Friendship is Surreal

by Array

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Derpy Hooves, DJ P0N-3, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Octavia, Bon-Bon
Length: 10566

Equestria Daily Approved! Everyone's favourite background ponies get together for adventures.

Equestria Daily Approved!
What happens if, due to an unlikely series of plot devices, everypony's favourite background ponies were brought together for a hilarious adventure? That's what this fanfiction explores as Octavia, DJ P0N-3, Lyra, Bon Bon, Doctor Whooves and Derpy go on their own little experiences, reminiscent of the Mane 6's adventures.

Cello edition.
Originally written on September, 2011. (Before Season 2)
Also FIMFiction needs to allow one more character tag. Poor Doctor Whooves wants his own tag on this story.

Each chapter (or set of chapters) is intended to be mostly self-contained, following a formula similar to the show, albeit more comedic-ally.

Published 2012-09-16 02:34:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-16 02:34:02 UTC

Your Princess is in Another Bastion, Part 1

Friendship is Surreal Chapter 1: Your Princess is in another Bastion, Part 1

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Octavia groaned as she lifted her head off her pillow. It was the night after the Gala, and Octavia had been playing her cello all night, virtually without break. Virtually. There had been several interruptions of her performance; however, she could not remember what exactly happened yet. She could not remember why she could not remember, until she winced in pain as her head throbbed. It all started coming back to her.

The Gala had begun like it always had; posh ponies from all over Equestria flocked to socialise. Though, not all of them were quite as posh. As that night was drawing to a close, a pink earth pony had walked in and subsequently began to dance around like a lunatic, and jump onto stage where Octavia played. She did her best to continue playing as this annoying pony continued her misdemeanours throughout the crowd.

By now she could tell that this Gala was not going to be normal. As the night progressed, the pink pony had interrupted them again, requesting the band to play the ‘Pony Pokey’. It was an absurd song to be played at the Gala, of all places, but something possessed the rest of the band to agree, shrug at her, and then begin playing the ridiculous music. Her choice was either leave the stage or play. She sighed, and then joined in.

The pony continued disturbing the diners as she sang along to the band. It got even worse when Octavia was literally thrown off her cello as the pink pony disrupted the band, allowing only the pianist continue awkwardly finishing the song without his stool.

Octavia’s head pounded again as she remembered the last event of the night. As she picked up her cello, pondering trying to get them together to continue playing normally, the door to the grand room opened and a stampede of the garden animals rolled in. The Gala was well and truly over, and she dragged her cello out while shooing away a flamingo that had taken an interest in the instrument’s strings.

She couldn’t remember much after that, and so assumed that her night had concluded with a round of drinks. She tugged at the bow tie around her neck that she apparently had forgotten to take off. It didn’t relent, but her struggles seemed useless to her, and so left it on as she wandered, dazed around her house in Canterlot. Everything was in place, and she was still in possession of her cello. She was afraid she might not have brought it back, considering the ruckus last night and her intoxicated state.

A banging outside interrupted her thoughts. It repeated, closing in on her door. She trotted up and opened it, having a fair idea of who it might be. Sure enough, she recognised the familiar grey coat, yellow mane and walled eyes of Derpy, the Pegasus mailmare with a mental condition. Over time, she established a bit of a rapport with the abnormal pony.

“Derpy! The door is down here!” She called. The Pegasus righted herself, and then flew down to Octavia.

“Mail for you,” Derpy chirped through the envelope she held in her mouth. Octavia took it from her, then realized Derpy’s mistake.

“Tar-... what? Derpy, this is addressed to Dr Whooves, not me.”

“Oh! Right. Sorry, here’s yours” She swapped the messages around, and Octavia now held her own mail.

“Thank you. Dr Whooves lives in Ponyville, so you’d better head there.”

“Oh, he doesn’t really live there, he just pretends to,” Derpy giggled to herself as she flew in the general direction of Ponyville, dropping several letters along the way. It was a wonder as to why they continued to employ her.

Octavia decided to ignore whatever that sentence could have implied and walked inside with her letter, trying in vain again to get the bow tie off her neck. She slid the letter out of the top of the envelope and read it.

Dear Octavia,

Considering your musical ability and experience, you are being offered to play in a band that will be covering the Summer Sun Celebration being hosted in Ponyville. The celebration, as you know, takes place a month from now, giving you plenty of time to prepare and move to your new temporary lodging in the town. Enclosed is information as to where your new home is located, and the names of the other invitees. There is no need to rush, but you may wish to make your way to Ponyville soon.

Canterlot Musical Committee

Well, this was interesting. Yes, she’d played for many prestigious events, but had never been offered to go to Ponyville before, or to play during the Summer Sun Celebration. She was used to the routine; she’d be invited to an important event, be asked to play a bass instrument (in most cases, her cello), meet with a band often consisting of different instrumentalists, and perform. She thought that, by now, she must have played alongside every type of instrument out there.

She often wondered what was so interesting about this little town that drew Princess Celestia’s attention to it. Why didn’t she just hold it in Canterlot? Then again, there was going to be a large amount of redecorating in the grand city after last night’s events.

She decided that she’d head there early tomorrow, while trying to get the bow tie of her neck again. She stood up on her back legs, and with a final pull, it snapped off, sending her flying backwards into her cello. Something heavy fell on her, and with a snapping sound she realised that it was her instrument.

Oh, buck.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Lyra was a Unicorn living in Ponyville. Her talent was playing the lyre, and her cutie mark reflected that. However, throughout her life, she had never been offered to play for such a celebration!

“Well, I'm happy for you, Lyra,” Bon Bon, the cream-coloured mare was saying, “but next time, don’t actually let Derpy into your house.”

Immediately after Lyra received the letter, Derpy had failed to see where the door was, and proceeded to give herself a concussion after making contact with the wall beside the door. Still airborne, she had flown about the room, knocking over furniture and such while attempting to get out. Lyra had politely held the door open until Derpy rebounded in the correct direction.

Her friend, Bon Bon, had offered to help clean up as they continued their conversation. Lyra was giddy with excitement, despite the fact that the Summer Sun Celebration was a month away, leaving Bon Bon to do most of the actual cleaning.

“I know, right,” the turquoise mare did a little spin, “finally I get to play for an actual crowd. An actual crowd! Not a school performance or anything!”

“Yeah, I get the idea,” Bon Bon righted a chair, the last object in need of attention in the room. “Why don’t we talk about it some more over lunch? I’m starving.”

The two friends walked out and headed towards the marketplace of Ponyville. As they turned a corner leading into it, they noticed a carriage pulling to a stop. It looked a lot like a Canterlot taxi, especially since it had the words ‘Canterlot Taxi’ emblazoned on the side, glowing magically.

