//------------------------------// // The Who In Question // Story: Sweet as Sugar // by sharkray24 //------------------------------// Chapter Two: The Who in Question What happened next was a blur; she remembered being escorted downstairs, through the candy shop, ponies on either side looking at her, their words sounded like mush to her. She remembered being led to the hospital, the bright lights blinding her. She sat in the chair of the hospital room for a long time. She didn’t know how long, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, a year even. She didn’t know, she had lost all sense of time, of everything. She sat there looking at the white floor tiles. The blank, white floor tiles containing nothingness, the nothingness she felt in her mind and her heart. She didn’t realize that Nurse Redheart was talking to her until she felt a hoof on her shoulder. "Lyra, did you hear that?" Nurse Redheart asked concerned. "S-sorry could you repeat that?" Lyra blinked as she asked, the tears and tiredness stinging her eyes. "Well you see, we have located the problem, but, we haven't identified it. All we know is that it in the area of her left frontal lobe." The Nurse reported having a hard time following herself. Lyra just sat there, unable to comprehend the situation. Bon Bon hadn't woken up that morning, and wouldn't wake up, Zecora had done some Zebratic spell or something, the Emergency Services had interrupted her, and now there was something going on in Bon Bon's head? It was all over for Lyra, up was down, left was right, in was out, nothing made any sense.She zoned out when the nurse continued, there was no reason for her to listen. Lyra started thinking about everything that had happened. Who did it? Somepony must have done something to Bon Bon but who? Twisted Stories Lyra didn't know how long she sat there looking at the floor, but she was drawn away by the creak of an opening door. In walked a small cream earth pony (about the same color as Bon Bon) with poofy, curly, red hair and purple square-framed thick rimmed glasses. She wasn't smiling, so you couldn't see her shiny braces, and her name was Twist. Lyra had to strain to remember this filly, she had been working as Bon Bon's apprentice, she had started about two weeks ago and she was pretty good for a beginner. Lyra suddenly realized, she must have been the one to do this to Bon Bon! She must have been too much of a hoof-full to handle, must've caused Bon Bon so much stress, that she had gotten a blood clot or something. Or, she had been good, so good, she wanted to run the place herself so she poisoned Bon Bon with something, so she would have all the profits to herself. Or, maybe she was jealous of Bon Bon, maybe she secretly loved Lyra, and wanted Bon Bon out of the way. Maybe she hit her on the head "Accidentally" with a cooking tool or something. Or, maybe she was an undercover agent of one of Bon Bon's opponents in town, or a secret society that didn't appreciate Lesbimares. Lyra thought of all of these things before Twist had even taken one step towards her and Bon Bon, and halfway through her first step Lyra scolded her, "Now is not a good time Twit!" "Um...It's Twist, and if it's ok I'll come back later Lyra..." Twist said and hesitantly turned to leave. Rhymed Death The next pony Lyra could think of was a Zebra. Zecora had come in and performed that weird Zebra Magic and all those glowing lights and symbols. She had put a curse on Bon Bon, no doubt about it. Zecora never really liked Bon Bon's Candy that much, she said it was "Too sweet for my taste to meet." who eats candy expecting it to not be sweet? Very suspicious. Now Lyra and Bon Bon, didn't really know Zecora that much, but Lyra always suspected she was more evil than she let on with her chants and her Voodoo and Hoodoo and her rhyming to try to confuse everypony and whatever else there was. She couldn't be trusted. Lyra imagined the old tradition of burning ponies at the stake for practicing dark magic, then imagined Zecora in the middle of the flames. The image branded itself into her mind and she could hear the Zebra screaming in agony. The Doctor Deceives Lrya's toxic thoughts then turned to the supposed "hero" the Doctor who had run into her room to save Bon Bon. Zecora told him not to move Bon Bon, but he didn't listen, he just disturbed this powerful magic spell that was supposed to be helping Bon Bon. Lyra knew from experience that interrupting a spell while it was being cast (especially a powerful one) was a bad and dangerous idea. The Doctor should have known that considering he was a Unicorn. He just barged in and bucked up every thing, he probably did it on purpose too, just to have some pomp and circumstance! When Lyra saw that doctor she would introduce him to some real powerful magic. An Untrue Heart Next Lyra thought about the messenger of the bad news, Nurse Redheart. But this nurse was a code Red. She probably did something to Bon Bon's medicine and poisoned her, then made it look like a natural death. That or she was really a paid assassin who was hired to take out Bon Bon. Yeah that's it, Celestia sent an assassin to try to intimidate her into keeping her mouth shut about conspiracy theories. Now the Princess had gone too far, there would be a one pony rebellion, for Bon Bon! Left alone with ones thoughts, especially ones dangerous, toxic, infected, mauled, and possessed as these, one can easily be driven to insanity, or even an uncontrollable violent outrage. No living creature can feel emotions like these and not be affected. They start to question their friends, then their family, then their gods, then finally themselves. If you could show me one creature able to escape the dark cage of the Mind, then you have shown me a lie. The dark cage of the Mind starts out big, so big one does not realize that they are held within it, but the bigger your thoughts and fears get, the cage squeezes tighter and starts to suffocate the prisoner. Then it tightens its grip more so that the victims eyes pop out of their sockets so they are unable to see the truth. Then their ears are turned inside-out so they are unable to listen to reason. Next, their tongue rips out of their mouth so they can no longer speak what they truly feel. Next their nostrils expand and make the nose explode so they cannot smell the rank odor of the repercussions of their violence. Finally, their skin plies itself off of the body, along with the nerves and the sense of touch, so they no longer can feel anything. No pain, no suffering, no life, no joy, no happiness, no love, no hate, no greed, no desire, no pity, no generosity, nothing at all. They become something a changeling wouldn't dare touch for fear of being leeched of all it has fed on. Lyra, was now in that cage, and it was slowly starting to shrink around her as she stared at the floor.