-Chapter 1-
"Lyra, you are the most talented unicorn i've ever known. You have nothing to fear.This school will help you with those "magic problemes" you've been having, and you'll learn so much about magic that even me and your father never really got to know."
"But what if I can't. What if all the other fillies make fun of me because I can't control my magic. I'm a magic wreck on foor legs!"
"You are not a wreck on foor legs... You are my beautifull and increadibly magical daughter, and I wouldn't trade you for the world. Remember the day of the entrance exam? You aced it without even trying. I know you're a bit scared, and you don't have to worry about other fillies thinking differently of you. Princess Celestia will keep an extra watchful eye on you."
"Lyra Heartstrings," a voice called out from an open set of double doors," whenever you're ready to come in and begin class."
Lyra looked over to her father. She hugged him, his shiny white coat gleaming in the sun light, his blueish mane with a single streak of multicolored, almost crystal like hair located at the front of his mane that covered a bit of Lyra's head. But what stood out the most about her father was his eyes. Yes, her mother may have had golden eyes herself, but her father's eyes were almost a glowing golden and bright yellow. He nudged her to go on into the school. She began to walk slowly towards the large double doors, and as she looked back, she saw her father smiling at her with a small tear forming in his left eye which he tried to conceal. Lyra smiled back at him as she made her way into the school past the old mare, and the doors that were held open by a light orange, closed.
Sadly, these would be the parting actions from father before he mysteriously disappeared the day of her graduation.
~~~
It was another beautiful sunny, yet windy day in Ponyville as Lyra made her way to the instrument store to buy some more string for her lyre, curtosy of Bonbon, none the less. The Earth Pony had always been jealous of the the unicorn's ability to manipulate small and precise items without having the least bit of trouble. So, while Lyra was away,she tried to prove that she had as much capability as her friend by attempting to play a song from a piece of paper that Lyra had left out on the counter. Lyra learned two valuable lessons that day. One is that you should never leave your instrument and music sheets out when you're away while you're semi jealous of you're talent friend is still in the house, and two: that teeth are probably the worst tools to play any instrument.
Lyra gave a frustrated sigh as she walked into the music store as a little bell chimed and the store clerk greeting with a smile and a wave of his hoof. She made her way to the stringed instrument isle to the shelf which read "extra strings". Further down the isle, she saw Octavia inspecting a cello. She caught her glance and smiled.
"Why hello there Lyra, come to buy some new strings I see. Courtesy of Bonbon I would assume?"
"Same story as always," Lyra replied with a small smile,"I don't think she'll ever understand the meaning of 'leave my instrument alone because you know what happened last time' speech that I give her. I mean, I can understand her frustration of not having the capability of doing something that is relatively easy for myself and difficult for her, but she has to understand that I won't think of her any less than who she really is."
"Well, I'm sure that she'll understand some day." Octavia replied positively."I'm mean; I can manage fine without magic myself, but Vinyl takes it upon herself to try and 'intimidate' me by floating a bunch of records in the air and playing her dastardly electro wub- whatever it's called music at full volume." The musician exclaimed as she place she cello back in its original place.
"Well, it seems like we both have problems with our house mates alike," Lyra said with a giggle, "let's just hope you don't because deaf from it." She said as she levitated three strings into her saddle-bag.
"True. You're absolutely right. Well, I think I've taken up a good amount of your time so I'll let you be off. It's always nice talking to you again, even though it is for the same reason." Octavia said with a happy grin on her face.
"Ya! Its always nice running into yo- ahhh..." Lyra groaned.
"Are you alright?" Octavia asked.
"It...its nothing..." Lyra replied, holding her hoof to her temple, "I just need some air , that's all..." She said as she tried to withstand the large headache that was occurring.
