Being Lyraby spritefan10ChaptersThe facadeThe inner machinations of my mindA tough startThe dangerous road of seduction aheadRecovering lost knowledgeLying awakeDeparture to CanterlotYet another departureRevenge and RecoveryMy saviourThe archivesThe Second victim: MeThe stench of disasterDawn of the final dayThe facadeOne week after events taken place in the prequel 'Life amidst the others'... It was a Saturday afternoon; I had just finished packing my belongings and got ready for the rest of the day. I was planning on going out for a stroll; it was supposed to be a beautiful day out. The weather pegasi seemed to already have cleared the clouds out for the rest of the day. Bon Bon said she would probably also meet me at the park, she wanted to discuss something with me and we agreed to go get a hooficure, I also have to get ready for my lyre recital. "Better get a move on if I want to enjoy the day," I said releasing a breath full of energy. I took a long stroll around Ponyville and greeted almost every pony who I encountered on the way. Even though it pretty much was the same sight I saw every time I went to Ponyville, it was still an enjoyable walk. Also seeing a few familiar faces doesn't hurt either. The stroll lasted about thirty to forty-five minutes until I got back to my house. After my stroll, I headed towards the park. It was not too far away from my house, about a five minute walk. There was Bon Bon, sitting on one of the park benches, I could she was waiting for me. She got up to confront me. "Ah, Lyra! You're here. I wanted to talk to you about something," She said as she walked towards me. Bon Bon was rather concerned about something, and she had something on her mind. I returned the favor and walked over to her as well. "Lyra, I don't know how to put this, but you've been acting strange lately, are you alright?" She said with a curious face. What was she talking about, of course I was alright. I might as well be the one asking the question to her. "Bon Bon, I'm fine, what are you talking about?" I replied. "Well, on Friday I asked you if you wanted to get a hooficure on Saturday but you never showed up. You also didn't show up to your lyre recital yesterday," She responded. "Bon Bon, it is Saturday, are you sure you're not the one who has been acting strange?" I responded with curiosity. "No, Lyra, It's Sunday, I saw you skip your recital last night while you were at SugarCube Corner," She said. I know its Saturday, and I certainly wasn't at SugarCube Corner. Was Bon Bon just fooling around with me? "You acted as if you didn't know me when I talked to you at SugarCube Corner, I was worried about you, Lyra," She continued remorsefully. "I'm sorry Bon Bon; I don't remember doing any of this. Are you sure it's not your imagination?" I asked. Bon Bon's curious face turned into a rather unsatisfied look on her face due to my lack of presumptuousness knowledge towards the day and pointed her hoof to a newspaper dispenser. It had a clear bold font, it was definitely Sunday. I could have sworn that today was Saturday, how can this be possible? "Bon Bon, I don't understand," I said in shock. "I don't know either, and you seem quite sincere about this matter, so you must be telling the truth. Maybe it's amnesia." She replied. I sighed. "Bon Bon, you and I both know I wouldn't miss a lyre recital for the world, my band mates would kill me, plus I'm your best friend, I would never miss going to a hooficure with you," I responded. Suddenly, we both let out a big sigh. "Do you still want to go to that hooficure?" I asked. "They're closed, they close early on Sundays," She replied. I rub my hoof on the ground in response for contemplation; it was all so confusing to me. "Bon Bon, if this keeps happening let me know, alright? I'll look into it later," I asked her. "Alright, be careful, Lyra," She cautioned me. I traveled back over to my house being as famished as possible, but instead of eating all I did was end up magically spinning my fork in circles around my platter. Was I really not that hungry, or was what Bon Bon told me getting to me again? I decided it was best to skip dinner and go to bed early tonight I slowly open my eyes; I was no longer in my bedroom, I was at Ponyville's hospital. "Lyra, is that really you?" I heard a voice ask. Given the current situation, I'd have to say that my facade took over my body again. "Bon Bon?" I ask. "According to these MRI's of your brain, You're other part of you claims that she is you and can control just as much of your body as you can such as speaking, walking, and using magic, but as long as the real Lyra has some memory that it doesn't, such as your relationship with Bon Bon, however as soon as time passes, that will most likely not be the case, your memory will eventually be fully erased and given to your facade form as well as being given your life force." The pony medic said walking in. "Why is this happening to her?" Bon Bon asked worryingly. "The facade does not intentionally chew away Lyra's existence; it is bound by some magical force. We are unfortunately incapable of removing sentient facades from anypony's body, especially considering well, this has never happened in Equestria before," He responded. "Where this facade came from, I have no idea, however it would be safe to strap you down so you don't move once every two days, the facade seems to take control every day after you have control, we'd still have to give the facade hospitality and treat it as a guest or it would be onto us and refuse to eat, drink, or do any of the main functions for your survival, Lyra," He continued. "How much time do you think it will take until the facade takes over all of my body?" I asked. "At the rate he's taking your memory and life force right now, I'd say within two weeks," He replied. The inner machinations of my mindThe doctor has left the room for my privacy; however Bon Bon seemed to take advantage of every visiting hour she could possibly get. We both were mostly silent with Bon Bon sitting next to my bed; there was nothing to talk about even though my death bed was soon to come. It was almost a half an hour before the doctor came back and broke our silence. "Visiting hours are over now, come back soon," he said. "But it's only 3:30 p.m., visiting hours aren't over for another hour and a half," Bon Bon replied. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to come back next week," he said with a slightly irritated look. Bon Bon got off of her chair saying her goodbyes while almost hugging me to death, passed the doctor, and left. "Lyra, don't move, this is only a little booster that'll put you in paralysis as well as a coma, it won't hurt one bit," He said as he walked over to me while levitating a syringe. "Paralysis?! But why?" I asked. "We can't risk the facade inside of you become even more self-aware, risking our town, let alone Equestria's, destruction, which is why we're resulting to a new method instead," he responded. "We'll give you the anesthetic as soon as we work out a cure, in the meantime, you will be a good pony and stay still," he commanded. He got even closer to my bed, and was within reach. "Good night, Lyra," He said as he levitated the needle towards one of my fore-hooves. "No, I won't let you do that," I said as I jumped off my bed and galloped away. "Security, we have a crucial I.P.R.A leaving the perimeter," the doctor said as he trotted into the security office. One of the security guards nodded and galloped for the entrance, while another went around the other side of the building to get to the entrance. I was too late, one of them made it their before me I tried to turn around but I was cornered by the other guard. The guard behind me pulled out a blow dart and fired at me. "You awake? Good. I can't give you you're medicine while under the effects of a tranquilizer dart," The doctor said. I was back into my bed with the doctor standing next to me. There also was one of the guards standing by the door. The tranquilizer that hit me earlier made it too hard to move my muscles. "Now, let's try this again, shall we?" he continued. Even with the inability to escape, I had enough in me to let out a small tear from my right eye. "Good night, Lyra," he said as he once again levitated the sharp needle towards one of my fore-hooves. I could only hear small mumbles in the background as my vision blurred and as my muscles became numb, it only took a couple of seconds until I was gone. Was I dead, no, I was still in the hospital, but I was in some sort of black haven where I wasn't able to move. It looked like space, but it was my subconscious, I heard voices, they sounded like mine but they weren't. I had realized now, both me and my facade were trapped in my mind, together. The worst part of it all was because it was still deteriorating my life force and my memory; it was still taking control of my body. I came closer to it, to get some answers, but it was too late, I had started to fade away. I was waking up, it was too early, and I needed more time. I was in a coma that felt like only seconds, but it was truly 8 days. "...ra. Lyra. Lyra, you awake?" I heard a voice. I slowly opened my eyes to see a female pony with a dark blue and pink mane standing next to a doctor. "She seems to be taking the effect from the anesthetic, although she was out for a whole week, she may have already lost half of her life force and memory by now." The doctor said facing the female pony. "Lyra, do you still remember me?" The female came up to me. "Who's Lyra? What am I doing here?" I asked. "It seems she lost a good majority of her memory," The doctor added. "What are you talking about?" I said as I got out of my bed. "Please, get back onto your bed, we'll explain later," The doctor said. I got back into my bed, while the female pony got closer to me. "L-Lyra..." She stuttered and then started crying. All I could reply with was a confused look. Who was she talking about? What am I doing here? Questions kept floating in my mind. "If you still have some memory about the incident, I guess I'll keep you updated: we could not find a cure and not even our pony brain surgeons could find a solution. Lyra, I'm afraid the body you possess can no longer be considered as yours," the doctor said as he walked up to me. "I don't even know why I am in need of attention! Why am I going to die?" I asked. "You'll only forget, Lyra." the doctor replied. "Wait... That gives me an idea," the female pony said The female started wiping her tears away for a moment. "It might buy us some more time, but it's a long shot," she continued. "What if we filled her with new memories, which would make more memories for the facade to take," she finished. "Even if that did work. her life force would still deplete, however I do have another, but a rather unconventional idea, in mind," the doctor said. "What is it?" the female pony asked. "In my years of doctoring, I'd never thought I would do this," he continued. "Lyra, in order to avoid the risk of the destruction of Equestria, I'm going to have to kill you," he said. Machinations - a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends. Paralysis - The loss of the ability to move. Anesthetic - a drug that causes anesthesia—reversible loss of sensation. I.P.R.A. - Important Patient run-away (made up). A tough startNote: If you haven't read 'Life amidst the others', read it now or the rest of the story will make little to no sense, but if you have already read it, then you should be fine. "There has to be another way, part of Lyra is still in there," the blue and pink maned mare argued. "Yes, but the rest of her is inevitably going to lose her own body and the only way to prevent this mysterious disease from becoming self-aware then possibly destroying the rest of Equestria would be a risk I will not want to take," he replied. "Now, for the euthanization process," he said as he beckoned to a medical assistant holding a needle who was waiting in the hallway. "You can't do this!" the same mare that seemed to be against the doctor's judgment shouted. "I was given every right to do so as long as it was for the sake of Equestria! I'm doing every pony a favor, you should be thankful!" he shouted in response as he punched her to the ground. A clock struck 12 a.m. at Ponyville's clock tower. "You bastard!" I said as I jumped out towards the doctor and knocked his assistant breaking the needle. "Well, short tempered are we?" he responded with a grin. "Bon Bon, let's get out of here," I said as I pulled her up. The doctor once headed towards the security office. "Seriously, who do you expect to fill out all of these I.P.R.A. Submission forms?!" I could hear off in the distance as I giggled a bit. A couple of guards tried to corner us, but with much ease I was able to get around them. We managed to get out of the hospital, and then we made it to the outskirts of Ponyville. It was dark, the clock that struck '12' wasn't kidding, I guess since Lyra was up during the transfer, I started out awake. Bon Bon probably got the ability to visit at night because of her short-tempered ways towards other ponies like the staff at the hospital and how she can get anything she wants. Wait, I know that's not something I should remember, oh shit, most of memory has already been replaced with hers. We better hurry. "I think we lost them, Lyra" Bon Bon Remarked. "As insane as this may sound, they haven't given up yet. Let's get a move on, we have to get to Canterlot in less than 5 days," I responded. "Lyra, when you saved me back there, how did you get your memory ba-...?" Bon Bon asked as she turned her head towards Ponyville with all her focus on the clock tower in suspicion of the dark skies. "12:30 a.m. You jerk, let Lyra go!" she yelled at me. "Calm down, that crazy doctor was right, it is of no intention that I am doing this to our friend, it is very hard to consider Lyra as a completely different pony when you are in her body with over half of her memory," I reminded her. "Our friend? What are you talking about?" she asked. "With the little memory I have left, I'll explain as much as I can," I replied. "My name is Shane, or at least I think it is, my mind is very good at convincing me it's Lyra rather than that, but I remember being new to Equestria, I don't know why but I was very unfamiliar with anything, hell, I didn't know that ponies could fly until then. I had no idea how to walk so I was unable to retrieve any food and passed out on the ground, Lyra has taken care of me ever since. Unfortunately, that's all I can remember," I responded. "How could I believe any of this? You're nothing more than a disease, chewing away at Lyra's life force and memory, why should I help you go to Canterlot?" she angrily asked. "First of all, Lyra's memory isn't the only pony's memory getting erased, mine is as well, my memory is being erased and then replaced by hers, why would I want to replace my memory banks with hers? Second of all, Lyra is my friend and I would do nothing to hurt her. Finally, if there is anything I do remember, it was that your ruler Princess Celestia is involved. It may not add up, but I remember her being responsible for something related to this. I feel our best option is to confront her," I replied. "What would the Princess have to do with Lyra replacing your memory so Lyra would die, let alone putting you in Lyra's body?" she asked. (Sorry for the lack of pronouns in this paragraph, but when you're talking about two or more of the same gender, there are many possibilities for the audience to assume who you're talking about) "Your guess is as good as mine," I continued. "Believe me or not, but I saved your friend from that psychotic doctor, the least you could do is help me get to Canterlot to offer you a chance to save Lyra," I finished. "I still have one more question," she said. "Go ahead, there's a chance I might not know the answer to it though," I replied. "Before you got into Lyra's body, what did you look like, were you even a pony?" she asked. "I have memories of me being a pony, I also have memories of being something else, but what I looked like then is almost impossible to imagine now," I replied. "We better hurry, I can see them off in the distance looking for us," I continued. "I can trust you, for now, but I have my eye on you," she ominously replied. "The only way to get to Canterlot is by taking the train, which leaves us with two options: We head to Ponyville's train station and risk getting caught by that psychopath, or we travel through the everfree forest to get to Dodge Junction," I pondered. Lyra must really like to travel; I have her memory of all these places I didn't even know existed. My new memory also tells me that the everfree is not such a 'good' place to be either. I don't think choosing my next move is going to be very easy. When I said that Lyra liked to travel, it implied that the reader would know that her OC is pretty much everywhere in the background for MLP:FiM. The dangerous road of seduction ahead"Ah, shit," I said negatively. "What's wrong?" Bon Bon replied. "See for yourself," I said as I pointed my hoof back to the center of Ponyville. There were posters posted against walls on pretty much every street corner, they were wanted posters. Several of the guards from the hospital were patrolling throughout Ponyville; they really were taking this seriously. The security guards were not ones to give up easily; almost every guard pony held a picture of us in their mouth and asked questions relating to where we were to all the locals, one after another, after another, nonstop. "Have you seen these mares?" "Sir, have you seen these mares?" "Ma'am, have you seen these mares?" Given my assumption, they will probably give up patrolling Ponyville soon. I'm led to believe that crazy psychopath knows where we are headed to. "Oh no, we're fugitives, we better turn back before we get into serious trouble," Bon Bon said as she panicked. "No, we can't stop now, since we're fugitives, everypony in Ponyville will try to turn us in, so we can't risk going to the train in Ponyville, we have only one option, we must go through the everfree forest," I said. "But it's dangerous, especially at night when you can't see," Bon Bon said nervously. "Look, no matter where we go they'll find us, your house and Lyra's house is two hotspots they'll come looking for us in. We have no choice but to get a move on while we still can," I said confidently. The forest entrance, it looked much darker inside than it did already out here. I knew I wasn't prepared for whatever was in there but it was something we had to do. Bon Bon looked as if she was going to fall to the ground from her shaking her four limbs rapidly in nervousness. "Well, this is it, the everfree forest, Bon Bon, before we risk our lives on this journey, I've always wanted to tell you something in case of something goes wrong or if we get separated," I said. "What is it?" she asked. My muzzle slowly closed in towards Bon Bon's, we were face to face until my head got even further. Soon both our muzzles touched and my lips locked onto hers. It took ten whole seconds until I took control of myself and quickly withdrew my muzzle away from hers. Trying to gather my thoughts and say that the kiss was unintentional but when I opened my mouth, my brain decided to use the incorrect phonemes, but I truly wanted to use the incorrect phonemes. "I love you," I said romantically. Do I truly love Bon Bon? No I don't! Why won't my mind let me decide who I love and who I don't?! Then I realized, my new mind is taking over, Lyra's memory of her relationship with Bon Bon... It's making me want to fall in love with Bon Bon! I can like her as a friend but my mind is transforming me to want to take it to the next level, which was beyond me, at least for the moment. My mind made me want to agree with it and just let it take control over my emotions, deciding when and where I should use specific emotions, it succeeded. I now longed for my brain to finish the job and no longer fought back, it was only moments before I was no longer able to see her as just my friend, but as somepony that I've loved for my entire life. Bon Bon hesitated for a moment trying to process what happened. For a second, she looked like she was frozen in ice, unable to move or blink. "What? No round two?" I questioned. "Lyra?" she tested me. "Yeah?" I responded. "This is bad, you've already forgotten your real name and you've nearly put me into a seductive state because of Lyra's true love for me," she said as she acknowledged me responding to Lyra's name. "Oh, we're roleplaying in third pony now?" I asked. "No we're not, now let's go before any more of your memory gets erased," she rushed me. We entered through the forest entrance and walked around for five minutes being nearly lost in the dark until Bon Bon spoke. "Lyra, please tell me you can use your light spell," she pleaded. "Of course," I replied. Light emanated our path through my horn, it was still pretty dark and scary, but it was helpful nonetheless. "Hey, Bon Bon, what are we doing out here anyways?" I asked. "I'd answer your question but you'd have to answer my question first: 'How fast are you going to lose relevant information?'" she replied. "No need to be a dick," I replied. "How unfortunate that one of the only things that still remains in your mind is your constant swearing," she said as she sighed. