Bonus Chapter: Bon Bon

Bon Bon did her best to tighten her pillow over the top of her head and mash her ears even tighter against her skull. It didn’t help.

They were obviously trying to be quiet, and compared to some of the times the earth mare had heard them at it recently, Lyra in particular was clearly keeping herself in check as much as possible.

But even that didn’t help things very much. Lyra’s repeated yelps of ecstasy, muffled as they were by the pillow Bon Bon imagined her having her own face buried in, repeatdely stirred up memories of their own times together.

They had been ‘heat buddies’ for almost as long as Bon Bon could remember, after all; two mares who were good enough friends to be more than comfortable with pleasuring each other during the most intense peaks of their cycles, or even when they were just plain desperate not to be alone at night and needed to feel the desire of another pony.

Because of that, Bon Bon was finding it difficult not to flash back to those moments; the unicorn pinned down under her, her back arched, rump presented and legs locked as she was driven into by the fake phallus, the lips of her sex spread taut around the invading length. Bon Bon knew the long, drawn out scream Lyra made when she was flooded with her lover’s essence all too well, and hearing it now, barely muffled, sent a shudder down through her frame, a shudder that seemed to home in and gather quickly and hotly about her nethers.

Yes, Bon Bon knew it all. It was therefore very difficult for her not to paint a shockingly vivid mental image of what was going on in the next room. It had gotten to the point that it was as though she were actually in there with them, watching from right alongside. It also didn’t help that she had actually peeked at one point in the past too.

No, that was a lie, Bon Bon admitted to herself, ‘peeked’ was the wrong term. ‘Accidentally walked in on them, fell onto her hindquarters in shock and then never bothered to leave from the partially open doorway until she felt the pool of moisture growing under her’, would be a more accurate description.

Needless to say, it had been more than a little humiliating for her to sneak back later just to clean up her own mess whilst they lay together just a few feet away, blind to her presence. Still, it was better than the tall human slipping on those two long legs of his and then breaking something.

That would’ve been an unfortunate conversation: “So, Lyra… what’s the best gift to get someone in hospital that just screams ’Sorry I got horny spying on you in bed and accidentally broke your leg’?”

Bon Bon suppressed a whimper. Her head may have been buried away, but the way she couldn’t stop her rump from alternating between sticking up into the air and grinding down against the sheets was making her feel utterly pathetic.

She’d thought the spectacle would have been more…disturbing. Oh, how she wished it was at least disturbing. But no, unfortunately for her, the human, Sam, was not exactly unattractive in his own peculiar way. Though nowhere near as rugged or muscular as a stallion, there was however a slender, almost flexible elegance and grace to the way his body was constructed that she couldn't quite deny. The lack of hair covering his subtly toned form had briefly fascinated her too, in a strictly clinical sense, of course (or so she repeatedly told herself). No, the only hair he had was of course that messed up auburn mane of his, which she could imagine right now was matted with sweat just like Lyra’s would be, those two all-encompassing hands gripping onto her flanks as he leaned over her while-

She clenched her eyes closed, shaking her head into the pillow to try and dismiss the image.

She gritted her teeth in frustration.

She couldn’t stop it. Her mind wanted the images gone, but her loins were urging her to delve deeper into fantasy with coaxing pulses of lurid heat that matched her rapidly increasing heart rate.

Another flash, this time an actual memory of the human arching his own back at the peak of their mutual pleasure and jamming his groin up against her best friend’s trembling rump, and she could only imagine the feeling of warmth that had been pulsing within Lyra at the time as he unloaded uncontrollably within her quivering sex, flooding her relentlessly with his thick seed.

Bon Bon shuddered. By Celestia, these feelings were depraved even for her; being so horribly turned on from just listening in on her friend getting her brains rutted out by her human partner...

Bon Bon let out a moan so restrained through her clenched teeth that it was barely more than a squeak.

Another image: She remembered the sight of the human’s still-aroused sex, still glistening in the candlelight from their copulation after pulling back and free of his mare, connected still by a thick, shining strand of their mingled juices.
Bon Bon had expected there to be more of a difference in terms of shape from that of a stallion, but the only real difference was the tip, that and the length being a little bit shorter, although that was clearly made up for -based purely on Lyra’s occasional strained grunts and screams- by the visibly increased thickness. And that rounded, almost spear-like tip, she noted again with a quiver, seemed almost perfectly designed to allow it to force it’s girthier mass into even the tightest mare.

