Tick... tock... tick... tock...
The clock ticked away and tocked away, as it had ever since Lyra had bought it. It was a grand specimen, an ornate timepiece crafted out of the finest wood, with meticulously made parts painstakingly crafted into a marvel of modern engineering. It was supposedly accurate to the tenth-second, provided it was wound weekly. On another day, Lyra, or at least Bon-Bon, would appreciate its beauty as a clock.
Today, however, it was lying face-down on the floor.
A mint-green unicorn dashed among the papers scattered among the desk and the wooden floor, making a racket in the process. "Where is it, where is it, where is it?" she muttered in a rising tone, her searching growing ever more frantic as she raced among the desk, picking up papers, notebooks, and even throwing her prized lyre to the floor, where it clanged amongst the floor. It was to no avail, though, and it seemed Lyra was growing ever more panicked.
"Bon-Bon," she called, as she paused for a moment, "Do you know where my story is?"
After a few seconds, a muffled groan came out of the bedroom. "mmph mmh mmh mmph mmh mmmph."
"What?"
"I said, it's too early for this," Bon-Bon replied grumpily, her sleep having been disturbed. "Try checking your drawer."
"My..." Lyra looked at the drawer next to her desk, the one thing left untouched in the chaos. "Oh, right..." she chuckled, before opening it. The paper was on top, with a memo to herself to remember that she put the story in the drawer this time.
In the drawer.
"Thanks," she called sheepishly, eliciting a muffled reply, before turning to her work. "Now, where were we..."
The paper sat on top of the desk, Out of Time sitting at the top. It would be filled with the most marvelous ideas, except for the fact that it was blank.
How did that happen?
Pinkie Pie passed around the punch at her party. It seemed everypony in Ponyville was in Sugarcube Corner, which had been decorated with party decorations left to right. Ponies talked to each other, helped themselves to the refreshments, and waited for Pinkie to announce something.
"What's this party for again?" Lyra asked to nopony in particular. None of the decorations, now that she thought about it,
"It's a surprise party!" Bon-Bon replied.
"But what's the surprise?"
"Nopony knows! That's the surprise!"
Lyra opened her mouth to tell Bon-Bon how unbelievably stupid that was, but Pinkie interrupted her first.
"Are there any fillies here?" she called to the gathered crowd. "No? Alright!" and with that, Pinkie pulled out something labeled XXX and poured it into the punch. "Let's get this party started!"
She groaned, partly because of the things she had done that night, and partly because a headache now pushed its way against her head, muddling her thoughts and making it impossible for her to come up with words, or an idea at all. The paper stared at her, and as the gears in her head turned fruitlessly to come up with something, anything, that she could put in a story, she swore she could hear scraping in her head. She got out of the chair she had instinctively sat on, and paced around, massaging her head with one hoof as she did so. It was awkward, but it didn't matter - her pacing was as unproductive as staring had been.
Suddenly, her stomach rumbled. Deciding that she wasn't going to come up with anything to write about anyways, she turned to the hallway door. Besides, I'll think better on a full stomach. She started walking to the stairs, stepping on the pieces of paper as she did so. Unfortunately, one particular piece of paper with a pencil sketch of Bon-Bon decided to make her day a worse one, and she slipped comically - almost as comically as if she had slipped on a banana peel.
Due to her proximity to the stairs, she naturally fell down them.
Crash! Bang! Smash! Thonk!
Thud!
Lyra gritted her teeth in pain at the bottom of the stairs, trying her best not to scream in pain; her wounded pride was more important. She took in a shaky breath, and raised a hoof up to touch her horn -
"AUUUUUUGH!" Thud!
Elsewhere, about a quarter of the inhabitants of Ponyville looked in the general direction of a scream. Deciding it wasn't important, they looked to each other, shrugged, and continued on their way.
Back in the dual house-shop, Lyra looked around, hoping nopony came around to trample on her pride further. When nopony came, she waited just a moment longer to make sure, and walked up to the fridge. She opened it up, and -
"Third time this month," Bon-Bon said from the stairway. "You really need to start looking where you're going."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Lyra half-teased, emphasizing it with a roll of her eyes. "You know, I'm going to enter the writing contest this month."
