A knock came at the door just as the coffee was ready.
Bon Bon quickly trotted over to answer it, eager to see if her hopes would be fulfilled. Sure enough, Lyra was waiting with her travel bags on the front step, having come in on an early morning train.
"Lyra!" Bon Bon said with cheer, spreading herself wide to envelop the minty unicorn in a hug.
"Bonnie!" she returned, just as cheerful. The two held each other for a moment on the step before Bon Bon helped her fiancée bring her luggage inside.
"So how was the trip to visit your parents?"
"It was good! They were so happy to hear we'd gotten engaged. You should've seen the look on Mom's face."
"I can only imagine." Bon Bon said with a snicker. "Did they enjoy the candy I made for them?"
"Oh yeah." she replied. "And they sent back something for the two of us as an early wedding gift!" Lyra unzipped one of her cases and retrieved something protectively wrapped in newspaper. Undoing the folds, she unveiled a delicate porcelain mantle clock, crafted to resemble a piece of wood and framed on either side by two pristine white doves holding olive branches.
"Aww, Lyra, it's beautiful!" Bon Bon carefully took the clock in her hooves and examined it from various angles.
"It belonged to my grandmother." Lyra explained. "She and Pops were married for over 60 years, so Mom figured it was a fitting gift." With a smile, Lyra carefully lifted the heirloom in her magic and placed it honorably on the bookshelf between pictures of her and Bon Bon.
Bon Bon glanced down at the engagement ring gracing the chain around her neck.
"60 years..." she said. She glanced back up at Lyra, who bore a similar ring on her horn. The two shared a warm smile.
"I'm so glad we're doing this."
"Me too, Bon."
The two closed the distance between themselves and shared a kiss.
"Would you like some coffee? I just made a fresh pot." asked Bon Bon.
"Uh, yes!" came Lyra's response. "You know I love me some dirty bean water!" The two of them pulled up seats at the newly installed kitchen bar and Bon Bon poured them each a steaming cup.
"Sugar?" Bon Bon asked, holding up a small bowl of sugar cubes.
"Two please." said Lyra. "Sweet drops from my Sweetie Drops!"
Bon Bon smiled wryly. "Please Lyra, call me Bon Bon. I'm trying to put that name behind me now that we're getting married."
Lyra squeed joyfully. "Getting! Married! Oh, I can't believe I get to say that! This is gonna be so exciting!" She paused to stir her coffee and take a sip. "There's so much to do! We gotta pick a venue, and a theme, and make out a guest list and a registry and--"
"Honey, please slow down!" Bon Bon laughed. "We've only been engaged for two weeks! Besides, you just got back from a trip, you should relax."
"I know, I know, I'm just... EEEEEE I'm just so excited to marry you, Bon Bon!" The energetic unicorn leaned over the counter to hug her lover.
Bon Bon chuckled once again. "And I'm excited for it too! Okay, clearly, you're too excited to relax..."
"You got that right!"
"...so how's about we put some of that energy to good use? Hmm?"
Lyra leaned on the bar, resting her chin on her hoof.
"Bonnie..." she said with a sly look. "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"
"Mmhmm." she said.
"But I've only just gotten back."
"You were gone for four days." Bon Bon replied with a shrug. "I've missed your little green body."
Lyra chuckled sultrily. She leaned across the bar once more and locked Bon Bon in a kiss, held out for several seconds. Finally, she released her and looked deep into her eyes with an eager smile.
"Let's go."
Lyra rolled off of Bon Bon and flat onto her back, staring up at the ceiling as the mattress cradled her. Bonnie's mane was a mess and she had a goofy smile on her face. They were both struggling to catch their breath. Lyra fanned herself with a hoof.
"You're right, that was worth it." she said.
"I usually am." quipped Bon Bon. The pleasure still washed over her like a gentle tide, a nice, comforting warmth within her being that she shared with her lover. She pulled the covers up around her and rolled over to face Lyra.
"You're a sweetheart, you know?" She gently patted the mare's thigh, and she smiled, rolling over as well.
"Anything for you, Bonnie." she said, putting a hoof on her face. "I missed you, too."
The mares kissed once more, locking tongues as the ceiling fan whirred overhead, whisking away the body heat and pheromones of their recent coupling.
After a few moments, Bon Bon wiped some sweat from her brow. "Geez, I'm... I'm tired, aren't you?"
"Considering what we just did? I've been less fatigued, yes."
"Silly. I mean, like... I'm winded. I didn't used to get winded in bed. Am I out of shape?"
"Naaaaah!" Lyra playfully scoffed. "You're fine! And even if there were, say, a little bit more o' this belly to rub, I'd love you just the same!" Lyra's hooves tickled Bon Bon's exposed stomach, eliciting a mirthful whinny before she pushed them away.
