Bon Bon trotted up to her tiny little shop on main street, flipping the sign from Closed to Open. She grabbed the handle of her plastic watering can with the whites of her teeth, pouring the water from inside it to quench the thirst of her budding lilies. When finished, she gently placed the can back on the ground, and brushed the tiny sweats off her brow, looking up at the waking sun. Today was sure going to be a beautiful day.
“Good morning, sun,” Bon Bon greeted, saying it to nopony in particular but the celestial star. “You’re looking mighty beautiful today as usual.”
As one of the most early of risers, Bon Bon didn’t have anypony else to greet in the morning, so she picked up the habit of saying hello to the sun every time it rose. Her mint-green companion, Lyra, teased her for this habit of hers, but Bon Bon scolded her for that. After all, if Lyra can have a full time job studying the ancient ruins of humans – which was an odd job in her opinion – then why can’t Bon Bon say hi to the sun? She loved that dear mare to death, but the beige candy maker honestly thought her wife could be silly sometimes with her logic.
Of course, she had seen and experienced weirder things. Like that time when the three-headed behemoth, Cerberus, had invaded their tiny village of Ponyville, frightening the wits out of her poor neighbors. She could have sworn old mare Mary almost had the horrible fate of a heart attack, but the sturdy senior managed by the end of the scare.
That reminds me, Bon Bon thought. I’m gonna have to thank Fluttershy later. I don’t remembering giving her my thanks for saving our lives again. Maybe a gift basket of bonbons will do!
Bon Bon had a skip in her step as she thought about the simple joy of sending the shy mare a gift. It was nice to do nice things after all. That’s what her mother had always told her. If she was going to make that gift basket, Bon Bon is going to have to open those doors to her little candy shop in order to start creating those delicious sweets. She moved her hoof to the insides of one of her flank pockets, a special place where they could hold things where their cutie marks were. A lot of other creatures thought it was weird that ponies would have biological containers, but Bon Bon didn’t really care. The pockets were really convenient after all, and no other creatures had such wonderful pockets.
“Now to just unlock the door,” Bon Bon whispered to herself as she dug out the key, and moved to insert it into the keyhole.
But before she could do such a thing, a loud sound had made itself known to her ears from far away. To Bon Bon, it was a cute noise, but what could cause such a sound? It almost reminded the mare of geese and the way they—
*Honk Honk!!*
*Honk Honk!!*
“Now what in the World was that?” Bon Bon twisted her head to the right where Ponyville’s gateway was. “It sounded like it came over there.”
Leaving the door forgotten, Bon Bon stowed away her key, and moved towards the gate to see what happening. The gate was always open as it had nopony to attend to it, so maybe with a little luck Bon Bon could be the first mare to witness what was happening. Nothing interesting happens in Ponyville, except for a few dangerous things here and there, so Bon Bon was quite curious to see what was coming to town. It didn’t sound quite like a thing that could chew her insides out, so maybe it was friendly?
Maybe it’s one of those fancy horseless carriages like those con artists had. Wait… could they be back? I’ll have to warn Applejack then.
With her new suspicion, Bon Bon quickened her pace from a walk to a trot in order, wanting to know whom was the new pony in town. That is, of course, if it was a pony at all. Could be a brute of a griffin, or a muscular, hulking minotaur like Iron Will. Or maybe even another zebra?
Wait, why would a zebra have a horseless carriage anyway? I don’t think they could own such mechanical things… could they? I always thought they were the nature type of people. Oh just look at yourself, Bon Bon. You’re thinking things ahead again.
Finally arriving at the gate, Bon Bon looked down the path to see who it was. There was a hill just father up ahead, and the honking didn’t sound too far off. She could hear it nearing closer and closer. Her curiosity reached its peak at this moment, and Bon Bon was starting to get the jitters in her legs. She looked around to see if anypony had joined her while she was deep in her thoughts. As a matter of fact, one of them did!
“Hey Quick Fix!” Bon Bon greeted the brown unicorn mare who was Ponyville’s local engineer and inventor. “How’s your morning?”
