You run your hands through your hair and sit up, looking over at your clock and sighing. You throw the covers off and swing your legs off the bed, your gaze slowly fixating on a pair of pants a few feet away.

        You stand up and make your way over to them, sliding your legs into their respective sides, and then proceed to open the door to the hallway. You don’t bother turning on the lights in the hallway, feeling your way along the empty walls was all the help you needed.

        You yawn as you enter the living room, and since you didn’t feel like hitting your foot on some random piece of furniture, you flip on the lights and shield your eyes. After a couple of seconds, you uncover your eyes and notice something strange on your couch.

        You walk over to it and poke it, not caring that it was asleep. It mumbles something and it stirs, and you continue to poke and prod it continuously. Eventually it groans, finally sitting up, and yawning while stretching its arms over its head.

        “You know that this is breaking and entering, right?” you say, sitting on the end of the couch.

        “I didn’t break anything, all I did was enter.” it retorts in a tone halfway between normal and a yawn.

        “You’re unbelievable Lyra.” you say to her, placing your hand on her head.

        “What time is it?” she says, scratching her head with one hand and rubbing one of her eyes with the other.

        Lyra and you have been friends since you were both kids since your parents worked below hers. The result of this was Lyra knowing you probably better than she knew herself, not that this was a bad thing, you’ve always had a little thing for her.

        “Do you really have to be wearing so little when you aren’t even in your own home? Do you know how easily I could take advantage of your right now?” you say in a stern voice, grabbing the blanket that was slung over the back of the couch and tossing it over her barely clothed body.

        “Yea, yea, we both know you wouldn’t do that in a million years.” she grumbles, swiping your way and landing face first on your lap.

        “You are really horrific when you first wake up, you know that Lyra?” you say, picking up a handful of mint green hair. You pick up a stray piece of white hair that came from the one single streak of white she had always had.

        “So why are you here?” you say after a few moments of silence, realizing you weren’t going to get a response from her.

        “My roommate.” she replies in a half sigh, half annoyed tone.

        “Oh yea, you do have a roommate, don’t you?” you say in a sarcastic tone.

        “Yeah...”

        “Lovers quarrel I’m going to assume? I mean, you’ve had one for what, a year now?”

        “Shut up. She just annoys me, that’s all.” she growls.

        You take the hint and back off of the subject, and now that you were wide awake you highly doubt you are going back to sleep. You slide her head off of your lap and stand up.

        “Well I need some fresh air.” you say, hoping she doesn’t respond.

        “I’ll come too!” you look to your side just in time to spring up.

        All she is wearing is an orange tank top that looks like the kind of shirt that when wet becomes see through, and a tiny pair of blue shorts.

        “Oh come on Lyra!” you say, averting your eyes and looking at the mini bar overlooking the kitchen.

        “You have some sweats with strings, right?” you hear her walk away, and you sigh.

        You frown as you look over your living room, and you pick up a potato chip bag that had somehow made its way onto the carpet. You have one giant couch that is in the shape of an L that is accompanied by a matching coffee table, and a single 52” TV hanging on the wall. The coffee table contained a few magazines you had left out that you probably should have put away into the cardboard box they belonged in, and a glass of milk. You sip the milk and recoil at the taste, and you end up chugging the whole thing just so you don’t waste it.

        Money is tight as always...

        “I hope you get sick from that.” you hear Lyra say in a disgusted voice, and you turn and see her pretend gagging.

        “That’s a horrible thing to hope for Lyra.” you reply, walking up to her and looking at her now covered legs, and instead of nodding like you had originally intended to, you end up looking her from bottom to top.

        Lyra was perfect in every aspect to you, and your definition of pretty probably sprouted from being around her so much at a young age. Although she only comes up to about your shoulders, that’s how you liked it; not too tall, but not too short. Her orange eyes had a thing for piercing through your soul when you lied to her, and you loved when you had to tell one of those little white lies, perhaps a surprise birthday party, and she would get all up in your personal bubble and simply stare you down. And then there was her hair. So simple, as if the only thing she had ever done to it, and probably will ever do to it, is brush it a few times. It had it’s own strange color scheme that you had only seen on one other person, her mother, and that is mint green with a streak of white. It only comes down to a little past her shoulders, but you liked it that way, just like her height, not too short, but not too long. Plus she was also one of the more paler people you knew, but she didn't seem to ever burn in the sun.

        “See anything you like?” she says, looking slightly up and grinning at you before turning towards the door to your porch.

        “I wasn-”

        “Save your excuses for someone who cares.” she says, stifling another yawn as she starts making her way over to it.

        You groan and make your way over to her, sliding the glass door open for her, following her promptly.. You look up as you step off of the porch and onto the grass, and you smile.

        Another crystal clear night.

