Bonbon stood with her legs rooted to the spot as she stared into the yawning chasm of the maw about to swallow her. She opened her mouth to scream, when something hit her in the side and sent her tumbling across the marshy ground. She landed hard on her shoulder and opened her eyes in time to see the great draconic jaws snap shut, inches from Humble’s shocked face; and inches from where Bonbon’s own face had been only seconds before. Bonbon hadn’t seen where Humble had come from, but she was too shaken herself to wonder about the question. Humble took a few shaky steps away from her close brush with the creature’s pony-sized teeth and positioned herself directly between it and Bonbon.
The monster shook its moss-covered body, causing minor landslides of dirt to tumble down its shell and gather in heaps beside it. Rainbow Dash and Lyra rushed over to help Bonbon back on her legs, both of them staring up at the moving mountain as it shook its head and turned its draconic eyes upon all four of them. Its yellow gaze settled upon Lyra and slowly narrowed as its mouth opened again.
Rainbow Dash pushed herself in front of Lyra and glared at the creature. “Don’t even think about it, buddy!” she yelled at the monster. “Stay away from my friends, or—”
The creature let out a huff of air through its nostrils, blowing Rainbow Dash off her hooves and straight into a large puddle behind them. It cracked a toothy grin as she landed on her haunches with a mighty splash of mud, then it returned its gaze to Lyra. “Would you like me to gobble these parasites who travel with you, Miss Heartstrings? It should be my great pleasure to do you this service,” it spoke in a voice both melodic and surprisingly youthful and energetic for such a creature. The force of the voice nearly threw them all back.
Lyra trembled and gulped as she looked up at the creature and gathered her nerves to speak. “T-they’re not changelings, o-or parasites,” she said in a tiny voice. “They are friends of mine and not for eating. H-how did you know my name, and what are you?” she blurted out as if she was afraid she might lose her voice if she didn’t speak it all now.
“Are you sure now?” The creature narrowed its eyes at Bonbon and Rainbow Dash in turn, looking at them closely. “They sure look like changelings to my sight.” Ignoring Lyra’s look of uncertainty, the creature shook itself again and said, “Are you quite sure I shouldn’t eat them for you? It really would be no imposition on my part.”
“Yes!” Lyra blurted out again, too shocked to control her voice. “You shouldn’t eat anyone! And you didn’t answer any of my questions either!”
“You tell it, Lyra,” Rainbow Dash said and glared at the giant creature, mud still dripping off of her from her brief dip in the puddle. “You wanna eat something, go eat the queen changeling and all her damned bugs,” she continued and pointed a muddy hoof back the way they had come. “Go eat Chrysalis if you’re so hungry!”
The monster raised its head. “Oh what a shame,” it sang, plainly ignoring Rainbow Dash. “If you really could not tell, I am a dragon turtle! It should be plain for all to see, really,” it said and posed its draconic head and massive shelled body. “But since you asked for names, I have never needed a name before. What should I call myself, hmm?” It seemed to ponder the question seriously.
Rainbow Dash wiped more mud from her face and refocused her glare at the turtle. “You want a name? How about Jerky McSnapcase!”
“Snapcase,” the turtle said in its melodic voice, letting the word roll off its tongue as if tasting each syllable. It seemed pleased with the sound of it after some consideration. “I do like it, little louse. It’s … dare I say, snappy?”
Rainbow Dash fumed and sat down, crossing her hooves over her mud-stained chest. Bonbon slowly stood back up, accepting a hand from Humble. The girl watched the turtle warily. Bonbon didn’t take her eyes off it either.
“You still haven’t told us how you know my name,” Lyra said, having found her proper voice.
The turtle shook its body and pulled its limbs free of the mud and mossy ground, like an ancient oak uprooting itself, causing all of them to stumble as the earth trembled beneath them. “I have decided to give generously of my time, in order to pass on a simple message to one of your description, named Lyra Heartstrings, and her three friends: a washed-up pegasus called Rainbow Dash, an earth pony named Bonbon, and the lowlife human princess I see here with you. Seems like only yesterday I saw her sister frolicking through these very marshes as well.”
“A message from who?” Lyra asked, placing a hoof over Rainbow’s mouth before she could protest at the insult. Humble had retreated into the shadows of a tree, only her watchful eyes gleaming in the dark as they observed the creature with mistrust. Lyra narrowed her eyes at the turtle, no less suspicious than her friends. “And how do they know about me and Humble?”
The giant turtle turned itself around slowly, directing the back of its shell at them as it trudged off through the swamp. “Why should I be bothered to tell you now? You haven’t even offered me anything to eat yet. I have been nothing but polite, and you treat me this way?”
Lyra galloped swiftly around it to keep its face in view. “Please, Mister Snapcase?” she tried, then paused. “It is Mister, right? Or are you … I’m sorry, I can’t tell.”
The turtle turned its great head around to stare blankly at Lyra. “I prefer Grand Master Snapcase, or Your Greatness, if you absolutely must address me at all. Perhaps you could try Your Grand Immenseness, or,” he raised a flipper dramatically in the air and raised his voice to proclaim, “Great Lord Snapcase the Most Supreme and Stupendously Wise Master of All He Surveys! How does that sound?”
Lyra stared at the dragon turtle. “Pantagruelian,” she deadpanned.
