Chapter 3
Windy’s hoof tapped gently against the doorframe. When she heard no response, she gently nudged the door open and stepped inside, pushing the door back to almost shut again.
Lyra’s room was dimly lit, the only light coming from the edges of the windows, where the sun peeked through the tightly-drawn shades. Clothes were scattered across the floor, and Windy carefully made her way over to the bed.
There, in a curled up ball of blankets, Lyra laid. She wasn’t crying. She had already cried and cried, until the tears had stopped coming, but even so, the blanket twitched and moved as Lyra restlessly shook.
The bed shifted as Windy sat down on the other end. “Lyra?” she softly called out.
“Go away,” Lyra hoarsely whispered.
Windy reached over to pull the blanket back, revealing the green unicorn, her long swirly mane all tangled and knotted from its wavy style, her eyes red and bloodshot. Lyra slapped at Windy’s hoof and her magic pulled the blanket back over her head.
“Go away,” she muttered again.
“Lyra, I know it’s hard, but you’ve got to push through. You’ve missed classes for three days now. I think your professors are getting worried.”
“I don’t care,” Lyra said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m quitting school.”
“What?” Windy gasped. “But—”
“It’s all pointless. I’m going back to Ponyville. I’m nopony.”
“Don’t say that!” Windy said sharply. “You’re… you’re amazing, Lyra.” She took a deep breath. “This is all because of her, isn’t it?”
Lyra’s face peeked out from beneath the blanket, wearing a snarl. “Don’t talk about her.”
“She’s bad for you. In the past six months, she’s strung you along while she did everything in her power to change you. First the hair, then the clothes, then the music. She doesn’t care about you, Lyra. She just wants some sort of… of… fashion accessory to parade around for her own benefit.”
“Shut up! You don’t know anything about her! Or me!”
“Can’t you see that she’s wrong for you? I just want you to be happy!”
“Then go away!” Lyra screamed.
Windy pulled back, her mouth open and closing wordlessly.
“Only Bon Bon can make me happy,” Lyra murmured.
Windy stood up and backed away to the door.
“Only Bon Bon,” Lyra whispered to herself.
Windy’s hooves sounded like thunder in her ears as she walked out of the bedroom. She made her way down the hall, pausing for a moment to look in her own room. It was nearly bare, only a paltry collection of trinkets that made up all of her possessions.
And then shaking her head, Windy Wander walked onwards, out of the house and out of Lyra’s life.
Lyra stared at the two identical Bon Bons standing in her living room, her eyes as wide as dinnerplates. She closed them and raised one hoof to rub her face, but a second glance revealed the situation unchanged.
“Okay,” Lyra said weakly, “Normally when I have this dream there are less bad vibes and it is more…” Her hoof drew a lazy circle in the air. “Bedroom-adjacent.”
“Changeling!” the Bon Bon on the right shouted out.
The left Bon Bon gasped and raised a hoof in accusation. “Yes! She’s a changeling!”
“No, you’re a changeling!” Right flailed her hooves out to push the other mare away, her face twisted in a scowl. “Get your filthy bug hooves away from me!”
“Lyra, you have to believe me! She’s an evil changeling trying to impersonate me!” Left stumbled back and crouched down, looking up at Lyra with her big blue eyes.
Right leaned forward as she hurled insults at the other pony. “Liar! Scum! Vermin!”
“Am not!” Left shouted back, rising back to her hooves to stand muzzle to muzzle with her duplicate. “You’re the liar!”
Right’s eyes narrowed. “That’s just what a changeling would say!”
“I’m not a changeling!”
“Said the liar!”
“Hold it!” Lyra shouted out, causing both to freeze. She plopped on the wood floor, holding her head between her hooves. “Okay. What. Okay. Let’s… Let’s calm down and approach this rationally?”
“But… but you have to get rid of her,” Left said. “I’m scared, Lyra.”
Lyra’s eye twitched as a slightly manic grin bloomed on her face. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen a movie like this, I think we can handle it.”
“Lyra…” Left bit her lip and raised one hoof. “Are you okay? I—”
“A movie?” Right said. “You’re kidding, right?”
Lyra shook her head, a little harder than necessary. “No. No, this should be easy. I just have to ask you something only the real Bon Bon would know. No problem!”
“Fine,” Right said. “Get on with it.”
Left shivered. “O-okay.”
Lyra’s face fell blank and she raised a hoof to her chin as she thought. After a moment of pensive silence, her eye twitched once again and she rose to her hooves, raising one foreleg high. “Okay! It’s on! Super Bon Bon Identity Quiz round one! Drumroll, please…?”
