Liza Doolots and the Candy Factory

by Fluttercheer

Rating: everyone
Tags: Dinky Hooves, Other, Thriller, Bon-Bon, Slice of Life, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sparkler
Length: 6160

Liza Doolots lives a happy and content life with her parents Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon in their small candy store. But when a candy factory rises in Ponyville, Liza and her parents have to fight hard to save their candy store from gentrification.

Liza Doolots was an ordinary filly. Ordinary, but also content with her way of life, her friends and the things she loved. And there were many things that Liza Doolots loved, but the things she loved most were candies and the candy store of her parents Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon.
One day, though, Liza's life takes an exciting, then terrifying, turn. A candy factory rises in Ponyville, a product of the ever increasing industrialism in Equestria. Its owner, a charming and joyful stallion called Sweet Treat, promises a new age of candy, but the presence of the factory also means that the age of Ponyville's candy store comes to an end.
Cheap candies, air pollution, greed for money and five golden tickets, but all that Liza can see is how the candy store of her parents dwindles and how her life changes against her will.
The candy factory must be stopped..... and Liza and her parents are determined to do everything to save their little candy business from becoming a victim of gentrification.

A musical story and ponified reimagination of the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", with a darker and more serious take on the subject of factories, industrialism and gentrification.
This story is a collaborative project between DinkyUniverse, who provided the idea, and me, who writes the story.
The cover art was drawn by DinkyUniverse.

Work on this story happens on Saturdays and new chapters get released once they are ready.

Published 2020-12-24 03:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-04-01 02:12:43 UTC

Chapter 1: The Candy Family

Liza Doolots and the Candy Factory

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Characters:

Chapter 1: The Candy Family

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The schoolhouse of Ponyville was filled with foals of all shapes and sizes and colors; obese foals, happy foals, blue foals, attentive foals, bored foals, yellow and orange and white foals, rich foals, unicorn foals, beige foals, thin foals, chatting foals, competitive foals, pink foals, big foals, poor foals, red foals, grey foals, small foals, brown foals, pegasi foals, sleeping foals, writing foals, purple foals, middle-class foals, angry foals, earth pony foals, green foals, interested foals, playful foals and eating foals.

In the front row, at the desk in the middle, sat a candy-loving foal; a little, turquoise unicorn filly: Liza Doolots.

All foals in Ponyville loved candy very much, but Liza loved candy the most of them all. Which is why it came in useful for her that her parents owned a candy store.

At the front of the classroom stood Miss Cheerilee, Ponyville's only teacher, but a dedicated one, she was always eager to teach her students about new things and to increase their knowledge about the world they lived in. And such was the case today. A new development happened in Equestria, one that could shape the lives of ponies forever, and so Cheerilee wanted that the foals of Ponyville understood exactly what was happening in their kingdom.

A chart stood next to her and Miss Cheerilee just folded over a sheet of paper to reveal her next example of industrialism in Equestria. A logo on the next sheet of the chart came into view for the foals, a stylized picture of Princess Twilight with ketchup smeared around her mouth and a burger that was missing a bite next to her, on top of the words “BURGER PRINCESS”. Each of the two words was in its own line and written in a purple font that looked just like the coat color of the princess.

Miss Cheerilee put a pointer at the logo. “Burger Princess is a fast food chain that originated four years ago in Fillydelphia. Unlike other restaurants, or our own burger restaurant here in Ponyville, the hayburgers it offers are smaller, but they also come at a cheaper price and are made much faster than the burgers of other restaurants.”

She pulled the pointer away and looked at her class. “Today, Burger Princess has restaurants in Fillydelphia, Manehattan, the Crystal Empire, Canterlot and even in Appleloosa, where it sells exclusive burgers with a local flair. Another example of a popular, new fast food chain is McAlicorns, which just opened for business in the Crystal Empire.” A smirk played around her lips. “You see that Princess Twilight has been quite the inspiration for fast food restaurants.”

