Rico Heartstrings - A pony from the earth

by BlazeGriff1n

Chapter 4 - Life Is Changing In Canterlot

This eerie silence that I suddenly heard was more than unfamiliar, so I wanted to find a bedroom as soon as possible. When I entered the first unfamiliar room, I discovered a dozen or so musical instruments covered with white sheets. This was probably Lyra and her mother's music room. One room further I discovered many books, which stood in shelves as well as a music desk, on which still partly unfinished sheet music lay. Next to it stood an inkwell with a quill. Apparently this was an old study, probably the family used it to compose music by now. Although my tiredness was slowly catching up with me, I wanted to explore more of the house. One room in particular caught my eye because it had two large doorways. As I stepped through one of them, I could make out a large bedroom. The bed was decorated in mint green and pinkish blue colors. There were a few clothing racks around the outside and some had a more severe design, while the others were lighter and brighter. This had to be Lyra's parents' old bedroom, possibly she hadn't found a use for this room yet. Maybe it was important to her to keep it that way too, I'd rather not mess anything up here. As I continued to walk through the building, I could see that in the second tower, which had no balcony, there was also a room with two door leaves. The door handles were shaped like little harps and I could already guess who this room belonged to.

I opened the door slowly and could see into another bedroom, but there were all kinds of things in it. The moon shone through a large window, which bathed the whole room in a mixture of blue-green hues. In the corner I could see a rack, on which probably a small musical instrument like a guitar or something similar would have a place. But with Lyra, I could guess what kind of instrument once stood there. Probably she had taken it with her to Ponyville to BonBon, leaving it here would have made no sense either. The bed was covered with white and light green sheets, but didn't look dusty in any way. Obviously Lyra had been here often and cared for everything, even though she spent most of her time at BonBon's. On the other side of the room was a slate board and a small stool. On it were drawn some symbols with arrows that seemed to go in all directions. On the floor, in a pile, lay various books. According to the titles, they were books about advanced unicorn magic. When I let my eyes wander to the side, I could see a shelf with a dozen books there as well. Lyra seemed to be very well-read, which pleased me very much. On the wall were various pictures of Lyra, which also showed her as a cuddly foal. The pictures seemed to have been drawn by a gifted artist. One picture seemed to be a kind of certificate:

It is with great pleasure that I, Princess Celestia, announce that

Lyra Heartstrings

has successfully completed the School for Gifted Unicorns and passed her final exam with flying colors.

She was tested in the advanced areas of Apparition, Protegium, and the use of an ancient spell. The purpose of Mrs. Heartstrings' wish spell was to create a musical instrument out of an arbitrary object.

She also shows special talent in the field of ascendium.

I was as proud of Lyra at that moment as I was of Rainbow Dash when she received her award shortly after her Sonic Rainboom. A few tears came to my eyes as I read the lines. She was a wonderful unicorn like you could only imagine in your wildest dreams. Why was I fooling myself about anything? How could I compete with all of this? I was a nobody, I had nothing. No certificate, no home...I didn't even know if I had parents who would be proud of me. At that moment I lost myself in a pile of self-pity again and threw myself on Lyra's bed, only to press my head deep into the pillow in despair. However, my tiredness helped me and I slowly fell asleep sobbing.

Throughout the rest of the winter I learned to live on my own. Levita wrote me letters listing all the things that happened in Ponyville. Derpy brought them to me regularly and always had a pot of food that Levita had cooked for me. I just wondered why she wasn't allowed to drop by my house. Lyra and BonBon had been gone for quite some time now, I wondered if they had found out anything in the meantime so that I could return to Ponyville soon and see them again. While I liked being able to stay at Lyra's house, I was beginning to miss her. As the weather seemed to change again over the next few weeks, Levita wrote me about all the events during the Winter Wrap Up. In Ponyville, everyone pitched in to help clear the snow and clear the skies for sunshine again. Apparently, it was every pony for itself here in Canterlot. In Ponyville Vests were distributed, each bearing a symbol. Levita was given a blue vest with a sun symbol on it, and she explained in the letter that her team was making sure the sky was clear of clouds again and that they were welcoming the birds returning from the warm south to find their nesting places again. The ponies even started singing and the atmosphere was wonderful, she wrote. But she also mentioned that a lot of things went wrong this time.

Derpy seemed to have made a mistake in the direction of the birds from the south and flew north. Rainbow Dash began to argue with Applejack and Fluttershy. Then, as more and more ponies gathered, the mayor mare had to intervene. The unicorn Twilight brought a proposal to solve the problems and offered herself as a coordinator for the work. She was given a colorful vest knitted with the colors of all the teams and set about coordinating the teams and working through the tasks on a checklist one by one. So this year's Winter Wrap Up was completed on time after all without any further delays. I would have loved to have been there.

One day Levita wrote me that Twilight was running around Ponyville with some stuffed animal, which Levita wanted to have. It ended up that it felt like all of Ponyville was after this stuffed animal. She didn't know what was wrong with her that day, but now everything was back to normal. In retrospect, she even had to laugh about her behavior, because she didn't know herself that way. As if some strange spell had been cast on her.

Levita really didn't leave out any details in her letters, she even reported that the chimera, whose mosaic we had seen in one of the windows in the castle, had come again and turned the whole of Ponyville upside down. But fortunately, the six seemingly most important ponies in Equestria were able to clean up the mess. I had heard about this because there was a ceremony here in Canterlot to celebrate the triumph of the six ponies.Was there anything else they were not involved in?

