//------------------------------// // Part 11: Cousins // Story: Non-Bon // by Mel //------------------------------// - Bon Bon had a hardy stomach, perhaps from taste testing years of botched candy experiments herself. But her iron gut was being pushed to the limit in the sickening green vortex. Just when she was thinking it would never end (unlike the confectioner’s gastrointestinal fortitude) the vortex flushed the candy mare onto a warm, solid floor. Through her own moans she could hear hoofsteps and the sound of something dragging across the floor. A pair of bright, blue eyes struggled to open. Two images of the world danced around each other as they fought to reconnect. My eyes must look as wonky as the mailmare’s, She thought. When her eyes finally brought everything into focus, she recognized the back room of her own candy shop. The last traces of green receded into the mirror in her ceiling. The door to the front of the shop was closed, and her taffy stretcher, ovens, and other baking devices were where she left them, The place was a mess of ingredients, but Bon Bon was more focused on the occupants in the room. In all, seven changelings were assembled before her. None of them wore their Non-Bon disguises, though she did see Web was still coated in candy leavings and another changeling was wearing a dress for some reason. Presenting themselves in all their insectile horror, Bon Bon noticed that their legs were full of holes. These bugs must have been pulled straight from somepony’s nightmares! She tried to struggle to her feet, hoping to run or maybe fight. Instead she collapsed like wet cotton candy. Two of the changelings pushed another two forward while Web walked of his own free will. One of the two changelings being pushed had some gauze on her head and the other looked like she crashed into a wall; her head was wrapped in bandages and her foreleg was in a cast. They all stopped just in front of Bon Bon. “What do we say?” Said one of the pushing changelings, the one who did a decent impression of Bon Bon’s voice. “We are so sorry!” Web bowed his head. The buzzing bug in a cast harrumphed and turned away. The changeling pushing her gave a sharp poke to Buzz’s backside. “Ow! Fine, I’m sorry! Jeez!” The last one looked Bon Bon right in the eye for a good, long minute. She could see her own face reflected in those shiny, bulbous orbs. They were blue, just like hers… Just like mine… “Sting?” asked the changeling who pushed her. Both Sting and Bon Bon shook their heads. Their brief moment of empathy became a hard, cold stare. Even according to Web’s story, this changeling was responsible for her misery. Some of the strength had come back to her limbs… if she was fast enough, she could grab the wicked little mastermind and toss her in the taffy puller. “I’m sorry.” Sting closed her eyes and lowered her head. The other ones would be on me in a second, but maybe I could-“What?” Sting grit her teeth. “I apologize. I’m sorry. I made a mistake. It wasn’t right to imprison you. But I had no choice. Nopony trusts-” “Sorry? Sorry?! I can deal with a few bills. I can recover from a business loss. Unfamiliar ponies greeting me on the streets is weird, but tolerable. But if you think for one moment that I can forgive you for lying to Lyra… for making her think that I don’t care anymore, then you’ve got your horns stuck so far up your-” “Mule-headed, much? You always tell me not interrupt ponies when they’re talking.” Lyra tried to say more, but Bon Bon had turned around and knocked the wind out of her with a charging embrace. A couple of changelings went ‘aaw’, most politely averted their gaze while Buzz mimed retching. Bon Bon’s only thought was, This is too good to be true! “Lyra! You’re okay! What happened? Did they hurt you? I’ll smash them to paste!” “I was just gonna say the same thing! Except that last part.” The candy mare was taken aback. “Why not? After what they did to us they deserve it! And more! They trapped me and lied to you!” “They also freed you! And brought me here, too!” “How can you believe them? They all lied to us!” “No, they didn’t! Sting told all of the others that you had vanished before they got here. They were all in the dark about you. As soon as Venom figured it out she came straight to me and told me everything she knew.” One of the changelings stepped forward. When she spoke, Bon Bon recognized her as the one who had talked to the carrot pony. “Last night, when I was talking into a mirror, you must have been behind it. I heard the faintest whisper, but I was interrupted before I could investigate further. The next morning you had gone. I checked with my sisters and a few of them had similar stories. I knew there were old changeling spells that had to do with mirrors but I didn’t know anything about them. Sting is the only one who might know anything about older magic, and I knew she had been acting strangely since we got here.” “So she came up to me and told the whole story,” finished