[[ A Lyra Perspective ]]

I sat in the class with one particular weave flickering in and out of my vision. Cadance hadn't had any hope of teaching me the history of societies' acceptance of the Bit as its standard currency when I could freakin' teleport!

Princess Celestia was looking at me. I blinked and tried to look around, but everypony was looking at me. "S-Sorry, I—"

She smiled at me, a wide and forgiving smile that was what I'd gotten used to with Candela. "You seem a little distracted, Lyra. Is something the matter?" Concern was real in her voice. Mum told me how Celestia locks up her expression, but she never seems to in class.

"It's all Twilight's fault," I said.

Gasps ran around the room, not the least of which was Celestia's. I held firm to my statement.

"How is Twilight to blame for your inattentiveness?" Princess Celestia looked aside at Twilight, and when I glanced at the filly too, I saw her looking terrified.

"She taught me a new spell."

Celestia turned her head toward Twilight, her expression that of barely withheld laughter. "Twilight, is this correct?"

"I didn't mean to! You said I should tutor Lyra and she has been learning really complex spells for her ability so I thought I'd teach her something I just learned and she picked up the weave really quickly and then—"

Twilight. Breathe, Twilight." Princess Celestia had all the warmth of a mother for Twilight Sparkle, I realized. "What spell was it?"

Almost hyperventilating, Twilight seemed to switch gears and sat up straight. "Teleportation, Princess."

"Intermediate spells already? Well done to both of you. Perhaps Lyra would like to step up to the front and teach us all how to form this weave?" This was Celestia's punishment for me destabilizing Twilight. The worst part was she knew exactly what she was doing with her punishment.

"I'd have to explain how to do the maths first," I said. Celestia's look told me everything I needed to know. Stretching my magic out thin, I reached for a piece of chalk and walked to the front of the class. When I turned around, Celestia had walked to the side and made herself comfortable. Lines on the blackboard would have been more humane.

There was a light of hope, however. I could teach this in a boring and droll way, worse even than Twilight had taught it to me, or I could teach it the way school should be taught. Clearing my throat, I climbed up on the desk at the front of the class so I was towering above everypony. "There's two tricks to learning this. The first is the maths itself, the second is remembering that up is a direction."

Using my magic, I began writing the formula on the board. Everything with this spell was relative placement, which meant that your first point was always yourself. The trick was being able to slide the other point around and have the numbers come to you quickly.

"Lemon Hearts, what's the resultant vector from you to me?" I asked.

Slowly working through the math, Lemon Hearts stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. Finally, she lifted her head. "Theta-X twelve degrees, Theta-Y five degrees, magnitude five point six!"

I stepped to the edge of the desk. "And now?"

When she started doing more math, I shook my head. "Lemon Hearts, look at me. Look right at me." I waited for her to look up from her notebook before I grinned. "Now that you're looking at me, what's the vector?"

None of the ponies in Celestia's class were idiots. I was the oldest, but I wasn't the smartest. Lemon Hearts worked out the trick after a few seconds—it had taken me almost an hour of playing tag with Twilight to figure it out.

"Zero degrees on both Theta, five point six magnitude!" Lemon Hearts' eyes were wide as she realized the trick. "So I just have to look?"

I nodded. "To do it quick and easy. Everypony, look at me and say your—"

Twilight Sparkle shot to her hooves and waved an accusing foreleg at me. "You cheated!"

"It worked," I said.

"But you didn't do all the hard math! You just looked in the—Wait. No you didn't!" I watched her snout screw up in concentration. "You did for a while, but then you did something different. You looked the opposite way and negated the vector!"

I'd scored some good boops with that trick. "I can do the maths, but I can use this trick and do it much faster. Which way is best?"

"Doing it the right way!" Twilight looked adorable. Her head was thrust forward, her chest puffed up, and I had the impression that it was all her subconscious trying to make her appear bigger.

