When the alarm clock rang, a pair of sleep-deprived eyes slowly opened up. The pony lying in bed groaned and pulled the covers over her head and her wings over her ears.
"Lyra… make that noise stop…" she muttered. Then she realized something. "Oh… that's right… Lyra's not here anymore…"
With a sigh, Bon Bon turned around and silenced the alarm clock with a hoof. She then threw the covers off and slid out of bed in a decidedly unelegant manner. With only half-open eyes, a messy mane and ruffled feathers, she slowly shuffled into the kitchen to begin her daily routine of making breakfast for herself.
The last few days had crawled past her without evoking anything resembling care or interest in her. Life in the darkness of the night had become a dull sequence of senseless activities for the winged mare. All the things she did, she only did because it was part of her daily life. It also helped her a bit to take her thoughts off Lyra for at least a couple of hours. She got up each day at the very same hour, had breakfast, prepared the usual sweets, wrapped them up and prepared to sell them on the Ponyville market. But as soon as she returned back home after a night of work, her thoughts went back to her lost loved one. And more than once, her sleep had been filled with nightmares that showed her either Lyra's monstrous transformation into the mer-mare or her declaration that she would never return to her.
Of course she now knew that the reason why Lyra had decided to help Skeletor was to protect her, but that didn't help much. Every day Bon Bon feared that Lyra might give in under the presence of the mer-mare and might truly transform into the monster she now resembled.
And she missed her. Oh Celestia, how she missed her. The house was so empty without her…
After she had finished preparing her sweets, she packed them into her saddlebag and prepared to leave. Before she stepped outside, her eyes wandered across the sofa Lyra used to sit on… always in that strange, upright manner. And in the corner was her lyre, lying next to those strange objects she sometimes put on her forehooves. What did she call them again? Gloves? A teary chuckle escaped her throat as she recalled those better days.
"It seems those days are now over…" she muttered as she closed the door behind her.
Flying to the marketplace didn't take her very long. Now that she had wings, she was able to save a lot of time by flying. Even though she sometimes felt as if becoming a pegasus had made her lose something… a connection to the ground she always felt back when she was an earth pony.
Trying not to think about things too much, she landed and put up her stand. All around her, ponies went about their daily routines. She saw how Mr. Davenport opened his shop 'Quills and Sofas' while on the other side of the marketplace, Carrot Top put up her own stand of carrots.
'Here we go again…' Bon Bon thought as she got ready for another dull day of selling sweets.
The day went by as usual. Every now and then, a pony would come across her stand and buy a bag of candy. There was nothing exceptional, nothing exciting happening, nothing she could be looking forward to…
"Excuse me?"
Bon Bon blinked as she was pulled out of her thoughts. "Yes?" she asked in the monotonous voice she was using nowadays. "You'd like to buy some sweets?"
"Well, they sure do look delicious, but I'm here for a different reason. You are Bon Bon, aren't you?"
Bon Bon looked at the gray earth pony standing in front of her. Bon Bon felt a bit of shame when she saw the elegantly-styled mane and tail of the mare and compared it to her own, rejected hair. Also, the treble clef cutie mark she sported reminded her too much of her musically talented marefriend. "Yes… I am," she said. "Can I help you?"
"Excuse me for bothering you at your working place, but I was told I could find you here. I am looking for somepony and was informed that you know her pretty well. I am looking for my sister."
"Your sister?" Bon Bon wondered.
The mare nodded. "Correct. Her name is Lyra Heartstrings. Can you tell me where she is?"
At once, Bon Bon's eyes started tearing up again. "Y-you're Lyra's sister?" She remembered that Lyra had told her about an older sister a couple of times. She had said that they weren't very close and that she had become a professional musician."
"Yes, my name is Octavia Heartstrings," she nodded. "So you do know her?"
"Oh… oh yes…" Bon Bon sniffled. "She… she was my roommate… we were… very close…" Before she could stop it, she started sobbing again. In public, with everypony watching… She knew ponies would start talking about her behind her back, but she couldn't help herself.
"So… you are that marefriend she mentioned before she left home?" Octavia asked. "I should have expected that."
'So she mentioned me to her family?' Bon Bon thought. 'I wonder if I was the reason she left home… she never told me how her family reacted when she told them she was into mares.' She looked at Octavia and tried to find any suggestion that the earth pony was actually worried for the well-being of her unicorn sister. But Octavia's expression remained neutral and calm.
"Sh-she's no longer in Ponyville," Bon Bon sniffled as she tried to calm down. "Why do you ask?"