Without hesitation, she bolted out the door, completely forgetting to pay for the replacement strings that she was about to buy. "Hey! Stop! You forgot to pay for those!" the clerk yelled, but before Lyra could apologize to the clerk and say that she would pay later, she miscalculated the power of her magic and what was supposed to be the simple opening of a door turned into an assault that broke the hinges and smashed the door's windows, and all the other windows in the store. Lyra ran as fast as she could to try and make it home before she could cause any more destruction, but unfortunately, this was not her lucky day. Baskets that were layed out in the market place flew in random direction, boxes of confetti exploded and a random assortment of items were transfigured into something completely different. Every since she was a filly, she had had odd surges of magic that happened at the worst of time. Most of the time, they caused her to feel pain (headaches for the most part) but on some rare occasions, the caused physical and mental pain. But the strangest affect of all was that in these surges, she could see visions...visions of her father.
She finally made it to her front door in the nick of time. Bonbon jumped as her friend slammed the door open and ran upstairs, not even giving her the chance to understand what had just happened, but she already had a pretty good guess. Lyra made her way to her room, and with a panicked expression on her face, opened the top drawer of her night table to pull out a peculiar and almost crown shaped object, which she proceeded to place around her horn. Soon after, series of lights and pulses began to emit from the crown like object as Lyra grinned in discomfort. Objects in her room began to spin rapidly around her as her mane began to flutter in the air as if there were a large gust of wind circulating in the room itself. Just as the wind started to get stronger, her own magic began to envelope her as she floated up in the air. Then, simultaniously, her, and every floating item in the room dropped to the ground with a series of crashes and booms as Lyra's horn let out a flash. Soon after, everything became blurry as she tried to focus on the mare with magenta and dark blue mane who was rushing to her.
"Lyyraaa......" the blurred out voice said, but she couldn't focus anymore as she passed out on her now messy floor.
~~~
Lyra awoke in a state of confusion and a bit of fear, but she no longer felt the impending headache that she once had. She noticed how soft the floor felt, but then realized that she was in fact lying in her bed. She looked over to her bedside to see Bonbon, a little teary in the eyes.
"Oh Lyra! I'm so glad you're alright!" the Earth Pony exclaimed with relief in her voice as she came close to Lyra and hugged her as hard as she could. The spear mint unicorn was caught by surprise and let a small squeak.
"Bon...Bon... you're crushing... me..." the mare grunted out.
"Oh sorry! Sorry! I was just so worried about you!" Bonbon said. Lyra could hear the anxiousness in her voice, "I...I just assumed the worst. I tried everything I could to bring you back from your unconsciousness, but it was hopeless. You then started turning pale and your heart even stopped beating for a while! I don't think you've ever been in such a bad state before, so I rushed as fast as I could to the hospital to get Nurse Redheart, but thankfully, you regained color in your coat and your heart was beating at a normal pace." Tears started to form in her eyes again. "I...I was just so worried..."
Lyra brought both her hooves up to Bonbon eyes and whipped the tears from her sad eyes, smiled and then told her, "Shhh... it's ok..." the mare said trying to reassure her, "I'm not going away that easy". Lyra looked over to her night table to find the crown like item that she and worn the time of the event had a fluxing glow that circled over it. The 'crown', was something that Princess Celestia gave her when she was just a young filly. It was used to regulate the flow of magic that unicorns could not control on their own. The item itself was made of a old black materiel that is very rare to find, and on top of that, the crown was even enchanted by Celestia to ensure that its affects would work. So, when ever Lyra would get these 'magic surges', she would simply place the crown atop her head and it would absorb any excess magic that was emitted (in Lyra's case, large quantities). Lyra and Bonbon have lived with each other long enough for the event to be a usual thing around their home.
"Do you want to eat something?" Bonbon asked.
"Sure. Thanks."
"How about I make you some tomato soup, and i'll bring it up here so you can r-"
"Actually..." Lyra interrupted, "I think I would like to eat downstairs. I have... something I needed to talk to you about..."
"Alright, sure." the beige Earth Pony said with a nod.