She remembered Lyra too at that point, sprawled out almost senseless with her human gently and lovingly caressing her matted mane with ghostly brushes of those fingers of his, whispering gentle hushes down to her as she basked in her haze. Her marehood was still spread wide from the human’s notably thick member, leaking out their combined juices for all to see as it clenched and twitched repeatedly about the memory of the invader. The human’s rich, almost tantalisingly thick silver/grey essence was quite different from the slightly less viscous counterpart emitted by a regular stallion. It was not, Bon Bon had found herself realising with a start, a difference she found...unappealing.

Most would certainly not think the earth mare capable of such thoughts. And indeed, while Lyra’s ‘interest’ in humans may by far outstretch that of nearly any other pony in the land, it wasn’t as though Bon Bon had no interest in bizarre, formerly mythical creatures herself.

It was, after all, part of Special Agent Sweetie Drops’ old job description…

A muffled squeak of surprise and delight elicited a despairing groan from Bon Bon’s throat. She shifted her rear legs briefly, only to find as she rubbed them together that the insides of her thighs were liberally coated with her own clear sign of arousal.

‘Again?’ she thought through a haze of lustful exasperation. Things wouldn’t be so bad if it was just now and then: the occasional brief grunts and gasps coming through the walls; a couple minutes of copulation at most and then bam: done for the day.

Nope. It turned out that one of the other rumours about humans was true too: their ‘recharge speed’, for lack of a better term, made even the most horny of stallions seem almost like a geldling in comparison.
And not only were they not limted to the once-a-day rule that was nearly universal among stallions, but on top of that they seemed to take some strange joy in simply taking their time with things. And this wasn’t like a stallion taking a bit longer than the thirty seconds to a minute to finish, or even when two mares might draw things out for a couple of extra moments when ‘cooling’, no: Bon Bon once clocked them in at an utterly insane forty-five minutes.

Apparently, from what she’d been able to tell, the human had managed this simply by pacing himself; slowing and stopping when necessary, before finally giving his partner what she wanted once she had screamed and begged enough. Such bizarre concepts for a stallion to have…

She could only imagine the state Lyra’s head was in by the end of it.

She was actually shocked the poor unicorn hadn’t dropped dead from heart failure yet.

It had been the day after that particular event that, for the sake of her own sanity, Bon Bon had put her hoof down and outright forbidden discussion on the whole topic of what the pair did in the privacy of their own room. This had later included any human bragging whatsoever while she and Lyra were alone, much to the unicorn’s disappointment, since she knew Sam would object to the unicorn doing as much whilst he was actually around.

At the time, Bon Bon had felt like that was the end of it; she’d even went so far as to brag down at the flower shop to Rose and the others about how she’d reined in some control over the problem.

She felt like such a hypocrite.

She wasn’t even in heat and yet here she was: dry humping her own bed over the sound of her own best friend getting rutted. Her eyes flicked out from under her pillow to her closet. Would she cool off now? she wondered. And she didn’t realise that her forehoof had actually drifted down between her hind legs until the pad stroked the ghost of a caress over her engorged clit.

Bon Bon felt the already taut pillow in her mouth tear at the sudden lightning bolt of pleasure that spasmed up her body. And before she knew it, her hips were working against the extremity, her subconscious timing the backward thrusts of her hips to the noises next door despite her numerous attempts to stop herself.

By Celestia, even that fake phallus would do now, she thought despairingly. She wanted so much to get up and move to grab it, but the burning was increased ten-fold and her legs locked again as a thought occurred, unbidden from the naughtiest part of her mind: perhaps she’d accidentally use less water in the mixture this time, just less enough to make the substitute seed just as thick as…

‘Stop!’ she objected mentally as her hips gave an involuntary quiver against her hoof.

...and to end up pumping her nethers absolutely full to the brim of something just like-

‘No...’ her mind squeaked at her, trying to resist the runaway train of thought. Her hips bucked as her marehood convulsed, gushing out another wave of viscous fluid over her now freely-moving hoof.

Her mind was rebelling despite her best efforts though. If the pair of them were just quicker about what they did then it wouldn’t be so bad, but no, here she was: saturated in the sounds of their passion until it filled her to bursting point. Forget the cooler, that dark part of her whispered once more, what would happen if she just walked in there and-

‘N-no...’ Bon Bon ignored the mouthful of feathers she now had gritted between her teeth, clamping down on them as her circling hoof shifted ever faster...

