She has departed from Canterlot.
After saving the city that has deemed her a hero.
She has decided to leave all of it behind, the praise and the reverence.
To return home, With a dear and valuable friend.
In the Everfree Forest, the duo embark back to their home. to the quaint, quiet, and tranquil town of Ponyville. Their adventure in Canterlot had finally ended. Lyra had rid the city of the evil that threatened it, She mounted her saddlebag that contained her lyre, and a mighty sword sheathed on her back, the same she used in her adventure. Her and Bonbon are ready to return home to resume their quiet lives again. The atmosphere was very desolate in the forest, With all to be heard was the crowing of some kind of birds that dwelled among the tall, looming trees. Moss and lichen covered the stumps and logs that were around the floor, with the occasional fungi growing on them, The ground was entirely green, with not a single area barren of any sort of plant life, with the patches of blue Poison Joke grass scattered here and there. Lyra and Bonbon trotted lightly and slowly towards the direction to Ponyville, there was no words exchanged, perhaps because there was nothing to be said until they returned home. As they progressed deeper into the forest, daylight began to grow more and more dim, the trees acting like a veil for sunlight to pass through.
The silence endured for some time, Until a change of course occurred. A loose branch on of the trees broke from its host and plummeted down onto Lyra and Bonbon, knocking them both unconscious. They both awoke some time later, How much precisely can't be established, since what might have seemed like hours of slumber for them was only around a few minutes. Lyra awoke to the noise of somepony playing an instrument. It sounded all too familiar to her, she identified it without even having to look. Somepony was playing her Lyre. She picked herself up and looked to see who the stranger was and why He or She took was playing her instrument. When the blur finally left her glazed eyes, she saw the culprit. It was another pony, An Earth Pony with a pink coat, and a puffy magenta mane. The ponies Cutie Mark was three balloons, The two at the bottom were blue, and the one at the top was yellow. She giggled softly with each note she played on the Lyre. The mysterious pony must have heard Lyra waking up and nervously turned to face her.
"Ah! Oh, Uh...Hee hee, I was just- uh, looking at this instrument I found on you and," She frantically claimed.
Lyra observed her thief some more, now being able to see the front of her, and noticed she could not see the ponies face, Instead she donned a very strange-looking mask, the upper right portion of it was slightly cracked and seemed to be missing a portion of it, almost like it had broken off, exposing the pink ponies right ear. The eyes were very odd. The rim of them were black, the outer iris was yellow, and the pupils were blood red, but she was still able to see through it, It would seem. It had a dark blue arcing streak that started near the top of the mask and ran down, ending at, then starting again pass the left eye and then ran down to the left side. There was three indentations underneath the right eye, creating three diamond shaped holes. There was some kind of illegible writing, that outlined the outer rim of the mask. The base color for the rest of the mask was a deep purple, It was somewhat of a heart shape. And it had multicolored spikes adorned on the outside of it, One on each upper portion of the mask, and three jutting diagonally on the bottom of each side.
Bonbon awoke several seconds later, rubbing her head with her hoof. She also fixed her eyes upon the strange mask-wearing pony in front of them as well.
"Ow- What the...Huh? Who are you," Bonbon asked, surprised.
The pony did not answer them, She still levitated the Lyre in the air. Oddly enough, this didn't seem possible, considering she was not a Unicorn, so how was she performing such a feat? She seemed so familiar to the two of them, As if they have seen her before, but with the mask shrouding their face they couldn't determine who she was. But one thing was clear to the two of them. Whoever she was, Her intentions were not to give what she held back to them. She was a thief, who stumbled upon her next victims. Lyra began to trot back and prepared to lunge at the thief, but just as she did she leaped back, turned away from them and galloped down through the forest.
"We have to catch her Lyra! Hurry and let's go," Bonbon said, as she began chasing after the culprit, Lyra nodded and followed, quickly running pass her friend, now leading the way.
The Pink thief was keeping up good pace, keeping her distance from her two victims, She began to gallop much further from their sight, thinking she lost them, before they quickly caught up with her again. The three ponies galloped as fast as they could, storming through the forest, swerving pass trees and jumping over the logs and patches of Poison Joke grass, that littered the floor throughout the wild goose chase.
