The hills were silent, or nearly so, the only sound that of the grass as it waved and flowed in a light breeze, golden stalks bobbing and swaying to a rhythm all of their own. From hilltop to hilltop the cloudless sky arched, deep and bright and the heady stink of sun-baked loam filled the air, sweet and bitter all at once.
It was a strange place. A touched place, Lyra thought, and wondered where that thought had come from. Yet she'd always found it relaxing in a way that she could never quite define, a way that had called to her heart the first time she'd set hoof in it. That first time had been just a day or two after her arrival in Ponyville, when she'd gone out to visit the place where the human had been discovered. She'd found something there, a small part of whatever she'd sought her entire life.
"Peace."
Lyra's train of thought crashed to a halt as Lero flopped unceremoniously down next to her in the long grass. He plucked at the greenery, idly tearing a few stalks from the ground with his fingers and generally fiddling with the plantlife. Another stalk was jammed firmly between his jaws like he was some hayseed on a break. He grinned at her around it, all scary teeth and good spirits.
"Peace?"
"The feeling I get around here. It's very peaceful."
"That's why I come here," she said, not for the first time wondering just what she'd gotten herself into. Just three dates and a lot of encouragement from Bon Bon, of all ponies, and she'd already moved a few personal items into Lero's place. Mostly books, granted; between them, Lero and Twilight seemed determined to read her entire library before the end of the season. Not that she'd complain about shared interests, but she was worried that either they or she would start to feel rushed at some point.
Lero spat out his grass stalk and set about selecting another fat specimen from near his booted feet.
"I don't think I've been out this way for months. Not since Rainbow Dash..." his voice trailed off in another grin and a shake of his head. He put his hands behind his neck and abruptly fell backwards into the grass. "The strange part is, even back then it was peaceful. I felt good up here. Even with that damn– that crazy forest looming over everything."
He rolled onto his side, propping his head up with one arm whilst the other toyed with the grass once again, leaving Lyra to wonder just how he could fling his body about with such careless abandon.
"So, why are we up here now?"
"I wanted to show you something. All of you." Lyra peered over her shoulder at the distant forms of Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, the latter trotting up the hill and the former looping through the air around her. A snatch of Rainbow's unmistakable laughter flitted across the meadow.
"Something special, huh?"
"I'd say, more personal," she replied as she turned back to look at their eventual destination. A tree-stuffed thicket, straddling a brook, its trunks leaning haphazardly away from its centre. Lero's gaze followed hers and, beneath a light frown, settled on the tiny clump of trees.
"Not even a hint?"
A lop-sided grin spread on Lyra's face as the others finally crested the hill. Twilight, panting a little from the exertion, flopped down between the pair and let out a heartfelt sigh.
"You'd think," the unicorn gasped, "with all the running I do, I'd- I'd be in better shape. Maybe I'll just- wait here."
Rainbow Dash dropped to the ground on the other side of Lero and tucked her head over his arm. He instinctively wrapped it around to caress her ear while she leered down at her herdmate. "Guess that cupcake you have every morning has nothing to do with it huh? Gotta burn off all that sugar if you want to keep up!"
"I'll have you know, Rainbow Dash, that reading requires a lot of energy. I'm just not built for long-distance travel."
"Everypony knows unicorns are natural sprinters," Lyra put in.
"I thought I was the sprinter in this herd!"
Lyra stuck her tongue out at Rainbow Dash and then leaned forward to tentatively nuzzle Twilight's ear. The other unicorn smiled at the gentle touch and turned her head, brushing her lips against Lyra's for just a moment.
"Oh, I could certainly get used to this."
Rainbow Dash poked Lero's side. "You gonna let her have all the fun, big guy?"
"Twilight, or Lyra?" He laughed at Rainbow's scrunched up frown and playfully tweaked her ear. "Plenty of time for that later, love. Right now I want to find out what sort of big secret we're supposed to be seeing."
"You're really building it up into something more than it is," Lyra replied, still gently nuzzling around Twilight's head and mane. She bared her teeth and let them draw along the unicorn's ear, eliciting a delighted shiver from her herdmate. Lyra pulled herself away from Twilight and stepped over to nuzzle Lero's neck. It was just a shame she couldn't do the same for Rainbow, but the pegasus had made her feelings on the subject abundantly clear.
