The Coronation
"Caramel, did you forget?!" Lyra yelled, roughly opening the door to his house without knocking. Caramel growled in annoyance. She knew about the key under the doormat, apparently. "Our train's leaving in like ten minutes, and we need to go! How often do you think we get new princesses around here?"
"Oh shush Lyra, I'm almost done!" he yelled back, watching her trot inside. Lyra always touched things, it made him nervous. Not that his little one story house had that much for her to break, but she more than easily seemed to eclipse his forgetfulness with her ability to break things. And yet, the rest of the time she seemed fairly light on her feet. He admired that, really. It was a lot better than his partial clumsiness.
"What are you doing, anyway?" she asked, having apparently moved over his shoulder.
"I told you, I'm designing a house to build just outside of town. Near Octavia's, remember?" Maybe he wasn't the forgetful one...
"Oh yeah... Yeah, I know what you're talking about." Her usual, happy gait returned. "The story of how that relates to the three horseshoes on your butt, though, I'm still a little fuzzy on. Now come onnnn, we need to go, and Bon Bon's waiting outside still."
Caramel chuckled and got up, running a hoof through his brown mane in an attempt to make himself presentable before he walked into his kitchen and opened a cabinet, grabbing a pill bottle as Lyra groaned in annoyance. He downed a couple, hoping that the slight headache he'd had since last night would finally decide to leave, instead of continuing on it's slowly worsening path. Caramel drank the rest of the water and put the glass in the sink as he turned to follow the aquamarine mare out the door. He nearly bumped into Bon Bon, apologizing quickly as he locked his door.
"Hey Bon Bon," he said as he turned back around, breaking into a trot as the trio made their way down the straight street to the train station. The mare responded with a polite nod and a smile, before eventually breaking the ice.
"So how's work?" she asked Caramel, who shrugged.
"Good, I guess. Sometimes all the planning gets on my nerves. I had to copy everything onto a new sheet after my eraser tore a hole." He sighed. "It takes forever to get what you want sometimes. It's like art, but of actual practical value." Caramel paused for a moment, seemingly examining his hooves as they clopped over the cobblestones. "How about you two? Candy making and music working well still?"
"You say that like ponies are just suddenly not going to want to hear me play." Lyra said, putting a hoof to her chest as she carefully continued to trot on three legs. "And even then, I can just take a little trip to Canterlot, get my pay for a month that way."
"She's a modest one." Bon Bon said, deadpan.
"Hey, it's not like I can't cheer for other ponies, but being the only lyre player in town has its own prestige."
"Oh yes, people are all over the street asking you to play for them, huh?" Caramel asked with a smirk, receiving a playful hoof to his shoulder.
"It's not like I have this thing on my flank because I painted it there." She responded, chuckling at the general uselessness of the conversation.
"We don't know that you didn't..." He continued, chuckling as she grinned back, although he could tell she wasn't sure how to disprove his statement. They always seemed to exchange jibes like this, and as pointless as it was, it gave the three something to do when they ran out of interesting things to talk about.
"So where's Ocatavia?" Bon Bon asked, after they had moved a ways further in silence. "She's still coming, right?"
"Octavia? Be late for this?!" Lyra snickered, putting a hoof to her muzzle. "Two flaws with that. She's never late to anything, even that time I tried to delay her just to see if it was possible, and she wouldn't miss this in the first place."
"Once a Canterlite, always a Canterlite, huh?" Caramel asked. "At least she's not all high and mighty like that moron I did a house for one time. God, that guy acted like he knew everything about how to design houses." He scoffed. "Put the pillar right there, Cramal, move that over here, Cramel! Why did you put a bathroom there, Cramel?"
"He seriously called you Cramel?" Lyra responded with a giggle, "No way, you're pulling my leg!"
"I wish I wasn't. At least I got paid for the job eventually though." He finished with a sigh. A pang of a headache went through his skull again, painfully reminding him of the stupid thing. Not that the pain was particularly bad, just a little annoying. His back cracked rather loudly and he looked back nervously, before snickering at his friends' looks.
