Light streamed in through the window, waking Lyra from her uneasy sleep. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past few hours. The unicorn doubted she would ever be able to get another restful sleep since every time she closed her eyes, visions of vampires killing all her friends flooded her mind.
Lyra knew she had slept in extremely late since Bon Bon was nowhere to be found and she couldn't hear the commotion that was sure to have happened today when somepony found Carrot Top's corpse. The green musician trudged sleepily over to the couch and grabbed several bonbons, emptying the bowl as she did so, before heading out into the bright Ponyville afternoon.
When she exited her home, Lyra was immediately blinded by the sudden light of Celestia's sun. After recovering from her momentary blindness, the mint mare found herself face to face with the grey form of Octavia. The cellist's purple eyes scanned Lyra and seemed unimpressed with what they saw. "Long night?" Octavia asked. It took Lyra a moment to process what the earth pony had just said. After a few seconds of awkward silence she responded, "Yea, I couldn't sleep." Octavia looked at Lyra quizzically. "Really?" she said sarcastically. Evidently it was quite obvious that the unicorn hadn't slept well last night. "Why not?" Octavia asked in a more genuine tone. Lyra hesitated for a moment. Should she tell the cellist what happened? Why not, it couldn't hurt anything and perhaps Octavia could even help. After all, Octavia seemed to be affected the least by the recent killings.
"Have you heard about what happened to Carrot Top?" Lyra began. Octavia gave Lyra a look that seemed to say "of course I did" before sharply responding, "Yes, what about our friend's death?" Lyra hesitated again but forced herself to continue. "Well I saw who did it. Not really saw though, they were wearing a cloak and so I couldn't see their face but I know it was the same pony who killed Berry!" Lyra explained quickly. Octavia seemed genuinely surprised. Apparently she wasn't expecting anything like this to be causing Lyra's insomnia. After regaining her composure, the grey mare asked, "So what are you going to do about it? You must have some clue as to what to do." Lyra was quick to respond this time. She had a plan, and it was a good one. "I'm going to hunt this killer down and stop them. I though that mabee if I start with investigating Berry's murder, I might get some clues as to who this murderer is and where they might have gone," The unicorn elaborated. Octavia seemed quite unamused by Lyra's plan. She sighed heavily. "Alright then. If you want to try to solve all this yourself and not wait for the royal guard to handle it, then its fine by me. Just make sure to leave me out of it alright?" The earth pony said. Lyra nodded in agreement and said her goodbyes to the cellist before making her way to her first stop: Sugarcube corner.
Lyra stood in the spacious upper room of Sugarcube corner. Normally this room served as Pinkie Pie's home with the adjoining room as her bedroom, except the party pony had been "out with friends", as the Cakes had described it, for a few days now and the room hadn't been cleaned since before the party. Lyra fondly remembered the space as the hyperactive pink mare often held extravagant parties here.
The room sat directly above the storefront for the bakery and dominated the majority of the second floor. The room's center was open and had only a colorful rug which was stained by years of ponies spilling their drinks on it. This rug had always served as the dance floor, if the musician's memory served her which, frankly, she was surprised it did after all the cider she drank here. Against the far wall was a long row of tables that still contained the remnants of the night's food. Half eaten sweets littered the tables and the ground around them. A large, raised stage dominated another wall and often times this was where Vinyl Scratch had set up her turn tables, but at the moment the stage was empty. Scattered all around the room were half deflated balloons and tattered streamers hung pathetically from the ceiling. The unicorn smiled slightly. It had been a good night...
Lyra's head buzzed with the combined forces of three glasses of cider and the constant thumping of Vinyl's, or DJ PON-3 as she liked to be called onstage, electronic music. The intoxicated mare stumbled away from the tables, a forth drink clutched in her magical grip. Suddenly, somepony lay their hoof over Lyra's shoulder, steadying her swaying. Quickly, the mint pony turned to see who had touched her, but after seeing it was Bon Bon, she relaxed.
"How are you doing so far? Is the crowd too much for you?" Bon Bon said slowly and softly. She always tried not to say too much whenever Lyra was drunk. "I'm doin' good. I got a few ciders in me so it don't bother me none," Lyra said, her words slurring together. Bon Bon looked at her doubtfully. She looked at Lyra, the to the floating glass of cider, then back to Lyra. "I think you've had enough to drink tonight," The cream mare said flatly as she set her hoof on Lyra's glass. The drunk unicorn abruptly jerked the cider out from underneath her friend and shot her a scowl. "I can drink however much I want, you don' need to watch out for me," Lyra said self-righteously, after which she downed the entire glass within seconds. A deep shudder went through her body and the musician's sight began to cloud. Bon Bon sighed heavily and followed her intoxicated friend out onto the crowded dance floor.
Lyra stumbled about, her hooves unable to perform any of the dance moves she was attempting. Bon Bon stood opposite had and danced almost gracefully but Lyra was sure that was just because she was so drunk. The musician turned her attention up to DJ PON-3. The DJ loomed over the dance floor on a platform that seemed hundreds of feet tall. Her electric blue mane fell across her face as if she had just woken up and seemed to shine in the half light of the party. Concealing her red eyes were a pair of large purple sunglasses which reflected the crowded dance floor below her and across her face was a wide and uncharacteristic smile.
It was almost as if DJ PON-3 and Vinyl Scratch were two different ponies. The white mare before her was energetic and charismatic. She nodded her head with every beat and yelled out to the crowd between songs. Vinyl on the other hand was reclusive. She almost never left her house and she only went outside when Lyra or somepony else forced her out. Perhaps she had her fill of society at these parties.