-Would they stop? her mind asked. Would they look up in shock and demand she get out? Or…

She was close, and she could hear Lyra was too, being pushed quickly higher; obviously just a quick round it was this time.

-Or maybe not… -her brain continued, forcing her mental image right back on track- maybe that big, predatory creature would sense how aroused she was and just pounce on her, incensed, mounting her while Lyra watched, while he forced that big thick thing of his deep inside of-

The floodgates opened as surges of ecstasy rocked up from Bon Bon’s loins, her marehood clenching and unclenching about the ghostly intruder that it screamed to her it wished was buried within at that moment.

Her hoof slipped completely away under the sudden gush of lubricant and she collapsed face down into a heaving, gasping pile.

‘That was so...wrong,’ her mind tried to feed back as pleasure buzzed up from her hindquarters and filled her form with warm contentment. Silence had finally descended over their household.

Bon Bon knew she had to do something. At this rate she’d go mad. But she couldn’t just leave, this was her home. The problem was that, even if she did, she knew Sam well enough by now to know that if he even suspected he was the cause of her being driven out that he’d buck himself to the curb in a flash first. It had taken both of their convincing just to get him to stay with them in the first place, and it had taken even longer to make him stop feeling that he was in some way imposing.

Bon Bon had to wonder if all humans were so...irritatingly considerate, or were there some out there who were jerkish and horrible enough so that she wouldn’t feel bad about kicking them out?

If so, she wished they’d just gotten one of those instead. It would’ve made things so much more simple.

Bon Bon’s eyes became lidded as she began drifting off in her haze, uncaring about the pool of her own juices she was laying in. She then got another flash of memory, not one as...explicit as before though. No, this time it was just Lyra...Lyra with that stupid, impossibly wide grin on her face, the same one it had been equally impossible to wipe away ever since Sam had come along.

Lyra was happy, truly happy, and for probably the first time since they’d met...

Another memory came then, and darkness began closing further in. It was the pair of them this time, a typical daily scene of Lyra literally bouncing about with radiant, foalish glee as the human played something on that musical instrument of his, a look of serene bemusement on his features.

No...thought the earth mare with a tiny, defeated sigh as sleep engulfed her, she supposed she didn’t really wish they’d ended up with anypony different in their life.

That didn’t mean however that she didn’t still have to do something about their current situation. But that worry could wait until tomorrow…

The next day, Bon Bon was doing her very best to take her mind off the previous evenings events. Her training in the past had taught her that, often, the best way to clear one’s head of weighing thoughts was through a simple, repetitive task that you found relaxing. And so here she was: mixing up a bowl of fondant in the kitchen of their cottage, the wooden spoon gripped between her teeth as she methodically twirled the mixing bowl between her forehooves.

“Morning, Bon Bon…” came Sam’s voice as he drifted into the kitchen behind her. She watched his reflection in the window as he headed for the icebox with a towel draped loosely over his bare shoulders. She noted that he seemed primarily focused on that strange rectangle with the glowing glass front that he always seemed to have glued to his limb.

It actually took her an instant to remember that it was called a phone, which was surprising considering the numerous rumours she’d been hearing lately about the new ‘phone system’ they were apparently planning on laying out.

Bon Bon did her best to focus on her task and not let either her mind or eyes wander. She eventually decided to at least let out a muffled greeting around her spoon along with a quick, cordial swish of her tail.

“Want anything?” he asked, leaning in to grab the milk, “Tea, coffee?”

“Nmph mph” she muffled in declination along with a tiny shake of her head, observing out the corner of her eye as he set the bottle down while his thumb continually worked over the display. He flicked his fingernail off the nearby kettle to test the water temperature before proceeding to make himself a beverage.

After picking up his mug and taking a sip, Sam proceeded to lean sideways on the balls of his heels to get a better look at what the earth mare was doing. Bon Bon was shocked briefly at how he could possibly maintain such a posture without keeling over completely. Just those two slender legs couldn’t be efficient for balance, “So whatcha making this morning? I see brown. I’m thinking chocolate. If so, be forewarned, it will be in imminent danger of being nommed on while your back is turned. And I will regret nothing.”

“Hrm hmm,” she said, or at the very least tried to, lifting her head up and twisting the spoon about in her mouth until it was gripped sideways in her muzzle. She peered up at him in waiting.

Sam blinked, “Oh,” he said, switching his cup to his right hand, which Bon Bon noted he seemed to prefer utilising for less dextrous tasks, “thanks...” he then proceeded to swipe up a trail of the thick mixture in his index finger before bringing it up to his mouth.

