Author's Note

It's been over a year since I last updated this story, and I can only say sorry for the very, very long wait. (A word of advice for all of you, don't leave your laptop on a desk that cost you $5, because it could break, and leave you with out a laptop for months.) Again, I am very sorry, I hope this chapter makes up for it, and I'll start updating both of my stories on a regular basis.

Lyra Heartstrings (4/4 Dead Rising 3)

Nick didn't know where he was, well he knew he was in a restaurant, but he didn’t care what the name of it was, or what part of town it was in, and after what had happened to him, who could blame him, he had be taken captive by an old woman in a wheelchair, saw his best friend Diego die, met a scientist who said she could help him, fought a bunch of mechanical arms, got trapped in a subway station, escaped from that, and now he had to meet the scientist at the hangar, gather up all of his friends, and escape.

Now that would be bad enough, but on top of that he had a few more people to help out, apparently the wimpy kid from a few days earlier had taken some poor girl hostage, some of his Illegal friends needed help, and there was an old woman at a hotel who was surprisingly calm given everything else that was going on.

And poor Nick was as overwhelmed as he could be, he needed a moment for himself, that’s why he was in this restaurant, eating a week old doughnut and drinking a cold cup of coffee, Nick really missed warm food, but even this would be interrupted, as his phone started to ring, Jayme was calling once again.

Nick sighed, picked up the phone, answered it, and said “Hello?”

“Hey Nick.” Jayme started, “I just saw another pony, it ran into a hardware store in Central City, I think it had wing, and it looked pretty scared.” Before Nick could say anything, Jayme hanged up.

Nick knew he would get another call about a pony, but the call still got him off guard, he thought the call would be the last friend of the other three, but from what he could remember about the picture he saw in the candy shop, the pony didn’t have wings.

Curiosity got the better of him, he got out of the restaurant, and ran to the nearest car, and as he got into the car, the same feeling he got whenever he had to fight a psychopath came over him, this wasn’t going to be as easy as he wanted it to be.

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Mission Name: Scattered: All Alone

Objective: Investigate Joe’s Hardware Place

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Nick arrived at the hardware store, already dreading something he was afraid to see , there were next to no zombies outside of the store, which usually meant he was about to have another fight for his life, as he got of the car, he checked the weapons he had, one shotgun with 4 shots remaining, a 2X4, a metal pipe, and a combo drink he liked to call an Energizer, figuring that was the best he could do, he walked into the store.

The main part was just like he expected it to look, ransacked with a lot of tool missing, and a few blood spots could be seen, along with a door that lead into the back room, which Nick knew was the place he had to go into, he walked over to the door, took a deep breath, and went inside.

Upon entering the room, he heard the sound of something wet squishing beneath his feet, and that the room was pitch black, Nick let the door close behind him, and looked for a source of light and found a flashlight next to him, picked it up, turned it on, and looked at what he just stepped on, which turned out to be a piece of flesh.

Nick jumped to the side of the flesh, and used the flashlight to look around the rest of the room, finding a lot of dead zombies, and after seeing at least five dead bodies, he saw something that looked like a rainbow, moving the light to the source of the rainbow, he saw a cyan pony with magenta eyes, and a rainbow mane, her mouth taped shut, and her hooves and what looked like wing were tied with rope, this pony was panicking, trying to free herself, and when she saw Nick, she froze.

“It’s ok, I’m not going to hurt you.” Nick said as he started to make his way to the pony.

The pony seemed to calm down a bit, but when Nick got about halfway to her, her eyes went wide with fear. and she started to yell something through the tape, Nick couldn't understand what she meant, but it sounded like she was saying “Behind you.”

Nick turned around, and saw a mint green unicorn with sunglow eyes and a cyan mane staring at him with a deranged look on her face, if Nick removed the blood spots from it’s coat, he knew who this pony was.

“The last friend.” Nick thought.

“Well, looks like another one got in.” The pony, who was clearly a girl, said.

“Hey, I’m not one of those things.” Nick replied.

“Oh, you can talk, doesn't make you any different from the rest of your kind.”

“Miss, I’m telling you, I’m not one of those monsters.”

“Say it all you like, you’re not going to fool me, I thought I knew everything about your kind, but now, after all I’ve seen, I can tell that everything I thought I knew was wrong. you monster just eat and eat, and after that thing of yours fell out of the sky, I lost all of my friends! And I have been left all alone in this room for the last seven days!” The mare yelled.

“Look, Miss-” Nick started but got cut off.

“Lyra, if you can understand what I’m saying, unlike the others that came into this room, you should at least know my name before you end up like the rest.”

