Lyra Heartstrings took a deep breath as she walked out of the train’s door. She swung her saddlebag onto her back with a grasp of magic and straightened her shoulders, gazing towards the narrow dirt road leading away from the platform. The wooden planks, the leaning “Train” signpost hanging from the rusty chains, and the field of yellow and purple flowers lining the path’s sides—everything was just like the very few vague images she’d remembered. An excitement rose from her hooves and swept through her aquamarine furs, climbing up and into her horns, then exploded in a faint ember magical glow.
This is it. It’s definitely the place, she thought, taking in a mouthful of fresh, mud-flavored air. Even that tasted familiar, I am finally back.
“Sorry, darling,” a cream-colored earth pony came to her side. Bon-bon wrapped a front hoof around her neck and squeezed it, “I just couldn’t pass this opportunity—”
“Yeah, I totally understand!” Lyra pretended a huff, “going to the Equestria Dairy Affair and competing in the Sugar Maker’s Cup is something much more important than spending a holiday with your best friend and roommate, of course!”
“Lyra…” Bon-bon winced.
“Geez, Bony, I’m joking!” Lyra leaned close to Bon-Bon’s eyes and gave her the largest beam she could manage, “how could I ever be mad at you? You are about to become the best sugar maker on all of Equestria!”
Bon-Bon blinked a few times, then smiled with relief.
“I’m…quite sure I’m nowhere near that level, Lyra.”
“Oh, don’t you DARE!” Lyra exclaimed, pulling her close, “Every pony knows you make the best sweets! Even Pinkie said that!” she lowered her volume, whispering into her ear, “psst, do the awards come with prizes? Like, financially?”
“Well, I heard the champion will get a few hundred—”
“Then it is settled!” Lyra smirked, “you go out there and win that cup, and next year we’ll have the money to spend an exciting holiday in…” she rubbed her chins, “…Las Pegasus! Yeah, definitely Las Pegasus! And by that time—” She nuzzled her roommate’s mane, “—we’ll take our times together!”
A siren went off behind them. The train was starting.
“Heh, heh, thanks, Lyra,” Bon-Bon glanced at the train, then offered her an apologetic smile, “sorry, I…have to go. Have fun with your holiday!”
“Then be quick!” Lyra ushered, “go out there and make EVERYPONY proud!”
Bon-Bon chuckled. She hugged her neck with her front hooves, then turned around and hopped back onto the train. Lyra waved as the train drove away from her and the façade of her best friend was gradually reduced to a tiny, milk-colored dot against the distant green hills. She watched until the last streaks of smoke from the train’s chimney elapsed from her vision, then sighed slightly. Bon-Bon will be successful, and she was very sure of it. Her roommate was the kind of mare that would grab her chance and use it to her fullest whenever she has one. She never needed to worry about her. She looked around herself and saw only green grass and flowers, while there was no sound apart from the gentle hum of wind.
She was truly alone now.
She shuddered uncomfortably. This feeling was so foreign. As far as she could recall, she was always accompanied by Bon-Bon in Ponyville or surrounded by her other friends in Canterlot. She shifted her weights as she walked off the train platform and followed the path into the field of flowers, where the memories of the only five ponies she could trust apart from Bon-Bon on this world made her stop her steps. Minuette, Twinkle Shine, Lemon Heart, Moondancer, and of course, Twilight Sparkle. It has been long since she’d last seen them. What could they possibly be doing now?
She looked up to the sky and saw the sun directly above her head. The middle of a day. Minuette should be having lunch at that small Café right across from her antique store. Meals should’ve been served in the Princesses’ palace, which means Lemon and Twinkle’s works are already finished. They would most probably be found relaxing somewhere in the palace grounds with two cups of warm tea. Moondancer should still be learning those top-tier magical tricks in the Canterlot Library. As for Twilight…
Saving the world somewhere, apparently, she giggled bitterly. Such wonderful ponies her friends were. She’d doubted it many times, that how in a world, could a pony so ordinary like herself, have even got that close to them. She’d wondered many times whether she’d deserved it, and Bon-Bon knew it, too.
“They are definitely somepony, but they are just a few. Most other ponies—including you and me—are nopony, so you don’t need to worry about that,” she remembered Bony saying this one time after another whenever she found her unhappy, and she had always agreed with her, until that day when she found that hidden chamber beneath her bed while cleaning her room and the set of suit and the huge box of silver and golden medals within it.
