“Lyra! Come on, Lyra, wake up! It’s almost noon!”
I groaned, rolled over, and pulled the covers over my head. “Bon Bon, can’t you wake me up when it is noon? I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“I know you didn’t. You didn’t even make it into bed last night,” Bon Bon said, sounding very annoyed.
Blinking, I raised my head and looked around. She was right. I must have dozed off while working on my project, considering that I was still in the lab. What I had mistook for covers was, in actuality, some of my notes and figures.
“Bon Bon, I… I’m sorry.” I said, trying to apologize and keep myself awake at the same time.
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “Sorry for what?” she asked.
“Ummmmm… I’m drawing a blank. You know I hate waking up.” I said, letting my head fall back to my pillow. The pillow that, unfortunately, didn’t exist.
As I grasped my head in pain from the sudden collision with the hardwood floor, Bon Bon sighed. “Listen, Lyra, you don’t need to apologize. I am a little annoyed that you would rather sleep on the floor that with me, but—“
“No! I don’t mean it like that! I just lost track of time! I didn’t mean to—“
“I know. I just phrased that wrong,” Bon Bon said, sighing. Darn it, I was making her do that a lot lately. “What I was trying to say is that I know how important this human stuff is to you. Just, don’t let it get the better of you.”
I clumsily pulled myself to my hooves, ears flat against my head. “I’m sorry, Bonnie, but I just… I found an experiment that the royal academy did a few months back that showed me how to make cloth repel magic and I was looking my figures over and I found that that would totally work and I just got so excited!” I said, having let my excitement get the better of me, as I was now bouncing on my hooves with what Bon Bon called my manic smile plastered all over my face.
Bon Bon, for her part, looked confused, I mean, more so than normal after one of my rants. “Lyra, what does any of that have to do with humans? I thought you were down here in the basement to look up more stuff about humans.”
“It doesn’t have anything at all to do with humans!” I said.
Bon Bon just glared at me.
“Okay, maybe it was inspired by them, but it doesn’t have anything to do with them other than that. Seriously, Bonnie, you should be happy about this!” I said, trying to make her stop glaring at me like that.
No such luck. “And why should I be happy about… whatever this is?”
“Well, you are always telling me that I should use my brain for more than just music and humans, right? Well, now I am!” I said, making a conscious effort not to bounce.
“If you say so,” Bon Bon said, but I could tell that she was trying not to smile. I have that effect on her.
“Anyways… Is it really almost noon?” I asked, curious about how much of the day I had wasted.
“About a half hour till. You really need to get to bed on time from now on. It was a wonder how I could get to sleep with all that crashing about you were doing.”
“Right… I guess I did get carried away,” I said, rubbing the still throbbing back of my head awkwardly. “Sooooo… Wait! You said that it was 11:30?”
“Yes I did.”
“Then, my performance at the theater…”
“Is in a half hour. And you look just like you spent the night on the floor. Probably because you did.” Bon Bon was openly smirking by now. Much as I love the mare, there were a few times where she took too much pleasure in teasing ponies.
Anyways, this wasn’t the time to question my choice of romantic partner. I had half an hour to make myself presentable and get to the theater halfway across town.
This was going to suck.
Two hours later, I decided that it hadn’t sucked as much as it could have. Sure, when I arrived I was still soaking wet from the quick shower I had taken, but that only got me a few weird looks. Mostly from ponies visiting Ponyville. I guess the natives have come to expect my oddities. Still, once I had sat down and started to play, everypony stopped whispering and just listened.
Honestly, as much as I complain about having to drag myself down here at the same time every week, I love these performances I put on. Not just for the bits, but those are nice. No, the real reason that I like playing for the crowd is that they look at me as a capable musician that I am, and not just as a slightly odd conspiracy theorist. I know that I am both, but still, it’s nice to have ponies look at me in admiration instead of the curious, questioning, and badly hidden glances that they always give me when I get over-excited about something or other.
“Good show Lyra. That was awesome music,” said a slightly scratchy voice, breaking my out of my self-indulgent thoughts.
I wheeled around and found none other than Ponyville’s newest couple, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, standing in the doorway to the backstage and smiling at me.
“Thanks, Rainbow. I did my best,” I said, blushing a little.
“I didn’t know that that harp thing could make such good music! I thought that it would be boring,” Rainbow said.
