For the rest of the day, Bonbon could feel the conversation she had been having with Berry Punch eating away at her like a fruit bat at an apple. Even when the after-school rush brought extra customers, it seemed to question her with every little filly and colt who came to splash out their pocket money on sweets, and by closing time, she was beginning to wonder whether talking to somepony else about her woes had actually been worth it.
As she made her way back to her bungalow for the night, she happened to gaze into Lyra's front garden along the way, and solemnly thought back to the first time she had laid eye on the mint-green mare. That soft, peaceful expression on her face, the soothing tune she played on the lyre, the beautiful atmosphere it all created...it may not have seemed like much at the time, but on reflection, it was perhaps the most beautiful sight Bonbon had ever seen in her entire life. How she would have loved to relive that very moment.
But in the back of her mind, those horrible feelings of self-doubt still lingered. Was she really good enough for Lyra, even after growing up among such a plain lot back in Delamare? Did the mint-green unicorn really feel the same about mares as she did? And even if they did start walking out together, where would it all go from there? Would she still be able to pursue a career as a professional lyrist, or would her confectionery business get in the way? That last possibility shook Bonbon to the core; it was clear from Lyra's Cutie Mark that she was destined for a life of music, and if they were to start a relationship with each other, she would probably never achieve that ambition.
Perhaps, then, this was as far as it was meant to go. Perhaps the closest she should ever allow herself to get to a romance with Lyra was to simply gaze from afar upon that...that angelic young unicorn mare as she continued to hone that enviable talent of hers. With a gloomy look on her face, she plodded onwards towards home, still brooding over her own feelings.
Every evening, after returning home from running her stall, Bonbon would usually take stock of all her sweets, and if there were any varieties that seemed to be in short supply, the rest of her day was spent making fresh batches for the following day. On this particular evening, when she checked her jars, she quickly discovered that Berry Punch's barley sugars weren't the only things that needed to be addressed; by the looks of things, her dolly mixtures were running low, and her chocolate brownies had sold out completely. Perhaps it was lucky, she told herself, that she had already bought the ingredients she needed for the latter only two days ago.
After a quick bite to eat, the cream-coated mare set about the job of baking some more brownies ready for the morning – but with her crush on Lyra still playing on her mind, she was so distracted that she barely seemed able to concentrate. Still, she couldn't just slack off because of some unicorn she couldn't stop thinking about, and there was no way she would let her customers down because of it, so she simply shrugged it off and tried to carry on.
This, however, turned out to be a big mistake. As chance would have it, she had left a bottle of fabric softener on the same counter on which she was mixing up her ingredients, and when she reached for the milk, she failed to notice that she had got completely the wrong bottle. To make matters worse, the colour of the fabric softener was such that she couldn't even tell the difference until after the brownies had been in the oven. Having allowed them to cool, she took an experimental bite out of one of them to see if it was properly done – but almost immediately, her face scrunched up in disgust.
“Ugh!” she exclaimed, hastily swallowing her mouthful and trotting over to the sink for a glass of water. “How in Celestia's name did I manage to make that so...vile?!”
After a quick sip of her drink to take the taste away, she tried another one; but to her annoyance, it tasted exactly the same. Bonbon let out a frustrated growl – this really wasn't her night, was it?
“Never mind,” she grunted, trying to make the best of a bad situation, but all the while unaware just how bad it was about to get. “I'll just make another batch – no biggie!”
With that, she tipped the remaining brownies into the bin and began to gather more ingredients...
Carrot Top was feeling pleased with herself as she made her way home from the marketplace. It had been a good day of business for her, added to which she had been promised a visit by her coltfriend Written Script, a grey unicorn stallion with a purple mane and tail and an unfurled scroll for a Cutie Mark. Her house lay at the far end of Stirrup Street, only a few doors away from Bonbon's bungalow; perhaps she ought to look in on the cream-coated mare on the way.
But just as she was making her way down the street, she heard a distant scream of agony. The goldenrod mare stopped in her tracks.
“Sounds like it's coming from Bonbon's house,” she remarked. “She must be in some kind of trouble. I'd better go see what goes on,” and she galloped down the road towards No. 77.
As Carrot Top approached the bungalow, she happened to glance into the kitchen. She couldn't see much, but could just about make out the shadow of a mare against the cupboards – and from the way the shadow was shifting about, it didn't look too healthy. Without a moment's hesitation, she ran across to the porch and delivered a hard kick to the front door, breaking it off its hinges.
“Bonbon!” she called anxiously. “Bonbon, is everything okay?!”
“Agh...in here!”
Following the reply back to its source, Carrot Top was shocked by what she saw. The kitchen was a right mess, with spilt milk, broken glass and pieces of chocolate scattered all over the floor, while a distressed Bonbon lay close to the counter, writhing and clutching her stomach in pain.
“Bonbon!!” exclaimed Carrot Top in alarm. “What happened? Are you alright?”
“No!!” cried Bonbon in a strained voice. “Brownies...failed...stomach pains...help me!”
