Pretty Little Lyres
The following is an alternate ending to the episode Slice of Life. It is fan made and should not be taken seriously.
"My name isn't Bon Bon," said Bon Bon. "It's Special Agent Sweetie Drops…" Lyra was silent, in shock. When she recovered, the mare was furious.
"WHAT? So you're telling me that our entire friendship was just a cover-up? Our relationship was your alibi? I can't believe it! I told you everything. EVERYTHING, Bon Bon, and you didn't care enough to tell me your real NAME?" she screamed.
"I'm sorry, Lyra. It was for your own protection." Bon Bon replied truthfully. Although she had only used the unicorn as a cover-up for the first few months, she had long since truly considered her a friend. Lyra did not accept the apology.
"MY PROTECTION?" she shrieked, advancing on her thought-to-be friend.
"Yes, Lyra. Your protection. I was TRYING to keep you safe! What was I SUPPOSED to do?" Bon Bon retorted defensively as she advanced as well.
"For one, you could just have been HONEST. I could have HELPED you. Did you ever think of that, Bon Bon?" Lyra said, tears coming to her eyes. Bon Bon thought of the many dangerous creatures she had faced and how helpless her associate was. She shrieked with hysteric laughter.
"HELP ME? How? Were you going to play your silly little lyre and soothe the beasts?" she said, with more than a touch of sarcasm in her voice. Bon Bon saw Lyra looking at her with wide eyes pooling with tears. Suddenly, she realized that she had just insulted the thing her friend loved most, and her special talent on top of that. "Lyra…I- I didn't mean…" Lyra interrupted her friend, her loud voice wavering with emotion.
"I could have BEEN there for you! I would have had your back! I don't know HOW I could have helped, but you're my BEST FRIEND. I would have FOUND a way to help you! I'm not a filly, Bon Bon. I'm a full-grown mare. I don't need protection, I just need the truth." Bon Bon took a deep breath, and started as calmly as she could.
"The truth is that I haven't lived in Ponyville my whole life. I came to Ponyville just before you did. I came here and presumed deep cover. That included forming relationships that went deep. Very deep." She thought that that explanation would calm Lyra, but it infuriated the unicorn even more.
"Are. You. KIDDING ME?" She levitated a hammer they were using to hang decorations and held it in front of her as she advanced on her friend. "All these years we've spent together, all the talks we've had, were all a lie? You used me!" She screamed. Lyra was about to swing at the defenseless earth pony when she realized what she was doing. She dropped the hammer to the side, took a deep breath, and wiped the tears from her eyes. There was silence, until she said, with a cold, emotionless voice, "You know what? Thank you, Bon Bon. You've made up my mind for me. I'll have you know that I've been offered a prestigious spot in the Royal Quintet." Still shocked by her friend's outburst, Bon Bon was a bit slow to process.
"The Royal Quintet? You mean the group Octavia plays in? For the princesses in Canterlot?" she said.
"That's right. My old friend Lemonhearts got me hooked up, and they offered me a spot." Lyra's emotionless shell broke a bit as she continued. "I WAS going to hold off until I could convince them to get YOU permanent tickets, or I was going to deny altogether, just so that I wouldn't leave my best friend." The unicorn paused, cleared her throat, and regained her cold demeanor. "But now, there's nothing here to hold me back. I'm moving back to Canterlot. See you never, Special Agent Sugar Lumps or whatever your name is." Lyra then walked calmly to the door of town hall and opened it. It took Bon Bon a moment to register what her friend had just said, but when she did, she was panicked.
"No, Lyra!" She called. The pony then thought that she could reconcile with her friend at the wedding. With a nervous smile, she ran to the door and called to Lyra, "Y-You'll stay for Cranky and Matilda's wedding, though, won't you? LYRA!" The unicorn did not turn around, or show any sign that she had even heard Bon Bon at all. But she did, and it infuriated her.
Once Lyra got to her home on the outskirts of Ponyville, right next door to Bon Bon's flat, her calm demeanor broke, and she started to bawl. She ran upstairs to her room and threw herself onto her teal and white bed. Gradually, her sadness turned to anger as she mulled over the betrayal. The more the mare thought it over, the angrier she became. Eventually, the irate unicorn started to half-mutter, half-scream to herself. "I can't believe it," she said as she packed her things, "A big fat stinking LIE! Oh, by the way, BFF, my name isn't my name and I work for a top-secret organization. Also, all those times you turned down great opportunities because of our friendship, yeah, that friendship was non-existent. I assume you're fine with it." She then proceeded to gather all the things that reminded her of her ex-best friend in a cardboard box. She also ripped to pieces all the cards that had been given to her by Bon Bon. "That stupid, lying, MULE!" she shrieked, and using her magic, hurled the box out of her window. It gave a great clatter as it landed in her backyard, but Lyra didn't even look down at it. The unicorn simply levitated her suitcase in front of her and left.
