"Mmmmbrlglmmph... somebody... alarm... turn it ooooooooff..."
Lyra's eyelids slowly pried themselves apart as she blearily took in her surroundings. There was a lot of blue, but various smudges of different shades floated around her vision. A black shape framed in pink moved closer to her, two vaguely roundish pink splotches peering at her as it murmured incoherently.
"Pinky black... Bonity bon..." Lyra giggled, before letting out a groan. "Ringing... ringing everywhere... I... you and... face diapers?" She jolted up suddenly. "The foal! The foal, is the foal--?!"
A firm but friendly black limb forced her back down. "...s alright... oal is fi..."
"Foal is fine?"
The black smudge nodded, gaining more definition. "Yes, Lyra... the foal is fine."
"Ooooh. Oh. Oh goody..." Lyra slumped down. "This is the hospital, isn't it...?"
"Yes."
She blinked, trying to clear her eyes of whatever was smudging up her view. "Paprika... Everything's blurry. I remember... the gang attacked us... I threw face diapers... you were mind assaulted and... I surged. I fainted, right?"
"Gave me quite a scare," the Bonsmudge confirmed. "I was able to get you to the hospital quickly enough, though."
Lyra nodded, trying to gather her thoughts from the random meandering of partial consciousness. "How long... how long was I out?"
The paired pink smudges turned away for a moment.
"...Bonbon. How long?"
"...They... four days."
"Four days?" Lyra shook her head. "No, see, that doesn't make sense. Surges, even the powerful ones, they only conk you out for like half a day at the most! Bonbon, what's going on?"
The changeling sighed. "I... Arsenic and Lace are outside. I'll go tell one of them to tell the doctors you woke up."
"Bonbon!"
"I'm not leaving! I'm just..." The smudge backed off, slithering toward a rectangle of brown. "Lyra... I think it would be best for a doctor to tell you."
"Talk to me, Bonbon." Lyra took a breath. "Please... tell me. What's going on? Why is everything blurry? Why am I so tired...? I'm scared..."
Bonbon froze, her hoof over the doorknob. Medical screens beeped, dutifully monitoring the state of the unicorn's body as her mind jumbled back and forth.
"...alright."
The black smudge flowed back to her, and she felt a chitinous hoof wrap gently around her shoulder.
"...The way the doctors explained it to me..." Bonbon clicked her tongue. "When... whenever a unicorn surges, there's a part of the brain, a shut off valve, that stops all the magic from going all at once. A horn can only take so many thaums at once, after all, and you do use magical energy in... a lot of your body processes. But..."
The hoof gripped Lyra's shoulder a bit tighter.
"...Lyra, you know I love you. So please, please don't take this the wrong way. It's just... the way your brain is, the same thing that makes you bipolar... it, um, it also... broke the valve."
"...What?"
"All the magic in your body, every last thaum, it all escaped at once. I didn't get a good look, but I know your horn was shining almost as brightly as the sun... the doctors say that I was spared, since I was on the ground, but they thought you might have been blinded by the light--"
"Wait wait, hold on." Lyra took a breath. "I... I know, I know for a fact, unicorns--ponies in general, actually--we can't survive without magical energy in our bodies. It's a necessity! And, and you need to feed off the magic that I shape with my love, you'll starve--"
"Lyra, relax. It's not... ponies can go for three weeks without magic," Bonbon explained. "At least, that's what the doctors say. Don't worry, though, they figured out a way to get enough magic into your system. And I've got enough stored away to last till you're better, worst comes to worst I'll just nip some Philos off of our friends... we'll survive."
"Oh, that's... okay. Yeah." Lyra nodded. "More pills, I... I can handle more pills."
Bonbon glanced away. "...Listen... about the pills..."
Lyra's breath hitched. "...They're not pulling my pills. Tell me they're not pulling my pills."
"...Lyra, your magic... the pills... See, you know how it's a bad idea to drink alcohol while you're pregnant?"
"Well, yeah. The alcohol loosens your magical biodefense and can get to--Oh no." Lyra's eyes went wide. "Have... Have I been posioning the foal all this time--?"
"No!" Bonbon put another hoof on Lyra's other shoulder. "Your magical immune system was preventing the pills from reaching your uterus, it was fine. But... now that you don't have much magical energy, the doctors... they think that won't work anymore."
"Oh no..." Lyra shivered. "Oh no oh no oh no.... this isn't good."
"Lyra--"
"No, Bonbon, you don't understand. You've seen me go a day without the pills. You haven't... you haven't seen me go a week, a month--"
"Lyra, it's only until your magic builds up again--"
"I am legitimately crazy without those things!" The unicorn's breath grew quick and ragged. "I could be very, very dangerous--I could become, I could be--"
Suddenly Lyra felt something press against her lips. Something flexible and cool and familiar and calming. Her body tensed for a moment, before slowly relaxing, and she leaned forward to return the kiss almost instinctively.
Eventually, Bonbon pulled away. "In sickness and in health. That's what I promised. And I swear, Lyra Heartstrings, there is absolutely nothing that you could do that would drive me away."
"I... oh... Bons, please. Don't make promises you can't keep..."
"You know I never do, Lyra." Bonbon nuzzled the unicorn's cheek. "And it's not just me anymore. Arsenic and Lace are there to help out now."
