Chapter 2
The sounds echoed through the coffeehouse, the reverberating baseline matched with scintillating synth melodies. Over the top of the music, Lyra’s slightly scratchy voice shouted out free-associated nonsense, flowing from one idea to the next in a staccato rhythm that counterbalanced the beat.
Windy Wander stood at the back wall, bobbing up and down in time with the music. Next to her, Bon Bon watched the musicians with a pensive frown.
The song came to a close and Lyra took a bow, to scattered applause and cheers from the ponies watching. Windy pounded her hooves against the floor enthusiastically.
“And for our next number, we’re gonna go with something slower. Something for a special pony out there!” Lyra winked at the two ponies standing along the back wall and raised a hoof to signal her bandmates. The drummer’s sticks clicked together to count off and the music started again, this time more subdued. Lyra’s lyre floated up, a cord running from it to an amplifier, and a twisting melody rang out.
“Oh gosh,” Windy said. “She’s been working on this one for ages. I think this is the first time they’ve tried it live.”
“Do they ever do anything less… noisy?” Bon Bon asked. Lyra looked across the room at her with a smile and Bon Bon raised a hoof slightly in acknowledgment.
“Oh, it does take a bit to get used to.” Windy’s wings fluffed up and out. “But the harmonies they use are really rather sophisticated, and technically speaking, they’re all really good. I mean, listen to the unconventional syncopation of the drums. And Lyra, gosh, Lyra…”
Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s hipster music, I get that. Do they normally have this many ponies show up?”
“I-I guess. They’re getting a bit of a reputation in certain circles, I think.”
Bon Bon nodded. “Not bad.” Her eyes drifted to the stallion wearing shades behind the keyboard. “Not bad at all.”
“Did I mention Lyra writes most of the music herself?” Windy asked, shifting back and forth on her hooves. “She’s in the musical program at PCGSU.”
“Only like thirty times,” Bon Bon griped.
“Oh…”
“You know, I think you’re right, though.” Bon Bon raised a hoof to her chin. “I think they could be pretty popular, if they’d drop all this avant-garde nonsense and go mainstream.”
“What do you mean?” Windy asked.
Bon Bon didn’t say a word, but a small smile flitted across her face.
Bon Bon marched straight down the streets of Ponyville, headed for the market square. She ignored the other ponies milling around, only pausing to glare at any that stepped in her way. A pony mowing his lawn raised one hoof in a wave as she stalked by, but she didn’t spare him a glance.
She frowned as she finally arrived in the market square, looking around at the various carts and stalls set up throughout the open space. On one corner, a building that looked like a giant gingerbread house rose up, a line of ponies extending out the door and around the corner. Across the way, dresses hung in the windows of a well-decorated round boutique.
Bon Bon ignored those too, doubting anything in this town would compare with the offerings in Canterlot or Manehattan. There was only one thing she was looking for, one pony and—
Her eyes lasered in on a green pony dragging her hooves as she trudged through the square.
Bon Bon gritted her teeth, but forced her mouth into an artificial smile as she trotted forward to intercept the other pony.
“Hi,” she said, lifting her head and waiting carefully for Lyra’s reaction.
Lyra glanced up and then away, picking up her pace as she trotted away. “Not now, Bon Bon,” she said.
Bon Bon blinked. She had to canter forward to catch up with Lyra. “Hold on, you can’t just run off!”
Lyra stopped, causing Bon Bon to bump into her from behind. “Not now. Look, I know, I said some things that I regret, but we can talk about it later.”
“Well, I certainly hope that— Wait. Later when?”
“Later tonight,” Lyra said. “Just give me some time, okay? I’ll see you at home.”
Bon Bon shook her head, as Lyra walked off, vanishing into a crowd of ponies clustered around a stand.
“But…” She frowned. “Where do you live?”
Bon Bon sat curled up on the couch, her head buried under a pillow. She should have been at work by now, of course. But at this point she had already missed the early morning crowd. It wouldn’t hurt to stay closed until the afternoon.
