Another Day in Ponyville

by AnOrdinaryWriter

S̨t̕o̢ry̵ 9͘

Lyra sat, slouched on a bench in the park by town square, gazing ahead at nothing. The light coolness that hung in the air made her occasionally shiver, and the distant houses and structures were drowned in mist, evaporating into a light-gray void. Bon Bon didn’t do much differently herself, extracting whatever entertainment she could out of examining her hooves. Neither of the two friends were saying a word to each other, and they hadn’t talked that day besides exchanging the word word, hi. That was several hours ago. What neither of them knew is that they were both waiting for the other to say something, but no words came out of their mouths.

It was not like them to be quiet like this. Usually they sat and began talking hours on end about silly stories or personal secrets of theirs, but today, they greeted each other, sat down, and it seemed as though their lips were suddenly stitched shut. Even passersby wondered why them two conversing for hours couldn’t be heard in the background, considering ponies had become so accustomed to it.

Lyra finally decided to start some sort of conversation so that they wouldn’t be just sitting there all day and saying nothing.

“So,” she said, startling Bon Bon who hadn’t expected Lyra’s sudden voice after hours of silence. “How have things been for you recently?”

“Okay,” Bon Bon replied.

And just like that, silence reigned yet again. Lyra exhaled softly, bugged by the lack of talking. By now, her throat should have been desert dry from hours of conversation. She shivered again from the cold, and attempted once again to engage a conversation.

“Kinda cold today, huh?”

“Yeah, a bit,” Bon Bon replied.

The silence that pursued made Lyra begin to question why they weren’t talking to each other. She did partially know the reason, and it was the reason she hadn’t been talking herself.

She felt like something was wrong. There was something off about the atmosphere of her surroundings; it didn’t feel right for some reason. She thought of it like a puzzle piece in the wrong spot. Something was supposed to be one way, but it was another way. She wondered if Bon Bon felt the same way.

“Hey, Bon Bon,” Lyra said.

“Yeah?”

“Does anything feel… strange—to you?”

Bon Bon took her eyes off her hooves and looked over at Lyra. “Strange, how exactly?”

Lyra thought about how she would respond. “I mean, just everything around us. The air, the park we’re in… does any of it feel weird to you?” She didn’t know if she was explaining it right. It was difficult to find the right words for what she was trying to imply.

Bon Bon looked down at the ground, seeming to think about what Lyra had said. Had she actually felt the same thing her friend was feeling? Lyra pondered this as she waited for Bon Bon to reply, and it seemed like almost a minute before she finally spoke.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

Lyra’s eyes widened once Bon Bon spoke those words. She thought she was just crazy and that her mind was playing tricks on her. But to know that her friend had the exact same feeling as her, it was chilling.

“You feel it too?” Lyra said, almost shocked at her friend’s remark.

“It’s weird,” Bon Bon said, looking back at Lyra. “Even though we’ve come here so many times, it doesn’t feel like the same place.”

Lyra scanned the rest of the foggy park, thinking about what Bon Bon had said. The air felt thicker, the cold was unnatural. It was like someone had flipped a switch and they were in a completely different version of the park. She couldn’t understand it, but after a few moments of thinking, she drew up a conclusion.

“I think we should probably go somewhere else, what do you think?”

She expected a yes to come right after that statement, but instead, silence took its place.

“Bon Bon?” she asked, and looked beside her, puzzled as to why her friend wasn’t responding.

Bon Bon wasn’t there anymore.

She turned and put a hoof on the backrest so she could look around and see where Bon Bon had gone. She was nowhere to be seen on the roads, town square, or anywhere else. Turning back to the rest of the park, she saw Bon Bon wasn’t there either. She was just gone…

“Bon Bon?!” she called out.

“Why are you shouting, I’m right next to you.”

Lyra gasped and twisted her head at lightning speed. Bon Bon was back, sitting next to her as if nothing happened.

“What in the hay just happened to—t—t—o—o—I—o—I—I really think we should get out of here…”

Bon Bon was about to ask what just happened, but before she could, her body was engulfed in a sudden rise of heat, like she’d been set on fire. Once the strange warmness was gone, she couldn’t remember what she was going to say.

“Sorry, what?” Bon Bon said, suddenly feeling a slight grogginess.

“I said we should go somewhere else. There’s that burger restaurant down the street, how about we head there and get something to eat.”

Bon Bon put a hoof to her brow. “Um—sure, why not.” She quickly shook her head to knock her senses back in order, and they both got up and started towards the restaurant.

Navigating their way to their destination proved difficult because of the heavy mist swarming through Ponyville. It helped that the two of them knew their way around the town like the back of their hooves, but that didn’t stop it from taking over ten minutes to reach the restaurant.

The restaurant was a rather large, but generic wooden structure. Two doors stood side-by-side at the front of the restaurant with several windows on either side. Straw roofed the restaurant, and a billboard that displayed a hayburger and deep-fried horseshoes hung off the thatching above the double doors. Both mares pushed the doors open and walked inside.

Rows and rows of round tables lay on the wooden floor in front of them, almost every single one of them occupied with three to four ponies per table. The room’s light was supplied through the windows, and since it wasn’t that sunny of a day, the interior was a bit dark. Thankfully it wasn’t too dark that Lyra and Bon Bon couldn’t see each other, or where they were going. The two mares were surprised that there seemed to be more ponies in this restaurant than they could count outside.

They both walked among the numerous amount of tables and munching ponies, looking to find a table with empty seats. After a while of searching, they found one by a window, and chose to sit there.

Bon Bon put her forelegs on the wooden surface of the table and lay her head on them. Lyra meanwhile stared out the window at a foggy Ponyville. She saw a few ponies passing by the restaurant, minding their business and carrying saddlebags on their backs. Other than that the roads were unusually empty.

She noticed that the feeling from earlier at the park was still there. She didn’t understand why though. She tried to forget about it, but it was nagging at her, and the knowledge that it was there wouldn’t let her put it aside. She knew something was wrong.

“Excuse me?”

Lyra jumped in her seat as the sudden voice freed her from her thoughts. She turned her gaze off the window to face the pony who had spoken, seeing that a waitress had come over to the table for their order. The waitress was a unicorn, and she wore the typical white vest.

“I’ll—uh… take a hayburger with small deep-fried horseshoes and a grape soda, please,” Lyra said, mostly referencing the billboard. The waitress wrote this down and turned her head towards Bon Bon.

“Um—same thing as her,” she said, motioning towards Lyra. Writing this down, the waitress left the two and proceeded through a door into a backroom.

Lyra hoped that munching on some food would help clear her mind. It had been a weird day so far, and in the past, food had always helped after stressful or tiring days. She smiled, looking forward to the meal awaiting her, and looked back towards the window.

“What the—?” Lyra said suddenly, catching Bon Bon’s attention as she looked up from the table.

“What? What is it?”

“I just saw somepony outside the window,” Lyra explained.

“So what?” Bon Bon asked.

“She had a look on her face; it was like she was terrified of something...”

Bon Bon turned towards the window, looking for the pony in question, but couldn’t find whoever Lyra was talking about.

“Where was she?” Bon Bon asked. “Should we like… help her or something?”

“I don’t know,” Lyra replied, looking out the window for whoever she saw. “Strange… it kinda looked like

/watch?v=RM9UdaIeSiU

Author's Note:

in some cases, the darkness is a pony's best friend.

Comments

[Chaosreverent]

Things are coming faster

[Sadistic Joy]

It kinda looked like who? Who?!?! Answer meeeee!!

[Emperor]

Oh sweet, now the chapter titles are beginning to be corrupted.