Songs of The Heart

The sun - giver of life, toaster of the planet, and my sworn mortal enemy! Its rays cascaded into the bedroom, barraging me with light, waking me up at an unnecessary time. Groggily, I awoke. 'What the hell kind of dream was that? I find a package at my door, and find out that it's a cell-shaded pony - a unicorn no less. Well, I guess I should get up, seeing as the sun doesn't wanna let me go back to sleep.' I opened my eyes, and saw that the unicorn in question was still sitting on my pillow, sleeping peacefully. 'So, it wasn't a dream, or I'm tripping balls still from some ninja spiking my drink yesterday.'

I carefully got up from the bed, as to not disturb the still sleeping filly. Now onto the next task: getting clothes, quietly... 'Damn, think, think, think think thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink - oh yeah, I left some clean clothes in the laundry room.' Tiptoeing, I managed to get out of the bedroom without waking the unicorn who I have yet to name, and ventured downstairs and into the laundry room. Sifting through the clothes, I picked out a pair of crappy generic black sweat pants, crappy generic undergarments, and a crappy generic black t-shirt. 'I guess I should figure out what I'm gonna name her... TO THE INTERNET!'

I walked back up the stairs, and into the little office, turning on the computer as I moved to sit down in the chair. When the computer turned on, I was greeted with the Backtrack 5.0 boot screen. Configuring the encryption settings and the firewall, I was ready to venture out into the internet. No, I am not paranoid, I just didn't want someone snooping in on my data, wherever they may be. Opening Firefox, I went to one of the places which I thought that I would never visit - Equestria Daily. Instead of checking out the different links that lead to all types of different content, I went right over to the IRC link, and logged in. I informed them of me not being a brony, but not being against the fandom and how they like a show that was intended for a different audience, and they gave me a warm welcome.

Welcome to the herd bro, enjoy your stay

"Well, I'm not exactly a part of the herd yet, but I would like to pose a serious hypothetical question."

Sure, fire away

"If a pony were to show at your doorstep, in a Canterlot Royal Express Post shipping box, how would one care for it?"

Well, that's a tough one....

"Take your time dude"

Five minutes went by before anything was said... Finally, the person replied with an answer.

It depends really. If you live in the city, you're gonna have a bit of trouble if you're taking care of a pegasus. If you're taking care of an earth pony or a unicorn, things are somewhat more in your favor, but not much. I take it you haven't named it yet either, right? What does it look like?

"She's got an aquamarine coat with a two-tone mane and tail, one side white and the other the same color of her coat, and golden eyes. She's a unicorn."

Dude, you're lucky, you got Lyra Heartstrings.

"Anyway, back to my original question..."

Alright, well, the diet kind of speaks for itself - salads are ok, flowers (I feel sorry for your neighbor's garden XD), fries (MUST be home made). When you decide to clean her, I'd say you should give her a bath for the first few months, wouldn't hurt to brush her mane, tail and coat every so often. And don't forget to help her brush her teeth until she can either use magic or grasp the toothbrush with her hooves.

"I give you all of my thanks."

I wish you luck in your endeavor, may the magic of friendship be with you.

After finishing up on the computer, I went back upstairs to go and wake up Lyra. My mind was fighting over whether to let her sleep or wake her up, but then I saw her on the bed, shivering and shaking. 'Poor girl's having a nightmare.' I gently placed a hand on her and stroked her head lovingly. Lyra woke up and looked up at me, tears welling up in her eyes. I picked her up and pulled her into a hug, and she began to sob lightly.

Right then the gravity of the situation hit me... 'I am essentially looking after a child. Sure, she may be a pony from another world, but can I really be sure that anyone else would look after her?' Any further thoughts had been cut off by a sort of hiccup sound coming from Lyra. Just then, I heard the most joyful yet sad thing ever, "I... I... I'm... scared. I'm scared." It was hard not to cry myself. I rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her, "Hey, its alright, I'm here. Ill try my best to make sure that nothing happens to you, I promise." Lyra simply nuzzled her face into my neck. "Tell you what, I have nothing planned for today, so I think we could work on your speech skills. I'm gonna help you learn how to talk." Her response surprised me, "I can talk, only yesterday I didn't know what to do. Do you really mean that, will you protect me?" "I will as well as I can, Lyra." "Thank you."