The foals laughed, getting the reference.

Miss Cheerilee continued. “There is no Burger Princess or McAlicorns restaurant here in Ponyville yet, but the sales of the chains are very successful, so it will only be a matter of time.”

The entire classroom began to cheer at these words.

As Miss Cheerilee turned to the chart again and wanted to turn up another sheet, she was suddenly interrupted by the schoolbell and stopped in her movement and looked back at her class. “Looks like our lesson is already over! This went fast today!” She chuckled. “Class is dismissed!”

Her joyous voice swept over the foals and they didn't waste a moment with packing their saddlebags and leaving their desks for the exit. All the foals poured out of the schoolhouse like the building was a gigantic candy dispenser, laughter and giggling ringing out among the little ponies.

Liza ran with them and she had a smile on her face and cheers left her mouth. Her eyes sparkled brightly as she looked ahead, youthful energy and foalish enthusiasm spreading out to all sides. Right in front of her ran Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and to her left and right, Dinky Hooves and Ruby Pinch were running. Not far away from her was Tornado Bolt, who was wearing a fierce smirk on her lips as she looked at Cotton Cloudy, who accompanied her.

The cheers and the laughter by the group of foals was deafening and could be heard far down the street. It was a common sound at this time of day, on every single day, as their route and their destination after school was always the same.

“To the candy store!” Dinky's clear and bright voice chimed to Liza's left. Then the same shout came from right of her, from a slightly deeper voice as Ruby Pinch repeated the words.

Liza looked around between them and grinned. “The candy store!” she shouted in glee.

The tempo of the foals carried them to their destination quick and only very few minutes later, they burst into the door of Ponyville's candy store.

Instantly, Lyra and Bon Bon looked up and at the door from their position behind the counter. Their already bright faces grew ten times brighter as they heard the little hooves trippling into their store and as they saw all the smiling faces of the foals who had come to buy candy like they did every day after school.

Soon, they found themselves under siege by colorful, cute faces who stared up at them in joyful expectation, as the foals stormed to the counter, Liza at the front of the group.

The young unicorn looked at Lyra, then at Bon Bon. “Hi, mommy! Hi, mama!”

The mothers leaned down to their daughter and ruffled her mane.

“Where are the candies?” an obese colt in the front row, Gallop J. Fry, shouted. He attempted to climb over the counter to reach the huge glasses with candies that stood on top of it. At his side was another colt who was just as obese, Truffle Shuffle, and he tried to do the same.

Behind Gallop J. Fry, Truffle Shuffle and Liza stood the rest of the foals; Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Dinky Hooves, Ruby Pinch, Tornado Bolt, Royal Blue, Twist, Aura, Train Tracks, Peach Fuzz, Ginger Snap, First Base, Aquamarine, Pina Colada, Diamond Tiara, Cotton Cloudy, Button Mash, Noi, Alula, Lickety Split, Lily Longsocks and Archer were their names.

The eager question by the greedy colt gave reason for Bon Bon to present Lyra with a prompting smirk. Taking the hint, Lyra smirked back, then she leaned closer to the foals and began to sing a song.

“Who loves a summer sunrise, sweet smell of early morning dew?”

The foals giggled in happiness as the melodic words were sung in front of them. To Lyra's left, Bon Bon came a step closer and joined into the song.

“It feels like candy-making, so it's loved by us two!”

The two mares united their voices and sung the rest of the verse together. “We are the candy mares! And a candy mare cares! The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love and love makes candy taste good!”

Bon Bon reached down to the foals, who had come closer and were now almost pressing themselves against the counter, picked up Noi and sat her down on the counter right next to her. She lifted the lid from one of the glasses and gave the filly a few pieces of hard candy in colorful wrapping paper. Bon Bon started to sing again.

“Who loves smiles of fillies, cast by gummy worms?”

Lyra ruffled through Noi's mane as she took over for Bon Bon. “Watching them spoon sugar cream and then they add some s'mores!”

