A Fresh Start

by QuilliamPenn

Chapter 6: Fire...

Chapter 6: Fire...

“LYRA HEARTSTRINGS OPEN THIS CELESTIA-DAMNED DOOR RIGHT NOW!”

Sketch sat in utter shock as he realized who was at his door; this day had been just full of fun. His letter from his mother, the news about Gears, and now this, the mare who had hit Lyra was at his door; what was he supposed to do!? She wasn’t sending a letter or having somepony else do it for her. BonBon herself was here.

“I am so sorry Sketch, I wanted my lyre and I-”

“LYRA, I CAN HEAR YOU IN THERE, YOU BETTER COME OUT HERE!”

Sketch found himself calm, yet not a comforting calm. An angry calm, the kind of calm his father would get. The angry calm that told everyone you were angry, and that they needed to stay the hell out of the way.

Without a word Sketch trotted up to his door and opened it. Revealing the very angry mare, he instantly realized just who this was. This was the mare that had been so angry when he first moved to Ponyville; this was the mare who had rammed into him on his way home not half an hour ago.

“You!?” BonBon said in shock, reeling back a little. “What the hell are you doing here?” She said, staring him dead in the eye.

“This is my house.” he said softly.

“Why the hell are you harboring the bitch here?”

“Lyra is staying with me for a while.” He kept his voice calm.

“Well, she needs to get her flank out here before I come in there and drag her out.”

“You will do no such thing.”

BonBon snorted, she obviously wasn’t used to taking no for an answer.

“Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I think I am the one who is telling you to leave. I suggest you do so. Now.” His voice still held an unfaltering calmness.
“Like hell I will. I want to talk to Lyra. Now.” She said. Her tone all too familiar to Sketch; BonBon’s tone reminded him of that his mother liked to use.

“Go away BonBon. I don’t want to talk to you.” Lyra’s voice came from behind Sketch, it was tiny and frightened.

“Lyra, Sweetie, you need to come home with me; we can talk about what you did wrong, alright hon?” She adopted a sickly sweet tone.

“Go away!” Lyra said, almost cowering behind Sketch.

“Lyra, you need to come home. I care about you, and I know you feel the same way for me! Every couple goes through stuff like this! We can work through it honey!”

Couple? What the hell was she talking about?

“Leave me alone BonBon. We aren’t a couple!”

BonBon sighed and looked at Sketch.

“Listen, she isn’t thinking straight; if you will just let me take her home I can help her before she hurts herself or something.”
She moved towards the door as she spoke, but Sketch stepped in front of her, blocking her entry.

“I said you were leaving.”

“Listen to me, you son of a bitch. You will let me in there right now before I beat in your face.” She abandoned the sweet tone completely, as if Lyra suddenly couldn’t hear her.

“Like you did to Lyra?” He said still calm.

“I did that because she was talking crazy. She was drunk and didn’t know what she was saying; all I was trying to do was slap her sober.”

“Shut up, BonBon!” Lyra called.

“BonBon, you are going to leave. Right. Now.” Sketch’s tone was finally wavering; he was having trouble maintaining his cool after BonBon mentioned, and admitted to, what she had done.

“I am not leaving until-“

“YOU WILL LEAVE, RIGHT, NOW!”

There went his cool.

BonBon recoiled slightly at this, but she wasn’t shocked or surprised, more like amused.

“She stole from me.”

“What?”

“She snuck in and took things from my house.”

“My things, I took my things!” Lyra called.

“Oh really? Well I’m sure-“

“LEAVE NOW BONBON. I will not let you lay a HOOF on her. I don’t give a damn what you have to say you WILL LEAVE NOW.”

By now the neighbors had come outside to see what was going on; a hoof full of ponies had made their way outside and were watching the spectacle unfold. Sketch didn’t care: Celestia herself could be watching and he wouldn’t care.

“Lyra, come with me, NOW!” BonBon almost shrieked.

“NO! You aren’t going to use me or hurt me again, BonBon. It took me awhile to realize it, but you are cruel and abusive. I don’t know why, but you are. I want nothing more to do with you. Leave me alone!”

Lyra seemed to be the only pony not screaming at this point.

“You bitch… YOU STUPID-“

“Shut your mouth, BonBon! Now leave before I call the police.”

This seemed to get her to shut up, the mention of the Law. She gritted her teeth and stared at Sketch.

“You stupid bastard, you will regret this. Standing between Lyra and me, I will make you pay for this. You just wait, one of these-“

“LEAVE, NOW!” Sketch yelled, he sounded all too much like his father.

BonBon growled at him. Sketch suspected the hate he could see in her eyes matched what she saw in his, the pure and unfaltering want to destroy one another.

