The stars are beautiful indeed... Not quite the opening you expected, is it? Not a problem, this little story is about tangents. Not mathematical tangents mind you, but the kind of tangents that disrupt plans and lead you on unexpected journeys into the unknown. And sometimes that journey is even better than what you were doing in the first place.
The stars are beautiful indeed. I’d like you to keep that thought.
It was somewhere in the late afternoon. Not late enough for the sun to set, but late enough for everypony to go home, or to some sort of party. Because that’s exactly what everypony was doing in Canterlot, including three fillies They were Twilight Sparkle, Lyra Heartstrings and Moondancer. No, they weren’t going to a party, that’s just not like them. They were, in fact going home. Their saddlebags were filled with books and papers, essentials for long study sessions, which is what all three of them were planning to have.
“Anyway, it was nice talking to you.” Said Moondancer, as they got to her house. “I gotta get back and finish my studies.”
“Likewise.” Twilight replied, with a slight air of impatience.
Lyra silently agreed and was ready to go.
“Ooh, before I forget,” said Moondancer and she turned back from the door, “I’m throwing a party tomorrow, do you wanna come?”
“Tomorrow?” Asked Lyra. “Aw man, that’s when I’m moving to Ponyville. I don’t think I can make it.”
“That’s fine, it happens.” Said Moondancer.
“I haven’t forgotten about your birthday though,” Lyra continued, “I’ll give you your present in the morning.”
“What about you Twilight?” Moondancer turned to her.
After a brief pause Twilight reluctantly answered. “Eh, I’m stuck anyway, maybe it’ll help if I get my mind off it for a while.”
So the plans were set and after making sure everypony gets there on time, they departed. Twilight and Lyra were left with each other for a while. Lyra lived somewhere else in the city, but she decided to walk her friends home. It was a bit longer for her, but she didn’t mind.
“You say you’re stuck.” Lyra inquired. “What are you stuck with?”
“I’ve been studying the four bright stars that appeared around the Moon.” Said Twilight. “They move in such an odd way, they’re travelling slowly in a straight trajectory towards the Moon. I’m trying to figure out what exactly they are, but they’re too bright and I can’t get a clear view of them. I searched in every astronomy book I could find and everything relating to spells that make bright lights, but none of it matches.”
“Four bright objects headed for the Moon?” Lyra thought out loud. “Should we be worried?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. But I want to avoid causing a panic.”
“Hmm, maybe getting your mind off it for a while will help. It usually clears up my mind when I put away something for a while.”
“Let’s hope. I’ll try to figure it out before Moondancer’s party. Maybe I’ll write to Celestia if I see it as necessary.”
“Well let’s hope it isn’t.” Lyra added.
After a few seconds of silence, Lyra spoke up again. “I’m actually struggling with a problem myself.”
“Oh, don’t tell me it’s those prehistoric apes again.” Said Twilight dismissively.
“Okay…” Lyra replied and closed her lips tightly.
“I can’t believe you’d dedicate so much time for something so obviously ridiculous!” Twilight uttered. “You almost failed in school, because it was more important to you than your studies.”
“Hey, these are my studies!” Lyra objected. “And it’s not like you never dedicated your time for something useless.”
“Eh, anyway, we’re here.” Said Twilight, as they arrived at her house.
“Well, see you tomorrow then.” Lyra prepared to leave.
“Wait.” Twilight stopped her. “I thought maybe you could stay for a while.”
“Really?”
“I mean, I know you’re busy…”
“Not really, I don’t have anything to do at home.”
“Don’t you have a lot of packing to do?”
“No, I’m a quick packer, I can do it tomorrow morning. I’m just a bit surprised by your suggestion.”
“I just thought maybe I could help with your problem.” Twilight stuttered a bit. “Maybe that would help me get my mind off from mine. Besides, it is important to entertain even ridiculous ideas from time to time.”
“Ooh, so you want some brain exercise?”
“I was about to say, hopefully I can make you see how ridiculous this prehistoric primate thing is.”
“Ooor, maybe I’ll make you see how right I am.”
Twilight laughed lightly. “We’ll see! So, are you staying?”
“Of course, I’d love to!” Lyra responded enthusiastically.
