Of Hand Seals and Unicorns
Lyra wiped sweat from her forehead with a hoof. She had been unpacking since the early morning, but the pile of boxes and cartons wasn't any smaller. The unicorn sighed and walked towards the window of her new home, stretching her stiff body along the way.
Ponyville. The name seemed very fitting for a quiet little village such as this. Lyra wasn't sure what to expect from her new home town, but was pretty sure life was going to be more peaceful than back in Fillydelphia. With a little luck, she hoped, she would manage to make some friends or maybe even meet some handsome stallions. She chuckled at the idea.
Suddenly her vision went blurry and she noticed the rush of air against her coat and mane. She felt her body being compacted to the size of pea, vaguely reminding her of the unpleasant times of learning teleportation spell as a filly. The air escaped her lungs as she felt them compressed and squeezed through dimensional pathway along with the rest of her body.
***
After what seemed like hours of being reduced to the size of a sand grain, Lyra heard a loud bang. She opened her eyes, after realizing they had been closed, and glanced around. Clouds of white mist surrounded her, dissipating quickly. She felt something touching her forehead. She looked up, trying to focus her gaze around her horn. Lyra didn't know what it was, but it looked like a strange limb of presumably some kind of animal. Her eyes traveled along it to the rest of the creature's body.
Lyra was sure she hadn't seen or heard of anything like it in her entire life. The creature was bipedal, taller than her and covered with multicolored coat. Or maybe these were clothes, after all ponies also wore them from time to time. The creature's large head featured two small, piercing black eyes and a pointy nose. Its mane was black and of the strangest shape.
“What the...” the creature said, slowly taking its limb away.
“Oh, you can talk.” Lyra forced a smile. “Who in Celestia's name are you?” she asked, rapidly changing her expression to a suspicious glare.
“Kabuto, what the hell is this?” The creature totally ignored her and turned towards the other one of its kind. That one's mane was very light gray (almost white) and his black eyes were guarded with a pair of round glasses.
“I have no idea,” the white-maned creature replied, suppressing a smirk and adjusting its spectacles. “It doesn't look like your usual fighting beast.”
“You don't say,” the other spoke, clearly irritated. “Can you explain what the hell just happened and how can this... mint horse help me with my training?”
“Hey!” Lyra protested, unnoticed.
“Why did I even bother with a summon if that jerk Orochimaru haven't let me sign the contract with the snakes yet, anyway?” The creature continued, clearly ignoring the unicorn's presence.
“Wait, he haven't?” the white-maned one asked. “Why didn't you just tell me? You cannot summon a beast without signing the contract,” it explained and then both of them looked at Lyra, perplexed. “But you somehow did...”
The bespectacled creature hopped off a stone it was sitting on and approached the unicorn.
“Little horse, what are you?” it asked.
Lyra gasped, severely insulted. “How dare you?! I'm a pony, not a horse. And a unicorn to boot!”
“Ah, that explains the horn,” the creature agreed, adjusting his glasses once again. “What summoning realm do you come from?”
“What what do I come from?” Lyra frowned. “Look, I'm from Equestria.”
“Haven't heard of this one. Have you, Sasuke?” The creature turned to the other one. The black-maned one only shook his head.
“Look, that's beside the point!” the one called Sasuke said. “Listen up, unicorn, what sort of fighting techniques do you know? Any offensive ninjutsu? Or defensive genjutsu?”
Lyra only shook her head. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
The creature groaned and slapped his limb against his face. “Look, you're going to help me with my training, even if the only thing you can do is to stab Kabuto with that horn of yours.”
Just as the creature said it, Lyra noticed a sudden jump of the other one. Instinctively, she reached inside her and set her horn ablaze with white light. The air around them glimmered as a few metal, pointy stars bounced off the impromptu magic shield.
“Hey!” Lyra shouted towards the white-maned creature. “It's dangerous. Watch out with those.”
“Hmm... it seems like you could be of use after all,” the black-maned creature said. “Look, I'm going to attack him and drag him into a quick hand-to-hand. You provide the cover against his shurikens.”
“Say what?” Lyra didn't understand much of the creature's rambling.
“Just use this jutsu of yours to deflect anything he throws at me or you.”
“Oh, you mean my magic. Can't you do it yourself?” Lyra asked, eliciting a look full of disbelief from the creature. “Right, you don't have a horn, sorry.”
“Horn, right,” the creature sighed. “Look, us humans can't use magic, period. We can use ninjutsu, but it's not the same. We use our fingers to perform seals and... Why the hell am I even explaining this to you?” He slapped his limb against his face again and took a deep breath.
“Let's do this.” He jumped towards the other creature. Mid-flight, he reached for the container on his rear leg. In a swift, fluent move, he got some of the metal stars and threw them at the other human. The white-maned one caught them mid-air with seemingly no effort, hurling them back. A flash of light engulfed the stars as Lyra used her magic to make them drop harmlessly to the ground. The creatures clashed together, exchanging punches and kicks with lightning speed and relentless ferocity. Suddenly, the bespectacled one was forced to jump back. The black-maned human smirked and clapped his hands in front of his chest.
