The Mare Who Loved Me (Boncord II)

"I'm ruined!" Rarity called out as she swooned melodramatically. The hustle and bustle of final preparations for her fundraiser filled the Ponyville town hall.

"Rarity!" Princess Celestia called out. "Breathe!" She ordered as she trotted over.

Rarity pulled out a paper bag and hyperventilated into it.

"I know you can handle this." Princess Celestia assured. "Now what's the trouble?"

"I ordered dove colored plates for the buffet!" Rarity lamented as she held up a white plate.

"And?" Princess Celestia stared confoundedly at the plate.

"These are eggshell!" Rarity sobbed.

Princess Celestia burst into laughter.

"Hey!" Lyra called out as she walked up to the scene. "Has anypony seen Candy-Gram?"

"Sorry, darling." Rarity replied with a sniffle as she held back her dramatic tears.

"Oh." Lyra frowned. "She said she was going to stop by during setup to wish me luck."

"Well it's a big crowd. I'm sure she's just been blending in somewhere." Princess Celestia assured.

"Yeah." Lyra sighed.

"It looks like Octavia is late." Rarity said. "So if you've finished setting up already you should still have some time to wander around before the final dress rehearsal." Rarity offered.

"Thanks." Lyra said as she sauntered off. She trotted around the room but found no sign of Candy-Gram "I wonder..." she muttered to herself as she crept out the door and trotted over to the secret entrance behind the town hall.

Lyra retraced her steps from the previous night and found herself confronted by a keypad on the heavy metallic door. The keypad chimed harmoniously as she keyed in a sequence she had remembered seeing Candy-Gram use. The door slid open and then shut behind her as she sauntered in. The facility was lined with advanced looking machinery- conduits and clockwork mechanisms filled much of the space.

"Candy-Gram!?" Lyra called out. Three gruff looking crystal ponies stepped out of the shadows and surrounded her.

"Hey, boss! Looks like we have ourselves an intruder." A crystal stallion called out.

"Lyra! What are you doing here!?" Candy-Gram lectured as she trotted over.

"Wait, what's going on?" Lyra asked with a frown.

Candy-Gram pulled the sunglasses from her face as she stepped close to Lyra- revealing octagonal eye highlights- she, too, was a crystal pony. "When I told you to make sure nopony comes near this facility- that included you." She said ominously.

"You- you're the terrorist." Lyra stammered fearfully. She tried to back away but one of the crystal ponies nudged her back towards Candy-Gram.

"And to thank you for the VIP access to the town hall I offer you a front row seat to the reshaping of Equestria's future.." Candy-Gram said with a maniacal laugh.

"Reshaping the future?" Lyra trembled. "What are you planning to do?"

"Well." Candy-Gram unrolled a crude schematic of the inside of the town hall. "Judging by this seating plan I should be able to reshape the entire political future of Equestria with a single shot from the main cannon."

"You won't get away with this!" Lyra lunged toward Candy-Gram but was held back by the other crystal ponies. "Bon Bon will stop you!"

"Bon Bon?" Candy-Gram chuckled. "Didn't you hear about that train explosion yesterday morning? Agent Sweetie Drops and that little pet of hers were on board."

"No!" Lyra cried.

"Blew themselves sky-high to save the rest of the passengers. At least she died a hero." Candy-Gram taunted.

"Don't count on it!" Bon Bon called out as she descended from the ceiling onto Candy-Gram, knocking her to the floor.

"You called that a trap?" Discord taunted as he dropped down behind Lyra's captures and knocked them over with a swipe of his tail.

"Bon Bon!" Lyra called out in relief as she threw herself at Bon Bon and hugged her tightly.

"All in a days work." Discord said smugly as he stepped toward Candy-Gram.

"Watch out!" Bon Bon called out loudly. Discord was walking towards a circular rune on the ground.

As Discord stepped onto the rune there was a bright-white flash and crystals grew from the floor, binding himself, Lyra and Bon Bon in place.

"A valiant effort." Candy-Gram chuckled as she stood back up onto her hooves. "Pity it was for nothing."

The three other crystal ponies rose to their hooves as well.

"There's a storage room that locks from the outside down this hall." Candy-Gram pointed. "Take our guests there. They might have some resale value in the future."

A metallic clank sounded and the storage room grew dark as their captors shoved them into the storage room and locked the door.

"I should have been more careful." Discord sighed.

"We both got a little over-confident." Bon Bon patted Discord comfortingly.

"You can't give up now!" Lyra cheered on.

"This whole place is built out of anti-magic armor." Bon Bon explained with a grim tone.

"It would take a veritable deus ex machina to get us out of here on time." Discord turned his head down in defeat.

"Not necessarily." The voice of a familiar mare called out. Octavia stepped, out of the darkness of the room, toward the trio.

"Octavia!" Lyra ran over and gave Octavia a hug. "How in Equestria did you get in here?"

"I was worried when you left the rehearsal early last night so I came looking for you. I found that trap door and those crystal ponies captured me and locked me in here." Octavia explained."But I think I know a way out." She added excitedly as she shuffled past the trio and toward the door.

"We're listening." Discord urged her on.

"Well I've had nothing to do but listen to all the sounds of the ponies coming and going from here- punching access codes into those keypads on the doors." Octavia started. "I've heard twelve different tones coming from those keypads."

"Of course!" Lyra burst with excitement.

"I don't think I follow." Bon Bon interjected.

"They use harmonic tones to manipulate the machinery since magic doesn't work in here." Octavia explained.

"So are you saying we're going to sing our way out?" Discord rolled his eyes. "Even if so there must be thousands of possible combinations."

