Lyra felt guilty for not having said a single word to Bon Bon in all those years they'd been friends. She didn't even know her real name was Lyra, she'd always just called her Mints. It wasn't because Lyra didn't trust Bon Bon, or disliked her, quite the opposite actually. Lyra would have loved to be able to talk back, only she couldn't. Whenever she tried to say something to Bon Bon, the words got stuck in her throat. I guess I'm just shy, she thought.
When she finally said those two words, it had come as just as big a surprise to her as it must have come to Bon Bon. She'd tried so many times to answer one of her friend's many questions, tell her what her instrument was really called, or even tell her her real name, but every time she'd tried, she'd failed. And now, suddenly, on this night of all nights, she thanked her friend. Perhaps it's just the pressure this night is putting on me, or the courage Bon Bon gave me to get through it. I wonder if she'll be angry at me for not saying anything, while all this time I could have.
Lyra had more direct problems to worry about though. In only twenty-five minutes she'd be expected to show half the town all she could do with her lyre. The thought of standing on a great stage with an enormous crowd in front of her brought the nerves back to Lyra. It was worse too, now that Bon Bon wasn't with her. Without her best friend to comfort her, Lyra caught herself sweating ever so slightly and she soon found that she was not only anxious, but scared too.
Suddenly she noticed that the road she was walking on was eerily quiet for this time of the day. She was walking on one of Ponyville's main roads to the center of town and it was only thirty-five past nine, not exactly a time for everypony to hit the hay already and yet there wasn't a single other pony in sight. That's strange, especially for such a special night. Ponyville has never had a theater before, half the town is invited to attend the opening ceremony.
True enough, Lyra needed to be there fifteen minutes before everypony else, but still. There were always ponies that wanted to be early at every celebration, just in case they met with trouble on the road, or simply because they didn't want to miss a single second of whatever was going on. Not everypony was going to the opening ceremony tonight either, for some this was just an ordinary night and those ponies had absolutely no excuse to be inside at this time of the day whatsoever. Usually the road was crowded with ponies seeing to their day to day business at around half past nine. For this road to be so quiet as it was at this time was very strange indeed.
This notion scared Lyra even more. The fact that it was starting to get dark didn't help either. She tried to seal the feelings away and concentrate on the task at hand, but the increasingly stronger uneasy feeling she had made this very difficult to do. To try and calm herself down, she went over the chords of the songs she was going to play again. It helped a little, but the feeling that something was very wrong did not go away entirely. She was getting closer to the center of town now and still she saw no other ponies.
The sun was setting. The bright light of day getting more and more orange, then slowly turning red. Lyra stopped to watch it. She'd always loved sunsets and sunrises, she was just romantic enough for that. Watching the last lights of day slowly crawl away before her eyes and seeing the beginning of a new, fresh night gave her a feeling of serenity and completion, almost as if she'd seen yet another cycle of life completed. She knew these feelings were just her crazy mind trying to be poetic, but still, it brought her some degree of peace.
Her peace didn't last very long though. As soon as the last slither of light had faded past the horizon, she became surrounded by complete and utter darkness. The only source of light left to her now was the faint glowing of the moon that had come up at the same time the sun had gone under. The street lights weren't on either, for some reason. With this light, she could just barely make out the cobblestones of the main road laid out directly beneath her hooves.
Lyra tried to continue walking, but it was just too hard to see anything. Why is it so dark? She was starting to get desperate now. This was definitely not normal. The streetlights were almost never off, and even if they were you could always see better than this. Lyra thought she might be hallucinating, driven paranoid by the extreme nerves, for the one and only thing she could see now was her circle of vision, tiny as it already was, shrinking, closing in around her. Smaller and smaller it got, until the darkness had completely engulfed her.
Lyra was properly frightened now. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew it wasn't anything good or natural. She stood alone in the dark, not the faintest slither of light nor the smallest sound to be seen or heard. It felt as if she'd suddenly fallen off the face of the earth. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, completely still, moving not a single muscle.
