So, Lyra Walks Into a Bar...
Berry Punch looked at the mare in front of her with a skeptical eye. “Another? Really?”
Bon Bon glared, throwing a small bag of bits on the bar. “I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough.”
Berry shrugged, and held up the bottle of wine. “The same, then?”
“Less talk, more wi––”
She got no further as the door to the Happy Cola (formerly, Pony Up) Saloon burst open and a very familiar unicorn waltzed in, stopping the moment she spied Bon Bon. “Oh no. What are you doing in here?”
Bon Bon blinked. “Drinking.” She stretched her hooves wide. “Spoiler alert.”
“Mmm, so I see. Dare I even ask why you’d need a drink? Last I saw you were ‘happily living happily ever after in real time’...” She dropped herself heavily on the barstool next to Bon Bon, a motioning her hoof towards Berry. “Applejack Daniels. On the rocks.” She paused. “Better make it a double.”
Berry coughed, staring at the bottle in her hooves, upside down and empty. “I have some bad news for both of you.”
“No more wine?” Bon Bon gasped.
Lyra blinked. “No whiskey?”
“You’re drinking on a Monday afternoon… and we get our deliveries Tuesday morning.” Berry shrugged. “I have cider…?”
The two mares stared at one another.
A grimace crossed Lyra’s face, followed by a flash of anger, and finally, resignation. “Oh, fine. The hardest you got.”
Bon Bon laughed. “Well, we agree on something for once.”
Berry rolled her eyes. “There’s only one style of it, ladies.”
“Don’t care! Gimme!” Berry sighed and dropped two ciders onto the bar. Not even a second after, Lyra snatched her mug up and drained it in a split second. “Another!”
Watching the green mare next to her drink faster than a member of the Apple family, Bon Bon picked up her mug and drained hers as well. It took longer, but it was all gone in a matter of seconds. “You heard the mare. Another.”
Berry blinked, surprised that someone could drain a mug as fast as her. With another sigh, she dropped another in front of both of them. “This time, drink it slow or I’ll make you both wait for tomorrow’s delivery.” Berry stomped off, leaving the two of them alone in the bar.
“Ugh, fine.”
They stared at their mugs. Bon Bon cleared her throat. “They say it does taste better if you go slow…”
Lyra laughed, although there was little humor in it. “Hun, it’s Monday, it’s about twelve thirty, and we’re both drinking. We’re not here for the taste.”
For several minutes, they drank in silence, listening to the bar’s ambiance and clinking of glass around the saloon. Somehow, it was louder than it should have been, given that there was only the two of them. Lyra cast a sidelong look at Bon Bon, and Bon Bon returned the glance.
Finally, Lyra couldn’t stand the silence. “Alright! Spill it! Why the heck are you here?”
Bon Bon grunted. “I have good news for you. We don’t have to pretend to be friends anymore.”
“Oh?” Lyra grinned. “Do tell.”
“Octavia and I… we’re done.” Bon Bon took a long sip of cider. “In fact, every mare bearing a music-related cutie mark can just go to Tartarus.”
Lyra’s jaw hit the bar stop. “You’re kidding, right?” She gasped. “ You two… You two were downright perfect together!”
“Perfect,” Bon Bon repeated darkly, staring at her mug of cider.
Lyra paused, taking a swig. “No, wait. I think I can guess.”
Bon Bon looked at her. “Oh?”
Lyra nodded solemnly. “Vinyl and I… Heh. Guess I ain’t even gotta say it, do i?”
This time Bon Bon’s jaw hit the stop. “Wait… You as well?”
Lyra nodded. “Yep. Just a few hours ago. Spent the day getting my stuff out of her place and getting off that lease. Paperwork, I found, is a good distraction for a breakup.” A small chuckle escaped her lips into her mug.
“My mother always told me...” Bon Bon leaned back. “Never date a musician. They’ll sing when they tell lies, but they’ll break your heart all the same.” She wrinkled her nose. “Of course, my father was a musician.”
This earned Bon Bon a glare. “Not all of us do that…”
Bon Bon shrugged. “Sorry.”
Lyra took another sip, this time chuckling into her mug, “Though, she certainly proved your point... Was totally outta the blue, too. Vinyl just up and said ‘It’s not working, babe, I found a classical classy one. See ya!’ And that was it.”