"That's the thing. Every code I've heard is exactly five key-presses. The first and the last note are the same every time." Octavia began explaining.

"And the other three?" Lyra asked excitedly.

"Minor chords." Octavia replied.

"Of course. That narrows it down to only a small number of possibilities since they all have to fall within the same octave!" Lyra gave Octavia another hug. "We just need a musical instrument now."

Discord and Bon Bon stared, perplexed, at each other; long having given up any hope to follow what was going on.

"Luckily, I always bring a spare." Octavia said proudly and with matter-of-fact. When everypony looked at her she was cradling a cello against her body while applying rosin to a bow. "Cross your hooves."

After playing off a salvo of music notes the door to the storage room clanked as the locking mechanism released.

"Good work Agent Melody!" Lyra cheered on.

"Can an emergency recruit recruit another agent like that?" Discord whispered to Bon Bon.

Bon Bon replied with a stare.

"Yes, yes. Section 105 subparagraph B-" Discord started.

"Actually." Bon Bon interrupted. "A misprint put that one in the section on paid sick leave."

Bon Bon peered out the doorway. "Looks like the coast is clear."

As the four agents filed into the hallway the facility began to shake violently and alarms began to sound.

"What's going on!?" Lyra asked in a panic.

"Main cannon will be ready to fire in five minutes." A recording of Cozy Glow's voice echoed through the halls of the facility.

"I think the facility is the weapon platform." Discord pondered.

"We have to get to the control room then!" Bon Bon ordered as she looked over the blueprint. "This way!" She pointed down the hall.

The sound of shattering earth sounded around the facility as it began to jerk, unevenly, as the four raced down the hall to the control room. It was locked. Octavia began playing on her cello until the door unlocked. As they pushed the door they spotted a rune etched into the floor just inside the door.

"I don't know how you got out." Candy-Gram taunted from deep in the room. "But you will never get past that barrier rune."

"She's right." Discord sighed.

"Main cannon ready to fire in two minutes." The recording of Cozy Glow's voice sounded.

Bon Bon and Discord looked at each other. "Grapefruit!" They repeated.

"Grapefruit?" Lyra asked.

"We have to get out of here!" Bon Bon took off down the hall way and the three others followed.

Back at the Ponyville town hall as the crowd gathered Princess Celestia stepped up to a podium and cleared her throat.

"The band is running behind schedule so I thought this would be a great opportunity to make a speech." Celestia spoke as she looked around. Princess Luna was conspicuously circling the room, checking in with her security detail- Rarity was catatonic. Shining Armor and Princess Cadence smiled nervously at the crowd.

Before Princess Celestia could continue the ground began to quake violently.

"What's that!?" A random voice in the crowd called out in a panic.

Princess Celestia breathed a momentary sigh of relief at the diversion. Everypony in the room gathered around near the windows. A gigantic metallic unicorn stepped from a gaping chasm that opened up in the ground a short distance away from the town hall.

"Oh, no!" Another pony screamed as the crowd began to panic.

Discord, Bon Bon, Lyra and Octavia leaped out through a hatch on the underbelly of the giant unicorn and began scrambling toward the town hall.

"Sweet Celestia!" A random bystander in the crowd called out. "This is just like that time a fifty hoof tall GammaWyvern attacked Manehattan!"

"It was only ten hoofs tall!" Discord shouted back. "Grapefruit!" He shouted. Bon Bon began shouting it as well. Octavia and Lyra shrugged at each other and joined in.

The giant unicorn stopped and began leveling it's horn toward the town hall and arcs of magical energy began to crackle red all around it.

"What's going on out there?" Shining Armor asked Princess Cadence, who stepped over to the window to look out.

"There's a giant mechanical unicorn coming this way and some ponies are yelling 'grapefruit'?" Cadence answered.

Something popped in Shining Armor's mind as Cadence uttered the word 'grapefruit'.

School of Friendship Semester 1 - Crystal Empire Field Trip.

"Grapefruit!" Cozy Glow called out as she pulled a lever attached to a storm cloud. It sent a painful jolt of electricity into Shining Armor who was tied down to a slab nearby in a dark, forgotten, room in the disused dungeon of the Crystal Palace. "Professor Twilight was right! This is the funnest field trip, ever!"

"Why are you doing this to me!?" Shining Armor pleaded.

"Grapefruit!" Cozy Glow called out as she administered another electric shock. "Because you just never know when a brainwashed unicorn who can erect an energy shield powerful enough to protect an entire kingdom will serve your needs!" She squeaked gleefully.

"Please just let me go!" Shining Armor pleaded.

"Don't worry. We have plenty of time to hang out before I have to meet back up with the other students." Cozy Glow said joyfully as she pressed her hooves against her cheeks.

"Leave me alone!" Shining Armor shouted angrily as a surge of magic solidified into a shield spell and shattered the walls of the town hall just as the unicorn fired a powerful blast at the town hall. The two magical blasts met in a blinding flash of light and Shining Armor fell to the floor in a daze.

"Shining!" Cadence called out as she knelt beside Shining Armor.

"Is he alright?" Princess Celestia asked as she caught up.

"That one blast took every bit of his magic to stop." Cadence said in an ominous tone of disbelief.

Discord and Bon Bon watched the spectacular display of the cannons power with absolute awe. They looked back toward the giant unicor- at the eyes, which were windows to the control room. They could see frustration in Candy-Gram's eyes.

"According to the design specs she'll be able to fire again in five minutes." Bon Bon said with dread as she looked over to Discord.

"I somehow doubt Shining Armor has another one of those left." Discord sighed.