The Strangers in Ponyville

Chapters

A Stranger in the House
What Was Said
Friends and Strangers
Face Off
Keeping Your Tack
What Nymphs Want
The Other Stranger
What Ponies Believe In
Everything Is Going to Be Fine
The Shape of Things to Come
In Defense

A Stranger in the House

By the time Lyra Heartstrings of Ponyville finished her evening practice and walked up the stairs of her house, it was well after ten o’clock at night. As she turned from the top of the stairs towards the hallway that led to the rest of the second story rooms, she spied Bon Bon, whom she shared the house with, stepping out of the bathroom. “And my timing is perfect,” she declared as she approached, Bon Bon looking towards her with a small smile.

She just started opening her mouth to speak when a firm knock on the front door downstairs captured the attention of both mares.

“At this hour?” Lyra asked no one in particular, casting a glance over her shoulder. “All I want to do is brush my teeth and go to bed!”

“So brush them, Lyra. I’ll see who it is,” Bon Bon said, stepping past Lyra and towards the stairs. As she did, Lyra got a face full of hair from a playful swat of her tail. With a giggle, Lyra set forth and entered the bathroom, her magic sweeping up her toothbrush and the toothpaste and squeezing out a perfect pea-sized glob onto the bristles.

The sudden pronouncement of a loud ‘bang!’ sent Lyra rushing down the stairs, toothbrush discarded in the sink. “Bon Bon! Bon Bon, what happened?!” she shouted. The scene that greeted her in the living room was both what she did and did not expect to see: Nothing was on fire and no furniture was visibly damaged, but the windows facing out towards the street where completely smashed, there was a large black mark on the wooden floor, and the front door was wide opened. The level of light outside was far in excess of what Ponyville’s firefly lamps were capable of producing, and she could hear the sounds of struggle.

Without wasting a second, Lyra ran outside, noting as almost an afterthought the presence of two light-emitting orbs floating lazily in the air, casting a harsh, blue-white glow over everything. There were four ponies outside: An earth pony with a dark green coat and light brown mane, a pegasus with a grey violet coat and grey mane, a unicorn with a light grey coat and light red mane, and a second earth pony with a light brown coat and dark brown mane. All of them wore padded barding and bandoliers festooned with alchemical phials and even some daggers, and looked sufficiently dangerous.

And pinned to the ground underneath the light brown earth pony with an arm held around her back and a hoof mashed into her head was Bon Bon, lip split opened and bleeding and teeth bared as she visibly resisted being restrained.

“Hey! Let her go!” Lyra shouted, drawing the attention of the dark green earth pony and the unicorn.

“For the last time!” Bon Bon shouted, trying to turn her face away from the ground. “This isn’t seven-forty-two Evergreen Terrace!”

“What’s going on out here?!” one of the neighbor’s shouted, looking out their window.

“Stay inside, citizen, this doesn’t concern you,” the pegasus shouted back, although it was only a loud enough shout to be heard.

“Yes it does! Get off her!” Lyra shouted and she approached them before her path was blocked by the dark green earth pony. More lights appeared in windows as the noise started attracting more attention. A few doors opened and some neighbors looked outside. A few stepped out to investigate.

“We are lettered bounty hunters in the middle of arresting a changeling! Stand back and let us work!” the unicorn ordered. His horn lit up with yellow magic as he looked around at the ponies who had come outside. Those ponies started murmuring until they were silenced.

“Let her go! She’s not a changeling!” Lyra shouted, trying to get around the earth pony blocking her path. “She’s not a changeling!”

“Yeah, we’d know!” someone else shouted after, and in moments, a cacophony of voices spoke up in agreement. The barely restrained shimmer of magic from the unicorn’s horn was all that kept the meager crowd from drawing closer, but even more lights were appearing in windows and more ponies were stepping outside. The dark green earth pony stepped back from Lyra and drew closer to his partners, who in turn drew closer together around Bon Bon.

Unseen by anyone, the colt known as Button Mash slipped past the crowd as galloped as fast as he could down the streets that, given enough time, would give way to the road to Hoofington.

“A changeling copies the appearance and mannerisms of an innocent, and copies them perfectly!” the unicorn shouted, the field around his horn pulsing brightly with his emphasis as he did. “Without a proper detection, you would never know!”

“That isn’t true!” Lyra shouted again. “No changeling copies anything perfectly! That’s a lie!”

At once, the unicorn’s full attention was on Lyra. “It is true! I am an expert on changelings!”

“I am a changeling!” Lyra was consumed in a flash of green flames, and when they cleared, there was a changeling standing in her place. She had Lyra’s mane and tail, and she had Lyra’s eyes — even if the pupils were slitted like a dragon’s — but she was unmistakably a changeling. Aside from a few gasps from the other Ponyvillians, silence was all that was heard, every pair of eyes was firmly focused on Lyra Heartstrings.

“S-see? I’m the changeling, and she’s not, s-so you have to let her go, ok?!” Lyra shouted. “You have to let —”

Lyra was cut short as as the unicorn’s horn discharged and a bolt of magic struck her in the chest with enough force to send her flying head over haunch and onto the ground, gasping for breath. The sound from the magic burst sent her neighbors scrambling backwards in fright.

“Lyra!” Bon Bon shouted.

“Keep her down!” the unicorn shouted. The dark green earth pony sprang into action faster than anyone else and was on Lyra in a moment. When she tried to sit up, he raised a hoof and punch her hard across the jaw, sending her back to the ground, and then stomped on her arm before throwing his weight on her, pinning her down. She cried out as her face was pressed into the ground. Her neighbors recoiled.

“Hey, that’s too rough! That’s excessive!” one of the stallions shouted, taking a step forward. “That’s excessive force!”

The unicorn trotted over with his horn aglow, brandishing it towards the objecting stallion and the few other ponies who had started to follow him, stopping them all cold. “Stay back,” he ordered, and they complied by taking several steps away.

An electric ‘pop!’ sounded — just below the volume of the crowd — followed immediately by the earth pony pinning Bon Bon down yelping — well above the volume of the crowd — and rapidly hopping off his prisoner. The instant the weight was off of her, she placed both her front hooves on the ground and swung upwards as if she were on a spring-loaded plank, slamming the back of her head into the bounty hunter’s nose. As he recoiled away, she planted her back hooves and thrust out a front towards the pegasus’ face, twisting it like a corkscrew at the moment of impact. The pegasus was sent reeling and his brain bounced around in his skull before he dropped to the ground as if his strings were cut: An instant knockout.

Like lightning, Bon Bon faced towards the unicorn as he cast a spell. Still on two hooves, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, and the incoming magical bolt split apart scant inches before it struck her, its matrix disintegrated. Uncrossing her arms, she slammed both front hooves into the earth, and every earth pony present felt an electric tingle in their hooves as a thick cloud of dust filled the air around Bon Bon, obscuring her and the earth pony that had just recovered from having his nose smashed. Bon Bon bounded towards him — another bolt of magic barely missing her — once and then twice, landing on the bounty hunter’s back and tumbling across the ground with him. When she sprang back to her hooves, the hunter went with her, both standing on two legs, and she with her arms under one of his and around his neck in a chokehold. Leveraging her momentum again, she backpedaled and dragged her hostage with her, moving across the street, neighbors scattering as they went.

“Halt!” the unicorn shouted, horn shining with charged magic again. He and the remaining earth pony chased after the retreating Bon Bon and her hostage, the former of whom kept wheeling the latter around to keep him in between herself and danger. After a few moments, she did stop retreating when her back nearly against the house opposite of hers, but maintained her chokehold. For a moment, her eyes were drawn towards the sky, and then they moved back to the two ponies who were moving slightly to one side of the other and then back as possible avenues of approach were observed and then discarded.

“We don’t want to fight, so just let him go,” the unicorn said again. “We know it’s nothing personal, you’re just under the changeling’s control.”

“I’m not under anypony’s control, and more importantly, I’m not going to fight you. I don’t need to fight you,” Bon Bon replied. “I just need to distract you for another two or three seconds.”

Both bounty hunters stared at her dumbly for two seconds, and on the third, a blue blur slammed into the earth pony’s flank, driving him into the unicorn, and driving them both into the wall of one of the cottages, smashing visible cracks into the wall. It was only when both of them fell to the ground gasping for air that the blur resolved itself into Rainbow Dash. “Hold up my town, will you?” she remarked.

Bon Bon shifted her hold on the hunter she still maintained control of. He began to struggle and flail his free arm, but his movements rapidly slowed and he became still, brain choked of oxygen. Bon Bon laid him down on the ground as Dash gave the unicorn another thump, disrupting the spell matrix he’d been trying to form.

Not five seconds later, an entire cohort of Royal Guards, led by Twilight Sparkle, the rest of Rainbow’s friends and a disguised Driftwood came charging into the square moments later, following after a madly galloping Button Mash. Twilight and her immediate company moved towards Dash, while the pegasi of the Guard separated and began flying patrols over the town. The rest of the cohort spread apart and divided itself between crowd control (although most of the crowd present was too stunned to need much controlling) and arresting the four bounty hunters, even though only two of them were in any condition to put up any resistance.

