//------------------------------// // Fever Dreams: Bon-Bon // Story: Harpflank and Sweets: Forced Introspection // by Arcainum //------------------------------// As Bon-Bon walked into the HQ Lounge, the buzz of conversation cut out suddenly. Everypony looked at her, then returned to their drinks and their whispered words. She trotted over to where the other Elements were relaxing and sat down. Nopony was talking, and there was an awkward silence. Bon-Bon looked at her friends in confusion “So? What’s everypony been up to?” There was stuttering chorus of “Oh, not much” and “I don’t know, stuff...” Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on? Is there something you aren’t telling me?” They all averted their gaze, unable to meet her eye. Eventually, Lyra opened her mouth hesitantly. “Well... it’s just... After that whole Gabby Gums fiasco, we’re... not sure we should be... well... talking to you right now.” Bon-Bon stared. “What?” Lyra cringed at her friend’s tone. “I didn’t want to say it, but... you kinda gossip.” Gasping indignantly, Bon-Bon stood up. “How can you say that?! I’ve never been so insul The small office was as cramped as ever, a ten-pony business run from a room that could just about fit four desks and a photocopier. Bon-Bon pored over the contract she’d been passed, incredulous, and called over the noise of her colleagues to Starseeker, owner of the odd little talent agency/management consultancy/temp pool/all-round freelance group that she worked for. “Hey, Star! Is this right? You want to me to babysit some loopy harpist?” The noise in the office died down a little as everypony utterly failed to listen in with any degree of subtlety. Starseeker narrowed his eyes and met Bon-Bon’s gaze with a steely glance of his own. “Yes. And you should be thankful you’re getting even that.” Bon-Bon opened and closed her mouth a few times, struggling to find the words. “Look, I made a mistake, okay? Do we have to go through this every day?” Everypony in the room jumped as Starseeker brought his hoof down sharply on his desk, knocking a stack of papers to floor. “Yes! Yes, we do! Because you very nearly got us shut down just because you couldn’t keep your clever mouth shut!” Even as the anger rose, Bon-Bon’s heart sank. He was right. No matter how she tried to deny it, she had had no right to say those things, to let those details slip. And now the papers had hold of the story, and the agency was under investigation, and she’d rui The file hit her in the face like a slap, and the expression on Lyra’s face made it clear that that was exactly how she had meant it. “What the hay, BB? What the hay?” Bon-Bon shuffled her hooves nervously, cheeks burning with shame and the impact of the heavy folder. “Look, Lyra, I-” Her friend held up a hoof and she stopped as Lyra’s eyes bored into hers. “No, don’t explain. Not yet. I don’t think I’m ready for an explanation.” They stood there for almost a minute, Lyra’s breathing deep and controlled, as if forcing herself to keep calm. Bon-Bon’s mind screamed at her, screamed that this never happened, none of these things had happened, but she ignored herself. It was just denial, denial in the face of her own betrayal. As the silence grew more and more oppressive, she couldn’t take it anymore. She opened her mouth to speak, and Lyra instantly cut her off. “My personnel file? My personnel file? How could you...” She brought a hoof to her head, massaging her temple in an effort to calm down. “How could you ever think that I would be cool with that?” Bon-Bon, voice as small as she felt, tried to respond. But every time she tried to state the reason she had thought so selfless, her heart faltered, knowing that it hadn’t been. “I thought... After the night you lost your music... I wanted to...” “You wanted to what? Find out more? Get more of Lyra’s juicy secret past?” Lyra shook her head in disgust. “I told you that stuff in a moment of weakness, BB. Okay? I was down. I was so far down I didn’t know if I could ever come up. And you pulled me out of that... that emptiness. And I love you for that. There is nopony in my life I consider a closer friend than you. Not Derpy, not the other Elements. But this?” She prodded the file with her hoof as it were a dead animal. “This was...” She cast about for the right word. When it finally arrived, she spat it with venomous irony. “Disloyal.” Bon-Bon felt the tears well up, and she tried to say something, to apologise, but she knew there was nothing she could sa She was alone now, alone in the infinite blackness. There was no sound, no sight, no sensation. She lay still. A flash of white light pierced the void and a sinuous figure popped into being, a figure that Bon-Bon had only encountered once before. She looked up, confirming her assumption. “Oh. It’s you.” She hung her head again. Discord folded his arms and pouted. “Well? Come on! Where’s the bitter self-recrimination? The anguish?” Bon-Bon shook her head as she replied, voice dull and lifeless. “Why bother? You’re right. I’m curious. No, nosy. I gossip. I pry. I spy. And I ruin other ponies’ lives because of it. Even Lyra’s.” Discord grinned. This was almost too easy. “Oh, yes, Lyra. She is fascinating, isn’t she? So many talents, and so many personalities! It’s like she’s a hundred different ponies rolled into one!” Bon-Bon nodded despondently. The draconequus leaned nonchalantly forward, whispering from behind his claw. “And that’s why you’re friends... isn’t it?” Bon-Bon’s head suddenly snapped up with characteristic indignation. “No! That’s not true! She’s my friend because she’s loyal, and strong, and... and funny, and...” Discord blew a dismissive raspberry. “Oh, come now. She’s a curiosity! A genius harpist who fights crime and studies a mythological species in her spare time? Who wouldn’t want to spend time with her?” Bon-Bon faltered, the memory of the personnel file still aching in her mind. “No, she... She’s my friend... My closest friend...” Discord floated closer, pressing his face close to Bon-Bon’s as she stared at her hooves in desperate thought. “She’s a talking point. A display piece.” He placed a claw under her chin and lifted her gaze to meet his. “And that’s all she’ll ever be... Am I right?” Bon-Bon looked deep into his mismatched eyes. Something deep inside her, a speck of warmth in the cold wasteland of feeling that gripped her, told her that this was the most important question she would ever answer. She searched for the answer.