Memories and Melodies

Lyra’s ember eyes snap open. Sitting up and looking around, she finds the room to be still very dark. With the faint white light of the dream orb, she glances at the clock, and notices both the two needles pointing directly upwards, indicating that it is just past midnight.

Rubbing her eyes, the mint green unicorn lets out a yawn. Thanks to the dream orb, the last few hours of sleep had been dreamless, though she has no idea why she woke up in the middle of the night without a nightmare. However, this has occurred to her before, mainly before some of her performances. She had always blamed those sudden wakes to psychological pressure.

Just as she was going to let it pass as the nervousness of returning to her true hometown and lie back down, however, a small humming sound catches Lyra’s attention. A strange feeling of familiarity runs through her body, as her horn starts to emit a faint high-pitched humming sound. Feeling her horn with her front hoof, Lyra finds it to be slightly warm, indicating that there is a small amount of magic building in it.

Lyra is not unfamiliar with the situation. In fact, this phenomenon is one of the first things unicorns learn when they start learning about their magic. Magic self-building in a unicorn’s horn usually means that a magic source, possibly another unicorn, is resonating with the unicorn’s own magic.

Such phenomenon, however, usually takes place between genetically related unicorns, namely families and relatives, whose magic are on similar frequencies. But her parents should have been lone gone now, and her only living relative is still in Canterlot, hundreds of miles away. How could something in a town she had just arrived at hours ago resonate with her magic?

Her curiosity lifted, Lyra concentrates her mind and tries to determine the location of the magic source resonating with her, a neat trick taught by Twilight in her magic lessons last week. As she taps into her inner magic flow, she finds them entangled with a foreign magic flow emitted by another magic source, a faint glowing spot just outside the window.

Dismissing her magic and looking outside the window, Lyra instantly spots a dark green glow about 50 meters away in the forest outside, distinct from the much fainter glow from the illuminative mushrooms around.

Looking more closely, Lyra gasps and nearly jumps from her bed. Standing in the dark forest outside was another pony, a dark green unicorn mare. What startles Lyra is not only the fact that this unicorn is alone outside in the dark forest in the middle of the night, but also the faint dark green light emitting from her whole body.

Recovering from the shock, Lyra closes her ember eyes and rubs them with a front hoof. As she reopens them, however, she finds that the forest has returned to darkness. The mysterious pony is nowhere to be found.

Lyra’s first reaction is to pinch her front hoof. A sharp pain indicates that what happened seconds ago was not a dream. Lyra stares into the forest outside as her breath slowly steadies. Right now, her mind is occupied by a number of questions:

Who was that unicorn? What is she doing out there at midnight? Why is her magic resonating with mine? And why the hay is her whole body glowing?!

Her brain scrambled by surprise and doubts, Lyra sighs and lies back onto her bed. There is no way she is going to go out into the dark forest right now at midnight to look for that strange pony. Maybe it was just her wild imagination doing its work again, after all. Her mind is already occupied by accepting the fact that she was born in the middle of a dark forest, and there is no need to add another trouble into it.

Letting out a yawn, Lyra closes her eyes, and minutes later starts to snore.

Lyra is woken up once again by the sound of a few distant bird chirps from outside the tree house. Opening eyes and getting up from her bed, she notices a streak of bright light passing through the window. It is already morning.

Jumping from her bed, Lyra shrugs away the last few thoughts about the unusual sight last night. She is going to visit her family’s old house today, the place that holds her lost memories about her hometown and her parents. There is a long day ahead of her.

Trotting down the stairs, Lyra finds her two friends already in the dining room on the base floor, three plates of fruits arranged neatly on the table in the center of the room. Noticing her, Grey Wind waves:

“Morning, Lyra. Mr. Blade just came in and sent us some breakfast. Bon Bon was just going to wake you up.”

“Apparently that’s not necessary, cos I’m already here!” Lyra exclaims, “Geez, no need to rush me, Bonnie! It’s not like I sleep in every single day!” She zips to the table and starts munching into a pear.