"I like buildup."
"So I gathered," she whispered, drawing an amused snort from Rainbow Dash. Lyra rolled her eyes. "What, too fast for you, Dash?"
"She doesn't know the meaning of the phrase," Lero replied, idly stroking Rainbow's head and cheek with his free hand. She murmured something under her breath and stuck her tongue out at Lyra as if that would win whatever argument they might have had. For her part Lyra just smiled and drew herself away, pausing just for a moment to press her lips against Lero's mouth. He returned the kiss with just the hint of a smile.
"Well, I'm no stranger to waiting for things," she said, and quickly bounced a few steps away from the trio before turning to look at them again. Of the three only Lero seemed anywhere near alert. Rainbow was leaning against his side, a sleepy grin plastered on her face as he stroked her neck, while Twilight looked as if she'd fallen asleep in the warm sunlight. "Aw, come on! I didn't bring you all this way just so you could take a nap!"
"S'too warm to do stuff," Rainbow retorted. She eyed Twilight for a moment and then rolled onto her back and spread her wings wide. "I think I'm gonna stick with Twilight for a while."
"Fingers?"
The human raised his arm in mock defeat and levered himself upright. "Sure, let's leave these two sleeping beauties alone."
It took only a few moments for his lope to carry Lero down the hill. The pair set off toward the copse at a brisk pace; at least, brisk for Lyra. She'd yet to get used to Lero's long stride, but since he obviously knew where they were going she was content to let him draw ahead a little. It allowed her the opportunity to watch his odd, swaying walk again, the way he flexed and folded and seemed to be always on the verge of falling without ever doing so. The sight was something she hoped she'd never be able to take for granted.
He slowed as they reached the trees and Lyra slowed too, taking a moment to glance over her shoulder at the others. Rainbow Dash and Twilight had rolled together and seemed to be talking about something, and just at that very moment they both turned to look at her. Lyra's face flushed at the knowing look they'd given her. She turned away just as Twilight hauled herself to her hooves and tried to concentrate on Lero instead.
Up close the copse appeared more open than it had from a distance. Tufts of greenish grass surrounded it, threading along the brook that ran out and away down the valley. Beyond the outer body of trees a short and wide path lead to a sun-dappled glade. Lyra paused next to Lero and looked up at him.
"You can go in, you know."
"Oh. Sure. It just felt sort of like I should ask permission first." He shrugged, peeking this way and that into the dim light of the trees.
"If it makes you feel better." Lyra pushed past the human and danced into the shade. She turned to face him again. "Come into my parlour."
"Said the spider to the fly."
"Scared I'll have you all tied up, Fingers?"
"Twilight and Rainbow Dash already took care of that one," Lero replied, his expression and voice so sober that Lyra couldn't help laughing. She bounced and cantered further into the glen, leading the human on in a hesitant race to the centre of her domain. His caution faded as he moved inward, the sights and smells working at his mind. He stopped to grasp a low-hanging leaf, rubbing it between finger and thumb, a contented smile creeping to his lips. "You're right, this is a nice place. How did you find it?"
"I have no idea. I could go all mystic and say I was drawn to its indefinable peace and tranquillity, but the truth is I just ended up here one day. It was hot and the shade seemed nice."
"It is much cooler than out there."
"The waterfall," Lyra said, pointing across the glade, where the brook cascaded down the face of a shallow cliff, little more than a scooped-out boulder, and onto a pile of smooth stones. Lero smiled again as he approached the fall, carefully circling the hoof-beaten bare earth of Lyra's 'meditation bowl' – she'd never thought of a better name for it. He leaned a hand against the rock face and stared at the water for a few minutes.
"Nice place for a picnic," he said eventually, turning from the brook. Again he made his way around the bare earth, seemingly reluctant to cross the centre of it, and sat himself at the foot of one of the larger trees. "It's so quiet in here."