Octavia raised an eyebrow. "Is it that unusual for a sister to ask for her sibling's whereabouts? It's been a long time and I wanted to talk to her. Can you tell me where she is at the moment?"
"Oh yes, I can tell you," Bon Bon said in a bitter voice as she wiped some tears out of her face. "She's hiding in the mountains as part of the traitor Skeletor's army…"
She noticed how Octavia's eyes went wide at that revelation. Then the gray mare sighed. "So the rumors are true after all… I didn't want to believe it…"
"Better believe it," Bon Bon said, fighting back another surge of tears. "His magic turned her into a half-fish creature and on top of that, he forced her to abandon me."
"This is terrible…" Octavia muttered to herself. "How could she let that happen to her? A member of the noble Heartstrings family, reduced to a monstrous pawn of a traitor to the kingdom…"
At once, Bon Bon was on the other side of her stand, glaring right into Octavia's eyes. "Don't you dare speak of her that way!" she yelled. "Lyra does not deserve to be called a traitor by anypony!"
Octavia narrowed her eyes. "I never called her a traitor. I was merely expressing my shock and surprise that even after being transformed, she would side with him."
"Is your family's reputation more important to you than your sister?" Bon Bon yelled. By now, she didn't even care that everypony was watching them. "And she wasn't the first pony that was forced or tricked into Skeletor's service… do YOU know what it's like to be in her situation? Come back when you know how it feels like to be changed by the comet's light."
"To your information, I AM changed!" Octavia spoke back, louder and harsher than before. To emphasize her statement, she extended her legs a bit so that she towered over the surprised Bon Bon. "And how could YOU dare to judge me or my family when neither you or Lyra never dared to show up in Canterlot together?"
"Well, there must be a reason why Lyra never wanted to go back home," Bon Bon shouted. She flew up from the ground so that her eyes were on the same level as Octavia's again. "Maybe she moved to Ponyville because she couldn't stand the Canterlot lifestyle any longer. Here, she could at least be the mare she was. At least I was there for her!"
By now, the shouting contest between the two mares had caught a lot of attention, not just because of their loud voices but also because they were clearly the only two sun-changed ponies present.
POOF! "Heya, Bonnie! Got another bag of your sensational sugary sweets left? I had this new idea for a cake but I reeeaaaally wanna try it out before telling Mr. and Mrs. Cake about it and… heeeyyyy! Is that you, Tavi? My favorite grumpy mcgrumpypants cousin in the whole wide world came to Ponyville to pay her cousin Pinkie Pie a visit! You all knows what this calls for, right? A PARTY!"
Well, now there were three sun-changed ponies on the marketplace, including a hyperactive pink pony who had just magically appeared on top of Bon Bon's candy stand.
The flying and the long-legged mare groaned in unison. "Pinkie…" they sighed.
"Of all the annoying residents of Ponyville I could run into, it had to be her…" Octavia mumbled.
POOF! Pinkie was standing right next to Octavia. "Awww, I missed you sooo much, Tavi! C'mere, cuz, gimme a hug! Huh? Tavi, did you grow?" Pinkie threw back her head and looked up.
"So wait… you're related to her, too?" Bon Bon wondered.
Octavia groaned as she shrunk down to pony size. "Yes, believe it or not, we are cousins. It's not like a pony can choose her family…"
"My mommy is her mommy's younger sister, you see?" Pinkie grinned. "It's a shame we rarely got invited to any partys at Canterlot… but at least Tavi's here now and we can catch up. Best give me ten of those candy bags, Bonnie. I've got LOTS of preparations to make, invitations to write, streamers to buy… Gummy ate the last batch, you know?"
"But HOW can you be her cousin?" Bon Bon asked. "Lyra is her sister… why did you never tell me that you're my marefriend's cousin? And how come you weren't NEARLY as distraught as I am when she was dragged away by Skeletor?" She was getting angry again, only this time around, her anger was aimed at Pinkie. "You were THERE when she told me she decided to side with that scumbag!"
"WHAT? Is that true? Why didn't you stop her, Pinkie?" Octavia asked as she glared at the pink pony as well. "How could you let this happen? What am I supposed to tell my parents? Oh sorry, my scatterbrained cousin failed to save her in time?"