Before she even reached Rainbow Dash, Twilight saw Bon Bon and took to the air so suddenly that everyone following her stumbled over themselves trying to change direction. “Bon Bon, what happened?!” she asked as she touched down hard. “Oh my goodness, you’re bleeding!”

Bon Bon raised a hoof and wiped the trickle of blood from her split lip. “I’m hurt much more than I’m injured. Lyra’s very much the opposite,” she replied.

Twilight followed her gaze to the changeling curled up on the ground with two Guards standing watch over her, and then charged over, hooves stomping furiously. “Where’s Lyra?” she demanded. Her horn ignited and her magical field blazed around the changeling’s head, forcing her to look Twilight directly in the eyes. “Where’s Lyra Heartstrings?! What have you done with her?!”

“Twilight, what in Harmony’s name are you doing?!” demanded Bon Bon as she came up behind Twilight.

The alicorn whirled around to face her, ears pinned back and teeth bared. “It knows where Lyra is! It has to, and I’m finding her!” she shouted.

“It isn’t even close to that, Princess,” Bon Bon growled. “You have no idea what is happening.” She ground her hoof in the smallest fraction of a circle against the ground, moving the back of it imperceptibly closer to Twilight.

Twilight stomped forward one step. “And what is happening? How would you know? Maybe you’re a changeling too! Why don’t I —”

Twilight stopped suddenly, the anger leaving her face and a plain expression of neutrality replacing it. She turned away from Bon Bon and looked right, and then left, where she saw her Sergeant-at-arms looking back at her, horn awash in apricot-colored magic. “Thank you, Sergeant,” Twilight said calmly, receiving a nod in reply, the magic aura winking out of existence. Twilight looked at Bon Bon again — Bon Bon looking back skeptically — and then at the changeling posing as Lyra, and then around at the rest of her Guards, her friends, the bounty hunters, and then townsfolk, each of them watching her right back.

“Lieutenant Mash, please send the detainees to be processed, assign some of your Guards to assess damage and injuries and to collect statements, and assign one of your medics to look over this changeling,” Twilight said.

“By your command, Princess,” Rye Mash replied. The beige-grey earth pony took quick stock of his surrounding, and began issuing the appropriate orders.

Twilight looked over her shoulder. “Driftwood, Rarity, you two have the most experience with changelings out of any of us. Please assist the medic,” she said. Neither provided a reply other than a nod before they hurried away to provide what help they could.

“Girls, I’d like all of you to follow us to the barracks, at least until I’m sure there aren’t any surprises,” Twilight said to the rest of her close friends, not waiting for any response before she turned to address the crowd at large. “Everypony else, please give a brief statement to the Guards about what happened before you go home. I’ll have an emergency meeting with Mayor Mare in the morning, and we will have an address to give to you by the afternoon.”

Again, Twilight turned without waiting for a response and started walking away from the square. Too shellshocked to do anything else, the Ponyvillians offered what information they could while the Princess, her friends, and shortly Bon Bon, Rarity, Driftwood, Lyra and a few Guards left the scene behind.

Author's Note

This was one of the chapters that was the primary hold-up, combined with busy life circumstances. I started writing this story in October of 2017.

Here we are at last.

Somehow, I still managed to slip in a small joke.

What Was Said

After Twilight Sparkle became both an alicorn and a Princess, it was decided that homey as it may have been, the Golden Oaks Library was not an appropriate venue to receive dignitaries or host state functions. A series of discussions and compromises led to the addition of five new oaks around the library, expanding the grounds to combine royal estate with public park. Although four of the five oaks had been enchanted and hollowed, only one served as the barracks for Ponyville’s single Guard cohort, and it sat largely empty: Three of the four sections composing the cohort were still conducting interviews out in the streets, while the fourth was patrolling the Golden Oak Royal Estate grounds on the lookout for further trouble. The infirmary, located in the same tree, was hosting six ponies and two changelings. Lastly, Rye Mash’s office hosted Twilight Sparkle and Bon Bon, the former shutting the door while the latter took a seat at the desk and observed her surroundings.

The number of accoutrements was more or less what Bon Bon would have expected, given Mash’s personality: A desk with a dip pen and ink well but no visible documents, which were most likely locked in the heavily secured cabinets lining the wall to her left, two bookcases across from them, filled almost completely with books on military tactics and history and various Equestrian justice codes. An Equestrian flag and a few framed photos hung from the walls, all showing ponies that looked to be immediate and extended family, including more than one of his wife and son. A half-filled blackboard and well-kept ficus completed the otherwise spartan picture.

Bon Bon turned her attention to Twilight as the alicorn walked around the desk and took a seat opposite her.

“Now, I’m sure you’re concerned about Lyra’s whereabouts, and I promise we’re going to do everything we can to find her,” she said.

“Not particularly. I’ve done my own investigation already,” Bon Bon said.

Twilight’s brow jumped up over wide eyes, but settled back down after a moment. “Oh,” she said. “Well, alright then.” She looked at the blank pages she’d brought out, shuffled them into a different order, and laid them down straight again. “Any information you might have would be likely be tremendously helpful to —”

“The injured changeling you presently have in the infirmary is Lyra Heartstrings, and has been Lyra Heartstrings since she first came to Ponyville, the Fourteenth Day of Last Leaf, Anno Concordia Twenty Sixty Two. A complete backtrace shows uninterrupted residency in Canterlot since her birth, documented officially as the Third Day of Sun’s Ascent, Twenty Forty Three. No documented behavioral changes or generalized strangeness, including the recollections of several friends gathered during personal interviews.”

Twilight stared at Bon Bon, then shook her head vigorously. “What?” she asked. “That… no, you’re mistaken.”

“I most certainly am not,” Bon Bon replied. “I’m also not deaf, or belligerently unaware of my surroundings, so given that I very clearly heard you start to lose your mind before Sapphire Sky intervened, I don’t feel particularly inclined to tell you anything else until I have some sort of assurance that you aren’t planning to lock Lyra in a cell as soon as a doctor rules her fit enough to be locked in one.”

Twilight stared at Bon Bon, then drew in a deep breath and briefly shook out her wings before folding them again. “I really don’t want to do this to you, Bon Bon, but I am a Princess of Equestria. I understand that you’re upset about this situation, but you need to tell me what else you know. I’ll make it an order if I have to,” she said.

“In that case, Princess, I can’t tell you anything else.”

Twilight stared again, mouth agape. “What do you mean, you can’t tell me anything else? You clearly know something else, so why exactly can’t you tell me?” she demanded.

“Because all additional details of that investigation are considered secret, and are sealed pursuant to Article Three, Section Two of the National Secrets Actions. NSA protocol stipulates that any such secrets can only be unsealed by Princess Celestia, and names her specifically. You’re not her, so I can’t tell you anything.”

Twilight glared at Bon Bon, who scowled back at her. “Alright, fine!” Twilight said as she leaned forward on the desk, wings unfurled at her sides. “I don’t need secrets! You said you’ve known Lyra was a changeling since she first moved to Ponyville. Why didn’t you report her to the mayor or the sheriff when you knew something was wrong?”

“With respect, Princess, there was nothing wrong. She answered my want ad through proper channels and comes by her bits honestly. What exactly should have I reported?” Bon Bon asked, her scowl deepening.

“That she was a changeling who replaced somepony! What else would have needed?!”

“Actual evidence of a crime.”

“She’s a changeling!”

Bon Bon did not reply, still scowling at Twilight, whose own expression shifted from rage, to shock, and then to horror. “I didn’t mean that,” she said quickly. Bon Bon still did not reply, merely standing up, turning and walking towards the door.

“Bon Bon! I didn’t mean it!” Twilight said with frantic conviction.

Bon Bon stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “You still said it,” she said, and she faced forward again and left Twilight behind.

Author's Note

The chapter underwent several revisions because it didn’t have a clear destination: It had Bon Bon antagonizing Twilight, and ended with her losing her temper and calmly walking out.

Regardless of how things went, though, I think that even if the last chapter didn’t make it clear, this one states it plainly that Bon Bon is not just a small town candy maker.

I actually find I prefer this version of Twilight’s estate to the Castle of Friendship, which while still not a great name, is much better than ‘Rainbow Friendship Kingdom Castle’ as it was known for a while.

Friends and Strangers

At the same moment that Rarity was attempting to convince Rainbow Dash that they did not, in fact, need to look for Driftwood, he was opening the door to Lieutenant Mash’s office, and did so just in time to see a flash of magic fading from Twilight Sparkle’s horn. She was standing behind the desk, back to him, looking out the window into the night, the light from oil lamps and firefly lanterns flickering in the distance. He stepped inside, and it was only after he closed the door behind him that Twilight broke the silence.

