The silence killed her, the emptiness was drowning her in an ocean of loneliness. The ticking of the clock to her right was the only thing that kept her in reality, the noise sounded like cannons compared to the engulfing quietness of the world around her. Even if the silence truly was killing her, she wouldn't feel it, she wouldn't care. It seemed as though it were pure and painful irony that the only thing she felt was the tears that stained her cheeks like a reminder of her unfortunate "luck".

As she lay there, numb, and slowly slipping away from sanity, she looked to her bedside table where a small scalpel lay. The reflections tempted her, the gleaming of its finely cleansed blade taunted her like a carrot at the end of a rope. To others, it was a knife fresh from disinfection, ready to save another life or ruin it only more, but to her it was the key to freedom. To Lyra, this knife was a key, and her heart was the lock, her body was the cage that could not be moved. As she lay there, tempted to free herself from this imprisonment of flesh and blood, the only thing keeping her from escaping to nothingness was the thought of her friends beyond the hospital doors.

The thought of her friends hearing the news that she had taken her own life was what forced her back into her cage. These "friends" didn't understand what she was facing alone, if they truly were her friends they would be here by her side.

While the clock may be ticking, counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds that went by, to her it might as well be limbo. Her life would be the same every day, stuck in a lifeless corpse while the others moved on. Her cage was an undeserved punishment, forcing her onto the lives of others as their responsibilities, she wouldn't be able to live alone any more.

As time went on, it became clearer to her that might as well relieve the entire world of her burden as well as free her from her life-sentence. She could escape, be free from everything, and everything be free from her.

A knock was heard on the door, pulling her out of the darkening hole to the sound of a doctor's voice, "Lyra… Lyra are you there?" It wasn't any doctor, it was one that cared for her beyond the simple act in order to be paid. Her eyes seemed to remain stuck, like rocks grinding against each-other.

She forced to her greatest capabilities to croak, her voice barely making past the phlegm, "Come in…"

The door opened, a splash of colour entered the room. It may not be bright or vibrant like purple or yellow, but anything aside from cyan and cream was a welcome change for sore eyes. A splash of brown entered the room, his dark chocolate fur and his black mane were almost forgotten to the turquoise unicorn.

Dr. Whooves slowly entered the room, his eyes immediately locking on the poor patient that lay motionless, his eyes began to water. As his lips slowly started to quiver, he trembled towards the bed as he whimpered, "Oh Celestia… Lyra."

The doctor fell to the side of her bed, crying and clinging to her blankets, he burrowed his face into her side. He was like a child that had his whole world shattered before his eyes, crying and clinging to what remained as the truth.

To Lyra, these cries seemed to warm her, she could feel a slight smile breaking on her face. Although it was sad to witness her greatest friend cry for her, she felt relief sweep over her. Her eyes slowly looked towards the knife at her bedside table, and it began to look less like a key and more like a tool for incision. As her friend lay crying by her side, she spoke and heard her voice for the first time in what felt like forever, "You… you came for me."

"I tried my best, but I wasn't allowed." His voice was quite clearly shaking.

"What do you mean?"

"The city… it's been on lockdown," he began, "I've been trying to visit you since yesterday but the royal guards have invoked a strict curfew on us."

To Lyra, it was like having a rock thrown at her head while she was daydreaming, the sudden violent awakening to reality stunned her, "So… no one has been able to leave?"

"You're on everyone's mind, Lyra," said the doctor, "we're all worried about you."

"So… none of you abandoned me?"

"No..." the doctor began, tears gently making their way down his face, "we'd never abandon you."

*****

The day had slipped by quicker than usual, time spent with those she cared about made her blissfully unaware of the setting sun as it painted shades of the spectrum on the large canvas they called the sky. As their shadows drew longer and longer, and the sky began to turn from red to a deep purple, Lyra began to tire herself. Her smile had been stuck on her face for the whole day and she wouldn't have asked for it any different, feeling the love and joy of her friends kept her in the reality she craved.

Yet with all good things, they must always end, and her company was no different. A nurse poked her head through the doorway, her silky smooth rose mane hung low to the ground and swayed in the gentle summer-night's breeze from the window. She batted her eyelashes to tease her ocean blue eyes as she spoke to the silent group of ponies, "Visiting time is ending, I'm sorry but you'll all have to say your goodbyes."