I sat there on the bed with Lyra still in my arms, who I thought was falling back asleep. It was another ten minutes before anyone said anything. "I have a question." "Yes Lyra?" "Can I.... can I call you daddy?" If the situation hadn't hit me before, it had now. I brought Lyra out of the hug, and at first she looked sad, then I brought my face to hers and rubbed noses with her, "Of course you can." Lyra giggled. 'When will you stop being so adorable? Its lethal.'

Placing Lyra back on the bed, I asked her a question, "So, what do you want for breakfast?" Lyra's eyes sparkled at the prospect of food. "Do you have muffins??" I laughed a little, which seemed to bring her mood down faster than the US economy could ever drop. "Hey, it's alright. Yes, I have muffins, I just thought it was a little funny that a pony would ask to have a muffin for breakfast." "Well, when I was still at home, my mom used to just give me apples for breakfast, every day." She looked down at her hooves, "And whenever I was at my dad's place, he left me to fend for myself."

My mind just suddenly stopped. 'Wait, when she's at her mom's place, she doesn't provide much variety, probably not caring, and her dad just leaves her to fend for herself? Oh boy, things just got a little bit more interesting to say the least. I'm taking care of a neglected and possibly abused child, from another world no less. Whatever, I'm gonna try to give this child the life she deserves!' Stroking the sad pony's soft mane, I tried to calm her down, "Listen, whatever happened over there, it's done. I will not lie to you, I have almost next to nothing in parenting skills, but I will try to take care of you the best I can. Forget apples and muffins for breakfast, because I'm making one of my favorite foods, which I'm sure you'll love - pancakes." Lyra finally looked up, her eyes watery from being on the verge of tears. She gave me a small smile, "Thank you."

Lyra bounded down the stairs excitedly after I told her what pancakes were, urging me to follow her and make some. 'Ah, kids. Wait, I'm making myself seem old by thinking that. Oh well, you gotta grow up someday.' I couldn't help but smile as Lyra sat patiently at the small table in the kitchen, with a huge grin on her face. Lyra's face brightened even more, as if it were possible, as I took out all of the necessary ingredients to make those deliciously addictive pieces of pan fried pastry. The process of mixing it all together was simple enough - or it should have been, as Lyra kept trying to get a dab of the batter to taste as I was mixing it in the bowl. "Get down, silly filly. It's not really good for you to eat uncooked pastry, you may get sick." Lyra immediately jumped down from the counter and sat down at the table...... or sat on it actually.

I walked over to the foyer of the house, picked up a few phone books, and brought them over to the table. I placed them onto one of the chairs, and then sat Lyra on top of the pile of books, "There, now you won't have to sit on the table." Getting back to the batter, I placed three moderately sized dabs of the pancake batter onto the skillet. Lyra seemed to be losing her patience, "How much longer?" "Not much longer." Lyra resumed sitting at her spot on the table quietly; normally this would be fine, but she was from a broken home, so the reason for her quietness wasn't the same as other people, or ponies.

While tending to the cooking pancakes, I decided to do something about the blanket of silence that fell over us. "So Lyra, can you tell me about yourself? I hardly know you, and I would like to change that in order to better get along with you." The cute unicorn filly sat there, face scrunched up as if she were thinking hard. A minute later, she answered, "Well, I like listening to music, it calms me. My favorite color is yellow; I like to read, but mostly poetry; before I came here, I used to read and write stories, just so I would have a place that I could go to in my mind to escape the bad times. What about you?"

I took the pancakes off the skillet as I answered her question, "I also like listening to music; I love reading, writing, and also producing music. One of my only friends owns a music store down the street actually." As I brought the pancakes to the table, Lyra's mouth watered, and I couldn't blame her, for they smelled really good. I chuckled at her state, "Hey Lyra, drool any more and we could open my house as a pool." Lyra wiped her mouth with one of her front hooves, "Whoops, sorry, heh," blushing as she did so.

