The Darkness Walks Among Us

by DukeArbiter

Chapter 6 - A Proper Burial

Lyra knelt in a hole in the ground. Rain poured in all around her and made the digging slow and difficult. The mint unicorn thrust the shovel into the ground once again and hauled another pile of mud out of the growing hole. The vampire had crossed a line. It had taken Bon Bon from Lyra when the earth pony had done nothing to provoke it. Perhaps the creature had done it simply because she had witnessed the creature kill Ditzy, but far more likely was that it had done it just to get at Lyra, to convince her to stop hunting it.

The monster's actions had done just the opposite however. The musician was now more motivated than ever to find and kill this wretched creature before it did any more damage. Before any of that could happen though, Lyra had another more important job to attend to.

The green mare hauled herself out of the newly dug grave, her coat now sopping wet and covered in mud. Before her were two almost identical graves, each with a large stone headstone at their ends. Lyra had chosen the spot for her friends' graves very carefully. The unicorn had wanted them to be in a very public place so that everypony would remember their deaths. they lay in the middle of the park, beneath the single tree that had stood for ages.

Lyra admired her handiwork for a moment and almost found joy in the accomplishment but a voice from behind her snapped the mint unicorn back to solemn reality. "Its so sad what happened to them," Octavia said in almost a whisper. The grey earth pony stood a few feet behind Lyra, her cello grasped in one hoof, her bow in the other. "I'm glad you could come. I'm sure it would mean a lot to them," Lyra said, doing everything she could to keep from crying. The cellist nodded in silent agreement as she raised her bow to the strings and began to play a slow funeral march.

Time seemed to almost stand still as Lyra drew her own instrument and added her sorrow to the song. For a what seemed like an eternity, the two musicians payed their respects to the dead in the form of a long, sad song that echoed through the sleeping steets of Ponyville. After a few hours the song began to come to an end and, as if on cue, both ponies stopped playing all together and silence filled the air once more.

With only a solemn look between them, the two mourners set to work pushing the hastily made wooden coffins into their graves. As one and then the other fell into place, Lyra began to feel a new sense of sadness. She was leaving behind the greatest joy in her life, six feet underground in the middle of ponyville. The musician struggled in vain to hold back the stream of tears comming forth from her swolen yellow eyes. The mint unicorn pulled a single red rose out of her saddle bag and dropped it into Bon Bon's open grave. "I love you too Bon Bon," Lyra whispered, choking on her tears.

Lyra and Octavia set to work in silence, filling the graves of their friends. As the final shovelfuls of dirt fell on their companions the earth pony turned her purple eyes on Lyra. "What are you going to do now?" she asked flatly. Lyra turned her gaze towards the outskirts of town, to the place she knew the abandoned factory would be.

"I'm going to finish this," Lyra replied.

Comments

[bahatumay]

It's funny.... The last line is so simple, but I still felt a small chill run up my back.
Lyra ftw.