Bon-Bon looked taken aback, and with fake shock, she added, "Really? I thought you were going to enter that last month!"
"Well, yeah, but I spilled chocolate on my work!"
"And the month before that?"
"Parasprites ate it!"
"And the month before that?"
"That was -"
"And before that? And before that?" Bon-Bon walked up to Lyra, pacing around her and sizing her up. "You know you haven't entered a single one of these so-called write-offs yet, right?"
"Well, this time's different," Lyra retorted.
"Oh, really? How so?"
"For one, there hasn't been any disaster yet."
They were interrupted by a high-pitched, ladylike scream. It was probably Rarity, though it could have been anypony at their distance. Bon-Bon just looked at Lyra.
"You know that when Rarity screams, half the time it's not a -"
"Dragon!" the scratchy voice of Rainbow Dash called out from the sky. "Everypony run!"
Lyra and Bon-Bon were standing on a nearby mountain, watching Spike rampage through a now deserted Ponyville. He tore through building as if they were cardboard, roaring like a beast from the dark depths - which, admittedly, Spike was. It seemed as if he was the most extreme example of a hoarder - the buildings he was destroying were added to an ever-growing pile that Spike seemed to protect.
"You know, this actually wasn't so bad as the parasprites," a voice mentioned from behind them.
A few ponies - probably wonderbolts, Bon-Bon noted - suddenly blew past them and the population of Ponyville, and flew towards the giant fire-breathing lizard.
"Are they really?" a filly wondered.
Meanwhile, a stallion voiced his opinion, "My money's on Spike."
For a moment, it seemed that the wonderbolts had Spike on the ropes. The dragon kept swatting at them like so many little flies, but the Wonderbolts were too agile to be knocked away. Meanwhile, they started hitting the dragon, and though it was only a few hits here and there, it seemed as if Spike was in trouble The lead pony even managed to fly through his scales - how amazing was that?
But then Spike grabbed Carousel Boutique, and as the Wonderbolts collected to give orders, he smashed it with impressive speed against the mountain, trapping the wonderbolts inside, before sitting on it and collecting houses by his reach.
"See, told you," the same stallion added.
The next house he picked up was Lyra and Bon-Bon's.
Lyra looked at Bon-Bon. Bon-Bon looked at Lyra. Suddenly, Bon-Bon slapped Lyra's face. "Wake up!" she called, though it sounded far away. "Lyra, wake up! That's it,I'm getting the water." Lyra blinked, and nothing made sense anymore. Everything looked off somehow. "I said,"
Splash! "Wake up!"
"Bbplpblbph," Lyra sputtered. "Whazzat?"
Bon-Bon replied, "You've been out for an hour now!"
Lyra looked around. She was at the bottom of the stairs, where she had apparently collapsed into a heaping helping of pony after falling down them. At least her headache was gone. "What time is it?"
"It's twelve-thirty," Bon-Bon deadpanned.
Her migrane chose that moment to return, and with full force. It was joined by a head-splitting pain that threatened to claw her brain out of her head. "Ugh, twelve-thirty already?" Despite herself, she paced back and forth, getting steadily more worried. "How am I going to get this done?" she moaned, getting herself worked up, "I haven't written anything, I haven't submitted anything for the contest, I need to get something written down soon or -"
"So, are you going to get up or are you just going to complain?" Bon-Bon interrupted. "You know, there's always next month, but I need to run the store today."
After a moment's pause, Lyra got up. "Sorry." Suddenly, her stomach growled, reminding her that she was still hungry. "Ummm..."
Lyra chomped down on a daisy sandwich as Bon-Bon looked on. As she spilled crumbs and petals on the table, the chair, the floor, and just about everywhere in the kitchen, Bon-Bon looked on, trying to keep a straight face and especially trying not to dump a box of conveniently placed breadcrumbs on her. "Thanks for the daisy sandwich," she spoke, spilling more breadcrumbs and changing the look on Bon-Bon's ever so restrained face from resentful to horrified.
"N-no, it-it's fine, just eat," Bon-Bon replied. "I swear, I'm going to get a stroke one day..."
