Lyra ran around with the other foals, trying to keep away from the one who was 'it'. She bumped into a music case trying to dodge as the colt jumped at her, which did not please the stallion it belonged to. Sure, she knew instruments were expensive, but he didn’t have to be rude and call her names. She apologized anyway, because that’s what Mama said to do when you do something bad.
As she walked back toward the group, she automatically tried to turn to her sister to complain. Seeing the empty space next to her, she remembered that Minuette was back home with Dad. They had both been looking forward to the Music Convention this year, since it was being held in Canterlot's Castle itself. The girls had been jumping around for days, the expectation of seeing the grand halls keeping their energy up.
Unfortunately, that morning Minuette had woken up with a cold. She'd tried to say she was fine, but her voice had been more of a croak. In the end, she didn't want Lyra to miss out, so Dad stayed with her while Mama took Lyra to the convention.
Brushing that aside, Lyra focused on the other kids. Appearently, they were being to 'rambunctious' for the adults. Which meant they all got herded to the far end of the room and told not to run around.
“What should we do now?” a filly asked.
“Well, tag is out,” the colt who had been chasing her before said. “And there’s no board games or anything in here?”
“We could play hide and seek?” Lyra offered.
“That’s dumb,” the filly said.
“Swan song! Don’t be rude!” another filly said.
“But Twinkleshine!” Swan Song whined. “We’ve already been yelled at for touching their stuff. That’s the only place to hide!”
“The only place to hide in this room,” a new voice corrected.
The other foals were looking just above Lyra's head. She bent her head backwards, trying to see the pony behind her. It was easy for anypony to recognize the pink alicorn.
“What do you mean?” Twinkleshine asked, somehow unperturbed by standing in front of a princess in the way only a child could be.
“Exactly as I said,” Princess Cadence answered. “This is a castle, and there’s plenty of places to hide. And it’s not like your parents told you not to wander, right?”
“Well, no,” a colt answered.
“Well, I wouldn’t wander too far,” she said. “But there are a few rooms in this hall that are great for hide and seek!”
“But you’re an adult,” Lyra said. “Shouldn’t you be telling us to follow the rules?”
“I’m only seventeen,” she pouted. “And the Guards stationed everywere will make sure nothing bad happens. Now, who wants to seek first?”
There was a bit of debate, everyone offering different ways to pick. Eventually Swan Song was chosen, and everyone slipped out the door to hide. Once in the hall, everyone split off into different directions.
Lyra wandered for a bit before coming to a door. She used her magic to pull it open, which took a decent amount of effort, and took a look inside. The room was pretty much empty, other than a mirror on a pedestal.
The mirror itself was very fancy, shaped like a horseshoe, with pink gems along the frame. On top was a smaller horseshoe with a pony inside. However, the thing that held her attention was the actual mirror part. Its surface seemed to shimmer, almost like water.
There wasn’t anywhere to hide, so Lyra turned around and headed back into the hallway. While debating on which door to try next, she saw Swan Song turning the corner. Scrambling back, she slammed the door shut.
Holding her breath, she watched the door. As the handle turned, she backed up more. But before the door could open, she tripped. Her back hooves had hit the pedestal, and she flipped over herself. She expected to slam into the mirror, maybe even knock it over, but nothing was there. She was tumbling into nothingness.
She saw colors. So many colors. Her body felt weird. It was like she was stretching too much, but not enough to hurt. It only lasted a few seconds before she slammed into the ground on her back, wind knocked out of her.
She lifted her hoof up to rub her face. Something was weird. Her hoof didn’t feel right, and she couldn’t feel her coat. Opening her eyes, she stared up at a bright blue sky. She could have sworn she was inside, in a room with no windows.
That wasn’t as strange as what she saw in front of her. There was some kind of statue, though she didn’t pay attention to it. The surface of it was reflective, but Lyra didn’t see a Unicorn staring back at her.
There was a strange creature in the reflection. It looked like her. It had her mane, and her eyes, and even though it didn’t have a coat, its skin was the same color as her coat. But that was where the similarities stopped.
Lyra tried not to freak out. She had obviously been teleported outside and transformed into something weird. Maybe it was a prank. One of the super-powerful students at the School for Gifted Unicorns could have done that, right? But why would they prank a random filly?
She studied the reflection, her reflection, taking note of what was different in an attempt to not freak out. Her face was kind of squashed, her muzzle being much shorter. She didn’t have a horn. Her hooves weren’t hooves either. She remembered something similar in a book about dragons. Hands? They weren’t clawed like a dragons, but they looked like hands. Her back hooves weren’t hands or hooves. She thought she remembered the dragon book calling those ‘feet’. Still, she wasn’t a dragon. She wasn’t sure what she was.