Lyra got out of bed and then they made their way out the bedroom door, walked down the hallway and made their way down the stairs. Lyra mad her way to the living room as Bonbon went to the kitchen to start her late night meal. Lyra sat on the soft, blueish love seat that faced a wall with picture frame covering it. Most of them were photos of Lyra, Bonbon and their friends, but these were small compared to the two larger picture frames hanging in the middle of all the pictures. They were both photos of their families, and coincidentally, they were both only children. In one frame, there was Bonbons family, which consisted of her mother, her father, her uncle on her father's side (who was really close to her close family) and herself. In the other frame, there was Lyra's family. On the right of the photo, there was her Earth Pony mother, who had the same coat and the same mane style as her's, and to left of the photo, she had a big smile as she sat on the back of someone she held dear. Her father... She missed him more than anything. After his disappearance on the day of her graduation, she wouldn't go a day without thinking where he could have gone. Even her mother didn't have a clue where he went, but when she heard the news, she was devastated, and yet, in her heart, Lyra knew that some how, her father didn't leave just because, there was a reason, and she wanted to find out what that reason was.
"Here you go." Bonbon said through the tray that she held in her mouth, snapping Lyra out of her deep thought as she levitated the tray to her lap. The beige mare then moved over to the love seat and sat down next to her friend who was taking a few sips of the hot soup.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?"
Lyra let the fork fall into the soup and placed the tray on a wooden coffee table. "I wanted to talk to you about my magic and about what happened." she began. "Well, I've been thinking an awful lot about my magic surges, my father, who I am, and I need answers. I don't know anything about my dad's side of the family, nor does my mother. So last night, I thought about it, and I know now what I'm going to do. You know the Great Equestrian Index Orb in Canterlot castle? You know : the magic orb that holds all the information about every species, and every family that has ever existed?"
"Ok, I see what you're getting at, but Lyra you know it'll be nearly impossible to be able to access those archives without the Princess' official confirmation." Bonbon said objectively.
"I know, I know. I just... I just need to know if anyone on my dad's side had the same thing like me. Is it genetic or am I just... just... uuuuh! I don't even know anymore!" Lyra said in frustration.
"Here, how about we send a letter to Princess Celestia first thing tomorow morning," Bonbon suggested to her friend who was under a good amount of stressed thought. "but for now you should probably get some rest."
Lyra nodded her head in acknowledgement as she noticed how heavy her eye lids were. She got up from the couch, leaving behind the tray which held her half eaten tomato soup. In all honesty, the only reason she accepted to eat it was because she wanted a bit of comfort food. As she made her way to the stairs, the looked over at the portrait, more specifically, her father. "I somehow our magic gives use telepathy, I'm wishing good night... please come back..." Lyra thought to herself before the picture frame was out of sight. Once she and Bonbon arrived upstairs and into her bedroom, Lyra flopped down on her bed, exhausted from the long day. Just as Bonbon tucked her into bed as Lyra adjusted her head on the pillow, a stressed thought come to mind.
"Hey Bonbon, while a was rushing my way home, I...I cause a lot of damage. And I may have accidentally stolen a f-"
"Shhh. Don't worry about it. We'll figure out all of that in the morning. Just fall asleep for now......"
Bonbon's voice soon became muffled as Lyra fell into a well needed sleep.
~~~
Lyra began to fell cold, really cold.
"Bonbon must have forgot to put the heat on before she went to bed." Lyra thought to herself, "guess I go put in on myself." She went to reach for the blankets that had originally draped her before, but, to her surprise, they were nowhere to be found. She wasn't even in her bed. She opened her eyes to confirm that in fact she wasn't on her bed, she wasn't even lying on her bedroom floor. The surface that she lay on was cold, yet it was the smoothest surface she ever felt. As she got up, felt very tired, more tired than she had ever felt in her entire life. She looked up at her surroundings to find that there was only fog. Endless fog, in every direction she looked.
"H-hello?" the mare called out, hoping for any kind of response. "Come Lyra, this is just a dream. You'll wake up soon enough...I hope..." she thought to herself. She then decided to start walking forward, hoping that maybe what she was standing on was a large surface with an end to it for her to 'fall to her death', and wake up. After a few minutes of walking with an imaginary objective, she began to see a sort of white form through the fog.
