Chapter Twenty-One: Lows and Highs
“Urgh… Wha… What the…”
Canvas’ eyes opened slowly, mostly due to how bright the lights suddenly felt. When the stallion tried to sit up, he realized he wasn’t on the tiled bathroom floor anymore. In fact, he wasn’t even in the bathroom. By the time his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he quickly saw that he was on the couch in Lyra and Bon-Bon’s living room.
Canvas blinked a couple times and began to look around, wondering how the heck he ended up here. The last thing he remembered was having a freakout in the bathroom after getting that scroll from the Crystal Empire, and he knew he didn’t get up to crash on this couch. However, his train of thought froze when he saw what was on the coffee table in front of him. His eyes widened in worry, seeing that very scroll carefully placed on the table.
Lyra slowly walked into the living room with a tea kettle and two cups in her aura, but she also carried a worried look on her face as she glanced at the stallion. She made a few steps into the living room before Canvas noticed her, but he couldn’t say anything when she floated the items to the table next to the scroll. After taking a breath, the unicorn sat beside Canvas and asked, “Canvas, are… are you feeling alright?”
“H… how…” Canvas looked between her and the scroll, his mind still trying to process what was going on. “How long was I out?”
“Only a couple minutes, I think.” Lyra then began to pour herself and Canvas some tea with her magic. “Don’t worry, Bon-Bon is still tending to Tenor. Troy and Lyle are still outside.”
“O-Okay…” He hated to admit it to himself, but Canvas was glad that Troy wasn’t here to witness him passing out from overwhelming stress. Unfortunately, he could feel it coming back in an unwelcome trickle when he looked back at that scroll again. He blinked before asking Lyra, “So… did you read what’s in that?”
Lyra bit her lip for a second and reluctantly nodded. “Y-Yeah… I kinda wanted to see what got you like that, you know?” After seeing Canvas nod, she looked at the scroll as well and added, “I feel like I should say congratulations, but I have a feeling that isn’t what you want to hear.”
Canvas sighed and rubbed his temple with a hoof. “No, it’s fine,” he said sincerely. “I mean, it really is a great offer to get! It’s just that…”
The artist was beginning to feel that familiar pressure on his chest again, which prompted him to clench his eyes shut and stop talking. Lyra took a couple seconds before taking the reins to finish his statement. “Is it because of when they want you to go there?”
Canvas nodded his head while slumped forward on the couch. “Yeah.” Desperate to keep himself stable, the stallion took his cup of tea from the table and took a sip to alleviate his frayed nerves. “But it’s not just that. If I do go up there, it could be a long time before I can get the painting finished! And a train from the Crystal Empire takes over a day to get to Manehattan! I couldn’t be able to do the painting, AND help Troy out with Bridleway!”
“Well, why would you say that?” asked Lyra in a curious and slightly confused tone. She didn’t want to undermine Canvas’ worries, but she couldn’t help asking from a more logical-sounding state of mind, “I mean, it’s only for a month, right? Is it really that hard to think of being away from him for that long?”
“It’s not just emotional, okay?!” Canvas instantly regretted how that came out, and sighed while putting his cup down. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell…”
Lyra placed a hoof over his shoulder affectionately to pull him in for a sideways hug. Even though the gesture was needed, Canvas’ thankful smile was short-lived as he tried to explain in a more hushed tone. “I just… we had a plan for what to do if he got that role. I was supposed to look for a place for us that could be a second studio, and be a living space for him between shows. And I… I don’t want to leave him completely alone to do all of that by himself.”
Lyra tried to think of something to say, but she could also understand Canvas’ point a little clearer. While she never lived in Manehattan herself, she knew that finding real estate out there was nothing short of a nightmare. In addition, finding an adequate space for both business and housing out there would be a job all in itself; trying to do that alongside working in a Bridleway show would run even the strongest gryphon completely ragged.
So, Lyra took a moment before nodding her head in reluctant agreement. “Yeah, I… I can see how that could be an issue.” She pursed her lips shut momentarily, and thought it over as she glanced at the stallion. “So, does that mean you have to turn down their offer?”