“Yes, I quite like it too,” Snapcase said and stretched his neck proudly. “Excelsissimus! Truly a title for the ages, I say.”
Rainbow Dash groaned and planted a hoof in the middle of her face. “As if we needed a Bigger and Boastier Trixie,” she said while buzzing around to face the turtle. “Yo, Turxie the Big and Lumbering! Spit it out! Who sent this message? Who knows about Lyra?”
Snapcase glanced back at the others and pointed a claw at Rainbow Dash. “Is she always this eloquent and witty, or is it just in my honor that she marshals the full force of her entire brain cell? Should I be honored, perchance?”
Lyra gritted her teeth. “I don’t know, are you always this evasive and grandiloquent? Or are you going to finally tell us this message and who sent it?”
“Oh fine, if I absolutely must,” Snapcase said and sighed the most refined sigh a giant turtle ever had. “The message I would relay to you was sent by one named Fluttershy, on behalf of a Princess Luna. Utterly unimportant little ponies. I am sure you have no interest in this measly message, yes?”
“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash repeated, looking incredulous.
“That’s what I said,” Snapcase said. “Do try to pay attention when I debase myself to speak to you, gnat.”
“How do you know Fluttershy?” Bonbon asked, opening her mouth for the first time. Her heart had only slowly begun to beat at its normal pace again after nearly seeing the insides of the turtle’s stomach.
“I don’t,” Snapcase said. “But every bird and insect has been humming, chirping, and buzzing this message in my ear for the past while. Most dreadfully and annoying, I’m sure you can understand. Obviously they cannot seem to tell you themselves, which is such a shame and not to mention just typical. I’ve decided it’s not worth my while trying to sleep with all this noise around me.”
“Then what is she saying?” Rainbow Dash darted back in front of the turtle’s great face, impatiently waiting to hear the message from her friend.
Snapcase cleared his throat. “She who is named Fluttershy tells us that Princess Luna has ‘asked her very kindly and politely, in a very diplomatic fashion,’ to make contact with you and inform Princess Luna back with everything the animals report to have seen or heard regarding you and your journey. In other words, if you will allow me to paraphrase, your little pony princess has ordered this friend of yours to rat on you. The animals tell her quite a few things of interest, I’m sure, and their messages travel fast across the land.”
Lyra’s ears fell as she lowered her head. “Then Fluttershy must already know everything,” she said. “And if she’s been telling Luna what she’s heard, then all the princesses will know about me too. If they didn’t already know everything.”
“Oh, but there’s more,” Snapcase sang, seemingly enjoying himself as the bringer of this news. “Your friend Fluttershy tells you she already knew about what Lyra is—she’s using careful words, mind you, as she may not be the only one out there who can understand what all the little critters are yelling at each other. A wise decision. She knew because she met someone like you once, long ago. She found him grievously wounded in the forest and took care of him until he was well enough to leave. She swore she would never reveal his secret to anyone.
“Then I’m hearing there’s this pony called Scootaloo. When she showed Fluttershy the drawing Rainbow Dash had sent to … bear with me a moment, all these names are so unfamiliar to me … Princess Twilight, Fluttershy panicked and had Scootaloo tear out the drawing and swear never to mention it ever again. When Twilight and Luna came to see her about that later on, Fluttershy again panicked and fled into the forest. My, what drama.”
“So that’s what happened,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“You knew about that?” Lyra asked.
“Twilight wrote about it.” Rainbow shrugged. “She said Fluttershy had scared the filly half witless and made her repress everything about the drawing out of fear. Then when Twilight and Luna went to talk to Fluttershy she fled into the wild and put an army of burly critters between herself and everypony else. Luna was supposed to be looking for her dreams, but then all this mess went down, and I didn’t get to hear what happened with that.”
“I guess we know now,” Bonbon said and looked up at the turtle. “What else? What does Luna want then, if she knows everything now?”
“What, didn’t you listen? You bugs really need to work on your hearing.” Snapcase brushed one of his flippers against his mossy shell and looked up. “She swore not to tell anyone, ever.”
“But—”
“She hasn’t told your princess what her animals have seen,” Snapcase said and looked himself over. “At least, not that part. She just wanted you to know that she’s ‘totally fighting the power’ for you, utterly pointless as I’m sure it is.”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and flew back in front of the turtle once more, constantly trying to keep up with its moving head. “What do you mean, pointless?”
“This Princess Luna,” Snapcase said and waved a flipper around in the air, almost hitting Rainbow Dash several times. “She sounds like such a nice pony, if you know what I mean? Snooping through your dreams and sending spies to watch your every move, using your own friends to rat you out. A pony like that … I’m sure she won’t limit herself to little Fluttershy’s animals to sate her hunger for information.”
Rainbow Dash frowned and opened her mouth to respond.
“Oh but I’m sure she only does it because she cares for your safety and well-being,” Snapcase interrupted her. “I’m sure she only has your best interests at heart. After all, so many awful things could happen to a pony out here beyond the civilized world. Parasitic love bugs leading poor Miss Heartstrings astray, it’s just awful, awful I say.”
Rainbow Dash looked glum but clenched her jaw shut.
“Can you send a message back to Fluttershy for us?” Bonbon cut in before things could devolve into arguing. “We really need to get word back to Princess Luna about what’s happened.”