Upon confronted with two angry mares, Pinkie suddenly became very quiet. She stopped ranting about her party and sat down with a sad sigh. "I… I was worried for her, Bonnie…" she said in a low voice. "I really was. And like you, I felt like crying that day. But then I saw you crying and realized how upset you were… and then I remembered something. I am the Element of Laughter… and it's bad enough you have to be so sad and worried. I wanted to cry for Lyra, all those past few days. But I can't. It is my duty to make my friends happy, right? To make them laugh, to make them smile. How can I be the Element of Laughter when other ponies have to cheer ME up? So I stayed cheerful and optimistic."
Bon Bon saw that Pinkie really meant what she said. Pinkie was a lot of things… but she never was a liar. "Oh Pinkie… but why did you never tell me you were related?"
"It never seemed important," Pinkie shrugged. "Would you have thought differently about me or Lyra if you knew?"
Bon Bon sighed. "I guess not… it's okay. I'm sorry I overreacted, Pinkie."
"Well, I'm not," Octavia said. "I still can't understand why you let Lyra go with that… madman!"
Pinkie didn't respond to that right away, she stared at the ground, looking… guilty? To Bon Bon, it seemed as if her bright colors were fading a bit… and her usually curled mane suddenly looked much straighter than before. "I… I'm sorry, Tavi…" she finally whispered. "I tried to save her, really… I tried, but I couldn't help her."
"Well, maybe you didn't try hard enough," Octavia snorted.
"Hey, that's enough," Bon Bon said. "There really wasn't much Pinkie could have done. It was a very chaotic fight going on… there was a manticore, a sea serpent, a gryphon… and Pinkie is just one pony. She can't be everywhere at once."
"If only I had poofed fast enough before meanie Skeletor zapped her away…" Pinkie sniffled.
"Pinkie, you were still getting used to your new abilities. All of us were. And Skeletor is a powerful sorcerer… I don't think any of us could have stopped him when he teleported Lyra out of there."
She walked over to Pinkie and gently petted her head with her hoof. "Now, please be happy again. I'm not mad at you anymore." She smiled. "What are we supposed to do if the Element of Laughter can't cheer us up anymore?"
Pinkie chuckled a bit at that. "Yeah, you're right… need to remember my duty, right?" She looked at Octavia. "Tavi… it's okay if you still want to be mad at me… but we'll try to find a way to save Lyra, you know? We're training every day in the castle… Twilight says we need to get ready for when meany Skeletor decides to come and do mean stuff. And she's helping the smart science ponies to find a cure so Lyra can be herself again. And Twilight is the smartest, cutest, all around best pony. She'll find a way for sure." By now, she was already back in her brightest pink and her mane had poofed back up in its old, curly style.
Octavia rolled her eyes. "Well, if you say so, then it obviously must be true…"
Suddenly, everypony was distracted by a loud noise that was coming closer…
"What is that?" Bon Bon wondered. "Is it a storm?"
"Oh, oh! I'm good at guessing games!" Pinkie shouted excitedly. "Is it a flying machine? Derpy built several of those."
"No…" Octavia muttered when the flying objects that were approaching Ponyville were coming in sight. "Those are… meteors?"
"They're going to crash in Ponyville!" a mare in the crowd shouted in a panicking voice. "Run for your lives!"
But the meteors didn't land in Ponyville. They flew past the city and past Sweet Apple Acres, before they finally crashed in the hills that surrounded the valley Ponyville was built in.
"That was exciting!" Pinkie grinned. "Let's go check'em out!"
"Why? They are probably just rocks," Octavia said. "What's so exciting about them?"
"But we don't even know what kind of rocks they are," Pinkie said.
"There are different kinds of rocks?" Bon Bon asked, raising an eyebrow. "And you know about them?"
"Well, duh! I WAS being raised on a rock farm," Pinkie replied. "Come on! Or else they're gone when we arrive there."
Bon Bon thought about it. "Oh, why not?" she finally smirked.
"You can't be serious…" Octavia frowned. "I expected as much from Pinkie, but you?"
"I'm just glad for some change in my daily routine," Bon Bon said. "It doesn't happen that often that a pair of meteors comes falling down from the sky."
"But think about how far away they have hit the ground!" Octavia sounded exasperated. "We'll need at least one hour of walking to even get there."
"Not if we fly!" Pinkie grinned.
Octavia held on as closely to Pinkie as she could. It's not that she liked being this close to her cousin, but it definitely felt safer.
"You comfortable back there?" Pinkie asked.
"N-not at all!" Octavia stuttered. "We're flying too high, this thing is too fast and sticky… how did you even get the idea of using a flying, pink cotton candy cloud as a mode of transportation?"
Pinkie giggled. "I dunno. It just seemed like a funny idea."
