Find Her, Keep Her

Danny had been trying in vain to see what Kyle was up to, but Lyra was always able to quickly hide as they could always hear the creaking of the stairs whenever someone would come into the basement. It was becoming clear that Danny was bent on figuring out who Lyra was, but his plans always failed, because Lyra would always hold the doorknob shut with her magic before hiding, often puzzling him as to how Kyle could have been holding the door shut some distance away.

For once, Kyle was (reluctantly) fortunate that his work schedule was primarily on the weekends that Danny had off from school, and Lyra had learned quite well by now how to avoid Ed or the ever-persistent sibling. She was becoming quite skilled with stealth, and even started sneaking past the two ungrateful residents of the house in order to meet up with Kyle outside, despite his advising against it.

Overall, Danny's attempts were quite poor at best, and he had to consider quitting it sometime soon, because he already got triple detention for skipping school and was now being threatened with suspension. Also, Kyle had threatened to tell Ed about it, especially since he had been recording with a hidden webcam in his room.

But several of the scenarios were quite hilarious...

(Flashback)

Danny was riding on his bike for a second lap around the block, when he happened to notice Kyle in the backyard through the gate, reaching down to pick up what looked like a mint-green creature.

He hastily put the brakes on his bike, and backtracked to see that Kyle was now lifting a garbage bag with something inside.

"Hey! What was that!?" Danny asked.

Kyle looked confused. "I'm just taking out the trash..." he said.

Danny darted his eyes around for a moment. "Meh, whatever..." he said, as he continued riding.

After he was gone, Kyle peeked inside the bag... which held Lyra.

"Ha! We fooled him!" Lyra chuckled.

"Yep!" Kyle said triumphantly. "And also, Lyra, you are anything but trash."

(XXXX)

Kyle crept into the basement with Lyra bundled in his cardigan under his arm... but he was unfortunately spotted by Danny, who noticed him holding his jacket that way.

He followed Kyle to his room, and waited outside as he shut the door.

In the room, Kyle let Lyra out of the cardigan.

"Okay, just wait down here." he said, quietly. "I'm just gonna go take my jacket to the laundry."

"Okay." Lyra said.

With that, he left his room with the jacket under his arm...

"HA!" Danny whooped as he snatched the cardigan from Kyle from behind, startling him.

He unfurled the jacket... only to find nothing else, much to his confusion.

"Huh...?" Danny uttered, looking through the article of clothing.

Kyle gave him a stern stare.

"Uh... got your jacket! Heh heh..." Danny said in a stupid joking tone.

"Give me that!" Kyle said, snatching the cardigan back.

Danny quickly rushed over to look around Kyle's bedroom, only to have the occupant of said room step in his way upon entering.

"What do you think you're doing? You won't find anything in here." he said. "And would you like Dad to know that you're snooping?"

Danny let out an annoyed sigh and left.

"I will find out what's going on! Don't think I won't!" he said.

(End Flashback)

Aside from the complications Kyle and Lyra were facing, something important had come to Kyle's attention. About two and a half months after discovering her in the woods, he happened to be aware that it was the filly's eleventh birthday today; November 15th. He was surprised that it had come so quickly; he would have assumed it was later or something. Fortunately, Ed was at work today, and Danny, reluctantly, chose to stay at school to avoid any trouble, and Kyle had the day off from both work and school, since it was a Tuesday.

Of course, Lyra had told him when he had ample time in advance, and decided to get her a really nice present that he was sure she would love...

"How would you like to help me bake your own birthday cake?" Kyle asked.

The filly looked quite eager. "I'd love to! It's gonna be the best birthday cake ever!" she said.

Opening up an online recipe list on his laptop, Kyle showed Lyra some of the cakes.

"Pick any one you want." he said. "We've got plenty of ingredients around here."

Lyra looked over the cake recipes on the page, until something caught her eye...

"Ooh, how about that one?" she asked, pointing to it.

Lyra had chosen a coconut cream cake.

Kyle smiled at her. "Excellent choice!" he said.

With the selection made, Kyle began to prepare the ingredients, and start mixing them, all the while letting Lyra help however she wanted. He mixed the wet ingredients in a bowl while the filly mixed the dry ingredients in another bowl. Eventually, the two were ready to pour them together, mix them, and put them into the pan.

"So, how big will the cake be?" Lyra asked.

Kyle pondered for a moment. "I think we can make it big enough..." his face became a wide grin. "... to cover you completely!"

Lyra looked shocked. "Wait, what...!?" she asked.

Kyle laughed. "I'm just kidding, Lyra."

The two poured the batter into two pans and put them in the preheated oven for the set time on the website. In the meantime, they just watched television to see if there was anything good on. After a while, it started to smell really good as the batter was boiling and hardening.

Kyle became saddened as the aroma of the cake filled his nostrils. Lyra noticed his dipping mood.

