The sun rose, as it usually does, in its own unique way. A slow, earth-warming glow that spread across the land, like honey creeping across a warm slice of bread, reviving the earth with its gentle touch. As it billowed out over the viridian fields, the gentle sounds of nature slowly awoke with it, the sweet birdsong rising at a slow, deliberate pace.
As the birds sang, and the sun bathed Ponyville in its radiant glow, some of the light filtered through her window, casting a ray of light no wider than a candle’s width upon her bed. It slowly continued to encroach on the bed, eventually coming to rest on her eyelids.
Groaning tiredly, the cream-coloured mare turned over, burying her face in her pillow. The sun warmed her back, but made no attempts to wake her further. She dozed peacefully, the sun’s rays holding her in place, making the pull of sleep irresistible. The day seemed too perfect, too comforting to risk getting out of bed. It was all the better that she stay in her warm, safe bed, where absolutely nothing could go wrong.
“Power up the Bass Cannon!” a bizarre metallic voice rang out, silencing the birds. The sunlight seemed to become askew, and the gentle breeze stopped. The mare in bed stirred, but only a bit.
"...Fire!"
An impossibly loud noise completely destroyed the tranquil noises of nature, obliterating the gentle drone of the early rising ponies in the streets. She bolted upright in surprise as the noise thrust her into the waking world. She stared around blearily, trying to find the source of this horrible racket. The noise finally registered as music as she listened to the metallic, rhythmic beats, and a look of resignation dawned on her face. She knew this song. Everypony knew this song.
She crawled out of bed and approached the window. She peered at her neighbor’s house, which was shaking from the tremendous force of the bass reverberating from within. The windows rattled in their frames. Heck, even the things in her own house were rattling. Her alarm clock bounced and jiggled. The pictures on the wall swayed precariously. Ripples were forming in the glass of water she had set next to her bed. The noise was unbearable, and she was across the street from the source. If things were like this at her house, how in Equestria was her neighbor’s house still standing? She didn’t know or care. It was time to for it to stop.
She trekked through the hall, down the stairs and out the door. She didnt have time to stop or appreciate her surroundings, how could anypony appreciate anything with this racket? Instead, she kept her eyes focused on the source of the problem, the open window on the second floor. Her neighbor had been told before that she had to keep the soundproof windows she’d bought closed. It was part of the bylaws in Ponyville, yet she still ignored it.
She trotted up to the front door and knocked, but there was no response. She tried again, louder this time, accompanied by ringing the doorbell. You could barely hear her knocking over the pulsing bass from within. Her neighbors were getting flustered. Several ponies shot dirty looks at the house, to whom she smiled apologetically. Abandoning all attempts to attract the tenant’s attention through subtle means, she moved to the front window and peered into the kitchen.
Inside she could see the culprit, a white unicorn mare with a wild blue mane. Bobbing her head to the music, the mare poured herself a generous glass of orange juice, then topped it off with a large can of some energy drink. Sunlight glinted off her shades, and a wide, confident smile seemed permanently attached to her muzzle. This was her signature look. A lot of ponies envied her happy-go-lucky lifestyle. A lot of ponies, save for the one peeking into the window at the moment.
She knocked on the window, her hoofs clonking against the glass. The noise wasn’t much louder, but it was much more localized, so it got the unicorn’s attention. She waved at the mare outside, who motioned to the door. The unicorn misinterpreted and waved back, pointing at her orange juice. The annoyed mare tried again, and the confused mare inside pointed at her drink. Angrily, she shook her head and pointed to the door; the mare inside shrugged, while the cream colored mare facehoofed. One last time she pointed to the door, and the pony inside finally understood. They moved to the door in unison, but the outsider still had to wait a minute before the door opened.
As the door opened, a proverbial wall of bass rocketed out the house, nearly sweeping the agitated mare off her feet. Swaying a bit, she got her balance, and attempted to address the pony inside.
“Vinyl!” she shouted over the speakers.
“What?” the other mare didn’t seem to hear her.
“Close your window, please!” she shouted again.
“No thanks! I’m allergic to cheese!” the wild-maned mare shouted back.
“No! Close your window!”
“Filly please! Everypony has seen that movie!” Vinyl laughed while the other facehoofed. This was getting nowhere.
Still, she tried again. “Your window is open!”
Vinyl frowned. “I’m pretty sure freezers are supposed to be frozen!”