“I WILL kill you for this you bastard.” The look in her eyes; at that moment she didn’t even look sane. He suspected this is how he looked the other day when he had nearly broken down BonBon’s door.

“LEAVE!” Sketch was seeing red again, that ringing noise was coming back, the blind rage, the wanting to strangle BonBon, but he held it back; it would only make this worse. To be honest, he was surprised he was able to handle it this well in the first place.

Rage burning in her eyes so hot she might have spontaneously combusted at any moment, BonBon turned and stormed down the road, yelling curses at anypony she thought looked at her funny. Sketch watched her storm off until he could see her no longer; once she was gone he turned to see Lyra, on her flank, silently sobbing behind him. He shut the door and stared at her.

He wasn’t sure how to feel at this moment. BonBon was saying things about Lyra getting drunk and stealing; how was he supposed to react to that? It didn’t make it ok that BonBon had hit her, even if it was to sober her up, but had Lyra really been lying about why BonBon hit her? He wasn’t sure about anything at that moment.

“I-I’m so sorry.” Lyra sniffled.

“What did she mean by stealing and getting drunk?” His tone was flat.

Lyra looked up at Sketch through her one visible eye; it shone against the setting sun’s rays peeking through his door window.

“I’m so sorry….” was all she said.

“Lyra, what aren’t you telling me. Please, you need to explain what is going on here…alright?” He tried his best to sound firm, yet still comforting.

Lyra sighed and wiped her tears.

“I…I didn’t tell you all of why BonBon hit me…”

“I’m listening.” He said, sitting down next to her on the floor.

“BonBon had gotten her hooves on some kind of spiked cider, I had had a really bad day and…” Lyra trailed off.

“Lyra…”

She sniffled and wiped her face again before resuming.

“Well, we started drinking it; BonBon said it would help me feel better. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had a drink or two before, but I was stupid, and I didn’t stop. We drank and drank; eventually we ended up in her bedroom and….” Lyra started crying again.

Well. That wasn’t what he had been expecting at all, out of all the things he would have thought happened. That was the last one, especially after all Lyra had said about how she didn’t like BonBon. Yet even knowing this it still didn’t make sense.

“Lyra, you have to tell me everything if we are ever going to fix this. Seriously, what did she mean by ‘couple’? And stealing? Please.” His voice was a comforting as he could make it; while still maintaining firmness to it, he hated seeing Lyra so upset, it broke his heart, but he had to make sure she was telling him everything, especially if he was going to help her out of this mess.

Lyra again wiped her tears and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“When I woke up the next afternoon in bed with her, I was horrified at what I had done, so I snuck out to try and clear my head. I realized how badly I had screwed up and wanted to try and think everything over. That was the night you found me on the hill. That’s why I was crying. I realized how bad this had gotten; and that I had let it, because I was so blind to what was really happening. I guess waking up in that bed was what snapped me out of it, I kept telling myself it was just another day, maybe the next one would be better; what had happened made me realize that it wouldn’t, not if I didn’t do something.”

Sketch was silent as Lyra started sniffling again. It took all the power in his body not to go and comfort her at that moment, he hated her being so broken, so defeated looking. That would have to wait; he needed to make sure he got the rest of the story.

“After….After I got home that night, Bon was so angry at me for leaving, but that wasn’t why she hit me. You see BonBon had thought she felt a ‘connection’ between us the night before; she said she and I were meant to be with one another. I told her it was a mistake and it was never happening again, that I was never going to be with her, not like that. She got really mad. I had never seen her so mad before, we started fighting and…”

Lyra’s voice trailed off.

Now Sketch was beginning to understand why Lyra had been crying that first night on the hill; he fully understood what had been going on now. BonBon hadn’t hit Lyra because she had been late that night, it was because BonBon had become infatuated; she had though she was meant to be with Lyra, and apparently she still did.

“And….The stealing?” He said finally.

“I didn’t steal anything, not of hers. I just took my lyre, along with the small amount of bits I had stored away. Nothing of hers: she said that to try and get you to do what she wanted.” Lyra’s voice was shaky.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you everything in the first place. I understand if you don’t trust me anymore, I just…I didn’t want you to think I was some lowlife pony who went around getting drunk all the time and sleeping with everypony she met. I was afraid you would…hate me or something…“

“Hate you? No Lyra, I don’t hate you. I am a bit…sad…you didn’t tell me this, but now I understand why.”

“I’m so sorry… Lyra said, her tears starting to dry fully, leaving that sort of shaky breathing in their absence.

Sketch moved over closer to Lyra on the floor and wrapped a gentle wing around her shivering form.

“It’s alright.”