They began so sing together again. “We are the candy mares! And a candy mare cares!The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love and love makes candy taste good!”

As they had ended, they beckoned Liza over, signalling for her to join them.

Liza's face grew brighter and she jumped onto the counter and turned around to her friends and classmates with joy in her eyes.

“Mommy and Mama take, whatever they make, their candy work very, very serious!” She leaned down at Gallop J. Fry who had an unhappy expression, still waiting for his candy. “Don't you ever get nervous! We do our best to make our candies flawless!” She hoofed Fry a large candy cane, which finally cast a smile on the colt's face and he began to lick it passionately.

Lyra watched the scene with a satisfied smile of her own, then began so sing again. “Who loves the taste of sugar, the finest of all treats?”

“Take away the sadness with a bag full of sweets!” Bon Bon opened a drawer under her, reached into it with both hooves and showered the foals at the other side of the counter in candies, which all the foals collectively tried to catch. They jumped up and squealed in delight.

Lyra, Bon Bon and Liza continued their song.

“We are the candy mares!”

“My mommies care!”

“And a candy mare cares!”

Lyra and Bon Bon brought their faces close together and looked deeply into each other's half-lidded eyes. “The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love and love makes candy taste good!”

The two parents pulled Liza into their midst and snuggled close to their daughter, their faces and cheeks pressed against hers, embracing her with a forehoof each. Together, the mares joined into their song one last time.

“And love makes candy taste good, 'cause the candy mares know that it shoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooould!”

Their song faded out and they nuzzled Liza, who happily reciprocated the gesture to her mommies.

The foals stood in awe for a second, their mouths and eyes opened wide, then broke out in amazed cheers. They raised their little hooves and reached for the candies on the counter; opened glasses, grabbed candy bars and pulled gummy worm, that were longer than some of them measured from the tip of their manes to their end of their tails, out of dispensers. It was like a riot for candy had broken out in the little store, an adorable pandemonium of little colts and fillies demanding what was their right.

Lyra, Bon Bon and Liza tended to foals left and right, giving out candies of all variants and sorts they had available and took bits from the little hooves in exchange for them, until all the glasses and all the dispensers were empty. As the last of the foals who got candy that day, Aura stuffed her mane with gummy worms, then paid and skipped out of the store like she was dancing, with the happiest, mischievous grin a filly could make.

Only Gallop J. Fry stayed behind, not looking happy anymore. “Awww, but I wanted so much more candy!” he said with quivering lips and a mountain of sweet snacks on his back, while looking at the three candy sellers pleadingly. He turned to the right and stuck his hoof deep into a hard candy dispenser, trying to fish for any last pieces that might have remained in there.

Lyra and Bon Bon chuckled at the desperate need for even more candy and Liza added a giggle to the mix.

“For today we are sold out, but we will prepare much more candy for tomorrow,” Bon Bon reassured the colt with a friendly and welcoming smile on her face.

Fry pulled at the dispenser with all his might, trying to get his hoof free again. He stumbled backwards as it finally slipped out, losing a few of his candies by the sudden motion, then breathed a sigh of relief as he looked down on his hoof. Then he looked at the candy makers again. “Promise?” he asked. Fry popped a piece of candy from his supplies into his mouth and started chewing while expectantly waiting for an answer.

“Promise!” Liza shouted. “When did we ever not have enough candies to fill all of your belly, Fry?” She giggled in hilarity.

“Okay, I'll be here again after school tomorrow,” Fry announced. “Make sure to have lots of candy.” He turned away from the two mares and the filly and staggered out of the candy store, carefully balancing his load.

As the door had clicked shut and they were alone in the now silent candy store, Liza turned around on the counter to face her parents. “We sold out already, isn't this amazing?! We didn't have a day that was that good in a long time!” Liza's face seemed to radiate sunshine and rainbows as she spoke the cheerful words.

