//------------------------------//
// Friends and Strangers 
// Story: The Strangers in Ponyville 
// by PhycoKrusk 
//------------------------------//

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

“Is it bad?” she asked mechanically.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Who is Lyra Heartstrings?” Driftwood asked.

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

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

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

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

“She not my friend!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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