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" she quickly stated. A moment of silence passed between them. "Well, so, how's your music going?"
"Good," she replied, crumbs falling from her mouth. She paused to swallow and take another gigantic bite. "I'm performing next Friday, you know that, right?" she asked, crumbs spilling all the while.
"YesIdocanyoupleasejusteat" Bon-Bon quickly spoke, eyes shifting from Lyra to floor and back to Lyra.
Lyra paused for a moment. She looked at the floor, where an unmeasurable amount of bread was piled on the floor. She nodded.
An awkward silence passed over them, broken only by Lyra's noisy chewing and swallowing. "Well, if you're going to eat," Bon-Bon said slowly, "I think I'm just going to go and prepare my candies." After a moment's pause, she added, "I guess I'll see you later," before quickly turning and fleeing the scene. "And don't forget to clean up!"
Lyra nodded, before sighing. Quickly polishing off the rest of the sandwich, she got up and held the sandwich in her magical grasp. Where's the cabinet? Ah, here it is! She pulled open a closet, and a broom and dustpan promptly fell onto her head. "Ow-"
Followed by the rest of the closet.
The reshelving of the closet only took a few minutes, but on the bright side, now she knew where everything was! Sadly, being buried in a pile of therapeutic cleaning supplies didn't help her headache at all - in fact, it only got worse. As Lyra absent-mindedly swept he broom into the dustpan, she thought about what she was going to write. Should it be funny, or sad, or what? Suddenly, she realized that the part she had swept looked a lot nicer than the other parts. Now that she thought about it, when had anypony swept this room?
She looked at her broom and dustpan for a moment. If I'm going to clean up the kitchen, I'm going to do it right. She traded the two items in for a mop and bucket.
Her cleaning seemed quick enough - though she managed to practice her solo in the symphony quite a few times. As she finished the kitchen, she noted that it was clean. Huh, that's actually a pretty good job!
But then she noticed that the room next to it was dirty. She grabbed her mop and broom...
Bon-Bon looked around the store, and noted that there were quite a few customers. Yes, business was especially good today, and nothing would stop this from being a good -
The back door burst open, and Lyra, wearing a smile that looked at least a little insane, started viciously scrubbing the floor. "Ack!" Bon-Bon protested as she was scrubbed with the mop. "Lyra, what in Luna's name are you doing?!"
"Cleaning the floor!"
Meanwhile, the customers were looking at each other. A brown stallion backed away, followed by a blue filly, and soon there was a stampede of ponies running away from the crazed unicorn. "You've scared away all the customers!"
Lyra blinked, before looking around the now empty store. "Customers? I don't see any customers."
"That's because you've - oh, never mind." Bon-Bon sighed before sitting back at the counter, resigned to group this day with the other bad ones. She watched Lyra finish scrubbing, and turn to walk back. "Oh, watch out, it might be-"
Crash!
"...slippery..."
Lyra sighed, and looked at the now righted clock. "I can't believe it's already three," she moaned to nopony in particular. She then looked back at the still-empty paper. "Why can't I come up with anything?" she said to nopony in particular. A bird chirped, and the frazzled pony looked outside the window.
The autumn was just starting. The leaves were turning, though the running of the leaves hadn't happened yet. The sun was warm and inviting, without being as stiflingly hot as it was in the summer, and ponies were out, enjoying the season. She could see a few fillies playing kickball in the field close to her. Maybe just a short walk. Besides, she could use the inspiration.
It won't be that long... And with that thought, she set off to take a quick walk.
The sun hung in the sky as she entered the park. She savored the lush texture of the grass on her hooves as she walked, cutting across the path. The fresh air was refreshing, and her worries faded away like pebbles in the river. She felt like a filly again - and she wanted to stay and play. She ran off, frolicking, laughing, and even swam into the water, before she realized that everypony was watching her.
She blushed, realizing that she looked like an idiot. She returned to the dirt path, and just focused on walking. Even without playing in the grass, the park still looked beautiful. She could see other ponies playing, father and son throwing frisbees to each other. Only half-realizing it, she sat down onto a park bench and watched two colts, probably brothers with coats of black and grey. Huh, haven't I seen that younger kid somewhere? she thought. What was his name? Was it Ruckus?