“You are so right!” Lyra cheered with her. She picked Liza up, pulled her close and hugged her tightly, which the filly answered on with a happy giggle.

“It really was a success today,” Bon Bon confirmed, watching her marefriend and their daughter with a satisfied smile. Then her face became a little more serious. “But of course success also means that we have to keep working hard to live up to our name and the expectations of our customers.” She trotted to a door that was behind the counter and opened it. A spacious kitchen decked out in bright pastel colors came into view. “We should get to work for the sales tomorrow.”

Lyra and Liza released their embrace and nodded, not stern-faced, but smiling. While Lyra followed her marefriend to the door, Liza jumped down in front of the counter and approached the front door. She ignited her horn and hovered over a key that hung down from a nail on a board that was on the wall behind the counter. With the magical proficiency of a unicorn foal who cares to do the work right, she inserted it into the keyhole and turned it around, locking the door.

Her task done, Liza jumped back onto the counter, down on the other side and hovered the key back to its place, before she joined her mommies at the entrance of the store's kitchen. She closed the door behind them and together, the tree candy makers entered the kitchen.

Inside, Liza aimed straight for the cupboards at the bottom of the kitchen unit. She opened one and hovered out a set of sturdy, 3-quart copper pots and a double boiler. She let them fly across the room. In the middle of the kitchen was a large table with several work spaces, two ovens with the accompanying stove tops and a sink that was equipped with a motion sensor faucet. Liza placed the pots on the stove top opposite of her.

Above her head, Lyra giddily rummaged in a drawer and hovered out several candy-making tools – among them a liquid measuring cup, a pastry brush, several wooden spoons, dipping tools and a candy thermometer. Bon Bon was lifting two large squeeze bottles and a kitchen scale. The mares brought them to the work space right next to the stove top Liza has put the pots on.

Soon, all three work spaces were equipped with the same set of tools, safe for the kitchen scale, which was expensive, so there was only one. The candy makers got to work.

After a while of working in content, concentrated silence, Bon Bon started a conversation. She had just dipped freshly-cooked and hardened candies into chocolate and placed them onto a big, white plate, as she looked over to a calendar that hung next to the kitchen door.

“It's going to be another Hearth's Warming season soon,” she determined. “Just a few weeks more, then we have to speed up our candy production and probably make three times as much candy.” She whistled, in happy anticipation.

“Yeah, soon, all ponies in Ponyville will gift candies to others during the holidays!” Lyra happily answered her at the other side of the table. She was busy garnishing small pralines made of white chocolate with thin lines of strawberry cream.

Liza stood at the stove top next to Bon Bon while her mothers were talking. She looked up from the pot in which she stirred a cooking candy mass with a wooden spoon, beaming brightly. “And Fry and Truffle will buy even more candy than they normally do! For the holidays, because that's when you celebrate the founding of Equestria and friendship, so that makes it okay to eat thrice as many candies each day!” Liza looked down at the sweet mass in the pot again. “We are the candy mares! And a candy mare cares!” she sung quietly.

Her mothers chuckled. “And the best thing is that they are right!” Lyra shouted in glee.

Bon Bon nodded, smiling. “Not to mention custom candy orders,” she said, looking at a row of photos that hung at the opposite wall of the kitchen and showed many unique candy creations. “Those will see an increase in the gift-giving season again.”

“I bet! Gosh, I can't wait to work on some crazy ideas for this year!” A squee left Lyra's throat.

“We all can't wait for it!” Liza added and clarified at the same time. “The Hearth's Warming season is always the best time of the year and I'm sure this year it will be even greater!” She presented her parents with a wide smile and a glow in her eyes.

Lyra and Bon Bon smiled in the same way. Filled with anticipation towards the busiest month for their small candy business, but also the one with the most cheer, they lapsed into pleased silence while continuing with their work.

