had gone just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit overboard with her initial reaction. Subsequent chapters will be pushed out in a more timely fashion, Pinkie Promise!
Hitching A RideAuthor's Note IT'S ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!! Hitching A Ride I looked up at the clock that hung on the wall next to the desk that I currently occupied and sighed tiredly, "Another day wasted looking at stupid posts on Facebook when I could've been working on that essay... Oh well, I've always got tomorrow to get it done. I've still got time before I should really head off to bed tonight; might as well try meditating a bit to clear my mind before I sleep and see where that takes me." With nothing else to do, I got up from the desk and made my way over to the bedroom. Sure, I could've had the desk in my bedroom, but the guys and I figured that it'd be more fun to have all of our desks connected to each other like they used to have you do whenever there was a group project in elementary school. That way there wasn't a huge hassle whenever we wanted to have a LAN party, and it would be easier to set more people up without much issue. With my destination in mind, I took the dishes that sat on my desk and placed them in the sink after I filled them with water and added a bit of soap to soak overnight. Better to leave them to soak overnight so that all the stuff breaks down over time than to fruitlessly scrub away at the baked on crap. After turning off the lights and locking the door, as the guys weren't coming back tonight, I walked over to my bed and sat down cross-legged. I closed my eyes and slowly breathed in, and out. I rested my wrists on my knees, and continued the breathing exercise, and eventually I felt myself enter a trance-like state. Moments later, I found myself mentally drifting through some unknown star system that looked absolutely beautiful, and I found myself wishing I could take a picture of it. Then the oddest of things happened, I heard a voice that wasn't my own speak within my own mind. "Well, what do we have here? It seems someone has managed to take a peek beyond the veil." What? "What you see before you is not a star system, but the hub that connects all of the infinite worlds to each other and to itself." I repeat my earlier statement; what? "Oh, you have absolutely no idea what you just walked into, my good chap." Wait a second, I know that voice... You sound exactly like this one actor I know, John De Lancie. "Well, it is possible that another incarnation of me was born without all the powers of chaos at their disposal, considering there are worlds that contain magic and worlds that don't." If you have all the powers of chaos and such, why aren't you going insane in the membrane? The voice chuckled darkly, "What is sanity, but perspective? Now then, I have a proposition for you: you will go to another world that is filled with magic, and I will grant you the ability to use that same power. The inhabitants are a little bit different than you, but I'm not telling you how - it would just ruin the surprise." Are they sentient? "Yes. You know, I would've thought that you might put up more of a resistance to this idea than just worrying about the inhabitants' sentience." Well, I kind of ran out of funding for my tuition for college, and I was planning on just sticking it out until the end of this year, but I'm honestly too interested to see this other world that you've mentioned. Our laws of physics suck anyways. "Oh, I believe we could become good friends in time." So what's the deal with this proposition? There's gotta be some sort of catch. "Oh, there's no catch at all. Just merely exist there, and watch the magic happen," the disembodied voice chuckled out at the end. So when do I leave, and how? "Right now, and I'll bring you there myself." Wait, wh- I didn't have time to finish my question, as a weird sensation had spread all over my body in a matter of seconds. I was ripped out of my trance state, and I opened my eyes... to see that I was still in my room, but a few of my things were floating around me. I blinked. "Well, at least he was nice enough to let me bring my iPoooooooho-ho-holy shit I hope you're the one that I was talking to a few seconds ago," I said to this weird amalgamation of creatures that had taken a seat upon the ceiling. It waved at me with it's.... eagle talon? Huh, cool. "Yes yes, I'm the one you had the pleasure of talking to. Just one thing; when I bring you, I want you to close your eyes. As much fun as it would be to see a human running around Equestria, all batshit crazy, it wouldn't have the effect I had in mind." "Equestria?" He just zipped his mouth shut and held out a sign that read, "Spoilers!" Literally, he closed his mouth with a zipper. This guy's funny, but I bet he must be a royal pain in the ass back where he's from. I blinked