“Is it bad?” she asked mechanically.

Driftwood sighed as he walked up to stand beside Twilight. “It isn’t good,” he said before falling into silence for a few moments, eyes focused out the window. “Twilight, if you keep that spell up, I won’t be able to help you.”

Several more moments of silence passed, and then Twilight’s horn flashed. A moment later, her head dipped towards the floor and her shoulders slumped. “I really messed up this time,” she said weakly.

“It’s not unusual that I felt Miss Bon Bon before I saw her, but I don’t remember the last time I saw someone that angry,” Driftwood replied. Only then did he finally look at Twilight. Her face was visibly pained. “What happened?”

“I… may have very explicitly implied that Lyra being a changeling made her a criminal, and Bon Bon reacted,” Twilight said, falling quiet for a moment. “I don’t know what their relationship is, exactly, but I think she probably reacted predictably.”

Driftwood hummed in acknowledgement, and the pair fell quiet again.

“I shouldn’t have dropped the spell. I thought I’d be fine if Lyra wasn’t in the room, but I wasn’t and I just started making accusations and I really messed up.”

“Who is Lyra Heartstrings?” Driftwood asked.

Twilight turned her head up enough to look at him, brow furrowed. “What?” she asked.

“I didn’t miss anything when we arrived in town, Twilight. You weren’t happy with Rarity keeping me around, and I know that you still aren’t. But when you figured out that Lyra was a changeling, you were about as angry as Miss Bon Bon was when she left you,” Driftwood replied. His expression was neutral, and his voice was even. “Who is Lyra Heartstrings?”

Twilight scowled. “A changeling, I guess?” she offered. “A musician, a graduate from the School for Gifted Unicorns, a resident of Ponyville, something to Bon Bon. What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to say why you feel like your friend betrayed you,” Driftwood replied.

“She not my friend!”

Driftwood quirked his brow. “Because she’s a changeling?” he asked.

Twilight went rigid. She opened her mouth, then clenched her teeth and closed it again.

“I’m going to help you out of this one, Twilight. Being a changeling, even though it’s intrinsically linked with deception, is not synonymous with being a liar. Simply being a changeling is not the same thing as being dishonest.”

Twilight looked at Driftwood for several seconds, and then turned away and looked down at the floor. “I would’ve understood,” she said weakly.

“I know.” Driftwood laid a tarsus on Twilight’s shoulder, and she flinched, turned and stepped away. “Before the wedding, you would have understood.” He stepped forward to stand next to Twilight again, and laid an arm across her withers so she coudn’t step away, even though she stiffened and wouldn’t look at him. “You would have been upset and hurt, and maybe even angry, but you would have understood, and you would have helped your friend. You are not broken, Twilight.”

For several seconds, Twilight said nothing, the tiniest bit of tension leaving her body on the tail of a sniffle. “She didn’t tell me,” she finally did say.

Driftwood tightened his arm around her just slightly and said, “There’s only one way you’ll find out why.”

Author's Note

Mukashi mukashi, a coworker of mine got into a kerfuffle with another coworker. I never found out the details of it, but a third coworker had discussed the incident with the first, who in trying to assess the situation, asked, “Is it bad? It’s going to be bad, isn’t it?”

For some reason, this stuck with me.

Face Off

“I’m sorry to be blunt like this,” Driftwood said the moment he pushed open the infirmary door to enter. “But Twilight wants to speak with Lyra alone.”

“What?” Dash asked, hopping up from a different bed than she had used previously. “What for?”

“Not our business,” Driftwood replied, Twilight walking in after him.

“No.”

All eyes moved to Bon Bon, sitting on the floor next to Lyra’s bed. “No?” Driftwood asked, eyes narrowed.

Bon Bon stood up from her seat, took two steps forward to place herself between the two changelings — and as a consequence, Twilight — raised her head high and stared at Driftwood. “That’s not going to happen.”

Driftwood lowered his head slightly. He stalked forward to stand with his face little more than a hoof-width from hers, raised his head up high and stared back. “Yes, it is.”

No one spoke, and the air grew heavy with tension. Fluttershy and Twilight backed away from the pair, towards the exit, while Lyra sunk down in her bed. Pinkie opened her mouth to speak, only to be quieted when Rarity laid a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head; some of the bounce left her mane. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked from Driftwood to Bon Bon and then back to Driftwood.

“You’re not a fighter,” Bon Bon said, keeping her gaze level.

“You’re not just a candymaker,” Driftwood said back, keeping his gaze level.

“By the time you’re able to do anything to me, I’ll have broken you in half.”

“I know.”

Another moment passed. Neither of them broke their gaze.

Bon Bon nodded. “After you.”

Driftwood nodded. “Naturally.”

The changeling took a step back, and then turned and walked towards the exit. Bon Bon fell into step behind him, but stopped after a short distance and looked back over his shoulder. “Well? You heard him,” she said to the rest of the infirmary’s occupants, and then resumed following Driftwood. After another moment, Fluttershy started to follow as well, and the others not long after until the only ones left were Lyra and Twilight.

Looking to Lyra for a moment, Twilight looked down to the floor and slowly walked forward until she stood next to the bed. Lyra smiled through the silence, her smile becoming strained when it started to last more than a few seconds. She opened her mouth —

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight asked suddenly. She pulled her gaze up to meet Lyra’s, thin lines of moisture underneath her eyes. “Did you tell any of us?”

Lyra’s ears pinned back, exactly as a pony’s would, and she looked away from Twilight. “I couldn’t,” she said.

“I would’ve understood, Lyra —”

Lyra’s head whipped around to face Twilight and she exclaimed, “I wanted to!”

Twilight startled and took several steps backward. Lyra’s eyes widened, and then her ears pinned back again as she looked down at the bedsheets. “You knew everything, Twilight. There wasn’t anything you couldn’t figure out, and I was going to tell you and you were going to help me figure it out and help me make everything alright. And then….”

Lyra trailed off, and Twilight took a few steps toward her again. “And then my brother’s wedding,” she said, and Lyra nodded. Twilight sighed. “Lyra, why were you even there? You didn’t know, did you?”

Lyra kept her eyes on the bedsheets. “I knew her from... before everything happened. When she was still like the rest of us,” she said. She looked up to meet Twilight’s eyes. “Before she changed.”

“So, she wasn’t always like she was at the wedding?” Twilight asked.

Lyra shook her head. “I mean, her silk and eyes were the same color, but that’s all. One of my family’s friends found her when she was a nymph. The kind of friend that all the nymphs and foals loved, but that all the grownups always said was a screw-up. He tried to take care of her, but he couldn’t ever get it quite right, and eventually everyone convinced him she’d do better if she was with my aunt and uncle. She was way, way smaller than she probably should’ve been when she went to them, and she was afraid of almost everything unless she was with someone she trusted.” She paused her recollection and smiled. “I don’t know what I did, but she trusted me almost right away.”

“How long ago was this?” Twilight asked, leaning forward slightly.

“A long time. I was five, and we all thought she was three, but I didn’t care about that. All I cared about was that she followed me everywhere and hung on every word I said the entire time we were there.” As Lyra spoke, her smile brightened and she sat up taller. “Everything I did, she wanted to do, even if she was too small for a lot of it and I had to help her. I started changing into different animals, and she wanted to do it too, and when she finally did it, when she finally changed for the very first time, she got so excited that she started crying, but I thought she was sad so I kept changing and making funny faces and she kept mimicking me and we laughed so hard that we both started crying! When we finally had to go back to Canterlot, she said her first words the next day, asking where I was and when could we play again.” Now, Lyra’s smile began to slip towards a frown. “And we’d go back to see them every summer and we had so much fun and I loved it and she loved it and then she got sick and started changing, and some weird older changelings came and said they could help her, and they took her away and I never saw her again.”

Now, Lyra was crying, tears dripping onto the bedsheets. “Not until the wedding, and I didn’t know who she was anymore and it’s my fault,” she finished.

“Lyra,” Twilight said, pausing a moment before she continued. “Lyra, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes it was!” Lyra snapped. She wasn’t sitting up any higher in the bed, but had pulled herself up a little taller. “Yes it was! She needed me, Twilight! She needed me and I wasn’t there for her!”

Twilight looked away from Lyra and down at the bed with her brow furrowed for a few seconds, and then she looked back to Lyra. “But you tried to talk her out of it, at the wedding?” she more suggested than said.

“She wouldn’t listen. She said she knew what was best, and that I’d thank her for everything later,” Lyra answered, sinking down and curling in on herself a little bit. “She made me do it, Twilight.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed and quirked at the same time. “Do what?” she asked.

“All of it. I didn’t want to do it, Twilight, but I had to. She made me!”

Slowly, Twilight’s brow unfurrowed and her eyes widened. “Oh,”she said. “Oh.”

Raising her arm up, Lyra wiped at her eyes. “She was my friend, Twilight. When she changed and she was scared and didn’t know what to do, I was there for her. Why did she do it?”