The question should answer itself in the next days. For once, all of Ponyville was in an uproar because Fluttershy had suddenly become mean. This had worried Levita a lot, but apparently it was related to a training that was supposed to build Fluttershy's self-confidence. Apparently it had worked a little too well.

Levita had a very special day when she wrote how she sang a song with Pinkie Pie and all the ponies in Ponyville. In the process, some ponies even hopped from one roof to another on the houses. Pinkie Pie was all about cheering up some old donkey, though. I could literally imagine Pinkie Pie overreacting again. But she was apparently a master at getting into details. But Rainbow Dash also seemed to overreact in certain things, as the next letter showed. In it, Levita described that there was a cider tasting at Sweet Apple Acres. She wrote that it was actually the same thing every year, only this time there was competition for Applejack. A vendor duo of two twin ponies had developed a machine that made it possible to make cider without hard work. Also, the Apple family seemed to have constant shortages because it took so long to make the cider. Rainbow Dash seemed to be particularly affected by this, so she was happy that a faster version was now available. However, it soon turned out that it was not even close to being as good as everyone expected. Homemade still tasted the best. I could fully agree with Levita on that. Applejack even received an award from Ponyville's mayor personally for her outstanding work at Sweet Apple Acres, even though she looked pretty worn out at the ceremony. But farm life was no bed of roses...even for an earth pony.

What I would have liked to have been there was when Levita wrote how Spike became a giant dragon that put all of Ponyville in turmoil. Apparently there was always something exciting happening in Ponyville, which was not the case in Canterlot. Everything was so quiet here...too quiet for my taste. Even in the newspapers I didn't read anything special, just the usual Canterlot stuff. I really didn't want to seem ungrateful for Lyra offering me her house, but slowly I could understand why she wanted to leave Canterlot. Here it was just too boring for the average pony. Ponyville even had a newspaper publisher now, started by the elementary school in Ponyville. Derpy even brought me a few copies. Meanwhile, I was trying out new ways to grab things with my wings and even managed to turn individual pages. The stories inside were really worth every page. It had been a long time since I could laugh heartily. The two ponies from the magic show at the talent contest had managed to stick to each other with chewing gum. There were also articles that exposed the fake tricks of the blue magic pony named Trixie. And even Princess Celestia was mentioned, as she was caught eating a dozen or so cakes, which was not at all in keeping with royal manners. Then, when the mayor's artificial mane dyeing was reported, I started to worry since this information apparently didn't get to the paper voluntarily. There was also an article about Twilight, where she had called herself a "Canterlot snob". Even though that was certainly an impertinent insinuation, I could well understand it. The whole town was made up of nothing but snobs, certainly with a few exceptions.

The next few issues of the newspaper were just laughable, but I couldn't laugh at them anymore. The paper, written by a certain "Gabby Gums," now insinuated Applejack slept on the job, that Fluttershy had artificial hair extensions on her tail, and that Pinkie Pie is an out-of-control party animal...well, I knew that last one before the paper, too. And Rainbow Dash was also caught getting a hooficure. I couldn't picture her doing that at all, now the paper started lying for me. However, as a result, the newspaper was also discontinued, as Derpy told me. Luckily I didn't have to pay for all the issues, they wouldn't have gotten a Bit from me for that wipe, which it was now. But unfortunately it was like that with a lot of things that were basically a good idea at the beginning and got worse and worse over time.

But that was not true of Levita's letters. I always read them with enthusiasm, and at the same time I kept up to date. Meanwhile, in Ponyville, there was a competition called "Sisterhooves Social". The goal was for two ponies, preferably siblings, to work together to win various disciplines in partner work. Since Levita and Derpy had no siblings, they did not take part in the competition, but watched it from the stands. The interesting thing was that Levita had watched Rainbow Dash compete with the orange foal who always rode around town on a scooter. I didn't know Rainbow Dash had a sister until now, let alone her name. I only knew that she belonged to the group called the cutie mark Crusaders. And their cutie marks were also the subject of Levita's next letter.

She told that Applebloom, Applejack's sister, was getting her first cutie mark and was totally excited. However, things seemed strange to Levita when something happened that was not normally possible. Applebloom got a second cutie mark in addition, and then another. She felt compelled to do some acrobatic or dangerous stunts, and it seemed as if the cutie marks were controlling her behavior. However, the whole thing was quickly cleared up by a zebra that Levita had never seen in Ponyville before. Her name was Zecora and she lived in Everfree Forest, she was a master at brewing potions for just about any ailment. Apparently Applebloom's complaint was that she didn't have a cutie mark yet. I could well understand the feeling of not knowing where you belonged. But it wasn't just because of my lack of a cutie mark.

One evening I noticed how in the city various ponies had dark clothes and partly pointed teeth like bats. There were many pumpkins on the streets, glowing an eerie orange. Some of them had funny facial expressions, others nasty. This festival looked very familiar to me, although I didn't know the name for it either. Levita explained it in her next letter, though, saying that this festival was called "Nightmare Night." Levita had also dressed up, but she would not tell me what the costume looked like. She only said that her costume was anonymous and mysterious. I would have loved to join this celebration, but unfortunately I lacked the idea for a really creepy costume. I would have loved to see what Levita would have looked like in her costume.