“It would be no effort at all,” Snapcase said and yawned. “But it’s such a waste of my talents, and I haven’t even eaten yet. Surely you would not ask me to pass on meaningless drivel on an empty stomach.”
“Please?” Bonbon said and looked up at the turtle’s dragon head with her best begging eyes. “It’s really important, and you’re the only one we can turn to for help.”
“Hmm, yes, I suppose I really am your only hope.” Snapcase gave her a brilliantly crooked smile.
“We’ll tell you where you can find loads of changelings to eat!” Rainbow Dash cut in.
“You already did, parasite,” Snapcase said and pointed back west. “You told me to go eat their queen. And in case it escaped your notice, I’ve been resting here for a long, long time. I already knew everything about the changelings to the east, oh yes. The little nuisances make quite the noise when they buzz around, chasing flaming frogs across the marshes.”
“Come on!” Rainbow Dash threw her hooves in the air. “Just send the freakin’ message!”
Snapcase grinned his sharp teeth and leaned forward until his snout nearly poked Rainbow Dash in the chest. Rainbow quickly backed away. “You want direct mail or broadcast, little pestilence?” the turtle asked.
“What’s the difference?” Bonbon asked.
“Secrecy versus speed, mostly,” Snapcase explained and turned to look at Bonbon. “If you don’t want anyone listening in on what you’re telling your friend, then the animals will have to physically travel from here to there, and it’s a long way even for a fast bird. If you don’t care about that, then the birds can just sing it loudly to the winds and let all the other birds for miles around pick it up and pass it on in the same manner. That way they don’t have to actually fly from here to there, and the message travels nearly at the speed of sound.”
“There’s no time,” Rainbow said quickly. “We need speed!”
Bonbon smiled. It was typical Rainbow Dash thinking and impatience … but she didn’t disagree.
“Very well,” Snapcase said. “What insignificant bit of news must I waste my time relaying to these simpleminded critters, then?”
“Tell her that Queen Chrysalis of the changelings had her mother, Queen Lacewing, killed and took over the hive in her place,” Bonbon said. “Tell her that Chrysalis trapped Rainbow Dash and me—that’s Bonbon—in the bodies of two of her changelings and stole our bodies for her own sinister schemes. The changelings who have taken over our bodies are on their way to Equestria now.”
Snapcase chuckled. “What a delightful yarn. Is that all?”
“Just get on with the sending already.” Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves, tapping the air with her hoof.
“Very well, if you insist.” Snapcase rolled his eyes and turned his gaze towards the birds circling the sky above them. Bonbon watched in strange wonder as the dragon turtle whistled their message loud and clear like a bird. It seemed to take a lot of whistling to convey their message in the language of the birds, she mused.
* * *
“What do you mean you’re not going that way!” Rainbow Dash buzzed her wings angrily as she orbited around the dragon turtle’s massive head. “You could totally take on the changelings back there. What about all these other hills? Are they all dragon turtles like you? There’s a freakin’ army of tanks right here. You could wake them up and crush the changelings just like that!” She snapped her tail to punctuate.
“I mean exactly what I tell you, pest,” Snapcase said as he moved. “I am a dragon turtle, and as a dragon turtle I shall make my way east towards the great sea of stars. I didn’t decide to wake up just so I could waste my time on you and your unimportant little worries, no matter what your overblown ego might think I should do. I have places to be, things to see. All my brothers and sisters here will eventually wake, and one by one we shall make our way east towards the sea of night.”
“My overblown ego?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You’re one to talk, Mister ‘I’m so big’!”
“You’re headed the same way as us?” Lyra interrupted. “Perhaps we could keep you company?”
“What?” Rainbow Dash zipped around to stare at Lyra. “He’s a freakin’ turtle! We’re already traveling way too slow, we don’t need no stupid turtle to slow us down even more!”
A huge flipper swatted Rainbow Dash on the rump, sending her flying across the sky with a drawn-out wail before sprawling face first in a pool of mud. “Oh my, I’m so very sorry,” Snapcase said innocently. “I was just stretching the ache from my limbs, you see. You get so terribly stiff in the limbs being as slow as me.”
Lyra glanced at the sputtering and fuming changeling lying in the muddy puddle. “You can help us keep in touch with Equestria,” she said to the turtle. “And we’re going the same way in any case, right? We would be … very thankful for your company.”
Snapcase shrugged in his shell. “I’m not going to stop you, if that’s what you think.”
Bonbon watched the conversation from back at the camp, stirring idly in the can of stew hanging over the fire while keeping her attention on the turtle. She didn’t think he looked all that bothered by the prospect of them tagging along, if she was totally honest, despite what he liked to pretend. She thought of what a lonely life such a creature must live, only waking to wander alone towards a distant and endless sea. What was out there among the stars worth such a journey?
“Do you know of …” Lyra began, looking down at her hands uncertainly. “Have you ever seen the great mountain at the edge of the sea of night?” she continued. “Where once humans like me lived in the hundreds and thousands.”
“Yes, I know of it, and I knew the humans when they were at their height, but I have not seen it for myself,” Snapcase said. “Not yet. I will pass it on my way to the sea.”
Lyra nodded and fell silent with thought for the moment.
