“I don’t wanna go!”
Tasty Delight wiggled her brown-furred leg, attempting to break free of the filly clamped around it. “Bonnie, please... you’re making a scene...”
Bon Bon looked up at her mother with pleading blue eyes. “Please don’t make me go!” she begged. “I wanna stay home with you and daddy!”
The blue-maned mare knelt down to match her daughter’s height. “Oh, Bonnie, there’s no need to worry! I promise you; kindergarten is going to be a lot of fun. See, look!” She pointed to a group of fillies a few yards away, playing and laughing. “There’s a bunch of foals here, all your age! You’re gonna get along great!”
The filly sniffled. “Really?”
“Really. I’m sure that by the end of the day, you’ll be the most popular pony in school. Now, are you ready to be a good little filly and let mommy drop you off?”
“I guess,” Bon Bon sighed.
“Great!” Tasty Delight cheered. “Now, let’s go. You don’t want to be late on your first day, do you?”
The two walked calmly down the road leading to the school house, Bon Bon pouting the entire way. “You keep frowning like that,” Tasty scolded, “and your face is going to stay that way.” Bon Bon immediately stopped and switched to staring at her own hooves. She ignored the many ponies running around, laughing, screaming.
‘Kindergarten is too noisy.’
After a minute, they arrived at the large red building that was the schoolhouse. A few teachers were out front, greeting ponies of all ages as they came. Tasty Delight took Bon Bon to an older yellow earth mare with a full brown mane. Upon noticing them, the mare immediately shot Bon Bon a gaze. The filly resisted the urge to clamp onto her mother’s leg again.
“Hello, Mrs. Sharpener!” Tasty called. “How are you today?”
“Fine,” the pony newly introduced as Mrs. Sharpener answered. “And yourself?”
“Great, great. Bon Bon here is really excited for her first day of school!”
With a start, Bon Bon suddenly realized that both mares were staring at her. She squeaked and hid behind her mother.
Tasty laughed nervously. “Oh, she’s just a bit shy. Come on, Bonnie, there’s no need to be nervous. Mrs. Sharpener is a friend!”
Bon Bon peeked her head out. “Hi,” she murmured.
Mrs. Sharpener gave a warm smile. “Hello there, Bon Bon! I’m Miss Sharpener, your teacher! You’re going to have a great time here, I promise. Okay?” Bon Bon nodded. “Wonderful! Now, Miss Delight, you can leave little Bon Bon with me. I’ll make sure she gets where she needs to go.”
Tasty Delight smiled. “Of course.” She leaned down to her daughter. “Have a great day, Bonnie. Give mommy a kiss before she goes?”
Bon Bon looked at her mother for what may as well have been the last time, before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I love you, mommy.”
“Love you too, Bonnie.”
Bon Bon gazed around the room. Her eyes lingered on the new ponies, the new surroundings, even the new smells. Where was Mrs. Sharpener? Was she doing what she was supposed to be doing? Was she...kindergartening right?
The classroom was nearly three times as big as her bedroom, and the walls were covered with different posters, most of which had rules or reminders on them. There were supplies and crafts on the shelves. She sat at one of six wide tables, accompanied by three other vacant seats. At the very front of the room was a big desk, which was piled high with papers. Behind it was a chalkboard.
A few other foals sat around fiddling with the papers on the tables. Most were coloring. One black colt seemed to be priming a paper airplane for takeoff, straight toward a table of fillies. As more foals entered in a steady stream, Bon Bon held an internal debate over whether she wanted somepony to sit next to her or not.
Alas, after a few minutes, the seats adjacent to her filled. To her right was a pure-white unicorn with a deep-purple mane. She seemed to regard her stool with disgust, like it was covered in mud.
To her left, was a deep-mulberry earth mare with purple-and-gray hair. She smiled widely, and began organizing everything on the table. At that particular moment, there were only blank papers and a few markers, but nevertheless, she straightened them out.