Only then did it hit home to Carrot Top – clearly Bonbon must have poisoned herself with her own cookery by mistake, and was in desperate need of medical attention. “Right, stay where you are and try not to panic!” she shouted. “I'll go get an ambulance!” and she darted out of the bungalow as fast as she could. Bonbon was in too much pain to respond, and perhaps it was lucky for Carrot Top that she was unable to move in her state.
Only a quarter of an hour elapsed before the ambulance arrived, but so excruciating was Bonbon's agony that every minute felt like an hour. All the while, her digestive system was burning so horribly that it felt like she was being stabbed from the inside – indeed, if what her aunt had once told her about kidney stones was anything to go by, then this was probably five times worse! By the time the paramedics came in and started lifting her onto a stretcher, the cream-coated mare was in a state of delirium, and could barely even see or hear what was going on around her, let alone tell them what had happened.
The events that followed seemed little more than a blur. After Carrot Top had hurriedly explained about the brownies, the paramedics rolled the stretcher into the ambulance, and as it rushed them back to the hospital, they gave her a general anaesthetic by way of a long, clear plastic tube which they inserted into her mouth. With every breath of the gas she took, the pain slowly began to subside; and at the same time, Bonbon began to feel drowsy and disoriented. The last thing she remembered was the sound of Carrot Top anxiously imploring her to hang on...and then her world went blank......
Lyra returned home from Rainbow Falls a few days later filled with a deep sense of pride and achievement. Her part in the music festival had only been a small one, but it had won her the award for Best Solo Musician on her last day, and she was looking forward to telling Bonbon about it that evening.
Much to her surprise, however, she turned up on Stirrup Street only to find Bonbon's bungalow seemingly unoccupied. All the lights were out, and there wasn't even a shadow to indicate anypony's presence.
“That's funny,” thought Lyra. “Bonbon should have been back ages ago.” She paused, looking down the road. “Hmm...perhaps Carrot Top might know what's going on. Pretty unlikely, but I might as well ask all the same.”
As chance would have it, Carrot Top was just leaving her house as Lyra approached. To the mint-green unicorn's further consternation, she had a look of deepest worry stamped on her face as she passed through her front gate and into the street.
“Hey there, Carrot Top. Something troubling you?”
Carrot Top looked up, startled. “Oh...hullo, Lyra,” she stuttered. “Uh...back from Rainbow Falls already, are you?”
“Where did you expect me to be – down in Sydneigh?!” joked Lyra, trying to sound cheerful. “Music festival finished only yesterday, remember?”
“Yeah, I do remember,” replied Carrot Top uneasily. “I just...oh, grief, how should I put it?”
“Put what?” Lyra raised an anxious eyebrow. “What are you talking about, Carrot Top?”
The goldenrod mare frowned and looked away. Deep down, she wished she didn't have to answer; but Lyra would have to find out the truth sooner or later, no matter what she said or did. “Well...this may come as a bit of a shock, Lyra, but...something awful has happened while you were gone. See, a few days ago, I was walking down this very street when I heard this...this horrifying scream from further along.”
“Where exactly?”
“From...well...” Carrot Top gulped hard and closed her eyes. “It was coming from No. 77,” she explained in an almost breathless voice.
Lyra's eyes widened. “What?!”
“She was lying on the kitchen floor all paralysed with agony, and I had to break into the bungalow in order to see what was wrong with her,” replied Carrot Top, clearly too worried to even think of mentioning whom she was referring to. “I don't know how exactly it happened, but from what the doctors were telling me at the hospital, the fabric softener seemed to have found its way into some of her chocolate brownies. They had to use a stomach pump to get the stuff out before it did her guts any further damage, and even then she needed emergency surgery.”
The mint-green unicorn stared at Carrot Top with an expression of fear and dismay. “Is she okay?” she asked, almost desperately.
“I...I don't know. Last I heard, she was in the intensive care unit in a deep coma,” said Carrot Top gravely.
This was more than what Lyra wanted to hear. Without stopping to wonder how or why fabric softener had gotten into the brownies, she galloped off in the opposite direction, praying to Celestia for her cream-coated friend to be alright.
“...what do you mean I can't see her?!”
“I'm sorry, Lyra, but Bonbon still needs her rest if she's to recover,” replied the nurse. “She's taken some serious damage to her stomach lining, and we're having to keep her under general anaesthetic until she's in a stable enough condition. Until then, we daren't allow any visitors into the room.”
The anxiety on Lyra's face quickly gave way to a despairing look as the information sank in. She wanted so badly to help the cream-coated mare, but having run all the way across town only to discover that there was nothing she could do, she was now overwhelmed with a sinking feeling of helplessness, almost as if the forces of nature were slowly sapping her energy while barring the mint-green unicorn from reaching her at the same time. “She...she will be okay......won't she?”
The nurse sighed unhappily. “I'm afraid I can't answer that question,” she confessed.
“Well......thanks anyway,” answered Lyra morosely. With a small tear in her eye, she turned and plodded wearily out of the hospital, still brooding over Bonbon and her predicament. “I just...I still don't get it. Why would that mare do such a thing to herself......?”