Bonbon turned her attention to the shadows of the trees surrounding their camp. Rainbow Dash stomped past her, the mud nearly baking solid from her anger as she looked for water to clean herself with. Bonbon ignored her, instead scanning the trees until her eyes found the hidden shadow of Humble huddling under their boughs, sitting out of reach of the moon’s silver light.
Bonbon poured a bowl of stew and stood up, walking gently up to Humble. “Here,” she said and levitated the steaming bowl towards the girl. She was getting fairly steady at her levitation.
Humble looked up at her and reached out slowly. Her hands closed around the bowl and pulled it close to her, but she never looked away from Bonbon. Her eyes were deep and polished black, like two orbs of black diamonds. Bonbon was sure she saw no evil behind them, only a beautiful soul weighed by guilt and loneliness.
Bonbon sat down in front of her. “I want to thank you for protecting me, for throwing yourself in front of the turtle like that,” she said and looked down at her hooves. “It was a very noble thing to do. I don’t think Snapcase was really going to eat me, but none of us knew that at the time.”
Humble looked at Bonbon’s hooves as she cradled the warm bowl of stew in her hands.
“And back when the changelings took me, you tried to protect me too,” Bonbon continued. “Twice. I’m … honored that you would risk yourself to keep me safe.”
Humble set the bowl down beside her and leaned forward carefully. She looked into Bonbon’s eyes for a moment before leaning her head to the side to leave a soft kiss on Bonbon’s cheek. Humble lowered her gaze as she pulled away again, but she neither blushed nor hesitated.
“I …” Bonbon lifted a hoof to her cheek and sighed. “Thank you, Humble, but …”
Humble threw a brief jealous glance at Lyra in the distance, and her shoulders sagged as she closed her eyes in a painful look.
“I’m sorry,” Bonbon whispered.
“Thou lovest her, truly?” Humble opened her eyes but kept them downcast.
“I …” Bonbon looked away. It was hard for her to look at Humble, to resist the taste and temptation of her love. “It’s not so easy anymore. She’s—”
“A human,” Humble finished the sentence for her and nodded. “She is.”
“And I am a changeling,” Bonbon grimaced, feeling a tightness in her throat at the thought that it might be for the rest of her life.
“A pony,” Humble whispered, shaking her head. “Thou art, at heart, yet a pony.”
Bonbon looked at Humble for a long time. “When we left the changelings, just before you woke and panicked,” she searched for words as she spoke, “the sun was rising, but you didn’t change like Lyra. You didn’t become a pony in the morning. Why is that?”
Humble shivered and crawled deeper into the shadows at the mention of the sun, as if its light could reach her even within her own mind. “We … do not know,” she whispered and hid her face with her hands as if to hide and protect herself.
“Why do you shy away from the light?” Bonbon moved a little closer. “Does it hurt you?”
Humble nodded feebly.
“Is there anything I can do?” Bonbon moved closer and reached out a hoof to her. She was surprised when Humble reached out in return and wrapped her arms around Bonbon. She put a hoof around the girl’s shoulders and held her gently. She was as cold and pale as ever, but the warmth of her heart spread through Bonbon’s chest and tempted her with its sweetness. She felt herself tremble, trying to resist the temptation and block out the growing feelings of love.
Humble turned her head slightly and held on tightly, displaying no intention of letting go of her. Bonbon’s shaking doubled and she felt her own heart pounding along with Humbles. She closed her eyes and held the girl more closely to herself. Her horn glowed almost by itself, and she felt love fill her body as she gave in to the temptation, not even realizing what she was doing before it was happening. And then she couldn’t stop. Bonbon sighed and held the unresisting girl in her hooves, relishing the unfamiliar but intoxicating rush of love.
A whimper escaped Humble suddenly, and the girl stirred a little against Bonbon’s grip. The reaction didn’t register to Bonbon as the taste of love filled her and pushed her over the edge. She had never tasted anything so sweet as this. Humble tensed in her grip, but soon went limp. Bonbon kept feeding, unable to hold herself back.
Only when the love began to fade did Bonbon realize what she was doing. She drew away and looked at Humble while her mind processed what had happened. Humble stared back at her with glassy eyes and a blank look, as if asleep and dreaming with her eyes open.
Bonbon closed her eyes and laid the girl down gently on the mossy floor beneath the trees. “I’m so sorry,” she said and sat down, watching Humble. “I didn’t mean to …” She trailed off as the love coursing through her veins filled her with new senses and fueled a different line of thoughts. Bonbon felt amazing. Was it really so bad if she fed on Humble now and then? Why should she be sorry? The girl loved her and knew what she had been doing. It had been a gift, a show of mercy and self-sacrifice, Bonbon told herself and relaxed.
She leaned down and nuzzled the girl. “Thank you,” she whispered.
* * *
Rainbow Dash groaned and pushed herself against the back of the giant turtle’s shell with all her strength. “Come on, move it! Could this possibly go any slower?”
Snapcase turned his head to look back at her, smiling. “I could walk backwards for a while, if you’d like? Have you ever seen a dragon turtle moon walk?”
“Ha ha!” Rainbow Dash glowered at the turtle. “Very funny.”
“Why, thank you. I am quite the dancer, if I do say so myself,” Snapcase said and swayed his massive shell and stubby tail in a jolly fashion as he waddled through the swamp.