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Just follow me, and try not to get lost," she continued. "Alright," I sighed. "Look out!" I said as Bon Bon slipped into a crevice, it was at least six stories deep and a hundred yards wide. "I got you," I said as Bon Bon hooked onto my two hooves. "Lyra, you've got to levitate me out! There's no way you can just pull me out!" she said as she panicked. "Okay, but I don't know how to make you levitate," I replied. "You're a unicorn, unicorns do magic, and magic consists of levitating things!" she said as she started slipping. "I... I don't know how, I am sorry," I said as a tear slipped right though my eyes. Bon Bon then slipped out of my hooves, I lost her grip and Bon Bon started falling. "I'm sorry, Bon Bon," I muttered. Phonemes - A single sound created to form part of a word Ex: ah, a, o, oo, s, ch, c, r, n, p, l, w Since I spent nearly two hours revising the paragraph after 'Lyra' said 'I love you', trying to make it easier to understand what was going on without making the protagonist making a complete fool of himself (technically he already did), I felt like explaining it here was easier. Shane was being tricked by his mind into thinking that he should want to love Bon Bon and since his brain presented him with the opportunity, he agreed. Your mind controls your memory, and since Lyra's memory includes having specific emotions for Bon Bon, those memories can link up to the other part of his brain that is the control station of your emotions, allowing the memory to take over his emotions. His mind was as if one entity was being forced to want something to happen to him, thinking it was a requirement to have Lyra's memory stored into him, so he did not resist and let it do its job. When he tried to say what he wanted to say at the moment he said he loved Bon Bon and truly didn't, he himself did and didn't want to say it. Think of it like a computer, you have to look up the data you have on the computer to retrieve it, so when he looked up what to say in his mind, nothing there said that he didn't love her or just 'liked' her enough to unintentionally kiss her. So his mind used what Lyra would say in a situation like that. Recovering lost knowledge"Lyra, help!" I could hear her say in screams of terror. There was nothing I could do but watch her fall to her doom. No, I won't let this happen. A sound chimed as my horn started to glow, and then Bon Bon started to glow as well. Bon Bon then started levitating in midair and stopped screaming. Soon enough, she floated back on up. "I suppose we could consider this as one piece of good news and two pieces of bad news," Bon Bon said as she landed peacefully onto the surface of the ground. "The good news is: You now know how to use Lyra's levitation spell. The first piece of bad news is: Lyra's memory and life force are draining at an incredibly faster rate than I anticipated. The last bit of bad news is: we're running out of time, that crazy doctor said you'd permanently become Lyra if we fail to stop the takeover, not even Celestia's magic would help after you've finished. I just hope Celestia can restore what you had already taken from Lyra, you seemed pretty confident about her before," she continued. "I don't know what you're talking about and I still don't even know why were in the everfree forest, it's dangerous out here," I replied. All she could let out in reply was a huge sigh, I had a feeling she would do that. "Look, thanks for saving me, but the only reason why it's hard for you to think is because you're not really Lyra, you only think you are. You currently have the memory of two different ponies, Lyra and Shane, mostly Lyra, now before you lose the memory of me telling you this, we need to get to Canterlot to revive you two into to your former selves before you end up completely taking over her memory, body, and life force," she responded. "What are you talking about, of course I am Lyra! Bon Bon, are you implying that I am not the one who you spent an endless amount of time together?" I asked turning my head in sorrow. "I am sorry, but no, you are not, you only have the memory of that happening, you never really did it, the real Lyra I know did it," she said putting her right fore-hoof over my shoulder, trying to sympathize me. "If I am not Lyra, then who am I?" I asked. "Your name is Shane; at least that is what you told me earlier today. Now, we need to work together to sort this out, we're going to Canterlot to help you, but we have to go to Dodge Junction in order to do so, and I need every bit of your help I can get," she responded. "Bon Bon, I appreciate your honesty, despite my small amount of disbelief towards your claim and my mind tricking me into thinking I am not who I really am, my heart tells me that you're right and we should just move forward," I replied gathering my thoughts together. "Well, we should get a move on; we only have 5 days, including today, to get to Canterlot. The next train to Canterlot leaves tomorrow afternoon and it is only a three day trip. If we can make it on time then we might have a whole day to get things sorted out," she stated. "Right," I replied. As dark and scary as the forest was, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was surprised that we have not encountered a single creature that inhabited the forest. Half of the creatures have got to be nocturnal, so there is no reason for them to not be out and about. "If we continue to stay on the outer regions of the forest, we should be fine, however it might take longer to get to the other side," Bon Bon said. Alright, that answers my question; however it is still too hard for me to take all this in. Was my purpose to destroy a somepony's life? Why was I truly born as a pony before or was I made as a mental disease? After nearly 16 hours of walking around in the forest later... "Bon Bon, are we almost there yet? My hooves are getting sore," I stated. "We should be a couple of hours away, we should camp here and wait until morning arrives, and continue tomorrow. I'm going to go look for some twigs or logs to start a fire. I won't be too far away, so call me if you need me," Bon Bon said as she wandered off into the woods. It was not too long until she got back with a stack of logs, sticks, and twigs. "Unfortunately, we can't use leaves to help us light it or it would give away our position to not only creatures in the forest but also any pegasi that doctor hired to scour the skies for us. For now, I'll agree to calling you Lyra, but don't get any bright ideas. 'Lyra', be a dear and rub these logs together via levitation?" she said walking over to me and placing the logs on the ground. I quickly swiped several logs together in midair, sparked one of the logs on fire, placed the logs on the ground, and let the fire slowly spread to the other logs. "Bon Bon, why do you suppose I am, or rather my mind, is doing this?" I asked. "I was just about to ask you the same question, however it's quite obvious that you are not fully responsible, so don't be ashamed of yourself," she replied. "Thanks, Bon Bon, now I think I'm going to hit the hay," I said as I yawned. "Alright, I'll just watch the fire, I brought a few blankets from the hospital in case if you needed them, I guess you can have them now, just remember that you're most likely not going to wake up until two days from now, the other Lyra will wake up instead," she said as she pulled a red thick blanket out. I lay out the blanket and slowly close my eyes and drift the night away. After a while, I could feel something cuddling up against me, it was Bon Bon. Was she that desperate for attention or was she more worried about the comfort of what I haven't taken from Lyra? How is the other Lyra going to fare on getting to the train tomorrow with her lack of knowledge to speak, interpret what other ponies are saying, using magic, how to eat or sleep, or even walk? I let it slide and continued to sleep. Lying awakeI had awoken, or rather, started out awake. It was midnight, nothing came to mind, who am I, where am I, and who is using me as a pillow?! All I could do was nudge my head onto what was on me to signify my presence; it did quite a good job. "Huh? Lyra, Is that you? Great, since you transferred bodies while being awake two days ago, you started out awake now, that's just another fantastic way to wake up early in the day," she stated sarcastically. "Look, since you probably don't know how talk, let alone stand, you might as well stay in prone position, we won't be moving until later in the morning. We have plenty of time to get to Dodge Junction; the departure is around 6 P.M. which leaves us with plenty of time. I'm guessing you probably don't know how to sleep either," she said vaguely. What is standing, talking, or sleeping? What am I? Where am I? How is she moving? How do I move? "Lyra, even though your time is dwindling, I know you still have the capabilities of comprehending what I am saying, now I am going to put this as simple as possible: 'Me take you to train to go to town to help you'," she said as she gave out hoof signals. Okay, I understood practically everything but the two nouns and the one verb she mentioned in that sentence. "Now you may not like what I am about to say but, you're going to have to sit there for a while, whether you understand me or not," she said. I don't know what she is talking about, you know what, forget it, she is returning to her original position of covering nearly half of my body with hers. 7 Long hours later... "Alright, let's go," she said as she grabbed her saddlebag. "I'm going to have to carry you, aren't I?" she asked as she sighed. "HUMF!" she said as she struggled to grab me with her hooves and mostly her mouth, dropping me onto her saddle bags. "Your lucky Earth ponies have more built in strength than unicorns, or I wouldn't be carrying you right now," she replied to my inert movement and lack of eye response to blinking. "Ugh, don't expect a hug," she said as she sighed. It was two more long hours until we reached the forest clearing on the other side. "There, now Dodge Junction is only about a quarter of a mile away. Even with your heavy weight, we have plenty of time to get to the train station," Was that an insult or a compliment? I don't even know if she was talking about me or not. "Even though, you probably can't understand what I am saying, I know you mean well and some of you Lyra is still in there, and I know that's the Lyra I've come to know and love, just because somepony has your mindset doesn't mean they ARE you," she said to me still lying inert on her back. "I know things look bleak, but that's all in the past now. Even if I am talking to an inert pony that doesn't even know how to blink, I still love you," she said with a tear in her eye. It only took about 30 minutes until we got to the train station, it was actually quite busy. The train was already at its station but it didn't look quite ready for departure. "You stay here while I go get our tickets," she said after she put me down onto a bench and then walked over to a booth. It was a long wait, it wasn't a surprise since the line was long, but it took her an hour or two just to get us our tickets. We were allowed to board the train, however it would not move until 6 p.m., the train's scheduled time. "7B, 7C, 7D, Ah! 7E here we are, this is going to be our cabin for the next few days," she said as she walked down the hallway. She set me down on the lower bunk bed, presumably for my safety since I have no Idea how to move she and everything else is moving but I do not know how. "Now, I was thinking, before we get to Canterlot, we've got to think of a way to confront the princess, they might not let us in without a reason," she pondered as she climbed up onto the small couch beside the two bunk beds. "You know, you've been putting me through a lot lately, not only are we fugitives on the run from a psychopathic doctor that believes you are being taken over from a mental disease, but I also have to take into account that you are dying on the inside because you are giving your own life and memory to somepony that I've never seen in my entire life that you would presumably know if you weren't in this state. If you even gave me a hint to who this Shane character is, and then we may get on the right track," she said grieving in what she had witnessed in the past few days. "This is just too much to take in, so much has happened in the past few days, it's so stressful, I guess carrying you all the way up here put too much of a strain on my back making it so I can't think properly, or maybe your mental state started passing on to me making it impossible to think," she said as she chuckled to herself. A conductor knocked onto the door. "Miss, might I see your tickets?" the conductor asked. "Ah, yes, here you go sir," she said. The conductor verified the ticket and stamped it for approval. "Ah, very good, thank you miss," he said as he gave the tickets back and left. "I guess we should get rested, we still got a few hours ahead of us until we depart," she continued. She climbed onto the upper bunk and went to sleep; I was still sitting there, inert. Inert - Lacking the ability or strength to move. Departure to Canterlot"All aboard, last call for Canterlot!" a loud voice shouted. It certainly woke up the pony on the bunk above me. Steam pipes on the train started roaring and the broad connecting steel wands on the wheels started spinning. Gears started spinning and the exhaust pipes were fuming. You could hear a horn sound off from the front of the train as well. "Wow, I must have slept like a stallion. I slept the whole day away," she said as she yawned in astonishment. "It seems we're departing, I haven't been in Canterlot for a while," she continued. "You obviously don't look any better than before, even worse I'd imagine," she said as she let out a big sigh. It was not too long before the train started taking motion, the staff on the train started offering free beverages and Bon Bon insisted on getting one. "This may sting a bit due to intense heat, that is if your share of the brain still connects to your sensory nerves," she warned. She carefully tipped one of the hot beverages over my face and unfortunately widely opened eyes which were still incapable of shutting. "Ah! What's your problem?!" I said in response to the thousands of burns from my eyes feeling, it's as if I poured salt on an open wound. "All it took was some good measures; however you probably can't even comprehend what you said or what I am saying right now, if you can then answer this question: 'What is the answer to this question?'" she replied. "The answer? I think, I don't know," I answered. "Yes, that is something Lyra would say, you still got a bit of Lyra in you! I think as long as I have some sort of intense heat, I can temporarily remove you out of stasis, but that leaves me with a couple of questions 'why does it remove your from stasis?' and 'how long does it last?'," she replied. "How am I supposed to know? I don't even know what you're talking about!" I replied. "Here we go again, I can already tell this is going to be one heck of a trip to Canterlot," she responded. Meanwhile... "We just got a memo report from the local pegasi weather team, doctor. It seems the two convicts you are after went through the dangerous Everfree forest. Also, might I ask of what wrong doing were they accused of?" Mayor mare asked. "That is none of your concern, just make sure you guard the entrance from the Everfree to Ponyville, we have to make sure they don't come back. If they don't come back, then I am sure of where they are headed," he responded. "Where would that possibly be?" Mayor replied. "There headed to Dodge Junction and taking the train to Canterlot, we'll cut them off when the train arrives at the train station in Canterlot, they're cornered whether they retreat from the clutches of the forest, die from whatever is in the forest, or when we catch them in Canterlot, and to just to make sure they don't get far, send one of your pegasi out tomorrow to get to that train to stop it. No pony would be able to reach the train without wings, so we need one of your fastest pegasi to stop the train and catch those two," he chuckled letting out a slight grin. The early morning... "Very well done making it through the forest, I see," I complimented as I got out of the bed. "A little too early for another acquaintance, don't you think?" she asked with a tired groan. "Heh, sorry about that," I replied. "Anyways, how are you feeling?" she asked. "I honestly could not feel any worse, you were right; I can tell that something is happening to me. I wish I knew what was going on," I responded. "Shut up, already!" a noise came from the room next to us, banging on the wall. "I do too, but we have to focus, we've only got four days left, later today you and I will discuss this further but as of right now it's probably a good time, so get some sleep," she whispered finishing the conversation. "Ugh, my back feels like a brick wall and my eyes are sore to such a giant extent," I complained. "You were lying inert for a whole day with your eyes wide open the entire time, I wouldn't be surprised, but seriously, get some sleep," she responded. Later that morning... I decided the best thing to do was to visit other train cars and see what everypony else was doing, which was a much better idea than sitting in this room all day. So I quickly got off my bed and silently walked passed Bon Bon to avoid waking her up, knowing she was an afternoon kind of mare. As soon as I got close to the door to exit our room, I heard voices. "Stop right there, you need a train ticket to board this train!" a voice sounded "It doesn't matter, we need to stop the train right now, we have fugitives on board!" another voice from in the hallway sounded. I peeked through the eye hole in our door; it seemed to be a male pegasi and the conductor having an argument. "We can't just stop the train without solid proof of fugitives being on board and you illegally boarded this train," the conductor responded. "Look, I got direct orders from my mayor in Ponyville to stop this train, I even got her hoof signature along with photos of these fugitives," he responded pulling out a slip with his mouth out of his saddlebag. "Bon Bon, we've got a problem!" I said panicking. "Five more minutes!" she said letting out a groan. "We might not even have five minutes, let alone the three days until the transformation is complete and I become Lyra, that crazy doctor sent somepony to stop the train to catch us! He knows we are here!" I said worryingly. Reminder for readers: 3 days (including current day) in the story remain until 'Shane' becomes Lyra. The train ride predicted a 72 hour train ride from 6 P.M. yesterday when the train started moving to 6 P.M. 3 days from then. IF they make it to Canterlot in time via train avoiding the current issue at hand along with the issue waiting for them at the Canterlot train station, they would still only have six hours to get to the princess before his fate would be permanently sealed. Yet another departure"Wait, what?!" Bon Bon said as she was startled and fell off her top bunk, tangling herself into her blankets on the floor. "That crazy doctor you told me about in the forest, he has sent somepony here to capture us. We have to scram before it's too late!" I said as I levitated the blankets tangled around her. "What about the train ride? It's our only choice of transportation that will get us there in less than three days, not to mention that Canterlot is on top of a mountain and the only mode of transportation that can get us up there is train or pegasi carriages, so it would be impossible to get their on hoof!" she said as she began to panic. "Now, do I have to repeat myself, or do I have to use an unorthodox method of convincing you?" he said as he pulled out a gun. It was a hoof mounted device with a hoof shaped hole in the back along with a thick band of string with both ends attached together which form a loop around a trigger and the top of the device. Whenever a pony fired, they would use their mouth to pull the string. "Even if I had the permission to stop the train, I wouldn't stop it for the likes of you, now get off this train immediately," he said while he stuttered to speak A loud crack of gunpowder sounded. With a loud noise that most likely woke up the entire train, the poor conductor took a bullet to the front of his body, or formally, his torso right below his neck. The conductor fell to the floor, struggling to get up. "We have to help the conductor!