A peaceful, festive atmosphere spread out in the candy kitchen.
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Author's Note

We are the Candy Mares

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Who loves a summer sunrise, sweet smell of early morning dew?
It feels like candy-making, so it's loved by us two!
We are the candy mares! And a candy mare cares!
The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love
And love makes candy taste good!

Who loves smiles of fillies, cast by gummy worms?
Watching them spoon sugar cream and then they add some s'mores!
We are the candy mares! And a candy mare cares!
The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love
And love makes candy taste good!

Mommy and Mama take, whatever they make,
their candy work very, very serious!
Don't you ever get nervous!
We do our best to make our candies flawless!

Who loves the taste of sugar, the finest of all treats?
Take away the sadness with a bag full of sweets!
We are the candy mares!
My mommies care!
And a candy mare cares!
The candy mares care 'cause they craft candies with love
And love makes candy taste good!

And love makes candy taste good
'Cause the candy mares know that it shoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooould!

If any pony musicians and VAs would like to make an actual song out of these lyrics, feel free to go ahead and do it! Just send me a message so that I know this is happening, I would be delighted to listen to this song!

Chapter 2: Candies from a Factory?

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Chapter 2: Candies from a Factory?
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It was a calm and peaceful Saturday morning, as Liza Doolots awoke in her bed on the second floor right above the candy store. The sun was casting beautiful specks of light onto her blanket and Liza blinked at the celestial body as its rays blinded her through the window pane.

Liza sat up in her bed and pushed the blanket off her body. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and stretched her hooves and arched her back until the last bit of sleep had left her. Not the slightest bit drowsy anymore, the young filly jumped out of her bed like a whirlwind that happily tossed and blew around leaves on the forest floor. Liza smiled widely, like on every morning. She trippled and danced to the door of her bedroom and pulled it open with ease, then continued her exuberance out in the corridor.

As Liza trippled into the kitchen, her moms where already there and welcomed their little daughter with love and affection. Their smiles lit up an already happy room as they saw Liza enter and Liza increased the bright happiness with a smile of her own.

“Good morning, mommy! Good morning, mama!” Liza greeted her parents, as her cute eyes flitted from one mom to the other mom, and her voice chimed like a silvery bell throughout the tiny kitchen.

Bon Bon stood at the counter, not far away from the kitchen table, and held a pan over the stove top. It smelled delicious from it, tart and with a bit of sweetness. Liza trippled at the side of her mommy, lured by the intoxicating smell that fondled her nostrils. She reached onto the counter with both tiny hooves and pulled herself up to take a look at what was being made for breakfast. The sight of pancakes greeted her: Thick and brown, with a glistening surface.

Liza's eyes and her mouth grew wide as her mom lifted the pan and, swiftly and with skill, flipped the pancake from one side onto the other. Satisfied with the result, Bon Bon placed the finished pancake onto a white plate that she had standing to the right of the stove top. It increased the size of a pancake stack that was already on it. She gave Liza a noogie with her left hoof, before she poured new batter into the pan to prepare another pancake. Bon Bon was making a rich breakfast for her little family.

Liza jumped down again and, still trippling, joined her other mommy at the breakfast table. Lyra put away her newspaper, leaned down to Liza, who was reaching out for her, and gave her a tight hug that Liza acknowledged with a squeal of delight and comfort. She snuggled and squeezed her mommy for a long time, before the two of them released each other and Liza took seat at the opposite side of the table. She held her little nose up into the air and sniffed quite strongly, taking in the wonderful pancake scent that filled the kitchen and made her stomach grumble. It was a perfect morning, as far as Liza was concerned. And her parents thought the same.

On the opposite side of the table, Lyra had picked up her newspaper again and her eyes whizzed over the pages that it was a huge joy for Liza to watch her. Her mommy had a bright smile on her face and, all of a sudden, that smile grew wider and a childish curiosity sparked in Lyra's eyes. From her position, Liza could see that her mommy's eyes moved faster from left to right. Then they stopped and Lyra called for her family with an excited shout.

