//------------------------------//
// Betraying Bon Bon 
// Story: The Bridesmaids 
// by Zeck 
//------------------------------//

	Bon Bon watched Berry Punch start making her way back through the crowd. She saw Pinchy hop up on her mom’s back and she was about to call out for them to wait, but they quickly melted into the crowd.
“Well that’s just great,” Bon Bon mumbled as she turned back to face the castle. “Save their seats? How am I supposed to do that? This place is going to be packed. Where are they running off to anyway?” Bon Bon sighed and closed her eyes. There was nothing to worry about, she told herself. She and Berry were guests of the bridesmaids. Surely they would have their own special spots reserved. 
But the wedding was starting soon, and it looked like it was going to take all of the remaining time just to reach the castle. And if the guards locked the doors once the wedding started, then there would be nothing Bon Bon could do. She looked over her shoulder again, hoping to see the two ponies forcing their way back to her, but she had no such luck.
“Bon Bon?” a voice called. “Bons, is that you?”
Bon Bon cocked her head to one side. She recognized that voice, but she couldn’t place it. She stood up on the tips of her hooves, hoping to see whoever was calling to her. It wasn’t Lyra, of that she was certain. Lyra never called her Bons.
“Bon Bon, over here!” the voice called again. Bon Bon looked ahead and saw a white hoof waving at her over the tops of all the other ponies. “Excuse me, coming through, make way. Hey! Chill out, dude. I said excuse me. Now move it.” 
Bon Bon sighed and rolled her eyes as she recognized the voice that was making its way to her. Only one pony could talk like that in Canterlot and not realize what she was doing.
“S’up.” A white Unicorn with a blue mane and a pair of purple sunglasses squeezed her way in between two ponies standing in front of Bon Bon and then turned to one of them and said, “Oops, sorry about your coat. I’m sure that will wash right out.” The stallion just turned his nose up at her in a huff.
“Hello, Vinyl,” Bon Bon said. She didn’t really consider Vinyl Scratch a friend, but they weren’t on unfriendly terms either. They only knew each other because Lyra and Octavia were close friends, what with their shared love of music. Bon Bon hated to admit it, but she was actually kind of jealous of Octavia. The cellist was always able to talk to Lyra about things that Bon Bon just didn’t understand. 
“Ugh, these Canterlot ponies,” Vinyl said, turning back to face Bon Bon. “Am I right? So uptight. Glad Octy’s not like them.”
She’s not? Bon Bon thought. Octavia certainly seemed very Canterlot to her. Uptight, standoffish, and very prim and proper. But then again, she was dating Vinyl, so she couldn’t be that bad. There was no way Vinyl would stick around if she were. 
“Um, yeah,” Bon Bon said. “So what are you doing here?” Vinyl certainly wasn’t dressed for a royal wedding. But then, Berry wasn’t either, and she hadn’t given it a second thought. Bon Bon looked down at her dress and then up and her hat and suddenly felt a little silly. 
“Nice hat,” Vinyl said. “Keeps the sun off of you, that’s for sure. So what are you doing here?” 
Bon Bon sighed again. She had literally just asked Vinyl that same question and the mare had completely ignored it. Celestia bless Octavia if this was what she put up with.
“I’m just trying to get inside. The wedding’s going to start soon and I don’t want to miss Lyra.”
“Pssh, so why are you standing out here with all these snobs?” Vinyl asked. Bon Bon winced as several ponies glared at the Unicorn, but Vinyl ignored them. “Come on, I can get you in.”
“Um, Vinyl, I don’t think—whoa!”
Vinyl wrapped her hoof around Bon Bon’s leg and began to drag her through the crowd. She kept bumping her way through, and Bon Bon was forced to offer quick apologetic looks to every pony she passed, but Vinyl’s tactic worked. In a matter of moments, the two of them were standing at the front of the castle.
“What’s up?” Vinyl said to the guard. She held out her hoof and Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. Surely Vinyl didn’t expect—
“What’s up, D.J. Pon-three!” the guard said as he bumped his hoof against Vinyl’s. “She with you?” He nodded toward Bon Bon and the mare did her best to keep her mouth from falling open. How in Equestria did a royal guard know Vinyl? 
“Yeah,” Vinyl said. “Er, I mean, no. She’s not with me with me. She’s just with me. I mean, she’s not my date or anything. Uh, not that I don’t think you’re great, Bon Bon. I just mean—”
“Calm down,” Bon Bon said with a smile. “I know what you mean, and so does he.” She turned to the guard. “My name is Bon Bon. I’m…a close friend of one of the bridesmaids.”
