As I stepped onto the pavement road I took in my surrounding. Manehatten was a city, not a town like most of the places. I've been, Manehatten is a full blow metropolis. I could see busy anthros everywhere, all looking at their watches or looking both ways before crossing the street. I noticed how they never once looked at me. Were they truly that busy?
"So Bon-Bon where exactly are we going?" Spitfire asked.
"To the city's chruch?"
"You're fucking kidding me?" I said to Bon-Bon. Seriously, the church? Where they worship Celestia? I remember this one little town, the center of everything revolved around that church, it was the only building that rose above twelve feet. Ugh.
"Think about this way, where is the last place anyone will think to look if were going against the princess herself?" Bon-Bon stated as matter of fact like.
"Oh." It was kind of genius, but. "How are you going to get past the church people, I'm pretty damn sure if they knew we were plotting a rebellion against their god, they would do something, right?"
"Right, if there was any church people, this is a big city, with busy people, no one has time to go to the church, it's practically abandoned." Bon-Bon said.
"Ah, so basically people lost faith in their god?"
"Nope." Spitfire said this time. She had her eyes set on a statue, a statue that was engraved into a side of some random building. The statue itself was of Celestia, she stood tall, her smile kind and warming, her dress loosely hung onto her.
I frowned as I noticed a small crowd all bowing to the statue, their eyes close mouths moving and their hands pressed together.
"I said they didn't have time to go to the church, but they still have time to pray at their local statue." Bon-Bon said.
"A local statue." I deadpanned.
"Yup." Bon-Bon said as we turned a corner, the statue leaving my sight.
"How many of those are just laying around?" I asked.
"Oh...there's about one every." Bon-Bon took a minute to think. "Street." She said as she looked foreword.
And sure enough, there was a statue of Celestia, the same as the other one. "This is ridiculous!" I stated.
"Yeah, how much money do you think it cost them?" Spitfire asked.
"No clue." We made another turn, but there wasn't a statue on this street.
"Why isn't there a statue on this street?" I asked.
"Wait for it." I followed her, I noticed the building started to disperse, all of the tall skyscrapers that surrounded us seemed to become less numerous as we made our way down this...long street. I felt the ground texture change under my boot.
I looked down, cobblestone. It went from pavement to cobblestone just like it did with the dirt road. I felt a shiver run down my spine. I noticed the skyscrapers stopped at the cobblestone, none dared to venture foreword.
As I looked around I noticed a building, square at the base, rose up further into a pyramid like shape. Engraved into the entrance was the statue of Celestia. It was the biggest one so far. It was a bit different this time though, instead of her hands pressed against her hips like the others, this one has Celestia's right arm held out, in her hand was bell. In her left hand she held out scale. The kind that balanced gold for the weight of other items.
"Welcome to the church of Celestia." Of course, so was that bell suppose to be the church bell? How did it work?
As if on que, a man exited the entrance and walked underneath the bell. As we drew near I could see a rope dangled from the bell. The man pulled the rope. The ring of the bell resonated throughout my body.
I rubbed my ears trying to get the ringing out. Bon-Bon didn't seem to be phased, I looked over at Spitfire, she was clutching the sided of her head, her hands over her ears. The dick that rang the bell went back into the church.
"I thought that it was abandoned?" I spat, the sound returning to my ears.
"I said practically, besides that was one of our group."
"Why did he have to ring the bell?" Spitfire asked.
"If the bell isn't rang once a day bad luck will be brought to the city for a month." Bon-Bon said. I burst out into laughter. "Yeah laugh it up, but it's kind of true."
"Equestria logic may not be the same as Earth's but I'm pretty sure that if you didn't ring that bell." I pointed to the giant as bell. "That bell right there, I'm pretty fucking sure nothing will happen."
"The city doesn't wanna take that chance, last time we didn't ring it, our town was plunged into darkness." Bon-Bon said. Wait..we? So this is where Bonny is from?
We walked up the stairs, Bon-Bon knocked on the door, one, two, three, pause. Four. The door opened up, a hooded figure stood in the doorway.
He spoke. "Bon-Bon, heyy took you long enough." He moved out of the way and let us in.
. . .
Marble floor, wooden benches and not the cheap ones, these looked as if they went through a thousand years of sitting in a closet just gathering dust. There was an alter and a shrine, all underneath the same statue of Celestia herself.