I looked above and behind Twilight, to Princess Celestia, but all I got was a smile and a little shake of her head—I was on my own here. "But what if the right way isn't the best way for everypony?"

"But it's not the right way!"

I was at a loss. It seemed a simple thing to me. I opened my mouth to reply but caught the princess shaking her head.

"You mentioned cheating. Did you make a game of this?" Celestia asked.

"Y-Yes, Your—" I managed to catch myself. "Yes, Princess."

"Please demonstrate it for the class." Celestia's smile hinted that she knew roughly how our game would go.

Twilight got up from her seat and stood still. I prepared for what was coming, of course, and when she narrowed her eyes, nodded to me, and teleported—I was ready.

I released the spell weave I'd brought up, and as Twilight appeared, I blinked out and appeared to one side of her, turned ninety degrees so I was facing Twilight. I raised my hoof to boop her, but she was already teleporting away.

The gasps of the students drained away as the game was on. I built my next weave before I heard the pomf of her appearing elsewhere in the room.

"What is the aim?" Princess Celestia asked.

"To—" I said, then had to teleport away as Twilight moved in for the boop. "To boop the other on the nose," I added when I reappeared behind Celestia.

"No other movement is allowed except teleporting and booping," Twilight said and teleported away in two quick pomfs. What made me grin—and lose—was how adorably serious she sounded.

I found myself staring down my nose at the little purple hoof planted against it. "You win."

"I win!" Twilight started bouncing around and kicking her legs out at odd angles. She froze and pointed her hoof back at me. "Because my way was best!"

"That is a good point to bring up the value of rigor," Princess Celestia said. "The only way to say unequivocally that either way is right is to have you swap stances and try again."

Twilight pulled her hoof back and stared at Celestia with surprise. "But Lyra's not as fast as I am with the high-order math needed to perform fully calculated teleports swiftly. She's only as quick as she is because she… cheats." By the time she got to the last word, Twilight scrunched her snout up.

"She's still doing a lot of calculations. That ninety-degree transition while shifting her body was no mere accident. Twilight, I want you to spend the next game or two using Lyra's method, and teach Lyra the more precise mathematics. I think you'll both get a pleasant surprise," Princess Celestia said. "Now, back to your seats, and we can—"

The buzzing of our chips heralded the end of our time with Princess Celestia. I could see the annoyance on her face that her class was so short, and could feel it mirrored on my own.

"Alright, class. I want you to do some private research on the advanced spell, teleportation. See if you can't memorize the weave by next class."

In a lot of ways classes at Princess Celestia's school were much like Candela's—which helped a lot. I waited until all the others had filed out and walked up to Celestia. "Sorry about that."

"You're apologizing to the wrong pony, but it is appreciated. Twilight needs to be pushed, Lyra, but it needs to be gentle. I heard you're applying to the E.U.P. Guard?" The of the question gave nothing away. I was sure Mum could read Celestia when she was being neutral, but I had no chance.

I couldn't (and wouldn't) do anything but tell the truth. "I am. I was going to use the summer break to do the initial training, then stay on as a member of the Reserves. I have a friend joining, too, although she wants to join full time."

Celestia's smile was warm, a lite version of what she'd given Twilight earlier. "You're not doing it to be with her?"

"Maybe a little. I like Sweetie, but she hasn't really responded to anything I've said—not in that way. But it's more than that. I also want to know how to protect ponies from danger—I have a gift with magic and I don't want to waste it." The words felt right to me, I was glad to be able to say them. "I want to find my place. Music? I can play music, and I'm good at it, but I want to do more than that."

"That's a very pony position to take. Was there anything else you needed help with?" Celestia asked.

The offer was sincere. Princess Celestia would step up to bat for me if I needed her to, but only if I needed her to—Lyra-sized problems were for Lyra to deal with. "Thank you, Princess. I should go or there'll be nothing left by the time I get lunch."

"Good luck, Lyra." Princess Celestia sounded like she meant the words, but I couldn't help but feel there was more than one meaning in them.

