“Hi!” I smiled widely at Golden Harvest, my normal carrot seller. She sold the best carrots in all of town. I’d go as far as to say in all of Equestria.
“What do you want?” She said coldly. My smile quickly turned into a frown. I’ve been getting groceries all day and this is the treatment I’ve been getting. That and being straight up ignored by Roma.
“Two bags of carrots please,” I asked and hoofed over the ten bits.
“It’s fifteen bits,” Golden snapped as she placed the bagged carrots.
“It was ten for the earth pony in front of me though,” I pointed out with a frown.
“That was for her. This is for you,” Golden glared at me. “Take it or leave it.”
“Fine,” I sighed and added the five extra bits, taking my carrots in my magic and putting them in my saddlebags. I don’t know what’s been going on around Ponyville lately. It used to be such a friendly town. Lately it’s been really tense and a few fights. Derpy had to flee along with Raindrops, Cloudkicker, Blossomforth and White Lightning. Flitter and Cloudchaser had already left long ago, along with the rest of the weather team. Me and Bon Bon were watching over Dinky and Amethyst for Derpy. I finished getting my groceries, some olives and other random stuff. At least the unicorn vendors were friendly with me and cheap. The earth ponies and pegasus vendors were the complete opposite. Strawberry Sunrise acted like I didn’t exist and wasn’t in front of her, which really surprised me. We were super close. I stepped into my house and shut the door behind me.
“I’m home!” I called out. A blur attached itself to my leg. A pink unicorn followed at a much slower rate.
“Hi Miss Heartstrings!” Dinky shouted. I grinned and ruffled her mane.
“Hey Dinks. And call me Lyra, please. Hey Amethyst.”
“Hello Lyra,” Amethyst smiled at me. “Do you need any help with your bags?” I shook my head.
“I got them. Thanks anyway,” I smiled at her. I felt the ring on my horn and sighed happily. Me and Bon Bon had finally proposed to each other and I was beyond happy.
“Lyra,” Bon Bon stood in the doorway. I looked over at her and was confused by the cold look she gave me.
“Hey Bon Bon!” I grinned.
“Get the groceries I see. Surprised anypony sold to you,” Bon Bon said coolly.
“It was really weird. Half the vendors refused to sell to me. The other half raised the prices by crazy percents. Only the unicorns were friendly,” I levitated the groceries out of my bags and onto the counter.
“I don’t blame them. Not after what the unicorns are up to,” Bon Bon stated. I was confused at hearing this coming from her.
“What are you talking about, Bonnie?” I stared at her. She slammed a hoof down on the ground, making Dinky and I recoil.
“I know what you and the other unicorns are doing, Lyra. You’ve been destroying the earth ponies gardens.”
“What?” I said in disbelief. “We haven’t been doing that.”
“Don’t lie to me Lyra! I keep hearing all about you guys using your magic to ruin the crops. I didn’t want to believe at first, but the rumors and damage make sense,” Bon Bon shouted. She took her ring from the table and slammed it on the ground, slamming her hoof into it and breaking it to pieces. I felt my eyes starting to tear up and my heart break. I had spent my last bits on her ring. I sold almost all my possessions, all of the My Little Human figures I owned. The only thing I kept was my lyre. And she just broke the thing I got her like it meant nothing.
“Leave!” Bon Bon shouted at me.
“Bonnie-” I mumbled.
“Now!” I felt a hoof on my shoulder and glanced back at Amethyst’s angry expression.
“Let’s go. She’s a worthless nothing now,” I was startled at Amethyst speaking like that. She was usually such a nice mare. Dinky was hiding behind her leg shaking and I nodded.
“Let’s go everypony,” I ushered the two out of the door. “We will come back when Bon Bon is feeling sane.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Amethyst grumbled. We stepped onto the street and I stared at the angry crowd.
“Well this isn’t good,” I mumbled. I stepped in front of the two defensively. I’ll be damned if they get hurt.
“Get out of here!” Lily shouted.
“We don’t want your kind here!” Octavia yelled at us. That surprised me, she was dating Vinyl.
“Yeah!” Daisy agreed, giving us cold looks. I typically don’t run from my problems but we were completely outnumbered. I was only one fully grown mare with a filly and a teenage unicorn. I was typically known for being optimistic, but even I could tell these weren’t good odds. I prepared to tell them to run and that I would cover for them before we randomly were on a hill overlooking the angry crowd, surrounded by the towns other unicorns. Minuette, Holly Dash and a few others.
“Hey Lyra,” Minuette hugged me. “You had me worried.” I hugged her back and glanced at Twilight’s school. I could vaguely make out Starlight tackling something but I’m not sure what it was.
“What is Starlight doing?” I asked frantically. We had gotten really close over these past few months.
