The Backup Crew
"I'm Lyra Silvermane. I've been sent by Princess Celestia to-- okay and here's the part where it always breaks down, because fundamentally I've got to ask you to join me on a quest to stop the Princesses Evil Sister from shrouding the world in eternal darkness."
"No, no, Harp Slickhair, I breathe it. Your aura, she's BRIGHT right now. Pony /can't/ lie in all that haze."
"What."
"Illusion, Lyra, the facade!" Scratch made a grandiose gesture while simultaneously pulling the lights in her bizarre little house around to glint on the many shiny objects the spectacled pony collected. "Buttoned down so TIGHT, on you AND this new fillyfriend of yours, it clouds us from one another, but is not so high that it blots out the moon..." Scratch's voice trailed off, as she stared out her window at the eastern treeline, where the sun had risen a few hours ago, and where the moon would rise late that night.
"You're.. not making a lot of sense right now."
"But of course, Lyra Silvermane, who is carrying a satchel full of dirt on me, your new friends, the mailpony and even the crazy witch-woman who lives in Everfree, you only need me to say 'yes,' in a way that you believe it. Then you will turn and run. But of course some part of you sees already, that you need a lot more than that. And that is why you're afraid."
Scratch loved doing that to people. Amazing the sort of memories and concerns you can find right on the surface when most people can't read minds. She decided not to let Lyra suffer though.
"First, this Yes, I will give it. But you won't run because of what I said about your needing more, because we both know that to stop the nightmare--" here Scratch spun all her lights in a rapid turn to point at the reflective patch near the top, transforming the topsy-turvey lighting into shockingly normal relief, "you need to trust me. Which is hard, because you know that I'm crazy."
Scratch watched Lyra tremble. "CAN I trust you?"
"You can. Because I've heard the song too. The dark one. The one that's creeping in on the edges of the world. As beautiful, and as seductive as it is, we both know we have to stop it. And only because it's the only way to get through to you, I'll talk sane enough for just this moment, and only this moment, so you'll know that inside the whirlwind is a heart that is on your side."
Scratch listened to Lyra's inner monologue wrestling over whether this was enough. Now she's thinking that this is the real me, now she's thinking I'm a silly showpony. Now she's thinking she's still in over her head. Now at last she's deciding to believe, if only to hide the fear. But the fate-strands around the coming night are shaped like tests, and that's from whence the real trust will come. So the following isn't hurting us any:
"Light grows dim, Lyra. And the letter carrier with the big heart, the crossed eyes and the scary headspace is coming. She has forseen you and I in the kalidescope in her head, and we had better gather the large quiet one and the older woman you're pretending isn't falling in love with you and get ourselves into the forest, to be ready for the storm."
"Ditzy's coming here? How would she--"
CRASH