"Lyra?"

"Lyra, are you with me?" A voice reverberated inside her sensitive ears.

The unicorn blinked, her eyelids heavy as stones, a burning fever fading away. Her vision was blurry and misshapen, she was only certain that a warm light emanated from the nightstand.

Gradually, she felt the texture of the woolen bed sheets, the fresh air coming from an open window, the smell of coffee lingering in the atmosphere.

Lyra was awake.

She rubbed her eyes slowly, feeling the touch of her wet fur. Had it been that long ago?

Bon Bon stood right beside the bed, she looked awfully tired, a wet towel dripping from her hoof. Lyra tried to look around, but every single muscle of her body was stiff and sore.

"W-what..." She muttered. "What did I do to myself?" Her voice failed.

Covering her eyes with a pillow, Lyra sobbed and broke into tears. All around the room, dozens of foreign equipment pilled up against the walls. Twilight's experiments, advanced scanners, reminiscences of all the failed attempts of bringing the unicorn back from her coma.

It was a warm Sunday afternoon, when Bon Bon arrived home, only to find her lover laying on the floor, empty flasks and vials scattered around her limp body.

No one ever figured out where she got those things, or for what purposes. But they suspected it had to do with her growing obsession.

But Lyra did, Lyra would remember that fateful day of her life, when she nearly drugged herself to death, in a desperate attempt to contact a human soul.

Insanity?

Maybe.

She wouldn't dare to call it a fantasy again, not after all she went through, what happened to her was real. Not in Equestria, not on Earth, but somewhere between. Because while Bon Bon, and the best scientists money could afford tried to disentangle the deathly spell that locked her mind away from the real world, Lyra lived a life inside of herself.

She was deformed by the spiritual energy that flowed through her incompatible soul. Reality was highly subjective.

"It's over now dear... It's over." Bon Bon hugged her tightly. "I don't know what you found, or what they did to you. But it's not real." She whispered. "I'll never let you go again."

"I know..." She said, planting a long kiss on Bon Bon's lips. Inspecting her real self after such a long slumber was very painful. There was much to be fixed. "She won't find us, I promise."

The pony shivered a little at the thought. Bon Bon heard stories about the person in her lover's head, and although she never admitted, she feared for her safety.

Lyra was a duo inside herself, and no matter how hard she tried to suppress that part of her soul, It would eventually reveal itself again. It was always a matter of time.

As they hugged, Bon Bon stared into her glistening eyes.

Those deep amber eyes.

Author's Note

This was a short story intended to serve as a (non-necessary) prologue to 'Amber Eyes', an incoming story which may take place in a noir world, where lost souls and outlaws of many dimensions seek shelter.