//------------------------------// // A Voice in the Belfry // Story: Ponies in a Place, Until a Time // by HiddenBrony //------------------------------//         Ponyville at night was a much different beast than the Ponyville during the day. Where ponies would laugh and frolic under the sun, the night was quiet, betraying the energy that it relished in when the foals would play.         That wasn’t to say that Ponyville was dead. No, the dark made it easier to hide its secrets.         Atop a building on the edge of town sat a belfry with no easy access. Many ponies chalked it up to have been built by Pegasi, but those in the know around Ponyville knew not only how to access it, but the reason for its existence. They knew how to use the bell.         It was on a late summer’s eve that one such pony appeared on the roof of the abandoned building. She wore no markings, sans her candy wrapped cutie-mark, and carried nothing with her. Reaching the belfry, she looked towards the ground below to see if any pony had happened upon her sneaking this night. It had taken everything she had to sneak out with alerting her flatmate tonight.         Slipping into the belfry, BonBon snaked across the floor until she stood next to the bell itself. She watched the night pass with as an unwavering sentry. She gave the bell a quick tap with her hoof, producing a low knell. She wondered if that was loud enough, and with enough waiting, she tapped the bell again, this time a bit more forcefully. When nothing happened again, BonBon got on her feet and bucked the clumsy thing, producing a loud broooooonnnnngggg to echo out into the night. BonBon herself had difficulty stopping herself from shaking from the reverberations, her body tense from the loud noise. She wondered if her contact had heard that. Or rather, if anypony hadn’t heard. However, she hadn’t waited long. Hearing the heavy beat of wings, her muscles relaxed. She turned to face the north. “It’s about time, Thun—” she stopped.         A pale colt stood on the edge of the belfry, his grey-blue streaked hair nearly black in the moonlight. Strapped across his neck was an impossibly large duffel bag. “Free Candy.”         BonBon froze, “Wha-what?”         The pegasus rose an eyebrow. “Free Candy, right? Brother said there would be Free Candy here.”         There was a long silence. The small pegasus colt’s eyebrows started to raise higher.         “Oh! My alias! Yes! I’m Free Candy,” BonBon breathed, rolling her eyes in relief. “Um, what should I be calling you?”         The small colt perked up. “Oh, Big Bro says I’m too young to have a codename yet. Just Rumble’s fine.”         BonBon’s face fell. How open was Thunderlane with his brother about their business that he would send him out on runs with his real name. Maybe– Maybe Thunderlane trusted her enough to use real names? However, as she considered this, she quickly realized that she already knew everypony’s real names, making the codenames a moot point. “Ponyfeathers.”         “Bro says I can’t say that word yet,” Rumble chimed in, breaking BonBon’s concentration. Her eyes trailed to the bag around the young colt’s neck, her eyes bulging.         “Oh! Is... is that it?” she asked. Rumble nodded. “O-Oh! Did your brother... he told you what was in the bag?” Rumble shook his head. BonBon looked relieved for a moment, but furrowed her brow. “Well if you didn’t look, how do you know if you have it?”         Rumble shrugged. “Bro said it was in here, and I trust him with that.” Her eyes never left the duffel bag. If Rumble knew what lay inside, it would kill her. The scandal! If some foal– “But I looked anyway. It’s weird looking.”         BonBon lost all color in her face. “It-It is not!”         “Yeah it is. Actually, it looks a lot like my—”         “Where is your brother!?” BonBon nearly screamed, not wishing to have this conversation with a colt. “What would he think if you were looking at things like this!?”         Rumble shrugged nonchalantly. “He has a room full of these things. I think he collects them.”         BonBon’s mouth unhinged and just hung loosely. A room? That was her dream if she could have something like that... and it would explain why he always had them at the ready. “S-s-So you see these things all the time?” She still did not want to have this conversation with Rumble.         He perked up and nodded with gusto, his wings spreading out. “Oh yeah! I think they’re weird, but kinda fun to play with!”         BonBon nearly heaved, and only stopped herself by putting her hoof over her mouth. “I can’t... believe Thunderlane would let you play with something like this!” Saying nothing for how it would affect him later in life! “It could hurt your development!”         Rumble waved off the accusation with a lazy hoof. “Nah, it’s mostly harmless. Thunderlane likes playing with ‘em too, and he said he started collecting these when he was my age. He said he showed them off to all the mares around time, and they played with ‘em too! Sometimes he has parties around them! It’s really cool because sometimes I see colts and fillies my age there with their older brothers and sisters and we go into the other room and play with some by ourselves!” As he was talking, Rumble took off the duffel bag and laid it down at BonBon’s feet with a smile. “But Thunderlane told me no one’s played with this one yet! Something about germs or something? I make sure to wash when I’m done.”         “I...” BonBon just stared. It was all she could do. This was supposed to be a quick and quiet transaction, but now she knew far more about the dark side of Ponyville than she ever wished to know. And Rumble...! So young to be playing with such things. Still, a deal was a deal, and she soon fished out a large number of bits. “I guess... these are for your brother.”         Collecting the bag, Rumble put threw a string around it and hung it from his neck. “Thanks, Miss BonBon! My bro says he always has more so don’t hesitate to ring the bell if you want more!”         “Y-yes, sure,” BonBon mumbled, watching the small colt take to the air. She had enough willpower to watch him go without staring. Turning her attention to the bag, she quickly gathered it up close to her. “It’s okay now, babies, momma’s gonna teach you right!” Looking over the edges of the belfry, BonBon made doubly sure that nopony had happened upon her during the meeting. Once she was satisfied, there was a light zipping sound as she undid the bag. “Come to momma, a little test run won’t hurt anypony~!”         It was a curved little thing, cast in a sleek plastic shell. She adored it– it was a little bigger than the others, so it’d be more difficult to fit, but as she played with it, it seemed to bend just a little bit where it counted. Yes, this was of high quality. Beaming, BonBon raised the device into the moonlight.         And promptly shoved it in her mouth. The change was immediate.         “Hello, my precious student,” called the voice of Princess Celestia, coming out of BonBon’s mouth. “I am the leader of Equestria and I like to eat cakes! Cakes cakes cakes I love cake!” The device nestled neatly behind the first row of teeth on the bottom, bending just right alongside the natural curve of her mouth. “Especially that wonderful baker down in Ponyville, BonBon!” she went on, her hooves waving around like she had something super serious to say. “Yes, from this day forth,” said Princess Celestia’s voice, “All ponies must shop exclusively at BonBon’s Sweets and Treats in Ponyville for all their snacking needs! Your Princess demands it!”         Collapsing into a bundle of legs and giggles, BonBon removed the voice modulator from her mouth and placed it back into the duffel bag. The transaction had been a bit rocky, but she had a newfound appreciation for Rumble. “I can’t wait to add this with the others!” she cheered to herself.         Perhaps having a legion of voice modulators made her weird. But to her, any hobby was better than whatever it was Lyra was up to!