THE LEGEND OF LYRA
CHAPTER I
Prologue
&
Hero and Sidekick
The sound of birds chirping, the cool breeze swiftly passing by, the beam of the sun rays illuminating the land and not a cloud in the sky. Yes It was a beautiful day in the Everfree Forest where we find a mint green unicorn pony sleeping under a tree, who was completely unaware of what she was about to face. Her name is Lyra and this is her story, her legacy.
"Wake up, Lyra." a mysterious voice whispered in an ominous fashion.
"I said wake up!"
Lyra tossed and turned in her sleep but could not awaken from her slumber.
"So, I see you can't wake up. Why is that I wonder?"
Suddenly a faint sheet of cloud coverage started to to lazily breeze across the sky. It began to thicken and it's flow of movement started to pick up in pace.
"So if I can't wake you up from within your subconscious, then I will have to awaken you from a physical perspective."
The winds flow picked up pace erratically, the clouds thickened and turned dark in shade blotting out the sunlight. The grassy plains dulled in vibrant colour as a single droplet of rain fell from clouds.
"The sooner you wake up, the sooner I get to meet you and the sooner I get to meet you, the sooner I can kill you" The mysterious voice said as the single water droplet plummeted toward the ground.
The droplet hit the ground and simultaneously a lighting bolt shot out from the clouds letting out a horrifically loud cracking as if the skies were being torn apart.
In Lyra's slumber everything was pitch black until a lighting bolt struck, causing a vision to flash in her head. A lighting bolt struck; A run-down almost ancient looking stone building atop orange desert sand flashed before her.
As the vision faded away the clouds began to release heavy rainfall. Another lighting bolt struck; A building that looked the same as the first one appeared, it was in much better condition than the previous one and this time surrounded by water.
The second vision began to fade away as another lighting bolt struck, this time hitting a tree nearby Lyra. The tree had started to collapse as it caught alight. The rain had subsided momentarily as the tree was falling, the fiery tree hit the ground and another vision flashed before Lyra; Another building that was the same as the first two in almost castle-like pristine, however this one was in a sea of lava.
"Now you see... Lyra, come to me." the mysterious voice demanded.
Lyra awoke from her slumber to release a loud scream. She looked around expecting her surroundings to be in ruins, but everything was as she had last seen it before dozing off.
Lyra could hear an almost inaudible sound in the distance, progressively gaining decibel levels as she listened out to hear what it could be.
"Lyra!" She heard softly in the distance. Lyra than sat up followed by standing to her feet, she dusted herself off and started to walk toward the sound she has heard which she could have sworn was her name being called.
"Lyra!" She heard again, this time she could see a figure of who was calling out to her. The figure was very small in size, but could be seen from a mile away with it's illuminating glow. It was a forest fairy named sprout who had become friends with Lyra a few years back.
"There you are Lyra. Been looking for you everywhere."
"And why is that?" Lyra asked with sheer curiosity.
"No reason, I just wanted to see what you were doing."
"Well I am about to head back to Everfree village, did you want to come with?" Asked Lyra.
"Sure, we can go see how your 'big' boyfriend is." sprout giggled.
"He is not my boyfriend, Sprout. He is somepony I would call family, after all he did raise me and he does call me his little sister." explained Lyra.
Lyra and sprout made their way toward Everfree Village discussing random topics about various adventures they would like to go on.
"I would like to go and meet the Princess of Hayrule and hope to become her friend so I can meet all the royalty." Lyra said cheerfully.
"Well I would like to meet the Princess and tell her that this is now my kingdom and make her my slave." Sprout said before bursting with laughter.
"You always have been one to cause mischief, Sprout"
"I know, but that is why you and I go hand in hand. You're the mare who won't do anything fun without me. You just sleep all day and when you aren't doing that you are training with your brother-type-thingy." Replied Sprout.
"Well that is because he believes he won't always be around to protect me and he believes I should be able to protect myself."
"Well Lyra, at least he cares about you. But no matter how much you train, you'll never be as tough as me. After all I am a forest fairy who raised herself." Sprout said with quite the confident attitude.
The pony and fairy had almost arrived at the Everfree Village, when they come across a stream about one meter deep and two meters in width.
"Oooh.. oh dear.." said Sprout quietly.
"I remember this stream. I pass it all the time but I never really took notice of it until you just brought it to my attention, Sprout."
"Yeah, I almost forgot about it." a shudder went down Sprouts spine as she spoke.
"Well if I do recall correctly, I guess you weren't so tough. After all I did save you." snickered Lyra.
Sprout was flying through the forest being chased by Ponyfos.
"Get away from me! Leave me alone!" she shrieked and screamed in fear.
The Ponyfos wouldn't listen and kept chasing her through the woods when one had gotten close enough to her it swiped for her, but she managed to dodge it's attack. Another Ponyfos joined the chase and she now had three Ponyfos chasing her. She began to feel very weak and drained from trying to out-fly the Ponyfos and the newest one to join the chase was completely filled with energy, it's stomach was empty and craving to be filled.
