Find Her, Keep Her

Christmas Day came soon enough, and by then, Lyra had managed to get better. She was completely healthy and back on her hooves once more. Both of them were happy to spend Christmas together, especially since it had been a long time since Kyle got to celebrate any holidays with his previous work schedule.

Kyle was not exactly sure what to get for Lyra, nor was she sure what to get for him, since they both had pretty much everything that they wanted. But... he decided to order something off of the Etsy website for her.

When it came time to open her present, she rattled the small box around for a second.

"What is it?" Lyra asked.

"Open it up and see!" Kyle said.

With that, Lyra opened up the wrapping paper on the box, and pulled the lid off to reveal what was inside. It was a turquoise crystal pendant with a silver setting and imitation leather band. The stone itself was glowing bright enough to notice in the indirect snowy-weather sunlight; the crystal was synthetic and infused with phosphorescent polymers, but still felt and weighed like the real thing.

Lyra's eyes went wide an a huge smile filled her face.

“Oh, Kyle!” she said in awe. “It's beautiful!”

Kyle smiled at the young mare. “Merry Christmas, Lyra.” he said.

Lyra sprang upwards and latched onto Kyle in a tight embrace. He hugged her back.

"I hope you like what I got for you, too." Lyra said.

Kyle opened up his own present to reveal...

"...A golden paintbrush!" Kyle said in awe as he looked upon the dazzling tool.

It had a metallic golden handle roughly twelve inches in length, along with angled bristles that were also gold. Picking in up and holding it, he got a feel for it whilst holding it as if he were going to paint something.

"It's got a nice weight to it." Kyle commented. "Thank you, Lyra! It's look nice on my desk once I get a stand for it!"

The Unicorn smiled at him. "I knew you'd like it."

Even though they did not have a lot of presents, they still enjoyed spending Christmas together. They spent their day baking Christmas cookies and watching movies like The Polar Express and the uncut version of Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (two movies that Kyle absolutely loved).

But still, absolutely nothing could beat the cold, snowy evenings when he would cuddle with Lyra next to the fire, both of them drinking chilled vanilla spice eggnog. He always loved when she would fall asleep in his lap as he sat gently stroking her mane.

(XXXX)

A good portion of time had passed since that Christmas, and by the time it was April, most of the snow outside had melted. Kyle was outside, painting the landscape of the open fields that surrounded his home, omitting the few buildings and houses that there were in the distance. Every now and then, he stopped for a sip of wine, since he decided to bring a glass and a bottle of rosé wine out with him. Of course, he was careful to limit himself to two glasses per day.

While he was painting, he happened to see a car pull over right next to the gate. This made him a bit curious, and somewhat paranoid. He was not expecting any company. He had a pocketknife on him just in case anything could happen, though...

With his hand on the knife in his pocket, he slowly walked down to the car that was outside of the gate. There were some guys who were getting out of the car, and all of them gained a satisfied expression upon seeing Kyle.

"Told ya he lived here!" one of the guys said.

A surprised look appeared over Kyle's face as he recognized the one who just spoke.

"Derek...?" Kyle said, recognizing his old high school classmate, as well as a few others who were in the car. "...What are you doing here?"

"We heard that you became a famous artist on the internet. And from what we can see..." Derek trailed off, looking at Kyle's mansion. "...you really got the lifestyle here, don't ya?"

"Yeah, we were just on our way to E3 in the next city over..." another of Kyle's old classmates, Chris, said. "...but we figured we'd stop and see if that stuff you posted on Facebook was legit!"

"Well... yep, it's true!" Kyle said. "I've made a living for myself off of artwork."

Lyra happened to hear Kyle talking to someone through the open window upstairs. She peeked outside to see what was up, and saw Kyle speaking to some guys on the other side of the driveway gate.

"Hm... who are they?" Lyra asked herself. "Think I'll go and have a look at this..."

With that, she teleported. She intended to reappear behind a bush, but miscalculated her positioning and ended up slightly off to the side of it... right in the line of sight of Kyle's friends.

"Eek!" Lyra uttered, just before she jumped behind the bush.

Chris looked over at the spot Lyra had been in.

"Dude... I think I just saw somethin'." he said.

"Saw what?" Kyle asked.

"Don't know... but it was sorta teal-colored, and looked like some sort of animal." Chris said.

Kyle walked over to the bush, and was surprised to see that Lyra was spying on him. But, he was able to keep a passive look on his face.

"Yeah, there's nothing here." Kyle said to his old schoolmates.

"What did you see?" Derek asked.

"Didn't get a good look at it..." Chris said. "...but I could swear it looked like... a cartoon pony or something."

"Eh, man, you're prob'ly seein' shit." another old classmate, Gunther, said. "That's what happens when ya pull an all-nighter on nothin' but XBOX One and Mountain Dew!"

“Well, speaking of which, that reminds me of something; there are rumors that a lot of guys at the old high school liked to watch My Little Pony when it was still a thing.” Derek said to Kyle as he walked back towards the group. “Are you one of them? It seems like people have heard you mention things about ponies.”

“What? No! Don't be ridiculous!” Kyle said. "I'm not a brony. I'm not into all that sissy stuff!"

Derek nodded, pursing his lips. "So, you're... alright in the head? Not into the gay brony fandom and stuff?"

“No way!” Kyle said. “I think that ponies are stupid!”

Lyra gasped as she heard this. Kyle had mentioned to her that he always liked to be honest with his friends. Could what he is saying right now be true...?

Kyle continued: “They're just to entertain little girls until they learn to grow up and accept that life is not all rainbows-and-sunshine. I think that bronies have problems, and anything involving ponies just sucks! I wish the concept of them never even existed!”

Lyra could hardly believe her ears. From the level of sincerity in his voice, she assumed that he was telling the truth, and that this entire thing with him taking her in was just an act of manipulation.

"Hm..." Derek hummed, just before regaining his friendly smile. "...okay! Anyways, we're gonna head off to E3 now! Wanna come with us? I assume you could afford a pass, right?"

Kyle rubbed his head. "Actually... I've got... things planned for later."

"Oh, sorry man." Chris said. "Well, hope we can see you again soon!"

"Yeah, see ya!" Kyle said. "Thanks for stopping by!"

"Word, man!" Gunther said. "See ya 'round!"

Kyle waved at his old schoolmates as they drove off. Once they were out of view, he went back over to the bush where Lyra was hidden... but now she was gone.

"Lyra?" Kyle called, looking around. "Hm, maybe she teleported back inside the house."

Kyle then went back up to where he was painting, and took the canvas, chair, and small folding table-for-one into the garage for temporary storage. And then, he went inside to find Lyra sitting on the stairwell.

"Hey, Lyra!" Kyle said, smiling at her. "What were you doing out there? Did you want to see my old classmates or something?"

Lyra shook her head as she held a shocked expression over her face. Kyle's smile vanished upon processing her emotion.

"What's wrong, Lyra?" he asked.

Lyra shook her head. “You said... you wished that ponies wouldn't exist... that you think we're stupid!”

“L-Lyra, listen...” Kyle said. “...it's not like that at all! It's just that, in this world—”

“HOW COULD YOU SAY THOSE THINGS!?” Lyra shouted, tears streaming down her face. “I thought you really loved me! But you told me that you hate lying to your friends! You hate me, don't you!? You were just trying to trick me!”

“Lyra, please!” Kyle begged. “I didn't mean any of that! It's just embarrassing for someone like me—”

“Oh, you're EMBARRASSED to have me as a marefriend!?” Lyra said, sniffling.

“Lyra...” Kyle uttered.

He held out his hand, but Lyra smacked it with her hoof.

“If that is how you really feel...” Lyra said, turning away. “...then I guess you don't want me here! I'm leaving!”

Lyra pulled the crystal pendant he gave her off her neck and threw it to the floor. She then made a break for the back door, opening it with her magic, and slamming it shut as Kyle tried to rush after her. Kyle rushed out the door after getting it open again, but Lyra was already out of sight.

“Lyra, come back!” Kyle called out.

He ran down the stairs from the balcony and began to search around the property for any sign of the Unicorn mare. But she was gone.

“Lyra, where are you!?” Kyle called. “LYRA!”

It was only in that instant when Kyle felt his heart shatter into a thousand pieces.

"Oh, no..." Kyle said. "...no, no, no... what have I done...? I can't believe this... I fucked up... BIG time!"

Not willing to bring himself to go after her after what he just did, and in front of her, no less, Kyle trudged back into the mansion, over to the staircase. He picked up her pendant, looking into the glowing crystal. It was the same color as Lyra's hide... and now he could see nothing but her anger manifesting inside of it. He wanted to throw it away... but he could not get rid of the thing she had left behind. Given how angry she was, she probably would not come back for a while. There would be no point in searching for her. But it was going to be dark soon. If she was serious about leaving for good...

Kyle sat at the base of the stairs, burying his face into his hands with his elbows on his knees. This absolutely hurt him unlike anything else that had ever happened to him in his life. It was even worse than his mother leaving him. Even Ed's abusive parenting seemed more pleasant than this right now.

"I'm sorry, Lyra..." Kyle said. "...I'm so sorry..."