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "And get caught? We're already in enough trouble as it is, we have to go now!" I replied as I levitated the lower half of the window sliding it up. The conductor lifted one hoof at a time trying to get up but the mysterious stallion got the last laugh. "No, I don't think you'll be getting up, I'm putting this train on immediate lock down, even if I do have to use lethal force," he said as he yanked the string once more aimed at the conductors muzzle. Bon Bon hesitated for a moment but managed to climb up onto of the windowpane. Though the window was very small, barely allowing a whole mare's body to fit in, we both managed to get onto the window pane. The train was heading at what seemed like lightning fast speed, we had no choice but to jump. "How are we going to get out of this train 'alive'? The train is going to fast!" she shouted. "You aren't exiting this train, at least not alive," a voice sounded as somepony opened the door. "Bon Bon, it's me he wants, you stay on the train and go to the princess and tell her everything," I solemnly spoke. "But..." she spoke until I put my hoof over her mouth. "Even if we somehow managed to get to Canterlot without the train, they'd still be waiting for us there. There is no use in running away, not anymore," I continued. "Go ahead, take me," I said. "Good, now that wasn't so hard now was it? My carriage is in the caboose of the train, now follow me," he said as he jerked onto my hoof. "Shane... Lyra..." Bon Bon muttered as I was forcefully being tugged. "Go ahead, get in, hauling this here wasn't easy and I guarantee it won't be any easier with somepony in it," he moaned. Surprisingly, even though I was pretty much as screwed as I was, this was still a pretty comfortable seat. It was a read plush seat surrounded by a blue painted cart with a front being held by two long strands of metal bars connected together by what seemed to be a restraint so the pony flying the carriage can pull it. The exterior had a painted logo of what seemed to be the pegasi's cutie mark, which was very similar to the gun he seemed to hold all the time in something that looked like a saddlebag but was too thin, it was about a couple inches thick and had a pocket on the right side in the shape of his gun. I can already tell that this guy is way too over excessive about his job but does not look like he enjoys it. I guess even if you had a talent, it doesn't mean you would enjoy doing it. Without hesitation, he took off from the caboose of the train; luckily the door on the back was huge. "So... What's your name?" I asked. "You can refer to me as 'Gunslinger'" he replied. "So Gunslinger, where are we headed to?" I continued. "Even if your line of interrogation was relevant, I still wouldn't tell you," he groaned. This guy was seriously overkill, I hope he isn't as generous to me as he is to everypony else. I was truly surprised that anypony would hire him at all. "Could you at least give me a distinct time of how long we will be flying for?" I asked. "I could press the button next to me resulting in you falling nearly 20,000 feet to your doom, or you could shut up," he responded. I could only let out a small sigh in response, he was unbelievable. It was like talking to a rock, he was as ignorant as one too. I am betting neither one of us is going to enjoy this trip to wherever he was taking me, but I know one thing: I'm not going to enjoy my experience there.This guy is pissing me off to a too big of an extent, I want to kick his ass but that would screw me over too since he's the only thing keeping me in the air. Maybe if I could see the Canterlot rests upon even with my high altitude since it's on top of a mountain, I may be able to kick his ass off the restraint, only to make him fall to his doom, in honor of the innocent ponies he has killed, in time for me to levitate the carrier to my safety into Canterlot. Relevant - having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand Interrogation - a written or spoken list of questions. Distinct - Recognizably different in nature from something else of a similar type. Revenge and RecoveryIt has been nearly an eight hour ride to who knows where; it was around four in the afternoon judging by the sun's position. I'm surprised one pony can fly this far, especially with a carriage with a pony in it. It looks so heavy and wouldn't your wings eventually get tired? Judging by his attitude I am guessing this probably not one of his favorable parts of doing his job. I guess everything does come with its downfalls as well as its positives. As for my escape plan, it so far is not so successful. I don't even think we're going to even be heading towards any mountains, let alone the mountain Canterlot is attached to. "Are we almost there yet?" I impatiently asked as I started to feel uncomfortable for sitting for several hours. "How do you think I feel hauling you around? I can't even stop for a coffee break and you sit there asking when we will get there?!" He yelled in response with anger. "How do you even know where we are going? We're too high up to even see what topography lies below us," I asked. "I guess you could say that I 'convinced' a group pegasi about clearing a path for me so I didn't have to worry about weather, at least if you consider nearly killing one of their crew members as convincing that is. As for a sense for direction, I just head in the general direction of where I need to go. Any further questions?" he asked. I couldn't even blink, what he had said astonished me. I was putting the lives of other ponies in peril; it was all because of me. Was living really worth making the lives of other ponies suffer? "No more questions? Good, and before you end up asking again, we're going to Manehattan, since your train took you all the way to Ghastly Gorge, we have to go around Canterlot in order to get there now, luckily we should be flying over it soon," he said as he let out a subtle groan. Canterlot, that is just what I needed to hear. He was surely to be in for a surprise. Ah, right on cue and it doesn't seem to be too far below either. If it was a shortcut to Canterlot I need, then it's a shortcut to Canterlot I'll get. I start rapidly shaking the cart as my horn started to glow and started to build up momentum. "What are you doing? Are you trying to kill us both?!" He said in fear and anger, mostly anger. "No, just you, when the cart flips, you'll be put to an inevitable death since you can only fly in an upright position as the cart rotates you with it," I smirked. "Yeah, but you'll be coming down with me," he argued. "You wish I would, you see, I just remembered one of Lyra's spells, unicorns can prevent themselves from gaining any momentum while falling and remain at a constant speed. I was just going to remove you from the cart and levitate it down, but now that I am becoming even more of Lyra and realizing that you put the lives of others in danger for it, let alone the times you probably did before then all because of a selfish greed for money, I decided being squashed by a falling cart and hitting your face on the ground would be even more suitable," I replied. "Don't shake this cart? You hear me?!" He tried to yell with fake courage. "No," I replied as my horn emanated an even brighter light. The cart started shaking even faster and eventually the cart did flip over to about a 75º counter-clockwise angle and it was almost sideways, which made the cart start falling. I started climbing onto the other side and then swung using the carts momentum to rotate it even further to about 115º, rendering Gunslinger's wings completely useless so he gave up and retracted them as I continued to climb up to the other side. The cart started to pick up more speed as it was falling. "You sick bastard!" was all he could mutter. Gunslinger was dangling upside down, attached to what is holding him in place. We were falling at too fast at a pace for him to eject himself so he could fly away. I gave the cart another push of momentum and rotated it until it was completely upside with me being on the bottom of the cart which was now on the top. "I'm afraid this is the last time we meet Gunslinger," I said as I let go of my grip onto the cart with my levitation making me fly up by G-Force. Gunslinger fell until he was no longer into view while I was still being pushed back. I readjusted my trajectory so I would land in Canterlot, or at least within the border of it. "You won't be missed, Gunslinger," I said as I started to glow my horn once again and slowed down the acceleration gain from the gravity. "Urgh! ERR!" Gunslinger groaned as he tried to struggle his way out of the cradle that bound him to the cart. A loud thud occurred, debris was tossed, massive injuries were sustained, and Gunslinger blacked out. "Is he going to be alright?" a nurse asked. "I'm unsure of that, he's lucky to be alive, his heart rate still seems to be intact," another nurse replied. Gunslinger was in a hospital bed in Cloudsdale, not too far from Canterlot. He was hooked up to several monitors and he lays passed out lying inert. "He was lucky to land on a cloud in Cloudsdale as a pegasi, landing on the ground would be much worse, unfortunately, it still felt like concrete due to how high he fell from, he also managed to sustain injury from the crash as well," the nurse continued. "This was no accident, this poor fellow was almost murdered," the other nurse replied. http://youtu.be/lZBMgiii80E?t=4m38s -- Trasknari, a Let's Player, describes that even a soft surface can kill you if you fall at a fast pace. (Note: Struts and Winglets do not work on pegasi [If you watch even further he says that those will help 4:50 to 5:10]). G-Force - a unit of force equal to the force exerted by gravity; used to indicate the force to which a body is subjected when it is accelerated. Momentum - The force that makes happen more quickly on a moving object. Inevitable - Certain to happen; unavoidable Topography - The arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area. My saviourThis is going to sting, if not worse. Even with my acceleration being very low, I am still heading at a fairly indecent pace for a safe impact. I was heading at least twenty miles per hour, which may not seem like much, unless you were falling onto a populated town with dozens of buildings to fall on top of and all the ponies below. Even if I do managed to avoid those two obstacles, falling at twenty miles per hour is quite fast, but luckily somewhat survivable with many injuries given. Several incidents in real life approve of this logic to be true, however a ponified body being applied to this situation has yet to be confirmed of whether it's true or not. (I am not responsible whether you try this out or not, but I advise you to NOT try it) Canterlot got closer and closer as I managed to sustain my speed, but pain and survival were both my number one concern at the moment. I was within view of Canterlot, at a glance, only a few ponies cared that they saw a unicorn falling from the sky and watched as I plummeted toward the ground, the rest were the fancy selfish type that couldn't care less. I started to hug my legs and slouched down hoping for the best. It was only a few seconds before I landed on top of one of the curved rooftops which slid me down to the nearly approached ground which only slowed me down to the smallest extent. It was then in which I stopped attempting to decelerate myself and tried to protect myself from the impact onto the ground, with magical levitation force, I clung adhesively to the rooftop to slow myself down. In result, I managed to gradually decrease my speed. Now the only challenge was to completely stop, I dug into the rooftop with my hooves only to cling on even harder. I was groping for my life trying to stop, but my hooves started to burn. With subtlety, I managed to stop and a crowd of middle classed ponies standing below me hoof-stomped the ground and cheered towards my landing. "Ah, it looks like my package has arrived, there was no doubt that whoever that mayor hired would have failed, it would of actually beneficial for Lyra to have gone to Manehattan, so she wouldn't have to deal with me, since her escape from the carrier was premeditated, nevertheless, I would of still made it to Manehattan in time before her facade takes over," the doctor said with a evil grin. "Umm, can somepony get me down?" I asked silencing their applause. "You're not going anywhere," somepony said barging through the crowd. "Why can't you just leave me alone, you freak?!" I rhetorically asked as he revealed himself, it was that doctor. "So, I take it Bon Bon's not with you? That's too bad, after all, you wouldn't want to die alone," he said revealing a pony on the ground next to him. It was Bon Bon; she looked bad and injured to such a great extent. Her mane looked torn up and was no longer curled up. All four of her hooves were tied into a knot by a rope, a cloth was tied around her eyes, and another rope covered her mouth. She struggled to get up only to slide forward by getting kicked forward by the doctor. "How about a trade, if you make this easy and I'll spare your friend here or you both can share the grave. After all the trouble you put me through, I'd say that's a fair trade, don't you think?" he asked. "You're psychotic, what makes you think you can do that?" I replied. "Nothing really, except for the law and the fact that you are one of the most wanted citizens of Equestria, I have every right to hold hostages if I have to," he smirked as several ponies in armor levitating spears walked up behind him. "You were so close as to convincing the princess that you actually were a real being, how pathetic. I can't believe you even thought that you had a chance," he said. The doctor beckoned to one of the guards behind him to drop his spear and levitate me down. "You won't get away with this," I yelled. The guard levitated me tightly, I couldn't counter his levitation spell and he threw me onto the ground only to be lying in front of that psychopathic doctor and then he looked down at me. "I'm afraid that is where you are wrong," he replied. "Tie her up and make sure you cover her horn too, we wouldn't want her to let her to use magic," he said beckoning to the same guard. "No," a voice spoke out loud. Suddenly a pathway was made in the crowd; everypony continued to be silent and started to bow. "I think you've put this poor pony through enough, don't you think?" Princess Celestia said as she appeared onto the pathway made by the crowd. One of the guards behind the doctor interrupted her. "...but, your majesty, this mare is a fugitive, and she is to be euthanized immediately due to a mysterious infection in her brain that is threatening to take over as we speak!" a guard said. "I think that's enough, I will decide whether this pony's fate after we have a private discussion," she demanded. "...but, your highness..." he said. "That's enough, now be gone, I will not repeat myself," she said. "Lyra, we have a lot to discuss, go ahead and help your friend out over there," she said as she looked back over at me. "How do you know my name?" I asked. "I know a lot more than that, I also know that it truly isn't your name but you're rather the disease the doctor spoke of since Lyra's memory is intact currently," she said helping me off the ground. "Thank you for saving me, but why did you help me? I'm no more important than the thousands of other ponies in Equestria," I replied. "You are way more important than you think, I am also aware that the real you is going to be taking possession for the last time tomorrow," she responded. I unraveled the knots between Bon Bon's two rope restraints on her mouth and hooves and the cloth covering her eyes. "So, Bon Bon, I take it, did this 'facade' tell you anything about itself before it lost the majority of its memory so it could take Lyra's?" Princess Celestia asked. Keep in mind: Nopony remembers Shane, not even Princess Celestia, since he decided to sacrifice his life for Lyra (the mare who has broken her own contract in attempt to bring Shane back to Equestria and nearly killing herself as the result) making everypony forget about him since the contract has magical properties that not even Princess Celestia has control over. The archives"He said his name was Shane and he used to be a pony, well at least not like this, and he also said he was great friends with Lyra before the incident," Bon Bon said. Princess Celestia looked down as if she was in an extremely meditative state and paused for a moment. "...And you wouldn't happen to remember anything before you entered Lyra's body?" Princess Celestia asked. "No, I'm more clueless than everypony here," I replied. "Perhaps we should further discuss this matter in the castle," Princess Celestia responded. Bon Bon and I nodded. Several minutes have gone by and we eventually stop to a place where Bon Bon, Princess Celestia, and I can talk in privacy. Princess Celestia took us to one of her studies; it was accompanying us with a fireplace, two lounge couches, and a formal red carpet in the center. "Thank you again for all you have done for us so far, Princess Celestia," Bon Bon said with a wide thankful grin on her face. "You're quite welcome, however there are still further matters we must discuss, first of all, the reason in particular why I decided to save your friend here," Princess Celestia said and then hesitated. "Even though I am forbidden to tell you this, I guess I don't have much of a choice. Lyra was bound by a contract to stay here in Equestria because she was originally human; her previous alias she went by was 'Jackie'. However, she is bound by that contract, so she lost all of her memory of ever being human, every one hundred years I bring a human into Equestria and turn them into ponies, your friend here is over 200 years old and didn't even know it. Now, I don't have the slightest idea why I don't remember bringing a human over to Equestria when I had the chance last month, but that is none of my concern. Anyways, I saved Lyra because I cannot let a species from a different universe die because of the ponies in this universe. Is any of this making sense to either of you?" Princess Celestia said. Bon Bon's jaw dropped and my eyes were wide open. Princess Celestia let out a small frustrated sigh. "I guess that does not matter at the moment, what we should be worried about how this happened," Princess Celestia continued. "Bon Bon, would you happen to know when this first started?" Princess Celestia asked as she turned her head towards Bon Bon. "About a month ago," Bon Bon replied. Princess Celestia looked down and meditated for a moment. "Follow me to the archives, although it is forbidden for anypony, including myself, to enter, I feel that it is necessary in this situation," Princess Celestia said. "The archives?" I asked. "It's where all the contracts of humans that came to Equestria are stored, including Lyra's. It's the only choice we have left if we're going to save you two," Princess Celestia said as she walked out of the room beckoning to us. A bell near the perimeter of Canterlot struck, it was already 7 in the evening. "Come on, we don't have much time, the last day is awakening soon and the only source of information will be inert then until the transformation is complete on the following day!