//------------------------------// // A Stranger in the House // Story: The Strangers in Ponyville // by PhycoKrusk //------------------------------// By the time Lyra Heartstrings of Ponyville finished her evening practice and walked up the stairs of her house, it was well after ten o’clock at night. As she turned from the top of the stairs towards the hallway that led to the rest of the second story rooms, she spied Bon Bon, whom she shared the house with, stepping out of the bathroom. “And my timing is perfect,” she declared as she approached, Bon Bon looking towards her with a small smile. She just started opening her mouth to speak when a firm knock on the front door downstairs captured the attention of both mares. “At this hour?” Lyra asked no one in particular, casting a glance over her shoulder. “All I want to do is brush my teeth and go to bed!” “So brush them, Lyra. I’ll see who it is,” Bon Bon said, stepping past Lyra and towards the stairs. As she did, Lyra got a face full of hair from a playful swat of her tail. With a giggle, Lyra set forth and entered the bathroom, her magic sweeping up her toothbrush and the toothpaste and squeezing out a perfect pea-sized glob onto the bristles. The sudden pronouncement of a loud ‘bang!’ sent Lyra rushing down the stairs, toothbrush discarded in the sink. “Bon Bon! Bon Bon, what happened?!” she shouted. The scene that greeted her in the living room was both what she did and did not expect to see: Nothing was on fire and no furniture was visibly damaged, but the windows facing out towards the street where completely smashed, there was a large black mark on the wooden floor, and the front door was wide opened. The level of light outside was far in excess of what Ponyville’s firefly lamps were capable of producing, and she could hear the sounds of struggle. Without wasting a second, Lyra ran outside, noting as almost an afterthought the presence of two light-emitting orbs floating lazily in the air, casting a harsh, blue-white glow over everything. There were four ponies outside: An earth pony with a dark green coat and light brown mane, a pegasus with a grey violet coat and grey mane, a unicorn with a light grey coat and light red mane, and a second earth pony with a light brown coat and dark brown mane. All of them wore padded barding and bandoliers festooned with alchemical phials and even some daggers, and looked sufficiently dangerous. And pinned to the ground underneath the light brown earth pony with an arm held around her back and a hoof mashed into her head was Bon Bon, lip split opened and bleeding and teeth bared as she visibly resisted being restrained. “Hey! Let her go!” Lyra shouted, drawing the attention of the dark green earth pony and the unicorn. “For the last time!” Bon Bon shouted, trying to turn her face away from the ground. “This isn’t seven-forty-two Evergreen Terrace!” “What’s going on out here?!” one of the neighbor’s shouted, looking out their window. “Stay inside, citizen, this doesn’t concern you,” the pegasus shouted back, although it was only a loud enough shout to be heard. “Yes it does! Get off her!” Lyra shouted and she approached them before her path was blocked by the dark green earth pony. More lights appeared in windows as the noise started attracting more attention. A few doors opened and some neighbors looked outside. A few stepped out to investigate. “We are lettered bounty hunters in the middle of arresting a changeling! Stand back and let us work!” the unicorn ordered. His horn lit up with yellow magic as he looked around at the ponies who had come outside. Those ponies started murmuring until they were silenced. “Let her go! She’s not a changeling!” Lyra shouted, trying to get around the earth pony blocking her path. “She’s not a changeling!” “Yeah, we’d know!” someone else shouted after, and in moments, a cacophony of voices spoke up in agreement. The barely restrained shimmer of magic from the unicorn’s horn was all that kept the meager crowd from drawing closer, but even more lights were appearing in windows and more ponies were stepping outside. The dark green earth pony stepped back from Lyra and drew closer to his partners, who in turn drew closer together around Bon Bon. Unseen by anyone, the colt known as Button Mash slipped past the crowd as galloped as fast as he could down the streets that, given enough time, would give way to the road to Hoofington. “A changeling copies the appearance and mannerisms of an innocent, and copies them perfectly!” the unicorn shouted, the field around his horn pulsing brightly with his emphasis as he did. “Without a proper detection, you would never know!” “That isn’t true!” Lyra shouted again. “No changeling copies anything perfectly! That’s a lie!” At once, the unicorn’s full attention was on Lyra. “It is true! I am an expert on changelings!” “I am a changeling!” Lyra was consumed in a flash of green flames, and when they cleared, there was a changeling standing in her place. She had Lyra’s mane and tail, and she had Lyra’s eyes — even if the pupils were slitted like a dragon’s — but she was unmistakably a changeling. Aside from a few gasps from the other Ponyvillians, silence was all that was heard, every pair of eyes was firmly focused on Lyra Heartstrings. “S-see? I’m the changeling, and she’s not, s-so you have to let her go, ok?!” Lyra shouted. “You have to let —” Lyra was cut short as as the unicorn’s horn discharged and a bolt of magic struck her in the chest with enough force to send her flying head over haunch and onto the ground, gasping for breath. The sound from the magic burst sent her neighbors scrambling backwards in fright. “Lyra!” Bon Bon shouted. “Keep her down!” the unicorn shouted. The dark green earth pony sprang into action faster than anyone else and was on Lyra in a moment. When she tried to sit up, he raised a hoof and punch her hard across the jaw, sending her back to the ground, and then stomped on her arm before throwing his weight on her, pinning her down. She cried out as her face was pressed into the ground. Her neighbors recoiled. “Hey, that’s too rough! That’s excessive!” one of the stallions shouted, taking a step forward. “That’s excessive force!” The unicorn trotted over with his horn aglow, brandishing it towards the objecting stallion and the few other ponies who had started to follow him, stopping them all cold. “Stay back,” he ordered, and they complied by taking several steps away. An electric ‘pop!’ sounded — just below the volume of the crowd — followed immediately by the earth pony pinning Bon Bon down yelping — well above the volume of the crowd — and rapidly hopping off his prisoner. The instant the weight was off of her, she placed both her front hooves on the ground and swung upwards as if she were on a spring-loaded plank, slamming the back of her head into the bounty hunter’s nose. As he recoiled away, she planted her back hooves and thrust out a front towards the pegasus’ face, twisting it like a corkscrew at the moment of impact. The pegasus was sent reeling and his brain bounced around in his skull before he dropped to the ground as if his strings were cut: An instant knockout. Like lightning, Bon Bon faced towards the unicorn as he cast a spell. Still on two hooves, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, and the incoming magical bolt split apart scant inches before it struck her, its matrix disintegrated. Uncrossing her arms, she slammed both front hooves into the earth, and every earth pony present felt an electric tingle in their hooves as a thick cloud of dust filled the air around Bon Bon, obscuring her and the earth pony that had just recovered from having his nose smashed. Bon Bon bounded towards him — another bolt of magic barely missing her — once and then twice, landing on the bounty hunter’s back and tumbling across the ground with him. When she sprang back to her hooves, the hunter went with her, both standing on two legs, and she with her arms under one of his and around his neck in a chokehold. Leveraging her momentum again, she backpedaled and dragged her hostage with her, moving across the street, neighbors scattering as they went. “Halt!” the unicorn shouted, horn shining with charged magic again. He and the remaining earth pony chased after the retreating Bon Bon and her hostage, the former of whom kept wheeling the latter around to keep him in between herself and danger. After a few moments, she did stop retreating when her back nearly against the house opposite of hers, but maintained her chokehold. For a moment, her eyes were drawn towards the sky, and then they moved back to the two ponies who were moving slightly to one side of the other and then back as possible avenues of approach were observed and then discarded. “We don’t want to fight, so just let him go,” the unicorn said again. “We know it’s nothing personal, you’re just under the changeling’s control.” “I’m not under anypony’s control, and more importantly, I’m not going to fight you. I don’t need to fight you,” Bon Bon replied. “I just need to distract you for another two or three seconds.” Both bounty hunters stared at her dumbly for two seconds, and on the third, a blue blur slammed into the earth pony’s flank, driving him into the unicorn, and driving them both into the wall of one of the cottages, smashing visible cracks into the wall. It was only when both of them fell to the ground gasping for air that the blur resolved itself into Rainbow Dash. “Hold up my town, will you?” she remarked. Bon Bon shifted her hold on the hunter she still maintained control of. He began to struggle and flail his free arm, but his movements rapidly slowed and he became still, brain choked of oxygen. Bon Bon laid him down on the ground as Dash gave the unicorn another thump, disrupting the spell matrix he’d been trying to form. Not five seconds later, an entire cohort of Royal Guards, led by Twilight Sparkle, the rest of Rainbow’s friends and a disguised Driftwood came charging into the square moments later, following after a madly galloping Button Mash. Twilight and her immediate company moved towards Dash, while the pegasi of the Guard separated and began flying patrols over the town. The rest of the cohort spread apart and divided itself between crowd control (although most of the crowd present was too stunned to need much controlling) and arresting the four bounty hunters, even though only two of them were in any condition to put up any resistance. Before she even reached Rainbow Dash, Twilight saw Bon Bon and took to the air so suddenly that everyone following her stumbled over themselves trying to change direction. “Bon Bon, what happened?!” she asked as she touched down hard. “Oh my goodness, you’re bleeding!” Bon Bon raised a hoof and wiped the trickle of blood from her split lip. “I’m hurt much more than I’m injured. Lyra’s very much the opposite,” she replied. Twilight followed her gaze to the changeling curled up on the ground with two Guards standing watch over her, and then charged over, hooves stomping furiously. “Where’s Lyra?” she demanded. Her horn ignited and her magical field blazed around the changeling’s head, forcing her to look Twilight directly in the eyes. “Where’s Lyra Heartstrings?! What have you done with her?!” “Twilight, what in Harmony’s name are you doing?!” demanded Bon Bon as she came up behind Twilight. The alicorn whirled around to face her, ears pinned back and teeth bared. “It knows where Lyra is! It has to, and I’m finding her!” she shouted. “It isn’t even close to that, Princess,” Bon Bon growled. “You have no idea what is happening.” She ground her hoof in the smallest fraction of a circle against the ground, moving the back of it imperceptibly closer to Twilight. Twilight stomped forward one step. “And what is happening? How would you know? Maybe you’re a changeling too! Why don’t I —” Twilight stopped suddenly, the anger leaving her face and a plain expression of neutrality replacing it. She turned away from Bon Bon and looked right, and then left, where she saw her Sergeant-at-arms looking back at her, horn awash in apricot-colored magic. “Thank you, Sergeant,” Twilight said calmly, receiving a nod in reply, the magic aura winking out of existence. Twilight looked at Bon Bon again — Bon Bon looking back skeptically — and then at the changeling posing as Lyra, and then around at the rest of her Guards, her friends, the bounty hunters, and then townsfolk, each of them watching her right back. “Lieutenant Mash, please send the detainees to be processed, assign some of your Guards to assess damage and injuries and to collect statements, and assign one of your medics to look over this changeling,” Twilight said. “By your command, Princess,” Rye Mash replied. The beige-grey earth pony took quick stock of his surrounding, and began issuing the appropriate orders. Twilight looked over her shoulder. “Driftwood, Rarity, you two have the most experience with changelings out of any of us. Please assist the medic,” she said. Neither provided a reply other than a nod before they hurried away to provide what help they could. “Girls, I’d like all of you to follow us to the barracks, at least until I’m sure there aren’t any surprises,” Twilight said to the rest of her close friends, not waiting for any response before she turned to address the crowd at large. “Everypony else, please give a brief statement to the Guards about what happened before you go home. I’ll have an emergency meeting with Mayor Mare in the morning, and we will have an address to give to you by the afternoon.” Again, Twilight turned without waiting for a response and started walking away from the square. Too shellshocked to do anything else, the Ponyvillians offered what information they could while the Princess, her friends, and shortly Bon Bon, Rarity, Driftwood, Lyra and a few Guards left the scene behind.