Lyra knew she was dying. When a pony loses her heart, all her organs will have no longer than six minutes before they use up their oxygen and wither away. She’d imagined this moment countless times when she was back in school, wondering what death would feel like. Now she had her answer: it was cold. So, very cold.
At first, there was nothing. And then there came the darkness. Darkness was different than nothing because it meant that there was at least space. She felt a ripple in this black space around her. It was the passing of time. It took much longer for a glimpse of light to emerge before her. It was only an unclear orb of brightness, and it took even more longer for the world to take shape. Her reanimated consciousness was struggling to identify her surroundings. She saw a few glass pipes first, then the grey image of a young pony.
“She’s waking up!” this voice…sounded familiar. Whose was it?
“Lyra!”, another much larger figure came into view. This one was an alternating pattern of black and white, “is she…is she…?”
From the depth of her recovering memory she recognized those voices: Nightjar and Grey Wind. They were her friends. Nightjar was a stray griffon, and Grey Wind was a part of an aggregation of nanomachines that would devour any planet they come across, the Gray Tempest…
The Gray Tempest…
It was as if that name triggered some mental switch, that she suddenly remembered everything. Events of the past few days came rushing back, the Xa’natars’ facility, the portal, her mother’s final goodbye, the activation code hidden within her gene, the train, the mirage, the nightmare beast—
Who killed me and got my blood. And the activation code.
Her eyes widened. She tried to open her mouth, to warn Grey Wind of the situation, but the muscles on her jaws seemed to be frozen.
“Don’t speak. Your muscles were away from oxygen for too long and they are still recovering, just reply by nodding or shaking,” Grey Wind walked up to her. Her face was strangely distorted like the reflection in a mirror of water. Lyra realized that she was floating in a bright green liquid. It was filling her mouth, nose, and lungs, but somehow she could breathe freely through it.
“Lyra…” Grey Wind was nervously tapping the floor, “do you…do you remember us?”
Lyra nodded.
“Oh, thank god…” Grey Wind and Nightjar let out a breath of relief together, “are you feeling alright? Does anywhere hurt or feel numb?”
Lyra shook her head. Grey Wind raised her arm and activated an interface.
“Hold on, I’ll get you out of there.”
She tapped on the screen, and Lyra heard a hum. The liquid was draining itself from the container she was in, and very soon her hooves were touching the solid surface. She wobbled, but still managed to support herself without toppling. The glass wall in front of her shrank to the container’s bottom, and her friends’ worried faces took up the entirety of her vision.
“Try and see if you can walk,” Grey Wind said.
Lyra almost tripped at her first step. She could feel her limbs again, but they all felt foreign and cranky. Nightjar hopped forward and took one of her arms, and she dragged herself down while leaning against her side. Her mind was becoming clearer, and she turned back to glance at her surroundings. She saw a familiar wall of canisters, the same as the one she’d just walked out of. She looked to the front and saw the massive central screen of the mainframe. She was in the Xa’natars’ facility of the New Moon Forest.
Nightjar was burying her head in her chest. She could feel something warm splashing against her coat.
“Oh, Lyra…you scared me to death…” she sobbed, “for a moment I thought you were really—really—”
“If we arrived a minute late, you would have been gone forever,” Grey Wind sounded more tired than ever, “I had to artificially make you a heart. That bastard ripped the entire thing out—”
“It…it has the activation code…” Lyra muttered, “the portal…is it--”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Grey Wind sighed, “I detected the energy signature of my creators elsewhere. There’s another portal hidden in this forest.”
“But…the Gray Tempest…”
“We still have time. Even with your genetic sequence, it’ll take hours to identify the correct code,” Grey Wind flicked her wing towards the exit, “Nightjar, get her back to the town and have Warmhoof check her up. I am going to finish what I started.”
Then she whirled around and spread her wings, flying out through the tunnel. Her flaps were quick and determined, as if she knew even if things plummet straight to hell, she’ll still have a final backup plan.
Lyra had no difficulty in guessing what it was.
“I—I need to go with her…” Lyra said. She let go of Nightjar and flexed her limbs. It was as if all her strength had miraculously returned to her body.