After a minute, Mrs. Sharpener trotted back into the room, a light grin on her face. The teacher grabbed a piece of chalk in her mouth, turned to the board, and in complex mouthwriting, wrote: “Mrs. Sharpener.”
She turned back. "Hello there, students!" she called. Nopony answered. "I said, hello!"
"Hello?" a few ponies called out.
Mrs. Sharpener nodded. "Good! We're going to practice saying that every morning, alright?" Most of the class nodded in response. "Good! Now, we're going to play a little game. It's called The Name Game! Does anypony not know how to play? Come on, there's no need to be—"
Every foal in the class raised a hoof.
"—shy. Well, that’s no problem! Here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to go around the class. When we get to you, please say your name, and something you like!” Mrs. Sharpener walked over to the leftmost desk in the room and smiled at a bright-pink filly with an equally bright yellow mane. “We’ll start here!”
The filly’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, um... my name is Starlight, and... I like, um... playing with toys?”
Mrs. Sharpener chuckled. “Excellent! I’ll be sure to remember that.”
The game traveled across the room, from right to left. After Starlight was caught off-guard, everypony made sure that they were prepared before speaking. Excluding a small argument between three fillies over who liked flowers the most, it went remarkably well. The colt who had thrown the paper airplane, a pegasus named Thunderlane, ended up being the only boy in the class.
"My name is Derpy Hooves!" a gray pegasus yelled. Her golden eyes shot off in two different directions, sending chills down Bon Bon's spine. "I really like snack time, because snack time means muffins! And I love muffins, even more than bubbles!" Three pegasus fillies at the table next to Bon Bon started laughing. One of them, white with a green-and-pink mane, made a weird face and rolled her eyes around, just sparking another fit of laughter. Mrs. Sharpener shushed them.
Next were the pegasus fillies who had laughed. The one with the multicolored mane grimaced. “My name is Blossomforth, and I like to fly, I guess?”
Next were two lilac fillies with icy-blue manes. Bon Bon figured they must be twins. “My name is Cloudchaser,” the first said in a monotone. Her mane was spiky and wild, like she hadn’t even bothered to brush it in the morning. “I guess I like to fly too?”
“My name is Flitter,” the other twin added. Her hair was smoother, and had a pink bow on top. She smiled. “I like manestyling.” The other two glared at her. “I mean, uh, I like flying... I guess.” She tried to look bored.
The last pony at their table was a turquoise unicorn with a white-and-mint mane. She looked around the class for a moment before grinning, standing up, and yelling: “My name is Lyra, and I love music!” She sat down, a smug look on her face.
Almost immediately, the three pegasi burst into laughter. Blossomforth nearly fell out of her seat. As Cloudchaser giggled incessantly, Flitter leaned over and whispered into the unicorn's ear. Lyra’s smile immediately turned to a growl, as she glared at the fillies, her golden eyes afire. The reaction just made them laugh even harder.
“Girls, please! Be respectful!” Mrs. Sharpener scolded. “That’s wonderful, Lyra. I’m sure you’ll love our music classes.”
The next table was Bon Bon’s. The white unicorn lifted her nose high into the air. “My name is Rarity Belle,” she said, “but you may call me Rarity. I enjoy designing dresses.”
The mulberry filly across from her looked right at Mrs. Sharpener and beamed. “Hi! My name is Cheerilee, and I love making my little baby brother smile!”
Now, everypony was looking at Bon Bon. The filly’s pupils narrowed. “Oh, uhm...m-my name is, is...Bon Bon...” she whispered.
“What was that?” Mrs. Sharpener asked. “There’s no need to be shy! We’d love to hear your name!”
Bon Bon swallowed and sat up. “My name is Bon Bon,” she answered. “And I like... um... ooh, I love candy!”
Blossomforth snorted. The other two pegasi looked at her strangely. However, after the white filly leaned over to them and whispered into their ears, they too began to wear the same devilish looks.
Bon Bon looked down at the table and tried to ignore the snickering.
“Great!” Mrs. Sharpener said. “Well, now that we’re all acquainted, let’s get started! Now, first off... how many of you know how to read?”
