Playing the Heart's Strings

The constant pounding at the door woke them all up as they all lay in the middle of the library. Tables had been set against the walls and mattresses, pillows and sheets had been prepared for the whole group to stay at the library, with all the books that had previously been scattered all over now stacked on top of the tables. Twilight and Lyra had slept entwined to each other’s hooves. Bon Bon and Pinkie Pie cuddled together. Rarity was in the middle of Fluttershy and Spike, while Rainbow Dash slept next to the shy pegasus, with Applejack having her back against Twilight’s.

“Who the hay calls at the door this early?” screamed an angry Dash, stretching her wings and legs. Bon Bon and Pinkie headed for the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

“Just a minute!” called Twilight, walking over to the restroom to give herself a clean-up. From the mirror, a frazzled, unkempt unicorn looked back at her. She shook her head and splashed her face with water, giving herself a quick brushing before going back to the main room to open; she passed through a still sleeping Lyra on the way, as all the others had already scattered, and despite herself, a small smile adorned her lips as she looked at the musician’s chest heaving. She made it to the door and opened to find Mayor Mare smiling at her from the outside, her eyes clearly scanning the interior, where Lyra lay. She lifted a hoof to her mouth and coughed.

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

Twilight maintained a serious expression, containing herself. “It is nothing, Mayor Mare. What do I owe such an early visit to, if I might ask?”

“Well, Ms. Sparkle, I was informed very early today when I arrived to my office that your group seemed to have arrived yesterday in the dark, and so I decided it priority to come and see you, given that our last meeting was unexpectedly cut short.”

The politician kept her smile on as she said each word. Twilight’s tail flicked while she was listening.

 “The human is not here,” said Twilight flatly when the mayor stopped talking, not moving a single muscle.  The other pony’s facade dropped instantly, her glasses slipping to the tip of her muzzle.  She fixed them with her hoof.

“I--- is that so?”

“So it is,” answered Twilight with the same monotone voice. “You can check up if you want. He’s not coming back, either.”

“Hey, Twilight, breakfast’s ready. Bring Lyra over!” called Spike’s voice from the kitchen.

Twilight lavender’s eyes locked on the mayor’s blue ones. “Do you want to come in?”

“N-no, that’s quite fine, Ms. Sparkle. I wish you and your friends a good day.  Ta-ta!”

The earth pony turned back and trotted away and for the first time, Twilight noticed the crowd of ponies that had been passing by and stopped to see the scene. Once the mayor was gone and they felt the librarian’s gaze upon them. they dispersed quickly. Twilight snorted and closed the door unkindly behind her, trotting over to her significant other lying on the floor. She lowered her muzzle, pushing it into Lyra’s neck.

“Wake up, sleepyhead, there’s breakfast.”

The other unicorn lifted a hoof and waved it, making Twilight dodge it. Twilight chuckled and pressed her snout against Lyra’s cheek. “Come on, love, wake up.”

Unable to ignore it anymore, Lyra’s golden eyes opened and she turned to look at Twilight. She smiled at her. “Good morning, Light.”  She stretched herself and rose to stand on her legs, both unicorns walking together to the kitchen, where all of the others were already sitting around the table.  They settled themselves in the space at the far side of the table and each levitated a toast from the bowl in the middle of the table, while having milk in two glasses in front of them. They all were eating slowly and quietly

Despite the table being more than filled by them all, Twilight could feel the air of emptiness that floated all around. She, like all around her, was eating mechanically to fill the void in her stomach.

Applejack finished drinking her milk in a single chug, putting the glass on the table, which resounded with a clink. She fixed the Stetson lying on top of her head.

“Well, gals, is about mighty time that Ah went back home; mah family can’t wait any more.”

“Um, Applejack, I’ll be going with you, I must check up on all my little friends. I’m sure you took good care of them, Lyra, but when they’re all alone for such a long time, they get restless,” said Fluttershy hastily.  The unicorn smiled.

“I was more than once tempted to get a wallet made out of little Angel’s skin...”

Fluttershy gasped in shock. “No!  I know that Angel’s a little rough sometimes, but you wouldn’t do that!”

Lyra smiled sheepishly. “Relax, Fluttershy, I was only joking, of course!  A little, ” she whispered, receiving a poke from Twilight under the table.

The earth pony and pegasus left together. Rainbow Dash left as well, flying out of the library. Rarity excused herself soon enough.

