They. Stopped. Plucking...
Author's Note
The tune Sweetie Drops played is called Heartstrings by Secret Garden (well yeah that's where I got the story name from), although lighthearted but enough to piece the story.
They. Stopped. Plucking...
Heartstrings
By Skylarking the Stargazer
Gathering her valuable objects, a bag of diversely colored flowers and a golden lyre in a fairly large and brown saddlebag, Sweetie Drops dashed out of her house and galloped down the dirt ground all the way to Ponyville Hospital, leaving piles of dusts into the air behind her. Bumping into ponies no matter how young or old, knocking over grocery stands no matter how expensive or cheap, nothing mattered right now. When an important somepony whose life is at stake, every hoof step must count for her to be there at the hospital.
"MOVE!" Ponies could hear her voice from afar. Even then, the furious mare returned them glares and grunts as she ran off.
Those who stared and yelled at her were of no importance. As long as she could see her friend resting in the hospital bed, she could be temporarily reassured.
Temporarily, for no hospitals can guarantee the security of a pony's life. It is only a place where ponies could have higher hopes, if they are even to be deluded. Just like a church or a sanctuary where one pleads for the sacred to help them, no, save them, but the gods will not always be there. To have a god in first place is doubtful enough. How is one supposed to rightfully own herself if she consistently devotes her life to a nonexistent being that had no proof to be a "god" at first place?
The glass doors burst open with a terrifying crash. What the nurses and patients have seen, was an earth pony with a cutie mark of three candy bars standing on four hooves with only hostility between the shattered doors and the windows. Everypony gaped at Sweetie Drops' dramatic entrance. Almost irritated by their impression, the mare nevertheless rolled her eyes and quickly trotted upstairs.
"I'll pay for those later, okay? But that's not important right now."
There was a long hallway with moving bed cars and nurses hurrying to their patients. Sweetie Drops turned to her left then to her right, but no room seemed to have the right pony. She saw the end of the hallway with two directions available for her to turn to. She wanted to ask the nearby nurses and doctors, but even a ten second question-and-answer would take too much time. She needed to get to the right place, now.
She memorized the room number—2-L—with ease. So that means she must make a left and then afterwards she should enter the room to her right. The hallways were wide, so there was enough room for her to pass by without too much trouble. In addition, there were benches for guests by the walls between the rooms , so that one did not have to stand with impatience.
But the independent and strong Sweetie Drops did not need any physical comfort. As long as she could reach the destined room and see her friend, she could live with no hooves at all.
As she's was about to reach room 2-L, she noticed a few other familiar faces sitting on the bench across it: Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Moon Dancer. They were all old colleagues of her best friend back when she was in Canterlot, before she moved to Ponyville. Each of them sat with a worrisome expression hung on their faces. Sweetie Drops could not help but feel sorry for them as they spoke quietly, and she received more disturbing news from them.
"I hope she will be alright..."
"Don't worry, Lemon, she is a strong pony! A little incident won't hurt her."
"Be quiet, Minuette! What do you know about just 'a little incident'? Huh?"
"Moon Dancer, I was trying to stay positive, okay? We all know how badly she was hurt after that wreckage of that hot air balloon from an incoming plane. No pony from either side could have survived that... Oh I hate you, Moon Dancer." Minuette began to sob, the tears blended in with her cobalt fur as they trickled down her face. "W-w-why did you have to make me b-bl-lurt all that out?"
"I..."
"Look girls, I think maybe we should stop talking for a moment, and let Lyra rest for awhile, she probably doesn't want us worrying too much about her—" Before she could say another word, Twinkleshine looked up, only to see Sweetie Drops' deadly glare that felt like sharp darts being thrown into her chest. The other three were shocked too to see how much the earth pony was carrying on her, and the tremendous heat around her body can be easily felt with sweat exiting her pores. Twinkleshine nevertheless still dared to speak,
"Oh, hey Bon Bon. We were just talking about our friend, Ly—"
What the unicorn realized right after were two beige hooves stamped onto her shoulders against the wall, leaving the other ponies in even more shock. The unicorn tried to wriggle loose of Sweetie Drops' grasp, but the physical strength of an earth pony proved to be just too much for her. Sweetie Drops let go of all her valuables off her mouth as she was now pressing her nose against Twinkle's, shouting at her,
"Don't you mention that damn name again, okay?! I don't want to hear it! Just stop, just stop, just STOP!"
Her last word was loud enough to make nearby ponies freeze in shock, distracted from what they were doing. Did not want to receive too much attention, the mare let Twinkleshine catch her breath after she plumped onto the floor, and she stormed into room 2-L. Realizing her surroundings, she sighed, and managed to hold it all back as she quietly closed the door behind her. She leaned against the door as she slid down.
Once she entered room 2-L, Sweetie Drops lifted her head up, and slowly got back up from the white tiled floor. Speaking of white, the whole room seemed white to her: the floor, the walls, the sink, the chairs, and of course, the doctor's clothing. Even the door behind her was painted of blank whiteness.
The last object she wanted to see as white: was the very bed that her best friend is lying... Dying on. That was what a part of Sweetie Drops' brain had been telling her, even though she can deny it and keep hoping for a miracle to happen. The unicorn doctor who was caring for her friend noticed the mare's entrance, turned around and signaled her with his hoof.
"Oh, if it isn't Miss Bon Bon, please have a seat next to us, if you don't mind." He brought a chair over with his magic next to the patient bed. Reluctantly, Sweetie Drops sighed in defeat and slowly walked over to the two of them.
After leaving her belongings on the floor, she took a painful glance at her friend before plummeting down, but rather silently, onto the chair. It was awkward enough to have her sit in such an unusual way that most ponies would not sit like: Back hooves dangling above the ground, as if she was slouching down the chair. It felt painful, and it ached. But to the secret agent, she knew for a reason why she had to sit in such a manner.
Sweetie Drops closed her eyes, trying to imagine all of the impossible that might happen to her friend. To be honest, she was trying to do the opposite, but the anxiety and shaking always win out over the will of one's mind in the end. The mare grabbed her tail and put it on her belly, stroking and rubbing it across her face. It worked only to a minimal extent, when she kept on questioning herself the real reason why she showed up here, at this very damn place.
'Was I here for her sake? Or to comfort my own feelings?' She wanted to punch something, but she had to keep herself level headed. She tried to reach for air, but her heart is beating quicker than she ever thought it would beat. Her breathing shortened as sweat trickled down her neck.
Should she leave? She can do so anytime. There is no law nor any magical barriers preventing her from doing just that. If so, then what is stopping her from completing a few hoof steps from that giant white door?
"Miss Bon Bon." Sweetie Drops slowly turned around to see the doctor's pale, coffee colored face, added with a stern expression that signaled a strong concern for the patient that was limping weakly on the bed. Although she was not one yet, she still attempted to let out a motherly mare's sigh and responded the doctor with a raise of her eyebrow.
"For now, the condition of Miss Lyra Heartstrings isn't anywhere close to good news, her future looks quite bleak. Her respiratory system is, well, beginning to 'lose responsibility' of allowing her to breathe normally. Her skull was quite damaged too from that fatal collision with the plane, out of all four passengers on the hot air balloon. This is enough to send her into a coma, at least. If worse, then definitely a deep sleep or even perhaps..."
"I know, doctor, just cut the horse crap and say what's relevant." Sweetie Drops looked away, wanting to cry, but after seeing Lyra's old friends waiting out there, sad and remorseful of what they have experienced so far, she changed her mind and opened the curtain of a window. It was sunny, but not enough to completely reach past the clouds. The day was dim and "bleak" like the doctor said. She gritted her teeth then bit her lips at the ugly scenery outside, before closing the curtains, slowly walking over to Lyra's bed again.
"Very well, I will leave you here with her, but do remember: that we have done everything we can to keep Miss Heartstrings alive. Right now, it's only praying to the gods that would do best. We're sorry." The doctor dipped his head and began walking to the the door. Sweetie Drops did not even bother to look at the doctor anymore. Right now, all her focus on was her best friend.
Once the door closed, the candy mare muttered under her breath,
"Praying to the gods. hmph! What a bunch of fools who can't do anything themselves."
She paused her thoughts when she said that, because at this moment, Lyra would be there to disagree with her. She would tell her that all living things are not perfect to fully satisfy one another. There will always be drama, emotional tides at high and full of spirit and thought. They are what paints this world with bright and "rainbow" colors. It's what makes life feel alive.