Only Cheerilee and Rarity raised their hooves. Bon Bon began to raise her hoof; her father had taught her how to read over the summer. But she didn’t want to attract any more negative attention to herself than she already had, so she kept it down.
A frown flickered over Mrs. Sharpener’s face. It was going to be a long year.
“Hm... that should go... there.”
Bon Bon moved a rectangular block over a few inches.
“Good. Now, that square should fit in right...there!”
Bon Bon picked up the wooden square and pushed it into the middle of her—well, Rarity’s—structure. It wobbled a bit, but stayed strong.
Rarity marveled at the wooden block castle she had designed. “Oh, it’s marvelous! Don’t you think so?’
“Uhm...” Bon Bon stammered, staring at it. “It’s nice.”
“Nice? Well, what does that mean?”
“Oh, uh, nothing! I mean, I like it! I really like it!” Bon Bon insisted.
The white filly eyed her partner for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Of course you like it!” she said. “After all, you are a mare of taste!”
The cream-colored filly beamed. "Thank you!"
She was glad she had picked the blocks as the area to spend her free time. The various foals were scattered around the classroom, exploring and utilizing the new toys and objects. There were only three stations that had really interested Bon Bon: the play-dough, drawing, and blocks. But the three fillies from before were over at the play-dough, so that activity was out. And the filly that had called herself Derpy Hooves was over by all the paper and markers and eating glue, so that was out, too.
Bon Bon wondered where the loud unicorn from before had gone. Was she with the pegasi? She had been sitting at the same table as they. Maybe they were actually friends?
As Rarity began to plan the final stages of their fortress, Bon Bon took a nervous glance across the room to where the play-dough was. Mrs. Sharpener, Applejack and Starlight were there, but no pegasi. Where had they gone?
"Hey there, fatty!"
Both Rarity and Bon Bon turned around. Worry shot through Bon Bon as Blossomforth walked closer, flanked by Cloudchaser and Flitter.
Rarity gave the three an incredulous look. “Excuse me? Do you know to whom you are speaking?”
Blossomforth rolled her eyes. “We’re not talking to you, mule!”
The unicorn gasped before gritting her teeth. Her face went red for a second. “I am not—” she began, but stopped short. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her nose high in the air and began to walk away. “My mother says that fillies like you are not worth my time. Good day.”
Bon Bon wanted to ask her to stay, but the filly had already left. She looked back at the bullies. “Y-You... d-do you mean me?”
Cloudchaser laughed. "Duh! I mean, look at you!"
Bon Bon looked down at herself. When she sat on her rump, her haunches did jut out a bit. And her auntie had always said that she had the "cutest chubby cheeks." But she had certainly never thought of herself as fat.
"I'm... no, I'm not."
"Uh, yeah, you are!" Flitter stated. "I mean, your favorite thing in the entire world is candy? Faaaaatty!"
"I'm n-not," Bon Bon insisted, retreating a little bit. "Stop it..." Every step she took backward, the three fillies matched. It was only a matter of seconds before she had backed up right into her block castle, sending it tumbling downwards. Bon Bon jumped. "Oh, no!"
Blossomforth guffawed. "Look! She's so big, she's knocking everything down!"
With a small whimper, Bon Bon began to cry.
"Awwww!" all three fillies mocked. "She's crying!" Blossomforth continued. "Aww, does little baby need some candy?"
"Leave her alone!"
Bon Bon looked up. Standing behind her tormentors, was a fuming Lyra. "Stop being mean to her!" she yelped. "She didn't do anything to you!"
Her protests just made the fillies laugh more. "Oh, look!" Flitter called. "It's spaz!"
"Don't call me that!" Lyra growled. "Or else I'll—"
"Spaaaaazzz..." Blossomforth interjected, walking over to the unicorn. "Spaz, spaz, spa-"
Faster than Bon Bon had ever seen a filly move before, Lyra proceeded to grab Blossomforth, and chomp down on her leg.