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "Can we at least stop to eat? I haven't had a bite since I was on the train," I asked. "No!" I could hear both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon shout. It was only even several more minutes until we finally reached the corridor leading to the archives. It was much bigger than the corridor at the entrance of the castle, you'd think you wouldn't miss this room considering how big it was but it hid like a needle in a haystack. "Here we are, the archives, this door has not been open for the past " Princess Celestia said as she approached the door. The door was as big as the corridor itself, it was brown and had writing on it, supposedly in a language used in the time the room was made. The door was surprisingly dust-free and looked as if it was brand new. On the floor in front of the door was like a calendar, it had six red solar orbs, one of them being bigger than the rest, formed a circle on the ground and the orbs sensed whether a ray of sunlight was directed towards them or not. A small open hole above the door showing the outside was angled towards a spherical mirror held on a pedestal that is centering all six of the orbs. "Every day, when the sun is at its highest point, the sun shines through the hole up there and reflects the light upon the this spherical mirror, then reflecting the light onto a point on the circle, the red orbs represent how far away the sun was away until the next summer solstice. The big red orb represents the day of the summer solstice, when the big red orb is lit, the door will allow me to open it manually," Princess Celestia lectured. "The summer solstice?! We don't have time to wait for that, Lyra's transformation completes at the end of tomorrow, there must be another way, maybe move the sun, or..." Bon Bon yelled that only resulted with Princess Celestia interrupting her. "The summer solstice is resulted coincidentally; both Luna's and my cooperation of raising the sun at dawn and raising the moon at dusk is what gradually puts towards the cause of the eclipse. It would be impossible to do this without messing up the cycle of the moon and the sun or risking accidently flying the moon and or or the sun away from us," Princess Celestia said as she shook her head. "Then why did you take us here if we can't even wait for it?" Bon Bon replied with panic and some visible signs of frustration. "It's our only hope, may I remind you that your friend here who is going to be replaced by somepony who thinks she is Lyra but isn't, somepony cloaked under her flesh that unwillingly will take her identity," Princess Celestia said. "Then what do you suppose we should do?" Bon Bon replied along with a sigh. The Second victim: Me"There is nothing we can do, however if there is anything that could shed some light on the matter, it would be that contract," Princess Celestia said. "No, we came so close yet so far!" I shouted as I banged both of my fore-hooves onto the door. My hooves overlapped with two hoof shaped imprints on the door and an aura started to glow around the door. "Wh-What's going on?" Bon Bon stuttered. "Impossible, there's no way she could provide that kind of energy to the door, unless Shane was an elite, but he wasn't a human from Earth that I turned into a pony, was he? No, even if he was, there is no way he could be an elite," The ground started to shake, the ceiling started to fall apart, and eventually I also became engulfed in the aura that still surrounds the door. "Princess Celestia, open the door now! I do not know how much longer I can hold on for," I shouted over the loud shaking of the castle. Princess Celestia nodded her head with a confident look on her face as she approached the door. Princess Celestia closed her eyes facing the door as her horn started to glow in her own aura. The door started to slide open as I tried to remove my hooves but they refused to retract back to me. With an annoyed look on my face, I allow myself to be pushed around like a two year old being told what to do, the door nearly slid all the way until it halted a couple feet away from the wall. The aura around me and the door stopped glowing and I started to try releasing myself from the wooden imprisonment of the door, unfortunately my fore-hooves were still stuck to the door leaving me at a rather uncomfortable position. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Go in and find Lyra's contract while you still can," I shouted. I could hear them give me a sound of approval and their hoof steps slowly fading away, leaving me trapped onto the door. I could only imagine how big the hallway leading to the archives just beyond this door considering how huge this room was. It might even go on for miles, I'm not even sure if Princess Celestia herself knows how big the entire castle is. I could hear hoof steps fading in; it was getting closer and closer to me. "Oh, I doubt that you'll be fine," A voice said approaching from the back of the room. Suddenly, the door started to violently shut with me still stuck onto it. *SLAM* My flank swung up in reaction to the g-force and slammed against the door just above my head then resulting my back hooves in falling back continuing to dangle from in the air while my fore-hooves were still attached to the door. The door ended up being fully shut leaving Princess Celestia and Bon Bon trapped inside even if they knew they were trapped, they probably wouldn't be loud enough to speak through the thickness of the door between us. "You know, you've put me through a lot of trouble catching you recently, but being presented with a perfectly good opportunity made my life a whole lot easier. In fact, you being trapped for some unknown reason is good enough for me to finally kill you," the voice behind me spoke. Turning my head, I realized where the familiar voice had come from. "You trapped the Princess into there until the next summer solstice, have you gone mad?" I rhetorically asked. "It's a price we have to pay for our salvation from you," the crazed doctor replied. "There is no salvation from killing the innocent; if there even was any damnation here it would be you!" I yelled. "You've become impressively sentient since the last time we've met, haven't you?" he said as he approached me even closer with a gun similar to the one Gunslinger had. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen well: 'Die you motherfucking disease'," he said pulling the trigger with my backside at gunpoint. *POW* "What was that?!" Bon Bon shrieked as she turned around. "The door is locked shut, that doctor must have followed us here!" Bon Bon continued. "We are trapped, we might as well continue on what we came for, no use in trying to escape a door I can't even open without the help of an elite or the summer solstice," Princess Celestia sighed. Bon Bon couldn't resist and sighed as well. After a long hour of trekking through the long enduring corridors that were surrounded by torches that were surprisingly lit for several thousands of years letting them carry the thought of what could of what could of possibly happened to me, Bon Bon and Princess Celestia finally made it to the archives. The room was just as big as the room that became my tomb, however only a single bookshelf was visible in the center of the room that had several scrolls on it. The porcelain tiles of the room mostly covered empty space. The stone walls surrounding them were barely visible. The size of the room seemed very redundant but the purpose of the room was what made the room itself important. The room surprisingly was bright and was plentiful of even more torches. "Well this totally doesn't seem like a big waste of space," Bon Bon sarcastically stated. Princess Celestia walked over to the bookshelf and started to browse through it. "This... This can't be right," Princess Celestia stuttered in astonishment. "What is it?" Bon Bon asked as she walked over to her. "Lyra no longer owns a contract, however Shane does, but there are several things wrong with this: Shane wasn't one of the humans I turned into a pony and if Lyra no longer has a contract she is going to get teleported back to Earth," Princess Celestia said astonished. "Well, even if Lyra is being teleported back to Earth, that wouldn't be considered a 'bad' thing would it?" Bon Bon asked. "Lyra has been in Equestria for over two hundred years, if she was to be teleported back to Earth, that's how old she would age and I do not think a human can live that long," Princess Celestia replied. "But what would make Lyra lose her contract and make Shane have one?" Bon Bon asked. "I'm not sure, the only way a pony can lose his/her contract is by a fault happening in the contract swapping, as far as I'm aware of, I do not remember ever doing a contract swap for Lyra and another pony that used to be human," Princess Celestia said. Keep in mind: Contract swapping did happen but Princess Celestia lost all her memory about Shane giving up his life for Lyra but instead delaying the inevitable making it so Shane simply takes the life of Lyra while also keeping Lyra's memory but sending what remains of the discarded mind of the real Lyra to Earth to be disintegrated. If you don't get it then ask. :P Sentient - Able to perceive or feel things Redundant - Able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function. Browse - An act of casual looking or reading. The stench of disaster"C'mon, we must not linger, we have no need to stay any longer and we're not going to gather any more evidence of this mystery here," Princess Celestia said as she beckoned towards Bon Bon. "Your highness, with all due to respect, but I don't think there is a way out, you said it yourself, we cannot until the next summer solstice," "Who said anything about the summer solstice?" Princess Celestia said as she grinned. Princess Celestia levitated the scroll over to Bon Bon in which she started to hold with her mouth, then Princess Celestia walked over to one of the four corners of the room with Bon Bon behind her. Princess Celestia placed her right fore-hoof onto one of the bricks on the brick wall with applied pressure. A small section of the wall slid back and then the left and right side of the small section of the wall which was spread parallel to each other revealing an open passageway. "Why didn't we just come from there to get in here?" Bon Bon asked. "Because you can only leave the archives using this passageway," Princess Celestia replied retracting her hoof from the wall. The passageway smelt like Bon Bon's basement, dust was scattered along almost every corner, it was soggy and moist one the ground, and the fact that it looked like a dungeon wasn't very reassuring either. "Couldn't you just use magic to teleport us out of here?" Bon Bon complained before taking another look inside. "I would if I could, but the magic protecting the archives is far more advanced than even the power of the Elements of Harmony, let alone my magic capabilities," Princess Celestia replied. The first step into the passageway was not so pleasant for either of them, especially for Bon Bon. Princess Celestia easily got over the thought of the room being disgusting and started galloping in a hurry. With the thought of peril for me, Bon Bon got over the room's disgusting sight as well and started galloping behind Princess Celestia. Without stopping either due to their disgusting surroundings or being tired from galloping, both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon made it to an exit of the, what seemed to be endless, passageway. With a similar entrance to the passageway at the other side of the giant door that lead to the archives, both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon nearly stumbled when coming out of the passageway, both smelling rather repulsive but the princess remained as professional as ever as if she wasn't smelling at all. Bon Bon could hardly smell it considering she is covered in the stench and has been in what she could consider as her hell. When Bon Bon got the first glimpse of what was to be revealed, a corpse dangled upon the door which originally sealed Bon Bon and Princess Celestia behind. Bon Bon was the first to gallop towards the corpse in tears. "No, we're too late!" Bon Bon said as she began snivel. "Bon Bon, don't worry, had your friend truly died the contract would of faded into oblivion, Neither Lyra or Shane have died," Princess Celestia stated placing a hoof over the shoulder of Bon Bon. "So, she's not dead?" Bon Bon asked. Princess Celestia nodded. "Although she is not dead, we'll still need to revive her to good health before we can even figure out a way to separate these two," Princess Celestia said as she retracted her hoof. Bon Bon nodded in agreement as Princess Celestia walked away to gather some medical assistance. After nearly an hour, a medical team dispatched from Canterlot's hospital arrived to assist the sobbing mare. It was almost midnight and the sight was not pretty; imagine this: an entire team of medical staff pulling with their hooves locked onto each other, Bon Bon, a few unicorn medical staff members, and Princess Celestia using her magic all trying to pull one unicorn's fore-hooves out of a door. "Argh!" Everypony grunted. With several pants, nopony could pull the mare's fore-hooves out of the door. "This... isn't working," Bon Bon said almost out of breathe. Almost everypony there was out of shape and fell to the floor, even the unicorns trying to help were out of shape. "We can't... examine the... patient... if she is stuck to a door," One of the pony medics said trying to catch their breath. "Princess Celestia, has the door ever opened for an elite before?" Bon Bon asked. "Only once, but for them to get stuck onto the door is quite puzzling, it certainly didn't happen last time," Princess Celestia replied. "Well, at this rate, there is no way we can just remove her, she's adhesively stuck in there," Bon Bon complained. "We'll have to come back tomorrow, it's already 11:48 at night your highness," One of the pony medics said grabbing their things. "It's almost the last night?!, Lyra being inert and in a coma during the situation isn't going to make this any easier for us," Bon Bon complained. "Bon Bon, just get some rest, we'll think of something in the morning," Princess Celestia said. "But..." Bon Bon said only to finally give the situation a rest to allow themselves time to figure it out the next day. "Bon Bon, you can stay in one of my guest rooms, thank you for your help and it would be very generous if you came again tomorrow morning, now I've got a sun to lower," Princess Celestia said dismissing the medical staff. Bon Bon spent the next few hours grabbing several buckets of water from the well and pouring them on herself hoping to get the stench off her along with the grime all over her body. With very little luck, she still smelt terrible and most of the grime did not come off. With a soaking wet mane, a wet fur coat, and a rather angry tone suiting her very poorly, she trudged back to the castle with what little energy she had left of the terrible week she had been ensuing. With a deep sigh, she bounces on to her bed and falls into a deep sleep. Linger - Stay in a place longer than necessary Reassuring - Say or do something to remove the doubts and fears of someone. Dispatched - Send off to a destination or for a purpose. Dawn of the final dayYoutube Video Bon Bon knew it was impossible to get some sleep. Even with one of the most luxurious beds in Equestria beneath her, nothing was more important to her than the safety of Lyra. She had only a little bit of confidence in her that Lyra would ever return to her again. It was almost impossible to believe that she was still alive. The last time Bon Bon saw her was with the taunting blood stained back stab wound upon Lyra's back. She couldn't help but believe that this was all her fault for leaving her alone in the room. With only an hour passed since Bon Bon retreated to her bed, she got out with nothing on her mind but Lyra. Walking down the endless corridors of the castle, Bon Bon strolled to the one destination of choice she had on her mind. Finally arriving at the room, she manages to catch sight of the door that haunts her. Walking closer, only the door comes into view, ignoring everything else that might come into sight. "No, no, no! Where is she!?" Bon Bon yelled at the door banging her hooves at it as hard as possible. Lyra was gone. "She's... gone," Bon Bon stuttered going into prone with tears falling upon her eyes. "You won't find her," a malicious voice sounded. Removing her tears, Bon Bon stood back up. "What!? Who are you!?" Bon Bon shouted in anger despite the tears that were still dripping down along the side of her muzzle. Looking down to the other end of the room, a dark shadowy figure appeared in the distance. The ominous figure slowly came into view. "You already forgot about me? What a downer. Either way, you only have a day left until your friend is replaced by a mere disease," he chuckled approaching Bon Bon. A familiar green pegasus came into view, fortunately unarmed this time. He was scathed with scars and open wounds that pretty much covered his entire body, most likely formed from broken residue falling upon him. "Your friend thought she could kill me, how pathetic," he scoffed. "You're the pony that took off with Lyra on the train!" Bon Bon growled. "My name is Gunslinger, you're the brat's little friend," he replied. "Enough, where's Lyra!?" Bon Bon shouted. "I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea," he lied with a nasty smirk upon his muzzle. "You're lying!" Bon Bon replied stomping her right forehoof onto the linoleum floor. "Maybe I am, maybe I am not. I wouldn't tell you either way," he responded. "Tell me, where is she or I'll..." Bon Bon started. "You'll what? Kill me? Go ahead, that won't do you any good, it won't help your cause one bit," he interrupted. "What do you want, then?" Bon Bon retorted as her last resort. "Me? I got what I wanted: revenge. I'm only here to greet you with a warm welcoming," he remarked sarcastically. Bon Bon only managed to stutter, whether she was more angry or upset was beyond her. After a moment of hesitation, Gunslinger manages to finish the conversation. "Well, if you're not going to speak to the guest of honor, I might as well be on my way. One suggestion to keep in mind: don't follow me or look for Lyra if you don't want the law on your tail," he said limping over toward the exit of the room chuckling to himself. Falling to the floor in shock after Gunslinger left the room; Bon Bon curled on the ground shedding only a single tear. "It's over," she muttered. "There will be no way I could find her in less than a day, let alone ever finding her. Her body is as good as taken," she sobbed. "Miss, are you alright?" a masculine voice sounded. "Are you injured? Do you need my help?" it asked. Slowly opening her eyes, Bon Bon managed to wake up from a long nap to encounter one of Princess Celestia's white stallion royal guards in front of her with two feathered wings side by side overlapping gold plated armor. "I'm quite alright, thank you," Bon Bon managed to reply getting up back onto her hooves while cling onto the stallion's hoof. "Princess Celestia requests your presence in the foyer when you get the chance," he digressed. "Thank you, I'll be on my way then," she politely responded. Both Bon Bon and the stallion guard exited the room although they headed in the opposite direction after reaching the first corridor. When she was alone, she quickly withdrew her plastic smile from her muzzle thinking pessimistically about Lyra's fate. Slowly strolling down the long hallways not paying attention to her slow pace across the enduring hallways, she manages to reach the foyer after a half hour. One thing that doesn't seem to cross Bon Bon's mind is that every minute that she has is a minute she must not waste. "Bon Bon, there is something we must discuss," A voice greeted emotionless. Princess Celestia beckoned me to a seat with little to no enthusiasm what so ever. I nodded to her beckoning call and sat down in a seat next to her. "As far as you're aware, Lyra has gone missing last night," she continued. "You're right, your highness, but rather than going missing, Lyra was kidnapped by the doctor's colleague, somepony that goes by the name 'Gunslinger'," Bon Bon retorted. For a moment, Princess Celestia lowered her head in meditation of recent events until Bon Bon interrupted her. "This pony also has recently had a quarrel with Lyra which led to the main reason of why he kidnapped her. The only question is where would he take her?" Bon Bon said completely puzzled.