"Happy... Drama... Alive... Bon Bon..." Sweetie Drops suddenly turned her head around to see her best friend, limping on the bed, barely moving, barely breathing, and barely making words sound like the way they are supposed to be. Two words, however, were said so clear and sound: her alibi name given to her when she first arrived to Ponyville.
"Oh Lyra, I'm here, I'm here, I'm always here for you." The mare quickly trotted over to the unicorn's left side, both ponies smiled when they finally met each other's gaze, as if they haven't seen each other forever. Sweetie Drops placed a hoof on Lyra's turquoise and white mane, gently stroking it. Lyra did the same, but her hoof was shaking, and each time she touched Bon Bon, it was a broken limb of a dying tree, with howling winds of chill sent down through the agent's hollow. Sweetie Drops bit her lips as a tear took a freefall out of the corner of her eye.
How tragic it would be if this was a merry fairy tale's ending with such magical love between the two of them?
"Yes, Bon Bon. We are the protagonists of the fairy tales of Ponyville, a tragedy drama written by Shakessire, titled: 'Bon Bon and Lyra'."
She wanted to laugh, but instead she coughed. Even a bad sign like that was feeble when the cough came out, and Sweetie Drops had to hold her left hoof in her grasp, to keep her contented and safe. Lyra responded with a faint smile, but it was a strong meaning in both mares' hearts.
"Oh please Lyra, don't say such a thing. It'll only make you sadder, or at least me that is." It felt awkward, but Sweetie Drops had nothing else to do but smile. "Lets talk about something else that's less upsetting, okay?"
The limping mare nodded weakly, and so the agent began bringing back some good memories that will make them at least grin, if not heal. Sweetie Drops grabbed a sketchbook and a photo album from her saddlebag. She gently placed them on Lyra's blanket, flipping the photo album first. She flipped through numerous pages before landing on the one that caught her attention more than anything she's ever dreamed of. Sweetie Drops placed her head gently onto the scarred unicorn's as she pointed at the picture with her hoof.
"You remember this one? That was the first time when we encountered each other during a grocery sale at Canterlot, but we didn't know each other, so we just minded our own businesses and walked on."
Lyra grinned at the picture with the two strikingly familiar mares walking past each other. It was captured at the moment where she and another beige coated earth pony with pink and pigment blue mane, a cutie mark of three candies on her flank, walked right past each other. It is still a mystery up today why or who had the time to take such a photo. But to Special Agent Sweetie Drops: she was caught by her enemies, and that very photo was the evidence to prove it all.
"It's alright, only this common citizen of Equestria knows about your secret, Bon Bon." Lyra coughed again as she pointed at herself. Sweetie Drops flipped to the next page.
"This is the first time when I arrived to Ponyville, and already, I was welcomed with a glamorous party by Pinkie Pie, also known as: the only party mare and friend I can think of at that time." She pointed to a young pink filly, blowing trumpets and smashing on cakes with her creamy mouth.
"Hey! You must be new here! I'm Pinkie Pie! And any new pony to Ponyville deserves a surprise party!"
"I must say, thank you Pinkie Pie. My name is... Bon Bon. I think I have been to your party once before with a few other ponies back when we were fillies."
"Oh really? That's super duper cool! Now it's even better for us to be friends!" She stretched her hooves to pull the candy mare over, and wrapped her hooves around her neck, before cheesing a smile at the camera.
"Yeah... Thank you Pinkie Pie, I guess it feels new to actually have friends for once when you're forced to keep your identity only to yourself."
"What was that, Bon Bon?"
Sweetie Drops gulped, and froze in thought for a brief moment before responding,
"Nothing, it's okay, nothing."
"Okie-dokie-lokie!"
"That was the very first time that I made a real friend that cared for me. Right off the bat I knew Ponyville was the ideal place for me to live in." The earth pony sniffed, and wiped her eyes to prevent anything else from falling out. Lyra chuckled, but again, weakly and feebly. Before
"Say, where was the photo when I first arrived to Ponyville?"
Sweetie Drops nodded in a way that she regretted having almost forgotten it herself. She turned to another page, and there Lyra was, the grand and educated unicorn from Canterlot, ready to take that last slice of strawberry cake from the plate during her welcoming party to Ponyville. Sweetie Drops was also there, her hoof on the slice of cake, an equal distance to Lyra's.
"I'm telling you, I touched the slice first. With that, I'm the one who deserves the cake."
"Well, not to be rude, but this is welcoming party was made for me, so I deserve that slice of cake."
Sweetie Drops took a glare at the unicorn across her, and slowly shifted her hooves closer to the center of the cake. Lyra did exactly the same, as her horn was glowing and ready to show its supremacy towards non magic users like the three candy barred mare in front of her.
The slice of cake was split in half by the two. They smiled delightfully while munching on the dessert.
"That was perhaps the best cake I ever had in centuries!"
"Oh really? That's pretty nice." Sweetie Drops forcefully grinned, still giving a cold stare at Lyra.
"Hey, I know! Since I just came to Ponyville, and I need a residency, why don't I live with you?"
Sweetie Drops shook her head to get her mind clear."What?"
"Yeah, you heard me! Let's be friends!"
"Wait, but why so sudden? I-I already have friends..." Sweetie Drops lied, though she instantly regretted on her words.
"Because we shared the same cake, so it means that we are meant for each other!"
"What kind of astrological absurdity is that? You're crazy!"
"Oh my goodness! How did you guess? I do study astrology, I gaze at the constellations every night!" Lyra's face is now up in Sweetie Drops, who backed off in almost submission.
"And yes, I am crazy sometimes, that's why other ponies think I'm weird and all with the belief of multi dimension travelling with other intelligent species..." The unicorn took a sudden shift in her tone and mood as she sat back down into her chair. Sweetie Drops walked over to her and looked at her confusion and dismay.
"... That was why I never had friends, because nopony wanted to accept me."
The agent sighed and put two hooves onto Lyra's shoulders, Lyra turned to meet her fairly blue eyes, that stroke deep down into her fragile heart. Her frown, once full of hate, was now a welcoming smile.
"Listen Lyra, I once knew how you felt. Ponies didn't like me because I always acted weirdly, but it was for the good of them, including you.
"Until I arrived to Ponyville, I was accepted, thrown a party just like this by that crazy old Pinkie Pie, and made new friends with ease. I suggest you to never leave this town unless it's absolutely necessary."
"So that means, I can live with you?"
"Well, I mean, uh, erm, well..." She gave up and rubbed the mare's green cheeks in a circular motion. "Yes, you can."
"YIPPIE! Lyra jumped onto Sweetie Drops and the two of them fell on the floor, with Lyra on top, hugging Sweetie Drops with all her might. The latter however wasn't quite feeling the same way, as if she was being choked and strangled by a bear.
"You. Didn't. Even. Get. My. Name. Yet."
A cuddly bear.
"Oh my goodness, I totally remember that part." Lyra giggled, "The way you accepted me was so natural and sincere." She took a second to regain her breathing routine, something she will not have for long.
"We really were meant for each other, Bon Bon."
The agent was known to hide her emotions and keep everything inside. However, even at this situation she could not help but blush.
She took Lyra's hoof and clutched it tightly. The light swayed back and forth, rifting a fracture of unwariness. The weather was still not seeing much of daylight, maybe just the daybreak of the dense and thick clouds. She could still hear her friend coughing and breathing with difficulty. She put her head onto Lyra's blanket, playing with her turquoise hoof as she entangled herself into anxiety.
She walked to the corner of the room, wanting to trap herself in there. She does not want to see nor hear anything anymore. So much for a branch snapping off the lone tree creaking in the blizzard. Fiery words came to her thoughts unconsciously.
'Why did this have to happen? What have I done to deserve this? Sinned I am, but to deserve more than just death?'
'It isn't how our lives should go. It just feels wrong to part ways. Her fate is now dependent on the divinity, on the Princesses or whatever the hell there is. Then, why do I feel like she won't make it?'
'GOD DAMN IT!'
She picked up a chair and threw it across the room, proven through her rigorous training as a special agent. She launched the chair towards the windows, possibly even breaking them. Sweetie Drops could have cared less. There was nothing in the world that can hold her down at the moment. The world should have been revolved around her, and that was that.
