Mirror: Book I - Mind

“It started like any other morning. Well, not any other morning, or so I came to learn when I was preparing to unleash the day of reckoning upon some posh, snout-raised thief. What can I say? The mare tried to steal from me, she knew what was coming for her. And boy did she know. Not in the kind of way one might know when the shape of somepony’s hoof has been embedded into the side of their face. Rather, she deflected my blow before I even got the chance to tell her how I really feel. How rude of her. How odd it is that the one pony in this town I finally felt like I could spill all my tale and all my telling to, was the very pony I was trying to wipe off the face of the earth. What can I say? The mare tried to steal from me. What did she try to steal from me, you ask? That’s confidential. Why am I even telling you this in the first place? That’s right, because you’re supposed to be my therapist, and we both came up with this brilliant idea where every Tuesday or so we meet. You get to listen to me, and I get to listen to you. Rather, I have to listen to you, whether I like it or not. Isn’t that right? Here I am, stuck inside of this bland, boring office with a complete stranger breathing over my face as I lie down on a slightly uncomfortable couch, supposedly meant for relaxation. Y’got any breath mints? Not for me, for you, I mean.”

The pony, or rather the therapist, gave what could only be interrupted as a dull and tired stare by the earth mare whom had just unleashed an entire day’s worth of frustrations onto the pony whom was meant to be her designated doctor. It was their first session, and the doctor hadn’t even asked for her name yet.

“Good evening.” The therapist had begun as casually as ever that night. “I am Doctor Pace.”

The earth mare gave a long sigh. It seemed she was going to have to play it his way after all.

“Good evening, Doctor Pace.” She sufficed.

“Please, just Pace will do.” He fixed his glasses and sat back in his swivel chair. “Shall we start with your name, Miss…?”

“Bon Bon.” But that was a lie.

“Had your parents named you after the candy?” Pace quested.

“My mother gave me the name.” And that was another lie. “Yes, the name is loosely based off of the special candies everypony enjoys. I used to run a sweets shop here in Ponyville, and we made and sold plenty of them. Ponies used to love those bonbon treats, they all said it was their favorite.”

“And what do you do now?” He asked. “As an occupation?”

“I work at a grocery mart.” She lied once more, knowing she had been fired just this morning.

By now the stimulation Bon Bon had received from the staggering events that took place earlier in the day had dumbed down to a sluggish, molasses pace. The usual, sugar-high sensory and alertness was nowhere to be found, something in the air had stifled it, taken its place, and thus the mare laid there like a mindless zombie answering question after question with blind eyes and meaningless words. With such attitude, one might wonder why she had even agreed to sign up for a therapy session in the first place. Simply put, it had been scheduled by an untraceable source, and by untraceable that meant non-existent within the realm of the common pony folk. Pace was moving his lips again.

“Your friend, Lyra.” He went on. “What does she do for a living?”

“You mean like a job?” It at least got her to sit up. “Or whatever it is she does with her time?”

“Whichever makes her the mare you come home to every night.” He said.

“That’s just it, Doc-”

“Pace.”

“Whatever. I never know what I’m going to find every time I open that front door. A swarm of parasprites? The entire house flipped upside-down? I’ll admit neither of those are partially her fault, but would it kill her to hold down the fort while I’m out rearranging ways to get the bills paid? She spends more time indoors than she does outdoors for crying out loud. Oh, Lyra Heartstrings, what am I gonna do with you?”

“Lazy, jobless, slob.” Pace listed. “This is how you describe your friend.”

“Way to rub in the deficiencies, Doc.” She wouldn’t give him his name.

“The truth shall set us free, as they always say.” Pace got up from his chair and moved to the window, staring out at the ponies beneath the evening sky. “The sooner we come to face the facts, whether we like them or not, the closer we come to obtaining a solution.”

“And what’s your solution?” Wondered Bon Bon.

“I believe it is time to leave your friend behind and move out.” Pace said grimly. “You do not have to stay here in Ponyville. In fact, there are plenty of places to take up residence in Baltimare and Fillydelphia. I hear you are from the cities, isn’t that right?”

