Few were the things Big Macintosh did love more than a hard day of work at the farm. He woke up with the chirping of birds outside; the horizon was just beginning to clear with the light of dawn. He leapt out of bed and went to wash himself, coming back to put on his yoke.
Usually he would have no problem shaking himself awake, but he found that being woken up in the middle of the night, albeit for a short time, had left him with not enough rest. He wouldn't let stop him, though. He passed by the room where the human was sleeping, throwing only a brief look towards it before continuing on his path, going out of the house.
The cold breeze that greeted him as he approached the orchard hauling some bushels did its work of waking him up perfectly. He set up the bushels around some trees and chose the first one to begin the job. Once he had finished with some trees, seeing the sun beginning to rise, he headed home, finding his grandmother and sisters, who greeted him enthusiastically.
"Good mornin'," he said simply, sitting down. He noted how it was only his family around, which was way better for him. After finishing, he went to his part of the orchard, while Applejack headed further west. He spent a little more than an hour filling the bushels, finally loading the cart with them.
Before he could go and hitch himself to it, though, the cart began to roll by itself, going forward until it went down a ladder, gaining a speed that prevented Big Mac from stopping it, ultimately crashing at top speed against the trunk of one tree. The cart upturned, sending its content flying. All the bushels fell down, the apples falling al over the place. He reached the spot, letting out a powerful snort. He turned up the cart and the bushels, setting off to pick up the apples.
Two hours later, he had finished his chore, setting once again the bushels in the cart. He trotted uphill, pulling the cart, until finally getting to the barn and unloading the apples. He flexed his muscles, alleviating the slight pain, and went on to set some more bushels around trees before hearing Granny Smith's call for lunch. He turned back and went inside the house, content despite the unexpected setback.
He entered the kitchen to find Granny Smith and the human going around the kitchen, setting things up for lunch and chatting animatedly. Her grandmother noticed him.
"Hullo there, Macintosh! Y'all doin' fine?"
"Eeyup," answered simply the stallion, feeling the human's gaze over him. The human didn't say anything, though.
Soon Applejack and then Apple Bloom came in. They sat down to eat, and he followed their conversation mostly silent. When they finished, Applejack and Apple Bloom went out with the human to take him to Ponyville. He excused himself and went back to the orchards.
-
"... and that' how Twilight and me brought you inside of the Library. I couldn't believe my eyes that day!"
Lyra finished her story happily. A metric tape was floating around Albert's body, taking different measures, as he listened to Lyra. The mint green unicorn was certainly very energetic, but at the same time that seemed to make her quite flighty. She had not stopped flashing him with questions during the trip from the Library to the Boutique.
"Thanks for taking care of me. I should talk with Twilight afterwards."
"Most certainly, darling. These two were very much interested in you and took great care of your petrified form. I must say that is not a form I would like to be any time soon. Twilight herself has experienced it. She said that it was like being deeply asleep, but didn't elaborate too much on it."
Albert scratched his chin. "Last thing I remember was the cockatrice looking directly to my eyes, and some memories I was having. After that it all went dark... It could be as Twilight says, really. I wouldn't want to be trapped like that ever again."
"I wouldn't wish that on anypony, though..." Rarity cut herself mid-sentence and the tape briefly fell to the floor. She coughed affectedly and picked up the tape. "Sorry, darling, got a bit distracted there."
Albert and Lyra both looked at her, but did not say anything.
"Voilá, this is done!" announced Rarity proudly, as she rolled the tape, putting it away. "Next step would be drawing. A little challenging, but you are not that much different from Spike, so it shouldn't take much time. She floated some pieces of fabric of different colors towards them.
"What colors do you like, Albert?"
"Green, green!"
"Lyra, dear, while that could work very well with you, it wouldn't go like that for him. He need something more sober. I would vouch for this dark blue myself."
He looked at the fabric she was floating in front of him. "Looks fine to me."
"Marvelous, darling!"
She trotted to the other side, dropping the fabric and picking paper and a pen. She began drawing feverishly. "I'm so excited, this'll be FANTASTIC!"