and the zipper disappeared along with the sign. "Now then, close your eyes, and we'll be off." "Dude, I need my clothes, I can't just go around without having a change of clothes while I do laundry." He stared at me for a moment, clearly annoyed, and then snapped his.... talons, "There, all your clothes are in hammerspace, which you can access from your bag that's behind you. Now, close your eyes so we can get going. The royal sisters are probably already running around like chickens without a head because of how long I've been gone." Without another word, the being clapped both his appendages together, and I could certainly feel that we were being transported through something. I couldn't help but open my eyes, and the sight I was greeted with looked insanely familiar... Then it hit me. "I can see into infinite, and I can hear the feathers' call. I hope she finds them all..." Then I heard the creature say something unexpected, "If I weren't bound by the rules that I am, I'd just give them all to her and her companion - the real one anyway. No one deserves to suffer as much as they have." "So if you're bound by rules to not interfere with things, why am I going to this other world then?" "The world I'm taking you to and your world are within the same plane of reality, whereas that certain group of people come from another. Their journey is through all the different planes, but no one is allowed to influence it from the outside. Besides the point, we're almost there. Hold on." "Hold on? Hold onto what!?" "Your pants." For whatever reason, I tightly gripped my pants with one hand, and my bag with the other. When we crossed into the other world, it felt a little weird for a moment. A couple of seconds later, and I was on solid..... floor? This is a carpet. I lifted my head up, only to bash it against what I would assume to be a table. With the grace of an eagle piloting a blimp, I crawled out from under the table, and stood up to take stock of my surroundings. It seemed I was in someone's home, though my observations were cut short when I heard someone scream. I looked in the direction of the noise, and saw...... a bright green unicorn? And a frying pan flying at me. I had time to say only one thing. "Shit."
This Is Eggs-actly What I Needed(POV - Jason) Pain. All I knew was pain, and my world was dark. I floated through a void of nothingness, deprived of all senses. It was a few moments later that my faculties started to come back to me. The first thing to return was my hearing, for which I was glad, as I heard someone pacing around, muttering to herself(?). "Ooohhhh, what am I gonna do? Should I inform the guard? No, wait, then they'll just lock it up without question. But if I take it to the hospital, there's no telling what'll happen to it over there either. Oh, I wish Bon Bon were here to help. She'd know what to do with it." Next to come back was feeling, and my head fucking hurt, a lot. Then there was smell, touch, and finally, sight. While I got my senses back, the unicorn continued to pace and think aloud to herself. After a few more seconds, I couldn't take it anymore, and decided to interrupt her ramblings by getting up. "Ow, my fucking head. Next time, just pin me to the wall or something; you're lucky you didn't cause a concussion, or fracture my skull." It seemed I surprised her, because she screamed again, "Aaahhhh! What are you!? Why are you here? How'd you get into my house? Are you going to - " I put a finger on her lips to shush her so I could think clearly without getting an even bigger headache. "One, I'm a human. Two, I'm not sure why I'm here. Three, magic, I think. Four, no, I'm not going to hurt you. Just don't smack me with a frying pan again and we're all good." The unicorn looked at me sheepishly, her beautiful amber eyes clearly conveying the regret and sadness she felt over the action. "I'm sorry, I just reacted, and grabbed the closes thing to use, which incidentally was the frying pan. I was just really scared for a moment. You'd be too if some unknown creature came into your house suddenly." "Yeah, I guess I would..." I trailed off as I looked around what seemed to be a living room, or common room to all the weird people. There was a bookcase off to the right side of the room, a few pictures hung up on the walls around the room, and a window to the left of the room. I plopped down on the couch that was behind me, where the unicorn currently had herself curled up on, on the far left side. I politely gave her most of the couch as I sat down on the far right side, leaving the middle cushion empty. A coffee table sat just in front of the couch, and what seemed to be a cedar chest with a record player and radio built into either side of it sat in the center of the wall opposite to the couch, flanked by two more bookshelves. All of them were stuffed with what seemed to be varying degrees of