Bon Bon had simply stopped hearing whatever the doctor was trying to tell the mare. Her senses went stiff and her mind came to focus on one pony and one pony alone. Leave Lyra behind? How could I ever do that? She needs me more than she’ll ever know, but more importantly, I need her. And Bon Bon realized it was the first time for that session that she had not been speaking to the doctor.

“Bon Bon~!” A voice came rushing through the front door. “You’ll never guess what I found this morning.”

It had better been good, Bon Bon hoped from Canterlot and back that her roommate would drag a miracle in along with her. It was a severely high expectation to hold upon her friend, considering the sorts of things the unicorn had dragged in along with her in the past. Bon Bon shuddered at the reminiscence. Oh, who was she kidding? She’d better turn around and get it over with.

“I’m rather busy.” Bon Bon decided to say. She did not turn around.

“I found it behind the cafe.” Lyra announced. “Weird, huh? Can you imagine ponies just leaving priceless artifacts lying around like that?”

“You went dumpster diving behind the local coffee shop?” The earth mare shook her head and remained focused on her papers. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Bonnie, what’s wrong?” Lyra approached, brushing a hoof against her shoulder. “Won’t you look?”

The earth pony drew breath furiously and slammed both of her hooves to the coffee table. The cup of brew rattled and spilt over the newspapers, and as the irritated earth mare turned to jab daggers into her friend’s eyes, the unicorn recoiled and laid her ears flat against her mane.

“I lost my job, Lyra.” Bon Bon hummed quietly, teeth grinding. “I have no interest in anything whatsoever except for looking for a new occupation so we can keep this roof over our heads, since I’m the only pony who seems to know how to do that around here. Now, if you would kindly take whatever it is you’ve got in your field there out of my sight and leave me to my scanning, that would mean the world to me right now.”

Bon Bon twirled back around and stared at the tea staining her newspapers. For hours she had been scanning the jobs section, but nothing within her field of expertise or even mild understanding had come up. At this point she wasn’t even reading anything in particular, the mare was simply staring at the black markings upon the gray and hoping that the presence behind her would get the message and leave without a word.

“I just-” Lyra squeaked back, a dejected gaze to the floor. “I just thought I could help. I’m sorry you lost your job, Bon Bon.”

Finally, without another word, a stony clunk could be heard sounding against the kitchen counter, and sets of hooves trotting down the hall and into the room which Lyra had claimed. Silence blanketed over the earth mare sitting alone at the table, and as the mushy, stringy brown pooled across the letters before her, the memory faded away like the blurring letters, and she blinked back to the present.

“Miss Bon Bon?” Pace repeated. “Have you been listening to me?”

“I can’t do that.” The pony deemed. “Lyra is my friend.”

“I’m sorry, Bon Bon, but it appears to be the only way-”

“You don’t understand!” Her shout carried across the room, perhaps a little louder than she would have liked, but the stallion’s attention was at hoof now. “My life is nothing like what it seems, I’ve been living a lie all for the sake of fitting in with people that will never truly connect with me or understand me, and for what? Lyra is the only one who knows, she understands. How could I leave behind something like that?”

“What is it that you aren’t telling me?” Pace prodded, eyes staring and searching. “Is there something you wish to get off your chest?”

“I…” She sunk into the couch, feeling the tension slip away. “I don’t know.”

“Come, Bon Bon, there is no need to feel fear. This is an open environment, a realm of trust.” Pace said calmly. “Has your friend been mistreating you in any way?”

“Of course not.”

“Has she been threatening? Abusive?”

“What? I mean, there was that time she threatened to eat all of the left over oats even though I clearly told her they’re expired…” Bon Bon refocused. “But no, Lyra would never do something like that.”

“Think about it, Bon Bon. You do not wish to move away from your friend because you don’t give yourself any reasons to. You might ask yourself why you would ever want to do that, and it’s okay, all ponies do. You must realize that you do not give yourself reason simply because you do not look upon the situation within reason. Are you following me?”

She stared at the stallion without answer. Sitting back in his chair and fixing his glasses once again, the sound of his pen scribbling a few notes into his notepad was all the mare heard. Bon Bon could only wonder what was being written onto that paper.