“Says the mare who got late for work three days in a roll two weeks ago,” Bon Bon snorts, picking up a banana from her plate.

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! The alarm clock went down that week!” Gulping down the pear, Lyra retorts, “so, we are going to visit my family’s old house today, right?”

“That’s right,” Grey Wind nods, a slight frown forming on her face, “though, are you sure you are ready for this, Lyra? We could always wait for a few days---”

“No!” Lyra blurts, interrupting her friend, “I mean, yes, yes, of course I’m ready! This might be my best shot of finding back my memories with my parents, and I simply can’t wait any longer for that!”

“…Alright, Lyra.” Grey Wind nods, “then, we should probably leave right after breakfast. We still have a tour around town scheduled this afternoon, remember?”

After the three friends finish breakfast, they set out for Lyra’s old family house in the northern edge of the town. Even at morning, the town is still dimly lit, with only a small amount of light penetrating the thick canopy.

Navigating through the maze-like tree houses, the three friends finally reach the northern edge of the town after nearly an hour of traversing the narrow passages and running into dead ends. Now, lying in front of the three mares is a narrow dirt path leading into the forest.

After another 10-minute trot on the path, Lyra finally spots a single tree house in the middle of a small clearing ahead of them. After she sees the building, she instantly breaks into a full gallop, quickly followed by her friends, coming to a stop as she reaches the building.

The house has definitely seen better days. The branches on the house have withered, many of them already snapped down, green leaves long gone from them. Spider webs crawl all over the building, covering the windows. The outer wooden wall has lost is original lively brown color, replaced by a withering dark grey.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring her friends’ worried expressions, Lyra envelopes the front door in her magic and slowly opens it. A large creaking sound is heard as the hinges that haven’t been turned for the last 14 years slowly crack loose. As the doors are opened, Lyra walks into the house. Grey Wind and Bon Bon exchange a worried glance, and quickly follow the mint unicorn.

Lyra finds herself standing in a large living room. Although it has been 14 years since somepony last walked in this room, she can still see how cozy the room once was. A fireplace is installed on one of the walls of the room, two sofas placed right in front of it. A round table is placed on the other side of the room, already covered by spider webs. Several dark marks that resemble burn marks can be seen scattering around the walls of the room. A bookshelf leans against the room, a pile of ash and dirt has gathered under the bookshelf, a metallic object sticking out of it. Walking up to it and lighting up her horn, Lyra wipes away the dust from the object, revealing a large, golden harp.

As soon as Lyra lays a hoof on the instrument, a sharp pain occurs in her head, causing her to flinch back and cover her head with a hoof. The world around her starts to descend into a blurry mix of colors as memories and visions only she can see are painted right in front of her eyes.

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It is already nighttime, and the room is dimly lit by a few glowing green lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the cracking fire of the fireplace. A light blue middle-aged unicorn stallion is sitting on one of the sofas in front of the fireplace, a large golden harp sitting in front of him. A smooth melody can be heard throughout the room as he gently tugs at the strings of the instrument.

Minutes later, a green unicorn mare appears from the staircase, carrying in her lap a sobbing mint green unicorn foal. Seeing her husband, the mare speaks:

“Midnight, darling, I’m so sorry to have disturbed your song, but the baby is crying again, and I can’t get her to sleep. I believe I need your help.”

“Is that so?” The unicorn stallion replies as he stops playing, “quick, bring her to me.”

Accepting the baby from his wife, he gently lays the still sobbing foal into his lap and tries to comfort her, “Shh…Shh…It’s alright…Daddy is here…”

No use. The foal is constantly sobbing, extending her tiny hoof towards the bright fireplace.

“Ah, I get it. Afraid of the dark, aren’t you, sweetheart?” The stallion smiles. Hearing the sentence, the foal stops sobbing and weakly nods through her tear-stroke eyes.