It took until I reached the lunchroom before I realized she meant with Sweetie Drops. I know a smile spread over my lips, and I almost felt like singing. There was just something amazing about knowing that Princess Celestia was taking the time to wish you luck.

I spotted Twilight sitting on her own, and once I'd grabbed a pair of apples and a sandwich, headed over to sit with her. I sat down across from Twilight, and levitating up my sandwich, I took a small bite of it.

Twilight looked up briefly, then back down at the book that had appeared on the table sometime between when I'd arrived in the cafeteria and when I'd come to the table with my food.

"I'm sorry." I watched her while I waited for a reply. Apart from her ears betraying that she was listening to me, I got no response. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad or angry. Where I'm from, that kind of thing is pretty common. I guess it isn't here.

"So I'm sorry, really sorry." I had no idea what else to say, and lowered my head to look down at my suddenly unappetizing food.

"It's stupid," Twilight said. When I jerked my head up, she continued, "I spent so long working on that math, and then you show an easy way that doesn't need it!"

"I couldn't have worked out that easy way without you teaching me the right way. And I still had to do some calculations for that right-angled jump. I didn't mean to say your way was bad, but that my way is equally valid. This is why I'm not a teacher," I said.

Twilight looked at me a moment, then tilted her head just a little to one side. "But I am." She stuck her tongue out at me.

"One of the best," I said. "And now you have to teach me the harder stuff."

Twilight's groan made me giggle a little. "It was hard enough with simple coordinates. How am I going to teach you complex number theory and plotting on an imaginary plane instead of Cartesian plane?" She threw her forehooves in the air and blew out a sigh. That she peeked at me with a big grin on her face told me we were cool again.

"Well, you have to. Princess Celestia expects it." I tossed my mane to the side and tipped my snout up.

It was meant to be a gag, but Twilight turned the book she'd been reading so I could see what page it was on. In among all the numbers was the pony symbol for the letter I.

"What's this?" I asked.

"The start of your new math class. These are imaginary numbers. The I stands for——" Our lesson time, apparently, was now going to include lunch.

"Never, ever, again," I said. I used my magic to levitate a wooden spoon of soup up to my mouth, tasted it, and tossed the spoon to the sink to be washed later. "It needs more pepper."

Sweetie Drops let out a sigh. "You keep saying that."

"I like pepper, it boosts the flavor of—"

"No, the 'never ever' thing." Sweetie tossed the pepper grinder from her side of the kitchen—where she was chopping up carrots—to mine.

I caught the pepper easily with my magic and began grinding what I felt was enough to cause anypony's eyes to widen and remember they had a nasal cavity. "Well, I started the morning crowing about teleportation magic, so Princess Celestia made me teach the class about it, which meant I had to give a maths lesson. Then at lunch, Twilight started teaching me about imaginary numbers—"

"They don't exist?"

"Oh no. They exist. They exist all over the place. So my lunch is spent learning the basics of that, and then half my afternoon was a regular maths class. My head's full of numbers, and even geography didn't help." I put down the pepper and got a fresh spoon to stir the soup. "What did we do? We drilled on events and dates. More numbers!"

"Oh no! Who would have ever thought that attending the best school for unicorns in all Equestria would mean you have to learn?!" Sweetie lifted a hoof to her forehead and mimed fainting. "And here I am, in the lap of luxury, only having to work all day." As she spoke, she straightened and turned to glare at me.

"You're beautiful when you're sarcastic." The words had tumbled out without my consent, which was pretty bad as far as typical word-behavior went. My eyes widened, but not as much as hers.

"What did you say, Lyra Heartstrings?" Sweetie Drops asked.

Traitorous mouth! I clamped my jaws closed so hard my snout scrunched up. Turning back to the soup, I endeavored to look more busy than I was.

"Well?"

"Are you done with the carrots yet?" I asked.

"Michael Robertson?"

