//------------------------------// // We Scream for Ice Cream // Story: Secrets // by bahatumay //------------------------------// The train arrived in Westhoof on time, with two ponies on the roof of the last car and most of the passengers unaware of what had just transpired. As the train slowed to a stop, Bon Bon jumped down from the roof and held up a hoof for Lyra to get herself down. Lyra eventually managed to get off. As they hopped down onto the platform, a train worker approached. “May I see your tickets?” he asked, probably because he’d said it so many times that he wasn’t sure what else to say in this situation. Lyra froze; but Bon Bon reached inside her mane and retrieved them. She held them out for inspection.  The inspector was forced to concede that the tickets were valid. Knowing something was up but unable to find anything technically wrong with this arrangement, and they certainly weren’t on the roof now, he exhaled through his teeth, gave them back, and walked off. Lyra blinked. “I thought we were going to get arrested for sure!” she whispered. “Better hope not,” Bon Bon murmured darkly, already moving purposefully through the station. “Like I said, there’s probably at least one crooked royal guard hunting us.” Westhoof was not a particularly large city; it was probably similar in size to Ponyville. Like Ponyville, there were birds flying in the tallest trees, and squirrels climbing those trees paused to look. Bon Bon moved quickly but steadily, and Lyra followed along. A little shop appeared, decorated with a beautiful white roof and larger than life sprinkles around the edge. The walls had on a pattern, making it look like an enormous waffle cone. Lyra cracked a small smile. This was cute. Bon Bon didn’t seem to share her amusement, though. She approached slowly and pushed the door open. It remained firmly shut. “Shouldn’t that…?” Lyra started. “Yep,” Bon Bon said grimly. As a business owner herself, her doors were never closed during the day. “Something’s wrong. We gotta get in there.” Lyra looked around, as if expecting to see a key somewhere. “So how are we-?” She got her answer when Bon Bon simply spun around and kicked the door in. Lyra gasped, but Bon Bon was already inside. Lyra took a furtive look around and quickly followed. Something smelled off in here, but Lyra wasn’t sure what it was. Other than the strange smell, it was exactly like most shops in small towns, with the storefront on the first floor and the living area upstairs. Bon Bon headed straight there; but at the bottom stair, held up a foreleg and halted Lyra. Her eyes narrowed; but whatever she’d thought would happen, didn’t. She made a small motion that Lyra interpreted as ‘stay close and stay quiet’, and she did just that. Nothing happened at the top of the stairs, either; but the smell seemed to get a bit more acrid. Bon Bon went first, ears pricked. Lyra followed closely.  She regretted this decision when Bon Bon pushed open the bathroom door. She inhaled sharply. “Lyra, don’t-” But it was too late. Lyra had seen. She recoiled as if burned and slumped to the floor, burying her face in her hooves. Bon Bon pulled the bathroom door shut and crouched next to her. She pulled her close, letting Lyra rest her head on her chest. “She's dead,” Lyra whimpered, unable to banish the image from her mind no matter how hard she clenched her eyes. “She’s… she’s dead.” “She is, Lyra,” Bon Bon said quietly, stroking her mane comfortingly. “But we can’t stay focused on that too long.” “How could you say that?” Lyra sobbed. “She was my friend!” Bon Bon snapped, steel entering her voice for the first time, shocking Lyra into stopping. “She saved my life more times than I can count, and I saved hers exactly twice. And if I couldn’t be here in time to save her, the least I can do is avenge her.” Lyra blinked. Her heart pounded in her chest. Bon Bon seemed so… powerful. Bon Bon stood up and looked around, apparently unaware of Lyra’s internal musings. “Now. Let’s see if the dead can help us.” “How?” Lyra asked. “Do we look for clues, or…?” “I was thinking more along the lines of supplies,” Bon Bon said, kneeling down to look under the bed. She pulled out a small knife, a book that could only have been a trashy romance paperback, and a dust bunny; all of which were quickly discarded. She grunted in defeat and stood up to look elsewhere. “I thought they took all the good secret agent stuff when they shut SEMHA down?” Lyra asked. Bon Bon slowly spun in a circle, eyes darting, looking around the room. “Yeah, they did. We who were there when SEMHA was disbanded couldn't take anything with us but our personal effects.” She shook her watch tellingly and then cracked a smile. “But Nilla was medically discharged two days before SEMHA was shuttered, so she would have brought her retirement package with her. Now, where would she hide it?” Lyra got up. “What are we looking for?” “Something out of place,” Bon Bon answered, rearing up and peeking inside the vent. “I’ll know it if I see it.” The search in the bedroom proved futile, and the two mares headed back downstairs. Something smelled off down here, too; though it was definitely ‘off’ in a different way. Bon Bon sniffed. “I know that smell,” she murmured, picking up one of the nearby dishcloths. She got it wet at the sink, and then draped it over her muzzle. “Lyra?” She pointed to the large freezer door. “Open that for me, could you? And stand back.” Lyra stood back and lit her horn, pulling open the door to the ice cream freezer. Vanilla Swirl must have been killed some time previously; the ice inside had long since melted. Giant tubs of ice cream had melted and then popped, leaking out their contents everywhere. Lyra recoiled, both from the sight and the smell. Bon Bon strode right in, her makeshift mask apparently keeping most of the vile smells out. She kicked over a few tubs and looked in the very back. Lyra, of course, watched from a very safe distance away. Bon Bon searched for a while longer, and then found the only one that wasn’t leaking. She made a pleased grunt and popped the top off, and then reached inside.  The lack of ice cream mess might have had something to do with the fact that there wasn’t actually ice cream in that tub. Bon Bon pulled out a few manuals, a few grenades, a couple tubes, a rope with a hook on it, and a few other things Lyra didn’t recognize. Whatever they were, though, Bon Bon seemed to be very pleased with the discovery. At the bottom was a pair of saddlebags, and she pulled them out and quickly started loading them up. And then Lyra froze as something cold tickled her throat. Bon Bon looked up and froze as well, her hooves still reaching the bottom of the tub. “You’re faster than I was expecting,” the mare said pleasantly, as if she weren’t holding a blade to Lyra’s throat. “Not quite fast enough, though. Hooves where I can see them, please.” Bon Bon grit her teeth, realizing they’d been caught again. Lyra gulped. She was probably supposed to be keeping watch. “Sorry,” she whispered. And then a devious, apologetic smile flickered across Bon Bon’s face. “Me, too.” As she stood up, she flung her hooves into the air; and as she did so, she lobbed something she had taken out of the barrel high into the air. It was oblong, and- Wait. Why was Bon Bon crouching and covering her ears? Lyra got her answer soon enough when the world exploded with a flash of blinding light and a colossal bang. Her ears rang, she was blinded, and she sank to the ground, covering her head. Something grabbed Lyra’s hoof, and she screamed. At least, she thought she did; she couldn’t hear herself through the ringing in her ears. She forced open one eye and saw Bon Bon, shouting words that Lyra couldn’t hear. But her intention was perfectly clear; and once again, Lyra found herself half running, half being dragged behind her best friend.