"Ai-yeeeee!" the white filly squealed. "Get her off! Get her off!"
Bon Bon stared in abject fear, not knowing what to do. Part of her cursed her mother for sending her to this warzone.
The twins looked at each other, then back to the scene unfolding before them. “Mrs. Sharpener!” Flitter yelled. Cloudchaser sprinted forward, and forced the two apart. Lyra ran over to Bon Bon, and Blossomforth just stared at her leg, which now had a large bite mark on it.
“Oh!” she moaned. “I’m dying! I’m dying!”
“Come on!” Cloudchaser offered, grabbing her friend. “Let’s get out of here! That filly is crazy!” They ran off.
“Yeah, you better run!” Lyra spat. She turned to the filly on the ground, and offered a hoof. “Hi! I’m Lyra! You’re Bon Bon, right?”
Bon Bon blinked. “Y-You just... bit her!”
“Yeah, but she deserved it! Besides, it’s not like I broke skin or anything. She’s just being a crybaby,” she explained. Bon Bon looked down at the ground, still shaking. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Are... are you going to bite me too?”
Lyra looked offended. “What? No! You’re cool!”
“...I am?”
“Yeah! You have a really pretty mane, and who doesn’t like candy? And, we both don’t like Blossomforth and those twins! Friends like us have to stick together!” She offered her hoof again. “Right?”
Bon Bon considered the hoof carefully. She didn’t know why, but Lyra didn’t seem like a bad pony. Even if she had just tried to take a chunk out of another foal. The earth filly took Lyra’s leg in hers and lifted herself up.
“Thanks,” she said, wiping her eyes. “So... we’re friends?”
Lyra grinned widely. “Yep!”
“Lyra!”
Both fillies winced, one more than the other. Mrs. Sharpener was trotting up to the duo quickly, a stern look on her face. The three bullies were trailing close behind her, Blossomforth sobbing loudly every few seconds.
“Come here!” the teacher ordered.
“Aww!” Lyra complained. She shot Bon Bon a mischievous look. “Meet me after school, okay?”
Bon Bon opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She resorted to nodding.
“Young filly, we do not bite other ponies!” Mrs. Sharpener told Lyra. “Now, come with me; you are getting a timeout!” The yellow mare escorted Lyra away from everypony else.
Blossomforth, Cloudchaser and Flitter glared at Bon Bon for a moment before turning up their noses and trotting away.
“Mommy, look what I made!”
“Oh, that’s great, sweetie!”
“Hey, dad, I love school!”
“That’s great, kiddo!”
Bon Bon sat outside the schoolhouse, waiting for both Lyra, who hadn’t come back all day, and her mother. It was only noon, as the kindergarten class only lasted a half day. The pegasus trio hadn’t said a word to Bon Bon since the incident, instead preferring to shoot her dirty looks from across the room.
A few minutes after the last few ponies had trailed out of the schoolhouse, Lyra cantered into the schoolyard, followed by Mrs. Sharpener. The unicorn’s face seemed to light up when she saw her new friend, and she would have galloped right over, had her teacher not stopped her.
“Now, Lyra,” Bon Bon overheard Mrs. Sharpener say, “I trust that you’ve learned your lesson?”
“Yes, Mrs. Sharpener," Lyra recited.
“Can you tell me why we don’t bite other ponies, even if we don’t like them?”
“Because it hurts them, and it can make ponies sick, and we should use our words when somepony does something we don’t like, not our teeth.”
Mrs. Sharpener smiled. “Good! Now, run along. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lyra smirked and ran over to Bon Bon. “Hey, you waited for me!” she remarked.
“Well... yeah,” Bon Bon replied. “You asked me to.”
“Yeah, but, uh... ponies don’t usually do things when I ask them to. They just think I’m weird,” Lyra admitted, kicking the ground. “You don’t think I’m weird, right?”
Bon Bon hesitated for a moment before saying: “No. I think you’re nice, and brave, and funny. And we’re friends, right? So of course I’ll do what you ask!”
