Bonbon bobbed her head gently as she walked, soft opera music being fed to her from a pair of earbuds connected to her phone. At the same time, several dozen formulas ran through her head as she tried to navigate the maze. A small smile grew on her face as she mulled over how easy her "gift" made this task as she rounded a corner. Granted, her magic made the task a lot easier, but this only applied to massively branching paths. Even in those cases, the magic could only paint a picture that a few simple formulas could be applied to fill in the gaps. To be frank, she was a little disappointed with Lily's ability to build a maze.
"I think Lightning could've built a more challenging maze," she muttered, rounding another corner. "At least she could've made it habitually confusing for everyone else."
She let out a small chuckle at that, a small part of her wondering if she could talk the irritable teen into attempting that very action when this was all over. At the same time, a growing concern grew in the back of her mind. While she was worried about all of her friends, three girls in particular sat at the front of her worry as she made her way through her part of the dungeon. She knew that Sunset could handle herself thanks to her experience with this kind of thing and that extended to Applejack, while at a lesser extent. The main issue being how mentally fragile the two girls were thanks to recent events, especially in regards to Applejack. The memory of how broken Sunset looked at the start of Derpy's involvement in the Anon-a-Miss incident left her wondering how she would react when she met the being responsible for it all. As for Applejack, she worried if her cousin's guilt would drive her to do something reckless when the opportunity presented itself to her. As bad as all of that was, it paled in comparison to her fears in regards to Lyra's reaction to this. While the girl was known for being a quirky goofball, the truth was much darker than most would be willing to accept.
She trembled as she remembered what happened the fateful day she came to that startling discovery. It was a week after she played against her for the first time. At that time she wasn't really a friend per se, but she had started to form a sort of student/teacher relationship with her when it came to Magic the Gathering. It was during Spring Break in their second year of Junior High. Before then, the two girls shared texts and calls almost daily, but when she tried to get in contact with the mint teen, only her answering machine would take her calls. When she did finally pick up the phone, her tone was so void of emotion it sent a chill down her spine. She remembered how much her heart pounded in her chest when she ran out the door, how her hands trembled as they gripped her bike's handlebars as she peddled through town to her house.
***
Bonbon stood panting before Lyra's front door, her bike sprawled out haphazardly across the front lawn as she knocked. For several seconds, she waited nervously for any kind of response from the girl inside. After what felt like hours, the door's bolt slowly slid out of place and it creaked open a crack. A single gold eye peeked out of the sliver before its owner let the door open fully. Lyra was dressed in a baggy white T-shirt and blue sweatpants, both covered with stains and wrinkles. Her hair was a total mess with stray strands sticking out at random angles with a few wild curls scattered as well.
Her eyes were what held the girl's attention.
Those golden orbs drooped in a way that cut into Bonbon's very soul as they met her own light blue ones. Lyra barely moved as her eyes slowly took in the girl's presence, a blank and unreadable expression plastered across her face as she did.
"You're here," she said flatly.
"Y-Yeah," Bonbon panted.
"Why?" Lyra asked, voice still void of emotion.
"I was worried about you," she said with a confused frown.
"Why?" she repeated, head tilting. "I didn't say I was hurt, did I?"
A heavy weight started to settle into Bonbon's stomach the longer she took in the girl's demeanor. It was as if all of the life had been sucked out of her and what stood before her was the leftover husk. She nervously licked her drying lips and forced a smile onto her face as she wracked her brain for some way to explain herself.
"Uh...well...um...no, but I still wanted to check up on you."
"Okay," she said flatly before she neutrally added, "You came. I'm fine. You can leave now."
She slowly started to close the door, only to pause when a hasty, "Wait!" flew past Bonbon's lips.
"What?" she asked, a hint of irritation entering her tone.
Bonbon took a deep breath then nervously asked, "D-Do you want to hang out?"
Lyra blinked at that, a hint of surprise entering her features before a small skeptical frown took its place.
"Why? No one wants to be around me."
"I do," Bonbon said meekly, her gaze falling towards the ground along with her smile as she added, "But if you don't want me around, I-I understand."