“Which one? Rarity, Applejack?” the guard asked, looking down at a scroll and searching for her name. 
“Um…no,” Bon Bon said. “Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Hm…” The guard continued to look over the guest list, then he looked up at Bon Bon suspiciously. “There’s no pony with that name in the wedding.”
“There must be some mistake,” Bon Bon said, stepping forward to look at the list herself before she realized what she was doing. “Lyra is supposed to be one of the bridesmaids, along with Minuette and Twinkleshine.”
The guard looked Bon Bon up and down several times, and then his gazed shifted to Vinyl. “You promise you’ll keep an eye on her?” he asked as his gaze returned to Bon Bon, his brown eyes narrowing even more.
“Yeah, no problem,” Vinyl said, wrapping her front leg around Bon Bon’s neck and gently shook her. “I’ll be her chaperone. The big city life just confuses her sometimes.”
“Okay.” The guard stepped aside and let Vinyl and Bon Bon through, much to the annoyance of many ponies behind them. Vinyl kept her hoof around Bon Bon’s neck for a few more steps, then she pulled away and ran her hoof across her forehead.
“Whew, that was close,” she said. “I wasn’t sure he was going to let you in.”
“How did you—?” Bon Bon started, but Vinyl just kept talking.
“I mean, security’s been pretty tight already. They made me take my entire rig apart so they could inspect it. And when you started making a scene about Lyra at the gate.”
“I was not making a scene!” Bon Bon protested. This mare was infuriating. Bon Bon was gaining a newfound respect for Octavia with every passing second.  “Lyra is supposed to be in the wedding. All three of those ponies are. It’s not my fault if that stupid guard has the wrong guest list.”
“Uh, Bon Bon? I don’t think shouting, ‘stupid guard’ in the middle of the palace is a good idea…”
Bon Bon blushed and her ears fell. Vinyl was right. She didn’t want to get kicked out of the palace over a simple mistake on the guest list. Lyra would never forgive her if she missed her big moment.
Still, she hoped Berry and Pinchy didn’t have trouble getting in. That would certainly cause a scene, and an ugly one too. 
“I just don’t understand why Lyra wasn’t on the list,” Bon Bon said as the two began walking through the main hall of the castle. There were dozens of ponies inside, and they were all heading toward the wedding room. “I mean, it’s all she’s been talking about for the past few days. She even spent the night at the castle to get ready for today. How could Princess Cadenza forget to put her name on the list?”
“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Vinyl pointed straight ahead. “Lyra’s right there.”
Bon Bon looked where Vinyl was pointing and her heart soared. There was Lyra! The mint green Unicorn was standing near the doors to the wedding room, looking around and gently swishing her beautiful tail back and forth. Bon Bon was so excited to see her again that it took her a moment to realize that something was very wrong. Lyra wasn’t in her dress. Her mane wasn’t styled the way it was supposed to be, she didn’t have the flowers in her hair, and she wasn’t wearing any jewelry. What in Celestia’s name was she doing? Didn’t she know that the wedding was about to start? 
“Lyra!” Bon Bon shouted as she walked toward the Unicorn. The silly filly had probably lost track of time, again, and didn’t realize that everypony else was most likely already in their outfits. “Lyra, what are you doing?”
Lyra turned to Bon Bon and looked at her with an odd look, then blinked once. “Excuse me?” she said.
“The wedding is going to start any minute now,” Bon Bon said. She knew Lyra was a bit…well, Lyra sometimes, but this was ridiculous even for her. “Why aren’t you in your dress?”
“Dress?” Lyra asked, cocking her head to one side. “I don’t—”
“Hey…Lyra,” Vinyl said as she walked up next to Bon Bon. Bon Bon noticed that Vinyl seemed to have a hard time saying the Unicorn’s name. “I found Bon Bon here outside. She was trying to get in to find you.”
“Bon Bon?” Lyra asked as her eyes shifted back to Bon Bon. 
“Yes,” Bon Bon said, annoyance seeping into her voice. Was Lyra trying to be funny or something? “Don’t tell me that witch cast a spell on you to make you forget about your marefriend.”
Lyra’s ears perked up at that and a nervous smile quickly came to her lips. “What? No. No, of course not. How could I every forget about my girl?” She reached out with her hoof and gave Bon Bon a quick hug. It was stiff, as though she didn’t know what she was doing, but as soon as Bon Bon hugged her back everything was fine. Lyra was probably just nervous about the wedding. 
Bon Bon pulled out of the hug and gazed into the sunglow eyes of her mare. “Now come on,” she said. “I bet if we hurry, we can still get you into your dress and ready for the wedding.”
Vinyl slammed her hoof against her forehead. “The wedding’s about to start!” she said. “Oh pony feathers! I need to go set up! Catch you later, Bon Bon.” She nodded toward Lyra. “Lyra,” she said flatly, and then she took off running. 
“Set up?” Bon Bon asked, and then a horrible thought crossed her mind. “Oh, please tell me she’s not providing the music for the wedding. I don’t think I can listen to dubstep for that long.” 
“Dubstep?” Lyra asked. “Is that some sort of dance?”
“Are you feeling okay?” Bon Bon asked. She placed her hoof on Lyra’s forehead to check for a fever. Lyra just stood there and stared at her, blinking slowly. “Did you hit your head or something?”
“Uh…no,” Lyra said, pulling away from Bon Bon’s hoof and brushing the back of her neck. “I’m…just a little overwhelmed, that’s all.”
“Well, be overwhelmed later,” Bon Bon said, grabbing Lyra’s mane with her teeth and starting to pull her down the hall. “You need to hurry up and get changed.” She had no idea where the changing room was, or where Lyra was even supposed to be, but she had to get her moving. Judging by the way ponies were filing through the doors, the wedding was due to start any minute.
And there was still no sign of Berry or Pinchy.
“Um…why am I changing again?” Lyra asked as she allowed herself to be dragged away.
Bon Bon stopped dead at the question and spit Lyra’s mane out of her mouth. “Okay, Lyra, joke’s over.”
“What joke?”
Bon Bon turned around and looked at the mare. Lyra just looked back at her, blinking once but otherwise not moving. She didn’t smile, she didn’t wink, she didn’t tilt her head to the side and blow her mane out of her eyes like she always did when she was trying to be flirty. She just stood and looked at Bon Bon as ponies made their way into the room.
“You are in the wedding,” Bon Bon said carefully. She was growing concerned. Lyra wasn’t acting like herself at all. She looked like Lyra, but her personality was missing. The wacky, eccentric, and frankly annoying pony wasn’t there.  Bon Bon knew Lyra shut down when something was bothering her, but she had never seen it this bad before. What had Princess Cadenza said to her last night? 
“Um, about the wedding…” Lyra said, kicking the marble floor with her hoof. “I’m…I’m not in it.”
“What?” Bon Bon asked as she stepped closer. “But…you were looking forward to this for months!”
Lyra shrugged and looked at the floor. “Well, things changed…”
Bon Bon had a horrid thought rush through her mind. “Lyra, it wasn’t because of…us?”
“Us?”
“Berry and I spent some time talking last night. We both agreed that the Princess didn’t seem to approve of our relationships.”
Lyra’s ears perked up and her eyes widened with surprise. “Yes! Yes, that’s what it was!” Bon Bon gave her a look, and the mare suddenly coughed. “I mean, yeah. I didn’t like the way she talked to you and Cherry last night, so…I sort of quit.” 
“Minuette too?” Bon Bon asked, her heart pounding in her chest. “And Twinkleshine?”
“Uh, yeah,” Lyra said. “We all quit last night.”
Bon Bon felt tears swelling in her eyes. She reached forward and wrapped her hooves around Lyra’s neck. She buried her muzzle in the Unicorn’s mane and felt the tears falling from her eyes. She felt weak for a moment as she held her marefriend, but she squeezed her tighter and the sadness was replaced with joy. This wedding had been all Lyra had been talking about for months, and she had given it up. She had passed on a dream of hers for Bon Bon. No wonder she seemed so off. This couldn’t have been an easy thing for her to do.
Bon Bon pulled out of the hug and wiped a few tears from her eyes. “Lyra, you didn’t need to do that for me,” she said.
Lyra blinked twice and a smile finally came to her lips. “Well, you’re worth it. You’re my mare, after all.”
Bon Bon felt more tears come to her eyes and color flood her face. “Thank you,” she whispered. “But…why didn’t you come back to the room last night then?”
Lyra scratched the back of her neck again and looked down at the floor. “Well, uh…I didn’t want you to get mad at me.” 