I stiffened at my human name from Sweetie's lips. I turned around slowly, and completely missed seeing the wooden spoon that pressed to my lips before Sweetie kissed the other side of it. I froze in shock and stared at her—so close.

"And that's all you're getting until you can admit it properly." Sweetie tossed the spoon into the sink and turned back to her carrots.

How on Earth—or Equestria—did that happen? I stared at her, really stared, trying to make sense of what I'd said, her reaction, and the craziness that had unfolded. I turned back to my soup and stirred it a little more. "This is almost done."

"Leave it on low heat. Can you lift these trays into the steamer?" Sweetie's tone was neutral, normal, as if nothing had happened.

I did as asked. "About what I said." At my words, one eyebrow on Sweetie Drops' brow rose higher and higher. "It's been hard working out who I am and what I want. I was a guy, with a girlfriend and all, but then she turned into a stallion and me into a mare.

"Life got overly complicated until we agreed that it wasn't working. She had herself—or himself—a boyfriend, and I had,"—I sighed—"no one. When I got here, I was suddenly surrounded by cute mares. Before I knew it, I had it bad for Princess Cadance, but like that was ever going anywhere with Shining around. Then I accidentally kissed Trixie, and—"

"How did you 'accidentally' kiss somepony?"

"You're going to ask me about every detail, aren't you?" I asked.

Sweetie Drops just nodded.

"We were practicing a way to let Cadance ask Shining out, with Trixie pretending to be Shining and me as Cadance, and I guess we got carried away." When I looked again, the eyebrow hadn't dropped any.

"Carried away like just now?"

"What? No!" When her eyebrow lowered, and a smile curved Sweetie's lips, I knew I'd probably said something ~~wrong~~right. "Ugh. I can't help finding all mares pretty and cute."

"And beautiful?"

The question was a trap I hadn't seen coming. I was a mare too, now, I figured it should be only fair that I can see these things coming—but no. "What? N-No…"

"So only me then? I can accept that."

My brain stopped working. Somehow I'd talked myself into admitting feelings for Sweetie, and I had to believe it was all my own fault, because if (for just a moment) I thought it was Sweetie who'd done the convincing I'd have to admit she'd out-played me at every turn.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Here's the carrots."

The normalcy of her answer jolted me back to the real world. I stopped stirring and pulled my spoon from the pot to let Sweetie drop in a big pile of carrots. "So…?"

"Are there any conventions back on your world, regarding this?" Sweetie Drops turned and dropped the bowl she'd been using in the sink to be washed later. "How do two potential special somepo—humans—get to know each other better?"

"We use the phrases boyfriend and girlfriend, or just couple for both I guess. But I don't think you want a lesson in human speak." I was rambling. Help! "And I don't actually know the convention for two girls, I just, uh, I kinda wasn't one, but you know that, and I—"

"You still think like a guy, you said. So what do guys do when they see a pretty girl?" Pulling out a large knife, Sweetie started chopping up onions into rough chunks.

Remembering my sister when she revealed her special talent (cutting up fruit), I decided then and there to never joke with a mare who was using a large knife. "They, well, ask the girl out—after making conversation first."

Sweetie chopped the onions with expert precision, reminding me that she was going to join the military. "Excellent. So we have the conversation bit sorted out, we've established that we both like each other, so now you can…?" She trailed off, gesturing to me with one hoof.

"You like me?" I asked. It was finally my turn. I expected her to react the same way I had, giddiness and confusion, but then Sweetie destroyed all my hopes and dreams by just nodding to me. Damn! Now I was the one with a racing heartbeat.

Silence reined, except for the chop, chop, chop of her knife against the board, or the slow simmering of the soup I was working on. I had to do it. This was my first real chance with anypony since Rose. "Would you like to go out somewhere tomorrow night?"

"I guess."

The answer confused me after all the buildup over it. I put my wooden spoon down and turned around, only to have a grinning Sweetie Drops facing me. I stared at her in shock, unsure exactly what she was going to do next.