The facadeOne week after events taken place in the prequel 'Life amidst the others'... It was a Saturday afternoon; I had just finished packing my belongings and got ready for the rest of the day. I was planning on going out for a stroll; it was supposed to be a beautiful day out. The weather pegasi seemed to already have cleared the clouds out for the rest of the day. Bon Bon said she would probably also meet me at the park, she wanted to discuss something with me and we agreed to go get a hooficure, I also have to get ready for my lyre recital. "Better get a move on if I want to enjoy the day," I said releasing a breath full of energy. I took a long stroll around Ponyville and greeted almost every pony who I encountered on the way. Even though it pretty much was the same sight I saw every time I went to Ponyville, it was still an enjoyable walk. Also seeing a few familiar faces doesn't hurt either. The stroll lasted about thirty to forty-five minutes until I got back to my house. After my stroll, I headed towards the park. It was not too far away from my house, about a five minute walk. There was Bon Bon, sitting on one of the park benches, I could she was waiting for me. She got up to confront me. "Ah, Lyra! You're here. I wanted to talk to you about something," She said as she walked towards me. Bon Bon was rather concerned about something, and she had something on her mind. I returned the favor and walked over to her as well. "Lyra, I don't know how to put this, but you've been acting strange lately, are you alright?" She said with a curious face. What was she talking about, of course I was alright. I might as well be the one asking the question to her. "Bon Bon, I'm fine, what are you talking about?" I replied. "Well, on Friday I asked you if you wanted to get a hooficure on Saturday but you never showed up. You also didn't show up to your lyre recital yesterday," She responded. "Bon Bon, it is Saturday, are you sure you're not the one who has been acting strange?" I responded with curiosity. "No, Lyra, It's Sunday, I saw you skip your recital last night while you were at SugarCube Corner," She said. I know its Saturday, and I certainly wasn't at SugarCube Corner. Was Bon Bon just fooling around with me? "You acted as if you didn't know me when I talked to you at SugarCube Corner, I was worried about you, Lyra," She continued remorsefully. "I'm sorry Bon Bon; I don't remember doing any of this. Are you sure it's not your imagination?" I asked. Bon Bon's curious face turned into a rather unsatisfied look on her face due to my lack of presumptuousness knowledge towards the day and pointed her hoof to a newspaper dispenser. It had a clear bold font, it was definitely Sunday. I could have sworn that today was Saturday, how can this be possible? "Bon Bon, I don't understand," I said in shock. "I don't know either, and you seem quite sincere about this matter, so you must be telling the truth. Maybe it's amnesia." She replied. I sighed. "Bon Bon, you and I both know I wouldn't miss a lyre recital for the world, my band mates would kill me, plus I'm your best friend, I would never miss going to a hooficure with you," I responded. Suddenly, we both let out a big sigh. "Do you still want to go to that hooficure?" I asked. "They're closed, they close early on Sundays," She replied. I rub my hoof on the ground in response for contemplation; it was all so confusing to me. "Bon Bon, if this keeps happening let me know, alright? I'll look into it later," I asked her. "Alright, be careful, Lyra," She cautioned me. I traveled back over to my house being as famished as possible, but instead of eating all I did was end up magically spinning my fork in circles around my platter. Was I really not that hungry, or was what Bon Bon told me getting to me again? I decided it was best to skip dinner and go to bed early tonight I slowly open my eyes; I was no longer in my bedroom, I was at Ponyville's hospital. "Lyra, is that really you?" I heard a voice ask. Given the current situation, I'd have to say that my facade took over my body again. "Bon Bon?" I ask. "According to these MRI's of your brain, You're other part of you claims that she is you and can control just as much of your body as you can such as speaking, walking, and using magic, but as long as the real Lyra has some memory that it doesn't, such as your relationship with Bon Bon, however as soon as time passes, that will most likely not be the case, your memory will eventually be fully erased and given to your facade form as well as being given your life force." The pony medic said walking in. "Why is this happening to her?" Bon Bon asked worryingly. "The facade does not intentionally chew away Lyra's existence; it is bound by some magical force. We are unfortunately incapable of removing sentient facades from anypony's body, especially considering well, this has never happened in Equestria before," He responded. "Where this facade came from, I have no idea, however it would be safe to strap you down so you don't move once every two days, the facade seems to take control every day after you have control, we'd still have to give the facade hospitality and treat it as a guest or it would be onto us and refuse to eat, drink, or do any of the main functions for your survival, Lyra," He continued. "How much time do you think it will take until the facade takes over all of my body?" I asked. "At the rate he's taking your memory and life force right now, I'd say within two weeks," He replied.
The inner machinations of my mindThe doctor has left the room for my privacy; however Bon Bon seemed to take advantage of every visiting hour she could possibly get. We both were mostly silent with Bon Bon sitting next to my bed; there was nothing to talk about even though my death bed was soon to come. It was almost a half an hour before the doctor came back and broke our silence. "Visiting hours are over now, come back soon," he said. "But it's only 3:30 p.m., visiting hours aren't over for another hour and a half," Bon Bon replied. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to come back next week," he said with a slightly irritated look. Bon Bon got off of her chair saying her goodbyes while almost hugging me to death, passed the doctor, and left. "Lyra, don't move, this is only a little booster that'll put you in paralysis as well as a coma, it won't hurt one bit," He said as he walked over to me while levitating a syringe. "Paralysis?! But why?" I asked. "We can't risk the facade inside of you become even more self-aware, risking our town, let alone Equestria's, destruction, which is why we're resulting to a new method instead," he responded. "We'll give you the anesthetic as soon as we work out a cure, in the meantime, you will be a good pony and stay still," he commanded. He got even closer to my bed, and was within reach. "Good night, Lyra," He said as he levitated the needle towards one of my fore-hooves. "No, I won't let you do that," I said as I jumped off my bed and galloped away. "Security, we have a crucial I.P.R.A leaving the perimeter," the doctor said as he trotted into the security office. One of the security guards nodded and galloped for the entrance, while another went around the other side of the building to get to the entrance. I was too late, one of them made it their before me I tried to turn around but I was cornered by the other guard. The guard behind me pulled out a blow dart and fired at me. "You awake? Good. I can't give you you're medicine while under the effects of a tranquilizer dart," The doctor said. I was back into my bed with the doctor standing next to me. There also was one of the guards standing by the door. The tranquilizer that hit me earlier made it too hard to move my muscles. "Now, let's try this again, shall we?" he continued. Even with the inability to escape, I had enough in me to let out a small tear from my right eye. "Good night, Lyra," he said as he once again levitated the sharp needle towards one of my fore-hooves. I could only hear small mumbles in the background as my vision blurred and as my muscles became numb, it only took a couple of seconds until I was gone. Was I dead, no, I was still in the hospital, but I was in some sort of black haven where I wasn't able to move. It looked like space, but it was my subconscious, I heard voices, they sounded like mine but they weren't. I had realized now, both me and my facade were trapped in my mind, together. The worst part of it all was because it was still deteriorating my life force and my memory; it was still taking control of my body. I came closer to it, to get some answers, but it was too late, I had started to fade away. I was waking up, it was too early, and I needed more time. I was in a coma that felt like only seconds, but it was truly 8 days. "...ra. Lyra. Lyra, you awake?" I heard a voice. I slowly opened my eyes to see a female pony with a dark blue and pink mane standing next to a doctor. "She seems to be taking the effect from the anesthetic, although she was out for a whole week, she may have already lost half of her life force and memory by now." The doctor said facing the female pony. "Lyra, do you still remember me?" The female came up to me. "Who's Lyra? What am I doing here?" I asked. "It seems she lost a good majority of her memory," The doctor added. "What are you talking about?" I said as I got out of my bed. "Please, get back onto your bed, we'll explain later," The doctor said. I got back into my bed, while the female pony got closer to me. "L-Lyra..." She stuttered and then started crying. All I could reply with was a confused look. Who was she talking about? What am I doing here? Questions kept floating in my mind. "If you still have some memory about the incident, I guess I'll keep you updated: we could not find a cure and not even our pony brain surgeons could find a solution. Lyra, I'm afraid the body you possess can no longer be considered as yours," the doctor said as he walked up to me. "I don't even know why I am in need of attention! Why am I going to die?" I asked. "You'll only forget, Lyra." the doctor replied. "Wait... That gives me an idea," the female pony said The female started wiping her tears away for a moment. "It might buy us some more time, but it's a long shot," she continued. "What if we filled her with new memories, which would make more memories for the facade to take," she finished. "Even if that did work. her life force would still deplete, however I do have another, but a rather unconventional idea, in mind," the doctor said. "What is it?" the female pony asked. "In my years of doctoring, I'd never thought I would do this," he continued. "Lyra, in order to avoid the risk of the destruction of Equestria, I'm going to have to kill you," he said. Machinations - a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends. Paralysis - The loss of the ability to move. Anesthetic - a drug that causes anesthesia—reversible loss of sensation. I.P.R.A. - Important Patient run-away (made up).
A tough startNote: If you haven't read 'Life amidst the others', read it now or the rest of the story will make little to no sense, but if you have already read it, then you should be fine. "There has to be another way, part of Lyra is still in there," the blue and pink maned mare argued. "Yes, but the rest of her is inevitably going to lose her own body and the only way to prevent this mysterious disease from becoming self-aware then possibly destroying the rest of Equestria would be a risk I will not want to take," he replied. "Now, for the euthanization process," he said as he beckoned to a medical assistant holding a needle who was waiting in the hallway. "You can't do this!" the same mare that seemed to be against the doctor's judgment shouted. "I was given every right to do so as long as it was for the sake of Equestria! I'm doing every pony a favor, you should be thankful!" he shouted in response as he punched her to the ground. A clock struck 12 a.m. at Ponyville's clock tower. "You bastard!" I said as I jumped out towards the doctor and knocked his assistant breaking the needle. "Well, short tempered are we?" he responded with a grin. "Bon Bon, let's get out of here," I said as I pulled her up. The doctor once headed towards the security office. "Seriously, who do you expect to fill out all of these I.P.R.A. Submission forms?!" I could hear off in the distance as I giggled a bit. A couple of guards tried to corner us, but with much ease I was able to get around them. We managed to get out of the hospital, and then we made it to the outskirts of Ponyville. It was dark, the clock that struck '12' wasn't kidding, I guess since Lyra was up during the transfer, I started out awake. Bon Bon probably got the ability to visit at night because of her short-tempered ways towards other ponies like the staff at the hospital and how she can get anything she wants. Wait, I know that's not something I should remember, oh shit, most of memory has already been replaced with hers. We better hurry. "I think we lost them, Lyra" Bon Bon Remarked. "As insane as this may sound, they haven't given up yet. Let's get a move on, we have to get to Canterlot in less than 5 days," I responded. "Lyra, when you saved me back there, how did you get your memory ba-...?" Bon Bon asked as she turned her head towards Ponyville with all her focus on the clock tower in suspicion of the dark skies. "12:30 a.m. You jerk, let Lyra go!" she yelled at me. "Calm down, that crazy doctor was right, it is of no intention that I am doing this to our friend, it is very hard to consider Lyra as a completely different pony when you are in her body with over half of her memory," I reminded her. "Our friend? What are you talking about?" she asked. "With the little memory I have left, I'll explain as much as I can," I replied. "My name is Shane, or at least I think it is, my mind is very good at convincing me it's Lyra rather than that, but I remember being new to Equestria, I don't know why but I was very unfamiliar with anything, hell, I didn't know that ponies could fly until then. I had no idea how to walk so I was unable to retrieve any food and passed out on the ground, Lyra has taken care of me ever since. Unfortunately, that's all I can remember," I responded. "How could I believe any of this? You're nothing more than a disease, chewing away at Lyra's life force and memory, why should I help you go to Canterlot?" she angrily asked. "First of all, Lyra's memory isn't the only pony's memory getting erased, mine is as well, my memory is being erased and then replaced by hers, why would I want to replace my memory banks with hers? Second of all, Lyra is my friend and I would do nothing to hurt her. Finally, if there is anything I do remember, it was that your ruler Princess Celestia is involved. It may not add up, but I remember her being responsible for something related to this. I feel our best option is to confront her," I replied. "What would the Princess have to do with Lyra replacing your memory so Lyra would die, let alone putting you in Lyra's body?" she asked. (Sorry for the lack of pronouns in this paragraph, but when you're talking about two or more of the same gender, there are many possibilities for the audience to assume who you're talking about) "Your guess is as good as mine," I continued. "Believe me or not, but I saved your friend from that psychotic doctor, the least you could do is help me get to Canterlot to offer you a chance to save Lyra," I finished. "I still have one more question," she said. "Go ahead, there's a chance I might not know the answer to it though," I replied. "Before you got into Lyra's body, what did you look like, were you even a pony?" she asked. "I have memories of me being a pony, I also have memories of being something else, but what I looked like then is almost impossible to imagine now," I replied. "We better hurry, I can see them off in the distance looking for us," I continued. "I can trust you, for now, but I have my eye on you," she ominously replied. "The only way to get to Canterlot is by taking the train, which leaves us with two options: We head to Ponyville's train station and risk getting caught by that psychopath, or we travel through the everfree forest to get to Dodge Junction," I pondered. Lyra must really like to travel; I have her memory of all these places I didn't even know existed. My new memory also tells me that the everfree is not such a 'good' place to be either. I don't think choosing my next move is going to be very easy. When I said that Lyra liked to travel, it implied that the reader would know that her OC is pretty much everywhere in the background for MLP:FiM.
The dangerous road of seduction ahead"Ah, shit," I said negatively. "What's wrong?" Bon Bon replied. "See for yourself," I said as I pointed my hoof back to the center of Ponyville. There were posters posted against walls on pretty much every street corner, they were wanted posters. Several of the guards from the hospital were patrolling throughout Ponyville; they really were taking this seriously. The security guards were not ones to give up easily; almost every guard pony held a picture of us in their mouth and asked questions relating to where we were to all the locals, one after another, after another, nonstop. "Have you seen these mares?" "Sir, have you seen these mares?" "Ma'am, have you seen these mares?" Given my assumption, they will probably give up patrolling Ponyville soon. I'm led to believe that crazy psychopath knows where we are headed to. "Oh no, we're fugitives, we better turn back before we get into serious trouble," Bon Bon said as she panicked. "No, we can't stop now, since we're fugitives, everypony in Ponyville will try to turn us in, so we can't risk going to the train in Ponyville, we have only one option, we must go through the everfree forest," I said. "But it's dangerous, especially at night when you can't see," Bon Bon said nervously. "Look, no matter where we go they'll find us, your house and Lyra's house is two hotspots they'll come looking for us in. We have no choice but to get a move on while we still can," I said confidently. The forest entrance, it looked much darker inside than it did already out here. I knew I wasn't prepared for whatever was in there but it was something we had to do. Bon Bon looked as if she was going to fall to the ground from her shaking her four limbs rapidly in nervousness. "Well, this is it, the everfree forest, Bon Bon, before we risk our lives on this journey, I've always wanted to tell you something in case of something goes wrong or if we get separated," I said. "What is it?" she asked. My muzzle slowly closed in towards Bon Bon's, we were face to face until my head got even further. Soon both our muzzles touched and my lips locked onto hers. It took ten whole seconds until I took control of myself and quickly withdrew my muzzle away from hers. Trying to gather my thoughts and say that the kiss was unintentional but when I opened my mouth, my brain decided to use the incorrect phonemes, but I truly wanted to use the incorrect phonemes. "I love you," I said romantically. Do I truly love Bon Bon? No I don't! Why won't my mind let me decide who I love and who I don't?! Then I realized, my new mind is taking over, Lyra's memory of her relationship with Bon Bon... It's making me want to fall in love with Bon Bon! I can like her as a friend but my mind is transforming me to want to take it to the next level, which was beyond me, at least for the moment. My mind made me want to agree with it and just let it take control over my emotions, deciding when and where I should use specific emotions, it succeeded. I now longed for my brain to finish the job and no longer fought back, it was only moments before I was no longer able to see her as just my friend, but as somepony that I've loved for my entire life. Bon Bon hesitated for a moment trying to process what happened. For a second, she looked like she was frozen in ice, unable to move or blink. "What? No round two?" I questioned. "Lyra?" she tested me. "Yeah?" I responded. "This is bad, you've already forgotten your real name and you've nearly put me into a seductive state because of Lyra's true love for me," she said as she acknowledged me responding to Lyra's name. "Oh, we're roleplaying in third pony now?" I asked. "No we're not, now let's go before any more of your memory gets erased," she rushed me. We entered through the forest entrance and walked around for five minutes being nearly lost in the dark until Bon Bon spoke. "Lyra, please tell me you can use your light spell," she pleaded. "Of course," I replied. Light emanated our path through my horn, it was still pretty dark and scary, but it was helpful nonetheless. "Hey, Bon Bon, what are we doing out here anyways?" I asked. "I'd answer your question but you'd have to answer my question first: 'How fast are you going to lose relevant information?'" she replied. "No need to be a dick," I replied. "How unfortunate that one of the only things that still remains in your mind is your constant swearing," she said as she sighed. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Just follow me, and try not to get lost," she continued. "Alright," I sighed. "Look out!" I said as Bon Bon slipped into a crevice, it was at least six stories deep and a hundred yards wide. "I got you," I said as Bon Bon hooked onto my two hooves. "Lyra, you've got to levitate me out! There's no way you can just pull me out!" she said as she panicked. "Okay, but I don't know how to make you levitate," I replied. "You're a unicorn, unicorns do magic, and magic consists of levitating things!" she said as she started slipping. "I... I don't know how, I am sorry," I said as a tear slipped right though my eyes. Bon Bon then slipped out of my hooves, I lost her grip and Bon Bon started falling. "I'm sorry, Bon Bon," I muttered. Phonemes - A single sound created to form part of a word Ex: ah, a, o, oo, s, ch, c, r, n, p, l, w Since I spent nearly two hours revising the paragraph after 'Lyra' said 'I love you', trying to make it easier to understand what was going on without making the protagonist making a complete fool of himself (technically he already did), I felt like explaining it here was easier. Shane was being tricked by his mind into thinking that he should want to love Bon Bon and since his brain presented him with the opportunity, he agreed. Your mind controls your memory, and since Lyra's memory includes having specific emotions for Bon Bon, those memories can link up to the other part of his brain that is the control station of your emotions, allowing the memory to take over his emotions. His mind was as if one entity was being forced to want something to happen to him, thinking it was a requirement to have Lyra's memory stored into him, so he did not resist and let it do its job. When he tried to say what he wanted to say at the moment he said he loved Bon Bon and truly didn't, he himself did and didn't want to say it. Think of it like a computer, you have to look up the data you have on the computer to retrieve it, so when he looked up what to say in his mind, nothing there said that he didn't love her or just 'liked' her enough to unintentionally kiss her. So his mind used what Lyra would say in a situation like that.
