She was sitting in her room, it was just another day, and she had just gotten home from school. She looked out her window to see the Canterlot Castle perched above, gleaming in the sun. She threw her bag on the floor and laid down on her bed and listened to her mother playing her harp. She laid with her eyes closed, and started to drift off to sleep. It had been so long since she had heard her mother play. The notes seemed to heavy the air, the sound pressed down on her gently as she began to doze off. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light followed by an odd, nearly metallic, boom. Lyra sprang up, startled.

“Mommy! Are you okay?” Lyra ran to the living room where she saw he mother looking curiously out the window “I thought something had happened to you!” Her mother turned to look at her.

“Lyra, it’s alright! I’m fine, but I wonder what it was?” She asked with a quizzical expression.

“What do you think it was?” The young filly pressed.

They pondered what it could have been, until they heard a disturbance high up in Celestia’s castle. It sounded as though the roof had been blown off of the whole palace. They both rushed to the window and looked out. Everything in the room began shifting shapes, chairs turning into pies, tables springing to life, books flapping like birds about the room. Her mother’s harp began spinning vigorously in the air, emitting a golden light. She heard a crumbling noise and the next ten seconds seemed to last a thousand years. The roof sagged slowly and cracked, and finally gave under the pressure; the look of fear on her mother’s face was forever burned into her mind. A piece of the castles roof fell slowly, slowly onto her mother, everything was a blur, all sounds seemed to be muffled as she watched her mother’s bottom half become crushed by the sheer weight of the roof.

“Mommy!” She cried, “Mommy! Are you okay?!” She heard her voice echo in her head.

“ I don’t…think so…” She coughed harshly. Red trickled from her mouth.

“What do you mean? No…this can’t be happening…No! “

Her mother lay there, with a blank face, she said;

“Lyra... My harp… It’s all I have to give you; I want you to know that I’m sorry for everything, for not being here for you, for lying to you…” She reeled for breath, and spoke softly.

“Lying to me? Mommy what are you talking about? Please don’t leave me!” She was now sobbing over her injured mother, tears ran down her face and dripped onto her mane.

“Your father…he…he died. It was an accident, he was one of the greatest fliers, he knew not of his own talent, alwa..ways pushing himself to hard.” Her mother’s eyes seemed to look past her, somewhere distant. Tears welled in her eyes.

She couldn’t help but feel anguish as the words surged through her head. After all these years thinking her father just left them, now only to find she there was no chance to see him again.

“D-Don’t be angry my child, he loved you very much and would be very proud of you. I love you my sw-sweet Lyra,” her head lost all support from her neck, and she lay limp underneath the fallen roof. The tears freed themselves from her eyes and spattered the once brown, but now crimson floor beneath her.

“Mother! You can’t do this! You can’t leave me here like this! You are the only thing I have left mommy…please…” she didn’t know what to do, her only reason in this life to carry on was now removed. So many things were running through her mind.

She ran out of the house in hopes to escape the pain. She ran away for hours and collapsed from exhaustion in a strange forest she had never seen. She had never left Canterlot before, so when she finally became aware of her surroundings she was completely terrified. Running back the way she came, she soon found she was lost. There was still about three hours left in the day, but the forest was so dense the light barely showed through. Crying, she sat in the shade and hoped this was all a dream.

She woke up underneath a tree, it was dark out, but it looked as though dawn was close to breaking. She wondered if she had indeed dreamt yesterday up, but the memories were still too real, even if they had a dream-like sense about them. She walked around for a while, looking for a sign that might lead her back home, or at least what was left of it. She no longer had a roof, or a family. She had no friends and school didn’t seem to matter to her anymore. She was broken, lost, and depressed. She found her way to a clearing and laid down on her back in the grass, she looked up at the morning stars and wondered if there was even a point in going home.

…

She lived in the forest for about a week, living off of any food she could gather. Lyra was in rough shape. She hadn’t brushed her mane since the day she left or even taken a bath. The water she found she would save to drink, she need not dirty it up and waste it. It had been a normal day so far, that is, a normal day for a filly who lives in the forest. She laid around a while, drank some water, ate a few berries and blades of grass. She was lying in the clearing she now called her home when she saw two Pegasus ponies fly overhead carrying a chariot behind them.

“Huh,” she thought aloud. “They looked like two of Princess Celestia’s guards.”

She brushed off the incident and reclined back into the grass as she watched the clouds overhead. The two Pegasus ponies darted past her vision again, this time circling above her, gradually descending.

“Wh…what’s going on?” She hadn’t had any communication for the last seven days, so she got into the habit of talking with herself.