"Was that your back?" Bon Bon asked. "I don't think it's supposed to do that..."
"It didn't really hurt much or anything, I think it's probably fine." He dismissed the mare with a hoof. Although she was right, that was a little loud and there was a twinge of pain in there...
"You feeling okay?" Lyra asked, touching at his back as they neared the steps to the train platform.
"Yeah, the back's fine. I've been getting a little bit of a headache since last night though, but I guess that could be the weather. The team says there's rain rolling over the Everfree, right?"
"That won't affect us, Caramel." She pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's still a change in atmospheric pressure, that could be the reason." He said, frowning as Lyra giggled.
"Look at you, trying to be all science-ey." She ruffled his mane and floated a small bag of bits over to the pay window as the other two went to grab their own coin pouches, carefully passing them over to the stallion behind the glass as well.
"Those saddlebags have sure seen better days." Bon Bon said, pointing at the ragged canvas carrying equipment over Caramel's back.
"I don't make that much money," he replied with a shrug. "I save where I can, there's nothing wrong with this thing."
"That'll sure be ironic when it breaks in Canterlot." Lyra giggled, picking up one side of the bag slightly before she let it fall back to his side.
"Oh yeah, it'll be so very funny." He responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"You know most ponies in Canterlot would find that hilarious."
"Maybe I'll just-" The train whistle cut him off, suddenly making him mute as the sound of his voice was drowned out. He said a few more words before he decided to stop talking, debating whether a continuation of the conversation would be worth it. At least he was gaining comeback skills, that'd sucked when Bluegrass blamed him for misplacing those seeds. He'd never done that, dammit! And yet, that had become the running joke around town for a week. What a crappy seven days that'd turned out to be.
"What took you guys so long?!" Octavia yelled as she skidded to a halt next to the small group, watching the train come to a halt. "We're going to be late!"
"Don't be so melodramatic, we'll be fine!" Lyra responded, poking Octavia with a hoof. "Besides, you're not playing today, so why does it matter if we're a minute late?"
"Because, we're never going to see this again, it'll never happen!"
"Pfft, that's what they said about Cadance, and she- happened?" The train came to a stop and they boarded, making their way to two pairs of seats that were facing each other. "I'm just kidding, I don't want to give you that hard of a time."
"Oh yeah, thanks." Octavia replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Hey, is it cool if I get some sleep?" Caramel asked. "This headache's getting a little worse."
"Oh, sure!" Bon Bon said, glaring at the other two. "We can be quiet, right?" She stared at Lyra. "Right?"
"But Bon Bon, that means no yelling, screaming, guffawing-" A hoof found its way into her mouth, as Bon Bon frowned again.
"I'll keep her quiet for you." The cream colored mare responded with a slight giggle. "Go ahead and get some sleep."
"Thanks." He said, trying to focus on something other than the light throbbing in his head as he laid his head back and closed his eyes, attempting to think past the constant clacking of the rails and the conversation from elsewhere in the car. Caramel tried to focus on something happier, something that would make him doze off, but his mind kept pulling him back to his ex mare friend, Cloverfield. Again. The fact that he still thought about her annoyed him to no end, he just wanted her out of his life at this point.
What right did she think she had, cheating on him like that? At least that punch had felt good, served the bitch well, he thought. But the problem was, as much as he hated her for what she'd done, he couldn't get over the fact that he'd fallen for her. At least it hadn't got too serious before he'd figured out that she was a fucking liar and she-
*Snore*
_________________________________________________________________________
"Caramel, wake up, we're here!" Lyra yelled, shaking his shoulders around. He had a blissful moment of calm before his ears started to pick up the ambient noise and his head started pulsating again, sending much more intense pains through her head. He groaned and leaned over, resting his head as the pain lifted slightly.
"You sure you're okay?" Octavia asked, sharing the look of concern with the other two mares.
"Yeah, I'll tell you if it gets too bad." Caramel responded, shaking his head slightly. Fuck, that made it worse.