For a long while, Lyra stared at the girl, then let out a dull sigh as she said, "Fine. Just don't break anything."
With that, she let the door swing open and walked further into the house. Gulping audibly, the tan teen followed her mint teacher into the house. The first thing to hit her was the all encompassing gloom that filled the air. Aside from the windows and a wall-mounted widescreen TV, no light could be seen and even those sources seemed somehow muted. The house had a very sterile look to it with next to no decorations on the plain white walls. It put a chill down her spine as she followed Lyra into the living room. The girl flopped bonelessly onto the couch before rolling onto her side and half curling towards the TV. Seeing little else to do, Bonbon took a seat next to her and looked up at the TV.
"What are you watching?" she asked, desperate for any kind of topic to break the gloom.
"Don't know," Lyra shrugged. "It was too quiet, so I just turned the TV on."
Bonbon nodded awkwardly at that before she sported a matching smile and scanned the room for another thing to talk about. The coffee table before her caught her attention and brought turned her smile into one of relief. Sitting at the heart of the table were two stacks of cards. Each card in the decks were protected by individual plastic sleeves, a common practice for those that participated in collectable card games, but a small detail about the decks made her raise a brow. From what she could see in the dim light the protector sleeves bore the tattered and dented signs of extreme aging that she knew got on her teacher's nerves, a fact that she never let her forget every time she got the chance. The damage was so extreme that she couldn't even tell what color the sleeves use to be. Another odd fact was that, while one deck was stacked neatly, the other looked as if it had been dumped onto the table with next to no care.
"New decks?" she asked, nodding towards the cards.
Lyra's eyes drifted towards the cards and for the tiniest of seconds, a flash of pain crossed her features.
"No," she said, coldly. "Just some old cards."
"Oh," Bonbon smiled. "Were you looking through your collection for things to sell or-"
"Never," she hissed, pure venom lacing her tone like a cobra bite. "I'll fucking burn myself to death before I sell these."
Bonbon put her hands up placatingly, a gulp making it past her dry throat as she locked eyes with the girl. Never had she heard someone talk with such vitriol before, let alone the girl that laid before her. Lyra took note of the girl's fear and let out a defeated sigh as she forced herself to sit up properly.
"Sorry," she muttered, her messy bangs hiding her eyes as she stared at the table. "These cards are just really special to me. Especially today."
"Why?" Bonbon asked, her dread replaced by nervous confusion as she looked at the decks again. "Were they gifts or something?"
"Sort of," Lyra sighed. "That one belonged to the person that taught me how to play and that was the deck I use to play with a while back."
As she said that, she first pointed at the neatly stacked deck then pointed at the messily alined one. Bonbon nodded, following so far.
"Okay, but if that's the case, why is that deck all-"
"Messed up?" Lyra asked, her tone just as limp as it had been this whole time.
Again, Bonbon nodded.
Lyra sighed, then pulled her knees into her chest and said, "Let's just say, I wasn't the best person in the past. When my teacher tried to talk some sense into me, I told her to go shove it and did my own thing. It took her dying to help me figure that out, but by that point, I had already pushed everyone away from me. So, every year, I pull out her deck on this day to remember her and my old deck to remind myself to never become that person again."
Bonbon's eyes widened, the dread and gloom that filled the air now making total sense to her as she gave the two decks another once over. Her eyes wandered towards the hollow-eyed teen on the couch, her arms lightly trembling as they hugged her legs to her chest. A determined frown formed on her face as she nodded to herself and pulled the girl into a one-armed hug. Lyra blinked dumbly for a second, the girl's usual spark seeming to come back for a brief second as she turned her head towards her.
"It sounds like you're going through a lot right now," she said, her tone firm yet kind at the same time. "Do you want to talk more about it?"
Lyra's shock grew, before a shaky, "Why?" crept past her lips.
"Why what?" she asked.
"Why do you care?" Lyra stammered, her lip trembling as she fought to keep her tears at bay.
"I guess, its because I know what its like to be lonely," she sighed. "And I'd really like to be your friend."
"R-Really?" Lyra balked.
Bonbon nodded, then sheepishly added, "If you'll let me anyway. I-I'm not really good at this sort of thing."