She was wearing clothes too, which was somehow weirder to her. Her top was white with pink stripes, and her shorts were white with a dark turquoise on the edges. On her ‘feet’ were gold sandals, with straps wrapping half-way up her legs.
So far, this hadn’t done much to calm her down. She tried to stand up, but it felt so wrong. She flopped back over almost immediately. She tried again, this time standing only on the ‘feet’, since her ‘hands’ didn’t have shoes. It only reminded her how little sense it made.
“Hi Lyra!” came a bright, cheery voice. “I thought we were meeting in the park!”
Lyra spun around, almost falling in the process. There was somepony walking up to her. No, it wasn’t ‘somepony’. It was another one of the weird creatures she’d been turned into. Judging from the size and voice, this thing was a filly close to Lyra’s age. She was pink, her skin being a lighter shade than her mane, which was wild and big. She also wore a purple shirt, blue shorts, and bright yellow shoes.
The filly stopped bouncing toward her. She frowned, not angry but confused with her tongue barely poking out. She crossed her arms and tilted her head, bright blue eyes staring at her.
“You’re not Lyra,” the filly said.
Yes I am!” Lyra protested.
“Well it couldn’t be amnesia then!” she said. “Because if you had amnesia, you wouldn’t remember your name! But you don’t remember me! So maybe you’re a Lyra who looks like my Lyra but isn’t my Lyra! Or maybe you’re her long lost identical twin who happens to have the same name!”
“N-not that I know of?” she answered. “I-I just, well, I…”
She finally broke down crying. She was scared, and alone, and didn’t know what was going on. Why was she here? What had happened to her? Where even was she? The pink filly was immediately beside her, apologizing for asking so many questions.
“Oh! I know!” the filly said. “A joke might make you feel better! My ex wife still misses me, but her aim is getting better!”
Maybe it was because she’d been so upset, but the mood whiplash startled Lyra into a full fit of giggles. It felt nice to smile, despite her confusion. It still took a little bit to calm down, but it helped.
“I’m sorry about asking another question,” the filly began, “and I’m sorry if it makes you not smile again because I really like when you smile, but can you tell me why you’re upset?”
“I don’t know,” Lyra said. “I don’t know where I am or what I am.”
“What you are?” the filly asked. “Well, what do you remember?”
“I-I’m Lyra Heartstrings,” she said “I’m ten, and I’m a Unicorn. I’d prove it, but I don’t think I can do magic without my horn.”
“You’re a Unicorn!” she exclaimed.
“Well, right now I’m not,” Lyra said. “I got transformed into a… a whatever I am.”
“You’re a human girl!” she explained.
“If you say so,” Lyra said, shaking off the need to ask what a 'Human' was. “I-I was at the castle with mom for a music convention, and the princess said it would be okay to play hide and seek, and there was this mirror, and then I ended up here!”
“What’s the princess’s name?” the filly asked.
“Well, the one I met was Princess Cadence,” she said. “But her aunt is Princess Celestia.”
“Oh my stars!” the filly exclaimed.
The filly shot up and started bouncing around again. She was shouting ‘I knew it!’ over and over again.
“You don’t think I’m crazy?” Lyra asked.
“Of course not!” the filly said. “Because, well, firstly that would be so rude to think you’re crazy. Secondly, I’ve always been a ‘lucid dreamer’ and a dream I have a lot is talking to a Pony that looks just like me! We talk a lot, and tell each other about our day and our worlds, and stuff! And she told me about a Princess Celestia who controls the Sun and Moon!”
“That- that’s her!” she stammered out, mouth hanging in disbelief.
“Exactly!” she said. “So I totally know you’re telling the truth! This is kinda like this one series I read, where the main characters travel through alternate worlds, and sometimes they run into people who are just like other people they met in other worlds, but they’re not the same person! They even meet themselves at one point! So, maybe it’s like that, and you accidentally came to another world and now there’s Lyra the Human and Lyra the Unicorn!”
“That makes too much sense,” she sighed. “So, what do we do now?”
The filly stopped her bouncing once more. She crossed her arms, stared down her nose and stuck out her tongue again. It was kind of adorable.
“I have no idea,” the filly said. “But I’m not gonna just leave you here! So, until we can figure something out, let’s go to the park!
“The park?” Lyra asked.
“Yeah!” she said. “I was heading there to meet this world’s Lyra! So I figure we might as well let you meet her until we know how to get you home! Maybe we have to trade something to the Dimension Witch!”
“Okay?” she agreed.