“Well, I…” Canvas looked down to the floor as his words trailed off briefly. “I honestly don’t know. I mean, I know it would make things easier for both of us, but it’s also a huge job opportunity that could pay me a lot! If I did the job, then I’d have more than enough to cover staying in Manehattan for a long time. Like, we have enough to get a place now, but I’m not sure if it’d last us a year at most.”
Once again, Lyra understood Canvas’ conundrum. After pulling her foreleg away from Canvas’ back, she sighed and tapped her hooves together in thought. “So, the issue is whether to take the job and have a hard time now, or don’t take the job and have a hard time later?”
Canvas nodded his head while taking another sip of his tea. “Pretty much, yeah.” He then added while holding his cup, “Not to mention how much I could hurt Troy if I accept the offer.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be hurting him that badly. You should know better than anypony else how strong he really is.” Despite Lyra’s optimistic retort, it was clear that Canvas wasn’t completely convinced as he kept his skewed muzzle away from her. The mare whinnied faintly after taking a sip from her own cup. “You know, I really do think this is something to talk with Troy about.”
Canvas nodded again, but his worried glance went to the window as he said, “Yeah, I know. I really do need to talk with him, but… but he’s so happy right now. I don’t want to mess with that when--”
“Canvas,” interrupted Lyra as her tone grew sterner. “Take it from a married pony, you do NOT want to keep important information hidden from your spouse until the last minute! Yes, it might dampen his mood a little, but I think it’s a lot more important to keep him informed of something this big.”
While looking back at her, Canvas seemed surprised that the unicorn was carrying such a strong resolve in her tone and expression. Usually it was Bon-Bon who was able to keep things firm and grounded. Regardless, the artist still understood that Lyra was right. He sighed before saying, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
Canvas put down his cup and got out of his seat. While picking up the scroll, the pony tried to get himself ready by talking to himself. “I just gotta… find Troy and get him to stop flying around… and then I’ll get him somewhere private and talk about this scroll.”
“That’s right,” added Lyra with a firm nod. “And don’t be worried about what he’d think. He’ll be glad you told him in advance.”
“R-Right…” Canvas was still apprehensive, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to back down as he looked back at her to say, “Especially with how little time--”
CRASH!!!
The thunderous crash from outside made both ponies startle and look to the window. Lyra rushed to the window first to open it, with Canvas close behind as they looked to see what it was. It looked like a fresh crater was imbedded in the middle of the street now, with several ponies running over to survey the damage. The cloud of smoke and debris from the crater kept anypony from seeing what made the impact. Lyle coughed a couple times from the dust, being only a couple dozen feet from the blast.
Before any of the ponies around could peer in and see what was inside, a yellow claw emerged from the dust and dug into the dirt road. A couple of ponies screamed from the emergence, but were quickly silenced when Blane stumbled from the crater coughing. “Man,” he groaned as he rolled out to his back on the street, “that was harder than I thought.”
Canvas sighed and covered his face with a hoof. As the dust settled, most of the ponies could see that the crater wasn’t caused by anything supernatural or town-threatening (which was a welcome surprise given what Ponyville usually goes through). Instead. The reveal of the crash turned out to be Troy and his older brothers, who were currently binding up the silver gryphon in some rope while a blindfold was over his eyes. Canvas gasped as soon as he saw what was happening, and Lyra poked her head out of the window. Troy could be heard grunting and struggling in his bondage. “Guys, come on! This isn’t cool!”
Lyle was the first to speak up before Lyra or Canvas could. “Wait, are you guys serious?!” he asked in a befuddled tone. “I thought we weren’t going to start the bachelor party until the sun went down!”
“Change of plans, my man!” shouted Blaze happily while making sure the bindings on Troy’s wings were secure. “This isn’t just a party to celebrate his last moments as a single gryphon anymore! Now we’re celebrating his new job in Bridleway too!”