Special Agent Sweetie Drops…That name would suit her better…She kicked the dirt with a hoof. A breeze was blowing across the field, and the flowers bent before her as if they were bowing to her. She suddenly felt she was just like those flowers when she was surrounded by them, that she could do nothing but to kneel. Minuette had her store and an entire block of loyal customers, Lemon and Twinkle had the favor of the nobles and salaries that would make a prince envious, Moondancer held a miniature Royal Archive as a brain, Twilight had her friends and the elements of harmony, and Bon-Bon, the pony she’d once considered as the kindest and most caring mare on all of Equestria, had served her entire youth in Celestia’s secret military and protected the country from hundreds and thousands of threats and crisis.
But for me? Her heart ached. Save for a few music scripts that no pony would appreciate and a mindful of crazy, useless thoughts, nothing.
Why would they even want to spend time with me? She’d wondered this question more than a million times. She guessed it was sympathy. She did appear quite miserable back in Canterlot, being the only pony in that fancy magical school that could not be related to any name that is known by the public. Or maybe it was just because they thought she was funny, and they enjoyed the presence of the energetic, imaginative unicorn they see as Lyra Heartstrings. It was the only thing she could offer them, after all.
Which is why I must do this, she encouraged herself, wiping her eyes, I’ll never be as great as my friends are, but at least I will do this right.
That’s correct. The absence of her friend was more of a blessing than a curse. If Bon-Bon was here, she would never approve of what she had planned. She would solely laugh it off as another of her “imaginations” and prevent her from carrying out any effort of chasing them, just like all her other friends when they were back at school.
But nopony is here to stop me this time, she bit her lips with gritted teeth, and now is the perfect time to do something crazy.
Something such as finding her mother.
She took a determined pace forward, walking away from the flowers and back to the path. This was not her first try. Ever since she’d known from the ponies of the orphanage that they’d discovered her on their front steps, wrapped in a sheet and without a single note of explanation, her family issue had always been placed on top of her menu of waiting-to-be-solved mysteries. Over the past few years, she almost felt that there were two sides of her sharing a single body: sometimes she was Lyra Heartstrings, the joyful dreamer lyrist who enjoys entertaining others more than anything else, and sometimes she was another Lyra Heartstrings, a helpless unicorn orphan who would wake up shrieking every night from the nightmares of her family torn to pieces right in front of her.
But of course, she had not shown this side to any of her friends, or any pony else at all. She knew perfectly that nopony would want to hang out around a psycho.
I can’t continue this forever, she thought as she walked, gazing up towards the clouds above her, Bony and my friends…they’ll discover sooner or later. Especially Bony. I can never hide anything from her.
Which is why I have to settle this as quickly as possible! Her ears flicked anxiously, they must never know. I will NEVER bother my friends with my questions. They don’t deserve the trouble.
She stopped for a lunch a few hours past noon atop a small hill by the road and in the shadow of a large oak tree. The clouds had drifted away, the sky pure blue like an enormous dome of sapphire, and below it, filling every last corner of her vision, were endless ridges of green hills and prismatic flowers. At the farthest point below the sky, down a narrow path between the grassy mounds, was the faintest image of a lane of wooden buildings, columns of lively smoke rising from them.
The town of Memento. Her true birthplace, her true home.
A sudden urge rose to her chest, that she wanted to play a song. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a small golden lyre. A beam of ember magic left her horns and was wrapped around it, while the instrument rapidly grew in size until it could be comfortably held by her front hooves—a convenient enchantment placed by Twilight when they were still classmates.
There was another object she had brought with her apart from her lyre, and she took it out as well and laid it onto the ground. It was a small round box made purely of stone, with a snowflake-shaped green pattern engraved upon it, a small key socket in its very center. It was the only thing she had with her when the ponies at the orphanage discovered her when she was a filly. She’d always guessed that it was a clue left by her mother and that whatever was placed within her will lead her to her parents. Alas, she had never been able to find the key or any other means to open the box.
Not for much longer.
Holding the lyre with both her front hooves, Lyra closed her eyes and began to play. The song was one she had written herself, but had never played in front of the ears of anypony else. Here she was alone, and nopony would be here to tell her how badly it had been crafted, so she could play without any doubts or worries, to her heart’s fullest. She did not need an audience. The notes were only meant for her. The loneliness, the sadness, the covet to have a place she could truly belong to like every one of her friends—they were only meant for her.
The song was finished. She gently put the lyre back down, grabbed the stone container and raised it above her head, towards the town buildings in a distance. She wasn’t sure what she will find in her birthplace, but she was sure that there were at least answers—answers that will solve the mysteries her parents had left with her and put an end to all her nightmares.
No turning back now. It was time for an adventure—an adventure that belonged to nopony but herself.