What does brown discharge INSTEAD (not at the end, but at the beginning) of my period mean?

So I am on birth control and have been for almost a year and this has never happened. I usually have unprotected sex while on birth control, but for the last month I have been with a new guy and I had a complication with the pill about three or more weeks ago that i had to start a new pack a week early, so I used condoms (also to protect against STDs). Yesterday, I was expecting my period and right on schedule (usually comes mid-day and this time it did), it came. But it was brown and light flow (I usually have a heavy to medium flow within the first two days and it becomes lighter). I have had no pain in my abdomen, I haven't had sex since last week so I don't know if it hurts when I have sex (signs of an infection), no funky smell, and no fever or vomiting or itchiness. Just alarmingly brown discharge INSTEAD of my period. Very light flow and very brown, the clots are fairly sized and not too big. No red in them at all, not even a little (perhaps yesterday for the first pad exchange there was a little, but overall just really dark brown). Maybe a condom broke, is this the early signs of pregnancy like I've been reading? Maybe this is normal! Maybe this is an ovarian cyst (they sometimes show no symptoms and can only be detected with an ultrasound). Can like a medical professional or a nurse comment on what it can be? I don't have much money right now and can't go to my gynecologist.