Find Her, Stay With Her

For days, Lyra had been pondering what she should do about her whole memory situation. It was clear that her false memories were made for the purpose of overwriting her real ones... but clearly, that intended effect failed. She was not sure if she should tell her friends about it, or maybe write a letter to Princess Celestia. Still, she had no idea how they would react if they found out, so she decided to lay low for a little while.

"Lyra..." Bon Bon spoke up. "...are you okay?"

Lyra suddenly returned to reality. She was sitting at a cafe in Ponyville, having lunch with Bon Bon and Noteworthy.

"Huh?" Lyra asked.

Noteworthy raised a brow and tilted his head.

"Lyra... you've been acting a bit strange lately. Are you sure everything's alright?" he asked.

Realizing that she needed to keep a low profile regarding her situation, Lyra decided to put on a fake smile.

"Yep, everything's good! I've just been a bit lacking in sleep lately..." she said.

"Oh, sorry to hear that, Lyra." Bon Bon said.

"It's fine..." Lyra said. "...I'm sure I'll have it all sorted out soon..."

"Okay, we just wanted to make sure." Bon Bon said.

"And if you ever need anything, we're here for you, Lyra." Noteworthy said. "We're your friends, after all."

"Thanks." Lyra said.

The trio continued to eat their meals... but behind her casual expression, Lyra was still lost in thought. How would she mention this to her friends and Celestia, and more importantly... would she ever see Kyle again?

Kyle, still in his dream and unaware that it was a dream, made it up to the top of the ocean cliffside, where he immediately saw a road behind a steel highway barrier. He climbed over it and began to walk down the road to a spot that looked like it yielded to civilization. Sure enough, when he arrived, he spotted a small, oceanside town.

"Great," Kyle said. "now maybe I can figure out something after I get some things I need."

Kyle made his way into the town, which surprisingly took less time than he was expecting. He really hoped nobody would see him, since it would look really suspicious for a guy wearing a hospital gown to be walking around in the dead of night with a crowbar. After a bit of time, he spotted a conveniently-placed Kohl's on the street he was on.

“Maybe I can get some actual clothing from there.” he said.

With that, he set off towards the high-end clothing store. The doors were locked, so Kyle simply used his crowbar to pry them open. It took a bit of effort, but he managed to break the lock that kept the sliding doors closed. He was not going to risk breaking glass, which could set off a burglar alarm.

Inside, the lights were out, so he lit his lighter once again, and started to look around. There were no employees or watchmen, as far as he could see. The building (and in fact, the entire block) was deserted. At least he could stop fleeing for now and get himself together to come up with a plan.

Off the shelves, he took a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt, a black cardigan, a belt, and a pair of black leather cowboy-style dress boots, and he ripped open some packs of socks and underwear to take what he needed. (And, because he was feeling a bit frisky, he decided to take an ankh necklace, a watch, and a bracelet as well, wearing the watch on his left-hand wrist, and the bracelet on his right.)

After spending a bit of time in the fitting room, he emerged with all of his new garments adorned. He decided to throw the gown in the trash, and put the security guard's shoes on one of the shelves in the shoe section, since they were not his size.

"Okay, this is much better." Kyle said, glad he was back in real clothes.

With that, he grabbed his crowbar, and tucked it into his belt, allowing it to hang on his left hip by the hook. He left the store, and started to try and head to higher ground to see if he could get a vantage point of the surrounding region, to see if he could identify which coastal area he was in. Hopefully, he might even see a highway sign that would tell him the name of the city.

He was about to climb up the fire escape on the side of a tall building he saw... but then came the sound of emergency vehicle sirens. Kyle looked in the direction it was coming from, and saw an entire fleet of police cars coming his way. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the law enforcement vehicles in the distance as his heart rate picked up again.

“Shit! They found me!” Kyle whispered. “They know where I am! They're gonna take me and lock me in a maximum security cell!”

Wasting no time, he made a break for the sea, rushing through the alleyways of the small skyscrapers, the police drawing near the whole time. Eventually, he managed to spot a harbor where there were some recreational boats. As much as he despised stealing, and crimes in general... he really did not think it mattered at this point.

