It was half past five and it was hot outside.
Bon Bon would have stayed in her shop, or her home that was right above the shop, and appreciated the wonders of air conditioning and not being outside. However, she was nowhere in her shop or home; she was outside.
Any sane pony would've stayed at home, and she was a sane pony. However, she could not say the same about Lyra, who was the reason why she was outside. As much as Bon Bon loved Lyra, she still considered knocking her out and taking her back home to where everything was safe, cool, and not sweaty. She didn't do that since Lyra would be very cross with her if she did and because Lyra was on a mission that Bon Bon could potentially benefit from.
Lyra's mission was simple: go to Anya and thank her for teaching her biomancy with plants.
Ignoring her own mission, Bon Bon could have just stayed at home and let Lyra go by herself but she didn't because Lyra was going to Anya's house, both of which could harm her.
The house by itself was a problem and Bon Bon wanted her to stay away from it even if it was 'safe'. The owner of the house was an entirely different set of problems. The file she had been given had all the information that was available on Anya, and a few bits of it were huge red flags to Bon Bon.
Of course, she couldn't stop Lyra, not without revealing secrets that would get her reassigned to somewhere else while getting Lyra a memory wipe, two things that Bon Bon did not want. So, she opted to go with Lyra so that she could at least protect her.
That did not stop her from complaining about how hot it was.
"Couldn't we have gone later?"
"Oh, come on, Bon Bon, it's not as hot as you're making it sound! Besides, we'll be quick," Lyra replied, ignoring how both her and Bon Bon were sweating as though they were trying to bring about the biblical flood. "And if I'm right, there'll be plenty of shade once we're out of the town."
The rest of their conversation went something like that as they made their way from their house in the center of the town to the outskirts. Just like Lyra had said, there was a lot more shade in the form of trees at the outskirts.
Eventually, they were past the crossroads and on the wooded path, and that's when Bon Bon started feeling nervous. She wasn't scared or anything, she was just worried about Lyra. She didn't know the kind of place they were going to, nor did she know the kind of pony she would be talking to.
Bon Bon was pulled out of her anxious thoughts when Anya's house came into view, and seeing the house plunged her into similar but more vivid, anxious thoughts.
The house was a living thing. It had a body that could phase in and out of their plane, it could make each of its rooms into a mouth, and it could very easily eat the pair, and the worst part was that there would be no escape if they went inside the house.
Maybe being outside wasn't safe either. The thing was big, if Bon Bon were to go by the distance between the house and the field it put her under, and there were definitely more of these things. She couldn't wait for the S.M.I.L.E. team that would come to town and find every one of them so that she could avoid those places and not let Lyra go there either.
The pair stopped in front of the house. Lyra only seemed mildly intrigued by the dark building, opting to knock on the door instead of looking at it for its details. Bon Bon, on the other hand, was barely able to supply herself from looking at it as though the windows were going to reveal themselves to be giant eyes. They already felt like it, to her at least, and she considered the idea that the thing was starting at her through invisible eyes and knew who she was and wanted to hurt her.
The house was, as she has thought, doing the part about looking at the pair with invisible eyes, but it didn't recognise either of them and didn't have any reaction to them as a result.
The two waited at the door for a while, each moment both tense and calming, for Bon Bon specifically. Nopony answering the door meant that Anya wasn't home and that they wouldn't be going inside, which was relieving, but waiting outside made her feel exposed.
"I don't think she's home," Bon Bon said, hoping to get Lyra to leave this place, for now at least
"Hmm, I guess we can come back later," Lyra said, her smile replaced with a slight frown.
Bon Bon turned away from the door, almost smiling about not having to deal with this today.
Then, she heard a branch snap from the path. Lyra turned just in time to see that Anya was walking towards them, clearly winded from carrying saddlebags of groceries. Lyra winced a bit at seeing her limp up to the door. Bon Bon almost sneered at Anya, before remembering that she had to be nice to her.
"Hi Anya," Lyra said, putting her smile back on as Anya stopped in front of them.
"Hey hey," Anya responded in an almost-whisper with a hoof raised in greeting, after she stopped to catch her breath. She continued, louder than before but still short of a normal volume, "Why're you guys here?"
"I came by to tell you thanks for helping me with biomancy. It was pretty great at the festival; almost everything that I made was sold!" Lyra answered excitedly.
Anya didn't mirror her excitement but she smiled and replied, "That's cool."
"And as a thanks, I got you some of the stuff I made!"
Bon Bon silently cringed at that. She knew how it would play out: Anya invites them in, they walk into the house, and then it eats them. Well, that might not happen but the very thought of it, especially the part with Lyra getting hurt, made Bon Bon nervous.
Anya, meanwhile, had one of her ears lower as she looked at Lyra inquisitively. Bon Bon didn't like that expression all that much (she wanted to punch her in the face) but didn't express that, while Lyra smiled nervously. Then, Anya's ear went back up and she said with a smile, "That's very nice of you, come on in and you can show me what you got. I'll get you guys something to drink as well."
She didn't wait for a reply, unlocking the door and letting them in.
Bon Bon almost didn't enter. Almost. She knew that she would be stepping into the mouth of a monster if she stepped inside, but if she didn't Lyra would be alone in there. She followed them inside reluctantly, keeping her eyes peeled and ears up while looking as casual as she could, which was surprisingly quite a lot.
"You guys wait here, I'l' drop this stuff off and get some water," Anya said as she left them in the living room and went to the kitchen.