I'm seriously getting sick of her vanity, Bon-Bon grabbed my arm and pulled me into a room, Spitfire soon followed. The room was just an empty room with a bookcase inside it.
"Uhm, why are we in a closet with a bunch of books?" I asked.
Bon-Bon pulled a book, nothing special about the book at all, but the spine read 'Celestia's History'. The bookshelf opened inwards on itself. Of course, every secret place needs a secret bookshelf. How cliche.
We walked down into the room that hid behind the bookshelf. A feminine figure alone, she was messing with a map setting figures onto it. Sorta reminded me of a war plan. Her mint green hands pushed over several figures across the map.
Mint. Green.
"Lyra?" I said. The figure flinched but didn't turn.
"A-Alex?" She asked. Her voice remained the same. A bit scratchy but overall the same voice that I knew.
"Who else would it be?" I joked, using my sarcastic tone hoping it would release the tension that clouded the room. She lowered head.
"I'm sorr-" I didn't let her finish.
"Shut up and give me a hug." I grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. I grasped both her shoulders and looked into her hood, her face shrouded by the shade that her hood provided.
"B-but." I pulled her close and squeezed her lightly into a hug. Lyra's arms slowly lifted up and snaked themselves around me. I smiled as I felt her accept my embrace.
We held each other until I heard a purposeful cough come from Spitfire.
I let go of Lyra, as I pulled away she removed her hood. I could see her bright golden eyes, her smooth fur, and the trademark smile she loved to use. Admittedly it was a bit goofy, but goofy was alright.
"So Ly-Ly what's the plan?" I asked, my tone playful.
"Were going to wait for the big game to arrive here, right now were just waiting....so the plan for today os to catch up with each other." Lyra said.
"What do you mean by bigger game?"
"Our little organization couldn't get this far by itself, we had some help from great..great power, we even have some power in the palace itself." Lyra said.
'Wait. If there was an ally within the palace...was that Luna? Was the dream girl going to meet me in person?' I thought to myself, I wonder who else was a part of this great power.
"I wonder who they all are." Spitfire said.
"Looks like were on the same page Spitball." I smiled when my nickname took effect, Spitfire got flustered and turned away from me. "Well we can't exactly share our stories by standing here can we?" I asked.
Lyra looked at us all. "I have a place for us all to stay, so let's go check out our room and catch up a bit on the way."
"Wa-wa-wait a minute!" I said ecstatically. Everyone looked at me. "You got us all one room together?"
"Yeah, and?" Lyra asked. "Is there something wrong with that?"
I chuckled. "No, no I'm just having a case of deja vu." I looked over and tried to make eye contact with Spitfire or Bon-Bon, both of the, were looking away bashfully. I chuckled again before shaking my head. "Lead the way Lyra."
Lyra took us to a different section of the building, thankfully the halls leading us to the room had no Celestia related decorations. On the walk I told Lyra the short version of what has happened so far, I didn't mention the meet up with Luna, I also didn't tell her about the accident with the bandits, I also left out a few details of the night at the inn.
Lyra opened the doors and lead us into our mew bedrooms, thank the stars that there were absolutely nothing no decorations in the room, it was very similar to the inn. A little to similar. I grabbed a pillow and fluffed it.
"Good, actual feathers." I said out-loud.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Lyra asked.
Bon-Bon burst out into laughter and Spitfire huffed and made a pouty face.
"Just a little thing that happened in the past." Bon-Bon said after she stopped her giggle fit.
"Okay...then." Lyra said.
. . .
The rest of the day Lyra, Spitfire, Bon-Bon and I stayed inside our rooms and talked. Lyra told me how she let me get caught, how she reduced the drug intake I took in, even how she disabled the fire exit's alarm. I never even thought about that part during the time.
Lyra explained how she spread rumors throughout the palace, how she gained allies in the fight against Celestia, over all..everything she said made me feel very proud of her. Lyra would have never of stepped up and defied a god if it wasn't for me. Pride swelled up in me.
That night I fell asleep on the bed Lyra provided for me, I slept soundly, a peaceful dreamless rest.
.
.
.
It may not be tomorrow, but fuck I should have seen that this wasn't going to end up well, everything lasts only so long.