They went inside and went up the stairs into the main room. Spike was there waiting for them with closed eyes, slouched across a small stool. Yes, he was sleeping. He also had a window cleaner in his hand, but it was dry as a rock and clearly not used.
“Spike!” Twilight woke him up.
“Gah!” Spike jumped up from his stool. ”I cleaned the window, I totally wasn’t sleeping instead of doing that.”
Lyra looked up at the large window in the middle of the room. It was quite clearly not done.
“I also gathered all the books you asked for.” He continued and pointed to a tower of books. Now that, that was done.
“Thank you Spike, but we won’t be needing that until tonight.” Said Twilight. “Lyra will be staying for a while.”
“Cool! Shall I get some snacks for you?”
“That won’t be needed either. But we need to bring a present to Moondancer’s party tomorrow.” Twilight winked.
“I’m guessing, I’ll be the one to buy the present again.”
“You know I’m not good with presents, I’d just give her a book she already owns.”
“I know, I know. I’ll find something.” Spike responded and went on his way. “Have fun you two!” He waved as he ran down the stairs and out the door.
“So,” Twilight turned to Lyra, “what was it about those apes?”
“Pelvises!” Lyra blurted out.
“Pelvises?” Twilight repeated the blurt as a question.
“Well you see,” Lyra then took out a whole bunch of papers and scribblings from her bag and levitated them in a circle around them, “we always assumed humans would be very muscular, like the now extinct gorillas described in ancient legends.”
Twilight then noticed that Lyra has brought out her lyre too. “What’s that for?” She asked.
“Oh that? I noticed, playing it helps me think.” And she indeed began playing a faint melody on it with her magic and then continued. “Considering how similar their arms were, we always assumed humans would be just like gorillas. That was until we found this!” She then showed a picture of a human pelvis. What little remained of it, to be exact.
“What is wrong with it?”
“All primates we know have very large pelvises. But this one is rather small and has a completely different shape.”
“Well, I’ve got just the right book for you!” Twilight said and then turned to the bookshelf. She looked for a few seconds then took a book off. “This book describes all species of monkeys and apes, in exhaustive detail. And I’d just like to point out,” she said with a smug grin, “humans aren’t included.”
Lyra ignored that remark. “No, we already compared it to all known primates and it doesn’t match.” Lyra said while flipping through the book. “Ooh, this book is actually pretty good. May I borrow it?”
“Of course!” Twilight answered. For a brief second she was distracted by the lyre being played, because the melodies were getting increasingly discordant.
“As I was saying,” Lyra continued, “the pelvises of other apes are shaped exactly like most quadrupeds’, which is why they use all four of their limbs while walking.”
“Right.” Twilight was getting increasingly annoyed by the increasingly discordant lyre, but she was still following.
“But a human pelvis is shaped quite differently. In fact, it’s shaped almost exactly like a minotaur’s.”
“So you’re saying humans and minotaurs are related?”
“Not quite. I’m saying, that humans had an upright posture, just like minotaurs.”
Twilight smirked. “Upright primates, this is getting more and more ridiculous!” She then glared at the self-playing lyre. “Ugh, just like the melody you’re playing. Could you turn that off please?”
Lyra then stopped playing immediately and dropped every scribbling she was levitating. “Oh sorry, I don’t really pay attention while I’m doing that.”
“You weren’t even playing anything, just random notes!”
“Yeah, but this is how I got my cutie-mark, remember?” She recalled, while picking up her notes. “Boy, you should have heard that song!”
“I’d prefer to hear an actual song from you.” Twilight then put on a grin. “Or are you not good enough for that?”
“Not good enough?” Lyra felt offended by that suggestion. “I have you know I’m the lyre equivalent of Hinny Hendrix.”
“Care to put your horn where your mouth is?”
“Sure!” Lyra quickly put her papers back into her bag and levitated the lyre right in front of her. “I’ll show you what it’s like when I actually concentrate.” She then sat up straight, cleared her throat and started playing something.
At first it was clear she was improvising. She played a simple scale, then played it backwards. Then played those scales a couple more times, with slight variations in the order of the notes, eventually crafting more and more intricate melodies.