“Then I’ve got the perfect song for you,” smiling, the stallion returns to his instrument and gently tugs its strings. Moments later, the melody of an assuring lullaby fills the whole room:

so mi so do~~ so la do so, so do re mi, re do re……

As the song proceeds, the tensed-up body of the foal slowly relaxes. Her ears droop down, her eyelids drop, and she lets out a small yawn. Moments later, she has completely calmed down, her small ember eyes forming a smile as she fixes her gaze on the golden harp.

“Glad to see you enjoyed it,” finishing the song, the stallion smiles, “now, let me get you back to your room so you can sleep tight, alright?”

Letting out a whimper, the foal reluctantly shakes her head, her tiny hoofs tightly clutched to her father.

“Still afraid? Guess I know what to do,” The stallion’s horn lights up. He envelopes a box laid in the corner of the room, puts it in front of the foal and opens it, revealing a small bronze music box inside it.

“Daddy’s father gave it to me when I was a little older than you, but I guess I should give it to you now,” He says as he winds up the box. As soon as he releases the clockwork, the box starts to emit a familiar tone:

so mi so do~~ so la do so, so do re mi, re do re……

“I’ll place this right beside your bed, so you’ll know that daddy will always be with you even in the darkest of the nights, alright?”

Already half-asleep in the assuring lullaby, the foal lets out a weak nod before drifting towards the dreamlands.

“Wow…I will never know how you did that, Midnight…” Watching the sleeping foal, the mare comments.

“This was my favorite lullaby when I was young, my dear Melody. It always helped me to relax even in the worst situations,” the stallion smiles, “Now, let’s put her back onto her bed, shall we?”

Carefully carrying the slumbering foal, the two ponies made their way upstairs into a small bedroom. The stallion gently puts the foal onto the bed, and pulls a sheet over her with his magic, before placing the music box onto the nightstand. Both ponies smile as they look at their cute child.

“What should we name her, darling?” The mare asks,

“Well....” Hesitating for a while, the stallion replies, “Lyra. We will call her Lyra. Judging from how she loved my music, I’m sure she’ll grow to become a greater lyre player than her father.”

“Lyra it is, then,” leaning over to the bed, the mare places a gentle kiss on the foal’s forehead, “Good night, and do not be afraid of the dark, Lyra Heartstrings. Mommy and daddy will always be there for you.”

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Lyra gasps as the visions dissipate. Looking around, she finds her friends eyeing her with worried looks on her face.

“Lyra! What happened? Are you alright?” Bon Bon calls.

But Lyra could not hear her. All her attention is fixed on the spiral staircase leading to the second floor. Walking past her friends, she walks upstairs, quickly followed by her friends.

Reaching the end of the stairs, Lyra walks into a small bedroom. A tethered green bed stands in the center of the room, an old blue sheet still visible on it. A nightstand stands right beside the bed. All of Lyra’s focus, however, was fixed on a single object----a small bronze music box sitting on the nightstand.

Without hesitation, she raises a hoof towards the music box. Grabbing the small object, her horn lights up as she winds up it. A familiar tone is emitted from the box as soon as the handle is released:

so mi so do~~ so la do so, so do re mi, re do re……

As the music fills the entire room, a jolt of pain shoots into her body once again as one last vision appears in her mind.

“Melody, close the windows!” An eager call from her father wakes the foal up from her slumber. Through her ember eyes, she can see her father rushing into her bedroom, a nervous expression on his face.

“Lyra, sweetheart, I need you to hide under the sheet and don’t come out until I tell you so, alright? Can you do that?”

Noticing the eagerness in her father’s voice, the filly nods and covers herself with the bed sheet.

“Good. Now—”

“Midnight! They are coming!”

“I’m coming! Just don’t get out until I return, alright? I promise you that everything will be fine.” Her father smiles before turning around and dashing down the stairs.

Covered by the bed sheets, the foal could not see anything. The only thing she heard were a few small bursting noises, shouts and screams, until everything ends up in absolute silence.

Trembling, the foal peeks out of the bed sheet. Without a single light source in the room, all she can see was complete darkness. The darkness that encases her, scares her.

