//------------------------------//
// Part 6: Monsters? 
// Story: Non-Bon 
// by Mel 
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That bedroom used to be mine. She stared longingly into an empty room with a bed for two. The curtains were closed, letting in very little light. A dressing-table held up the mirror that held her. Everything is backwards, she thought. Bon Bon was used to looking at the mirror, not from it. Seeing all of her knick-knacks and trinkets from the wrong direction seemed to needlessly confirm how surreal her situation was. Worst of all was the framed picture of Lyra. Its back was towards the mirror, the green unicorn looking away from the trapped mare.

There was the clip clop of hooves on the stairway. Bon Bon’s ears flew up and she stared hopefully at the door. It opened with a lethargic creek. One of the Non-Bons walked in. Bon Bon’s ears flattened against her head again as a foul grimace crawled across her face. Maybe she could tip the lowboy enough to topple it like she did to the mirror in the living room…

And she might just get the chance. After the changeling took a look outside the window, the dressing-table seemed to catch her eye. She walked over and looked right into the mounted mirror. Bon Bon stared back, as hard and coldly as she could, a poor reflection of the pensive, almost melancholy face across the glass.

“What happened?” Asked the Non-Bon.

Bon Bon’s jaw dropped. “What happened?” she fumed, “What do you think happened? You monsters-”

“We never kept secrets from each other before.” She carried on without acknowledging Bon Bon’s indignant rage. Her voice was the same as the changeling that was talking to Carrot-something-or-other from earlier. “I know times have been tough, but we’ve always stuck close through the thick and the thin.”

“What are you talking about? You twigged little stick bug, I never…”

Her voice trailed off as the changeling lifted a hoof and placed it on the glass. “But now…” Her disguise faded. Even through those insectile features, her concern was obvious. “There’s something you’re not telling me. It’s about one of the mares, isn’t it? I know it is. Something about this…”

Her voice trailed off. She looked to the picture of Lyra sitting on the table. Holding it between her hooves, she whispered. “This isn’t right…”

Bon Bon’s mouth opened and closed, grasping for words that were having trouble forming in her mouth. “I just… that’s not… um… hey! Don’t you ignore me! Get your crummy pincers off of that! It doesn’t belong to you!”

The changeling paused. She was completely still for a moment. Slowly, she began to lean into the mirror. Her unblinking stare began to unnerve the prisoner inside. Then the door to the room creaked open and Non-Bon quickly replaced her disguise.

“I don’t know about you, but I- Bon Bon? Is everything alright?”

“Um… of course. Everything is fine.”

Bon Bon sat in her misty prison, looking on in confusion. She watched as they made some small talk, then as they brushed their teeth and went to bed. Afterwards she watched Lyra sleep for maybe an hour. When she could no longer take being able to see her without laying a hoof on her shoulder, Bon Bon left without so much as a sniff.