Lyra sighed and snuggled against Sketch; her body was warm, despite her shivering. He could feel her shaky breathing against his side. Her warmth was comforting to him, although he wasn’t the one who needed comforting. He could tell she certainly felt a bit better, and that made him happy.

Lyra rested her head against his neck and let out another sigh.

“Thank you.” She said softly.

“Thank you? What for?”

“For standing up to her. I wouldn’t have been able to by myself. At least not for long…So thank you.”

There was a lot Sketch wanted to say at that moment, sitting there holding Lyra, comforting her. He had barely known her a week and the two of them seemed to have been to Tartarus and back together. He wanted to say so much, tell her it would all be alright, that everything would work out, that he knew how to fix all of this; but he couldn’t, because he didn’t know how he could fix it, only that he knew he had to try his very hardest. He didn’t want a ‘thank you’, he didn’t want to be praised; he just wanted Lyra to be happy, and in that moment, in spite of everything that had just happened, she was; although he didn’t know it.

And so, out of all the things Sketch could have said, he said nothing. He simply pulled Lyra in closer and held her tight, and that was enough for both of them; simply content in the company of one another, they sat there on that floor for what seemed like hours. Sketch sat there until Lyra was ready to get up: he would stay there as long as he needed to, be it all day and into the morning. However, this was not the case: eventually Lyra’s breathing returned to normal, her shivering stopped and she shifted her body a bit, alerting him to her recovery.

“All this for some silly lyre.” She said softly, looking at the instrument at her hooves.

“It isn’t silly.”

“In the scheme of things, it is.”

“You went to all that trouble to find it, and bring it here, so it has some value to you; therefore it isn’t silly.” He said.

“It was my mom’s, you know. She had a talent for fixing instruments. She could fix any instrument you brought her. She couldn’t play it very well, but she loved it so much, such a simple thing. She gave it to me after she caught me playing it one day.”

Lyra let out a soft chuckle.

“I thought I was in trouble, because my mom was freaking; I hadn’t realized that my cutie mark had appeared and that she wasn’t mad, she was overjoyed that it had appeared.”

Lyra turned and looked at Sketch.

“How’d you get yours? How’d you discover your talent?”

He sighed.

“A story for another time, I think.”

“Hmmm” was all Lyra said.

“Did you see I cleaned?”

Sketch chuckled.

“Yes, I did notice that; you really didn’t have to.”

“Bah, it wasn’t much, although the attic room is a mess. You’re gonna need to help me with that, sometime.”

“Wait, attic room?” He said; surprised.

“Uhhh, yeah, you do know you have an attic room right?”

“No….I didn’t…..”

“Want me to show you?”

Sketch nodded and Lyra stood up, pulling herself out from under Sketch’s wing, much to his dismay. Her body heat lingered on his feathers. He stood up and followed her into the living room, out of the entryway. She led him over to the fireplace and reached a hoof up to the ceiling. She pulled on a small latch Sketch hadn’t noticed before, causing a staircase to gently unfold onto the floor.

“Wow.” He said.

“You really didn’t know this was here?” she inquired.

“Nope.”

“Well come look, it’s pretty cool. Messy though.”

Sketch climbed up the staircase and Lyra trailed behind. The attic was about the size of his bedroom. There were cobwebs everywhere and a small chest in one corner, but that was all. The attic was cool, as if it had been ventilated; it was then Sketch noticed the air vent in the floor.

“This isn’t too bad.” He said as Lyra climbed in.

“No, but It is going to be a pain in the flank to clean out all the dust.”

“That’s what rugs are for.” He joked, gently nudging Lyra with his elbow.

“Pffft. Boys.”

The attic, despite the dust, actually looked well maintained. It was ventilated and with a bit of T.L.C here and there it would be habitable; there was even an electricity socket in one wall. To the front of the attic there was a small round window that faced out the front of the house; Celestia’s sun had set by now and Luna’s moon was just breaking over the horizon. How had he not noticed this attic before?

“I can’t believe you had no idea about this.” Lyra said, trotting over to the window and peeking out of it.

“Hell I don’t even know what to use it for, there isn’t anything I can -“

Sketch stopped mid-sentence. His eyes lit up and shone as he just figured out how to deal with his letter, he turned his gaze to Lyra with a wide grin.

“What? What’s wrong?” Lyra asked.

“Lyra Heartstrings! You are amazing!” He cried happily.

“Wait, I am?”

“Lyra! Gears, loves stuff like this! He can come up here and tinker away at his inventions and not be bothered! This is wonderful!” Sketch was ecstatic.

“You want Gears…to sleep in a dusty old attic? Is that healthy?”

