Bittersweet Memories

Bon-Bon and Lyra were out that Saturday evening at the Ponyville cafe. During the day the place didn't seem like much but once the sun went down the cafe can become the most romantic place in all of Ponyville. The tables outside each had a small lit candle that glowed dimly in the night.

The cafe was packed that night, like every night. Bon-Bon couldn't believe Lyra was able to get them a table. She had to have reserved a table weeks, maybe even months in advanced. But, why would she go out of her way to plan a date months in advanced? Maybe she got lucky and there was one free table left. For some reason she doubted that was the case. Curiosity built up inside until she felt like she had to know.

"Lyra." the blue and pink maned pony said. Lyra looked up from the menu at Bon-Bon. "How were you able to get us a table? It's nearly impossible to get a table here with out reservations."

"Well, yeah." the mint green unicorn said. "That's why I reserved us a table early."

"How early?"

"Oh, since January."

Bon-Bon nearly choked on her own saliva, letting out a monstrous cough that brought the attention of nearly half the ponies there.

"You alright?" Lyra asked. Bon-Bon nodded as she continued to cough. A waiter came by with a large glass of water and gently placed it on the table in front of the hacking pony. She chugged it down and for a moment the only sound that could be heard was her, gulping the water down her throat. She drank it until the glass was empty and she slammed it onto the table.

All eyes were on her. She felt embarrassed, but luckily they didn't laugh, nor stare for a long period of time. The waiter took the glass away back inside the building. Bon-Bon breathed heavily through her mouth. She couldn't believe Lyra had made reservation six months ago. Something was up. What was she planning?

"What's going on?" Bon-Bon asked Lyra.

"What do you mean?" Lyra responded, actually feeling a bit confused.

"I mean, why did you go out of your way to reserve a table six months ago?"

"Well...umm...you'll just have to wait."

Bon-Bon let out a groan. Her curiosity was starting to consume her. She hated secrets, but she also knew that it was nearly impossible to break Lyra from a secret. "Fine." Bon-Bon said, sounding annoyed and impatient.

"Trust me, Bon-Bon."

She did trust her. She trusted her more than she trusted anypony else, including herself.

The waitor soon returned to the couple's table. His horn was glowing and floating in front of him was a notepad and a quill. "Canz I starts youz two with some wine?" he said with a strong accent.

"No tha..."

"Yes, please." Lyra cut Bon-Bon off. The waitor ready his quill and waited for Lyra to speek. Bon-Bon didn't say anything, after all Lyra was the one buying. "We'll have some 1962 Manehatten Red, please."

"Very good." He wrote down the wine name onto the notepad and then walked away.

"I didn't know you knew so much about wine." Bon-Bon said.

"I don't, Berry Punch recommended it for this special occasion."

"Special occasion?" Now she was really confused. What was Lyra planning? Knowing her it would be something probably unexpecting. I guess that's one of the reasons Bon-Bon loves her so much. Each day being something new and the next day being a complete mystery.

"You'll know soon enough." the mint green unicorn said.

The waitor, again, returned to the table, this time with two crystal wine glasses and a bottle of 1962 Manehatten Red Wine. "You're wine, madames." He proceeded to put the two cups onto the table and fill them both.

Bon-Bon paid no attention to him, she just stared at Lyra, thinking to herself about what Lyra might have planed. The stallion slid one of the glasses over to the earth mare. She wrapped her hoof around her the glass and began to chug down the wine, not realizing she was doing so.

"Umm...Bon-Bon you reallyu shouldn't..." Lyra began but Bon-Bon began to violently cough again. "Sweet Celestia, Bon-Bon."

The coughing stopped. She grabbed her own throat with her hooves as the expression of fear appeared on her face. Bon-Bon pushed herself away from the table as Lyra watched her choak.

"PLEASE, SOMEPONY DO SOMETHING!" Lyra yelled. "SHE CHOKING!" No one did anything. They just watched as the poor mare choked. Tears filled the unicorns eyes.

Bon-Bon collapsed and her struggling stopped. "BON-BON!" Lyra galloped over to her marefirend. She lifted her up off the ground, wrapped her legs around her, and began performing the heimlick maneuver. She squeezed the choking pony's stomach, loosened her grip, and repeated.

All the other ponies had a look of worry and confusion for they've never seen the heimlick maneuver before. No pony has.

Lyra did this for about fourty seconds until Bon-Bon coughed up a ruby onto their table. It was bright and shiny and covered in saliva.

The mint green unicorn layed Bon-Bon down onto the ground. She was breathing heavily, but she was breathing. Lyra let out a sigh of relief.

~16 Years ago~

Bon-Bon was lying in her bed, her face in the pillow, soaking it with her tears. She couldn't believe she was gone. How could something like this happen? Why to her? She was such a kind and caring mare, it just didn't make any sense how she could just die.

There was a knock on the door and then the door opened. The crying filly looked up from her pillow at her mother who stood just inside her room. Bon-Bon's eyes were red from all the crying she has done. Life looked at her daughter, her heart aching seeing her like this. It has been about a week since the funeral and every night she would cry herself to sleep. It has been terrible. A little bit of snot ran down from her nostrils to her upper lip.

"Bon-Bon, Ditzy is here." Life said. At that moment Ditzy Doo walked into the room. One eye was looking up at Bon-Bon and the other was looking down at the ground.