"Is that... no...it can't be..." she said as she squinted to try and get a better few of whatever was off in the distance, "Dad? Dad, is that you?!" The form then began to have more features as she ran closer to him, such as a horn, a distinctive white and medium blue colored mane with a streak of crystal like hair. "I knew you would come back someday, I knew it!" Lyra exclaimed with joy in her voice, completely forgetting her own suggestion that the whole thing was just a dream. But there was something... different about him. He had.... wings?.....
"Wait...what?" Lyra said, not understanding what was going on, but before she could respond to this, the ground under her hooves began to rumble. A crack spread underneath the location where her father stood, and, without any warning, a black crystal spire came rising up, piercing straight through her father's stomach and out of his back. Lyra stopped dead in her tracks, horrified at the sight that was displayed before her eyes.
"NOOOOOO!!!" she screamed out in sheer heart throbbing pain as she witnessed the streams of blood coming out from his open abdomen and his mouth. Soon after, spikes all came up all around her from the smooth surface and circle her leaving no opening of artificial light. Then the confined space she was in began to fill with thick black smoke, preventing her from breathing. She could fell the smoke burning in her lungs, choking on every breath she took. Finally, she past out on the smooth floor hitting the ground hard.
~~~
"HUUH!" Lyra got up from her bed, gasping for breath. Her lungs didn't hurt anymore, but she began to fell dryness on her cheeks. She put a hoof up to one and realized what was making her cheeks feel dry was in fact tears. She had been crying. She gave a long sigh as she became reassured to see that she was in her bed, surrounded by familiar sights. She looked out her window to see that it was still nighttime.
"What was that dream about?" Lyra thought to herself, trying to find reason for the horrifying dream that had just occurred, "My father with wings, black crystals, dark smoke. It all doesn't make sense!"
She began to fell tired again as she lay back down on her bed, and soon enough, she had fallen asleep again, having better dreams then the previous one she had.
Author's Note
Hope you like my second piece of work!
-Chapter 2-
Princess Luna stood on her balcony of her room, looking out at the falling moon and the rise of the sun as the dawn of a new day was about to commence. She left uneasy and her wind was wondering to every corner of her brain it could reach, taunting her with thoughts that made her grim in displeasure. The alicorn had had a very long work night, more than usual in fact. But something had happened which she was unable to formulate an answer too. While she was entering ponies dreams as she usually did, she felt a strange, mixed feelings of fear, loneliness, and frustration. She tried to search out the source of this unusual and uncomfortable feeling with no real avail, until she came upon a house that her and her elder sister knew to well. Luna flew down towards the balcony of a particular spearmint colored unicorn who seemed to be having awful dreams due to the amount of movement and tears the unicorn was making. As Luna placed all her hooves on the balcony floor, she then proceeded to cast a spell which would have been extremely complicated for any mortal unicorn was a simple activation of her horn, and soon after she was in the realm of dreams. But dream was different. In fact, she wasn't even in the dream per say. She was standing in front a large gate which seemed to be suspended in a kind of space like dream connection between dreams. Luna had never had to go through the procedure of going through a gate before to access a dream, and what was even more peculiar was the gate itself. The frame was made up of large sharp black as night crystals and in the center of the frame was two doors that had a mix of clear and black crystals mixed together in very interesting patterns and shapes, but none the less, the gate had a menacing mood coming off of it.
"Odd that I was unaware of this phenomenon," Luna thought to herself, " but I feel as if this dream doorway is somewhat... familiar..."
Luna then recalled of something she had no intention of remembering.