Bon Bon’s eyes flicked to the spoon and the mixture still on there. Lyra would have just scooped entire the lot off with her hoof and then plonked herself down on her hindquarters before spending the next several minutes gleefully licking it clean. The way Sam did it was almost charmingly conservative.

She looked up to gage his reactions, something that wasn’t very easy to do with humans; the ears didn’t move and they had no tail to speak of either. It was a wonder how any of them could work out what the others were feeling. It was just lucky that the facial expressions they used were virtually identical to those of ponies, else Bon Bon would’ve had nothing to go on.

Sam closed his eyes and let out a long, happy hum, seemingly grinning from behind his lips. Bon Bon’s tail gave a happy swish at the response, “Hmmm,” he finished, withdrawing his now clean finger, “Chocolate orange...haven’t had that in years.”

“Good?” she managed to iterate from behind her spoon.

“Very good,” he said, idly reaching down and scratching behind the base of her ear with his middle finger. Bon Bon’s teeth clenched with surprise around her spoon as the unfamiliar sensation sent brief bolts of...oddly calming pleasure down her spine.

It was no wonder Lyra liked it so much when he did that...

“You seen Lyra this morning?” he asked then, startling Bon Bon out of her revere, and she only noticed right then that her tail was swaying back and forth a lot more than she’d have liked.

Bon Bon slipped the spoon from her mouth and took it into her forehoof. She then hopped up onto her hind legs and then took the bowl in the crook of her other foreleg so she could continue working as she spoke. The change in posture also helped obscure her tail from view.

“She offered to help out Roseluck this morning over at the greenhouse. I think she just wanted to get out and gossip.”

What Bon Bon didn’t say however was how she knew Lyra just liked to talk all things human whenever possible and with whoever possible, particularly after a night where she’d gotten to...embrace the positive aspects of those things so to speak.

She watched his brow furrow as he sipped slowly on his coffee, “Roseluck…” he murmured, “cream mare, pink and red mane?”

“That’s the one. Works in the flower shop with Daisy and Lilly.”

His brow tightened in thought, “Daisy I know, doesn’t speak much though when I go in. Not sure I even knew there was a third.”

“Y-yeah,” said Bon Bon, “Lilly tends to be a little...shy, and that’s with other ponies. I guess she wouldn’t be especially plussed with...urm...”

“Omnivorous extradimensional bipeds?” he offered with a smile.

Bon Bon smiled sheepishly back in response, “Pretty much...” And if there was one thing Bon Bon found she could easily like about Sam, it was his way of not letting things like that get to him. He at least seemed to grasp that it often takes some ponies a little while to adjust, and he really didn’t seem to take it personally.

“Even one as dashingly handsome and talented as I?”

She nodded, smiling , “Even one as reasonably handsome and talented as you…”

“Reasonably?”

Bon Bon chuckled, but otherwise chose not to comment further.

Sam cocked his head at that point in reflection, “Rose seemed nice enough though,” he mused, “Didn’t realise she was a friend of Lyra’s.”

Bon Bon went back to her mixing, “Yeah. They’ve been friends for years. She often goes round just to chat.”

Sam nodded slowly, “She did seem oddly interested in talking when I was over there last. Liked asking me questions.”

‘That’ll be all we need,’ thought Bon Bon to herself with a smirk, ‘another mare obsessed with humans.’ she immediately dismissed the thought however. The odds of Lyra’s bragging being enough to tempt Rose of all ponies into such thoughts were so slim that the idea was clearly not worth contemplating.

Still... Bon Bon thought, her eyes drifting back to Sam once more, who was again busy multitasking between his coffee and phone, she’d be more than a bit of a hypocrite if she were to claim that such thoughts hadn’t at least peeped over the edge of her own mind as of late.

Sam polished off his coffee quickly and then crossed back over to the pot for a refill, yawning as he went.

“Tired?” Bon Bon queried mildly.

He nodded, one palm going to cover his mouth as he yawned once again, “yuh-huh...had a bit of a late night.”

Bon Bon couldn’t entirely mask her scoff, “So I heard...” she muttered under her breath a split-second later, mouth bypassing brain entirely.

Sam paused briefly, halting mid-step before carrying on again as if nothing had happened. Bon Bon winced and watched him warily as he silently made himself another cup before crossing back to the other side of the kitchen again.

Rather than say anything immediately, Sam just set his mug down and slid up to sit on the worktop, one leg crossing over the other before bringing his coffee up to drink again, “So…” he said carefully.