Exasperated, she shouted as loud as possible. “Vinyl Scratch, you irritating foal! Close your freaking window!”
“Oh.” the mare turned around and trotted upstairs. A moment later, the noise was substantially dulled as the window closed, followed by the heavy door leading to Vinyl’s room. A moment later, the rave pony reappeared downstairs, still grinning.
“Sorry Bon Bon, I couldn’t hear you over my new sound system.” she didn’t look the least bit sorry. “Did you want something?"
Bon Bon sighed. How anypony could stand Vinyl was beyond her. She was totally clueless, not to mention loud and immature. How could somepony even stand to be in the same room as her? Still, she gave her a thin smile.
“I just wanted to see if you could remember to keep you window closed in the morning? I’m sure I’m not the only one who would appreciate it.” They had been neighbors for years, and yet the same routine occurred every week.
“Yeah, no problem.” the mare seemed totally unruffled by the request. Sometimes you had to wonder if she even heard a thing anypony said. Maybe the speakers had blown out her eardrums. That might explain some of the troubles they had with her.
“Well, I’m glad that’s settled.” Bon Bon masked her impatience with a small smile. This was far from over, she knew. Next up, her neighbor would be asking her to—
“You wanna come inside for some breakfast?” Vinyl asked, on cue.
“No Vinyl, I don’t want breakfast.” Bon Bon replied. As usual.
And then came the—
“Well, how about we hang sometime? We never hang!”
“No we don’t. And we won’t today, either.”
And lastly, here came the-
“C’mon, throw me a bone, pal. At least come check out one of my shows. It’ll be cool to see a familiar face!”
Bon Bon shook her head. Same old routine, every week.
"Vinyl, we've been through this before," she began. "One, I don't like loud music. Two, I don't like the club you work at. The drinks suck, the place is always crowded, and it's a pain to get to."
Vinyl’s grin didn’t waver as she shrugged. “Whatever you say. I’m just trying to find somepony to hang with. Tavi never goes to the clubs with me."
Probably because she’s got decent taste in music, Bon Bon thought.
"Anyway, thank you for closing your window, try to keep it closed next time and have a good day." Bon Bon turned around and trotted away, allowing her facade to slip away, scowling a bit. It was the same thing, all the time. Every morning, Vinyl woke the neighborhood up to the same song, and every morning, Bon Bon had to fix it. But it was fine now, and it was time for the day to begin. She trotted quickly back to her house as the world slowly resumed it's normal activities.
The birds began to sing again, or maybe they'd been singing the whole time, it was hard to tell when the speakers next door had been blasting. Everypony else had returned to their homes, probably to fix up breakfast.
Her stomach growled. Bon Bon wouldn't mind a bit of breakfast herself. She envisioned an enticing cup of coffee with her friends, and a delicious blueberry muffin from Sugar Cube Corner. But she had things to do before work, so she returned upstairs and stepped into her bathroom. A nice warm shower was always the best start to a day like this. Hay, a nice warm shower was the answer to everything. She closed the door behind her and climbed in, allowing the hot water to soak away her early morning stress.
Fifteen minutes later, she returned from her shower, refreshed and ready to begin another day of work. She had the entire day laid out already. She would have breakfast with her friends, then she went to work, followed by goofing off with friends until she got tired. Rinsdiscardedeat. Every so often she got tired of this endless cycle, and wished for a change from her routine. But she usually put these thoughts down, while she wasn't as organized as other ponies, having a good sense of direction was a great way to go. So once again, she discarded the thought of abandoning her schedule and began the trek downtown.
Before departing, she caught herself casting one last glance at her neighbor's house. You could still see the windows shaking if you looked hard enough. Shaking her head, she continued moving. Her friends were probably already at their usual table, waiting for her. And she had no doubts that they'd have a field day with Vinyl's antics this morning.
"You're kidding!" Lyra laughed as she finished her story.
"Yup," Bon Bon responded, taking a bite of her muffin. "Woke me up with a bass drop again."
"I really don't get her." Lyra commented. The mint green unicorn shared a table with Bon Bon. Joining them for breakfast were their two other friends, a blue unicorn with a mane reminiscent of a toothpaste stripe. This was Minuette, the resident movie fanatic. Also at the table sat a pale yellow earth pony with a brilliant orange mane. Her name was Golden Harvest. However, there was a fifth seat that was normally occupied whenever they ate breakfast together.