Lyra gaped for a few seconds. Her face then proceeded to explode into the biggest grin Bon Bon had ever seen. She giggled excitedly. “You and me are gonna be fast friends,” the unicorn cheered.
“Bonnie, hey!”
Bon Bon turned to see Tasty Delight trotting up quickly. “Mommy!” she squealed, running up to the brown mare.
Tasty Delight caught her daughter and gave her a tight hug. “Oh, Bonnie, how was school? I missed you.”
“It was great! I have a new friend!”
“Oh? Who?”
Bon Bon turned and pointed at Lyra, who was blushing a bit. “This is Lyra! We’re friends now.”
Lyra smiled. “Hi, Bon Bon’s Mom.”
“Hello there, Lyra! Nice to meet you. I’m assuming you’re both in the same class?”
“Yep!” both fillies chirped. “Hey, Bon Bon’s Mom?” Lyra began. “Can Bon Bon come over to my house for a playdate? We didn’t get to do much during school.”
Tasty Delight beamed. “Well, of course she can! But first, where do you live, Lyra?”
Lyra thought hard for a moment. “Uh... 322 Clydesdale Street, I think.”
“Really?” Tasty asked, astonished. “Because, if that’s the case, you and Bon Bon live only about a block away from each other!”
The fillies glowed. Lyra grabbed Bon Bon’s shoulder and squeaked: “We’re neighbors!” Bon Bon nodded enthusiastically.
“Well,” Tasty began, “I suppose we should wait for your parents to pick you up before we leave, Lyra. We don’t want them worrying about you.”
“Nah, my parents let me walk home on my own,” Lyra answered.
Bon Bon gasped excitedly. “Mommy, can I—”
“No, Bonnie,” Tasty answered, shooting her daughter down. Before the filly could protest, she started again. “Well, in any case, why don’t I walk you home? We live so close together, after all.”
Both fillies began to walk in line with the older mare, happily recounting the events of the day. At the same time, they made a silent agreement not to mention Lyra’s biting another pony.
All was quiet throughout Ponyville as the full moon made its way through the sky. A large majority of ponies had already gone to sleep, wanting to be well-rested for the day ahead. However, a sizable number of ponies still stayed up. For example, two little fillies in the basement at 554 Haybale Lane, who were just settling down from a sugarcrazed playdate.
Tasty Delight gave the two girls a smile. "Good night, girls! Just call if you need anything!"
Bon Bon grinned more at the feast of junk foods that remained in front of her than her mother. "Thanks, mommy!" There was popcorn, soda...
"Yeah, thanks, Bon Bon's mom!" Lyra chirped. "This is awesome! Best sleepover ever!"
The brown mare chuckled. "Well, remember that it's a sleepover. Go to bed soon, you two!" She subtly dimmed the lights. Years of raising Bon Bon had tuned her in to the fact that her daughter would crash if the lights were at just the right level. Of course, that was when she wasn’t hyped up on sugar and accompanied by her best friend. Suppressing a sigh, she headed out and climbed the stairs.
Almost immediately, Bon Bon launched from her seat on the couch and into the bowl of popcorn. She gobbled it down ravenously. "My mom makes the best popcorn!"
Lyra jumped up from her seat. "It just comes from a bag."
"Doesn't mean she doesn't make it the best!"
Shrugging, Lyra made her way to her white saddlebags that sat next to the couch. "Hey, do you still have that portable projector you got for your birthday?"
"Uhm...yeah, I think so," Bon Bon said, looking around. She quickly spotted it on a shelf. "Why?"
Lyra pulled out a metallic silver case. "I brought this!" she yelped. "We can stay up and watch it all night!"
Bon Bon hopped down from the snack table. "What is it?" Lyra held up the case, showing her friend the title: 'Attack of the Humans.' "What's this?"
The unicorn grinned. "Only the coolest movie ever! It's like, a bunch of aliens come down from the sky, and start destroying all the ponies in Equestria!"
"Even Princess Celestia...?" Bon Bon asked, ears drooping a bit. 'I've never heard of this before.'