"I'm serious, Lyra. Maybe it's because we're older now than when we started dating, but I think we're starting to soften up a little bit. Remember last year's Running of the Leaves?"
Lyra put a hoof to her chin as she thought back to the previous autumn. Indeed, she and Bon Bon had both competed and had to stop and rest just after the one-quarter mark. They'd finished, of course, but at their own casual trot, not the blistering pace required to strip leaves from the trees.
"Or the birthday party that Pinkie Pie held for you?" Bon Bon continued.
Again, Lyra's memory flashed back to the day: a piñata suspended from a tree, herself donning a blindfold and a baseball bat and swinging with all her might. After a minute or two of furious bludgeoning, she had tired herself out and only made one sizeable dint in the papier-mâché llama.
"To be fair, that was a really durable piñata!" Lyra retorted.
"Or the party at Sweet Apple Acres where you and I did that wheelbarrow race?"
"Hey, we were drunk off cider then!"
"Okay, how about the time we weren't drunk and tried to help Vinyl and Octavia move their new couch?"
"Couches are heavy!"
"OR the time--"
"Okay, okay, I get it." Lyra said, waving her hooves dismissively. "We're losing our stamina, maybe getting a little squishier. That just happens as you get older."
"Lyra, we're just shy of 30. We probably shouldn't be this bad off just yet." She took her partner's hoof in her own and looked into her eyes. "Lyra..."
The two looked at each other silently for a moment as Bon Bon struggled with her words.
"Lyra, if we're going to make it to 60 years together, we need to take better care of ourselves."
Her face softened. She grasped Bon Bon's hoof in both of hers and flattened her ears.
"Bonnie... I... you're right..." she conceded with a sigh and a smile. "We still have plenty of youth left in us yet. And if this is important enough that you want to do something about it... well, I'm with you all the way, filly."
Bonnie nuzzled her face against Lyra's caring hooves. "I'll ask around, then, if there's an exercise club or something in town... but... later. Right now... I just want to lay here with you."
"I love you, Bon."
"Love you, too."
Lyra pulled her fiancée close and cradled her head in the crook of her neck. Nothing separated their beating hearts but each other's bodies, and their hindlegs entwined lovingly beneath the covers. Bon Bon planted gentle kisses on Lyra's neck as both of them slowly drifted off to sleep. The day had just begun, but it could wait a while longer.
True to her word, Bon Bon did some investigating and turned up a flier for the "Let's Move, Ponyville! Dancercise Class" that met on weekends in the community building. After thrift shopping for some exercise clothing and a couple of yoga mats, she and Lyra found themselves trotting through town early one afternoon in leotards and sweatbands, making their way towards the makeshift workout studio.
"You know, I wasn't sure about this at first, but if we get to wear stuff like this, I think it might be kinda fun!" said Lyra, tying her mane up as her horn glowed.
"It certainly gives some good opportunities to accessorize!" remarked Bon Bon. "Though, I must admit, this suit... pinches in a couple places I'd rather it not."
"Well I think it looks good." Lyra said with a tiny, smug smile, before muttering, "It highlights your figure."
"Pfft." said Bon Bon, rolling her eyes. "Tell me that again once we're surrounded by mares in better shape wearing the same thing."
"Bonnie, c'mon!" Lyra gently nudged her as they walked. "Think positive! Even if you didn't look great already, we're here to improve ourselves."
"I know, I know. This was my idea, after all... and besides, I know you were just trying to be sweet."
Lyra leaned over and pecked her lover on the cheek. "Let's do this, Bon."
A voice came from down the street.
"Hey, Lyra! Bon Bon!" It was Cheerilee, waiting by the doors of the community building. She likewise wore a unitard and sweatbands around her hooves, and her mane was pulled up with a bow. The three mares exchanged friendly waves as the distance between them closed.
"Wha--hey, Cheerilee!" said Lyra. "Didn't expect to see you here!"
"Oh, I've been coming to these classes almost since they started!" the schoolteacher said with a smile. "Just doing little things here and there to stay healthy. Are you two going to be joining us today?"
Bon Bon nodded. "This is our first class!"
"Well, by all means, come in!" Cheerilee held the door for them as they entered. "The place is usually pretty packed, but there's some space in the back next to my mat."
"Thanks, Cheerilee." said Lyra. "We've... never really done anything like this before, but..."
"We just figured it'd be nice to shape up a little bit before the wedding." Bon Bon finished her sentence.
"Aww, well I hope to see you back here next weekend, then! Once you feel the groove in one of these classes, it's hard to stop!" Cheerilee stood upon her yoga mat and began her warmup stretches. "Oh, and congratulations!"