The side door opened, and a grey mare stepped from the vehicle. She moved with an almost feline grace as she walked around to the back, retrieving her large piece of equipment from it. Her elegance evaporated immediately as she attempted to pull the object from its perch. She kept struggling as Lyra began to trot up to her.

Lyra asked, “Do you need any help with that?”

“No, that’s alright, I can get this thing off- oof,” her speech was cut off as the cello fell on her for the second time, and another crack could be heard inside.

“That... didn’t sound very good,” Lyra remarked.

“It’s already broken. Why must everything important be so delicate? I’d been hoping to stop it from further damage,” she added. She placed it on a cart, denying Lyra’s help. As she turned around, Lyra noticed her purple Treble Clef cutie mark, and then pieced it together with the instrument-shaped case.

She inquired, “Hey! Are you one of the musicians playing for the Summer Sun Celebration?”

Octavia gave a brief nod. “Just came here from Canterlot. My name is Octavia. I’ll probably be playing this cello if I can get it fixed.” She started walking, and, now that it was on wheels, the cart rolled along behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you one of the other instrumentalists?”

Lyra started walking alongside her, Bon Bon in tow. “Yup! Name’s Lyra. I play the lyre. My special talent is playing the lyre. My cutie mark is a lyre. Kind of a giveaway, isn’t it? Anyway, this is my first time performing for an actual event!”

Octavia’s face fell. Lyra was taken aback with her reaction. She guessed that this must be a professional professional. “I know how to play fine; it’s just that I haven’t played on a large scale before. And in Ponyville, it’s mostly casual. If that helps...”

Octavia righted herself, and then stood before Lyra, her expression now more positive. “We have a month to prepare before the performance, and it’s just one day, so I think this might work alright. Nothing’s gone wrong yet.”

Bon Bon decided to interrupt, “So, are we having lunch or not?”

Lyra’s reaction, or rather, lack of one, answered for her. She was too busy with her new friend. Bon Bon sighed, and then fell in behind them. The direction of the group had now directed towards the town hall, where the last musician in the group was at.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Octavia had realised that this was likely not going to go like all the other performances. Lyra was an amateur, sure, but she decided to reserve judgement until she’d actually heard her play. They arrived at the town hall, and opened the door to a sight Octavia was not expecting to see.

The hall was occupied by one unicorn. She was completely white save for her blue tinted, spiked mane and tail, and she wore odd coloured sunglasses... inside. She had apparently set up a small disco, despite being the only attendee, complete with a turntable and stereo. And this was the last ‘musician’?

“Uh, Octavia? Your eye’s doing a little twitch,” Lyra noted.

She sighed inwardly. This was definitely going to be different.

The unicorn noticed them as they walked closer. She stepped out from behind the turntables, dropped off the stage and trotted towards them. “Hey all of you,” she yelled, “you must be the other performers! Nice to meet a fancy pony. Name’s Vinyl Scratch, or DJ P0N-3, whatever you prefer. What’s yours?”

Vinyl hadn’t reduced her volume as she strode towards them. Octavia assumed that this was a side effect from being inside those loud clubs all the time. She tried to keep her face composed as she responded. “My... name is Octavia,” was all she managed to get out.

Vinyl looked at her quizzically. Or, rather, Octavia thought she did. It was impossible to tell with those ridiculous goggles. She shrugged and moved on to face Lyra. “And your name is...?”

“Lyra,” the turquoise mare energetically responded. Bon Bon was wandering about behind them, being completely ignored, waiting for them to leave. “I’m an instrumentalist, like Octavia. I play the lyre, and this is my first time performing!”

“Well, good to see that somepony isn’t practically a mute, like ‘Tavi seems to be,” Vinyl said.

Octavia snapped out of her bewilderment at the last few words of her sentence. “Please, if you’re addressing me, use my name. ‘Tavi is not my name.”

“But you still respond to it,” Vinyl pointed out.

“...”

Vinyl started towards the stage again. “Well, I’ll be here tomorrow if you want to have a session. For now, bye,” she called as she packed up the stereo.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

They briskly walked outside, with Octavia in the lead, now with her broken cello in tow again. Lyra assumed her speed was to get away from the DJ.

“Well, now I don’t see how this is going to work,” Octavia voiced her thoughts.

Lyra was surprised. “You mean this doesn’t normally happen?”

Octavia threw her hoof to her forehead. “Oh, Celestia. No, this doesn’t normally happen. Now I’m positively mortified.”

It was then that a certain Pegasus with trademark walled eyes popped out of the sky and landed next to them, holding a lot of disconnected technical equipment. “Do you know where I could find a particle accelerator?” Derpy Hooves asked.

“No, I don’t even know what that is,” Octavia responded, starting to move away from her. Lyra wondered if she was more worried by the equipment or Derpy herself.

“Oh, it’s a sort of long circular tube with electrode-thingies around it that shoots atoms around really fast that then does stuff,” Derpy replied, her eyes doing a clockwise motion in their sockets as if to accentuate her description. “Anyway, never mind, I guess I can make do with an exposed hadron collider.” With that, she flew away again.

Octavia turned to face Lyra again. “So, next I’ve got to go to Doctor Whooves’. He’s very good at fixing things, despite not seeming to have enough equipment.”

Bon Bon decided to try again, “So should I just go eat by myself or... oh, nevermind,” and she trotted up with them again.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Octavia pushed open the door to Doctor Whooves’ odd store. All sorts of gadgets, woodcraft and different devices with which to tell the time with were arranged along the walls. The Doctor himself seemed absent.

Octavia decided to try calling, “Doctor?”

Doctor Whooves suddenly appeared from under the counter, wearing a welding mask for some reason. He lifted the visor. “Yes, Octavia?”

Finally, a familiar face from a mostly-sane pony. He had fixed some broken instruments for her in the past, though she decided to reconsider his sensibility after seeing the device he held in his hoof that he was using in conjunction with the welding mask. She could not understand what the penlight-thing was for, so she decided to ignore it.

“Well, yesterday my cello fell on me and today... it fell on me again,” she tried to say, then regretted how she’d put her sentence together.

Again, an interruption was provided by Derpy as she flew into the small store. This time she held nothing. “Hello everyone,” she acknowledged, “hey, Doctor? Do you have any spare fission reactors?”

Doctor Whooves glanced up briefly before nodding. “In the back,” he responded.

She thanked him and flew through an opening behind the counter. Needless, to say, Octavia was completely dumbstruck. Doctor Whooves had intentionally let Derpy into his workshop in order to find Celestia-knows-what. She decided to ignore this fact in order to go on with her life.