Before Lyra could ask what a 'Dimension Witch' was, the filly grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. Lyra still thought it was a little weird walking on two legs, but it felt pretty stable. Barely a few steps away, the filly stopped and turned around to her.
“I totally forgot!” the filly said. “I never introduced myself because I forgot that you wouldn’t know me since you’re not my Lyra! My name’s Pinkie Pie!”
“Hi, Pinkie,” Lyra greeted.
With that, they were moving once again. She tried to pay attention to everything around her. There were a lot more Humans. Most of them were bigger than her, so they were probably adults. The scariest thing was the street. They had small, carriage-sized trains zooming by faster than she though possible for carriages. She nearly had a heart attack when Pinkie dragged her across a street.
She was too busy looking at the Humans to notice when they entered the park. They had already reached a playground by the time Pinkie snapped her out of it.
“Hi Lyra!” Pinkie shouted.
Lyra turned forward to see another girl waving back. Sure enough, the girl had her mane, her skin, her eyes, even her outfit.
“Hi Pinkie!” the other Lyra greeted.
The other Lyra’s eyes went wide upon seeing Lyra. The two walked up and circled around one another, inspecting everything. Lyra couldn't find any difference between them, which was beginning to freak her out again.
“Okay, what’s going on?” the other Lyra asked.
“Well…” Pinkie rocked back and forth on her feet. “This is Lyra, but not you, obviously. She’s you from another Dimension, but she’s also a Unicorn. She’s a bit lost right now, but we can’t do much, so I decided she should come play with us!”
“Makes enough sense,” she shrugged.
“I know, right?” she asked. “So Lyra-“
“Yeah?” both Lyra’s answered.
They looked back and forth between each other and Pinkie.
“This is going to be confusing,” Lyra sighed.
“Yeah,” Lyra agreed.
“I know!” Pinkie said. “We can call one of you ‘Lyra’ and the other ‘Heartstrings’!”
“Easier than ‘Human Lyra’ and ‘Unicorn Lyra’,” Lyra agreed.
“But how do we decide which is which?” Lyra asked.
“Well, I think,” Pinkie began, “the Lyra from this world should be ‘Lyra’. I mean, it is her dimension, right?”
“Fair enough,” Heartstrings conceded. “But how can we tell on sight?”
They thought for a moment. Pinkie suddenly grinned began searching her pockets. Out of one, she pulled a pink ribbon.
“I have a bunch of ribbons for ribbon emergencies,” Pinkie said, tying Heartstring’s mane into a ponytail. “Now we can tell who’s who! Well, obviously you two know, and I could probably guess, but just in case! Now on that note, I vote we play hide and seek!”
“Hopefully I don’t drop into yet another dimension!” Heartstrings laughed.
Pinkie decided to count first, leaving Lyra and Heartstrings to both run off and hide. They were found fairly quickly, mostly because Heartstrings was having trouble figuring out how to use hands to climb the playground. She got the hang of it eventually, but it was after she was found.
After quite a few rounds, Lyra found a bunch of sticks that had fallen off a tree. They decided to be pirates. Captain Pinkie and her first mates, Lyra and Heartstrings, sailing the seven seas in the SS. Playground, searching for buried treasure!
By the time the sun started going down, the three of them had flopped into a pile at the top of a slide. They hadn’t even noticed how late it was until a voice called out.
“Lyra!” a slightly familiar voice was shouting.
Lyra perked up, Heartstrings and Pinkie following soon after. There was another human, probably an adult considering her size. She was pink, with yellow, pink, and purple hair.
“Cadence!” Lyra shouted, sliding down and hugging her. “What’re you doing here?”
“Your mom had to work late,” Cadence explained. “She called me to pick you up.”
“Okay, but first I made a new friend!” Lyra said.
Pinkie and Heartstings had both reached the bottom of the slide. Cadence gave a small wave to Pinkie, but stopped and stared at Heartstrings. Oddly enough, she was getting used to that stare.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess!” Heartstrings said, attempting to bow without falling over.
“You never told me your babysitter was a princess!” Pinkie gasped
“I’m not a princess,” Cadence said.
“Are you undercover?” Pinkie stage whispered. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep your secret!”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Heartstrings said. “The you I met was a Princess, so I thought you’d be one here.”
“What?” Cadence asked.
“Yep!” Pinkie said. “This is Lyra, she’s like Lyra, but she’s a Unicorn from another world! We call her ‘Heartstrings’ so we don’t get confused!”
