//------------------------------//
// Wagoneering 
// Story: Appledashery 
// by Just Essay 
//------------------------------//

	"Bon Bon..."  Vinyl Scratch spoke.  "...we're talking about a mare who—when a group of Wildebeest Ambassadors rolled through Ponyville on their way to Canterlot—she made a very crass and audible joke about the Zebraharan Holocaust within earshot of the biggest and most muscular of the dignitaries."  Her nostrils flared.  "How could you possibly be in love with that?"

"But you don't understannnnnnd..."  Bon Boon teetered in her stool.  "That's just Lyra's way of getting attention!"

"Insulting the memories of countless dead zebras?"

"No no no!"  Bon Bon briefly frowned, then smiled again, eyelashes fluttering.  "Deep inside that mare is a lonely soul calling out for help!  I just know it!"  She gulped.  "Being ugly... being insulting... being rude..."  A shrug.  "That's her combating her own desire for closeness and intimacy.  Every time she feels like sharing her true feelings, she lashes out and pushes other ponies away."

"Uh huh..."

"I..."  Bon Bon smiled.  "...I would love to be the pony who finally frees her from the shackles of her own insecurities.  I mean... can you all imagine a Lyra who isn't so abrasive?"

Vinyl took a sip of her drink.  "No."

"Vinylllll..."  Bon Bon folded her forelimbs and frowned.  "She'd be amazing!  Unstoppable, even!  I really, truly believe the mare has enough talent to make it big as a music performer!"

"Pffft..."  Rainbow smirked.  "You serious?"

"Absolutely!  You should listen to her go on and on about her teaching career!  It's an abysmal hole in the wall of her career!"  Bon Bon sighed.  "And she deserves more..."

"I think what Lyra deserves is a swift smack upside the horn, most of the time," Vinyl said.

Rainbow pointed.  "What DJ-P0N3 said."

"I think Lyra deserves a second chance..."

"And a third and a fourth and a fifth—"

"Whatever it takes!"  Bon Bon exclaimed.  "I think she's been so successful in pushing other ponies away throughout the years that she... sh-she doesn't know how much she's missing... and how much she's truly capable of if she attempted to enjoy life for all its warmth and not its cold, dark, emptiness."

"You're a very kind mare, Bon Bon," Vinyl said.  "But, if you ask me, you're barking up the wrong tree."  She took another sip.  "More like coughing down the wrong thorn bush."

"Yes..."  Bon Bon's eyes sparkled.  "...but that only means a rose can blooooom."

"Oye."  Vinyl smirked.  "Okay.  I trotted right into that one."

"Bon Bon, have..."  Rainbow Dash fidgeted where she sat.  "H-have you ever thought that... that this is all just..."

"What, Rainbow?"

Rainbow looked at her squarely.  "A huge, foalish crush?"

Bon Bon slowly nodded.  "Yes.  I have thought that.  But—considering all the time I've spent with Lyra, witnessing her crass humor and rough opinions—you'd think that would have faded away eventually."

"It hasn't?"

Bon Bon shook her head.  "No."  She smiled.  "I still think of Lyra constantly.  If anything, her personality... eggs me on..."

"Eggs you on?" Vinyl remarked.

Rainbow gazed off into the distance.  "You find Lyra to be a challenge."

Bon Bon's eyes twitched.

"A grand... irresistible challenge," Rainbow continued.  "And if you don't make an attempt to cross that river between you, after all this time, it'll make you feel like you've wasted a good portion of your life."

Vinyl glanced between Rainbow and Bon Bon.

Bon Bon sighed.  "Yes..."  She bore a bittersweet smile.  "Yes, I do believe that sums it up."

"Well, we're crazy enough to be in a place like this already," Rainbow said.  She shrugged.  "What's one more act of insanity?"

Bon Bon stared down into the bar counter.  She lifted her drink, took a sip of it, and eventually exhaled.  "I... just might consider it."  Her lips curved as a rosiness spread across her muzzle.  "Mmmmmm... yes.  Just might."

Rainbow blinked.  She felt a tingling in her forelimbs... and eventually grumbled.  Turning about, she raised a hoof at the bartender.  "One cider, please.  Make it tall."

Bon Bon blinked.

"Rainbow, you... sure about that?" Vinyl asked.

"Yeah," Rainbow muttered, eyes reflecting a tall yellow glass as it slid over.  "Pretty dang sure..."