The Lost Six

Chapter 6: Lyra

The day was clear at the park and two mares were enjoying themselves relaxing on a bench. Both of their eyes were closed and small identical grins could be seen on both of their faces. As ponies cantered by, a few would stop and stare while others, well used to the sight, just ambled by without a worry. The reason for this was because of one of the mares’ strange behavior. She was a teal unicorn with a short, darker teal mane that had a single long, white highlight. Her cutie mark was a lyre. She seemed perfectly content. She was enjoying the sun’s rays. She was listening to the various sounds. She was quite still as she breathed in the fresh, morning air,

She was slouching sitting upright in a very odd fashion. Next to her was a cream colored earth pony with a long, curly, pink and purple mane and three candies wrapped in similar colors for her cutie mark. In stark contrast to the unicorn she shared the bench with, this pony was lying down properly on her stomach, legs folded neatly under her. She opened the eye closer to the unicorn a crack.

“Lyra?”

“Yes?”

“You’re doing it again.”

Lyra Heartstrings looked down at herself, half surprised. She stretched her front hooves over her head in an exaggerated manner. “Huh, so I am. How’d that happen?” She then went back to doing exactly as she had before as the mare next to her let out a small giggle.

“You really don’t care that ponies are staring at you?”

Lyra let her head fall back so the she could see a cloud passing by overhead. “Bonbon. Listen. You’ve been my friend ever since I can remember. You know it doesn’t bother me. They aren’t doing anything wrong looking at me, are they? I can accept that the way I do things is odd to most of you. Everypony has something to make them odd. You need to roll with the bucks and let ponies be themselves. Now how can I do that if I don’t be myself?”

Bonbon chuckled and relaxed once more. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

The two of them were content to stay there for a long while, but the universe had other ideas. After a few minutes, a stampede of cats, dogs, and various other pets went barreling past them and into the Everfree Forest, no reason in sight. Loud growls and roars could be heard coming from within the forest as well. The two mares were left speechless, staring awestruck at where the strange stampede had passed in front of them.

Lyra was the first to break the silence. “Was that a?”

“Yes. Yes I think it was.”

“And were those?”

“I believe so.”

“And those sounds?”

“… I don’t know.”

Lyra slumped off of the bench and onto all fours. “I don’t think I can really relax now. I’m too curious. I want to look this up. I’m sure something this big means something. Mind taking my saddlebags back to the house?”

“I don’t mind, but where do you intend to go? The library’s been closed for days with Twilight Sparkle missing. She wasn’t back yet from what I had heard.”

“She’s still not back? That’s odd. It’s not as strange as what just happened, though. It’s a public library, right? As long as I don’t take any books I should be fine, right?”

“Lyra, it’s also her house. I think we can just write this off as a random, entertaining event to be shared with friends later, don’t you?”

Lyra remained quiet for a while. “Maybe. But I can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong. I’m just going to check by the library. If Twilight’s not back, I’ll come straight home, okay.”

Bonbon let out a sigh. Sometimes it was really hard to persuade Lyra. The only way to deal with her when something caught her attention was patience. “Alright.” Bonbon got off the bench and pick up her and Lyra’s saddlebags. “Don’t do anything… foolhardy. Promise me that? I don’t want you to come home escorted by the officials, understand?” But Lyra was already gone.