"No! Don't think of such events. You are stronger than you're memories. Just forget. Forget..." Luna insisted to herself as she then returned her attention to the gate who's presence was still quite strong. Her horn began to glow again as she tried to open the doors. Even if this was a realm where the laws of physics did to apply, she could still feel that the doors were in deed quite heavy. After a few moments at this attempt, the doors finally began to open up, but instead of finding the nightmare which the unicorn was experiencing, black smoke came out and rushed right for her throat. This caught the princess by surprise, as she let out a restricted gasp as the smoke was beginning to constrict her more and more. But even through the excruciating pain, she could hear a scream. It was a loud, long blood curdling scream which she could not identify the words too that brought fear to Luna as tried desperately to escape the the grip of this dark smoked monster. An then popped into her head. Since this was a dark force, she would then fight fire with fire. Her horn began to glow, not the usual dark blue, but a dark black and green color and so did her eyes. The black and green aura then moved around the smoke and proceeded to eliminate the constricting force. As the the aura slowly destroyed the smoke, the smoke itself seem to howl in a hollow for of pain, giving Luna chills up and down her spine, but finally, after the battle, the smoke began to dissipate, and the gates to Lyra's nightmare closed.
"Be gone vile creature!" Luna exclaimed as she caught her breath once again. "I should go and tells this to my sister at once." she though to herself, but just as her horn began to glow with her advanced teleportation spell, she caught a glimpse of two neon green eyes that surrounded to devilishly red pupils. As Luna reappeared in the normal world, she was sent immediately flying towards the guard rail of the balcony, almost as if she had been thrown out by an aggressive force. She let a out a yelp as she tried to comprehend what had just recently happened in the dream realm. From inside the room, she could hear the unicorn awake in what could only be described as fear and panic and the Lyra gasped heavily. But by the time she looked out the window of her bedroom, the princess had already flown back to her castle in Canterlot.
"Are you feeling better sister?" A sweet and gentle voice called out from the open door of Luna bed chamber. She turned around to find her sister with a concerned, but caring smile. Luna had already told her sister of the event that had happened. Luna turned to face her sister who walked over to her with a concerned look on her face, "How is your injury?"
Luna looked at her bandaged shoulder. It was still a bit sore. The sheer force of getting ejected out of the dream realm and smashing into the guard rail had been just enough to cause her to dislocate her shoulder. She moved her shoulder in a circular motion. This action made her wince as it was still painful to move.
"It still hurts a bit, but that is my biggest bother at the moment." Luna said with a very serious tone of voice, "The gate that I tried to enter. It was... odd."
"How so?" Celestia questioned.
"The gate... it was made of black crystals. I now we have no reason I fearing HIM anymore, thanks to Twilight and her friends, but I felt as... inside this dream realm, his presence still felt strong. Alive. As if he lives within the young unicorns mind."
"Are you sure that it was HIM? It wasn't just a simple creation of her mind?"
"No. I feel that he is very much alive and we shouldn't disregard this event as an insignificant coincidence."
Celestia pondered her sister suggestion. The incident at the wedding of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor had made her a little more paranoid about taking action when necessary.
"So what do you propose?" Celestia questioned her troubled sister.
"I think we should bring her to Canterlot at once. If there really is a chance that HE lives with in her, or worse, if she begins to have the Memories, it would be best if we did a Connection Spell to make sure."
"Connection spells are a bit risky for the ones that have it inflicted on them, but if you truly believe that we must take these precautions, then I will head out to Ponyville myself to retrieve her."
Celestia gave a small nudge of comfort on her sisters neck before making her way out of Luna's bed chamber, and just as she entered the main hallway, she turned to look back at her sister who was staring out at the neutral sky, that had now, no moon, and no sun.
"Luna." Celestia asked her sister.
"Yes?"
"I cannot promise you that the act of bringing Lyra here will guarantee her sanity being completely intact after what we must do ... but we must insure the safety of the citizens of Equestria... for a brighter future." And with that, Celestia left Luna alone to ponder her thoughts... thoughts that brought uncertainty and fear to the alicorn conscience.
~~~
Lyra was awoken by a loud, but not bashing knock on the front door.
"Uuuhh..." Lyra groaned, holding her head in her hooves, now being host to another morning headache, "who would come knocking here this early in the morning."
The knocks became more repetitive now as she got out of bed and began a long lazy walk to the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming, keep you're cutie marks on!" Lyra exclaimed from half way down the stairs.The sun was still low enough that it only touched Lyra's hooves when she arrived at the second last step. A cyan green color began to glow around the door handle. She handle turned and she swung the door open, expecting to find somepony trying to sell her cheap merchandise for high prices or a group of young colts playing 'ding dong ditch'.
