//------------------------------//
// The first bit 
// Story: The Paradise We're Dreaming Of 
// by LuminousRabbit 
//------------------------------//

The Paradise We're Dreaming Of 
Author's Note: Macerated strawberries are mentioned in this story, and I would just like everypony to know that they are bucking delicious. Seriously. 

It was spring in Ponyville, and once again, Winter Wrap-Up had been successfully concluded on time, thanks to Twilight Sparkle's organisational prowess. The temparature was once again at the perfect level, and the ponies were expressing their delight by spending more time outside. It was a perfect scene, and Bon Bon and Lyra could not agree more. 
The emotions of Lyra Heartstrings changed with the weather. As much as Bon Bon had attempted to cheer up her marefriend, Lyra had been, at her best, in a state of melancholia that anypony else would classify as depression. The mint unicorn had spent all of the cold months complaining, mostly about her harp-playing. She went on and on about how her music would have been so much easier and nicer if she had hands. 
Bon Bon had tried everything from jokes to, well, bon bons, but the only thing that could cheer her marefriend up was the Spring, which had finally, blissfully, arrived. 

They were celebrating this crisp Spring air by sitting in a teeny cafè on a street corner, watching ponies go by. Lyra in particular, was estatic at the change in weather. Nopony who looked at them could figure out why, but Bon Bon, who had spent more time with Lyra than anypony in town, knew. 
As they waited for the waiter to arrive, Lyra kept up a stream of chatter as they waited for the waiter to come and serve them. Bon Bon, while slightly bored, was glad that Lyra was feeling happy once more. '...I mean, while hands would be good, who needs them? I mean, really. Everypony knows that we get on well enough with hooves. I mean, look!' she gestured wildly around, almost severely injuring the waiter, a young pony, who had finally come to their outside table. 

'Ahem,' he said. 
'Oh, yes, sorry!' said Lyra. 'How fresh are your flowers?' 
'Erm, they were hoof-picked this morning,' the slightly confused stallion said. 
'Oh, good! I'll have a sandwich then,' said Lyra, smiling widely. 
'Which flowers would you like in it?' asked the waiter meekly. 
'...Surprise me. What do you want, Bons?' 
'Hay fries, please,' Bon Bon said, smiling at the waiter briefly, before turning back to her marefriend. 
'Um, any drinks?' 
'Oh, no thanks,' they said. The waiter left. 

Lyra looked Bon Bon in the eyes. 
'So what shall we do this month?' Bon Bon considered. 
'Well, we should definetely get us some more gigs. What say you?' Lyra shook her head. 
'No. I meant, what should we do?' The cream-coloured pony's eyes widened. She had been expecting this question, but perhaps not so soon. It was only the first week of Spring, after all. 
'Well, you go first,' she said. 'What do you want to do?' 
'Closets are for clothes,' she said frankly. 
Ah. Nopony knew about Lyra and Bon Bon's... Situation. All the ponies just assumed they were extremely close friends. 'Okay,' said Bon Bon simply. 
'Wait, really?' said Lyra. She obviously hadn't been expecting Bon Bon to agree so easily. 
'Yeah, sure. We've hidden it long enough. I reckon it's time. We've been together for years, we may as well tell somepony. But, just one thing. Who do we tell?' 
Lyra considered. 'Hmm. How about anypony who's looking our way right now?' Bon Bon looked a tiny bit affronted, but that expression soon passed. 
'Okay,' she said, and lost herself in her marefriend's kiss. Less lost at the massive crash from behind them. Bon Bon broke away, and looked around. Their clutz of a waiter had dropped all the plates he was holding, and way now staring, open-mouthed at the sight he had just witnessed. 
'Is there some kind of problem?' Lyra asked cooly. 
'N-no,' he muttered, and took the ruined food and dirt-soiled plates back into the kitchen. 
Bon Bon blushed. 'Was that a bad idea?' 
'This cafè? Most definetely,' said Lyra. 
'You know what I mean Lyra,' said the earth pony. 
'Absolutely not,' she said confidentely. 'It was time. Just because some ponies aren't used to it, does not mean we can't do it. Bons, I love you more than anything. It's time we stopped hiding it.' And there it was, the moment where their lives changed. Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings could not have been happier. 