Lyra let out a rueful chuckle at that, then said, "Let's figure it out together then, I guess."
***
It wasn't long after that, that Lyra told her the specifics of her past and how she felt about using black cards as a result. Ever since, she had been Lyra's rock when things got to be too much for her to handle. Eventually, Derpy's group took the two of them in and their outlooks on life got a little better as a result. Now that they were cut off from that network, she feared for what this could do to the girl.
Pausing, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Relax Bonbon, she thought, slowly taking more breaths to steady her nerves. There's nothing you can do about it right now. Just focus on what you need to do, then worry about her when you can. She's not completely helpless. She has her magic, just like you do.
"She's got this," she sighed, then opened her eyes with a determined gleam. "And so do I."
When she took her next step, a sudden pressure surrounded her. She gritted her teeth as she forced herself to move forward in spite of everything in her telling her to runaway. She could feel it in the stone walls just as plainly as the air, a rancid energy near identical to the foul aura she felt around Lily on the bridge. Her pony ears twitched in irritation as she tried to ignore the poisonous energy swirling around her as she rounded a corner. A light at the end of the hall shined like a beacon guiding her towards the heart of the foul energy, her steps firm as she made her way towards her fate.
"Alright, here we go," she muttered. "It's show time!"
As she said that, she stepped out of the hall into a massive arena filled with a brighter variant of the flowers from the halls. At its heart stood the strangest being she had ever seen in her life, a tall claim considering the her level of contact with the Equestrian High Royal class. It had a vaguely male humanoid shape, but that was the only tie he had to a basic human form. A ragged gray tank top covered his upper body with a matching pair of shorts doing the same for his lower body. While its right arm was thin and gripping a scimitar, the left one was five times the size of a normal human limb with a hand made up of five jagged claws functioning as fingers. It's left leg was in a similar state, several long spikes coming out of its knee and thigh. The rest of the creature's body was like that of an emaciated scarecrow, its skin a dark gray that shined like plastic as the arena's light bounced off of it as a dull glare. His head stood tilted to the left side on his shoulders, his hair a mess of dirty brown that covered the left side of his head with a single red eye visible on the right side of his head. Only the left side of his face had a mouth, the right half of where it should've been replaced by perfectly smooth plastic skin.
The creature let out a dry laugh and in an equally parched voice said, "Well, well, well, who might this be?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Bonbon said, her tone just as calm as her stride as she stepped further into the arena.
The creature let out a cackle that reminded her of snapping twigs.
"You have spirit. I like that. The name's Palk."
"Bonbon," she said evenly, stoping about fifteen feet away from him.
"Seriously?" he asked, his literal half smile replaced by a confused frown.
She nodded.
He blinked once, twice, then laughed.
"Wh-Who names their child after a type of candy?" Palk gasped, massive hand covering his chest as he fought against his laughter.
"It's pretty normal in my family," she shrugged. "I have a cousin named Jawbreaker. Bet you can guess what he's good at."
"I can think of at least three things," he said teasingly, his head tilting to the other side.
She noted that he only had one eye, the place that the organ should've been suffering the same fait as the right half of his mouth.
"Care to guess what they are?" he continued.
"Not really," she frowned. "But I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me pass."
Palk laughed wickedly at that.
"Sorry. Can't," he grinned. "The Mistress was very clear in her orders. Kill anyone that enters this room. No exceptions."
"I see," she sighed. "Figures. Just remember, I gave you a chance."
As she said that, she leveled a cold frown at him and plucked her earbuds out of her ears, the music long since ended as she put them into her pocket. A small pulse echoed through the room as her magic merged with her surroundings, dozens of different spells running through her mind as well as a sea of calculations. A bit of fear sat at the core of her heart, but a strong sense of duty kept her from letting it grow. It was time to put her training to the test.
Palk's broken grin grew as he took a step towards her with his massive mismatched leg. The limb's spikes trembled for a moment, then suddenly stretched towards her. A flurry of numbers and a spell ran through her head in less than a second before said spell took effect. A sound similar to cracking glass filled the room as Palk's spikes slammed into a glowing wall of clear diamond, ten feet tall, twenty feet wide, and three feet thick. Palk blinked dumbly at it while Bonbon walked out from behind it with a chuckle.
