As strange as it was to see Bon Bon walking into her own funeral, the real shock was when Lyra stepped into the doorway behind her.

The unicorn's mouth dropped open and stayed there. The room full of Bon Bons—who had swiveled to face her as one—stared back with the same wide-eyed horror. The Bon Bon at Lyra's side had a calm muzzle, but she was a coiled spring beneath that mask.

I was the first to react—I had been facing the back of the basement as I spoke at the lectern by Bon Bon's coffin, so I had a fraction of a second longer than the others to process the scene. "Number One," I said, "what's she doing here?"

The noise seemed to galvanize Lyra, and her head swung to the Bon Bon at her side. "Bonnie," she said to Number One, "what's going on?"

"It's alright, Seventeen," Number One said. "I need her to see this."

"Who are they? Are they changelings? Are [i]you…[/i]" Lyra's eyes slid toward the coffin as if rolling down a rain-slicked hill. "Wait, is she…"

"That was Number Eight," One said, her voice controlled but her emotions unrestrainable. "She brought you breakfast in bed on the day of the attack, while I was in Canterlot delivering a report. When the bugbear arrived, she tried to lead it away from Ponyville, but it killed her." One's voice wavered. "Then it realized she wasn't a pony, and attacked town to look for the real me. …Please, Seventeen. Continue the eulogy.  I didn't mean to interrupt."

I swallowed, reassembling mental fragments of my speech. "I, ah…was just reminiscing about how brave Eight was. How she was the only drone to fight our queen alongside you to rescue the rest of us from the hive. She set an example every day that the rest of us still struggle to live up to." I realized Lyra's shock was swirling into fear, and tried to defuse it. "And I think she loved Lyra nearly as much as you did, Number One."

Lyra's eyes whipped back and forth between me and One, and then her voice and emotions both frosted over. "Bonnie—"

"We're changelings, but Number One's a real pony," I frantically clarified, and felt the ice fractionally recede. 

One turned to look Lyra in the eyes. "I am, and I'll do whatever you want to prove it," she said firmly. Then her voice softened. "Listen, Lyra…I love you more than anything, but once you do undercover work, you can't ever leave. I can't always be here with you, and I was scared to explain why, so when I stumbled on a way for you to have me for 24 hours a day…it was the only way to give you what you [i]deserved[/i], and it was both kinder and simpler than being honest. But when you asked for the whole truth today, and promised me you'd try to love me no matter what…I had to come clean."

Doubt crept into Lyra's indignation, so I jumped back in. "We never fed from you," I said. "One made us promise that before we ever laid eyes on you. But we wouldn't have, anyway. We owed her so much, and when we saw how happy you made each other…we would have starved ourselves to death to keep you two together."

I saw Lyra's neck muscles shift as she clenched her teeth, and felt doubt rage inside her. "How much of you was [i]you[/i]?" she finally asked.

"About half," One immediately said. "That's the most my job will allow, but I spent every moment here that I could." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I never should have lied, Lyra…but I only ever wanted you to be happy."

Lyra chewed her lip, and her emotions were too roiled to read, and I could feel One bracing herself against an even murkier terror. My stomach twisted in knots.

"I…" Lyra finally whispered. "I'm going to have to think about this." Then a thin sunbeam broke through the clouds of her emotion, and I could feel the whole room clinging to that tiny lifeline of hope. "All I know is that I want you, Bonnie. [i]You[/i]." She leaned in and curled her neck against One's.

Simultaneously, fifteen Bon Bons bowed their heads and dissolved into green flame, leaving two ponies hugging each other amid a sea of black chitin.

I reached over and silently closed the lid of the casket. Eight would have wanted it that way.