The betrothed mares smiled in unison at her. They unfurled their mats on the floor a short distance away and began mimicking the stretches they saw being performed around them. As Cheerilee had mentioned, the space was filled to the brim with various ponies from around town; mostly mares, but a few stallions had evidently felt the rhythm as well, all wearing sweatbands and either leotards or loose shorts and tank tops. Among the ponies they could recognize in the rows ahead of them included Golden Harvest, Shoeshine, Cherry Berry, Flitter and Cloudchaser, and the three flower vendors, Lily, Rose, and Daisy. Up near the front of the room, close to the stage, Lyra even thought she saw Rainbow Dash stretching out her wings and chatting with other ponies.
"This is gonna be fun, Bon!" Lyra said, gleefully pounding her hooves.
"Yeah!" she replied, stretching. "I think I'm ready to feel a little burn!"
Before long, the idle chatter of the room died down as the instructor, a fit young earth pony with a pink coat and purple leotard, trotted up onto the small stage, accompanied by a unicorn and Pegasus in their own bright leotards and sweatbands. They took a moment to stretch and limber up as the lead mare addressed the class.
"Good morning, everypony!" she said cheerfully, and was greeted by a jovial response from the crowd. "Are we ready to dance our way to fitness today?" As she reared up on her hindlegs to stretch her sides, forehooves reaching toward the ceiling, she glanced across the room and spotted Lyra and Bon Bon.
"Ah, I see we have some new students with us today! Why don't you introduce yourselves?"
Lyra and Bon Bon shrank and moved closer to each other as all eyes in the room turned on them. Lyra chuckled quietly and gave an awkward wave.
"Uh, I-I'm Bon Bon," replied said pony "and this is Lyra..."
"Give it up for Bon Bon and Lyra, everypony!" called the instructor, and a majority of the class stomped their hooves in applause. "I'm Foxtrot, and this is where Ponyville dances itself to fitness! Let's get started with a little leg exercise today, just sorta trot in place and do what I do!"
As the phonograph in the corner kicked on an upbeat, energetic track, the three ponies onstage began bouncing lightly on their hooves, stretching out an opposite foreleg and hind leg on opposite beats. The crowd of students began to mimic them, including the novice couple at the back.
"Whew!" said Lyra in a low, excited voice. "I'm feeling it, Bonnie!"
Bon Bon returned a confident grin. "Let's kick some tail, Lyra!" A small, energized whoop escaped the unicorn as the two kicked their hooves up cheerfully like schoolgirls.
After four minutes of sustained exertion, most ponies in the class would have shown some minor signs of fatigue--a quicker heart rate, perhaps a slightly wetted brow or a few heavy breaths. And indeed, for the students that had been longtime attendees of Foxtrot's class, this was true. But for two particular students in the back, this was not proving true.
The leotards that had seemed like a good idea at the thrift store were now uncomfortably moist and clung to their sweaty coats. Their combined breathing produced a sound reminiscent of an incoming freight train, and they were perpetually several seconds behind the rest of the class and their maneuvers--which currently consisted of a quick rear, a clap of the forehooves, and a quick backwards kick with the hind hooves, all set to cheerful, peppy music from the past two or three decades.
"Are... are you feeling like you're gonna live any longer?" Lyra asked between breaths. "Because I don't think that's what I'm accomplishing here."
"Oh, c'mon Lyra..." Bon Bon said, interrupted by the occasional grunt. "Doesn't this remind you of being a filly in gym class or something? All this.. hoo... youthful vigor?"
"Bon Bon..." Lyra said, bracketed by two giant gasps. "I skipped gym class as a filly. This is why!"
"Okay, everypony!" announced Foxtrot. "Take a little breather for a minute or two, and then we'll up the intensity!"
The two betrothed ponies collapsed to their mats at this opportunity, undoubtedly looking a little more dramatic than everypony else around them. Lyra, unable to find a good time to sip water between breaths, simply uncapped her bottle and dumped a portion onto her scalp. Bon Bon stretched her aching hooves and looked over at her partner through her soaking mane.
"I... know this sucks, Lyra... but... hang in... just a bit longer..."
The mint-green pony wheezed an affirmative. "Sure, sure... sweet Celestia, everything hurts..."
"Maybe we didn't stretch enough or something?"
"I think... we didn't stretch enough... about 15 years ago..."
Bon Bon reached across the floor to Lyra, offering a hoof which the unicorn took in her own.
"I love you... huff... just remember that..."
"I love you too... and... if this kills me, donate what's left of my body to science."
Bon Bon chuckled; she would have responded "Do you think there'll be much left?" if her lungs didn't hurt so much.
"Okay, everypony!" came Foxtrot's voice again like an amicable harbinger of doom. "Let's get moving and grooving again, shall we?"
"Oh road apples, here we go again." said Lyra breathlessly. The two mares clambered to their hooves once again, which were starting to feel a little numb from exertion.
Bon Bon blew a bit of mane out of her eyes. "Maybe it'll be easier now that we've gotten ourselves broken in?" she thought.
