Lyra plucked away at the strings of her lyre as she sat on the street corner with her coin box, living on the kindness of strangers was always something that made her feel that her music was appreciated. She was playing a small tune that she truly liked and hoped that others liked it as well. Tress came up to Lyra and sat down and listened to the tune, this was soon followed by Bonbon. The music playing mare only played the song once more and then upon finishing she opened her eyes to the sound of two ponies applauding, seeing as one of them was Bonbon her cheeks went hot.
Bonbon smiled at Lyra before placing a few bits in her box and then she went about her way, while Tress stayed behind with lyrist.
“So what’s that little bit of music called?” Tress had nothing to do; she already spent some time with Rainbow at the dojo. The fantastic flyer was getting better at taking a hit and would soon lose the glass to her cannon.
“A griffon named Medley taught me that one; she said it was about awakening winds.” Lyra sighed and played it again, it was calm tune that felt like a soft breeze blowing through the air with a fluttering leaf. After she finished she turned to Tress with a question on the tip of her tongue.
“Did you need something Heartstrings?” Tress tilted her head and flicked her ears in an attentive manner. Tress pulled out a coin and tossed it into Lyra’s coin box. “One bit for your thoughts? I’m listening.”
“Actually yes, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. It’s just kind of hard to ask, but how do you live with Twilight Sparkle? I mean how do you get along with her and stay her friend while living in the same house as she does? Doesn’t anything that happens between the two of you ever get awkward? Doesn’t all the stuff she drags you into ever make you think of striking it out on your own.” In truth Lyra was asking because she wanted to move in with Bonbon and she wanted to learn from a mare that’s got some experience sharing a space with another pony. “It’s just been bugging me that you two can share a space so easily. Also how did you end up living with her and why do you even still do?”
“Well what can I tell you? Twilight’s family took me and gave me a home and I don’t exactly have any other family to go to. I really don’t like to talk about it.” Tress watched as Lyra cringed at bringing up her lack of a family. “Why I still continue to live with Twilight is because she’s my best friend and I like being around her to see what happens next. Maybe I also have a protective streak with my closer friends who all now reside in Ponyville. It’s not always perfect and things can get awkward, it just doesn’t happen often enough. In fact it was her friendship that kind of helped me out of a bad place. Would you believe I used to be a somewhat chronically depressed super villain with very little in life that could truly ever make me happy except getting the stuffing beat out of me?”
“I can tell you now that your special talent is not acting, though being a super villain in a play sounds like something you could pull off. You got the evil cackle down extremely well that it’d send shivers down the spine of a pony that didn’t know the real you.” Lyra didn’t know why Tress looked at her with a bit of a sad smile. “Though having a nice mane does go a long way to having a good stage presence I must admit.”
“Yeah plays… the real me.” Tress rubbed the back of her head with a hoof slightly ruffling her shimmering light blue hair.
“I guess it was easy for you to get a job doing something like that, so were you adopted by Twilight’s family?” Lyra noticed Tress’s body language got even more uncomfortable.
“I was never in an orphanage to be adopted. Where I come from the laws are slightly different, also I had to run a hair styling empire after my families untimely demise. It put a lot of stress on me and it wasn’t until later that I met Twilight and truly started to feel alive again instead of going through the motions.” In oh so many words that she was a comic book character that was destined to be beaten into submission for the rest of her life by costumed weirdoes, ones with no real social lives due in part to all the crime fighting. All the while her sanity would have continued to slip further into the depths, then some purple hooves wrapped around her in comfort and it all changed. “I left everything I’ve ever had behind after meeting her. The Sparkle family took me in with open hooves and almost shoved delicious cookies down my throat. To say Twilight's parents liked anyone who legitimately becomes their daughter’s friend is putting it lightly. Fluttershy is always getting hugs from Twilight’s mother Velvet and they’ve even referenced me as the daughter they’ve always had that sadly went missing for ten or so years.”
“Have you ever thought of going back? Sounds like you were wealthy and I know you’re doing well enough now, but don’t you ever miss being in charge or all that money you left behind as well?” Lyra never thought Tress seemed all too wealthy. She’s only heard from Octavia and Rarity that Tress had worked with Fleur De Lis who was that supermodel that had recently married the philanthropist Fancy Pants.
“I had no money when I started living with the Sparkle family, as I said I left it all behind and I mean absolutely everything. I don’t really have anything that I would want to go back for; I’m truly wealthier for just having good friends and family. Money can get you a lot of stuff, but it can’t buy true happiness. Besides that form of currency is not viable here anyway.” Equestrian currency and Maretropolis currency were two entirely different things. Even if Tress had brought some of that currency over into this world, it would have been pretty useless. “I don’t want to live through having to run a company again after all the stress it put on me, I kind of hurt myself pretty badly because of it. Good thing it wasn’t a permanent injury.”