“I don’t know, Lyra,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed softly, and Lyra yawned as magic settled over her. “But I do know that you’re going to be fine. Bon Bon’s going to be with you the whole night, ok?”

Glassy-eyed though she’d become, Lyra nodded sleepily. “Ok. That’d be ok,” she said.

“I’ll send her right in. Good night, Lyra.” Without waiting for a response, Twilight turned and walked to the door. She paused just before it and chanced a glance over her shoulder at Lyra — who was already sound asleep — and then hung her head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend,” she whispered.

Twilight took a deep breath, stood up straight, and walked through the door as if everything was fine, because everything was fine.

It had to be.

Author's Note

I think that we all struggle the way that Twilight does with not understanding something, but being certain that we would understand it, if only the circumstances were different. And like Twilight, we all try to do the right thing — whatever that appears to be — even when we don’t understand something, because it’s all we really can do.

I don’t struggle to do the right thing, but I do struggle to understand what the right thing is.

Keeping Your Tack

Bon Bon had gone back into the infirmary to sit with Lyra.

Twilight had finished recounting what had happened to her friends. She didn’t realize until afterward that she hadn’t counted Driftwood separately.

Everyone was in different states of agitation. Dash was flying rapid circles around the central hall that fed into the other rooms in the tree.

Rarity stared at Twilight in shock from where she sat on the floor. Driftwood did not even look up from where he lay at Rarity’s hooves, one arm draped over he face to cover his eyes.

Pinkie had mimicked him, save for not covering her eyes, her mane flattened as if it were a balloon that most of the air had been let out of.

Applejack glared towards the wall, focused on nothing in particular. “That snake,” she said plainly.

Fluttershy had raised one hoof to her mouth, her eyes watery. “Oh, poor Lyra,” she said plaintively.

“Five minutes with her,” Dash said. She touched down hard. “That’s all I want for Hearth’s Warming!” She stomped her hooves and bucked the air. “I’ll settle for two!”

“Rainbow, please control yourself!” Rarity said. “This is extremely upsetting to hear for all of us, but this is clearly abnormal behavior. Frankly, I don’t feel we are in a position to say anything about it.”

“Yeah? Well, why doesn’t he say something, then?” Dash asked in Driftwood’s direction.

“I would, but I don’t have the nerve. I used it all up staring down Ms Bon Bon,” Driftwood replied. “I escaped from a mob in Pleven and it was bad enough that I ended up in Portside. If I had to choose between that and her a second time, I’d take the walk.”

“Dearheart, those are almost on opposite ends of Equestria from each other!” Rarity exclaimed.

Driftwood moved his arm enough to uncover one eye. “I feel that only proves my point!” he said, before he covered up again. “I’m sorry, I’m just….”

“She was very intense,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah,” Dash agreed. “Still, pretty good show, if you ask me. You’ve got serious guts, standing up to her like that.”

“Speaking of that, and forgive me for pulling further from the topic,” Rarity said, looking to Rainbow Dash. “But I’m curious, Rainbow, why you left the infirmary without objection, or even without a word.”

Dash looked back at her for a moment, brow quirked. “Wait, seriously?” she asked.

“Well, darling, Driftwood all but ordered us to leave, and I’ve never known you to care much for authority,” Rarity said.

Dash looked at Rarity again until Driftwood spoke up: “Unicorns don’t face off.”

“Oh!” Dash’s eyes lit up, then she scowled and rolled her eyes up towards the ceiling, and then looked back at Rarity and Driftwood. “They don’t?” she asked. She looked at Twilight. “Like, ever?”

Twilight shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what that means,” she said.

“Ok!” Dash sat on the floor, cleared her throat, straightened up as tall as she could, and raised a hoof to her chest. She said, affecting a heavy Canterhorn accent, “When two pegasi find themselves at an impasse, they will oft feel the necessity, nay the compulsion to dig in their hooves and show their opponent that they shall not be swayed from their position, even at the risk of great, physical harm.”

Silence descended on the room for a few moments, before Dash and Pinkie Pie both suffered a fit of giggles that did not appear to be contagious. “At least one other pony in this room found that amusing,” Driftwood said.

“At that tactless display? Well, I suppose we can hazard a guess as to whom,” Rarity said with a sidelong look at Applejack.

Driftwood lifted his arm from his face. “Changeling, dearest,” he said with a smirk.

“Well!” Rarity started with look of comical shock. “I suppose I shall have to get used to a life with no more secrets.” She emphasized her words with a ‘hmph,’ and turned her head away from Driftwood, nose pointed up towards the ceiling and the barest hint of a smile.

“I promise to only use my power when it won’t horribly embarrass you,” Driftwood said.

“Hang on! How come you know this?” Dash asked, giving Driftwood a pointed look.

With a sigh, the changeling put his tarsi under himself and pushed up to sitting. “Partly, because changelings have to know these things to have a chance at staying hidden, so our families teach us,” he said. “And partly because changelings also face off with each other.”

“So then why’d Bon Bon do it?” Applejack asked either Dash or Driftwood.

Dash gave a loud huff. “Duh. Because Driftwood was trying to be in charge of what happened with Lyra, and she thought she should be in charge of what happens with Lyra, and she wanted him to back off, but he wouldn’t even though I’m like, one hundred percent sure he couldn’t beat her in a fight,” she said before looking over to Driftwood. “Two pieces, am I right?”

“Maybe more,” Driftwood said with a nod.

“Right.” Dash turned back to Applejack with a smirk. “No way he could beat her, but Bon Bon has clearly taken a few tips from yours truly, and really respected that he kept his tack, so she let him be the boss just this once.”

“I get it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced from the floor and onto her hooves, mane full of life again. “And that’s why we’re all in here and Twilight sent Bon Bon back with Lyra, because she’s in charge and even though Twilight’s a Princess, she still knows that you don’t mess with the pony in charge and we all learned something about pegasi! And Bon Bon, and changelings and even alicorns maybe, or maybe only a third of something about alicorns depending on how the numbers all shake out and Spike! Take a letter!”

A moment of silence passed. “Oh, right, it’s way past dragon baby bedtime, so I’ll have to take my own letter. Welp! No time like the present!” Pinkie said excitedly, and then she was gone.

Driftwood could not account for where she had gone, and perhaps more importantly, no one present could account for how she had gone. She had said that she was going, and then she was just gone.

“Well, uh, sure, but I mean why’d she do it?” Applejack said after a moment. “She ain’t a changeling or a pegasus, and I ain’t never seen an earth pony face off before.”

Dash had lost her smirk when Pinkie Pie had gone, and it did not come back when she looked at Applejack. “Uh, well, uh…,” she stammered.

“I have a hunch,” Driftwood said, still staring at where Pinkie had been. “But it’s not….” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I-I need to take a walk.”

“Pinkie Pie does have that effect on others when they first meet her. Come along, I’ll walk with you,” Rarity said, startling backwards when Dash was suddenly right in front of her.

“Why? So you two can sneak off somewhere private? Forget it. I’ll go with him,” she said.

Rarity stared for another moment. “I beg your pardon?” she asked.

“I don’t mind” Driftwood said, drawing looks from both Dash and Rarity. “If I want her to trust me, I’ll have to earn that trust the old fashioned way.”

Author's Note

“Keeping your tack” is an old pegasus proverb, presently in common usage, dating back to before the Unification. A soldier’s tack in those days — which included barding and armor, a spear, sometimes a knife, and frequently other equipment and supplies — was often even heavier than that of a modern soldier and made running away from combat difficult. In battle, a soldier that “kept their tack” elected to hold their position and fight (usually at the cost of their life), rather than discarding their gear in order to make retreat easier. In modern parlance, “keeping your tack” means to maintain a position or opinion even while being criticized or challenged, and especially when capitulation would probably be the better course of action.

I still struggle with Pinkie Pie.

What Nymphs Want

The quiet night that greeted Dash and Driftwood when they stepped out of the barracks stood in defiant contrast to the pandemonium that had characterized the earlier evening. Hooves and tarsi clopped and clacked against the paved walkway that connected the giant oak tree that housed the barracks to one of the other four oaks surrounding the central tree that still held the Golden Oak Library, collectively the Golden Oak Estate. Neatly cut grass flanked either side of the walkway, and there were equally neat hedges deeper in the courtyard near the center oak. Two pegasi Guards flew a circuit overhead to keep watch, but otherwise there wasn’t a pony in sight.

“You know, you can fly instead of walking,” Driftwood said, attention focused forward on the path. “I know you want to, and I don’t know what stories have been going around about us, but I know the stories about you. If I try to run, you’ll catch me before I even know you’re moving.”

“I’m fine,” Dash replied with a huff.

Driftwood did not reply in kind and remained silent until they were nearly halfway to the next oak, and then spoke up. “Let’s stop here a second. I wanted to talk to you without anyone else adding their opinion.”