“Well, Lyra, I’m going to check up on our house. I hope you’ve done a good job on it. Coming, Pinkie?” Bon Bon turned to her earth pony companion, who nodded.

“Yup, let’s go!”

The couple of earth ponies were the last ones to exit the library, leaving inside only Twilight, Lyra and Spike, who was cleaning the dishes. Both unicorns looked at each other.

“I fled,” said Twilight out of the blue; a shadow covered her face. Lyra tilted her head to one side and Spike left his chores to look at her.

“What do you mean, Twilight?” asked Lyra, putting a hoof on top of her marefriend’s one. Spike sat by her other side, a worried look on his face.

“Twilight...”

“I fled from the Princess instead of talking. I should have gotten to that first thing. But I was so shocked at the time... I still don’t know what to think about it. What should I do.”

She stood up from the chair and went on walking around the library, leaving a dumbfounded Spike and Lyra looking at her. The musician soon regained her bearings though, and walked over to her. “Stop there, Light. You’re making me dizzy!”

Twilight stopped and looked at her, her eyes twitching. “But I don’t know what should I do! I can’t ask Princess Celestia about it. I can’t...”

She lowered herself to the floor, her eyes looking directly into Lyra’s hooves.  Tears overwhelmed her. “How could this happen? Why did this happen?! Why?”

Lyra crouched over, talking softly to the distressed mare. “Twilight, listen to me.” The scholar didn’t stop sobbing. “Twilight...”. Spike stood by her side, touching carefully her face.

“Twilight?” asked the small dragon again, receiving no response from his caretaker. His tail dropped as he looked at her.

“Shush, Twilight. You’ve got me.”  Lyra smiled softly into Twilight’s ear. The unicorn’s ears perked up, but she was still shaken. Lyra caught her neck with her hooves and put her cheek against hers. “”I’m here, and there are many ponies around you. And Spike,” she added when the baby dragon tapped the floor with his foot. The sobs stopped, but Twilight simply remained quiet, her face buried into Lyra’s neck. The musician could feel the warm breath of her marefriend against her coat and her shallow breaths.

“It have been several years since I cried as much as I cried yesterday.” Lyra spoked softly, caressing Twilight’s mane with her hoof with slow movements. “I can’t believe it as much as you do. I’m not sure what I want to do, really. I would perhaps just go out running crazy if you weren’t here.  So, if you decide to do something, I’ll be right there with you.”

Lyra felt a small smile tugging at her lips and the pression of a couple of hooves in her back.

Applejack felt her hooves trodding the path leading to her farm with heavy steps. The familiar warmth of the Ponyville sun fell upon her, making her body glow, but she felt none of the respite that usually came with it. The walk felt long and longer with each step she made forward, as if she was not getting any closer. The sight of familiar ponies walking around her made her uneasy, despite having known most of these ponies for her whole life, now she couldn’t feel anything more than their piercing gazes upon her, and she remembered the night in which they had had to escape from the library in a haste and all the incidents that had transpired on her life. Her head was a jumble of emotions, and it wasn’t helped at all by the visage of a certain pony appearing in her mind constantly.

She adjusted her hat once again and before she could realize it, her hooves had taken her to the main gate of Sweet Apple Acres. Pushing it open, she trotted towards the house, the soil below her hooves granting her a sense of familiarity for the first time since she had abandoned the library.

A yellow blur ran at full speed and crashed against her, sending her tumbling to the ground. A couple of small hooves held onto her with surprising strength.

“Ah missed you, Applejack! Why were ya gone all tha’ time?”

Apple Bloom’s teary eyes looked straight at her. Her face was humid both with sadness and relief.

“Ah’m home, Apple Bloom.”

After getting the small filly off of her, only for her to run in circles around her asking all kinds of questions which Applejack held off, she approached the porch where her grandmother and older brother awaited. Both held calm expressions on their faces, Big Macintosh munching on a stick of hay.

“So yeh’re back, hayseed.”

Applejack couldn’t answer, feeling repressed tears flowing down her face as she ran to where Granny Smith stood.

Bon Bon and Pinkie trotted by the road leading to Sweet Apple Acres, in a silence unusual for one walking next to Ponyville’s professional party pony. She could not shake the feeling that everypony’s gaze feel upon them, but when she turned to look back at Pinkie, the usually bubbly pony simply walked by her side, devoid of any of her usual jumpiness, and seemingly unaware of everything that was going on around her.

“Pinkie?” called out Bon Bon, softly, looking at her with concern. The pink pony turned to look at her.