“Tell me, Bon Bon.” He prompted. “Have you ever heard of the cuckoo bird?”

“Are you going to play an analogy or something here?” She anticipated.

“Nature gives us answers we never even thought about in the first place.” Pace explained. “The cuckoo bird, for lack of a better term, is deemed to be nature’s most toxic, parasitic bird to ever exist. Next to the mockingbird, of course.” He chuckled at his own joke.

She didn’t get it. It seemed nopony ever got his jokes. “Parasitic?” The pony asked.

“The cuckoo bird will invade another bird’s nest and lay their own egg within. Once the cuckoo inside hatches, the mother of the nest will feed the infectious bird as if it were her own, constantly begging and stealing food until it grows into adulthood, where it will then find another nest to lay its egg in and start the process all over again.” Pace continued. “It will grow so large that the nest it was born in will be crushed beneath its own weight. It’s only a matter of a time then before it moves on to the next nest, planting more eggs and destroying more homes. Do you understand what I am telling you, Bon Bon?”

“You mean to compare my friend to this…cuckoo bird?”

“There is no insult, I can reassure you.” He informed. “I am only trying to get you to look upon the situation with reason. Unless you can name anything beneficial that your friend has done for you, whether it be short term or in the long run, I believe it’s time to look the other way.”

“Lyra doesn’t need to be of any benefit to me, I can take care of myself.” Bon Bon countered. “I treat her like my friend because that’s what friends do, we’re always there for each other.”

“I have no power nor say in what you do in your life, absolutely none.” Pace reassured. “However, if you fail to see the setbacks in your life and do not take action to better your status, you will experience the consequences, and in the long run you will only have yourself to blame.” He reached over to his desk and opened up the bottom left draw, pulling forward a few brochures and hoofing them over. “There are plenty of residential suites to look forward to in the big cities, Bon Bon. A new life awaits you there, a fresh start. I encourage you to consider your future heavily. If you have any concerns or problems, you know where my office is. And there’s no rush, after all, I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.”

The doctor’s last words echoed through Bon Bon’s brain as she hovered at her front door and slowly pushed the key inside to unlock it. Even though Lyra was at home, Bon Bon had got into the habit of locking the door anyways so that her roommate would not forget to lock it when she herself went out to do whatever it was that Lyra’s do on an odd afternoon in the middle of the week. Probably to go wandering around a crowd somewhere or sit on benches in uncomfortable looking positions.

The earth mare expelled her exhaustion through her lungs, hanging her hat she never really bothered to wear and turning to the coffee table where she expected to find a mess she had yet to clean up. The newspapers were gone, and so was the tea she had spilled. Odd.

She approached warily and took a good long look at the perfect, crystalline glass surface, not a scratch nor smudge to be seen. It smelled clean too, as though somepony had gotten to work on it. Bon Bon turned and came face to face with a hunk of crystal lying on the kitchen counter, a platinum and purple-blue shimmering through the transparency as it revealed an odd shape within. For whatever it was and where ever Lyra had found it, Bon Bon supposed that if it had been lying there unattended for hours and nothing seemed to happen, then perhaps it wasn’t all that bad. Still, however, just what was it? The curly mane earth pony trotted around and eyed the object peculiarly, making out the shape of what appeared to be a face laying within.

“It’s a crystal prison.” Lyra said.

Bon Bon flinched and assumed a defensive stance, calming herself down at the sight of the unicorn. “How long have you been standing there?”

Lyra looked down and around herself, shrugging lightly. She hovered another helping of oats into her mouth and munched on them calmly, approaching her roommate and joining in on the sight they beheld. “Somepony cast an imprisonment spell on something, but I guess whatever was in there it got away.”

“It’s face looks so tiny.” Bon Bon observed. “Are those supposed to be the eyes?”

“There was not a single species in my bestiary that came remotely close to resembling such a facial structure. It’s eyes are facing forward and its mouth looks big enough to take big bites out of something. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“It’s almost always a mystery with you.” Bon Bon mused.

