• Published 17th May 2013
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Uniformity - adcoon



Lyra is not everything she claims to be. When she tries to leave town in secret, Bonbon follows to find out the truth, even if it takes them to the end of the world.

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X. Beneath the Layers

It was almost like one of her dreams. Almost, except for the much too real sensation of stone on all sides. Bonbon pulled herself forward through the narrow space, scraping her belly and flanks against the rough, uneven floor and walls. Her heart beat like a rabbit’s backed into a corner by a pack of dogs, not from exertion but from the clammy hoof of Death grasping her shoulder in the dark, imminent and heavy.

Her chest rose and fell in a frantic rhythm as she saw her fate play out. Her body was going to get stuck in the narrow space. She’d use up all the air and choke, desperate for breath. That’s how she’d die, hopelessly stuck in a hole without air somewhere far from home. There was no room to turn around, no room to move or breathe.

“You alright?” Rainbow’s voice came from behind her, and despite everything, hearing another pony’s voice made Bonbon feel a little more at ease.

“No,” she admitted, all pretense of calm gone. “I’m not alright. I … I’m freaking out.”

“Hey,” Rainbow said. Her voice was calm, revealing no signs of the anxiety Bonbon was feeling. “I’m right behind you. Just keep steady. You’ll be fine.”

Bonbon nodded, though she knew the pegasus couldn’t see her. She took a deep breath and pulled herself a little further, feeling ahead of her in the dark with her front legs. How had Lyra escaped this way so swiftly? Perhaps it was easier for a human to squeeze through this sort of space, although Bonbon wasn’t quite sure how it would be easier.

Her hoof struck emptiness ahead. She paused and felt around until she had a sense of the opening ahead of her. She pulled herself a little closer and leaned over the edge, stretching until her hooves touched solid ground below. She nearly shook with relief as she breathed out a sigh. “I think I’ve found the end,” she said as she inched herself forward.

“Cool,” Rainbow said behind her.

Bonbon slipped out of the narrow space and found herself standing upright in what had to be another room, though she couldn’t see a hoof in front of her eyes and even less any walls or other features. They really should have brought some light with them. How convenient it was for unicorns to have a built-in flash light. She took a deep breath to shake off the last fear and began feeling out the room.

“Gee, they couldn’t install some light down here?” Rainbow’s hoofsteps sounded against the stone floor as she slipped out of the hole behind Bonbon. “It’s darker down here than Luna’s backside.”

“I think it’s a ruin of some sort,” Bonbon concluded as she felt along a rough stone wall. Having been slowed down enough to think through their situation, a nagging thought began to surface. What was she doing? Chasing Lyra with Rainbow in tow? Of course Lyra was going to run away from them. Just as importantly, Lyra had light and they didn’t.

How had Bonbon ever gotten herself into a situation like this so ill prepared? “Right,” she thought. “Many manic mice menacing the majority of Mais at midnight.” Still, it wasn’t like her to do this sort of thing. She paused and closed her eyes to think; not that closing them made any noticeable difference.

“There are some stairs here,” Rainbow said somewhere in the dark. “What do you think this place is anyway? Pirate tunnels?”

Just like Rainbow Dash to think of pirates as the first option. “Or access to the sewers,” Bonbon said and wrinkled her nose. She made up her mind. “Whatever it is, I’m going down there to get Lyra. You stay here,” she said, searching around for where Rainbow had said the stairs were.

“No way I’m just sitting around. Not gonna happen.”

“Then go help them with the mice outside.” Bonbon found her way in the dark and turned around at the top of the stairs. “Lyra needs space, remember? So I’m going alone to speak with her.”

It took a long silence before Rainbow Dash grumbled back. “Fine. I’m staying here,” she said and sat down on her haunches by the wall. Bonbon imagined her sitting there sulking with her hooves crossed over her chest.

“Good.” Bonbon turned back to the stairs, moving carefully to find each step in the dark. “I’ll be back when I’ve talked to her.”