"So where's Berry today?" Bon Bon nodded in the direction of the vacant seat. Berry Punch, one of her other friends, usually ate with them every morning. But for some reason, she'd been scarce lately. It was probably nothing, as the mare was notorious for forgetting things.
"Probably sleeping in," Lyra quipped. "She talked about taking a vacation last time I saw her. I guess it's not over yet."
"Any ideas for the weekend?" Bon Bon asked her friends.
"We could see a movie." The blue mare suggested.
"Oh please, Minuette," The orange mare rolled her eyes. "We always go to the movies!"
"So? I like to watch movies!" Minuette protested. "Besides, I don't see you coming up with any great ideas, Carrot Top!"
Golden Harvest, or Carrot Top to her friends, opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off by Lyra.
"How about a mare's night out?" She exclaimed. "We could go to some clubs and dance all night!"
Everypony looked happy with the idea, even Bon Bon. It had been a while since they'd ever gone clubbing.
"Sounds good," She admitted. "Anypony know a decent club?"
"Oh!" Minuette waved her hoof enthusiastically, like a filly in school. "There's this great new club in Canterlot opening up! We could check it out and spend the night in a hotel!" She looked excited at the prospect.
"Sounds great!" Lyra beamed.
"Sounds fun!" Carrot Top chimed in.
"Sounds like a plan," Bon Bon finished.
"Then it's settled!" Lyra declared. "This will be the best weekend yet!" Everypony was in agreement. Bon Bon looked up at the clock on the wall and yelped in surprise.
"I'm late!" She jumped from her chair, knocking it over on accident. Righting the chair, she bade a hasty goodbye to her friends and dashed out of the store. Her friends watched her run down the street.
"Hey look." Minuette picked up the remnants of her breakfast. "She forgot her muffin." Everypony at the table groaned comically as Minuette took a big bite of the leftovers.
The day in the store was mostly uneventful. Customers came and went, a few friends stopped by to chat a bit, and a certain pink pony came in and cleared out her licorice supply, claiming it was "a matter of fun or death". Really, where in Equestria did Pinkie come up with this stuff? Still, she paid nicely, so Bon Bon didn't complain.
The real excitement occurred near the end of the working day, an hour before she closed up shop.
She sat around in the back shop, taking stock when the bell rang, followed by a jarring crash. Bon Bon ran to the front of the store to see a grey pegasus toppled over at the front counter. Letters in pristine white envelopes were scattered around the shop, most of them crumbled or battered from the sudden impact of the mail pony colliding with the hard wooden counter. Bon Bon peered curiously at the mare, who got to her feet, eyes spinning almost comically. She blinked a few times, and they stopped rolling, trapped in a perpetual walleyed stare.
"I'm okay!" the mare announced happily, causing Bon Bon to roll her eyes and laugh.
"Ditzy, you've got to be more careful." She leaned over the counter a bit. "Didn't you see the sign in the window?"
The mail pony turned to the window, confusedly trying to spot the sign Bon Bon had pointed out. She eventually spotted it and pointed to it with a hoof.
"The sign means 'no flying'. If every pony flew around in my shop, the place would be a wreck." she told the mail pony.
"Okay!" the pegasus stamped her hooves in understanding.
"Good," she stopped leaning over the counter. "Now, what did you need?"
"Mail for you, Bonnie!" The walleyed mare announced, causing Bon Bon to flinch. She hated that nickname. She didn't totally understand it, but she hated it. The earth pony watched as Ditzy picked up a large package—how it fit into her mail bag was beyond anypony's guess— and dropped it on the counter, along with a form to be signed. Bon Bon looked around for a pen, to no avail. She'd need to go in the back of the shop.
"Listen closely, Ditzy," She spoke up suddenly. "I'm going into the back to get a pen. Can you watch the store for me?."
"Okay, Bonnie!" The pegasus replied cheerfully.
She turned around and walked into the back, looking around the clutter workplace for a pen. She picked one up from her desk, when there was another jarring clatter from the front of the store. Bon Bon bolted to the counter to see a large display case of jellybeans overturned, Ditzy was buried in the sugary avalanche.
Sighing, Bon Bon dropped her pen and wandered to the front of the store, helping Ditzy out of the mess.
"What did I say?" She demanded in a stern voice, causing the pegasus' ears the droop.
"S-sorry" It was obvious that she'd completely forgotten already.