Bonbon held on tight to the shell as it rocked back and forth and looked up at Rainbow Dash flying behind them. “Why don’t you join us here?” she said and patted the top of the turtle’s shell. “Just lean back and enjoy the ride. It’s a beautiful weather for doing nothing at all.” It was no lie; the sun baked the world from a bright blue sky and made the air shimmer with heat. The pace might be slow, but the turtle’s massive shell was soft from ages of moss and grasses.
Rainbow Dash landed beside her and sat down to sulk, keeping her distance to Lyra, who was sunning herself nearby. “Maybe ‘cause I’m starving and tired all the time,” she admitted, rubbing her sunken eyes. She leaned back on her haunches and sucked in her stomach, pointing at the hollow waistline. “Just look here! I’m becoming nothing but skin and bones. Or … shell and bones, or whatever changelings have.”
“All the more reason not to be buzzing around and using up all your energy,” Bonbon said and looked at her starving eyes with sympathy.
Rainbow Dash slumped over. “I just want my own body back. I don’t wanna be stuck like this forever, Bonbon,” she said, ears drooping.
“We won’t be.” Bonbon hoped it was true.
“Well, just look at you,” Rainbow Dash continued and swung a hoof to point vaguely in her direction. “You’re freakin’ fine!”
Bonbon felt a stab of shame. She had been doing better than Rainbow Dash, especially with Humble giving freely of her love. Even the ambient scent of love she felt coming from Lyra but tried her best to ignore felt reinvigorating. But Rainbow Dash had no pony like that to leech off of, all she had were stale crackers and swamp grass. “I wish there was something I could do. I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.”
“So’m I,” Rainbow Dash said quietly and stared at her hooves, poking idly at the moss beneath her. “I wish Twilight was here,” she said and looked away to hide the tears.
Bonbon moved closer and gave her shoulder a friendly rub to comfort her. “It’ll be okay,” she said. “We’ll find a way out of this together.”
“Thanks,” Rainbow said morosely and sniffed, then drew a long breath.
“Have you been working on your magic?” Bonbon asked to change the subject. She had become fairly accustomed to using telekinesis by now, although that was as far as she had gotten, but Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to have wrapped her mind around even that yet.
Rainbow Dash grimaced and reached up to poke her horn. “No,” she said. “Why should I bother anyway? It’s not like I ever needed it before, and I’ll just lose it again when I get back in my own body.”
“We may need to disguise our nature before long,” Bonbon said. Admittedly, she hadn’t made any progress on it herself. All the things she imagined could go wrong in the process scared her witless. “We need to get used to our new abilities if we’re going to make it.”
“I guess …” Rainbow Dash frowned.
“Maybe Lyra could help you learn magic,” Bonbon said and looked at the unicorn baking in the sun nearby. Her breathing suggested that she had fallen asleep in the midday heat. “She knows plenty of spells.”
“I uh …” Rainbow Dash scratched behind her ear uncertainly. “I, you know … I kinda feel awkward around her, Bonbon. I can’t stop sensing her emotions and, um …” She looked up at Bonbon. “I don’t really like intruding on her feelings like that, okay?”
“I know,” Bonbon said. She felt much the same, but she had managed to not pry too much into Lyra’s emotions, despite the temptation. The looks Rainbow occasionally gave her told her that some of those emotions were directed at Bonbon, which just made it all the more awkward. “I take it Humble isn’t any better?”
“Well, yeah,” Rainbow Dash said and rolled her eyes. She gestured around them at the sunlit landscape. “Besides, she’s not here half the time.”
“Then you’ll just have to suck it up and talk to Lyra,” Bonbon said. “Just block out the emotions and focus on learning your magic. It’ll be fine.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes once more. “Easy for you to say.” She rubbed her face before standing up. “Yeah, alright, I’ll do it.” She turned and approached Lyra, reaching out to wake the unicorn from her slumber.
Lyra woke with a start at her touch, to find Rainbow’s black face staring down at her. She choked out a shriek and scrambled away from Rainbow Dash, nearly rolling off the shell. “Ah!”
Rainbow Dash jumped forward and caught her before she tumbled off their ride, pulling her back to safety. “Whoa there, just waking you up, girl.”
Lyra frowned and steadied her breath. “Well excuse me if your face is like a nightmare I don’t exactly feel thrilled waking up to. No offense.”
“Yeah yeah, I get it. I’m sorry.” Rainbow Dash backed away a little. “Look, I need you to help me learn to use my magic, alright?” She poked her horn. “Stupid thing isn’t exactly sparkling.”
Lyra took a moment to calm herself completely before sitting down again. “Alright, I’ll help you. But seriously, don’t ever do that again, or I might blast your face off next time.”
Bonbon leaned back and left them to it as she enjoyed the sun and peace. Their ride might be slow, but she doubted there were a lot of things out there that would be foolish enough to attack something as large and heavily armored as a dragon turtle. For now at least she didn’t have to do anything but relax and enjoy the peace.
* * *
“Ah! Watch it!” Bonbon jumped aside in the nick of time and hastily beat out the green flames engulfing the tip of her tail.
“Heh.” Rainbow Dash waved the smoke and bits of flame from her horn. “Whoops, again.”
Bonbon groaned and looked at her singed tail. “Couldn’t you go practice somewhere not so close to me? Like, way over there?” she said and pointed at the marshes in the distance.