A small grunt was her only response.

* * *

She had walked for possibly five minutes in the dark, down stairs and tunnels. She was completely blind here, leaving her to depend entirely on her other senses. At least she was certain she would be able to find her way back when needed, because she had taken care to follow the wall on her right wherever it took her; all she had to do was to turn around and follow the wall on her left and it would eventually lead her back to the room where Dash was waiting.

She had to admit to herself that she would have liked the company more than anything, short of some light. She had to constantly calm herself down and take deep breaths, lest she panic. She didn’t want to call out, because every time she did, her imagination conjured all the things that could be hiding down here, and many more things that probably couldn’t. But if she would have any hope of finding Lyra, then she had no choice.

“Lyra?” she called again, her voice just loud enough to be heard nearby. “It’s just me, Bonbon. No pony else.”

The stones were rough and cold against her hoof, and it was clear that this place had not seen use for a long time but had simply been left to ruin. The air was musty and got colder as she descended deeper into the place. She wondered if maybe Lyra hadn’t run very far after all, and whether to turn around and try some other way. How big was this place anyway?

She began counting the steps under her breath in between her calls for Lyra, the faint sound of her voice helping on her nerves. “It’s alright,” she whispered to herself. “That’s it … just keep walking, don’t think, just walk and breathe. Don’t think.”

It had probably been almost fifteen minutes by now, the best she could guess. This had been a stupid idea. Bonbon stopped and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes, though it still made no difference. She could turn around and find Dash, get out of here and back into the light and the fresh air. Lyra would be fine. Probably.

Unless Lyra was lost, but she at least had light. Bonbon beat her head lightly against the stone wall. She was such a blundering fool. She stopped and rubbed her mildly sore head with a sigh before continuing on. “Five more minutes, then I go back,” she whispered.

A few steps later her hoof hit empty air. She stopped, feeling around until she found a flight of stairs. Bonbon paused and turned around in the dark. It hadn’t been five minutes, but there wasn’t much point in going even further down. She really wanted to see some light again.

“Lyra?” she called quietly down the stairs, listening to the faint echo coming back. After a few seconds of silence and no response, she placed her left hoof against the wall and began walking back the way she had come, following the same wall the other way.

A tiny sound made her ear stand up and her hooves came to a sudden stop. She stood completely still and held her breath, her ears turned back in the direction of the stairs. She waited several seconds before she picked up another quiet sound.

Bonbon turned around slowly and walked back to the stairs, feeling carefully with her hooves before she began the descent. It took her a minute to reach the bottom of the stairs. She stopped and listened again over the fast-paced beating of her heart.

Something sniffed nearby. Bonbon walked quietly towards the sound, feeling ahead of her. “Lyra?” she whispered. Lyra—if it was her—let out a sob. “Are you crying? It’s me, Bonbon.”

The sound stopped, except for a low and fearful breathing. “L-leave me alone,” a voice whispered. It was weak from crying, but it sounded like Lyra.

“It’s just me.” Bonbon could hear the breathing right in front of her now. She fumbled and found a wall. Lyra inched away from her in the dark. “No one else is going to see you like this, I promise,” Bonbon said to reassure the human. “I didn’t tell Rainbow Dash anything, and I don’t think she connected you with what she saw.”

Bonbon knelt down on the floor and reached out for Lyra. The human shied away from her, pressing herself up against the wall. Bonbon let her hoof drop, wondering what had upset Lyra so. “What’s wrong, Lyra?”

Lyra didn’t say anything, merely sobbing helplessly in the corner. Bonbon was at a complete loss. She sat for a few seconds, trying to think of something to say. “Lyra, I …” she said softly, but didn’t know how to continue.

When words didn’t seem to come, Bonbon did the only other thing she could think of. She inched herself closer and reached out again, this time placing a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder. The touch caused her to tense. Bonbon blinked. “You’re freezing cold!” she said in shock and moved closer, not caring whether Lyra protested or not as she wrapped the cold, naked human in her hooves and held her tightly. “What happened to your sweater?”