“You must be from Prance or something given your looks. Are you sure you’re right about currency not buying happiness? I wouldn’t want to pay Bonbon to like me or just buy her love outright. Ponies try it all the time with chocolates or roses, it’s become a truly common way to show affection by buying those two items. One of which Bonbon already produces and the other her friend grows. Basically ponies spend money on the other ponies they like and it almost seems like they’re trying to buy love with those tokens of affection which requires aforementioned money.” It was the beginning of an argument of whether true love was dead or not, Lyra really wondered if these thoughts occurred because of Cadence imprisoning herself. “If it makes a pony happy that you bought flowers that won’t last very long or chocolates that will get them fat if they are liked for their looks… doesn’t it seem kind of counterproductive to actual true love? Especially if said love is based on what your partner can get or do for you? Sure there must be some effort involved in the relationship, but it seems like there’s always requirements and conditions. Can’t a pony just unconditionally love another without pointless trinkets? Can you imagine if I trotted up to Rarity and told her point blank that her idea of love was asinine? Especially if she’s basing them on some poorly written romance novels about vampire ponies called Dawn.”
“So this is a philosophical question about how you should approach Bonbon with the fact that you like her more than a friend, despite the fact that she already knows? This aside from the debate of whether or not love has truly become a commodity that can be bought with money by association of trying to win over a pony’s heart with a mass of gifts. I’m pretty sure Chrysalis would love to hear that gilded lilies will get her love. Now that I think about, it already has… sort of.” A changeling would jump at the chance to buy love in bulk, so would a succubus for that matter. Their methods of feeding may seem similar but were actually quite different. Tress would find it humorous to see who would be the higher bidder in an auction war between those two races. She may even see something like that happening from just being around Twilight long enough. “Just please don’t get Rarity started. She’s already bad at matchmaking as it is, we don’t need to point out her failures of getting a date with her absurdly high standards in place.”
“I can even play music while we’re discussing it too. I want the love I feel for Bonbon to be pure, even using my talent in music would be buying her love in a different way. It would be because of something I can do and not for who I am even if it is technically a part of me.” Lyra knew Bonbon liked her and wanted the relationship, she didn’t want to court Bonbon in a way that other ponies would and she wasn’t sure if Bonbon would go for it. She knew Bonbon was already okay with a mare liking her and didn’t mind a lyrist that had some eccentricities. Still if she didn’t want to eat grass and wanted some fine tasting produce she better start producing herself, she started playing another tune on her lyre. “Do you actually see a pony marrying one who lives off the land and doesn’t have a single bit to their name? It seems to me that a pretty pony could have anyone they want and treat them like dirt just because they are rich, they’ll even get away with treating others like dirt too.”
“Is this coming from seeing it happen to some pony else or is it the personal experience where a pony stole a previous fancy of yours?” Now things were on the other hoof as Tress saw Lyra wince and hugged her lyre tightly. “Ouch, I guess that answers my question. Kind of says a lot about Princess Cadence. How can she truly be the princess of love? She has to know what love is like considering she had at least been given some unconditional love at least one point in her life right? At least she’s seen her own mistakes and is willing to take responsibility for her actions.”
“Speaking of unconditional love, isn’t romance about physical attraction? Wouldn’t that mean my love for Bonbon is all based in her form instead of just for who she is? She has cute ears and her body is quite nice to look at. If that was all I cared about then I’d be hurting her and I would never want to do that.” Lyra could somehow match her lyre playing to her mood; it was a somber tone.
“Well you can’t perfectly love everything about her, that’s why you need to start dating her to figure out what it is that you like and dislike about her. Just because you don’t like something about her doesn’t mean you can’t tolerate it and still love her.” Tress was pretty sure she wasn’t the pony to go to about this kind of thing. “I’m beginning to think Heartstrings is a prophetic family name considering you're plucking at the strings in your own heart.”
“Tress has a point Lyra; you can’t possibly love every single little thing about me. Blind love would be equally false if you don’t test the waters even a little, though it’s kind of sweet that you think you’re unworthy of a rather ordinary normal pony like me.” Bonbon leaned in and kissed Lyra’s cheek. It caused the lyrist to play a few weird notes and faint, Bonbon giggled into her hooves at the sight. She had been standing behind the lyre player after doing some light shopping while listening in to their conversation.
“Laying it on a bit thick there eh Bonnie?” Tress received a completely unapologetic smile for her query. “Well now you’ll have to deal with her, I wash my hooves of this situation.”
“Can’t you at least help me wake her up first? I’m willing to tolerate all of her eccentricities if she’s willing to tolerate mine.” Bonbon’s voice was one of those weird things about her and it was a thing ponies in Ponyville got used to, no pony other than Lyra would actually say it was an attractive feature.
“Tolerating each other isn’t the problem here; it’s being able to do it in an enclosed environment for long periods of time.” Tress started poking Lyra with a stick she found nearby. Derpy eventually appeared carrying a small box and opened it to reveal a small amount of smelling salts and she held it under Lyra’s nose causing the mare to immediately jerk awake.
“Thanks Derpy, do you always carry a small box of smelling salts on you?” Bonbon received a cheerful walled eyed smile as the mare snapped the box close and flew off without a word. “I’ll take that as a yes. It must be useful to have that stuff on hoof at all times if your prospective life partner keeps fainting on you. So Lyra, do you want to go on a date with me?”
Lyra fainted again while murmuring an answer while throwing her hooves up in the air before losing consciousness once more.
“Just be aware that unicorns can be a lot trouble. I live with one so I would know, I guess it’s probably no worse than the crazy ponies living here anyway.” Tress motioned to all of Ponyville with a single wide sweep of her hoof.