“No. I need to conserve my strength, remember?” Rainbow Dash frowned at her horn as a few sparks of green lit up the growing dusk. “ ‘sides, I think I’m getting the hang of this ‘zapping things’ spell. It’s way cooler than just lifting stuff anyway.”
“Except you were supposed to levitate things,” Lyra said and lowered the shimmering shield in front of her. She sat down and pinched her muzzle with her hooves. “I swear, Scootaloo would get a cutie mark in magic before you figure it out.”
“Scoots already has a cutie mark,” Rainbow Dash said and stuck her tongue out at Lyra. “And you’re just jealous ‘cause my magic is obviously way too awesome to be controlled. Yeah, that’s why!”
“At least knock it off for tonight,” Bonbon cut back in.
“Fine!” Rainbow Dash said and crossed her hooves.
“Ahoy, yes you up there,” Snapcase sang at them. “A little bird is telling me there’s another message from far and away, just for you.”
Rainbow Dash scrambled over to the edge of the shell and poked her head out to look down at the dragon head bobbing along below. “Alright, Fluttershy! What does she say? Can they help us get our bodies back?”
Bonbon and Lyra sat up to listen as well.
Snapcase took a moment to listen to the bird chirping its message. “Well, wouldn’t you know it,” he chuckled. “It says they’ve caught your two wayward bodysnatchers.”
They looked at each other. “Really?” Bonbon asked.
“Yeah, spit it out already,” Rainbow Dash poked the shell impatiently.
“As you desire, O ye of little patience,” Snapcase said with deliberate slowness. “It says that someone warned the griffons of the changeling plot already, and the griffons then caught the two supposed changelings as they were on their way towards the sea. The griffons informed Equestria of the threat, and Princess Luna is now on her way to interrogate the two where they are being kept by the griffons.”
“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, and all three looked at each other again.
“Who warned the griffons, then?” Bonbon asked. “How could they have been informed of this?”
“That’s all the message says,” Snapcase said and offered a shrug in answer.
“Well, that’s … good, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “They’ve got our bodies safe and locked away. Now Luna just needs to find a way to help us get them back.”
Bonbon nodded. “I guess it’s a relief to know they won’t be causing any trouble, too.”
* * *
The skull seemed to glow in the pale light of the moon, fixing its grin at her.
Bonbon sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She wasn’t sure what time it was, or when Humble had caught up with them again. She looked at the girl holding the skull, cradling it in her hands as she stared at its hollow eyes and bony cheeks. Bonbon recalled the ruins where Lyra had found it, unceremoniously buried under the rubble of collapsed stairs.
Humble kept looking into the eyes of the long-dead human as Bonbon approached and sat down next to her. Humble seemed paler than usual, if such a thing was even possible, and her eyes still had a blank and distant look. She seemed sad and quiet tonight, as if something was weighing on her heart. Bonbon watched as Humble closed her eyes and lowered her head. A faint glow of dark magic surrounded her hands and spread to the skull. An eerie light filled the eye sockets, and wispy strands of magic snaked along the contours of the bone.
Bonbon stifled a gasp as the glow became flesh and skin, and soft hair grew in dark red curls from the scalp of the head. The disembodied head floated an inch above Humble’s open hands, surrounded by the glow of magic. Bonbon stared at the recreated face of a young girl, severed from the neck, eyes closed in death. The sight made her want to turn away.
Humble opened her eyes to look at the dead girl, and the sadness that filled her eyes turned to tears. She glanced at Bonbon and noticed her expression of horror. “Forgive us,” she murmured and blinked the tears away, sniffling. She closed her fingers around the head, and the glow of magic faded. The skin and hair vanished even faster than it had appeared, leaving only the bare skull once more.
Bonbon took a moment to collect herself and swallow the unpleasant taste. “Your magic …” Bonbon searched for words. This was so far outside her area of experience. “It is very dark and … it unsettles me sometimes.”
“We earned our knowledge from the darkness of night and desolation,” Humble said and covered the empty eye sockets as if closing the girl’s eyelids for the last time. She rested the skull in her lap and hugged herself against some imaginary cold. “Darkness and cold and death were the only friends we knew since the curse bereaved us of all we loved.”
“Do you still know how to change yourself into a pony?” Bonbon moved a little closer once more, now that the head was just a skull. “I know I have the power to take many forms, and I imagine it should be second nature to a changeling, but I’m afraid of even trying. I’m afraid I will mess it up and turn myself into something awful.”
Humble turned her head and looked at Bonbon’s hooves. She seemed to avoid Bonbon’s eyes tonight. “We can make ourselves one with the shadows and darkness, but the shadow will be a shadow always regardless of its shape or form,” she said. “The secret of the changelings no longer works for we who are cursed, for it was turned against us.”
“Oh,” Bonbon said, ears lowering in disappointment.
“We may still offer thee our knowledge of such magic, if this is thy desire,” she said. “It is a simple matter to explain, but very difficult magic for a pony to master; yet it comes naturally to any changeling.”
“What if I make a mistake and blow myself up … or worse?”
“Thou needst not fear. We will watch and keep thee safe from harm,” Humble said, though her voice was flat and her gaze lowered at the ground.
