Week 6: Slice of Life - Lyra and Bon Bon Are Just Best Friends. Honest.
For the S5 EqD Writer’s Training Ground
Bon Bon comes clean about her past. Now it’s Lyra’s turn.
Run, Lyra. Run.
“I can’t believe you’ve been to all of those amazing places and met all of those fantastic ponies, Bon Bon… or should I say Agent Sweetie Drops.”
Lyra nuzzled her ‘best friend’ behind one ear and delighted in the bright pink blush that rapidly swept across her face. Meeting this mare, no matter what her history, had been the best thing that had happened to Lyra in an eternity, and she was determined to make every single day better than the one that came before. Returning the nuzzle after a few delightful moments of blushing, Bon Bon gave Lyra a little nip on the ear that always sent a thrill of excitement up one leg and down the other.
“I’ve shown you mine,” she whispered. “Now it’s your turn.”
“Huh?” That tremble of passion that had quivered on Lyra’s flank turned ever-so-slowly into a cold drip of nervous sweat. “My turn for what, Sweetie?”
“For telling me your secrets, Harpsie.” Bon Bon flopped down on her belly and waved her tail back and forth. “You’ve never wanted to talk about your past before, so this would be a good time to get all of those skeletons out of the closet. For example, I didn’t know you were friends with Princess mi Amore Cadenza.”
“We aren’t,” protested Lyra.
“She invited you to be a bridlemaid,” said Bon Bon flatly. “You don’t just pick a pony out of the crowd for that. How did you two become friends?”
“We’re not really friends,” said Lyra. “I covered for her when she was sneaking out of the dorms to go play kissy face with Shining Armor and she bailed me out of jail a few times.”
“Jail?” Bon Bon clutched a hoof to her mouth in a display of sarcastic overacting. “I didn’t know my roomie had a criminal record.”
“All acquittals,” declared Lyra proudly. “So with that out of the way—”
“You still didn’t tell me why Princess Cadenza picked you as a bridlemaid. Wait a minute.” Bon Bon appeared to be deep in thought. “Queen Chrysalis picked you, didn’t she?”
“Well,” said Lyra grudgingly. “She is my mother.”
“What?! You’re a changeling?”
Lyra nodded while surrounded in green fire, which revealed a young changeling filly once the transformation was complete. “Ever since I was tasked with infiltrating Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, I’ve been doing my mother’s work.”
Bon Bon’s jaw had dropped wide open. “You mean you were spying on me, and knew I was Agent Sweetie Drops?”
“No!” The changeling twisted to one side and burned with green fire again, turning back into Lyra. “My job here was to keep an eye on the Elements of Harmony. I got… distracted. I’ve always been easily distracted,” said Lyra. “Ever since the college neighsball team.”
“I didn’t know you played neighsball?”
“Well…” Lyra trailed off with a smile. “It really depends on your definition of the word ‘played.”
Bon Bon gasped. “You slept with a neighsball team member?”
“The team,” corrected Lyra. “Well all except the pitcher. He was more of a catcher.”
There was a brief moment of silence as Bon Bon gasped for air. “I can’t believe you slept with that many stallions in college!” she finally said.
“I thought you wanted me to be honest?” asked Lyra.
“Well…” Bon Bon calmed down as she considered. “What you did in college isn’t really important, I suppose. So you’re a changeling who has been spying on the Elements of Harmony while living in Ponyville.” She paused again to think. “I can live with that.”
With a sigh of relief, Lyra said, “Good! I was worried that you might have an issue with the way I’ve been collecting love around the town. You don’t have an issue with the way I’ve been collecting love around town, do you?” she added hesitantly.
“As long as you haven’t been sleeping with every stallion you can find, no.” Bon Bon studied Lyra’s expression before placing a hoof firmly on her forehead. “You haven’t.”
“I have,” said Lyra. “Keeping a changeling fed takes a lot of cheap and tawdry relationships, if you can’t tap into the real thing.”
“This had better not be another of your attempts to get at my body in bed, Lyra,” snapped Bon Bon. “Because if it is, you’re sleeping on the couch for the next thousand years.”
“Would I do that?” Lyra paused with one hoof across her chest and regarded the impassive expression on her roommate. “I can’t believe you would condemn a poor changeling to a life of cheap dates and one-night stands just because you don’t want to cuddle.”
“We’re best friends,” said Bon Bon. “Nothing more.”
“We sleep in the same bed,” pointed out Lyra.
“It’s a big bed,” countered Bon Bon.
“But you make such a nice, warm dent in it that I can’t help it if I roll downhill,” said Lyra.
“I’d rather believe you’re a changeling,” said Bon Bon. “I recognized that disguise spell, little Miss Cheesegrater.” She huffed a sharp breath and turned to leave the room. “I hope you have time to think about our relationship while you’re sleeping on the couch!”
~ ~ ~ ♥ ~ ~ ~
Lyra twisted around on the couch in question, attempting to make the short blanket cover both her hooves and her head and failing in a predictable fashion.
“You didn’t have to cut the blanket in half,” called out Lyra across the darkened house.
“Change into something with a warm coat!” shouted back Bon Bon from her locked bedroom. “Now shut up and go to sleep!”
“There are days I wonder why I stay here,” grumbled Lyra, curling up into a ball and wrapping as much of the blanket around her as possible. “Other than it’s my house, I suppose.”
The faint creak of the front door opening preceded a rough whisper from a familiar relative, which Lyra took in with a frustrated sigh.
“You can speak up, mom,” she whispered back. “Bonnie’s locked herself in the bedroom.”
“Again?” asked Queen Chrysalis as she emerged out into the dimly lit living room. “What did you do now?”
“Told her the truth. She didn’t take it well.” Lyra shook her head as the changeling queen ran a holey hoof down her mane. “I must be such a disappointment to you, mom.”
“Three hundred and twelve daughters, and you’re the only one in a stable relationship,” whispered the changeling queen back with a brief kiss to soak up the accumulated love of the last week. “Ummm… She’s tasty. You sure you don’t want to go bar hopping with me tonight? It’s karaoke night.”
“Naa. Go on, mom. She’ll come out around midnight and drag me back to bed like she always does.”
“Suit yourself.” The changeling queen gave her daughter another kiss to soak up any last lingering fragments of excess love and scurried for the door. “I better hurry before all the good ones are taken. Night, night, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“Good night, mom.”
Lyra waited until her mother had left and the house was quiet once again before snuggling back down into the couch cushions and waiting for Bon Bon. It promised to be a long wait, but the thin threads of love she could feel drifting out of the bedroom would make it all the more worthwhile.
“Best friends, my thorax,” she muttered with a grin.