Lyra Heartstrings lazed upon her couch; the unicorn’s head hanging off the edge of the cushions so that the tip of her horn rested on the floor, while all four hooves waved idly in the air.
“So. Bored.” she declared to the empty living room.
She glanced at the small clock resting on the mantlepiece, upside down from her perspective, and gave a long, drawn-out sigh. Why did waiting for something have to be so difficult?
Rolling over and assuming a more upright position, Lyra enveloped her precious lyre in the golden glow of her magic and floated the instrument from its stand in the corner over to the couch. She strummed a few chords, then began picking out a few simple melodies.
“Oh when my sweetie drops by, you’ll never hear me sigh,” she sang in tune to the music. “Oh when my sweetie drops ‘round, you’ll never see me frown… hmmm,” she stroked her chin as she contemplated the lyrics. “Nah!”
She levitated the lyre back over to the corner of the room and rested it gently on its stand.
She sighed again, then glared at her hind leg, which had begun to twitch in restless anticipation.
A steady knocking came from the front door to her tiny apartment. Instantly her amber eyes lit up, and a massive grin affixed itself to the face of the mint green unicorn. “Finally!” she thought, zipping over to the door and flinging it open with a crash.
“BONBON!” she yelled, gleefully diving at the pony behind the door.
“GAAH!” came the startled response. The cream coated earth pony disentangled herself from the bundle of now-hyperactive unicorn that had wrapped itself around her neck. “Lyra! Why do you have to do that?” Bonbon frowned at Lyra, her ears flat with annoyance.
“Because I miss you, Bons,” Lyra said through her massive grin. “And because it’s so much fun,” she added cheekily.
Bonbon’s expression softened and her ears perked back up. “I miss you, too, sweetie.” She gave Lyra a quick nose-to-nose nuzzle, and they assumed a much more normal foreleg-across-withers hug.
Lyra was relaxing into the hug when she felt Bonbon tense up.
“Lyra,” the earth pony mare said in a low voice tinged with equal parts suspicion and worry. “You cleaned your apartment?”
“Mmmhmm,” Lyra murmured into the bouncy blue and pink curls of Bonbon’s mane.
Bonbon unwrapped Lyra’s hoof from around her neck and walked slowly into the living room. She gazed about in a mix of worry and amazement at the complete absence of its usual detritus of discarded candy wrappers, empty hay smoothie containers, half-scribbled music or lyric sheets, and whatever clothing lying about that Lyra had designated as belonging on the ‘floordrobe’. She had even tried to glue some of the peeling wallpaper back into place and had made a valiant, though futile, attempt to scrub the stains out of the carpet. “You never clean your apartment; not even for rent inspections. I have to clean it for you, so you don’t get evicted.” She peered suspiciously at her fillyfriend, who was bouncing on the spot in the open doorway. “What’s going on?”
“It’s a surprise!” Lyra said in a sing-song voice.
“Oh, joy,” Bonbon said flatly. “Because I just love surprises.”
“Me too!” said the bouncing mare.
Bonbon’s nostrils twitched, and she raised her head to sniff at the air. “Did… did you buy us dinner?”
“Even better,” Lyra bounced inside, flicking the door shut with her tail on the way. “I cooked us dinner!”
“You?”
“Yes!”
“Cooked?”
“Yes!”
“Dinner?”
“Yes!”
“You?”
“I know!” Lyra squealed. “I even followed a recipe this time and everything. It’s almost like a recipe is, is... sheet music for food, or something. Did you know that?”
“No, Lyra,” Bonbon replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. “As an award winning confectioner and pâtissière, I had no idea that following a recipe was so helpful.”
Lyra nodded enthusiastically. “Well, it is; and let me tell you that dinner tastes fantabulously amazilicious.” She caught sight of Bonbon’s disbelieving stare. “Okay, so it’s only predictably awesome; but that’s still pretty good.”
Bonbon snorted a laugh and smiled in spite of herself; being around Lyra was like being around an over-excited foal at Hearth’s Warming, and her joy was just as contagious. “Okay then, sweetheart,” she said to Lyra, who was now trotting in place on the tips of her hooves. “Tell me about this ‘big surprise’ before you start bouncing of the walls and ceiling.” She glanced up at the ceiling with its suspicious stains and around the walls covered with peeling wallpaper. “Not that it would make much difference to this place,” she murmured.
“It’s… this!” Lyra’s horn shimmered gold, and a letter whisked itself off the tiny dining room table and plastered itself across Bonbon’s face. “...oops?” she offered meekly.
Bonbon gave a small sigh and peeled the letter off her face. The parchment was thick and creamy-smooth to the touch, with a fancy looking wax seal and ribbon affixed to the bottom.
“To: Lyra Heartstrings, Ponyville,” she read aloud. “From: Steady Baton, Conductor for the Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra, Canterlot. Dear Ms Heartstrings, I have the great pleasure of informing you that–”
“They’re recording one of my songs!” Lyra blurted, unable to contain herself any longer.
“What?!”
“One of my original compositions that I sent to the Canterlot Philharmonic – they’re going to include it on their next record!”
Bonbon quickly skimmed through the rest of the letter to confirm that, yes, this was authentic and not one of her fillyfriend’s practical jokes. “Lyra, honey, that’s fantastic news.” Bonbon was smiling broadly now. She leaned over to give Lyra a quick congratulatory nuzzle. “I’m so proud of you!” She glanced slyly at the unicorn. “So, does this mean that I’m dating somepony famous now?”
Lyra waved a hoof dismissively. “Pfft! Not likely. What it does mean is a nice fat commission in the bank, a better chance of my other pieces being selected in the future, and best of all – royalties!” Lyra clapped her hooves together in glee.