At the moment, she didn’t feel like doing anything, other than lying there with her stomach tied in knots. She cursed Lyra for causing the problem to begin with, then veered into an overwhelming guilt for her resentment of her marefriend’s perfectly justifiable actions. That morphed into disgust at herself and anxiety about her future in the short and long-term. Surely Lyra couldn’t love someone like her. But it was Lyra’s fault to begin with…
A sharp rapping broke her mind out of the failure spiral and she sat up, staring at the door.
“Go away,” she called out.
The knocking redoubled, the pounding insistent and shaking the door.
Bon Bon unsteadily rose to her hooves and made her way to the door, swaying back and forth. She lowered one eye to the peephole to see who was on the other side and her mouth ran dry.
The mare currently knocking on the door had a familiar cream-colored coat, a familiar blue and pink swirled mane, and an unfortunately familiar scowl on her face.
“I heard you in there, now open up!” the other Bon Bon shouted.
Bon Bon took several steps back, head reeling as all of the very worst case scenarios of her deepest anxieties caught up with her.
She closed her eyes and forced one deep breath, then another, as her heart pounded with enough force to leap out of her chest.
She was screwed.
Strangely, that gave her a certain sense of calm. She had imagined this day would come, after all, and now that it was here, it felt like those nightmares she had grown unfortunately accustomed to. Sure, she wouldn’t wake up from this one, wouldn’t have Lyra comfortingly snoring away in bed next to her.
But… Lyra…
Bon Bon swallowed and steeled herself. She was almost certainly not going to get out of this. But if there was a way – any way – to keep Lyra, she would fight for it. And she had an idea.
A green light flashed in the foyer of Lyra and Bon Bon’s house.
Bon Bon ceased knocking, narrowing her eyes. If Lyra thought she would wait outside all day for her, that mare had another thing coming.
She turned and lifted one rear hoof, ready to buck the door right down if she had to.
She was just about to let loose when she heard the creak of the door swinging open. She smiled smugly to herself and turned to see… Lyra.
Bon Bon blinked. “I thought you were at the market,” she said.
Lyra rubbed the back of her head with one hoof. “Yeeesss…?”
“Well then. I don’t see why I couldn’t have followed you back.” Bon Bon sniffed. “After you ran off I had to ask three whole ponies before I found a mailmare who knew where you lived.” She paused for a moment, frowning. “Incidentally, I can’t believe they let ponies like that deliver letters.”
Lyra jaw clenched. “She’s not… I mean.” Her eyes darted back and forth. “Come in!”
Lyra reached out to pull insistently on Bon Bon’s foreleg, dragging her inside and slamming the door shut.
“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Some homemade sweets?”
Bon Bon scrunched up her nose. “I’ll have a water. Surely, Ponyville can’t manage to screw that much up at least.”
“Nope!” Lyra said. “Water, yes! We have wonderful water.”
She trotted away to the kitchen, hastily filling up a glass and balancing it on her back. When she arrived in the living room again, Bon Bon had already taken a seat on the couch and was looking down her nose at the knickknacks on their fireplace.
Lyra stepped forward, before Bon Bon could notice the heart-framed portrait of Lyra and Bon Bon from their first Hearts and Hooves Day in Ponyville. She smiled brightly, as Bon Bon looked at her with narrowed eyes.
“Well?” Bon Bon said.
Lyra blinked, and then awkwardly turned her head to lightly grip the glass in her teeth and set it in front of Bon Bon.
“Ew,” she said. “Use your magic. Why do you always have to be so weird?”
Lyra flushed red and dragged one hoof in a circle on the ground. “Anyways. It’s so good to see you again, Bon Bon. It’s been great catching up! But I’ve got to be somewhere right...” her eyes flitted over to a clock. “Right now, so if you’ll excuse—”
“Nope, I’m not going anywhere until we talk,” Bon Bon said firmly.
Lyra nodded rapidly. “Sure, yes. Let’s talk. About—”
“About the magazine article.”
Lyra winced. “Of course. I’m sure you have questions.”
“What the buck are you thinking?” Bon Bon exclaimed. “Where did you even get that picture?”