A few days later Derpy was at my door very early and wanted to show me something special. She led me to a lookout at the edge of town, from where one had a wonderful view of the landscape between Cloudsdale and Ponyville. She told me to wait at that spot and hastily disappeared. I was waiting anxiously to see what would happen when a kind of whirlwind gathered over Ponyville. But this did not come from the clouds, but grew larger and larger from the ground until I could see it clearly. As it did so, I noticed a kind of water spiral forming, reaching all the way across the sky to Cloudsdale. The sunlight shone through this enormous stream of water and made Canterlot shine in all colors. The last time I saw something like that was in Cloudsdale, when Rarity flew in front of the sun with her colorful butterfly wings. That day Levita had also shown me the factory where the clouds and rain were made and apparently that's how the factory got its water for production. I noticed other ponies gathering at the lookout as well, not wanting to miss this spectacle. This was by far the coolest thing I had seen so far. I wondered how many pegasi it had taken to create this powerful whirlwind, Levita and Derpy were certainly involved. It filled me with pride at that moment to have such helpful ponies as friends, but at the same time it pained me that I myself could only contribute a little so far. But who wanted help from a pony that needed help itself? This thought did not comfort me in the least.

But that didn't mean that every pony didn't care about me. The very next day I was surprised to see a package with a big red heart on the doorstep. The package itself shone in a light green tone. When I looked around, however, I could see no one, no pony had knocked on the door. Surely Derpy was in a hurry today, but who did this mysterious package come from? I picked it up by the loop with my mouth and carried it into the living room, where I could already open the bow carefully with my wings. But the wrapping paper could not be removed with it and with my hooves I would certainly have crushed the package. I realized again that I should continue to practice using tools. My teeth would probably not thank me in the long run. Under the gift box was a cardboard box containing some Bits, candies and an envelope. On this envelope was painted a cutie mark that I would have recognized among a thousand others. I opened the envelope and could see a letter inside, confirming my suspicion that the package came from Lyra. Before I thought too much, I took out the letter with the wings and started to read it directly, while I tried to open a bonbon with my hooves:

Hi,

I thought I should write to you. Actually, I shouldn't, because I'm on a secret mission with BonBon. Although, mission sounds a bit too dangerous now and since I told you, I guess it's not secret anymore. But I feel like a special agent right now. All day long BonBon and I have been watching all kinds of ponies and have already come across many doubles. There are really a lot of them. But unfortunately we still don't know where all these doubles come from.

I hope that everything is fine with you in Canterlot and that you feel comfortable in my old home. I don't know when we will be back, but I wanted to let you know that we are both doing well. I sent you a few things in celebration of Hearts and Hooves Day because I really like you. BonBon doesn't know about it, you know how she is about it. Besides, she got a present from me too, so Mrs. Sweetie Drops doesn't have to complain.

Please give my love to Levita and Derpy too, I miss you.

Lyra

It was a load off my mind that there was a sign of life from Lyra and BonBon. It had been almost a year since they left for Appleloosa. A little later Derpy came with a new letter from Levita. I was surprised at that moment that she came especially again for the letter, when she had already brought the package to me before. When Derpy looked at the package, she told me that she was sure that the package was not from her. She might be a bit upset today because apparently there was a big event planned in Canterlot for which she had to make countless invitations, but still she would have remembered such a package if it had been for me. I told her that it was from Lyra on the occasion of "Hearts and Hooves Day" and since I didn't know what that day was, Derpy explained to me that it is a day when ponies give each other gifts that are very fond of each other. For example, Levita had given her a whole basket of muffins, and it came out that Derpy had the same gift idea. I could well imagine that had been a fun moment. But if Derpy hadn't brought me the package, who had?

As Derpy got back to work, I decided to read the next letter from Levita. This one was written differently and was very short this time. She told about a garden party in Canterlot to which she was invited by Rarity and would use this occasion to meet again. I found it a bit strange, especially since Levita usually wrote whole novels in her letters. Whereas it would have been easier for me to get a short letter every day. But if that meant less work for Levita, then it was fine for me. And it was nice to hear that I would see her again after Rarity's garden party. Derpy had said something about countless invitations, apparently this garden party was something special! But over the rest of the day, I could hear from the other ponies on the street that it wasn't about the garden party. Apparently it was about a large scale wedding that was to take place tomorrow and there was even a princess getting married.

The next day there was a knock on my door very early. I sleepily went down to the entrance area and opened the big front door. Levita was standing in front of it, looking at me with astonished eyes.

"Oh, uh. Hello Levita.I wasn't expecting you so early."

"Yeah...I thought the early bird catches...uh...the worm." she said nervously.

I could tell something about me was unsettling her. For some reason she seemed afraid of me, she hadn't even hugged me even though we hadn't seen each other in ages.

"Please, come in," I begged her.

She walked in slowly and took a cursory look around at first. She quickly discovered the package from Lyra, which was still lying open on the living room floor. She went a little closer to have a closer look at it.

"So, how are you doing in the meantime? Have you settled in...well?" Levita asked me, still unsure.

I was still standing at the open front door, slightly confused by her behavior.

"Well, I think Lyra's house is great, it's just that the city...is kind of not for me...you can probably guess why..."

While I was telling her my thoughts, I noticed that she wasn't really listening to me. She seemed to be looking for something and kept nodding while I was talking. When she looked closely at the package, she noticed the note. Suddenly her eyes widened and she seemed to have found something she was looking for.