The Sun was hanging low by that moment. It shone right in, drawing the orange silhouette of the window across the floor. The two ponies’ stretched shadows reaching towards the wall. The light reflecting off the golden lyre made it sparkle, the vibrating strings left lines of glare in the air.
Twilight was captivated by the music. She laid down and closed her eyes. But Lyra didn’t even see that. Her eyes were closed a while ago. She played the melodies through pure instinct, her whole body lightly swaying to the rhythm.
After a while, she opened her eyes and decided to play the closing notes of her piece. Twilight also opened her eyes.
“That was beautiful!” She said quietly, almost like a whisper.
Lyra put on a grin and in a light voice named her improvised piece. “I call that one: Twilight’s a jerk.”
“Hey!” Twilight lurched up from her relaxed position.
Lyra burst into laughter. “Sorry, did I ruin the mood?”
Twilight looked angry for a moment, but with the Sun shining so perfectly into the room, she couldn’t stay mad at Lyra. She looked out the window at the landscape that shimmered with a bright orange by the setting Sun.
“No, not at all.” She said, once she calmed down entirely.
Lyra also looked outside. “This is like one of those cheesy romantic stories. You know, the ones where the couple looks at the beautiful sunset?”
Twilight chuckled softly. “Yes, arguably the best part of those.”
“I admit,” Lyra carried on, “I’d like to experience it some time.”
Twilight smiled and looked at her. Lyra looked back at Twilight. They held the look for a moment, silently acknowledging, that Lyra’s wish has in fact, been fulfilled.
“Although,” Lyra interrupted the staring, “that is also the part right before everything goes wrong.”
Twilight lowered her eyebrows and frowned. “Now you ruined the mood.”
Lyra giggled. “Sorry, shall we go back to talking about pelvises?”
“Let’s not ruin the mood even further.” Twilight replied and put her head down.
They went back to staring at the setting Sun. It was now just a bright red slice of a circle, faintly peeking through the horizon. Lyra took her eyes off the sunset after a brief minute and looked at Twilight instead. Her purple coat turned an odd sort of brownish, in the sunset light. Lyra then got up only to lay down very close to Twilight, brushing up against her side. Twilight looked up at her with half open eyes and smiled faintly. Then after taking a glance into each other’s eyes, they turned back onto the Sun diving below the horizon.
“The Moon will be up soon.” Said Twilight in a sad tone. “Along with those four stars. Or whatever they are.” Then her tone changed to outright grumpy. “They always keep me up late.”
“Whenever I’m having trouble falling asleep,” Lyra tried to help her, “I just stare at the stars.”
“That’s not exactly helpful.”
“Yeah, I guess the stars are actually the source of your problem.” She thought for a moment. “I also sometimes play music.”
“But some ponies don’t have the privilege of having music at their disposal.”
“I could always stay.”
“Would you really do that?”
“Of course, there’s nopony at home waiting for me.”
“But I’ve only got a single bed, you can’t just sleep on the floor.” Twilight paused for a moment. “Two, if you count Spike’s bed.”
Lyra just looked at Twilight and wiggled her eyebrows at her. Twilight’s cheeks turned red slightly, this time not from the setting Sun. But she thought of a response.
“Are you planning to sleep with Spike?” She asked jokingly.
That question took Lyra off-guard and she burst into laughter.
The Sun was no longer visible, the stars began to take their places. And the Moon commenced its crawl up into the sky, escorted by the four mysterious shining objects.
Twilight sighed. “There they are, the banes of my existence.” She put her head down. “They’re even closer now. I have to know what they mean, it could be important.”
“Are magic tomes and astronomy books the only things you looked at?” Lyra asked.
“Yes, what else could I look at?”
“Maybe you should look into some old myths and legends. You never know what turns out to be true.”
“That is such a Lyra thing to say. Suggesting fictional tales in a scientific question.” Twilight then sighed. “Maybe you’re right. I’m out of ideas anyway.” She then turned away from the window, she didn’t want to look at the Moon for any longer.
Lyra kept staring at it, her mind racing with questions. After a brief minute one of those questions came right out of her mouth.
“I wonder what she sees.” She said.
“Who?” Twilight asked.
“The mare in the Moon.”
Twilight glared at Lyra. “She doesn’t think anything. She’s fictional.” She explained dismissively.