Lyra shouted out, “Ummm, guys?!” When Troy’s brothers all looked up at the mare, she exhaled before asking, “Could you please explain what you’re trying to do?!”
“Oh!” realizing how this may have looked from an outside perspective, Blade stood up while inside the crater. “It’s alright, ponies,” said the gryphon in a more authoritative tone while looking around, “this is just gryphon tradition! We kidnap the bachelor before the big day and give him the party of a lifetime! It’s nothing to freak out about, he’s fine!”
“You wanna bet?!” cried out Troy as he continued to wriggle out of his ropes. “Get me out of this thing! At least give me the chance to tell Canvas abou--MMMMPH!!!”
A large tennis ball was shoved into the gryphon’s beak by Blaze to shut him up, followed by his opened and gagged beak being locked in place with duct tape. Blane continued the assurance towards the growing crowd. “Again, this is just tradition! Ask our parents and they’ll tell you.”
Even though he was feeling second-hoof (or second-claw) embarrassment from how his brothers were “kidnapping” Troy, Lyle shrugged and glanced up to the window Canvas and Lyra were gawking from. “Actually, it kinda is,” admitted the youngest gryphon while rubbing the back of his head. “Usually it isn’t this public, though.”
“Now wait a minute!” shouted Canvas from the window angrily towards the triplets. “I need to talk with Troy abo--”
“Too late, dude!” Blaze didn’t even try to let Canvas get a word out before hoisting the thrashing Troy over his shoulder like a luggage bag. “We have plans tonight for Teddy Gryphon here! And we know you have plans too!”
With that, Blaze shot up into the sky while Troy let out a muffled scream through his tennis ball. Blade and Blane flew outward as well, leaving most of the ponies on the street looking very confused and worried. Lyle saw how upset Canvas looked, and floated up to his window to say, “Listen, I’ll make sure they don’t do anything too crazy with him, alright?”
“That’s not the problem!” yelled Canvas with growing unease, “I really need to talk with Troy about something!”
“Well…” Lyle looked out to where Troy and the triplets were flying off to, and sighed before turning back to Canvas. “Do you want me to tell him? I mean, I will if you want me to.”
Canvas appreciated the offer, but he shook his head as he rubbed his closed eyes with a hoof. “No, no. I… I need to talk with him about it myself…” Even though this was important news, the stallion knew it was probably a lost cause to try and get Troy now. So, instead of taking Lyle up on his offer, the stallion reluctantly said, “Just… just make sure I talk with him in the morning, okay? It’s important.”
Seeing the serious glance the stallion had as he said that, Lyle nodded firmly back at him. “You got it, Canvas.” As he began to fly away, the black and white gryphon paused to look back at them and add, “Just try to focus on your party for now, okay? You look like you could use one.”
Canvas nodded faintly, which was good enough for Lyle to make his leave and meet up with the other gryphons. The stallion didn’t bother to see Lyra’s reaction, and just slumped down on the floor in guilt while the scroll fell from his foreleg. “Go ahead,” muttered Canvas in shame. “Tell me how I messed up.”
Lyra, despite what Canvas may have been assuming, wasn’t upset about his decision; however, she was peeved enough by that statement to scoff and roll her eyes. “Oh, don’t be like that,” she said in a calm tone of voice. “It wasn’t like you could’ve done much with those guys around anyway. I’m not blaming you for a second.”
That statement may have been appreciated by the artist, but it was clear he was still angry with himself when he groaned and sunk his face into his hooves. “Urrrgh! What am I supposed to do?! Just wait until the day before the wedding to let him know about this?!”
“Well,” admitted Lyra after a little thought, “it’s not like waiting until two days before the wedding is that much better.”
Canvas dropped his hooves, and turned his head to look up at Lyra with a strong, flat stare.
“What? I’m just saying!” Lyra then sighed and helped to pick Canvas up from the floor. “But I do think Lyle has a point, though. You have your own bachelor party to think about, and I’m sure that Troy would want you to be happy for tonight. Right?”