“Lyra, all he ever would talk about was how he wanted a workshop some day, a place where he could go and invent and tinker away without being bothered. This is wonderful! I’ll have to clean it out of course, and buy some furniture, but still!”
“Well, then, I guess we have something to do tomorrow! After you get back from work at least.”

“Oh, I don’t have work tomorrow. Applejack said the Pegasi have a storm scheduled.”

“Oh, really? Well, then I guess you get to deal with me all day tomorrow then!” Lyra turned and flicked her tail with a cheeky grin, barely brushing Sketch’s nose with it, causing him sniffle. He huffed out his nose and ignored Lyra’s teasing. His actions earned a frown from her when she realized he hadn’t done anything.

With a sigh Lyra made her way down the fold-out staircase that extended from the floor of the attic room. Sketch saw this and trotted after her. After he climbed down the staircase, he reached around and re-folded it, and set it back into the ceiling once again.

Just then there was a pounding on the door.

“The moon is out, who in the world could…uh oh.” Lyra’s eyes widened a bit.

“I got it.”

Sketch trotted up to the door and opened it slowly, however instead of seeing the mare he had expected, there stood a very concerned looking Twilight, who was wearing a very over-packed saddlebag.

“Uhh…hi Twilight, is everything alright?”

“Alright! I should ask you the same thing! I was shopping and I saw BonBon storming down the road away from your house and I knew that Lyra was staying with you. Naturally I assumed something had happened, maybe somepony had gotten hurt, so I wanted to come check and make sure everypony was-“

“Twilight, calm down. Everything is fine now, thanks to Sketch.” Lyra said, making her way onto the doorway.

“Lyra! I’m so glad you’re alright!” Twilight shot forward, almost knocking Sketch over. She gave Lyra a tight hug, something that obviously caught Lyra off guard.

“Everything is fine, Twilight, I promise, and I don’t need anything, before you ask.”

“You’re sure?” She asked, still very concerned looking.

“Yes, very.”

Twilight looked back and forth between Sketch and Lyra, eyeing them both.

“Alright then. Promise me though, if you need something don’t hesitate to ask. I have read all sorts of books on how to help deal with situations like-“

“Twilight…” Lyra sighed.

“Right…I guess I’ll be going then...”

“Goodbye Twilight.”

“Bye Lyra, Bye Sketch.” She said, still very obviously not convinced everypony was ok.

As Twilight turned and trotted away, Lyra motioned for Sketch to back out of the door so she could shut it.

“She looked pretty worried…maybe we should have-“

“I know her; she’ll go home, read a book and forget all about it. At least for now.”

“You sure?”

“Ehh…” She seemed anything but.

“Uh huh…Well I don’t know about you, but I’m starved. How about something to eat?” Sketch asked; trotting into his kitchen.

“Food sounds wonderful.” She replied, as he trotted into the kitchen and began searching his pantry.

Sketch rifled through the pantry with his hoof searching through the few cans and boxes of food he had. He would have gone out and bought some food, had BonBon not showed up.

As he searched, he couldn’t help but wonder.

How serious was BonBon when she threatened to kill him? He had never had somepony else threaten him before; at least not like that. Should he be worried BonBon would do something rash? Or was he supposed to think nothing if it and go about his life? He wasn’t sure. BonBon had said a lot of things when she had been at his house and from what Lyra had said the majority, if not all of it, was lies. Yet he still felt uncomfortable about it.

“You get lost in there Sketchy?” Lyra said from behind him, rousing him from thought.

“Huh? Oh! I found some canned corn, and some….asparagus. I think.”

“You think?” She said, uncertainty tainting her voice.

“Part of the label is torn off. From the picture it looks like asparagus. I guess we’ll find out!”

“Alright then.” she said rather nonchalantly, trotting back into the living room.

“Sorry, all I have is this canned stuff. I haven’t exactly been able to get to the market, at least not with money on me.” He said as he opened them up.

“Don’t worry about it. Trust me, Sketchy, there are much worse things to eat than canned food.”

Sketch dumped the cans in a glass bowl and lifted them into his small microwave; this would have to do. He didn’t really have any extra stuff to go with it: bread, wine or anything. Inside he was screaming at himself for not grabbing something nice. He should have thought this through; he really hoped Lyra wouldn’t mind.

With a sigh he started the microwave and trotted into the living room, the faint humming of the machine getting quieter as he distanced himself from it.

“So how was work? Lyra asked before Sketch even left the kitchen.

“It was…..different. For sure.”

“You sound so ecstatic.” She said, exaggerating an eye roll.

“No, it’s just, I met Big Mac.”

“Quite the chatterbox huh?” She asked as Sketch sat down across from her.

