The Chocolatier

by LordBucket

5 - The Proposition

"Are you kidding?" Bonbon shouted. "I can't ask Ambient out on a date! I barely even know him!"

"I know, but-"

"YOU'RE the mare who likes stallions, remember? For the love of Celestia, why are you asking ME to ask him out?!?"

"Hey," Lyra objected. "Since when do you not like stallions?"

"Well, it's not that I don't," Bonbon stammered. "I just...I don't know. Never had the chance to find out, I guess?"

"Well now's your chance!" Lyra beamed. "Remember what you said about having no hope for marriage because of the stallion shortage? Never being able to have foals? Maybe now you can!"

"Oh right, I'll just walk up and ask if he wants foals," Bonbon snorted. "That'll go over real well."

"Well no," Lyra agreed. "Probably better not to approach him like that."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Bonbon sobbed. "I've never asked anypony out on a date before. I wouldn't know how."

"I've got it!" Lyra shouted. "Stallions like mares they have something in common with, right?"

"That's what those 'Dating Advice for Lonely Mares' pamphlets you used to push under my door always used to say."

"You mean you actually read those?" Lyra's eyebrows raised.

"Sometimes."

"Well, great! You know more about this than I do, then. I sure never read any of them. Besides, you have a perfect in and you know it. You both like chocolate, so you already have something to talk about. And you see him every day anyway. That gives you both opportunity and an excuse. Who knows, maybe you two will even hit it off!"

Bonbon sniffled. Lyra's overall scheme was crazy, but she was right about one part of it at least. The very first thing Ambient had gone looking for upon arriving in Ponyville was chocolate. And Bonbon - while not specifically a chocolate maker - her cutie mark was for candy in general - was at least a candy maker. And she'd made chocolate. A couple times, even. In fact she was pretty sure her chocolate was better than anypony else's in all of Ponyville. Even Pinkie had sent him her way once she'd found out he wanted real chocolate, not that fake stuff they sold at Sugarcube Corner. He loved chocolate. She could make chocolate. By extension, that meant he loved something she could do. Maybe this wasn't such a crazy idea after all.

"So this is perfect," Lyra continued. "He'll be your date, and I'll be Spike's date, and you can be Spike's chaperone so the Princess of Lasers doesn't blast me to bits! It's brilliant!"

"But even if Ambient says yes, there's still one problem."

"What's that?"

"I don't love him, Lyra. I love you."

Lyra deflated and buried her muzzle in her hooves.

"Bonbon, sometimes this is so hard. Sometimes I just don't know what's the right thing to do. Sometimes I think I should just leave Ponyville so I stop hurting you. But that would hurt you too. The other day you asked me to promise that if I ever thought I could be with somepony, to try to make it happen. Then the next day the opportunity jumped at me, so I took it. Was that a mistake? Should I have just gone home and cried myself to sleep on the couch?"

Bonbon was silent for a long time.

"No, Lyra. If you have a chance for happiness, I want you to try for it."

"But that's the thing, Bonnie, I don't just want me to be happy. I want you to be happy too. And I want Spike to be happy and I want everypony to be happy, even this Amberant guy."

"Ambient."

"Yeah, him. And honestly I don't know if me and Spike are going to work out. A lot of the stuff that keeps Rarity away applies just as much to me. I'll be dead before he's even fully grown. That's kind of weird. And if he does grow up then I'm going to be what, as big as one of his fingers? How's that going to work? But at the same time, a lot of the stuff he said really struck close to home. If he's willing to give us a chance then maybe we can be happy together. And I'm sorry, I'm not trying to guilt-trip you here, but didn't you say you wanted me to be happy?"

"I do, Lyra. This is just hard for me."