The next day, they were busy at their house practising for their live entertainment performances, which consisted of Bon Bon's stand-up comedy, and Lyra's harp-playing, when something red and juicy hit their window with a splut. Both ponies looked up, startled, at the tomato-ey juices running down their window. Lyra frowned. 
'Do not open the windows. Is the door locked?' An egg hit with a splat on another window. 
'As far as I know,' said Bon Bon. 'Double check it. And the back door,' she said, assuming the position of commander, 'We're under attack.' 

Bon Bon rushed around the house, double checking all the windows and doors. Whenever she passed a clean window, a horrible combination of all kinds of food assaulted it. Eventually, Bon Bon joined Lyra in the lounge room. She had packed away her beloved harp and music, and probably hidden it somewhere that even Bon Bon would be hard-pressed to find. Lyra looked her marefriend in the eyes and breifed her on the situation. 
'They're on all sides, armed mostly with fruit, eggs and cake. I think they're all earth ponies, and let's face it, if they weren't they'd be in here by now,' she said. Bon Bon nodded. 'I think they're all stallions,' Lyra continued in a military fashion, 'but you never know. I'm going to try and get up onto the roof so that I can talk to them, and maybe get some help.' 
Bon Bon nodded again. 'Why are they doing this?' 
Lyra admitted the truth guiltily. 'Probably because they saw us yesterday. This is my fault, I'm so sorry Bons.' 
'Hey, I forgive you. Let me help you get to the roof. We'll sort out the why's of this later,' said Bon Bon. 

Lyra opened the attic door and climbed up the drop-down ladder into the empty space. They had plenty of storage space in the rest of the house, so the attic was effectively unused. There was a small skylight that could be removed to gain access to the roof. Lyra's horn glowed with magic, and she used the small levitation powers she had to remove the heavy glass panel, and set it down on the attic floor. 
'Much help I was,' Bon Bon muttered. 
'You can help me talk to them,' said Lyra. 

They both climbed onto the roof, looking down at their assailants. Yes, Lyra had been right, it was mostly stallions, but it looked like a couple had brought along their marefriends too. Upon seeing the two mares on the roof, the ponies started to launch their food upwards, but all their throws fell short by quite a wide margin, as it was a fairly high house. Luckily, there were no pegasi among the bunch, just as Lyra had predicted. 
'What do you want?' she asked loudly. 
'To see your faces covered in shit!' one of the stallions yelled out. 
'Why?' yelled Bon Bon, as this was her fight too.
'You filly foolers just aren't right! Why don't you go find yourselves stallions?' shouted another. 
'What's wrong with loving a mare?' yelled Lyra. 
'Don't you love anyone?' 
'I love mares, just like Faust intended! The only difference is, I'm not one of them!' 

Bon Bon looked around, searching for somepony to come to their aid. No, there didn't seem to be anypony except... Rainbow Dash snoozing on a cloud. 'Oi, Rainbow Dash!' yelled Bon Bon. 'Rainbow Dash!!' 
Meanwhile, Lyra was still trying to reason with the undersized mob. Well, perhaps reason wasn't the right word.. 
'What's your problem, anyway?' yelled Lyra. 'Why can't you just leave us alone?!' 
'If this town lets you carry on like this, you'll turn is all into faggots!' a burly male yelled. 
'Bullcrap!' yelled Lyra. 'We're not mental cases! And even if we were, those kind of things aren't bucking contagious! They're not even hereditary!!' 

Rainbow Dash had finally awoken from her slumber, and noticed all the commotion. She flew over, perching on the roof alongside the two defiant mares. 'What's going on here?' the cyan pegasus asked, looking from the stallions to mares to food-covered house. 
'They're throwing food at us,' said Lyra bitterly. 
'Why in the hay would anypony do that?' asked Rainbow Dash looking confused. 
'They think we're filly foolers,' said Lyra. 
'We are filly foolers,' said Bon Bon. 
'They think we're mental cases,' said Lyra. 'Or sick. Or something,' said Bon Bon. 
'Lemme go get Mayor Mare for you. She'll be able to help out. No offence or anything, but I have some stuff I need to get done,' said the rainbow-hued pony. 
'You were napping,' said Bon Bon.
'Yup, that's top of the list. Be right back,' she said, and flashed away, leaving nothing but a trail of rainbow behind. 