“She was evacuating the students with Trixie. There was some threat there that she was gonna defend the school against,” Holly Dash stepped forward nervously. “She sent me away to get to safety, refused to let me help fight or help with the students.”
“I can cast a spell that let’s us see what she is doing,” Amethyst stepped forward and closed her eyes. “Give me something that belongs to her.” I quickly handed her the saddlebag she had given me randomly as a gift. A magical screen appeared in front of us in the air. I was impressed, gotta hand it to Amethyst for this.
“What is that?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Chrysalis,” I whispered fearfully. She had brainwashed me, Minuette and Twinkleshine during Cadences wedding. Based on their facial expressions, they were just as scared as me. Took us a long time in the hospital to recover from the mind control.
“What is this? Where are we?” Chrysalis demanded.
“Somewhere you can’t hurt anypony!”
“Wrong! I can hurt you!” Chrysalis lunged at Starlight who instantly teleported away.
“Smart Starlight,” I mumbled in awe. I knew she was a capable pony who saved us once before but it’s one thing to watch her fight.
“Stay still so I can blast you!” Chrysalis shouted and the three of us shivered at her voice. I still had nightmares from that voice.
“Oh yeah, real motivating!” Starlight retorted and I gave a grin. That was her all right, feisty as usual. I stared in shock as she let out a cry and bounced in the snow. I gave out a cheer as she blasted Chrysalis in the chest. Hope that bug bitch learned her lesson.
“You’ll pay for that!” I was wrong unfortunately because she flew back up to Starlight. They never make it easy, do they?
“Put it on my tab!” Starlight gave her a smug grin.
“That was a great line,” Lemon Hearts smirked. Starlight teleported away and fell backwards towards the snow and I watched in growing fear. I hoped she didn’t go splat. That would suck greatly. She blasted the snow above Chrysalis, fully enveloping her and I let out a sigh of relief as Starlight teleported and landed on her hooves, walking away with the wind blowing her mane.
“Why is Chrysalis here?” Dinky asked.
“Earth ponies and pegasus are probably working for her,” Moondancer scoffed. I didn’t want to believe my Bon Bon and my other earth pony friends could do that. I didn’t believe it in fact. “And they called us evil. After all the things they did.” We all jumped at Starlight’s scream as she went flying and Chrysalis quickly wrapped her up in her green goo.
“No!” I slammed my hoof into the ground. I hated that this could happen to my friend and there’s nothing I could do.
“We need to get out of here,” Amethyst sighed as she canceled her spell. “There’s nothing we can do for Starlight right now. We can only hope she’s fine until we can. The mob is getting close.”
“Canterlot,” I immediately stated. “It’s a city mostly inhabited by unicorns. Celestia and Luna live there, we will be safe.”
“It’s gonna take all of us to use our magic to teleport there,” Twinkleshine warned. “I used a lot of my strength getting you three here.”
“Can I help?” Dinky jumped up in her face. Twinkleshine knelt down with a kind smile on her face.
“Sure you can little filly. What’s your name?”
“I’m Dinky!”
“I’m Twinkleshine, I’ve know Lyra since I was a filly. So has Minuette here, Lemon Hearts and Moondancer,” Twinkleshine smiled. Minuette and Lemon Hearts gave the filly waves with grins as Moondancer watched the mob.
“If we are going to do something, it should be now.” Twinkleshine nodded.
“Close your eyes,” Twinkleshine instructed. “And focus on Canterlot.” Dinky nodded and closed her eyes, scrunching her face up in concentration. If it was under better circumstances, I’d call it adorable. A loud popping sound and we were standing on a street in Canterlot.
“I did it!” Dinky cheered. “Thanks, Miss Shine.” She squeezed Twinkleshine’s leg tightly.
“That you did,” Twinkleshine smiled. “Where did you meet this kid, Lyra?”
“She’s Derpy’s daughter. Derpy couldn’t take Dinky or Amethyst to Cloudsdale because of the clouds so she asked me to keep them safe while things died down,” I explained. “Me and Derpy go way back.”
“Mom said we were safer with Lyra,” Amethyst stepped forward. “Safer than if we stayed with her.”
“Is mommy okay?” Dinky looked up nervously, still holding onto Twinkleshine who frowned at her.
“Mom is fine,” Amethyst smiled. “She’s tough. She will be back before we know it.’
“She’s right,” Twinkleshine agreed. “I don’t know Derpy but your mom will be back soon.” The ground started shaking and Dinky let out a terrified scream. I quickly gave her a hug.
“It’s okay,” I cooed. We all stared in shock as half the castle got destroyed in a giant laser beam.
“W-what just happened?” Amethyst asked, visibly shaken. I wrapped my spare hoof around her neck.
“I don’t know kid, I don’t know.”