“Y-yeah…?” asked Bon Bon, the discomfort clear in her tone. She was now doing her best not to make eye contact without actually looking away.

Sam sipped his coffee, the mug obscuring whatever expression he might have been making, “You heard?”

Bon Bon opened her mouth to speak, and then seemed to think better of it and just nodded, a noticeable blush forming on her cheeks as she did so.

To her surprise, Sam didn’t seem to echo her embarrassment in the least, and instead just held up his free hand in disbelief, “But how? I mean Lyra was as quiet as a mouse, and I assure you: that was not due to any lack of trying on my part. I swear, she chewed on so much goosefeather last night I’m frankly shocked she didn’t cough up a furball afterwards.”

Bon Bon was about to remind Sam with a frown that Lyra was a pony, not a cat. However, the brief mental image of the unicorn actually doing such a thing like a big green kitten drew an involuntary snicker from the earth mare’s muzzle.

“I just got the weirdest mental image of Lyra playing with a ball of string...no idea why,” mused Sam.

Bon Bon chuckled, “Stop it. I’m trying to be mad at you.”

“What did I do?”

“Lyra.” she responded, “Over and over.”

“Oh yeah…” he muttered, and she watched as he brought a nonchalant hand up to cover his lips.

“Stop smirking…”

“I am honestly, physically trying…” he then dropped his hand back to his side again, “But still, are you really trying to tell me that you heard all of it?”

Bon Bon didn’t respond, but she felt her cheeks start to burn again and so she quickly looked away.

“Jeez…” breathed Sam, “you must hear like a bat....or...bat pony.”

Bon Bon watched as he picked up his phone again and quickly began tapping away, “What are you doing?” she queried.

“Just had the best idea for a new DC comic. Gotta tell somebody...slash somepony.”

Bon Bon shook her head, smiling weakly. She was in fact just glad for the change of topic, “You really are strange…”

“Of course I am…” he intoned with a cock of his head, “Normal is dull. Who ever cared about normal?” The device buzzed however before he could even set it down again in full. He flipped it up to glance at the screen once more. “Damn…”

“What is it?”

“Jim says it’s already been done…” the handset buzzed again, “...and also to stop texting him random comic book ideas while he’s in the middle of high-level trade meetings.” The human then sighed as silence fell again, dropping the device back to the worktop once more with a clatter.

Sam was quiet for a few seconds and then began swinging his legs back and forth in the same manner as Lyra when she adopted one of her bizarre sitting positions, “Well I guess it’s only appropriate for me to apologise…” he said, his tone slowly losing it’s normal humour.

Bon Bon paused in her mixing once more, “What do you mean?”

“Well I’m guessing I...we… kept you up pretty late, and if what you say is true, for probably not the first time either.”

She blinked, “It’s...it’s really nothing!” she stammered quickly, waving her spoon and inadvertently splattering them both with tiny chocolate flecks. The earth mare knew how easily concerned he got about causing offence and so she often thought it best to nip it swiftly in the bud before the worry could sprout.

Sam wiped a few stray dots away and transferred them to his lips, nodding slowly, “If you say so…” he murmured, “Even so-”

“It’s not a problem,” cut in Bon Bon gently but firmly, settling down onto her hindquarters to continue talking and mixing in a more comfortable position.

“Well I guess I at least owe you one for it.” he said, “And from now on, Lyra and I...I’ll...see what we can do about...alternative arrangements if we’re planning on-”

“-And I just said,” she repeated, pausing in her mixing to look up at him again with a frown, “it’s not a problem,” she then went back to her task.

“Besides…” she added a few seconds later in a murmur with a slight cock of her head, “There are worse things to fall asleep to...”

Bon Bon froze, and she didn’t need to look up to know Sam was peering down at her in surprise.

‘Brain to Bon Bon’ came the mental alert, ‘you just said that part out loud!’

She glanced slowly, sheepishly up, and indeed; Sam was looking down upon her in silence, both eyebrows raised and looking almost at a loss for words.

There was a moment of uncomfortable quiet, broken by Bon Bon coughing pointedly into her hoof before shuffling about so she had her back to the human, and then just carried right on mixing in silence. That gobsmacked look on his face though, thought Bon Bon. She felt the makings of a smirk start to tug at the edges of her muzzle. It had almost been worth it.

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening under the hum of a magical aura before slamming closed again. Lyra trotted into the kitchen a second later, almost bouncing with energy.

