Bon-Bon stood in the front hallway of the new house. The stairs were to her left, a doorway into the living room was at her right, and at the end of the hall was her new kitchen. It was unseasonably sunny outside, considering that it would be winter soon.
After two weeks of searching, they were finally here at their new house. It was a typical thatched-roof cottage, on the opposite side of Ponyville from where they had lived before. It would be hard to reorient herself to the new location, but it would work. There was no way in the world they were going back to that house.
Ponies had been talking about it around town. How something had forced her and Lyra to flee their house in the middle of the night, and leaving three young fillies from the local school terrified out of their wits. No doubt there were dozens of insane theories about what had happened, but Bon-Bon didn’t even care anymore. Let them talk. Whatever they came up with couldn’t be half as bizarre as the truth. As time went on, Bon-Bon wasn’t sure how much of that last night had even been real. It felt like a nightmare.
Finding a new house on such short notice had also been a nightmare, but a decidedly more normal and manageable one.
The historic Ponyville Inn wasn’t exactly the kind of place you wanted to stay for two weeks, but there was no other choice. Even one week would have been pushing it. It had occasionally given them a quiet night’s sleep, though for one weekend there had been a noisy family with three hyperactive foals next door. The service desk seemed to be entirely run by two lazy young ponies, probably barely out of school, who wouldn’t even replace the towels unless you went up and specifically asked them to.
Bon-Bon knew this was no way to live, so she had been talking to real estate agents from the very start. There weren't many options available. Not to mention they weren't in the best state financially, not after having one of the most critical seasons for business utterly ruined.
And Nightmare Night itself? It had been quiet. Lyra had put on her freakish costume—normal clothes, but with some kind of odd mask and strange tentacled things at the ends of her hooves—and gathered what candy she could. The town seemed to be in short supply. Bon-Bon had spent the night with her face buried in her pillow and tried to sleep through the humiliation.
A few days after that, Lyra had convinced her to go back to the house. Everything was still inside, including her lyre. It was a custom-made instrument from the best craftspony in Canterlot, not to mention it had been a birthday present from her parents. Bon-Bon didn’t really have the option to say no.
They had decided to go in together, never alone. It had been at noon, on a clear sunny day, and they had propped the front door open with a chair so it couldn't swing shut on them. They had only grabbed what was important and taken it back to the hotel. They could hire movers to recover the rest, as soon as they found a new house.
She was willing to take whatever was available, and this had been it. Not bad, admittedly. Not bad at all.
As a whole, the house was larger than their last, but the kitchen was just a bit smaller. She paced around, measuring it. Maybe it wasn’t too big of a difference. She mentally planned out how she would organize everything once they really got moved in. Candy season was over—finally, she thought, rolling her eyes—but cookie season would start in just a few more weeks.
The last dead leaves had been shaken off the trees by now, and the air was nearly freezing. It was that time of year that everypony was just waiting for the pegasi to get the snowfall out of the way so it could be winter already, but fall still had a few more weeks to go.
Bon-Bon could still remember the chill in their old house. This place was absolutely cozy by comparison. And those frantic, galloping hoofsteps from upstairs were just Lyra checking out every single room.
She moved on to the living room, noticing the fireplace. Now this would be a perfect place to relax in the winter. It would be best to get some firewood as soon as possible and really feel at home. Once furniture had been brought in, it would be something to be envied. She could almost laugh. Maybe that ghost had done them a favor.
Lyra came running down from the second floor. She glanced from side to side, noticed Bon-Bon in the living room, and ran up to her. “I looked all over. This place is in amazing condition. No leaks or anything! How did you find it?”
“I wasn’t about to spend any more time living in a hotel,” Bon-Bon said with a shrug. “This house was available, so I took it.”
“And the price tag wasn’t too bad, either…” Lyra shook her head. “Seriously, nobody else picked up this place? I thought for sure there would be some kind of catch.”
“Nope,” Bon-Bon said. “No catch.”
“Just a nice, if a bit plain, Ponyville cottage…” Lyra said. “You know, I’m almost going to miss our little friend back in the old house.”
Bon-Bon gaped at her. “You’re not serious. Don’t you even remember what happened?”
Lyra shrugged. “Well, yeah. But up until that point, don’t you think it was fun? You have to admit it made things interesting.”
Bon-Bon shook her head. “You’ll never change, will you?”
“It was an adventure. And now we’ve got all kinds of great stories to tell everybody for years to come.” Lyra gave a sly grin. “Seriously, Bon-Bon, you can be really boring sometimes.”
“I’d rather be boring than completely insane.”
“Suit yourself,” Lyra said. “So which room do you want? I call the one at the end of the hall on the left.”
“I don’t really have a preference. I’ll take a look around later,” Bon-Bon said.
Lyra smiled and walked around the living room. She looked out the window for a moment, then circled back around and sat herself down on a chair. “Yeah, I think I’ll be able to get used to this place.”
Bon-Bon nodded. “It should be quiet, at least.”
“It’ll take me forever to get the address right, though. It’s so similar to the last one,” Lyra said. “Now we’re at 41 Blackberry Lane, instead of 41 Blueberry Lane. Weird. You didn’t notice?”
“Well, um…” Bon-Bon gave a nervous smile. “Now that you mention it, that is kind of strange…”
The front door creaked slowly and slammed shut.