“You have to see this! This article talks about something really interesting! Somepony is building a candy factory in Ponyville!” She laid the newspaper on the table and turned it around for Liza to read.

Coming from the counter, Bon Bon's deep voice filled the kitchen as she erupted in amused laughter. “Oh, Lyra, you're pulling our hooves!” she managed to say in-between. “Who would ever build a factory to make candy?” She refocused on the pancakes as her laughs faded out.

“But it's really true! I'm not joking!” Lyra defended herself.

Liza stood on her chair, bent over the table and the newspaper. She was reading with the same curiosity as Lyra did before. “It's really true, mama!” she then shouted as she was finished. “Somepony does build a candy factory in Ponyville!” Liza's eyes glistened and her cheeks were red.

Now Bon Bon wrinkled her forehead and she took the pan off the stove and turned around. “You aren't pranking me both, are you?” she asked while coming closer, raising an eyebrow.

“No, it's the truth, mama! Look!” Liza hovered the newspaper into the air with her magic and showed her the article in question.

Arrived at the table, Bon Bon squinted at the article and gave it a quick read. “Really,” she said after finishing. “A candy factory. What a ridiculous idea.” She shrugged her shoulders and left the table again, returning to the stove.

“Ridiculous? This is amazing, Bon Bon!” Lyra squeed. “Just imagine it, candy made in a factory! I'm so curious how that looks!”

Opposite of her, Liza surpassed her excitement. “Yeah and just think of it how many candies can be made in such a factory! Once it is built and starts to produce, everypony can eat more candies than ever before!” She was still standing on her chair.

“Now, calm down, you two.” Bon Bon approached the table again, this time with the pancake plate on her right hoof. She placed it in the middle of the table and sat down between her wife and her daughter.

Liza sat down, as well, her attention now on the delicious breakfast. She ignited her horn and let two pancakes fly on the plate in front of her. Next, her magic reached for the red syrup bottle that already stood there prepared. She held it over her meal, squeezed it and let a thick stream of strawberry syrup cover the uppermost pancake. Her magic still hovered the bottle over to Lyra, who had requested it, as Liza already grabbed the pancake, rolled it in and bit into it. A bit of syrup trickled out at the corners of her mouth as she chewed.

For a few minutes, the two mares and the filly ate their syrup-coated pancakes in silence, then Bon Bon picked up the conversation about the candy factory. “A candy factory sounds like a funny thing, Lyra, but it's also a completely ridiculous idea.”

“Why?” Lyra asked simply, disbelief over the fact that her wife was so harsh with this idea on her face.

“Why?” it came from the right side of the table a second later. Liza wore a very similar expression.

“Because candies can't be made in a factory.” Bon Bon bit off another piece of her pancake and occupied her mouth with chewing.

“Why not?” Lyra questioned the statement.

“Why not?” Liza repeated her words from the other side of the table.

Bon Bon sighed and hung her head. “You two should know why,” she spoke with a slight annoyance in her voice. “Making candies is a hoofcraft. It needs to be done by a pony who puts love and effort into their work. Machines making candy? That's going to fail. A machine doesn't have the same care that a pony has. Nopony will buy anything from this factory and it will close down again soon.” Bon Bon continued eating, convinced that her explanation made everything clear.

The excitement of Lyra and Liza hadn't become less, though. “We should go there!” Lyra shouted. “We should check how it looks!”

Liza was on fire for this idea. “Yeah, we should! We can watch how they build it, maybe we'll even meet the owner of it and get to talk! He can tell us how the candies will be made!”

Bon Bon watched them, eyes going from left to right and back to the left, while she was eating. There was a sceptical glance in her eyes.

Lyra looked at her, trying to get attention as she noticed her silence. “Let's go there, Bon Bon! You'll come with us, right?”

Bon Bon finished chewing before she answered. “I guess so. But only because we wanted to go for a trot after breakfast anyway. We can drop by the factory on the way back.”