books, if I could read them. "So, one question: where's my bag? The black thing I had on my back with two straps on it?" The unicorn's eyes lit up, "Oh, that thing. I moved it into another room for safe keeping until I could figure out what to do with you. I still don't know what to do about you." "Uh, that's got all of my belongings in it. As in literally, all I own is in that bag. I have nothing else to my name. For all I know I'm stuck here, and I have no idea how to get back." "For not being able to go home, you seem pretty calm." "There's not really much for me to go back to, aside from failing out of college, and no one else in my family. I'm the last of them. The way I see it, I'd have a much more interesting life here than back home anyway, so not being able to get home doesn't really bring me down." She scrunched her nose at me in confusion, which looked absolutely adorable. "You're weird." "Well if I wasn't weird, I'd be having a very different reaction to being here, and I don't think either of us would like it." We both shared a laugh at the thought, and I held out a hand to her after we calmed down, "I'm Jason, and it seems that you have me at a disadvantage, miss..." The unicorn looked at my hand with trepidation clearly on her face. She seemed calm before, though that could've just been her feeling that I wasn't deceiving her while talking. Giving a hand (hoof?) shake was on another level, as she had yet to physically come into contact with me. She still seemed a little shaken up from not knowing what to do with me, though talking did seem to be helping a little bit with that. It looked as though she still didn't know whether to trust me, but also looked as if she wanted to at least try. Finally, after several seconds, she slowly sat up on her haunches and extended her right foreleg to my hand. She jumped a little when I grasped her hoof in my hand, but caught on when I slowly shook our appendages up and down. When she seemed to be calm enough, she finally gave me a name. "Lyra, my name's Lyra Heartstrings. Do you have a surname, or is that even a part of your culture?" "Oh no, I have a surname, it's just too complicated for even me to pronounce so I just don't bother with it." I let go of her hoof, which she just noticed I had still been holding, and blushed a little, "Come on, it can't be that bad." I sighed and slumped a little, "Ok fine; my surname is Kakukiyashi..... Holy crap I managed to not butcher it this time." Lyra laughed a little, "Yeah, I can imagine why you choose to not say your last name. That would be a nightmare for me to remember how to pronounce." A couple moments of silence passed between us, though neither of us minded. It was a minute later that I had decided to say something. "While I was coming to, I heard you mention some sort of guard. Judging by that, one would expect it to either be a stand-in for a police force, or actually be some sort of royal guard. Going from there, this country or whatever you want to call it would then be ruled by a king and queen, or something similar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were considering handing me over to the guard, but were afraid of what the rulers would think of me, right?" It seemed I had broken Lyra, as she just sat there with her mouth open. I couldn't help myself and brought my hand over to just under her jaw, and closed her mouth. "Don't do that, you'll catch flies." Lyra just continued to stare at me for another few seconds before she started sputtering what seemed to be an attempt at a response. She finally nailed it after a few tries. "How? How were you able to come up with that from just one thing?" I patted her on the head, "Elementary my dear pony friend, elementary." She scrunched up her nose in frustration and I just laughed, "Ok ok, no, it was lateral thinking. Normally, one wouldn't have guards in a town unless it's close to the capital of the country, which in turn facilitates that there is a ruling body instead of another type of government that doesn't involve royalty." Lyra moved her head away from my hand, "I guess that makes sense when you think about it, but it's still crazy that you picked up on all that from a single thing." I pulled my hand back to my side and put it into my pocket. "Human intelligence can be a scary thing sometimes, but that doesn't automatically mean that I'm evil. Like the saying goes: "It's not the power you have that makes you evil, it's how you use it that does." What if I were granted an audience with the ruling bodies? Then we wouldn't have to dance around the issue of whether to trust me or not." "But what about the guard, or or," I put a finger on her lips again to stop Lyra from panicking and going into a spiral with her thoughts. "It'll be fine; just go grab a guard, tell them that you have something to show to whoever rules here, and make sure to tell them that