“But you have only just—”
“I am the only pony that could destroy the Gray Tempest,” Lyra gritted her teeth, but still managed to form a confident smile, “if things really come down to that, she’ll need my help. Besides, somepony has to make sure that she isn’t going to do anything stupid.”
Such as using the termination code.
“Then I’ll come as well!” Nightjar clawed the floor, “we’ll always stick together!”
“No,” Lyra laid a hoof onto her shoulder, “you head back and warn the others. Make sure they are ready to evacuate as soon as possible. Their lives are counting on you in case—” she gulped, “—well, in case we don’t make it back.”
Nightjar was still hesitating. Lyra grabbed her wings and thrust her forward.
“Quick, there is no time! If I don’t go now, I’ll never catch where Grey has run off to!”
Nightjar’s beak trembled, then she suddenly pounced forward and swooped her into a hug.
“Lyra, you are really the bravest and kindest pony in all of Equestria! You are and will always be my very best friend!”
“Alright, alright, are all griffons as sappy as you?” A bitterness was spreading above Lyra’s tongue, but she didn’t let it show, “now come on. We’ve got a world to save.”
They rushed out into the forest opening together and dashed off in opposite directions. Lyra managed to catch a flash of grey disappearing among the branches, and she allowed that to be her lighthouse. She bashed through the grass and the patches of crescent reeds, closely locking the flash in the center of her sight. It wasn’t long before the flash turned over a rock and disappeared into an enormous tree. As Lyra neared, she could hear shouts and the clashing of metal coming from inside. The tree was hollowed from inside out, the interior filled by an enormous ring of stone pulsing with energy. Grey Wind and the nightmare beast were right in front of it, their wings and claws locked upon each other, both desperately trying to get ahead of their opponent. Her magic condensed beside her horn, integrating into a sharp sword of ember. With all her might, she raised it above her head and slashed down towards the beast’s horn. The beast narrowed its eyes as it saw her. A black tentacle lashed out from her body and caught Lyra’s blade mid-air.
“This is impossible,” she said, “I killed you.”
“You should’ve—double-checked—” Lyra grunted. The tentacle was pushing down with impossible strength. She was barely holding it up even with all her magic left.
“Then I don’t mind doing it again,” the tentacle pressed down harder. Lyra’s magic quivered, generating a horrifying shattering sound.
“Grey!!!!”
Boom!
A blinding green light shot out from Grey Wind’s wings. Her laser broke through the beast’s claws and hit it right in the chest. The beast staggered, and the tentacle let loose. Lyra’s sword escaped her control and threw itself out, swinging directly past the beast’s neck and plunging into the back wall. Instantly an opening burst open beside its throat, a mass of black liquid bursting out like a fountain. The beast’s scarlet eyes traced to her wound and were glued onto it for a second as if wondering what had just transpired, before they rolled back and its body sank to the floor, dropping down dead.
Panting hard, Grey Wind jumped past the beast and stopped abruptly in front of the portal, where she let out a roar of despair.
“NO!”
“It is too late…” the beast opened one of its eyes. She was using all the might she had left to produce a stiff smile, “nothing can stop it anymore…my mistress will be reborn…and the nightmare will consume the sun…”
Tlinnnnnnnnng…
Lyra gasped. A hum was rising all around them.
“Can’t you hear it?” the beast’s eye closed, “it is already starting…”
The rocks of the portal were starting to swing. They were moving in a wide circle, fling faster and faster until it was impossible to tell them apart.
“No no no no no no no no…” Grey Wind’s voice was full of panic. She turned to Lyra, grabbing her cheeks, “Lyra, listen to me. I’ll slow it down as much as I can. YOU HAVE TO RUN. Run away and warn the others. Hide into some cave, don’t ever come out—”
“We can stop it!” Lyra yelled, “you said my magic could destroy the Gray Tempest—”
BOOM
The portal exploded. An enormous grey cloud splattered out of the portal and rushed off into the sky. In the next second, a grey dome had formed above Lyra’s head, sealing her in a tornado of nanomachines. Waves and waves of grey were still coming out and joining their kins. Nanomachines had covered every meter of the sky she could see, crawling over the sun, the white clouds, the trees, the grasses…everything.