Lyra still said nothing and remained stiff with fright in Bonbon’s embrace. Bonbon held her tighter and stroked her back. The skin was soft and smooth, nothing like Bonbon had expected. Lyra began sobbing again. Bonbon had no idea what else to do. She had never seen Lyra this distraught, or this cold. Bonbon nuzzled her and tried to rub some warmth into her. It didn’t seem to work, but she kept trying anyway.

Bonbon wasn’t sure how long she had been holding Lyra close, but she wasn’t going to let go. The human had begun to relax, but remained as cold as ever. Bonbon’s mind had been trying to figure out what it was that was nagging her. It struck her suddenly that Bonbon was probably shivering more than Lyra. In fact, Lyra wasn’t shivering at all.

Something was obviously terribly wrong. Was Lyra sick? How could she be this cold and not shiver? “Lyra?” Bonbon waited a few seconds, but Lyra remained silent. “Do you think you could make some light for us?”

Lyra froze up again and began shaking her head strongly. “Nnno, no!” she cried. “No, no … Nnno!”

Bonbon held her closer, trying to calm her back down. “Alright, no light. No light.” Lyra seemed to calm a little again and sniffed. She buried her head in Bonbon’s chest and cried. Bonbon sighed and looked up, as if answers might come floating down from the ceiling towards her. “I’m here for you. Please just tell me what’s wrong.”

A soft golden light crept into the room behind her. Bonbon blinked, her eyes aching at the sudden change from complete dark to soft illumination. “Oh … thanks,” she said and smiled.

“Bonbon?” Lyra’s voice sounded behind her. “What are you doing down here?”

Bonbon turned around and blinked at the source of the voice. A minty unicorn stood at the base of the stairs, a soft golden light shining from the tip of her horn. “… Lyra?” Bonbon’s mind tried to grapple with the sight before her, but came out blank.

She turned and stared into the shadows in front of her. The air and darkness of the room seemed to come alive to flee the light. A shriek made its way up through Bonbon’s throat but died at her lips as something struck her in the chest and the world returned to sudden black. She felt herself thrown through the air and heard Lyra cry out. She never caught the words before everything went out in a flash.

* * *

She was in a forest, lying on a thick layer of dry pine needles, staring up into the endless sky. There didn’t seem to be anything but trees and pine needles in sight for miles. She turned slowly and stood up, brushing herself free of needles before looking up at the cloudy sky. After a moment of looking around, she began walking in the direction she was facing. There didn’t seem to be any way to choose a better direction, so it probably didn’t matter.

A young filly leaned against a tree up ahead, watching Bonbon as she approached. “Hey,” Scootaloo said and began walking along with Bonbon. “Have you seen Rainbow Dash?”

Bonbon looked around at the endless trees and the cloudy sky again. There was no sign of anything remotely like a rainbow’s colors anywhere. Just grey, green and brown all around. “Are you waiting for her?”

“Kinda.”

“Know where we are?”

The filly shrugged. “You’re dreaming, so I doubt it matters.”

Bonbon stopped and looked at the filly, then at the forest again. So none of this was real? She wasn’t used to dreams like this, where she knew it was a dream.

“What do you remember before the dream?” the filly asked.

It was hard to remember. “I was sleeping,” she said as she began walking again. Scootaloo picked up pace, trotting along beside her. The forest showed no signs of changing. “I had a nightmare and woke up covered in mice. Lots of mice. Angry mice. Don’t know what made them so angry, but they were flooding the whole city. Rainbow Dash got me out of there.”

Scootaloo said nothing as she listened, her hooves kicking at the cover of the forest floor.

“Then we went to find Lyra, but she ran away into some tunnels beneath the city. It was dark and I didn’t have any light. I found Lyra hiding in a corner.” Bonbon stopped and tensed at the memory. “Except it wasn’t her.”

Scootaloo looked up at her. “Perhaps it was. Have you thought about that?”