Letting out a squeak, the foal quickly hides herself once again under the bed sheet as darkness descends upon the entire building.

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“Lyra?”

Grey Wind’s worried call pulls Lyra out of her reminiscence. Looking at the small music box held in her hoof, she lets out a bitter smile.

“I remember now…” Lyra mutters. Before any of her friends can speak, she continues, “They were gone for protecting me…”

Grey Wind staggers back to the wall. Bon Bon flinches, her eyes widen as she raises a hoof to cover her mouth.

“…I thought they just had to left me because they couldn’t afford to raise me… I thought at least I maybe able to figure out where they went if I come here…”

“…And yet all I found here is that they were gone, forever… In order to protect me…” Lyra mumbles as she lowers her head. Tears roll down her cheeks and drip onto the ground, staining the wooden floor.

“Father…Mother…You promised me you will always be with me…Don’t leave me in darkness alone…” Lyra sobs, her body slowly curling into a ball, holding the music box tightly against her chest.

Suddenly, she feels herself enveloped by two warm, furry embraces. Through blurred vision, she finds Bon Bon and Grey Wind pulling her into a warm group hug.

“You are never alone, Lyres,” Bon Bon whispers, running a hoof through Lyra’s tangled mane, “We’ll always be there for you.”

“That’s right, Lyra,” Grey Wind says as she envelopes her unicorn friend with her wings, “you were the first pony that accepted me despite knowing that I was a cloud monster. I’m not leaving the first friend that fully trusts me alone in the dark.”

“…girls…” Lyra mumbles. Managing a weak smile, she returns the hug, “…Thank you…I couldn’t have asked for better friends than you...”

Time seems to have stopped as the three friends hold onto each other, filling the scars in each other’s heart. Slowly, Lyra releases her friends, a genuine smile appearing on her face:

“When Grey told me that my parents disappeared, I had thought of the possibility that they were gone, I had feared that I will be left alone on this world.”

“But now…Now I know I’ll never be alone. My friends will be the stars that light up my path…”

“I will move on…It’s what I should do…It’s what my friends would want me to do. It’s what my parents would want me to do!” Lyra exclaims, her eyes lighting up as she wipes one last tear from her face.

“Now, come on, girls! Let’s head back! I want to learn as much as I can about my hometown, and we’ve got a magical lyre to retrieve!”

Seeing Lyra’s mood lifting up, Both Grey Wind and Bon Bon let out a relieved smile.

“Almost…done…” Lyra mumbles, stitching one last green string onto her newly bought black cloak, leaving only one last string absent from the second golden lyre she had been working on. The three friends are currently sitting in a small workshop in a cloth store near the town center of Hollowshade, all concentrated on sewing their cutie marks onto the cloaks they just bought. The culture passed down from ancient times has prompted every local pony of Hollowshade to sew a crescent moon onto their cloaks, while tourists have the freedom of choosing to sew their own cutie marks.

After the three friends returned from Lyra’s old family house, they went straight for lunch in a small restaurant inside the town. What they discovered, however, was that the menu in Hollowshade is very much different than those in Ponyville. Here, sandwiches and apple pies are absent, while the restaurant serves various kinds of baked mushrooms and vegetable salads.

In the end, Lyra chooses a vegetable salad mix, while Grey Wind and Bon Bon settle for baked mushrooms. Although Lyra could not identify any of the vegetables in her salad, they prove to be fresh and delicious.

After lunch, the three friends took several hours to walk around the entire town and locate every place of interest, including the library and the marketplace. Although Hollowshade is somewhat isolated from the rest of Equetstria, the town does have complete infrastructure, including a hospital, a town hall, a police station, a post office and even a small supermarket. The arrangement of those infrastructures, however, are random just like the other shops in the town.

During the trip, the three ponies could not help but admire the unusual beauty of the forest town. They discovered that the green lamps all over the town actually contain illuminative fungi, and that the tree houses were all carved out from living oak trees. They also got used to navigating through the maze formed by tree houses. In Grey Wind’s opinion, this town has almost formed a commensalism relationship with the nature around it.