'I hope she gets the Mayor...' Bon Bon said. 
'I'm pretty sure she's on our side. Unlike these guys,' said Lyra, casting her dissaproving glance downwards at the jeering group. 
'Ignore them,' said Bon Bon flatly. 'We can't reason with them. At least not until we're on the ground.' 
'Agreed,' said Lyra. 

After about five minutes, Mayor Mare came rushing down the street, guided by Rainbow Dash. Upon seeing the mob, the Mayor frowned and walked right up to them. Losing their bravado, some of them started away, but the leaders of the group stopped them. 'What in the name of Celestia is going on here?' asked Mayor Mare furiously, looking at the defiled house and the two trapped ponies on the roof. 
'Don't blame us! It's their fault!' said a stallion, pointing to the roof. The Mayor regarded him icily. 
'What happened. Tell me exactly what happened, and do not leave anything out. Where did this start?' 
'These fags started eloping in public-'
'Whoah woah woah. What?' 
'They're filly foolers,' another stallion exclaimed in a rough voice. 
'How do you know? And what were they doing wrong?' asked the Mayor. 
'They were making out with each other in a cafè,' said one of the mob, like it answered both questions. 
'So?' said the Mayor, in a haven't-we-all-done-that voice. The stallions seemed at a loss for words. One of the marefriends spoke up. 
'It's not right!' The others cheered along with her. 
'Actually,' said the Mayor, 'I think you'll find that it is. Unless they were actually engaging in intercourse, there is nothing illegal about what they were doing.' 
'Well why not?' 
'What do you mean, why not?' asked the Mayor, 'They're perfectly allowed to kiss each other, just the same as anypony else. Unless one wasn't consenting, which is a different matter entirely.' 
'But they're both mares,' said a stallion.
'So?' 
'Isn't there laws against that kind of thing?' 
'I don't see why there should be,' said the Mayor. 'You can come down now, girls! Now,' she said, looking at the mob, 'I want you all to clean their house. I'm not leaving until you do. Spotless.' 

The stallions and their marefriends tried to protest, but the Mayor was having none of it. So, grudgingly, they started to clean the house. One was excused by the Mayor to try and find some soapy water and sponges, while the others started scraping the partly-dried food off. Lyra, after cautiously setting foot outside, allowed her marefriend to follow her into their front yard. They noticed the mob grudgingly cleaning their house, and Lyra grinned. 

'Thank you,' she said to the grey-haired pony, who frowned once more. 
'I haven't gotten the whole story yet. What happened from your point of view?' 
'They saw us kissing in a cafè. Or somepony did, and told them. Anyway, that was yesterday. Today we were inside, and they just started fooding our house!' protested Lyra. 
'We climbed up onto the roof,' continued Bon Bon, 'And noticed Rainbow Dash nearby. We called her to get you, and, well, you know the rest.' 
'Well, okay. Your story seems to check out with the other. Do you want to press charges against them? We can take it to court if you want..?' 
'No,' said Bon Bon, before Lyra could say anything, 'As long as they clean our house we're fine.' 
'I'll stay here and make sure they get it done,' said the Mayor. Lyra and Bon Bon thanked her and decided to take a walk into Ponyville. 

As soon as they were out of earshot of the house, Lyra stopped and regarded Bon Bon with a pained expression. 'I'm so sorry, Bons,' she said, 'This is all my fault. If it wasn't for me... Argh! I was so stupid!' Bon Bon sat down with her marefriend and took Lyra's hooves in hers.
'No, don't be sorry. Just because some stupid stallions thought your sexiness was wasted on me, doesn't mean it was the wrong decision.' Lyra smiled. Bon Bon could always cheer her up. When the weather was good, at least. 
'So what shall we do today?' Lyra asked. 
'Hmmm,' Bon Bon considered, 'I want to talk to Daisy. We haven't seen her for a while. Is that okay with you?' 
'Sounds fun,' said Lyra. 