That was the moment that changed Lyra's life forever. Mesmerized, the unicorn watched as the creature's nimble fingers danced around, forming different shapes with uncanny precision and pristine beauty. Seal after seal, his hands joined and separated in poses that Lyra would never even consider possible. It felt like she was watching the breathtaking spectacle for hours, but in reality, after a heartbeat or two, the human drew back, inhaling massive amount of air into his lungs. Jets of orange flame shot out of his mouth, forming a ball of fire that consumed his opponent in an instant.
Lyra didn't even notice it. For her, the fireball was nothing. The other creature's life – meaningless. The only thing that mattered was those swift hands with the unbelievably nimble fingers. She imagined just how easy it would be to play her beloved lyre if she had similar appendages. Oh, how gently and with unrivaled precision she would stroke the strings of the very instrument depicted by her cutie mark, effortlessly making it play complicated tunes which were impossible to perform with hooves and still very difficult with magic. Suddenly, her soul was flooded with music she was certain she would never be able to replicate. Not without hands, which looked like the very limbs just created for the sole purpose of playing the string instrument.
I want a pair! thought Lyra for the very first time. Little did she know how much would this simple wish haunt her for the rest of her life.
The ball of fire dissipated, snapping Lyra back to reality. A faint pop was heard as the bespectacled human's body disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. Its exact copy appeared seemingly out of nowhere right behind the other human. The white-maned creature wielded a sharp knife which was obviously not designed to cut bread.
“Watch out!” Lyra cried, instinctively reaching for her magic. Her horn flashed with white light, the glimmer of same color enveloping the attacker.
Awkward silence fell over the battlefield like a cloud of thick smoke. The black-maned human wasn't quick to laugh, but even he couldn't suppress a snicker now.
“Look at you, Kabuto,” he nudged the other human, who was dangling helplessly upside down, enveloped in Lyra's magic. “Turns out this summon isn't half bad. I don't know what type of jutsu does it use, but immobilizing the enemy like that can be quite helpful.”
Lyra trotted over to the humans to take a closer look at their amazing hands. She stopped right next to the hovering one, still keeping him firm with her spell.
“Maybe I could sign a contract with those ponies instead of the snakes, what do you think?” the black-maned human kept teasing.
Suddenly, the bespectacled one made a quick gesture, pressing his right hand against his chest, his left one placed quickly on Lyra's forehead. For the briefest of moments she could feel the gentle touch of the hairless fingers against her coat and the warmth that spread from them.
“Release!” was the last thing she had heard before, once again, she felt her body being compressed to the size of pea and squeezed through time and space.
***
With a bang and a cloud of white fog, Lyra was shot back into her own world. Even before opening her eyes, she felt the disturbing lack of ground beneath her hooves. As law of physics would have it, as soon as she had realized it, she noticed herself falling down. Before she could react, however, a collision with something soft broke her fall.
Lyra opened her eyes, after realizing they were still closed. She was laying on another pony. The unicorn quickly got up, helping the other mare to stand up.
“Sorry about that,” she said sheepishly.
“No problem,” the other pony replied, dusting her cream coat and puffy, navy-and-pink mane. “That's a weird way to meet a pony... I'm Bon Bon.” The mare offered her hoof. “Let me guess, failed teleportation spell?”
“Yeah, kind of.” The unicorn shook the hoof with her own. “I'm Lyra. Just moved to Ponyville. You wouldn't believe what a strange thing happened to me just now. There were those weird creatures, called humans, with their amazing limbs – hands and those beautiful, precise fiiingeeers...” she drawled, feeling her mouth water as if she was about to have her favorite pack of hay fries. “It was probably all a daydream, though.” She waved her hoof, but her carefree expression changed when she saw the horrified look on the earth pony's face.
“Get away from me!” Bon Bon shrieked, backing away herself. “I don't want to have anything to do with you.”
“What? Why?” was the only thing Lyra could utter.
“I've had enough about those human things from my brother!” the cream pony screamed, galloping away.
“Wait, so that wasn't a dream?” Lyra wondered. “That means... “
“WAAAIT!” she called, rushing after the earth pony. “I want to hear all about your brother.” If she knew about those humans, her brother must have met them too. That would mean they are real! Various thoughts invaded her mind, uninvited. She was going to solve this mystery and learn all she could about the humans. And hands. And most definitely fingers!
“WAAAIT!” she cried once again, this time causing the other mare to slow down, apparently too embarrassed to let this pursuit continue. Little did they both know that this unplanned meeting would change their lives forever, resulting in a close friendship which in time would only grow into a much deeper feeling.
THE END