The crowd hushed immediately as though her words casted a spell, unanimously looking towards the clock to realize they had spent their entire days in her company. The synchronized feeling of slight dread could be felt by all, their eyes slowly turning to Lyra.

"Well... you heard her," she began, doing her best to lie about her mood to everyone and herself, "you can always visit tomorrow." To Lyra, it was as though she were a prisoner, being told by the warden to return to her cell where she would spend another night of solitude and inner pain.

The group of ponies continued to look at her, it was clear they hesitated to leave her alone despite doctor's suggestions.

"I really wish we could stay for the night," Twilight began to speak, trying to break the silence that had engulfed them, "it just seems so lonely here."

Lyra forced a gentle and fake laugh, hoping to just ease the pain and get it over with for everypony, "It's alright, like I said, there is always tomorrow."

From her bed, Lyra watched as the group nodded towards each other, giving each-other unsure looks before the white prince spoke, "I hope this is what you want, and you aren't saying this to end our pain."

Instead of speaking, she simply nodded her head, holding the truth down as best as she could. Choking back the tears and hiding them by rolling her head in her pillow, she cracked a fake smile as though she were a depressed performer with makeup to hide her emotions. Finally the group began to leave, one by one they slowly passed out the door and returned to their own lives, returning to a place where they wouldn't have to lie about everything being okay.

As the group of heroes who had saved Equestria many times over finally left, Blueblood was the only one to remain. He stared down at her, no longer hiding his emotions as he whimpered, "I... I..." he couldn't speak, his words hesitated to be heard like a shy foal hesitating to go on stage. The words held back in Blueblood's throat, his eyes widened like he had discovered an incredible truth about himself and slowly uttered the words he so troubled to speak, "I... I wish... I wish I had taken your place."

Lyra was shocked, her heart had stopped. "Did he actually say that," she thought to herself in awe, "is he... really that selfless?"

Blueblood let a tear fall from his eye, this was the first time he had ever shown such a deep emotion and desire for anypony but himself. To Lyra, this was a milestone for a pony that was once thought to be a stone-cold and selfish colt.

They continued to stare into each other's eyes, realizing that something had changed to them over this past month of craziness. Lyra laughed on the inside for the first time in what felt like forever, she realized that this month resembled a telltale romantic comedy. She smiled at the prince, not because of his pain he felt for her, but because she felt different around him now.

She quietly whispered, watching him as he wrapped his hooves into a hug she would have otherwise not felt, "Canterlot needs the face of a hero now, not a royal travesty. You need to walk the path of a great prince more than I need to walk in general."

With nothing more to be said, Blueblood continued to embrace her, all she could feel was his muzzle against the nape of her neck as his shaking breaths warmed her. Finally he released her, and began to walk out of the room but watched as the nurse entered to shift Lyra's position. From her peripheral vision, she could see Blueblood stay at the doorway and watch in silence as the nurse gently rolled Lyra on her side to look out the window for the night.

The gently flowing summer breeze soothed Lyra's senses, and her eyes began to flutter as her mid drifted away. After a few moments of silence, Lyra had her eyes closed and she began to drift asleep when she felt something press against the base of her neck. She could feel warmth as lips quietly kissed her neck, probably hoping she wouldn't feel it. She could feel the lips of the Prince press against her gently before they broke away, causing a tear to form in her eye as she listened to him finally leave her for the night.

She continued to look out the window, the feeling of the warm kiss still fresh in her mind as though it were still happening. Despite being alone like she hated, she smiled.

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay in this chapter, holy hell it's almost been a month since my last posting. Jesus fuck I need to hurry my ass up.

The main reason why there's such a huge delay is because I'm hanging around some pretty popular people in the brony fandom. No not omnipony (but i did beatbox for him or at least tried and he didn't hear me... fuckin' Skype) or Living Tombstone (turns out his favourite colour of ice cream is white as I asked him over skype) instead I was hanging out with people from Berrytube, and the entire crew for Brony Aerospace. Yes, you heard that right, a fucking pony space company. That's fucking awesome. So check them out, they will be uploading an indiegogo starter or a kickstarter fund pretty soon so go send money to them when you can and help us make history.