Bon Bon chuckled as she flew alongside the flying cloud that was carrying Pinkie and Octavia to the impact zone of the meteors. "Looks like you really improved your magic."
"Yeppers," Pinkie smiled. "The training helped me a bunch and Twilight's a real good teacher. Even though I must say most of the training spells she makes me use are kind of boring… so I came up with some of my own. I don't think she liked them, though."
"I can't imagine why…" Octavia muttered.
A couple of minutes later, the three of them landed on top of a hill. Below them was a small crater, created by the two meteors that lay in its middle.
Octavia jumped off the cloud. "Great… now I have cottom candy all over my flank…" she groaned.
"Oh! Want me to lick it off?" Pinkie helpfully suggested.
"P… Pinkamina Diane Pie! Unlike my sister, I am not THAT kind of pony! So keep your tongue away from there!"
"Aww… and I was starting to feel snacky…"
Together, they crouched down at the edge of the hill and peered down into the impact crater.
"Look," Bon Bon said. "There are the meteors."
"Oooooooh…" Pinkie murmured. She then giggled. "They look kind of funny."
"Pinkie… you think everything looks funny," Octavia sighed.
The two boulders weren't very big, just barely bigger than a pony. Their basic form was oval, even though one of them had a crystalline surface and the other one was littered with small craters.
"Let's take a closer look at them," Pinkie shouted excitedly as she bounced ahead.
"Pinkie, wait!" Bon Bon said as she caught her tail with her teeth. "The meteors… they are moving."
"They aren't just moving…" Octavia muttered. "They are… changing shape!"
And indeed, the two boulders had started twitching back and forth. A multitude of cracks formed on their surfaces, and then… they cracked open, revealing that the rocky surface was really just a shell. And on the inside of the meteors, two four-legged shapes stumbled to their feet. Together, the two creatures climbed out of the crater.
"Are those… ponies?" Bon Bon wondered.
"Wait a minute," Octavia said. "Are those…?"
Pinkie interrupted her cousin with her trademark gasp. "Inkie! Blinkie!" With a whoop of joy, she ran down the hill, as fast as a pink flash.
"P-pinkie!" Bon Bon gasped. "What are you doing? What if they are dangerous…"
"I doubt that," Octavia sighed as she stood up with a sigh. "Those are Pinkie's sisters, Inkie Pie and Blinkie Pie…"
"Her… sisters?" Bon Bon muttered, her head in a daze. She was very confused… what were the chances that in one day, she met not only one or two relatives of her marefriend, but a total of four.
"Hmmm…" Inkie muttered as she looked back into the crater. "We certainly have to improve on our landing…" She was the more mature-looking of the pair, and her light grey color made her resemble Octavia a lot. The rocky shell on her body was split up in several parts. Each of her legs was covered by a small part, as well as the back of her head. The biggest stone shell was on her backside, covering even her flank.
"Lighten up, sis," Blinkie said. "It could have been worse. We could have crashed into that farmhouse we saw on our flight here." Unlike her sister, she sounded more cheerful even if not as much as Pinkie. Her coat was mixed with a bit of blue and her rocky shell had a crystalline surface. "Oh, here's Pinkie now. Better be prepared for the usual," she grinned.
"Blinkie! Inkie!" Pinkie shouted again and again. "It's you! You're here! Ohmygosh ohmygosh… and I don't even have my welcome wagon with me. Now I need even more invitations… first Tavi than the two of you… this is the BEST DAY EVER!"
"Calm down, Pinkie," Inkie said in a calm voice.
Pinkie took a deep breath, and then another one for good measure. "But you're here," she said. "After all those years, you finally decided to pay a visit?" She then blinked and stepped back to take a closer look at her sisters. "Hey… you've changed."
"No, really?" Blinkie smirked. "You don't say."
Pinkie gasped again. "So YOU'RE the flying rocks? The zooming meteors? The crashing boulders?"
"Well, I did always tell Dad that if we keep living on the farm, we'd turn into rocks ourselves one day," Blinkie winked. "So we became rocks."
"Just like that?" Pinkie wondered.
Before either could give her an answer, Octavia and Bon Bon arrived at the bottom of the hill.
"Oh hey, talk about a family reunion," Blinkie said and waved. "Tavi! How's it going, cuz?"
Octavia rolled her eyes. "Why is it that everypony must mutilated my name?" she groaned. "Its Octavia! Octavia!"
"You don't like Tavi? Then how about Octy?" Blinkie suggested.
Everypony laughed at that, while Octavia's eyes started twitching. "Very funny…"
"And who are you?" Inkie asked Bon Bon. "A family member we never heard of?"
