Find Her, Keep Her

In the days after Lyra ran off, Kyle had lost any level of positivity that he had left, and sank into unshakable depression. He became lethargic, apathetic, lifeless, and overall, unproductive. The quality of the artwork he was working on at the time was declining a bit. At one point, he stopped it altogether, because he was too depressed to be inspired.

He blamed nobody but himself, since he knew what he had said, and he knew that she was there to hear it. He desperately wished that this was just a nightmare he could simply wake up from. But he eventually had to let go of his denial, and realize that he had not been thinking straight when he said those things to his friends in front of Lyra.

Now she was gone. Kyle had been wandering around the streets, searching for her, but could find no sign of her. Eventually, he gave up and simply stayed shut up in his house. Just knowing that she was out there, just knowing the possibility of her being hurt or sick, or worse, made him feel absolutely hopeless.

Kyle had stopped caring about everything, period. He simply felt like life was not worth living without his Lyra. For a couple of days after trying to find her, he did nothing but sit in his big, empty house, praying for her to come back...

(XXXX)

Lyra was walking through a dense, grassy field, crunching the dry, pale yellow grass beneath her hooves as she walked. The light wind she was walking into blew her mane and tail at an upward angle, making the mare look somewhat majestic.

For the first day, she was angered beyond belief, and tried to get as far away from Kyle as possible, since she assumed that he was merely lying to her when he claimed to really care about her. But then she got to wondering... which of them was he lying to? It took a moment for Lyra to recall that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the TV show she was in, was targeted towards an audience of little girls. After thinking about the overall satire that ponies seem to have created in this world... she understood what Kyle meant by "embarrassed".

Immediately after this realization, she began to feel extremely terrible. She felt as if she was the one at fault for taking it the wrong way.

“...I need to go back.” Lyra said to herself. "I need to make things right."

Remembering how desperate he sounded as he tried to explain himself, she realized that he was sincere. She had just been too angry at the time to let the message get to her. She had begun to turn back and retrace her steps... but then she stopped and thought for a moment; how would he react upon her arriving home? She assumed that he was probably badly hurt when she ran off... would he be angry at her for that? Was it possible that he might not want to see her again?

Lyra fell to the ground, tears rolling down her face. She could not handle the agonizing thoughts that bombarded her mind.

“W-what if... what if he doesn't l-love me any-m-more...?” she sobbed.

The mare sat with her lower lip quivering as she clenched her teeth, trying to fight back her tears by squeezing her eyes shut with her head down. She could hardly even bear the thought of his reaction if he were to see her come back after running off, refusing to forgive him...

Lyra! Why did you come back!? You have the gall to set hoof in my life again after running out like that!? You hurt me... you didn't care about me... so I don't care about YOU anymore! GET OUT OF HERE, YOU STUPID, DUMB ANIMAL!

She could not hold back any longer, and broke down. Lyra laid with her face in the grass, crying her eyes out. The guilt she was feeling was almost like a bomb going off inside of her endlessly.

"...You lost?" a voice said.

Lyra looked up to see a tall, brown horse. He sounded somewhat middle-aged, possibly elderly.

"...W-what...?" Lyra asked.

"I said are you lost?" the horse repeated. "Ya know it's not safe to be wanderin' around the fields alone, right? Dangerous world, this is."

Lyra shook her head. "N-no... I ran away..." she said.

The horse opened his eyes fairly wide.

"Well, you sure got some guts, kid..." he said. "...running off from the people who took good care of you?"

"He... didn't want me there anymore." Lyra said.

The horse did not ask anything about why she ran off. "Anyways, haven't seen you 'round here before. Who are you?"

"My name is Lyra." the Unicorn introduced herself.

"Name's Romeo." the horse said. "Also... did you happen to hit your head or somethin'?"

"Why?" Lyra asked, confused.

Romeo bent his head downward to get a better look at the mare. "Well... you got yourself quite a bump there on your noggin."

"Oh, this?" Lyra asked, touching her horn. "No, it's not a bump; it's my horn. I'm a Unicorn."

"Unicorn?" Romeo asked, before bursting into laughterlike whinnies. "Wow... talk about delusions of grandeur... you musta hit your head pretty hard, kid!"

Lyra glared and gritted her teeth. "You watch, old-timer! I'll prove it!"

Immediately, she saw a rock, and levitated it front in front of Romeo's face. The horse stopped laughing, and stared in awe.

"Well, now..." Romeo uttered. "...that right there is sure somethin'."

"Hmph." Lyra said, smirking. "Believe me now?"

Romeo bowed his head once. "Yes, I believe you now, kid." he said.

"Good." Lyra said, setting the rock back down.

Romeo then lowered his head to examine her. "So... you're a Unicorn... and you're pretty short for an equine. What are you, exactly?"

"I-I'm a pony..." Lyra said. "...but, I'm not from this world. I'm from a place called 'Equestria,' and I was teleported to this world somehow. Then, a human found me and took me under his care, and..." she trailed off as tears began to flow from her eyes. "...h-he became... m-m-my best friend... and I... r-ran off... because I m-misunderstood... something he... c-c-claimed..."

"Well now..." Romeo said. "...I'm guessin' you wanna make it up to him, then?"

"M-more than anything..." Lyra said. "...b-but I'm worried that he'll be m-m-mad at me! That he doesn't... c-care about me... anymore..."

Romeo pondered for a moment. "Well, I've got to wonderin'... was he sorry about what he did?" he asked.

Lyra recalled that Kyle was practically begging for her to forgive him.

"...Y-yes... he was..." Lyra said.

"Well then, I imagine he'd forgive you." Romeo said. "Besides, it's better to try and fail than to never try at all. That's what my caretakers have taught me all my life. But I reckon that you won't fail this, from how you describe it."

"Okay..." Lyra said, collecting herself. "...I'll do it. But, first thing's first... where am I right now?"

"Why, you're in the Zebulon Range. It's a large, enclosed grass plain that stretches for miles." Romeo said.

Lyra recalled that Kyle showed her the area of the same name when they were driving up to their new home.

"So, you know this area..." Lyra said. "...could you help me find my way back?"

"Depends..." Romeo said. "...where are you from?"

Lyra rubbed her chin. "Well... my human lives in a mansion on Hawthorn Drive... yes, that was the street for his address. Do you know where that is?"

"I do indeed." Romeo said. "But to get there, we're gonna have to pass through a narrow gap between two suburban regions. You're gonna need to do well to stay hidden. If the humans find some exotic equine such as yourself... I reckon they won't be too friendly with you."

"I would go to any trouble to go back." Lyra said. "I wanna make it up to him."

"Well, you got guts, kid, I'll give you that." Romeo said. "And you got a heart like my former mate, Aphrodite."

"Thanks." Lyra said. "Alright, so... you lead the way."

Romeo nodded. "Will do."

With that, the horse and pony were both off back in the direction Lyra had come from, the young pony determined to reconcile with her human love...