Coughing violently, Bon Bon sent cider all over the bar top. “She found a what now?”
“Some classical music mare. I dunno. Wouldn’t tell me her name. Or she did and I missed it. I was a touch angry and sad and busy packing.” She motioned for yet another mug. “I’m not drunk enough for this yet. Anyway, what’s wrong?” Lyra grinned. “Can’t handle the Apple family recipe?”
Bon Bon stared at Lyra, her eyes burning holes into the other mare’s skull. “This classical music mare… did her name start with an ‘oh’?”
“Mmm, actually… I think it did.” She turned to Bon Bon, “Why? Is that important?”
Bon Bon continued to stare at Lyra. “There’s one reason we’re friends at all, Lyra. What’s her name?”
Lyra’s eyes boggled. “Wait. Waitwaitwait. You… You mean to tell me… That our marefriends dumped us for each other…?” A few seconds passed before Lyra let loose a huge booming laugh. “Oh, okay, oh Celestia… That is too good!”
Bon Bon stared at her with an incredulous look. Then she punched Lyra in the shoulder.
“Hey! That hurt!”
“It’s not funny!” Bon Bon shouted, hitting Lyra again. “It’s not funny it’s not it’s not funny!”
“Okay! Okay!” Lyra leaned back, out of her range, “I’m sorry!”
Bon Bon paused, her hoof hanging in the air. Then she started to cry.
Lyra sighed. “Aw, jeez, hun. Don’t––”
“I loved her, do you understand?” Bon Bon sobbed. “I…” She leaned over and collapsed onto to the bar.
Lyra winced, then slowly placed a hoof on her shoulder. “There there. It’s okay.”
“No it’s not!”
Lyra shrugged. “These things happen, you know?” Bon Bon kept crying. Lyra sighed. “How about one more round?”
Eventually, Bon Bon stopped crying. She was too busy drinking.
”But we were in love, Lyra! We agreed we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together…”
Pausing for a moment, Lyra tilted her head, lost in thought. “Well… Thinking of it now, this was kinda to be expected.”
Bon Bon stopped crying, looking up at her, tears still in her eyes. “How do you figure.” It wasn’t a question.
Lyra shrugged, draining the last of her cider and motioning for more. “Well, Octy and Viny? I dunno, gal, they just feel… Right for each other.” Bon Bon said nothing, staring at her blankly. “What? Do I look like a shipping specialist? They just have that nature to them!”
“But we promised…”
Lyra scoffed. “Heh. ‘We’, ‘we’, ‘we’... I’ve known Octavia longer than you. When did she ever promise anything?”
Bon Bon opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her eyes glazed over. “I guess it was more me promising, and her… not disagreeing.”
“HA! Sounds like Octy to a bloody T! Stuck up little...” Lyra laughed again and raised her mug up in a mock salute. “May they ‘wub’ each other long time!”
Bon Bon scowled at her. “You know, for someone who just had a break up, you’re being awfully flip.”
Lyra matched her stare, smirk etched on her face. “Tell me I’m wrong, mare. Tell me I’m wrong.”
After a few moments of prolonged staring, Bon Bon sighed. “Another drink? Just one more.”
They had another drink. Bon Bon stared at Lyra.
“Flip is better than despondent. How are you so cheerful?”
A shrug. “Hey, the alcohol helps. Why do you think I came here after dealing with that paperwork? Gal’s gotta drown her sorrows somehow and plus… I’m not ready to face the issue of where the hell I’m going stay! I’m homeless now, haven’t you figured it out?”
Bon Bon could only blink at that. She had simply never realized that was the case for Lyra. “But… Where will you go…?”
“I dunno. Heard tell that yellow pegasus, takes care of animals, will take any pony in who needs help.”
Bon Bon wrinkled her nose. “Butterfly?”
Lyra shrugged, “Sure, sounds right.”
“But… Where after that?”
“Who knows. Maybe back home to my parents’ house. I dunno. I haven’t burned all of my bridges yet.” Lyra drained the last of her mug, then noticed Bon Bon staring at her with… pity? “Look, I’m not one for plans, I make things up on the fly.”
Bon Bon shrugged. “One more round?”
“Just ONE more. I’m broke, you know…”
They had another drink.
“You...” Bon Bon shuffled her hooves about. “You… You could… ”
Pausing mid-sip, Lyra looked at Bon Bon. “No no, what? I could what?”