Lyra took a piece of her pancake into her mouth and chewed slowly, her smile growing ever wider as she did so. Finally swallowing, she reached for the stack of pancakes and put about four on her plate, then promptly wolfed them down in about fifteen seconds. "Ahehehe, it seems that my cooking won't be a problem after all." "Nope," was Lyra's reply.

Here comes the awkward part - the brushing of Lyra's teeth. I asked her if she was able to use magic or grasp things with her hooves already, and it turned out that she does indeed have some magic abilities already. "So, I guess that means you can brush your teeth yourself then, right?" I felt awkward asking her that, probably because I'm still not used to being a parent. I'll work into it though. "Yeah, I can do that." 'Dammit, kids from her situation grow up faster than they should.'

Let's be honest, watching Lyra brush her teeth was kind of adorable, and the blush she had on her face because I was still there watching her, just made it even more adorable. I suddenly had a thought, 'Damn, I forgot to call John!' "Hey Lyra, I'm gonna go call my friend and let him know we're gonna be showing up in a bit. I'll be back." Lyra's reply was a simple nod.

'Now where did I leave my phone?' Not getting a home phone was probably one of the smartest yet dumbest ideas I've ever had. Sure, it was a great idea in order to save money, but it was also a pain because I now have no way of finding my phone by calling it. A sudden thought hit me, 'It's upstairs...' I ran up the stairs and into the bedroom, looking around frantically for my beloved cell phone. Finally spotting it on the end table in the corner of the room, I picked it up and dialed the number for John's music shop.

"Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up pickuppickuppickuppickup-"

John's music shop, how can I help you?

"Hey John, it's Jason."

Oh, hey, what came through your head to make you call me? Usually you just drop in randomly.

"Well, you're probably not going to believe whatever I tell you, but hear me out."

So, what is it? I'm all ears.

"Remember that show you keep raving about, Friendship is Magic?"

Yeah, what about it? Don't tell me you got hooked on it!?

"No, but it's pretty close. Is there anyone else in the store at the moment?"

Nope. Why?

"Alright. I got a package on my doorstep yesterday... There was a sticker on it that said 'Canterlot Royal Express Post', and there were holes all around it, as if it were for something that was alive in it."

There was a groan on the other end of the conversation.

Don't tell me, inside the box was a filly Rainbow Dash.

"No, inside the box was a filly Lyra Heartstrings, and she was sent here from a broken home. My guess is that whoever sent her here thought that foster care wouldn't have helped."

Is that all, or is there something more?

"I called to ask if you could put out your 'Closed' sign, so we can come in and let her try out a few instruments."

I guess I could, it's been a slow day anyways, so why not.

"Thanks. I'll see you in a bit."

Later.

Not a second after I hung up the phone, Lyra came into the bedroom. "So, when are we leaving?" I walked over and picked her up, "Right now actually." She threw her forelegs up in excitement, "YAY!" 'The adorableness of this situation is seriously running up my chances of getting diabetes.' I carried Lyra down the stairs, and into the garage. Lyra just stared in wonder at the two big machines sitting there. "What are those?" Her voice was full of excitement, making me chuckle a little at her question. "They're called cars; they allow us to great distances so we don't tire ourselves out by simply walking to far off destinations." Using the car also served another purpose - making sure that no one saw Lyra as we headed out to John's store.

I placed Lyra on the passenger seat of the Skyline, walked around to the other side, and sat down in the driver's seat. Lyra looked around the interior with even more bewilderment. I could see it in her eyes, she wanted to know about everything inside this wonderful piece of machinery. "I can't really explain about everything inside the car at the moment, because driving this thing takes quite a bit of concentration. Why don't I just put on the radio and you can listen to music." The little bundle of adorable agreed, and I set the radio to some soothing classical before starting up the engine, and pulling out of the garage and into the street.

The roads were clear, almost barren, which was odd for a Saturday morning. Sure, there were a couple of cars here and there, but it still seemed a little creepy that almost everyone stayed indoors. About five minutes later we found ourselves parking behind John's store, and exited the car. Lyra hopped out and skipped over to me the same way that the skunk from Looney Toons would.

One thought ran through my mind, 'I hope he doesn't freak out and do something stupid....... again.'