Doctor Whooves faced them again, removing the welding mask. “Anyway, yeah, I can get that repaired. It’ll cost quite a few bits,” he added.

Octavia pulled the cart over to show him. She opened the case it was in. “The wooden body has been broken pretty badly, and needs to be replaced. It shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

As it was brought out, Lyra, who had been silent until now, noticed something. “Why is the bow a different colour to the main instrument strings? The colour doesn’t quite match.”

Octavia looked at her for a second before realising. “Oh, yeah, I’d better take that out,” she said as she took the slightly darker grey bow from the set. She then said to Lyra, “It’s just a bit of sentimentality,” and did not elaborate further.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

“So, tomorrow, and early, right,” Lyra was saying.

“Yes, I don’t want that Vinyl around when we’re trying to play music.” Octavia responded. She was starting to look a bit sleep-deprived after the events of the day. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Alright. Well, goodbye,” and with that, Lyra trotted in the other direction. Bon Bon realised that they had finished the day, without lunch in the end, and then cantered after her.

The sun was beginning to set, so Octavia headed towards her new home. When she arrived, she made sure no other ponies were around. She could only keep her composure up under this pressure for so long. When she was positive that no other ponies were in sight, she put her inventory to the side and took a deep breath.

“WHEN I FIND THE PONY WHO ORCHESTRATED ALL OF THIS I’M GOING TO-”

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Lyra woke up with a start. Groggy with sleep, she walked to the window, and judged the time to be about seven o’clock in the morning.

She moved about the house, packing her lyre and other equipment onto a cart, and then went back to her room. She set the alarm to eight with her magic, and then fell asleep again.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Octavia was in the main hall of the town centre, waiting for Lyra, but taking the time to think some more. She’d spent a long time last night thinking, and had spent the morning thinking, and was still thinking. She still had no idea how they were going to pull this off, with an amateur instrumentalist and a DJ. Seriously, who put them together like this? Whoever it was, they hadn’t the slightest idea of how music comes together, and they somehow got it approved by the musical committee.

She was getting a practice cello out when Lyra walked through the main doors, pulling a cart with her lyre on it. Octavia noticed that she had bags under her eyes, and was walking rather slowly.

“You know, when I said early, I meant sometime before lunch.” Octavia said, somewhat sternly.

Lyra seemed unfazed by her approach, and dumped the cart. “Didn’t hear my alarm,” she mumbled. “I don’t normally get up this early.”

Octavia lost interest and retrieved her bow. She had set up the cello, and then stood up on her hind legs against it. Being a perfectly normal routine to her, she was surprised when she heard a gasp. Lyra’s expression had lost all hints of sleep deprivation and changed to a state of awe.

Lyra asked, “How’d you do that?”

Octavia was astonished. “Do what?”

“Stand like that!”

Octavia’s expression turned quizzical, looked down at her form, then she realised. “Oh, you mean standing on your hind legs. It’s nothing, it just helps play this instrument,” she indicated her instrument, which looked almost identical to the one she owned.

Lyra’s face lit up. “Can you teach me?”

Octavia groaned silently, and almost said no, but again looked at Lyra’s odd look of wonderment and then considered it. “Yeah, sure, why not,” she finally said.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

It was sometime after two that Vinyl decided to head towards the town centre. She was carrying a stereo on her back, wearing headphones. She had been taught by the mayor mare many times in the past to use headphones, as she had walked in on events with the stereo at full blast. Nopony was very impressed by it.

Her thoughts drifted to the other ponies in the musical crew. There was Lyra, a young, eager pony who apparently had never played for any events. An odd choice, but, then again, everypony has to start somewhere, right?

Then there was Octavia. From their brief meeting, Vinyl had gotten the impression that this was going to be one of those pompous asses. No offence to any donkeys. Vinyl gathered that she played an old-fashioned string instrument, the cello, or was it a double bass? The instruments looked so similar, but did it really matter?

She reached the door. She fully expected Octavia to tell her to be quiet while she was practising. She wondered how this was going to work out, with her living in the modern world and these other ponies playing five-century old instruments. She pushed through the door, being met with an uncharacteristic scene.

The two ponies, Octavia and Lyra, were on the stage, but their instruments were pushed to the side. Instead, they appeared to be practising an awkward pose; Octavia was standing like a biped, apparently trying to show Lyra how to do it. Lyra subsequently fell over, noticing Vinyl as she got up again.

“Hey, P0N-3!” Lyra called. Octavia turned to look at Vinyl, with scornful look upon her face.

“Well, look who it is,” Octavia said. “We were trying – going to – practise music. I suppose that’s not going to be possible now, is it?”

Vinyl was taken back with her hostility. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

“You know, you’re going to make a name for yourself in Ponyville if you keep talking like that.”

Octavia was suddenly confused. “What name? I already have a name.”

Oh. It was one of those sorts of ponies.

Lyra sensed the growing tension and tried to prevent it. “Hey, uh, why don’t we try going on with the practise session?”

The DJ walked off to set up her stereo. “At least I don’t play century-old instruments.”

“And they still sound better then a bunch of electronic speakers spouting out random chaos,” Octavia retorted.

The session went ahead without much correspondence. Vinyl did, however, play only through her headphones. They weren’t going to make much progress like this, so Vinyl decided, however much against her instincts, she was going to at least try.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Octavia had decided that Lyra actually had a fair bit of talent after all. She had listened to her play for a bit, and she was expertly strumming the instrument. She found it hard to believe that Lyra had never played on stage before.

Her mind had been blocking out the idea of Vinyl playing along with them, so she had no idea how to respond when Vinyl had walked up to them.

“Uh, yeah, so, this isn’t going to go ahead if we don’t cooperate, and I’ll try playing the old instruments,” she said, slightly apologetically.

Octavia suddenly sensed a ray of hope. “Okay, okay, we might have the components for a regular classical band if we add you in on a piano or something. We’ll go through a selection of instruments over the next few weeks, and hopefully find something that suits you.”

She left the stage, reappearing seconds later with a trumpet. “You like things that blow out your eardrums, so start with this.”

When Octavia passed the trumpet to Vinyl, her expression immediately changed to that of confusion.

Vinyl started turning the instrument around on her hooves, trying to figure out how she was supposed to hold it. “Yeah, so, how do you play this?”

Octavia sighed. This was going to be a long month indeed.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Three days until the Summer Sun Celebration

“What do I do? What do I do?”

Octavia rapidly paced around her home, on the verge of panicking. No, wait, she was already panicking. If it went on for much longer she would have a mental breakdown. Then she would go insane, be sent to an asylum, live the rest of her days sitting in a white padded cell wearing a straitjacket spouting nonsense...