“Yes, Bon?” answered the mare, in a shadow of her usual voice.

“Are you fine?”

Pinkie turned her attention back to the front, staying in silence for some moments. “I want to see the Cakes now, mostly. Maybe I’ll get through to my parents, haven’t seen them for a while,” said Pinkie, seeing Sugarcube Corner materialize in front of her eyes. She stopped in front of the bakery. “I’ll see you later, Bonnie.”

The cream colored mare waved goodbye to her friend, seeing her disappear into the bakery, and she continued her walk towards her own home. Bon Bon opened the door to her house and upon entering, she found her stand lying against the wall opposite to the kitchen, with Lyra not having bothered to move it towards the storing room. She sighed and went into the kitchen, barely containing a scream. All around, different cooking utensils were scattered without any coherent order; at least she found them clean. The storage room was as much of a mess as the kitchen. Setting it aside, she climbed the stairs towards the second story. Ignoring Lyra’s room and study, she looked inside the bathroom, only to find a quite large water pool lying on the floor. She closed the door rather violently and went over to her room.

Surprisingly she found her room in the very same organized state she had left it in; there were still slight patches on dust on the floor and furniture, but nothing that would require that much effort. She let out a relieved sigh, not having found the house as rundown as she had feared, and sat on top of her bed, looking out of the window towards the street.

Her thoughts then flashed towards her pink friend, and the expression her face held just before she had left at Sweet Apple Acres. The only other time she had seen Pinkie with a remotely similar expression had been on the aftermath of the cooking duel the pink earth pony had so foolishly set up. Not that Bon Bon could blame Pinkie for such a reaction this time. Suddenly, the cream colored mare found her own pillows and sheets very comfortable, lying on top of her bed and letting her mind wander over. She didn’t even notice the moment in which she was snatched away to the clutches of deep slumber, in the middle of the morning, despite it not being into Bon Bon’s usual routine.

The usual fluffiness and comfort clouds offered to her was of no help to Rainbow Dash this time. She first crashed onto her own house. The majestic pegasus construct was the same as always, but all she did was roll around while lying on her bed. She knew she’d have to report with the weather patrol sooner or later, but she wasn’t feeling like that at all. After several minutes of tossing and moving, she rose with a grunt and sped out of her house, her wings beating hard against the wind. She flew far and away from Ponyville.

Tears flowed down both unicorn sisters’ faces as they embraced each other.

“I’m sorry for having had to leave you so suddenly, Sweetie Belle. But I’m here right now.”

“I didn’t know what to do, Rarity!  Miss Cherilee and Lyra and the Apples were there for me, but I missed you and mom and dad so much!” Rarity could feel her coat being soaked by Sweetie Belle’s tears, but she did paid no mind to it then.

“Hush, Sweetie Belle. I’m here now, and our parents will be around soon as well.”   She patted the filly on the back tenderly, despite her own tears still flowing freely.

“Come on, darling, let us drink a cup of warm tea, it will help us calm down.”

“Good morning, everybody. I’m sorry to have left you all alone for so much time.” Even though Fluttershy said these words, her voice was barely a whisper carried by the wind, only picked up by most of the animals’ excellent sense of hearing. Angel jumped in front of her and looked up to her questioningly. He was joined soon by Tank, Owlowiscious, Pee-Wee, Gummy and Opalescence.

“So you’re all around here... I’m sorry, friends, but I don’t want to be around here right now. Angel, can you look for them some more, please?”

Before the rabbit had even begun to answer her, Fluttershy soared upstairs to her room, locking the door behind her.

The last rays of sun were penetrating the library’s windows as Twilight, Lyra and Spike were still organizing shelves. The musician had taken to read the books to alleviate her boredom, giving each other a brief look while skimming the ones she was more interested in, and before she knew the whole room had been littered with books. Twilight had given her a good, lenghty mouthful and then they had begin to work on replacing them, in which a good part of day was spent, and they still had too much to work on.

“The day is coming to a close, I think we can cal off for today. Let’s clean and we’ll eat out,” said Twilight, while looking at the orange sky through the window. Spike and Lyra cheered loudly when there was a knock at the door.

“Who could be now? Stupid public library.”  Twilight trotted over to the door and opened it, to find three unicorns standing on the other side. Her jaw dropped.

“Mom, Dad? Shining?  What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what, Twilight? You forget about your family pretty easily, young lady,” answered Stargazer Sparkle, Twilight’s mother, with a stern look on her face.