"I think she's gonna be a bit busy for a time." Lyra turned around to look at Albert, beaming. "Do you want to know Ponyville proper?"
"Take me, then," said Albert, though he wasn't sure about going out with the giddy unicorn, now sewing implements were floating around everywhere, and so they sped out of the Boutique.
The confused pony let out futile protests as Applejack pushed her out of the Library.
"No books now, Sugarcube. Come back later." She closed the door behind her, locking it and coming back to Spike's side. Both sat at one of the tables.
"What were you tellin' me, Spike?"
"Yeah... Ever since the human appeared, Lyra has been obsessing over him and Twilight felt ignored. I told her to speak with Lyra, and she was going to do just that, but then the human appeared and it all fell down. She then dispatched everyone and now she's locked herself up."
The small dragon looked up at the pony, confusion written in his face. "Should I write to the Princess?"
The earth pony shook her head. "None o' that, Sugarcube. We've got to fix up this bad business ourselves. Let's git on."
Spike followed Applejack upstairs, both stopping in front of Twilight's bedroom. The earth pony called loudly.
"Twilight!"
No response came from the inside. Applejack pounded on the door, only to notice her hoof bouncing back. She looked at the door and back at her hoof.
"Your fancy magic ain't gonna stop me a bit, Twilight! Open that door or Ah'll bring it down!"
Once again there was no answer from inside.
"For Celestia's sake, Twilight. This is not how y'all go about it!"
Bothered by the lack of response, Applejack retreated until the other side of the stairs. Spike looked at her.
"Um, Applejack, if you're planning to do what I think..."
She paid no heed to him, scratching the floor with her hoof, her green eyes focused in the door in front of her. She snorted.
"Applejack..."
It was too late, as Applejack pounded all her body against the door, shifting her weight to fall against it. A lavender glow appeared around the door and the earth pony was pushed back with great force, colliding with the opposite wall. She let out a big wail of pain, falling on the stairs, closing her eyes as she felt like if her whole body had cracked open.
"Urgh... Spike..." called out Applejack, weakly. The small dragon crouched over her.
"You should've been more careful, Applejack. Rest up there a little." The earth pony fell unconscious soon. Spike looked at the door in front of them. "Twilight..."
Albert blinked. Two earth pony stallions trotted in front of him and Lyra. The first had a body colored in different shades of amber, except for his crystal clear blue eyes. The second sported a grey coat and black mane with bright yellow eyes, wearing a top hat and a red bow tie. They both were carrying a box covered with a cloth and waved silently to Lyra before walking onwards. Lyra just laughed, watching Albert's expression.
"The brown one is called Time Turner, though for some reason he prefers to be called Whooves. Can't fathom why... The other one is his brother, called Raggedy. There are others around. A wacky family if I ever saw one; they're always around doing crazy things. Hey, let's go to my house!"
In the route to her house, Lyra spoke about ponies, music, herself, Bon Bon, Twilight and humans, all while giving him a tour around the whole of Ponyville, or so it looked like to him. Everywhere they walked, looks were turned towards him, and he was no longer comfortable. Not to mention a meeting with the Cutie Mark Crusaders Human Chroniclers. That was something he hoped not to repeat.
"Lyra, just where are we going?"
The unicorn smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I just go so excited! Look, it's over there."
After another ten minutes of walking around, they made it. Bon Bon was on the outside and greeted them. "Hello, Lyra, Albert. Nice to see you around here for a change." She directed a meaningful look to her friend who just chuckled nervously.
"I was showing Albert around Ponyville. Probably got a little excited, he he... We'll go inside."
He followed Lyra into the house, as she showed him every room. Once upstairs, he looked through the window in Bon Bon's room, looking at the sight of Ponyville from above. It still seemed too unreal for him.
"Do you know how to play the lyre?"
"No, not really. Is an uncommon instrument..."
The unicorn pouted, but immediately smiled broadly. "Then let me show you!"
"What do you think about this, darling?" asked Rarity, levitating her drawings for Albert to see. After a couple of seconds she blinked, confused. "Albert? Lyra? Where did these two go?"