I'm intelligent so they don't do something stupid." Lyra nodded, and I took my finger away from her lips... which were incredibly soft. I wonder if that's a trait of all ponies, or something that she does with her coat or whatever. It felt really nice. Lyra got up from the couch and walked to the front door. "Oh, leave your bag here when we go to the captial; I don't think you'd want the royal sisters going through your personal belongings," She called behind her as she walked through and closed the door to the house. (POV - Lyra) I walked out the door just after I advised Jason to leave his bag where I had put it while we're out having an audience with the princesses, if we even manage to get one that is. I still don't know what to do about this whole situation though. Sure, I've talked with him and he seems nice enough, but I don't know how to deal with what's going on overall - I have no idea what's going to happen with the rest of the town, whether or not I'm going to be either punished or commended for attempting to befriend an unknown creature that just happened to pop into this world and right into my house without any forewarning or fanfare. I'm still hesitant on asking for an audience with the princesses, but it seems to be the only logical thing to do in order to ease tensions the fastest without any misunderstandings happening. I shook my head to clear myself of the negative thought spiral I was about to get myself into, 'No Lyra, getting into those thoughts will do you no good. Just get to a guard and see what can be done.' Without another thought, I started to gallop into the direction of a guard that seemed to be quite bored. After a second I thought better of the action and slowed my pace down a bit before he noticed my hurried pace - wouldn't want a guard thinking that there was any actual trouble going on, or things could be a pain later. With a smile I trotted up to the guard and greeted him. "Hello, I'd like to speak with you for a minute." The guard took a second to see if I was talking to anyone else, and then gestured to himself. "You're talking to me?" The royal guard looked a little confused, as if no one had even bothered with his existence let alone at least give him a friendly hello. "Yes, I was talking to you. I have a bit of an issue - it's nothing bad! It's just that I've come into a situation that would benefit from having one of the princesses give their opinion. If you would follow me, I'd be able to give you a little more insight into what's going on before anything else is done." The guard took a minute to weigh his options, and eventually agreed to follow me back to my home, "Alright miss, lead the way." With the guard following, I made my way back home. Ultimately, the whole thing still made me a little nervous, but it was a better idea than to just barge into the castle and have Jason in tow. Who knows what would've happened if we did that instead. Teleporting itself isn't a difficult spell, but the power requirement grew exponentially base upon distance in all dimensions; this is why most unicorns don't bother with learning how to teleport. They're just incredibly lazy when it comes to exercising their mana capacity. Eventually we reached my home, and I turned to the guard before I opened the door. "Just promise me one thing: before you do anything, think and use your common sense." The guard shifted uncomfortably, "Ma'am, what is it that you've got in your home? If it's a dangerous creature, then I'm going to have to arrest you for attempting to bring harm to a guard." I shook my head at the statement, "No, it's not a dangerous creature... As far as I can tell... But it's something that Equestria hasn't seen before, and I just wanted your word that you wouldn't unnecessarily try to hurt him as soon as you see him." The guard raised an eyebrow, "Him," he asked questioningly. I sighed and opened the door, "Let's just go inside. It's easier if you just see him first before I try to explain any more." The two of us walked inside, and what we saw would have been funny if it weren't for the current situation at hoof. Jason sat on the couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table as he munched on an omelet with what looked like provolone cheese, green and red peppers, and spinach. He swallowed what he was currently chewing on, and put down the knife and fork as he smiled and waved at us from the couch. "Oh hey, you're back. And you brought a friend along, how cuuuute!~" The guard facehoofed, "Sometimes I feel I don't get paid enough to deal with some of the stuff that happens in this town..."