A loud crash pulled Lyra out of her hazy thoughts. Her head whipped around to find the light purple form of Berry Punch collapsed in a pile of debris where a table had once stood. Scattered all around the stunned mare were cupcakes, obviously sent flying after her crash. How the hay did Berry end up there? The thought didn't stay in Lyra's intoxicated mind for long however as a large colt was now dragging Berry out of the wreckage and down the stairs. Strange. Things had been broken at Pinkie's parties before and nopony ever got thrown out. Perhaps there was more to the story than the green mare knew.
She shoved the thoughts out of her mind and stumbled over to the tables for another glass of cider. Upon reaching them, Lyra found a frantic Ditzy Doo scrambling to pick up the scattered cupcakes. Her grey wings flapped incessantly as she flew back and forth between the floor and a table that was still in tact. "What in Tartarus are you doing Ditzy?" Lyra asked, her words now even more slurred. Ditzy looked up sharply, her crossed yellow eyes meeting with Lyra's clouded yellow ones. The pegasai's brow wrinkled at her drunk friend's choice of words. "I'm cleaning! It's such a mess in here! There are cupcakes everywhere!" the mailmare replied quickly. Lyra laughed slightly. Sometimes Ditzy was so childish. "Ditzy, You know ya don't gotta clean this, right?" Lyra said, trying to hide the laughter in her voice. The grey mare surrendered without a fight. "I suppose your right," She said slowly, "I should probably be heading home now anyways. It's way past my bed time." Lyra laughed once again. "Alight then. See ya later Ditzy!" Lyra said, laughing heavily now.
The drunk mare turned her attention back to the table of drinks and grabbed a new glass of cider. She quickly downed it and trudged back to the dance floor to find Bon Bon. Before she even got half way there though, The mint unicorn fell flat on her face and everything went black.
Lyra walked slowly around the destroyed room, glancing at the scattered cupcakes which probably should have been picked up, the shattered remains of the table, and the stage DJ PON-3 had performed on which in reality was only a few feet high. How did all of this relate to the vampire? Was it at the party? It had to have been. How else would it have found out Berry was thrown out and would make for easy prey? Lyra had drank far too much for her own memory to have been of any use here. Perhaps Vinyl saw something she hadn't. She would need to be the next pony Lyra visited.
The green unicorn stood in front of the plain, two-story house. There was nothing special about the DJ's house as it looked like just about every other house in all of Ponyville. The walls were a light tan color with large, brown support beams running all across them. The roof was a simple thatched roof, as was common to almost every structure in the town and a portion of the second floor hung over the first floor, creating a small shaded area. Every time she came here, Lyra always found it hard to believe that the energetic disc jockey that she saw so often at parties, lived in such a modest home. Vinyl was easily on of the richest mares in Ponyville but she was too solitary for anypony to ever know that.
She approached the simple wooden door and knocked loudly. Lyra could almost hear the echo of her knock resonating through Vinyl's home. She waited for a few seconds, undeterred by the seemingly abandoned house. After a few minutes of waiting, the musician, grew impatient.
Lyra threw open the door and walked into the barren front room. It seemed that this room had originally contained some furniture as there were gaps in the blanket of dust in various shapes but anything that was, here was long gone. Why would Vinyl more all the furniture out of her house? Was she really that paranoid of the vampire that she would more out of Ponyville? There was only one way to find out.
The stairs creaked under the unicorn's hooves as she ascended to the second floor. Upon reaching the second floor, she found two doorways, one to the left and one to the right. Through the left doorway was yet another empty room, though this one didn't have any dust in it. It was as if the room had been used recently and the dust hadn't had any time to settle. To the right was an enormous pile of furniture which barred the way into the room. It was obvious where all the furniture had went. Vinyl was using it to create a safe room. She must have been really paranoid to do all this.
If the DJ was anywhere in Ponyville, she would be in that room, and Lyra had a plan to get in. She may have not been the most magically talented unicorn in Equestria, but the mint mare still knew a few spells. Lyra began to concentrate. She had never attempted this spell before, but it would have to work now. An intense green aura began to surround Lyra's horn. The musician strained as she tried to squeeze every last ounce of magic out of her body before finally casting the spell and releasing a bright flash of green. For a split second, the unicorn couldn't feel anything. It was almost as if her body had just disappeared and she was left floating in nothingness, but then Lyra felt her hooves slam into the floor. Her head throbbed worse than it had the morning she found Berry dead. Her body didn't feel right, as if it wasn't her own. The unicorn rose shakily to her feet and forced her eyes open.
It worked! Lyra found herself on the other side of the barrier in what appeared to be Vinyl's bedroom. All that remained in the room however was a rather large bed and a nightstand. The covers on the bed were messy, as if somepony had slept there recently, but there was something rather strange about the nightstand. It had a small, leather book sitting on it. The trespassing unicorn walked slowly up to the nightstand and tried to levitate the book but the attempt sent jolts of pain through her brain. Evidently the act of teleporting had taken more out of the green mare than she thought. She settled for lifting it the old fashion way, with hooves.
The book was just as plain as anything else in Vinyl's abandoned house. It had simple leather covers and a cloth spine. Upon opening it however, it became much stranger. Inscribed in neat handwriting on the inside cover were the words "Property of Vinyl Scratch" and at the bottom of the page was simply the word "Journal." Suddenly Lyra felt very bad. She was about to read her friends journal. This shouldn't be right, but she had to know what happened at the party. She looked to where the first page should be, but found that it had been torn out, in fact, every page of the journal had been torn out. Why would Vinyl need to tear the pages out of her journal and then leave it in a room barricaded off with all her furniture? More importantly, how had Vinyl even managed to make the barricade in the first place?
Lyra sighed heavily. If Vinyl Scratch couldn't tell her what happened, than mabee Ditzy could. Of course she couldn't tell Lyra what had happened at the party itself, but mabee Ditzy Doo could tell her what happened to Berry after she left.