Both of the ponies stared back at her.
“You guys need to lighten up,” said Lyra. She paused for a moment, the grin returning to her face, still slightly too toothy to be natural. “Good job, one point to both teams!”
“Lyra…” Left said.
“Right, sorry,” she said. “Okay. Round one: What’s my favorite color?”
“Green,” Right said firmly.
“Blue,” Left whispered. Right shot her a dark glance.
“One point to Left,” Lyra said.
“Ha!” Right said.
“My Left.”
“But… but you’re green!” Right said.
Lyra raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“So it’s a stupid question,” Right huffed.
“Your objection has been noted. Question number two! What’s my birthday?”
“October 14th, 979” Left said.
“How am I supposed to know…” Right’s eyes narrowed as she glanced sideways at the other pony. “October 14th, 979.”
“Hm,” Lyra said. “Correct! One point to both. Question number—”
“These are stupid questions,” Right said. “I thought it was supposed to be something that I would know, not something about you.”
“Well fine,” Lyra said. “But it has to be something that I know too or else I wouldn’t know it. You know?”
Right raised her hoof to her head, wincing. “I am beginning to regret this trip.”
“Okay! Question number… fifteen! How did we first meet?”
Right threw up her hooves in disgust. “That was ages ago! Nopony can remember—”
“In the joint tri-university cafeteria at Canterlot,” Left said.
Right glared at her fiercely. “How did you…” A calculating light bloomed in her eyes. “Oh. How long have you been spying on me, bug?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Left whispered.
Right’s eyes narrowed, and then she smirked. ”Fine, then I do have something that only the real Bon Bon knows. Because only Lyra and I were there.” Right Bon Bon turned to Lyra and nodded. “Ask what I said when you finally asked me out on a real date.”
Lyra’s hoof fell, as her cheerful expression melted away. Her face turned stony, and she gazed out into middle distance for a long moment.
“Fine,” Lyra said, closing her eyes. “Answer the question, please.”
Left inhaled sharply. “Uhm. That— That I didn’t like mares? But I was wrong, I changed my mind, and—”
“Nope!” Right said triumphantly. “Wrong, faker.”
“Then you say it,” Lyra said, her voice weary.
Right rolled her eyes. “That’s hardly necessary. It was a fit of pique, and I’ve had time to reflect and re-evaluate, and—”
“Say it.”
Right shifted on her hooves. “Ahem. That is... I said you were going nowhere and you didn’t deserve to be loved. That nopony loves a loser.”
A flurry of emotions crossed the Left Bon Bon’s face at hearing the words. Shock, anger, and then a sort of stricken look as her eyes met those of Lyra.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Lyra said, her voice still heavy. “I know who’s who.”
She trotted forward, as Right grinned in victory. Up until Lyra pushed past her to embrace the other Bon Bon, nuzzling her head against her neck.
“You idiot!” Right shouted out. “She’s the changeling!”
Lyra looked up, her eyes so fierce that Bon Bon took a step back. “I know. Get the hell out of my house, Bon Bon.”
“But…”
“I’m not going to ask again nicely.”
Bon Bon bared her teeth. “I thought you had made something of yourself, but you’re the same trashy waste of space you always were, Lyra Heartstrings.”
Lyra let go of the other mare and took a menacing step forward, causing Bon Bon to hastily canter to the house’s door. She opened it and trotted outside, turning to haughtily glare back. “You’ve not heard the last of—”
The door glowed green with magic and slammed shut in her face.
Lyra’s entire body sagged, and she turned, falling forward. The remaining Bon Bon leapt forward to catch her.
“No!” Lyra shouted.
Bon Bon froze, one foreleg still raised and hanging, stricken, in the air.
Lyra laid limp on the floor, a puppet whose strings had been cut. “You… I don’t even know who you are.”
“I—” The words caught in Bon Bon’s mouth as Lyra looked up at her, those luminous golden eyes full of hurt.
Bon Bon took one step back, then another. As Lyra continued to watch her, Bon Bon fled the room, tears welling up in her eyes.
Lyra’s head dropped back down, and she hugged her forelegs to herself tightly as she curled up in a ball, her body shivering but face still locked in a blank stare.
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Changeling = Windy
While I admit this could have had more detail, his was a fairly emotional chapter, to be sure.
The bon thickens
This is a good story, so far. Keeps me interested.
3786047
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been thinking that.
3786047
Ooo. My money's on that as well.