“The only thing I’m mad about is that I spent the night alone when I didn’t need to,” Bon Bon said. She pulled Lyra closer and kissed her on the lips. Lyra didn’t kiss her back though. Bon Bon thought that was odd, but she brushed it off as Lyra still being depressed about leaving the wedding.
“Um…sorry about that?” Lyra squeaked and Bon Bon smiled.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said in a quiet voice, trying to mimic the tone Berry was so good at using. “You can make it up to me tonight. Or better yet, how about right now?”
“Um…what?”
“There’s no reason to stick around here anymore,” Bon Bon said. She turned and gently flipped her tail across Lyra’s nose. “And I could use some help getting out of this dress…”
“But what about the wedding?” Lyra asked, looking over her shoulder. 
Bon Bon made a face. “What about it? She kicked you out of the wedding—”
“No, I quit,” Lyra corrected, her face darkening slightly.
“The point is, you’re not in it anymore,” Bon Bon said, slightly confused by her marefriend’s attitude. “And after the way she treated you, me, Berry and Minuette—”
“Who?” Lyra asked, and then she blinked quickly. “Oh, right. The other bridesmaids.” 
“I don’t see why we should stick around this place,” Bon Bon said with a wave of her hoof. “I say we go enjoy Canterlot. There aren’t going to be any crowds, not with the wedding happening. It could just be the two of us on a date, wherever we want to go. Or we could go back to the room…”
Lyra blinked her eyes twice and stared at Bon Bon for a moment. Bon Bon was sure that last suggestion would at least cause her to blush, but nothing happened. It was like Lyra didn’t understand what Bon Bon was saying. 
“Um…if it’s all the same with you, Bonnie, I’d still like to see the wedding,” Lyra said after a few moments.
Bonnie? “What for? After everything that’s happened, I would think you couldn’t stand to be in the same room as the Princess.”
“It’s not every day you get to see the Queen get married,” Lyra said, looking anxiously over her shoulder. The last of the ponies were slipping through the door, and the two guards were starting to give them impatient looks.
Bon Bon chuckled. “Easy there, Lyra. Princess Cadenza isn’t going to be a queen just because she gets married. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are still the rulers.”
“Princess Luna?” Lyra asked. “There are three Princesses?”
Bon Bon stared at her marefriend. There was something wrong with her. She was sure of it now.  She stepped forward a bit, closing the distance between them until their muzzles were almost touching. She continued to stare, gazing deeper into Lyra’s eyes, searching for some sort of clue as to what was wrong with her marefriend. 
“Lyra,” she said slowly, “are you sure you’re feeling okay…?”
Lyra’s breathing picked up and she took a small step back, but Bon Bon kept pressing forward. “Uh…yeah, o-of course,” she stammered. “W-Why wouldn’t I be?” She backed into a wall and tried to scrunch herself against it to get away from Bon Bon.
“Because you’re acting weird,” Bon Bon said, leaning in and forcing Lyra to sink lower to the floor. “Weirder than usua—mmph!”
Lyra leaned forward suddenly and pressed her lips against Bon Bon’s. Bon Bon recoiled at first. The kiss felt…wrong. Plus, she could feel Lyra sticking her tongue in her mouth. The tongue felt a little strange, as if it was actually two tongues feeling around in her mouth. She tried to pull away, but Lyra’s hoof came up around her neck and pulled her into the kiss. She felt the Unicorn’s tongue search around in her mouth for a moment longer, and then it pressed against the roof of her mouth.
Bon Bon’s vision blurred and her eyes fluttered closed. She felt extremely weak for a moment and her head was spinning. She felt like she was going to pass out, but then warmth flooded into her body. Memories of Lyra sprang to the forefront of her mind, drowning out her worries and suspicions. She inhaled sharply and wrapped her two front legs around Lyra’s neck, squeezing her as she pressed back into the kiss. She needed more of whatever this feeling was. She held her marefriend tight in the embrace, relishing the warmth and memories that the contact was bringing. She could stay like this forever, she decided. Forget the wedding, forget Berry, forget Equestria. She just wanted to stay where she was, squishing her mare against the wall with a kiss that would last for—
“Hey you two,” a voice said, shattering the moment. “If you’re going to do that, find a room.”