-After the Wedding-
Bon Bon knocked on the door to Lyra's house. To her surprise, it was open. "Lyra? LYRA? Are you home?" she called as she entered. She was shocked to see that all of her friend's furniture was gone, and in the foyer was a silhouette that was most definitely not Lyra. As the figure came towards her and into the light, Bon Bon recognized him as the most affluent pony in Ponyville. "Filthy Rich," she asked him, "what are you doing here?" The rich pony replied snootily,
"Miss Heartstrings sold her house to me. I was just inspecting my property." His tone softened slightly. "Say, aren't the two of you friends? Why, you're usually joined at the hip, the pair of you! Why didn't you know about this?" Bon Bon replied sheepishly,
"Because…" but was interrupted swiftly by the stallion.
"Well, now what's that?" he asked, apparently interested in something in the backyard. The two went out to see, and Bon Bon was quick to investigate the wreckage.
"It's a box!" She cried.
"Why, look at the state it's in! If I didn't know better, I'd say it was thrown out the top story window!" remarked Filthy Rich. Bon Bon continued to inspect the contents. In the box there was a very battered, framed photo and a beaded necklace. Underneath it all was a pile of colorful paper scraps.
"Oh, no." said Bon Bon. "It's her friendship necklace. I have an identical one." The earth pony then examined the shredded paper "And this is… it… it's the card I made her for her birthday on the first year we met! She proceeded to read it. 'D-dear Lyra, Happy Birthday, BFF! You know me so well, you probably already know your gift! Love, your bestest friend in all of Equestria… Bon Bon.' Bon Bon looked at the picture. The wooden frame was broken and the glass shattered. The picture itself was torn by magic, she could see. It was a picture they had taken just a week ago, of the two of them eating doughnuts on a bench side by side. The photograph was torn right between the ponies. Looking at it brought tears to her eyes, and Bon Bon realized just how much her "cover up" had meant to her. "What have I done?" she sobbed. Suddenly, she turned on Filthy Rich. "Did Lyra tell you where she was going?" the earth pony shrieked. Filthy Rich was startled.
"Yes, she did mention something about seeing Twilight Sparkle…" he said slowly.
"Thank you!" Bon Bon didn't let him finish. Instead, she raced off to Twilight's castle. "Twilight! Twilight! TWILIGHT!" she screamed, hammering at the door with her hooves. Princess Twilight herself answered the door, and had to move swiftly out of the way to avoid the mare's still-pounding hooves.
"Whoa, Bon Bon!" she said. "What's going on? First your best friend comes in here all upset, now you?" Bon Bon was about to screech at her, but something the princess had said clicked.
"So Lyra WAS here?" she said, relieved. "Great! Where did she go?" Still rattled, Twilight replied,
"Well, she had me teleport her to CANTERLOT, if you will believe it! I assume she was going to see our old friends, but I don't know, she might just be…" Bon Bon's heart sank. If Lyra was in Canterlot, she might not be able to find her in the big city.
"TWILIGHT!" Bon Bon yelled, interrupting the princess, "Can you teleport ME to the same place you did her?" The lavender mare thought about it a moment, and then replied slowly,
"Um, I suppose so…"
"Please! Quickly!" shrieked Bon Bon.
"Alright!" the alicorn said hesitantly. There was a flash of bright pink light, and Bon Bon found herself in the center of the capital of Equestria. The mare then raced to the house where she had spent many a dinner and sleepover. It had become so much of a home to her that she was allowed to enter without knocking. She did so, and was greeted by a familiar, pleasantly plump unicorn stirring a pot on the stove with magic.
"Mrs. Heartstrings!" she called. Lyra's mother looked up from her work and greeted her "second daughter" with a warm smile.
"Oh, Bon Bon, sweetness!" she said in her smooth, melodious voice. "I haven't seen you in a while! Oh, darling, you're looking awfully thin! Let me cook something for you to fix that up!" The earth pony smiled in spite of herself at the beloved mare. To Mrs. Heartstrings, apparently, "a while" was two weeks.
"Thanks, Mrs. Heartstrings, but I just need to know if Lyra's here!" she said anxiously.
"Lyra?" the unicorn replied. "Yes, of course, darling, she's upstairs in her room. She was hanging out with one of her old friends. Bon Bon was extremely relieved.
"THANK YOU!" she yelled back, bolting up the stairs. "LYRA! Lyra?" Bon Bon called, trotting around the second floor. Lyra was nowhere to be found. "Um, Mrs. Heartstrings, Lyra's not here," she said.
"WHAT?" the mother shrieked, running up the stairs as fast as she could. "Lyra, darling! LYRA!" she called, cantering around in her panic. "Oh, wherever could she be?" the unicorn asked weakly. "Surely she couldn't have gone out the window?" Bon Bon examined the window in question, and replied,
"No. She couldn't have. It's locked from the inside." Bon Bon turned back to Lyra's mother. "Mrs. Heartstrings, you said Lyra was up here with one of her friends?" The older mare thought hard, and then a comprehensive smile spread across her jolly features.
