//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: The Lyrist and The Tempest // by Valiant wind //------------------------------// Lyra looked up to the sky. A large grey cloud was looming above her, covering the sun. The morning was grey and wet, and she could practically smell the moisture filling the air. It was about to rain soon. The train station appeared even older than last time. It was almost like this whole place came from a different world than the luxurious Equestria Express train resting on the railway. The mountains in a distance were grey as well. She tried to find the oak tree where she’d played her lyre when she first arrived in Memento, but all the hills looked the same. “Are you sure you want to leave now?” Nightjar was asking. One of her wings was tightly wrapped around her torso, showing no intention of letting go, “the Moonlight Festival is just three days away, you could go back after the celebration—” “I’ve got all my answers. There is no meaning in staying here,” Lyra gave her a half-sincere smile, “on the other hoof, that nightmare beast will come back for me. It’s safer back in Ponyville. You know, with all the Elements of Harmony around.” “Lyra is right,” Grey Wind said. She was wearing none of her interfaces. They’d all agreed that it would be best to avoid any unnecessary attention, “Memento is a small town. Even I cannot look out for you all the time. Even if it was just a drop of blood, it’ll get your entire genetic sequence. The risk is too large to take.” Slowly and loathly, Nightjar folded her wing back. “But you will come back, right?” she asked. “Of course,” Lyra brushed the feathers on her cheek and chuckled, “as long as Grey makes sure that I’m not in any life danger, and when Bon-Bon isn’t watching…” A harsh siren went off behind her. The train was starting. “I will look after your treehouse and your mother’s tomb,” Grey Wind sighed, “sorry about her, Lyra. Your mother was a hero. She raised her arms for all the lifeforms in the galaxy…” She skipped the remaining half of the sentence, but all of them knew what she meant: this responsibility has now fallen onto Lyra. “Oh, come on, don’t look so down,” Lyra cheered as happily as she could, “look into the future, will you? There’s so much waiting for us to achieve!” “Yeah,” Grey Wind nodded, “I need to see more of this world.” “I’ll write letters!” Nightjar twisted her talons, “don’t you DARE not answer them!” “I will, Nighty, I promise,” Lyra said as she walked into the carriage. The train started moving at the exact moment when she found her seat. She reached her head out of the window, waving her front hoof while watching Nightjar chasing over and shouting her goodbyes until she reached the end of the platform. The train then turned over a hill, and she could no longer see the train station, Memento, and her friends. She felt a tickle in her heart, as if something within it had elapsed along with them. She now understood how Bon-Bon must’ve felt when she saw her off at Ponyville a week ago—it wasn’t good at all. She looked around her. The carriage she was in had very few passengers, all of them were either leaning against their seats or cluelessly looking out of the window. The atmosphere was lifeless. It wasn’t like the Cosmetic Balcony, where there was not a single second Nightjar’s cheerful laughter. She was having this urge to bring out her lyre and to just play, play anything that could free her from this barren sensation, but she couldn’t disrupt the other ponies. I may never hear her laugh again. She felt awful. A pain was surging throughout her body, boiling her blood into hot lava. During the last few days Nightjar and Grey Wind had done their bests in keeping this feeling at bay, but now nothing could suppress it anymore. She looked up at the train’s ceiling. Her eyes saw through it, through the grey clouds, through Equestria’s atmosphere, and towards the millions of stars in the Universe. She gasped and blinked at the stars, and the stars blinked back. Will you protect us? Will you protect the codes? They were silently asking. “No,” she whispered. She felt an enormous weight on her shoulders, the weight of the thousands and millions of lives in the entire galaxy. She was the only one that could ensure the existence of the termination code. She was the only one that could destroy the Gray Tempest once and for all. A single pony carrying responsibility for the entire Universe—this is ridiculous. Even the princesses only needed to care about one world, while she was just an ordinary pony. How is this possible? But I am the only pony that could do it. She sighed heavily. That is correct. She had to live on so that the activation code will be kept from all wicked hands, so that the Gray Tempest will never be allowed out of the home cluster, so that…she set a hoof onto her saddlebag. With Grey Wind’s remote within it, it felt like the heaviest thing in the Universe. So that I will not be required to choose between my friends and the rest of the Universe, she looked out towards the fleeting landscapes out of the window. Mom would want it to be that way… She was feeling sleepy. The past few days were well beyond the limit of her mind. She needed rest. She leaned to the window, curled on her seat, and closed her eyes. It will take a couple of hours for the train to reach Ponyville, and she’ll have to stop herself from appearing exhausted when she arrived. She didn’t know how long it took her to fall asleep, but when she woke up again, the sky had turned completely dark. As she yawned and scrambled up, the magical lights on the ceiling switched on, coating the carriage in a blurred yellow light. Her first instinct was that she’d slept off her station, but then immediately realized that it was impossible. The train’s final station is Canterlot, and even that would only take half a day…it shouldn’t be midnight…she thought, and even if I did sleep that long, the train workers would have reminded me… She sat up straight, looking around her. The other passengers were all gone. She was alone in the carriage. She couldn’t feel the train’s movement. When she looked out through the window, she couldn’t see the station’s light—no, she couldn’t see anything. It was like the train was encased in a prison of thick black mists. Something is wrong, her instinct was screaming at her. She lit up her horns and immediately felt the immense waves of magical energy flowing around her. It was a confirmation of her guess—this entire carriage is fake. It was a well-fabricated mirage. Someone had magically created this space and dragged her into it. So soon? Has some pony else learned about the Gray Tempest? That they are already going after me? Her heart was pounding, yet her mind was clearer than ever. She was no longer the powerless girl that could be easily scared by this kind of trick. She guided her conscious through the magic, looking for the point where they are most abundant. All mirages must be built upon a focus. As long as she could pull herself out before whoever trapped her noticed, she could claim the upper hoof of the fight. She soon felt it—all the magic was flowing towards the door leading to the carriage in front of her. She stopped before it, channeling magic into her horn. The focus is the support of this entire space, so if she could collapse it by a strong magical blast— “Took you long enough,” A voice sounded behind her. Before she could turn around, a pain exploded within her chest as something stabbed into her back and pierced through her body. She heard the splatter of her blood against the floor and felt the final tremble of her impaled heart. Her scream was lost in a muffled croak\. The carriage was dissolving, revealing piles and piles of silver metal. She saw an ember globe of her own magic at a distance. It was the L-gate she had sealed. She was feeling even more tired, her limbs hanging powerless. She was thrown off to the ground, the pain replaced by a hollow numbness. She saw a curved horn and a pair of glowing red eyes, then her vision turned dark. She couldn’t feel anymore. “NO!” “LYRA!!!” “We are late…” “Grey, you can save her, right? TELL ME YOU CAN SAVE HER!!!” “I’m thinking…I’m thinking…”