Patience, Bonbon. Patience.

~~~

Lyra arrived in front of the library after a short bit of walking. Everything seemed normal, except the door was left wide open. Lyra knocked on the slightly ajar door. “Hello?” There was, surprise surprise, no reply. She leaned in and took a deep breath to call louder, but a cloud of dust had risen in light of the draft caused by the open door and decidedly lodged itself in the unicorn’s throat.

“HACKCOUGHHACHCHCAAAAAHCK!” Lyra spent the next twenty seconds clearing her esophagus of the airborne contaminant. “How does so much dust settle so quick?” She peered back behind her, making sure nopony was watching. Slowly, the teal mare sidled into the library, closing the door behind her and lighting her horn. The magical light casted eerie shadows around the abandoned library. Lyra strode from shelf to shelf, looking for a book she knew would be there. After she had been possessed at the royal wedding by a malignant monarch, she had obsessed over protecting her thoughts from other governments. For a period of time, she even wore a metal hat before she discovered that it actually amplified some magical forces. No doubt the use of such hats was a ploy devised by those wishing to control her again.

Anyway, the stampede had seemed incredibly similar to a form of mind control she had seen in a book at the library. After a semi-short investigation, she found the book at the opposite end of the library with pages seemingly ripped out. Come to think of it, books everywhere were on the floor with pages strewn everywhere except within their respective tomes. Luckily, The part she was looking for was still intact… mostly.

“Nousomancy is the practice of controlling the thoughts and will of another intelligent being. Throughout history, many powerful magic users have used this ability in order to sabotage enemies, quell rebellions, and even, in extreme cases, raise armies. The practice of nousomancy was forbidden in Equestria in the second era when Princess Luna and Celestia were instated. The powerful unicorn and rival to Starswirl the Bearded, Maregan le Faye, used this form of magic multiple times in order to manipulate others in an attempt to remove the princesses from power. While she had failed in creating an army of ponies due to the difficulty of mass mind control on higher thinking beings, she met greater success when controlling animals and beasts. Although the princesses managed to fight back her invasion, it was close and many casualties came of it…”

Lyra gulped. She had no proof, but she was paranoid. She was about to take the book to the front desk to check it out when she remembered she was the only one there. She didn’t want to steal the book, and she wasn’t exactly supposed to be in the library. She decided to hide the book in a little cranny beside the front desk where she could come back to it later. She pulled back one of the blinds to see the Ponyville clock tower through the window. Funny, they’re called the minute, hour, and second hands on a clock. They look nothing like any hands I know of. She stood up straight. I have lyre lessons in a few minutes, don’t I? Making sure that the library was mostly unchanged before heading out, Lyra made her way back to the house to get her lyre.

The way back was uneventful and nopony had seen her enter or exit the library. Inside the house, Bonbon asked her what had happened.

“Well, Twilight still wasn’t back, but I think I’ll be checking back regularly. There’s something important I need to see to. Don’t worry about it for now. You’re awesome. See ya.”

“Wait, where are you going?”

Lyra played a few notes on her lyre in an exaggerated fashion as she walked, bipedal, out the door. “See you when I get back.” And she was off again.

Bonbon rolled her eyes with a smile and a bit of a laugh. She called so that she could be sure Lyra heard her this time. “You’re the only pony I know who can do that for so long! Have a good time!”

Lyra called something back, but it was lost to the wind.

~~~

The entire way to Octavia’s house, Lyra looked around for any sign of animals. A number of the dogs that were in the stampede had returned, but that was all. Lyra didn’t like the situation, but she had to keep her normal outward disposition. She was already considered strange by most ponies and she didn’t want to give them any reason to not take her seriously. After all, walking and sitting upright as well as fantasizing could be considered a little quirk. If she started spouting conspiracy theories, though, there was no way she could imagine ponies writing that off. She’d lose credibility for sure. No, she would have to play her hand just right and wait for proof if anything was to be done. Finally, she found herself in front of Octavia’s front door. She was about to open it when she realized that she had been walking upright the entire time and had grown tired. No wonder ponies had been staring. She had thought it was because of the attention she was showing the animals, but this made more sense. She righted herself and held the lyre telekinetically like a good unicorn. After she had made sure her composure was proper, she opened the door.

“I’m here for my…”

Vinyl Scratch was leading Octavia towards her surprisingly fast and somehow stopped cold right in front of the door when she saw Lyra open it. Octavia seemed surprised by everything and was brought a stop in a less than graceful manner, nearly suffering from whiplash as her head failed to stop with the rest of her body.

“What’s going on here? Am I too early?”

Meanwhile, three pairs of slitted eyes could be seen in the bushes lining the path to the house. They’re attention was unnaturally absolute. They didn’t ever blink.