Get a grip on yourself, she thought. I still have... three days...

Vinyl had proven inept with virtually every classical instrument Octavia tried to give her, in addition to their lack of cooperation anyway. She cursed whoever had the brilliant idea to put them together on something like this. She hadn’t panicked for years until now.

She couldn’t believe they had wasted the entire month. She had written to the Comittee, but they almost literally sent her back a letter saying ‘deal with it’.

She had tried pulling out her hair in frustration. This was actually a difficult thing to do, where she would have to lay her head on the side of a table, then use her hoof’s edge to try and cut some of it out. It never ended well.

She was never good with calming down, and nearly yelled at Bon Bon as she walked through the door.

“What is it,” she mumbled, impatiently waiting for Bon Bon to answer.

“Well, uh... Lyra and Vinyl are waiting for you in the town centre. You mares need to talk,” she responded.

Octavia trudged past Bon Bon, making a point of leaving her instrument behind. She hadn’t felt more defeated in her life.

She made her way towards the main hall, thinking. She stared at the moonless sky, unable to comprehend the fact that she had failed putting together three musicians over a month in time for the celebration.

Wait, what? There was something wrong. She searched the night sky, trying to find what was missing. As Bon Bon continued towards the centre, Octavia was lost in thought, until she realised.

“Where’s the moon?”

She couldn’t see the moon in the sky, however hard she looked. It didn’t seem a particularly cloudy night, but there must be some sort of explanation. She decided to put that thought aside for now, and continued onwards to the hall.

She pushed through the doors to see Vinyl and Lyra standing on the stage. They noticed her as she approached, and waited for her to reach them.

“I had the feeling this wasn’t going to work out, ‘Tavi, and we tried, but...” Vinyl started, “It’s only the Summer Sun Celebration, it’s not as important as something like the Gala.”

Lyra continued, rather bluntly, “We can’t perform in time. We’re sorry, but it’s not working.”

Octavia had been expecting this, but it still felt like a kick in the stomach. “But we still have three days before Celestia arrives...”

Vinyl shook her head. “Sorry. We don’t have enough time.”

Octavia hung her head. She’d never failed a performance before.

Suddenly, the doors burst open. Derpy flew into the building, doing awkward somersaults in the air. She came to a stop, then announced, with a happy mood in contrast to the information, “Princess Celestia is missing!”

“No, Celestia is not missing, she’s just out in Fillydelphia,” Doctor Whooves corrected as he walked in after Derpy.

Lyra asked, “Then why are you here?”

“Because Princess Luna is missing,” Doctor Whooves claimed, to the group’s bewilderment. “According to the guards, Luna left the castle without schedule or escort. I think they’re overreacting, but Luna hasn’t returned yet, and she left last night.”

His words were met with a confused silence which continued for a while until Lyra broke it.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“What are we waiting for what?” Octavia had temporarily forgotten about her predicament.

“Well, every time a princess goes missing, it’s up to the heroes to save them!”

Octavia didn’t feel the need to tell Lyra how ridiculous that statement was, but Bon Bon apparently did.

“Uh, Lyra, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Doctor Whooves added, “The guards are actually waiting for her to come back. They aren’t normally in this situation, so they honestly don’t know how to respond. They’ll set up a search, but it’ll be confined to the towns and cities of Equestria.”

“You’re not helping,” Bon Bon hissed to the Doctor.

“Actually, this might be kind of fun, y’know,” Vinyl cut in, “Celestia won’t be back for three days, AKA she’ll arrive just in time for the Celebration. She’ll probably be worried about her missing sister.”

Lyra had started walking out the door. “C’mon, let’s go!”

Octavia finally spoke in astonishment, “Wait, you want us to go now?!”

“Well, yeah, the sooner we get going, the sooner we get there,” Lyra called back.

Octavia started to walk after her. “But we don’t know where to look!”

Derpy chimed in, flying past them, “There’s this big tower thing that she went to when she was Nightmare Moon.”

Octavia didn’t bother asking her how she knew, and resigned herself to the fact that they were going on this journey as Vinyl, Doctor Whooves and Bon Bon joined them.

“It’s through the Everfree Forest,” Derpy finally mentioned, much to Octavia’s horror.

Lyra was strangely confident as she added, “Don’t worry; it’s not actually that dangerous. There’s this group of ponies that go in every now and then, and there’s also this zebra that lives in there.”

They had arrived at the edge of the forest, as Luna’s moon began to rise, rather late. This is it, Octavia thought. Everypony had gone insane, and she was probably going to be drawn into helping them. That morning she had been thinking of how they were going to pull off the performance, and then she had been thinking of how they were going to find the princess. However, her most recent thought was this:

How did I get here?

Your Princess is in Another Bastion, Part 2

Friendship is Surreal Chapter 2: Your Princess is in another Bastion, Part 2

~~//*//~~//*//~~

“Why do I get the feeling this is a huge cliché?”

The group had started to hike through the Everfree Forest, on a journey to find where Princess Luna had disappeared to. Lyra looked curiously at Octavia. “What do you mean?”

Octavia ventured, “Well, a group of ponies set off on an adventure to find a princess. It seems a bit overused, don’t you think?”

Lyra thought for a bit. This seemed almost against her character, normally jumping into things without thinking. “I see what you mean. The last group that went in here went to save Princess Luna from... well, herself.”

They continued. Derpy had said that the tower was about three kilometres away, but, if the information came from Derpy, it could mean anything.

The group walked in silence for about two kilometres, and they eventually reached a very unsafe-looking bridge, atop the mountain.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

“I’m not sure if we should cross this,” Bon Bon voiced their thoughts. The wood was completely rotted, and it looked as if one pony could bring the whole thing down.

There was no other way around, so they assumed that the other group went this way. That must have been a while ago, because the rope looked very weak. Vinyl had an idea.

“Lyra, you can help me hold the bridge up with our magic while everyone crosses. Then you go to the other side and keep it up as I cross,” Vinyl explained.

She nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.” She got into position beside Vinyl. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The group had gotten to an unspoken consensus for this plan. Vinyl focused on the bridge, and called up her unicorn magic. Lyra did also, and together they strengthened the bridge. Magic seemed to move like electricity up and down the walkway, sparking between points.

Vinyl called, “Okay, everypony cross!”

Derpy flew ahead of them, while Bon Bon took a tentative step onto the bridge. Gaining confidence, she trotted ahead to the other side. Doctor Whooves followed.

Octavia started walking when the Doctor reached the other side. She asked the two unicorns, “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

Vinyl and Lyra were starting to be visibly strain with the bridge. “Yeah, just keep going,” Vinyl said through gritted teeth.