“Ha. He was like, standing guard when I got there, as if he were looking or waiting for something or somepony to come along. Applejack was being kinda weird as well; she wanted to know if Big Mac was alright.”

“Alright?” She said in uncertainty.” Don’t they like…..live together? Couldn’t she just ask him herself?”

“My thoughts exactly! Something weird is going on at Sweet Apple Acres. I don’t know what it is, but trouble seems to follow me, so I’m sure I’ll find out eventually.” He finished with a sigh.

“Am I trouble?” She asked, only half joking.

“Of course not.”

For a moment neither pony said anything as, unbeknownst to one another, they were each desperately trying to keep up a conversation, their minds racing to find a topic to discuss. Lyra managed to think of something first.

“So, that notebook of yours, what’s that all about?” She asked.

He smiled as the memory started to come back to him, one of the many happy ones with his father.

“My dad gave it to me; it’s very special you know.”

Lyra beamed.

“Ohhh, I love stories. Tel me, tell me, tell me.” She begged, sitting down and looking at him like some eager young filly.
Sketch let out a light chuckle as the memory from his foalhood flooded back to him.

“Well…”

************************

“Hey daddy! Look what I made!” young Sketch trotted up to his father. In his teeth he held an almost perfect drawing of his father, working at the dining room table.

“Oh….wow, that’s great Sketch! When did you start working on this?”

“Five minutes ago.”

“Wow, really?”

Sketch nodded with a grin from ear to ear.

“Can you show me how you draw? I want to see!”

Sketch nodded again and hopped up onto the chair next to his father, he flipped over the paper and looked around, and his eyes came to rest on a cloud outside the window the table was set in front of. After a few seconds of staring at the cloud, he looked down at his paper and began his work.

What started out as nothing but seemingly random lines and scribbles rapidly turned into a perfect copy of the tree outside, down to the little wisps on the cloud. Sketch looked his work over one time, then nodded and gave a happy grunt.

“See!” He lifted it up and showed it to his father.

“Whoa…….”

“Isn’t it awesome? I can do other stuff too, like carriages and other ponies, and my toys too!”

“How come I haven’t seen more of these?” His father asked.

Sketch frowned and stared at the floor.

“Well, I can’t ever seem to keep all the paper together, I drop them or I lose them. Usually when I am playing or running around…”

“Ohhh, I see.”

Sketch’s father looked at him for a moment, as if in deep thought, before speaking up again. He turned and reached into a large black saddlebag he always kept with him. In one hoof he pulled out a very large brand-new notebook.

“I bought this for work the other day. I was going to use it to keep notes and charts in. However, I think you need a place to keep all your drawings safe. Those are special you know, each and every one.”

Sketch happily took the notebook from his father, beaming ear to ear; he was almost bouncing with joy.

“Thanks dad! I’ll keep it safe forever and ever!”

************************

As the memory faded, he found himself smiling.

“Awwww, I bet you were such an adorable little foal.” Lyra chimed. “With your widdle wings and your cute widdle hooves.” She spoke in baby-talk now.

Sketch only blushed and looked away.

“Wait, don’t tell me…your mom shows off all your foal pictures all the time doesn’t she?” Lyra said teasingly

“What?...Pffft, no. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, flustered.

She gasped.

“What!?”

“You’re the type of stallion who gets flustered when their mom shows off foal pictures, aren’t you?”

Sketch’s eyes grew wide.

“Uhm…no…”

“You are, aren’t you?!” Lyra gasped again when she finished. “Your mother doesn’t show every mare she meets your foal pictures, does she?”

“No…” Sketch said unconvincingly.

“She does!” She exclaimed, before going into a fit of laughter.

Sketch could only continue to avert his gaze and blush a bright red as Lyra practically rolled on the floor in her fit of laughter.

“I’m sorry it’s just…” Lyra paused to laugh.” I find that so hilarious for some reason.” She wiped a tear from her eye as her laughter subsided for a moment. Just then there was a beeping noise, not unlike an alarm; Sketch recognized it as the microwave. He sighed inwardly as he was quite literally ‘Saved by the bell’. He trotted into the kitchen, leaving Lyra to her giggling, and opened the microwave.

Despite the tin-surrounded origins of the vegetables, they actually looked, and smelled, rather good. Sketch found himself looking forward to eating. As if to prove he wasn’t the only pony who was thinking this, Lyra chimed in from the other room.

“For canned food, that smells pretty good!” She called, faint giggling still tainting her words.

“You’re just as surprised as I am.” He said as he spooned the vegetables into two bowls, and trotted back into the living room. He set a bowl in front of Lyra before sitting down.

“Ohhh, looking good there, huh?” She said, taking a small bite.

