This Weapon Is Your Life, Don't Lose It (Remastered)
Ponyville was as lively as ever, its streets populated with all sorts of ponies from around Equestria. There were earth ponies, the foundations of the town as well as the backbone of it. Pegasi, who kept the weather in control as well as making sure that the wild storms from the nearby Everfree Forest were kept at bay. And Unicorns, who helped around town with their magic and were happy to pitch in if needed.
Lyra Heartstrings is one of these unicorns, and is well known to be a funny was as well. She once held the record for most puns pulled in an hour which was definitely a sight to see. But sadly Pinkie Pie took that record after showing up at a local bar on comedy night wearing a blue jacket that smelled strongly of ketchup. Still, Lyra was happy with her life. She had a good job, a great roommate, and her golden lyre which was normally tuned to perfection.
But today, the mint green unicorn didn't have any plans. Her lyre was in need of specific strings due to the custom design, which the local music shop didn’t have in stock. So she had to wait until their shipment arrives from Manehattan, and until then her lyre wasn’t usable.
Her job was closed today for repairs from the last beast attack, which had apparently torn the entire roof off and chucked it into a clock tower. So she was left to do whatever she wanted to do on that wonderful day. So Lyra had decided to visit a little restaurant for lunch, where she was currently sitting at a table, eating some steaming carrot soup out of an ice white bowl.
Lyra grabbed a nearby spoon and levitated it over to the bowl with her golden colored magical aura. She dipped the utensil into the bowl, scooping up some of its contents and brought it over to her mouth. She ate up the spoonful of soup, savoring its wonderful taste for a few moments before setting the spoon down and eyeing the clear blue sky above.
"Great weather, no attacking monster from the Everfree, finally a peaceful day." Lyra said out loud, feeling the warmth of Celestia's sun against her fur. But will it finally last for once?
Lyra took another sip of the soup before her eyes began to glance around the area. A few ponies were buying things in the market, others trotting and talking with friends, and one baby dragon who was pulling a cart full of books down the street. Behind the baby dragon, Lyra spotted a familiar mare who was buying something at a fruit stand.
The mare in question had a light tan coat with a dark blue and pink mane and tail. Her eyes were light blue and her cutie mark was of three wrapped candies.
"Hey Bon Bon!" Lyra called out, waving a hoof.
Bon Bon turned her head at the sudden mention of her name and quickly spotted Lyra, who she smiled at. She finished paying for an item which she put in a saddlebag she had on, before she made her way over to her roomates table.
"Hey Lyra, how are you doing? This morning you kinda seemed zoned out." Bon Bon stated.
"Well, I may or may not have fallen out of bed and landed head first on the ground. But thanks to the magic of coffee, I was wide awake afterwords. But by the time I had finished said coffee, you had already left to do… whatever you do." Lyra answered. "What do you do actually when you have free time?"
Bon Bon seemed to look a little nerves at that question but simply replied, "I met up with Berry Punch and Colgate. We were gonna exchange recipes from our best dishes,"
"That reminds me, are you gonna make those awesome brownies tonight?" Lyra asked, her eyes seemed to light up even at the thought.
Bon Bon had been known to make great sweets, some even good enough to rival the local bakers the Cakes, but Bon Bon never really talked about it. However due to Lyra living with her, she was able to obtain some of the rare treats that the earth pony whipped up.
Bon Bon put a hoof to her chin, thinking about it. "Maybe, but i'm not sure if I have the right ingredients-" She trailed off as she noticed a strange white light begin to appear above the table.
"Uh, what's that?" Lyra asked, looking up at the light.
It wasn't that bright of a light, more like a neon white circle which was surrounded by white flames which seemed to flicker even with the lack of wind. The circle wasn't that big, maybe wide enough to fit a hoof through, but no wider.
"I have no idea… " Bon Bon muttered, trying to figure out what the circle meant.
Suddenly, a silver object fell out of the circle and landed with a Splash into Lyra's soup bowl. The circle then faded out of existence as if it was never there, but the two roommates were more focused on the object now resting in Lyra’s lunch. Cautiously, Lyra took hold of the object in her magic and removed it from the bowl, watching as drops of soup trickled down the object’s sides.
"Careful Lyra! We don't know what that thing is!" Bon Bon warned.