Bonbon smiled and stood up on the gently swaying back of the turtle. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Then I’m ready. What must I do?”
Humble pulled herself to her feet and raised her hands in front of her. She closed her eyes to concentrate. “Thou must first imagine thy new form, one thou desirest to take in place of thy present image,” she explained. “A form thou knowest well would come to thee more naturally and effortlessly than others. An intimate connection is the strongest of all.”
“Alright,” Bonbon said and closed her eyes as well, trying to form a mental image of her old familiar self. That was the only form she ever wished to take, and it should obviously be the one she was most familiar with too, she reasoned.
“With this done, thou must now form a connection with thy chosen image,” Humble explained. “Same way as thou wouldst do with an object thou seekest to levitate. Just like that, but with thy mental image in its stead.”
“Uh …” Bonbon focused, trying to apply the method she had worked out based on Lyra’s explanation. “Okay, I think …”
“Once thou hast established a clear connection,” Humble continued, “thou must bring it out with thee as thou performest a switch of focus to thine own physical body. That switch will be the tricky part, for it must be done while merging the other connection.”
Bonbon furrowed her brow as she concentrated on the mental image of her real body, slowly feeling the connection take hold. Once satisfied that she had it in mind, she prepared herself for the switch. As swiftly as she could, she tried to switch her focus and connection, as if to quickly levitate herself. “Gah!” A sudden force swept her off her hooves and landed her on her rump.
“Thou didst well,” Humble said and helped her up.
“Really?” Bonbon looked herself over, finding no difference in her appearance. “Nothing changed at all.” At least that meant no horrible mutations, she reassured herself.
“Thou didst almost lift thine own weight with telekinesis, if only for a second,” Humble explained. “That is no minor feat for the untrained, and it means thou didst the switch well. Thou merely forgot to bring the image of thy new form out with thee in the switch. The merging of connections is difficult, as we said.”
Bonbon rubbed her head and sighed. “Well, I shouldn’t expect to get it on the first try anyway, should I?”
Humble shook her head and sat down.
“Alright, then …” Bonbon sighed. “Guess I’ll keep on trying.”
* * *
“Wowee!”
Bonbon sat up and blinked at Lyra. “What?”
Lyra pointed at a mound ahead. “That’s the first one of the turtle mounds we’ve seen all day,” she announced. “Must be the last of them. See? I can’t see any more anywhere,” she said and looked around at the sprawling marshes surrounding them.
“Oh,” Bonbon said and looked around too. Lyra was right, the sleeping turtles had vanished behind them, except for this last one. As far as her eyes could see, there was nothing but flat and featureless marshland in any direction. “Good,” she said. “I’ve had more than enough of them … no offense, Snapcase.”
“None taken, whatsoever,” the turtle said as he slogged through the pools of stale water and reeds, leaving a minor ravine in his wake where his shell dug through the marshes. “Of course you have seen enough of us; you’ve seen me.”
“Yes, of course.” Bonbon rolled her eyes and lay back down.
“I think it’s a shame,” Lyra said. “They were certainly better sights than this endless flat boredom.”
“I think it’s nice,” Bonbon said. “It’s like the great open sea, except green and without the sickening movement of a ship beneath your hooves.”
“What’s the difference between this rocking—” Lyra gestured at the swaying shell beneath them “—and the rocking of a ship, exactly?”
“Hmph! Am I to be compared to a mere wooden vessel now?” Snapcase said. “My movement is certainly more refined and graceful than any ship.”
“A ship is … different,” Bonbon said. “I can’t explain it. I guess because there’s still solid ground beneath us? The sea … it lacks solidity, stability. You know, earthiness.”
“Earth ponies,” Lyra huffed and leaned back to watch the last of the mounds slowly drifting away behind them. “How big is this swamp anyway?”
“Big,” Snapcase said.
“Oh, that’s super helpful,” Lyra groaned.
Bonbon resumed watching the late afternoon sky. Far above them a flock of birds, no more than white dots from this distance, drifted beneath the blue ceiling. Birds had been following them pretty much constantly since the first message, presumably to pass on any other messages that might come from the west … and to keep a close watch on them. Bonbon turned her head back in the direction of home and narrowed her eyes. A lone white dot was coming towards them, moving on swift wings. Bonbon sat up and stretched her back. “I think a bird is coming this way.”
“Lots of birds come this way,” Snapcase said without even looking up.
Rainbow Dash groaned as she got up and joined Lyra and Bonbon. She rubbed her tired eyes and blinked them at the sky for a while. “Yeah, that’s a bird alright,” she said as the dot grew bigger. “A big one. Think it’s got a message?”
“If it does, it must not want others to hear it,” Bonbon said.
“Or it’s just a really poor singer,” Lyra said and snickered. Bonbon rolled her eyes.
“Whoa, scratch that, it’s a huge bird,” Rainbow Dash said suddenly.
Bonbon had to agree as the bird slowly descended. Even from afar, it looked big enough to carry off a full grown pony if it felt like it. “Uh, it’s not dangerous, you think?”
“What, to a dragon turtle?” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Jerky here is way bigger.”
“For once I agree with the maggot,” the turtle rumbled.
“Although I bet he’d never catch a live bird, even a big one like that,” Rainbow Dash added with a satisfied smirk. “You have to be quick to catch birds, you know.”