"I'm here, now what do you wan-" Lyra's sentence was cut short when she realised that she was facing the the ruler of Equestria herself. She bowed down as fast of she swung open the door, ashamed of her ill mannered behavior. "I'm so terribly sorry your highness!" Lyra exclaimed quickly.
"It's quite alright." Celestia said in her calm and soothing voice.
Lyra looked up to see that her princess didn't have her pair of usual guards with her. This was probably the first time that she had ever seen Princess Celestia without the protection of her guards.
"Pardon me princess, but if you don't mind me asking, where are your guards?" Lyra said, sounding a little timid.
"We shouldn't speak here. Do you mind if we go inside to talk?"
Lyra was a little shocked at the princess's response, but none the less, it would be rude to deny her request, "Of course."
She lead the princess inside. She had to duck down under the door frame because of her tall stature. They walked into the living room without speaking a word. Celestia looked around the living room. Her attention was then diverted toward a photograph of a young filly and here parents. Lyra turned to see what the princess.
"Um, princess... you wanted to speak to me?" Lyra asked after sitting down on the couch and waiting for Celestia to say what ever it was she had to say.
Celestia opened her eyes large and then began blinking rapidly, trying to snap herself out of what she was thinking of.
"Oh... um yes. Lyra, as you know, it is my duty to tend to all my subjects well being. But from what I had heard from my sister... you are not doing fine. Last night she tried to enter your dream but was unable to because she was violently attacked by a black cloud of smoke that seemed to guard the doors to you dream. Did something happen to you in your dream that was out of the ordinary?"
Lyra turn pale at the mention of the dream, or better to be described as a horrible nightmare, and looked down at the floor quickly, them back up at her guest.
"Y-yes. Something did happen last night," she said in a shaky voice," and I...I just don't know how to explain it."
"Just start from the begin." Celestia asked her in her calm voice.
Lyra took in a breath before looking up at the princess.
"Alright, it started out like this. I 'woke up' on strangely smooth by cold floor and I didn't know where I was. All around, as far as I could see there was fog, and the surface I was standing on was black as night, almost as it were made out of some sort of black crystal. I walked around for a bit to see if I could find an end to the surface so that I could 'fall to my death' and wake up but then, out of the fog, I was my father. I was so happy to see, even though it was still a dream, I missed him so very much. I called out to him, but he didn't respond. Then I noticed something about him was... different. He had wings!" Lyra began to pick up her speech pace as she began to shake a little while telling her story." But then, seconds later, the crystal surface split under him. Then a spire rose u-up and it-it." Lyra was unable to finish her sentence as tears began to form in her eyes and roll unto her cheeks.
Princess Celestia walked over and wrapped one of her wings around her.
"Shhh. Its alright, its alright..." Celestia said, comforting the poor mare while Lyra nuzzled her face into Celestia's side. "You don't to tell me anymore if you don't want to."
Lyra stayed like this for a few minutes before she snapped back to reality and looked up at her with a set of puffy red eyes.
" 'sniff' I'm ok." Lyra told her. "Well, after that, I ran over to him to try and help, but then a bunch of dark crystal spikes shot up from the ground and closed off every open space for me. Then the room began to fill with a thick black smoke which was choking my lungs everytime I took in a breath!" She looked over to the princess who was listening to her intently. "What do you think it means?"
The princess, who easily respond to any kind of problem, was in a state of shock, almost fear like, and didn't answer. It took a few minutes before she could truly respond.
"Lyra... I think there something that I should have told you long ago about your father and why he left the day you graduated from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
And with that, Celestia's horn began to glow as they were both enveloped by a golden light, and then vanished, leaving the room silent as it was before her arrival.
Author's Note
(Unrelated story subject) : Big shoutout too New York city "Manehattan"! Probably the best trip I've ever been on! :D
Also, the chapters will largely vary in length if by the off chance I don't publish fast enough.
