Publication date: 1/16/14

Lyra didn't really know how long exactly she walked for: 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, it was unknown, really.

The walk to Dusk's house was not exactly distant from Ponyville, but rather, just on the edge of it. From her house to his, it would take possibly not more than a couple of minutes, maybe less than 5. The distance from Dusk's to the Police Station was maybe not far apart from Lyra. It would probably take a little over 5 minutes at best.

But the walk for Lyra felt longer than that. Much longer. Maybe it was just her mind over exaggerating, but her hooves were staring to hurt. But were they really hurting? Was she not just hallucinating the pain? Either way, it hurt, and she just wanted it to stop.

But she couldn't let it stop. At least, not until she got to his house.

.

.

.

The walk took not more than 10 minutes, but it felt like several tortuous hours that felt like it would never end. But Lyra felt the rise of hope and joy in her hollow soul when she arrived on the front doorsteps of Dusk's home. His home was not much more different than the rest of the houses scattered around Ponyville. The only real difference was the top of the house being transformed into a massive balcony-like platform-Lyra had forgotten the real name for it-with a telescope up top that pointed towards the seemingly endless cosmos.

It didn't bring much surprise to Lyra, but this was something that Lyra had just now noticed. Well, both the roof and Dusk being a fan of space. It really made her smile.

...

...

Smile...

To Lyra, that word felt almost made up.

She shrouded the thoughts out of her mind. Walking straight up to the door, she knocked 3 times. For a second or two, she heard nothing. But once the third second came, she could hear the muffled noises of clip-clopping hooves, quiet at first, but getting louder with each half second.

Suddenly, a click was heard. The outwards door handle suddenly went downward, then the door flew back, revealing a dark orange pony standing in the door way, his eyes staring at Lyra with a bit of surprise.

"Uhm, Lyra," he began, "What are you doing here?"

It took a moment for her to get the words out of her mouth.

"...Can I come in? Please?" she asked.

Almost instantly without hesitation, Dusk nodded, moving aside and lifting a hoof pointing inward, allowing Lyra access inside. Thanking him, she walked in. Nearly right away, she began to awe in amazement. The decor consisted of several things like famous paintings and pictures of space. Not only that, but a few trophies from hoofball tournaments and track racing, some of them being from the 7390's.

After walking through the short hallway into the living room, Lyra sat down on the couch. Dusk asked if she wanted a drink, but she simply refused, just pleading for him to sit next to her. She didn't see his blush, but he did stammer a bit before walking over to her, sitting down beside her.

There was silence in the air, despite the chirping of birds and pitter-patter of hooves from several civilians in the town, but luckily, it was all silent. Awkwardly silent. The two of them waited for the other to ask or say something.

"Is something wrong?" Dusk finally asked, breaking and executing the silence.

But that question was something Lyra didn't want to hear.

There was everything wrong. Lyra had a vision of several hundred ponies being brutally killed, including her own friends, then comes out of it only to find that it happened in the real world. It almost made her question what would've happened had she shrugged the vision off as one of her fantasies. Would she still be here today, sitting in Dusk's house, on his couch, with him?

She didn't notice until now that she was thinking about the incident again. Like she had done for the past few days, she focused on just pushing it out of her mind, at least temporarily so that she didn't have to focus on it, especially not in front of him.

But the more she thought of it, the more detailed and violent it became.

Lyra wanted to scream, shout for it to go away, but she couldn't. She lost her voice some time ago, and now she only speaks in little whispers. She wondered if it was permanent. She hoped.

Suddenly, the visions stopped. The sight of screaming and dying ponies vanished. Lyra was now back in the living room, looking forward towards a wall containing a painting of a train. However, it wasn't just any train, but the local electric Ponyville train; the same exact train that crashed just two years ago, killing several other ponies. The picture was taken during the train's construction. Beside the train stood workers, all looking up and smiling at the camera, some looking like they were laughing and having a good time.

At first, Lyra wanted to smile at the picture. But what just happened took all the joy and smiles out of her. Instead of laugh or smile, she cried, quickly breaking down into tears, burying her head into her hooves, sobbing loudly.

Reacting to her actions, Dusk began to wrap his hooves around Lyra, pulling her close into a hug. Pulling her head from her hooves, she wrapped her forelegs also around Dusk, pulling him even closer until they could no longer pull. At this point, Lyra was full out crying. She didn't even care if ponies outside could hear. She didn't care how loud she was.

She just wanted some comfort right now.