Secrets

by bahatumay

Not-so-silent Night

Along the road far on the outskirts of town stood a rather nondescript motel. With slightly rundown walkways and paint peeling in the corners and baseboards, it was the perfect place where you could go and not have any questions asked about your identity or destination, where bits were the only thing that had any sway.

However, since that would be the first place anypony would look for two mares on the run, Bon Bon had sneaked them through the maintenance door into an empty room in a slightly more upscale hotel with a much nicer, bug-free bed.

And Bon Bon and Lyra were taking full advantage of that fact.

Lyra lay sprawled out, face buried in the pillow. “Oh, I’m never moving again,” she vowed.

“Well, you should, just enough to get under the covers,” Bon Bon said. “It’s an empty room, we can’t have lights on, and it’s probably going to be a bit chilly tonight.”

Lyra looked up at her. “Are we going to share the bed?”

Bon Bon smiled. “It’s going to be chilly,” she repeated.

Lyra rolled over and lit her horn-

“No lights!” Bon Bon hissed.

Lyra quickly extinguished her horn and lifted the blanket with her hooves. Now with the room lit only by the moonlight, she slid her body underneath it, and Bon Bon’s quickly followed.

“Whoa,” she breathed, sprawling out a bit more. “This is way nice.”

“Told you,” Lyra said.

When she could take a deep breath, Bon Bon spoke. “So when did you first start wanting to date me?”

Lyra chuckled. “Is that your training, too? Asking mares questions when they're… comfortable?”

Bon Bon chuckled dryly. “If I wanted to get you answering truthfully, I would have gone out at midnight, picked some leaves from the acacia tree and a couple other herbs you probably shouldn’t know about, and made you some tea. If we're going to do this, we need to trust each other.”

“I've been trusting you.”

“Yes, you have, Lyra. You've trusted me so much. And I’m sorry again that I haven’t trusted you.” Bon Bon exhaled and sat up so she could look in Lyra's eyes. “I've got a few more secrets, too.”

“Like what?”

Bon Bon looked down and drew small circles in the sheets with the tip of her hoof. “I've… wanted to be more than just friends for a while, too.”

Lyra’s heart jumped. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” Bon Bon chuckled under her breath. “Tried to suppress it, though.”

“What?” Lyra sat up and shook her head. “Really?”

Bon Bon placed her face into a pillow. Realizing Lyra really did expect an answer, she nodded into the pillow.

Lyra pressed her hooves against her forehead, stunned. “I’ve been freaking out about this for months, debating and practicing in front of mirrors and trying to figure out the best way to bring this up… trying, failing, I've been having conversations with bales of hay to practice; and you felt the same way? Why didn’t you say anything?”

There was a long pause.

Bon Bon mumbled her answer into the pillow.

Lyra lifted an ear and leaned in. “Didn’t catch that,” she said.

“Scared,” Bon Bon repeated.

Lyra scoffed. “Scared? You aren’t scared of anything. You fought an ehowolf by yourself-”

“I knew him and he had it coming,” Bon Bon said staunchly.

“-and faced off against a vampony, and you were beating up everypony in jail, you did something to a lami-thingy that made her love you forever and offer to give you anything from her bakery any time you came back-”

That made Bon Bon’s ears prick. “Anything? Really?” she asked.

Lyra shrugged. “S’ what she told me.”

“Huh,” Bon Bon said thoughtfully. She shook her head. “I wasn’t scared of you saying yes. Or, actually, I was. It's dangerous, that’s why it’s scary. But not to me. Having somepony who can be used against me. To hurt me. To hurt you to hurt me. That’s what scares me.”

“I'm learning!” Lyra insisted, pushing herself up into a sitting position against the headboard. “I'll be a super secret special SEMHA agent in no time!”

Bon Bon chuckled. “Maybe. Maybe I'll even train you someday.” She shook her head, chuckling softly, but then her expression softened. “Honestly, I hoped I’d never have to use my skills again, leave them all in the past. If I do train you, I really hope you never have to use anything I teach you.”

Lyra nodded.

“It's not over yet, though.”