“Yeah, believe it or not this turned out pretty well for canned stuff; especially since I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

She huffed.

“Don’t worry about it; it won’t win any awards, sure, but hey, it’s not half bad.”

“If you say so…”

************************

The majority of dinner was taken in silence. Sketch was deep in thought as the occasional “Clink” of silverware made its way to his ears. He kept coming back to BonBon’s visit. What she had said, the death threat. How was he supposed to take that? Was that normal for BonBon? Or did he really need to be worried? The more he thought about it the more anxious he got. It seemed like he just couldn’t live without some sort of trouble.

“You alright?” Lyra asked suddenly, causing him to jump a bit.

“Huh? Oh, yeah I’m fine.” he lied.

“You don’t look fine.”

He sighed.

As much as he didn’t want to look like he was trying to make himself the injured party, because that is what he partially saw it as, he figured it was for the best to let Lyra know, in case BonBon really was serious.

“It’s just; I don’t know how I should take BonBon’s whole ‘I’m going to kill you’ thing. I’ve never had somepony say something like that to me before; otherwise I don’t think I would really mind. Should I be worried?”

Now she sighed as well.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about; sure she’s off her rocker crazy, but murder? Nah, she wouldn’t go that far. I know her.”

Sketch found this comforting, if only a little. Lyra had been living with BonBon for a while, so she knew what she was talking about.

“Alright….” He said with uncertainty.

Lyra smiled softly and stood up, trotting over to him. She put a gentle hoof on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, okay?”

He stared back at her, still not feeling very comforted. He honestly was a bit scared about what BonBon had said; but, comforted or not, he felt he could trust Lyra, especially on this matter.

“Alright,” He said with a nod.

“Good!” Lyra said rather suddenly. “Now, you go sit here, and I will do the dishes.”

He scoffed. “How about you sit down, and I go do them.”

“No, you made dinner. I get to do the dishes. Just because I have this eye patch doesn’t mean I can’t help out, you know.”

Sketch could tell she wasn’t going to budge on the matter, so he gave in.

“Ugh, Fine.” He said; rolling his eyes.

As Lyra cleaned the few dishes they had used, Sketch trotted over and sat on his chair, The familiar hiss of air rushing out hit his ears as he sunk into it, letting out a sigh as he did. Soon, he heard the sound of gentle running water emanating from behind him. The clinking dishware sounded as Lyra cleaned.

For whatever reason, he found these sounds calming: the noise of dishes being done against the utter silence of everything else. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the chair as a feeling of peace washed over him, letting out a gentle hum as he relaxed.

For a moment, everything was silent; the running water had ceased, although Sketch didn’t notice at the time, and the clinking of dishes had as well. All was silent until Lyra spoke.

“Hey Sketch, I have a weird question.” She asked as she trotted back into the living room.

“Hmm?” He sat up and watched as she trotted nearer.

“When I found the attic earlier in the day, there were some of those fancy fire logs, the ones wrapped in paper, and I know it isn’t too cold out right now, but do you think maybe we could burn one?” She sounded anxious. Had she been like this previously, or was he just now picking up on it?

Right off the bat Sketch noticed this; he couldn’t remember seeing Lyra like that before: she actually looked nervous, almost antsy. It seemed like she couldn’t stop fiddling with her hooves. What was her issue?

“Uhh, that actually sounds great. I don’t see why not.”

Lyra smiled happily.

“Cool! Let me go get it. I put it in the bedroom.”

He watched as Lyra trotted off into the bedroom to retrieve the ‘Fancy’ fire logs.

“Got it!” She called after a moment.

He turned to look at her. Sure enough Lyra was levitating a single fire log about two hooves away from her. The paper that wrapped it was faded and had a small tear, but it would probably burn just fine nonetheless. However, this fire log was not all Lyra was carrying with her. A little bit behind her floated a neatly folded, very thick comforter.

Without a word Lyra placed the log into the fireplace. It rested in a metal stand that held it up a little ways above the floor of the fireplace. After setting it down, she pulled a small cord on the log and a small flame appeared on the corner of it, slowly spreading over the paper.
After this had been done, Lyra unfolded the comforter and set it on the floor, laying it out in an almost perfect square. She then took a step back and seemed to marvel at her work. All the while Sketch simply sat in silence and watched it all unfold.
Lyre looked over at him and smiled, very obviously trying to hide her seemingly random nervousness. She trotted over to the comforter and sat down, far to one side of the blanket.

What should he do? What was Lyra doing? Should he just sit in his chair and let Lyra have the whole blanket? Or go and try and sit with her. This was all very new to him, and he didn’t want to screw it up, or make Lyra feel uncomfortable. It would be rude to just sit there, but it could also be rude to try and intrude on her space. Although after the events that had taken place earlier that evening, did that even apply? It was settled then. He was going down there.