“Ok, Lyra, let this pony go.” Nick said as he pointed at the pony behind him, “She doesn’t want to be here.”

“You think I’m going to let her go? Well you thought wrong! I finally have a friend in this place and I’m not letting you take her away!”

At that point, Lyra pulled out what looked like a hacksaw with a lot of blades on it, Lyra quickly swung the weapon at Nick, who moved back, avoiding the attack, but the flashlight he was hold got hit, destroying his only source of light, the sounds of hoofsteps running away from him told Nick that the Lyra had moved away, leaving him in a dark room with a psychopath.

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Objective Update: Defeat Lyra Heartstrings

Battle Theme

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Nick looked around, to no avail, he couldn’t see anything. However, he could hear the ponies hoofsteps, and he quietly tried to sneak away. Listening to the pony, and avoiding it at all costs.

Nick knew that there was no chance he could win the fight if the room was left in it’s dark state, so he wandered around the room, listening for the pony’s hoofsteps and making sure that he didn’t go near them, when he got to a wall, he felt around for a power switch, and wasn’t able to find one. However, he heard something right behind him, and he kicked it, knocking the pony to the ground, and he began to search quicker, and ended up finding a power switch, and turning it on. The light flickered on, allowing Nick to see the bloody room with some zombie corpses lying around and the tied up pony who was at the other end of the room, but something was missing, he couldn’t find the psychopathic mare. He took a few steps away from the switch and looked to his side, Lyra wasn’t there, the only spot of the room he hadn’t checked was behind him, Nick turned around. His eyes widened, and he ducked, and a saw swung right above his head.

“Careful there.” Nick said, “You could have killed me.”

“That’s what I was trying to do.” Lyra growled.

“I kinda figured.” Nick then dodged an incoming attack, and kicked the pony away. His kicked backed him up into the wall. He quickly took out his gun, and looked around, but couldn’t find the pony. He was suddenly hit in the back of the head, and knocked to the ground, on his stomach.

Nick quickly turned over, onto his back, and stopped the incoming attack from the mare, by grabbing the hoof of the mare, before his head was cut open. The mint green pony then tried to force the saw to go down into his skull, and the pony also put her other hoof on Nick’s free arm.

Nick then lifted up his legs, having them smash into her hindquarters, and Lyra came forward, and Nick headbutt her, just under her horn. He then used his legs to get under her stomach, and he kicked her over his head, and she landed on her back, in pain.

Nick quickly got up and grabbed his pipe, and readied himself as Lyra got back on her hooves, glared at him, grabbed her weapon off of the floor, and swung her weapon at Nick , which was easily blocked by the pipe, however, it appeared as if Lyra wanted this to happen, as this was followed up with a hoof to his shin, causing Nick to kneel to the ground in pain, but he was soon sent to the ground by the same hoof.

“Take that you monster!” The crazed mare yelled out.

Nick’s only reply was a groan of pain.

Lyra readied her weapon to finish Nick off, but Nick saw this, grabbed his pipe, and threw it at the mare, hitting her right in the head, Lyra yelped in pain and stumbled back, giving Nick enough time to get up.

Nick’s body was in pain, he didn’t know if he could take another hit from the mare, so he did the only thing he could do, grabbed his Energizer, and took a long sip, he could feel his body getting better, and his adrenalin levels rising, making him feel like nothing could hurt him, this effect was temporary, but it would give him an advantage in the battle.

By this point, Lyra had regained herself, and was more then ready to continue fighting the mechanic, without warning, she charged at Nick, who jumped to the side, Lyra, unable to stop, ran into a small pool of blood, the liquid was slippery enough to make the mare loss her balances, and after a second of trying to regain it, she ended up falling face first to the ground, she then sat up, and started to rub her head, realizing that this was an opening, Nick ran to the mare, put her in a headlock, punched her in the face a few time, then realised her, but this was soon followed up with a kick in the chest, sending the mare stumbling back a few feet.

“Ow, you’ll pay for that!” The mare yelled as she readied her weapon.

“You don’t have to do this!” Nick tried to reason.

“Don’t you understand, I’m not giving up until you end up like the other member of your kind that ended up in this room!” Lyra screamed as she once again charged Nick, who wasn’t able to jump out of the way, and was sent to the ground, thankfully the adrenalin boost prevented him from feeling anything.

Nick got onto his hands, and knees, but was kicked to the ground by Lyra.

Lyra picked up her saw, and swung down at Nick, who fortunately rolled away, and got up, and uppercut Lyra, who fell backwards, and flipped back onto her hooves in one swift movement.

“I am going to kill you!” Lyra shouted, as she looked at Nick, angrily.