Recovering lost knowledge"Lyra, help!" I could hear her say in screams of terror. There was nothing I could do but watch her fall to her doom. No, I won't let this happen. A sound chimed as my horn started to glow, and then Bon Bon started to glow as well. Bon Bon then started levitating in midair and stopped screaming. Soon enough, she floated back on up. "I suppose we could consider this as one piece of good news and two pieces of bad news," Bon Bon said as she landed peacefully onto the surface of the ground. "The good news is: You now know how to use Lyra's levitation spell. The first piece of bad news is: Lyra's memory and life force are draining at an incredibly faster rate than I anticipated. The last bit of bad news is: we're running out of time, that crazy doctor said you'd permanently become Lyra if we fail to stop the takeover, not even Celestia's magic would help after you've finished. I just hope Celestia can restore what you had already taken from Lyra, you seemed pretty confident about her before," she continued. "I don't know what you're talking about and I still don't even know why were in the everfree forest, it's dangerous out here," I replied. All she could let out in reply was a huge sigh, I had a feeling she would do that. "Look, thanks for saving me, but the only reason why it's hard for you to think is because you're not really Lyra, you only think you are. You currently have the memory of two different ponies, Lyra and Shane, mostly Lyra, now before you lose the memory of me telling you this, we need to get to Canterlot to revive you two into to your former selves before you end up completely taking over her memory, body, and life force," she responded. "What are you talking about, of course I am Lyra! Bon Bon, are you implying that I am not the one who you spent an endless amount of time together?" I asked turning my head in sorrow. "I am sorry, but no, you are not, you only have the memory of that happening, you never really did it, the real Lyra I know did it," she said putting her right fore-hoof over my shoulder, trying to sympathize me. "If I am not Lyra, then who am I?" I asked. "Your name is Shane; at least that is what you told me earlier today. Now, we need to work together to sort this out, we're going to Canterlot to help you, but we have to go to Dodge Junction in order to do so, and I need every bit of your help I can get," she responded. "Bon Bon, I appreciate your honesty, despite my small amount of disbelief towards your claim and my mind tricking me into thinking I am not who I really am, my heart tells me that you're right and we should just move forward," I replied gathering my thoughts together. "Well, we should get a move on; we only have 5 days, including today, to get to Canterlot. The next train to Canterlot leaves tomorrow afternoon and it is only a three day trip. If we can make it on time then we might have a whole day to get things sorted out," she stated. "Right," I replied. As dark and scary as the forest was, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was surprised that we have not encountered a single creature that inhabited the forest. Half of the creatures have got to be nocturnal, so there is no reason for them to not be out and about. "If we continue to stay on the outer regions of the forest, we should be fine, however it might take longer to get to the other side," Bon Bon said. Alright, that answers my question; however it is still too hard for me to take all this in. Was my purpose to destroy a somepony's life? Why was I truly born as a pony before or was I made as a mental disease? After nearly 16 hours of walking around in the forest later... "Bon Bon, are we almost there yet? My hooves are getting sore," I stated. "We should be a couple of hours away, we should camp here and wait until morning arrives, and continue tomorrow. I'm going to go look for some twigs or logs to start a fire. I won't be too far away, so call me if you need me," Bon Bon said as she wandered off into the woods. It was not too long until she got back with a stack of logs, sticks, and twigs. "Unfortunately, we can't use leaves to help us light it or it would give away our position to not only creatures in the forest but also any pegasi that doctor hired to scour the skies for us. For now, I'll agree to calling you Lyra, but don't get any bright ideas. 'Lyra', be a dear and rub these logs together via levitation?" she said walking over to me and placing the logs on the ground. I quickly swiped several logs together in midair, sparked one of the logs on fire, placed the logs on the ground, and let the fire slowly spread to the other logs. "Bon Bon, why do you suppose I am, or rather my mind, is doing this?" I asked. "I was just about to ask you the same question, however it's quite obvious that you are not fully responsible, so don't be ashamed of yourself," she replied. "Thanks, Bon Bon, now I think I'm going to hit the hay," I said as I yawned. "Alright, I'll just watch the fire, I brought a few blankets from the hospital in case if you needed them, I guess you can have them now, just remember that you're most likely not going to wake up until two days from now, the other Lyra will wake up instead," she said as she pulled a red thick blanket out. I lay out the blanket and slowly close my eyes and drift the night away. After a while, I could feel something cuddling up against me, it was Bon Bon. Was she that desperate for attention or was she more worried about the comfort of what I haven't taken from Lyra? How is the other Lyra going to fare on getting to the train tomorrow with her lack of knowledge to speak, interpret what other ponies are saying, using magic, how to eat or sleep, or even walk? I let it slide and continued to sleep.
Lying awakeI had awoken, or rather, started out awake. It was midnight, nothing came to mind, who am I, where am I, and who is using me as a pillow?! All I could do was nudge my head onto what was on me to signify my presence; it did quite a good job. "Huh? Lyra, Is that you? Great, since you transferred bodies while being awake two days ago, you started out awake now, that's just another fantastic way to wake up early in the day," she stated sarcastically. "Look, since you probably don't know how talk, let alone stand, you might as well stay in prone position, we won't be moving until later in the morning. We have plenty of time to get to Dodge Junction; the departure is around 6 P.M. which leaves us with plenty of time. I'm guessing you probably don't know how to sleep either," she said vaguely. What is standing, talking, or sleeping? What am I? Where am I? How is she moving? How do I move? "Lyra, even though your time is dwindling, I know you still have the capabilities of comprehending what I am saying, now I am going to put this as simple as possible: 'Me take you to train to go to town to help you'," she said as she gave out hoof signals. Okay, I understood practically everything but the two nouns and the one verb she mentioned in that sentence. "Now you may not like what I am about to say but, you're going to have to sit there for a while, whether you understand me or not," she said. I don't know what she is talking about, you know what, forget it, she is returning to her original position of covering nearly half of my body with hers. 7 Long hours later... "Alright, let's go," she said as she grabbed her saddlebag. "I'm going to have to carry you, aren't I?" she asked as she sighed. "HUMF!" she said as she struggled to grab me with her hooves and mostly her mouth, dropping me onto her saddle bags. "Your lucky Earth ponies have more built in strength than unicorns, or I wouldn't be carrying you right now," she replied to my inert movement and lack of eye response to blinking. "Ugh, don't expect a hug," she said as she sighed. It was two more long hours until we reached the forest clearing on the other side. "There, now Dodge Junction is only about a quarter of a mile away. Even with your heavy weight, we have plenty of time to get to the train station," Was that an insult or a compliment? I don't even know if she was talking about me or not. "Even though, you probably can't understand what I am saying, I know you mean well and some of you Lyra is still in there, and I know that's the Lyra I've come to know and love, just because somepony has your mindset doesn't mean they ARE you," she said to me still lying inert on her back. "I know things look bleak, but that's all in the past now. Even if I am talking to an inert pony that doesn't even know how to blink, I still love you," she said with a tear in her eye. It only took about 30 minutes until we got to the train station, it was actually quite busy. The train was already at its station but it didn't look quite ready for departure. "You stay here while I go get our tickets," she said after she put me down onto a bench and then walked over to a booth. It was a long wait, it wasn't a surprise since the line was long, but it took her an hour or two just to get us our tickets. We were allowed to board the train, however it would not move until 6 p.m., the train's scheduled time. "7B, 7C, 7D, Ah! 7E here we are, this is going to be our cabin for the next few days," she said as she walked down the hallway. She set me down on the lower bunk bed, presumably for my safety since I have no Idea how to move she and everything else is moving but I do not know how. "Now, I was thinking, before we get to Canterlot, we've got to think of a way to confront the princess, they might not let us in without a reason," she pondered as she climbed up onto the small couch beside the two bunk beds. "You know, you've been putting me through a lot lately, not only are we fugitives on the run from a psychopathic doctor that believes you are being taken over from a mental disease, but I also have to take into account that you are dying on the inside because you are giving your own life and memory to somepony that I've never seen in my entire life that you would presumably know if you weren't in this state. If you even gave me a hint to who this Shane character is, and then we may get on the right track," she said grieving in what she had witnessed in the past few days. "This is just too much to take in, so much has happened in the past few days, it's so stressful, I guess carrying you all the way up here put too much of a strain on my back making it so I can't think properly, or maybe your mental state started passing on to me making it impossible to think," she said as she chuckled to herself. A conductor knocked onto the door. "Miss, might I see your tickets?" the conductor asked. "Ah, yes, here you go sir," she said. The conductor verified the ticket and stamped it for approval. "Ah, very good, thank you miss," he said as he gave the tickets back and left. "I guess we should get rested, we still got a few hours ahead of us until we depart," she continued. She climbed onto the upper bunk and went to sleep; I was still sitting there, inert. Inert - Lacking the ability or strength to move.
Departure to Canterlot"All aboard, last call for Canterlot!" a loud voice shouted. It certainly woke up the pony on the bunk above me. Steam pipes on the train started roaring and the broad connecting steel wands on the wheels started spinning. Gears started spinning and the exhaust pipes were fuming. You could hear a horn sound off from the front of the train as well. "Wow, I must have slept like a stallion. I slept the whole day away," she said as she yawned in astonishment. "It seems we're departing, I haven't been in Canterlot for a while," she continued. "You obviously don't look any better than before, even worse I'd imagine," she said as she let out a big sigh. It was not too long before the train started taking motion, the staff on the train started offering free beverages and Bon Bon insisted on getting one. "This may sting a bit due to intense heat, that is if your share of the brain still connects to your sensory nerves," she warned. She carefully tipped one of the hot beverages over my face and unfortunately widely opened eyes which were still incapable of shutting. "Ah! What's your problem?!" I said in response to the thousands of burns from my eyes feeling, it's as if I poured salt on an open wound. "All it took was some good measures; however you probably can't even comprehend what you said or what I am saying right now, if you can then answer this question: 'What is the answer to this question?'" she replied. "The answer? I think, I don't know," I answered. "Yes, that is something Lyra would say, you still got a bit of Lyra in you! I think as long as I have some sort of intense heat, I can temporarily remove you out of stasis, but that leaves me with a couple of questions 'why does it remove your from stasis?' and 'how long does it last?'," she replied. "How am I supposed to know? I don't even know what you're talking about!" I replied. "Here we go again, I can already tell this is going to be one heck of a trip to Canterlot," she responded. Meanwhile... "We just got a memo report from the local pegasi weather team, doctor. It seems the two convicts you are after went through the dangerous Everfree forest. Also, might I ask of what wrong doing were they accused of?" Mayor mare asked. "That is none of your concern, just make sure you guard the entrance from the Everfree to Ponyville, we have to make sure they don't come back. If they don't come back, then I am sure of where they are headed," he responded. "Where would that possibly be?" Mayor replied. "There headed to Dodge Junction and taking the train to Canterlot, we'll cut them off when the train arrives at the train station in Canterlot, they're cornered whether they retreat from the clutches of the forest, die from whatever is in the forest, or when we catch them in Canterlot, and to just to make sure they don't get far, send one of your pegasi out tomorrow to get to that train to stop it. No pony would be able to reach the train without wings, so we need one of your fastest pegasi to stop the train and catch those two," he chuckled letting out a slight grin. The early morning... "Very well done making it through the forest, I see," I complimented as I got out of the bed. "A little too early for another acquaintance, don't you think?" she asked with a tired groan. "Heh, sorry about that," I replied. "Anyways, how are you feeling?" she asked. "I honestly could not feel any worse, you were right; I can tell that something is happening to me. I wish I knew what was going on," I responded. "Shut up, already!" a noise came from the room next to us, banging on the wall. "I do too, but we have to focus, we've only got four days left, later today you and I will discuss this further but as of right now it's probably a good time, so get some sleep," she whispered finishing the conversation. "Ugh, my back feels like a brick wall and my eyes are sore to such a giant extent," I complained. "You were lying inert for a whole day with your eyes wide open the entire time, I wouldn't be surprised, but seriously, get some sleep," she responded. Later that morning... I decided the best thing to do was to visit other train cars and see what everypony else was doing, which was a much better idea than sitting in this room all day. So I quickly got off my bed and silently walked passed Bon Bon to avoid waking her up, knowing she was an afternoon kind of mare. As soon as I got close to the door to exit our room, I heard voices. "Stop right there, you need a train ticket to board this train!" a voice sounded "It doesn't matter, we need to stop the train right now, we have fugitives on board!" another voice from in the hallway sounded. I peeked through the eye hole in our door; it seemed to be a male pegasi and the conductor having an argument. "We can't just stop the train without solid proof of fugitives being on board and you illegally boarded this train," the conductor responded. "Look, I got direct orders from my mayor in Ponyville to stop this train, I even got her hoof signature along with photos of these fugitives," he responded pulling out a slip with his mouth out of his saddlebag. "Bon Bon, we've got a problem!" I said panicking. "Five more minutes!" she said letting out a groan. "We might not even have five minutes, let alone the three days until the transformation is complete and I become Lyra, that crazy doctor sent somepony to stop the train to catch us! He knows we are here!" I said worryingly. Reminder for readers: 3 days (including current day) in the story remain until 'Shane' becomes Lyra. The train ride predicted a 72 hour train ride from 6 P.M. yesterday when the train started moving to 6 P.M. 3 days from then. IF they make it to Canterlot in time via train avoiding the current issue at hand along with the issue waiting for them at the Canterlot train station, they would still only have six hours to get to the princess before his fate would be permanently sealed.