“Fine.” Dash cantered suddenly and came to a stop in front of Driftwood with a stomp. “Talk.”

Driftwood was quiet for a moment more, looking at Dash evenly. “I’ll be honest, Rainbow. I haven’t figured out how to change your opinion of us. I’m not sure there’s anything that I can do to change it, in fact,” he said. “But I’ve been thinking about it since we left Hoofington, and seeing you back there gave me an idea, if you’re interested in hearing it.”

“Why would I be interested in anything like that?” Dash asked. “I already told you there’s nothing about changelings that I need ‘help’ with.”

“Maybe you don’t, but Twilight does and I know —”

Dash’s wings snapped opened and she stomped a hoof on the pavement.

“I know that’s low, but Twilight asked me to help her change her opinion, and that’s hard because she doesn’t actually want to change her opinion, but she feels like she has to. I can’t help her by myself, Rainbow.”

Dash snorted, but folded her wings again. “So get Rarity to help you. Why do you need me?” she asked.

“Because foals don’t want to be Rarity. They don’t want to be Applejack or Fluttershy or Pinkie, either. They want to be Wonderbolts and action heroes. Foals want to grow up to be like you, Rainbow, and I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that changeling nymphs want to grow up to be like you, too,” Driftwood replied.

Driftwood’s expression remained even, but Dash’s washed over with surprise for a moment before she covered it with a scowl that wasn’t quite as angry as her previous ones had been. She took a sudden interest in the space to her left, shut her eyes and clenched her teeth, and then heaved a sigh and looked back to Driftwood. “Talk fast,” she said.

Driftwood nodded. “Changelings tell their nymphs to model their lives after someone virtuous. They tell them that’s the best way to go back to Shamayim. Someone who’s forthright, devoted, who perseveres through difficult times, and who’s compassionate towards others.”

Dash knitted her brow and recoiled slightly. “I helped beat up a bunch of changelings in Canterlot, and they’re telling their foals they should be like me?” she asked.

“I’m almost totally certain they’d prefer some changeling from one of the old stories their parents told them, but for the nymphs? Those changelings are all make-believe. Just some story they get told before bed sometimes. But Rainbow Dash isn’t make-believe. She’s real. They can read about her in the newspaper. Some of them may have even seen you flying overhead, or they know someone that has. And they know from what they get told every night before bed that Rainbow Dash is virtuous. Maybe no one ever actually says it, but they know it’s true. Rainbow Dash is real, and she’s virtuous. She could go to Shamayim if she wants to, and they can be virtuous and go to Shamayim too if they’re like she is.

“Nymphs want to be the same things that foals do, and foals want to be Rainbow Dash.”

Dash snorted in response again. “I’m not stupid,” she said sharply.

Driftwood quirked his brow. “I don’t think I implied that you are,” he replied.

“So you didn’t think I’d notice that you were trying to trick me into doing stuff for you?” Dash took a forceful step forward, not yet in Driftwood’s face.

Driftwood recoiled and took a step back, eyes widened. His eyes narrowed slightly, and then relaxed as he drew himself up as tall as he could — Rainbow Dash straightening up and slightly extending her wings in response. “You’re absolutely right, Dash. That is exactly what I was doing,” he said, and Dash recoiled and took a step back. “I didn’t realize I was doing it, but that’s exactly what I was doing, and I shouldn’t have tried to do it even accidentally, and I’m sorry.”

“Miss Dash!”

Both pegasus and changeling looked across the courtyard and spied one of Twilight’s Guards cantering straight towards them, not even bothering with the paths. Dash turned back to Driftwood with a scowl. “We’ll finish this later,” she said before turning back towards the approaching Guard. “What’s up, Hat?”

“Well, it’s a bit complicated, but we’re escorting Miss Golden Harvest to Princess Twilight’s office, and one of us is going to get her,” Corporal Hard Hat said before she looked to Driftwood. “The Lieutenant feels that, given the circumstances, you should be there, too.”

Driftwood furrowed and quirked his brow, mouth opening just slightly before he looked to Dash, who looked back with her brow just as quirked and furrowed. They both looked back to Hard Hat and Dash asked, “Why? What’s Golden Harvest even doing here?”

“She turned herself in,” Hard Hat replied. “Apparently, she’s a changeling too.”

Author's Note

This scene underwent several revisions, but the underlying interaction and relationship between Dash and Driftwood has remained more or less exactly the same. It isn’t that they’re incapable of getting along or even liking each other, but Driftwood is behaving in a way that a changeling typically does not, and that neither one of them is expecting.

I, myself, behave in a way that (I believe) a professional consultant does not behave, and also suffer from a degree of incongruity because of it.

The Other Stranger

After the additional oaks had been planted and raised, the central tree that had originally been the Golden Oak Library remained a library, as well as Twilight’s and Spike’s apartment, but additionally served as Twilight’s office and was the closest thing to a court that she had. When she and Driftwood entered, she turned promptly toward the room just off the kitchen, nodded to the Guard outside of it, and then opened the door and followed Driftwood in.

Her office was nearly an extension of the library, although each of the books on the shelves covering each wall were from her personal collection and not in general circulation. Two high windows let moonlight stream in, augmenting the glow of the firefly lamps ensconced along the walls and set on desk that rested to one side, which was covered by three neat stacks of papers. Three filled blackboards had been wheeled against one wall. And towards the back of the room, looking at one of the rows of books, stood an undisguised changeling.

Driftwood and Lyra at least still looked almost the same in and out of disguise. The changeling that had been wearing Golden Harvest’s face, however, wasn’t even slightly recognizable. The silk on her head and covering her tail was still long, and even held the same style it had in disguise — if somewhat more limply — but rather than carrot orange, it was a bright blue somewhere in between cyan and celeste. She looked back over her shoulder when Twilight and Driftwood had entered, revealing her eyes to be a slightly lighter hue than her silk, not at all like Golden’s.

Twilight drew in a deep breath and she approached, coming to a stop a short distance from the new changeling, Driftwood stopping just next to her. “I trust that Golden Harvest has not been harmed,” she said with a mostly even voice.

The changeling shook her head. “Golden Harvest isn’t real. I made her up,” she said.

Twilight narrowed her eyes, but did not remark, instead asking, “And your name?”

“Harper Heartstrings.”

Twilight’s eyes widened a bit, and she looked to Driftwood, whose eyes had narrowed a bit. “Lyra Heartstrings,” he began, “Barely changed her appearance and did not change her name at all?” he asked. “Was she trying to get caught?”

“I think she figured that being so on the nose meant she couldn’t get caught,” Harper replied.

Twilight heaved a sigh. “That’s Lyra, alright,” she half-grumbled before clearing her throat and regarding Harper fully. “What’s your relationship to her exactly?”

“I’m her older sister.”

“Wait, you were the big sister she swore she had, but none of us ever saw?” Twilight asked with a start.

“Twilight, if I may,” Driftwood interjected. She looked at him for a moment, but nodded, and Driftwood looked to Harper. “She has a fracture in her left arm and two cracked ribs, and might lose a tooth, but that’s all. Everything except the tooth should heal with a few days of bedrest.”

“Oh, thank the stars!” Harper exclaimed. She sat down hard, shutting her eyes and pressing a tarsus against her chest. “Oh, thank goodness.”

Twilight watched Harper for a moment, fidgeted, and then turned her attention to Driftwood when he bumped her shoulder. He said nothing, but mouthed, “You’re fine,” and then nodded his head towards Harper. Twilight drew in a deep breath, held it for a moment, exhaled and then turned her attention back to Harper. “So, you’re Lyra’s older sister,” she repeated, punctuating the statement with a nod. “Ok, I understand that. But I don’t understand why you’re outing yourself now when you didn’t do anything earlier. Why didn’t you try and stand up to those thugs when they were, from the shape of things so far, beating your sister into a pulp?”

“What good would that have done?” Harper asked, returning her tarsus to the floor. “They were all armed and trained, so there wasn’t exactly very much I could do to them, let alone what would’ve happened when my disguise failed, and it would have. One changeling is bad enough for everyone else, but two would’ve caused a panic. You were supposed to be back tonight, so I thought that even if I couldn’t do anything to them, I could plead with you and you could do something, even if all you would do was have them arrested for operating illegally,” Harper said.

Twilight drew in another deep breath and exhaled heavily, her shoulders slumping and head drooping for a few moments before she stood up again. “Are there any more changelings in Ponyville besides you, Lyra, and Driftwood?” she asked.

Harper shook her head. “There used to be, but they moved elsewhere almost right after your brother’s wedding, so it’s probably just us,” she answered.

“Probably?” Twilight asked.

“There could be others, but they haven’t said anything to either of us, and we haven’t felt them either, so there could be others, but probably not,” Harper added.