"That might not be enough!"
"Two trained guards?"
"Well, yeah, but they're royal guards--"
"Lace is with the Hagfish Hive," Bonbon reminded her flippantly. "Which means she isn't incompetent."
Lyra bit her lip. "...still... Ah... hmm." She glanced away from the black blur. "I just... this is... all at once. And I'm pregnant on top of that. Or is it all this on top of the pregnancy? Bonbon, am I fat?"
"Um. Hmm. Well, you're... large, but most of that isn't actually fat." Bonbon tilted her head. "Why are you asking this?"
"I don't know, I'm still a little woozy and where is my head from waking up. And all my magic drained, which means I can't telekinesis stuff anymore. And also got blurvision, can't forget that. Oh, there it goes," she added brightly, "I'm panicking again. Oh horseradish these next few weeks are going to be horrible for everypony..."
"Lyra. Lyra, focus on me. Listen to me. I will make absolutely sure we get through this. Okay?"
"...Okay. Okay..." Lyra shivered. "Bon.... the ponies. The ponies that attacked us--"
"They were..." Bonbon hesitated. "...some of them are still... here, in the hospital. The ones who have already been treated are behind bars."
"Are... are they going to die?"
The changeling glanced away for a moment. "I... I don't think so. I'm not sure, I didn't bother checking on them after...." She trailed off, letting her hoof whisper down Lyra's foreleg.
The unicorn nodded quietly, reaching over and gripping it firmly. "Doesn't matter. You, you're alive.... foal's alive... That's the important thing right now. Us. Family. Yes."
A knock came from the door. Lyra blinked in confusion. "What... who is that?"
"Probably a doctor..." Bonbon shrugged helplessly, gently pulling her hoof back. "It is a hospital after all. Come in!"
The door swung wide, admitting two golden outlines with white highlights... or was it white outlines with golden highlights? Lyra squinted as a third outline, far larger than the other two, stepped into the room. There were golden highlights on this one too, but they weren't as big as the other two and the whole thing was framed in a shifting cloud of colors...
"Bonbon, I don't think those are doctors."
The large white outline gave a small chuckle. "That would be correct, miss Lyra."
"Wait a minute, I know that voice..." Lyra peered at the white shape. "Good cinnamon and pumpernickel! You're... You're..."
She paused dramatically, allowing Bonbon to let out a preemptive sigh.
"Princess Blurestia!"
"My apologies, Princess. Lyra has an... odd sense of humor at the best of times, and as you can see she's..." Bonbon gestured. "Well, she's a little loopy right now. Also, with all due respect, why are you here?"
"I came to give my most humble apologies to one of my citizens." Celestia shook her head and sighed. "I've done my best to encourage integration of changelings into Equestria after the events surrounding my niece's wedding, but... well, as you can see, there are some who would take matters into their own hooves. If I had known--"
"We of course accept your public apology for these events, but let's cut to the chase. You're not going to visit every pony or changeling attacked by bigots personally." Bonbon glowered at the princess. "Why are you really here?"
Celestia took a breath. "Guards... please wait outside."
The two other outlines stepped into the hall, shutting the door behind them.
"...I was not lying about trying to encourage integration. Chrysalis's arrogance aside, the fact of the matter is Canterlot nearly fell, and our defense against the invasion the first time is not likely to occur again. Peace is always preferable to paranoia.." Celestia let out a resigned sigh. "Unfortunately, the changelings that formerly were in Chrysalis's hive have... splintered quite a bit. Various microhives and single rogues have broken off and their position and action is lost to us. On top of that, Queen Myxine is trying to use her new alliance with Equestria to gain more leverage... and there's the other major hives we know of, but have little information about."
"The point, Celestia."
The princess gave an amused huff. "I do tend to ramble, forgive me." She stepped forward, coming to the side of the bed that Lyra was lying on. "In point of fact, this pregnancy and the relationship leading up to it has been cited again and again when the subject of integration came up. Its progression, and its results, are of a fair amount of political importance... and that's not to mention the responsibilities that parenthood forces."
Lyra blanched. "Oh salt... I think I'm gonna be sick..."
Bonbon snorted. "So we're your favored pawns in this game? Fine. Why weren't we better protected then?"
"...I was... overly optimistic." Celestia glanced away. "I had assumed that our nation, founded on the unification of the three tribes, would be inherently welcoming."
"Right," Bonbon growled. "You made a mistake. You've apologized. But you know what? Sorry doesn't fix our broken windows, or pay the hospital bills, or change the fact that I was accused of rape and then mindraped by your oh so loving ponies! Lyra is going to need delicate assistance for I don't know how long because of all that!"
"No seriously, I'm really going to be sick here."
"The crown will, of course, pay for your medical expenses and home repair bills. I'll also increase guard presence in Ponyville--"
"AND! And you'll see to it that somepony can help us out for the next few months!"
"Of course. Do you have any other requests?"
Lyra turned to Celestia, opened her mouth to speak--
"HURGALLLPHLARGHPHAAAAAaaaa....."
The sound of medical screens was joined, very quietly, by a slow dripping noise.
Bonbon smiled. "No, I think that just about covers it."
"...quite." Celestia nodded, very very slowly. "If you will excuse me...."