_
“Of course she doesn’t actually dye. Nopony dyes here.”
No.
“I swear! Pink all over!”
“Yeah, right!”
No.
“If anyone found out, I’d be ruined!”
“I think you might be exaggerating just a bit…”
No!
Bon Bon tried to push the mirror over and was underwhelmingly rewarded with a slight tilt. Groaning dismissively, she moved to the next one. Maybe this one would show her Lyra. Not that cheesy con artist’s Lyra. HER Lyra.
She peered into the glass. As she did so, the sounds of ponies talking floated into her ears.
“-wear down on the enamel eventually. You really should be using-”
“That’s lovely. But I really should be-”
“More worried about your dental hygiene! Look at your mouth, Bon Bon. It’s hard to believe it’s gone so downhill since I last saw you! I thought Lyra would have been all over you for neglecting the brush!”
Colgate had cornered one of the imposters. Now Bon Bon remembered why she never talked to Colgate alone. She smirked a little bit. The bug thing would be stuck talking about its mouth for hours. This may not have lead any closer to finding a solution, but it made Bon Bon feel better to know the fake was in real suffering.
She moved quickly to the next mirror, skipping past another two duds before she was gazing into her living room. It was almost comforting to see. The rug was laid out just the way she’d planned. The couch they had bought was specifically tested by Lyra so she could sit in the odd little way she had. It was a relief to see that the room hadn’t been as upturned as her life. In an adjoining room was Lyra, practicing on her brand new oversized harp. Bon Bon couldn’t see her, but as she approached the mirror sounds of playing and occasional complaining grew into focus.
The front door opened and one of them stalked into the room wearing her face… and her second favorite hat! In her poorly mocked jowls she gripped several rolls of a thick wire.
“Hrhtstngs fr mh hrhtstrngs!” She announced through the mouthful.
“Huh?” Lyra’s head popped out from the room.
Non Bon spat out the harp strings and stretched an insincere smile across her misshapen mug. “Heartstrings for my Heartstrings!”
Bon Bon’s ears flattened against her head. She could admit that some of her colorful perceptions may have been tainted by hatred but there was no denying that this particular monster showed no talent for voice work. It burned her to a crisp that this beast had the gall to say ‘Heartstrings’ as if it knew Lyra. And that cheesy line… There was no way she could fall for this act.
“Wow!” exclaimed Lyra, completely falling for this act, “Would you look at these? Where did you find them? Look, look! I didn’t even know we had flatwound hexcore strings in Ponyville! That nasty shopkeeper just said it didn’t have the depth of halfwound so she never had any. See here? It says the core is made from a cutting edge synthesized…”
Lyra had caught the look on the imposter’s face. It was the exact same look that Bon Bon had wore when she first heard the young green mare talk about her music. Since then she had gained more musical knowledge from Lyra than seemed possible, even if some of the more complicated stuff did fly over her head from time to time. Come on… figure it out…
“Um… That means they’re really good. Thank you, Bon Bon.” Lyra hugged the false Bon Bon. Her back was turned to the true candy maker, looking on forlornly from a large mirror in their living room. “I don’t know what I did to deserve a marefriend like you.”
With her head on Lyra’s shoulder, Non-Bon averted her eyes. “Yeah… me neither…”
“Look at her, Lyra! She doesn’t love you! She’s not real! None of them are! Please!”
-
She was finally alone. There may have been Non-Bons somewhere in the house but there were none in the room with Lyra. She sat (on the floor, not in her own weird way) and sighed for the rapt audience in her mirror. It had been almost a day since Bon Bon had been tricked.
“What’s going on with Bon Bon?” Lyra said aloud. Bon Bon would give anything to tell Lyra she was talking out loud again, to hear her accuse Bon Bon of mind reading… “She’s been acting really weird lately. Her voice has been all wonky, she can’t remember the simplest stuff, and sometimes she’s a pegasus!”
Bon Bon brought a hoof to her face. She would need to have a long, stern talk about that one when she got out.
“And worse, she’s starting to get really shy! She doesn’t hug back, and when I say ‘I love you’ she doesn’t say a thing! I’m really worried!”
“You’re talking to yourself, Lyra,” she whispered to the mirror. “What have I told you about talking to yourself?”
“She keeps looking at me like it’s the first time we’ve met. I… I don’t mind remembering that…” Her golden eyes grew glassy and reminiscent. “Blues never told me he sold the old music studio. The first time I saw her she looked so sad…”
“I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get any customers. I was thinking that maybe I should close shop when in walks the most beautiful mint green unicorn… with a head like a tube of toothpaste.”
“…I still can’t believe she forgot the open sign. I can still remember the candy on sale. A row of hard candy, salt-water taffy to the side. There was just a little bit of toffee.”
“I had only just opened, and I was still learning!”
“I remember the twists in your mane, the way you stood, the vacant look in your eyes deeper than any pond here in Ponyville…”
“I remember you saying all of that out loud. I also remember how red you turned!”
“And I remember how high you jumped when you snapped out of it, too. It was pretty scary, I didn’t know how you spaced out yet.”
“I do not…” Bon Bon cut off her own protest. Lyra lowered her head and curled her tail as if she could withdraw into herself and then into nothing.
“I’m… really worried.”
For the first time Bon Bon was grateful for one of Lyra’s odd habits. Hearing this doubt brought a new surge of vigorous determination. Bon Bon stood and reared up, placing her front hooves on the mirror. “You should be! That’s not me! Lyra! The mirror! I’m in the mirror! Look at me!”
“I…” Her golden eyes grew watery. As she spoke, they let a few tears drop to the floor. “I don’t think she loves me any more.”
“But I do!” She began to beat the mirror again. “Don’t you believe anything those oversized ticks said! They’re all lies! The honest truth is that I’ll always love you, no matter what!”
A green head lifted, its ears perking up as they scanned the room. “Bon Bon…?”
She began to search the room with her eyes. Bon Bon beat the glass frantically. “Over here Lyra! Look at the mirror! I’m right here and I love you!”
Finally she turned towards the mirror. Two golden orbs locked with a set of bright blue saucers.
“Is something bothering you, Lyra?” asked Non-Bon.
“Get away, you fake!” It baffled Bon Bon how her clone had gotten in front of the mirror so quickly.
“I…” Lyra leaned slightly to look at the mirror, but Non-Bon imitated the move to block her view. Bon Bon’s desperate beating became savage, trying to beat this imposter away. “No. I guess it was nothing.”
“I thought not.” Bon Bon’s furious hooves rained down on the image of Non-Bon’s back. Her view of the world shifted slightly. “Now why don’t you go and practice with your new harp strings? I’ll bring in some sweets.”
“Uh… Bon Bon?” THUMP. THUMP.
“What is it?” THUMP. THUMP.
“Look out!”
Bon Bon saw the world in the mirror shift dramatically. The floor flew towards her as Non-Bon jumped for safety and the glass cracked and went dark.
Bon Bon looked carefully at it. That mirror was the best view into her stolen life.
Now it was broken.