“Pretty good!” Quick Fix quickly replied, her white mane flowing with the light spring breeze that waved over them. Her cutie mark was that of an iron spanner. “I heard a car nearby, and I wanted to check it out. You didn’t happen to see one go by, did you?”
“No, I haven’t. Is that what those horseless carriages are called?”
“Correctamundo!” Quick Fix happily answered. She then frowned a little. “Gee, I never used that word, and I hope I will never say it again.”
“Me neither,” Bon Bon giggled. “That really sounded awkward.”
The two shared a quick laugh together before giving the road ahead of them their attention.
“So is the car coming this way?” Quick Fix asked.
“Yup. That’s where— ”
*Beep Beep!!*
“There is is!”
“Oh! It sounds really close!”
The two mares fastened their hooves to the dirt ground beneath them, holding their excitement in check. Bon Bon, whose curiosity flared up intensely, and Quick Fix, whose passion for cars and machinery burned brightly, kept their eyes on that hill. The hill from where the car will drive over, and the two mares can finally see who was coming over to their rural home.
*Beep Beep!!*
“Well… that wasn’t I was expecting at all.” Quick Fix mumbled with a bewildered look painted on her face.
“Neither did I,” Bon Bon clarified, her expression mirroring her friend’s.
An ash-grey pegasus mare with yellow and green hair had rose over the hill, proudly donning the colors of the rainbow on her behind and hind legs. The mare had no cutie mark in fact, and her tail had an added color highlight of sunset-orange at the end of it. Her reddish eyes glistened like roses that weren’t very bright at all, but weren’t very dull either. Her red eye color was somewhere in between the two hues. But that wasn’t the unique feature of her at all. It was…
“Does she have wheels on her hooves?” Quick Fix asked.
“No… I think they are her hooves.”
Indeed she did. Four wheels were in place of the strange, but cute, mare’s hooves, allowing the pegasus to ride on the ground like a car. It wasn’t what Bon Bon was expecting to see, but it sure was a sight to see in their simple town.
“Beep Be- hack augh,” the strange mare coughed a little as she drove up to them, making sure the mouth germs didn’t fly towards their direction. She then grew a grin on her face, giving them a cheery impression. “Hello! Could you please help me figure where the motel is? My wheels are just killing me right now!”
Quick Fix, still gaping at the mare, didn’t respond, and only kept silent in awe. Bon Bon, who had a more rational mind, quickly snapped out of her trance, shaking her head a little.
“The Cozy Stable is that way,” Bon Bone directed the mare, point to where Ponyville’s motel stood. “Um… mind if I catch your name?”
“Oh! It’s Wheely Bopper, but you can call me Bops!”
“Bops huh?” Bon Bon chuckled. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”
Wheely smiled back, and rode onward to the Cozy Stable. Bon Bon waved good bye to the mare, but the candy maker couldn’t help but have an itch at the back of her mind. Was it something she forgot to mention to the mare? Or was it a question? Oh wait, she remembered now!
“Hey!” Bon Bon called after Wheely. “Mind if I ask why you’re here?”
“Oh! I’m just here to compete in the race! It’s not going to happen until a couple weeks, but I’m just here to chill until then. Ciao!”
“O- oh… okay. Bye.”
Wheely Bopper… what a kind but strange mare, Bon Bon thought. She could almost rank this up to Lyra’s obsession with humans. Almost.
“Whuh?” Quick Fix mumbled, slurping up the saliva that was dripping out of her mouth. “Did I miss something?”
“You sure did, Fix,” Bon Bon chuckled, shaking her head at her befuddled friend.
“I- wuh- huh? Um… did we really see a mare with wheels for hooves go by?”
“Yup.”
“Okay… well I’m just going to go home now. Maybe work on fixing Mrs. Cake’s blender,” Quick Fix mumbled even more. “Catch you later, Bon Bon.”
“Take care,” Bon Bon said, waving good bye to the unicorn as she walked off. She looked back at the motel where Wheely had entered, and tipped her head slightly to the side. “Heh. Wait till Lyra gets a kick out of this.”