The object was in the shape of a cylinder with silver colored metal. The bottom area had black rubber lines across the sides going parallel to the body. A yellow rectangle rested vertically in the middle of the object, strange symbols printed in the metal. The top part was curved a little with two cut in circles just below it. Resting in between the two circles was a dark red button.
"Whoa, this looks like a futuristic pipe or even a straw!" Lyra exclaimed, rotating the device around in her magic.
Before she could start pressing buttons however, Bon Bon grabbed the device from her magical grasp and shoved it into her saddlebag.
"Hey! That's mine!" Lyra shouted, making a grab for the saddlebag. Bon Bon just shot her a glare.
"First off, it's not yours. Second, we have zero idea what this device does so we’re gonna take it back home and observe it with caution." Bon Bon explained.
"Fine, as long as I get to hold it again." Lyra grumbled, taking one last sip from her carrot soup, before leaving it along with a few bits and followed Bon Bon towards there home.
Bon Bon stared through the magnifying glass at the device which was currently resting horizontally in an old suitcase she had found in the attic. She set the magnifying glass down and got up from her crouching position, before trotting over to where Lyra was sitting and sighed.
"I don't know what it is, not even the metal it's made of. I'm gonna head over to the Golden Oaks Library and see if I can find some source of the material or maybe the device itself in Equestrian history." Bon Bon said, heading over towards the door.
"And whatever you do, DON'T TOUCH IT!" Bon Bon shouted, before leaving the house.
Lyra looked at the door, then at a clock. Once a minute had passed, she got up from where she was sitting and went over to the suitcase, her mind already rebelling from what Bon Bon had instructed.
"Alright, now let's see what this thing can do." Lyra mumbled, levitating the device out of the suitcase and in front of her.
She rotated it a bit, before her eyes rested on the dark red button. It was almost cliché. The button was practically begging to be pushed. So, Lyra obliged, pressing the button with her hoof and watched in shock as a neon blue stick of light shot up from the top of it.
"Whoa… " Lyra said in awe, looking at the blue light like a fly looking at a lamp.
Lyra moved the device around a little, watching the blue blade dance in the air. It was like watching sparkler shows but with a glow stick. Then, a thought came to her mind.
Lyra looked at the suitcase, before slowly lowering the blade onto it. The fabric quickly sizzled and burned away as the blade made contact. Next thing Lyra knew, the suitcase had been cut in half.
"Awesome!" Lyra commented, heading over to a trash can.
She levitated a few broken bits of trash out of the can and used the device to cut them. It seemed like it could cut through mostly anything.
After cutting all the trash up and putting it back in the can, Lyra began spinning the blade around with her magic. The dancing light was amazing, keeping her eyes locked on it the whole time it spun.
However, during her little fun, a sudden chill ran up Lyra's spine. She stopped spinning the device and looked around, a sudden feeling of unease washing over her like a tidal wave.
Even with the warm summer temperatures outside which were leaking in through the open windows, Lyra felt chilled to the bone. She looked at the device again, noticing that it had deactivated itself somehow.
The living room of her and Bon Bon’s house slowly faded away, replaced with an endless dark abyss. She tried activating the device again to see if it could light the area, but it had disappeared from her magical aura.
Then, Lyra began to hear whispers. Thousands of voices from all angles, trying to overpower the others. Before it could become deafening, her gaze locked onto a strange figure in the darkness. The area around her slowly changed to what looked like a cave, the only light emitting from several sparkling gemstones in the walls.
"Wait, isn't that a-" Lyra cut herself off as she saw that the figure matched the description that the books she had read had claimed.
It was a human.
"I KNEW I WASN'T CRAZY! THEY... Do exist... um... hello?" Lyra asked, trotting towards the human.
The human had pale skin with brownish yellow hair. He was wearing brown and black robes and had his eyes closed. Lyra noticed that the device she had originally been holding was now hovering before them. It was slowly being assembled, the final part being a glowing blue crystal which looked like the ones that were lighting up the cave. Once the crystal was inside, the device quickly shut, now looking like it had been before.
"Good, remember Anakin, this weapon is your life, never lose it. And don't let it be broken like your old one." A voice stated, their words echoing against the cave walls which began to fade away like Lyra’s living room.