Yet another departure"Wait, what?!" Bon Bon said as she was startled and fell off her top bunk, tangling herself into her blankets on the floor. "That crazy doctor you told me about in the forest, he has sent somepony here to capture us. We have to scram before it's too late!" I said as I levitated the blankets tangled around her. "What about the train ride? It's our only choice of transportation that will get us there in less than three days, not to mention that Canterlot is on top of a mountain and the only mode of transportation that can get us up there is train or pegasi carriages, so it would be impossible to get their on hoof!" she said as she began to panic. "Now, do I have to repeat myself, or do I have to use an unorthodox method of convincing you?" he said as he pulled out a gun. It was a hoof mounted device with a hoof shaped hole in the back along with a thick band of string with both ends attached together which form a loop around a trigger and the top of the device. Whenever a pony fired, they would use their mouth to pull the string. "Even if I had the permission to stop the train, I wouldn't stop it for the likes of you, now get off this train immediately," he said while he stuttered to speak A loud crack of gunpowder sounded. With a loud noise that most likely woke up the entire train, the poor conductor took a bullet to the front of his body, or formally, his torso right below his neck. The conductor fell to the floor, struggling to get up. "We have to help the conductor!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "And get caught? We're already in enough trouble as it is, we have to go now!" I replied as I levitated the lower half of the window sliding it up. The conductor lifted one hoof at a time trying to get up but the mysterious stallion got the last laugh. "No, I don't think you'll be getting up, I'm putting this train on immediate lock down, even if I do have to use lethal force," he said as he yanked the string once more aimed at the conductors muzzle. Bon Bon hesitated for a moment but managed to climb up onto of the windowpane. Though the window was very small, barely allowing a whole mare's body to fit in, we both managed to get onto the window pane. The train was heading at what seemed like lightning fast speed, we had no choice but to jump. "How are we going to get out of this train 'alive'? The train is going to fast!" she shouted. "You aren't exiting this train, at least not alive," a voice sounded as somepony opened the door. "Bon Bon, it's me he wants, you stay on the train and go to the princess and tell her everything," I solemnly spoke. "But..." she spoke until I put my hoof over her mouth. "Even if we somehow managed to get to Canterlot without the train, they'd still be waiting for us there. There is no use in running away, not anymore," I continued. "Go ahead, take me," I said. "Good, now that wasn't so hard now was it? My carriage is in the caboose of the train, now follow me," he said as he jerked onto my hoof. "Shane... Lyra..." Bon Bon muttered as I was forcefully being tugged. "Go ahead, get in, hauling this here wasn't easy and I guarantee it won't be any easier with somepony in it," he moaned. Surprisingly, even though I was pretty much as screwed as I was, this was still a pretty comfortable seat. It was a read plush seat surrounded by a blue painted cart with a front being held by two long strands of metal bars connected together by what seemed to be a restraint so the pony flying the carriage can pull it. The exterior had a painted logo of what seemed to be the pegasi's cutie mark, which was very similar to the gun he seemed to hold all the time in something that looked like a saddlebag but was too thin, it was about a couple inches thick and had a pocket on the right side in the shape of his gun. I can already tell that this guy is way too over excessive about his job but does not look like he enjoys it. I guess even if you had a talent, it doesn't mean you would enjoy doing it. Without hesitation, he took off from the caboose of the train; luckily the door on the back was huge. "So... What's your name?" I asked. "You can refer to me as 'Gunslinger'" he replied. "So Gunslinger, where are we headed to?" I continued. "Even if your line of interrogation was relevant, I still wouldn't tell you," he groaned. This guy was seriously overkill, I hope he isn't as generous to me as he is to everypony else. I was truly surprised that anypony would hire him at all. "Could you at least give me a distinct time of how long we will be flying for?" I asked. "I could press the button next to me resulting in you falling nearly 20,000 feet to your doom, or you could shut up," he responded. I could only let out a small sigh in response, he was unbelievable. It was like talking to a rock, he was as ignorant as one too. I am betting neither one of us is going to enjoy this trip to wherever he was taking me, but I know one thing: I'm not going to enjoy my experience there.This guy is pissing me off to a too big of an extent, I want to kick his ass but that would screw me over too since he's the only thing keeping me in the air. Maybe if I could see the Canterlot rests upon even with my high altitude since it's on top of a mountain, I may be able to kick his ass off the restraint, only to make him fall to his doom, in honor of the innocent ponies he has killed, in time for me to levitate the carrier to my safety into Canterlot. Relevant - having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand Interrogation - a written or spoken list of questions. Distinct - Recognizably different in nature from something else of a similar type.
Revenge and RecoveryIt has been nearly an eight hour ride to who knows where; it was around four in the afternoon judging by the sun's position. I'm surprised one pony can fly this far, especially with a carriage with a pony in it. It looks so heavy and wouldn't your wings eventually get tired? Judging by his attitude I am guessing this probably not one of his favorable parts of doing his job. I guess everything does come with its downfalls as well as its positives. As for my escape plan, it so far is not so successful. I don't even think we're going to even be heading towards any mountains, let alone the mountain Canterlot is attached to. "Are we almost there yet?" I impatiently asked as I started to feel uncomfortable for sitting for several hours. "How do you think I feel hauling you around? I can't even stop for a coffee break and you sit there asking when we will get there?!" He yelled in response with anger. "How do you even know where we are going? We're too high up to even see what topography lies below us," I asked. "I guess you could say that I 'convinced' a group pegasi about clearing a path for me so I didn't have to worry about weather, at least if you consider nearly killing one of their crew members as convincing that is. As for a sense for direction, I just head in the general direction of where I need to go. Any further questions?" he asked. I couldn't even blink, what he had said astonished me. I was putting the lives of other ponies in peril; it was all because of me. Was living really worth making the lives of other ponies suffer? "No more questions? Good, and before you end up asking again, we're going to Manehattan, since your train took you all the way to Ghastly Gorge, we have to go around Canterlot in order to get there now, luckily we should be flying over it soon," he said as he let out a subtle groan. Canterlot, that is just what I needed to hear. He was surely to be in for a surprise. Ah, right on cue and it doesn't seem to be too far below either. If it was a shortcut to Canterlot I need, then it's a shortcut to Canterlot I'll get. I start rapidly shaking the cart as my horn started to glow and started to build up momentum. "What are you doing? Are you trying to kill us both?!" He said in fear and anger, mostly anger. "No, just you, when the cart flips, you'll be put to an inevitable death since you can only fly in an upright position as the cart rotates you with it," I smirked. "Yeah, but you'll be coming down with me," he argued. "You wish I would, you see, I just remembered one of Lyra's spells, unicorns can prevent themselves from gaining any momentum while falling and remain at a constant speed. I was just going to remove you from the cart and levitate it down, but now that I am becoming even more of Lyra and realizing that you put the lives of others in danger for it, let alone the times you probably did before then all because of a selfish greed for money, I decided being squashed by a falling cart and hitting your face on the ground would be even more suitable," I replied. "Don't shake this cart? You hear me?!" He tried to yell with fake courage. "No," I replied as my horn emanated an even brighter light. The cart started shaking even faster and eventually the cart did flip over to about a 75º counter-clockwise angle and it was almost sideways, which made the cart start falling. I started climbing onto the other side and then swung using the carts momentum to rotate it even further to about 115º, rendering Gunslinger's wings completely useless so he gave up and retracted them as I continued to climb up to the other side. The cart started to pick up more speed as it was falling. "You sick bastard!" was all he could mutter. Gunslinger was dangling upside down, attached to what is holding him in place. We were falling at too fast at a pace for him to eject himself so he could fly away. I gave the cart another push of momentum and rotated it until it was completely upside with me being on the bottom of the cart which was now on the top. "I'm afraid this is the last time we meet Gunslinger," I said as I let go of my grip onto the cart with my levitation making me fly up by G-Force. Gunslinger fell until he was no longer into view while I was still being pushed back. I readjusted my trajectory so I would land in Canterlot, or at least within the border of it. "You won't be missed, Gunslinger," I said as I started to glow my horn once again and slowed down the acceleration gain from the gravity. "Urgh! ERR!" Gunslinger groaned as he tried to struggle his way out of the cradle that bound him to the cart. A loud thud occurred, debris was tossed, massive injuries were sustained, and Gunslinger blacked out. "Is he going to be alright?" a nurse asked. "I'm unsure of that, he's lucky to be alive, his heart rate still seems to be intact," another nurse replied. Gunslinger was in a hospital bed in Cloudsdale, not too far from Canterlot. He was hooked up to several monitors and he lays passed out lying inert. "He was lucky to land on a cloud in Cloudsdale as a pegasi, landing on the ground would be much worse, unfortunately, it still felt like concrete due to how high he fell from, he also managed to sustain injury from the crash as well," the nurse continued. "This was no accident, this poor fellow was almost murdered," the other nurse replied. http://youtu.be/lZBMgiii80E?t=4m38s -- Trasknari, a Let's Player, describes that even a soft surface can kill you if you fall at a fast pace. (Note: Struts and Winglets do not work on pegasi [If you watch even further he says that those will help 4:50 to 5:10]). G-Force - a unit of force equal to the force exerted by gravity; used to indicate the force to which a body is subjected when it is accelerated. Momentum - The force that makes happen more quickly on a moving object. Inevitable - Certain to happen; unavoidable Topography - The arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area.
My saviourThis is going to sting, if not worse. Even with my acceleration being very low, I am still heading at a fairly indecent pace for a safe impact. I was heading at least twenty miles per hour, which may not seem like much, unless you were falling onto a populated town with dozens of buildings to fall on top of and all the ponies below. Even if I do managed to avoid those two obstacles, falling at twenty miles per hour is quite fast, but luckily somewhat survivable with many injuries given. Several incidents in real life approve of this logic to be true, however a ponified body being applied to this situation has yet to be confirmed of whether it's true or not. (I am not responsible whether you try this out or not, but I advise you to NOT try it) Canterlot got closer and closer as I managed to sustain my speed, but pain and survival were both my number one concern at the moment. I was within view of Canterlot, at a glance, only a few ponies cared that they saw a unicorn falling from the sky and watched as I plummeted toward the ground, the rest were the fancy selfish type that couldn't care less. I started to hug my legs and slouched down hoping for the best. It was only a few seconds before I landed on top of one of the curved rooftops which slid me down to the nearly approached ground which only slowed me down to the smallest extent. It was then in which I stopped attempting to decelerate myself and tried to protect myself from the impact onto the ground, with magical levitation force, I clung adhesively to the rooftop to slow myself down. In result, I managed to gradually decrease my speed. Now the only challenge was to completely stop, I dug into the rooftop with my hooves only to cling on even harder. I was groping for my life trying to stop, but my hooves started to burn. With subtlety, I managed to stop and a crowd of middle classed ponies standing below me hoof-stomped the ground and cheered towards my landing. "Ah, it looks like my package has arrived, there was no doubt that whoever that mayor hired would have failed, it would of actually beneficial for Lyra to have gone to Manehattan, so she wouldn't have to deal with me, since her escape from the carrier was premeditated, nevertheless, I would of still made it to Manehattan in time before her facade takes over," the doctor said with a evil grin. "Umm, can somepony get me down?" I asked silencing their applause. "You're not going anywhere," somepony said barging through the crowd. "Why can't you just leave me alone, you freak?!" I rhetorically asked as he revealed himself, it was that doctor. "So, I take it Bon Bon's not with you? That's too bad, after all, you wouldn't want to die alone," he said revealing a pony on the ground next to him. It was Bon Bon; she looked bad and injured to such a great extent. Her mane looked torn up and was no longer curled up. All four of her hooves were tied into a knot by a rope, a cloth was tied around her eyes, and another rope covered her mouth. She struggled to get up only to slide forward by getting kicked forward by the doctor. "How about a trade, if you make this easy and I'll spare your friend here or you both can share the grave. After all the trouble you put me through, I'd say that's a fair trade, don't you think?" he asked. "You're psychotic, what makes you think you can do that?" I replied. "Nothing really, except for the law and the fact that you are one of the most wanted citizens of Equestria, I have every right to hold hostages if I have to," he smirked as several ponies in armor levitating spears walked up behind him. "You were so close as to convincing the princess that you actually were a real being, how pathetic. I can't believe you even thought that you had a chance," he said. The doctor beckoned to one of the guards behind him to drop his spear and levitate me down. "You won't get away with this," I yelled. The guard levitated me tightly, I couldn't counter his levitation spell and he threw me onto the ground only to be lying in front of that psychopathic doctor and then he looked down at me. "I'm afraid that is where you are wrong," he replied. "Tie her up and make sure you cover her horn too, we wouldn't want her to let her to use magic," he said beckoning to the same guard. "No," a voice spoke out loud. Suddenly a pathway was made in the crowd; everypony continued to be silent and started to bow. "I think you've put this poor pony through enough, don't you think?" Princess Celestia said as she appeared onto the pathway made by the crowd. One of the guards behind the doctor interrupted her. "...but, your majesty, this mare is a fugitive, and she is to be euthanized immediately due to a mysterious infection in her brain that is threatening to take over as we speak!" a guard said. "I think that's enough, I will decide whether this pony's fate after we have a private discussion," she demanded. "...but, your highness..." he said. "That's enough, now be gone, I will not repeat myself," she said. "Lyra, we have a lot to discuss, go ahead and help your friend out over there," she said as she looked back over at me. "How do you know my name?" I asked. "I know a lot more than that, I also know that it truly isn't your name but you're rather the disease the doctor spoke of since Lyra's memory is intact currently," she said helping me off the ground. "Thank you for saving me, but why did you help me? I'm no more important than the thousands of other ponies in Equestria," I replied. "You are way more important than you think, I am also aware that the real you is going to be taking possession for the last time tomorrow," she responded. I unraveled the knots between Bon Bon's two rope restraints on her mouth and hooves and the cloth covering her eyes. "So, Bon Bon, I take it, did this 'facade' tell you anything about itself before it lost the majority of its memory so it could take Lyra's?" Princess Celestia asked. Keep in mind: Nopony remembers Shane, not even Princess Celestia, since he decided to sacrifice his life for Lyra (the mare who has broken her own contract in attempt to bring Shane back to Equestria and nearly killing herself as the result) making everypony forget about him since the contract has magical properties that not even Princess Celestia has control over.
The archives"He said his name was Shane and he used to be a pony, well at least not like this, and he also said he was great friends with Lyra before the incident," Bon Bon said. Princess Celestia looked down as if she was in an extremely meditative state and paused for a moment. "...And you wouldn't happen to remember anything before you entered Lyra's body?" Princess Celestia asked. "No, I'm more clueless than everypony here," I replied. "Perhaps we should further discuss this matter in the castle," Princess Celestia responded. Bon Bon and I nodded. Several minutes have gone by and we eventually stop to a place where Bon Bon, Princess Celestia, and I can talk in privacy. Princess Celestia took us to one of her studies; it was accompanying us with a fireplace, two lounge couches, and a formal red carpet in the center. "Thank you again for all you have done for us so far, Princess Celestia," Bon Bon said with a wide thankful grin on her face. "You're quite welcome, however there are still further matters we must discuss, first of all, the reason in particular why I decided to save your friend here," Princess Celestia said and then hesitated. "Even though I am forbidden to tell you this, I guess I don't have much of a choice. Lyra was bound by a contract to stay here in Equestria because she was originally human; her previous alias she went by was 'Jackie'. However, she is bound by that contract, so she lost all of her memory of ever being human, every one hundred years I bring a human into Equestria and turn them into ponies, your friend here is over 200 years old and didn't even know it. Now, I don't have the slightest idea why I don't remember bringing a human over to Equestria when I had the chance last month, but that is none of my concern. Anyways, I saved Lyra because I cannot let a species from a different universe die because of the ponies in this universe. Is any of this making sense to either of you?" Princess Celestia said. Bon Bon's jaw dropped and my eyes were wide open. Princess Celestia let out a small frustrated sigh. "I guess that does not matter at the moment, what we should be worried about how this happened," Princess Celestia continued. "Bon Bon, would you happen to know when this first started?" Princess Celestia asked as she turned her head towards Bon Bon. "About a month ago," Bon Bon replied. Princess Celestia looked down and meditated for a moment. "Follow me to the archives, although it is forbidden for anypony, including myself, to enter, I feel that it is necessary in this situation," Princess Celestia said. "The archives?" I asked. "It's where all the contracts of humans that came to Equestria are stored, including Lyra's. It's the only choice we have left if we're going to save you two," Princess Celestia said as she walked out of the room beckoning to us. A bell near the perimeter of Canterlot struck, it was already 7 in the evening. "Come on, we don't have much time, the last day is awakening soon and the only source of information will be inert then until the transformation is complete on the following day!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "Can we at least stop to eat? I haven't had a bite since I was on the train," I asked. "No!" I could hear both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon shout. It was only even several more minutes until we finally reached the corridor leading to the archives. It was much bigger than the corridor at the entrance of the castle, you'd think you wouldn't miss this room considering how big it was but it hid like a needle in a haystack. "Here we are, the archives, this door has not been open for the past " Princess Celestia said as she approached the door. The door was as big as the corridor itself, it was brown and had writing on it, supposedly in a language used in the time the room was made. The door was surprisingly dust-free and looked as if it was brand new. On the floor in front of the door was like a calendar, it had six red solar orbs, one of them being bigger than the rest, formed a circle on the ground and the orbs sensed whether a ray of sunlight was directed towards them or not. A small open hole above the door showing the outside was angled towards a spherical mirror held on a pedestal that is centering all six of the orbs. "Every day, when the sun is at its highest point, the sun shines through the hole up there and reflects the light upon the this spherical mirror, then reflecting the light onto a point on the circle, the red orbs represent how far away the sun was away until the next summer solstice. The big red orb represents the day of the summer solstice, when the big red orb is lit, the door will allow me to open it manually," Princess Celestia lectured. "The summer solstice?! We don't have time to wait for that, Lyra's transformation completes at the end of tomorrow, there must be another way, maybe move the sun, or..." Bon Bon yelled that only resulted with Princess Celestia interrupting her. "The summer solstice is resulted coincidentally; both Luna's and my cooperation of raising the sun at dawn and raising the moon at dusk is what gradually puts towards the cause of the eclipse. It would be impossible to do this without messing up the cycle of the moon and the sun or risking accidently flying the moon and or or the sun away from us," Princess Celestia said as she shook her head. "Then why did you take us here if we can't even wait for it?" Bon Bon replied with panic and some visible signs of frustration. "It's our only hope, may I remind you that your friend here who is going to be replaced by somepony who thinks she is Lyra but isn't, somepony cloaked under her flesh that unwillingly will take her identity," Princess Celestia said. "Then what do you suppose we should do?" Bon Bon replied along with a sigh.