The three mares also used this time for a shopping session around the town. Grey Wind bought some groceries for the remaining days of their visit, while Bon Bon bought herself a water-proof torch and a batch of local spices that cannot be found in Ponyville. Lyra also grabbed a traveling guide for the town from the bookstore.

Just before they end their trip, Lyra convinced her friends that they would need to wear cloaks just like the locals do to get rid of the awkwardness of standing out from the crowd during their stay. So there they were, sitting in a cloth shop not far from their temporary “operation base”, as Lyra called it. Lyra and Bon Bon are working on their respective cloaks. Prior to her trip, Rarity had already sewed Grey Wind’s cutie mark onto her cloak right after it appeared, so she is currently sitting beside her friends, reading the traveling guide Lyra bought.

“I still don’t get why everypony here wears a cloak around,” Bon Bon says as she finishes the second-to-last candy for her cloak and proceeds to the last one, “It seems a bit inconvenient to me.”

“Aw, come on, Bonnie! It is so cool!” Lyra exclaims.

“From this traveling guide, apparently the culture was developed back when the town ponies worshipped Princess Luna. They wore the cloak bearing her cutie mark to demonstrate their loyalty to her. The religion is no more nowadays, but the culture is preserved,” Grey Wind answers, a frown forming between her eyebrows, “though what surprised me is that this guide mentioned nothing about that abandoned temple of the moon. Shouldn’t it be developed as a tourism spot if tourism really kicks in as part of the economy of this town?”

“Well, from what I read in the newspaper, this town only became a tourist attraction after that railroad was established several months ago. Maybe they just haven’t had the time to develop that field,” Bon Bon suggests.

“I guess…” Grey Wind sighs, “though I’m sure we’ll at least find something regarding where that temple was in the town library.”

“Doesn’t every town library hold the almanac of the town? Just like the Ponyville almanac held in the Golden Oak Library?” Lyra asks, “If that temple really was built by the ponies in this town in ancient times, shouldn’t it be recorded in the almanac?”

“Exactly,” Grey Wind nods, “that’s what I’m planning to look into first thing tomorrow. We should also look for additional information regarding the star lyre. Princess Luna seems a bit reluctant to tell me more about it.”

“Princess Luna asked you to retrieve a magical artifact and didn’t even tell you what it could do? How weird is that?” Bon Bon frowns as she finishes sewing the last candy on her cloak.

“I know, right?” Grey Wind scratches her head, “She even told me to not say a word about this to Twilight or Princess Celestia like I told you yesterday, but I guess it’s not my place to doubt the Princess,” she sighs, “perhaps she just doesn’t want her sister to know about the star lyre, just like how she didn’t tell Princess Celestia about the dream orb.”

“Aaaaaaand, done!” Lyra exclaims as she sews one last green line onto her cloak. Standing up, she puts on the cloak and demonstrates it to her friends, “well? How do I look?”

“You look fantastic, Lyres. I have to admit that now you finally look like you are actually from this town,” Bon Bon smiles as she stands up and puts on her own cloak.

“Aww, thanks, Bonnie! And you look awesome too!” Lyra blurts.

Bon Bon chuckles, a slight blush visible on her face.

With Lyra and Bon Bon wearing their new cloaks, the three friends head back to the Night Inn, where they enjoyed a quick dinner with the groceries they bought on the way. After dinner, the three friends quickly return to their respective rooms to prepare the investigations tomorrow with a long sleep.

Lyra hangs her new cloak into the closet and walks up to her nightstand. With a flash of her horn, she produces the small music box she found in her parents’ house from her saddlebag, and gently places it onto the nightstand, next to the box containing the dream orb. Crawling onto her bed, she winds up the music box with her magic. Once again, a soothing melody emits from the box as the handle is released:

so mi so do~~ so la do so, so do re mi, re do re……

“Good night, mommy. Good night, daddy…” Lyra mutters as she closes her eyes, listening to the soft tone of her favorite song.