"0.045 seconds. Not bad," she grinned. "I might have to put some effort into this."
The seed's smile returned as he locked eye with her, then laughed as one of his extended spikes sprouted a new point that stretched towards her. She barely blinked as she conjured a new diamond wall to intercept the spike, this one no bigger than her before she pointed her palm at the seed and fired a marble-sized glowing chunk of the same material at him. At a speed that should've been impossible for something of its size, he blocked the attack with his mismatched arm before he pointed its palm at her. A hail of black spheres the same size as Bonbon's projectile shot out of it towards her only to be intercepted by another diamond wall at the last second. She quickly put her hand against the wall, the spell responding her will through the simple contact and through her will allowed her to push it forward. She charged forward through the assault, her battle cry echoing off of the walls as she closed the distance and slammed her makeshift shield into her opponent's outstretched hand. A pulse of magic ran through the shield before foot long spikes sprouted out of it into the seed's hand, forcing him back a couple steps that snapped his still extended spikes off of his leg, but failing to do any noticeable damage beyond that. A manic laugh made it past the seed's lips as he took a swing at her with his blade only for it to slam into a new diamond wall. His laughter grew even more wild as his whole upper body twisted, his hulking fist slamming viciously into her defenses with thundering force as his body continued to spin unnaturally. Bonbon gritted her teeth as she pushed her hands into her shield's smooth surface, her magic keeping the stone barrier from shattering under her opponent's relentless assault. She quickly redirected her flow of magic from her hands down into her feet and the stones beneath her, the data she was able to gather telling her that her diamond shield didn't have long to last if Palk's attacks continued. A strained smile formed on her face as a flurry of diamond spikes sprang up out of the ground under her opponent, many of them trapping his giant arm mid-spin while the rest knocked him off balance and onto his back. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Bonbon conjured a literal diamond shield onto her left arm while a diamond sword formed in her right as she summoned a diamond pillar under herself to give her the boost she needed to jump over the walls she created. She could see shock on the seed's face as she leapt towards him, her blade aimed at his throat as she let gravity guide her towards her destination.
This is it! Checkmate!
Her assurance turned into shock when at the last second, a dozen long sword-blades burst through the seed's lanky torso. She quickly shifted position and blocked the surprise attack with her shield before she rolled away from him the second she hit the ground. Palk laughed as he dragged himself to his feet, blades still protruding from his chest as he turned towards her.
"Surprised?" he asked. "My body is a walking weapons factory. All I have to do is think about it and, boom! New weapon! Not too shabby, eh?"
"Not bad," Bonbon nodded. "Don't think it means you've won this, though. I've still got a few tricks left up my sleeves too."
"Well then," he cackled. "Guess I'd better get serious then, huh?"
Suddenly, his body started to spasm and twitch before it blew apart with a loud wet ripping sound. The only part of him that stayed in place was his head, the appendage floating a the center of the room as the rest of his body continued to writhe and pop. Slowly, the remains broke apart and changed into shapeless blobs before assuming new forms that made the teen a little less sure about her odds. Guns, swords, and shields floated off of the ground and orbited the floating head, said head eyeing her with wild glee as he leveled his new weapons at her.
Pure terror ran through her as the guns locked onto her, her magic reacting on an instinctual level as her shield turned into armor around her just in time to deflect a hail of bullets. She quickly shifted gears to full on defense and evasion, stone walls sprouting around her as she ran from Palk's gun fire. The seed just laughed as he pressed his advantage, his "body" floating at the heart of the room with ten small kite shields orbiting him as he watched her run. His grin grew as he slowly started to see a pattern in her actions. Each time she saw his guns move into position to take a shot at her, there was always a small gap in time before a diamond wall would come up to block a bullet. Little by little, he added more pressure to his attacks, swords plunging towards her every so often before he let his guns fire at her. Eventually, the whole room was filled with diamond walls with only the center clear of the shining rocks. By that point, the seed had gathered all the information he needed to finish this.
