“Hi honey, I’m home~!” sang Lyra as she trotted in through the door.
“How was your day?” came an answering cry from within. Lyra sniffed the air, judging by the delicious smell Bon Bon was working in her kitchen.
“Not bad,” said Lyra, trying to keep the excitement from her voice, “I played a bit in the park, only made a few bits though. I bumped into Ditzy, she looks like she’s finally shaken off that flu, she had some post for me. You’ll never guess...”
“That’s nice,” interrupted Bon Bon, “Did you pick up that Vanilla extract I asked for?”
Lyra blinked, she knew she’d forgotten something. “Sorry I forgot, we can get it later.”
“Lyra!” cried Bon Bon, her slightly flour stained face popping up from behind the kitchen door as Lyra approached. “They’ll be closed! I need it for this new toffee recipe I’m trying out! I gave you one job to do!”
Lyra scowled a bit, Bon Bon hadn’t told her it was that important. “Sorry, but wait until I tell you what my letter was about.”
Bon Bon humphed and then sighed as she approached wiping a hoof on her apron. “I’ll have to throw away the whole batch, that’s almost fifty bits down the drain,” she complained, “But fine what was in your letter?”
“You know I went to that audition up in Canterlot the week before last, the one Octy set me up with?”
Bon Bon frowned. “The one where you said the director was undressing you with her eyes despite you not wearing anything?”
“Yeah,” she’d forgotten about that, hopefully the mare could be a bit more professional in the future. “Well I got the position, I’ll be supporting the Cloudsdale operatic group on their tour, I’ll even be on stage for some of it.”
“That’s wonderful sweetie, when is it?”
“The tour itself is next month, between the 8th and 21st, rehearsals will be starting next week!”
Bon Bon blinked for a moment. “So you'll be away on the 10th then?”
“Yeah, I guess so, I think we’re on the road to Trottingham then.” There was something about that date which rang a bell but she wasn’t sure what, it probably wasn’t that important.
“Lyra, that’s the day of the Equestria Deserts National! You promised me you’d be free to help me then!” moaned Bon Bon.
“Oh,” Lyra felt her stomach drop, how could she have forgotten that? her lover had been going on about it all month, working so hard to prepare and getting all stressed about it. “Look I’m sorry, but this is a really big thing for me, it could open all sorts of doors if it goes well.”
“So could the deserts contest for me! Its the biggest show of it's type in the whole country! I had to work so hard to place!”
“Look, I’m sorry but I can’t just put off the whole tour to help you for one day. I’ll see if Carrot Top or Trixie can help, they know more about cooking than I do.” She moved up and tried to put a conciliatory arm around Bon Bon but she shrugged her aside and turned her back.
“I know, but this is important to me, and I wanted you to be there with me.”
“With the money I get for this gig maybe we can go on a holiday somewhere, just you and me.” She tried to embrace Bon Bon again and this time the mare did not push her away.
“I suppose so,” she sighed, “How much are you getting?”
Lyra grinned as she said the figure. “That... that’s quite a bit,” gasped Bon Bon sounding shocked.
“Yep, a few more gigs like this and you can be my kept mare,” she joked, “You’ll never have to make another sweet as long as you live!”
To Lyra’s surprise, Bon Bon’s face screwed up in a scowl. “What do you mean by that?! I like making sweets, it’s my special talent!”
“Yeah but come on, you don’t make a lot doing it do you? We can only just pay off the mortgage on this place plus the cost of ingredients. You’re working your hooves to the bone for almost nothing!” This had long been a point of contention between them; Bon Bon seemed happy with the situation but Lyra couldn’t help but think her Bonny should be making more given how hard she worked.
“I do all right!” she snapped, “I’ve made more than twice what you’re getting for this ‘gig’ so far this year, and not all of us can just laze around in the park most the time and call it working.”
Lyra blinked as that comment sunk in, Bon Bon seemed to realise she’d gone too far and raised her hoof to her mouth. “I’m not being lazy,” growled Lyra scowling, “I have to practice really hard, they don’t let just anypony play in the opera you know! It’s not something anypony could do like cooking!”
Bon Bon’s hoof dropped from her mouth and she glared at Lyra. “What do you mean by that?!”
“Well come on, it’s not like it’s that hard to mix up a bunch of sugar, flour and stuff and put it in an oven.”
“Well if it’s so easy why don’t you try it then? Oh wait, you can’t make anything even close to edible.”