Kyle had to move quickly, too; a police helicopter was airborne, pointing a bright, spotted light around in an attempt to locate him. He rushed for the pier shelter, only to find that it was chained and locked. Nervously glancing up at the chopper, he manifested strength via adrenaline, and pried the gate with the crowbar to bend it and create an opening.

Fortunately, Kyle managed to squeeze through the gate and hide under the shelter before the light could pass over him.

"Okay... now to get myself a vessel." Kyle said. "I gotta get the fuck outta Dodge... wherever I am right now."

Kyle took a sailboat, which was the closest one to the shelter exit.

"There'd better be a manual... and I'd better not need wind just to operate it." Kyle muttered.

He was able to get the engine started, and start to turn the ship out of the docking space. He hastily untied the rope tether before it would get too tight from the ship moving away from the peg and bind his fingers.

The police were scouting the area on foot to see if they could spot anything... and one of them happened to see the sailboat moving away from the pier, out of harbor.

"BOAT!" a cop shouted, just before discharging a rubber bullet from his shotgun.

"STOP!" a superior officer said, just before snatching the shotgun. "What's the matter with you!? A good cop never shoots first!"

"But... what about that boat? It wasn't off-dock a moment ago!" the cop who shot said.

“Prob'ly just a stray.” another cop said.

“Should we call to have it recovered?” another one asked.

The first cop shook his head. “Nah... serves 'em right for not tying it on properly! So, let's keep looking for our mentally-ill escapee!”

With that, the police left the scene, and continued searching on land... but they had not left Kyle unharmed.

The discharged rubber bullet hit the water in a way that it rebounded, deflected off the mast of the sailboat, and hit Kyle in the forehead. It knocked him backwards, making him hit the back of his head against the rail on the starboard edge of the boat. The nonlethal ammo hit combined with the rail knocked him unconscious.

After he came to some time later, Kyle noticed that he was in a different area, but luckily, still near the coast. The waves and wind had carried the sailboat fairly far from the dock he took it from. It was nearing dawn, from the look of it. Now, he was at a gigantic boardwalk, and on it, he could make out some lit-up shapes. As he recovered from the double-knock on his head, he made it out to be an amusement park on the boardwalk itself. He sat up, recovering from his disorientation near-instantly, and examined the landmark.

“What is this place? Coney Island?” Kyle said to himself. “Ah, hell... I wouldn't mind a ride on a crazy roller coaster and nice, tall Ferris wheel, and maybe getting myself some cotton candy and fried dough... but goddammit, I'm on the run from the asylum...”

He carefully pulled the boat over to a steel ladder that stretched down from the boardwalk platform into the ocean, and then abandoned ship by jumping onto the ladder. With that, he climbed up to the top, not paying any more mind to the boat.

When he made it to the top, the first thing he noticed about the concession and attraction booths were posters of mugshots on them. Looking a bit closer... Kyle happened to notice that they were of him.

-WANTED-

Kyle Schaeffer
-Mentally-ill brony
-Escaped from Richardson Asylum
-Considered dangerous due to violent outbursts

If you have any information, please report to the local police immediately.

“What the actual hell...?” Kyle whispered. “How did this spread so quickly!?”

In an instant, he snatched the poster off the wall, crumpled it up, and through it into a trash can nearby. But only then did he realize that there were too many for him to get, and he could not afford to waste any time.

“Nevermind... I just still need to be careful.” Kyle said to himself.

He pulled his crowbar off of his hip, and slowly began to creep his way behind the concession booths. He found a ladder behind one of them, and climbed onto the top of one. Crouching, he spotted some people in the park... but they were not patrons. They were all cops for some reason.

"Goddamn..." Kyle whispered. "...they don't know when to quit. And all this effort for one guy? Seriously? I thought I had it bad with being bullied back in grade school..."

Kyle began to creep his way through the hidden spots of the park, trying to see what was going on. If the cops were here, putting up signs of his mugshot... they could no doubt be on the lookout for him. He happened to come across two cops who were standing with each other on the stoop of a ringtoss booth. They were both chuckling at something. Carefully getting a bit closer, Kyle noticed that they were distracted by something on an iPad one of them was holding.

“Hey, Granny Mabel's Garden game is sick!” the cop holding the iPad said, just before doing something on it. “See how I dig this little hole... and I drop in the seeds!”