Without a second of realization, the chair stopped right before it can reach the windows. Right before Sweetie Drops' eyes, was a green aura entangled around the chair.
The aura soon faded away. As the chair was in free fall, Sweetie Drops heard the heart monitor sounding rapidly. The beep was so loud and clear that it became a race against time for her to reach to Lyra before the next beep arrives, even if they were only a few hoof steps apart.
Lyra's breathing shortened. She was now whimpering like a helpless cub in need for food. The only obstacle was a lack of family to help the cub stay alive. Her friend was traumatized between Lyra's pain and the heartless monitor, she couldn't handle the destructive pressure, and fell over into the white wall by the windows.
CLANK!
Everything came to a slow, painful stop: the beeping, the breathing, and the incoming waves of tears ready to flood the floor anytime. Silence took over and filled the room with endless echoes.
Sweetie Drops now was on the floor, her back against the wall, head hung low, and stared blankly past her back hooves and towards the ground. Lyra Heartstrings, with her eyes shut and sweating from all that energy exhausted, could not help but smile at the current condition. Tears trickled down her cheeks and stained the white bed sheet.
"Lyra... What were you thinking...?" The mare sobbed and covered her own face. The moment was deadly, fatal, and the last thing any unicorn would want to do at a critical state like the one on the bed right now. Her tears splattered onto the concrete floor like the sign of a rain cloud weighing down on a pony's furs. Too much can get her sick, as she begins to feel the inordinate stress plummeting down on her.
"Do what?... I just stopped that chair... From going out the room... That's all..."
"No, no, no! You idiot! I..." The mare got up from the floor, and put her hooves on the rail of the bed. "You know can't use magic at this moment! It will kill you!"
"Even if it means 'killing' my old colleagues outside this room?" Sweetie Drops turned to her right, and right there she can see the likes of Minuette and others, each with a unique face of horror. The agent sighed and looked back at her friend, who continued to speak at a low volume.
"And what were you thinking? Taking your anger out on other ponies who are trying to support me, if not us?" She let out a exasperated sigh. "This isn't like you, Bon Bon..."
Sweetie Drops sighed in response. She thought about Lyra's colleagues outside, she thought about the unimportant ponies that she had to encounter everyday. She thought about her enemies that she faced during her secret missions.
She thought about Princess Celestia, her one and only grand superior who given her an opportunity to prove herself in serving ponies.
She thought about neighbors and friends: from the likes of Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, Roseluck, Derpy Hooves, Berryshine, Daisy, Amethyst Star, and even the Mane Six heroines that she never made close contact to asides from Pinkie Pie. It could have been wonderful trying to make out with popular ponies, but that will expose her identity to the public, and she could face serious trouble if caught.
'Pain is a curse that everyone must need in order to grow stronger, and yet impossible to avoid.'
"You're right, Lyra, I was wrong in doing such absurd thing. Because by the end of the day, by the end of the day..."
Lyra reopened her eyes and stared at the ceiling lights, heaven was already preparing a staircase for her to climb. All she had to do was close her eyes and meditate in peace, and the time will come. The light bulb beamed onto the bed, making it seem whiter than usual. Sweetie Drops clutched her twisted stomach, as it was calling for a specific type of hunger: To protect someone and hold that someone in her grasp, yet blindly.
She had to say something, right? She can't just let the moment slip by her like the first time they ever encountered each other. She would've regretted it dearly, but not this time. Not the time when she knew who this sadly turquoise looking unicorn was, suffering much right in front of her very sapphire eyes. She was ready to go up there, and just about never descending back down until she is up there with her.
Oh how confusing this world can be, my little special agent! What can possibly stop you?
"Lyra, do you want to hear more of our memories together? I got a bunch more from our photo album."
She grabbed the photo album and flipped more pages of endless scenes, whether it be sitting on the bench together, going out on a picnic, or walking down their beloved Ponyville wondering at the houses, the town fountain and other ponies in delight. To them, it was merely another day on the terrace. They never had a photo where they were ever alone, separated in magnitudes of distance away in the stars.
While her friend did smile at all of the memories they had together since they met, Lyra Heartstrings shook her head at all of them, only worrying Sweetie Drops more as she continued to flip past pages and pages of the thick photo album glued in her very hooves.
On her next flip, the moment struck at the perfect rhythm. Every pluck was a rum and a hum. Music spoke louder than just blind action.
"Hey Bon Bon, can you feel that breeze? It is so amazing!"
Sweetie Drops stood with four hooves on the grassy plain, wondering at the simple clouds passing by in the vast blue sky. Life can just feel so simple and sketchy for her sometimes. She never expected herself to have such a fantastic break with the pony that made her feel the most comfortable.
She lied down intact with the grass, lowering herself to taste the fresh breeze. She closed her eyes and dreamed about: all the optimism, all the good times, and all the unforgiving memories that sent velvet rays of joy to her soul. Her mane lifted up for a brief while, along with her tail and fur. She sensed no surprise coming from behind, but that was of no necessity if she has a cherishing and cheerful unicorn alongside her.
The two mares rolled down the small and low grassy hill. They made no progress, just barely any. Sweetie Drops didn't care, she shouldn't worry, why would she? She just had one of the best times in her life: to be free, and free with her best friend and lover, who was the beautiful instrument that shoved her into the grass and embraced her with siren's notes. Leaves rich with green glided over their gaze as the two mares looked up into the vast sky once more.
"Don't you just love this place, Bonnie?" Lyra lied next to Sweetie Drops, putting her front hooves under her head and crossed her back hooves. The agent never could understand where did she even learn such un-pony-like postures, but nothing mattered when she's obliged to answer her question.
"Yes, Lyr-ie. I do love it."
“But have you heard that they might have to make this park a graveyard in a couple of years?”
Shocked and rather upset, Sweetie Drops bit her lips. Lyra was full of gloom and sorrow. She leaned into Sweetie Drops’ body, who received her head and began stroking her horn.
“But this is the place where we always hung out... Not to say the other ponies as well.”
"You have a point, Bon Bon, but Ponyville never had an opportunity to honor anypony who once walked here. I believe that we deserve a place for mourning and release our inner feelings towards them."
She shrugged. “Whatever you say Lyra.”
And the two lovers nuzzled each other, giggling and hugging. There was so much to have, so much to love, but one mere unicorn managed to overtake them all. It was all "Lyra" in her mind. She had nothing to remember from her own traumatizing past to even damage their relationship.
"That happened. Didn't it, Bon Bon...?"
There was a boundary where she was at a state of absolute gray. She could no longer feel anything. Lyra's voice faded away into dust. She was all by herself now. It suddenly hit her, that her superior had once told her: to never put her own emotions before her duties. Now it was perhaps a typical mare's greatest mistake to ever make.
The beautiful happiness she reminisced took a steep drop after she realized something else. Something else so dreadful to even bring up about. She couldn't believe how chains of thought can be so crazy and haunting. All it took was one individual, physical structure made up of at least a trillion cells and a few verbal communications, to end up having a special, government hired defender of Equestria, completely demolished.
"..."
Unprecedented whimpers and yowling were bound to come, it was all set in the mare's mind. What's worse was that she could do nothing about it.
"..."
"Bon Bon? Please tell me. Stop being so insecure about your past mistakes and just give me a damn answer..."
That was strike two. A weak Lyra and a traumatized Sweetie Drops once again had the atmosphere feeding on their emotions. The agent bit her lips, her heart ached, but she couldn't move at all. She stopped functioning, her tears stopped rolling, but her body could not stop shivering.
She wanted to scream, as the same scene of terror and agony reappeared in her mind over and over again.
"Special Agent Sweetie Drops."
'No... NO! NO! NO!'
There was nothing else to say anymore, for third time was the charm.
She flinched and knocked her head against the white wall of nothingness, she was back to where she was: depressed, empty and naive. Playing too many games, hiding too many secrets, was this insecure female earth pony who seems to make and sell candies in a cheerful town of Ponyville.
She let out a long sigh of helplessness to her best friend again. "Fine. You win again Lyra."
"Oh we're gonna have the best slumber ever! I even told Minuette and Lemon Hearts to plan a dance event at Vinyl's dance club, this will be so exciting!"
"Lyra."
