//------------------------------//
// Lyra is Depressed: The Seventh Month is Stressful 
// Story: Lyra Is Crazy: Many Months Of Mommy Madness 
// by Masterweaver 
//------------------------------//

	Six months.

Six months, they were past the half-way point.

Bonbon nodded to herself. She could handle another five or so months of this. True, with Lyra's current condition there was... quite a bit of stress involved, but really it was only temporary; she only had to put on a strong face until the unicorn's magic levels were restored enough for her to start taking her pills again. It wasn't going to be THAT big of a problem, all things considered; their marriage had weathered far, far worse.

Usually as a result of her own... changeling...ness.

"Right." She took a look in the mirror and frowned, her hoof going to her mane. "I don't remember the last time I had so much loose silk." With a flicker of her horn, the strands were tugged out and carefully sealed in a translucent bag; Bonbon opened the undersink cabinet and tossed it in with all the other baggies of pink thread. "Maybe I should actually start using these for something."

Her eyes darted to the mirror again. She froze.

"...oh silk."

Her fin was exposed.

"I can't let Lyra see this! I, I--calm. Just a little touch-up. She won't notice a thing." Bonbon burst into fire, and when she looked at her reflection again her mane was the full head of pink underneath. "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I'm totally fine, Lyra. I'm here for you."

Her smile did not falter. At least, not visibly.

"...yeah."


***


The green unicorn idly kicked her hoof against the ground, not even looking up from the broken couch as Bonbon trotted down the stairs.

"Hey there, hon." The changeling approached her gently, nuzzling at her neck. "How are you feeling?"

Lyra sighed. "Listless. Bored. Unmotivated." She managed to spin her eyes toward Bonbon. "Sorry about last night, by the way."

"Hey, it's not the first time you've thrown up on me. And it's totally normal for a pregnant mare, right?"

"Mmmm."

Bonbon glanced toward the kitchen, then the front door. "...so. Do you... want anything? A massage, a meal...?"

"...you know, for some reason I just... have this image of eating, like, Celestia's still beating heart." Lyra shrugged. "Or some other really bloody raw meat... I don't know..."

"I... could ask Arsenic to drop by Fluttershy's. She might have something along those lines."

"Mmm."

The changeling's ears drooped for a brief moment, but she forced them back up before Lyra could see.

"...so, uh. Celestia said she sent for somepony to help us while you... uh... while you're recovering." She managed a small smile. "I think they should be here sometime today!"

"I guess that's nice."

Bonbon took a breath and nodded. "She really does care about us. About you. It's... it's good to know the ruler of the country takes such an interest in the well-being of her people, you know?"

"...sure."

Lyra didn't even look at her.

Bonbon took a breath, crushing the broiling emotions in her thorax. She was slowly realizing just how much she'd relied on changeling empathy before, how hard it was to read a pony just by their face. Without her magic, Lyra could have been a particularly large blade of grass for all she registered to her. Bonbon wanted to scream at her to just... just feel something, but...

...but Lyra was going through so much. She couldn't be the one to put more on that. Not after being the reason it had all started.

There was, unexpectedly, a knock on the door. Bonbon shook her head, perking. "Oh, that... that must be the help!" With a flash of fire, she was a cream mare. "Uh, Lace? You want to come with me and greet our guests?"

"I suppose it would be best for me to assess the newcomers and determine the level of potential threat they could pose."

"...that's not what... not entirely what I meant," Bonbon replied, watching as Lace rose from her book. "I was hoping we could go for a unified approach to show that changelings are not inherently hostile and that we genuinely care for Lyra."

Lace looked from her to the pregnant mare. Then back to her.

"We do care for Lyra," Bonbon insisted. "Me as her wife, and you as her friend."

Lace tilted her head.

Bonbon frowned, flicking an ear intensely.

"...Ah, yes." Lace nodded. "We do care about you, Lyra. I simply did not want to... overstep my bounds."

"I know what the ear-flicking means," the unicorn replied.

Bonbon sighed. "Hon, you know Lace is socially oblivious. She doesn't even realize that Arsenic wants her to ask him out--"

"Excuse me?"

"--so how could she know how to express the affection she definitely feels toward you without prodding?" Bonbon finished.

Lyra rolled her eyes. "You have a point."

"Trust me, she really does care for you as a friend."

Lace looked between the two of them. "Why do you think that Arsenic--?"

The knocking at the door came again, harder.

"Oh! Whoops, we need to get that." Bonbon leaned forward and gave Lyra another peck on the cheek, then spun around and trotted to the door quickly. "Lace, could you snap out of your confusion and get over here?"

"I... suppose." The changeling flashed herself up a royal set of armor. "But why would Arsenic--?"