The area she now stood in was a large open field which was full of strange bipedal yellow robots. These robots were holding strange looking objects which seemed to be launching red bolts of energy from their barrels, but any that could of hit Lyra seemed to simply go right through her.
The same human from before who she now knew was called Anakin, now with pure brown hair and a scar over his right eye, was rushing towards the group of the robots. He grabbed the device from his robes and ignited the blade, which was instantly shoved through several robots chests. The blade cut through the robots metal like it was paper, its wielder showing zero fear as several red lasers were shot at him. The blue blade seemed to absorb the shots and reflected them back at the robots, taking down each one the reflected bolts hit.
Lyra watched, slack jawed at the sight that looked straight out of a Sci-Fi book. The battlefield however vanished much quicker than the cave, now replaced with what looked like the entrance to a temple.
Anakin was holding some sort of golden chain while watching a figure walk away from him towards a set of stairs leading down. Anakin looked like he was struggling to hold back tears as he put the chain into a pocket in his robes and walked away in the opposite direction.
This scene faded away and changed into what looked like an office room with crimson red walls. Another human who had brown skin and a bald head was wielding a purple device which was pointed directly at another human's face. The human on the ground however looked like they had been through a toaster, white skin cracked and crumpled all over his face. White hair was clinging for dear life on his head.
"Please don't!" The human on the ground begged, before the human with the purple blade made a swing downwards. Anakin however countered by slicing the human's hand off, before he got electrocuted out the massive window that he was standing next to by the human on the ground. The scream of the human as he fell to his death echoed around Lyra, haunting her ears.
"What have I done?" Anakin asked out loud, the device slipping from his hand and onto the red carpet.
The room changed into a more open room with much smaller humans and Anakin, who looked at the humans with a hood over his head. He ignited his device, before the room faded away. More screams were heard from the darkness, each one slamming like a hammer against Lyra's heart.
The darkness quickly turned into an area covered by lava and rocks. Standing on a hovering platform was Anakin, the look of pure evil in his eyes. On the rocky bank next to him was another human, this one looked like he was watching a filly falling off a cliff. She could feel his pain just by looking into his eyes. The human suddenly spoke;
"Don't do it Anakin! I have the high ground!" The human shouted, his voice matched the one from the cave.
"Don't underestimate my powers." Anakin replied, his voice cold and empty.
"Don't try it!" The human begged, but his words fell on deaf ears.
Anakin jumped from the platform, flipping over the rocky bank, only to be cut in half by the other human. Anakin fell to the ground, the device flying from his hand and next to the other human.
"YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!" The other human shouted, tears falling from his eyes and onto his robes. "IT WAS SAID YOU WOULD DESTROY THE SITH NOT JOIN THEM!"
Anakin tried to climb up the rocks, a now exposed robotic hand was whirring and sparking a little as the heat caught up to it.
"BRING BALANCE TO THE FORCE! NOT LEAVE IT IN DARKNESS!!" The human screamed, before turning and heading up the rocky bank, picking up the device as he went.
The human turned around one last time and looked down at Anakin, who grunted in pain.
"I HATE YOU!!!" Anakin spat, pure anger boiling in his veins.
Lyra wanted to look away, but her eyes felt like they were glued open.
"You were my brother Anakin, I loved you..." The human claimed, before watching as Anakin's remaining legs caught fire from the lava stream below him.
Soon, his whole body was encased in fire, his screams felt like knives being pushed through Lyra's heart.
The lava world faded, replaced with a dark room full of machines which were buzzing loudly. Resting on what looked like an operating table was a badly burnt but still alive Anakin, who was then covered in a black mechanical suit and helmet. Each breath that he made was haunting, making the unicorn shiver even more.
That room faded, replaced with what seemed to be a living room in a small home. There was an old human who appeared to be the same one from the fiery planet, in his hands was the device. He handed it over to another human who had blonde hair and was wearing white clothes and a brown belt.
"Your father would have wanted you to have this Luke," The human said, watching as Luke examined it.
“What is it?” Luke asked.
“Your fathers Lightsaber. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age.” The old man stated, before the room along with everyone in it faded away.
Now Lyra was in a small corridor of some sorts, with the old human and the black armored Anakin, his new devices blade shining blood red. The two swung at each other, before the old human turned off his device and let Anakin strike him down. His body seemed to vanish, leaving his robes and device to fall to the ground.