"Yeah, well it's been hard for me too. And this thing with Spike, maybe nothing will come of it. But I want to give it a try. And you and Ambient? Remember, I was telling you he has the hots for you even before I asked you to be our chaperone on this double date. I meant it then and I still do. I can totally see you two working out and the only reason you don't see it is that you're hung up on me. Don't make me the cause of you being unhappy, Bonbon. Maybe we can all end up being happy. And if not, maybe at least some of us can. Isn't that better than none of us being happy because we were too afraid of hurting each other to even try? Spike's been in love with Rarity since forever, but he's giving me a chance. Sure, maybe he'll spend the entire time sulking about how he'd rather be with her than me, and maybe your date with Ambient won't come to anything either. But Spike's a good dragon. I've known him since he was just a clutchling. And even though I barely know Ambient, he seems like a good stallion. He's nice to you, he enjoys spending time with with you and he cares about stuff that you care about. Why would you waste a second thought on me, when I don't even know what you're talking about this candy stuff half the time? Yeah, maybe you're only even doing this for me, and I totally appreciate that. Thank you. But come on, Bonnie. No matter what happens between me and Spike, this thing between you and Ambient could totally work out."

Bonbon sighed.

"You're right, Lyra. And I'm willing to give it a try. But you know I'm not the most outgoing pony in the whole world. I've never asked anypony out on an official date before, let alone a stallion I barely know. What do I even say?"

---

"Why in Equestria are you asking me?" Spike spluttered. "I've never asked a stallion out."

"Right, but you at least ARE a stallion," Lyra insisted. "So you know how'd you like to be asked out, right?"

"I'm actually not though. I'm a dragon, remember? You're the only pony here who's ever asked a stallion out."

"When have I ever asked a stallion out?" Lyra marveled. "I hardly even know any."

"You asked ME out, remember?"

"You're not a stallion. You're a dragon. You said so yourself."

"Oh, yeah."

The two mares and one dragon huddled around the coffee table, contemplating their dilemma.

"Why don't we just have Bonbon read a book on dating?" Spike suggested. "There's an entire section in the castle library about that stuff."

"Do you really want to wait a week for her to finish reading it? This Ambient guy's only in Ponyville until he finishes some project."

"Besides," Bonbon interjected. "Those pamphlets Lyra used to give me never really helped. If I were to follow advice like 'be yourself' then I'd never ask him out in the first place. If you two want me to do this for you, I'm going to need some personal coaching."

"Why don't we ask Rarity?" Lyra suggested. "She loves to play matchmaker."

Spike snorted. "You want to ask my childhood crush that I'm still secretly in love with to help set up my chaperone to go on a double date with me? How about, no?"

"What about Twilight?" Bonbon ventured. "She's the one asking for Spike to have a chaperone, and doesn't she know Ambient Stars anyway? She's the whole reason he's in Ponyville."

"Yeah, but I don't think they've met yet," Spike scratched his chin. "I've been transcribing her letters for her, and it's all been complicated magical gobbledygook about some sort of teleportation experiment. They know each other, but they don't really know each other. Still, I'm sure she'd be willing to help."

"Twilight as a romantic coach? "Lyra laughed. "You're not seriously suggesting that she's ever asked a stallion out, are you?"

"Not a chance" Spike agreed. "But it's still a good idea. Even if she's never done it, I know for a fact that she's read every book in the library at least twice, including everything in the romance section. That's gotta count for something, right?"

Comments

[Purplefan9]

I don't know about you but I think this will go bad...............real fast...

[Inferno demon Dash]

Other then the enormous wall of text with Lyra's speech, I thought this chapter was awesome, keep it up.

[OmniFox]

Until Lyra and Bon-Bon solved their REAL problem, just running away from it by setting each other up will NOT help them regardless.

[PeachClover]

Are you going to continue this?

[LordBucket]

9193348

Are you going to continue this?

Haven't decided. When I started writing this I was living in a different state, and attending a weekly writer's group run by people from a publishing house I used to do work for. It was incredibly entertaining sitting down with a team of professional writers and editors to liven up their weekly dose of dry biographies and heavily researched historical fiction to instead read a story about...as they phrased it, "lesbian horses."

I certainly could resume it. The whole story is more or less plotted out, and there are already two unpublished chapters that have been sitting unedited for almost a year now.

Tell you what: I'll try to write chapter 8 tonight/tomorrow, and if I'm pleased with the results I'll publish chapter 6 and maybe get enough momentum going again to finish this.

[LordBucket]

9193348

Are you going to continue this?

Ok, chapters up to 8 ready to go. Chapter 9 started, but it's the hard one. As before, chapters will be published at least a few days apart to maximize chance of reaching the front page.