"Of course I'd love to go somewhere. Anything in mind?" Sweetie's look was completely unreadable.

I looked at her for maybe ten seconds, confusion between what she was saying and what her body-language was saying causing my brain to short out. "Is that a yes? A-Are you being sarcastic? I don't—" A hoof pressed against my nose, successfully causing me to stop my traitorous mouth.

Sweetie Drops' whole demeanor changed. She looked at me with a genuine smile, and her ears perked forward attentively. "It's a yes, Lyra Heartstrings. You better pick somewhere nice, because there will be a test afterwards."

Joke. She's making a joke. My brain could handle a joke, despite her having confirmed that we were going on a date. I knew my smile would be goofy, but nothing I could think of could change that now. "I-I'll come down at five?"

"Now I'll tell you that in Equestria, it's fairly open as to who asks who." Removing her hoof from my snout, Sweetie turned back to preparing vegetables. "I just wanted to hear you ask."

"What?!"

"You're cute, Lyra Heartstrings, but you're cuter when you are off balance."

The elation and excitement of having a date planned (but not planned) warred with my confusion over women—or mares. I just wanted to raise my head and shout, but instead I stirred the soup.

With a full belly—a combination of butterflies and the excellent food we cooked for dinner—I slumped on my bed and stretched out. I got a date! I wanted to laugh, and cheer, and panic. Being efficient, I did all three at the same time.

"What's the excitement?" Tufts asked. Apparently I'd woken him from a nap. He was stretching himself as he climbed out from under my bed, stretching one wing then the other.

"You know Sweetie Drops?" I asked.

"She Who Shares Fruit With Bats? I know of her."

"I'm taking her out on a date tomorrow night!" Even stretched out and laying on my back, I bounced. "I kinda said she was beautiful, then she pushed it and got me to admit I had feelings for her. How could I not? She's gorgeous, smart, and she likes basically all the same stuff I do!"

Tufts cleared his throat and, with a bound of his vulpine legs, landed on my barrel. Looking down his muzzle at me, Tufts narrowed his eyes. "You intend to court her?"

A little startled, I stared up at Tufts and nodded.

Lifting one wing up to his chin, Tufts inspected it before using the thumb to rub his chin. "I approve, of course. Any mare who shares her fruit so willingly is a suitable pairing for one of my offspring. You have showered her with gifts?"

"I made her soup," I said. "But she helped cook that. Damn, you're right. I need to find something special to give her."

"Of course I'm right—I'm a bat. Now your best bet is with fruit. Does she like mango—? Wait! Don't answer that. Of course she likes them. What about… No. I can't imagine anyone not liking fruit. Perhaps you could get her a fruit bowl?" Tufts looked at me with all the sincerity a bat could muster, which is why it was a struggle to remember he was a god, too.

I let out a huff, but could take the joking for what it was. "You know, I think I might need to talk to someone else about this. Sweetie likes fruit—"

Tufts screeched loudly.

Tucking my ears down and squinting my eyes closed until he was done, I peeked at him when Tufts fell silent. "What was that for?"

"You said fruit."

I used my magic to rub behind one of his ears, and Tufts almost fell off my barrel he leaned into it so much. "I might have said—You know I don't have any of that with me right now?" He didn't screech this time, but one eye did crack open.

"If you did, I'd be screeching more. Besides, who else are you possibly going to ask about love?"

I was yawning. Somewhere on the castle grounds Celestia was preparing to lower the moon and raise the sun. Lifting my hoof, I gently tapped on Cadance's door. Then a few minutes later I knocked again, a bit louder. By the time I was about to knock for the third time, the door opened.

Cadance looked at me without actually looking at me. Her eyes were focused either somewhere inches from her nose, or miles away in the distance. "Do you have any idea what time it—Lyra? What are you doing here at—Is it still dark?!"