“Whatever this thing is it’s a predator, a dangerous, wild animal, and I’m going to find it.” Lyra bounced up and down with excitement. “I’ll bet it lives in the Everfree forest, or on the outskirts of Whitetail woods. All we’ll have to do is look for oddly shaped tracks, pick up unfamiliar scents, they’re all bound to be connected to it!”

“About that.” Bon Bon paused. “Listen, Lyra-”

“You and I are going to have so much fun together! We can go on hunting expeditions, we’ll live off of forest flowers and wild oats-”

“Lyra, listen to me.” The earth mare held out a hoof. “I need to talk to you about something.”

The unicorn’s bouncing ceased and her expression went blank, a hum of silence building tension before the earth pony resumed her speaking.

“Do you remember the day of the wedding, Cranky and Matilda’s wedding?”

“How could I forget? We were hanging streamers at Town Hall to get ready for the big celebration.” Lyra’s smile was bright as ever. “You and I were having the greatest of times together, just hanging out and being friends. And then that thing attacked the town, that bugbear…” Slowly, her grin faded. “And then you said it found you or something, and then you started telling me all of these things like how you’re really a secret agent and your life is a lie and our whole relationship together meant nothing. Nothing at all! All because you used to work for S.M.I.-”

Bon Bon shoved a hoof over the unicorn’s lips, sushing her and looking around worryingly. “You can’t just say all of that out loud, somepony might hear.” She warned.

“Why? Why all the secrecy?” Lyra whispered harshly. “I get it, you’re a secret agent and you don’t want your cover blown or whatever it is, but why don’t I get a say in it? You can’t just walk into somepony’s life and leave them in the dark about these things for all those years, what if they end up actually really liking you?”

Bon Bon’s eyes went glossy and concerned, eyeing her friend between one stare and the other. The bags beneath her eyes grew heavy, and the earth mare turned with a sigh, a dejected stare at the floor. “This is what I’ve been wanting to talk to you about for so long.” She admitted. “It’s for your own good. There are so many things you don’t know about that would knock you off your hooves and hurt you, even if you were being as careful as you could possibly be. It’s not like any life you know, far from it, actually. It’s a life separated from the normal, and I don’t want you getting involved. Do you understand?”

Lyra’s eyes blinked rapidly and her own sights hit the floor, and Bon Bon rushed forward to raise her friend’s chin with her hoof.

“Look at me, Lyra.” Bon Bon said. They both stared at each other, eyes watering. “I do like you, I really do. You’re the best friend I could have ever asked for, and there isn’t a thing about you that I would change. Except maybe for the fact that you could take the time to look at the expiration date before you eat something.”

It got a giggle out of Lyra, and so the unicorn went to wipe her oncoming tears away, the waterworks no more. Bon Bon recomposed herself and rested a hoof to her friend’s shoulder.

“But still, this is a serious matter.” She emphasized. “Whatever this creature is or wherever it might be, I want you to stay as far away from it as possible. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here and it could mean just as much bad news as that bugbear did, or even worse.”

“But, Bon Bon…”

“I mean it, Lyra. Back off.” The earth pony warned again. “If it comes down to it, I’ll take care of the situation.”

“Can I at least keep the head?” Lyra cradled the hunk of crystal and looked longingly up at her friend with batting eyelashes and puppy eyes.

Bon Bon groaned and rolled her eyes. “Alright, fine. You can keep your weird, crystal, head mold thingy. But keep it out of sight, ya’ hear?”

“You’re the best, Bonnie!” Lyra hopped over and scooped her friend up in a squeezing embrace. “Tell you what, since you lost your job I’ve been wanting to make it up to you. How about I cook you up a nice batch of oats with daisy and parley on the side? I know it’s your favorite.”

“That’s so sweet of you, Lyra.” Bon Bon smiled sweetly as her eyes hovered down to the oats bag that Lyra held in her magical grasp. Her smile went thin, and the earth mare snatched up the bag quicker than the unicorn could react. They were two weeks past their expiration date.

“How many of these have you eaten?” Bon Bon asked her sternly.

Lyra blinked, brushed the oat crumbs from her mouth and gave a suppressed, watery belch. She warily looked over at her friend with a humbled gaze and shrugged innocently.