"Later." Bonbon gave her a look, took a breath, and reached for the doorknob.

Her eyes bugged when it swung open and she saw the leash-wearing pony on the other side of the door. "M-Miss Heartstrings! I, uh, I--"

"Double-eighto!" The dark green hooves wrapped around Bonbon's shoulders. "Oh it is so good to see you aren't a gory street mess! Now let me in so I can snuggle my girl or slap some sense into her. Or both."


***


Arsenic peered into the living room. "So... that's Lyra's mother?"

"Apparently."

"I have to say, she's not what I expected." Arsenic tilted his head. "For one, I thought she'd be an actual unicorn, not... an earth pony wearing a fake horn."

"I've been informed by reliable sources that she should not be told it's fake."

The stallion turned to the other guard. "I... what?"

"Apparently she started wearing it after Lyra's father died," Lace explained. "Because she believed that she was, somehow, both Lyra's mother and her father, or possibly just possessed by him. Some sort of coping mechanism." She shook her head. "The point is, she knows it's fake but she can't... acknowledge it, for some reason."

"...I take it," Arsenic said slowly, "that mental instability is hereditary."

"Lyra is bipolar and willingly petitioned to be the carrier of untested hybridization. The evidence does point that way."

"Well, I suppose we've handled her well enough these past few months." Arsenic looked back into the living room. "I look forward to befriending her mother."

Lace nodded, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "...We do seem to synergize well... Speaking of which--"

"Although I'm rather surprised she brought her marefriend along," the stallion continued. "I mean... just look at her!"

The changeling had to admit that Arsenic had a point. The blue pegasus that held miss Heartstring's leash had runic symbols dangling from her pierced feathers, a Discord tattoo that snaked from a rear hoof around her body to the base of her neck, and wore various spiked bangles on her foreleg. And yet, Lace could sense waves of concern and care from her as she watched the mother fuss over her daughter, even loosening her grip on the leash.

"...Lace, do you mind searching Bluebolt's bags?"

"What?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if she had whips or other things stashed in them," Arsenic explained, "but... it'd be awkward for a stallion to find them."

"...why would she have whips?"

Arsenic gave Lace a disbelieving look. "You're a changeling."

"...and?"

"And... and I thought you'd know all about alternative sex styles!"

"We feed off love," Lace deadpanned.  "Not lust."

"...Leeeeet's just say that some... sexual activities involve inflicting pain in specific ways."

Lace nodded. "So the whips are sex toys then."

"You know what, just ask her what she packed," Arsenic said flatly. "It'd save us a lot of time and you're obviously entirely incapable of embarrassment."

"I am fully capable of embarrassment. I simply do not show it." Lace shrugged. "Learned how to hide it a century and a half ago."

Arsenic turned to her, disbelieving. "...how old are you?"

"This body is only thirty-five years old, if that's what you're asking. The Hagfish hive practices mental inheritance, it... keeps us close." Lace turned to him, only the tiniest hint of a curl to her lips. "I did think, however, it was rude to ask a lady's age."

"Actually it's rude to ask a social superior's age," Arsenic replied. "You, however, are my partner."

"Professional or romantic?"

"What?"

"Am I your partner in a professional or romantic sense?"

Arsenic rose a hoof. He paused. "...At the moment, it's only one. But... it could possibly be both."

"...Hmm. I suppose I did come here to enhance changeling-pony relations. However," she added, turning to watch Heartstrings as she hugged Lyra tightly, "we are on duty at the moment."

"...I suppose."

"Of course, we won't always be on duty," Lace mused. "I suppose we could trust miss Heartstrings and Bluebolt to look after Bonbon and Lyra. For one day, anyway. After they settle in."

"True. Perhaps a weekend, so they have time to connect as a family."

"Quite reasonable. I do believe they will be settled by this weekend, actually."

"Indeed. It would give us time to look into... Le jardin des mondes, I believe."

"Really?"

"Quite an upscale restaurant. Wouldn't be surprised if it was funded by some canterlot-centered group, and, well, after the invasion--"

"It's unlikely, but I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry." Lace sighed. "Of course we'll have to go undercover."

"Oh, yes. I do have a decent enough tuxedo. Somewhere."

"...You're lying."

"There's a seamstress right in town. I will have a decent enough tuxedo."

"Then I suppose the only choice left will be our meals. And, of course, the time."

"Certainly."

They watched as Bluebolt and Bonbon chatted amicably, while Lyra tried to push away her fussing mother.

"...They really are quite the group, aren't they?" Lace mumbled.

"Two crazy mares and two mares that love their crazy." Arsenic nodded.

"...We should never have let this happen to Lyra."

"No. That's why we're not going to let it happen again."