“And you’ve said that how many times?” Nick asked, then dodged an attack, but was less fortunate when he was kicked where the sun don’t shine, and to make things worse, the adrenalin boost had worn off.

Nick made the natural human movement, and covered his hands above his unmentionables, and started to weep.

Lyra then uppercut Nick, and smacked him away.

Nick knew that neither one of them had much energy left, and that he need to stop this fight as soon as possible, grabbing his 2X4, he looked at the psychopathic mare, who was just as ready as he was, Nick had to focus, any mistake now could cost him his life, along with the lives of his friends.

Lyra charged at Nick again, swinging her weapon in the process, but it was stopped midway by Nick’s 2X4, Lyra then tried kicking Nick again, but he jumped back and tried to swing his own weapon at the mare, but was blocked in the same way he blocked her attack, the two of them continued to fight in this way for a good minute or two, before Nick kneeled to the ground, out of energy.

Lyra smiled, knowing that victory was in her grasp, she raised her bladed weapon high in the air, but just before she could bring it down and end the mechanic's life, Nick got a second wind, and using both of his hands, he grabbed the 2X4, and swung it as hard as he could at Lyra, hitting her in the face, and sending her to the ground.

Nick could feel everything around him slow down, he had done it, he had beaten the last of the friends, Nick could hear a little fanfare in his head as he rose to his feet.

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Ending 1

Lyra slowly got back on her hooves, one of them was holding on to her jaw, Nick had clearly done some damage to it, but her expression turn pain to rage once she got another look at Nick.

“Your kind killed my friends, your kind tried many times to kill me, and your kind forced me to seal myself in this room with almost no food or water, all I’m trying to do is keep myself and my new friend safe, but you just want to come in here and rip us both apart.” Lyra spoke.

Nick wanted to point out that he didn’t want to hurt her, and that she was the one who attack first, but he knew it would do no good.

“Well, your reign of terror ends here, I’ll rip you apart, just as your kind would do to me!” Lyra yelled as she ran at Nick weapon at the ready, however, she failed to notice a pool of blood in between the two, and once she ran into the blood, she started to lose her balance, and fell, as she fell, she put her front hooves up to try and catch herself, unfortunately, she also raised her bladed weapon to the spot where her neck would be once she hit the ground, bladed side facing upwards.

Upon hitting the ground, the blades went into her neck, cutting her jugular vein, along with cutting off her ability to breath, Lyra tried to get the blades out of her neck, but even if she was able to, it would be of no use, Nick could only watch the poor mare struggle for her own life, at one point, the two locked eye, and Nick could see the fear in them, she wanted help, she wanted to live, but he could do nothing, but watch the life slowly fade from her eyes, after that, her body stopped struggling, and stopped living.

Nick would have ran out of the room, the only thing that kept him here, was the pony in the corner, tied up, and starting to cry, Nick ran over to the pony, and undivided her restraints, upon being realised, the pony pulled Nick into a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The pony said.

“It’s ok, you’re safe now.” Nick replied.

“I-If you hadn’t come when you did, I don’t know what she would have done.”

“Don’t think about that, try to focus on something else.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you could tell me your name and if you have any friends.”

“M-My name is Rainbow Dash, and I was stuck here with five of my friends, but they’re all-” Dash didn’t finish her sentence, but the quiver in her voice told Nick all he needed to know.

“Look, I’m sure your friends are in a better place, speaking of which, let me take you to a safe place.”

Dash nodded, the the two started to make their way out of the room, but before Nick left, he took one last look at Lyra’s body, and a part of his mind told him that she could have been saved.

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Ending 2

Lyra slowly got back on her hooves, one of them was holding on to her jaw, Nick had clearly done some damage to it, but her expression turn pain to rage once she got another look at Nick.

“Your kind killed my friends, your kind tried many times to kill me, and your kind forced me to seal myself in this room with almost no food or water, all I’m trying to do is keep myself and my new friend safe, but you just want to come in here and rip us both apart.” Lyra spoke.

Lyra ran up to Nick, and slashed at him, he moved out of the way, but he tried to punch her. She, however, ducked, and slashed into his right side.

“AUGH!” Nick yelled in pain, and he grabbed Lyra, and threw her onto the wall behind him. While Lyra was recovering, Nick ran up, and put his left hand on the right side of her head, and his right hand covered her muzzle, and he stood her up straight, holding her head against the wall.

Nick could tell by Lyra’s eyes that this wouldn’t end well, and Lyra then slashed into Nick, causing him to back up, still holding onto Lyra, though. Lyra kept slashing into him, and he kept backing up, as he finally had enough, and started to try and turn her head away. However, her body continued to stand straight, until Nick had enough, and put as much force into turning her head away as much as possible.