"I've invited Pinkie to come make this slumber party a bombing party! Can't you believe it? Pinkie Pie? She's the best and most outgoing pony asides from myself all my life!"
"Lyra."
"This will count, Bon Bon, I've got a lot of other pluses too! This will be a blast!"
"LYRA!"
"Yes Bon Bon?" Lyra stopped shaking Sweetie Drops and looked at her. It is now the latter's turn to put her hooves on Lyra's shoulders, speaking in the lowest and least energetic tone possible.
"I, I won't make it to this slumber party."
Lyra paused, and stared at her blankly. To Sweetie Drops, it was all too sudden, but she had to say it out.
"I-I—we, m-might not, e-even, see. See. Each other, a-again. I-I—"
The unicorn was silenced by her friend's shocking silence, all they felt now was the light cast to warm them and hint them the blinding truth.
"What... What are you saying?!" Lyra raised her voice towards a sweating Sweetie Drops, who was still trying to muster the courage to tell her everything, but she could not. She could not.
"I could not..."
Lyra, now angry and confused, went up to her, and waited for her friend to continue the conversation."It's... It's for your own good, Lyra. If I were to never be here from now on."
"What is wrong with you?! Wake up Bon Bon!" She pounced on the agent onto their very own homemade couch, and pressed firmly onto her.
"Lyra, I can't stay here. I don't belong here. I don't deserve here. With you. There is so much—"
"Well then why?! What makes you think that our friendship should not be special?! What makes you think that we should never be together?!" Huh?! Huh?!"
'Because my enemies are now after me and Princess Celestia informed me that they know where I live. I'm a secret agent. I'm an undercover here. I shouldn't be wasting my time putting the lives of civilians in danger.'
"Snap out of it, Bon Bon! Please don't scare me like that!"
"Bon Bon...? No, that's not me... I am Sweetie Drops..."
She stopped thinking once she realized her best friend sobbing as well, on her chest. She turned her head back and forth, and pounded on her. It did not hurt, but rather alarming, enough to make the secret agent feel conscious of herself again. She realized that she was in this small room, which was inside a small house fit for only two ponies. She was merely a working class mare, she had no money to buy happiness or love. But her happiness and love drained away, to a very special somepony.
"Listen here, Bon Bon." She wiped some tears away. "I don't know what in Equestria are you saying, or just being stupid and crazy."
She met right into Lyra's shining, golden moon-like eyes, glistening to change the agent's persona.
"But as long as you have me by your side, and I have you by my side, I don't care whatever happens to us. I would rather for both of us to die together. It can be painful, but we will be watching ponies from afar, in eternal peace."
The pitch black night was sealed away by the green wooled curtains and glass windows. Silence was heard until a breeze interrupted the brief moment of peace. Under the yellow light, there were only two mares whose spirits were plucked away by a golden lyre, manually controlled by a turquoise unicorn. Her eyelids were shut and she barely tried to smile. The two mares hummed away with the colorful melody, before the unicorn continued on.
"Like Bacchus and Philemon."
Sweetie Drops had no clue on where were those names coming from, but she knew her friend got a point that no one can argue against. She let out a deep sigh before clutching Lyra into her grasp. Understandably, Lyra only did the same.
"And that is how I knew, for I initially believed that my emotions and personal interests have gotten in my way of proceeding Princess Celestia's missions. I thought that I have failed my duties protecting Equestria from the unknown evil. I thought that I would put you in danger even more if I stayed with you, playing this slice of life game on stage, but reality is that I could not fight behind the curtains."
"I wanted to do all those for you, Lyra, nopony else was capable, nor responsible for your safety. They are selfish."
She bit her lips not in regret for saying such hurtful words; but rather her friend's damaging condition that was worsening every minute in this very room 2-L. Lyra's eyes began to narrow without self control, the side effects of releasing magic on a heavy chair.
"No, Lyra, please. No..." Sweetie Drops clasped Lyra's hooves into hers again, but they both knew how futile it was. Lyra's activeness had been decreasing more and more. Her heart rate, visible on the monitor, was no longer beating at the same rate as before.
The only thing left was the smile drawn across Lyra's face, that was everything more than enough to satisfy herself. Sweetie Drops felt her heart melting; her fake candy wrapper was to shield herself from all the unhappy moments in life.
"That wrapper, I always believed, was you." She finally spoke, "Your existence was to be my beloved friend. As long as you are here, I can reassure our everlasting happiness."
But now she felt exposed, so cold in the tragic winter howls. The wrapper was slowly losing its particles and fading away into nothingness.
She had never failed a mission in her life. She always ensured her superiors a lack of disappointment; and quietly saving Equestria without alarming the innocent ponies that can cause them panic and fear. The only reason she is able to do that, however, was because she had no bonds with anyone. No one was ever close to her, no one recognized her for her feats. She was just a normal and a random candy selling girl who blends in with the public perfectly. Just too perfectly, to the point where it was not even fair anymore.
Aside from her wounds scraped by unicorn magic and other minuscule injuries, the agent never understood scars that can be implemented inside her heart. Her head had always been confused with what is called "permanence" and "introversion". She felt lost again, without the hooves of her charming, happy, and adorable turquoise friend.
In a desperate yet absolutely hopeless effort she went to nuzzle Lyra again on the nose, kissing her forehead and cheeks. For the both of them, the kisses felt so warm and gentle. The illusion of a rush of a magical herb came into effect, even if it was an illusion. Sweetie Drops hoped to the heavens that she can stay this way with her best friend forever, but she was crying again, and she had nothing when it was Lyra who was shaking her head in disagreement.
"No, Bon Bon. I do not wish to suffer in this body of death, and dragging you down with me along the way. It hurts me to see you hurt because you saw me hurt, if you get what I mean..."
She attempted to chuckle, but it was barely visible when covered by her shortcoming breaths and a sudden drop of body temperature. Sweetie Drops laid her head down on Lyra's bed, next to her belly so that she can snuggle her with care; she needed the protection and the knowledge for Lyra that she will protect her special unicorn with sheer will of love.
"It isn't fair Lyra." She rubbed her nose onto her friend's turquoise skin, tinging her troubles for a brief moment. "It isn't fair that my emotions don't control what I wish to control. I became fragile because of them, I suffered because of them. They never got me anything done. And now I have to painfully plow through getting over you, which I never wanted to do. It just feels so wrong, and cruel of me to abandon some beautiful pony like you."
She attempted to clench her hooves, but tears rolled out of her eyes again. "If I hadn't thrown that dumb chair, we wouldn't have came to this conclusion. You would've been fine without the stupid me. I only make matters worse—"
"Yes Bon Bon, you are stupid."
The mare stopped her tears once more and stared up at the dull ceiling. Happy that she could still speak to her, for the very last few moments perhaps.
"You are stupid for blaming on yourself every time. You are stupid for not giving yourself enough space to think everything out. You are stupid, stupid, stupid for..."
Lyra's voice faded for a brief while, but she can still feel Sweetie Drops' hooves grasping onto hers. Mustering all the strength she could find in her exhausting heart, Lyra resumed from where she had left off.
"... For not telling me the truth at first place. Best friends never tell away each other's secrets. Maybe if you have told me about all this 'secret agent stuff' and just move on with life, we wouldn't have to be so awkward and lonely in this stupid and disgusting room."
The agent lifted her head up, regretting even more on her past decisions that have resulted in this horrendous mistake. Lyra looked at her and continued,
"Did you seriously prefer your unstable mentality over one moment of anger?"
Lyra was right, it could have been better if she just told her everything from the start: how she was a secret agent from Celestia's special task force, assigned to reside in Ponyville as a citizen, and continue her missions daily and nightly. To her, it felt as if meeting Lyra was a mistake this whole time. She indirectly triggered a loss of life by allowing her heart to take over her objectives. Of course, the agent was much caught in a distraught where she lacked confidence and courage to confess this feeling.
Instead, her tears quietly spoke for her.
"I never said I wanted to die here, I never expected any of this to happen. I didn't want to hurt you, Bon Bon. I didn't want you to worry for me in this darn room. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I'm so sorry..."
And so Lyra cried too. Her sobs were the beatings of a ladybug's wings. She wanted to rid her tears, but her unstable condition did not allow her to budge. She kept on mouthing the same phrase she last spoke over and over again, to the point where it made sense no more. The heartbeat slowed down at such an incredible pace, and in such a short time Sweetie Drops last heard it. She placed the photo album by Lyra's pillow, and put the sketchbook back into her saddlebag.