"Oh no," Bon Bon laughed.
"Girls, this is Bon Bon," Pinkie introduced her. "She's one of my friends from Ponyville… well, not one of my bestest best buddy-pals in the whole wide world, but still a pretty good friend." She grinned. "Oh, and she's Lyra's marefriend."
"Aww, so our sweet little unicorn cousin actually found somepony who's right for her?" Blinkie smiled. "I feel so happy for both of you."
"I wish I could say the same for me and Lyra," Bon Bon sighed. "Something awful has happened to her…"
"What? What happened to Lyra?" Inkie asked. Blinkie looked at the winged mare as worried as her sister, and so Bon Bon told the two rock ponies about what happened in the Everfree Forest several days ago.
They didn't know that they were being watched by a pair of attentive eyes. They belonged to two creatures that were crouching behind some bushes that were growing in-between two nearby hills.
"Ssssskeletor wasss right to sssend ussss here," Webstor hissed. "He will be interesssted to hear about thossssse rock poniesss."
His companion didn't say a word. The scaled, fish-tailed, barnacle-covered sea pony wasn't very happy to see those five ponies in particular. They reminded her too much of the pony she had been before. It made being a follower of Skeletor very… difficult.
When the meteors flew past Skeletor's new palace, he had believed it to be a sign of his master, a gift from outer space. So he had ordered two of his subordinates to investigate the landing site of the meteors. And those two subordinates happened to be Webstor… and Mer-Mare.
Mer-Mare thought about what Skeletor would do if they returned back and informed him that the meteors were actually transformed ponies that could be formed into new members of his growing army.
By joining his forces, she had ensured that Bon Bon would be left alone. There wasn't any other sacrifice she could make to ensure the well-being of her cousins. She had to delay the information from reaching Skeletor as much as she could.
"We need to return," Webstor said. "Need to tell Ssssskeletor about rock poniessss…"
"No!" Mer-Mare glared at him. "We won't go back empty-hoofed. Skeletor will be much happier if we bring one of those meteor ponies with us."
"But that wasssn't our order!" Webstor protested.
"Well, Skeletor made me the leader of this mission, so you have to listen to my orders! Understood?" she snapped.
"All right…" the spider-dog grumbled. Inwardly, Mer-Mare smirked. She was certain that the two of them weren't nearly enough to take on five ponies, at least four of which were sun-changed. The mission would end in a failure… giving her family enough time to escape before Skeletor himself appeared on the scene.
"Ponies to sssstrong to battle, to many of them," Webstor hissed. "We need to be ssssneaky…" He grinned. "Websssstor's venom will take care of them."
"What? No, wait…" Mer-Mare gasped, but it was too late. The transformed Diamond Dog had already started vanished underground, in a tunnel he was digging with his claws. And Mer-Mare couldn't even follow him, as his body was much smaller than hers, so she wouldn't even fit in the tunnel.
Webstor had always been the fastest digger among his old pack, even back when he was a regular Diamond Dog. Now that he had additional limbs, he could dig even faster. He came up right behind Bon Bon. In a swift move, he popped out of his hole to grab her…
"Look out, Bon Bon!" Octavia shouted.
The winged mare turned her head, but it was too late. The spider-creature landed on her back and wrapped all of his eight limbs around her body, hindering her from even using her wings. And before any of the other ponies could react, he opened his jaw and sunk his teeth in her neck. Bon Bon let out a small groan before her eyes spun up and she fainted on the spot.
Nimbly, Webstor jumped over to the next pony even before she hit the ground. "You are nexxxt, rock pony!" he cackled. He opened his mouth… and bit into the hard, rocky shell that covered Blinkie's neck. "Owwwwww!" he cried. "My teeth!"
Blinkie smirked. "Better luck next time, fang-face," she shouted as she jumped into the air, spun around and landed on her backside… effectively crushing Webstor between the ground and her own hard shell. The Diamond Dog let out a soft whimper before he lost consciousness. Blinkie jumped back to her feet with a smug grin.
"Hurry sis, there's another one over there!" Inkie shouted. "Quick, maneuver 21!" She quickly curled back up into her meteor form.
Blinkie quickly ran around her sister's rock form. "Here we go!" she shouted before giving meteor-Inkie a powerful kick with her hind hooves. Inkie was flung through the air, heading directly towards where Mer-Mare was hiding.
"Uh-oh…" the aquatic pony muttered. She turned around to flee, but Inkie came down faster than she could run away and smashed her into the ground. She didn't get back up.