Lyra grinned deviously and rolled onto her back again in a perfect cuddling invitation.

Bon Bon blinked, and then a devious smile crossed her face. “I meant, we're still running from somepony who wants us dead and I’ll probably still have to use more of my skills; but since you asked so nicely…” She lay down, wrapped her arms around Lyra, and was asleep almost instantly.

Lyra exhaled, feeling Bon Bon’s warmth against her, and she was happier than she had been in a long time. She, too, drifted quickly off to sleep.

---

“Lyra,” Bon Bon whispered.

Lyra groaned. “What?”

“We’ve gotta go.”

“Whyyy?” Lyra groaned. “I’m so comfy…” She curled up, trying to look as small and inviting as possible for more cuddles.

“Because we’re not supposed to be in here, remember?” Bon Bon answered quietly. “Come on. Housekeeping will be here soon for the morning sweep. We’ve got to go.”

Bon Bon poked her head out into the hallway. When she decided it was clear, they sneaked out, walking quietly down the hall. Bon Bon turned and led her down a side hallway, leading her to the fire escape. She nudged the window open and, after glancing around, climbed out. “I’ll go first, come down on my signal.” She made her way down the metal ladder, disappearing from sight.

Lyra didn’t feel particularly comfortable about splitting up, even temporarily. She poked her head out, but lost sight of Bon Bon under all the metal. Thankfully, Bon Bon’s signal whistle quickly came up, and she climbed out and slowly, carefully climbed down.

Her hooves touched the ground and looked around. Then she spun in a circle. Something was very wrong. Bon Bon wasn’t here. “Bon Bon? Where did you-?”

---

Bon Bon’s eyes flickered open. She glanced around. She was laying on her face, it was dark, and it shouldn’t have been; it still should have been day. Her eyes narrowed. Something was wrong.

She looked around. She was in a dark dungeon, the only light coming from a flickering candle. The stone walls seemed imposing, impenetrable. And yet, the rings on the wall certainly weren’t regulation…

Oh, no.

She tried to shoot to her hooves, but found her hooves bound with ropes, and she fell with a thump on the ground. She rolled onto her back and scowled at the knots, then quickly worked them off her hooves. Once she was free, she started looking around. She was behind bars, but something wasn’t right.

Still, she had more important things to worry about. “Lyra?” she called.

There was a muffled moan to her side. She pressed her face up against the bars and saw Lyra, laying on the ground, behind her own set of bars. Her hooves were also bound, and a bright pink magic suppressor was on her horn. She groaned. “Bon Bon?”

“Lyra! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Lyra answered groggily. “What happened? Am I wearing a magic suppressor?”

“Got blindsided by a bat pony dart.” Bon Bon scowled. “Rookie mistake. And yeah, you are.”

“It’s alright,” Lyra said as comfortingly as she could while still bound. “They’re night-time monsters and it was almost day. You weren't expecting it.”

“Ah, don’t let them hear you say that,” Bon Bon said with a ghost of a smile. “Bat ponies aren’t monsters. They’re a distinct tribe of ponies with their own magics. One of their secondary powers makes them almost invisible in the dark when they’re not moving.” She brightened as she caught sight of her saddlebags and watch, though they were between the two cages, against the wall, and far out of reach.

Lyra looked around. “What is this place?”

“It’s a ‘fun dungeon’,” Bon Bon grumbled, looking around. “Just… don’t touch any white spots on the ground. Or on the walls.” She cast a suspicious eye towards the ceiling. “Or anywhere else, for that matter.” She walked over and reached for her supplies, but her hoof wasn’t quite long enough. She grunted irritably. “Just don't touch anything and scrub your hooves like there's no tomorrow when we get out.”

“What’s the earth pony secondary power?” Lyra asked, trying to roll over but failing and so just somersaulting instead. She took this all in stride and looked through her mane at Bon Bon, who was now whipping her tail at her artifacts in an attempt to bring them closer. “Unicorns get the sense of magic and stuff like that, and pegasi do the cart thing, or something, right?”

