Bon Bon awoke groggily to screaming and then confusion took her. She felt sick, nauseous, and it took everything she had to not vomit in the bed. Her vision blurred for a moment, then came into focus, blurred again, and when she could finally see again, she saw Lyra.

Lyra was in the throes of dark magic, her eyes were tainted from the darkness and black flames burned around her horn. She was holding her head in her hooves and screaming. Bon Bon struggled to get to sit up and help her mate, she couldn’t bear to see Lyra like this and Lyra’s suffering was of far more concern than her own.

Bon Bon felt panic as Harper began to shriek and wail, and then Bon Bon realised, she was under attack from dark magic. Something deep in her earth pony bones reacted poorly to the magic in the air. Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed Lyra, clamping both of her own hooves to the sides of Lyra’s head.

Lyra was foaming at the mouth and was screaming incoherently, but at Bon Bon’s touch, something changed. Recognition flared back into her eyes. She looked at Bon Bon for a moment, and then a fierce expression came over her face.

Lyra, feeling something trying to forcibly enter her mind, felt her memories flooding with vague thoughts of a time when something had forcibly entered her body. Brief snatches of past hurts flashed though her mind. Sounds. Smells. Wet squelching sounds. Cries. Moans. Whimpers. The soft sadistic symphony of sounds that harmonised with rape. The scent of blood… her blood. And a terrible stabbing pain began to thrum through her hips, the worst pain centered just between her legs. For a moment, she teetered upon the very verge of falling over the edge and slipping into total insanity, she didn’t want to remember those things. The faint clink and rattle of iron chains and the terrible pinch of the heavy iron collar around her neck.

And then when Bon Bon touched her, Lyra thought of other things. Of Harper suckling at her teats. Of Sentinel’s absolute adoration and admiration of her. She thought of all of the time she spent answering Piña’s many questions. Of all the magical lessons she had given Dinky. Then she thought of Bucky and somehow Bucky’s mental image drove away the horror in her mind. Bucky loved her and would never hurt her.

She felt a powerful spike of motherly instinct. Summoning her own considerable will driven magic, and now determined to fight for her foals, she brought her mind to bear upon the intruder, the mental invader that sought to take away everything she held dear.

Lyra Heartstrings was gifted as a spellbreaker, and she sent a spike of raw magical agony back to the source, plucking the magic connection as though it was a string. It was a terrible thing to connect to the mind of a creature and then misjudge the strength of your foe. And Lyra’s new strength was terrible. She had inadvertently tapped into the very sort of wellspring of strength that Bucky drew from.

The unicorn was not done in her assaults. She felt the force intruding in her mind retreating, she knew that she had hurt it, but while the connection still existed, Lyra, now in perfect control, sent everything she had back through the connection, and she could feel whatever was on the other side writhing in mental anguish. Lyra had her own dark magic and the will to use it. Black agony flooded from her mind and ran like a river into her fleeing intruder. Lyra had her own pain, her own anguish, her own unspeakable agonies and she broadcast every repressed memory she could feel lurking just beneath her subconscious back into the mind of her attempted mental rapist.

Lyra felt herself become the violator and it felt good.

The connection was severed and Lyra screamed because her bottled up wrath had no outlet… she wasn’t done. She wasn’t finished. She hadn’t had a chance to share all of her pain just yet. Pain gave dark magic power, and Lyra was full of pain.

The distraught unicorn looked up into the eyes of the earth pony that she loved, the earth pony whose touch took that pain away, and collapsed into Bon Bon’s embrace. She clung to the earth pony with everything she had, pressing her face into Bon Bon’s silken pelt.

“I need Bucky,” Lyra sobbed to her mate.

“Okay Lyra… give me a minute… I need to know that you are okay and then I will go and try to get him,” Bon Bon replied as she clutched Lyra to her barrel. She stroked Lyra. Harper was crying, shrieking now, and making gurgling sounds.

Lyra snatched up the foal in her magic and lifted Harper to her, and the two mares tucked the tiny foal between them as they clung to one another. “I don’t want to remember, Bonnie,” Lyra whined, her voice cracking from pain. “I want to be happy with what I have now and I don’t want to remember,” she gibbered as Bon Bon rocked her back and forth.

Bon Bon gently extricated herself from Lyra. She still felt sick and nauseous and she had trouble walking. Her vision blurred and she saw double. Her sudden movement was too much and she vomited upon the floor. She staggered and tried to not fall into her own puddle of sick. She somehow made her way to the door. She could hear Harper’s ragged cries behind her, and realised the foal must be feeling sick as well.

Bon Bon pulled the door open and made her way into the hall, where she started shouting for a guard, her voice echoing off of the stone walls and reverberating down the hallway. She cried out for several minutes before finally hearing a weak reply, and then cried out that Lyra was sick and Bucky was needed.

The guard replied with a weak shout and then Bon Bon returned to Lyra, to hold the unicorn and try to bring some measure of comfort to the foal.

The pair waited, holding on to one another, both of them weeping, and each of them trying to comfort Harper, who seemed inconsolable. Bon Bon was not sure how much time had passed, but she suspected that everypony was still trying to recover from the effects of the dark magic.

While Bon Bon gently rocked Lyra back and forth, Lyra somehow managed to summon her magical lyre and the soft sounds of comfort filled the room. Harper’s squalling eased; the foal still cried but now they were subsiding.

There was a crackle of blue-green energy and then Bucky suddenly exploded into the room, covering everything with a layer of snow and frost. He crossed the room quickly, mounted the bed, and quickly took both mares into his embrace.