"She was here!" suddenly shouted Levita at the top of her voice as BonBon abruptly stormed through the open front door and fixed me on the floor.

She looked at me with angry yet panicked eyes. Levita ran to the front door to lock it from the inside. I started to be afraid. What was happening here all of a sudden? Were they perhaps doubles who only looked like Levita and BonBon?

"WHERE IS SHE?" yelled BonBon at me.

"W...what are you doing here? I thought you were in Appleloo...."

But BonBon interrupted me immediately.

"Spare yourself, changeling! Where's Lyra?"

"No, BonBon, wait! I'm not a changeling, whatever that is!"

"Oh yeah, prove it!"

I stammered around, trying to remember anything that only the two of us could know.

"Gazpacho!" I exclaimed in exasperation.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"The evening we first met, you made gazpacho."

"So, that's not proof that you weren't a changeling by then! You made that up cleverly, didn't you? Diverting my suspicions to the others to distract from you. Who are you, where are you from and what are you up to?" she said demanding.

I didn't know how to answer until Levita spoke up. Apparently she could read my mind.

"I don't think even the real one could answer these questions, BonBon. That's why we went to see you back then, remember?"

BonBon remembered and had to agree with her.

"You've got a point, but how are we going to find out if he's not a changeling?"

"Show us your wings. Please." said Levita calmly to me.

"Alright, here!" I said, spreading my wings wide open, causing BonBon to fall on her back in shock at first.

"These...these are the wings of an alicorn. But how? That's anatomically impossible for a pegasus to..." she said, horrified.

"It's okay, BonBon. It's okay, it's him! You can let him go."

"But that's what makes him suspicious, since he doesn't look like a normal Pegasus! Changelings can sometimes copy only certain parts of the original, depends on how long they've had a chance to study the original." said BonBon.

"Then please tell me this, BonBon. If he is a changeling, then somewhere out there should be the original running around. Have we ever seen a double of him since he showed up? Well I haven't, and I also have a special power of observation." Levita winked at her.

"Now that you mention it, no I haven't either. It's strange that he hasn't been copied yet, but I think it indicates that he's not a changeling." she said, getting off of me.

"I'm really sorry, we just have to be careful. This whole thing got out of hoof." BonBon apologized to me, scratching her head in embarrassment.

"It's okay. What about Lyra? Where is she?" I wanted to know.

BonBon had to swallow deeply before she looked at me with desperate eyes and told me everything that had happened since they had gone to Appleloosa by train, which very quickly turned out to be just an excuse, because she and Lyra never went to Appleloosa. They were in Ponyville the whole time. The garden party was also meant to be a pretext, which had actually taken place the previous evening. Levita felt it was necessary for her to have a reason for coming to see me, even though she could have dropped by anytime. BonBon told me that she suspected I had something to do with the doubles. Since Levita had found me in Everfree Forest, the number of doubles had increased considerably. She didn't want to keep me near the princess to protect me, but to be able to stop me as soon as possible if something should happen. She was pretty sure that the doppelgangers were waiting for an opportunity to become active in as large numbers as possible. But now that the trail was fizzling out, she was back to square one in her investigation. And now there was no trace of Lyra either. Ponyville was only a small village, large gatherings would quickly attract attention and alert the princesses as well as Twilight and her friends, whom BonBon abbreviated to F.R.O.W.N., which stood for Friendship Ranger Organization of Worldwide Neighgotiations. Now the six of them even had a name of their own, albeit one that meant frowning in shorthand.

"Wait, BonBon...you're saying that these changelings wouldn't stand out at a large gathering?"

She nodded in confusion, not knowing what I was getting at.

"I heard that a princess is getting married today in Canterlot. There will probably be a lot of ponies there."

BonBon's beige face visibly turned white.

"Oh Celestia...that's today?" she said, shakily holding her hoof in front of her mouth as she chattered her teeth.

She sprinted to the front door and pulled it open. Outside, a few ponies could already be seen making their way to the castle to witness the marriage.

"Come quickly! We have to get to the castle, now!" shouted BonBon to us.

Levita and I dropped everything to follow her. We rushed through the crowd to get to a side entrance of the castle where there were fewer ponies. Apparently, however, this one was also very well guarded. BonBon sprinted with us to the guard ponies and stopped abruptly in front of them.

"Hey! You are not allowed in here! All ponies who want to go to the wedding have to..." said the one guard pony. At this, BonBon pulled out of her mane a card of sorts with her hoof on it and held it up to the guard pony's nose.

"Special Agent Sweetie Drops! I'm here on behalf of S.M.I.L.E.! Probably every pony at this wedding is in danger! I need to get through here!"

I had no idea what BonBon was talking about. But the guard ponies seemed to have understood her perfectly and made way for her. We tried to follow behind, but the guard ponies blocked our path.

"It's okay, they're with me!" demanded BonBon.

The guard ponies seemed to have a problem letting so many ponies in at once. They both looked a little uncertain.

"Please....my best friend is missing. She is one of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's bridesmaids. We suspect that something may have happened to her during the preparations. But I can't find her alone." said BonBon plaintively.

The guard ponies understood the seriousness of the situation and let us pass, apparently they were not allowed to leave their post so they let us through. I couldn't believe what BonBon had just told us.

"BonBon! What...what's going on?" I said exhaustedly as we ran up the stairs in one of the towers.

