Of Unicorns and Magic

It had been ten years since Lyra first encountered that book. She had been rigorously studying Equestria ever since then. Resources were limited, but she always managed to find something on the shelves of the town library. Over the years, she found two more authors who wrote about Equestria and its wonders. None of them evoked the same wonder T. Sparkle's work did, but their works were still equally fascinating to her. She noticed that each author tended to focus on specific subjects. T. Sparkle focused mainly around unicorns and their history, but wrote about other topics as well. Red Heart's writing focused greatly on anatomy and medicine. The third author, F. Shy, only wrote one book that she knew of. It focused on creatures of all kinds; large, small; friendly, hostile; mysterious and not mysterious at all. That book had been especially interesting to Lyra because it had many parallels to myths she had already read about.

Whenever Lyra found a new book about Equestria she would pull it off its shelf, read some of it, and then inevitably buy it. Because of this, she knew the only books the Mythology section possessed written by T. Sparkle, Red Heart, or F. Shy were new.

Lyra checked the Mythology section once again. She had read the majority of the books there and was looking for an interesting read. As her eyes scanned the shelves, a familiar name popped out at her among the others. She shivered in anticipation. Her heart raced. Her mouth was instantly dry when she saw the familiar leather binding and bright gold lettering. Her face beamed when she saw the name of her favorite author. Lyra reached up and wrapped her fingers around the book and took it off the bookcase. Sitting down in the passageway of the section, she took a long look at the cover of An Introduction to Magic.

When Lyra had finished the first part of the book, she closed its leather bound cover. She approached the front desk. A tall, blond haired man sat behind the desk beside a computer monitor, his attention focused on his own book. She rolled her eyes and tapped the small bell behind the monitor. A short, soothing ring of brass filled the room, causing the man in front of her to jerk.

The receptionist looked up from his read, directing his attention to Lyra. His blue and brown eyes sparkled and his lips lifted into a welcoming grin when he saw her. “Hello Lyra. What may I help you with?” he asked, before glancing down at the book in her arm, “Ah, another book about magical equines I presume? Here, let me get that for you.”

Lyra simply nodded, placing her newly found book on the counter. The man lifted a gray code scanner to the book before noticing that once again, there was no bar code on the book. He checked the library database. According to the database, the library owned no copies of An Introduction to Magic, neither did it own any copies in the past. The man shrugged lightly and raised a thumb. It was normal for Lyra to check out books with no previous trace of existence.

Lyra stuffed the tome into her bag and walked towards the front doors.

“Bring it back in two weeks,” the receptionist said, sliding a hand out of the sleeves of his lab coat to wave goodbye to Lyra.

Stepping out into the cold air of October, Lyra began her long and agonizing saturday walk home. A bombardment of droplets hit her face, some hitting her eyeballs, blurring her vision. She should have brought her raincoat.

From underneath a balcony, a freezing cold, soaking wet Lyra knocked on the hard wooden door of the house. It was a moment or two before the door opened slightly, revealing Lyra’s taller cousin. She had brown irises, short cut, dirty-blonde hair, and monotonously pasty skin. She was in her bland, grey pajamas. "Oh, it’s just you. Come on in," Ruby said, opening the entrance further and motioning with her hand for Lyra to come inside.

The place was an absolute mess. The air was dusty, dry, and uncomfortably warm. The furniture was tattered and worn out from years of use. Unorganized piles of trash and used clothing littered the floor, emitting the odor of rotten cheese.

Lyra had grown used to the untidiness of her own house, and Ruby’s own messiness by extension. But she could never get used to the smell that filled the entire building. Even worse, no matter how hard she tried, she could never get rid of it. She tried dish soap, scented candles, and even bleach. None of them had any effect. Lyra recalled how she squinted her eyes and her nose scrunched as she had to restrain the surge of projectile vomit every time she tried removing the offensive stench.

From the moment she stepped inside, Lyra winced and wrapped her fingers around her nostrils. Once again, the aggressive smell of the house invaded her nose and her vision was blurred for the second time that day. She desperately clung to her sanity and sprinted to back of the building; to the only place she could bring herself to admit she lived in.

Lyra’s hand gripped a round gold-tinted knob. It gave way. She flew inside the room. Afterward, she slammed the barrier behind her shut. She breathed a sigh when clean air filled her being, restoring her mind’s calmness. In contrast to the rest of Lyra’s home, her own room looked like it was from an entirely different universe. The carpet was clean and odorless, her shelves were organized, her desk was spotless, and her bed was made.

After retrieving her book, Lyra set her book bag aside and collapsed into the comforting embrace of the sheets and mattress. She once again sighed, this time into the covers of her bed as she opened her book, her nose filling with the soothing smell of paper. She begun to read, her mind gobbling up every written word like a large bowl of alphabet soup. Every paragraph was a slice of heaven, every sentence dragging her mind further into the strange world of pastel-colored equines. Her vision closed around the book, immersing herself in T. Sparkle’s writing and she lost any and all senses of time she once had. Before she knew it, the sun which once hung over her head and filled her room with light now hid itself behind the shadows of buildings and trees, turning the sky a bright mixture of orange, pink, and navy blue. Then the sky turned black.

Then the rest of the room turned black. A soft thud of hair against fabric could be heard throughout the closed space of Lyra's bedroom.