        You both hailed from a town not that far from Manehatten, and since you were so close to the city back then, you had never really gotten to see the night sky so clearly as you had from Ponyville. Though Ponyville still had a substantial amount of light pollution, it wasn’t nearly as much as the giant shield the city essentially made from all of the light, basically blocking everything but the brightest stars.

        You look back down and look around for Lyra, and you notice she has made her way onto the trampoline that was planted smack dab in the middle of your backyard.

        “Come over here and lay with me!” she says in a playful voice, and you obediently do as she commands.

        The second you crawl into place next to her she turns onto her side and smiles at you, her arm creating a cushion for her head to lay on as she looks at you. You smile back and go back to looking at the sky, and soon enough your eyes start to get heavy.

        “Hey, do you remember my favorite constellation?” you hear Lyra ask, and your hand shoots up immediately and points to a group of stars.

        “Remember the name?”

        “Nope.” you say, telling her a little white lie.

        “Aw, then I guess we aren’t the bestest best friends that will ever be!” you turn just in time to see her pout and make her eyes water; the all too familiar sad face she had mastered when you were kids.

        “So how did you get into my house?” you ask, curious to how she got in without detection.

        “I stole your key.”

        “Wait what.” you say, the question coming out more like a statement.

        “Sorry?” she says, sounding half sorry and half amused.

        You turn and look at her, and then proceed to say “boop” as you hit her in the head with the palm of your hand. She hates boops, probably from the bottom of her soul.

        “Stop!” she finally says after about ten boops.

        “Alright, alright, don’t raise your voice, you don’t know what could be in the Everfree!” you say, covering her mouth with your hand. You feel her lick your hand, and you pull back immediately from the unwanted action.

        “Gah! Lyra, we’re not little kids anymore.” you say, wiping your hand on your shirt with a sigh.

        “Sometimes I wish we were...” she says, her voice full of sorrow.

        “Why’s that?” you ask, suddenly intrigued.

        “Well uh... You remember that one time you asked me out for Hearths Warming day, and I said no?”

        You flinch and look away.

        “Er... Yeah.”

        “Well I... Never mind.” she says frantically, hitting you in the chest and looking back at the sky.

        “Have you ever wondered what’s out there?” Lyra asks, reaching towards the sky with both hands.

        “Yea, and then you told me talking ponies live in an alternate universe and are somewhere out there.” you say in a joking tone, and you receive another hit to the chest, except this time she doesn’t respond. She simply lays there, eyes twinkling, from the stars or from her personality, you might never know.

        Way back when you were a freshman in high school Lyra had this obsession with talking techni colored ponies in an alternate plane of existence, and she was deemed the “Class Crazy” by just about everyone but yourself up until sophomore year when she had abandoned it and acted normal. You hate normal. You always respected Lyra for not caring about what other people think; how she would just forget everyone was there and start talking to you about some of the most awkward conversation topics ever. Since then, she had hated everytime you brought up her one year obsession, and then everytime you asked her where she had gotten the strange idea, she would tell you to go crawl into a ditch and help a panda give birth.

        You quickly glance over at her to see her reaching towards the sky again, and you also can’t help but wish you were still in highschool.

        “Why are you here again?” you say after shaking your head to clear your thoughts.

        “I got into an argument with my roommate about rent.”

        “What about rent.” you say, your voice hardening without you even noticing.

        “Well I am a little behind on it...” she says, giving you a sheepish smile.

        “Jiminey Cricket Lyra...”

        “Hey, it’s not my fault! I just... there was this great sale and I went a little overboard, and I’m just a little short on rent.”

        “How much is a little?”

        “About 200 dollars.” she says with a laugh.

        “Ugh, how can you be laughing about that?” you say with disgust, but she shrugs and directs her attention to the sky.

        “I don’t know... Maybe I could introduce you to her and you could persuade her to forgive me and let me back?”

        “No.”

        “I’ll play the Lyre as you persuade her?” she says, hardly containing her laughter.”

        “I’m being serious here Lyra.”

        “Ugh. Fine.”

 “I have a proposal for you Lyra.” you say reluctantly.

Am I really going to do this...

        “What’s that?” she says, sitting up and leaning back on both arms as she looks at you.

        “You can stay here until you work things out with your roommate, but you have to save everything you make from here on out and put it towards rent. No more spending. I’ll pay for all of the” you take a gulp, “necessities.”

        “Cool.”

        “...Cool?”

        “Cool.”

        “All you have to say is cool?” you say, slightly ticked off.

        “You aren’t going to make me pay you in sexual favors right?” she says, joking horror in her voice.

        “Of course not!” you say, picking up on the joke right after you respond.

        “I mean, I’m willing to do it, just nothing too strange, okay?” she says with a giggle, sliding off of the trampoline and starting her short trek back to your home.

        “Whatever... I’ve got work tomorrow, so make yourself at home!” you mumble, averting your gaze from her backside to the night sky.

        I wonder who her roommate is? Next Chapter: Oh Look, An Unwanted Partner Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes