//------------------------------// // Face Off // Story: The Strangers in Ponyville // by PhycoKrusk //------------------------------// “I’m sorry to be blunt like this,” Driftwood said the moment he pushed open the infirmary door to enter. “But Twilight wants to speak with Lyra alone.” “What?” Dash asked, hopping up from a different bed than she had used previously. “What for?” “Not our business,” Driftwood replied, Twilight walking in after him. “No.” All eyes moved to Bon Bon, sitting on the floor next to Lyra’s bed. “No?” Driftwood asked, eyes narrowed. Bon Bon stood up from her seat, took two steps forward to place herself between the two changelings — and as a consequence, Twilight — raised her head high and stared at Driftwood. “That’s not going to happen.” Driftwood lowered his head slightly. He stalked forward to stand with his face little more than a hoof-width from hers, raised his head up high and stared back. “Yes, it is.” No one spoke, and the air grew heavy with tension. Fluttershy and Twilight backed away from the pair, towards the exit, while Lyra sunk down in her bed. Pinkie opened her mouth to speak, only to be quieted when Rarity laid a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head; some of the bounce left her mane. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked from Driftwood to Bon Bon and then back to Driftwood. “You’re not a fighter,” Bon Bon said, keeping her gaze level. “You’re not just a candymaker,” Driftwood said back, keeping his gaze level. “By the time you’re able to do anything to me, I’ll have broken you in half.” “I know.” Another moment passed. Neither of them broke their gaze. Bon Bon nodded. “After you.” Driftwood nodded. “Naturally.” The changeling took a step back, and then turned and walked towards the exit. Bon Bon fell into step behind him, but stopped after a short distance and looked back over his shoulder. “Well? You heard him,” she said to the rest of the infirmary’s occupants, and then resumed following Driftwood. After another moment, Fluttershy started to follow as well, and the others not long after until the only ones left were Lyra and Twilight. Looking to Lyra for a moment, Twilight looked down to the floor and slowly walked forward until she stood next to the bed. Lyra smiled through the silence, her smile becoming strained when it started to last more than a few seconds. She opened her mouth — “Why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight asked suddenly. She pulled her gaze up to meet Lyra’s, thin lines of moisture underneath her eyes. “Did you tell any of us?” Lyra’s ears pinned back, exactly as a pony’s would, and she looked away from Twilight. “I couldn’t,” she said. “I would’ve understood, Lyra —” Lyra’s head whipped around to face Twilight and she exclaimed, “I wanted to!” Twilight startled and took several steps backward. Lyra’s eyes widened, and then her ears pinned back again as she looked down at the bedsheets. “You knew everything, Twilight. There wasn’t anything you couldn’t figure out, and I was going to tell you and you were going to help me figure it out and help me make everything alright. And then….” Lyra trailed off, and Twilight took a few steps toward her again. “And then my brother’s wedding,” she said, and Lyra nodded. Twilight sighed. “Lyra, why were you even there? You didn’t know, did you?” Lyra kept her eyes on the bedsheets. “I knew her from... before everything happened. When she was still like the rest of us,” she said. She looked up to meet Twilight’s eyes. “Before she changed.” “So, she wasn’t always like she was at the wedding?” Twilight asked. Lyra shook her head. “I mean, her silk and eyes were the same color, but that’s all. One of my family’s friends found her when she was a nymph. The kind of friend that all the nymphs and foals loved, but that all the grownups always said was a screw-up. He tried to take care of her, but he couldn’t ever get it quite right, and eventually everyone convinced him she’d do better if she was with my aunt and uncle. She was way, way smaller than she probably should’ve been when she went to them, and she was afraid of almost everything unless she was with someone she trusted.” She paused her recollection and smiled. “I don’t know what I did, but she trusted me almost right away.” “How long ago was this?” Twilight asked, leaning forward slightly. “A long time. I was five, and we all thought she was three, but I didn’t care about that. All I cared about was that she followed me everywhere and hung on every word I said the entire time we were there.” As Lyra spoke, her smile brightened and she sat up taller. “Everything I did, she wanted to do, even if she was too small for a lot of it and I had to help her. I started changing into different animals, and she wanted to do it too, and when she finally did it, when she finally changed for the very first time, she got so excited that she started crying, but I thought she was sad so I kept changing and making funny faces and she kept mimicking me and we laughed so hard that we both started crying! When we finally had to go back to Canterlot, she said her first words the next day, asking where I was and when could we play again.” Now, Lyra’s smile began to slip towards a frown. “And we’d go back to see them every summer and we had so much fun and I loved it and she loved it and then she got sick and started changing, and some weird older changelings came and said they could help her, and they took her away and I never saw her again.” Now, Lyra was crying, tears dripping onto the bedsheets. “Not until the wedding, and I didn’t know who she was anymore and it’s my fault,” she finished. “Lyra,” Twilight said, pausing a moment before she continued. “Lyra, it wasn’t your fault.” “Yes it was!” Lyra snapped. She wasn’t sitting up any higher in the bed, but had pulled herself up a little taller. “Yes it was! She needed me, Twilight! She needed me and I wasn’t there for her!” Twilight looked away from Lyra and down at the bed with her brow furrowed for a few seconds, and then she looked back to Lyra. “But you tried to talk her out of it, at the wedding?” she more suggested than said. “She wouldn’t listen. She said she knew what was best, and that I’d thank her for everything later,” Lyra answered, sinking down and curling in on herself a little bit. “She made me do it, Twilight.” Twilight’s brow furrowed and quirked at the same time. “Do what?” she asked. “All of it. I didn’t want to do it, Twilight, but I had to. She made me!” Slowly, Twilight’s brow unfurrowed and her eyes widened. “Oh,”she said. “Oh.” Raising her arm up, Lyra wiped at her eyes. “She was my friend, Twilight. When she changed and she was scared and didn’t know what to do, I was there for her. Why did she do it?” “I don’t know, Lyra,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed softly, and Lyra yawned as magic settled over her. “But I do know that you’re going to be fine. Bon Bon’s going to be with you the whole night, ok?” Glassy-eyed though she’d become, Lyra nodded sleepily. “Ok. That’d be ok,” she said. “I’ll send her right in. Good night, Lyra.” Without waiting for a response, Twilight turned and walked to the door. She paused just before it and chanced a glance over her shoulder at Lyra — who was already sound asleep — and then hung her head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend,” she whispered. Twilight took a deep breath, stood up straight, and walked through the door as if everything was fine, because everything was fine. It had to be.