It was time to make a difference, even if the slightest.
Sweetie Drops took out the large, seven stringed golden lyre and placed it by Lyra's bed, sitting with it. She positioned herself into playing mode. Lyra could not help but remain amazed by what her playful eyes were showing her. There her best friend sat, on a chair, cross hoofed like an anthropological creature, and about to pluck her own personal object that defined her cutie mark years ago. Time had abandoned her in the dust, and she had to wait by watching her friend play the lyre. She tried to smile, but her condition was frail to the point where she could not budge a muscle.
"Wow Bon Bon... I'm so... Proud of you..." Lyra's eyelids were slowly meeting each other while her friend was busy thinking of the tune that can fit this scenario and cleanse them all from their troubles.
The mare smiled as she tuned the lowest string tightly enough and plucked it lightly. The result was a clear sounding echo that filled the room with a low wave of note. Lyra smiled, eventually feeling reassured as she sank deep into her pillow. That note painted new colors over the nerve-wracking white room. The hue glowed from the room's spiteful whiteness, blossoming the two mares with one pluck. They both smiled at each other before Sweetie Drops shut her eyes and went back to pluck another note.
One pluck after another, high notes replaced by low hums, everything began to fall in place. The tune felt tranquil, yet it was heart sinking at the same time, but at the right moment. Still, none of these factors made the agent shed more tears. Those drops glittered under the returning sun glowing through the curtains by the window, casting dark shapes and figures that seemed all too familiar.
"Look Bon Bon..." Lyra pointed. "I spy with my two little eyes, two dark pony like figures that are next to each other... One is with a lyre, and the other is on her permanent bed."
But her best friend only returned her silence, and whispered meaningful words,
"I don't need to see Lyra, I can feel the shadowy figures take over me with nothing but blackness."
"But because I'm a strong mare whose purpose is to always be there to protect you, I can still feel glimpse warmth of hope wrapped around my heart. Nothing more, and nothing less."
And so she played on, quietly but soundly, the room became enriched with love and happiness. Both mares knew this tune all too well, they can even time when should the next string be plucked.
It only felt like yesterday.
Sweetie Drops was found in the living room, sitting on a gray couch, frowning as she stared blankly at the table that stood lifelessly in front of her. She was overthinking on her failure from a mission to save a hostage from the county skirmishes ongoing in Dodge City. Her shoulder and hooves were scraped by arrows, her gut was imprinted with a powerful blow by the enemy, her mane and tail had pieces cut off by viciously sharp blades.
The agent put her hoof onto her face. She did complete the mission by eliminating her enemy, yes, but still she questioned and hated herself for not being able to save the enslaved mare who had been abused and stripped of everything that she once had: Family, friends, food, a sense of living, and so forth.
She wanted to beat herself up, she wanted to provoke her emotions for once, she wanted to hate everything that is in her sight, and destroy it. The torrent of rage could not settle down. As she overthought more and more about her failure, her heartbeat amplified, until it became a sole drum bass of its own. It scared her, to even move at all. She wanted to cry, but a strong mare like her should not express any signs of weakness even in front of herself. She had nothing else to do, but she felt the need to do something about herself.
As she was trapped in her thoughts, another mare walked out of the bathroom and brought her lyre along. She placed the golden instrument by Sweetie Drops and settled herself next to her on the same gray couch.
"Bon Bon, are you feeling any better?"
No replies from the agent, as she was still lost in her unclear trail of thoughts.
"How bad could it have possibly been? You're a strong pony and no one knows that better than I do."
Still responded with shallow breaths, Lyra gently stroked her friend's mane and uninjured areas of her skin. The unicorn smiled at her before grabbing the lyre over to her side, gaining Sweetie Drops' attention. Lyra tapped her chin as she was trying to remember a piece that she had worked on before, before giving the agent a smile.
"Ooh! I got one, Bon Bon! You must listen to this one!"
She tapped on one of her strings before feeding her best friend the "noteworthy" notes, it vibrated through the mare's ears and head. The melody was melancholy beautiful, enough to make her cry, but cheerily and happily. The sound echoed across the whole house, birds flew by to thank the unicorn for her pure, yet underrated talent.
It was the first time, ever, that Sweetie Drops intentionally hugged Lyra. It felt cozy, fuzzy—
"Zizzy! Fizzy! Oh Bon Bon! There are no better words to describe this moment!"
"Keep playing the lyre. I need to feel more love."
"Oh you're crazy, Bon Bon!"
She giggled. "Just play it!"
Smiling, Lyra was soon lost in her talent after a few more plucks. She got off the gray couch and leaped around the living room. Though her eyes were shut, her sensual perceptions do not lie when she dances around with colorful music. Everything around the two friends felt light weighted. Their stress died down, and their heartbeats became one and the same. Sweetie Drops got off the dull couch as well, and began to dance along with Lyra. The two twirled and played, until they returned back to the same old couch they once sat on when they were sad together.
"And now, open your eyes Bon Bon."
Slowly, the agent did as she was told. And to her surprise, nothing was the same after their little ritual.
At this moment, Sweetie Drops opened her eyes. She had finished the tune that her friend had played for her back when she was at the verge of suicide, and now it is her turn to make up for everything she has done to be a best friend and a lover. Lyra Heartstrings now with her eyes closed, smiled at the natural peacefulness, and hummed the notes and whispered,
"It was very beautiful... Thank you Bon Bon..."
"And that couch was no longer gray, it became orange on one day, and then yellow on the other, and it still is whenever we sit on it together." Sweetie Drops added. "Did that have some correlation with the resonance between your magic and your lyre?"
Lyra shrugged and wheezed. "I... I guess that's why my cutie mark is a lyre, although only... only a few ponies have truly appreciated my talent..." Pigments of her eyes were soon stolen of their once golden light, and are now in a permanent shade of grey. Sweetie Drops held her turquoise hooves tighter before nuzzling her again.
"Lyra, please... You have to keep moving. And that does not exclude plucking those beautiful strings of yours. I appreciate it, I love it, I couldn't wait for more of it, and it's all thanks to the lovely you."
"Thank you..." She replied, "and I will, Bon Bon. Soon I will be up there with my family and all... Hopefully yours too."
"Lyra! Please! That wasn't funny!"
The weak mare chuckled lightly, her horn can no longer function anymore, as flicks of sparks she tried became dusts. Just like her eyes, her skin color is slowly fading into grey with every minute past by. The agent tried to conceal her emotions insider her chest, but once again it proved to be futile. She bit on her lips to prevent tears from coming out again, and this time it worked, but in the price of her flaming heart being melted away. She collapsed onto the floor, rolling back and forth against the white tiles without self control.
"B-Bon Bon...?"
Sweetie Drops was practically wailing now, though there were no tears, but she made noises compared to those of foals. She had completely lost it, she gave up, for there was no other way to save her best friend now. She repeatedly screamed at herself on why she was being so dramatically fake this whole time. The result was clear in her head, but she chose to fog it with thick clouds.
"Those clouds rain inside your head, Bon Bon... And it has created a storm inside you..."
Sweetie Drops banged her head against the floor in order to stop herself from causing too much of a disarray. Her head was already caught in a storm of imbroglio, like Lyra had said. She gasped for air. Her heart raised the rooftop. Her vision blurred just like her friend lying on the white bed of death.
The momentum so far had been ups and downs, and now it has been decided by the so-called "God" that her favorite unicorn will have to move onward to her sanctuary.
"L-Lyra... I need a-a-air. I-I-I need to escape."
The unicorn sighed in her deathbed. "Running away from your fears won't solve anything... You are so stupid at times... And yet ponies think I'm crazy."
"As an undercover agent, I'm only good at hiding away. That is what I was trained in, and what I was born for." Sweetie Drops now lied on the concrete floor, unwillingly to move around. "I used you as a reason to keep me busy as a pony with a 'normal' life". Well, that's at least what I think."
"But that's besides the point now, I need to forget about you and move on." She sobbed. "I'm a mare too you know?! It's hard for my heart to get memorable balls of fluff like you over with."
Lyra chuckled, another weak grin escaped from her lips. "I'm afraid that's impossible, miss. You have to deal with obstacles like this ball of fluff the hard way. That's how tough I am."