BonBon gave no answer, but kept running stubbornly until we could mingle with the ponies who were already making their way through the stairwells toward the chapel, which was in the courtyard of the castle. She looked around in panic, calling Lyra's name in hopes that she would appear in the crowd. But when I looked around, I couldn't see her either. It seemed like looking for a needle in a haystack with the crowd of ponies, so Levita and I decided to call out for her as well. We tried not to lose each other in the crowd until a pony spoke up.

"Hey, over here! Come to me!" called a yellow unicorn with a light blue mane.

We thought at first that the pony didn't mean us. But since she waved right at us, we decided to go to her.

"I'm glad I found you! I'm Lemon Hearts, a friend of Lyra's. I heard you were looking for her too?" said the pony desperately.

BonBon nodded.

"Oh, that's not good at all. Minuette and Twinkleshine have also disappeared. I don't know where they went and the wedding is about to start." replied Lemon Hearts.

"Don't worry, we'll find them together. Come on!" said BonBon and Lemon Hearts followed us out of the crowd. Standing a little apart, the four of us stood in a circle and conferred.

"So, Lemon Hearts. When did you last see Lyra and the others?" asked BonBon.

"They were last with the bride, helping her with the wedding preparations. I've already looked everywhere in the castle, but I can't find them!"

"Then we need to go see the bride, Princess Cadance! I'm sure she can help us!" said BonBon and had Lemon Hearts show him the princess's quarters, which was not far from the chapel in the courtyard of the castle. Levita and I flew after her, since we were totally out of breath by now. BonBon really had a remarkable condition. As we approached a room with two sets of doors and a sun above, we could hear the princess singing through the door.

“...no, I do not love the groom! In my heart there is no room! But I still want him to be all mine!” she sang enthusiastically as the four of us hid behind the flower pots in the hallway.

The princess flung open the doors and ran out singing. As she disappeared around the corner, we came out of our hiding places. Why was she singing about not loving the groom? What was wrong with her? The other three seemed as confused about it as I was. BonBon, however, gave us a look that by now told me what she was thinking: Something told her that the princess had something to do with the disappearance of Lyra and her friends. We crept into the room and searched for the first clues. Near the carpet was a green pile of ashes with a crushed flower on it.

Already when BonBon entered the room, something seemed strange to her and she searched the floor of the room. She tapped the floor with her hooves and pricked up her ears. Obviously she knew exactly what she was doing. And she did it very nimbly. We just didn't know what she was doing.

"Do you hear that? Why does the floor here sound different than other places in the room? There must be a cavity under here." BonBon surmised.

We didn't know where BonBon suddenly came up with this conclusion, but she was right. The floor sounded a little different with each step. As she pulled away the rug in the middle of the room and danced wildly on it as well, we could also hear the hollow sound coming from the floor.

"You know what I'm wondering? If the castle was built on solid rock, why is this floor hollow?"

We all looked at each other unknowingly, but BonBon seemed to already know the answer anyway.

"It's simple! Because there is a huge network of tunnels running under the entire castle grounds where the stones for the castle came from. Canterlot was not built on, but in the mountain. That's also why the castle doesn't slide down the side of the mountain."

She pointed to a specific spot on the ground, whereupon Lemon Hearts was to cast a powerful explosion spell. At first she hesitated a bit, since she probably hadn't used such a spell much before. Then her horn began to glow in a bright purple hue, hitting the ground like a beam and slowly causing it to burst. Levita and I watched spellbound as the floor crumbled and the fragments disappeared into a seemingly bottomless hole. Lemon Hearts looked very exhausted as she finished the spell. When Levita asked her how she could do such a thing, Lemon Hearts replied, breathing heavily, that she had been at the school for gifted unicorns with Lyra, where they apparently learned a lot more than just how to teleport around and levitate things. I was completely fascinated and a little intimidated at the same time. Luckily, we had found Lemon Hearts.

"BonBon, how did you know about the floor? Or about her doing that spell..."

"'Tis no time to explain! Lyra needs our help!" said BonBon, pointing to the deep hole in the ground.

We couldn't see how far down it went. So Levita and I decided that we would fly down to explore the tunnel. The light through the hole in the floor was reflected off the tunnel walls, which appeared to be made of crystals. Because of this, we could at least make out something. Below us, we could see something bright that looked like a bouquet of flowers. Apparently, someone was actually down here. I flew down to take a closer look. But as I landed and picked it up, I heard various voices around me that made me freeze in fear. Three unicorns came out of the darkness towards me and looked at me with glowing green eyes. One of them was Lyra, who gave me a nasty look.

"You are not supposed to be here! Get lost!" she hissed along with the other two unicorns.

I flew up to Levita full of fear, where the unicorns couldn't catch me.

"W...what's wrong with them?" I said in a trembling voice as I clung to the bouquet of flowers in fear.

"Hm...some spell seems to be on them. Better we keep our distance from them." said Levita.

"Are you guys okay? Did you find Lyra?" called BonBon down.

"Uh, yeah! Kinda..." replied Levita hesitantly.

"Wait, we're coming to you!" shouted Lemon Hearts to us.

I was afraid that the three unicorns would do something to them. But the unicorns just stood around and watched us. I didn't like the whole thing at all.

"We have to distract them somehow! Otherwise they'll discover BonBon and Lemon Hearts when they get down here!" said Levita to me.

"Mm...hmm." I nodded to her, still slightly distraught. The sight of Lyra had scared me to death.

