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Discord Days: Lyra and Bon-Bon
Previous ChapterNext ChapterFrom the prompt, "Discord Days, a collection of short stories concerning the misadventures of the ponies other than the mane six during Discord's brief reign," by Reddit user Nagashizuri.
***
“Get out!” she screamed, hurling a rather expensive vase at the unicorn. Lyra ducked, and the vase shattered against the wall. Bits of broken porcelain rained down on the floor, tiny pieces stinging Lyra’s back.
“What’s going on?” Lyra said. The pain in Bon-Bon’s voice was clear, and hurt worse than if she’d actually hit the unicorn with the vase. “What’s wrong?”
Bon-Bon took a plate from the counter and threw that as well. “You know exactly what’s wrong!”
But Lyra didn’t. She thought back over her day, tried to find what she might have done to make Bon-Bon so upset. Today wasn’t supposed to be any different than yesterday. They had said specifically that they weren’t going to do anything very special for their anniversary, just a nice dinner. Bon-Bon had decided to make a nice daffodil salad, and Lyra offered to go out to purchase the ingredients. The two of them had made this same plan dozens of times. What had been different? Well, besides the obvious…
***
The first thing she’d done was head to the market. The day was a normal one. The clouds were maybe a little darker than she would like, but they weren’t planning a picnic, so rain was fine. She grabbed an umbrella just in case. Always happy to support a friend’s business, Lyra stopped first at Carrot Top’s stand. The earth pony was sitting behind a dazzling array of the orange vegetables, absent-mindedly tapping a hoof on the table. Her ears perked up when she saw Lyra approach.
“Well, how’s life treating you?” Carrot Top said jovially. “You seem chipper this morning.”
Lyra nodded, grinning. “It’s me and Bon-Bon’s anniversary. She’s making dinner for us tonight!”
Carrot Top nodded approvingly. “Congrats,” she said. “You’re interested in some carrots, then?” She picked out a few of the freshest and knocked some dirt off the sides. “Take these.” She held up a hoof when Lyra took out her bag of bits. “Consider it an anniversary present.”
Surprised, Lyra waited a few moments, then said, “Thanks!” She levitated the carrots into her saddlebag. “Hey, come by the shop tomorrow. I’ll have Bon-Bon save you some of those truffles you like.”
Carrot Top smiled, but then waved her on. “I don’t like the look of those clouds,” she said, her eyes on the sky. “You should hurry if you want to get home before it starts to rain.”
Indeed, the clouds did seem to threaten rain. They were heavier, and had begun to clump into solid formations. Which was strange, since Lyra couldn’t see any weather ponies shepherding them. The air smelled wet, too. Lyra hurried around the market, but felt the tell-tale droplets of water on her back before she was even halfway done with the rest of her purchases.
“Oh hay,” she said. She reached into her bag to take out the umbrella to shield herself from the rain, but realized with a start that it wasn’t water at all. She opened her mouth and let a drop fall on her tongue. It tasted like… Chocolate milk? But that made no sense! And the clouds were pink. Was somepony playing a joke?
“Achoo!” A loud sneeze echoed behind her. “Achoo!” Lyra turned around to see a pink-coated pony with a darker pink mane.
“Berry!” she said. Berry Punch, for that was the source of the sneezes, looked at her. The earth pony’s eyes were red and teary, her nose raw from sneezing, but she brightened when she saw Lyra.
“Hey, I just don’t know what’s going on with me today. It must be allergies, or something.” Berry sneezed again. Lyra rummaged though her bag for a tissue, but as she levitated it to her stricken friend, a question about the chocolate milk rain half-formed on her lips, Lyra saw something that made her realize for sure that today wasn’t a normal day at all.
“What is that!” Lyra said, gesturing above Berry’s head with a hoof.
“What is what?” Berry twisted her head back and forth quizzically, trying to see what Lyra saw. The pepper shaker shook again, and a cloud of pepper fell on Berry’s head. The pony sneezed again, so violently that all four of her hooves left the ground. She rubbed her nose. “Excuse me!” she said, then looked up again. “I don’t see anything. Wait, where are you going?”
“I have to get home!” Lyra called over her shoulder as she galloped down the cobblestone street. Something strange was going on in Ponyville. Bon-Bon, she thought, and she increased her pace.
***
Getting home proved to be more difficult than she expected. For one thing, every pony in town seemed to have that idea, and the streets were filled with ponies jostling each other, trying to maneuver around the others to find their own house. Cherry Berry actually collided with her at top speed, knocking both ponies to the ground. Before Lyra could regain her wits to apologize, Cherry was on her hooves, shrieking and running away as a herd of long-legged rabbits pursued her. But besides the crowd, the roads themselves were becoming more impassible. No longer flat, the cobblestones had turned to blue linoleum and were bulging and sinking randomly. Lyra found herself climbing instead of walking half the time.