Octavia turned back to the bridge, and made the mistake of looking down. She was instantly hit with vertigo, but recovered, swaying a bit. She could tell everypony was watching her, so she continued, and safely arrived on the other side.

“Okay, Lyra, I think you should go first,” Vinyl panted.

Lyra stopped holding the bridge up, wheezed for a bit, then trotted over the bridge.

“Alright, I can hold the bridge up, but when I start losing focus, my magic can get really unpredictable,” Lyra called when she arrived on the far side.

Lyra took over, and Vinyl started on the bridge. She gained momentum, and pretty soon was almost there when she realised Lyra was exhausted.

“Hold on, Lyra! I’m almost there,” Vinyl cried out.

“Can’t... hold it...” Lyra was about to collapse when suddenly an explosion of light and energy came from her horn; as the group watched in horror, the shockwave flew towards Vinyl, enveloping the bridge. Lyra was knocked backwards as the scene was shrouded in smoke.

After taking refuge from the blast, Octavia and the group hurried over to Lyra, who was only half-conscious. She suddenly bolted upright, shocked and looking like she was on the verge of crying. “Oh my gosh! Did I kill her? I killed her, didn’t I?”

Nopony responded, as they looked in the direction of the bridge. The smoke was beginning to clear, revealing... the intact bridge! It was still there, but it had turned a grey colour, and Vinyl was still standing in the middle of it, cringing. She slowly took her hooves away from her face, just as surprised as the group that she was still alive.

She began by saying, “How the hay did I survive that?”

The question was on everypony’s lips until Doctor Whooves moved closer to the bridge for inspection. “It appears that the bridge has turned to rock,” he mused, “A bit anti-climatic, if you ask me.”

The group sighed in relief, especially Lyra. “You should probably come over here quickly before it does fall,” Octavia called.

Vinyl trotted off the bridge to join the group. “I thought I’d killed you,” Lyra apologised.

“So did I. Let’s just be happy that unpredictable magic really is unpredictable,” she responded. “And look! We’re nearly there!”

“Finally, we can get this over and done with,” Bon Bon mumbled.

Vinyl pointed out the ruined tower that they had come here for. They immediately picked up the pace as they hurried to the entrance. Bon Bon happened to be in the lead and stopped in front of the stronghold first. As the rest of the group clamoured around to see what she had stopped for, they heard Bon Bon utter “you have got to be kidding me...”

“What? What is it?” Octavia pushed in front of her and read what had been inscribed upon the plaque in front of them.

Not here, Celestia. Gone to Bastion.

~Luna

~~//*//~~//*//~~

“Gone to a bastion? What in Equestria does that mean?”

Lyra was confused. She was sure this was where Luna would go. Then again, she hadn’t thought much about it at the time.

Octavia apparently noticed something. “‘Bastion’ is capitalised. And the sentence doesn’t seem... correct.”

Doctor Whooves decided to add, “That’s because there’s a place named Bastion. It used to be a retreat for the princesses when times got rough, and was supposed to be an impregnable fortress.”

“How do you know about that?” Bon Bon didn’t seem particularly impressed.

“Oh, I’ve... been around,” the Doctor responded.

Lyra had found a map which nopony bothered asking where she’d gotten it from, “Where is it?”

“You won’t find it on a map. It’s old. Really old,” he pushed the map away. “However, I know where it is. On the other side of this mountain range are... well, more mountains. But past that, there’s a large rocky plain, and then there’s Bastion. And more mountains.”

Octavia had resigned herself to this journey already. “We’ve come this far. How long will it take to get there?”

“If we head off now, we might find her in time for the Summer Sun Celebration,” Doctor Whooves answered.

Derpy announced, “If it makes you feel any better, I found a muffin!”

“That’s... good for you, Derpy,” Octavia said.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

They stayed there for the night, and headed off the next morning. Their journey was uninterrupted for a long time as they traversed the dangerous mountains.

They travelled around the sides of the mountains as much as they could, but the further they moved away from Ponyville, the more extreme, and the more treacherous the terrain became. Eventually they moved to traversing the valleys instead.

Octavia eventually asked, “We’ve got two days. Do you honestly think we can get there in time?”

Doctor Whooves answered, “We’ve got a fair distance to cover, but we might just make it, provided we don’t have any-”

“Look everypony!” Derpy Hooves, who was farther up ahead, called out to the group, pointing excitedly at something in the valley.

“Distractions...” he finished. The group cantered to catch up to Derpy, unable to see what she was looking at until they reached a large clearing. The group stopped abruptly when they noticed what Derpy was interested in, and realised their mistake as the sound from their hooves began to stir the creature.

In the centre of the great clearing stood an Ursa Major.

“It’s times like this I wish we’d invented more swear words,” Octavia muttered.

The colossal beast reared its head, turning to look at the ponies. At first they thought it was going to ignore them, until it roared. The sound split the air, and the monstrosity began to stand. The ponies managed to turn and run away, as it began to charge at them. Luckily for the ponies, it didn’t stray outside the clearing.

They regrouped atop a slightly elevated plateau aside the clearing. Panting, Octavia was the first to speak. “What do we do now?”

“Well, we have a giant monster obstructing us, no other way around and now we’ve disturbed it,” Doctor Whooves, rather unnecessarily explained.

“Thank you for summing that up,” Octavia said through gritted teeth. “But we need to get past it.”

Bon Bon asked, frustrated, “Can’t we just sneak around?”

Doctor Whooves looked around. “We could try that, but we’re surrounded by cliffs. It’s too far to go back, and that clearing stretches across the valley.”

Bon Bon grumbled, and put her face in her hooves.

Lyra suddenly perked up, excited, and announced “I have an idea!”

“What is it?” Octavia was willing to try anything now.

Lyra explained her plan to them. Octavia’s face fell immediately.

“Uh... I don’t think that will work.”

Lyra was bouncing around, happy that she had come up with a plan that sounded sane to her. “Of course it will! You see it happen in every cheesy movie!”

Octavia could tell there was no stopping her, and subsequently face-hoofed.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

The beast known as an Ursa Major wandered around its clearing which stood on the edge of its cave. It had been trying to go to sleep when those small creatures had wandered into it. This was his territory. How dare they come into it!

It wandered around the clearing, and it hoped to stay there until it had made sure those annoying critters had gone away.

It was pacing the edge of the clearing until it heard a noise. It sounded like one of those devices the strange travelling groups of ponies used to make... what was it? Music. Yes, music. Something was playing music. It was... annoying. Nothing should be making sounds in the Ursa Major’s territory!