Lyra. “Most of them didn’t even know. We all confronted Sting, and she broke down when Web spilled the jellybeans.” Most of them didn’t know, but some of them did! “I just wanted us to be happy,” muttered Sting, staring at the floor. “Food’s been so scarce. We can only get so far with real food. Web was trying to find something we could eat that might sustain us. But we need love to survive! Everypony’s so paranoid of changelings these days; the original finds us out in the span of a day. There’s too many of us. We can’t hide properly, so we can’t feed properly… I couldn’t let us starve!” Venom walked to her sister and laid a paper-thin wing over her. “We’ve always found a way. We don’t need this. We’ll never need this. We’ll survive like we always have.” “Barely.” This is a trick! This has to be a trick… Lyra wouldn’t side with them. They’ve switched her. This must be a changeling! The real Lyra’s probably in the pocket dimension thing! She could see it in Lyra’s eyes. Doubt. A disbelief. An uncertainty that her ruse would crumble around her. “Bon Bon, now is a really bad time to space out.” “I do not space out!” Bon Bon took a few shaky steps back, nearly bumping into her taffy stretcher. “You can’t be real! How could you be real? The real Lyra wouldn’t forgive these monsters for making her think I didn’t care anymore!” The mint unicorn put a pair of hooves to her shocked mouth. Her lips began to quiver. “How could you... I-I didn’t breathe a word to anypony about that! Not a soul! How…” Lyra’s eyes slowly filled with tears, washing away the doubt and hesitation Bon Bon had noticed earlier. “The mirror! When I heard your voice… you read my mind again!” Lyra threw her forelegs around Bon Bon again, sobbing. “I’m s-sorry I didn’t believe it was you! I’m sorry I ever thought you stopped loving me!” The candy mare hesitantly patted her back. There was only one pony that thought Lyra’s thoughts were in her own head. It was the same one who could pull together a full dissertation on music theory in three minutes but not pronounce ‘probiotic’. The only one kind and sweet enough to give repulsive monsters a second chance. She was certain that it was the one bawling into her shoulder. “I never stopped.” ZAP. Bon Bon would describe that sound as a zap, plain and simple. Lyra yelped and began to hop up and down, fanning her smoking tail. “Lyra!” “Twilight! Why’re you zapping tha green mare?!” “I am so sorry! It’s supposed to be a spell for reversing changeling transformations; I must have turned it up too high.” “Well don’t turn it down yet,” shouted Rainbow Dash, “I think we found our imposters! Zap them!” Twilight and her rescue brigade had come barging into the back room. Twilight was at the lead with a dangerously glowing horn. Her friends came charging. “Getting a unicorn doing your dirty work? Afraid to get your hooves dirty? You should be!” Bon Bon recognized Buzz’s voice and saw her tackle the blue pegasus in mid-air, wearing a pegasus Bon Bon form. Glancing back, she saw that all of the changelings had put on their Non Bon disguises as well. Two of them were head butting the Apple farmer. The white unicorn and the Non Bon in a dress were clearly having trouble finding a way to fight without tearing the delicate piece of clothing. Pinkie was nimbly evading another while Web and a yellow pegasus cowered in the corner. Twilight was trying to zap Buzz, who was in a mobile mid-air duel with Rainbow. And each of them was making a mess of the store! ZAP. “Stop it!” yelled Bon Bon as the farmer and the two Non-Bons she wrestled knocked into a stack of baking supplies. ZAP. “Stop!” She ducked a bolt that left a scorch mark on the wall. ZAP. “Stop destroying my store!” Rainbow and Buzz fought their way into the taffy stretcher, getting tangled in the gooey mess. Bon Bon leapt to the machine and hit the emergency stop button. Turning around, she reared up on her hind legs and yelled as loud as she could. “STOP!” ZAP. This time, everyone stopped to look at Bon Bon, scorched from head to toe and in more pain than she was comfortable with. But not a changeling. “But… I don’t understand! The spell should have worked perfectly…” “Maybe it did.” The farmer turned back to the two Non Bons. “Ah reckon she got out and all the other ponies are phonies.” “Yeah!” Tangled in the sticky mess, Rainbow got the better of Buzz and turned her to face Twilight. “Go on, zap her!” “No, wait!” Bon Bon jumped in front of Buzz just before the bolt landed, receiving a fresh set of scorch marks. She did not want to know what state her mane was in right now. “My… cousins... did not come here to get zapped in the face!” The Apple farmer turned to face her with a raised eyebrow. “Your… cousins.” “Cousins.” “Who all look exactly like you.” “Close cousins.” “Save for the one with wings.” “Mostly close cousins.” There was complete silence. Thirteen pairs of eyes exchanged a maze of sidelong glances. “I knew it!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie.