Chapter 9 - Ties of Life
Chapter 9
Ties of Life
___________________________________________________________
Scootaloo was awakened by the shifting of the bodies around her, followed by light chuckles. Opening her eyes, she was met with Lyra’s grinning face.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” the unicorn chuckled, slowly sitting up. “Wasn’t expecting to see you til breakfast.”
“That’s okay... right?” Scootaloo sat up as well, fiddling with the sheets. “I... I had a bad dream and just—”
She felt forelegs wrap around her and smelled a candy scent. “Honey, it’s alright. After what happened yesterday, we understand if you had a nightmare and wanted some comfort.”
Bon Bon’s words calmed the little filly down and she sunk into the embrace.
“I wonder why the Apples didn’t try and wake us,” Lyra pondered, getting out of bed and looking out the window. “I thought, since they live on a farm, they get up earlier than most ponies.”
“Why does that seem odd to you?” Bon Bon asked as she and Scootaloo got out of bed too.
Lyra shook her head. “I know we’re guests and all, but I’m not afraid of some hard work. They could’ve woken us.”
Bon Bon deadpanned. “Not afraid of hard work? Might I remind you who’s the one that normally has to clean up the flat because somepony keeps forgetting to?”
“Oh, come on, Bonnie, it was only that one time,” Lyra groaned, before she noticed the raised eyebrow of her wife. “Alright, alright, maybe it was more than once, but my point still stands. Remember, I am Pinkie’s cousin. I ended up having to visit the Rock Farm a few times and, trust me; nothing the Apples do could be more tiring than even a day on the Pie Rock Farm.”
Bon Bon just rolled her eyes and moved towards the door. “Come on then, Miss I Can Work Just Fine. Let’s get some breakfast and then you can go out and help our new relatives with their work.”
When they got downstairs they found Granny Smith setting some food out that was clearly meant for the three.
“So, Granny?” Lyra asked as they sat down, Scootaloo tucking right into her meal of honey oats and hash browns. “Anything we can do to help around the farm?”
The elderly mare paused from the dish washing she’d just returned to and looked back, a little surprised. “Ya wanna help out around the farm? But, yer guests.”
“And we’re also family,” Bon Bon say, having finished a mouthful of oats. “True, I’ll be heading out to open my shop, but Lyra’s not really got anything to do today and she wants to some work.”
“Wait, I never said—” Lyra began, only to see a sly smirk on the Earth Pony mare’s face.
“What’s the matter, Lyra? I thought you said you’ve done harder work?”
Lyra gave her wife a determined glare, before looking to Granny Smith. “Anything, Granny! Even the hardest job on the farm, I’ll take it!”
The green mare looked uncertain. “Well, Ah dunno. We could use some help, hwhat with Applejack helping out Princess Twilight in that new fangled castle o’ hers, so we’re a pony short and could use the help. But, are ya really sure, dear? Workin’ on the Apple Farm ain’t no picnic.”
Lyra nodded, her determination not wavering. “No problem, Granny. I can handle it.”
The elder mare still looked uncertain, but nodded in agreement. “Alright, youn’n. Big Mac could use some help with plowin' the fields, as he’s doin’ the applebuckin’ AJ ain’t.”
Lyra nodded, pretty much inhaled her breakfast, then headed out to aid Big Mac.
“What about you, Scoots?” Bon Bon turned to the filly. “Any plans for today?”
Scootaloo stopped munching and frowned, thinking. “Uh... well, not really. School doesn’t start til tomorrow because of the whole thing with Tirek, so can I help out around the farm?”
Bon Bon nodded, before giving a playful sad smile. “I was kinda hoping you’d help me out in the store today.”
Scootaloo thought for a moment, before turning back to her mother. “Maybe I can come over and help after I do some things around the farm?”
Bon Bon nodded. “I don’t see why not. Just... no crusading in the shop, okay?” It was something both Lyra and Bon Bon had agreed upon when they’d thought about adopting Scootaloo. The CMC were well-known in Ponyville for trying pretty much anything to get a Cutie Mark and it wasn’t the first time they’d learned first-hoof the damage that could be caused by their crusades.
Bon Bon was lucky she had fire insurance after their attempts at candy corn. How the fire started she still didn’t understand, nor how they’d gotten in without her knowing it.
___________________________________________________________
“So, what do you think we’ll get Cutie Marks in at in Appleloosa?” Scootaloo asked her red-headed cousin as they slopped the hogs.
Apple Bloom shrug, though wore a huge smile. “Dunno. But Ah’ll be we’ll find somethin’. There’s a lot that goes inta a rodeo.” She glanced outside the barn and raised an eyebrow. “Say, Scoots?”
“Yeah?” the Pegasus asked as she leaped up and pulled the cord, letting the pigs out, remembering to keep out of the way this time around, thus avoiding being trampled by the hungry hogs.
“Ain’t that yer ma buckin’ apples?”
This caused the filly to stop what she was doing and turn to see that, indeed, Lyra was bucking an apple tree, surprisingly with a lot of force that near-match Applejack’s own, causing the apples to tumble down into the bushels set below.
“Ah didn’t know yer ma could buck,” Apple Bloom said, sounding impressed.
Scootaloo frowned, thinking about what her mothers had talked about right after getting up. “Yeah. Mom said she would sometimes work on that rock farm Pinkie talked about when she told us how she got her Cutie Mark.”
Apple Bloom looked to the unicorn as she moved to another tree and bucked again, causing more apples to fall. “So, she’s worked on Pinkie’s rock farm? Tha’ must’a been tough.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Momma acted like Mom couldn’t handle working on the farm here, so Mom told her, if she could handle the rock farm, she could handle this one.”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah may not know much about how a rock farm works, but Ah can’t imagine it’s easy. If yer ma went there a lot as a foal, Ah wouldn’t be surprised if she’s as strong as mah sister.”
“You bet she is,” Scootaloo grinned.
The two fillies nodded to each other, before moving off to do the next chore on their list. Sure, they’d rather be crusading, but after what happened with Tirek, Sweetie’s parents weren’t letting her out of their sight. Once they’d calmed down, they’d be able to go crusading again. They just hoped they’d chill before Applejack left for Appleloosa, or they’d have to go without Sweetie, and it just didn’t feel right to go crusading without all the crusaders.
___________________________________________________________
Lyra pulled back and bucked the tree, hard, causing apples to cascade down on her.
“Ya sure ya can handle this, Mrs Lyra?” Big Mac asked as he tossed a full bushel off his back and into the cart.
Lyra pulled back and wiped her brow, though it wasn’t really sweaty, it was more a force of habit for when she did hard work like this.
“Don’t worry, Mac. I’ve can do this. Also, it’s just Lyra. We’re family, remember? No need for any Mrs.”
The stallion blinked, before giving a small smile and moved to continue their work.
Lyra pulled back to buck, before an odd feeling reached her horn.
She paused, frowning up at the pointed cone shape on her head. It was a feeling she was familiar with. For reasons she could never explain, ever since she was a filly, ever so often, several moons or so, about thirty she'd calculated one time when she was younger, her horn would suddenly tingle, as if sensing something familiar, but that she couldn’t put her hoof on what.
For some reason, it always reminded her about humans, though the reasoning behind why her tingling horn would do that was a mystery she’d never been able to solve.
She wasn’t even sure where she’d first heard of humans, to be honest. It was just something she’d always known since she was a filly. In the orphanage, a lot of the meaner fillies and colts had often teased her about it, saying how she was a baby for believing in such creatures.
When she’d been adopted, her new family had humoured her about humans whenever she spoke about them, though she knew her parents never really believed her.
Her sister Octavia, on the other hoof, whilst not saying she believed in them, did agree that some things about their world would make sense for such creatures.
The fact that she had to stand on her hind legs, in a bipedal stance very similar to how Lyra described humans do, had not been something the grey Earth Pony had missed. It did lead to some interesting discussions about musical evolution that they’d always enjoyed.
Lyra was pulled from her inner thoughts of memory lane when a loud crash came from the barn.
When she and Big Mac went to check, she couldn’t help laughing and Mac couldn’t had a smirk as they saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had somehow gotten themselves tangled in a haystack, one that was currently being eaten by a few of the sheep.
“Er... we were tryin’ t’ get our Cutie Marks in... sheep feedin’?” Apple Bloom tried with a sheepish grin, whilst Scootaloo continued to struggle in vain against their bindings.
___________________________________________________________
Bon Bon waved goodbye to the young colt with a hayburger for his Cutie Mark as he walked out, carrying a bag of her finest black liquorice. She still couldn’t understand why someponies thought the sweet tasted terrible.
She and Lyra certainly enjoy the softer kinds, especially when she used her family’s recipe.
I wonder if Scootaloo likes black liquorice, she thought suddenly realizing she’d never seen the filly or her friends buy the sweet. Though, now that she thought more on that, they’d always been out whenever the CMC came around.
Shrugging, she went into the back room to see how the latest batch of honeycomb was coming along. As she made sure it was coming out in the right shape, her mind couldn’t help but think back to when she’d fist met Lyra.
It had been during Pinkie Pie’s first party in Ponyville. Lyra had been visiting the town with her parents and sister and the unicorn had decided to join the party whilst her sister remained with their parents.
Bon Bon, or, as she went by back in those days, Sweetie Drops, had encountered Lyra when they both had gone over to the food table and reached for some of the honeycomb at the same time. Somehow, her own name had never come up.
The two had chatted whilst enjoying their own honeycomb pieces, along with several other foods and really hit it off.
When Lyra’s parents came to get her, the two had been sad to leave each other, but gave their addresses so they could stay in touch.
That had started their, at first, long distance friendship, each sending letters almost daily, telling the other about what they did and what was going on in their lives and it was then that she used the pen name Bon Bon, just for the fun of it. Lyra had somewhat gotten the idea, ending her letter with just Heartstrings.
Only now did Lyra’s letters about the farm she’d sent letters from actually make sense now. She’d never heard of rock farming as a filly, so she’d been rather confused by some of the things Lyra’s letters from those times had said and simply thought Lyra was being silly.
When Bon Bon got accepted into Canterlot University not long after having to move back to Ponyville, thus becoming more of a hassle with having to also move to Canterlot, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to see Lyra regularly or not despite then being in the same city.
However, Lyra found the time during her music courses to come and visit Bon Bon, even sometimes helping out.
The two would regularly spend their breaks that aligned together, sometimes with Lyra simply visiting the campus cafe where Bon Bon had to work as part of her course.
It hadn’t skipped Bon Bon’s attention during those days that Lyra would mostly get stuff that Bon Bon had made herself that was being sold in the cafe.
As their years wore on, the two had eventually started dating and, after graduation, each a year apart, they’d agreed to move in together in Ponyville.
Not long after, Lyra had borrowed a loan along with some of her own money to help Bon Bon open her store. At first, the idea of owing Filthy Rich the money borrowed had been daunting, but business was so good that they had paid him back with interest so soon that she was soon able to be an independent business pony.
After several years of living together, they’d decided to get married.
And now, here they were, finding out they had even more family on Lyra’s side and had their own daughter to care for.
“Who’d thought retirement could be so much fun,” she murmured to herself. “I wonder how the others are doing these days.”
Her musings were cut off by the sound of the store bell jingling. She finished setting some of the honeycomb to cool and wet out to see who and come, to find two fillies that always made her grateful for the patience her past life had given her.
“Hello, girls,” she said, putting on a smile as the two fillies looked around in boredom. “What can I get you?”
“I’ll have some lemon balls,” Silver Spoon said, looking at the front counter. “And... maybe some jelly frogs?”
Bon Bon nodded. Seemed they were being better behaved than usual. She turned to Diamond Tiara, who was looking over a display of chocolate-covered honeycomb. “And you, dear?”
“I’ll have the finest of you chocolate honeycomb,” the filly replied in a snotty tone. “The remains can go to whomever would want them.”
“Of course, dear,” Bon Bon said, thankful her training was helping keep the strain from her tone. Typical that one would behave and the other is still as bratty as ever.
Suddenly, the grey filly leaned and whispered something along the lines of, “Remember what happened at school” and Diamond suddenly straitened up and looked down. "Thank you, Mrs Bon Bon."
Bon Bon cocked an eyebrow at this, but said nothing and sorted their orders.
When late afternoon arrived, Bon Bon decided to close up shop, though was a little disappointed that Scootaloo hadn’t come to help.
Must’ve gotten too tired after helping out at the farm, she thought with a small smile.
Locking up, she headed back towards Sweet Apple Acres. As she neared the farm, she could hear Lyra grunting as she bucked another tree.
Coming up to the orchard, she saw Lyra had at work, with Big Mac doing the same. Lyra was easing the load and speed by using her magic to lift the filled bushels of apples, leaving them to move from one tree right to the next without having to stop.
“Well, you’ve been hard at work today,” the Earth Pony said as she neared.
"Bon Bon!” Lyra said cheerily, seeming a little winded, no doubt due to using so much magic to lift such heavy loads, whilst also physically working to buck the trees. She came over and Lyra gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, how was your day?”
Bon Bon shrugged. “Not quiet, but not too busy.” She smiled. “So, why’d Scootaloo not come to the store to help out?”
Both the unicorn and stallion shared a chuckle.
“What?” Bon Bon laughed, sensing something was up. “What’d I miss?”
“Those two were so focused on what they were doing, they got up in trying to tie the haystacks for the sheep and somehow got stuck in one,” Lyra giggled, whilst Mac gave some soft chuckles. “By the time everything was done with, they were both so exhausted we took them upstairs for a nap.”
Bon Bon couldn’t help but chuckle. Wow. She’s taking after Lyra with her all out attitude already. Add that to her already similar attitude and I have a feeling things are gonna be pretty lively. She looked around, before frowning slightly. “You guys seem to still have a lot of work to do.”
Lyra gave a sigh, wiping her brow and looking out. “Yeah. I’m not as good as Applejack and I’m a bit rusty at the farm work. Go on in and see if Granny wants any help with the cooking, kay, Bonnie. We’ll try and handle this all ourselves.”
Bon Bon gave a playful frown to her lover. “What? You think I can’t help out here?”
Lyra looked to Bon Bon, before smirking. “Good one, Bon Bon. I know your more active than most candy makers, but this isn’t exactly easy work, you know?”
Bon Bon’s lips rose at the challenge and she moved over to a line of tree that had yet to be bucked. She pulled back, coiling all the energy she felt would be needed, before thrusting with her hind legs. They impacted the tree, causing it to shudder, said shudder moving along the lines of trees for several metres, before a cascade of apples fell from each tree, filling bushel after bushel.
Once the wave of apples had subsided, more than half the trees Lyra and Mac still needed to buck were clean of apples.
The two just stared, open-mouthed as Bon Bon smirked, flicking her mane back with a toss of her neck before saying, “I’ll leave you two to handle all the hard work then,” and went inside to see if Granny wanted any help with dinner.
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Well, this was a nice update, and I'm glad this fic is back. But I would've liked to see some of the flashbacks to how Lyra and Bon-Bon met be shown in more detail.
Well that brightened up my day a little.
Glad to see this story is not dead, I hope Scoots didnt have any accidents during her nap
are you going to update The Princess and the Foals again?
I don't know if it's me, or is this chapter really harder to read than the previous ones. Long convoluted sentenses, five words where two would do, ambiguous phrases...
I don't know if it's me, or is this chapter really harder to read than the previous ones. Long convoluted sentenses, five words where two would do, ambiguous phrases...
Nice chapter. Glad to see this story being updated, I LOVE this story!
It lives! This story LIVES!!!!
Glad to see an update, and a good one at that.
All I ask for is a bar of soap to clean that filthy little mouth out.
BURN!!! But dang, how did Bon Bon buck the trees like that and even clear the ones she didn't directly touch???? AJ would probably love to learn that trick.
....IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!
No but really I am happy it's back it really made my day!
When I saw this update my jaw dropped
"likes black", "buy the sweet"
Could use editing and proof reading. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Thanks
wait I thought Lyra was Momma.
I would prefer it, if this is one of the top three storys, that your going to update more often.
I think it is better if you don´t try to write on everything right now. That is one reason why I don´t chose more storys that I want to get an update, because it are nearly ten storys that I already started I think.
Oh the chapters itself where good, I guess just the feeling I had since I had read the story the firs time, isn´t that strong after the time I had read the last chapter from this story if that makes sense. I don´t have the time to watch my grammar right now.
When is next chapter?
I want to see Lyra and Bonbon chew out Spoiled Rich over how she treated Diamond Tiara before taking said filly in.
By the power invested in me, myself and I (since this story hasn't been updated for six months) I declare this story to be dead.
May it forever rest in peace.
1: I remember going by a store (a few dozen times, but never going IN) that touted that they sold -get this- 50 kinds of licorice!
2: Also, http://ytcropper.com/cropped/uY585fac28db046
I feel there should be something added at the end. After Bon Bon does her kick ass buck to the trees. Lyra.shouod say "that was hot." And good ole Mac says "eeyupe."(sp?)
When is the next chapter?
Next chapter! Next Chapter!!
When is next chapter coming? I really love the story.
I can't wait to read the next chapter, and I hope scootaloo saw that little act of defiance against Lyra. The second Bon Bon steps through the door you got Scootaloo all over her, "How did you do that?!?"
Good luck trying to explain to a filly that your monster catcher.
9861839
DUR?!
Didn't see that one comin.
Why is there so many great stories that died?!
I started to think about this, and I'm like... but candy corn is just corn starch and enough syrup to hold it together... oh ya, Sweetie can burn orange juice.
Okay... I'm hesitant to read this, given it's tagged as "sad"... but you know what. Maybe I'll get out of my comfort zone, and have a good cry.
I thought I should let you know someone has copied your idea it's called You're okay https://www.fimfiction.net/story/537713/youre-okay