He watched her and she watched him across the dell. After some moments of this contemplation he patted the ground next to his tree and smiled invitingly. There was a gleam in his eye that Lyra hadn't seen before. She trotted across and sat down next to him, carefully leaning her chin across his shoulder.
"It's not quiet at all. Not really," she said, keeping her voice low. "The trees bend and their leaves shake in the wind. The river flows. There's always something happening, though I've yet to hear an insect or a bird. They seem to stay outside." Lyra closed her eyes and breathed deeply, relishing the scent of Lero's body. After a moment his arm slipped up around her shoulders, his widespread fingers infiltrating her mane and rubbing at her scalp just shy of her horn, skirting close but never quite touching. She could tilt her head just a little... Lyra bit her lip and forced herself to keep talking. "I can't meditate in absolute silence. It's not natural."
"Oh you meditate up here?"
"Mmhmm. Every few days I come up for a nice stretch, balance out the old hapsis points. I've been a little lax about it the last week or so. For some reason."
Lero grinned and tweaked her ear. "Well I'm sorry if I've been taking up so much of your time."
"I think it's worth it. Oh, hey, you want a demo?"
"You want to show me how you meditate?"
"Sure!" Lyra shrugged off Lero's arm and bounced away from the tree with a quick kick of her legs. Nervous energy and excitement mingled in her until she found herself bouncing up and down on the spot; she suppressed the feeling with an awkward grin. "So, you wanna?"
"Isn't it a sort of private thing? I wouldn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."
"Personal," Lyra replied. She stretched out her back legs one after the other and moved toward the edge of her bowl – she'd definitely have to think of a better name for it now. "Intimate, even."
"I like the sound of that." Lero cocked a grin. "I'd been meaning to ask about this sort of thing anyway. What's usually involved?"
"Given the name, a surprising amount of movement," Lyra replied, with another grin over her shoulder. She took her first stance, spreading her forelegs and lowering her head level with her shoulders. "The goal is to reach a point of absolute mental and physical stillness, or so say the ancient texts."
A simple sideways step gained a surprisingly appreciative noise from Lero. She raised one hindleg, moved it around in a circle and carefully planted it on the ground.
"In reality it's all designed to free up the flow of a unicorn's magic by aligning her hapsis."
"You mentioned that before," Lero said in that tone of voice Lyra had quickly come to recognise as 'aroused academic'. She considered wiggling her rear at him, but decided it would probably ruin the mood. Not to mention her stance.
"The hapsis is the great arc of energy in the unicorn body that we imagine as a series of points on the spine and limbs. Incorrect alignment brought about by everyday movement..." she lifted her right foreleg and walked her rear legs around to the left, slowly turning her front to follow. "Interrupts the flow of magic."
"So all of this is meant to align these hapsis things and make you stronger?"
Lyra's hoof thudded into the dirt. She raised the other and reversed the movement. "Strength is illusory when you lack unity and balance."
"Uh-huh."
"I know, it sounds all kinds of mystic mumbo-jumbo when you hear it like that." Lyra paused in her motions and turned to look at Lero again. Judging by his appraising stare, any latent discomfort he might have felt for being attracted to another species was a distant memory. She felt her tail twitch and quickly fought to suppress it, but just as quickly found herself wondering why. The position she was in he was bound to have seen even the slightest motion; even if he hadn't she wasn't able to turn away without ruining the exercise.
"You okay Lyra?"
"Just... thinking of a way to explain myself." She continued her motions around the pit, but her heart wasn't really in them now. Not that Lero seemed to mind. "Okay, it works like this. You have a pool inside you, like water. That's your magical strength. The way it gets out is through your hapsis, which is like a series of tubes."
She paused as Lero chuckled and turned to look at him again. The human shook his head and waved her off.
"Ignore me, old joke from home."
"Okay... well the analogy isn't brilliant but it works for now. So, if you want to exercise your magic you have to move it through the points of your hapsis." Lyra lifted her forehoof in a long arc, keeping the toe extended for the entire motion and ignoring the twang of tendons in her foreleg. She really need to do this more often. "Through careful exercise of these stances each point can be aligned so that, to extend the analogy, all the tubes are pointing in the same direction and the most water can flow with the least effort. There's more after that about controlling the flow of individual tubes and so on but you'd end up talking about valves and pipework and it all gets really silly."