“What's wrong?” the Unicorn asked.

“It's just...” Kyle began. “...the smell of the cake... it reminds me of... my mom.”

"Really?" Lyra asked.

“She absolutely loved cooking and baking. It was her favorite hobby.” Kyle said. "She worked for a catering business... but I don't know what she does now."

"Come to think of it..." Lyra began. "...I haven't seen your mom around. Where is she?"

Kyle hung his head down. "...I don't know."

Lyra gasped. "Oh... i-is she...?" she stammered.

"No." Kyle answered. "I know she's still alive... somewhere. I just don't know where. But... while she was still around, she cooked and baked a lot. Her recipes were to DIE for... and she was always willing to whip up something special for me if I ever had a bad day."

“...She really cared about you, didn't she?” Lyra said.

Kyle nodded. “Like any mother would.”

At that moment, the oven timer beeped.

"Ah, cake's done!" Kyle said. "Let's put some icing on it while it's still hot!"

So, the two iced and decorated the cake to how Lyra liked it, and wrote a cursive "Happy Birthday Lyra" on it with colored frosting, and she was overall satisfied with the results. Kyle stuck eleven candles into the cake, lit them, and immediately started to sing "Happy Birthday" to the filly. Once he finished, he pushed the cake slightly towards her.

"Now, make a wish and blow out the candles!" he said.

Lyra closed her eyes, waited for a moment, and opened her eyes and blew the candles out. Kyle clapped for her, and then he sliced into the cake, giving the first piece to the filly. The two enjoyed the cake... probably eating a little too much of it. But they were both very happy with how it turned out. But, unbeknownst to them...

...Danny was listening outside of the open window, but could not see inside because of the closed blinds. If he walked in on them, he was sure that Kyle would tell Ed about it, and get him into a lot of trouble. It was unlikely that Ed would believe he only had a half-day today.

"Weird..." he said to himself. "...this Lyra chick sounds like a little girl! Jeez... the queer's got more problems than I thought! If he's into little girls..."

He started silently snickering.

"Ooh-hoh-hoh-hooooooh...!" Danny chuckled. "He's gonna end up in jail someday! I look forward to it!"

(XXXX)

Next came the matter of giving Lyra her present. After the cake, Kyle put it into a Tupperware container and washed the bowls and pans. He put the remaining cake into the fridge in the basement, hiding it behind a bunch of other foodstuffs and beverages.

He brought the present to Lyra, who was careful to not rip the wrapping that Kyle had to lookup how to do. When she opened the box and removed the bubblewrap, she was surprised at what was inside.

"A small harp!" Lyra exclaimed.

Kyle chuckled. "No, it's called a 'lyre'. It's like a small harp, but not quite." he said.

Using her magic, Lyra plucked a few of the strings. Her eyes widened in amazement.

"It sounds excellent!" she said. "Thank you, Kyle!"

"You're welcome, Lyra." Kyle said.

(XXXX)

Lyra spent a decent amount of time practicing her lyre skills. Within a few weeks, she had become quite good at it, and decided to perform a song she wrote for Kyle.

"I've decided to call this song 'Viridian Valiance'." she said.

With that, she started to play a very upbeat, but still calm-sounding, series of notes on the lyre. It made for what sounded like a very good piece of stock music that sounded suitable for something in a very cinematic scene of a good movie. Kyle was absolutely stunned at the quality Lyra could play at. She was like the ultimate lyrist. After all, she was probably named after it.

After the song concluded, Kyle started clapping.

"That was really good, Lyra!" he said. "You are the best instrument player I've listened to in my whole life!"

"Thanks!" Lyra said.

Immediately, a glowing light appeared on the Unicorn's flank. Both her and Kyle looked straight at it... they both had a gut feeling of what was happening right now. Fading in from the light came the shape of a golden lyre. The glow went out, and the lyre symbol remained on her flank.

A blissful expression overtook Lyra's face. “My cutie mark! I finally got my cutie mark!” she exclaimed.

Even though he had seen the Mane Six get their cutie marks in the show, it still blew Kyle's mind to see it happen for real.

"Well... I think this called for another round of applause!" he said, pulling out his phone to play the sound effect of crowd applause.

Just like before, it got both him and her laughing about it. Later on, they just decided to have the remainder of the cake for her cute-ceañera, along with letting her pick out some games on the Nintendo eShop for the Wii U.

Kyle was quite happy that Lyra was now growing up... but it seemed a bit peculiar at just how she was growing. She had become noticeably larger, as he found her to be a bit more cumbersome when trying to conceal her beneath his jacket. She seemed a bit too big for an eleven-year-old filly.

But he did not let this matter bother him for right now. Lyra was happy, and so it made him happy in return. He was glad to be helping her grow up, and having her to brighten his dull life.