Inkie turned back into her pony form. "Good job, Blinkie. We got her good." She then looked down at her fallen opponent, realizing for the first time who she hit. "Oh my… it's Lyra!"
"What?" Octavia gasped. "Lyra! My sister!" She extended her legs and ran over to where the sea pony was lying as fast as she could. "What did you do? Is she…?"
"She's fine, just knocked out cold," Inkie said. "Relax, you know we would never harm her. She's family, like you."
"Yeah," Blinkie nodded as she came closer. "Besides, she's on Skeletor's side now. We heard about it, even on the rock farm."
"I still can't believe it…" Octavia muttered as she knelt down next to Lyra. "My own sister, turned into this…"
"Hey everypony!" Pinkie shouted. "What do we do with Bon Bon? She's not waking up."
"In a minute, Pinkie," Inkie shouted back. Putting a hoof on Octavia's shoulder, she said: "Stay with your sister. Blinkie… you go on top of the hill and look for any others of Skeletor's crooks that might be nearby. We don't know if these were the only two."
"Got it, sis," Blinkie nodded as she ran up the hill. Inkie went back to where Pinkie was crouching next to Bon Bon.
"What are you doing?" she asked when she saw how her pink sister waved her hooves around.
"I'm trying to make Bonnie wake up with my magic," Pinkie explained.
"You can use magic?" Inkie asked in confusion.
Pinkie nodded. "Sure. Watch this… Oooooh, eenie meenie minie mew, let Bonnie be as good as new."
There was a flash of light and then… Bon Bon slowly opened her eyes. "Oooooh… my head…" she groaned.
"Yay, it worked!" Pinkie shouted happily. "Wakey wakey, Bonnie! Are you feeling better now?"
"Bonnie?" the winged mare muttered. "Who is that?"
Pinkie tilted her head. "Um… that's you, of course. Bon Bon… that's your name."
"What are you talking about?" Bon Bon asked as she stood back up to her feet. "What's going on? Who are you? Where are we?"
"Oh great, she forgot everything," Inkie sighed. "Pinkie, how often have you used this spell yet?"
"Um… counting today… once?" Pinkie grinned sheepishly. She then turned back to face Bon Bon. "Listen, you are Bon Bon, a pony from Ponyville. Remember the sweets you always make for Sugarcube Corner? Remember Lyra?"
"Would you stop babbling nonsense?" Bon Bon said. "I can't remember any of this."
"This isn't working," Pinkie groaned. "I've got to try another spell…"
"Please don't," Inkie said. "It's probably only going to make things worse."
They didn't notice that Mer-Mare had listened to their entire conversation. When Inkie hit her, she hadn't really been knocked out. She just pretended to be unconscious while in fact, she was able to hear everything that was being said. Feverishly, she tried to come up with a good way to end this forever. When she realized that Bon Bon had lost her memory, she felt devastated… but only for a moment. She realized that this might be the perfect chance to keep Bon Bon safe forever. All she had to do… was to make sure she'd never remember her as her marefriend. If she did that, there would be no reason for Bon Bon to endanger herself anymore. She could lead a normal life, back in Ponyville…
'Forgive me, Pinkie…' she thought. 'But this needs to be done…' She waited for the right chance… then she jumped up, completely surprising Octavia who had still knelt at her side. She then pounced at Pinkie Pie and pressed her down to the ground.
"Lyra?" Pinkie wondered. "Hehe… you really surprised me there. But this is kinda umcomfortable, soooo… can you get off my back now?"
"Silence!" Mer-Mare snarled. "Nopony move or I'll bite her head off!" she growled, baring her sharp teeth.
"Lyra!" Octavia gasped. "Stop that! She's your cousin!"
"She's not my cousin. I don't have any family. I'm the only one of my kind," Mer-Mare proclaimed. "Now step back!"
"That poor pink pony…" Bon Bon muttered. "That monster has her in its grasp."
"That's right, I'm an evil monster," Lyra growled. "Evil and vicious. You better not get in my way. You'll be sorry if you do, so go back in Ponyville! Forget about fighting for Equestria! Lead a normal life and you'll be safe from monsters like me!"
"Oh Lyra…" Pinkie sighed. "That's not going to work."
"Shut up! I'll cut your throat, I mean it!"
"Silly filly," Pinkie chuckled. "I know you only do this for Bon Bon because you love her."
"Th-that's nonsense!" Mer-Mare blurted out. "She doesn't even remember me."
