Prophecy
“Please open a bit wider, Lyra. You’re almost biting my mirror.” The light mint green pony opens her mouth a bit wider, but not much.
“Fish dish betthur?” Lyra asks around a mouthful of my hooves.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Why do they always try to answer? Don’t they realize we have tools in their mouth? “Yes, Lyra, now hold still, I think I see another cavity…”
Yup, another cavity. That makes seven. I sigh and float my mirror and tartar cleaner out of her mouth. “Lyra, I know living with Bon Bon can be tempting…”
“Oh, you have no idea.” She offers me a wide grin, and I blush slightly, before putting on a peeved expression.
“You know what I mean. She makes candy; you eat her candy, and get cavities. Eat fewer sweets.” I scold her, waving my hoof in front of her face.
She just grumbles. “Bon Bon doesn’t get cavities…”
I just roll my blue eyes. “Bon Bon brushes three times a day and flosses twice. You brush once if I’m lucky.”
Lyra giggles, as I hit the nail on the head.
Even with her lack of dental care, which peeves me off an endless amount, Lyra is one of my best friends. We both attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns together, and we both ended up in Ponyville, her as a free-lance lyre musician and me as the town dentist.
Our past excluded, Lyra is also probably my favorite customer. Not only her unique and funny atmosphere, Lyra is also a known gossip, attends almost every event in Ponyville, and she has a strange way of sitting. Her way of sitting makes my job so much easier. It’s so revolutionary; I’ve even tried it once or twice at home. All it does for me is cracking my back.
She stretches in the dentist chair, enjoying the natural fit. I float up a clipboard and make a note. One more cavity, on the back left molar.
I turn and see Lyra absentmindedly staring at my flank. I feel blood rush to my face. Lyra is one of the few open lesbians in Ponyville, her and Bon Bon coming out of the closet months ago, but I thought us as friends and n-not…
Lyra seems to snap away and look into my eyes, turning red as well. “N-no, it’s not like that!” She says jumping to her hooves. More blood rushes to my face as another customer glances in from the other room, a cute steel blue unicorn.
Lyra shrugs, her face still red. “I was just looking at your cutie mark Colgate, nothing else, honest!”
The blue stallion disappears back in the other room, chuckling. I feel the awkward force crushing the room. I choose to believe Lyra, lie or not.
“Y-yes, it is really unique isn’t it?” I ask, glancing away, still nervous.
Lyra walks around, embarrassment banished. She squints at my flank, causing me to squirm a bit. It’s not like I’m homophobic it’s just…
“Why is it an hourglass?”
Oh, I guess she was just looking at my cutie mark.
“It’s a long story.” I say, looking at my hooves.
Lyra plops down in the large chair. “Well, I’m not busy.”
“I am…” I say, looking at the full waiting room.
Lyra just laughs. It’s called a waiting room for a reason.
I sigh. “I guess it isn’t that long of a story…”
“Well, where to begin…
My family and I lived in the outer reaches of Canterlot for a very long time, living in one of the suburbs. Every member of my family lived in this suburb or one close to it, so we were obviously close. I can still remember playing with my cousins, and trotting over to Grandma’s house for a plate of cookies.
Well, as time passed, everyone got older. My Grandparents, two unicorns named Watch Glass and Harmonica, lived alone in a cottage on the far end of town. They were friendly to everypony, working for charity and even opening their house for ponies down on their luck.
One night I had… a nightmare. That’s the best way to describe it. I was in my grandparents’ house except something felt very… different. It was cold, freezing even. And I could move very fast at all, like I was crawling. I tried to get outside, but every time I would get close to the door I would wake up. These nightmares lasted for weeks, coming and going every so often.
One day, the dream went further. I got to the door, but couldn’t reach up and get the handle, so I just laid there. I laid there for a long time, and couldn’t do anything.
I woke up the next morning, trotted downstairs, and asked mom when my grandparent’s funeral would be. She told me to stop being silly. The next three days I did the same thing. She got so fed up she took me to go see grandma and grandpa.
We found Grandma in bed and Grandpa in front of the door.”
A tear streaks down my cheek. This was always the hardest part of the story.
“The funeral was two days later. My mom asked me how I knew, and I told her about the dreams. She was horrified, and took me to a few doctors around Canterlot. None of them knew what happened, and one actually diagnosed me with Magical Overdose, where I wasn’t expending enough magic through the day. He just made it up to make a quick buck, I’m sure of it.
Well, because of the last doctor, I did magical exercises every day for two years. I would go to bed exhausted, all magical power completely wasted. Those were probably the worst two years of my life, and I still didn’t have my cutie mark.”
I sigh, looking at Lyra. “Do you remember the airship accident that happened the year before we started school?” She shakes her head.
“I do. I knew it was going to fail. I kept seeing it over and over again in my head, just going down burning. Mom told me to stop being strange, so I kind of… ran away. I felt like she didn’t understand, like she couldn’t understand.
Well, two days before the accident, I ran into Canterlot proper, and starting to try and convince anyone this was going to happen. I warned maybe a hundred people, but I was young and… reckless. When they wouldn’t believe me I just got more angry and louder. One day before the accident, two guards picked me up and threw me in a cell.
Then… I can still hardly believe it myself… Princess Cadence came in the dungeon, for other reason I imagined, but she actually listened to me. She demanded the guards release me and she took me directly to Celestia. I told her what I saw, and Celestia sent the Wonderbolts to check on the airship. Well, the accident happened, but the Wonderbolts were able to save everypony.
That’s the day I got my cutie mark and also the day Celestia extended me an offer to attend her school.”
Lyra just stares at me, wide-eyed. I glance away, nervous.
“W- You’ve never told anybody about this?” She exclaims, apparently gripped by my story.
I turn back to my clipboard. “Nopony ever asks…” I say. It’s a weak defense, but true. You usually don’t go asking people about cutie marks.
“Wow. Bon Bon’s not going to believe this.” Lyra says with a smile.
She then looks at the clock on the wall. “Oh no, a quarter past! Ug, I have a concert in ten minutes! I gotta run!”
Lyra takes off out the door, pausing briefly to look back. “Hey, thanks for the story Colgate. You really should tell other everybody else this!” With that she disappears.
I smile sadly. “I don’t think so…” I say to no one in particular, looking at an old, framed newspaper clipping.
It reads: Airship goes down, Wonderbolts save hundreds! Another article, right beside the other, reads: I just don’t know what went wrong! Captain Hooves blames crash on “Exploding rainbow”.
No, I don’ think anypony else really needs to know.
“Ok,” I call out to my patients in the waiting room. “Next patient!”