She sighed in contentment. After watching them play for a while, she glanced at the sun, which was noticeably lower than it had been before.
Wait... "What?!" Lyra exclaimed to nopony in particular. She dashed off, yelling, "I'm late, I'm late," to everypony's confusion.
The door was slammed open by magic. Lyra trudged inside, not caring that she had just caused hundreds of dollars in property damage. The look on her face was one of frustration and self-pity, and Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow from her spot at the counter. Lyra just avoided eye contact in return, choosing instead stomp through the swinging door at the edge and slam the door to their living quarters behind her. There was a silence for a few seconds, before Bon-Bon heard soft weeping from the door.
"Why, why, why, why," Lyra cried softly. The earth pony, intrigued, slid closer. "Why can't I just write?"
"I dunno," Bon-Bon offered, before realizing her mistake and clamping her mouth shut. Cautiously, she opened the door, to find Lyra collapsed in the stairway for the second time that day. She slowly raised her head, and her eyes were red and darkened with despair. Bon-Bon added, "What do you need to write?"
"There's this write-off contest, and I want to enter but I just can't, and I don't know what to do anymore!" Lyra sobbed, before collapsing in a fit of sobbing that turned into gasping.
"Whoa, whoa, Lyra!" Bon-Bon shouted, not wanting to have her faint again. She probably wouldn't have, but who knew what could happen? "Breathe nice and slowly," and eased Lyra up to the first step. "In... and out..." Slowly, Lyra's breathing eased. "Now. Tell me, what are you having trouble with?"
"Well, I wanted to enter the writing contest this month, because I thought I could. But then I couldn't start, and I couldn't focus!" Suddenly, she groaned in pain and touched her head. "And my head hurts."
Bon-Bon paused. "Is this that thing you always say you want to enter but that you never actually finish?"
Lyra just nodded.
"Ah." Bon-Bon started turning away, but something in her expression caught her eye. Wasn't this the same Lyra who had taught her the meaning of fun? Wasn't this the same Lyra that had struggled day and night to practice her piece? And wasn't this like so many other times in the past, when she had turned away?
Now that she thought about it, when hadn't she turned away?
"Um, I can help you, if you want." The words came out of her mouth before she could take them back, but they were words that she believed with her whole heart.
Lyra was astonished. Openmouthed, she asked, "Don't you have the store -" she began, but was cut off.
"Oh, well, there's always tomorrow," Bon-Bon replied. Lyra looked to Bon-Bon, and saw the most amazing thing in her face -
Bon-Bon genuinely smiled.
"Alright, next time, try not to leave your papers scattered on the floor." Bon-Bon lay splayed on the floor, having fallen victim to another paper, this one a drawing of her in a rather unsuitable position. She gestured to the upturned picture. "I slipped on this, and I could have - wait, what the buck?!" she exclaimed, finally having processed the picture's contents. Despite themselves, both ponies turned a rather suitable shade of red.
"Ummm... I'll throw that away."
"Let's get started before either of us sees anything else." She waited for Lyra to get back into bed. "Now, what are you writing about?"
Lyra sighed. "Well, that's just the thing! I don't know! I can't think of anything!" She pointed with both hooves, to the various posters. "Have you seen some of the people who write about these? I've read stuff a hundred thousand words long! They even had to print their own book! But I can't even write two thousand measly words..."
"Alright," Bon-Bon said. "You need inspiration. How about I take the rest of the day off to help you?"
"Really?" Lyra gasped. "Oh my Celestia, thank you so much!"
"It's no problem. Now, when's the submission due?"
"Ummm..." Lyra trailed off. "Tomorrow."
"What?!" Bon-Bon exclaimed. For a moment, she seethed, breathing harder and harder. Lyra scooted away inconspicuously - she looked ready to punch something. But suddenly, something changed, and she started laughing. Not just little laughs, great big guffaws that bounced across the room and into Lyra's ears.
"Well, it's a good thing I took the day off! Why don't we get started?"
Author's Note
In the dark, I look at the monitor.
Submissions due November 8.
I sigh. There's always next month...
Thank you for reading!
