How to Handle a Rope

by A Hoof-ful of Dust

How to Handle a Rope

'How to Handle a Rope'

"Hey! How was your day?" Lyra called to the opening door.

The sound of slamming and a sharp huff of breath was all the answer she got.

"So, not so good?" she asked as Bon Bon stormed in behind her. She put the magazine she had been reading face-down on the arm of her chair. She had been mostly skimming that interview with Octavia anyway.

"Ugh! Just... just... ugh!" Bon Bon heaved her saddlebags into the couch, where they bounced from the force of impact and barely managed to fall to the floor. Bon Bon then threw herself onto the couch, simmering.

Lyra got out of her chair. There was a certain rhythm to her fillyfriend's meltdowns, she had learned. She walked around behind the couch and started rubbing Bon Bon's shoulders. You could almost time the point of the explosion. Three... two... one...

"I can do more than one thing!"

First would come an aggressive statement that didn't seem to be connected to anything. It was the introductory brash flourish of a symphony, the opening gambit of a chess match. Lyra had found it was best responded to with a sympathetic mm-hmm.

"I mean, the weather department lets Raindrops handle more than rainclouds, right? And what's-her-name, who has the bear and that little house in the middle of nowhere—"

"Fluttershy?"

"Her cutie mark is butterflies! Does anypony think all she does is... butterfly stuff?!"

The next stage often involved rhetorical questions. Lyra was starting to get an idea of what this particular rant was all about. Leaning over the back of the couch to better work on the knot in Bon Bon's left shoulder, she told her, "I don't think anypony thinks all she does is butterfly stuff, hon."

"Right! Right." The tension faded from Bon Bon as she relaxed into the pressure from Lyra's hooves. "She does all sorts of animal stuff. And you do more than play your harp-y thing."

Now came the last stage. Frustration at the world at large voiced and vented, Bon Bon could take the leftover residue and apply it to the core of grouchiness that resided somewhere deep inside her. She had a tough time letting go of the things that bugged her—the tinier the irritation, the more reluctant Bon Bon was to forgive it—and from time to time that deep well of pet peeves would overflow. Other ponies might have called Bon Bon unpleasant to be around, but Lyra saw her a bit like an instrument string pulled too tight: all it took was a little bit of unwinding to put it back in tune.

"It's a lyre," she reminded her.

"I know it's a lyre."

"New display didn't go so well, huh?"

"No." Bon Bon's tone in that single word was icy cold. "You saw how long I worked on that fudge recipe!"

Lyra had. Batches and batches of the stuff had filled the house, and every fresh tray would be accompanied by a frantic Bon Bon insisting on a flavor comparison or waiting to hear feedback on how this texture compared to the last round. It all tasted like fudge to Lyra, but she had known better than to actually say that.

"Days and days," Bon Bon continued, "of testing and refining and getting it perfect. I spent nearly two hours on decorating the final batch, and I hate decorating."

"I know, sugar."

"And it's untouched." If her voice before had gone cold, now it dropped deep into the sub-zero range, dripping with jagged icicles. "All everypony wants to buy is..." She said the last word with extreme reluctance. "...Bon-bons."

"Well," Lyra said, moving over to the right shoulder, "that is the name of the store."

"No it isn't!" Bon Bon flared up again. "It's Bon Bon's, not Bon-Bons!" she exclaimed, somehow able to make that distinction through just her words. "Apostrophe! Implying ownership! Implying me, the pony who can make all kinds of confectionary but all of Ponyville only wants to buy bon-bons from."

"Sweetheart," Lyra said, leaning way over the couch to wrap her forelegs around Bon Bon, "not every pony is going to know that to begin with."

"They should," Bon Bon said, sulking, "and stop calling me stuff like that."

"Stuff like what, sugar dumpling?"

Bon Bon swatted her horn. "That. Cutsie-wutsie sweet names."

"It's only because you're so sweet, honey-pie." Lyra kissed Bon Bon on the cheek.

"That's not going to work."

"Isn't it?" Lyra fell over the back of the couch, entangling herself with Bon Bon and forcefully kissing her until she felt her fillyfriend relax beneath her.

"Cheat," Bon Bon murmured.

Lyra nuzzled up against her. "I could come by the store tomorrow. Maybe help you shift some new product." She looked up into Bon Bon's eyes. "If you want."

She watched Bon Bon's thought process play out on her face. She really was a lot like the hard candies on her cutie mark, Lyra thought; layers and layers of tough shell that might chip a tooth if you tried to bite into it without knowing quite what you were biting into.

"If you're not busy tomorrow."

"Just being helpful, hon."

A shy smile appeared on Bon Bon's face. She kissed Lyra on the tip of her muzzle. "Thanks," she whispered.

And like those hard candies, there was something soft and sweet hidden deep inside.

Comments

[rainbowsprinkles]

aw, that was super cute~

[Web of Hope]

d'awww
I love a well-done L&BB, warms my (kinda cold right now, maybe i should go get my jacket...) heart

not sure what this has to do with rope, though...unless we're implying an unwritten sequel of "later that night"?

