I awoke the next morning mentally fuzzy and hurting, “Oh my aching head.”
“Serves you right for attacking Lyra, monster.” Bon Bon flittered past my vision as she headed past me towards the kitchen.
“Ohhhh, great,” She paused and looked over at me, “I had to wake up to you.”
She furrowed her brow in agitation. “The same is true for me. I was hoping all of yesterday was a vivid dream, but obviously I’m still in this particular nonsense.”
“Where’s Lyra?”
“Off running errands. She went to see Fluttershy about how to best take care of you. She’s mad, that pony, keeping a beast like you in our home!”
“Hey! Where I’m from, it’s your kind that are the beasts, not me!”
Bon Bon looked at me with cold fury. “Well, I don’t care what you would mean by that, but I’m wise to all of your tricks, and you can’t fool me!”
“Where’s the broom then?”
“What?”
I repeated myself, “Where’s the broom?”
She stared and paused. “Lyra took it with her.”
I laughed, which made Bon Bon jump into a fighting stance.
“She knew that as soon as I woke up you’d try to bash my head in again!” She glared at me still.
Suddenly, I remembered something that had occurred to me earlier. “So,” I pointed to Bon Bon’s flank “what exactly are those for?” referring to the image of three toffees located there. Looking back herself, she followed my pointing finger, and then looked back to me.
“It’s a Cutie Mark. It shows what talent or special skill we ponies have.”
“Interesting. Is there anyone else with a Mark like yours?”
For a split second, Bon Bon held a small smile, “No, a pony gets their Cutie Mark from finding their talent from their own unique experience: it’s mine and mine only.” My head drooped a little as she continued on; the smile growing on her face as she reminisced. “I found mine early as a filly. Both my parents were fantastic cooks. As I watched them growing up, I found my little niche in the family business making sweets.” I was overcome with memories of my own mother and father; they were not so pleasant.
“But what does it matter to you anyway?” Bon Bon’s face returned to its hard as stone appearance, “Why should I talk to you? It’s not like you even care.”
“Deep down I scare you..don’t I?”
She paused for a second, an expression of mild surprise caught on her face, “Well obviously! You’re a raving monstrous creature!”
“That’s a lie and you know it!” I said a little too forcibly. She fell back on her rump, stunned into remaining in that position.
“I’m no monster, but I scare you for another reason entirely; I’m a change in your orderly lifestyle. It’s obvious you like things going according to plan. It’s why this house is so clean!” I waved my arm to the room in general as my example; the place was utterly spotless.
“Just because I like cleanliness doesn’t make me a neat freak!” she retorted; shakily, I might add.
“In the last twenty-four hours I’ve been in this world, I’ve messed up your life completely, and I’m sorry for that.”
“So why don’t you just go back to where you came from!” She shouted, starting to tear up, "Why don't you just leave us be and go away?"
I paused, and then I sighed, “I don’t know if I can, and besides, I wouldn’t want to. From what little I’ve seen of your world, there is more compassion for a complete stranger, an alien no less, from two or three of your kind then there is in my entire world.” I paused again; Bon Bon had stopped crying and was silently looking at me. “I was one of the homeless: I had no job, and I have no family. I was taken from the streets to be used in a test.” I had trouble trying to express myself in words she could understand. “This test had the risk of my life being lost, which was deemed as ‘acceptable losses’; because I mean, whose going to miss you if you have no one to care about you? I didn’t come by choice, and it’s probably by random chance I ended up here to bother you. So, for good or for worse, I’m here whether you like it or not.”
I’d been looking down at the floor all this time, expecting a judgmental look boring into my head; it’s what I was used to back on Earth. But when there was still silence, I looked up to see what was going on. Bon Bon was still silently looking at me. She slowly got off of her behind and came over me. She sat on her rump again right next to me, and she wrapped her forelegs around me, almost like a hug.
“I’m so sorry.” She kept holding on to me. Hell, even I was tearing up at this point! She then let me go.
“Here, let me make something for you,” she said quietly.
She went into the kitchen, and I could hear the sound of the clang of kitchenware. She was in there for a long time. She would intermittently come in and look at me with her own melancholy face. I started to smell wonderful things. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was though. Bon Bon came out with a plate full of yellow cookies, covered in powdered sugar. They were warm; fresh out of the oven. I took one from off of the plate and slowly put it in my mouth. It was really good! It tasted like lemons; very sweet lemons!
“Do you like them?” she asked.
“They’re very good. You’re a good cook!” I murmured. She smiled.
“They’re called ‘Lemon Snowflake Cookies”. My mother made them, and my grandmother before her.” She paused.
“Thank you.” I said. We sat there for a while.
“What does your name mean?”
“What, Adam?”
“Yes. Does it have something to do with your special talent?”
“It was supposedly the name of the first human. It’s a bit symbolic I guess. A whole new world, and a whole new life ahead of me, I might as well be a new man.”
“What was your name before?”
“There’s no point in telling you now. I’ve left my past behind me, and I want to look to a better life here.”