It may have taken a couple seconds to give an answer, but Canvas finally did so with a meager nod of his head. “M-Maybe,” he said with his face pointed away from the optimistically smiling mare, “but I can already tell that this is going to be on my mind for most of the night. It’s kind of hard to want to party when you’re under a lot of stress.”
While Lyra sighed with her expression deflated, Canvas walked away from her to take another sip from his cup of tea. The unicorn walked towards the coffee table as well and said, “Well, I’d hate to tell you this, but I’m not sure how helpful tea can really be.”
Canvas finished his cup and nodded with an upset look on his face. “Yeah, I know.”
Lyra’s muzzle skewed in thought, pondering the options she could use to help her friend. She already knew of his past, so recommending alcohol was completely out of the question. The spa was probably closed, so she couldn’t go that route. Yoga might help, but she was sure that Canvas would most likely end up in pain if it was his first time. And Lyra wasn’t even going to think of recommending some of the forms of stress relief she does in private or with her wife--
Suddenly, her brows shot upward as an idea popped into her mind. It was definitely risky (especially with Twilight Sparkle slated to come by soon), but Lyra figured it was worth a shot. She slowly walked up to Canvas and said in a more hushed tone, “So… I know you won’t touch alcohol, but…”
Canvas glanced towards her with an apprehensive look, hoping she wasn’t going to try to coax him into drinking wine or something. Luckily, that didn’t seem like the case as she mare looked back at the doorway for a moment, and then used her magic to close the window. “What if I told you,” began Lyra while looking back at Canvas and studying his reaction, “that I happened to have something that can relieve stress, which I… happen to have a legal prescription for?”
Canvas narrowed his eyes on her in confusion. “Like… pills or something?”
“No,” stated the mare firmly. “I’m talking about something that’s completely natural, relatively low risk, and... “ The unicorn’s eyes darted around briefly to make sure they were alone before finishing with, “... smokeable.”
The artist’s eyes shot wide-open, instantly reading between the lines after that last adjective. It took him a couple seconds before he realized she was being serious. “R… really?”
“Mmhmm,” nodded the mare with a tiny smirk. “I get it from a certain zebra in the Everfree Forest to help with my insomnia, buuuuut… I wouldn’t mind sharing a little of it to help you relax a bit.”
An apparent blush began to creep across the pony’s cheeks, making Lyra realize he was actually considering it. Even though Canvas never believed in using drugs (except maybe caffeine, but even that was a stretch), he was smart enough to know that certain ones weren’t as bad as others. And compared to alcohol or bath salts, Lyra’s suggestion actually seemed quite feasible at the moment.
Plus, given his growing curiosity, the stallion glanced to the empty doorway as well. “W-Well, I…” His words trailed off before looking back at the mare. “Do you… really think it’ll help?”
“Believe me,” said Lyra with a knowing smirk and a nod, “it does wonders.”
Canvas bit his lip, and let out a long sigh through his nostrils as he came to a decision. Even though his cheeks were quite red, the stallion seemed insistent when he said, “I… I guess it’s worth a shot.”
“Great!” chirped Lyra as she took him by the hoof and lead him to her bedroom. Seeing how timid the stallion was looking, she couldn’t help giggling as she said, “You know, I would’ve thought that you of all ponies would’ve already done this, given your occupation and all.”
Lyra quickly dismissed her thoughts with a wave of her hoof as she let Canvas into the bedroom. “Oh, never mind that. I shouldn’t be making assumptions, after all.” After closing the door behind the nervous looking stallion, Lyra lit her horn with a grin and pulled out a small wooden box from underneath the bed. “Since this is your first time, I’ll try to make things as easy as possible…”
She then glanced back at Canvas with a smile and said, “Just come here on the bed and I’ll get you set up.”
Tenor looked fairly upset while laying beside the front counter with a short leash tied to him. Despite his whining though, Bon-Bon didn’t pay much heed to it as she finished mopping the floor of her shop. “Oh, don’t give me those puppy eyes,” said the mare as she looked back at him and placed the mop back in her bucket. “You should be glad I didn’t get the newspaper.”