"Seriously, just tell us." Lyra said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. He'd never seen her look this worried before, come to think of it. How bad did he look?
"Let's just get moving. Maybe grab some water?"
"Yeah, sure!" She yelled, perking back up. "Let's get going, guys!" She hopped off the train, trotting a few steps ahead until she was able to look upwards, at the lit up mountain and the spires of the castle. Lyra disappeared into a throng of ponies for a moment, before somehow returning with a cup of water and handing it to Caramel.
"Thanks." He said, drinking it down and feeling slightly better. "It helps, at least."
Lyra nodded with a slight smile, before she turned back around and the small group ventured through the crowds and festivities, enjoying the diversity of lights and stalls. These were things that she wouldn't mind coming back to later, experiencing the interests of a town usually dormant in this respect.
"You know, we still have some time," Lyra said, looking at some sort of weird wristwatch. "About ten minutes, so we can slow down how fast we work our way over there, at least."
"That clock, you made that?" Caramel asked, pointing to the watch.
Lyra grinned. "Yeah, took a couple tries. Bon Bon says it's the first sane thing this crazy inventor's made while I've been her housemate. But the fully automated lyre player had potential at being a really annoying poker."
"It wasn't fully automated, you had to crank it!" Bon Bon shot back, throwing her hooves up in annoyance.
"Yeah, but I had plans for it to use another source of power." The aquamarine mare said with a shrug, dropping a few bits on a table and grabbing a muffin. "Besides, that's one more poker thing than you have." She continued, smirking.
"Oh yes, we all want one of those." Caramel said, gritting his teeth as his head pulsed painfully. "You know, to annoy our neighbors through an open window?"
"I only did that once!" She said, laughing as she remembered the experience. "But the jerks slammed the window on the little arms, I had to rebuild the last third." Lyra looked at her watch, slapping a hoof to her head as if remembering something.
"Dammit I forgot, this clock's slow. We only have two minutes."
"Lyyyyyyyraaaaaaa!" Octavia moaned. "You know I hate being late!"
"Yeah, it's a little creepy how much you're against it."
"Let's just get going, kaput?" The gray mare asked, her face darkening.
"Fine, whatever." The four broke into a trot, weaving around the shifting crowds as they neared the castle, several helpful signs funneling them down the right street. It wasn't much of a walk; the station was skewed towards this side of the city anyway. The crowd started to become more dense as the balcony they were looking for came into view, and they pushed their way inside, trying to get a good view.
Caramel stuck a hoof to his head again; the pain was getting worse, blossoming into something that felt like there was a train laying against his forehead. He looked up, only able to see a blur of the balcony as several dots appeared, saying things that sounded like somepony playing a low trombone with a mute. He closed his eyes, trying to think as the crowd cleared, and felt a thump as he fell over, not really feeling the new pain.
"Caramel......hospital?" Somepony said hurriedly, trying to get him to his feet. But the ground was so comfortable...
The voice's words registered, and he tried to wave them off. He could handle a little pain. "Just- get me home!" He yelled, noticing the circle of ponies that had gathered around. His face contacted aquamarine fur as he felt a hoof get pulled over Lyra's shoulder, and Bon Bon got under his other arm. Canterlot slurred by as the pain grew, shopkeepers and crowdsponies staring at the groaning, mumbling stallion as he was pulled by, his hooves being uncomfortably dragged along the ground. Not that that discomfort was even comparable to his head, and the explosion of gray matter that seemed imminent.
They stood around for a while, not that he knew why. Why would they just keep him here, let him hurt like this? Seconds morphed into minutes as his forehead almost seemed to crack, before a whistling blob pulled up and he realized they'd been waiting for a train.
"Sorry..." Caramel mumbled, feeling a piece of fabric swipe across his forehead gently before he was tilted into a chair and came to rest. The stupid world didn't, swirling around as a bunch of multi colored blobs. A pulse of pain hit him and his vision was tinged red, before he descended into darkness.
All he wanted was a little simplicity, a little security. Must've set his hopes too high.