Bonbon shook her head. “I think she found me there, and I don’t know what it was I had been hugging, but something happened and then I don’t remember anything else.”

“When you have two of the same pony, and they’re not twins,” the filly said and sat down on the mat of pine needles, “how can you really tell which is the real one?”

Bonbon huffed and stopped. “Lyra is not a changeling.”

“Changelings can’t feel love.”

“What?” Bonbon looked down at the filly sitting before her, taken aback by the strange shift in topic. But then, it was a dream, and dreams never cared much about making sense.

“The one who follows you loves you terribly much, I think.”

Bonbon wasn’t sure what to say about that. She felt the ground begin to shake beneath her, and all around her the trees fell away silently as the world disappeared.

* * *

“Hey! Can you hear me? Yo, earth to earth pony!”

Something shook her hard. Bonbon groaned and turned her head away from the light burning mercilessly above her. “What happened?”

“Hay if I know!” Rainbow Dash’s voice was angry as she stepped off Bonbon. The light grew a little less bright as she did, and Bonbon slowly opened her eyes to look around. “I heard a scream, and I swear all the darkness came alive for a second. I rushed after the sound and found both of you sprawled out on the floor.”

Bonbon sat up and looked at the pegasus. Rainbow was holding a torch in one wing, lighting up the previously dark room. Now that Bonbon could see properly, the room looked like the ruins of some ancient castle, bare except for a broken table of stone and a rusty chain in the ceiling which could have once held up a chandelier. “Where’s Lyra?”

Rainbow Dash pointed her other wing, and Bonbon turned to look. Lyra was sitting against the far wall of the room, staring gloomily back at Bonbon.

“How long has it been?” Bonbon asked and stood up.

“I dunno. An hour, maybe, since you left me sitting there?” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Could be less. It felt like ages.”

Bonbon had no idea what time it was when they had been woken up by the mice, but it had still been in the middle of the night. There had to be at least an hour or two left before sunrise. She looked back at the minty unicorn wearing the same sweater Bonbon remembered she had worn earlier that day on the ship. “I’m going to talk to her,” she said to Rainbow.

“Whatever. I’m going to check the other rooms and make sure nothing’s hiding.” Rainbow turned around and headed down one of the tunnels. “Call if you need me.”

Bonbon waited until the pegasus disappeared into another room with the torch, leaving only Lyra’s light behind. She turned and walked up to sit down next to Lyra. “I haven’t told her anything,” she said. Bonbon wondered how much easier it would be if Rainbow knew, but she didn’t think it was the right time to suggest it to Lyra.

“But she saw me.” Lyra kept her eyes on the doorway where Rainbow Dash had gone to investigate on her own. “And you betrayed me. You led her to me.”

“I was trying to save you.” Bonbon wrinkled her nose and brow in a look of annoyance at the unicorn. “What else was I supposed to do? The whole bloody city was flooded with mice, and maybe you haven’t noticed, but I still haven’t sprouted wings, you know. It was only a brief glimpse anyway. I doubt she made much of it.”

Lyra wrapped her front legs around herself in a hug and glowered at the faint glimmer of torchlight from the other room. “That’s how it begins, Bonbon,” she said. “It’s the curse. You might think I could trust you, but the more ponies who know, the greater the chance of a slip. First you find out, then before I know it Rainbow Dash finds out too. Then somehow somepony else catches wind of it, and suddenly it’s out of control.”

Bonbon mulled that over in silence. She looked at the pony next to her. “How come you’re not a human now? It must still be night outside.”

“We’re too deep,” Lyra muttered into her sweater. “Once I get deep enough into the ground, the moon’s power stops affecting me. It was the same back in the mine.” She seemed to anticipate Bonbon’s thought and added, “It’s not enough to simply stay indoors at night, though. Something about the moon reaches through walls, but not deep enough to reach me down here.”

“I see.” Bonbon stared at her hooves and shivered. “Did you see what happened earlier?”