She winced in pain, but this time Sweetie Drops did not go to comfort her. Instead, she just lied on the floor, laughing to herself.
"It's funny, you know, how we're able to make such a serious atmosphere, into something that can be memorably uplifting."
She touched her eyes with her hoof, and it remained dry. "My water dried out, I can't even cry anymore."
"See, Bon Bon?" Lyra whispered. "Not even you can forget all about me. Ponies may say that Pinkie Pie brings everypony to joy, but I can do just like her, even in a time like this."
"Let's see if she can ever match that up."
The two friends chuckled, before remaining in silence for the rest of the period, until the doorknob turned. Lyra's doctor trotted in at a normal pace, with two earth ponies following from behind. Sweetie Drops frowned when she saw his pale coffee body standing next to her, the doctor returned her with a stern look on his own face.
"What do you want?"
The stallion sighed, "I'm afraid that is the signal that this private little chat between the two of you has came to an end. We gave you enough time to sort your matters out."
Responding with a hostile glare, she spat back, "And you're just going to take me out like this doctor? I'm practically a patient too you know!"
The cold joke only made Lyra feel more concerned, but she no longer wanted to be involved in anything anymore, so she remained silent, and with her eyes closed. The doctor, not giving in to her stark humor, shook his head and replied to the mare lying on the floor,
"Good, and that is why I brought two of my assistants to escort you on the way out, I'm afraid that it's time for Miss Heartstrings to take a break."
"W-what?! What do you mean by a damn 'break'?"
"Maidens, please." The doctor finished and walked over to Lyra, while the nurses picked Sweetie Drops off the ground, surrounding her as she reluctantly walked to the door at the slowest speed possible.
That was when she was truly horrified. The heart monitor's frequency has slowed down to a point where nothing can be heard for five seconds. Every beep now and then distanced.
There was absolutely no hope.
She felt as if her brain had splattered into a million pieces. She fell to her knees, and collapsed on the ground once again, wailing in pain. The nurses backed off in shock, but the doctor did not even bother to look at the situation as he examined Lyra's physical condition, before answering his assistants' confusion,
"Don't worry, she's just having a mental breakdown, it'll take her awhile to recover, as long as she doesn't stay here that is."
Nodding, the nurses began dragging Sweetie Drops on the smooth white floor, who continued to wail and cry without tears. The agent tried to resist, but it only slowed the advancing towards the exit by a significant amount, and either way she had no control of that matter. Lyra, sighing, had no choice but to use her last few ounces of energy to plead a favor to her friend,
"Bon Bon...?"
Sweetie Drops' head dropped low, a living corpse who only breathes the cold rush of wind when it blows by. The nurses slowed down, either from tiring out for carrying the agent too long, or they wanted to help the visitor grant the patient's final wish. Either way it worked out just fine.
"C-can you, please take a look at my sketchbook that you brought today? I never got the chance to show you it before, but I'm hoping that it will help you remember us for our best times together."
"I know the photo album has our memories and all... But my amazing artistic skills can brighten your world up too..."
"Can you do just that for me? Please Bon Bon?"
The agent stood in silence, before letting out a smirk. She sucked her teeth as the nurses continued to heave her.
"Just sleep tight idiot." She then pointed to the stallion of the horrific white suit. "Don't let this doctor bite."
The doctor shook his head and sighed. "Get Miss Bon Bon's belongings out of the room with her too, except for these lovely flowers." As he finished, a warm smile escaped his lips. “She may need it."
Once the nurses have taken Sweetie Drops out of room 2-L, they also brought the saddlebag with the golden lyre, the photo album and the sketch book outside, laying them next to the fallen mare. She bothered to turn her head over to see the turquoise covered sketchbook, imprinted with Lyra's photo on the top and her full name on the bottom. Sweetie Drops grinned in response, undermining the reality that something's dying on the inside.
Slowly and steadily, she gulped before reaching for Lyra‘s sketchbook. Passerby ponies looked at the way this strange mare was sitting: with her back against the wall and hooves hanging below the bench.
'But Agent Sweetie Drops does not give a crap, as long as I get a stupid mission, I complete it no matter what the damn cost is!'
With a peek of the first drawing, Sweetie Drops could not believe her eyes. It was not a drawing at all, but a large THANK YOU card, at the bottom it continued with "to everypony who lived up to this day", ending with Lyra's cutie mark in the corner.
"I hate you Lyra, I really really hate you, goddamnit." The first tear returned to the mare's eyes after her breakdown beside her dying friend's bed. "Why hadn't you told me about this anytime sooner?"
As she flipped through more pages, there were more drawings, but included with many texts as well. From Lyra's favorite animals to their times spent together on the bench in Ponyville, from three dimensional figures to one dimensional sketches, all the possible drawings that Sweetie Drops can picture have been permanently put onto this sketchbook.
"D-doc-doctor..."
"Miss Heartstrings, it will be okay, I have concerns for your marefriend too. What would you like me to tell her this time?"
Lyra tried to control her breathing, but the little energy she had left with the magic exited her horn, ascending into the limitless sky, perhaps sending a message to her god that she will be arriving soon.
"There... there are a lot of things... that I wished to tell her... But... silly me, hehe..." She let out a weak grin.
So did her best friend sitting outside the room, as she saw more vivid and heart-rending works Lyra had made. Even the moments they have reminisced earlier today, some blessed, others hurt, but in the end they were always sitting together under the glimmering stars.
"That is quite a lot of requests you have given me," the doctor replied, "but there is nothing that I can't do for a patient, even if they are bound to become spirits."
"Thank you, doctor... I-I've never got your name b-before... Y-you may be the last pony who I would want to know..."
"Ah, how fascinating."
And once she finished the sketchbook, page by page without skipping a single detail, the agent closed the book and took a glance on its back cover. It wrote FOR MY LOVER, BON BON and with smaller letters next to it, aka Special Agent Sweetie Drops, the unknown heroine of Equestria. Sweetie Drops held the sketchbook tightly to her chest, trying to feel its heartbeat rebounding against hers at the perfect rhythm, but unfortunately resonance can also be felt when the heart monitor is no longer beating at the same tempo as before.
The doctor chuckled. "I'm sorry for being so cold towards your friend, I was left by the hospital all the time to deal with helpless souls like you, they come for a couple of hours, and then the next day they no longer sleep soundly in the room." He sighed before continuing.
"You must know how hard it is to deal with that every single day, don't you?"
"I do, doctor..." Lyra nodded. "Now I do..."
"I don't think there is much time left Miss Heartstrings, what are your final requests?"
Lyra already had her mouth closed. Although the heart monitor still went off every now and then, it drastically slowed to a point where nothing can be heard for thirty seconds. And by that time the doctor knew it was time.
Silence, was all she spoke.
But her mind, was still scattered with pieces of her marefriend, into the expanding white light, until there was nothing left to see.
The response from her friend outside the room was another whisper of nothingness, as her mane enveloped her face. Ponies passing by had no recognition of her melancholic cries, as she sat on the lonely bench. In utter disparity.
"Princess Celestia," a Royal Guard named Blazing Dawn knelt down before the millennia Princess of the Sun, he was a Princeton orange colored earth stallion, with hooves large enough to distinct himself away from his comrades. His coal black pupils had not budged an inch away from the floor since then, until Princess Celestia herself walked over to him, smiling.
"I know that you're fairly new here, but there is no need to treat me like an absolute monarch, in fact I do get quite sensitive about such detailed behaviors."
"Pardon me for my noncooperation, your highness, but there is something I must inform you in secrecy."
She nodded, and lowered her head to allow the Guard to whisper into her ear, and what she has heard was nowhere on a positive note.
"Times come, and then they go." Celestia exasperatingly sighed. "I am concerned about her future. What will become of her now that she is all on her own?"
"Bon Bon, I know this is hard for all of us, but I'm worried about you too, we've been standing here for hours." Minuette was the first to speak after their silent day standing beside Lyra Heartstring's tomb. "We even skipped lunchtime."
But the former agent would not respond, her front hooves and back hooves were parallel to each other, creating this safe rectangle for her heart to fall in place. Her eyes did not twitch nor blink as she continued to stare at Lyra's picture frame besides the flowers given by her colleagues from Canterlot, her facial gesture was cold and hard like the stone tomb itself. Lemon Hearts put a hoof to her own chest, more concerned with her friend than her own hunger. Moon Dancer wrapped her hoof around Lemon's shoulders.
