//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 - Deep in Thought 
// Story: The Darkness Walks Among Us 
// by DukeArbiter 
//------------------------------//

	Lyra walked solemnly through the front door of her, or rather Bon Bon's, house. Though she had stayed out for hours after seeing the corpse at Sugarcube corner playing sad songs on her lyre, the musician hadn't received any money. Now as night was beginning to fall, the mint unicorn thought it might be a good idea to call it a day and head home.
Walking in Lyra noticed the house was suspiciously quiet. Apparently Bon Bon had went to be early. Somehow Lyra found herself standing in the kitchen. Perhaps she thought Bon Bon might be here making her famous candy after such a harrowing day but there was no one here. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but it seemed like there was something different about the small room. After a few minutes of looking Lyra found a note left on the counter. 
The note read, "Hey Lyra, I didn't know when you would be back so I left this note. It's been a long day for everypony and I thought I should just head off to bed because really there isn't much I could do around here that wouldn't remind me of Berry and It's just so sad and..." The note continued for the majority of the page, explaining her every thought in Bon Bon's usual fashion so Lyra skipped forward until she found something more important. "Anyways, I'll see you again in the morning. I made you some candy. It's in a bowl by the couch. Love, Bon Bon," The lengthy note concluded. It seemed that the cream earth pony was far more worried than she had let on earlier.
Lyra lifted the note with her magic and stowed it in her saddle bag which she still had slung over her back for reasons she couldn't really explain. The unicorn walked slowly into the adjacent living room. The room was a good deal larger than the other rooms in the house, but still quite small. It was barely large enough to hold the couch that dominated the room's center. Along the wall opposite the couch were two small wooden chairs which served as places for guests to sit if ever Bon Bon decided they needed to entertain guests. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small wooden end table that sat next to the couch. Often times this table was filled with miscellaneous objects that may have found their way into their home. Today however, the stack of books Bon Bon had got from the library had been removed from the table and set in a neat pile on the floor. In their place was small bowl filled to the brim with small, chocolaty bonbons. 
Lyra walked up and stood next to the small table and levitated up one of the delicacies. The mint unicorn rotated the bonbon slowly, inspecting the beautiful treat and the green magical aura that surrounded it. After a few seconds, Lyra popped the candy into her mouth. Instantly her mouth was flooded with the delicious taste of the chocolate treat. Before she knew it, the candy was already gone and Lyra was craving more. The mint mare silently cursed Bon Bon for creating such addicting treats.
She levitated several of the bonbons and sat down on the couch to enjoy them and reflect on the horrendous day she had experienced. Things had started off good enough. The musician had found a quiet side street to play her lyre on, far away from any crowds, and she had even received a small bit of money. Things just went down hill from there though. After Lyra and her friends had witnessed the disemboweled corpse of Berry Punch, everything became much worse. Vinyl had become extremely paranoid about the supposed murderer loose in Ponyville. The white unicorn had even been so scared that she refused to walk home alone so Lyra and Octavia had agreed to walk with the DJ. 
During their walk, Octavia had attempted to calm Vinyl's mind by talking about the piece of music she was practicing for a concert in Canterlot next week. The cellist blathered on about how beautiful and soothing the song was but after a while it became obvious that Octavia was boring Vinyl out of her mind. Not liking the silence, Lyra tried to strike up a conversation with the electric maned unicorn about the previous night's party. This remark had sent Vinyl back into a wave of panic. Once again, the disk jockey was overrun with fear for her own life. Octavia once again attempted to diffuse the situation by explaining that the killing was probably just a random act by an insane pony and it would probably not happen again. Her words seemed to calm Vinyl a little but she was still scared stiff. The three musicians spent the rest of their walk in silence and as soon as Vinyl reached the safety of her own home, Lyra and Octavia parted ways. 
Once she was on her own, Lyra decided to do the only thing that would calm her mind: she would play her lyre. The mint pony returned to the same spot she had sat down to play before the chaotic events of the day had started and began to play again. Nopony really walked by though and those who did didn't even pay attention to Lyra's strummings. After that she returned home and found herself exactly where she was now: sitting on her couch eating bonbons.
Lyra sighed heavily. Perhaps she should follow Bon Bon's example and get some sleep. She trudged to her bedroom, passing by the closed door that concealed Bon Bon's room. The unicorn entered her small cluttered room and was shocked to find it far messier than she thought it was. She probably hadn't noticed the clutter in her drunken haze this morning but now it seemed like the space was almost unlivable. Scattered all over the floor were pages of sheet music, old books, and articals  of clothing that she never wore. Surprisingly her bed was entirely clean except for the messy covers from when she had woken up.