“Lyre,” I automatically corrected, while Twilight elbowed Rainbow in the barrel and hissed something about manners under her breath.
“But I liked it a lot! It was really… calming?” Rainbow said hastily, rubbing the spot where Twilight had hit her.
“Thanks, Rainbow,” I said, not wanting to cause any problems by bringing up her earlier rudeness. Besides, I would be kind of a hypocrite if I lectured her about putting her hoof in her mouth. “Honestly, Rainbow, I’m a little surprised to see you here. I didn’t know this was your cup of tea.”
“My cup of what?” Rainbow asked, looking confused.
“It’s an expression meaning preferred activity. Basically, she is expressing surprise that you wanted to see here performance,” Twilight said in a very analytical voice. She then turned and looked questioningly at her marefriend. “Honestly, I was wondering the same thing myself. This is a little slow for somepony like you, so why did you want to come with me and spend the bits on something that you probably wouldn’t like?”
“But I did like it!” Rainbow protested.
“Irrelevant. You were complaining about coming here right up until the music started, so why spend the bits in the first place?” Twilight asked, rather forcefully.
“Isn’t it obvious, Twi?” Rainbow said, looking kind of puzzled at Twilight’s behavior.
“I think that she just wanted to spend more time with you, Twilight.” I said softly, trying to break up this little lover’s spat before it got out of control.
“What?” Twilight said, looking at me as if I had just appeared out of nowhere. “Oh, I see… um… who wants some water? You do Rainbow? I’ll go get it for you!” With that last rushed statement, she turned and galloped out of the room before Rainbow or I could respond.
“Good old Twilight, still as socially clueless as ever.” I said, shaking my head. “Only she wouldn’t realize that their special somepony would want to spend time with her.”
“She tries, you know,” Rainbow said softly, but with a glare.
“I know, I know. It just was a running joke at the school for gifted unicorns. How many Twilight Sparkles does it take to…” I blinked as Rainbow’s glare intensified.
What was I doing? Was I really going to dredge up that old mean joke from school right in front of the marefriend of the mare in question? What could have possibly made me think that was a good idea?
See what I mean about putting my hoof in my mouth?
“Sorry,” I said, feeling a little ashamed.
Rainbow sighed. “Just, watch what you say, ok? Twilight isn’t the only one that can be socially awkward, Lyra."
I simply nodded meekly.
We stood there in silence for a minute, or at least until Twilight ventured back into the backstage of the theater, levitating a glass of water in front of her.
“Here you go, Rainbow. Sorry about how I acted earlier.” She said, hovering the glass of water over to Rainbow.
“No problem, Twilight. Honest mistake, it could have happened to anypony.” Rainbow said airily.
I bit my tongue.
“And I’m sorry that you had to see that, Lyra.” Twilight said, turning to look at me. “I just sort of forgot you were there.”
“No problem, Twilight. I’m just glad that it didn’t turn into some huge argument,” I said, remembering the last time Bon Bon and I had really gone at it. Not pretty.
“You and me both. That would have been a really silly thing to fight about. Thank you for breaking it up,” Twilight said earnestly.
“Er…” I stuttered. Ok, now this was getting awkward again. “L—Like I said, Twilight, it was no problem. Think nothing of it.” Please, Twilight, just drop it. Your sincerity was making me feel really bad about what I almost said.
“Okay, Lyra.” Twilight said, mercifully turning and dropping the subject. “So, Rainbow, what do you want to do from here? We have a lot of free time now.”
“How about we head to Sugarcube Corner?” Rainbow said, lighting up. “I haven’t had one of Pinkie’s cupcakes in a long time.”
“No, Dash. I won’t have you spoil your appetite before we go to dinner again tonight! I worked really hard to get that reservation, and I know you like the food, so no cupcake!” Twilight said, in a tone like a mother scolding her child.
I laughed. The look on Dash’s face was so funny, I couldn’t help myself.
“So,” I said, “you two have a date tonight, I take it? Where at?”
“Oh, the Oasis.” Twilight answered innocently.
I whistled. The Oasis was a pretty expensive restaurant, the most expensive in town, in fact. And it was always, always, booked solid. Twilight must have worked very hard to get that reservation. No wonder she didn’t want Dash to eat before they got to the restaurant.
And the food at the Oasis was undeniably the best in town. Nothing even came close. Bon Bon and I both loved it.