Lyra and Bon Bon took a seat on the couch closer to the window. Bon Bon's ears went down as she suddenly remembered that she was underneath one of the many teeth of the living room. Of course, there were no teeth or any flesh-y things around but Bon Bon was still nervous. She wanted to leave the place as soon as she could.
Lyra noticed how nervous Bon Bon seemed, and asked, "Hey, Bonnie, you alright?"
"Y– yeah," Bon Bon lied, knowing very well that Lyra could tell that easily.
"Okay, what's wrong?"
"It's..." that they are in a giant monster and it could eat them any secon– "Just that the house feels weird."
Lyra raised an eyebrow at Bon Bon's half-truth. She then looked around and seemed to notice something. She put an arm around Bon Bon and said, "Yeah, it's pretty empty and she's been here for like, two months, I think."
Then, Lyra smiled and patted her saddlebags on her other side. "She'll definitely love the stuff I've got."
Bon Bon wished that she could have her optimism. Actually, she decided to try that. She looked around, a bit less nervous with the arm over her shoulder. If Anya had lived here for two months without incident then that was — besides being unfortunate — a good sign that the house was pretty passive. Or that Anya could communicate with it.
Well, at least it hadn't done anything to them. Yet.
She figured that trying to find a bright side was a bad way to deal with problems, and that she should just stick to the tried and tested method of ignoring the problem that was the house. Right then, the other problem entered the room with a tray that held two glasses of water.
Anya put down the tray on the table and took a seat on the other couch. Lyra immediately got to talking as she laid the various trinkets she had in her saddlebags or on the table one by one. Bon Bon, meanwhile, chose to observe Anya as Lyra explained all the things she sold at the festival.
Anya held a positive expression on her face, though her body didn't seem to reflect it, which wad weird. Besides that, she looked everything like a witch while simultaneously looking nothing like one.
She was short, a bit hunched, and her face was ugly with the large scar and the assymetry of everything else on it. Yet, she also looked fairly muscular and inexplicably kind, and that all, along with her colouring and rather long mane and tail, made her look weirdly rugged and elegant at the same time. It was hard to imagine that this was the same mare that had tried to strangle her to death like a wolf.
Bon Bon's eyes narrowed. That was what Anya was, a wolf in pony skin, ready to strike when nopony expects it. Quite a few ponies in town had come to be fooled by the disguise already, and besides Rainbow Dash, she seemed to be the only pony that was wisely wary of her. If only she could put her down before she became a bigger problem.
Lyra pulled out the last of the trinkets and placed it among the dozen wooden statuettes and elaborate photo frames. She had saved the best for the last.
On the table lay a musical instrument. It vaguely resembled a guitar in shape, but the keybox on it made it clear it wasn't that. There was a wheel towards the lower end of it and a crank at the side. Five strings ran from one end to the other, three went through the keybox while the other two stayed outside. It was small as well, barely the size of a violin, which it looked related to.
Anya regarded the instrument with interest while Lyra was clearly excited to be presenting the thing.
"I made a few instruments as well, mostly flutes and lyres, but I made this thing as well. Of course, nopony was really interested in it but I know that you'll love it," she said as Anya picked it up and looked it over. She then turned the crank, making the wheel turn, rubbing on the strings. The sound that it produced was like that of a violin, one that hadn't been tuned.
"It's called a hurdy-gurdy. Pretty neat, right?" Lyra said after Anya stopped and put the instrument down.
"Yeah," Anya said, not sounding sure in her answer. Bon Bon grimaced at that, thinking that Anya didn't appreciate the thing Lyra had spent hours making. Anya continued, "But I think it'd be in better hands if someone else had it since I don't know how to play it."
Lyra's ears went down and she sunk a bit upon hearing that. Then, there was a spark in her eye and she sat up straight with her ears perked up. She said with barely contained excitement, "I could teach you."
PAnya was surprised at hearing that. Bon Bon was surprised and slightly dismayed at hearing that.
"Ummm, thanks for the offer but I have... stuff going on," Anya said cryptically. "And I don't have that much money."
"Oh, don't worry about money, I'll teach you for free. Plus, your can swing by Bon Bon's store whenever, I'll be there. It'll take just an hour or two to learn," Lyra replied, still cheerful.
It was quite for a moment, and that's when Bon Bon decided to start her mission. "So, Anya."
"Yeah?"
"I wanted to apologise for how I talked to you that day," Bon Bon lied, knowing very well that she wanted to kill her and not apologise. "I shouldn't have been like that."
Anya stared at her for a few uncomfortable moments before replying, "Okay, apology accepted."
"Just like that?" Bon Bon asked, not expecting this post to be that easy.
"Yeah, I don't feel like holding a grudge right now. Plus, you were nice about it," Anya said, clearly fooled by her lie.
Everything was quiet again for a little while. Then, Lyra said, "Anyway, we should be going now. It was nice talking to you, Anya."
The three got up and Anya let them out. On her way or, Bon Bon caught sight of a spool of copper wire on the kitchen table. They said their goodbyes and Lyra and Bon Bon were on their way home. They didn't make much conversation, letting Bon Bon think for a bit. She definitely hadn't got as much information as she wanted, but she had started her mission. There wasn't anything suspicious at Anya's, except the wire spool and she couldn't help but where what Anya was doing with it.
Whatever it was, Bon Bon would need to get closer to Anya to know about it.