“YAY!” Liza cheered and she bit into her pancake again, hurrying with finishing her breakfast now.

“That's going to be amazing!” Lyra voiced her cheer, as well.

“If you say so,” Bon Bon commented, an audible lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

On their way through town, Lyra and Liza pattered about the candy factory the entire time, much to Bon Bon's displeasure. She was nearly ready to snap and tell them off, when a very unexpected encounter at Sugarcube Corner prevented her from doing that.

“The candy factory is going to revolutionize Ponyville! It will make everypony so happy!” Lyra just finished another round of praise and compliments, Liza wholeheartedly agreeing next to her.

“No, it won't.....” Pinkie Pie suddenly pushed her face in front of Lyra, startling her and almost making her trip when she halted in her tracks not to bump into the earth pony mare. Pinkie sat on the stairs in front of Sugarcube Corner with heavy, baggy eyes that were red around the edges. Her forehooves hung down between her legs and her mane and her tail were deflated and crooked, pink hairs stuck out of them into all directions. Her exceptional smile was upside down today.

The three candy makers stopped. On Bon Bon's face was a little smile now, but it receded quickly and hid between her lips when she noticed the condition of the usually so happy mare. Before her wife and her daughter could voice their protest against Pinkie Pie's objection, an intention that evidently existed as everypony who would look into their faces could determine, Bon Bon stepped up to Pinkie and addressed her condition.

“You don't look good, Pinkie Pie. What's wrong?” Bon Bon wasn't a mare who prolonged coming to the point.

“Everything.....” Pinkie Pie wailed and shifted her eyes at Bon Bon.

“Everything, what?” Bon Bon probed.

“Everything everything.”

“And what does 'everything' mean? Will you tell me today or do we have to spend the night here, Pinkie?”

Cynicism was always a sign for ponies to duck their heads and take cover when being around Bon Bon, but Pinkie Pie failed to be impressed by it in any kind of way. “There's a new bakery in Manehattan.....” she said and trailed off again.

“And?” Bon Bon's voice had become a tone sharper and her eyelids lowered a bit. The frown on her face changed from compassionate to exasperated.

“And it's outselling Sugarcube Corner.....” Pinkie's frown became deeper, her lower lip started to quiver and tears appeared in the corner of her eyes.

“Outselling?” Now a frown appeared on Liza's face. She came closer, placed a hoof on Pinkie's leg and gave her a worried look.

“Don't worry about it, Liza.” Bon Bon's voice became more compassionate again now. “That bakery is far away, what could it do to harm the business of Sugarcube Corner?”

“Offering ultra-fast delivery? Into all corners of Equestria?” Pinkie Pie suggested with a snark.

Bon Bon stayed silent this time. The words hung in the air and gave her a queasy feeling in the stomach.

“I've seen their pegasi..... They're so bulky and muscular, a Wonderbolt looks like a raddled old-timer next to them. I've never seen a pegasus fly that fast before.....” Pinkie averted her gaze from Bon Bon, closed her eyes and hung her head.

An almost suffocating silence hung over the four ponies. For a minute, Pinkie just stared at the ground, while Lyra and Liza exchanged concerned glances with each other and Bon Bon. A sigh preceded more words by Pinkie Pie and served as an indication that she was starting to speak again.

“Ponies only bought cakes and pastries from Sugarcube Corner..... But now that this bakery delivers to Ponyville, all of them want to eat their exotic Manehattan creations instead. They couldn't get them before, but now they can, and they forget about Sugarcube Corner because of that.....” She sighed again, then lifted her head and looked Lyra, Liza and Bon Bon intently into the eyes. “Be careful about that candy factory. It means doom.”

The words snapped Bon Bon out of her silence and she felt compelled to address Pinkie's warning.

“We don't have to worry about this candy factory, Pinkie,” she dismissed the other mare's words. “This isn't the same situation, the bakery you talk about is far away, but the candy factory is being built here in Ponyville. There's no danger it will outsell us because of some fancy delivery options.”