“Yeah, sensing magical artifacts, places where there’s been a lot of magic, that kind of thing. Earth ponies spread fertility just by existing. Get enough earth ponies in one area and things will just start growing. It’s why Appleoosa and other towns like that work. And pegasi can kinda magnetize things with their flight magic.”

There was a creak, and Lyra jumped. She looked over at Bon Bon, and she was already back in the center of the cell, on the ground, ropes looped around her hooves again. She looked up and let out a groan.

It was the bat pony. He stepped forward, rested a hoof on the cage, and tsked. “Agent Sweetie Drops, you're a terrible actress,” he said.

“Alright, you got me,” Bon Bon admitted, lifting her hoof and letting the rope slide off. “I was trying to garner a little sympathy.”

He cracked a wry smile. “Sympathy doesn't go far when compared with the price tag on your heads.”

Bon Bon slowly stepped forward. “Well, some things… are worth more than bits can buy.” She dipped her head and looked up demurely. “I’m sure there’s… something I can help persuade you with.”

He chuckled dryly. “Wow. No, that won't work. Sorry, but you’re worth much more to me alive. Besides, you just don’t have what I want.

Bon Bon paused, peeked up one last time, and then grinned. “Oh, I know.” She straightened up and rolled her neck out. “Bat ponies have an astoundingly high rate of homosexuality.”

It was his turn to pause. The first inklings of ‘this could be a trap’ filtered through his mind.

“Really, it’s almost a miracle there are so many of you left.” She stretched her forelegs out. “Funny thing: you don’t actually have what I want, either.”

There was a click. His ears pricked up. That wasn't a good sound.

A smarmy grin spread across Bon Bon’s face. “I was just trying to distract you.”

He spun around. Lyra stood, breathless but triumphant, the magic suppressor ring now cracked at her hooves. She lit her horn, and the bat pony crouched, ready to flee or attack; but she didn't seem to be doing much. Almost as if she were using a simple levitation spell…

And then he heard the zip of a something metal on metal, and felt a garrote wrap around his neck. Holding the wire in her front hooves, Bon Bon placed her hind hooves against the bars and straightened her legs, pulling him backwards and quickly cutting off all his air. He struggled, legs kicking and wings flapping wildly, but Bon Bon had gotten it right the first attempt. Within seconds, he slumped, unconscious.

Lyra lifted the keys from his belt and levitated them over.

“You're actually not too bad at this.” Bon Bon grinned as she slid the right key into the lock and turned it. “Maybe I will train you after all.”

Lyra looked down at the bat pony. “What are we going to do with him? Put him in his own cells?”

“I don’t know,” Bon Bon said, pursing her lips. “That seems a bit unfair, and not much of a punishment. But he does seem to have a thing for ropes. And I can knot a knot quite well myself.”

“Cannot not what?” Lyra asked.

“Can knot a knot,” Bon Bon repeated, holding up a piece of rope.

“Cannot… what?” Lyra asked again, a bit more slowly this time.

Bon Bon giggled. “Just follow my lead.”

Comments

[MidnightBlossom]

hehehe

[Narrative Style]

Interesting thing to note: A number of the mercenaries have now mentioned that the bounty is higher if Bon Bon is alive. For what purpose? Is this to do with one of the other secrets she mentioned having?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Cuddles during a mission have been known to lower situational awareness by a dangerous amount.

While the exposition on earth pony magic was certainly interesting, it came out of left field. What prompted that?

In any case, off our heroines go. Hopefully to somewhere with soap, water, and possibly a good amount of rubbing alcohol.

[terrycloth]

9805898
Yeah, it's weird. They killed everypony else on her team.

[Yoshifan30]

“I'm learning!” Lyra insisted, pushing herself up into a sitting position against the headboard. “I'll be a super secret special SEMHA agent in no time!”

Well sort of a semi spoiler alert I did read a story called Lyra and Bon Bon and the Mares from S.M.I.L.E that Lyra became a spy with bon Bon

[Yoshifan30]

Aww that was cute in the beginning when they slept together but of course things to not last that long a bat Pony kidnap them Bob with their skills and somehow their determination they finally outsmarted the guard