Sprout kept flying as fast as she could but the newcomer Ponyfos was to freshly energized for Sprout to out-fly. The Ponyfos swiped at Sprout, nicking her with enough for to throw her flight pattern off course and bringing her to a crashing halt as she landed in a stream. The fairy cried out in terror.
"I can't fly with wet wings!" she yelled in distress.
Meanwhile Lyra was walking through the Everfree forest to relax after a training session with her brother-figure. She heard the cries of Sprout and her instincts took over.
"Someone is in trouble, my brother would want me to help them." she monologued. "I'm coming!" She shouted as she rushed toward the fairies cries of fear.
As she got to the attack site she could see the helpless fairy flailing in the water she realized she wasn't equipped. But it was too late as only of the Ponyfos had already spotted Lyra and started to make her way toward her, completely forgetting about even chasing Sprout.
Lyra remembered what her brother told her.
"If you ever need to fight your way out of a situation and you are unequipped, look at your surroundings to find anything you can use as a weapon." she remembered him saying during one of her training sessions with him.
She went over to a small tree and ripped off a branch with her mouth.
"You leave her alone." she muffled before lunging at the advancing Ponyfos.
The Ponyfos lunged back at her. As the Ponyfos got in range, Lyra swung the branch down as hard as she could and cracked it across the Ponyfos' head, causing the Ponyfos to collapse into a pile of bones.
The other two Ponyfos' approached the attach site and began to advance on Lyra together.
The Ponyfos on the right lunged at Lyra but Lyra remembering her training did a side jump and roll, before swinging around 180 degrees and smashing the Ponyfos across the head reducing it also to a pile of bones also causing the branch to snap in two.
The last Ponyfos saw an advantage, as Lyra finished taking out the second Ponyfos she had left herself open.
The Ponyfos lunged for her.
"Behind you!" Sprout shouted.
Lyra quickly whipped her head around to see the Ponyfos flying toward her, she leant down on her front hooves and with a powerful thrust, kicked her back legs in the air clashing with the oncoming Ponyfos.
The Ponyfos collapse to the ground but this one was stronger and could sustain more damage.
"Oh no, I don't have a weapon." she said fearfully. Lyra tried to get toward a tree to grab another branch but every movement she made the Ponyfos would make a quick counter-action, causing Lyra void access to any form of weapon.
"Wait, you're a unicorn, use your magic!" shouted Sprout.
"Uh..." replied Lyra.
"You can use magic?" asked the puzzled fairy.
"Now isn't the best time to talk about this." said Lyra as she kept trying to maneuver around the Ponyfos. "Argh! I Can't seem to get close enough to get a weapon."
As Lyra tried to trick the Ponyfos into which way she was going to move. She quickly stepped to the right then ran to the left, as she got in range of a tree branch she stumbled upon her own feet and released a loud scream as she tumbled.
The Ravenous Ponyfos enraged with being tricked saw Lyra on the ground in pain and temporarily stunned.
The Ponyfos mad it's move to attack when suddenly a quick glisten of silver whisked directly in one side of the Ponyfos' head and out the other side, reducing the Ponyfos to shattered bone remains.
Sprout waded to the stream side and pulled herself out, regardless of being soaking wet and cold, she was very happy to have survived.
"Oh, oh thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!" Sprout shouted with joy.
"Ouch. Yeah, no problems." said Lyra as she slowly limped her way from being in a prone position.
"But what was the shining silver that defeated those creatures?" She gazed at the ground to see a wooden arrow with a sharp silver arrow head stuck into the ground.
"This is unlike any pony weapon I have seen before, I wonder who made it?" Sprout curiously questioned.
"Yeah... Oh, where are my manners. My name is Lyra. What is your name?"
"Name's Sprout."
"Sprout? What a lovely name." Lyra cheerfully responded.
"You were really brave, have you fought Ponyfos before?" asked Sprout.
"No I have never seen them before, what are those things exactly?" queried the mint green unicorn
"They are skeletal knights, fallen soldiers of Hayrule Castle who fought and died in the Everfree labyrinth. They are forever cursed to live as evil creatures, even though you defeated them, they will just rise again from within the labyrinth." explain Sprout.
"So there is no stopping them?" asked Lyra.
"Well they used to only stay within the confines of the labyrinth but the last few days, strange things have been happening to this land." said Sprout.
"Wow, feels like yesterday we just met, hey Sprout."
"Sure does, Lyra. It's been so long I almost forgot how we met."
"Yeah and also the Ponyfos attack. Seeing Ponyfos nowadays has become rather normal, I completely forgot about them breaking their confines of the labyrinth all that time ago." said the spun-out mint green unicorn.
"Yeah... Well, anyway. Let's get going to Everfree Village." said Sprout as they motioned toward the village.