“What she means is that they would had to have spent all this time without breaking character, not even once,” Driftwood said, drawing Twilight’s attention to him. “Not even in private. I’ve never met a changeling who managed to do that, but I’ve heard stories. There’s always consequences, and they’re never pleasant or subtle. If there were any other changelings, they either would’ve revealed themselves already, or would’ve slid so deeply into their disguise that the disguise would be the only thing left.”

Twilight stared at Driftwood. “That happens? They just… forget that they’re changelings?”

“It’s the sort of thing you hear about, maybe from an older sibling or your cousins when they’re trying to scare you, but no one’s ever actually seen it happen,” Harper said.

Twilight looked at Harper, then Driftwood, then Harper again, and finally down to the floor. “Oh,” she finally said, looking up again. “It could happen, in theory, but it’s so unlikely… I see.” She regarded Harper. “When you say ‘probably,’ you mean that there aren’t, but you can’t actually say for certain that there aren’t because there might be one that… that forgot….” She looked to Driftwood suddenly. “Rarity told me that you said changelings consider forthrightness to be a virtue. Is that why?”

Driftwood looked towards the floor, brow furrowed, and then looked back up to Twilight after a few seconds. “You can read books, and you even like to read books, but in order to fit in with everyone else and be accepted, you have to pretend you don’t like books. You even have to pretend that you hate them. When you finally have the chance to read a book without fear of anyone finding out, would you value it more or less?” he said.

Twilight watched Driftwood for another moment, and then looked to Harper. “You didn’t say anything before tonight so you could blend in, I get it. It’s not very harmonious, but it’s practical. So, why now? Why reveal yourself now when it’s obviously not practical?” she asked.

“Because my little sister needs me, and I’m not going to let her face this alone,” answered Harper.

Twilight looked down to the floor again, turned to the side and began pacing. “Honesty, loyalty…,” she muttered. She stopped and stood still for several seconds, and then turned and looked up to both changelings. “I need to talk to Lyra.”

Author's Note

“Harper” is a name I first heard in Angels in America, and it stuck with me. Somewhere, I realized that if Lyra had a sister, then Harper would be the perfect name for her, continuing a non-existent gag of everyone in their family being named after some kind of musical instrument.

Changelings don’t get cutie marks, and so despite her name, destiny has not made Harper a musician (although she can play the mouth harp). Similarly, although my father is a musician and my sister has played (and likely still can play) several instruments, my own interests lay elsewhere (I cannot play the mouth harp).

I struggled with how many of my personal experiences seem to be shaping these stories.

What Ponies Believe In

Bon Bon stood up and maneuvered herself in between Lyra and Twilight when the alicorn reentered the infirmary, Driftwood and Harper right behind her. Lyra’s eyes widened when she saw her sister, and in response, Driftwood swung his haunches around and struck Twilight directly from behind, making her stumble forward and refocusing all attention on her. She quickly found her hooves, and walked forward to stop in front of Bon Bon.

“Bon Bon, I want to apologize for my outburst in the office. It was unprofessional of me, and more than that, it was —” Twilight’s ears pinned back — “It was blockheaded and unenlightened and everything the Princess of Friendship shouldn’t ever be.” Her gaze dipped to the floor. “I’m sorry.”

Bon Bon was silent for several seconds, and then said, “I can’t accept your apology.”

Driftwood looked over his shoulder and glared so rapidly that he intercepted every word of protest before it left Rainbow Dash’s tongue. It happened with such speed and violence that every other occupant of the room, save for Bon Bon and Twilight, physically recoiled along with her. After a moment, he turned back to Bon Bon and Twilight, silence following him.

Twilight stared wide-eyed at Bon Bon, and then drew in a deep breath, held it for several seconds, and let it out slowly. She looked up at Bon Bon, head lowered below hers and ears pinned back. “May I speak to Lyra?” she asked meekly. “Privately?”

Bon Bon held Twilight’s gaze for several seconds — at least as long as Twilight had held her breath — staring directly into her eyes. And then, she nodded once. “Alright,” she said, stepping to one side and then walking past Twilight and out the door. The others watched her leave, and then exchanged glances, and followed after her one by one. Harper and Driftwood went last, the former watching her uncertainly for a moment before turning to leave, and the latter giving her a smile before he left, pulling the door shut behind him. Only Twilight and Lyra remained in the room.

Twilight took a deep breath and then turned to face Lyra, trepidatiously approaching her until she stood next to the bed. Lyra gave her a smile. “What’s up?” she asked.

Twilight looked at her for a few moments, and then hung her head. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know, Twi. You look pretty put together to me,” Lyra replied. She lost her smile when Twilight did not respond. “What’re you sorry for Twilight?”

Twilight kept her head down. “I’m a bad friend,” she said, her voice hitching as she finished.

Lyra said nothing, did nothing except stare at Twilight with wide eyes. After several seconds, she blinked rapidly and found her voice. “What? Why would you say that?” she asked. “Why? Because of what happened earlier? When you were in the square screaming at me? When you came home from being away and saw a changeling that looked like somepony you knew for years? Twilight, that’s a normal reaction!”

“I know that!” Twilight said back, raising her gaze up to meet Lyra’s. The fur under her eyes was wet again. “I know that, but —”

“Twilight, shut up!”

She did. Both of them did until a moment later when Lyra spoke again. “Just… just shut up for a minute and listen, ok?” she asked.

Twilight opened her mouth, left it for a moment, and then closed it and nodded. “Ok,” she said.

“Ok,” Lyra repeated back. She took a breath. “You reacted the way you should have, given what you saw and what you knew, ok? That doesn’t make you a bad friend,” she said.

Twilight shook her head. “It’s not just that. It’s everything else, too,” she said.

Lyra’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to the, her mouth forming a slight ‘o’. “What else is there?” she asked.

“All the years that I ignored you. All the times I said I’d go somewhere or do something with you, and then canceled at the last minute. Not even noticing that we both lived in Ponyville for almost three years,” Twilight replied, head sinking lower with each admission until she was looking down at the bedsheets. “Everything.”

Lyra silently watched Twilight for a moment, and then she smiled. “Did you know that changelings don’t believe in forgiveness?” she asked.

Twilight rapidly raised her head only for her mouth to be immediately smooshed by the tarsus of Lyra’s right arm. “You don’t need to convince me that you feel guilty about all of that,” the latter said before withdrawing her tarsus. “I’m a changeling. I know. We don’t believe in forgiveness because we always know, and I’m telling you that you aren’t a bad friend. You weren’t ever a bad friend, Twilight. You were one of my best friends, and you still can be, because I think you ponies are onto something with this forgiveness thing, and I forgive you, Twilight. For everything.”

Fresh tears welled in Twilight’s eyes. “Everything?” she asked shakily.

“Everything,” Lyra replied, smiling wider. “Ignoring me, canceling on me, not noticing me in the background, yelling at me, all of it. Clean slate.”

Tears spilled from Twilight’s eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. She stepped forward, climbing halfway onto the bed and wrapping her arms high around Lyra’s barrel and burying her face into the changeling’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered again as Lyra wrapped her good arm around her.

“It’s all fine, Twilight,” her friend said. “You just wait. Everything’s going to be fine”

Author's Note

The English language has many powerful words that become even more powerful when they are placed together. I think that of all these groupings, “I forgive you” is among the most powerful of all.

Why else would it be so hard to say sincerely?

Everything Is Going to Be Fine

It was the day after the short-lived battle that would become just another memory for Ponyville that Princess Twilight Sparkle had called everyone to town hall. They had begun to gather at the front door at noon, and by half-past, every resident was present and Twilight took to the stage, a small valise carried along in her magic field. She stopped at the center where a microphone had been set up — connected to a simple loudspeaker — and the valise settled onto the stage beside her, a small stack of notecards making their way out and coming to hover just to one side and slightly below her head so that her face was not obscured.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, everypony,” she said, her voice amplified only enough to carry to the back of the not very large crowd. “Last night, I promised that by this afternoon, I would have a meeting with Mayor Mare and then address all of you with the information we had, and I am here to do that now. After reviewing the statements that you made with the Royal Guard as well as with Mayor Mare, it is clear to me that you are all very concerned about the presence of a changeling in Ponyville, and are concerned about the whereabouts of Lyra Heartstrings. After conducting our investigation and several interviews, we have been able to determine the following facts.”

Twilight stopped then, and although she did well to conceal it, those closest to the stage could nonetheless see her draw in a deep breath and shuffle her hooves. “The changeling that was disguised as Lyra Heartstrings is, in fact, Lyra Heartstrings, and always has been.”

A murmur swept over the crowd as ponies tried to make sense of that statement. “I didn’t believe it myself, at first, but this fact has been corroborated by a Crown Agent who has been observing Ms Heartstrings for a length of time. The exact length of time, and the identity of the Agent in question are currently considered secret, but I will be submitting a formal appeal to Princess Celestia in order to discover this information.” Twilight grinned shakily. “Apparently, even a Princess has to ask permission sometimes.” When a moment passed without a response, she shuffled her notecards and cleared her throat.