From the corner of her right eye, Sweetie Drops recognized that action all too well, and it is all too well for her to lash out at them again, but she held it back this time, not wanting to lose anymore friends is the best way to get a hold of her fragile piece of life.
"Bon Bon, I know you're still there, so please say something." Minuette was on the verge of shedding a tear.
"Minuette, leave her be."
"What, Twinkleshine!" The tearful blue unicorn almost cried, "We can't let her suffer alone here! Enough is enough!"
"I know what you mean, Minuette, but listen to me, from the anger Bon Bon took out on me in the hospital the other day, I can feel her demon erupting." Twinkleshine hesitated on that last word, when she realized that everypony around her shivered even by the slightest.
"And no, I do not mean by an actual demon, but she's been hit with our loss far worse than any one of us. It may be scars in our heart, but to Bon Bon, it's this impenetrable fog of storm raging over her flesh and mind, do you understand how deep her wound is on the inside compared to ours?!"
Minuette opened her mouth to argue, but once more, and the final time, she turned her head around to take a glance at the only earth pony besides Lyra's grave. Her eyes were still pinpointed onto Lyra's self portrait next to the lovely, colorful flowers, her poker expression never left her face. Giving up, Minuette sighed in defeat before walking over to the rest of her friends.
"I really wished that I could do something to help," she sobbed quietly in front of her colleagues, "I really wish I could."
"Minuette, it's okay, you don't have to do this alone." Lemon Hearts nuzzled her friend on the cheeks. "Besides, we all need some time for ourselves, losing somepony important isn't always easy."
"Yes, and I can just about say that to anypony, even the Princesses."
The unicorns began to walk away, trying to keep their disappointment in place. Sweetie Drops remained silent, and rather cold in a sense. Her breathing became heavier when Moon Dancer turned around, engaging her in yet another conversation.
"Bon Bon, are you sure that you can take this toll on?"
The earth pony nodded, a rush of breeze entangled them in an incessant war waging hide and seek of countenances. Moon Dancer sighed before levitating a particular muslin over onto her, it was woven with a fine pattern of creatures with two legs and two upper limbs in elegant positions. The acute and pungent scent struck the mare with a certain familiarity, her eyes widened in response.
"She kept this gift in my residency for years, until your birthday would arrive, but by that time I was foolish enough to abandon my friends, beautiful ponies like her."
"And when Twilight brought me back to my true home, she was not there, she was somehow forgotten, and I regretted that." Moon Dancer put a hoof to her heart. "Bu-but now, I regret the times that I could've spent with her, and now I have to live with the fact that we can't be together like before anymore."
Slowly, Sweetie Drops turned her head to Moon Dancer who grinned before finishing up her final words.
"Well, I guess that's it for today... Thank you for listening to me, Bon Bon, you're an example of a true friend."
She quietly turned away, slowly walking down the grassy hill, the hill that Sweetie Drops and Lyra would used to play on together before it was renovated into a graveyard, and they would sleep in the most peaceful slumber that anypony could imagine. But now, it was just Sweetie Drops (with Lyra who was done with the stage of life). So she took the muslin off her back, and nudged the creatures on the quilt that Lyra always admired. She never ceased to talk about it every single day.
'Yep, those were the good memories, alright'
She placed the muslin onto Lyra's tomb, carefully adjusted it so that it will not be blown off by the wind. She smiled and kissed her tomb, and her portrait, before walking away back to her Ponyville residency, only to be stopped by a larger force of threat.
"It's been weeks since you rushed into the town's hospital, Miss Bonne."
The mare gulped, sweat trickled down her face. She was only half the size of her familiar enemy, who was armed with unthinkable illegal weapons that were banned in Equestria and foreign nations elsewhere. She bit her lips in concern, and almost helpless, because he was not here to consult with her, but to settle everything from last time.
"Don't play dumb with me, Special Agent Sweetie Drops, I know all too well of your identity, I have been hunting you down for years since you single hoofed-ly took down our organization. You ruined our profit, our wealth and our glory."
"Right, and you guys were once the criminal organization of the Equestrian underworld, known for the will to do anything to make illegal markets, whether it be taking lives of the innocent, or your own hench-ponies. It was only justice to put an end to all your intolerable evils—"
Right at that instant, a hoof swung over from Sweetie Drops' right, who had no means to dodge the delivered blow, as it went into her face, blood spurring out in result. The mare was knocked down onto the ground, and pinned by her enemy.
"You killed all my comrades, including our leader Hoof Chain 'Shirov' Cuff." The stallion then snapped back to reality, noticing his actions. "Funny how you chose not to dodge that incoming attack, I expected a lot more from you."
Sweetie Drops spat out more blood to her side. Unable to do anything at the moment, her mouth formed an irritating grin that triggered the angry stallion to deal another blow to her face.
"You were never worth my time to be dealt with, Surge 'Metal-head', I took no interest of you since the beginning of your organization's downfall, and that is why I spared you and a couple of others who were thrown into prison."
"Well tough luck for you, the police and the Royal Guards never found me." Surge Metal strangled Sweetie Drops' neck with his brutal gray hooves, the mare squealed in pain, close enough to the point where she could no longer feel blood running through her head. The stallion smiled in response and pulled out a crowbar, pointed to the helpless damsel.
"I could just kill you right now with a sharp blade or some magic projector that can destroy a small village, but I chose to let your humiliation torture you. Any last words?" With that, Surge Metal brought down the first strike onto Sweetie Drops' head, causing her to scream louder than the blows by the enemy's bare hooves. Everything became a blur to her, she continuously trembled as if she was a fish bouncing on land, struggling to keep her fragile life on the red line.
"Anything?!" He yelled into her ears and continued to beat her with the bloody crowbar. There was no point in screaming for help in this silent and desolated graveyard. There were only trees and cold stone tombs, and only one of them mattered to the dying mare at the moment. Nevertheless she faces these trials only for the sake of remaining quiet, just like the lifeless graveyard. Either way she was done for, when there will be no help arriving for her.
"Hey Bon Bon, do you believe in afterlife?" Lyra asked as she was sipping her orange juice. The two were as always, sitting on the same bench that they always sat on, with no other ponies in sight this early morning. Tranquility whispered into the mares' eardrums, tapping their hearts with soft and dulcet beats. Sweetie Drops had her attention toward the simple but thought-provoking projects of the suburban Ponyville, under the cheerful orange cast by the sun. She could not help but to continually stare at them, a discomforting, but enclosed zone with just enough space for herself.
"Bon Bon!" Lyra reached her hoof to pinch on the agent's nose, who flinched in response.
"Huh? What? Afterlife? Oh yeah." She breathed in slowly, keeping the same pace as she exhaled. "Well, that is a tough question to begin with."
"I mean, once we die, we no longer exist in Equestria anymore, but with the idea of heavily filled magic on this land as pollen on a flower, I'd say that our spirits will not die. But to be honest, I never find religious stuffs convincing, if we're gone, we're gone, it's that simple."
"Oh I hate you realistic believers who only see and assume what is around you."
"Well excuse me—"
"Sh! Listen!" Sweetie Drops quickly cut her words out short, and there Lyra was, plucking her lyre with her eyes closed. What was unique about the seven strings this time, was that they resonated with the incoming brush of wind, combined with the ruffling of the grass and the trees. Even the wooden bench absorbed the melodies and converted them into their own hollow voices. Sweetie Drops put her hoof to her mouth, astonished and deeply moved. Lyra, smiling whenever she plucked her golden lyre, lightly swayed her head over and back to resonate with the music.
"You heard that, Bon Bon? Every sound around you can affect the main cuisine." — Sweetie Drops looked at the instrument — "These sounds only become powerful when you feel alive alongside, and dance away with them."
Without hesitation, Sweetie Drops, the former agent, tried to escape Surge Metal's dreadful abuse as she slowly crawled towards Lyra's tomb. Without effort, the stallion once again grabbed her with his gray hooves into the air, and smacking her rapidly with the crowbar. He smiled as the mare's blood flew onto his face, licking them in the process.
"I never knew how easy this would be, but the bad guy never plays fair." He finished before hurling Sweetie Drops into a tree standing behind the tombs. A spot of blood appeared on the trunk, and lying next to the stained tree was the blood's owner, who once had lost everything, and practically her own life now.