Finally, they met what seemed to be a small mock version of a amphitheater in the woods. They didn't see their culprit anymore, just stumps of trees, that lined with each other, and elevated higher off the ground with each one until leading up to a large, wide, tree. A small platform of large fungal mushrooms jutted out from it, and it lead into a hollowed portion of the tree, almost like an entrance.
"We were keeping up good pace with her, so we couldn't have lost sight of her. She must have gone in there! Come on Lyra," Bonbon motioned, leaping onto the stumps.
Lyra followed as well, watching their balance as they hopped to each higher stump until reaching the fungus platform and entering the dark entrance. Who knows where it could have lead? For all they know, it could all be a trap planned out by the thief. They both galloped in, temporarily throwing caution to the wind, until meeting a dead end, but before they could stop, they plummeted down into the deep chasm to who knows where. they both yelped with terror, As they descended further down, the temperature began to drop. It could be determined that there must have been water at the bottom, with the height at which they were falling, there was no way they wouldn't get hurt. That was until they landed on two clouds floating right above the water. They jumped off the clouds onto the land that cut off the small area of water. It was very dark within the tree.
"Where are we? And why is there clouds inside this tree? And how were we able to stand on them," Bonbon asked, confused of the situation.
Suddenly, lights turned on within the tree, revealing the room. It was a small area within the tree. The area of water where they would have fell to their demise was behind them, there was small bushels of Poison Joke grass on each side, It was unestablished where the lighting was coming from, but before Lyra and Bonbon could ponder that, they looked to the center and saw their thief levitating, There was a purple Parasprite floating around near her.
"What the hay? How are you flying if you're just an Earth Pony! And where did those clouds come from," Bonbon demanded to know.
"Geez, you ask so many questions! Why not just sit back and relax? Fine, I'll tell you, I made those clouds for you two to land on, And I also put a spell on them that would let you be able to walk on them, so you wouldn't just fall through! I can't let you two die just yet, we've only started having fun! Tee hee," the pink purloiner explained.
"You're crazy! There's no way an Earth Pony can do all that! Don't mess with us, Just give us back Lyra's Lyre and leave us alone!"
"Hee hee. I'm not crazy, I've been able to do lots of things recently! Things normal Earth Ponies can't ever do alone! I used to wish I could do things my friends could do, like fly and use magic, and now I can, and so much better," She bragged about her abilities.
"Friends!? hah! Who would ever be friends with a no good thief and prankster like you," Bonbon scoffed.
"Goodness! that's not very nice. What mean ponies the two of you are. Mean ponies like you should just go away, and let the rest of us have fun! I know though! I know a good way to have fun with you two, just watch what I'll do to your friend,"
She claimed, fixing her gaze upon Lyra, the masks cold stare set on Lyra. The mask began to rattle back and forth, almost as if it had a life of its own.
Lyra could feel something happening within her, physically and mentally, The masked pony was doing something, and whatever it was, it was not good. Lyra fell unconscious once more, and began to dream. It was a pitch black room and she thought she was alone in it, Until she saw something. A bunny, One bunny with her in the darkness of her dream. She looked down to eye contact with him, But it only gave a angered expression on its face, One of Spite and Hatred. She wondered what it could mean. That was until she met another bunny in the dark. It looked exactly the same. A snow white coat, with the same expression upon his face. Eventually more and more of the same bunny began to appear, slowly walking towards Lyra, crowding her, until she curled up for space. She got up and broke a line through and galloped away from them, but no matter how far she got she could still hear them follow her. The patting of their feet, Still patting, ever increasing, until it became a loud thud with each step. She kept running, running into the dark abyss of her dream, Until finally waking up.
"Lyra!"
Lyra was no Unicorn anymore, she felt something different. The world seemed a bit larger to her. She turned to Bonbon who was much taller, and she could not feel her horn on top of her head. She turned to the water to see her reflection, and what she saw horrified her. A small snow white colored creature was what she saw in her reflection, it was not who she was. How could this have happened? It wasn't possible.
Bonbon turned to her friend and saw what she became. She was not a Unicorn anymore, She became a bunny. A helpless, pathetic creature, she watched in horror, and angered she turned back to the masked pony.
"What did you do!? You monster! Change her back now! You won't get away with this," She shouted angrily.