It intercepted the source of the disturbance, which happened to be hidden by some trees. So, in a stereotypical beast-like fashion, the creature ripped apart the vegetation, revealing the turquoise pony playing its instrument. And, also in a stereotypical beast-like fashion, it roared at the equine.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Lyra looked up at the Ursa Major as it roared at her, and with this range she felt as if it would blow out her eardrums. Stumbling a bit as the monster finished its bellowing, she somehow picked up her lyre again and ran towards the group, narrowly avoiding the creature’s enormous paw as it swiped.

Octavia called to everypony, “No more plans, just run!”

The team galloped towards the other side of the clearing, disregarding stealth as the Ursa Major roared and began charging after them. Lyra managed to catch up to them, amazingly still carrying her lyre.

The monster was beginning to reach them, and Octavia thought she’d never galloped so fast in her life. It threw more blows at them, but the dumb beast couldn’t figure out that it had to hit where they were going to be instead of where they were currently. They didn’t stop when they reached the other edge of the clearing, and continued galloping until they couldn’t hear the Ursa Major anymore.

They stopped in unison to catch their breath. “I... can’t... believe we... survived that...” Octavia managed to get out. Bon Bon gave up and fell to the ground, as she noticed that Doctor Whooves was not on the verge of passing out. On the contrary, he was barely exhausted at all.

After a while, Bon Bon managed to speak. “Why aren’t you puffed out?”

“Oh, I’ve done lots of galloping in the past...” he, quite unsatisfactorily to Bon Bon, divulged.

Bon Bon huffed at him, and subsequently passed out. Apparently she didn’t do much galloping.

Octavia managed to recover quickly. “Playing wind instruments seems to have paid off,” she said, half to herself. Then she realised something. “Wait, where’s Derpy?”

“Right here! That was fun, we should do it again sometime!”

Octavia looked up to see Derpy, in flight, apparently waving in the direction of the Ursa Major’s cave. She made the intelligent decision not to try to explain to her how it was not fun.

Octavia turned to Lyra. First things first. “Why did you even bring the lyre?”

Lyra shuffled her hooves. “Well... I thought that it might come in handy...”

“It would come in handy. The strings could have been used to hang you!”

Lyra was too exhausted to be offended. “I guess we’re going to stay here for lunch.” And with that, she fell over.

They stayed there for an hour before recovering their strength enough to keep going.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Celestia’s sun had begun its descent as the group of ponies came upon their next obstacle. They were nearing the exit to the valley, according to Derpy (which wasn’t a reliable source), when they arrived in front of what appeared to be the remains of a landslide.

“Why is it that every time we come across something like this there’s only one way, and that’s through it,” Octavia grumbled.

“It’s just like in the movies, Octavia,” Lyra said excitedly, “and we’re starring in it! Wait... do you think they’ll make a movie about us someday? Doyathinkdoyathink?”

“Lyra, I seriously doubt anypony’s going to make a movie about us,” Octavia pointed out. “Anyway, what do we do now?”

The group spent a while pondering what to do. Lyra and Vinyl had attempted climbing over, without success. To great uncertainty, it was Derpy who spoke after a long silence.

“Oh! I know! I know! Pick me!” Derpy flew around ecstatically, trying to catch Octavia’s attention. It had been established more or less by now (to her displeasure) that Octavia was the leader of the group.

Octavia sighed, “What is it, Derpy?”

Derpy was pleased with herself as she flew down and explained, “do you remember the pony Albert Equine?”

The name was familiar. “Yeah, the genius who figured out the theory of magical relativity. What about it?”

Derpy announced, “Muffin-energy equivalence!”

Octavia was dumbfounded. “What in Equestria does that mean?”

Derpy was very happy as she claimed, “If you cause a nuclear reaction, the amount of energy released in joules equals the amount of muffins multiplied by the speed of light in when it’s being chased by angry vacuum cleaners!”

Octavia had no idea what to make of this. “And... what does that mean?”

Doctor Whooves stepped in. “Actually, while her explanation may not be totally accurate, I think that would work. But we don’t have the equipment, do we?”

“Right here,” And with that, Derpy flew off, reappearing a few seconds later with a whole lot of electronics.

“I’m not even going to ask...” Octavia, again, sighed.

Derpy began setting up the equipment, and within minutes she had built a series of lenses, on one end an open circular tube, on the other a pedestal with a single chocolate-chip muffin atop it. Derpy then explained what she was doing.

“Now, with this particle accelerator here, it’ll fire the tiny little dot things around and around, approaching the speed of light when they’re being chased by angry vacuum cleaners until we fire them at the uranium-caked muffin, causing nuclear fission!” And with that, she pressed a big red button with the word ‘activate’ on it.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Octavia tried to ask, “So what’s the result?”

“Well, when it hits the muffin, about four point one eight petajoules of energy will be released from the tiny dotty thing,” she told Octavia, watching the tube intently.

“And how long have you been using uranium?” Octavia inquired further.

“Since I was a little filly. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing, it just... explains a lot.”

Something had started happening. Octavia could hear some sort of sound coming from the equipment, when suddenly it sparked, and a solid ring of light appeared in the tube. Octavia guessed that something small was spinning very fast.

The area around the device had become warped, at least to her vision, and a few leaves on the ground appeared to be drawn to it. “The light spectrum has begun to distort,” Derpy mentioned.

Due to the ‘light spectrum’, the ring had begun to spark different colours, drawing an “ooh” from Vinyl.

Octavia tried again, “and what is four petawhatevers equivalent to?”

“About a metric tonne of TNT.”

Octavia nearly jumped in alarm. “A tonne of TNT?!? What are we standing here for? Everypony run!”

Apparently the rest of the group had heard, and proceeded to gallop away. They were almost not fast enough as the device opened, shooting the ‘tiny dotty things’ as Derpy called them directly at the muffin, predictably, detonating. Light fired out in all directions as the explosion rocked the valley. It almost caused another landslide, as the ponies managed to get behind a boulder as the combustion subsided.

Vinyl was the first to speak. “Whoa, that was awesome. Can you get one of those things for my club?”

Octavia peered out from behind the boulder, to see the landslide completely destroyed. “Well, that seems to have cleared out the rocks,” she began, “but next time, Derpy, warn us a significant amount of time before something explodes.”

Derpy had shown no signs of listening, and had begun to hum happily to herself as she flew onwards. The rest of the group followed in her wake.

“The sun’s beginning to set, and I think I see a suitable campsite on that hill over there,” Octavia pointed towards the horizon. “We should head over there for the night.”

~~//*//~~//*//~~

The sun had well and truly set by now, and most of the ponies were asleep. They had done as Octavia suggested, and headed over to the hill. Despite whatever predicament Luna was in, the moon was still being raised. Octavia was still awake, however, turning her bow in her hooves.