Surge Metal walked over to the severely wounded mare, who was breathing heavily as she lied on the red colored grass. Surge dropped the crowbar, and picked Sweetie Drops up once again, only this time he choked her against Lyra's tombstone. Drooling and sputtering more blood, she could not help herself but to squeal choppily.
"So what are you trying to prove here?" The mare raised her brow.
"When you live in that moment, you are able to hear deeper things than just physical noises. Those external sounds that pieced my music were not artificial. Wind, wood, grass and trees come from refined nature. Especially the wood, despite they came from trees that have long left Equestria, they still produce melodies equal to that of a phenomenon."
Still confused, Sweetie Drops gazed at the clouds floating by, blocking out the fresh sunlight. Lyra was far from done with her lyre, for the more she plucked, the closer she was with the gods of peace.
"Only spirits can hum with natural sounds, and that alone is pure, innate magic."
"You're a real confusing mare, Lyra." Sweetie Drops shook her head, and ruffled her friend's cyan mane, who leaned into her neck in response. "You're so confusing..."
Memories hung aboard still even when he was brutally snatching her life away, piece by piece. Satisfied and aggressively excited, Surge Metal stroke deep into her nerves, making the agent scream to the top of her lungs. She managed to injure Surge's eyes, who toppled back and winced for a brief moment, and to the stallion's bemusement, she gripped onto Lyra's tombstone, wrapped it around with her hooves.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Surge Metal demanded, and threw a punch into Sweetie Drops' head, knocking her into the stone.
"T-the spirits... I-I can still h-hear them..."
"Not even a god can save you now, Agent Sweetie Drops, just give up and let me have you done for good!"
'No, the spirits are still whispering into my ears. They are alive!'
"Those lost souls still fly around us, Bon Bon. They were never 'dead' from the start."
"Well then, how come I couldn't hear them this whole time?"
Lyra giggled, "Silly! You're an earth pony, you can only feel the magic from Gaia earth!"
"I guess spending all my life with you almost made me a unicorn!"
The two mares giggled again, joy replenishing their hearts. The lyre began magically plucking itself, and every sound was its own gracefulness. Though, they was blown away by another shallow breeze.
"No, now I can't hear anything." Sweetie Drops frowned.
"Don't worry, Bonnie, the wind is just carrying our music to elsewhere, and sharing the love all around Equestria!"
Without a word, the two mares laid on one another's shoulder, gazing at trees and the heavenly sky above full of clouds.
"I hear it, I hear it now, Lyra!" Sweetie Drops cried as Surge continued to stomp on her, but this time the pain was senseless, and only the thin strings of the golden instrument laid beside her friend's tomb, vibrating through her chest. "I can truly feel the voices calling over me from above!"
"What is this goddamn madmare saying?!" Surge roared as he picked up the crowbar, and beat on her spines. But even then, he stopped himself once he heard the golden lyre plucking all on its own. Pluck, pluck, pluck as it goes on and on.
"No, no, no! That's plain blasphemy!" Surge Metal dropped the stained crowbar once again, reacting in horror as he saw something else that sent a shrill down his veins, as if he was the victim now.
"B-back off! What are you?!" The stallion plopped onto the grass, as he tried to scoot himself backwards. Sweetie Drops was astonished herself, for an ancient creature was floating next to her, with no eyes, but the rest of her body parts were untouched by any means of artificial contact.
"Some spirits may look scary, and some don't, but the point is, they will never harm you in anyway. They may be curious and frighten some of their neighbors away."
"As if, she's a natural spirit... Wow..."
The unknown creature inched closer towards Surge Metal, who was for some unknown reason, at the hooves of mercy. Sweetie Drops, who was now scarred, beaten and blood bathed, gawked at the turning point of this intense scenario. The mysterious creature leaned down to take a closer view of her opposition, whose heart was racing against the possibility of death. She tilted her head to her left, and reached for Surge Metal with her claws.
"How do you even know all this, Lyra? Are you some sort of exorcist?"
"No! Stop! Get away from me!"
So the villain fled away, abandoning his original motive of seeking vengeance. Sweetie Drops, much wounded and bruised, questioned the reasoning behind such miracle. What powers did this spirit wield that can be so powerful and potentially dangerous?
All was answered once the spirit turned her head back to face the retired agent, everything became clear when the mare retained her memory.
"No silly!" Lyra giggled, poking her friend on the nose once more. "You just have to acknowledge the spirits' presence around you. They exist."
The earth mare shook her head and ruffled Lyra's mane, to which the beautiful and majestic unicorn giggled in response.
What they might have missed, were the millions of countless souls whizzing by them without a chance to stop and bring auras of joy.
But Sweetie Drops did not care, because the aura of joy she had was her very best friend, also known as a true lover of ecstatic fantasies. She could walk pass another hundred million and not care when just one mare valued more to her than anything else in life.
Just now was a familiar, turquoise unicorn who stood behind the curious spirit. She did not wave a hoof, nor did she speak a word, but her glamorous sparkling was more than enough to draw the attention of Sweetie Drops' sad blue eyes. She rubbed her eyes to make sure that they were not lying to her, and they were not. The unicorn, who's cutie mark is that of a lyre, with cyan mane and a crazy smile, was standing there waiting for her friend to embrace her.
"Oh. My. Goodness." Sweetie Drops put a hoof to her mouth. "This really can't be..."
"Lyra, Lyra? Can you hear me?"
But the unicorn would not respond, as she continued to emit yellow orbs of light. Desperate, Sweetie Drops crawled over to get the sketchbook and their photo album, before limping all the way to where her friend was standing. The spirit's head turned to observe their reunion, although somewhat confused. The mare opened the pages of the photo album to receive a reaction from Lyra Heartstrings, but she remained there, with the same bright smile she had when she just appeared. Sweetie Drops reached a hoof out to touch her, but it went through the mare's body, who never responded still.
Finally, the unicorn began to march forward at a steady pace, time always awaits when a pony is no longer existing anymore. Sweetie Drops followed, and so did the eyes of the unknown spirit. Lyra stopped at her own grave, staring at it and feeling it.
The beauty of irony tied within oneself can be so fascinating.
Slowly, she reached her hoof to touch the golden lyre that she once owned, and it was practically the instrument of her soul. She touched a string, and it plucked one of the most reverberating sounds one can never wish to hear, but Lyra can produce it, and Sweetie Drops heard it, even the spirit creature could not help but let out a grin.
Satisfied, Lyra began touching more strings, and they became a slice of uplifting drama ringing above the sunset on Ponyville. Sweetie Drops' heart flew out of her chest, beating as the string echoed across the air. Contented, she stuck her hoof out into Lyra's body once more, even though she was physically impossible to interact with.
The latter still was in her own world, laughing quietly, plucking string by string through the heavens.
On the verge of tears, Sweetie Drops fruitlessly flipped pages of both Lyra's sketchbook and the photo album, but even the long term memories that filled the gap between the missing pieces of the creaking wooden bridge were only illusions, when she realized that Lyra was beginning to fade away. A shocking wound rushed through her blood, forcing her to bend down, and helplessly watch her friend disappear into nothingness once more.
"No, Lyra, Lyra! Please, please... Don't leave me here..."
But this time, Lyra turned back, and mouthed familiar words that only she out of the whole wide world, knew by her heart. Sweetie Drops gasped, and swore to God that this will be the last time she will cry, and never again.
She took out the shades that she always used during her missions, and dropped them besides her friend's lyre, that shed gold against the raging sunset.
‘Agent Sweetie Drops was no more, Princess, and she already had decided that awhile ago, for her friend's sake.’
Lyra Heartstrings is now gone, the spirit creature was also gone. There stood Bon Bon, lying on her knees as she smiled at Lyra's photo besides her permanent resting rock.
"I guess we can't be Bacchus and Philemon after all."
~Fin
Author's Note
Wowzers! This whole "project" took me half a year to complete (thank you, Procrastination and Reality), and I often got lost with where I was supposed to go and such. Even finding editors and proofreaders took me a week or so.
As much as being used to writing long one-shot stories, getting out of my comfort zone with a 10k+ word story really hurts my head!
Partially inspired by the amazing Lifehouse, one of my favorite songs of all time.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!