Sam slid down off the counter just as Lyra jumped up to wrap her forelegs about his neck and steal a quick, but still somehow lingering kiss while Bon Bon observed out the edge of her peripheral vision. The unicorn’s tail was flicking happily back and forth behind her.

“Someone’s happy,” noted Sam before leaning quickly in again to peck Lyra on the tip of her nose.

Lyra just giggled and dropped back onto all fours, “Hmmm, just had a very long, very in-depth chat with Rose...I feel all tingly.”

“Define 'in depth',” queried Sam with one quirked up eyebrow.

Lyra looked back up at him with a smirk, “Tell ya later.” she then glanced between them,”So what have you two been up to then?”

“N-nothing,” stammered Bon Bon, looking quickly away again, “Just talking.”

“Oh?” asked Lyra, glancing suspiciously at the pair once more, “About what?”

“Nothing much,” said Sam with a shrug as he moved over to the sink and began rinsing out his mug, “Just turns out Bon Bon’s a bit of a voyeur. Likes to watch it seems.”

Lyra gave out a shocked squeak, her mellow mood evaporating as she clasped her hooves over her mouth, “Y-you were...watching?” she stammered, a visible blush starting to spread rapidly over her face.

Bon Bon blanched, glancing between the pair of them with a scowl, “I was not!” she snapped, “I was only listening this time, and it wasn’t out of choice either!”

Lyra lowered her hooves back to the floor, sighing with relief, though her blush didn’t fully abate, “Oh, w-well I guess that’s-”

“‘-This...time?’” interjected Sam, one eyebrow now fully locked in its upright position. His eyes had a noticeable, mischievous glint to them.

He was enjoying this.

Lyra’s eyes went saucer-wide, her jaw dropping, “Bonnie…!” she gasped.

Bon Bon now found herself in the rare position of being utterly embarrassed, when it was normally Lyra who got that particular honor. Obviously the human was an equal opportunities sort of housemate. She spared him an irritated glance, “You’ll pay for this…” she murmured.

Sam grinned, “Totally worth it. But then I guess I’ll just have to owe you two now. Although…”

Her brow furrowed, “Although, what?”

“Did you enjoy the show?” he queried calmly.

Bon Bon gritted her teeth together. She knew Sam was baiting her, and Lyra was obviously still too caught up in the shock of the fact that the earth mare had been watching her to even speak. Bon Bon therefore just took a long, deep breath, and smiled, “It was very...educational.”

Sam smirked, “So you did enjoy it then…”

They locked eyes, neither saying anything for a moment until finally, Bon Bon couldn’t help her cordial smile from tightening on just one side right back at him. He got the message. “Guess that’s just one I owe you then.”

Bon Bon couldn’t stop herself from laughing out loud at the sheer incredulity of the situation, “Guess so…” she added with a sigh.

Sam narrowed his eyes at that point, “Just out of sheer curiosity, which time was it when you...”

“Forty-five minutes…” she deadpanned.

Sam blinked. He then glanced off to one side, as if checking something in his head, “Ah yes; two weeks last Thursday. And it was forty-seven and a half, thank you very much.”

Bon Bon frowned, “You sure? I was watching the clock on the wall.”

“I have an app.”

Bon Bon wasn’t sure what that meant, but she assumed it meant she just lost.

Sam traced his jaw with one fingertip in thought, “Yeah, was going for a new record but I think I reached poor Lyra’s limit.”

Lyra let out a long, humming pout and glowered up at Sam. Her face was now badly flushed.

Sam just chuckled and crouched down to peck her quickly on her pouting lips, tracing her horn briefly with the pad of his thumb, “Just kidding…and you’re so cute when you’re mad.”

“I know…” she murmured sheepishly, and Bon Bon watched her tail twitch back and forth as Sam idly ran a finger up and down the unicorn’s horn like it was nothing. She sometimes found it shocking how little he thought of such a clearly intimate gesture.

Lyra nuzzled his leg as that finger went to idly trace and knead the top of her spine, “Hmmm, still mad at you…”

“Of course you are…” he murmured softly, this time just stroking his thumb lovingly over the top of her head. Bon Bon chuckled as she watched Lyra give out an irritated grumble and then swung about to swagger off, her hips and tail swaying visibly with each step.

The earth pony went immediately back to her mixing as soon as she noticed it starting to set, “Has she always been so...bashful about that sort of thing?” queried Sam.

