//------------------------------//
// A Rude Awakening 
// Story: Sweet as Sugar 
// by sharkray24 
//------------------------------//


Sweet as Sugar
Joshua Denoncourt


Lyra lay in bed, something felt wrong. She was woken, not by sound, but by the lack of it. She gloomily gazed at the clock and was awoken immediately by the red numbers glowing on her face, burning themselves onto her retinas. 9:02 how could it be 9:02? Bon Bon would’ve woken her up a long time ago. Then she remembered, Bon Bon had recently gotten an apprentice so she usually let Lyra sleep in. It was sort of hard to get used to. She began to close her eyes again when the bedroom door opened. In walked Bon Bon’s apprentice, an earth pony with a color similar to that of Bon Bon’s with a red curly mane, and purple rimmed glasses.
“Twist,” Lyra said, “I thought we told you that this room is out of bounds.”
“I know,” Said Twist, “I wath jutht wondering when Bon Bon would come down. The cuthtamorth are getting rowdy.”
“I thought she was already down there.”
“Thee’s right there.” Twist pointed with her hoof at Lyra and Bon Bon’s bed. Lyra turned her head to the left, and sure enough, there was Bon Bon, sleeping like a baby. But something was odd. Lyra poked Bon Bon with her hoof. No response. She tried again more forcefully. Still no response. She actually hit Bon Bon with her hoof. No response. Lyra’s eyes widened with fear. She turned to Twist who also looked scared.
“Don’t just stand there. Go get help!” Lyra commanded.
Twist ran down the stairs as fast as her little legs could carry her. Down in the candy shop, customers were complaining impatiently and loudly. Twist jumped onto the counter, a few ponies noticed and demanded their order. “Lithen everypony!” Twist screamed louder than she had ever screamed before.
The store became silent except for an excited pink pony finishing a story, “…and I said ‘Oatmeal, are you crazy?’” the blue Pegasus with her put a hoof over the pink pony’s mouth.
“What is it?” asked one of the angry ponies with an edgy tone.
“Thomthing bad hath happened.” The Ponies mumbled, most of them about a bad thing they would do to this store if they didn’t get their order. “I need the fathtest pony to get help from the Hothpital.” Silence quickly came over the room. The pink earth pony and blue Pegasus immediately zoomed off. Twist noticed Zecora walking by down the street. “Maybe thee can help.” Twist pointed at Zecora through the glass door.
The pony closest to the door called Zecora. “What is it that’s bad, that makes Twist so sad?” the zebra asked when she came in.
Twist pointed with her hoof up the stairs. At this, Zecora immediately understood the urgency by the tears in Twist’s eyes. She ran up the stairs into Lyra and Bon Bon’s room. She came across a truly sad scene; Lyra was holding Bon Bon in her front legs, pulling her close. Lyra crying, rocking back and forth, saying her wife’s name between sobs. Zecora walked up to Lyra, “Cry not for your wife, today she will not lose her life.” Zecora raised a hoof and Lyra watched as it started to glow, as if it was on fire, a beautiful green fire that was healing and life giving. Zecora put her hoof over Bon Bon, and moved it up towards her head. She held it there for a few seconds and lowered it back down to the floor. “It’s just as I thought, Bon Bon has a blood clot.” Zecora grabbed something from her saddle bag, “Put her on the floor. That will allow me to do more.” Lyra reluctantly placed the cream earth pony on the wooden planks. She watched as Zecora placed a green powdery herb on Bon Bon’s forehead. Zecora rubbed her hooves together and spread them apart, a deep blue fire with a yellow center appeared between them. “For this part I can’t get out of my groove, so do not allow her body to move.” Zecora’s body started emitting a greenish aura, then a similar aura appeared around Bon Bon, and the green herbs on her forehead lit with the same blue fire between Zecora’s hooves. The fire didn’t burn or spread, it stayed exactly on the herbs. Zecora’s ear twitched.
Suddenly three ponies and a doctor from the hospital barged in, taking no regard to what was going on. They picked up Bon Bon and put her on a stretcher. “You must cease, or the effects will be released!” Zecora opened her eyes, revealing that they were glowing with a golden light.
“I think I know what I’m doing,” the doctor replied, “And I think it’s more effective than Zebra mumbo-jumbo.”
“Doctor!” one of the nurses said, “the patient”
The doctor, Lyra, and Zecora walked up to the stretcher and saw a large bruise on Bon Bon’s forehead getting larger with every passing moment. “Look at what you have done!” Zecora scolded, “If I had finished she would have won!”
“What do you mean?” Lyra asked.
“This process creates a battle within the injury, the process is very 	touchy. If my focus is broken, only sad words can be spoken.”
“Don’t listen to the old witch.” The doctor said, “Ladies, let’s get a move on.”
“If you call me a witch, you’ve dug your own ditch.” The doctor didn’t respond as he helped the other three nurses carry the stretcher out of the candy shop. “He knows not what he’s done, if this is not fixed, your wife is as good as gone.”
Lyra was shocked, how could this be happening to Bon Bon? Her of all ponies wouldn’t get a blood clot. She was fit and healthy, if anypony were to get one it should be herself. Lyra thought these things over and over.