Bon Bon’s eyes snapped back open and the warmth fled from her body. She pulled, reluctantly, out of the kiss and looked around until she spied a guard glaring at her and Lyra. “Oh, um…excuse us,” she said bashfully. She had never lost control of herself like that before in public. She looked down at Lyra, trying to figure out what had just happened to make them behave that way. 
“So…?” Lyra asked, batting her eyes repeatedly as she looked up at Bon Bon.
Bon Bon wanted to get back to their hotel room. Or even just find a closet with Lyra, but she found that she couldn’t say no to those eyes. She simply nodded and Lyra’s face lit up with a smile. She took Bon Bon by the hoof and escorted her into the event room just as the guards closed the doors.
The two mares slowly made their way through the crowd until they found a place to stand.  Bon Bon looked around for Berry and Pinchy, but she saw no sign of them. She guessed they must have found Minuette and, unlike Bon Bon herself, had decided not to attend the wedding. Bon Bon figured that was probably for the best. She doubted Berry would have been a pleasant wedding guest after finding out that her wife had been removed from the wedding.  
Bon Bon brushed Lyra’s hind leg with her tail and smiled when she felt Lyra do the same. Lyra had been nervous, she decided. That was why she had been acting so strange before.  She just hadn’t been sure how to break the news to her.
Bon Bon felt a twinge of pain flash through her head and she rubbed her forehead in surprise. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with a headache. She didn’t want to deal with that while the wedding was going on.
She felt Lyra wrap her tail around her own and the pain diminished instantly. Bon Bon looked over at her mare and smiled as she wrapped her own tail around Lyra’s. Then the doors opened and the wedding began. 
Bon Bon watched as Shining Armor entered the room first, wearing a red uniform and carrying himself with pride. He didn’t seem too excited to be attending his own wedding, but Bon Bon figured it was just stress. He climbed the stairs and took his place.
Princess Celestia entered next and everypony bowed deeply. She nodded once and smiled, then gracefully walked down the carpet, her rainbow mane flowing elegantly behind her. She took her place at the head of the stairs and waited, smiling toward the door.
A few moments later, five ponies in dazzling dresses entered the room. It took Bon Bon a moment to recognize them as Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. So these were the mares that Princess Cadenza had found to replace Lyra and the others. Well, she could have done worse. These five were heroes throughout Equestria, but Bon Bon still wished she could see Lyra up there instead.
“Twilight’s missing,” she mumbled after a moment. “I wonder why.”
“Twilight?” Lyra whispered.
“If anypony was going to be in this wedding, I would have thought it would be her.” 
Lyra’s tail swished slightly, once again brushing the back of Bon Bon’s leg, and her mind blurred. Maybe Twilight was ill. Whatever the reason for her absence, Bon Bon decided it didn’t matter. As long as she was with Lyra, nothing else mattered. 
Finally, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza entered. Everypony gasped and gently tapped their hooves on the floor in applause. Princess Cadenza looked around the room, her eyes narrow and her chin upraised in true Canterlot fashion. She almost seemed to be wearing a sneer on her face as she looked at all the ponies present, but Bon Bon’s mind was going fuzzy again as she watched. 
“Lyra, I’m feeling…kind of dizzy,” she whispered as Princess Cadenza took the stage across from her soon-to-be husband. 
“Don’t worry, Bon Bons,” Lyra whispered. “If you faint, I’ll catch you.” She nuzzled Bon Bon’s cheek and strength returned to Bon Bon’s body, but her mind refused to clear. She heard Princess Celestia start talking, but the words were muffled. She sighed and tilted her head to the side until it came to rest on Lyra’s neck. She felt her hat get in the way and she grumbled about it, adjusting her head until the hat was no longer a problem, and then closed her eyes. Instead of listening to Princess Celestia speak, she listened to Lyra’s heartbeat and felt her body rise and fall with each breath. If she could just stay like this forever, she would be perfectly happy…
“Stooooooop!”
Bon Bon’s eyes snapped open and she jumped. She looked around as everypony gasped. She blinked several times until her eyes focused on the pony who had just shouted at the top of her lungs.
Twilight Sparkle was standing in the doorway, a grin on her face and a fire in her eyes. She was glaring at Princess Cadenza and Bon Bon feared she was about to charge the Princess. What was wrong with her?
“This isn’t good,” Lyra whispered. “She’s not supposed to be here.”
“She’s not?” Bon Bon asked.
“Why does she have to ruin my special day?” Princess Cadenza asked as she started to cry. 