"Maybe at the moment, but I'm convinced that deep inside her, she knows who you are. And you still care for her, that's why you want her to be out of danger. But she can't forget you that easily. She will always try to get you back, you know? That's what ponies do if they like each other."
"H-how could you know?" Mer-Mare felt like crying by now. "You know nothing about that… you only care about parties… and cupcakes… and silly pranks…"
"That doesn't mean there's nopony I love the way you love Bon Bon, silly," Pinkie smiled. "Trust me, I understand you."
At the same time, Blinkie saw from her watchpoint that Mer-Mare was threatening her friends. What she didn't see from her point of view was that she was pressing Pinkie down to the ground.
"All right, cousin or not, enough is enough!" she grumbled. "I'll knock her all the way back to the mountains if she keeps that up." She jumped down the hill and, in mid-air, changed back into her rock form. The Blinkie boulder kept on rolling down, straight towards Mer-Mare, who stood with her back to the hill and didn't see her coming.
But Bon Bon saw the approaching boulder. She knew that she only had moments to react before it hit the sea pony. 'What to do?' she wondered. 'Who do I help? The pink mare or the sea creature? What do I do?'
Then Octavia stepped next to her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. She whispered into Bon Bon's ear: "Whatever you do… trust in her. I've known her for a far longer time than any of you… and even though I wasn't always satisfied with her decisions, she still was my sister. In the end… I really think you are the best decision Lyra made in her life."
Blinkie started to roll faster and faster. It was only seconds before she would hit her goal.
Suddenly, Bon Bon gasped. "Lyra!" she shouted. Then, several things happened at once.
Pinkie Pie suddenly vanished from underneath Mer-Mare in a puff of smoke. The aquatic pony blinked. "What the…?" she muttered. Bon Bon then wanted to fly and push her marefriend out of the way of the rolling boulder, but before she did that, Octavia extended her two forelegs, grabbed her sister and pulled her out of the way, just before the boulder landed on the spot she had been standing on.
Inkie took a deep breath. "I think my heart stopped…"
"Woohoo, let's do it again!" Pinkie shouted after reappearing next to her sister.
"Let's not… Octavia muttered. She quickly wrapped her extended legs around the dazed Mer-Mare. "I'm sorry, Lyra… this is for your best."
Mer-Mare still stared at Bon Bon. "You… you remember?"
Bon Bon slowly nodded. "Yes… when I saw you there, I suddenly was afraid of you but I didn't know why… suddenly, I remembered your name. And after that, everything else."
"But… but… I didn't act at all like I usually do…" Mer-Mare said.
"No… but even though you look different and even though you tried acting like a monster… I could tell that none of this was for real," Bon Bon smiled. "No matter what you look like, you are still my Lyra, my sweetheart… and I love you, no matter what."
"And you are still our cousin," Pinkie beamed. Blinkie and Inkie nodded.
Pinkie then winked at Octavia. The cellist sighed. "Yes, you are my sister… but don't get me wrong, I'm still mad at you for several reasons."
"I know, I know…" Mer-Mare muttered. "You and Mom and Dad were never satisfied with what I did… moving to Ponyville, taking a marefriend…"
"That's… not what I meant," Octavia said. "While I really didn't like those decisions, they were your own. You are a grown mare, after all. What really upset me is that you made a whole bunch of idiotic decisions that almost caused you to get more distanced from Bon Bon than ever. You have a wonderful marefriend, for pony's sake… why do you want to throw that away?"
Mer-Mare looked back at her sister with wide eyes. "Octavia…"
"She's right, Lyra," Pinkie nodded. "You made some silly mistakes, but everypony makes mistakes. But in the end, everything is going to be all right. After all, we are one big, happy family, aren't we?"
In their dark mountain fortress, Skeletor and Trixie were watching everything that happened in Trixie's magic crystal orb.
"Those idiots!" Skeletor grumbled. "I give them one simple task and they screw it up." Through the crystal ball, he looked at the limp body of Webstor, still lying on the dusty ground. Then he looked at the trapped form of Mer-Mare, entangled in Octavia's limbs.
"Maybe we should just leave them where they are," Trixie huffed. "It's their own fault for not listening to your orders."
"No… as much as I dislike those moronic buffoons, I need every single soldier in my army," Skeletor grunted. "I guess I will have to go and save their incompetent flanks… again. You stay here and take care of things while I'm gone."
A simple spell, a flash of his horn and the evil sorcerer traveled all the way from his hideout to the hills near Ponyville, appearing right next to Webstor, who was just starting to stir.