“I—”
Bon Bon rose to her hooves and poked Lyra hard in the chest. “You still have a crush on me, is that it? After all this time, you’re still pining after me?”
“That—”
“Not that I blame you, of course. It’s just awfully pathetic, I hope you realize that. Being hopelessly in love with a pony who doesn’t even realize you still exist.”
Lyra’s head hung low. Bon Bon paused and Lyra looked up before quietly speaking. “Yes, I know. That’s what it is, I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again. Just… just leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone. We’ll forget all about this and move on.”
Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “Did you lose your backbone too?” She smirked. “And I never said we had to leave one another alone.”
“What?” Lyra said, feeling a sinking feeling.
“Maybe I was wrong about you,” Bon Bon said airily. “Maybe you are going places. Maybe this could work after all. Things haven’t been going so well for me in Canterlot, primarily because of an insidious and completely unjust conspiracy of confectioners refusing to hire me, and—”
Lyra was shaking her head violently. “No. No no no no no no no.”
“Excuse me?”
“No!” Lyra cried out. “In retrospect I don’t think it will work. Maybe I prefer stallions after all? Ha ha. My mistake. “
Bon Bon’s face darkened. “You don’t truly expect for me to believe—”
Lyra yanked her forward, shoving her towards the door. “Actually, maybe I’m already seeing somepony. You know how it is. But it’s been a pleasure. I would invite you back but I’m moving tomorrow. To Vanhoover. Maybe you should look me up there!”
“Wha—” Bon Bon cried out.
Lyra yanked the door open and made to push the other mare out when she saw a familiar figure turning the corner on the other end of the street. She slammed the door shut again, barely missing Bon Bon’s muzzle in the process.
“On second thought! You should go out the back door. I have a lovely garden!”
Bon Bon stamped her hoof. “Stop it this instant!” she yelled out.
Lyra froze, a fake smile plastered on her face.
Bon Bon trotted to the center of the room and stood with her hooves planted firmly. She glared at Lyra. “I am not leaving until you knock it off and we discuss this like reasonable mares.”
Sweat poured down Lyra’s forehead as her mouth opened and closed. She swore she could hear hoofsteps through the door behind her as a pony walked up the path to the house.
Lyra’s eyes flickered between the front door and an angry Bon Bon, back and forth. Then she heard the creak of the door starting to open and leapt forward as green flames flashed.
Lyra opened the door to her home, her head hanging down. “Look Bon Bon, I wanted to say—”
As her eyes came up, she saw two identical ponies waiting for her in the middle of the room, mirror images of one another save for their expressions. The rightmost pony’s face was contorted into an expression of open-mouthed shock, while the leftmost pony drew heaving breaths, on the verge of bursting into tears.
Both of them were Bon Bon.
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I love changeling fics!
This can only be good...
Generally not too keen on changeling fics, but this is shaping up to be pretty interesting.
Funny, wasn´t the changeling supposed to be the parasitic one?
Seriously, kill off the nasty Bon Bon and leave the corpse to the Everfree´s fauna. I have the feeling nopony will miss her.
Why is it that I tend to like Bon Bon better when she's a changeling and despise her as a pony? (rhetorical question)
Bon Bon the Pony will now forever be referred to as Armin Tamzarian.
You need to fix the description. You jumped into second person halfway through it, and it left me and the rest of my friends confused as to what the story was about. You started the description off about Lyra, then you switched it to second person, so me and my friends thought it was about Lyra being replaced by a changeling. But then I read chapter one (hating Bon Bon right now after reading both chapters) and found out it was Bon Bon who was replaced.
Spoiler alert: I know how this story ends, and it's wonderful.
3781350
Oh! I wasn't sure at first what you meant, but you're talking about the story description itself. (Seriously, those are kind of the worst to have to write.) Let me think about it and try to rephrase.
3781378 Bon Bon on fire off the shoulder of Orion?
.
.
.
.
Because I think that was in Blade Runner... but it would be a wonderful ending!