"For a bit. Look, I need your help. You're the only pony that can help me." My words earned me the door opening a bit wider, so I darted inside before she closed it behind me. "I have a date."

Blue magic burned and lit up the room. Lights came on, and I realized Cadance's sour expression had changed to something bordering on hungry wolf. "Well, well, well. Who's the lucky mare? Trixie? Please tell me you asked Trixie out!"

I took a step back only to have Cadance take two forwards to maintain her intensity. "It's not Trixie!"

Cadance lifted a pink hoof to her chin and tapped it a few times. "Not the obvious choice, and it's not me. What other mares do you know, Lyra? What are you hiding from me?" Waves of power seemed to thrum around Cadance. She felt—magically—like when you turned the gas on the stove and it just wasn't lighting. There was potential in the air.

"A friend," I said, but even to me it was unconvincing. "We've been friends a while, and I let it slip that I liked her, and she put me on the spot and forced me to ask her out." Mares seemed to have this effect on me where I couldn't stop my mouth from blurting things out. To solve the problem, I lifted a hoof and covered it.

"Eeee! This sounds amazing. I want to know everything!"

And my mouth would tell it, too. Okay, Lyra, control. Focus on what you're going to say and— "She's beautiful." No! "When I look at her, my heart flutters." Stop! "We were cooking together, and I said she was beautiful, and she used magic to make me ask her out." Huh? "Or that's what it felt like. I just want this to work." Well, I could agree with the last bit, but each thing I said seemed to make Cadance more excited, and her excitement was contagious. "Her name's Sweetie Drops."

"I don't know her…" Cadance looked shocked. She blinked a few times and then focused her gaze on me. It was unnerving to have the weight of an alicorn's thoughts completely on you—or so I thought. "So, after all this, why are you here at—" The sun outside sprang into the sky, and light streamed in through the windows. "… dawn?"

"I have school today, and the date's tonight. What do I do and where do I go and how do I stop myself from blurting out every detail you want me to divulge?" I was panting by the end of my words. Mouth, please stop this.

Cadance grinned. She spread her wings and struck a regal pose. "I am the alicorn of love, Lyra. I'm surprised you lasted this long without coming to me with all your relationship problems."

I had to shake my head to throw off the awe and dazed feeling in my head. "I didn't have any relationship problems—I still don't! Also, I remember helping you with your—"

"Now is not the time to pointing hooves. You need somewhere to take your beau on the most important of dates, and you need it all arranged before school." Cadance floated a scroll over, a quill, and ink. It was her most grand show of precision magic I'd seen, and of course it had to do with her special talent.

Spells were great. You could learn them, keep brushing up on the weaves from time to time, and they always worked as predicted. When it came to cutie marks, and what your special talent was, all bets were off. Which was why I came to Cadance. If there was one magic that was more powerful even than alicorn magic, it was an alicorn working within their special talent.

What I didn't count on was the effect momentum would have on Cadance. She started adding things to the list, and before I realized it she had the scroll filled with her plans. Her plans for me. But I'd asked for this. I'd come to Cadance and begged her help. Now my penance was to accept it. "S-So you have this, right?"

Cadance froze, the quill in her magic stopped writing, and she turned her head to me. I knew the smile that spread her mouth wide—I'd seen it in a mirror once after I was done playing guitar. "Of course. The only thing you need to tell me is how serious is this?"

How serious? How serious was it? I had no idea what to say. "Serious," my mouth said.

Closing her eyes, Cadance's bright smile grew in intensity to the point where I felt warmth spreading through me. Magic had a hold of her, and if I wasn't careful it would have me too. But it was too late. My mind turned to Sweetie Drops, and I felt a bubble of excitement.

Maybe this would work?

Author's Note

Robin: how are things on earth since your mom and sister left

[stressed and excited bat noises intensify]

(We are going to get some insight into that in the story itself, but it will take a little time to unfold. There will even—gasp—be some of the story that happens IN Thestralia!)

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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