“Besides Lyra Heartstrings, another changeling known as Driftwood is also present, having arrived here with me and my entourage last night. His presence was known prior to the events last night, and he is here by order of the Crown. Additionally, the pony known as Golden Harvest is also a changeling, real name Harper Heartstrings. We have been able to confirm that there is a residence record for a Harper Heartstrings in Canterlot, officially documented as the cousin of Lyra Heartstrings, and who left Canterlot on the morning of the Twentieth of First Fire, Two Thousand Fifty Nine, which lines up with the arrival of Golden Harvest in Ponyville on the evening of the Twentieth of First Fire, Two Thousand Fifty Nine. So far, we haven’t been able to confirm the existence of another Golden Harvest, but are continuing to search Midland records.”

Twilight paused to shuffle her notecards again, and someone called from the crowd, “How’d you catch that one?” A low murmur of agreement followed.

“Please save any questions for the end,” Twilight replied. “But this is relevant to what I was about to say, so I’ll answer it now. Harper Heartstrings self-surrendered to my Guards last night, so that her sister wouldn’t have to face the inquiry alone.”

The murmur that followed that information was hushed to Twilight, but she could nonetheless hear one or two pockets of approval: Changelings were not something that Ponyvillians understood, but putting family first — even at great personal cost — was.

Switching her cards again, she continued. “Concerning the self-proclaimed ‘changeling hunters,’ I want to reiterate that the Crown has not reinstated the bounty on changelings, and there is no individual bounty placed on anyone presently in or around Ponyville. The four stallions last night were found in possession of forged documents and are not lettered bounty hunters, and will be dealt with appropriately.”

Twilight moved on to her next card, and then the whole stack moved through the air to rest in the valise she’d taken them from originally. “Lastly, our resident Guard cohort has had no change in its readiness. After our investigation, we’re confident there isn’t some other plot being worked, so there is no benefit to an increase in security, especially when dragging them all with me to and back from Hoofington has disrupted enough schedules already,” she said. She took a moment to look out at the crowd, and then added, “Are there any questions now?”

She was met with silence. Some of the crowd looked to their neighbors to see what they thought, and low murmurs were heard here and there and some asked what their neighbors thought. After a moment, a dark-coated pegasus near the front, whom Twilight recognized as Thunderlane, raised his hoof and asked, “What happens now?”

“Now?” Twilight began. “Now, we do what we’ve always done. We remember what happened as another one of the experiences we never thought we’d have. We repair the damage that was caused. And we come together to help our friends and neighbors who need it, pony or otherwise.

“You all —” Twilight paused, and drew in a deep breath. “You all know what happened at my brother’s wedding. There’s more that happened that hasn’t been discussed publicly, but the end result of that fiasco is that I’m afraid of changelings, for no reason other than they’re changelings. That’s no better a reason than being afraid of roses because they have thorns, or quesadillas because they’re full of cheese, but it’s true. I know that some of you have been concerned, worried or even afraid of them because of what you read in the newspapers or magazines. We’ve been afraid of changelings because of what others have said about them, and not because of what they’ve done. We’ve been afraid of them because of what they are, and not who they are, and that’s not who we are.

“Maybe we used to be like that, but we’ve all grown since then. We know better, now, even if we stumble sometimes, and we can look around us and see scores of ponies, and donkeys, and cattle, and who can say how many other creatures we wouldn’t count among our friends if we didn’t know better.

“I don’t —” Twilight paused, and drew in a deep breath — “I don’t think this is going to be simple. We’re just discovering that there are… individuals living with us that we don’t know as well as we thought we did. But should that matter? Should we let that change who we are? What we do? No, it shouldn’t, and it won’t. We’re better than that. We’re more than that. Whether the strangers we meet are old friends or new, they’re still friends, and if they treat us kindly and generously, if they behave honestly, help us to smile and stand by our side, then we will treat them the same, because we are Ponyville, and that is who we are.”

Twilight was answered with the stomping of hooves as the crowd, whether moved by harmony or by the magic of friendship, broke into applause. Not raucous or deafening, but enthusiastic nonetheless. She raised her own hoof and wiped her eyes and looked out at the crowd with a smile.

Everything was going to be fine.

Author's Note

“Everything is going to be fine” is not, in fact, any kind of personal life advice that I offer. But given the general tone of this and other Strangerverse stories, “Don’t worry, be happy” doesn’t fit quite as well.

I’d say I struggle with offering life advice, but I don’t really worry about that.

The Shape of Things to Come

It was one week after the events that revealed Lyra Heartstrings as a changeling that Bon Bon entered the grounds of the Golden Oaks Royal Estate and followed the path directly to the central tree. As was typical, there was a Guard stationed just outside the front door. What was atypical was the presence of two Guards on either side of the door — one pegasus and one unicorn — part of a concession made by Ponyville to Canterlot: If the Guard cohort already present ceased its biweekly section rotation and remained fully active, then a second cohort would not be sent to augment security, regardless of whether or not Princess Twilight Sparkle, Lieutenant Rye Mash, Mayor Mare, or indeed, the entire town of Ponyville felt this was necessary.

Pushing the thought aside, Bon Bon finished her walk and stopped just before the two Guards. “Corporal Shadow —” A nod to the pegasus — “Corporal Shadow —” A nod to the unicorn — “I hope the day finds you both well.”

“Well enough,” replied Blue Shadow, the pegasus, keeping his gaze firmly locked forward. “The Lieutenant’s undying idea of a gag not withstanding.”

“Mmm,” replied Bon Bon before shifting her attention to the unicorn. “I was hoping I might be able to chat with the Princess. Is she in?”

“Are you here for business?” asked Sunrise Shadow, keeping her gaze locked firmly forward.

“No.”

“Then luckily, she is,” replied Sunrise. “She would probably benefit from a break, in any case. Go on in.”

Bon Bon quirked her brow. “No security check?” she asked.

“In light of recent evidence, both the Princess and the Lieutenant have concluded that the risk of a changeling infiltration is vanishingly low,” Sunrise said. “Traffic in an out of town is being monitored and recorded carefully, and the passive detectors that have always been around the Estate will catch any personality subversions, suspect motives or residual dark magic. You live in town and no alarms have been triggered, so you’re clear.”

Giving another nod, Bon Bon approached the door, Sunrise’s magic swinging it opened, and then shut again once she was inside.

After Twilight Sparkle became a Princess, Spike the Dragon ceased to be her personal assistant; her new needs far exceeded his capability. He did, however, take to his new role as Twilight’s majordomo like a duck to water (and felt perhaps just a little bit smug that Owlowlicious had become his nighttime assistant). Of course, that didn’t mean there weren’t occasional stumbling blocks that would cause him to bury his face into his claws like he was at the moment Bon Bon entered.

“Trouble with the card catalog, Spike?” Bon Bon asked as she approached his desk. The dragon looked up with a start, and while his mood didn’t improve much, he at least didn’t set anything on fire.

“A card catalog I could deal with, but a budget shortfall is a whole different sort of animal,” he said. He glared at the documents in front of him, and then started to aggressively shuffle them into neat stacks. “It’s not even that much! Small enough that it used to be we’d just have a bake sale or put on a show or a small carnival or something but apparently that isn’t proper anymore.”

“When has decorum ever stopped Twilight from doing anything?” Bon Bon asked as she stopped at the desk.

Spike looked at her, half-lidded eyes shading a slowly simmering temper. “When I say that it would be ‘improper,’ what I mean is that it would be illegal.”

“I can see how that would be a somewhat larger hurdle.”

“Right.” Straightening done, Spike lifted the stacks up one at a time and stuffed them into a valise. “I was hoping I’d come up with a genius solution before my meeting with the Mayor, but here we are,” he said as he hopped out of his chair. “Is there anything I can help you with before I go? Your eye looks like it’s about done healing, by the way.”

“It’s still a bit tender, but nothing serious. Actually, I was hoping I could talk to Twilight for a bit. Is she in?” Bon Bon asked.

“In her office, and she’d probably be happy for a visitor. She can stop focusing on everything for a few minutes and just focus on one thing instead!” With that, Spike closed up the valise and started for the exit. “Anyway, see you around, Bon Bon.”

“Bye, Spike,” Bon Bon replied. She turned and walked to closed door off the side of the library, raising a hoof and knocking on it lightly three times and then immediately moving her hoof to the handle, pressing on it and pushing the door opened and noting the general good organization of the room. The top of the desk was not covered in mountains of documents and paperwork, although it did have three short and neatly organized stacks, which was admittedly not the image she had conjured up in her mind. Seated at the desk was, of course, Twilight Sparkle, her face buried in her hooves.

“You too?” Bon Bon asked, shutting the door behind her. The alicorn looked up with a start, and her mood did visibly improve somewhat.

“Bon Bon!”she said with a smile. “It’s —” The smile vanished — “Good… to see you? Are you here on business?”

“No.”