Sketch got out of his chair and slowly moved over to where Lyra was sitting. She stared at the flames of the fire, entranced; the flames reflected in her one visible eye, creating a beautiful effect.

He sat down gently next to her. “Kinda pretty huh?”

“I always loved watching fires.”

“Huh?”

“Oh! Not like that, err…I mean, I’ve always liked how enchanting the flames were. I’m not a pyromaniac or anything.” She said hurriedly, eliciting a light chuckle from Sketch.

“When I was younger, I would have trouble sleeping some nights, so my mother would make a fire in our fireplace and let me fall asleep by it. I always found it comforting for some reason, the fire. Creepy as that sounds.”

“It isn’t creepy at all.”

Lyra said nothing in response.

Sketch tried to think of something, anything, to say. He felt so awkward not really saying anything. Just sitting there staring at the fire in utter silence.

“So uh…How’s your eye?”

Wow, really? That was what he had said? Sketch mentally slapped himself. Here they were sitting in front of this nice fire, all romantic and everything, and that was what he said?

“Much better actually, thank you for asking. I should be able to take off this silly thing pretty soon. It healed up faster than I would have thought.” She turned and lifted her eye patch, allowing Sketch to see her hurt eye for the first time since he first learned about it.

Lyra’s eye was not swollen shut anymore, and it looked less black. Instead of its previous state, it simply looked a bit bruised. After a moment she replaced the eye patch.

“It looks much better. I’m glad it’s healing.” he said, as she replaced her eye patch.

“Pffft, you’re probably gonna miss my looking so silly, huh?” She teased, nudging him gently, still staring into the flames.
“I told you, it looks cool.”

Lyra laughed softly at this, and rested her head against Sketch’s shoulder.

Oh crap, what was he supposed to do now? Should he just sit there? What if she wanted him to do something? He didn’t want to screw up and have her move. Should he wrap a wing around her? Move closer?

Lyra let out a soft sigh of content as she rested against him. However in his mind it blared like the loudest horn. After a few seconds of mentally debating with himself, he decided to just go for the whole ‘wrap a wing around her’ deal. That had seemed to comfort her earlier that day.

Hoping for the best, he slowly extended his wing and draped it over Lyra, praying he wouldn’t get a bad response. She let out a soft “hmmm” and scooted closer to him, her side almost completely up against his. She was warm, and unlike earlier, not shivering.

Sketch repositioned himself a bit, but not so much it would bother Lyra. Why exactly she had suddenly wanted to start a moody, and, now that he thought about it, sort of romantic fire he wasn’t sure. Although he wasn’t complaining as it resulted in his current state. A state, he had to admit, he enjoyed quite a bit.

By now the fire had fully burned through all the paper and had ignited the log. The flames slowly spread across it like some sort of burning flood. The dark log was glowing around the edges as it was heated by the fire.

“Can I ask you something?” Lyra asked suddenly.

“Uh…yeah, sure.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you helping me? You could have just gone about your business like everypony else, not had to deal with any of this: BonBon, housing me, any of it. What makes my problems so different from that of anypony else? How come you decided to get angry the other night, and practically knock on the gates of Tartarus, by trying to confront BonBon?”

Sketch froze up. How was he supposed to answer this?

“Uhh…well.” He paused and thought for a moment.

“I guess…it’s because…”

Lyra pulled away from him, so that she could look him in the eye.

She stared at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“I guess it’s because I know how this kind of situation can end…if outside help isn’t accepted. I have been in a similar situation before, albeit not as…severe…but nonetheless. This kind of stuff ruins pony’s lives. You’re so unique Lyra, and you have such great talent. You’re funny, nice, smart and pretty. Letting that all get snuffed out, I guess I just...couldn’t bear to let it happen.”

There was nothing but silence for a very long moment. Lyra stared Sketch dead in the eye. A blank, expressionless look plastered on her face.

Oh crap, he shouldn’t have said that; he probably just made her hate him! Why had he said that? How could he have been so stupid as to say something like that? She probably thought he was some weird creep who- Wait. Something was different. Was she…smiling?

A small smile crept into the corner of Lyra’s mouth, her one visible eye seemed to gleam even brighter than before now; and before Sketch realized what was happening, she kissed him.

In a surge of heat and emotion, he realized what was happening and kissed back. Everything else seemed to fade away, as if he were character in some romance story. The expression ‘Sparks Flew’ couldn’t have been applied better. His body seemed to be electrified from the head down as the two of them kissed. The heat from her lips warmed his very being. In that moment all seemed right in the world, as if the simple kiss had corrected every wrong there ever had been.