Bon Bon…
You know, I never did get to apologize to her about spending the night in the basement instead of with her. And I mean properly apologize. Not some half-flanked ‘sorry’ as I rushed out the door.
“It’s decided, then!” I exclaimed, startling both Rainbow and Twilight. “We'll do a double date!”
“WHAT?” chorused Rainbow and Twilight.
“Yes, it will be the perfect way to make it up to Bonnie!” I said, bouncing happily.
“Make what up to her?” Twilight asked.
“Oh don’t worry about it, Twilight. Nothing that matters. So, when are we going to meet up?” I asked.
“Well, our reservation is for 8:00, so—“
“So we should meet about 7:30!” I said, cutting Twilight off. “Does in front of the Oasis sound good for you?”
“Sounds perfect, but how are you going to get in? You don’t have a reservation…” Twilight said, looking dazed.
“That’s your problem with all of this? The fact that she doesn’t have a reservation? Not that she just muscled into our date?” Rainbow grumbled, but I ignored her. Twilight didn’t seem to have a problem with it after all.
“Oh, don’t worry about our reservation, I play there all the time. The owner told me that I could come in any time I like, as so long as I play an extra night that week.” I said, happy that that offer had come in handy at least once.
“Oh, okay…” Twilight said, looking a bit dazed.
“No, not okay!” Rainbow cried, looking angry. “You can’t just force your way into our date like this! Come on, Twilight, don’t let her walk all over you like this!”
“But Rainbow, I kind of want to do this. I think it would be a good chance to make some more friends. After all, I have been trying to be more outgoing around other ponies…” Twilight said, giving Rainbow her best set of puppy-dog eyes.
Rainbow immediately looked conflicted. “But, but, there are better ponies to get to know than bouncy over here and her jerk of a marefriend!”
I immediately stopped bouncing and joined Twilight in glaring at the multi-hued pegasus. Sure, Bon Bon can be… abrasive at times, but still, that doesn’t give Rainbow the right to talk about her like that.
“Rainbow, I think you need to apologize to Lyra,” Twilight said softly.
“But, come on Twilight…” Rainbow protested weakly.
“Now,” Twilight said, tapping a hoof against the ground.
“Sorry, Lyra, I didn’t mean to be so rude.” Rainbow said to me, looking down at the ground.
“Consider us even, then,” I said, not wanting to make a big deal of it. “So,” I said, injecting as much cheer into my voice as I could, “see you both at 7:30?”
“Sounds excellent, Lyra!” Twilight exclaimed, clapping her hooves together.
“Sure thing,” Rainbow muttered, still looking down at the ground.
I didn’t pay it any mind. Rainbow would surely cheer up by the time we got the four of us together.
“All right, see you both then!” I chirped over my shoulder as I exited the backstage.
Five hours later, Bon Bon and I were all dressed up and on our way to the Oasis. Both of us were wearing our best, Rarity made dresses. My was a light green number that blended well with my coat, and Bon Bon had on her blue and pink dress that matched her mane.
“You look stunning, Bonnie,” I said.
“Yeah, whatever,” she said, trying to sound all aloof like she always does, but the blush spreading over her cheeks ruined her attempt.
“So, are you looking forwards to dinner tonight?” I asked.
“Yes, but I wish it were just the two of us. You know Rainbow Dash and I don't get along too well.”
“Ah, you’re both just a little hardheaded,” I said, ignoring the glare I got from Bon Bon. “I’m sure the two of you have a lot in common.”
Her glare turned somewhat amused. “Lyra, sweetie, could you tell me what exactly a candy maker with a talent for impressions has in common with a weather mare with delusions of grandeur?”
“Well, you both can be pretty big jerks at times.”
“What!? I… you… ugh,” Bon Bon stuttered, before shaking her head in defeat. “All right, true. But I think that’s more a reason why we don’t get along that something that would bring us closer together.”
“I guess you’re right,” I admitted, before walking right into the side of a building.
“Oh, I guess you remember where the restaurant is,” Bon Bon said with a smirk.
“That I do,” I said, rubbing my poor head. “I guess you could say it made quite the impression on me!”
“I think that was the worst joke I have ever heard,” Bon Bon deadpanned, and we both laughed.
“After you,” I said, gesturing to the door a few feet from where I had impacted the building. Bon Bon gave me a quick smile, and we both entered the Oasis.