"Best call a plumber," Lero replied with another quiet chuckle, likely remembering the repairs he'd made to Bon Bon's pipework.
"The point of all that," Lyra continued, swapping forelegs in what she hoped was a smooth and graceful hop, "is to allow a unicorn more control over her abilities. Most unicorns understand this at some instinctive level but only those who practice the Still Way are consciously aware of how to manipulate it."
"And if you can't manipulate it?"
"Imagine those tubes again. A unicorn in her everyday life will be constantly twisting and moving her hapsis out of line with itself. It's just how life works, but the result is that those metaphorical tubes end up tangled and twisted around one another, making it harder for a unicorn to push her magic through them. So much of her power is wasted just forcing her magic out of her horn." She paused in her motion as she sought for an example. Of course there could only be one. "I mean, look at Twilight. She's got so much raw power in her that she can usually overcome any blockages, but even she sometimes breaks a sweat performing very simple magic."
"And you?"
Lyra stopped and lowered her head. She took a breath, held it and let it out again, then grinned at Lero. "Weak as a foal. I've never been a strong mage. That actually gave me an advantage over a lot of unicorns because I wasn't relying on innate strength to overcome my other weaknesses."
"I've seen you use your magic a few times, you're hardly weak."
"I'm not nearly as strong as I appear, especially compared to a pony like Twilight. On the other hand..." Lyra closed her eyes and spread her forelegs just a fraction before she spoke again. Her voice lowered close to a whisper. "She can't do this."
Lyra's horn flashed with a brief glow of her aura and there was a soft, almost organic sound around Lero's clothing. When he looked down, every button on his shirt was undone. He hummed appreciatively and fingered the open hem.
"Okay, that's creepy but impressive."
"There's a lot more I can do, too," she said, advancing slowly toward Lero, keeping her head low. Another barely-visible flash of her magic pulled his shirt back, revealing his chest and for a moment she faltered at the sight of his mostly bare skin. Snorting at her own timidity, Lyra pushed forward, pressing her head against Lero's neck and nibbling at his ear. His arm reached up and around her back, his fingers working into the locks of her mane and sending a brief hot shiver down her spine.
"Lyra..."
"They'll be here when they need to be," she whispered, closing her eyes and pressing herself still closer. Lero's body tensed beneath her. Too fast. "You know what?"
"W-what?"
Lyra reluctantly pulled away, her lips lingering on his neck for just a moment longer. She glanced over her shoulder at the river. "I could use a shower."
Without waiting for a response, Lyra bounced away from their comfortable spot beneath the tree and cantered toward the waterfall, pausing to look back when she reached the water's edge. Lero was watching her carefully, a confused smile tugging at his lips.
"Never had a dip in the river before?" She dabbled her hoof into the stream and splashed a little water about. Lero didn't reply, but instead paced the short distance between them until he was level with the edge of the water. He folded his arms and looked down at the water.
"Looks cold."
"When you get hot you need a little cooling off."
"Oh you think I'm hot, do you?" Lero pulled off his shirt and tossed it to one side, then sat down to pull off his shoes. He paused then, tilting his head. "Are you okay?"
"Splashy splashy first, introspection later."
"If you say so."
He was down to his underwear now and seemed reluctant to go further, but Lyra didn't mind. She'd yet to have a chance to really appreciate the human's form without his clothing - even the tight clothing he wore to work kept so much of it hidden. She'd coaxed a general overview out of Twilight and a more entertainingly detailed description from Rainbow Dash, but seeing his flesh in itself was very different.
Far more pleasing, she decided.
Lyra took a step back and then plunged forward into the shallow pool beneath the waterfall, whooping with the shock of the cool water against her flesh before settling herself into a shallow spot on the back of a large rock. Lying on her belly the water came up to just below her shoulder, leaving her back dry and warm in the sun. Lero followed a moment later, wading into centre of the pool up to his knees. He turned around once or twice and then carefully sat down.
