A Broken Lyre

by DarkPinkie

A New Start

The evening before the memorial around 7:00pm, Lyra’s home.

Lyra found herself sitting on the couch holding her lyre in her hooves. Although she was not constantly crying anymore, a tear sometimes escaped her eyes when she thought about Bonbon.

For almost two weeks Lyra had secluded herself inside of her home, leaving only when necessary, and usually just for food.. A few times when she had been out to buy some food she heard the other ponies talking about a memorial for Pinkie’s victims being prepared, and just yesterday she noticed Twilight Sparkle doing something with the fountain at the center of Ponyville.

Lyra sank down into her couch and began creating a peaceful melody on her lyre, until she noticed that someone was knocking on her door. She gently rested her lyre on the couch so she could answer the door. Behind the door stood Derpy, still donning her mailbags.

"Derpy? Are you still delivering mail this late?" asked Lyra when she noticed the mailbags.

The mailmare answered," Um, well, yeah... ever since the cupcake killer was found out, mail to and from Ponyville has skyrocketed. There’s so much that I have I to work overtime." After stating that fact she mumbled "I just hope Dinky is not upset when l show up at home late... again." Derpy had started to look rather glum at the thought of disappointing her daughter, Dinky.

"Oh, and by the way, this is for you." she said as she handed Lyra a letter. "I’m sorry if it’s a little late, I’ve had a lot on my hooves lately."

Lyra took the letter from Derpy, still focusing on the wall-eyed pegasus. Lyra offered, "Maybe I could help. I mean I've been sitting around the house doing nothing, and it looks like you could use some help."
Although she did want to help, her true intentions where a bit more selfish. What she really wanted was a distraction, something to take her out of the house, and perhaps try to move on with life.

"Well that would be a big help, Lyra, is that really what you want to do? It’s a lot easier for pegasus ponies to deliver mail." The pegasus answered. This was true, since flight allowed pegasi to finish the job much faster than other ponies. It didn’t help that the main postal office for all of Equestria was located in Cloudsdale as well.

Trying to smile, Lyra responded, “I don’t mind Derpy. It’s not like I have anything else to do.”

"Alright, I'll let you help me. I just hope my boss will think it’s alright."

"Thank you Derpy!" Lyra exclaimed while putting away her letter.

Derpy handed Lyra one of her bags and a list and began to explain, "Lyra, this bag is supposed to be delivered to the west side of Ponyville. Your house is the first house I deliver to on the west side, so there’s plenty for you to do. I’ll fly over to the north side of town, and I have already delivered the mail to the south and east parts of town. And don’t worry, I have a extra list, as sometimes I drop one." Derpy then flew off, after which Lyra found herself alone with a job to do.

Lyra took a quick look at the list and noticed that east and north and not east and south that were already checked off. She giggled a little, and said "Oh ,Derpy," with a roll of her eyes. She then trotted off towards the next house on the list.

"So who's mail am I delivering?" Lyra thought as she looked at the list, and saw the next entry on the list said “Berry Punch”.

"Oh, no. Not her" She said before giving of a slight sigh. Lyra had not spoken to Berry Punch in months. Not since that incident. It involved a lot of alcohol and some... inappropriate activities. The incident had made Bonbon furious.

Lyra gave another sigh as she approached the door to Berry’s home. Lyra just wanted to deliver this mail and have it over with. She rapped her hoof on the door, and after some time Ruby, Berry’s daughter, answered the door.

"Yes?" The foal asked. Just as Lyra started felling better knowing that she would not have to deal with Berry, she suddenly appeared behind Ruby.

“Wut ish it?” Berry slurred as she stumbled towards the door.

Lyra felt her confidence sinking like a stone in water. She quickly reached into her mailbag and took out a letter, which Lyra quickly handed to Berry, as Lyra tried her best to remain civil.

Berry took the letter and opened it, and then she seemingly out of nowhere started to cry. Lyra had come wanting to speak with Berry as little as possible, but curiosity got the best of her.

"What’s the matter Berry?" Lyra asked.

"I can’t read thish! The words move to much." Berry answered between the sobs.

"Just excuse my mom, she’s had a little to much to drink," Ruby tried to explain.

Berry then took a good hard look at Lyra. She was still sobbing, but she managed to recognize Lyra through her tears, and then suddenly Berry brightened up stopped crying. "Oh! itsh you Lyra! Why have you not speaken to me in sho long?"

Lyra felt didn’t know what to say, not wanting to mention the real reason why she has been avoiding Berry Punch the past few months. However, she needed to say something, so she made a vague excuse. "Well, I’ve been busy."

"Why don’t you come in? I think i have shome more to drink around here shomewhere!"

"Oh, well thank you, but I really need to deliver this mail. I promised Derpy I would help her with it, since she’s had to work overtime recently."