“You said you liked my pancakes!” exclaimed Lyra, she was really proud of her father's pancake recipe.
“I said that to be nice, you could probably use that batter to fix potholes. Even Trixie wouldn’t eat them!”
“Is that so? Well maybe I was being nice when I told you your donuts were the best I’d tasted, Pinkie’s were much better, not so dry!”
“When have you been tasting Pinkie’s donuts!” she sounded shocked.
“That’s not important! It's not like you’re the only pony in town capable of making sweets. You're lucky I'm here to help out with the finances, this place probably would have gone under by now without me.”
Giving her a death glare, Bon Bon turned on her heel and stalked back towards the kitchen. “Well if you feel that way about my cooking I guess you won’t want dinner tonight!”
“Maybe I don’t,” cried Lyra turning back towards the front door.
“Where are you going?” asked Bon Bon looking back at her.
“I don’t know, I just want to get some air,” grumbled Lyra.
“Why don’t you go back to the park and laze around waiting for ponies to throw bits at you!” mumbled Bon Bon under her breath just loud enough for Lyra to hear.
“Goodbye,” she yelled Lyra slamming the door behind her.
Fuming, Lyra stamped her way through the twilight streets of Ponyville getting some strange looks from the few ponies she passed. How did Bon Bon get off calling her lazy, saying her practicing in the park wasn’t important! It brought money in and it kept her skills sharp. Maybe she didn’t constantly have gigs lined up, but she got enough. Bon Bon was being unreasonable, expecting her to help her with that desert thing when she could be playing in concert halls all around Equestria, something actually important.
Still, she remembered how happy Bon Bon had been when she’d passed the qualifiers for that contest. The silly pony had been so nervous before hoof, she had been sure that she didn’t have the talent to make it to the finals. Lyra had had to tell her again and again just how talented she was, how she was one in a million, and how lucky Lyra was to... to have her.
Lyra shook her head, struggling to hold on to the heat of her anger as the biting cold of reality started to descend on her. Cooking was easy, right? Bon Bon just had to mix some things together... starting really early in the morning, then working in a shop all day, then perfecting recipes in the evening while Lyra got to laze about in a nice warm bed or spend time with her friends.
No... no, she shook her head, it wasn’t like that. She brought in the money to let Bon Bon do her cooking, her concerts paid well! A few times a year, whispered a voice from the back of her head; Bon Bon brought in money each and every day, she had to. The mortgage, the bills, they wouldn’t stop just because Lyra hadn’t had a gig in a few months.
What had she....
What had she done?
She couldn’t have just wrecked her and Bon Bon’s relationship... she couldn’t be that dumb. Lyra’s breathing picked up as panic started to rise in her. They’d argued before, once or twice, but this seemed worse, so much worse.
She had to fix this! She had to fix this now!
She automatically turned back to Bon Bon’s... to their home, and her hooves started to gallop down the street. Gritting her teeth she forced herself to halt and bring her breathing back under control, she needed to do something more, something to prove she really was sorry.
She had an idea.
Bon Bon clutched her pillow tight burying her tear stained face into it, she’d really messed up this time. How could she have said those things? She and Lyra had had arguments before but rarely as bad as this one, Lyra had actually left! Couldn’t bear to be in the same house as her! What if she didn’t come back? What if she moved in with her dads again!
Why had she said those hurtful things? She knew Lyra was sensitive about not always being the most active pony and her work still being somewhat sporadic, but she’d still brought it up again. She was such a bad pony! But Lyra had been cruel too; money had always been a sore point between then. She didn’t like to think that there was no reason why Lyra would stick with her and that she didn’t need her at all; but in, hindsight, it was clear she’d taken Lyra’s joke about being a kept mare too seriously. Still, she worked really at her job, was it too much to ask for a little support from Lyra?
Her ears suddenly twitched as she made out a sound from downstairs. “Bon Bon, are you in here?” came Lyra’s faint voice. Almost without thinking Bon Bon was off the bed and starting to gallop down the stairs towards the door.
“Lyra!” she cried, as she reached the bottom and careened heavily off the wall before rushing into her rather surprised lovers forearms. For a moment they just stayed there holding each other, she couldn’t even remember what they were fighting about.
“I’m sorry, please don’t ever leave me!” mumbled Bon Bon into Lyra’s minty, and surprisingly damp, mane, was it raining out?
“Bonny! You’re here!” cried Lyra.
