POV: Lyra Heartstrings

The mint-green unicorn had never felt so distraught in her life. Lyra Heartstrings was shaking all over. She knew that everypony found her to be odd – but she felt such a strong certainty about what was to come. Equestria would soon face tragedy beyond what had ever been seen. She remembered what the man in the red and yellow iron suit told her in her dreams.

“Lyra, my universe was almost obliterated by a mad titan named Thanos. He wiped out half of my universe. I am here to warn you that your universe is destined to meet the same fate. We were able to restore those who have fallen but with great sacrifice and heartbreak. There is a being on your planet with the same desires and abilities as Thanos. Please do what you can to stop him before it is too late.”

“Oh, thank you for telling me all of this, good sir. Er- what’s your name?”

“You may call me Iron Man.”

“Iron Man. I know some bright minds that can help us stop .. do you know who this being is?”

“Yes, it is Tirek. One who attempted to conquer your world once before.”

“Of course, it’s Tirek! Certainly, I will build up a whole army of my fellow ponies to destroy that creep.”

“I believe in you, Lyra Heartstrings. I must go, but good luck. And by the way, we humans are very much real. I come from a planet full of them”, said Iron Man giving Lyra a thumbs-up.

Lyra smiled at Iron Man. She knew she was right about that. After that conversation, Lyra woke up. It felt much too real to be a dream.

The next morning, Lyra told her marefriend, Bon-Bon, all that Iron Man had told her.
The cream-colored earth pony looked at Lyra with concern. Lyra knew that Bon-Bon would have a hard time believing everything but she would understand.

“This is so bizarre”, said Bon-Bon while sipping on her coffee, “but, I have never seen you this anxious ever.”

“I am telling you”, said Lyra, “this all felt so real! I know Tirek is in Tartarus right now but I am certain he is plotting something.”

“But really – Iron Man”, said Bon-Bon, “this sounds like something straight from your imagination – to be honest.”
Lyra grimaced but she loved Bon-Bon for her honesty. Bon-Bon couldn’t tell a lie even if she tried.

“I know, I know”, said Lyra with a sigh, “but if I’m right – wouldn’t we want to do something?”

“Yes”, said Bon-Bon, “I will do whatever I can to help – but I don’t have any special powers or anything like that…”

“You are all-powerful to me”, said Lyra with a smirk, “maybe you can take a sick day at work and we can – you know..”
“I can’t”, said Bon-Bon, “somepony needs to pay the bills around here.”

“Who else in Ponyville is going to believe me?”

“Maybe talk with Twilight Sparkle”, suggested Bon-Bon, “she is the smartest pony around.”

“No, you’re the smartest pony around! I will go see if Twilight can help us out though. Have a great day at work, honey!” The two mares kissed each other goodbye.

Lyra was feeling optimistic. She appreciated the irony that Twilight Sparkle’s castle could be the place where they figured out how to destroy Tirek – after Tirek destroyed Twilight’s old home. The only problem was that Twilight wasn’t around much anymore. Twilight had many princess duties on her plate. The odds of Twilight even being home were minimal.
Lyra approached the castle and knocked on the door. Lyra waited. She didn’t want to be a nuisance. A minute had passed. Lyra decided to knock again.

The door opened. Lyra’s mind was buzzing – what would she tell Twilight or maybe she could pass the message on to Spike – Twilight’s dragon assistant?

Instead, Lyra saw a lilac unicorn – Starlight Glimmer. Lyra never met Starlight in her life. However, Lyra knew that Starlight was Twilight’s protégé and used to be evil until she discovered the magic of friendship. Lyra had no clue how Starlight would react to Lyra’s ramblings about Tirek and humans and wiping out half the world.

“Er..”, said Starlight with confusion, “may I help you?”

“Oh, um”, said Lyra, “is Twilight Sparkle around?”

“No, Twilight is in Canterlot meeting with all the other princesses. She won’t be back for three days – but I can give Twilight a message for you.”

“I think all of Equestria is in grave danger.”

“Are the humans going to invade us?”, asked Starlight with a chuckle.

Lyra felt a tinge of sadness – is this what ponies really assumed about her including this unicorn who she never even met?

“Umm”, said Lyra, “I received a dark premonition from my dreams last night. I got a warning. Half of Equestria is to be wiped out by Tirek if we don’t do something as soon as possible.”

“Who told you this? Luna?”

Lyra briefly thought about lying but she knew that Luna could easily debunk her story.

“No, it was some other creature. He called himself Iron Man. Iron Man told me the same thing happened in his universe and…”

“Iron Man?”, interrupted Starlight, “I knew this was one of your human things. Oh no – the humans are trying to warn us of Tirek. I will go get my human suit and we can go and fight this thing together.”

“Really? Bon-Bon and I..”

“No. What do you think I am? Stupid? How is Tirek going to wipe out half of Equestria anyway? Did Idiot Man tell you that?”

“Oops, I didn’t ask. He couldn’t stay that long.”

“I see why so many ponies refer to you as Loony Lyra.”

“Please tell Twilight next time you see her.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll tell Twilight when humans actually show up in Equestria. I’m way too busy for this – especially given Twilight’s absence. Have a good day.”

With that, Starlight shut the door in Lyra’s face.

Lyra sighed. She knew there was no sense in trying to convince Starlight about her story. She felt dejected and needed to talk to Bon-Bon.
Lyra ran over to Barnyard Bargains – Bon-Bon’s place of work. She rushed inside before security could stop her and reached Bon-Bon’s cubicle where Bon-Bon was focused on some boring number-crunching stuff.

“Bon-bon-bon-bon”

“Lyra”, sighed Bon-Bon with frustration, “I need to close Barnyard’s books for the month – can we talk about this tonight?”

“I went to Twilight’s castle and Twilight is at a Princess convention. I talked to Starlight but she didn’t believe me and doesn’t want to help and..”

“I don’t trust Starlight one bit”, said Bon-Bon, “she was that pony who enslaved a whole village with those equal cutie marks. You shouldn’t have..”

“This is why I need you, Bon-Bon. You always know the right thing to do. I act too quickly. Starlight laughed in my face as soon as I brought up Iron Man.”

“When does Twilight come back? I’m sure Twilight would listen to you.”

“Three days – but I don’t think we have that much time.”

“You’re making me nervous – Lyra.”

“You should be nervous. Half of us are going to be gone if we don’t do something.”

“I can’t talk about this till tonight. You know I am hoping to get a promotion.”

“Your promotion won’t matter if half the world is gone.”

“Besides your dream – what else would..”

All of a sudden – Bon-Bon’s eyes widened.

Lyra was confused for a split second but she started to feel odd. Lyra’s behind appeared to be splitting apart. Was this it? Lyra felt like she was crumbling.

“Oh my god – Lyra!! Somepony do something!!!”, shouted Bon-Bon.

“I love you, Bon-Bon”, said Lyra.

“I love you too, Lyra”, bawled Bon-Bon, “I promise that I will do whatever it takes to fix this.”

Lyra could tell everything had dissolved except for her head and then...

Author's Note

Hope everypony is enjoying this so far - a lot more to come now that the snap has occurred.