“I thought I heard voices, so I followed and found you sitting in the corner. It was too dark to see, and I think something hit me. I must have passed out. Rainbow Dash woke me up.”

Bonbon was silent for a while. “There was another human. I swear it must have been,” she said. “I could have sworn she had your voice too, but … she didn’t really say much, I suppose. Maybe I was mistaken about the voice. She was freezing cold, though, and she just kept crying.”

“Are … are you sure?” Lyra looked up with wide eyes at Bonbon.

“Absolutely. I may not have been able to see her, but there’s no way I could have mistaken it. I swear it was a human girl.”

Lyra turned and stared at the ruins around them. She said nothing, and Bonbon decided not to say anything more either. She wished she could get some sleep.

* * *

Bonbon had a headache, and her eyes were itchy and red as they began the journey back through the ruins towards the surface. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had been enough hours that the sun had to be up by now. Lyra had refused to move until now, and Rainbow Dash had refused to leave them down here, even though she obviously begrudged sitting around in the dark while who knew what was going on up above.

Both Bonbon and Rainbow had eventually managed to get an hour or two of uneasy sleep, but it might as well have been nothing. If Lyra had dozed off briefly while they were sleeping, Bonbon couldn’t tell and didn’t ask.

All three made their way through the dark, tired and in no mood to talk. Lyra lit the way, now that Rainbow’s torch had burned out. The magical light cast long shadows where she turned her head, and their hooves echoed in the corridors and crumbling rooms. Bonbon wasn’t sure what this place was, but all the rooms and halls were empty, except for a few broken doors and pieces of furniture. She hadn’t seen or heard any signs of life since the unknown human, and she had no idea where it had gone.

In her tired state and eager to get back out, Bonbon had forgotten about the wall she had followed. Now she wasn’t sure which wall it was, or even if she had been this way before. She told herself it wouldn’t matter; as long as they kept going up, they’d get out somewhere eventually. And they had light this time.

They had been walking for probably half an hour, though. “Are we lost?” she asked, breaking the silence for the first time. She thought she sounded almost like she didn’t care at this point. She really was awfully tired.

“Just have to find the next stairs up,” Rainbow muttered and pushed an ancient door open, poking her head inside the room beyond to look. “It’s not like that should be so hard.”

Lyra continued down the hall. Bonbon followed and looked around as they entered a small rotunda with paths leading off in different directions. The largest of the passages had stairs leading up, but it had long since collapsed and filled up with debris.

Rainbow Dash groaned. “Great.” She turned and flew around the room to check out each of the other passages. “That room we came in through must be around here somewhere.”

“It may have been on one of the lower levels,” Bonbon said and sat down.

“Well, there’s gotta be another way out.” Rainbow came back from a short venture down one of the passages and looked around, trying to decide.

Lyra dusted off some stones with her tail by the collapsed stairs and tilted her head. Bonbon watched her push a bit of rock and dirt aside with a hoof.

“You’re trying to dig your way out now?” Rainbow rubbed her temples in frustration. “Come on, one of these passages—”

“Just give me a moment,” Lyra mumbled.

Rainbow Dash sighed and turned back to the available options. “Sure. Whatever.”

Lyra pushed aside a larger rock and stopped, looking at something. Bonbon was about to get up and walk up to see what she was looking at when the light from Lyra’s horn vanished, plunging the room back into complete darkness without warning.

“Hey! What the—” Rainbow said somewhere in the dark.

“Lyra?” Bonbon called and reached out, feeling blindly ahead of her. “What happened?”

There was a sound of frantic digging and shuffling of stones from the stairs. What sounded like a minor rockslide followed, and then the light returned. “Sorry,” Lyra said by the stairs, holding her dirtied sweater wrapped around something. “Let’s go.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the unicorn and pointed at the bundle wrapped in the sweater. “What’s that?”

“Just a rock,” Lyra snapped back. “What way?”

Rainbow apparently assumed this was one of those things she wasn’t supposed to ask about and simply shrugged. “This way, I guess,” she said and pointed down one of the corridors at random.