She’d been doing this for a while, not knowing that Lyra was awake. Octavia nearly jumped when she heard Lyra speak.

“You’ve been playing with that for hours,” Lyra indicated.

Lyra pulled herself up to Octavia and sat beside her, in a rather awkward fashion, her back resting up against a rock.

Octavia pointed to Lyra’s form. “Lyra, why are you sitting-?”

“Don’t ask,” Lyra said. “Seriously, what’s so important about that bow that you have to keep fondling it?”

Octavia sighed. She’d been doing a lot of disappointed sighs recently. “It’s a long story.”

“I wanna hear it.”

Octavia prepared herself for the story she was about to tell, resigned. To be totally honest, she wanted to tell somepony her story. She almost never talked about herself. “When I was a little filly, I was very different to how I am now. I had frequent tantrums, and I was a perfectionist. My family saw a bit of musical ability in me, and early on tried to push me into becoming a musician.

“Although I was good at it, after my parent’s nagging, I grew to hate practising my music, surprisingly. Not just because of my parents pushing me, but because I nearly had a little breakdown every time I missed a note. And nopony’s music is perfect. I made a bit of... how did Vinyl put it? A name for myself.

“One night, while I was practising alongside a few others in my school, I was tired, and started missing notes. The teacher pointed me out, asking me to improve, and the colts began to laugh.

“I honestly started crying. I began swishing my tail, and I got it caught in the double bass I was using to practice. I was using a stool to reach a proper height, and I fell off, pulling out a significant amount of my tail hair. As you could expect, the class erupted in laughter. I ran out of the school and didn’t stop until I got to my room in my house.

“I felt like nopony could understand me. The next few days I spent mostly silent, and didn’t attend my music lessons, despite the fact that the school performance I had been practising for was very soon. One night my mother came up to see me. I didn’t talk to her, but she dropped something on the floor behind me. I remember her saying, ‘words aren’t the only way to express yourself’.

“She left, and after a while I decided to look at what she had left me with. It was this bow,” she pointed to her possession, “with the words inscribed on it, ‘Dear Octavia’,” again she showed Lyra the bow, indicating where the words were. “She had made it using my own tail hair that had been pulled out during practice.

“I felt happy for reasons I couldn’t explain. That night, I went to the school performance with my new bow. And when I played, I felt like I hit each note perfectly, and I loved it. Later, when I was putting it away, I happened to notice this,” she pointed to her flank, “and my Cutie Mark had appeared.”

“Wow. I remember I noticed mine when my lyre fell on me during a practise session,” Lyra said as she got up. “That was nice,” and with that, she lay down in a more comfortable position beside Bon Bon.

“Thanks, Lyra,” Octavia whispered to Lyra, but she had already fallen asleep.

Octavia turned to put away her bow when she heard Vinyl speak.

“Wow. That was kinda really cheesy,” Vinyl offered. She was lying on her back, head upside down looking at Octavia, still wearing those goggles of hers. Octavia glared back at her as she shrugged and turned over to go to sleep.

~~//*//~~//*//~~

“We’re almost there,” Octavia called as the group head towards Bastion. Before, they could barely see it in the distance, but now they could see the entire construction.

It was a V-shaped castle, jutting out of the side of a cliff. The walls were dozens of metres high, but had obviously failed the test of time. Huge holes were torn through it, and the keep atop it was collapsing.

“Wow. It must have been amazing when it was first built,” Lyra exclaimed.

The ponies had found a makeshift entrance in one of the torn-out walls, and they somehow managed to make their way to the top. It was almost the morning of the next day, so they had little time before the celebration to find Luna. They head towards the keep, which obviously used the mountain as part of the building.

“Well, this is it. Luna’s in there, along with whoever else is keeping her captive. Or she’s gone evil again. Or something...” Octavia trailed off. “Bon Bon, guard the entrance.”

Bon Bon almost jumped in surprise to the fact that somepony had actually taken notice of her. “Wait, what? What have I got to guard against?”

“Dragons, Manticores, invading armies. Just shout if you see anything.”

Bon Bon huffed at her, then walked to the side and sat down.

“Alright, let’s go in,” and Octavia led the way inside.

The main hall in the keep of Bastion was rather unimpressive, grey stone walls, no evidence of carpets or tapestries. They continued to find a very large, once circular cave. At the end of the cave was an enormous steel hatch, with what looked like ancient technology all over it. “I guess this is the ‘bunker’ part of the defence,” Octavia mused.

They made their way to reach it, to find a technical-looking console. Octavia stared at all the lights and buttons in confusion. “What do we do now?”

Lyra strode to the head of the group. “Well, firstly we try all the buttons until we find one that works!” Lyra started to push down random buttons with her unicorn magic until the rest of the group realised what her actions might do. Without thinking, Octavia bucked Lyra out of the way.

“Don’t do that! We have no idea what these things do! Oh... oh, I’m sorry,” Octavia realised that she had given the turquoise mare a concussion, and she proceeded to topple over. Lyra was not actually conscious enough to hear her, so Octavia, rather awkwardly, left her there on the ground.

“Actually, I think I can help with this bit,” Doctor Whooves announced.

Octavia looked at him quizzically. “Oh, so now you’re suddenly a genius in ancient technology?”

“Not necessarily, but I have this Deus Ex Machina here,” He indicated the pen-light thing he was suddenly holding in his mouth.

“A Deus Ex what?” Octavia was now certain that everypony had gone clinically insane at this point.

“I said that? Oh, sorry I meant a sonic- you know what? Just watch,” and the penlight turned on, making an odd buzzing noise.

Suddenly, the console opened up, splitting into two panels that moved aside, revealing a big, red button.

“That’s the second red button that activates something I don’t know about,” Octavia said, hesitant, half to herself. “Are you sure we should press it?”

“Oh, just press it already!” Vinyl pushed the two of them aside, Octavia almost tripping over the unconscious form of Lyra, and depressed the button.

Instantly, a deep rumbling could be heard in the huge door. As the group watched, the door slowly swung open on its ancient hinges, the area beyond it too dark to see anything. It stopped against the wall, sending parts of the ancient rock falling to the floor of the cave.

As a particularly large stalactite collapsed against the ground, Lyra woke up, dazed. She quickly recovered, asking, “Did I miss anything?”

The rest of the ponies didn’t respond, watching the darkness intently. They waited. And waited. Until, suddenly, lights came on, despite the fact that they couldn’t see the sources, revealing... a blank wall.

“That was kind of anticlimactic,” Vinyl scratch declared, “I don’t see anything at all!”