The couple headed for the town square of Ponyville, towards the shops, where the flower fillies of the town usually set up their stalls. They spotted Daisy chatting with Rose Luck at their stand. The other flower-selling mare whose name escaped Bon Bon wasn't there. 
'Hey guys,' Bon Bon greeted them cordially. Lyra, who didn't know the two mares very closely, greeted them with a nod and a smile. 
'Hello,' said Daisy, 'What's going on?' 
'Nothing much,' said Bon Bon evasively. 'Hey, have you ponies met my marefriend? This is Lyra.' The red and green maned ponies looked surprised, but shook Lyra's hoof just as enthusiastically as any other pony that they met. 
'Marefriend, huh?' said Rose Luck, 'So you two...?' 
'We dabble,' Lyra put in, earning herself a weird look from Bon Bon. 
What? She mouthed back defensively. 
Bon Bon shook her head vigorously, yet briefly, as if to shake the thought from her mind. 
'Uh huh,' said Daisy, 'And what's that like?' 
'It's wonderful,' Lyra answered. Bon Bon was a little weirded out at Lyra's attitude, but said nothing. 
'So why'd you drop by?' asked Daisy. 
'We just wanted to see how you ponies are doing,' Bon Bon said, with another smile.
'Not much,' said Daisy, 'Business is good, as usual.' 
'Where's Lilac?' asked Bon Bon.
'Didn't you hear?' said Rose Luck excitedly, 'She's having a foal!' 
'Oh, how wonderful!' said Bon Bon, 'Who's the father?' 
Rose and Daisy looked at each other awkwardly. Bon Bon's face fell. 'Oh...' 
'As far as we know, it was consented, but... He left. Just after. Nopony knows who,' said Daisy. The four ponies stood in awkward silence for a while, until Lyra perked up. 

'Who wants to go for coffee? It's on me!' Everypony agreed, and they headed for Lyra's favourite coffee place, The Golden Bean, nicknamed "Goldie" by it's regulars. The four ponies arrived at Goldie and found a table. The coffee place also made fine quality chocolates. Lyra didn't really know how to identify quality ingredients, but the chocolates sure did taste good. 

They walked up to the counter to place their orders. 'I'll have a triple espresso with chocolate cake,' said Lyra. This was her standard fare. 
'Cappuchino with milk and two sugars,' said Bon Bon, 'With a brownie.' 
'Rose tea for me,' said Rose Luck, 'With a turkish delight.' 
'I'll have a hot chocolate and the flourless chocolate-orange cake,' said Daisy. The mare at the counter nodded, and left the mares to find a table. They went outside and sat on the small hay bales around a table. Daisy critically inspected the arrangement of blue and pink flowers that was the centrepiece. 
'Needs work.' 
'Agreed,' said Rose. 
'I think it's beautiful,' said Lyra. 
The two flower fillies frowned. 'No,' said Rose, 'The flowers are clearly not in their prime. Leave them there any longer and the petals will start falling off.' 
'I like the colour,' Lyra said persistantly.
'Mmm,' said Daisy distractedly. 
'So are you ponies coming to our next performance?' asked Bon Bon. 
'When's that?' asked Rose. 
'Tonight, at the Drunken Stallion,' Lyra answered. Rose wrinkled her nose, 
'Ugh, I'd really rather avoid that place.' 
'Fair enough,' said Bon Bon, 'They're paying us well, is all. You don't have to come and watch.' 

That night at the Drunken Stallion, the two mares were preparing for their performance. Bon Bon was drinking a cup of water and going over her lines backstage, while Lyra made sure her harp was perfectly in-tune. At the other end of the pub, opposite the stage, was the bar. 
In the middle of the room were tables, all occupied by ponies who were varying levels of drunkedness, from buzzy to passed out. 

When the clock chimed 10pm, Bon Bon and Lyra started their performance. Bon Bon did her comedy, while Lyra provided background music, occasionally making other sound effects to accompany the performance. It went very smoothly, and after they had packed up for the night, the couple found themselves with nothing to do. 
'Want to grab a few drinks?' asked Bon Bon. 
'Sure,' answered Lyra. 'No running away with any stallions!' 
'Haha, yeah right.' 

The two mares entered the thrumming atmosphere, trying not to buck anypony out of the way as they made for the bar. As with all types of food and drink, Lyra and Bon Bon had different tastes in alcohol. Bon Bon preferred the sweet wines and liquors, whereas Lyra tended to head for the heavily intoxicating vodkas and shots. She held the proud title of being unbeaten in drinking contests. Neither of them, however, had much taste for beer. New music had started up over the other side of the pub, making it extra hard to hear.

'STRAWBERRY COCKTAIL PLEASE,' Bon Bon yelled to the barpony. While her drink was being mixed up, she politely asked the author to refrain from using caps lock. 
'Whatever's strongest!' Lyra told the barpony when he served Bon Bon her drink. She slid some bits across the counter for both of them, and downed the shot in a single gulp. As they were chatting loudly, a pair of stallions came up. 
Ugh, thought Lyra and Bon Bon simultaneously. They both looked pretty drunk, and Lyra, sensing something fun to do, piped up. 'I challenge you two to a drinking contest!' 

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. She knew she'd have to stay sober enough to drag her dunk unicorn home later. The stallions, having nothing better to do and assuming they'd end up getting bucked later that night, agreed. 
'Six more shots please!' Lyra ordered. The shots arrived, and she divided them up. 'Whoever passes out first loses!' she said. The stallions, one red and one yellow, grinned eagerly. 
'Okay... First two shots on three. One, two, three!' said Lyra and gulped the two shots in quick succession, feeling hyped up immediately. She knew alcohol was a depressant, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on her, at least for a while. 
Bon Bon surveyed the scene, ready for when her marefriend passed out, as she aways ended up doing after winning these contests. 'Six more please! One, two, three!' 
The yellow stallion was the last to consume his shots, he was definetely slowing down. His eyes looked kind of glazed, and as Bon Bon sipped her cocktail, she wondered how many drinks he'd had. As the total number of shots consumed hit 30, Bon Bon started nibbling at the macerated strawberry that had come with her cocktail absentmindedly. The only surprise was when the red stallion passed out after drinking 12 shots. He seemed to have been holding together rather well until that point. 

Oh well, it was nothing really. Bon Bon knew that Lyra could take much more liquor than that. Lyra looked down at the passed-out pony, then back up to yellow. 'Well then,' she slurred, 'Just you and me.' After another four shots each, yellow passed out. 
'Let's go home, Lyra,' said Bon Bon.
'Kay,' slurred Lyra. 

At home, Lyra surprisingly managed to hold on to all the alcohol she had drunk. Bon Bon thanked Celestia that she wasn't stinking up the house with puke, but she still forced Lyra to take a shower to clear away the fumes. After the steamy-hot shower, Lyra was acting lethargic, and so they hopped into bed together. 
Lyra tried to reach between Bon Bon's legs, but Bon Bon fended her off, saying 'No drunken sex. We agreed, remember?' After a while, Lyra seemed to get the message, and laid her head on Bon Bon's chest. Bon Bon liked it when Lyra did this, and they both drifted off to a dreamless sleep. 

The next day, Lyra woke up veeeeery sloooowly, drifting in and out of conciousness a couple of times, before realising she was awake. Without even opening her eyes or moving an inch, she could tell she was in a bad state. Her mouth and throat were completely parched, her limbs sore. Lyra tried to open her eyes, but found them too caked with sleep. Upon lifting up her hoof to rub it away, she felt a huge pain in her neck. Lyra groaned as she realised she must have slept on it the wrong way.

Slowly massaging her neck with her hoof, she managed to revive the muscles in order for her to get up. When she did, there was a brief spell of dizziness before she managed to straighten up and walk to the kitchen, with food being the first and only thing on her hungover mind. 
Three minutes later, and the fridge still had not yeilded under her laser-glares. Empty empty empty ugh why? 
If looks could kill, that fridge would have shaken hooves with Inlè long ago, but nope, it was still refidgerating all the nothing that was inside of it. Out of the corner of her eye, Lyra spotted a note on the bench. 
Gone out shopping, be back about 10am 
Love ya, 
Bons. 

Her anger at the fridge dissipating, Lyra walked to the clock and checked the time. 11am, huh. It wasn't like Bon Bon to be an hour late. Oh well, Lyra could wait. She needed to freshen up anyway. She took a cold shower, then a warm one, making sure not to get the water too hot (it always made her drowsy!), put some shampoo into her hair, dried off, brushed hair, teeth, excetera. 
Once she had sufficiently cleared away her hangover and was thinking more clearly, Lyra became far more concerned. It definetely wasn't like Bon Bon to be late. Checking around the rest of the house for more notes and finding none, Lyra decided to head for the markets and find out what was going on. 