But suddenly something seemed to attract the ponies' attention. Nearby we could hear a pony that sounded just like Princess Cadance, only she seemed very distressed. Maybe the princess we saw was a double and the real one was locked up down here. From a distance, Levita and I could see two ponies approaching the three unicorns. As they got closer we could recognize them. It was Twilight, accompanied by a larger pink alihorn that looked just like the princess we had met earlier. Apparently this one was the real one and they were in trouble. Lyra and the other two unicorns surrounded her and slowly moved toward her.

"You're not going anywhere!" the three of them hissed.

I shivered in fear and looked at Levita in despair.

"What are we going to do?" I said haphazardly.

Levita thought for a moment and looked at me. Then she snatched the bouquet from my grasp and flew over to the princess to throw it to her. The princess noticed and picked up the bouquet that had landed behind her. As she did so, the three unicorns stood spellbound and gazed after the bouquet, which the princess waved back and forth in a mesmerizing manner. She threw it into a corner, whereupon Lyra and the other two unicorns sprinted after the bouquet. Apparently they were still full-hearted bridesmaids despite the spell, which made me smile a bit for a moment. Once the three unicorns were distracted, the princess and Twilight were able to get through to us.

"Hello everypony! Thank you for finding us! We saw a flash of light and followed it here. How did you guys know where we were?"

"We had help!" I said, pointing to BonBon and Lemon Hearts, who had just stumbled down the rocks toward us.

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza! A doppelganger is trying to take your place at the wedding. You must hurry to the chapel, the ceremony has already begun!" puffed BonBon heavily.

"I know! We must stop the false me before it marries Shining Armor in my place!"

"Excuse me, your highness. But first I have to take care of my best friend who just jumped after the bouquet," said BonBon.

The princess understood BonBon's concern for Lyra, but she was already late for the wedding and couldn't waste any time, so she headed to the chapel with Twilight to stop the fake princess. Meanwhile, we looked around for Lyra and the other two unicorns. We found them behind a rock, still fighting over the bouquet. As we approached, they hissed at us like poisonous snakes.

But BonBon didn't seem to mind. She ran to Lyra and hugged her tightly. Lyra's green eyes looked around in confusion as she did so.

"Oh Lyra, I should never have put you in that kind of danger! Please forgive me, I didn't mean to!" said BonBon, desperately bursting into tears.

Please...come back...I...I love you!" she sobbed.

"Bon...bon?" said the still perplexed Lyra, before her eyes slowly regained their normal colors.

She shook her head and opened her eyes again, which were now back to their beautiful golden color. The other two unicorns also looked at her in confusion and seemed to come back to their senses. Apparently BonBon's affection for Lyra seemed to have broken the spell. I know that sounded really corny, but I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

"Oh...what happened?" said Lyra confusedly, rubbing her head.

"Thank Celestia! You're back! I was beginning to think I'd lost you!" said BonBon with tears of joy streaming down her face as she stroked her sniffling nose with her hoof.

"Oh...my head. Where...where are we?" asked the unicorn with the white and blue mane.

"Lemon Hearts? What are you doing here?" asked the other unicorn with white fur and pink mane.

"Twinkleshine, Minuette! You're all right!" rejoiced Lemon Hearts, hugging the two unicorns in turn.

"You were all under a spell put on you by the fake princess. The real one is already on her way to stop her!" I commented.

"Oh, no! The wedding! We can't miss that! We're the bridesmaids after all!" the three unicorns shouted. Apparently Lyra hadn't realized that BonBon had just poured her heart out to her, which is why BonBon also mouthed off in a very disgruntled manner.

Suddenly we heard a huge tremor from above that made the whole cave shake. Boulders fell from the ceiling and we decided to get out of the cave as quickly as possible. The unicorns teleported us to the princess room in time, before the big chunks in the cave came loose and fell hard blows to the ground.

"Whew, that was close! Where did that earthquake come from all of a sudden?" asked Lyra, frightened.

When the sound of the quake around us sounded almost like cannon blasts, BonBon ran to the window and looked out anxiously.

"That wasn't an earthquake..." she said slowly, with a very threatening undertone.

We all walked slowly to the windows and could see in the sky dozens of pitch black ponies buzzing around in the air like insects. They were attacking helpless ponies that were running around the grounds in a panic.

"What are those things?" I wanted to know.

BonBon turned to us with a serious expression.

"Get to safety...get out of Canterlot, NOW!" she screamed at me, making my blood run cold.

"BonBon! What's with you?" Lyra asked desperately.

"I have to find the members of F.R.O.W.N., only they can save Equestria now! And I won't put my friends in danger again, I have to do this alone!"

"No, BonBon! You can't go alone! I'm coming with you!" said Lyra desperately.

"I can't let you do this. I'm sorry, Lyra..." she apologized as she turned to me again.

BonBon ran towards one of the windows and jumped through, whereupon she landed in the front yard and continued running towards the chapel.

"NO!" Lyra yelled out, but I was just able to stop her from jumping through the window as well. She could have possibly hurt herself badly in the process.

"BonBon! Come back!" she sobbed.

"Hey! She'll be alright! Don't worry about her! We have to get out of here now!" I said to her, but she was completely distraught.

"LYRA! We have to get out of here now!" I yelled at her and I got her attention.