"Hey, Bon-Bon." Ditzy said softly. "I wanted to see how you were..." Bon-Bon leaped from the bed and wrapped her hooves around Ditzy. Tears fell from her eyes onto her best friend's shoulder. The grey pegasus hugged her back.

"Promise me you won't die too." Bon-Bon said. Ditzy could feel her friend's body shaking as she held her tightly, as if she something was trying to take Ditzy away from her. "Please, promise me."

"I promise." Ditzy was ready to let go, but Bon-Bon still held on tight. The grey pony didn't feel right pushing her away so she just kept hugging her until she finally let go. For a while there was nothing but silence, excluding the occasional sniffle  made by Bon-Bon. Ditzy finally broke the silence and spoke in a hushed tone, "So, would you like to go get some icecream or something?"

Bon-Bon nodded and the two fillies left the house. The weather outside was perfect. It wasn't to hot, but it wasn't cold. The sky was cleared of all clouds, letting in the sun's light to shine onto the magnifcent city. The two friends didn't talked much, but the lovely weather made both their moods more upbeat.

It only took the duo fifteen minutes till they arrived at the Canterlot Ice Cream House. When they opened the door they were greeted with the sound of a bell ringing.

"Hey, girls!" said a tan stallion who was wiping down one of the tables. "Haven't seen you two in a while." He stopped what he was doing and walked over behind the counter and then asked them what they were interested in getting.

"I'll have a vanilla flavored milkshake, please." Ditzy said with a smile.

Bon-Bon stared at slightly older colt, who was seated at one of the tables eating a strawberry ice cream on a waffle cone. On his flank was a single pink frosted donut covered in sprinkles. She turned her attention back towards the stallion behind the counter.

"And you, miss?" he said.

"I'd like chocolate, please." the swirly maned filly replied. "Two scoops."

"Would you like a cup or a cone?"

"Cone, please."

"Coming right up. Joe, come give me a hoof over here!"

The stallion took one last humungous bite, which finished off the ice cream, and proceeded over to behind the counter.

"And wipe your face, there are ladies present."

After finishing their dessert the two fillies spent the rest of their time walking around Canterlot, talking about just about everything there was to talk about. The weather, funny stories their parents had told them recently, boys. Well Ditzy was talking about a certain stallion.

"He was so handsome." the walleyed filly said. "He had a light brown coat, a dark brown mane, and he wore the cutest tie."

"And he just magically appeared in your backyard?" Bon-Bon questioned, not believing a word of it.

"Yeah! I know it sounds strange but it really happened. He had this big blue box which he calls the TARDIS, and it crashed in my backyard."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

"Positive."

"Right."

"He also had this strong Trottingham accent, but when I asked him if he was from there he just asked me 'where's Trottingham?'. He says he's from the planet Gallifrey, where ever that is."

"Yeah, you were dreaming." Bon-Bon said with smirk on her face.

"Well, it doesn't matter what you think. I know what I saw and one day he'll be back."

Bon-Bon giggled.

~present day~

The sun shined down through a window onto Bon-Bon's face as she awoke. She squinted her eyes and was about put a hoof over the sun when a figure blocked it out.

"Bon-Bon, you're awake." said the the mint green unicorn.

"Lyra?" Bon-Bon said, noticing her voice had changed slightly. It was more high pitch and calmer. She definately perfered it over her deeper voices. "Where are we?"

"You're in the hospital. You choked last night and passed out after I slipped something in your wine. My bad." Lyra chuckled. "The doctor says they'll release later this afternoon. They wanted to keep you over night just to make sure you don't stop breathing in your sleep. You know, because what happened when you were born."

Bon-Bon was about to speek when suddenly there was a knock at the door. The door opened and a caramel colored stallion stepped in. He wore a white a lab coat and a stethoscope around his neck.

"Good morning, Bon-Bon." the doctor said. "How are we feeling today?"

"Tired." she responded.

"Well that's to be expected."

"Umm, doctor. We were kinda in the middle of something." Lyra spoke up. Lyra never interupted somepony before. What was up with her?

"Oh, I'm sorry." he said backing up out of the room. "I'll just leave you two alone then." The doctor closed the door behind him, giving the two mares complete privacy.

"Alright, Lyra, what's going on?" Bon-Bon said. "You've been acting odder than usual."

"Well I guess I'm just kinda nervous."

"Nervous about what?"

"Might as well get this over with now." she whispered to herself. She got down on one knee with one hoof in front of her.

"Lyra, what are you doing?" Bon-Bon asked, really confused. It was probably a human thing or something.

"Bon-Bon, we have known each other for over ten years and I look forward each day knowing I'm going to be spending it with you. You make smile. You make me feel love. You have done more for me than anyone else in Equestria."

"Well, yeah, you're my marefriend. We do these things because we love each other."

"I want to be more than just marefriends, Bon-Bon." Lyra said.

"What do you mean?"

"This would be much easier if I still had the gem." she paused trying to release those words that would change both their lives. "Bon-Bon, will you marry me?"

Bon-Bon was stunned. Marry? Lyra? Had she heard that correctly.

"What?" the cream colored pony asked, wanting to clarify on what her marefriend had asked.

"Will you be my wife?"

The earth pony's heart beat heavily. A tear ran down her cheek from her eye. This was for real. After all these years of being together they were finally going to let their relationship take a new step up the stairs of love. She felt like she was going to choke again.

"Yes!"