//------------------------------//
// LP59: Nightmare [Dark?  Sad?] 
// Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts 
// by HoofAndQuill 
//------------------------------//



The prompt: The Nightmare returns.



It had taken years.

After the disaster in Canterlot, many things were much harder.  Bon Bon couldn't show her face, not really, anywhere in Equestria.  Most of her contacts were gone, either missing, dead, or simply laying low.  Friends she had known since childhood simply disappeared.  Ponies came and went from Ponyville as always, and she found that she didn't know the ones coming, and wasn't sure about the ones leaving.

Celestia had even closed the agency, one of the few places Bon Bon had been able to openly serve Equestria.

For a while, everything had been very lonely.  Even Lyra's friendship hadn't made anything better.

Slowly, Bon Bon managed to find her friends.  First one, then another.  Old lost contacts came up again, friends she hadn't seen in months or years contacted her with letters, or in person.

Then, Princess Twilight Sparkle found out who she was.  What she was.

For a few moments, everything balanced on a razor's edge.

But Twilight smiled, and told Bon Bon that no matter what she was, she was a friend, and that was all that mattered.

Things began to change more quickly, after that.

Twilight Sparkle was a princess, and strangely disarming.  Soon, she knew exactly how many of her friends were like Bon Bon, and it drove the princess to change the laws, at least in Ponyville.  Everypony reacted... poorly, at first, but ponies are adaptable if nothing else, and they always trust their princesses.

In a few months, Bon Bon could actually tell other ponies she was a changeling.  It sounds small, but this was something that none of her kind had ever been able to do before.

Soon, Ponyville was full of changelings.  It was still much harder to be open, anywhere else, so they flocked to the small rural town.  Over time, they became part of the local flavor like cider and apple pie.  Changelings lived openly, not even bothering with disguises, and Bon Bon felt truly at home.

But nothing lasts forever.

It started small, in fact nopony even noticed at first.  Bon Bon found herself tired more often, a sort of strange, listless malaise settling over her.  It wasn't exactly uncommon, everypony gets tired, or has a bad night's sleep now and then.  It was a week or two of that before she started to remember the dreams.

In the dreams it was always dark, but she could almost see a tinge of green light.  All she was aware of was whispering, a quiet voice, growing stronger.

It was only after the first dream that she realized so many other changelings seemed to walk with a slight droop as well.  Still, there was no need to worry.  A few bad dreams, some exhaustion... maybe it was just a cold or something, one that only affected changelings.

One morning, Bon Bon woke up near Twilight's castle.  She was on her hooves when she awoke, and she wasn't quite sure what she had been doing.

That's when it became something to worry about.

She started to notice it after that.  Changelings walking through town, eyes blank and without noticing others.  More fights between changelings, and more arguments with ponies.

She found herself being strangely possessive of Lyra.  It grated on her almost painfully when Lyra spoke to other mares, and stallions were even worse.  Lyra's hurt expression when she was shouted at cut Bon Bon deeply, but she couldn't just let it go.  She needed Lyra's love, she needed all of it.  She couldn't bear to think of Lyra even considering anypony else.

More and more often she woke up in strange places without knowing how she'd gotten there.  Changelings and ponies both had seen the changes, and Twilight was exploring the limited scope of changeling medicine available to ponies, but she hadn't found anything.

Finally, one day, the reason was found.

Or rather, one day, the reason revealed itself.

The drone that had called itself Bon Bon stood at attention in Ponyville Square.   There were hundreds of her kind, all around her.  No ponies made any sounds right now, very few of them were still loose.  With a proud, regal bearing, Queen Chrysalis stepped forward from the town hall.  She walked slowly down the line of drones, looking each over, inspecting her army.  The drone that had been Bon Bon woke up a moment, and managed to wince away from the Queen, before her mind fell into line again, and she obeyed.

It had taken years to build this trust, and only an afternoon to shatter it.

If she had been able to think at all, Bon Bon would have wondered if it could ever be rebuilt.