What was Twilight thinking? She might be Princess Celestia’s star pupil, but that didn’t mean she could—
“Because!” a new voice shouted from the doorway. “It’s not your special day. It’s mine!”
Bon Bon, along with every other pony in the room, turned to see who the new arrival was. She could tell by the gasps that she wasn’t the only one confused to see another Princess Cadenza standing by Twilight.
“Wait, what?” Bon Bon said. She looked back to the stage to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Her head was still unusually fuzzy, but she knew it wasn’t to the point where she was hallucinating. 
There were two Princess Cadenzas in the room, alright. One of them was up wearing a wedding dress and about to get married, while the other one looked like she had just crawled out of a ditch. What in Equestria was going on?
“This isn’t good,” Lyra said, her voice dropping to a low growl. Bon Bon was about to ask her what she meant, but the first Princess Cadenza started speaking.
“What?” she shouted. “But how did you get past my bridesmaids?”
“Bridesmaids?” Bon Bon asked. But…her bridesmaids were right there next to her. Unless she meant Lyra and the others. But that didn’t make any sense either. Lyra was standing next to Bon Bon and she—
Bon Bon’s head suddenly felt like someone had wacked it with a hammer. She winced and nearly collapsed. What was wrong with her?
“Lyra,” she whispered. “I…I think I need to go lay down.” 
“Yeah, we should probably get out of here,” Lyra said. “Things are about to—”
“She’s a Changeling,” the non-wedding Cadenza said as she limped into the room. “She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them.” 
“A…Changeling?” Bon Bon asked, but again her head exploded in pain. Why was it getting so hard to think now? 
“We really need to get out of her, Bonnie,” Lyra said, talking Bon Bon’s hoof and starting to pull her toward the door.
“That’s…not…” Bon Bon’s head was killing her now. Words were almost impossible to form in her mind, much less speak, but she knew something about what Lyra had just said was wrong. If she could just focus, if she could just push the pain aside for a moment, could figure it out. 
A blinding flash of green light filled the room for a moment. Bon Bon looked to the stage and saw that the wedding Cadenza was surrounding by green flames. When they vanished, Cadenza was gone. 
In her place stood a creature that Bon Bon had never seen before. She was as tall as Princess Celestia, but that was where the similarities ended. This creature looked like a cross between a pony and a bug. Her wings were torn and insect-like and the horn coming from her head was twisted and jagged. Her dark aqua mane, if it could be called that, was flat and lifeless. Its ends were split and she seemed to have holes in it and in her tail, which would have been odd enough, except she also had holes in her legs. How was she able to stand with holes in her legs? 
“Right you are, Princess,” the creature said with a menacing laugh. Her voice seemed to echo in her mouth and Bon Bon noticed that she had fangs. Her eyes were huge green orbs with two black slit irises that only added to her insect appearance. “And as Queen of the Changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects,” the creature said as she walked down the stairs toward the real Princess Cadenza. 
“Queen Chrysalis,” Lyra said and Bon Bon swore she saw the Unicorn bow her head slightly. 
Love. Queen. Food. There was something about those words that was eating away at Bon Bon, but her head screamed at her any time she tried to focus on them. She reached out and touched Lyra to steady herself. The pain dimmed, but her head refused to clear. What was wrong with her? 
“No, you won’t,” a new voice said. The power behind the new voice shoved the fog from Bon Bon’s mind for a moment. She took a deep breath and looked to the stage to see Princess Celestia walking toward…what had Lyra called her? Chrysalis? “You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I shall protect my subjects,” Princess Celestia charged Chrysalis and the two locked horns, “from you!”
Bon Bon watched in awe as Princess Celestia battled Chrysalis and she felt her strength returning to her body with each second that passed. She had never seen the Princess so enraged before. She was always so graceful, so elegant, so…princessy that Bon Bon could hardly believe what she was seeing. She knew she should run, but she wanted to stay and watch. This was something she doubted she would never get a chance to see again. 
Princess Celestia flew into the air and fired a magic blast down at Chrysalis. The Queen of the Changelings fired a magical blast from her twisted horn, but the green energy was pathetic. Celestia’s golden light shoved Chrysalis’s magic aside, threatening to engulf the strange creature in blinding light. 
But just when it looked like the fight was done, Chrysalis seemed to gain new strength. Her magic began to overpower Princess Celestia’s. Bon Bon watched in horror as the Princess’s magic was slowly pushed back and the Princess was blasted out of the air in a green explosion. 