When she arrived, everypony seemed tenser than usual. There was a lot of whispering, and some ponies that Lyra Heartstrings vaguely knew pointed at her excitedly. Lyra, for her part, was extremely weirded out by this entire affair. And there was still no sign of Bon Bon...

'You look confused!' a shockingly blue pony popped up in front of her. 
'Oh. Hello, Colegate. Do you know what's going on?' Colegate frowned with concern. 
'Didn't you hear?' 
'Hear what?' asked the yellow-eyed pony irritably, 'I only just got up.' 
'Oh,' said Colegate, even more worriedly than before, 'Don't shoot the mail-mare, but... Bon Bon's in hospital. I thought you knew!' 
'WHAT? What happened?! Is she okay? Oh my gosh, tell me what happened!' said Lyra frantically. 
'It's okay, she's not badly hurt,' Lyra breathed a sigh of relief, 'So, um, you should be able to see her. I don't know the details, but apparantly somepony attacked her. I think they were caught...' Colgate broke off as she realised that Lyra was no longer in front of her. The mint unicorn was already halfway to the hospital. 

The front doors of the hospital burst open, and Lyra headed straight for the reception desk, almost knocking several ponies over. 'What ward is Bon Bon in?' she asked. The receptionist, after consulting her papers, said to Lyra: 
'Ward 34, second floor.' Lyra took the stairs four at a time. In a different situation, she would have paused to reflect on how much she was owning those stairs right now. 

Lyra was glad Bon Bon was not on the first floor. Reserved for patients who were in such a condition that they couldn't be moved, the first floor had little hope for non-permanant damage. Lyra looked up at the sign at the top of the stairs. "Second floor: Moderate breaks, fractures and lacerations. Serious burns and food poisoning. Stabilised internal bleeding and organ damage." 
Lyra didn't want to have a guess at which her marefriend had sustained, instead, she rushed to the appropriate ward, which read: "Ward 34: Stabilised condition." Lyra entered, scanning for Bon Bon. Eventually her eyes just directed themselves to the sexiest thing in the room; who was currently lying in a bed sporting heavy bandages and an IV drip. Lyra rushed to Bon Bon's side, her brow furrowed with concern. 

'What happened?' she asked. Bon Bon grimaced. 
'I was at the shops. I didn't really see it, they came up behind me.' 
'Wait, what did they do?' asked Lyra, looking at the bandages that wrapped around her marefriend's middle. A doctor walked up. 
'Miss Bon Bon has sustained three slash marks in the back, from a knife.' Lyra paled. 
'How bad?' 
'Her condition is stable, though if she was in a more remote location it is likely that she would not have survived.' said the nurse, who had just appeared to take some blood tests. 

Lyra couldn't say anything, she just froze up. 
My - my Bon Bon? Might not have... Whaaaa? Who did this? Why? 
Bon Bon took Lyra's hooves in hers. 'Lyra,' she said softly, 'It's okay. I'm okay, okay?' 
'I just... You might not have...?' she stammered. Lyra couldn't even begin to imagine a life without Bon Bon. They had been together so long, she was the one constant in Lyra's life, and the Nurse had just said it could have ended this morning, while she was hungover in bed? Overcome with grief for something that had never, and hopefully never would, happen, Lyra wrapped herself around Bon Bon in a protective embrace. 

They held each other, each concerned for the other's safety. One question raged around Lyra's mind: Why? Who had done this, what was their motivation? Another one of the hospital's workers informed her that Bon Bon would be ready to leave the hospital in four days. 

After another week would be the court date. Lyra couldn't wait to find out the motivation behind all of this. It was an agonising four days. Lyra hardly left Bon Bon's side the entire three days. On the fourth day, she realised that they had a serious problem. 
Lyra and Bon Bon were not rich enough to afford a good lawyer, and neither of them knew much about legal affairs. So Lyra headed to the one place where she was sure to get all the information she needed. After making sure Bon Bon was comfortable, Lyra Heartstrings made a beeline for Ponyville Library.