A Lunar Meeting(POV - Jason) As soon as Lyra had left, I was finally free to do something about the number one problem that was on my mind: I was insanely hungry! I got up from the couch and walked over to the room where I thought I heard Lyra scream when I arrived. One of my footfalls didn't sound like it should have, and it felt like I stepped on something - I looked down, and saw the frying pan that Lyra had smacked me in the head with. I picked up the pan and walked over to what I was sure was a stove; sure enough, it was. Next on my list of things to do was to check the fridge for anything. I silently hoped that Lyra at least had some eggs and some other things to with them, as I was damn sure that she didn't own any meat. I opened the fridge and sure enough, there was a bunch of food in the fridge. I looked through and grabbed what I thought was provolone cheese, a green and red pepper, and some spinach. Next was to cut up the peppers and spinach, while I cracked and beat the eggs in a bowl with a bit of milk, and heated the frying pan on the stove. After the pan was heated a bit, I cut a piece of butter off the stick and made sure the pan was nicely coated before I put the egg on. Then the peppers and spinach got sprinkled on while I ripped the cheese into small pieces and dropped it on the egg. Just before I folded the egg over, I checked the window, and saw that Lyra was about a minute out from the house. I made sure the omelet was fully cooked, and placed it on the plate right after I turned off the stove and moved the pan to one of the other elements on the stove. I snagged the knife and fork I grabbed earlier, and took the omelet to the living room, where I reclined on the couch and took a bite of the omelet. 'Holy crap, that's good!' The omelet was like a little piece of food nirvana; soft and fluffy eggs, flavorful and crisp peppers, the cheese was insanely stringy, and the spinach accented the whole thing wonderfully. I expected the food to taste at least a little different, but I never expected it to taste this amazing. I suddenly knew what the Planet Express crew felt when they tried Bender's food after he trained under that old chef who gave him that bottle filled with "the essence of pure flavor." To taste ordinary mundane food your whole life, only to taste something this awesome, it was like heaven. Just then, Lyra and the guard came in through the door; I couldn't help myself and said the first thing that came to mind. "Oh hey, you're back. And you brought a friend along, how cuuuute!~" I could see that Lyra had to fight to keep herself from snickering, and the guard just facehoofed. "Sometimes I feel I don't get paid enough to deal with some of the stuff that happens in this town..." Lyra just walked inside, "Come on, this town's not that bad... most of the time..." She looked over to the guard, "So what happens now?" The guard took a look at me for a few seconds, and then pulled some sort of crystal from... behind him? Oh, hammerspace. "What happens now, are a couple of things. I'm going to use this to alert Princess Luna, and she's going to come straight here. When she gets here, you two will greet her with respect, and she will quite obviously ask a few questions. If all goes well, I'd say that our newest guest will be given a free pass." I listened to what the guard had said, and couldn't help but bring up something. "Wait a sec, I heard that this place is ruled by two princesses; what happened to the other one?" "Princess Celestia is currently out of the country on foreign affairs. Princess Luna has been temporarily granted Princess Celestia's authoritative position on matters that happen during the day," the guard said curtly. Shortly after the guard had finished his latest comment, there was a blinding flash, and a sort of snap sound. Seconds later, a literal royal blue pony came into view, with a regal billowing mane and tail that looked like a beautiful night sky. Princess Luna stood in front of me, clad in decadent silver armour; the designs looked embossed right into the armor during forging, which would require either a very good smithy, or someone well versed in the arts of smithing with magic. What seemed to stand out though was her crown, which looked as if it were made from the very fabric of darkness itself. Her very presence demanded attention and respect, while extruding a very commanding presence. One could say that she wasn't just the guardian of the night, but was night itself, personified. Needless to say, when she pointed a hoof at me, I was very nervous as to what was about to be said. "You, who seems out of place in this realm; where did you come from? You reek of Chaos magic, and leave me in a very precarious position." Though I wasn't as nervous as before, I still had a little niggly feeling that wouldn't leave me alone, and it was really annoying. It really showed when I spoke to Luna. "I came from another world, Your Highness, and was brought here by another being named Discord. I was offered a one-way trip here, and the ability to use magic, with absolutely no strings attached. If me being given magic upsets you, I'd hate to disappoint, because