Bon Bon rolled her eyes,helping the Pegasus to her feet.
"Its fine. Just... Be careful, okay?" She clenched the pen in her mouth and moved it about in swift strokes, After signing the form and picking up her package, she watched as Ditzy picked up the form and the undelivered letters, and trotted out the door, brushing past a grey earth pony who stepped into the messy confectionery.
"Sorry about the mess, Octavia." She apologized profusely.
The earth pony smiled in understanding. "It's fine, I'm sure. It's been one of those days, has it?" She looked behind her at the mail pony, who collided with another pegasus in flight. Letters scattered everywhere.
"Yup," She giggled as she watched the mail pony snatch up her letters. "One of those days."
"Indeed." Octavia observed the spectacle outside. Bon Bon didn't mind Octavia that much. She was normally polite and friendly to everypony, and was down to earth and realistic as well. They weren't exactly friends or anything, but she enjoyed the musician's company, as well as her patronage to her store.
"So, what can I get you?" She asked, tapping the counter with her hooves.
"A bag of saltwater taffy today, please." Octavia responded in her Hoofington accent. It was a nice affectation to her voice, but it was a dying one. Bon Bon was counting down the days until the mare lost all of her upper class values and started talking like everypony else.
"Sure thing!" Bon Bon scooted from the counter to the display case of colored taffy, which, thankfully, hadn't been knocked over by Ditzy. "Which kind would you like?"
"The white ones, please. With the little blue stripes." The mare responded swiftly.
The confectioner stopped suddenly. She never expected something like this, especially not from Octavia.
"Planning something special?" She asked, forcing a smile.
Octavia blushed profusely, soliciting an inward groan from Bon Bon as she filled the bag with sweets.
"Vinyl's headlining a new club in Canterlot. She doesn't know that I know yet."
"So what's with the Vinyl colored taffy?" She nudged the bag onto a scale.
"Think of it as..." Octavia paused. "...an early Hearts and Hooves day gift."
Bon Bon rolled her eyes. She would never have pegged Octavia as the romantic type. Bon Bon herself found the notion of romance ridiculous.
"Here you go." She said brightly, hiding her annoyance. Just because she wasn't a huge fan of romantic expression didn't mean she had to act like it.
"Wonderful!" She picked up the bag, stuffing it into her saddlebag. "How much do I owe you?"
"About 10 bits." In truth it was probably a bit or two less, but it didn't really matter. Bon Bon didn't mind playing off of ponies' generosity around Hearts and Hooves day.
Octavia paid her due and turned around. "Have a good evening!" She called to the confectioner.
Bon Bon eyed the mess of Jellybeans that the earth pony skirted around.
Too late. Bon Bon thought. She picked up a broom with her teeth and started sweeping up the technicolor landslide.
An hour later, the candy store was cleaned and closed. Bon Bon had taken inventory, noticing she'd lost over half of her jellybean supply in the commotion. But that didn't really matter. She could just order a new shipment with the little bits she earned this week. But that was a worry for another day. For now, it was time to go home.
The walk home was always different, which helped Bon Bon forget her nagging sense of repetition that followed her like some dark, malevolent spirit. The dark was always unique, with candle light illuminating different houses on different nights, while the moon overhead changed phases constantly, night after night. It was comforting to have that small bit of chaotic indecision whenever the sun went down. But even the moon is limited, and it eventually repeats its forlorn cycle.
Bon Bon wandered home alone, through the quiet streets. The only ponies around were the young and the restless, ponies with no place to go, and nothing to look forward to in the following days, except the prospect of untainted possibility. These were the ponies who hadn't fallen into the curse of schedule, the ponies who still had a spark of individuality, of spontaneity. Oh, how she envied them. She walked past them, towards her home. As she drew closer, she began to hear the muffled noises of electronic music, mostly bass, blasting through her neighborhood.
Vinyl was still going strong, though she had kept her promise to close her windows. Bon Bon spent a moment staring at the light in the DJ's house, reflecting briefly on her conversation with Octavia earlier. She and Vinyl were always very close, to the point where most ponies expected the pair to be inseparable. It wasn't impossible for such a thought to be truth, but then again, a relationship was just routine.
Bon Bon stepped into her home and crawled upstairs, climbing into bed, still thinking about the routine aspects of romance.
Relationships are a lot like a daily routine. She thought as the bass lulled her to sleep.
And routines eventually fall apart. They always do.