The Second victim: Me"There is nothing we can do, however if there is anything that could shed some light on the matter, it would be that contract," Princess Celestia said. "No, we came so close yet so far!" I shouted as I banged both of my fore-hooves onto the door. My hooves overlapped with two hoof shaped imprints on the door and an aura started to glow around the door. "Wh-What's going on?" Bon Bon stuttered. "Impossible, there's no way she could provide that kind of energy to the door, unless Shane was an elite, but he wasn't a human from Earth that I turned into a pony, was he? No, even if he was, there is no way he could be an elite," The ground started to shake, the ceiling started to fall apart, and eventually I also became engulfed in the aura that still surrounds the door. "Princess Celestia, open the door now! I do not know how much longer I can hold on for," I shouted over the loud shaking of the castle. Princess Celestia nodded her head with a confident look on her face as she approached the door. Princess Celestia closed her eyes facing the door as her horn started to glow in her own aura. The door started to slide open as I tried to remove my hooves but they refused to retract back to me. With an annoyed look on my face, I allow myself to be pushed around like a two year old being told what to do, the door nearly slid all the way until it halted a couple feet away from the wall. The aura around me and the door stopped glowing and I started to try releasing myself from the wooden imprisonment of the door, unfortunately my fore-hooves were still stuck to the door leaving me at a rather uncomfortable position. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Go in and find Lyra's contract while you still can," I shouted. I could hear them give me a sound of approval and their hoof steps slowly fading away, leaving me trapped onto the door. I could only imagine how big the hallway leading to the archives just beyond this door considering how huge this room was. It might even go on for miles, I'm not even sure if Princess Celestia herself knows how big the entire castle is. I could hear hoof steps fading in; it was getting closer and closer to me. "Oh, I doubt that you'll be fine," A voice said approaching from the back of the room. Suddenly, the door started to violently shut with me still stuck onto it. *SLAM* My flank swung up in reaction to the g-force and slammed against the door just above my head then resulting my back hooves in falling back continuing to dangle from in the air while my fore-hooves were still attached to the door. The door ended up being fully shut leaving Princess Celestia and Bon Bon trapped inside even if they knew they were trapped, they probably wouldn't be loud enough to speak through the thickness of the door between us. "You know, you've put me through a lot of trouble catching you recently, but being presented with a perfectly good opportunity made my life a whole lot easier. In fact, you being trapped for some unknown reason is good enough for me to finally kill you," the voice behind me spoke. Turning my head, I realized where the familiar voice had come from. "You trapped the Princess into there until the next summer solstice, have you gone mad?" I rhetorically asked. "It's a price we have to pay for our salvation from you," the crazed doctor replied. "There is no salvation from killing the innocent; if there even was any damnation here it would be you!" I yelled. "You've become impressively sentient since the last time we've met, haven't you?" he said as he approached me even closer with a gun similar to the one Gunslinger had. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen well: 'Die you motherfucking disease'," he said pulling the trigger with my backside at gunpoint. *POW* "What was that?!" Bon Bon shrieked as she turned around. "The door is locked shut, that doctor must have followed us here!" Bon Bon continued. "We are trapped, we might as well continue on what we came for, no use in trying to escape a door I can't even open without the help of an elite or the summer solstice," Princess Celestia sighed. Bon Bon couldn't resist and sighed as well. After a long hour of trekking through the long enduring corridors that were surrounded by torches that were surprisingly lit for several thousands of years letting them carry the thought of what could of what could of possibly happened to me, Bon Bon and Princess Celestia finally made it to the archives. The room was just as big as the room that became my tomb, however only a single bookshelf was visible in the center of the room that had several scrolls on it. The porcelain tiles of the room mostly covered empty space. The stone walls surrounding them were barely visible. The size of the room seemed very redundant but the purpose of the room was what made the room itself important. The room surprisingly was bright and was plentiful of even more torches. "Well this totally doesn't seem like a big waste of space," Bon Bon sarcastically stated. Princess Celestia walked over to the bookshelf and started to browse through it. "This... This can't be right," Princess Celestia stuttered in astonishment. "What is it?" Bon Bon asked as she walked over to her. "Lyra no longer owns a contract, however Shane does, but there are several things wrong with this: Shane wasn't one of the humans I turned into a pony and if Lyra no longer has a contract she is going to get teleported back to Earth," Princess Celestia said astonished. "Well, even if Lyra is being teleported back to Earth, that wouldn't be considered a 'bad' thing would it?" Bon Bon asked. "Lyra has been in Equestria for over two hundred years, if she was to be teleported back to Earth, that's how old she would age and I do not think a human can live that long," Princess Celestia replied. "But what would make Lyra lose her contract and make Shane have one?" Bon Bon asked. "I'm not sure, the only way a pony can lose his/her contract is by a fault happening in the contract swapping, as far as I'm aware of, I do not remember ever doing a contract swap for Lyra and another pony that used to be human," Princess Celestia said. Keep in mind: Contract swapping did happen but Princess Celestia lost all her memory about Shane giving up his life for Lyra but instead delaying the inevitable making it so Shane simply takes the life of Lyra while also keeping Lyra's memory but sending what remains of the discarded mind of the real Lyra to Earth to be disintegrated. If you don't get it then ask. :P Sentient - Able to perceive or feel things Redundant - Able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function. Browse - An act of casual looking or reading.
The stench of disaster"C'mon, we must not linger, we have no need to stay any longer and we're not going to gather any more evidence of this mystery here," Princess Celestia said as she beckoned towards Bon Bon. "Your highness, with all due to respect, but I don't think there is a way out, you said it yourself, we cannot until the next summer solstice," "Who said anything about the summer solstice?" Princess Celestia said as she grinned. Princess Celestia levitated the scroll over to Bon Bon in which she started to hold with her mouth, then Princess Celestia walked over to one of the four corners of the room with Bon Bon behind her. Princess Celestia placed her right fore-hoof onto one of the bricks on the brick wall with applied pressure. A small section of the wall slid back and then the left and right side of the small section of the wall which was spread parallel to each other revealing an open passageway. "Why didn't we just come from there to get in here?" Bon Bon asked. "Because you can only leave the archives using this passageway," Princess Celestia replied retracting her hoof from the wall. The passageway smelt like Bon Bon's basement, dust was scattered along almost every corner, it was soggy and moist one the ground, and the fact that it looked like a dungeon wasn't very reassuring either. "Couldn't you just use magic to teleport us out of here?" Bon Bon complained before taking another look inside. "I would if I could, but the magic protecting the archives is far more advanced than even the power of the Elements of Harmony, let alone my magic capabilities," Princess Celestia replied. The first step into the passageway was not so pleasant for either of them, especially for Bon Bon. Princess Celestia easily got over the thought of the room being disgusting and started galloping in a hurry. With the thought of peril for me, Bon Bon got over the room's disgusting sight as well and started galloping behind Princess Celestia. Without stopping either due to their disgusting surroundings or being tired from galloping, both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon made it to an exit of the, what seemed to be endless, passageway. With a similar entrance to the passageway at the other side of the giant door that lead to the archives, both Princess Celestia and Bon Bon nearly stumbled when coming out of the passageway, both smelling rather repulsive but the princess remained as professional as ever as if she wasn't smelling at all. Bon Bon could hardly smell it considering she is covered in the stench and has been in what she could consider as her hell. When Bon Bon got the first glimpse of what was to be revealed, a corpse dangled upon the door which originally sealed Bon Bon and Princess Celestia behind. Bon Bon was the first to gallop towards the corpse in tears. "No, we're too late!" Bon Bon said as she began snivel. "Bon Bon, don't worry, had your friend truly died the contract would of faded into oblivion, Neither Lyra or Shane have died," Princess Celestia stated placing a hoof over the shoulder of Bon Bon. "So, she's not dead?" Bon Bon asked. Princess Celestia nodded. "Although she is not dead, we'll still need to revive her to good health before we can even figure out a way to separate these two," Princess Celestia said as she retracted her hoof. Bon Bon nodded in agreement as Princess Celestia walked away to gather some medical assistance. After nearly an hour, a medical team dispatched from Canterlot's hospital arrived to assist the sobbing mare. It was almost midnight and the sight was not pretty; imagine this: an entire team of medical staff pulling with their hooves locked onto each other, Bon Bon, a few unicorn medical staff members, and Princess Celestia using her magic all trying to pull one unicorn's fore-hooves out of a door. "Argh!" Everypony grunted. With several pants, nopony could pull the mare's fore-hooves out of the door. "This... isn't working," Bon Bon said almost out of breathe. Almost everypony there was out of shape and fell to the floor, even the unicorns trying to help were out of shape. "We can't... examine the... patient... if she is stuck to a door," One of the pony medics said trying to catch their breath. "Princess Celestia, has the door ever opened for an elite before?" Bon Bon asked. "Only once, but for them to get stuck onto the door is quite puzzling, it certainly didn't happen last time," Princess Celestia replied. "Well, at this rate, there is no way we can just remove her, she's adhesively stuck in there," Bon Bon complained. "We'll have to come back tomorrow, it's already 11:48 at night your highness," One of the pony medics said grabbing their things. "It's almost the last night?!, Lyra being inert and in a coma during the situation isn't going to make this any easier for us," Bon Bon complained. "Bon Bon, just get some rest, we'll think of something in the morning," Princess Celestia said. "But..." Bon Bon said only to finally give the situation a rest to allow themselves time to figure it out the next day. "Bon Bon, you can stay in one of my guest rooms, thank you for your help and it would be very generous if you came again tomorrow morning, now I've got a sun to lower," Princess Celestia said dismissing the medical staff. Bon Bon spent the next few hours grabbing several buckets of water from the well and pouring them on herself hoping to get the stench off her along with the grime all over her body. With very little luck, she still smelt terrible and most of the grime did not come off. With a soaking wet mane, a wet fur coat, and a rather angry tone suiting her very poorly, she trudged back to the castle with what little energy she had left of the terrible week she had been ensuing. With a deep sigh, she bounces on to her bed and falls into a deep sleep. Linger - Stay in a place longer than necessary Reassuring - Say or do something to remove the doubts and fears of someone. Dispatched - Send off to a destination or for a purpose.
Dawn of the final dayYoutube Video Bon Bon knew it was impossible to get some sleep. Even with one of the most luxurious beds in Equestria beneath her, nothing was more important to her than the safety of Lyra. She had only a little bit of confidence in her that Lyra would ever return to her again. It was almost impossible to believe that she was still alive. The last time Bon Bon saw her was with the taunting blood stained back stab wound upon Lyra's back. She couldn't help but believe that this was all her fault for leaving her alone in the room. With only an hour passed since Bon Bon retreated to her bed, she got out with nothing on her mind but Lyra. Walking down the endless corridors of the castle, Bon Bon strolled to the one destination of choice she had on her mind. Finally arriving at the room, she manages to catch sight of the door that haunts her. Walking closer, only the door comes into view, ignoring everything else that might come into sight. "No, no, no! Where is she!?" Bon Bon yelled at the door banging her hooves at it as hard as possible. Lyra was gone. "She's... gone," Bon Bon stuttered going into prone with tears falling upon her eyes. "You won't find her," a malicious voice sounded. Removing her tears, Bon Bon stood back up. "What!? Who are you!?" Bon Bon shouted in anger despite the tears that were still dripping down along the side of her muzzle. Looking down to the other end of the room, a dark shadowy figure appeared in the distance. The ominous figure slowly came into view. "You already forgot about me? What a downer. Either way, you only have a day left until your friend is replaced by a mere disease," he chuckled approaching Bon Bon. A familiar green pegasus came into view, fortunately unarmed this time. He was scathed with scars and open wounds that pretty much covered his entire body, most likely formed from broken residue falling upon him. "Your friend thought she could kill me, how pathetic," he scoffed. "You're the pony that took off with Lyra on the train!" Bon Bon growled. "My name is Gunslinger, you're the brat's little friend," he replied. "Enough, where's Lyra!?" Bon Bon shouted. "I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea," he lied with a nasty smirk upon his muzzle. "You're lying!" Bon Bon replied stomping her right forehoof onto the linoleum floor. "Maybe I am, maybe I am not. I wouldn't tell you either way," he responded. "Tell me, where is she or I'll..." Bon Bon started. "You'll what? Kill me? Go ahead, that won't do you any good, it won't help your cause one bit," he interrupted. "What do you want, then?" Bon Bon retorted as her last resort. "Me? I got what I wanted: revenge. I'm only here to greet you with a warm welcoming," he remarked sarcastically. Bon Bon only managed to stutter, whether she was more angry or upset was beyond her. After a moment of hesitation, Gunslinger manages to finish the conversation. "Well, if you're not going to speak to the guest of honor, I might as well be on my way. One suggestion to keep in mind: don't follow me or look for Lyra if you don't want the law on your tail," he said limping over toward the exit of the room chuckling to himself. Falling to the floor in shock after Gunslinger left the room; Bon Bon curled on the ground shedding only a single tear. "It's over," she muttered. "There will be no way I could find her in less than a day, let alone ever finding her. Her body is as good as taken," she sobbed. "Miss, are you alright?" a masculine voice sounded. "Are you injured? Do you need my help?" it asked. Slowly opening her eyes, Bon Bon managed to wake up from a long nap to encounter one of Princess Celestia's white stallion royal guards in front of her with two feathered wings side by side overlapping gold plated armor. "I'm quite alright, thank you," Bon Bon managed to reply getting up back onto her hooves while cling onto the stallion's hoof. "Princess Celestia requests your presence in the foyer when you get the chance," he digressed. "Thank you, I'll be on my way then," she politely responded. Both Bon Bon and the stallion guard exited the room although they headed in the opposite direction after reaching the first corridor. When she was alone, she quickly withdrew her plastic smile from her muzzle thinking pessimistically about Lyra's fate. Slowly strolling down the long hallways not paying attention to her slow pace across the enduring hallways, she manages to reach the foyer after a half hour. One thing that doesn't seem to cross Bon Bon's mind is that every minute that she has is a minute she must not waste. "Bon Bon, there is something we must discuss," A voice greeted emotionless. Princess Celestia beckoned me to a seat with little to no enthusiasm what so ever. I nodded to her beckoning call and sat down in a seat next to her. "As far as you're aware, Lyra has gone missing last night," she continued. "You're right, your highness, but rather than going missing, Lyra was kidnapped by the doctor's colleague, somepony that goes by the name 'Gunslinger'," Bon Bon retorted. For a moment, Princess Celestia lowered her head in meditation of recent events until Bon Bon interrupted her. "This pony also has recently had a quarrel with Lyra which led to the main reason of why he kidnapped her. The only question is where would he take her?" Bon Bon said completely puzzled.