"Yep!" Lyra said. She bared her teeth and growled evilly. "Even Princess Celestia. And they take over the world! Muhahaha!"
Bon Bon eyed the case warily. "I-I don't know...it sounds scary," she said. Lyra shook her head. "What is it rated?"
Lyra scanned the movie. "Uh...ooh, it's rated 'R!' Awesome! Grown-up movies!"
"I d-don't think my mom wants me to watch grown-up movies." Bon Bon rubbed one leg with another and looked at the ground. "How did you get the movie, anyway?"
"I just got it from the tape cabinet in my house."
"Don't you need permission from your parents to go in there?"
"I did have permission!"
Sunlight Shimmer magically scribbled down some numbers. "Okay, so...wait, where's the gas bill for August? How much di-"
"Moooom!"
The golden mare dropped her pen and sighed. "Yes, Lyra?"
Lyra looked at her mother with big, golden eyes. "Mom, can I get a tape from the cabinet to bring over to Bon Bon's?"
"What movie?"
"Um...'Pretty Princess Party.'"
"Of course, sweetie...is there any chance you can get it? I'm a bit busy here. You have my permission."
The filly glowed and gave Sunlight a quick hug. "Thanks, mom! Love you!" She ran off.
Sunlight laughed. "Love you too, sweetie! Have a good time at Bon Bon's!"
Bon Bon shifted her hooves in the carpet. "Are you sure? My mom told us to go to sleep, and this movie looks really long..."
Lyra climbed up a chair to get to the shelf that held the projector. "Oh, nopony actually sleeps at sleepovers!"
"They don't?"
"Nope!"
"Well...if your mom says it's okay, I guess we can watch it," Bon Bon said. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe Lyra was just exaggerating! After all, nothing could beat Princess Celestia. Everypony knew that. "Is there going to be blood?"
Lyra smiled. "Of course!"
Bon Bon shuddered. "I thought you said it wasn't scary!"
"Oh, blood isn't scary! Remember last week when you fell and scraped your knee? There was blood then, and that wasn't scary!"
"...Yeah, I guess." Bon Bon glowered a bit. It was scary to her. "Are you sure?"
Lyra hopped back down to the floor with the projector balanced on her back. "For the gazillionth time, yes! Bon Bon, as your best friend, I promise you: this will not be scary. And even if it is," she draped a hoof over the earth filly's back, "I'm here for you! Nothing will happen."
Bon Bon glowered, but eventually nodded. “Okay, then.” She pointed to the room’s far wall, which was completely blank and made up of thick wood. “Just point the projector over that way and turn it on.”
“Okay!” Lyra chriped, beginning to set the movie up. “This is going to be so cool!”
"L-Lyra! What's happening to all those stallions?!"
Lyra didn't answer. The light from the projected image was reflecting off her glazed-over eyes. Her mouth hung open, and a slight dribble of drool threatened to fall over the edge of her lip.
A pony that looked somewhat like Princess Celestia stepped onto the screen. She stood triumphantly in front of the human army, her strangely cardboard-like horn glowing. Bon Bon began to sigh in relief—only to have the sigh catch in her throat as the humans surrounded Celestia from all sides and began to tear at her.
Her screams crackled through the low-quality speakers.
Bon Bon averted her eyes from the carnage occurring on screen. Lyra kept staring, hypnotized by the splatter of colorless blood against the black-and-white world.
With the Princess of the Sun gone, the humans had nopony to stop them from conquering Equestria. They took over and slaughtered every creature in sight, even the mares and foals. The screen went black, and the film ran out.
Bon Bon crawled out of her sleeping bag, which she had been hiding in. "That's it?!" she squealed. "That wasn't a happy ending! Lyra, you told me that it wasn't going to be scary!"
Once again, Lyra didn't answer. Her eyes bored into the now blank wall with a troubled expression.
Bon Bon nudged the mint pony. "Lyra? Are you okay?"