"I guess it must catch a lot of sun, it's not as cold as I thought it would be," he mused, splashing his arms back and forth through the water. Lero eyed the little waterfall again, then lunged toward the torrent and thrust his head under it with a shuddering yelp. Just as quickly he pulled back and fell backwards, landing on his rump in the shallows. "Oh I spoke too soon!"
Laughter filled the glade as they fell together in the water, splashing about until both had worked off the chill. Lero settled back against a sun-warmed rock and sighed, while Lyra returned to her own shallow spot and settled on her belly. The sun shone down on them through a small break in the trees above, dappling the surface of the pool and warming their skin.
"You do this a lot?"
"First time ever," Lyra replied. "I don't know why I never thought of it before."
"Perhaps you just didn't have the right incentive," Lero replied, glancing over her head. His face brightened and he lifted his hand to wave. "Hello, ladies! Care to join us?"
Lyra turned to watch as Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle wandered into the clearing, both also carefully avoiding the beaten earth of her meditation bowl. This herd she'd found herself in had some odd ways of thinking alike, she decided.
A brief look of panic flashed across Twilight's face when she saw Lero in the water, but it passed almost as soon as it appeared. She turned to Rainbow Dash, grinning. "This doesn't count, surely?"
Rainbow Dash snorted. "I said he'd get her wet by the time we got there, I didn't say how."
"You need to be more careful with your language," Twilight replied as she wandered past and into the pool, tail swishing jauntily and just happening to flash in Rainbow's face. She splashed around behind Lyra and settled down into the water with a contented sigh. "What a wonderful idea. I should do this sort of thing more often."
"Maybe we should get Rarity to try it," Lyra said, nuzzling at Twilight's neck.
"As if she'd want to bathe in river water," Rainbow replied with another snort. "It'd need, like, a hundred kinds of herbs and things before she'd even go near it!"
The pegasus crawled down to the edge of the water and dipped a cautious hoof into it.
"Kinda cold, too."
"I thought you didn't feel the cold," Lero countered. Rainbow stuck her tongue at at him and then recoiled, laughing, as Lero splashed water over her head.
"It is so on," she growled.
"Worried I'll mess up your mane, Dash?"
"No way!" Rainbow Dash bounded into the middle of the pool and with a single, powerful thrust of her wings sent a cascade of water over the trio. Twilight took a gasping breath and shrieked her shock at the pegasus while Lyra just lay where she was, giggling as the water ran down her back and neck.
Lero tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow at Rainbow. "You sure you want to play this game, love?"
"Any time, any place big guy."
"You are such a cliché," Lero countered, lunging toward the pegasus. He swept his arms in a broad circle through the water, lifting two great shimmering waves into the air and right over Rainbow's body. The water cascaded across withers and she gasped, shuddering as the unexpected cold hit her.
The fight was on. There were no sides, no real goal as three ponies and their human flailed and splashed around the pool. Rainbow managed to land another strike with her wings, sending a wave that all but knocked Lyra from her perch in the shallows but she was quickly countered by a barrage of spray from Twilight and a flying tackle from Lero that flipped her onto her back. The human wagged a finger back and forth in front of her face and stuck his tongue out at her, then stole a quick kiss.
He was smiling as he turned away but something about the way he moved caught in Lyra's mind. His eyes locked onto hers and suddenly the game, Lero and everything else was gone, replaced with the chilling gaze of the predator. Lyra felt her gut plunge as his all-encompassing arms twitched away from Rainbow and his body slowly uncoiled.
The moment ended, leaving Lyra panting with confusion and terror and excitement all at once. Lero's eyes twinkled beneath the slightest of amused frowns as if he knew what had just gone through her mind, but anything he might have had to say about it was drowned in the ball of water that broke across his face.
Twilight splashed across the shallows, a half dozen globes of water orbiting her head like so many crystal balls. She stuck her tongue between her teeth as she contemplated the pair. A malicious grin spread across her face and she glanced at Lyra with triumphant glee.
"Think we can take them?"
In answer Lyra brought forth her own collection of watery weapons. She dropped a casual wink toward Twilight before turning her attention to the still-entangled pair at the far side of the water.