"NOO!!!!!" Lyra turned to see Luke, tears flowing down his eyes, before he turned and ran towards a massive and barely held together structure. The whole thing suddenly lifted off the ground, before blasting out into deep space at a high speed.
The place faded and was replaced with an injured Luke who was fighting off against Anakin, until one bad swipe left his right hand cut off and the device falling into a dark pit below. Anakin looked at Luke, before reaching a hand out.
"Luke, I am your father, join me and together we can rule the galaxy." Anakin said. Instead of grabbing Anakin's gloved hand, Luke let go of the machine he was holding onto and fell into the pit.
The area faded away, replaced with a strange futuristic looking throne room where he saw Anakin and Luke fighting again. Luke now had his own lightsaber which was green instead of blue, managing to get the upper hand on his father, only to chuck the device away.
Luke stared at a familiar looking person standing at the top of a small flight of stairs. “You’ve failed your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”
Instead of the area fading away, it was swallowed up by a thick wave of smoke which made it impossible for Lyra to see anything. She tried to ignite her horn to help her see, but it failed to even let out a spark.
The smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a basement where a female human with white clothes was opening up a brown box. Inside was the device, which she quickly backed away from with pure fear in her eyes. She glanced down at the device for a few seconds, before the world faded again.
Now, Lyra was in a forest where the female human was fighting against another human who had black armor on, it wasn't Anakin though. The two battled before the ground broke them apart, their lightsaber blades slamming against each other. The two remained there, but the area changed into what looked like a large red throne room.
The two were now staring at each other, with the device being pulled from both of them by some unseeable pressure. Then, the middle of it shattered into two, blinding Lyra with pure white light.
Lyra’s eyes shot open, sweat dripping down her brow as the adrenaline of seeing all those visions began to wear off. She tried to get her erratic breaths under control while her mind struggled to wrap itself around what she had just witnessed.
After a few seconds of trying to calm down, Lyra’s vision refocused and the sight before her made her freeze. At some point during the visions, she had swung the still active device right through the wall. But what the blade had gone through was what made her blood run cold.
The blade had cut right through a framed picture of her and Bon Bon, both smiling on a picnic blanket. Only now, the side with Bon Bon on it had burned away, leaving a smiling Lyra alone on the other side of the picnic blanket.
The silence that followed this sudden realization was deafening, the slightest of movements crackling through the air like thunder. The device which she now knew was apparently called a lightsaber, fell from her grasp. The blade cut out as it fell to the ground, clattering against the wooden boards of the living room floor.
Lyra didn't know how long she stared at the burned picture, but once she was able to focus, she heard the noise of the front door opening. She turned around to see Bon Bon entering the room who was wearing saddlebags that were filled to the brim with books. The earth pony set them down next to the front door, before shutting it and sealing off the outside world.
"Ok Lyra, I checked out some books that could be a possible source for the- " Bon Bon broke her sentence as she saw Lyra's tear filled eyes. "Lyra? Are you ok?"
Bon Bon rushed over to her friends side, worry completely taking over her actions. She had never seen her friend so shaken up before, not even when Nightmare Moon had attacked.
Instead of her usual joking tone, Lyra replied, "No..." in a chilled voice. "No i'm not, i'm... scared."
Lyra’s hooves felt like jelly, making her balance waver and eventually causing the mare to fall towards the ground. Luckily, Bon Bon caught her just in time and helped the unicorn over to a nearby couch.
"It's ok Lyra, it's ok." Bon Bon assured, sitting down next to her friend. Lyra quickly grabbed Bon Bon and gave her a massive hug, crying into her shoulder.
"I-It was so scary! That t-thing showed me images of humans, humans who went through things that no creature should go through, and all I could do was watch!" Lyra rambled, her tears soaking Bon Bon's coat.
Bon Bon could only hug back, patting a hoof against Lyra's back as she tried to calm the distressed mare. "Don't worry Lyra, we can talk about it later, right now, I'm gonna make you some brownies."
Author's Note
Alright everyone, i've finally begun working on a sequel to this story. It will probably be awhile before it's published due to my focus being on other stories. But until then, i've revised the story and tried to correct some of my previous mistakes and made it sound somewhat better than before.