“It’s coming down towards us,” Lyra said and stood up, watching the great white bird soaring down towards them. They all stepped aside as it got closer. A few moments later the bird landed heavily on top of the shell, the wind from its huge wings nearly knocking them off the turtle. It let out a screech and folded its wings.
Lyra was first to approach it, cautiously moving forwards and reaching out a hoof to touch its pure white neck. “It’s got something around its neck here, see?” she said and looked back at Bonbon and Rainbow Dash.
“It’s a bag,” Bonbon said and moved closer to have a look for herself. “Open it up, already. Let’s see what’s in it.”
Lyra reached out slowly while watching the bird’s sharp hook of a beak. Her hooves found the bag and carefully undid the string keeping it closed. She had to stand on the tips of her hooves to look into it. “It has, um, necklaces in it,” she said and reached into the bag to pull them out. “Four medallions,” she said and dropped back down, showing them four silver pendants, each in the shape of a crescent moon.
“Must be from Princess Luna,” Rainbow Dash said and reached out to take one, turning it over in her hooves. “I bet they’re magical or something. Hah! I knew the princess would have some way of helping us!” she said and cheered.
“Why are there four?” Bonbon said and hesitated. “Do you think she knows about …”
Lyra bit her lip as she looked at the three medallions left in her hooves. “What do you think she wants us to do with them?”
“Well, duh!” Rainbow Dash said and slipped the necklace around her neck. “You wear ‘em, of course. That’s what they’re for, obviously.”
“And what then?” Lyra said and looked like she wanted to rid herself of them immediately. “What will they do? You don’t think they let her spy on us, do you?” She glanced at the sky as if half expecting to find Luna’s face staring back at her from the deep blue.
“I don’t know,” Bonbon said and took the pendants before Lyra could throw them away. She put one around her neck, feeling the weight settle against her chest. “But there’s only one way to find out.”
Lyra watched them both for several minutes as nothing happened. “So? Feel any different?”
“No,” Bonbon said and turned the medallion in her hoof. “Maybe we need to wait for nightfall.”
“What about the bird?” Rainbow Dash cut in.
They looked at each other. “Do we have anything we need to send back?” Bonbon asked and received only blank stares. She watched as Lyra closed the bag around its neck again and stepped back. The bird spread its wings again and took air, nearly knocking Bonbon flat against the shell of the turtle. A few minutes later it was a white dot against the sky once more.
* * *
Bonbon landed on her rump once again and let out of a frustrated groan. “I felt so close this time,” she said and rubbed the base of her horn. “So close.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Lyra said between munches of a dry cracker. It was all they had left of food, aside from what they could gather in the marshes. “It’s like trying to do two spells at once. I’ve never been able to do that. Most unicorns never learn to do more than one spell at a time.”
“It should be easy for a changeling, though, shouldn’t it?” Bonbon took a long breath and shook her head. All this trying and failing repeatedly was definitely tiring her out. “It’s the one thing they all use their magic for. It’s like a pony knowing how to walk and trot or something.”
Lyra shrugged and munched down another cracker.
Bonbon turned around and gazed into the darkness behind them. “Have you seen Humble tonight? It’s getting kinda late, and I haven’t seen head nor tail of her since last night.”
“Nope,” Lyra said behind her. “Haven’t been looking for her either.”
Bonbon stared for a while longer, then sighed and sat down. She raised a hoof to her neck and looked down at the small silver necklace glinting in the moonlight. Bonbon followed the light, gazing up at the moon as she held the necklace.
Lyra watched her and the necklace. She had convinced Bonbon to hide the other two necklaces in Bonbon’s bags. Lyra was not yet prepared to wear one herself. Bonbon couldn’t fault her for not trusting them yet, but they wouldn’t find out what their purpose was if they stuffed them away in their bags. And maybe it was already too late. The princess had sent them four necklaces, one for each of them … including Humble. She had to have found out. It was the only explanation Bonbon could think of.
“Bonbon.” Lyra’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “The necklace!”
Bonbon blinked at Lyra, then looked down at the necklace. “Oh,” she said and let go of it. The polished silver was glowing with a bright white light, the intensity growing quickly.
On the other side of the turtle’s shell, Rainbow Dash sat up blearily and looked at her own glowing necklace. “Huh? What the—”
A sudden streak of light flashed between the two necklaces, and a glimmer of moonlight coalesced into four shining figures atop the shell. Lyra gasped and quickly scrambled to hide herself under her blankets as she saw the four shapes taking form.
Bonbon stood up and stared as four shimmering ponies took shape before her eyes, the tallest of them unmistakably the Princess of the Night herself. They were all wearing identical crescent necklaces. As the light faded from them, it gathered at the tip of Luna’s horn. The dark alicorn opened her eyes and let the spell fade. Bonbon blinked as she recognized Scootaloo standing beside Luna, grown taller and prouder than Bonbon had ever known the filly. With them were both Twilight and Fluttershy.
Luna surveyed the top of the turtle’s shell before turning her piercing gaze upon Rainbow Dash and Bonbon. “It would appear that we are a few short for this meeting,” she said and leveled her gaze at Bonbon.
Bonbon bent her knee and bowed her head at Luna, feeling herself quiver under the princess’ icy stare.
Luna looked between them all. “It is high time for us to have a frank discussion.”