3781429
I think the confusion is because the way you have it written now, the first pronoun ("her") refers back to Lyra, and because the description of "marefriend" is specifically applied to Bon Bon, it's ambiguous as to whether the subsequent "(pronoun's) marefriend" references also refer to Bon Bon as well (in which case, the "you" in "your marefriend's ex" means Bon Bon's ex, not Lyra's), or whether we've switched perspectives so that Bon Bon is now the subject of the sentence, and the "you" in "your marefriend's ex" is now referring to Lyra's ex.
To solve this, switch it around, like this:
That way, all of the pronouns obviously refer back to Bon Bon because the use of "(pronoun's) marefriend" is consistent.
And Lyra's dream of the three-way with twins came true!
3781470
You have no idea:
Thankfully, I talked Sharp Spark out of this original ending.
This. Story. Is. AWESOME!
I like Lyra, I like Bon Bon, I like changelings, and I don't care that the fake Bon Bon is a giant self-centered plotface (changeling or not, she's the fake to me).
Eagerly waiting for more of this, this has Feature Box potential.
Shoot them both! It's the only way to be sure!
Looks like this story.... just got featured.
For the last half of this chapter I was just thinking "Oh Shit" over and over again.
I kinda wish this had a comedy tag...
This...
This is going downhill for the imposter fast...
~Skeeter The Lurker
3781751 I dunno, I kind'a like the changeling better so far.
3781867
Not what I meant, bud.
~Skeeter The Lurker
3781493
Could be worse. We could have another Lyra show up. As in this one is actually the Lyra from the Mirror World from Equestria Girls. Two Lyras, two Bon Bons, and all clue as to who is saying which line goes strait out the window.
cdn.chud.com/8/8c/8c6ddd8f_this-is-gonna-be-good.gif
I'm liking where this is going. I really like this.
Hmm, so Bon Bon (pony) is only in it to help herself and a changeling actually loves Lyra. This is about to get messy.
Well, this is awkward. Somepony's going to have to change. Or not, since Bon Bon is a much better Bon Bon than this new Bon Bon.
Oh my god, this looks like it is going to be amazing. I really like how you have set things up here and am very much looking forwards to seeing how this pans out because it should be hilarious. I just hope Lyra knows that she has been living with a changeling because things could get messy if she does not, although the changeling will be more than capable of proving that she is the one that has been living with Lyra for years so things will obviously end well for her and the money grubbing pony will be left out in the cold.
3781349 Because changelings are adorable little bundles of love.
I decree they shall be called Bon Bony and Bonling
But seriously a well written fic with a dynamic storyline and a great narrative and perspective? Whats not to like!
3781277 Yeah, that's my biggest issue with this story so far. The "real" Bon Bon comes across as so utterly devoid of any positive qualities that it strains believability - she's abrasive, obnoxious and just plain unpleasant, not to mention kind of a golddigger. Why are we supposed to care even one iota for her?
3781277
That's a bit much, though I don't much care for the real Bon Bon either.
A funny omake scene for this story could have Bon Bon's parents knowing about the imposter (Parents: We like to think of her as the nice Bon Bon) all along and even approving of her dating Lyra. Now imagine the comical expressions on the actual Bon Bon's face when her parents reveal this fact, even bringing out a separate photo album devoted to
imposternice Bon Bon.[Meanwhile at the Bon family reunion]
Realmean Bon Bon: Okay how many ponies knew that imposter was a changeling?!*Everyponies hooves go up as
realmean Bon Bon's jaw hits the ground before she starts screaming obscenities*Nice Bon Bon: Everypony knew?
Random family member: We knew you weren't the actual Bon Bon from the first reunion you attended, though we didn't know you were a changeling until after those other Changelings tried to invade Canterlot. But we still love ya honey.
*Most of the other family members loudly voice their agreement while ignoring mean Bon Bon's screaming*
All of these comments complaining about the real bon bon being unlikeable... what if I told you that it might be the author's intent? Maybe she's not supposed to be likeable.
3782680
Obviously not
... At least not right now anyway
lets just keep reading
Seeing as she's a background character with (pun definitely intended
) no background her personality can be anything the writer wants.