"Oh, i shee." Berry Punch had an indignant look on her face for a moment, until breaking down into tears again, letting herself slump down on the floor .

"What’s the matter now Berry?" Lyra asked. She found Berry’s sudden mood changes quite erratic.

"Oh, I know why you don’t want to come in. You hate me don’t you!"

"No! That not true! I will come by tomorrow if you’d like. It’s just that I have to deliver this mail."

Berry ‘s mood swung back to a happy state again, and she said "Oh thatsh okay then, I’ll be waiting!"

Ruby, who had been sitting quietly at her mother’s side, said. "Thank you Lyra, it would mean so much to my mom to have some company. She’s had it tough these few last weeks."

"Don’t worry, I’ll be here." Lyra gave a half hearted smile.

Ruby closed the door, letting Lyra head to the next house on her list. She thought to herself, "Well good work Lyra you stupid mule, now you’ll have to go visit her tomorrow, and who knows what she’ll try. And even worse, what she’ll try to get me to do."

Lyra quickly finished her deliveries and returned home, happy that the rest of the route had been quite uneventful. Then as she was approaching her door, she noticed that somepony was standing in front of it. As she got closer made out that it was Derpy.

"Oh hi there Derpy, your done with the ‘north’ side?"

"Yes I am Lyra, thanks for asking" Derpy. answered.

"Let me guess, your here for the bag right?" Lyra said with a giggle.

"Yep, my boss would kill me if i lost it. He’s been so hard on me since when I dropped those all things on poor Ms. Sparkle."

"Well here you go, Derpy." Lyra said as she handed over the bag and list.

"Thank you Lyra, you don’t know how much this means to me."

"Don’t worry, just ask if you need some help again in the future."

"Okay, I will. Just don't tell anything to my boss will you? You don't know how hard it is for me to get a job."

"I will not say a thing." Lyra said as Derpy turned away and flew home.

Tired from delivering mail, Lyra headed back inside to sit down on her couch, where she began thinking back on Bonbon. Fortunately, before Lyra felt the painful sting of an unpleasant memory, she fell asleep.

Lyra was in her room, looking through her drawers, searching for something.

"Lyra! You better hurry up or we are going to be late!" Bonbon’s voice called.

"Be there in a sec!" Lyra shouted back.

After some more searching she found it, the lyre her grandmother had given her. She had spent day and night practicing and now was the time she was going to show her that skill she had worked so hard developing.

It was an old lyre, given as it was a possession of Lyra’s grandmother who had just passed away a few months ago. It had been Lyra’s grandmother that suggested her name, and Lyra knew this.

Lyra’s train of thought was interrupted as Bonbon yell up at her. "LYRA! HURRY! We are running late!"

She took the lyre and headed down to meet Bonbon. There she stood, all dressed up in her finest dress. "Don’t you think you overdid it a little Bon? I mean, we are just going to be in the school talent show."

"Of course not! I’m going to sing, and with my singing we’ll win for sure!"

"If you say so." Lyra halfheartedly answered.

Realizing they were already late after all, Bonbon shouted. "We’re late! Come on! Let’s hurry!"

Lyra and Bonbon galloped out the door, even though Bonbon had a little trouble keeping up to Lyra while wearing her dress.

The two fillies hurried and hurried, but then disaster struck. Bonbon’s dress had gotten caught in a sharp branch, tearing apart.

Lyra gasped when she saw that the dress had been ruined, but Bonbon was to focused on getting to the talent show on time that she hadn’t noticed her dress’s sad state.

Lyra stopped, just looking at Bonbon. "Uhhh, Bon? You might want to look at this," she said while pointing at Bonbon’s dress.

Bonbon stopped as she noticed Lyra was standing still, just pointing at her. When Lyra’s words finally registered with her, she took a look at her dress.

Bonbon, was speechless seeing her now ruined dress, and after a few seconds she started to cry. "My dress. Wha-”, she sobbed, finding the words trapped in her throat. “What happened to it?" she finally managed to ask Lyra.

"It got caught on a branch, and you were in too much of a hurry to notice."

"But... But, i was sure we where going to win, and that I might get my cutie mark while we were at it. But now I cant show myself there, not without my dress."

Bonbon cried harder, and her cheeks were beginning to stain with tears.

"There, there. It’s okay. Bon." Lyra started to play a soothing melody on her lyre, hoping to calm Bonbon with the music.

After a few minutes of comforting from Lyra, Bonbon stopped crying and suddenly gasped, pointing at Lyra’s flank. "LOOK! Your cutie mark!" She shouted, now feeling all excited for her friend.

Lyra had been to busy comforting Bonbon to that point, and hadn’t noticed yet that her cutie mark had appeared. It looked just like her lyre.

"Lets get to school so we can see the award ceremony!" Lyra said.

Bonbon nodded and the friends started trotting towards the school.