Bon Bon smiled, inclining her head, “For as long as I’ve known her…” her eyes then flicked up to him briefly, “How are you holding up, Sam?”

Sam blinked, “Me?”

Bon Bon said nothing, but the human could see there was now a gentle concern in her expression. He knew then what she was talking about. Needless to say, not everybody back home had been so thrilled about him...going native, so to speak.

She waited patiently. For she had caught him occasionally; looking at that device of his, and had stolen a glance at some of the messages he’d end up fighting not to look long and hard at. There were creatures known as trolls in Equestria, she’d dealt with a few in her time after all, but the Earth equivalent; the...people who had sent those words…

Did some humans really speak to other humans in such a way?

And yet, Sam didn’t stop smiling. He never let it bother him; never troubled Lyra with the dark side of things, for he’d known that the sheer vileness of what he just shrugged off would break her heart out of sympathy for him alone, and Bon Bon had come to know the human well enough to know he’d never do that.

Even if he claimed it didn’t affect him, that didn’t mean the earth mare wouldn’t still give him a hug every now and then regardless. He had never complained when she did, nor had he ever not returned a single one of her embraces with a grateful tenderness.

Sam’s smile softened slightly, “I’m doing good. Things have gotten...good lately.”

Bon Bon’s smile widened, “Well that’s good to hear,” she cocked her head then off towards the door to the living room as the unmistakable sound of lyre strings being plucked became audible, “Go on then. You know how she gets without an audience…”

Sam smiled and then briefly crouched down to hug her. Bon Bon leaned back into him with a happy hum, “I’d make a joke about her not enjoying being watched, but I’m above that.”

She nuzzled the side of his face, “No you’re not.”

“Nah,” he said, standing back up to full height and turning to leave, “I’m probably not.”

Bon Bon just shook her head and then went right back to work, but not before stealing just one last glance at the retreating form from behind.

She clenched her eyes shut reprimandingly, ‘Focus...’

Bon Bon had just finished putting the finishing touches on her newest creation and was bringing a tray of samples to test out on her little control group in the living room. That was when Lyra’s voice brought her to a halt just outside the open doorway.

“Sam…?” came the unicorn’s uncertain voice, the pair having concluded their latest little musical duet several moments prior. It was that strange hesitation in her tone that had made Bon Bon pause.

“Yuh-huh?”

“What...do you think about Bonnie?”

Bon Bon blinked, stifling an intake of breath as not to disturb the tray she had balancing on her back. She really should’ve just walked in at that point, but instead, she found herself edging just slightly closer.

“Lyra?” he asked, and Bon Bon peeked around the door just enough to see him looking up from his guitar at the unicorn. There was a yellow cloth in one of his hands as he polished the instrument’s wooden panelling.

“Do you...like her?” she asked carefully.

Bon Bon’s eyes widened, ‘No...’ she thought to herself, ‘She wouldn’t...’

Bon Bon could tell that Lyra had been coming close to broaching the herd subject with her in recent weeks. It was one of the things that had made her put her hoof down on the whole ‘no human bragging’ thing, if only to make sure things never went in that direction again. But after the conversation in the kitchen Lyra had obviously taken it as a sign that her hopes hadn’t been totally quashed after all.

Only this time she was going at it from another direction; she was asking him about it instead.

Bon Bon frowned. This wasn’t the way it worked! If a mare was interested in a stallion who was taken then she asks the herd’s lead mare if it’s okay to court said stallion first. This was completely topsyturvy! You don’t ask the stallion first about bringing in a mare who may be interested. That completely takes her chance at showing any initiative to the stallion away from her! And what would he think about her then?!

Bon Bon gave a start at her own train of thought.

Why did she even care?

Did she consider Sam...approachable? She had never given it any real thought beyond dismissing it on reflex. Sure, there was curiosity there, and sure: he was attractive in a bizarre, exotic kind of way, but was that enough for her to-

“Bon Bon?” he echoed, cutting into the earth mare’s thoughts, “Of course I like her.”

Bon Bon’s heart skipped a dangerous number of beats at that.

“She’s been nothing but warm and kind to me ever since I got here, despite my...ahem...impositions.”

“Y-you mean,” stammered Lyra with a rising note of excitement, “You think she’s-”

“One of the best friends I’ve ever had,” he finished with that goofy smile of his.

Lyra clenched her eyes closed and Bon Bon felt her heart descend from her throat, ‘Thank Celestia he’s just the right amount of dim!’ she thought with a long exhalation of breath.