"Yes, that's right," she replied. "I can never remember her name, though. Such a sweet, studious unicorn." Bon Bon pondered this for a while, and then started to do what any agent with her training would: get a witness report.
"So, you didn't see either of them leave?" she asked Mrs. Heartstrings. The unicorn thought for a moment before answering.
"Well, her friend left a short while before you arrived, darling!" Mrs. Heartstrings started. "She was carrying a book that she said Lyra gave her. I thought it odd because the particular book was quite a foals' read. Not at all what a smart filly like herself would enjoy. It was also odd that she left talking to herself and laughing. She was usually such a down-to-earth pony as well. Not that her name would suggest that! Her name was… um… Lunar… Acrobat? Um… let me see here… Dancing Star? I can't remember! I DO recall that it had something to do with the cosmos. Hmm… cosmos… was it Cosmic…" Bon Bon believed that that was enough to go on.
"Thanks, Mrs. Heartstrings!" she called as she bolted down the stairs and out the door.
"Um… Bye, dear!" replied the slightly bewildered mare before returning to her cooking.
As Bon Bon raced down the streets of Canterlot, she began to wonder what it was she was running TO. She gradually slowed down until she was walking very slowly. The agent had only one, very vague lead, and she had no idea how to pursue it.
"Cosmos… old friend…" she muttered as she walked. Suddenly, the answer came to her in the form of Twinkle Shine. "HEY! Twinkle Glow, right?" Bon Bon called. "You were one of Lyra's old friends, right?" The mare across the street was caught off guard by the random pony calling her name, and responded hesitantly.
"Um, it's… Twinkle Shine…" she said, "and yes, I do know Lyra. Who are you?"
"I'm Swee- I mean, Bon Bon," said the earth pony. Suddenly, Twinkle Shine's surprised expression turned to a sour one.
"Bon Bon, eh?" she said coldly. "Well, then. To you, I have no idea where Lyra is."
"What? You know where she is? PLEASE! TELL ME!" Bon Bon said anxiously.
"NO! I promised Lyra that I wouldn't." The unicorn retorted. Bon Bon sighed in frustration. Suddenly, she had an idea. Hadn't Mrs. Heartstrings said that her friend was a bookworm? Bon Bon let out another, more pointed and grieving sigh.
"Fine," she said mournfully. "Could you just tell me the name of one of her old friends? I need to borrow a book." Her plan worked even better than she expected, for Twinkle Shine panicked and let slip some valuable information. The unicorn gasped.
"H-how did you know she was with Moon Dancer?" she shrieked. Bon Bon was satisfied.
"Moon Dancer, huh? Thanks, Sparkle Glow!" she yelled over her shoulder as she ran away. The unicorn realized what she had done.
"I'm so sorry, Lyra," she said. "AND IT'S TWINKLE SHINE!" she yelled after Bon Bon.
After a while, Bon Bon arrived at the house pointed out to her by the locals she had asked. She ran up to the house and knocked on the door decorated with a moon carving.
"Moon Dancer?" she called, "MOON DANCER!" The door was opened by a unicorn who looked an awful lot like the princess of friendship. Bon Bon gathered that this must be Moon Dancer.
"Yes? Can I help you?" The unicorn replied.
"Yes, actually, you can. I'm looking for…" said Bon Bon, relieved. However, she was interrupted by a great gasp from Moon Dancer.
"You're Bon Bon, aren't you?!" she cried. "ANSWER ME!" Bon Bon winced. Even after all her special training, she still wasn't very good under interrogation.
"Yes, okay, okay, I'm Bon Bon!" she said.
"I KNEW IT!" exclaimed Moon Dancer. "Well, you certainly WON'T find Lyra here. Her mother saw me leave alone, remember?" Bon Bon decided to overlook the fact that the unicorn knew what Mrs. Heartstrings had said and instead tried to get some more information out of her.
"Maybe, but you're a highly studied unicorn," Bon Bon started. "How do I know you didn't turn her into a book and leave with her?" Moon Dancer looked affronted.
"What?" she cried. "First of all, such transfiguration is highly dangerous! I would NEVER attempt that on my best friend. Second, that would be an awful idea, seeing as casting such a spell, even on the rare occasion that it is successful, would be a waste of energy! One could simply use Haycart's Method, as I did." That term clicked with Bon Bon, and she recognized it as something that Lyra had mentioned.
"What's Haycart's Method?" She probed. Moon Dancer realized that she had slipped up and started to sweat. Suddenly, from behind her, there was a small noise, almost inaudible.
"Umm… Oh, do you hear that?" said Moon Dancer evasively. "Yes, I certainly hear my studies calling me! Heh heh heh… m-metaphorically, of course! I mean, how could books literally call me? Heh heh heh… GOODBYE!" A yellow glow came over the door, and it abruptly slammed in Bon Bon's muzzle.
To be Continued…