[Seether00]

That was cute.

[A Hoof-ful of Dust]

2260186
Lyra and Bon Bon are best fanon couple.

As for what the title has to do with the story - nothing, really. I name everything using song titles, and the connection the title has to the story has to the song is tenuous at best and usually only means something to me. I'd name all my stories things like "Short story about venting" or "Long adventure about alicorns and trees" if I could.

[Owlor]

Exactly 1000 words, that'd be a deci-drabble, wouldn't it? I can almost forgive the ponies in the story for reading the sign wrong, possessive apostrophes give me no end of trouble, since my first language doesn't use them.

[A Hoof-ful of Dust]

2260308
Something like that, yeah. I don't really dig the 100-word format (way too short for me), but I wrote a fair bit of fanfiction for another fandom where the length of a drabble was measured at 500~ words, and I liked the challenge of nailing the 500 words exactly when the typical length would be 1-200 words over. FIMFic requires 1000 words to publish, so here I have to up the size to 1000 words for super-short stories. It's still fairly tight.

And plenty of naitive English speakers mess up the possessive/plural thing, so you're not alone.

[Owlor]

2260342
I like the ~500 word format as well, and I've written some fanfics for the writers group monthly writer's prompt, rule is, no more than 550 words. Unfortunently, we haven't had any new ones since january, I really gotta poke the guy in charge of that.

[Syvvak]

Short and sweet. I loved it. Not enough good LyraBons out there, but the ones that are are usually fucking amazing (like this). Take my star, dear author, and please write more LyraBon (and OctaScratch).

[psp7master]

Now that's a Slice of Life I'll be looking up to when writing stuff from now on.

[Wireless]

Wow, that was very nice.

Not sure I get the title, though.

[Smirkythread]

Awwwww, no love for fudge? Short, sweet and simple, fine work all around.

[Midnight herald]

I love the way you write romance. I love it so much. The things you do in 1,000 words some people can't get in five chapters... Thanks for making me feel emotions. I needed that.

[Greywing]

[A Hoof-ful of Dust]

3003921
Everything about this is awesome. That squeaky Betty Boop voice of Bon Bon's has now completely overridden any sort of headcanon about how she sounds, and only too late do I realise I should have called this story Thank You (For Loving Me At My Worst). I had to pause the thing in a couple of places because I was laughing out loud - at lines I wrote!

[ObabScribbler]

3005176

Wow, this is the first time I've come to say I did a podfic reading only to find someone has already beaten me to it. I'm glad you liked it though.

[PresentPerfect]

2260248
I honestly think you should title a fic that second one, or something similar. <.< That would be interesting. It's actually disappointing, almost, that the title seems to have nothing to do with the story. Not that that dulled my appreciation of it. You actually gave Bon-Bon some character! I really appreciate that.

[A Hoof-ful of Dust]

3416213
But picking titles is so... ugh. I just steal them from things that already have titles, and then people can make up their own mind how they're connected. For example, I wrote this story without a word processor, right into the site, so that's a bit like discarding the safety net when walking a tightrope. Then the actual story is about how Lyra mellows Bon Bon out when she's being all frayed and wound up, like and old piece of ship-rope. But that's just my spin on things; doesn't mean it's right.

I guess Bon Bon gets overshadowed a little by her other half, considering she has so much more fanon to work with. I like the dynamic they have here, and I dunno, Bon Bon seems a little pissed off at something a lot of the time she gets lines. I like the irony of a pony with a cutie mark of something sweet having such a sour disposition, haha. I want to write them again in something else.

[Thecoomer]

That was the nicest story I have ever heard.
Thank you

[PresentPerfect]

3416562
That's the thing that got me: there's a metaphor in this, but it has to do with hard candy, not rope, so in reflecting back on the story, I was completely thrown. Also going into it, I was expecting bondage with AJ. It does make sense when you explain it, I guess I've just always thought titles should reflect something in the narrative. :B I suppose I can deal with it, however.

[nightwalker]

A wonderful piece, truly. One of my biggest personal failing as an author is that I have never been able to write Short. It always seems to get long and involved and complex.

But there is beauty in Short if done properly, and there is certainly beauty in this. Thank you very much for sharing with us all.

3416562
I know the pain of picking titles as well. Hard Candy would have been as succinct and evocative as the rest of this piece, IMO.

Edit: Hah! 100th upvote.

[Autum Breeze]

very enjoyable. listened to scribbler's read. flowed well

[Titanium Dragon]

I wrote a review of this story; it can be found here.

[silverspawn]

Sweet. Although, and I'm probably overthinking this, but-- the relationship doesn't seem very... honest. I think it's quite common for real couples to behave like this, but that doesn't change that Lyra is essentially just telling Bon Bon what she wants to hear, and not at all what she really thinks. I'm not sure if I like that... prob depends on how much Bon Bon is aware of it.

[Themaskedferret]

A lovely and sweet character piece.

[blaa6]

This deserves more recognition. Simple and sweet. Great job.