She understood the seriousness of the situation and we set off together to get out of here. Levita and I flew ahead to make sure if changelings had already broken into the castle. Some were coming in through the individual windows in the castle, and Lyra and her friends were fighting them off with magic. We arrived at the exit and snuck back out through the side entrance. The guard ponies were spread all over town to fight the black insect ponies. Absolute chaos.

"Oh Celestia...the poor ponies! What are we going to do?" shivered Levita.

I glanced around and realized that there were other ponies fighting each other besides the insect ponies. Apparently, they were doubles. It was difficult to figure out which ponies were the real ones now.

"We fight the ponies that fight us," I said.

"Lyra, Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts! Stay close together so we don't mix each other up! We'll draw the attention of the change ponies to us so you can disarm them!" shouted Levita down to the four unicorns.

It wasn't long before the insect ponies noticed us and flew out of the sky toward us.

"Careful, Levita! Here they come!" I shouted.

In response, various green beams of magic lit up in front of us, aimed at us. We managed to dodge the first beams, but apparently the changelings didn't want to hit us. They just seemed to want to scare us. When we lured them over the unicorns, Lyra and her friends cast the spells to ward off the changelings and put them out of action for a short time. But it wouldn't work for long, I hope BonBon knew what she was doing. We would not have much time.

The attack waves of the change ponies became more and more and we could hardly move from the spot. Lyra and her friends shot spell after spell into the air, a few other unicorns joined the group. I noticed a larger flying group of pegasi heading towards us, kicking changelings in the air on their way to us so they would fall unconscious from the sky.

"Your Majesty! We can't stop the change ponies much longer! What are your orders?" a pony with a fire-colored mane said to me.

Levita looked over at me, confused. I could tell by the uniforms that they were the Wonderbolts, accompanied by a few other Pegasi. Apparently the ponies thought I was someone from the royal family, probably because of my wings. But royal or not. These ponies needed help, and I was going to give it to them.

"The ponies down there need our help! We need to give them a way to escape the city. The unicorns will give us cover so we can distract the changelings!"

"You heard your majesty! Altius volantis!" said the pony, dividing the fliers into squadrons, each flying in a different direction of the city. Now at least we had a chance to get all the ponies out of the city. I checked on Lyra so I could let her know. I flew down to her and could see that she was already visibly exhausted.

"Lyra! The Wonderbolts will pave a way out of the city for you! You and your friends have to get out of the city now!" I shouted.

"I'm not leaving here without BonBon! She'll be fine!" she puffed heavily.

I looked up at the sky and could see that the change ponies were suddenly slowing down. Something seemed to have caught their attention.

"What's going on now? The change ponies...they don't attack anymore!" I said, confused.

"They are flying to the castle, do you hear? They're flying to the castle!" Levita called down to us in panic.

I looked again at Lyra, who suddenly got horrified eyes.

"Oh no...BonBon! They're after BonBon! I have to save her!" she said and ran towards the castle.

Her friends followed her while all the other ponies tried to get out of the city. I just hoped I wouldn't lose Lyra in the crowd. Levita flew to my side again and followed me on the way to the castle. In front of the castle we could see a massive army, apparently made up of very familiar lookalikes. In the midst of this army, Twilight and her friends fought the countless throng of changelings. But they seemed to be holding up well. When Lyra saw this horde, she turned fearfully into a side alley and disappeared from my sight. Shouting was useless with the noise at that distance.

"Levita, I have to help her! I'm going down!" I said, while Levita nodded at me.

I flew between the houses and landed in one of the side alleys.

"Lyra? Where are you?" I called around.

Suddenly a pony came around the corner, it was Lyra. But I immediately realized it was a double, as she had a sardonic grin on her face.

"Were you looking for me?" said the fake Lyra.

"Hmm...your appearance is interesting...especially your...wings. I've never seen a pony like you around here before." The doppelganger hissed as he eyed me.

"Anyway, I'll find your Lyra. Don't worry." the changeling laughed maliciously and changed his form again.

I couldn't believe it. The changing pony had copied me exactly. My mane, my tail, even my wings...everything. I faced myself and looked at my likeness. Before I was about to run away, fthe pony spat green goo on my hooves, which stuck them to the ground. It looked disgusting. Then the pony went off and called Lyra's name. Levita then came down to me from above and tried to help me. She tugged at my wings and body, hoping that the green goo on my hooves would come off. But it was no use, she had to try something else and asked me to wait until she would come back with help. What else but wait remained to me here also not left.

But Levita did not come back, possibly the changelings had captured her as well. A short time later, the buzzing of the change ponies became quieter. They all seemed to gather in front of the castle. Apparently, even Twilight and her friends had had no chance against the changelings. Apparently many ponies were able to get to safety, but now Canterlot was like a ghost town. I tried to be as quiet as possible so that no other change pony would find me. But one seemed to approach me from a dark alley.

"Please...please don't hurt me! You caught me, isn't that what you wanted?"

The pony scampered behind me and hid behind some wooden barrels, apparently it was not a change pony.

"Who...who's there?" I asked quietly.

"Shh, quiet." the pony whispered to me. I could tell by the voice that it was Lyra.

I could tell by the hoofsteps that she was slowly approaching. She conjured up a spell that made my hooves glow in a yellow magic aura. As a result, the goo disappeared and I was able to move freely again.

"Are you all right?" she asked anxiously.

"Yes, thank you for helping me." I said to her with relief.

"I shouldn't have run away, that was stupid of me. Because of me, you were caught and Levita probably was too," Lyra said worriedly.