It was chaos in her mind. a hundred different thoughts flew through her head at the same time. What is going on? Where am I? Am I still even in Ponyville? Is something going to jump out of the dark and attack me? How am I ever going to be on time for the opening ceremony now? Am I even going to live to get there at all?
At least two of her questions were answered then, for suddenly, somepony kicked her right in her face. She fell over backwards and landed on the cold, rough cobblestone path that must have been the main road. She felt something wet and sticky pour out of her face. Blood. She squeezed her eyes closed tight and made herself as small as she possibly could, hurting everywhere, fearing a next attack. None came.
When she opened her eyes, she was blinded by the bright light of the streetlamps that had now been turned on again. She was still laying on the hard road, but the blood was gone. It even felt like it had never been there in the first place. A crowd of concerned ponies had gathered around her. Some trying to help her up, some asking questions like "Are you okay?" or "Do you need any help?" and others shouting sighs of relief like "She's awake!" and "Don't worry everypony! She seems to be fine!".
Lyra had felt many things over the past few minutes: happiness, anxiousness, fear. Now all she felt was confusion. Had she imagined it all? The darkness, the assault, the blood? And if she had, then why was she on the ground? She was feeling sick and shaky, but this crowd was not helping her in any way. Quite the contrary, all those voices gave her a pounding headache. She needed to get rid of all these ponies, then she could assess the actual damage done to her body.
She grabbed hold of a pink hoof that was offered to her and pulled herself up. "I'm fine everypony", she said in a weak, trembling voice. "Really, I just tripped over a loose cobblestone, that's all. No harm done." She managed a small, uncertain smile.
The crowd was not convinced. "You were out for five minutes!" one pony shouted. She looked the stallion right in his eyes and said in the strongest voice she could manage: "Honestly, I'm good. I'm just a bit dizzy, but that's all."
A big part of the crowd started to clear away, giving her some amount of air and allowing Lyra a moment to put her thoughts straight. "Are you really sure you're alright, m'am? You seemed to be quite sick. I think you should go to a hospital, just to be sure", said one of the few ponies who were still looking at her worriedly. "Really, I'm quite alright", she answered. "And I can't go to a hospital. You see, I have to perform at the-" Her voice cut short. The performance! I'm never going to make it in time! Where's my lyre?
She looked around, panicking. Then she found it, right on the spot where she'd been laying. Her lyre must have been right under her when she fell on the ground, for it had shattered into a hundred pieces, the strings hanging loosely to the splinters they were attached to. Lyra's heart dropped. She sat on her hind-legs, not knowing what to do. She could barely hear the even more concerned voices of the ponies who were now pulling at her, trying to pull her back onto the world.
She couldn't stand it any longer. Too much had happened in too short a period of time. The headache made her head feel like it was going to explode. Suddenly, she was running. She didn't know where, but away from the ponies who were preventing her from digesting what had just happened to her in those few minutes. She ran as fast as she could, until she was out in some field with nopony else in sight. For the first time that night, that fact didn't bother her.
She was panting heavily. How long had she been running for? She didn't know. It wasn't important anyway. What was more important was the fact that she'd apparently passed out at some point and she didn't know why. She decided to calmly go over all the events of that night to try and work out what had happened, starting from the beginning.
Right. I was at Bon Bon's house, performing my final practice for tonight's show. I left her house and started walking towards the center of town. The streetlights were off. Were they? I can't remember. I watched the sunset and then everything became dark. I couldn't see anything and then I was attacked. My whole body hurt and it felt like I was bleeding. This was all probably just a nightmare, because no damage seems to have been done to my body other than a few scratches here and there. What really happened is that I passed out, probably because of the nerves. When I fell, I landed on my lyre, breaking it. I panicked and ran from the ponies trying to help me.
Having put her thoughts straight, she already felt a lot better. She let out a final sigh and now that she'd regained her breath, she started walking back the way she came. They would want an explanation as to why she hadn't shown up for her ceremony performance back at the theater. She wasn't looking forward to it, but it had to be done. That's when she heard the shrill voice behind her.
"You have met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"