“Maybe, but the Moon is a place in itself, isn't it? If you went there, what would you see?”
Twilight turned her face back onto the Moon, her mind filled with doubt. But she was also curious where Lyra was going with this.
“And what about the rest of the stars?” Lyra carried on. “What are they? They appear at night, just like the Moon. Are they perhaps tiny moons? Or are they just really far away? Could they be distant worlds? I wonder... Is there anypony out there, who looks up into their own sky, right back at us and asks the same questions.”
Twilight thought for a moment. She considered Lyra’s questions, then made her conclusion. “Lyra, only you can manage to make something so silly sound so fascinating.”
“There is nothing silly about this.” Lyra objected. “I simply want to know what’s out there. Anywhere. The world is filled with so much wonder, you just have to find it. And I sometimes feel like, some of the most wondrous wonders are staring me right in the face.”
“I don’t see anything wonderful.” Twilight responded. “Sure, we should strive for understanding, but it’s for our own good. Not some quest to find nice things.”
“You don’t see it as wonderful, because you’re used to it. But once you sit down and pay a bit more attention, you’ll find that some of the most mundane things are the most beautiful. That’s how Nightmare Moon was created, nopony appreciated her night, even though she put so much work into making the stars beautiful. You never know what could be important.”
“You should become a fantasy writer, Lyra. You can make even the most ridiculous ideas sound amazing.” Twilight then put her head down and sighed. “I sometimes wish I could see with your eyes. I’d like to see wonders everywhere, even if I don’t know whether they’re actually there or not.”
“I know there are wonders in the world.” Said Lyra then turned to Twilight. “I am right next to one of them.”
Twilight lurched up as if she was scared by what Lyra said her face turned bright red. Lyra turned red too, as she realized what she just said.
“I’m sorry,” Lyra apologized, “was that a bit too cheesy? Or perhaps sudden?”
“Yes It was.” Twilight responded, then scooted closer and put her hoof on Lyra’s. “But I appreciate it.” She added with a smile.
They smiled, then snuggled up very close and brushed their cheeks together. They looked into each other’s eyes as deep as they were staring at the stars a second ago. They laid, all huddled-up, in the warmest silence. There were no more scientific dead ends or enigmatic lights, or pelvises. Only wonders.
The entrance door opened suddenly. It was Spike who returned from his trip. The two ponies didn’t change their position. Why would they? There was nothing to hide. They just turned their heads to Spike climbing the stairs.
“Wow, you’re late!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Yeah, got a bit distracted.” He said. “I’ve met Minuette and she’s too much fun to hang out with to ignore.”
“You still got everything I asked you?”
“Of course.” He then put down all the stuff he was carrying. “I bought Moondancer a stuffed bear and a gift card. I also bought wrapping paper so I can make a present.”
“Excellent!” Twilight then looked at the clock. “Has it really been that long?”
“Time flies when you’re in good company!” Lyra said.
That’s when Spike realized what was happening. “I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
Lyra stood up. “No, I was just about to go home.”
Twilight also stood up and turned to her. “Thanks for staying this long.”
“It was my pleasure.” They then hugged and held it for slightly longer than usual. “I hope you’ll finally have a good night’s sleep, Twilight.”
“Yes, I think I’m gonna do just that.” She replied.
Twilight followed Lyra to the door and watched her as she left. Lyra turned back once and waved. Twilight waved back. She leaned on the doorframe for a while, then yawned and got back inside.
“I think I’m going to go to bed now.” She said.
“This early? This is usually the time when you start your research.”
Twilight turned back to Spike and thought for a moment. “It’s time we had a brake Spike. Just have a good night’s sleep.”
“Sweet!” Spike exclaimed. He picked up his comic book and went to his own bed. But there was a feeling he couldn’t shake. “But seriously, if I was interrupting anything, then you could always just tell me to leave.”
Twilight turned around and smiled. “No, your timing was perfect. I was getting sleepy anyway.”
Spike returned to his comic book. Twilight laid in bed and stared outside the window. She could finally look at the stars with a smile. They became reminders of a wonderful memory.
“The stars are beautiful indeed.” She said quietly.
“What was that?” Spike asked back.
“Nothing. Just something Lyra said.”