“But what if it sells more than your candy store anyway?” Pinkie insisted. “That the candy factory is here in Ponyville doesn't mean you're safe.....”

“Never,” Bon Bon brushed off any concern. “This is a factory, Pinkie Pie. They can't make candy like we do. Candies are something that need to be made by hoof if they should be good. A machine that tries to make candy will only create an inferior product. I give this candy factory a few months and then it will close and be knocked down again.”

Lyra and Liza didn't meet the prediction of the candy factory's closure with pleasure, as their faces and their dropped ears made evident, but they agreed with Bon Bon that the candy factory won't be a threat for them and nodded over her words.

Pinkie Pie noticed, but her eyes were only on Bon Bon. “Your word in Celestia's ear.....” she whimpered. “Be careful,” she then repeated her earlier words.

“Don't worry, Pinkie,” Bon Bon reassured her, her voice's tone becoming dangerously annoyed again now. “This factory won't be a threat for us, we are in Ponyville's candy business for years and have made a name for ourselves. One competitor in town won't hurt us.” Bon Bon turned at Liza and Lyra, lifted her hoof and gave them a signal to leave, before the depressed party mare could trap them in more of the depressed conversation.

Liza removed her hoof from Pinkie's leg and gave her a tight hug, then she joined her moms and off the three of them went, leaving behind Pinkie Pie, who they heard repeatedly sighing until they were out of earshot.

The three candy makers continued their morning trot in a joyful fashion. And as they had somewhat agreed on, they dropped by the construction site of the candy factory on their way back, albeit under slight growling and hissing by Bon Bon.

The candy factory loomed in front of them. A construction that, much to their surprise, was already half-finished. Brick walls were being erected for some of the outer buildings of the factory site, which would probably house offices and perhaps living quarters for the workers, they assumed. Further back was the main building of the factory. Metal shone in the sunlight and chimneys rose up high into the sky. It wasn't a friendly look for a factory that was intended to produce candy, but Lyra and Liza looked at it with sparkling eyes regardless. Only Bon Bon was, predictably, not enthusiastic and glared and huffed at the construction.

“Just like I said. This factory won't last long,” she began judging it. “You only need to look at it to know that. Is that a promising design for a candy factory? All those harsh brickstones and all that cold metal? Where are the colors? No, that factory is going to fail.”

Lyra pouted and gave her a glare. “Maybe that's still coming,” she countered her wife's argument. “You know it's not finished yet, Bon Bon. Give it some time.”

Next to her, Liza agreed with all of her heart. “I'm sure the colors are still coming, mama!” she spoke and nodded with the conviction that only a filly can have.

Once more, her wife and her daughter formed a close union against her low opinion of the candy factory, which increased Bon Bon's growling. And they weren't the only ones. A few yards away from them, to their left, a filly was standing and watched the construction of the candy factory from wide, turquoise eyes and with puckered lips. She had to be there for a while, as her lavender hooves gripped an ice cream cone larger than her head that she was almost finished eating.

The filly was Aura, the same filly who had stuffed her mane with gummy worms in the candy store on the day before, as Liza recognized. There weren't any gummy worms in her mane anymore, but her forehooves were smeared with sticky, melted ice cream, which she didn't mind at all. Liza waved at her, but Aura did not wave back and not respond to the gesture at all. Instead, she kept her eyes glued onto the arising candy factory and began to form a pearly-white grin, that did nothing to hide a few fillings in her teeth. It crept onto her face in a slow, crawling tempo. There was mischief brewing in Aura's eyes.

Liza cocked her head and gave Aura a look that was only very slightly indignant and mostly stunned, then looked away from her, having unsuccessfully tried to get the other filly to react. She focused on the construction site again. Her face showed a smile and she felt anticipation and excitement while imagining all the candy that would pour out of the factory gates very soon. A good future was ahead for Ponyville.