The Gray Tempest was awakened.
It happened as if it was in slow motion. Lyra was pinned where she stood, unable to move, and could only helplessly watch as hundreds and thousands of nanite tendrils formed out of the dome and stabbed down in synchronization towards her.
BAM
Grey Wind jumped into the sky as her body dissembled into a smaller dome, covering Lyra like a shield. The tendrils made a screeching sound as they made contact with her subunits, sliding off and wrapping her in a black cocoon.
Lyra, I’m sorry…her voice echoed amidst the cacophony of hums, we failed. The Gray Tempest will devour me. Devour you. Devour everything.
“No, it can’t be!” Lyra screamed, “it—it can’t end like this! There must be another way! Grey Wind, check your database! HOW DO WE STOP THE GRAY TEMPEST?”
There is a way…It almost sounded like a lullaby, a final chance to end everything…
“What?” Lyra blinked, then immediately gasped, “no, no! don’t you DARE!!!”
…
Thank you, Lyra. Tell Nightjar I am sorry.
A blinding white light encased all. Lyra was launched backward, crashing into the wall like a catapult. The light robbed her sight as a shriek rammed into her ear. There was bashing, screaming, scratching of a thousand souls in hell…until all went silent. Lyra barely felt the pain in her back as she scrambled onto all fours, forcing open her eyes.
And then she saw snow.
The grey dome was gone. The nanomachines were nowhere to be seen. She could see the green grasses, the white clouds, beams of golden sunlight shining upon her. Countless dots of grey were falling all around, a breeze carrying them into the sky. A pony-shaped lump was lying in the very center.
“Grey!” Her voice was lost in a scream. She limped forward, kneeling beside her friend. She grabbed Grey Wind’s head and cranked it around. Her eyes were closed.
“Come on, Grey, talk to me!” she shuddered. She felt so light. Almost weightless.
Grey Wind’s emerald orbs fluttered open. Amdist the raining grey snow, her irises were losing color.
“Lyra…”
“Grey, we did it!” Lyra threw her arms around her neck, “the Gray Tempest was destroyed! You—you just stay right here, Nightjar will bring a doctor—”
“I am dying…” Grey Wind shattered her fantasy with a single bitter laugh, “Lyra, there were so many things I wanted to do, so much time I want to spend with you…I don’t want to die, but with you, I am not afraid…”
Lyra screamed in terror. She noticed that one of Grey Wind’s hooves was melting. Her hoofs, no, her entire body was slowly disintegrating into a grey smoke, rising along with the rest of the Tempest.
“NO! You are going to be FINE!” She exclaimed, “I will fix you!!!”
Her magic was almost exhausted in that fight, but she managed to gather her magic. She poured magic into Grey Wind’s body, using them to clasp her subunits tightly together. A golden aura descended around them, and crackles of magical lightning were bursting in the air.
“It’s no use…” Grey Wind whispered, fainter than a rat, “you can’t fix fundamental particles…”
“SHUT—UP!!! SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!” Tears were pouring freely down her cheeks. Lyra increased her flow of magic. She didn’t care if she was hurting her magic storage organ. She didn’t care if she was violating every single security code she’d learned, she didn’t care if she was overloading her horns. She would NEVER allow—
CRASH
Her magic exploded. Her horn was finally worn down. She was blasted away, her head bashing into the tree’s trunk. The last picture she saw before she lost consciousness was forever branded into her brain: Grey Wind’s body was gone. Grey trails were dancing in the wind above the place where she’d laid, dyed a brilliant golden by the afternoon sun. A voice wormed into the back of her mind. It reminded her of a choir in Canterlot’s church:
I am grateful…
Grateful that I came to this world…
Grateful that I met every one of you…
Please, remember me…
So that I know I won’t be alone anymore…
…
Huh…
I’d really love to hear your song again, Lyra…I liked it, for real…
And then all went silent.