Lyra surveyed the mess and decided that it was a job for another day. The mare carefully picked her way through the junk that coated her floor until she reached the edge of her bed. Lyra carefully lifted her saddlebag off her flank and set it under the bed. She doubted she would get in any playing with all that had been happening lately and if Lyra's suspicions were correct, then it would only go down hill from here.

Lyra couldn't sleep. She had been lying in bed for hours staring blankly at the ceiling trying to make sense of Berry's murder. The mint mare was almost certain that Berry Punch hadn't simply been killed, she had been eaten. Not eaten in a regular sense like how a pony would eat hay, but eaten in the sense that she had been attacked to feed somepony. Not somepony in the regular sense either, this hunter was most defiantly not a pony. It was a vampire. Lyra couldn't tell anypony that though, they would think she was crazy! 
The musician sat up abruptly. Sitting around was getting her nowhere and Lyra doubted she would be able to sleep with all this vampire stuff floating around her head. She climbed out of her bed and waded through the piles of junk to escape her room. Walking carefully so as not to wake Bon Bon, the unicorn walked down the hall and out to the living room. She just had to have another one of those bonbons. Lyra quickly grabbed one of the delectable treats and moved towards the front door. The unicorn gripped the door knob in her fore hoof and slowly began to turn it. The door made a loud creaking noise and Lyra cringed at the sound. The green unicorn stopped for a moment and listened to see it she had woken Bon Bon but no sound came from down the hall so she assumed her friend was still asleep.
As quietly as she could, Lyra slipped out the door and into the unusually cold night. The troubled musician had decided to take a walk to clear her mind and she had a feeling tonight's walk would be very relaxing. Lyra began to walk around the sleeping town, weaving her way around random side streets and looking around at the many darkened houses.
After about an hour of walking, Lyra decided to go to the park for a bit of rest. The park was far different at night than it was during the day. Normally there were foals running every which way around the large field and ponies would gather to chat or just hang out, but night brought out a whole new side of the place. The open area looked positively eerie. The shadow of the park's single tree loomed over a good majority of the field, causing the area to be far darker than it should be.
After only a few minutes of standing in the park, Lyra decided it was time to move on but something caught her eye. Something was sparkling at the base of the tree. Perhaps somepony had lost something. Lyra approached the object and found it to be a polished rock with a smile carved into it. Obviously it was created by some young filly since the smile was wobbly, the eyes misshapen, and the polish uneven. Even though this rock was so poorly made and obviously left here for a reason, holding made Lyra feel happy. It had even took Lyra's mind off the days events for a while and that was good in her book.
Standing in the open field of the park had begun to make Lyra lonely and since she knew she wouldn't be able to wake up Bon Bon to come walk with her, the mint pony decided to go for the next best thing: visiting Carrot Top. Even though the orange farmer hated Lyra with all her being, she would still make better company than Lyra's new smiling rock. Besides, Lyra knew she would be the only pony still up at this hour and it would be fun to give her such a horrible gift.
Lyra walked at a brisk pace towards Carrot Top's small home on the outskirts of town, all the while levitating her new companion beside her. As she neared Carrot Top's house however, Lyra began to think something was wrong. The green mare heard two ponies talking, one she identified as Carrot Top but the other she couldn't recognize. Carrot Top's words seemed panicked while Lyra heard the other pony speak only once, identifying itself as a friend of the farmer. Suddenly, the talking stopped. Lyra flew into a panic and she feared the worst. As quietly as she could, Lyra snuck up to Carrot Tops fence and peered over.
The scene before her was horrific. A pony wearing a long grey cloak was hunched over Carrot Top's limp body, its fangs submerged deep into the orange mare's neck. The vampire had attacked Carrot Top! As the creature rose, it reached it's hoof up to it's mouth and wiped the blood of Lyra's friend of it's cruel lips. The shock of the whole scene had caused Lyra's magical grip on the smiling rock to loosen and it fell, landing with a crack on the ground. The vampire whipped it's head around to find the source of the sound and it's lifeless white eyes met Lyra's yellow ones. The monster seemed surprised to see somepony and was confused on what to do. This only lasted a moment however, as the creature soon darted off, disappearing into the night. 
Almost as quickly as the vampire had disappeared, Lyra had gone to Carrot Top's side. The musician sat cradling her friend's lifeless, bleeding corpse in her arms. Tears began to leak from Lyra's eyes as she saw this pony, who she really had never liked, dead in her arms. Lyra lay her old enemy down among the carrots which she so lovingly grew and walked away before the tears began again. 
The vampire had made a big mistake. It had killed one of Lyra's friends and now she would do whatever it took to find that monster and end its pathetic, immortal existence. This just got personal.