As it turns out, it was not.
From moving back and forth in a sassy trot, twisting their barrels with each step, to performing rear-hoof jumping jacks and floor touches, the class of dancing athletes were put through the gauntlet of a full-body workout with all the lively energy of a foal's cute-ceañara.
"Yeah, that's it! Keep it up, everypony!" cheered Foxtrot from the stage as she bobbed up and down, successively kicking each leg to the side. "Just watch out for the pony beside you! Keep your hoofbeats jaunty--imagine you're in the park on a sunny spring day!"
To Lyra and Bon Bon, however, Foxtrot's casual stroll felt more like a march towards certain doom across a volcanic hellscape, and the peppy music that accompanied it had become excessively annoying, almost mocking. Bon Bon, for one, felt like she'd never produced more sweat in her life, and if she had, she didn't want to remember the occasion. To Lyra, every breath was starting to taste like the smell of a kerosene lamp, and her lungs begged her to put them out of their misery.
"How... are..." Bon Bon had to take several breaths to finish her thought "you... doing... over there?"
"I feel like my heart's gonna cave in." Lyra replied, a tone of seriousness in her voice like none Bon Bon had ever heard. The unicorn's heaving lungs let out a cough, only tiring themselves more. "Y-You...?"
Before Bon Bon found the words she wanted to reply with, her thought was interrupted by Foxtrot changing up the routine, this time into a bipedal showgirl kick likely designed to strengthen the lower back, but which only made her own legs feel like they would fly off her body.
"Oh great, this thing again..." muttered Lyra.
"This thing makes my groin explode and not in a good way." said Bon Bon. Lyra let out a gasping chuckle before begging her lover not to make her laugh because her chest was already tired enough.
"You're doing great, everypony!" Foxtrot called out. The class before her weren't having a terrible time keeping up, by and large. "On the difficulty scale, your exertion should be around 'somewhat hard,' but you guys seem to be handling it like pros!"
Lyra's eyes narrowed with quiet anger. "You don't get to tell me how 'somewhat hard' I am." Bon Bon likewise allowed herself to chuckle at Lyra's utterance, but soon realized what she had meant by the painful qualities of laughter.
By the time for the next water break, the two were almost ready to collapse. Their leotards and yoga mats had been practically soaked through, and every fiber of their bodies felt as though they were on fire. Simply trying to catch their breath felt like breathing through a straw.
"Whoo! Okay, everypony, you've earned a break!" beamed Foxtrot, wiping her forehead. "We're about halfway through today's program, so good job all of you!"
"HALFWAY?!" exclaimed Lyra and Bon Bon, dropping to all four hooves. They stared forward at the stage, then quickly turned to face each other.
Nearby, Cheerilee patted herself down with a towel and sipped some water. She turned to ask Bon Bon and Lyra how they were faring, but quickly realized they had packed up and were heading out the door.
"Screw this." said Bon Bon. "I'm going home and baking a cake."
It had been about 15 minutes since they started.
Sitting at the bar, Lyra licked her lips hungrily as Bon Bon removed a piping hot Bundt cake from the oven, setting it on a kitchen towel to cool before retrieving plates and knives.
"Is the ice pack helping?" she asked.
"Yeah, though I think it needs to chill again." Lyra levitated the gelatinous package from the small of her back and set it in the direction of the icebox. "At least my horn still works."
"Yeah..." said Bon Bon, putting her head in her forehooves as she sat down across from her. "Go ahead and cut it, but remember it's hot."
Lyra looked worriedly at her darling as she dished them both up a slice of cake.
"Bon Bon," she said "don't be discouraged. Your heart was in the right place."
"This is important to me, Lyra." The earth pony looked up. "I want us to be together for years and years to come, and we need to take better care of ourselves... but I don't ever want to do that class again."
"Oh, I'm with you there, filly. Only now do I feel like I'm breathing normally again."
There was a pause as the two glanced across the counter at each other. Finally, Lyra reached over to take Bon Bon's hooves in her own.
"Well... maybe there are other ways we can take care of ourselves. Like... baby steps. Walking together through town, eating less processed stuff, maybe yoga or tai chi or something... something not so strenuous."
Bon Bon smiled up at her. "I suppose you're right, dear. I guess I dove into it too quickly. Changing diet seems like a better, easier start, and I like spending time with you anyway, so I'd be down for walks..."
"Alright." Lyra said, smiling warmly. She gave her partner a chaste kiss on the lips.
"Alright," said Bon Bon "a low-impact regimen and a healthier diet. Let's do it!"
They both glanced down at their plates of cake, then back up at each other.
"...Starting tomorrow." She finished with a tiny smile.
Lyra raised her glass of water in a toast. "Here's to 60 good years. And hopefully more."