Meanwhile, Bonbon ran in a haze of terror as she did everything she could to avoid getting shot. Never did she think that she would ever find herself in such a horrifying position as she bobbed and weaved around her own diamond walls. Her mind ran at a hundred miles an hour as she tried to think of a way out of this situation, only for a pistol to hover before her and shatter her train of thought and force her to create a diamond wall in panic.
Come on Bonbon, think! she thought frantically. There has to be a way out of this!
No sooner had she thought that before half a dozen pistols came out from behind her diamond walls and surrounded her. She frantically tried to put up a few more walls around herself only for her focus to be shattered by seven swords that came down from above and slashed at her. While the blades bounced harmlessly off of her armor, the bullets proved to be much more powerful. The projectiles slammed into her armor with the force of a hundred freight trains, shattering it, but luckily not going beyond that. She screamed in pain and terror as she fell to the floor, all of the weapons aimed right at her with a second attempt clear in their intent. Again, her instincts saved her as a solid dome of diamond formed over her, the clang of metal and ricochet of bullets barely muffled behind her barrier.
She panted, shock making her numb to the countless blooming bruises that covered her body from where she laid. Gradually, tears started to well up as the hopelessness of her situation started to take hold. Did she honestly think she could do this? Impossible. She wasn't some magical warrior or anything like that. She was just a candy maker; not some super hero that can come in and save the day.
"What the hell was I thinking?" she whimpered, her hands drifting to her eyes as she tried to rub them dry.
Her head was blank as she slowly made peace with the cold hard truth of her situation. She was going to die here and there was next to nothing she could do about it. Her thoughts drifted towards her barrier, the glowing gemstone that surrounded her serving as the only thing keeping her alive.
Why should I even bother?
She reached a hand forward towards the top of the dome as she prepared to dispel it and get this all over with. She marveled at how pretty it looked, a part of her happy that she could create something so beautiful before her end. At the very least, her foolishness allowed her to leave something worth while behind.
Sorry girls, she thought with a sad smile. I tried.
Just as she was about to cancel her defense, a fleeting memory came to the front of her mind made her pause. A memory of her sitting in Derpy's mom's van as they drove towards this wretched battle field. They knew exactly what they were agreeing to when they got out of that car and stepped onto the bridge. Right now, they were all fighting with everything they had, danger be damned as they stood against an enemy far worse than anything they had ever encountered. She wasn't a warrior. None of them were. The odds of survival were slim, but if she was going to die, she was going to die a warrior's death.
With a determined grimace, she pulled her hand back and used it to wipe the remaining tears from her face. She ignored the aches that wracked her body as she forced herself into sitting cross-legged. She emptied her mind, focusing on the pulse of her magic as it ran through the battlefield. Little by little, she started to get a better picture of her situation and now that the panic had left her, a plan started to form in her head. She took note of everything she'd seen as far as Palk's abilities were concerned, various calculations mixing into her plan before a small smile graced her lips. With a nod, she stood up, her head just barely grazing the ceiling of her sanctuary. With her battle plan set, she put her hand out towards one of the dome's walls.
"Time to end this," she whispered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fm5XF4_Kc
With a simple pulse of her magic the barrier burst apart, the pieces a second later zeroing in on the countless weapons that surrounded her. On contact, the diamond chunks quickly molded around the weapons like glistening clay. The guns tried to shoot their way out of their prisons, but Bonbon had already calculated the strength of the bullets from when they destroyed her armor and made sure that the Diamond Prison spell was a hundred times harder than that had been. She wasted no time as she ran out of her would-be tomb towards the heart of the room. As she ran, her hands started to glisten as glowing crystal formed around them. By the time she made it to her destination, a glowing sphere of solid diamond surrounded each of her hands.
Palk had enough time to give her a surprised look before she slammed her fist into his face, the head flying back twenty feet from the force of her Earth Pony strength. The head cursed violently as he barely kept himself from slamming into the ground. She didn't give him a chance to comment as she quickly closed in on him and threw another punch. The seed managed to block her attack with one of his shields this time, only for it to get slammed into his face along with the fist. Spitting out some black blood and a few teeth, the seed swore a storm as it floated high into the air to get out of her striking range. Bonbon just smiled as she tapped into the magic contained in two nearby diamond walls. They quickly turned into a pair of massive fists and flew up towards the flying head. Palk had just enough time to let out a whimper before the two fists bashed through his defenses and slammed him into the ground below.
