Find Her, Stay With Her

The drive back was, more or less, uneventful. Jan had decided to recline her seat and take a nap, and Lyra was listening to music on her burner phone. Kyle was just driving, and blocking out everything. He drove absently, lost in thought.

Kyle was absolutely loathing the time that was to come soon. Lyra would change back into a pony, and Celestia would come to take her back to Equestria. After that... he could not even bring himself to think about what was to come. He did not want to think about being alone once again. Lyra would be gone, and then his mother. He would just be left with a big empty house and no one to share it with.

Wanting to drown out these thoughts for now, he decided to put on some music. After turning it on, he immediately heard "El Mañana" by Gorillaz playing on the radio.

Good choice of music for once... unlike the modernized crap they air these days. Kyle thought.

Ed and Danny had fallen asleep in the back. Neither of them wanted to stay awake the whole way, like last time, which really took a toll on their sanity at the time. They had to quietly shift around in order to find a comfortable position in which to sleep.

While driving, Kyle could not help but picture his life before Lyra showed up. He was emotionless... hollow... and practically lifeless. He needed someone who would save him... fix him... COMPLETE him. Lyra was, right now, his only source of true happiness and hope. Sure, his mother was adequate to get him through his tough times... but with her planning on leaving, too... everything would just like before.

Kyle would just be painting day in and day out for his clients. While he did have enough imagination to produce hundreds of thousands of pictures over the course of his life... it would all feel fruitless without anyone to share his success with. Maybe he could join some clubs or make friends at art shows. But still, Lyra was the one thing in his life who brought him real, genuine fulfillment in his life. He did not want to lose her forever.

There was a bit of static on the radio, causing the song to fade to nothing a while before it was finished. Kyle immediately snapped back to reality when he noticed the song go off the air.

"What? No!" Kyle said, trying to readjust the frequency of the radio. "I wanna hear Gorillaz! I love that song!"

After fiddling with the knob a bit, Kyle was unable to get the song back up. In fact, every station was out of range from where they were. He simply shut off the radio. Needless to say, it really pissed him off that he could not even have any distractions from reality.

Eventually, after making it back into the Atlanta area, Kyle pulled into a gas station to refuel, and everybody (except for Ed and Danny) got out to stretch their legs. While fueling, Kyle decided to use a trick he learned online; squeezing the handle to release the gas slower, which would fill the tank with only gas instead of a mixture of vapor and gas, which would save him money.

"I'm gonna try to go to the bathroom before we take off." Lyra said.

"Okay." Kyle said. "No hurry."

Lyra walked into the Seven-Eleven and made her way into the unoccupied bathroom. Even though she did not have to use the restroom very badly, she figured it would be better than trying to hold it in on the way back. However... once she shut the door, something began to happen.

"...O-ooh..." Lyra moaned, putting a hand to her head. "...I-I feel weird..."

Lyra fell onto her knees as she felt herself losing balance, and then onto her hands. A churning, gurgling noise was emanating from her stomach. Her muscles felt like they were filled with squirming nightcrawlers. It took a moment for her to notice a green color appearing in patches on her skin, spreading across her entire body. She subtly felt it to recognize it as the texture of... pony fur.

The spell Celestia put on Lyra was wearing off. She was changing back to her original form.

"...H-huh...? I'm shrinking...!" she said.

Lyra saw the ground slowly moving towards her face even though she sat in the same pose. Her clothes were getting looser, aside from the back of her shorts, where her tail was rapidly sprouting from the base of her spine. She felt her nose and mouth being pushed outward from her face, as well as her ears creeping up either side of her head as they became rounded points once again. Her eyes increased in size relative to her skull, becoming her trademark pony eyes. The immense tingling and firm sensation on her forehead told Lyra that her horn was growing back quite fast, like a spear emerging from her head.

The only thing she actually saw, though, were her fingers merging together as her entire hand was becoming more stiff.

"No! Not my hands!" Lyra said, her eyes slightly tearing up. "Not my beautiful, human hands! I don't wanna have my hooves back! This is so unfair..."

The same thing was happening with her feet, causing her shoes to slip off as they became hooves again. Soon, all of the changes had concluded, leaving Lyra in her original Unicorn form. She inspected herself, anxious and saddened.

"No..." she uttered. "...th-this can't be happening...! I'M A HUMAN! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO EQUESTRIA! I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE MY KYLE!"

There was a knocking on the door.

"Hey, you alright in there?" came a woman's voice.

Lyra gasped.

Uh-oh... she thought. ...I can't be seen like THIS! I... I gotta get out of here!

Lyra hastily unlocked the door, and teleported away. Meanwhile, the woman who was on the other side of the door opened it to see nothing but an abandoned set on clothing on the floor.

"The hell...? Was someone in here?" she asked nobody in particular.

In Canterlot, Celestia was taking a break in her private quarters after having attended a meeting session of the Equestrian Royal Council. Needless to say, her royal duties left her with little energy for anything else, and her face was killing her from having to put on a smile all the time and come off as a benevolent ruler.

She was simply lounging for the time being, snacking on a slice of cake. Suddenly, however, her horn gave a subtle glow, and she gained a more alert expression. She was familiar with the kind of magic that was causing this reaction in her horn... and it appears that it happened too soon.

It was because Lyra had reverted back into a human, which her magic informed her of.

"Oh no..." Celestia said. "...her form-altering spell has worn off too quickly!"

She immediately set down her cake on the end table, stood from her sofa, and rushed over to the portal chamber. She was going to head back to their world immediately to get Lyra, so that she would be out of any potential danger from other humans who were... not as understanding as Kyle or Jan.

She charged her horn with magic, powering up the portal. The large image on the floor began to glow a heavenly light with a mystic-sounding hum... but it stopped suddenly, even though Celestia was still channeling magic.

Celestia gasped. "...The portal doesn't have enough energy!"

The Princess of Equestria paced anxiously, trying to think quickly about what to do. Luna's assistance alone would probably not be enough, because Luna did not create the portal, nor did she even understand how interdimensional travel worked.

"I need to get Twilight over here immediately!" she said to herself.

She made a break back to her quarters, flying rapidly, and with great agility, through Canterlot Castle in order to send an urgent letter to her pupil. She had strong faith in Twilight, particularly with how powerful she was in magic.

Lyra had teleported outside of the Seven-Eleven, just behind the back... but she was going to need to be extremely careful to avoid being caught by anyone.

"Just need to get a clear look at Kyle's car... and I'll just teleport my way in!" Lyra said to herself.

She knew that she would have to explain to Kyle and Jan what happened, being that the spell had worn off prematurely. She assumed that it had to do with her using her Unicorn magic in human form, but had no way to know for sure. It did not matter at the moment, however, since she had to get hidden as soon as possible.

Lyra began to sneak around one side of the building, but she met with an unfortunate fate right away. There was a police car parked at the side of the building she was heading for, and the two cops were outside of their car. One of them looked straight at her as she rounded the corner. He stood up from leaning on his car.

"What the...?" he uttered.

"Eek!" Lyra squealed as she rushed back the other way.

The cop drew his taser as the other one followed behind, both chasing Lyra. Once they rounded the corner, the leading cop pointed his taser at the escaping Unicorn, and fired. The two barbed cables stuck into Lyra's flank, and she started convulsing uncontrollably as the taser made a rapid, loud clicking sound.

"D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d...!" Lyra stammered as high voltage surged through her.

After a long series of shocks, she was unconscious. The two cops stood over her, trying to make out what she was.

"What the hell is this thing?" one of the cops asked.

"I don't know..." the other answered. "...but I have a feeling we'll get a big reward from the government if we hand it over to their laboratories!"

"Hm, good idea!" the first cop said.

Kyle decided to investigate what he had just heard on the other side of the convenient store.

"Could've sworn I heard a taser or something..." he said to himself.

He would likely not want to be involved in anything involving a taser... but with what he was to find, he most definitely would want to get involved. Kyle happened to round the corner to see one of two cops carrying Lyra, who was now a pony again, as well as unconscious. Both of them looked at Kyle.

"Hey!" the cop not carrying Lyra said, putting a hand on his service pistol. "Stay where you are!"

Kyle held up his hands as the cop approached him, threatening to draw his weapon.

"W-wait...! I'm not armed! Please don't shoot me!" he said.

"Put your hands behind your back!" the cop said, pulling out his handcuffs.

"What?" Kyle asked.

"Put your hands behind your back! You're under arrest!" the cop said.

Kyle felt like his organs turned to mush upon hearing this.

"But... what did I do?" he asked.

"Put your hands behind your back! Now!" the cop repeated.

Kyle assumed that the cops wanted to keep him from telling the world about their "discovery". However, he was not going to let himself be taken so easily.

Okay, power... don't fail me now! Kyle thought.

He briefly closed his eyes and focused his energy as he heard the cop getting closer. Once he was sure he had invoked it, he opened his eyes, and grabbed the cop by the wrist as he reached for Kyle's own wrist. And then, with the sudden strength that would better suit a larger individual, he pulled the cop over his back, flipping him onto his own back, stunning him. Kyle further incapacitated him with a swift kick to the skull.

Though he looked quite scrawny, Kyle was actually a lot stronger than he looked.

The other cop wasted no time, dropping the unconscious Lyra, and reaching for his gun. However, Kyle darted at the cop, taking his gun from him, and punching him square in the jaw. The cop fell to the ground, and Kyle took advantage of this extra bit of time he had given himself to pick up Lyra, and tuck the nine-millimeter Glock pistol into the back of his pants.

He threw Lyra into the car, pulled the fuel nozzle out of his car, and quickly confirmed his credit card payment.

"Sweetheart, what's going on? Why is Lyra back to her pony self?" Jan asked.

"We gotta go!" Kyle said. "Some cops found her, and I had to... beat them up to get her back."

"You did WHAT!?" Jan asked, shocked.

"No time to explain! We gotta get outta here!" Kyle said.

He quickly started up his car, and sped out of the gas station just in the nick of time, as the two cops, albeit injured, stood back up and made their way over to the front of the station to see the car speed away. One of them spoke into his radio.

"Officers assaulted!" he said. "This is 331! We need immediate backup! Perp is in a silver Toyota RAV4, heading north on Union!"

"Copy, 331, dispatching backup on Union." the dispatcher responded.

The cops quickly made their way back to their vehicle, despite still being disoriented, and started it up to pursue the Schaeffers and Lyra...

It would now take nothing short of a miracle for the three to get to safety now...