“Royalties?” Bonbon looked confused. “You mean, the princesses are going to listen to your music?”
“No, you silly filly,” Lyra laughed. “It means that every time the Canterlot Philharmonic plays my song at a concert, or sells a record with my song on it, I get a share of the profits. It’s a steady income.”
“Wow.” Bonbon sat stunned while she processed this new information. “That’s just… wow.”
“I know, Bons,” Lyra nodded. “It scared me at first, too.”
“We need to celebrate!” Bonbon exclaimed. “Give me a moment and I’ll go grab us a bottle of something nice to have with our dinner.” The earth pony jumped to her hooves and turned towards the door.
“Waaay ahead of you, sweetcheeks,” Lyra drawled. “I’ve already got a bottle of Granny Smith’s Sweet Apple Acres Special Reserve cider chilling in ice.”
Her horn glowed with golden motes and, from out of the tiny space that Bonbon felt barely deserved the title ‘kitchen’, floated the aforementioned bottle and a pair of mismatched cider mugs. Lyra quickly popped the cork out with her teeth and poured a generous measure of the sparkling liquid into each mug. Passing one to Bonbon, the two ponies clunked their foaming mugs together and exclaimed “Cheers!”
“Mmm, that’s nice,” Bonbon said, licking the foam from her lips after taking a swig. “So does this mean you’re going to stop mooching off me now, and actually pay for all those sweets you keep stealing from me?”
“It’s sampling, not stealing,” Lyra said indignantly, “And yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”
“Stealing,” Bonbon insisted with a smirk and another sip of her drink.
“Would you believe taste testing? No?” Lyra shrugged at Bonbon’s flat look. “You say ‘potato’, I say ‘tomato’. Anyway, that’s not important; what is important is we’re celebrating and I have more surprises.”
Bonbon put down her mug and pinched her muzzle in exasperation. “Lyra, that’s not how the saying goes, it’s… oh, never mind. What surprises?”
Lyra ignored the question. “Bonnie, how long have we been dating?” she asked, suddenly serious.
Bonbon shrugged. “I don’t know; several months? Why?”
“Seven months, two weeks, and four days,” Lyra supplied. “Bonbon, I think it’s way past time that we moved in together.”
Bonbon snorted. “There’s barely enough room in this apartment for you, let alone me as well. And, with all my cookery stuff, my place is hardly much better.” She shook her head, causing her curls to bounce. “I don’t think it’ll work very well.”
“No, I mean move in together; a place of our own.” Lyra trotted over to the tiny kitchen table and picked up a real estate flyer in her teeth. She showed it to Bonbon. “Look at this; it’s perfect. It’s close to your work and the markets, it’s quiet enough for me to work on my music. It’s got a big kitchen, so you can do your baking, and a study I can set up as a music studio. And with what you earn, and my royalties coming in, we can easily afford it together. What do you say?”
Bonbon stared at the flyer, then stared at Lyra. “How do you know how much I earn?” she asked suspiciously.
Lyra shrugged. “I get bored sometimes and go through your saddlebags looking for candy when you’re in the little filly’s room; but that’s not important right now. What’s important is this,” she tapped the flyer with the tip of her hoof, then leaned in close to whisper into Bonbon’s ear. “And the fact that Beds and Toasters is having a sale on Princess-sized beds right now.”
“What’s so important about tha–oh. Ohhhhh.” Bonbon blushed, causing Lyra to giggle.
Bonbon looked away in mild embarrassment at Lyra’s teasing, her gazing resting on a patch of scrubbed-clean carpet. A sudden realisation dawned on Bonbon. “Wait, all of this – the cleaning, cooking dinner, getting a steady income, looking at houses…” She looked back at Lyra. “You’re trying to show me that you can be a responsible housemate?”
Lyra nodded enthusiastically. “That’s me: Lyra ‘Responsibility’ Heartstrings.”
“Stop being responsible,” Bonbon groused playfully. “It’s confusing and scary.”
“And a little bit arousing?” Lyra asked hopefully. Bonbon’s deadpan look was more than enough answer. “Look, we both know that me acting responsibly probably won’t last, but at least I’m trying–”
“Sometimes very trying.”
“... Fair point. But you still haven’t answered my question. Do you want to move into together or not? Please say ‘yes’, Bons.” She started bouncing up and down. “Pleeeease pleasepleasepleaseplease please?”
Bonbon considered it carefully. Living together with Lyra? A house of our own, to share? This could either be the best or worst decision of my life. She looked over into the golden eyes of the excitable filly jumping who was now jumping on the living room couch, and took a deep breath. “Okay, lets do it!”
“Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes yes!” Bouncing off the couch, Lyra ran to the window and flung it open. “In your face, Equestria,” she yelled into the evening air. “She said yes. Woooooo!”
“Keep it down why don’t ya!” came a yelled reply.
“Calm down, you silly filly, before somepony calls the guards,” Bonbon grumbled, though she was smiling as she said it.
“That’s just crazy talk,” Lyra replied, trotting back over to the couch where Bonbon was now seated.
“No it’s not; there are such things as public nuisance laws you know?”
“No, I mean that was my neighbour, Crazy Talk,” Lyra said, sitting down besides Bonbon. “Sometimes I worry about him.” She snuggled in closer to her fillyfriend. “So, two zany, fun-loving mares like us, settling down and getting a house together, huh?”
“Yep. Feels weird, doesn’t it?”
Lyra looked into Bonbon’s beautiful sky blue eyes. “I guess that we’re both ready for a... stable relationship.”
And that’s when the cushion hit her in the face.
Author's Note
Special thanks to Themaskedferret for ~~constantly pestering me~~ encouraging me to write more, pre-reading, and offering some great advice.