“Okay, time to go!” Lyra said as she grabbed Bon Bon’s hoof and dragged her through the crowd of gasping ponies. She heard Queen Chrysalis laughing, followed by several screams, but the pain in her head had returned. It was all she could do to stay on her hooves and allow Lyra to lead her out the door. 
The two ponies managed to make it outside before the entire world began to fall apart. Bon Bon heard the sound of something shattering all around her. Her body shook and she struggled to stay upright as the vibrations rocked the air.  She looked up and felt her heart fall into her stomach. The  sky was full of Changelings, and they had just broken the protective shield around Canterlot. 
“Lyra, what’s happening?” Bon Bon asked, but Lyra didn’t answer. She continued to drag her down the steps out of the castle. She was pulling so hard and fast that Bon Bon was having trouble keeping up.
“Hurry up,” Lyra hissed. “The invasion’s started. I need to stash you somewhere where the others won’t find you.” 
The Changelings plunged out of the sky in green flames. They slammed into the ground and crawled out their impact craters, hissing and taking to the air with their wings. They swarmed over Canterlot, chasing ponies, attacking the guards, and throwing the entire city into chaos. Two of them landed directly in front of Bon Bon and Lyra. They hissed at the two ponies, showing their fangs as their wings flapped rapidly.
“Lyra…” Bon Bon whispered.
“Back off!” Lyra snapped, and Bon Bon was surprised when the two Changelings looked at one another, and then flew away. Lyra nodded and then continued to pull Bon Bon through the streets. They turned down an alley and the screams of panicking ponies began to fade until they were nothing but background noise. 
“Lyra, please stop,” Bon Bon said as they reached a dead end. “My head is killing me. I can’t…keep going.”
“Don’t worry, that’s about to end,” Lyra said. She looked around and checked behind them to make sure no Changelings were following. “It should only last for a few more moments, and then you’ll pass out.”
“W-What?” Bon Bon asked. She staggered forward and reached out for Lyra, but the Unicorn just stood there and watched her collapse on the ground. 
“Lyra?”
“Some of us snuck into Canterlot with the Queen,” Lyra said as she again looked back down the alley. “We were to scout the city, gather information. Replace certain ponies in preparation for the main invasion. Mostly guards.”
Bon Bon’s head was pounding now. She closed her eyes and let out a little whimper as the pain beat on her skull. “What…are you talking about…?”
“We’re under orders not to harm anypony here. Just capture all of you.” Lyra looked down at Bon Bon and sneered. “The Queen said there’d be more than enough love for all of us if we kept you all as prisoners. Enough to last us for a few years at least.” Lyra licked her lips and Bon Bon’s eyes went wide when Lyra’s tongue appeared to be forked. 
“No…” she whispered.
“But you? You’re love is delicious,” Lyra said as she slowly closed on Bon Bon. “It’s so sweet, so pure, so innocent. I’ve been feeding off of it for a while now, but that kiss? Wow. I’ve never tasted anything like that.” Lyra put her hoof under Bon Bon’s chin and raised her head. “Do you know how hard it was to restrain myself from sucking you dry? Standing next to you during that wedding was torture for me. I even had to give some of your love back to keep you from passing out.”
“You…you can’t…” Bon Bon said, trying to pull away from the Changeling’s hoof but lacking the strength to do so.
“Oh, I know. If the Queen found out what I was doing, she’d be very displeased.” Not-Lyra kissed Bon Bon again and Bon Bon recoiled as she felt the forked tongue slip into her mouth. She quivered as her strength left her, but once again that feeling of bliss flooded her body, only this time it sickened her. 
“Get…off me,” she said, pushing the Changeling away as tears came to her eyes.
“I’m keeping you for myself,” the Changeling said as it transformed into its true body. “Of course at this rate, I doubt you’ll last much longer. You’re already at the brink. Maybe enough love left for one or two good feedings, and then you’ll be nothing but a husk. It’s too bad really. I doubt I’ll be able to find another pony that tastes as good as you.” The Changeling put it’s front hooves on either side of Bon Bon’s face and raised her up.  It opened its mouth to reveal several sharp teeth and a pair of fangs. Its blue tongue flicked about and the creature hissed with delight.
“Please,” Bon Bon pleaded, but her body was too weak to resist the creature’s hold.
“But I suppose I can go find Lyra after this,” the Changeling said as it drew closer. “Maybe she’ll taste just as good.”