When she reached the home she shared with her marefriend, she breathed a sigh of relief. The yellow-thatched roof and brown-trimmed house was undisturbed. Lyra stopped at the door and surveyed the rest of the street. Some houses were upside-down. To the left, it seemed like two houses had joined into one, the smaller slowly sinking into the larger. And plenty of houses weren’t there at all. Lyra opened the door. Perhaps the chaos hadn’t extended to her own home after all.
With a crack, a jagged streak appeared in the ground in front the doorstep, and the house was lifted right out of the ground, taking Lyra with it. Lyra flung herself inside and slammed the door. When it felt like the house would lift any higher or fall back down suddenly, Lyra let out the breath she’d been holding. She stood up and looked around. The foyer looked as it always did, dark hardwood floors and hooks for their saddlebags. The smell of cocoa hung in the air. Shakily, her heart still beating quick in her chest, Lyra called out, “Bon-Bon? Are you home?”
“Oh,” said a voice from the kitchen that couldn’t possibly be Bon-Bon’s, “you finally made it back. Took you long enough.”
Lyra trotted hesitantly into the kitchen, nervous that she would see a ballet-dancing buffalo in the place of her beloved. But the same cream-colored mare was standing at the counter as she always was, bits of chocolate in her pink-and-blue mane. “Thank Celestia,” Lyra breathed, and she dashed to Bon-Bon and threw her forelegs around her, Lyra’s saddlebags falling to the ground with a plop. Bon-Bon tensed, and pushed Lyra away. The unicorn stared back, confused.
“How dare you?” Bon-Bon said. “How dare you?”
“How dare I what?” Lyra took a step forward, but Bon-Bon took a step back. “I don’t understand.”
Rage boiled up across Bon-Bon’s face. “Get out!” she screamed, and the mare picked up a porcelain vase - a wedding present from Berry Punch - and threw it as hard as she could at Lyra. Lyra dodged.
“What’s going on?” she said. “What’s wrong?”
Bon-Bon took a plate from the counter and threw that too. “You know exactly what’s wrong!” Lyra caught the plate with magic and set it down gently. “I saw you out there, I saw you with her!”
With who? Lyra thought. Did she see me run into Cherry Berry? What is she talking about? More objects flew towards her, and Lyra let go of her train of thought. “Listen to me, Bon-Bon,” she said, but Bon-Bon was past listening to her or to anyone.
“I hate you!” she screamed, her voice gutteral Tears were coming from the earth mare’s eyes and her body was shaking with sobs. She took a china dish, inherited from Bon-Bon’s own grandmother, and readied it to throw.
“Enough,” said Lyra. She immobilized Bon-Bon with her magic, holding her and the plate in place. Bon-Bon strained against the magic, pushing at the bonds with such strength that Lyra knew she wouldn’t be able to hold her long. Lyra walked over to the mare who stared at her with such hatred and anger in her eyes, and touched her gently on the cheek. Bon-Bon froze, and Lyra took the earth pony in her forelegs and sat them both on the ground, cradling her. Bon-Bon was tense, all of her muscles contracted as though the mare was about to run, but Lyra let the magical constraints fade. She sensed that Bon-Bon would make no further movement.
“Whatever you think I did,” Lyra said, “I promise you I didn’t.” The window over the sink was open, and Lyra looked through it as she held her partner. Several pies floated upwards into a green sky. She almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, but something about the realness of having a tortured Bon-Bon in her lap kept her grounded. “There’s something really, really wrong going on in Ponyville. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve seen some of the strangest things today. I saw an ear of corn turn into an actual ear! So whatever it is you saw, I can tell you right now that it wasn’t real. I would never do anything to hurt you. I love you, for Celestia’s sake!”
The mare in her forelegs sniffed. “I just, I was looking out the window and I saw you and you were-” but Lyra shushed her before she could go any further.
“It wasn’t real,” she said. Bon-Bon nodded, and her muscles relaxed. She leaned into Lyra, letting the unicorn comfort her. Lyra brushed her hair with a hoof and let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
There was a tremendous bang from inside Lyra’s saddlebags. The carrots she had bought earlier spilled out onto the ground and, shifting in shape and color, turned into a pile steaming, yellow waffles. As the two ponies watched, a pair of tomatoes rolled out of the bag, sprouting fingers and wings. The tomatoes clutched the waffles, lifted up into the air, and flew out the window.
Lyra and Bon-Bon turned to face each other, their mouths hanging open in shock. “All right,” said Lyra. “What we’re going to do now is get upstairs, go lie down in bed with the blanket over our heads, and wait for Princess Celestia or Twilight Sparkle to sort this out.” Bon-Bon nodded mutely.
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