~Skeeter The Lurker
3786050
True! If anywhere, I feel this chapter is where it ended up a bit rushed. That being said, the necessary elements all clicked where they did, and I didn't see any way to add in more without it being a case of awkwardly sticking in filler.
But! You can look forward to tomorrow's chapter (the climax!) as being longer and considerably more involved.
Knew it was a changeling... Kept it and kicked the real one out.
Vicious. Just what the hell did Bon Bon do/say to cause that...?
EDIT. YES. I know what she says, damnit. I meant that as I want specifics! Jesus...
~Skeeter The Lurker
I don't envy Lyra in this situation, but she made the right choice in sending the real Bon Bon away. Changeling has a lot of splaining to do, though.
3786066 ...? You kidding? O.o
3786095
I know what Windy said.
I want specifics.
~Skeeter The Lurker
That's the sound of one Heartstrings's heart breaking.
Good thing I know what's just around the river bend.
3786066 Uh...that Lyra was a loser who didn't deserve to be loved? The changeling might not be the "real" Bon Bon, but the changeling also seems to have loved Lyra far more genuinely than the real one ever did. I think Lyra knows that, even if she's going to have to come to terms with being lied to (and/or being fed on).
3786108
See
3786097
Thanks.
~Skeeter The Lurker
No! Bon Bon!
I'm..very confused right now. Can someone explain what just happened?
I positively can't wait for more of this story!
3786142
Which one?
3786047
Ooooo... I like this idea.
3786168
My take:
Lyra realized that Bon Bon on the right is the real Bon Bon, and she's a huge jerk. The penny drops when she realizes the 'real' Bon Bon is the one that remembers that she told Lyra she's a total loser. Bon Bon on the left is a changeling, and is the one who she has actually been dating, who cares for her and loves her. Lyra is teh confused and upset.
Nooo Lyra stop being sad
Calling it now, Windy was the Changeling ALL ALONG!
Lyra, the changeling Bon-Bon truly loves you for what you are. The real Bon-Bon is the one who doesn't deserve your love, and treated you like common trash.
That being said I still can't seem to make sense of this situation. Hurry up and update so you clear up this confusion.
Changeling= Bon AND Lyra
3785057 Seen It
3781180 WWOW
MMMMMASSIVE spoiler bro! Spoiler alert man!! Now I don't feel like reading the story
3786628
Er.... did you look at the character tags?
3786667 I don't most of the time because I like to enjoy the genuine surprise or reaction when someponies step in the story. That's just me
3782963
Perhaps, but I would give Changelings 10/10 moustaches
3786047
3786063
3786064
Agreed.
3786676 Fair enough. It's still worth reading though!
Whether this was rushed or not, I think the way the questioning went was very well handled.
Ok, I believe I know who the changeling really is.
it's Windy, of course!
The question is:
Was that her real (changeling) name, a totally made up persona, or was she already impersonating yet another different pony?
So far no real surprises in the plot, since only the basic premise and the expected conclusion of that have been done and little else. All the same... f
ing ow, my heart! 
Definitely well written, and it hits you right in the gut. Normally I'd be less sympathetic due to Lyra being an idiot when it comes to romance, as I normally am when characters are naive, but for this story that habit of mine is completely bypassed. Very well done; will be tracking this and giving it a thumb up. 
3786628
Didn't the story illustration and description make it fairly clear this was a changeling fic, even if you didn't look at the character tags?
oh, things getting good...
I approve.
3787001 Gees, why are you all being such killjoys? Like I said bro, I like being surprised.
Who else wants to prod me?
MY FEELS!!!
I saw the description and the title and I couldn't help but immediately think of this -
"Momma says he's Bonafide!"
"He's a suitor!
3788004
img.pandawhale.com/post-32914-damn-were-in-a-tight-spot-gif-m8fF.gif
Is this going to turn out like that episode of the Simpsons where Principal Skinner is discovered to be an imposter?
This is sooooooo goooooooood
3785105 The Red Brony strikes again
3786047
This should happen.
... I'll admit it, you honestly surprised me. Take my watch and my respect. <3
3786047 Someone better pick up that phone
Oh no, now the real Bon Bon is going to tell the whole town that Lyra is dating a changeling, just to get back at Lyra. It won't matter if the changeling changes back into Windy, her cover is completely blown.
I hope Lyra and Windy/Bon Bon can work it all out and that Ponyville can accept them.
Whoo now THAT'S gotta hurt.
All I can say:
3788396 Holy crap I was thinking the exact same thing
3787604 *poke*poke*poke*
3790161 HOW DARE YOU.
Seriously.