The ponies landed halfway across the clearing and she approached them cautiously.

“Princess Celestia requests your audience. We are gravely sorry for your loss.” How do they know about what happened? She thought.

“No, I live here, this is my home!” She was devastated from what happened and didn’t plan on going back now, or ever.

“Lyra, you must come with us, Princess Celestia orders it.”

“Am I leaving even if it takes you pushing me into that chariot?”

“Yes.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“I’m sorry but you have to go, regardless of personal choice.”

She reluctantly trotted onto the chariot, and they took off. She had never flown before and it would have been an exhilarating experience, if she wasn’t numb from the past week.

She arrived back at her hometown. Feelings of grief washed over her as she walked towards the palace. Once inside she looked around at the magnificent castle, she would be overwhelmed at this point, if her mother hadn’t died from a piece of what she is standing in. The two Pegasus ponies lead her towards the throne, through huge intricate doors encrusted with precious gemstones and embroideries of Celestia. The gigantic doors opened and at the end of the corridor the Princess sat in a huge throne in a room filled with the air of regality.

“Welcome Lyra, I am sorry for you loss. There was an...Accident with a young pupil of mine in the castle, Saung was a neighbor of mine for many years, and she could truly play the harp better than anypony I have ever met.”

“HAD ever met,” Lyra corrected her. “And she was my mother my whole life, being her neighbor doesn’t mean anything, I was her daughter,” she was tearing up. “And you probably have never heard her play! At least not for real, she used to play for me when I just a filly, she played for me, she never played for anyone but me and herself, and she loved me, and you had to go and kill her!” She began to weep. Her mind was irrational and quick to conclude.

“Lyra please, I know it’s difficult, I understand what you are going through, so I want to offer you something. I know you will not accept it just yet, but when you are ready you may have it.”

“Unless it’s my mother, alive, I don’t want it…” she turned her back to the Princess.

“I am offering you a room here in the castle, to live in for as long as you want. You do not have to accept but the offer is always there. If you feel you are ready, you may have my guards escort you to your old house, collect your things, and maybe get some closure on this situation you’re in. This is a lot for you to handle at your age, but I hope you can understand that I am only trying to help you.”

“Can I still visit my house if I don’t accept right away?” She sniffles and turns her head to face Celestia.

“Of course you can.” Celestia smiles at her and nods at the guards to lead the way.

She follows close behind the guards as they take her back to the place she had dreaded for the last week. She knows it is going to be hard, but she must do it, she has to be a grown pony about this.

They arrived at her house and she felt as if she’s about to cry.

“No.” she tells herself and stands up straight, “No more being a coward, I need to take care of myself now, I’m not a child anymore.” She took a deep breath and walked through the cracked front door.

Inside she saw the house she used to live in. No rubble (besides the settled dust from the initial accident), no roof, no mother. She surveyed the room sorrowfully and proceeded into her room. On her bed laid something she had never seen. It’s a golden device, with seven strings.

“Uhm...during the…incident…many things in the castle and surrounding areas were transformed, everything had seemed to turn back after the…incident, but your mothers harp was changed. This thing was found next to Saung when we came in after everything happened. It seems as if the magic was contained in the harp during the transformation, and it never changed back to its original form. ” one of the guards explained.

She approached the instrument, she saw the distorted reflection of herself in it and she picked it up using her magic. A burst of fervor pulsed throughout her body, from the tip of her tail to the end of her nose. She was lifted into the air by her horn as the golden tool circled around her. Her eyes began to glow a bright white as years of information poured into her about this little apparatus she had never seen. It began orbiting her faster as she floated higher. Melodies she had heard somewhere before encompassed her completely and she began playing with them in harmony. The feeling was inexplicable. It circled her at such speeds that she appeared to be in a golden sphere floating in mid-air. The melodies took on a more metallic voice and she played as if she had done this her whole life. She could feel her mother, she was in that instrument, the music quieted and for one last time she heard her mother’s voice;

“Lyra, play this lyre, my harp has been transformed for you to make your own music out of my instrument, I will always be with you as long as you stay with your lyre. I love you, and never forget that.” She fell to the ground on her hooves and stood for a moment, in utter shock.

“Miss…are you alright?” inquired a guard “Do you need to sit down?” the other asked in concern.

“No, tell Princess Celestia I will be moving in this afternoon, to a room with good acoustics, I have a lot of work to do.” Levitating her recently found connection to her mother in front of her, she walked out of the house towards the castle, sporting a newly established lyre on her flank.