She sighed, adjusting her glasses and looking back over the designs she had sketched, a smile crowning her lips. "Doesn't matter. I know he'll love this. I better put hooves to work, then."
She looked at her table, full of designs and requests her clients had given her, and let out another sigh. "Well, this is nothing I cannot manage stretching my schedules a little. I want to work with Albert's designs so much..."
She marked the shapes on the fabric and afterwards set off to cut the pieces, her face contorted in concentration.
After she had them cut, she lifted them with her magic, contemplating them against the diminishing light of the afternoon. The patterns that the pieces reflected on her mind brought to her memory designs she had made for stallions -very few compared to the ones that mares requested of her-. It made her think of the designs she had made for Spike, but most of all it brought to her mind the memories of certain designs she had come up with for a certain prince when he was all she had in fantasies; she dreamed of having him wear her productions, complimenting her on such splendid work. She lowered the pieces of fabric to the table and looked to the windows, seeing the approach of dusk and allowing herself to get lost in her thoughts.
-
About half an hour after she had passed out, Applejack recovered consciousness slowly. She opened her eyes and blinked several times. She recognized the stairs on the Library, and turning her head, which bore a thumping headache, recognized Spike, who was by her side.
"Sugarcube...?"
"You did wake up at last, Applejack. How're you feeling?"
"Pretty terrible, Spike. Everything's hurtin', and mah head feels like it's about to be cracked in two.." She closed her eyes?
"Can you walk?" She nodded slowly.
"Let's go downstairs, you'll seat down and I'll give you an analgesic."
"Sounds mighty fine, Sugarcube..."
They both slowly and surely made their way to the main room of the library, where Applejack sat down and Spike brought for her a glass of water and a capsule, which she drank in a gulp. She put her hooves down in the table and closed her eyes again. "Owww... Sometimes Ah forget who Twilight is..."
"What are we going to do then?"
"Just lemme get over this little headache and Ah'll get around to it..."
-
Albert slowly clapped, after Lyra finished her performance. He smiled and she did as well.
"That was pretty good. I don't think I had heard a lyre before, really. It's something new for me. But you do it wonderfully. How did you learn?"
Albert saw her smile faltering briefly, but it was almost unnoticeable, she was there beaming radiantly immediately. "I had a good teacher, and practiced hard like everypony, of course."
"You're right... " He looked around, but saw no clock or a device that could tell him the hour. "Hey, Lyra, what time is it? I think it's about time for me to get to the Boutique, or the Library. I don't know where I'm sleeping today. I really need to settle down my situation soon."
"I'd offer you a space here, but we don't have any spare rooms or something you could use to stay overnight. Bon and I rarely get visitors and we're not equiped for it."
"Don't worry, I understand. I'll get going."
"I'll go with you, of course!"
They went downstairs, said goodbye to Bon Bon -I'll leave your dinner on the table, did you hear?- and crossed the streets of Ponyville once again, chatting. They made it to the Library.
"Hey, Lyra, all the lights are off..."
"You're right... Let's knock anyway, there must be somepony inside."
Albert knocked the door loudly. They both waited some time, but no one came to open. They looked at each other and Albert tried knocking even louder. There was no response.
"Great, just great. Let's go to the Boutique..."
They made it to Rarity's business, only to find Sweetie Belle outside of it. She turned back, her eyes teary and her ears dropped.
"Rarity's not here... I've been knocking and even screamed, but nopony has come out..."
"Well, just great... What are we going to do? Walk all around Ponyville?"
They marched off. Meanwhile, inside the Boutique, one of the mannequins tumbled over, causing a chain reaction that wound up hitting Rarity's sewing machine, that went off and destroyed the dress Rarity has left in it.
"Ah'm feelin' a mite better, Sugarcube... Let's, let's go and look fer the others... Let's begin with Rarity."
Rarity was beginning to put hooves to work again, when she heard a loud knocking in the door.
"Oh, for the love of..."
"Rarity, open up! It's us, Applejack and Spike!"