Bon Bon shuffled about more and looked downward, almost like she was avoiding the gaze of Lyra. ”You shouldn’t have to stay with some poor pegasus you don’t even know. I’ve got a very empty apartment now, and a couch...“
“I didn’t catch that…” Lyra blinked. “Are you seriously offering me a place to crash?”
Bon Bon shrugged.
Lyra paused, staring back at her cider. “I thought we were only pretending to be friends.”
Bon Bon shrugged again. “No mare should be homeless because they’ve been cheated on.”
Lyra let loose what was becoming a trademark laugh. “You know… I always did think you were a nice mare.”
Bon Bon blinked, then started giggling. “Are you serious?”
“Hmm?”
Shaking her head, Bon Bon played with her mane. “I’m a… I’m not the most pleasant mare, Lyra. Ask anyone I’ve ever dated.” Bon Bon blinked. “Or employed. Or who criticized my food.”
“Pfft. So what? No one’s perfect. I mean, look at me! Have you seen the way I sit on a bench?”
“Yeaaahh…” Bon Bon looked at Lyra sideways. “What… why do you do that?”
“Hmm? Oh, I dunno. It’s actually really comfortable. Though… I wish those kids would stop with the ‘human’ thing.” She shook her head. “It’s rather annoying.”
“What’s a human?”
Lyra waved her hoof, “Who knows, who cares, who do you have to rut to get some service in this bucking bar?”
Berry walked over and without any words, dropped two more mugs on the counter. “On the house. Then get out.”
Looking around the empty bar, Bon Bon arched an eyebrow. “This is a bar, lady.”
Lyra burst out laughing. “She’s got you there, Berry!”
“Yeah yeah yeah. Just drink up and all. That was your last call.”
Bon Bon stared at the wall, squinting. “When did it become two in the morning?”
Lyra whispered loudly, “It’s a conspiracy of soberists.”
Berry groaned. “Just drink already. I wanna get drunk.”
Lyra grinned, staring right at Berry Punch. “Oh, I think I’m gonna savor this one…” And with that Lyra brought the mug to her lips and took a long, slow pull complete with an intentionally loud slurping noise. Lyra bumped her elbow into Bon Bon’s, indicating for her to follow suit. Bon Bon tried, then found herself spitting up cider on the bar, she was laughing too hard.
Then she realized it wasn’t on the bar. It was all over Berry’s face.
“You are both weirdos.” Her stare could turn a unicorn to stone. She turned and walked to the bar door, opening it wide and pointing. “Out.”
They stumbled down the path, laughing like maniacs.
“The look on her face!” Bon Bon giggled. “Oh my goodness, the look on her face!”
“The cider on her face,” Lyra corrected, “was what framed the look.”
“I’ve never done anything like that before!” Bon Bon grinned widely, “I’ve never been this drunk before!”
Lyra was giggling like a school filly. “I know! Ain’t it great! Like my old man use’ta say! Drink for fun! Not for sorrow! Drink for today- there is no tomorrow!”
“Hey.” Bon Bon’s eyes fluttered up and down. “Hey. Hey. That rhymes.”
“Hehe, it does, doesn’t it?” Lyra paused, looking at Bon Bon with a drunkenly critical look. “Y’know… I think, Bon Bon, that this is the start of a beauuuuutiful fri––”
Bon Bon kissed her. Lyra’s eyes went wide. After a moment, Lyra kissed back.
There was not a whisper on the street, not a word. Just the soft sound of lips meeting lips. Finally, they stared at one another, and Bon Bon looked down, blushing.
“I can’t believe this. Not again,” she muttered.
“What?”
Bon Bon mumbled, “Falling for a musician again… my father was right, I never learned.”
Lyra rubbed the back of her neck. “Well… technically, you know…”
“What?”
Lyra muttered something.
Bon Bon leaned closer. “Couldn’t hear you.”
“I’m technically… not a musician… I can’t play any instruments at all.”
Bon Bon gawked. “But… your cutie mark! Your membership in the guild! Your––”
“I’m a lyricist.”
Silence.
“What.”
“Yeah. Uh. I write the songs, but, not the notes. I can’t play an instrument to save my life.”
Bon Bon blinked. Then she laughed.
Lyra laughed.
They kissed again.
And never looked back.
Author's Note
made by a villain and a space ship.
edited by a space man.