“You’re not sick at all,” Bon Bon whimpered as she snuffled.

“Bucky is too full of darkness,” Lyra explained weakly, her voice a halting screechy sound. “Bucky is darkness…” she added in an almost inaudible whisper.

“I didn’t get sick like the others,” Bucky replied as he pulled them both close. “Is Harper okay?” he inquired.

“She’s okay I think,” Bon Bon whispered in a raspy voice.

Lyra settled into Bucky’s embrace, feeling safe and secure between him and Bon Bon. The horrors in Lyra’s mind began to subside. Lyra came to a terrible conclusion; Bucky was far more terrible than anything that lurked in the dark and she had his love. For a brief moment, she pitied whatever lurked under the mountain, but the feeling died and all she could feel was loathing. “Hold me Bucky,” Lyra begged.

“Lyra Heartstrings, I have you,” Bucky soothed, whispering into the mare’s ear. He could feel Lyra shivering, and couldn’t tell the cause. It could be the fear or the layer of frost and snow in the room. It was an intimate embrace, he practically wore Lyra like a second skin, and had he been aware of the horror that lurked deep within the hidden and long forgotten recesses in Lyra’s mind, he would have marveled at her trust of him. But Bucky knew very little of what Lyra had endured.

Bon Bon felt a rush of relief inspite of all of the horror; something had changed within Lyra, some barrier had been broken down, and Bon Bon was grateful that Lyra had finally let somepony else in. She felt that Lyra’s trust of Bucky was certainly a sign that Lyra was healing and getting better. She did not know or understand any of Lyra’s reasonings, all she saw was the end result. Had Bon Bon knew the truth as to why Lyra felt safe, she might have felt disturbed or at least alarmed.

The door opened and as it did so, Bucky’s horn flared a blue-green light. Derpy came through the door, she was struggling to walk but managing. On her back was Dinky, who did not look well. Behind her was Ripple, who was carrying Piña. Ripple looked as though she was going to fall over at any minute. Rising Star stumbled through the door with Loch Skimmer on his back and he stepped out of the way of the door as Sparkler staggered through the door as though she was drunk.

The herd of ponies shambled through the room, avoided the vomit puddle, and collapsed on the bed, forming a protective pile around the smallest of them all.

“I don’t know where Berry, Sentinel, or Thistle are, and I am worried,” Derpy gasped. “I am so scared,” she whimpered.

“Berry will be fine,” Bon Bon said in a wavering but reassuring voice. “She’s made of iron.”

“Thistle and Sentinel,” Derpy groaned. “I’m going after them,” she announced. She made her way back up to her hooves, flared out her wings to keep her balance, and then shuffled off towards the door. “Ripple, watch my littlest ones. I am leaving them in your care,” Derpy groaned as she made her way to the door.

As Derpy neared the door, Berry Punch came into the door frame with Sentinel on her back. She didn’t look well. She had clearly been sick.

“I feel like I’ve been on a bender,” Berry growled. “Hold on Sentinel, lemme get you to the bed,” she added as she sidestepped Derpy and struggled to not trip over her own hooves.

“I’ll be back with Thistle,” Derpy said resolutely as she slipped through the door.

As Berry approached the bed, Sentinel blew hot chunks all over the floor and down Berry’s side. Berry paid no attention, clearly not bothered by the colt puking his guts out all over her. “Change of plans,” Berry announced. “We’ll just lay on the floor,” she stated as she moved away from the steaming puke puddle. She tumbled to the floor and then pulled Sentinel into her embrace, trying to comfort the visibly ill foal.

“Dinky, Piña, do either of you feel like you are going to be sick?” Bucky inquired.

“I’ve already tossed my cookies,” Dinky groaned.

Piña nodded and curled up into a huddled mass of misery, pressing herself against Ripple, who didn’t look any better.

“I don’t understand what is going on,” Loch said.

“Dark magic,” Bucky said. “Strong dark magic,” he added.

“Lyra’s lyre sounds so soothing,” Ripple moaned.

“Loch, whistle for us,” Bucky requested.

“I can’t,” Loch protested.

“Loch, we need you to whistle for us,” Rising Star begged.

“Whistle a happy tune,” Lyra commanded. “It will help.”

Loch pursed her lips and tried to whistle, making only flatulent spitting sounds. She struggled for a bit, spitting and sputtering, until Rising Star kissed her with as much force and intensity as he could muster. And then, Loch found her song. The first warbling notes came forth and she struggled to find the music within her.

Her song did very little without the voices of nature to amplify it, but it did make her feel better. Loch could feel her own spirits lifting as she tried to push the darkness from her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to form a tune that harmonised with Lyra’s melody. She felt Sparkler embracing her and she could feel the music welling up within her. Loch found her strength and the darkness fled.

Surrounded by her herdmates, Lyra Heartstrings felt a sense of belonging. She nuzzled Bucky and Bon Bon, and then squeezed Harper a little closer to her heart. She had always had trouble connecting to other ponies, always felt distant. Now, something had changed. These were her ponies. Her herd. These were her foals, this was her husband, and these were her fellow-wives, and she knew that she was a part of them just as much as they were a part of her. Lyra in that moment understood Bucky perhaps better than any other pony in her herd. She knew exactly where he drew his immense strength from, his resolution, and his iron will.

Lyra resolved to be the sort of unicorn that her herd deserved. No more holding herself back. No more going half way. No more withholding herself mentally from their affections. It was time to destroy the barriers and let go. Lyra understood that just like Bucky, it was time for her to heal, and she resolved to make some changes.

Author's Notes:

There are worse things that lurk in the dark...

See any typos?