"Incompetent fools!" he thundered, startling not only Webstor but also the ponies who were standing nearby. "Can't you do anything without messing up? Do I have to show you how properly take care of annoying troublemakers?"
"M-masssster…" Webstor jumped. "Websssstor wanted to return and report… but sssea pony refusssed."
"It's him, it's Skeletor!" Bon Bon gasped.
Mer-Mare felt a surge of panic. What if Skeletor would now take his revenge on Bon Bon? She was unable to save her, he was far too powerful… even if she wasn't trapped by her sister's limbs.
"So that's Skeletor?" Blinkie asked as she took a close look at him. "I've expected somepony more… threatening."
"Be silent, fool!" Skeletor shouted. "You will fear my name soon enough." He glared at Mer-Mare. "As for you, little traitor… I will deal with you later. For now, I will take care of more important things. You stone ponies… I am offering you to join my side. Refuse, and the rest of your family will be destroyed!"
Inkie and Blinkie exchanged a look. "Yeah… that's not gonna happen," Blinkie smirked.
"If you haven't noticed, we all are more than capable enough of defending ourselves," Inkie mused. "And we will also defend the rest of your family if you threaten them."
The sorcerer's eye glowed menacingly in the depths of his skull. "You dare refuse my generous offer? You mock me in front of my subordinates? For that insolence alone, you shall DIE!" He lowered his head and started to charge a powerful spell in his horn.
Mer-Mare gasped when she realized that the spell was aimed at none other than her marefriend. "Bon Bon… RUN!" she shouted.
But then Inkie and Blinkie jumped in front of her. "Allow us, friend," Inkie smiled. Both rock ponies then raised their front hooves, shielding themselves and Bon Bon with their rocky outer shells.
Then Skeletor fired his spell… a lance of destructive, purple energy. It hit Blinkie frontally… but was reflected by her shell. The spell flew sideways, hit Inkie, got reflected again… and flew right back at Skeletor.
"AAARGH!" Hit by the force of his own spell, the evil stallion was thrown back into the dirt.
"Ssssskeletor?" Webstor gasped. Using all of his eight eyes, he stared with disbelief at his fallen master.
"Wow!" Pinkie shouted. "That looked like it hurt. A lot."
Inkie smirked as she and her sister lowered their guards. "In case you haven't noticed, our rock hide is so tough that it can reflect even magic spells."
Bon Bon's legs were shaking. "Th-thank you…" she muttered.
"Think nothing of it," Inkie said. "As far as we are concerned, you are a member of the family."
Mer-Mare looked at Bon Bon. Her mind was in turmoil… she still was concerned about her safety, but today proved that there were more than enough other ponies willing and capable of defending her. So… was there even a reason to worry?
Skeletor grunted as he climbed back to his feet. "You… are going to pay for this… the pain I'm going to inflict upon you will be beyond words… but not today. His horn flashed twice, and in the blink of an eye, both Webstor and Mer-Mare disappeared.
"Lyra!" Octavia gasped as she looked down at her empty hooves. "What did you do to her?"
The skeletal stallion grinned. "All of my servants are attuned to me… with a relatively simple spell, I can summon them back to my hideout anytime I want. Did you really think I'm willing to lose one of my followers to the likes of you? Ha! The ignorant little sea pony will learn how follish it is to even think of defying me. She is my slave, now and forever!"
And with another flash of magic, Skeletor disappeared himself, accompanied by his evil laughter.
"No…" Bon Bon cried as she snk down to the ground. "Just when I thought I had her back, I lose her again…"
"Don't worry," Octavia said. "We will free her from him. Somehow, sometime."
"Wait a minute…" Pinkie said, twisting her body around to face Octavia. "You just said WE! Does… does that mean…?"
Octavia nodded. "Yes, Pinkie. I will join you and your friends in your efforts against Skeletor. I had no reason to do it before, but now he made it personal."
"YES! All right! I was hoping you'd come aboard, Tavi! This is great. I'll inform my friends and then we throw a super-duper welcome party at the castle and…"
Blinkie chuckled. "Still same old Pinkie Pie… please do us a favor and never change, sis."
"Nope, never!" Pinkie grinned. "By the way, will you be coming to the party too?"
"Actually… I was hoping we could join you as well," Inkie said. "That's the reason why we came here in the first place. As soon as Pop heard that you're a member of a team that fights for the safety of Equestria, he asked Blinkie and me: 'Why don't you two go and help your sister?' So here we are."
Pinkie's cheers of joy could be heard all the way to Ponyville.