Bonbon followed in the back as they moved on. Lyra walked in the middle, holding her bundle while Dash led the way. Bonbon supposed she would have to press Lyra about it later, when they were alone and maybe had managed to get some proper sleep. They were all a bit stressed and tired right now, and it seemed to affect all their moods.

They’d walked for a few minutes when Rainbow Dash held up a hoof for them to stand still. She hovered in the air and turned around as if trying to hear something. After a moment she pointed down a passage to the left. “There’s fresh air coming from here,” she said and headed down the passage. “That means it must be a way out.”

Lyra and Bonbon followed, eager to get out into fresh air and the light of day at last.

“Hah!” Rainbow exclaimed up ahead and circled into the air, disappearing up into the ceiling of the room ahead. “It’s a tower!”

Bonbon stepped into the room and looked up, staring into the clear blue sky above the broken remains of a tower. She couldn’t help but smile and breathe in the cool air.

“Come on,” Rainbow Dash called and swooped down to grab Lyra first, lifting her off the ground and soaring up through the tower. “We’re out of here!”

* * *

“I thought you had up and vanished on me there. Where have you been all this time?”

They were back at Maurice’s place. Lyra and Rainbow Dash were going through their rooms and the mess the mice had left behind, trying to salvage what could be salvaged of their things. Outside, the streets still teemed with mice, but the worst chaos and confusion had passed, and most of the mice were being rounded up or chased back underground. The incident had left the whole city in a mess, however, and no one looked very happy.

“We ended up in some kind of ruined tunnels beneath the city,” Bonbon explained. “There weren’t any mice there, and we got a bit lost before we found our way out again.” She decided not to go into detail and simply left it at that.

“Oh,” the griffon said as he surveyed his ruined home. “Sounds like the old castle dungeons. It’s a bit of an attraction, especially since it served as inspiration for a Daring Do novel.” He picked up some books and dusted them off before putting them back on their shelves. “It was picked clean ages ago, of course. There’s nothing left down there now, but every so often some kids sneak off and get lost in the tunnels, and then we have ourselves a grand old adventure trying to find them.

“Lots of buildings in the city are built on top of those ruins,” he continued. “It’s usually teeming with mice and rats down there, but I guess they all left it for the surface tonight. Never seen anything like it.” He stepped into the kitchen and sighed at the sight. “Or anything like this. So you’re not planning on staying?”

Bonbon shook her head and helped gathering up the ruined food. “We all agreed that it would be best if we got going as soon as possible, after we’ve gathered our things and had a few hours of sleep.”

“Can’t blame you,” Maurice said. “It’s going to be a lot of work and no fun before the city looks itself again.”

Bonbon took a glance out the window at the city outside and the groups of griffons already hard at work trying to clean it up. “Do you think there are any stores where we can restock?”

“Probably. The mice didn’t ruin everything,” he said and inspected a bottle that seemed to have survived its fall from one of the shelves. “And I bet all the merchants will be eager to sell you anything they can, ruined or not, to recuperate some of their losses. If you’re smart, and quick on your hooves, you can probably get some decent stuff for nearly free.”

Bonbon nodded. “Good. If tonight has taught me anything, it’s that we are terribly ill prepared.”

* * *

Hey Twi.

We’re all fine. Sorry I had to disappear on you like that. I’m way too tired right now to write, so I’ll tell you more later, but we kinda had ourselves a grand flood of rabid mice, whole city went up in chaos. Then we spent the night in some sun-forsaken ruins after looking for Lyra.

Anyway, we’re all getting a few hours of shuteye before heading out into the wild. Bonbon’s out there trying to buy up the whole damn city. Says we need to be prepared for anything out there. She can carry it all herself, though. Not my problem.

Say hi to Scoots and our friends for me.

Love you,
Dash

P. S. I saw this really strange creature here. I figure you or Fluttershy would know what it was. I’ll try to draw it some other time. Gotta catch some Zs first.