“I’m telling the truth!” Heartstrings said before Cadence could protest. “If I had my horn back I’d prove it! I’m from Equestria, I live in Canterlot, and there’s an Alicorn who’s you and Princess Celestia who raises the Sun, and-“
“Hold on,” Cadence said. “If you’re from Equestria, how’d you get here?”
“I was at the castle, and I remember a room with a mirror,” Heartstrings said. “Then I was here. Pinkie found me we figured out what happened, so we decided to go meet the other me at the park until we could figure out what to do!”
“I told Aunty Tia she should rope that statue off,” she sighed. “And have someone over there lock the door.”
“Do you know how to get me home?” she asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “But we have to go right now.”
“We can’t go right now!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I was gonna ask Maud if we could have a sleepover! We could watch movies and eat way too much sugar and try and stay up til midnight! I know her parents are probably worried, but now you know how to find them, so we can just tell them where she is? Can’t we just ask her parents and bring her home tomorrow?”
Cadence’s face dropped. There was still a smile, but it looked so sad. She searched for words, trying to find exactly what to say. After a moment, she knelt down to their level. Her purple eyes stared into them, with certain seriousness Heartstrings couldn't shake.
“I know you want to stay here with your new friend,” Cadence said. “But the portal that let you get here only opens up every three years. If you don’t go home now, you can’t go back home for a long time. You won’t be able to see your parents or Minuette until it opens again.”
“But what about-?” Heartstrings felt tears forming in her eyes.
“It’s alright!” Pinkie said, despite her own tears. “I want to be your friend, but your family’s your family! I don’t think I’d be able to choose to give up Ma and Pa and Maud and Limestone and Marble! And it’s sad, but we can still be friends, even if we can’t see each other! Who knows, maybe next time the portal opens you can come back here!”
“O-okay,” she said. “I’ll miss you.”
“I know,” Pinkie and Lyra said in tandem.
“I’m sorry,” Cadence said. “But we do have to leave.”
“Hold on!” Pinkie said, looking over Cadence’s shoulder. “Maud came to pick me up, but I don’t want to leave until you’re back home!”
“I can take you home once we’re done,” she said. “Let’s talk to her.”
Pinkie’s sister was a girl with gray skin and purple hair, who looked a bit older than Cadence. She barely blinked when Pinkie rambled off everything about her new friend. After talking to Cadence, Maud agreed to let Pinkie go with them.
The three of them followed behind Cadence, Heartsrings holding the hands of both of her new friends.
It was a lot quieter at night. Fewer of those carriages were driving down the street. Not as many people wandered around, and once they neared their destination, people practically stopped altogether.
As they crossed the street to go back to where Heartstrings had first appeared, they only saw one other person. The girl looked to be a teen, with red and gold hair. She stared at them, and Heartstrings stared back. There was something about her that she couldn't place, something that almost made her call out to her. Instead, she shook her head and went back to Pinkie and Lyra.
Eventually, they reached the statue from before. Heartstrings still didn’t want to say goodbye to them, but she knew it was time. Lyra hugged her first, only letting go when Cadence reminded her of the time. Pinkie was next, hugging even tighter.
“I should probably give you your ribbon back,” Heartsrtings said, reaching up to her hair.
“Keep it!” Pinkie said, wiping away tears. “That way you’ll be able to remember us! And don’t think I’m going to stop trying to see you! Next time I fall asleep, I’m going to talk to the other me, and she’s gonna find you so we can be friends again! And then we can talk through her! It’ll be like sending letters, but you get another friend!”
“I’ll try and find you too,” she said. “And who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be able to see one another again!”
“Yeah!” she laughed. “Nothing can stop Friendship! Not even another Dimension!”
With that, she stepped back. Heartstrings looked up at the statue, scared to go. But she had to.
She stepped into the portal, and tumbled forward. She could already feel her coat and hooves and horn were back. She turned to the mirror again, putting her hoof on the shimmering surface. She could still see Pinkie, Cadence, and her other self, but after a few seconds, the portal glazed over, becoming just glass once more.
Lyra gave a small smile, seeing the ribbon still in her mane. With a final goodbye to no one, she headed back to find her mom.
Lyra’s mom had been so worried about her. That wasn't too surprising, as Lyra had disappeared for hours. Thankfully, Princess Cadence took the fall for encouraging the foals to play hide and seek in the castle, saying it was her fault she got lost, so Lyra didn’t get grounded for disappearing.
She tried to tell her mom about Pinkie and the other Lyra and Cadence, but she didn’t believe her. Lyra tried to get Cadence to confirm her story, but she only told her mom ‘kids have wonderful adventures’, but she did give her a wink that said ‘this is a secret’.
Despite that, she didn't want to keep it a secret. She had to tell at least her sister.