I'm sure that it was fused with me as soon as I crossed over here. I'm going to take a guess and say that if it were to be removed, you'd end up killing me in the process. Humans don't normally possess magic, so our bodies have no idea how to interact with it. The only place for the magic to go would be our souls, so removing it would make it insanely dangerous for us." The Princess looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping a hoof on her chin. Lyra looked distressed and had started pacing as I finished talking to the Princess. The guard just stood right next to Princess Luna, as stoic as ever. Finally, after a few minutes, Princess Luna spoke again. "I have one thing to ask of you, Human. What are your intentions for this world?" "To be perfectly honest, Your Highness, I just plan on trying to make a life for myself here; either find someone I can stay with for a few days as I get on my feet, or go out and find some sort of forest and possibly build a home for myself out there. Then it's off to look for some place to work at. Once I get over that hurdle, I don't think I'd have many more goals. I just want to be able to live a happy life somewhere. To give you a straight answer about what you're possibly asking in an unsaid question: no, I have no intentions to cause harm to this world, nor to any of its people or government bodies. I'd rather not start something I would have no way to finish. Even if I did have the ability to finish it, it wouldn't be worth it in the long run to begin with; it gets lonely at the top, so I want to stay far, far away from it." Princess Luna nodded sagely, and Lyra looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. Probably because of the direction my little speech went. She really needs to learn to chill out sometimes. "One last thing, Human: We must ask you your name. If you wish, you may give Us a name you would like to use in place of your given name. But be warned, once We go back to Canterlot to file the paperwork, you cannot get it changed. There have been many cases that were thrown out because criminals have changed their names just after committing crimes, thus leaving the court systems with an enormous mess in their hooves in terms of legal paperwork that had to be filled out and filed to different offices just to retrieve the criminals' previous names. We and Our sister finally put a ban on the practice of changing names, so the courts wouldn't have to deal with the nightmare of legal paperwork to go through." That... I didn't even know what to think of that. Sure, I could give a different name, but I had to make sure that it was one that I wanted to stick with me for the rest of my life here in Equestria... I started thinking of a name, when there was suddenly a small whisper that seemed to be carried on the wind, or magic. It took a minute for me to figure out what it was saying, but I concentrated on it for a minute, and I was finally able to make it out: 'Nova.' Huh. I should probably put a last name to go with it though, or else it'd just be weird. For whatever reason, the only last name I could think of was 'Strider.' "I've decided. Princess Luna; I, Jason, request that my name from now on be Nova Strider." Lyra looked at me with a very confused face, whereas Princess Luna just raised an eyebrow, "Art thou sure, Sir Jason, that you wish to forsake your name and go with 'Nova Strider?' Once We reach Canterlot, We cannot change it for you later." "Yes, I'm sure, Princess Luna; I'd like to change my name to Nova Strider." The Princess smiled gently, "Very well, We will make the preparations necessary for the citizenship registration to take place. You can expect it to come in your mailbox within a couple of days, Miss Heartstrings. For now, We bid thee farewell." With that, the Lunar Princess teleported out of the house, leaving Lyra and I with the guard from earlier. After a moment of awkard silence, the guard left the house as well, trotting out the front door with a "Good day, Heartstrings and Strider." (POV - Lyra) Finally, the guard left the house, so it was just Jason - err, Nova and I. When Nova was telling the Princess about his intentions, I just couldn't help but get nervous. The things he said, it just made me start to panic; I really thought that the Princess was going to just blast him right there. Just, poof, done. But no, she took it in stride and seemed to understand where he came from with his explanation. I'm actually really glad the way things turned out. The only issue now would be to figure out where he could stay until he gets his own lodgings... Although, seeing that I don't have a flatmate now since BonBon left, I guess I could put him up here for a little while. It couldn't be all that bad, having him live with me for a while. I'd have to set some ground rules and establish some boundaries. That comes later though, because