"Huh? What?" Lyra stammered, flinching. "Oh, uh, yeah, I-I'm fine. That movie was...in-interesting."
"I didn't like it!" Bon Bon complained. "It was-"
"GIRLS!" Tasty Delight yelled suddenly from the first floor. "It's past midnight! I better not have to come down there!"
Both fillies jumped, but Lyra kept looking around nervously after Bon Bon had stopped. "Y-Your mom is right. We should go to bed. Now." She ducked into her red sleeping bag.
Bon Bon nodded her head quickly and snuggled into her own bag.
Lyra was running, faster than she ever had before. Something was chasing her. It moved on two, pink, fleshy legs. The only fur she could see on it covered the top of its head. It moaned sickly, sending chills down the unicorn's spine.
Her heart racing, she rounded a dark corner, only to come face-to-leg with another group of the humans. They swiped at her with long, clawed legs, which split into five pegs at the ends.
One caught Lyra by the tail and began pulling her close. A short burst of warmth ran through her before she was swallowed up by the group. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Everything faded to black.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Bon Bon jumped at Lyra's scream. "Ah! What's wrong?!"
Lyra whipped her head around, taking in everything around her. She was back in Bon Bon's house. It was daytime again. There were no humans—as far as she knew. Bon Bon was staring at her. Her own heart raced. Her entire body shook.
"N-Nothing. I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
Lyra put on a shaky smile. "I just had a weird dream. I think I'm just hungry. What's for breakfast?"
Bon Bon began to roll up her sleeping bag. "My dad told me that he was going to make blueberry pancakes! He makes...the best..." She sniffed the air. "Eww, what's that smell?"
“Huh? What are you...oh, I can smell it too!” Lyra exclaimed, her nose wrinkling up. The two fillies glanced around the room for a few moments, searching for the source of the odor. Bon Bon couldn’t find anything. However, Lyra quickly realized that the smell was coming from directly in front of her.
Lyra lifted up her blanket and looked down her sleeping bag, frowning. “Uh oh.”
The playground at Ponyville Elementary was a wondrous place. If you were to ask any foal, they would surely agree. Ponies played, laughed, talked with friends... Being there was a welcome break from the minutia of school life. Even the kindergartners, who had little to no work to do and went home early, enjoyed it.
That is, all except for one. Lyra sat, staring at the swing-set. Two older fillies stood on the seats, propelling themselves forward with their wings. But what concerned Lyra was the way they were standing: on two legs. She stared and stared at them, as they stood without a care in the world. It was only when they noticed her and started pointing that Lyra looked away.
“Oh no,” she muttered to herself, heart beginning to race. “They spotted me! I have to-”
“Lyra!”
Lyra looked up the seesaw she was sitting on, only to see Bon Bon staring down at her angrily. “I’ve been calling you since, like, forever! You have to push up!”
“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry.” Lyra pushed off with her back hooves, rocketing into the air and sending Bon Bon crashing down. “Hey...Bon?”
“Yeah?”
“Do...do you think that humans really exist?”
Bon Bon shot her friend a questioning look. “No...do you?”
“No, no, of course not!” Lyra shot back, laughing and looking around. “It’s just...what if they do, and they’re just waiting for us to turn our backs, so they can catch us, and tear us apart, and, and, what if they want to turn us? You know, into one of them?! And then, we’d just be killing ourselves! We’d have to kill Princess Celestia! We’d have to rip her to shreds! Huh, Bon Bon?! What about that?!”
There was a long, deep silence. A few foals stopped and stared for a moment, before quickly losing interest and running along.
“Lyra, you’re sweating,” Bon Bon said, getting off the seesaw.
“What?!” Lyra yelped. She wiped her wet forehead. “N-No, I’m not! Your face is sweating!”
Bon Bon walked up to her friend. “I know the movie was scary, Lyra, but it’s just a movie. It’s not real!”
“How do you know?! Plenty of movies are real! Maybe it was just a warning!” Lyra said, jumping off the seesaw. She whipped her head around wildly, not looking at anything in particular. “I bet they’re hiding, right now, waiting to get us! I have to tell somepony!”