“I’m telling you, Minnie!” Lyra insisted, jumping to her own bed. “There’s another world filled with creatures called ‘humans’! They even have hands, which are so much more convenient than hooves once you learn to use them!”
“Not that I don’t believe you,” Minuette groaned, her voice still off from her cold, “but it is a bit crazy, and I’d like to sleep before trying to wrap my head around it.”
“Fine, grumpy,” Lyra huffed.
She took the ribbon out of her mane, placing it on her nightstand. The ribbon was more to her now. Even if no one believed her, she still had this. It was just a small bit of proof that it was all real.
“Just a few more!” Lyra said, setting down another box.
“Ugh,” Minuette complained. “At least we don’t have to move without magic.”
“You know as well as I do that levitation still exhausts you,” she rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re, like, Twilight or a Princess. I'm pretty sure they're never tired.”
“Yeah yeah,” she sighed. “Just grab another box. I want to get finished unpacking before having to go back to Canterlot for Moondancer’s birthday.”
“Maybe we could invite her back for the Summer Sun Celebration?” she suggested. “Keep the party going, and have a nice housewarming!”
Lyra looked at the stack that still awaited them in the moving carriage. She sighed and used her magic to pull out a hair tie.
It wasn’t a hair tie she pulled out, but a pink ribbon. It was a little more worn than when she first got it, but still pretty. She didn’t wear it all the time anymore, but she would for every important event. Birthdays, Hearth’s Warming, and every musical performance. She even wore it to her Cuteceañera. And once she learned the Pocket Dimension spell, she’d kept it on her at all times.
And now, five years later, she and her sister were moving into a new house, in a new town. They’d decided on a small town, since they wanted something much more relaxing than Canterlot’s craziness. It felt right to use the ribbon now. This was another big event, another chapter in her life. And she wanted to share it with them.
Lyra tied up her mane and grabbed another box, just in time for a squeak and a rain of confetti to make her drop it.
“Hi!” said a voice. “Welcome to Ponyville! We’ll have a proper ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party for you later tonight, but for now I came to see if you wanted somepony to help carry in your stuff! Don’t worry about it being to heavy! I won’t even complain if it’s a box of rocks! Well I might. Have you ever carried a box of rocks? Because I have a wow is that a trip!”
Lyra turned to see who exactly was talking to her. If she had another box, she would have dropped it again.
She was an Earth Pony. Her coat was pink, and her wild mane and tail a darker color. Bright blue eyes stared at her, occasionally flicking to the ribbon in her mane. Lyra tried to think of something to say, but all that came to mind was an old joke.
“My ex-wife still misses me,” Lyra said, smile creeping onto her face, “but her aim is getting better!”
“Lyra,” Minuette groaned, “you say that joke every-“
She was cut off as Pinkie leapt forward and tackled Lyra in a hug. They laughed and cried and tried to explain to Minuette what exactly was going on. Life in Ponyville was about to get a lot better.
“Pinkie, where we going?” Lyra asked.
“It’s a surprise!” Pinkie replied in a sing-song voice.
Lyra smiled and rolled her eyes as Pinkie dragged her along. She’d been in Twilight’s new castle a few times before, but she had no idea where Pinkie was leading her. She absentmindedly wondered if even Twilight had figured out a map of the place.
After what felt like forever, Pinkie opened a door and led her in. The only thing in the room was a large machine, but the machine itself didn’t matter. What caught Lyra’s attention, was the thing the machine was plugged into.
“That- That’s the Mirror!” Lyra exclaimed.
“Surprise!” Pinkie practically sang.
“But what’s it going here?” she asked.
“It’s a long story,” she said. “Basically, Twilight’s had to go over to that world and help them fix a few problems, including one time when her crown was stolen! She doesn’t know about you knowing about it, or the other me knowing about it, or the fact that I told the other me that Twilight was a pony princess who needed to get her crown back to save the world!”
“But the important part,” she continued, seeming not to take a breath, “Is that Twilight figured out a way to make the portal open all the time!”
“Wait,” she said, “we, we can go through? I can actually see them again?”
“Yep!” she answered. “I didn’t tell them we’re coming, but the other me loves surprises! And I can’t imagine the other you would hate them either!”
Lyra looked between Pinkie and the Portal. She walked up to it. As her hoof touched the surface, it shimmered like water.
Not even hesitating, she stepped through.
Author's Note
Fun fact, this story was referenced during Magical Mischief and the final part of this takes place during Lack Of A Reflection
Edit: I came back and edited this in general. I was rereading it and I noticed a handful of typos and the fact that it didn't flow as well as I'd like.