“No, wait there’s something...” Octavia could see a black dot at the base of the wall. “There seems to be a small opening over there.”

Sure enough, there was a door the size of a normal pony-sized door, despite the huge steel vault hatch that hid it.

“Well, I guess that’s where we’re meant to go,” Octavia said as she began to trot over to it. The rest of the ponies followed her as she reached the door, and pushed it open.

Inside, it was a very simple house-like bunker, built into the cave. This was the place that the princesses, thousands of years ago, used to defend themselves against terrors outside their control. Octavia guessed that it was some sort of bunker, but had honestly expected the place a bit more... palace-like.

They stepped into it, unable to see Luna or anypony else. Vinyl inquired, “What are we meant to be expecting again?”

That was when suddenly they heard another voice cut in, not sounding very impressed at all.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Out of the darkness, Princess Luna strode forth in front of them. She wasn’t obviously under the control of anything like she was as nightmare moon, but she didn’t seem to like their presence. “What are you doing here?”

Octavia decided to reply. “Well, I, uh... I’ve honestly been wondering the same thing this entire journey, your highness. Lyra, why are we here again?”

Luna was the one who intervened as a realisation dawned on her. “Oh, no, Celestia’s doing it again, isn’t she?”

Octavia was confused by this. “No, we heard about the fact that you had gone outside of the castle outside of the royal schedule, and-”

“Of course I did, how could I stand being in there the whole time?!?” Luna suddenly seemed angry. Octavia was confused further.

“Oh, ever since I got back, it appears the castle procedure has unnecessarily lengthened itself. I’ve been swamped in bureaucracy and Celestia is the one who gets to go to all the attention! When was the last time there was a Moon celebration? A thousand years ago, that’s when!”

Luna had gone in full rant mode, and the other ponies couldn’t help but feel slightly awkward.

“And I’m deeply sorry that Celestia dragged you into this, and that I’m bursting out all this stuff out at you. Really, I am,” Luna seemed apologetic.

“Princess Luna? Celestia didn’t do anything. She was away the whole time,” Octavia informed her.

“Oh, I’m sure that’s what it looked like. Celestia’s always pulling strings. This isn’t the first time she’s gotten unwitting ponies to go on grand adventures for something she could easily do herself,” Luna explained, “And all I did was run away for a bit. That note at the old palace was meant to be for Celestia. I only wanted to be alone for a while.”

The group stood in silence for a while, unsure what the next step was. Octavia broke it. “So what do we do now?”

“We go home, that’s what.”

That voice was new. The group wheeled around to see princess Celestia standing in the doorway. Luna immediately confronted her, and spoke rather angrily.

“Why do you keep sending other ponies after me? I left you a note saying I wanted to be alone for a while!”

“Why, whatever do you mean, Luna?” Celestia asked innocently, but her face didn’t show any signs of curiosity.

“You know exactly what I- oh, never mind. You’re never going to change, are you?” she huffed at Celestia, and went to sit in one of the corners of the cave. Celestia followed her.

“Luna, this has been fun and all, but remember, you have royal duties to attend to-”

“What royal duties do I have to do apart from raising the moon? I’ve been doing that, obviously. I only wanted to have some uninterrupted time by myself for a while, and I can’t even get that.”

Celestia seemed unsure of what to do at that time, so she simply said, “Come, Luna, we’re going home.”

Luna looked up at her pleadingly. “Why do I have to go back there? All the butlers are creepy,” she added.

The scene looked extremely out of place for the non-royal ponies in the room. They had always wondered how the dialogue between the two princesses would go, especially since Luna had had no social interaction for a thousand years.

Celestia made a decision. “Alright. But I need to ask you something first.”

Luna looked at her quizzically as she lowered her head to whisper in her ear. However, the next few words she said were audible to the other ponies in the room. Not that it mattered, for the sentence made no sense.

“Have you decided your preference on bananas yet? We can arrange more time, if you like.”

Instantly, Luna’s pupils contracted in fear. The group could not fathom why this reaction came about.

“O-Okay, Celestia, I’ll go home,” and without hesitation, Luna’s horn glowed and she disappeared from right in front of them.

Vinyl whispered to Octavia, “Okay, what was all that about?”

“I have no idea,” Octavia responded.

Celestia finally took notice of the other ponies in the room and turned to face them. “While no doubt your adventure has been fun, I’m afraid it’s over now. Time to head back home,” and with that, her horn began to glow.

Octavia had never teleported anywhere, and was not prepared for the sensation her body received as Celestia ripped space apart. It wasn’t painful, but her senses felt overloaded and exhausted when they reappeared in the centre of Ponyville.

Octavia felt nauseated as she recovered herself from the magical method of transportation. When she looked up, she could see Celestia standing in front of her.

“Octavia, is it?”

Octavia stood up properly before responding, “Yes, your highness.”

Celestia continued, “And, if I’m not mistaken, you were one of the instrumentalists for the Summer Sun Celebration?” She sounded as if she already knew the answer.

“Why, yes, but it seems like we’re not going to be able to perform now, since the Celebration is already over,” Octavia claimed, unable to hide a hint of relief from her voice.

“Hmmm... well, it seems the musical committee have another contract for you,” Celestia said as Derpy, who had come back with a bag full of letters, holding the letter for Octavia. It was funny how Derpy, the most... unique of all ponies she’d met was able to fit right back in to her normal routine. Wait, when did she get the bag of letters?

Derpy spoke happily through the envelope, “Here ya go, ‘Tavi!”

Octavia reluctantly took the letter from her, subsequently placing it under her hooves and stomping on it until the envelope was wrecked. She felt like she had finally gone as insane as the ponies around her, but at the moment, she wanted nothing to do with the committee.

Celestia made no reaction to Octavia’s act. “Well, now that’s settled, I’d best be getting back to Canterlot. Good luck, my little ponies!” Her horn glowed, and with a flash, she was gone.

Octavia turned again to the ponies that she had gone on the adventure with. “I think I’m going to be staying here for a while. We should get together again sometime.” The rest of the ponies nodded, except for Lyra, who appeared to be distracted, looking away from the group. Octavia asked, “What is it, Lyra?”

Lyra faced her, with a quizzical look. “Where’s Bon Bon?”

~~//*//~~//*//~~

Bon Bon sat alone in Bastion, as she watched the sun rise. Her mind drifted as she thought of the journey she had been drawn into. Lyra was always jumping into things without thinking about the consequences, but she was starting to think... no, she was already thinking that Lyra had gone too far this time.

Wait, the sun’s already rising?

Bon Bon looked around, and headed into the cave. She had lost track of time, and frantically searched around for her friends.

It’s been hours. Then a realisation dawned on her.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”