Bon Bon knew Sam had bought her a reprieve of about three seconds. That’s about how long she had before Lyra corrected him and took the choice out of her hooves forever. True, she knew the concept was ridiculous. Why, the very idea of a romance with the human was...insanity on a level only Lyra could operate on...

Images flashed before her eyes at that point, and Bon Bon had to physically shake her head to dispel them.

...but that still didn’t mean she didn’t like the very option being swiped from her. It was the principal of the thing: She wasn’t some mare so hopeless at love that she needed to have her forelegs figuratively knocked out from under her by another mare and be presented before a stallion just to get laid.

Bon Bon steeled her resolve. If this was going to happen, then she was going to do it her way: the right, proper way. That way, when things inevitably didn’t work out, as she...knew they surely wouldn't, then they could all just go right back to being friends again.

Still, she thought as her legs began moving again, it would be nice to have that particular barrier down again between her and Lyra once more. Plus, she thought as Sam caught sight of her, it had been a while since she’d last been with a-

“-Alright,” said Bon Bon, cutting off her own thoughts. She saw Lyra flinch out the corner of one eye, “Brought something new for you both to try out.”

Sam reached over with a smile and lifted the tray of brightly bundled snacks from her back, relocating it to the little wooden coffee table in the middle of the room, “This what I got a sneak preview of earlier?”

“Is indeed,” said Bon Bon, hopping up onto the sofa by his side. She watched as Lyra blushed and hugged her hind legs up to her chest in the chair across from them. There was a guilty, almost crestfallen look on her face.

Sam reached a hand for the tray.

“Stop.” said Bon Bon.

Sam’s hand froze mid-reach and Lyra looked up.

“Wh-what is it?” asked the human.

Bon Bon regarded him carefully, “You owe me one, remember…”

“You mean I don’t get snacks?” he asked, abashed.

“I dunno,” she replied, “Depends... I worked up some real tension slaving away in there. Help me out and we’ll call it quits.”

Sam’s brow furrowed, “Help you out...how?”

“Don’t get coy, I know you massage Lyra all the time to work out her stress before performing in public.”

He blinked and then glanced down at his hands, “Y-you mean you want me to give you a-”

“That’s right,” cut in Bon Bon, with a tilt of her head, “Lyra’s been bragging on so much about what your finger things can do non-stop, that I want to see if any of it’s actually true. That is...” she trailed off, glancing over at Lyra, who was observing her in wide-eyed silence, “...if you don’t mind loaning me Sammy’s so-called ‘magic hands’ for a few moments.”

Lyra looked back at her in silence before the inevitable, wide grin began spreading across her face. She then clapped her hooves gleefully together, “Nope, not at all! Oh, Bonnie, you’re going to love it, I just know it! Just wait until you feel how he-”

“-Now, now…” cut in Sam warily, “I’m really not so sure about this…”

“Why?” asked Bon Bon, looking up at him with wide, puppydog eyes, “I thought I heard walking in that you said that I was one of your best friends…”

Sam blinked before chuckling incredulously, “Now that’s a completely different thing alto-”

“Unless…” cut in Bon Bon with a smirk, nudging him with her hoof, “You’re just not quite as good with those hands as you like people to think, mister music man...”

Sam narrowed his gaze back at her once more as the verbal gauntlet was tossed. And after a brief, almost imperceptible pause, the corners of his lips stretched until the canines became visible. The sight sent a reflexive shudder of something akin to instinctive fear spliced with tingling anticipation through Bon Bon’s frame. Her tail swished just once. And only then did the memory of that brief scratch behind her ear from earlier come back to mind.

She’d forgotten about that...

She fought the urge to gulp...and lost, 'Perhaps I should've thought this through just a...tad more.'

“Oh, Bon Bon…” intoned Sam, shrugging off the checkered shirt he was wearing loosely over his t shirt and settling his guitar on the floor. He then reached both arms up into a stretch, cracking his knuckles audibly above his head before flopping forwards again, right into Bon Bon’s face. She leaned back away in kind, her ears flattening slightly, “I swear: you are going to be jello by the time I am done with you.”

To quite possibly be continued...

Author's Note

Consider this little extra my way of an apology for taking so long to finish this little tale. I may leave it at that and let your imagination fill in the gaps for what happens next, or I may do more, depends on how well received it is I guess, and if people really want me to keep running with this one for another chapter or two. Either way, I just hope you enjoyed this little extra (which was obviously set in the gap between chapters 3 and 4). Thanks for reading!