"Lyra, you can't just put your life in danger like that, not even for BonBon. And not even for me." I answered her. She seemed to be blaming herself.

"But if you hadn't come back..." I said with gratitude.

"I had to, after I ran into one of your doubles."

"What, you saw him? How did you find out it wasn't me?"

“I didn't. I just realized I already knew.”

"Really?" I replied in amazement.

"Yes...and the fact that the doppelganger was running wild screaming my name. Who would do that when changelings were swarming everywhere?"

"Yeah, that would be...pretty stupid," I laughed perkily, feeling a bit ashamed of my own behavior.

"Now we just need to figure out a way to get out of town unnoticed..." continued Lyra, before we heard a low hum.

But it wasn't coming from the changelings. Something inside the castle courtyard began to glow with a bright pink light. It grew stronger and stronger until a huge pink magic bubble rose above the castle and spread over Canterlot. I hugged Lyra tightly because I didn't know what would happen if the bubble hit us. The changelings flew over our heads and were literally flung away by the force of the magic bubble.

"Lyra! Look!" I said in amazement, looking up at the sky.

"Yay! BonBon made it! I knew she would make it! Wohoo!" exclaimed Lyra euphorically.

All of Canterlot was filled with the bright pink light, which radiated from the castle. It pulsated until every single changeling fled to an area beyond the mountains. I was so relieved that BonBon had managed to free the princess. I initially thought that this would have been my first and last conflict in this new world, but now everything had taken a turn for the better again. I enjoyed the warm atmosphere that the spell cast over the entire city. Lyra and I could hardly wait to check on BonBon and the others. Immediately we rushed towards the castle to see them again. The ponies, who had just been trapped in the city, cheered joyfully and hugged each other that this nightmare had now ended. I could see Lemon Hearts hugging a little foal, possibly she had protected her from the change ponies. I only hoped that everything was all right with BonBon, too. The castle had withstood the attack so far, but parts of the city were badly damaged. We rushed through the destroyed front gate of the castle until we could see the chapel, smoke billowing from it.

When we arrived at the chapel, there were some pieces of debris in the hallways that had fallen from the ceiling due to the concussions. As we walked down the large hallway towards the main door of the chapel, we could already see other ponies through the wide open doors. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity were standing under the altar, anxiously watching the wedding couple. Twilight stood with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as we entered the center aisle of the chapel.

"Stop! Who are you?" said Twilight's friends to us, blocking our way to the princess.

"It's okay, let them through. They saved Cadance and me." said Twilight, coming between her friends.

"Lyra! Am I glad you're back to normal!" she said, hugging Lyra.

"Thank you, Twilight. You...you haven't seen my best friend BonBon, have you?" she asked, slightly nervous.

"Your best friend? You mean the earth pony from earlier?" Twilight asked.

Lyra nodded in concern as she realized Twilight hadn't seen her either.

"Aren't you guys missing someone, too? Where's Rainbow Dash?" I asked Twilight, who looked puzzled at her friends.

"What, she was just here...where did she go?" she said, looking around in panic.

"She was a changeling...I could see the spell flinging her away. You would have seen it too, but you all had your eyes closed." said Pinkie Pie.

"But...but where is the real Rainbow Dash?" I asked her.

We all looked at each other unknowingly before more ponies came through the main portal into the chapel. I could see Derpy and Levita escorting Rainbow Dash. I was glad to see that they were probably up, but they had a rather dismayed look on their faces. Over Rainbow’s back hung a pony that looked like BonBon. Her body was full of dirt and scratches, and it had also lost its color. Twilight and her friends ran right up to her and helped lift BonBon down carefully and lay her on the ground. We didn't know what had happened to BonBon.

"Make room! I have to get to her!" said Lyra frantically, pushing all the ponies aside to see BonBon.

She was lying lifeless on her side.

"BonBon? What's the matter with you? Say something! Anything!" Lyra pleaded with her, bursting into tears.

She grabbed her with her hooves and shook her. The other ponies around seemed to be struggling with grief as well. Slowly I realized what was going on with BonBon. But I did not want the thought to be true.

"Wake up, BonBon..." sobbed Lyra. "We won, BonBon. Wake up..."

I thought about pulling Lyra away from her. She would collapse any moment. But suddenly she stopped for a moment. She seemed to be able to control herself for some reason.

"You knew this would happen eventually, didn't you? You always warned me that it would be one day..." she said, looking a little calmer, but still sad.

I couldn't hold back my tears either. This was too much for me. I thought we had gotten out of this without any permanent damage, but a part of my heart was about to get a tear that would probably never heal. And I think Lyra felt the same way at that moment.

"...I haven't even been able to tell you yet. But...I want you to know that I've always loved you. And no matter what, I will always love you." she said and kissed BonBon.

Then suddenly something magical happened. Princess Cadance's horn began to glow brightly. She didn't seem to cast the spell, as she herself looked at her horn in great astonishment. BonBon's body also began to glow, while the scratches in her fur began to disappear. We didn't know what just happened, but apparently the spell seemed to miraculously heal her body. As we all took a step back in amazement, the bright light stopped again and BonBon began blinking her eyes. She began to cough vigorously, but she was conscious again. I felt a great sense of relief, the ponies around me seemed to feel the same way.

"Love conquers all, it seems..." I said softly to Levita as she smiled at me with a beaming face.