However, Nick’s eyes widened, as he heard a snap come from the mare’s neck, and she fell to the ground, with a thump, and Nick backed up, not quite surprised at what he just did as he should have been.

Nick would have ran out of the room, the only thing that kept him here, was the pony in the corner, tied up, and starting to cry, Nick ran over to the pony, and undivided her restraints, upon being realised, the pony pulled Nick into a hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The pony said.

“It’s ok, you’re safe now.” Nick replied.

“I-If you hadn’t come when you did, I don’t know what she would have done.”

“Don’t think about that, try to focus on something else.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you could tell me your name and if you have any friends.”

“M-My name is Rainbow Dash, and I was stuck here with five of my friends, but they’re all-” Dash didn’t finish her sentence, but the quiver in her voice told Nick all he needed to know.

“Look, I’m sure your friends are in a better place, speaking of which, let me take you to a safe place.”

Dash nodded, the the two started to make their way out of the room, but before Nick left, he took one last look at Lyra’s body, and a part of his mind told him that she could have been saved.

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Ending 3

Lyra attempted to stand back up, but the pain she was feeling made what should have been a simple task really hard, once Lyra was able to stand, she tried to grab her weapon, but upon grabbing it, it managed to send the fragel mare back to the ground, with the weapon landing just out of reach of her hooves, Nick then walked over to the weapon, and slid it even farther away from the mare.

Lyra looked Nick in the eyes and said “Alright, I give up, you’ve won, just kill me already…… But if y-you have any sense of m-mercy, could y-you please make it painless.”

The events that would proceed this point was something that Nick had never seen a psychopath do, Lyra closed her eyes, putting her front hooves over them, her body started to shiver, she started to whimper, and finally, she began to cry, and as she cried, she would say things through her tears like how she wanted to go home, or how she wanted to be with her friends again, and for this nightmare to be over.

Nick was in shock, the pony who less than a minute ago tried to kill him, was now openly crying, a quick look in the corner of the room revealed that even the tied up pony was shocked about Lyra reaction.

Part of Nick’s mind told him that it was a trick, and that if he were to comfort the mare, she would attack again, but another told him that this wasn’t a trick, and that she was just a mare who couldn’t handle being alone, it was this side of his mind that Nick trusted, so he kneed down, and pulled the pony into a hug, Lyra almost immediately hugged back.

Lyra cried for a minute or so, but as time went on, she cried less and less, until she stopped all together, it was then that Lyra realized that she was hugging the thing that she thought would kill her.

“W-Why didn’t you kill me?” Lyra asked.

“Like I tried to tell you, I’m not one of those things, they try to kill me too.” Nick answered.

“So you’re a good g-guy?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…… S-Sorry for attacking you, I was afraid that you were trying to hurt me like those monsters, so I may have jumped to conclusions.”

“It’s ok, I’m not mad, but from now on, give people, or ponies, time to explain themselves.”

Lyra nodded.

At this point, Nick let go of Lyra, and made his way to the other pony, and removed the tape and rope.

Once the pony was free, it looked at Nick and said “Thanks.” However, once she looked over Nick’s shoulder, she froze, Nick looked behind him and saw Lyra, who had gained enough energy to stand up and move, standing behind him, she didn’t have a weapon or anything, so Nick guessed that the pony was still scared of her.

“I-I’m sorry.” Lyra said.

“Y-You tied me up and put me in a dark room.” The pony replied.

“I know, I wasn’t thinking straight, I was trapped in this place with my friends, but we ran off one day, and I haven’t seen them since, and I’ve been stuck in this room, too scared to leave, so when you came, I didn’t want to be alone, so I took you and made sure you stayed, but I’d never do it again, I promise.”

“You lost your friends too?”

Lyra nodded “I’m not sure if they are dead or alive.”

“Mine are, I saw all of them die.”

“I’m sorry for your losses.”

“Ok, I hate to break this conversation, but we need to go.” Nick said.

“Ok, let’s go.” Lyra said.

“I’m ready to leave this place, my name is Rainbow Dash by the way.” Dash replied, Nick could see that she had warmed up to Lyra a bit, but she was was still uneasy around her.

“Alright, let’s go.” Nick said as they started to make their way to the exit, but on the way, Nick found Lyra’s weapon, and upon closer inspection, he figured out how to make more of them, and he decided it was a good idea to hold on to it, he needed all the weapons he could get, and with that, the three of them left the room, with the goal being a nearby safe house.

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Mission Name: Scattered: All Alone

Complete

Rainbow Dash Has Joined

Lyra Heartstrings Has Joined

Weapon Blueprint Unlocked: 20 Blades, Hacksaw + Chef Knife