“Ha! Look at the little seeds!” the other cop said in a high-pitched, joyful tone, pointing at the screen.

They both seemed quite overly-enthusiastic about some random mobile game... but this gave Kyle an idea. He could use some of their equipment to help him...

He readied his crowbar, carefully creeping up behind the two officers with their backs turned, heavily distracted by the iPad game. Once he got close enough, he stood at a particular angle behind the cops; he struck one cop over the head directly, and got the other one via the rebound. He had essentially gotten them both in one hit.

The cops fell to the ground as blood splattered the ground and steel bludgeon. Kyle wiped the blood off his weapon on one of the cops' clothes. From there, he took one of their handguns, ejected the magazine out of the other, and took the remainder of their handgun magazines, which he stuffed into his pockets. He tucked the handgun itself into the back of his pants, supported by his belt, and picked up the dropped iPad. He closed out of the game, and began searching through the device's widgets.

“There's gotta be Google Maps or something on here... I need to find out where I am, and how I can get home...” Kyle said to himself.

He loaded up the GPS app, and after a few minutes of waiting, managed to spot his location. He was going to zoom out to see where he was... but something else caught his eye. It appeared that there was a train station just outside of the amusement park.

"Okay, but... with all these cops roaming about, how am I gonna get past them unnoticed?" Kyle pondered.

He glanced down at the dead cops, and noticed that one did not have blood on his uniform...

(Moments later)

Kyle, adorned in a police uniform over his clothes, along with a fake beard and mustache he took from the prizes of one of the game booths, made his way through the park, trying not to draw attention to himself. He hoped the crowbar in place of the nightstick baton would not be too noticeable.

Stop being so tense. Act natural, you fool... Kyle thought to himself.

Sure enough, some cops did look at him, but fortunately, not twice. He made it out of the park, and spotted the stairs that led down into the train station. There were several police and S.W.A.T. vehicles parked all around the park entrance, which put him on edge even more so.

Once he made it down to the train station, he abandoned his disguise, and took a look at the train schedule. It seemed that luck was now starting to shift to his side, because he saw that the transit was...

"Amtrak... perfect!" Kyle said to himself. "A long-distance railway transit is just what I need to get home. But... how will I buy a ticket without drawing attention?"

The station, appeared to be abandoned. There was nobody at the ticket booth... no security guards... no passengers. It was deserted. So, Kyle simply stepped through the turnstile, and made his way to the platform. He checked the schedule board to see when the next train would be arriving. From the look of it, it would be in a few minutes.

"Next train to Atlanta... PERFECT! Now, I can make it home... and then I'll be able to find a way to go to Equestria, and I'll be back with Lyra. We'll live together... forever!" Kyle said in triumph.

Atlanta was the city closest to where Kyle's mansion was, as well as his mother's apartment. It was not too close, it was at least a half-hour away... but still, he had to get there somehow. Even with the exhilarating thought of returning home... he was not without his doubts.

What if things took a turn for the worst? What if Murphy's Law would set in like it always did for him? What would his mother think off all this? Would she come to accept him, still? The consequences could be worse than they would be now... that coupled with the fact that no good deed goes unpunished...

"I could turn back now..." Kyle said, glancing behind himself.

"Now arriving." the PA announced as the train approached the station, slowing down. "Destination: Atlanta, Georgia. Estimated time of arrival: twelve hours following departure."

Kyle stared at the lights of the approaching train... like a beacon of hope, beckoning him ever so subtly...

"...no!" he decided. "It's too late to change my mind. I can't go back; I have to go to Equestria! It's the only way..."

Shortly, the train arrived, and Kyle stepped on board.

"Step back to allow passengers to enter. When boarding, please move to the center of the car. And please stand clear of the closing doors." the PA instructed.

Kyle took a seat as the doors of the train closed, and fastened his seatbelt. From the look of it, he was the only one on the train. The train lurched forward... and as it departed from the station, Kyle could see several police and S.W.A.T. officers rushing into the station, trying to catch the train. It seemed he made it out in the nick of time.

After moving through the tunnel for a while, the train made it outside. It was already well into the morning, and it was very light out. Even though it was daytime... Kyle felt immensely tired. He decided to lay down on the seat, and get some sleep.

It was going to be a long trip back to Atlanta...