But I love how this could be a thing, watch this video about her scenes and pay attention to the one in rarity's shop.
has lived in ponyville all this time and doesn't know rarity? is abrasive and unpleasant? Voice always different?
Changelings! Changelings Everywhere!
3781180
Well I love them
) This Much (
Ah a Changeling that's crushing on Lyra.
Course I think the real Bon Bon needs to pay a visit to Alter-Pinkie....
3782923
They didn't have
"Mine has rocks in it!" in the vid
3783149 the rarity shop scene was the one I was looking for, but couldn't find only that so I pick the first comp I found that had it
3782764
Mean Bon Bon: And Nopony thought to inform me? Or the Royal Guard?
Mom: Well, it's not our fault you felt you were too good to come to the family gatherings.And by the time of the invasion, well...
Dad: She was kinda like another daughter to us. She came to us for advice on things-
Mom: Helped your dad that month he broke his leg
Granny Bon: She always made time to visit me every other week at the home
Twist: Thee even taught me how to make thweets
MBB: ...And who are you?
NBB: She's your little sister...
3782923 I'm not saying this is out of character or not possible; it's just not very much fun to read about. And when we're just two chapters in, with basically only three characters appearing, not having any incentive to care about one of those three is an issue, although definitely not an insurmountable one. I'll just wait and see where this goes; at this point, this could become anything, from a tale of redemption to a dark comedy of humiliation.
3781429 Much better.
Don't really get the complaints about the bitch Bon Bon. There's nothing wrong with having a shithead antagonist with slight moustache twirling tendencies. I'm also pretty sure that we're going to get plenty of reason to dislike her even more in the following chapters.
Wellllll, shnit. Bonnies screwed.
I'm reminded of Mendacity (not that's a bad thing, mind you; I loved that one) and I'm curious to see where this one heads.
You have my eye, good sir/madame.
3784706
High praise indeed! I can't say that I have any plans to match that story's ambition... But hopefully this should be a fun little ride that hits some feelings along the way.
Wanna see my Headcanon? It's very good headcanon.
25.media.tumblr.com/1c2244fa0af578bc91e366be965700f5/tumblr_mq46440DBx1rxzaoho1_1280.png
♫ Meet Sweetie, who’s lived most everywhere
From Vanhoover to Baltimare
But Bon-Bon’s only seen the sights
A mare can see from Ponyville Heights ♪
A really weird family reunion!
eta: for those of you who wondered, left-to-right: Bonnie, Bombe, Bon Suite, Bonelle, Bon-Bond, Bonita, Sweetie Drops, Bon-Bon (and, of course, Lyra).
OH SH*T SON!!! Now it gets interesting!
3782923 I always thought they were triplets (3 bonbons and 3 different sounding bons) and each one are very unique in personality and likes. One is even seen trotting by with her stallionfriend, apparently, who just passes by her sister whose walking towards Lyra at the market place to meet up with Lyra, in Putting Your Hoof Down.
It's hilarious how many different bons there are. In fact, Egophiliac took that to a whole new level with there being like 9 or more Bons, I don't think it was fully established how huge that family of Bons are but there is a HUGE number I believe. Totally worth checking out that tumblr with Pinkie and the Cakes.
Ahem.
imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/33/likethischapter.jpg
Ah, the "Bon Bon's a changeling" fanfic. These never get old.
A shame the real Bon Bon's a bitch.
3782198
Bon Bon-ception.
You had my attention at the cover-image.
Ooooooh boy, now that's a new twist on the ol' "Bonbon's really a changeling". 'Tis gonna be interesting.
I don't see what Lyra saw in Pony-Bon though, Bon-ling is a much nicer person.
...I already see the potential for a comedic sub-plot:
Twilight Sparkle gets suspicious of Bonbon because she suddenly acts all haughty and mean, not like her usual self at all! Almost like a certain somepony at the Royal Wed-
Gasp! Could it be that Bonbon has been replaced by a changeling?!
Bon bon boooon. Get it? Ah, no more 4am commenting for me.