“I never should have said you were lazy!” admitted Bon Bon.
“No, no you’re right, I can be lazy. I didn’t mean to say you don’t have talent, cooking is really hard! You’re amazing at it!” exclaimed Lyra before kissing Bon Bon fiercely on the lips.
They remained locked together for a several moments before relaxing in each other’s arms. Bon Bon noted a large puddle forming under Lyra water was dripping off of her sodden coat. “Lyra, why are you soaking wet?” she asked.
“You just have that effect on me babe,” said Lyra with a grin.
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow and tried not to giggle.
“Um, well I got you this,” she used her aura to levitate a small bottle into view.
Bon Bon glanced at it looking puzzled. “Vanilla extract? But the store’s closed by now!”
“Yeah well Arkwright lives above the store so I just kept knocking on the window until he responded.”
“And?”
“And he threw a bucket of water over me, but he eventually offered to sell me that, for only three times what he should have,” she gave an awkward grin.
“Oh sweetie,” said Bon Bon before sniffing the air, it smelt like something was burning! Her eyes went wide. “My toffee!” she cried before rushing to the kitchen. By the time she could drag it out of the over her hard work had been returned to a charred block of molten sugar. With a sigh she chiselled it off of the tray and into the bin.
“I’m sorry I said cooking was easy,” admitted Lyra from behind her. Bon Bon tensed for a moment remembering the cruel words. “It’s just that you make it look so easy,” continued Lyra.
Bon Bon turned to see her lover towelling herself off in the doorway. “I’m sorry I said you were lazy,” said Bon Bon, “I know you work really hard at your music, and I know everypony loves to listen to you play in the park.”
“I’m sorry about not being able to make your competition thingy, I’ll say I can’t make the tour, I’m not really into pegalopian music anyway,” said Lyra shrugging.
“No,” said Bon Bon shaking her head, “I know how important that is to you, how big a career boost it could be. I just,” she slumped into a seat in the kitchen, “I just really wanted you to see me do well in the contest, I... I really wanted you to be proud of me.” She’d worked so hard at the qualifiers, she wanted to be the hero for once rather than Lyra.
“Proud of you? Of course I’m proud of you!” cried Lyra moving across the kitchen. “You make the best sweets in all of Equestria!”
“I’m not that good, Lyra you’re... you’re so far out of my league it scares me sometimes,” she admitted
“Bon Bon, what are you...” Bon Bon held up a hoof to silence her.
“Sweetie, you got a scholarship to the princess’s school, you’re one of the elements of harmony, you’ve saved the world... several times, look how much you can make for a few weeks work! Someday,” she choked, “Someday you’re going to realise you don’t need me anymore, you can find somepony so much better than me, you’ll be rich and successful and happy,” her voice started to break, “And I’ll just be Bon Bon of Ponyville, with my little sweet shop barely breaking even.”
Lyra leapt forwards and engulfed Bon Bon in a huge hug, she leant her head against her lover and Bon Bon felt the hum of her magic pass through her. “Bonny, you are so special, so talented; you set up this place all by yourself, you got to the final of this contest and you’re going to win it, you are amazing. I just lucked out getting you, and if you don’t see that, well I’m going to have to work harder to make sure you do see, right?”
Bon Bon closed her eyes, maybe... maybe she knew that but it really helped to have Lyra say it out loud. She smiled, holding Lyra close, “Right.”
“Now do you forgive me for all I said?” asked Lyra.
“Of course I do Sweetie, we're family. You don’t kick out family, just because they get angry and say the wrong thing,” just look at her mother, “If you did there wouldn’t be any families. Do you forgive me?”
“Of course,” said Lyra hugging Bon Bon closer. They stayed there holding each other for a while.
“Bonny,” said Lyra eventually. “Do you really not like my pancakes?”
“Well,” replied Bon Bon a little awkwardly, she hoped Lyra would have forgotten about that, “I think they could do with a little work, I can help you.”
“Ok.” agreed Lyra
There was another pause. “What were you doing trying Pinkie’s donuts?” said Bon Bon recalling the previous argument.
Lyra tensed. “I... I couldn’t help myself, she just had them laid out in the open and they looked so good I had to have a taste, sorry.”
“That’s alright Sweetie,” said Bon Bon through slightly gritted teeth, she wasn’t keen on her sweetie trying other pony’s treats but she could make some exceptions. “You can try other foods as long as you come back to my kitchen at the end of the day.”