Lyra sat down on the steps outside of her small apartment. The sun shone brightly, making her squint a bit. There were next to no clouds in the pale blue sky. The weather pegasi had done a great job that morning. Lyra pulled a newspaper off of the small patch of green grass that served as her front lawn. She opened it slowly, examining the headline of the first page. "Mysterious killer strikes again," she read aloud. Lyra gave a soft sigh.
Recently, a series of murders had been occurring all over Equestria. The pony responsible always wore a mask, so nopony knew his or her identity. Lyra noticed more and more ponies who refused to leave the house, for fear of being killed. She herself was rather afraid of this killing machine as well, but she had been forcing herself to continue with normal life.
"Who was it this time?" asked a warm voice from behind Lyra. The shadow of the speaker covered Lyra, blocking out the sun. The turquoise mare turned around to face Bon Bon, her roommate. The pony hoofed the paper to Bon Bon, who began scanning the page for useful tidbits of information. "So, it was that young pegasus Scootaloo, huh?" the cream coated earth pony remarked. "Shame. She was so small and innocent. I don't even think that poor thing had her cutie mark."
Lyra gave her friend a soft smile. "Look, Bon Bon, I'm getting kind of worried..." she told her. Bon Bon put the paper to the side and ran a hoof through Lyra's mane. "It's okay. I understand," she said softly. "We'll be alright." But somehow, even Bon Bon was beginning to doubt herself. The situation seemed genuinely hopeless.
Bon Bon, who always tried to stay positive, was doing her best to make her and Lyra go about their day to day activities as if nothing was wrong. But the stress of trying to stay normal in a time of grave despair was nearly too much for the mares to handle. Lyra had been nervous about the situation from the beginning, and it had taken a large amount of coaxing and a little bit of bribing to get her to cooperate. But Bon Bon was determined not to lose her grip.
"We just need to see some old friends or something. Do something fun to get our minds off of the issue," Bon Bon told her marefriend, closing her eyes softly. Lyra sighed again, shutting her eyes as well.
"Like what?"
"I dunno. We should get together with Berry Punch and Colgate."
Lyra put a hoof to her cheek. "I thought Berry Punch had locked herself in. She said Cherilee was forcing her to," she replied sullenly. Bon Bon gave the statement a bit of thought before saying, "Maybe we can persuade Cherilee to let her out. At least for one outing. Besides, I'm sure Colgate will want to see her."
"If you say so, Bon Bon."