The smile came back. “Sun and Moon be praised, it is good to see you!”

Bon Bon quirked her brow. “What’s happening that would make it not good to see me?” she asked.

Twilight gave an exasperated groan, dropping her head onto the papers on her desk. “It’s those four idiots in detention,” she said before sitting up again. “Bad enough they were here at all and completely wrecked the nice, easy to manage Guard rotation we’ve had in place for almost two years. Mash decided that since it all happened while I was in town, and since the Guard Captain is already interfering in his cohort’s operations, he might as well go that extra step to keep his commanders happy, so he sent inquiries to everypony.

“So far, we’ve learned the earth ponies are wanted in Plevan for unlettered bounty hunting and suspicion of smuggling on top of unlettered bounty hunting in the Midland, and the Mariner’s Guild wants one of them on suspicion of piracy, so as a Crown Princess, I get to deal with that, too. The unicorn is a deserter from the Teague Provincial Militia, so he’s not my problem, but getting him back there for his court martial is, and he’s wanted in Karabir for impersonating a sheriff’s deputy, extortion, and attempting to execute a false warrant!” She emphasized this last bit by throwing her hooves in the air before returning them to her sides and resting her face against one of them. “We really ought to have some sort of national registry for these kinds of ponies. It would’ve made finding all this out a lot faster, even if it was just as much of a headache.”

“As a retired Crown Agent, I can tell you that would be an excellent idea right up until some bureaucrat decides to abuse it for political leverage,” Bon Bon replied. “Is there any good news?”

“The pegasus,” Twilight replied, lifting her head from her hoof. “Silver Script. We don’t have full reporting from all the legions yet, but so far, he has a clean record and it looks like he genuinely thought their forged letters were legitimate. He joined up with them about two weeks ago to pay off a debt, and if this ‘job’ had been real and not just a ploy by Mister Awol to be some kind of heroic changeling hunter, he would’ve cleared it. I’m really tempted to just pardon him, let him deal with his finances, and be done with it. And I guess that we were able to arrest three wanted criminals thanks to their Boarvarian fire drill is good, too.”

“Mmm,” Bon Bon replied. And then, she took a step forward. “Speaking of changelings, how was your soda with Lyra yesterday?”

“Oh.” Twilight smiled much too widely. “Well, p-pretty good, ha ha!” An instant later, she slumped down onto her desk. “It was stupid. We were just catching up, and I asked her not to wear a disguise, and everything was fine until I looked away for a second and then looked back and saw her and I just… everypony was just fine with a changeling at the shop, and then here’s good ol’ Princess Blockhead.”

Twilight folded her arms on the desk and buried her face in them. “I hate this, Bon Bon. She’s my friend and I hate that I can’t just act like a rational pony around her.”

“You’re trying, which is more than a lot of ponies would ever bother to do,” Bon Bon replied, walking casually towards and around Twilight’s desk. “And as much as I appreciate that you’re trying —” She stopped at Twilight’s side — “Lyra appreciates it even more, and I want to make sure you know that. You’ll get there.”

“That means a lot, Bon Bon,” Twilight said, glancing up from the desktop with a smile. She rose up with an exasperated frown and shook her head. “I’m a Princess. You’d think by now I’d be more confident in my own abilities.”

“Sometimes I wonder about mine. It’s all part of the equine condition,” Bon Bon said with a smile. “But when that happens, you have the rest of us here to get you back on track.”

Further conversation on the matter was forestalled when the door opened suddenly and surprised both of them. Sergeant-at-arms Sapphire Sky snapped off a crisp salute, a sealed envelope floating nearby in her magic field. “Princess, urgent communique from the Thirty-Third Battalion,” she said.

Both Twilight and Bon Bon recovered quickly enough. “Thank you, Sergeant Sky,” Twilight said as her own magic took control of the envelope and brought it to her. “If you would wait around a moment in the event I have orders to dispatch.”

“Of course, Princess,” Sky replied, stepping out of the doorway and into the room as Twilight broke the seal and began to read the letter inside. Sapphire Sky regarded Bon Bon with a nod. “Miss Bon Bon.”

“Sergeant Sky,” Bon Bon replied with a nod of her own. “I hope the day finds you well.”

“Well enough,” Sky replied. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

Bon Bon shook her head. “I just dropped in for a few moments to say ‘hello,’ but I should be getting back to it. The candy shop in Hoofington had a surge in business that was more than they could handle, so they directed several custom orders my way.”

“Actually, I need you to stay,” Twilight said, sliding the envelope’s contents back inside as it smoothly levitated to the top of her desk. She looked to Sapphire Sky. “Sergeant, please bring the Heartstrings sisters and Driftwood here as soon as they can make time. It’s not an emergency, and however you do it, do it as discreetly as possible.”

Sapphire Sky saluted, and then left the office. Bon Bon turned to Twilight. “It’s not an emergency but you need a Guard to handle it?” she asked.

Twilight had already started pacing. “It might be nothing, but it might be something and they’re the only ones I can think to ask and —”

“Breathe.”

Twilight halted her pacing abruptly and sharply inhaled.

“And out,” Bon Bon said, approaching her. “Take a few more.”

Twilight complied, shutting her eyes and breathing more and more easily with each moment.

“Good. Now, start again,” Bon Bon said, stepping around Twilight to stand in front of her. “What’s going on?”

“Something happened in Fouta,” Twilight said, opening her eyes and looking at Bon Bon. “It concerns changelings and the Guard is already involved. It’s serious enough that I’m considering commissioning a Crown Investigator to look into it, but I wanted to get a second opinion before I did anything that drastic and I couldn’t think of any… body else to ask.”

Bon Bon quirked her brow. “Really,” she said. Twilight responded by averting her gaze to one side and towards the floor, and Bon Bon heaved a sigh. “Twilight, there’s a time to be a friend, and there’s a time to be a Princess. Given what just happened, I’m pretty sure that right now, you need to be a Princess,” Bon Bon said, drawing the alicorn’s attention back to her. “Make it an order, if you have to.”

Twilight’s cheeks colored slightly, and she gave a quick, coughing chuckle as she turned her head towards the wall. After a moment, she cleared her throat and look back to Bon Bon, her stance rigid. “Bon Bon, I don’t know which Office you were part of or how long ago, but if you know anything about this, I really, really need your help,” Twilight said.

They stood looking at each other for several seconds, until Bon Bon nodded. “As much as I can be, sure,” she said. “What’s up?”

Twilight’s let out a light sigh and gave a slight smile, tension leaving her shoulders. An instant later, her smile vanished as she drew her mouth into a neutral line, and she changed the course of several lives at once with a single question:

“Have you heard of the Prince of Ponyton?”

Author's Note

And thus, does the trilogy end at long last.

In Defense

The medic had already left by the time Bon Bon pushed open the doors to the infirmary and stepped inside, restoring the total occupants once again to six ponies and two changelings. They were spread across the room and giving Lyra — who was presently sitting up in one of the beds to the right of the door — a reasonable amount of space, even Fluttershy — who was likely only doing so on “doctor’s orders” — although none of them were far away. Dash, who had been reclining on another one of the beds near the door, sat up when she entered and asked, “What, are you taking a break?” She tried to look around Bon Bon, head tilted in perplexment. “Where’s Twilight?”

Bon Bon ignored Dash and walked past her, and past everyone else straight to the bed Lyra was in. Without giving Lyra so much as a chance to consider her options, she looped an arm around the changeling’s neck, pulled her close and locked their lips together for several long seconds. When they finally parted, Bon Bon wore a satisfied smile, attention focused on the changeling, while Lyra wore a dopey, spaced-out grin, attention focused on nothing in particular.

The attentions of the rest of the infirmary’s occupants was focused on the pair, and silence accompanied their expressions of surprised observation.

“Sha-zam,” Pinkie Pie finally said.

“That — oh my,” Rarity concurred.

“So, uh,” Dash started, looking around for a moment. “Where’s Twilight?”

“We finished,” Bon Bon said plainly.

Surprised silence fell across the room a second time. “That fast?” asked Applejack after a moment.

“She didn’t have anything to say,” Bon Bon replied just as plainly.

“She didn’t?” Lyra asked. “At all? That doesn’t sound anything like Twilight Sparkle.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” was Bon Bon’s answer.

Lyra was silent for a moment, and then scowled and jabbed Bon Bon in the shoulder to get her attention and look her in the eyes. “What did you do?” she asked sharply.

Bon Bon met her scowl with a neutral expression. “Nothing that I need to defend myself for.” She looked at the other ponies in the room to gauge their reactions — ranging from confused to sad to angry — and said to all of them, “Where’s Driftwood?”

Author's Note

Of all the stand-ins for blue language I’ve heard, I still think my favorite is the one I learned from Private Gomer Pyle, USMC.

Bon Bon and Lyra is an older pairing — one of the earliest, I think — but it remains one of my favorites for what are, I’m reasonably certain, purely nostalgic reasons.