"Hahaha! That's hilarious! Come on, being a bunny isn't bad, why It's the best for boring ponies like you two, right Spike," the pink pony said, laughing heartily at the outcome of her twisted humor.
"Change her back now! You're a freak! If pranks like this are what you think is fun, There's no way you have friends," Bonbon shouted.
The Masked Pony stopped laughing almost instantly after hearing that last thing Bonbon had said. She turned her attention away from Lyra, who was still shaking frantically over her transformation.
"My pranks are fun, I hate when ponies say they aren't. You're annoying, maybe I need to teach you a lesson," She said, desolate in any tone, merely a blank voice, as if she had lost any humor she found in the situation.
The mask rattled again, this time facing Bonbon, who began to shiver and shake. She could feel it. Her body was shrinking to a pitiful size, her hooves and legs vanished, and her miniature body morphed spherical, and she grew small insect wings. She glowed with a creme colored hue, Now Lyra was bigger than her, even as a bunny. She looked to the water to see the reflection. That monster had transformed her into a Parasprite.
"No! What have you done to me," She said in a meager, low voice, due to her new form.
"Hee hee hee! Now you're both pathetic! This is just too funny! It's great having fun with new ponies, I'm lucky I ran into you," She said, giggling menacingly.
"Awwww...Why the sad faces? I just wanted to have some fun with you two is all, I always want to make ponies smile! I am the Element of Laughter, after all...But oh well, I guess you can't make everyone happy, Stay here if you want, I don't care, In a couple of days it won't matter where you go. I'm done playing with you two," She claimed, floating out of the room, still having her gaze fixed on her two victims of her sick humor.
Bonbon flew to Lyra.
"Come on Lyra, we can't stay here forever, even if we got transformed, There has to be some way to reverse it! Somepony has to know how. Let's get out of here, If we follow the way that thief went, We might make it back to the surface."
Lyra regained her composure, and gave a nod to Bonbon's proposition. She knew as well that it was pointless to stand around there and do nothing, And she also had to get her Lyre back from that Pink thief. They proceeded to follow the trail marked by their assailant and went around the corner as well, until reaching large tree stumps again, that connected each other, and led to another dark entrance.
"Looks like that's the way out. Careful not to fall Lyra, Who knows how far down it goes..."
Lyra jumped from stump to stump, cautious to keep her balance and not fall off, If she did, It would be all over. She managed to make it to the platform at the end, But they both noticed something strange they couldn't see when they were on the other side. It was a statue, or at least what they could believe to be one, of a bunny. Something about it's captured pose though was very odd. It held one of its paw above its head, almost as if shielding itself from something, and its facial expression was sorrowful, almost as if it did not wish to be sculpted so.
Bonbon took a good look at the statue, floating around it, studying every detail.
"Hmmm...What an odd looking statue, It sort of looks like you do right now, But the expression and the way its posed, It just looks so sad, Poor thing."
After that quick exhibit, The duo proceeded to go into the fray, and take, what they assumed to be the exit, out of the tree labyrinth, but when they entered and saw what was ahead, It was by far the strangest thing they had seen, aside from the masked pony and the bunny statue. It was a small corridor that lead to another exit, but unlike most places, the corridor was warped and twisted, from the floor to the ceiling.
"Whoa! What the hay is with this room? It's all trippy looking, Do you think that masked pony did this?"
As they basked in the strangeness of the room, realization came back to them, that there was no time to be in awe over a strange room, so they went through the odd corridor, Lyra trying her best to hold her balance on the uneven floor, making it to the other side. Oddly enough, the further down they went down, the more even and straightened out the corridor became, eventually turning into a normal, straight room. When they made it to the end and went through the exit, they were amazed at the new room. It seemed to be the bottom of a building. Large cogs and clockwork gears bustled around them, with small water ducts to cool off the gears splashed as the mechanisms bumped against the liquid, As they were enthralled by the room, the door of the corridor behind closed shut with two large doors, with a clockwork cog symbol inscribed upon it.
There was no going back now. A staircase was just ahead past some of the gears, and they went to exit the room, Until they heard hoofsteps behind them, who else could be there, and how long were they following them?
"You have met with a terrible fate, But fear not, for it is not too late."