I still have a few errands to run. "So, Nova, I've got a few things I still need to do today." Nova took a second to catch on to what I said, and then turned to face me. "Alright, what's on your list of things to do? I've got nothing to do all day today." "Actually, I'd like to just go do them myself right now; I could use some fresh air and a bit of time to myself to reflect on things. It's not that I don't want to be around you, but having Princess Luna over was the last thing I needed today." I sort of expected Nova to have some sort of problem with me leaving him on his own, but surprisingly he just shrugged and gave an "Okay, be careful though." Did he not care about me or something? "Just so you know Lyra, it's not that I don't care about you, I just happen to understand that sometimes it's good to have time to yourself and just think." "Wait, how-" "Ponies' faces are a bit larger than human faces; adding that to the fact that you as a species tend to be a bit more expressive with your ears and other facial features, it makes it a lot easier to read you and gague your reactions." Ponies are more expressive than humans? Huh, you learn something new every day, I guess. I turned to the door and headed outside, "I'll see you later, Nova. I'll try and not be more than an hour or two at most." "See ya later, Harp-Butt!" I facehoofed and groaned at what was hopefully a one-time joke, before I headed out and closed the door behind me. (optional YouTube background video: A Normal Day in Ponyville - FurtherProof (Neighsayer) It was still a beautiful evening out in Ponyville, and judging by the position of the Sun, I still had time to make it over to the market and grab a few things and catch up with some of the townsfolk. I trotted off at a comfortable pace and went straight to the market square; the first stop on my list of places was AppleJack's cart - I needed a few Macintosh apples for the apple pie that I was asked to bring to Ponyville's neighborhood association meeting next Monday. It was a couple of minutes before I made it to the stall, and it seemed that good ol' AJ was free of customers at the current moment. Perfect. AppleJack waved at me as I approached, and I greeted her with a smile. "Hey there, AppleJack, what's new with you?" "Not too much, sugarcube. Me n' Big Mac just finished harvestin' the last o' the apples from the orchard yesterday, an we have a might bit more than we thought we woulda' this season. We got so much that we've been sellin' em for a bit less than usual. The customers love it." "That's good to hear. Say, how much for a bushel of Macintosh apples?" AppleJack tapped her chin for a second, "Well, normally it'd be about six bits, so Ah'd say four bits oughta do it." I lit up my horn and called over my bit bag to give AppleJack her four bits, and a second later I was the proud owner of a dozen delicious Macintosh apples. "Pleasure doin' business with ya, sugarcube!" "Likewise. I'd better be off though, I've got a few more stops for today before the market closes." AJ waved goodbye, and I turned to head to my next stop: the Flower Sisters' shop. I was about to head over to the shop, when I bumped into somepony just as soon as I turned around. A familiar voice reached my ears. "Yo, Lyra, when are you gonna come over for that recording session so I can get some sweet vocal samples?" "Actually, I was going to come over tomorrow, though something's come up so I might have to push that back." Vinyl's ears drooped a bit, "Aww, I was so looking forward to that. You know how much I'd love to mix your voice into a few songs of mine." A second later they perked back up, "Hey, if you're not that busy, can I tag along with you?" I thought about that for a second, before just rolling with it. "Sure, you can come with. I've just gotta go to the Flower Sisters, and then Zecora's. Then it's back home for me. If you want, you could come over for dinner tonight. I'm going to warn you now though, I've got an extra guest, so it might be a little weird." Vinyl just laughed, "Lyra, we live in freakin' PONYVILLE! Nothing can top the weirdness of this town, not even a random creature showing up out of nowhere that nopony's ever heard of before!" It was now my turn to laugh, but a bit awkwardly because of Vinyl's last comment. Vinyl just pumped a hoof into the air, "To the Flower Sisters, awaaaaAAAAAAYYYYY!" I facehoofed and sighed for the second time that day, before turning back and heading off with Vinyl to the Flower Sisters' shop for some herbs. The rest of today is going to be very interesting... Author's Note Sorry bout this being so late. I've been trying to work out Luna's character for this chapter, and originally had gone just a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit overboard with her initial reaction. Subsequent chapters will be pushed out in a more timely fashion, Pinkie Promise!