Dozens of spider cracks covered the head, black blood leaking past his lips as her glared hatefully at his opponent.
"H-How?" he gasped, his normally dry voice moist from the blood pooling past his lips.
"I'll admit," she sighed, walking towards the battered seed. "You had me on the ropes for a bit there. I almost gave up because of you, but I'm not here just for me."
She stopped a foot away from the seed, her eyes cold as she stared into his wild eye.
"I'm here because my friends and family need me. Maybe it's the Apple in me, but I can't bring myself to die with that hanging over me. Now..... die."
As she said that, she pointed her hand at the head and a massive diamond spike burst out of the ground, impaling the seed through the back of him with the tip protruding out of his forehead. Palk's eye widened for a brief second before all life left it and his jaw went slack. Bonbon sighed in relief and started to make her way towards the arena's exit. A light chuckle made her pause, her diamond encased fists clenched as she turned towards the impaled seed.
"Not bad Bonbon," the head said, features still limp as Palk's voice echoed out of it. "But like I said, the Mistress' words are absolute."
As he "said" that, a black crystal appeared in the air by him before it suddenly plunged into his jaw. A massive explosion rocked the room as Palk's "body" was consumed by a thick black miasma. Slowly, the cloud grew at the room's heart, something immense writhing at its center. When half of the space was dominated by the dark fog, it parted to reveal what new monstrosity stood before the girl. The head had turned into a single giant eye, the organ easily dwarfing a bull elephant. Giant black metallic millipedes spouted out of he eye's perimeter like twisted tentacles, their vicious mandibles snapping hatefully at the air as they writhed. A fierce screaming roar filled the arena as Palk's eye zeroed in on her like a demonic spotlight.
Bonbon leveled a harsh glare at the beast, a part of her suspecting that something like this was going to happen. It was for that reason that she didn't dispel her previously cast spells. After all, even lousy boss fights came in phases. Palk didn't waste any time as he let his new appendages lunge towards her, the teen countering the incoming assault with the two giant hands she created earlier. While they managed to keep two of the arthropods busy, the dozen or so that remained were too much for them to handle. That didn't matter all that much to her, they served their purpose as she ran towards the heart of the room. She felt that the seed was smiling as its eye tracked her only to give her what looked like a confused blink when she stood in front of him. Bonbon stared unafraid into Palk's eye as she slammed her hand into the ground, her magic shooting out to all of the crystal she had conjured in a great pulse of power. The diamond immediately responded to her will and a sound like shattering glass filled the room as it did just that. Not sure where this was headed, the seed willed his appendages to attack the girl. He never got a chance as the girl's spell took effect. All of the diamond pieces took flight as a wild gem whirlwind, the enchanted glowing stone ripping into the seed's limbs like a million daggers. All the while, the gems ground themselves into smaller and smaller fragments as they flew. Soon, a thick cloud of glowing dust filled the room in a wild tempest, the seed's eye and a lone girl at its heart. Slowly, Bonbon pulled her hand back as if she was going to throw a punch, the diamond around her hands already worn away to add themselves to the glowing storm as she leveled a cold glare at the trembling eye. In response to her will, the cloud of diamond dust gathered around her fist as a great spiraling mass primed and ready to aid her in delivering the finishing blow.
As she looked into Palk's eye, a single word echoed in her heart.
Checkmate.
She threw her punch, the spiraling mass of diamond dust tearing the eye apart from the inside out as it pierced the organ and exploded off of her hand in a wild cyclone. When the dust finally settled, not a scrap of Palk could be found. Bonbon let out a relieved sigh as she let herself fall to her knees, the strain of both the fight and her magic finally taking its toll on her now that it was over.
For now at least, she thought with a sigh as she reached into her pocket. I just hope the others are alright.
As she thought that, she plucked a small glowing orb out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth. A sweet taste filled her mouth as she slowly felt her fatigue start to fade. Who knew that magic rock salt could make jawbreakers good for you?