Shocked by the sudden visits and curious by Applejack's urgent tone, Rarity opened the door and trotted over to them. She was even more surprised to find a panting Applejack entering her shop. It was very rare to see the Earth Pony in such a state outside of race, ever since she had learnt her lesson about overworking herself.
"Applejack! What's the matter,darling, why do you come in such a hurry?"
"Rarity, Twilight has locked herself in her room and won't come out!" said Spike, attracting the attention of the mare.
"Why would Twilight do such a thing?!"
"Ain't no time ta go explainin' now! Let's round up the group and then we'll talk!"
Rarity allowed Spike to climb to her back, to the small dragon's big pleasure and they trotted off of the building. Just some minutes later, Scootaloo would drop Sweetie Belle on the front of the shop and dash off with her scooter, Apple Bloom in tow.
Rarity, Applejack and Spike made it to Sugarcube Corner. Rarity knocked on the door of the already closed business. "Pinkie Pie, darling, can you come out?"
The door opened violently and Pinkie Pie ejected herself outside, falling in front of them with her four hooves on the floor. "I'm here! What's it, Rarity? Hello, Applejack, Spike!" waved the pink pony, grinning.
"Darling, Twilight has locked herself in her room and won't come out. We're looking for the girls to go and help her."
Pinkie's mouth opened wide. "Poor Twilight! Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Pinkie pulled out some glasses from nowhere and hopped in front of her friends.
"Dashie, come here!"
The aforementioned pegasus was found when she pulled her head out of her cloud home to answer to Pinkie's screams. She quickly joined them after Rarity filled her in and they all set course to Fluttershy's cottage.
The group made it to the cottage just as the sun was falling. Applejack knocked on her door, and soon the shy pegasus opened.
"Oh, girls. How nice to see you all here. Um, it's something wrong...?"
"Yeah, let's discuss this inside, Sugarcube."
"Of course, come in," said Fluttershy, stepping aside, worried about what would it be. The whole group came into her house, Spike begrudgingly dismounting Rarity and they all moved to form a circle in the floor of Fluttershy's home. They soon informed her about what was happening. She took a hoof to her mouth, gasping.
"Oh, we should go over there and talk to her."
"Hay yeah we should! Twilight's room has a window, right? I'll just buck it off!" Dash stood on her hind legs, punching the air.
"Don't even try it, Rainbow. Ah tried to open her door and spent half hour passed out on her stairs."
Rainbow lowered herself to the floor, with an angry expression on her face, but said nothing.
"We ought to talk to her, but that must be tomorrow. Poor Twilight must be tired, angry, sad and totally lost in her mind right now. We should give her some time and approach her once she's more eager to talk to us."
"Ah reckon yeh're right, Rarity. But there's also another side in this. Ah think we've got to find Lyra and speak our mind to that pony. We need to get her on line, or at least make her acknowledge her mistake and think what's she goin' to do?"
"You're right, Applejack. But we shouldn't all go. We'd scare her by ganging up on her and we don't pretend that. I think only some of us should go and meet her. And I think it should be Pinkie Pie, Spike and I who should go and talk to her."
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, snorting at Rarity. "And why should you be the ones to go there, Miss Fancy Talk?"
"Precisely because of that, Rainbow Dash. Well meaning ponies as you both are, Applejack and you can be pretty rough at times, and that would not sit well with Lyra. It wouldn't do to make Fluttershy go and come back in the deep night. So Pinkie Pie here, who has an astonishing ability to empathize with ponies, Spike, who's Twilight companion and myself who understand better these issues than you, no offense meant, would be the better choices."
"Ok, Ah'll go with your idea, Rarity. Let's just hope that it works."
"...Fine, do whatever."
"Excellent, darlings. Now I think we should get going. We will meet tomorrow, Fluttershy dear."
"Ok, Rarity, I hope your talk with Lyra goes well."
Rarity, Spike, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash headed to Ponyville after leaving the cottage, while Applejack came back to the farm. Once the group made it to the town, Dash returned to her house.
"Very well, Pinkie Pie, Spike, let us go then."
Lyra opened her house's door, followed by Albert and Sweetie Belle.
"Bon, I brought some friends to stay over!"