After a few seconds, Lyra reluctantly pulled away. Sketch was blushing a deep red. However, before he could bring himself fully back to the real world, Lyra threw herself around him and hugged him. That firm hug that one gave to show feeling, like a mother hugs her lost foal after finding them; that sort of indescribable, yet still quite describable hug.

After pulling away, she looked the still recovering Sketch deep in the eye; he had been left a bit stunned by all that had just happened.

“Uhh…” was all he managed to say.

She nuzzled his chest.

“Uhh…” Still nothing, His brain was nothing but static at that moment.

“Oh…I hope I didn’t offend you or-“She said, pulling away a bit.

“No! Uh…No not at all…I just wasn’t expecting that, Err…”

Damn he was good at killing the mood.

“I knew you liked it.” A cheeky smile crept across her face.

“What? How?”

Lyra slowly lifted a hoof and jabbed it towards his wings.

“OH!”

He blushed an even brighter red as he tried to maneuver his wings around and fold them back against himself. Sweet Celestia this was embarrassing.

“Sorry…” he said after managing to fold his wings up. He was still incredibly flustered. She had, after all, taken him quite by surprise.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anypony.” She teased.

Lyra slumped down on the makeshift bedding she had set up and lay on her side, stretching out her limbs before pulling them under her and getting comfortable. She laid there and stared into the fire for a moment, before turning and looking up at him.

Taking this as a signal, Sketch lied down a few inches away from Lyra and settled in. However, this was apparently not acceptable to her, as she soon scooted herself in such a way that he was almost completely wrapped around her back. A bit surprised, he shot his head up for fear of bumping her.

“You haven’t done this before huh?” She asked, trying to sound as nice as she could.

“What gave it away?”

“You can relax, I’m not gonna bite you or anything.” She giggled a bit and nuzzled under his chin before returning her head to its previous resting spot.
Sketch followed suit. He laid his head down just next to Lyra’s so that their necks were pressed against each other. He could hear her soft breathing almost matching in time with his, granted, he couldn’t look her in the eye, due to her eye patch, but nonetheless, it was very nice.

They both laid there silently for a few minutes. Sketch didn’t want to say anything anyways. For one, he couldn’t tell if Lyra was asleep; he sure as hell didn’t want to wake her up. On top of the fact, he was perfectly content with cuddling, silently.
Eventually, however, he assumed Lyra had fallen asleep, as it had been almost ten minutes. Her entire form had relaxed and sort of melted into his, so he allowed himself to drift off. The last thing he wanted to do was fall asleep before she did, though why he didn’t want this to happen, he was unsure.

As he lay there, he could hear the faint crackling of the flames as they cast their dancing shadows across the room, creating a spectacular affect. The fire was warm, but not uncomfortable, and that combined with a sleeping Lyra only made the whole thing even more spectacular.

His whole day had been pretty good, despite BonBon. He had had a decent day at work, he had managed to quell the whole BonBon ordeal, at least for a little while, and he had managed to figure out the whole situation of housing his little brother who would be arriving sometime in the next few days. And to top it all off, he was laying there holding the most fantastic mare.

As his eyelids slowly got heavier and heavier, all was right in his crazy little world, if only for a little while, and he would do his best to keep it all alright.

Author's Note:

I didn't want to wait and post chapters 6-7 together...you all have waited long enough I think. I hope you all enjoy this chapter because there is lots more to come!

Comments

[QuilliamPenn]

I felt like it had been way to long since i put up a chapter, i was originally going to upload chapters 6-7 together, but decided against it as it has been ages since i uploaded anything...so yeah...i hope you guys like chapter 6!

[RadBunny]

So. Much. Adorableness!
And awesomeness, but mostly adorable!

[JimboTex]

The adorableness! I can't take it! I'm go-
static.tumblr.com/rzdz2vg/rigme9ibm/hnng.jpg

[QuilliamPenn]

2849321>>2852164 and here I thought everyone would be getting upset where I had placed that whole scene. Guess you guys liked this one then XD

[RadBunny]

2852390
I thought it worked rather well, to be honest.

[QuilliamPenn]

2852409 Well it's very good to hear that! I was a bit afraid I was rushing it a bit, but the feedback I have gotten has proved otherwise !

[Sir Derp]

SWEET CELESTIA WHY DO LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH?!

[QuilliamPenn]

2859605 I'm glad you like it In all honesty this has gotten more positive response than I had ever hoped for, I'm really glad so many people like the story. It's very encouraging

[Old Diggy]

When I read the title I honestly thought Bon-Bon was basically going to become what my Username implies.