"What is it with you unicorns," Rainbow grumbled as she slunk around the edge of the pool. Her wings were dripping wet and hung heavily at her side and her mane was plastered to her face. "Always ganging up on everypony like you own the place."
"Gotta pick the winning–" was all Twilight managed before a well-aimed ball of water crashed into her snout. She could only stare in mock horror at Lyra, who whistled and looked the other way as another three orbs circled her head.
Rainbow's triumphant cheer was cut short by another volley from Lyra. The fight resumed in earnest, all four combatants crashing toward the centre of the pool as they fought for supremacy. Though their magic might have appeared to grant the two unicorns an advantage it was more than offset by the concentration required to maintain their arsenals. Lyra soon found herself abandoning the floating orbs and resorting to casting an ephemeral scoop through the water, mimicking Lero's broad hands and replacing precision with overwhelming volume.
Despite her strength it was Twilight who bowed out first, the unicorn declaring herself exhausted and needing a place to dry out as she flopped onto a broad, sun-soaked stone on the far side of the pool. Lyra could almost feel Lero's knowing grin at the back of her head as the trio resumed their combat, as water flew and shouts echoed around the quiet glen. Soon after it was Rainbow's turn to retreat to the sidelines. Snickering to herself, she took a moment to pause beside Twilight and thoroughly shake out her wings, leaving the poor unicorn soaked and gasping in shock as Rainbow bounced away to a safe spot in another part of the glade. She shook her wings again and started to preen, occasionally running a foreleg across her feathers to smooth them out, but never quite taking her eyes from the pool.
"Just you and me now, fingers," Lyra panted.
Her human – for there was really no other way to look at him now – merely smiled and flopped back into the water on the far side of the pool. He seemed strangely at home there, soaking in the shallows with his arms floating at his sides, almost as if he were meant to be in the water. It was something she'd have to ask Twilight about one day.
She kicked at the water's surface and grinned. "So you're admitting defeat?"
"Oh I'm bushed," Lero replied. He raised his hands behind his head before leaning back against the impromptu cushion they formed. "I yield to the great and undefeated champion."
"Yes!" Lyra bounced on the spot. "Queen of the rock pool!"
With a triumphant grin she turned toward Twilight, but all the other unicorn had for her was a knowing smirk. Lyra had seen that smile once before, when Twilight had been about to win a game of cards and she was just about to observe that her new lover had a terrible poker face when she felt the hands that came to rest on her hips.
"Or perhaps I just made a tactical retreat," Lero's voice said close to her ear. Lyra's heart thudded violently as she realised her mistake. The warmth of his breath on her ear was a pleasant change, and the heat of his body, so achingly close to her own, put the thought into Lyra's head that maybe, just maybe there was no way to lose the game they played.
"So now waahoooo–!"
She flew. Lero's hands tugged and lifted her, flipping Lyra's body onto its back and she instinctively tucked her forelegs to her chest just as she plunged into the pond. Leverage. A vague memory of elementary physics popped into her head: give me a lever large enough and I can move the world. With just a tweak of his arms, with his body as a fulcrum, he could move her without even seeming to try.
But it took two to tussle. She cast a rope of magic about his shoulders, pulling Lero's body down toward her own while another flash of power bounced them both through a glittering crest of water toward a nice soft spot on the bank. He landed atop her with a grunt and this time she didn't hesitate, nosing greedily about his face, wordlessly voicing her desire until her lips found his. He didn't resist as she pulled him closer and pressed as much of herself against his form as was physically possible.
And then things started to get a little warmer and a little louder, especially when Twilight joined in. But that was good, she liked to hear a pony enjoying herself.
Though some earplugs might come in useful in future, Lyra decided.
And in the meantime she might see about getting a little more time with just herself and those hands.
Some time later found the four sprawled comfortably in the long grass just beyond the copse, basking in the warm sun and enjoying the heat of their snug little pile. Lero's arms were wrapped around all three mares, encompassing them in a world-spanning hug. His hand rested on the side of Lyra's face; her head was pressed against Twilight's neck. Not even Rainbow's quiet snoring could ruin the moment.
All around, the hills were silent.