Tenor whimpered a little and lowered his head guiltily. After pushing the mop and bucket away so the floor can get a chance to dry, Bon-Bon went back to the dog and undid the end of the leash tied to the underside of the counter. “Now,” she began with a sigh while keeping the leash held in her mouth, “how apout weh fine your owner, huh?”
Tenor begrudgingly got on his paws and began to walk behind Bon-Bon on her way to the living space. Even though the setup itself was much smaller than the one at Sugar Cube Corner, the housing behind Lyra and Bon-Bon’s sweet shop was adequate enough for the couple to live quite comfortably. The mare made her way down the narrow hallway, wondering where the heck her wife and Canvas went to. “Guyth?” she called out while the leash was between her teeth. “Hello?”
Bon-Bon paused when she reached the closed door to her bedroom, seeing a thin veil of smoke coming out from underneath. Tenor saw it too, making his eyes widen as he barked wildly. The mare quickly shushed Tenor and tried to keep him from making a scene. “No, it’s okay,” blurted the mare as she blushed and looked between the dog and the door. “It’s not a real fire, okay? It’s just…”
Bon-Bon blinked a couple times, and turned to the door with a confused look of growing concern. She put down the leash and went to the door, knocking on it a couple of times. Tenor stayed in place while watching the smoke under the door worriedly. “Lyra?” asked Bon-Bon firmly through the door. “Why are you doing that now? You are aware a Princess is going to be here in twenty minutes, right?!”
All that she heard in response was the sound of something bubbling, along with a couple of high-pitched giggles. Unfortunately, Bon-Bon’s ears perked up when she realized it wasn’t just one pony giggling inside. Her jaw slowly dropped as she made a slow gasp of realization. “Lyra?!” shouted Bon-Bon as she banged on the door again. “Please do NOT tell me you did what I think you did!”
The door slowly opened, letting out a large plume of smoke that made Tenor start barking again. Lyra emerged from the strong-smelling fog, her eyes clearly reddened while smiling lazily at her wife. “Did what?”
Bon-Bon was shocked to say the least, and looked past Lyra to see Canvas sitting on the bed. Next to him was Lyra’s box of “medicine”, along with a large glass bong that was held in his hoof. His eyes were even redder than Lyra’s, but it may have just looked that way because of how wide-open they were at seeing Bon-Bon. After a long bout of silence, Canvas could only think to say one thing; unfortunately, it was accompanied by a long plume of smoke that came out of his muzzle as he said it:
“Uh ohhhh…”
Lyra fell to the floor and burst out laughing.
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Everything after the CRASH is bolded.
Other than that, this is not gonna end well.
This is just awesome. Great chapter. Great ending
7512147
Oops! Stupid Google Docs!
Okay, got it fixed.
they are smoking ketamine right?
media.giphy.com/media/yqZDI0cbVaboA/giphy.gif
Shit just got lit fam
aka this is gonna be fucking hilarious
Bwahahahaha! Oh MAN! We NEED art of 'stoked-and-toked' Canvas!
It's kind of refreshing to see Canvas cut loose and try something... let's say different :P
They smoking Poison Joke?
Found some spelling errors.
7515853
No, those were intentional. They're supposed to indicate that Bon-Bon had something in her mouth, thus making it hard for her to say anything legible.
7515929
ok
7512228 I'd assume weed, or possibly a strong variety of blue lotus if it's for insomnia mainly.
Legal weed in Equestria. I'd like to move there instead of what will be the last state to consider legalizing it. Texas government really gets on my nerves sometimes.
Lucky, Lyra can smoke at home...
While I'm stuck outside rain or shine, snow if I feel like it too.
Good old Poison Joke Smoke, relaxes the nerves, helps you sleep, gets rid of nausea, and it is good for glaucoma too.
7538894
You think that's bad? Try North Carolina.
Not like pot to really help you relax
Hmmm... blue lotus, weed, or opium. The giggles make weed the most likely culprit.
Canvas, is that a weed???
I'm calling the royal guards!