Bon Bon shuddered. What if Lyra was right? “Like who?” she asked, suddenly feeling a bit chillier.
“Like, uh...ooh, Mrs. Sharpener! She’ll know what to do!”
Lyra galloped off, leaving Bon Bon sitting alone. “Hey!” the earth filly yelled. “Wait for me! I don’t wanna get turned!”
As Parer Sharpener (better known as Mrs. Sharpener to her students) had noted many times throughout her life: being an earth pony was hard. Mainly because you had to do everything by hoof. Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad. Most things in Equestria had some sort of adaption for earth ponies, making everything more accessible.
But, for whatever reason, the ponies who had first constructed the schoolhouse had deemed it necessary to put her room’s lightswitch higher than any normal pony could reach. As such, Parer was required to stand on her hind legs, in an extremely uncomfortable position, just to reach it.
When she was younger, she could do it with ease. But now, as much as she hated to admit it, she was older, and it simply hurt her back to keep doing it. But would the board listen? Noooooo.
Grumbling, Parer prepared herself for the leap up to the switch to turn it on. “One, two...three!” She jumped onto her hind hooves, and hit both front hooves on the wall to steady herself. A shot of pain coursed through her. “Oh, boy...now, here we go...” She moved one of her hooves to flick the lightswitch.
snk
“Oh, Celestia damn it!” Parer yelped as a blast of pain exploded in her back. She knew it was going to happen one day: she had thrown out her back. “Ugh...”
“Mrs. Sharpener! Mrs. Sharpener!”
Parer’s brown eyes shot open. “Oh no. A student!” She attempted to force herself back onto all four hooves, but her spine wouldn’t have it. “Oh, um...help!” Sure, they were only kindergartners...but, still, they knew how to get help, didn’t they?
Lyra rushed into the room, sweat trailing down her face. “Mrs. Sharpener, we need he...oh no.”
Parer glanced at her student. “Lyra, could you please go get another teacher, or somepony to come here? Now?”
The unicorn simply squeaked. “Oh no oh no oh no OH NO! Not you too, Mrs. Sharpener!”
“Huh?”
“Y-You’re standing on two legs! You’re a human!”
Parer blinked, still stuck in her standing position. “What?”
Lyra backed up. “They’re everywhere! And, if they got you, that means...they can get me! AHHHHHHH!” She spun around and ran out of the room, screaming her head off. “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! HUMANS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!”
“Oh...somepony, please, help me?”
Bon Bon, running to catch her friend, just barely dodged the unicorn as she came running back. “Lyra, what happened? Where’s Mrs. Sharpener?”
“SHE’S DEAD! WE’RE ALL DEAD! AHHHHHHHHH!”
“Yes...they’ll never get me now! Never!”
Lyra adjusted the cooking pot on her head so the handle faced to the side. She cracked a nervous grin. With every small sound that echoed through the room, she tightened the grip on her frying pan, which lay directly in front of her.
She had heard once that tinfoil kept aliens away. She couldn't find where her parents kept the tinfoil, though, so she had to settle for pots and pans. They looked kind of similar, she figured, so they must act similar.
Now she just had to play the waiting game. She sat under the thick, blue covers of her bed. As soon as one of those humans got close... WHAM! Frying pan to the face!
Across the room, her wooden desk creaked.
"COME OUT, HUMAN!" she screeched. "You want me? Come and get me!"
A knock came at her locked bedroom door. "Lyra? Sweetie? Can I come in?"
Lyra glared at her mother—no, "mother"—through the door. "What's the password?!"
The first thing Lyra had done once she had come home from school, was to give both her parents a password. It was a highly complex series of numbers and letters. As the alien threat advanced, Lyra expected it to become their last hope at defense. When anypony you knew could be a human, how would you know who to trust?
"Well?" Lyra shouted again after a moment of silence. "What's the password, 'mom?'"
"...I have macaroni and cheese!"
Lyra considered the offer. On the one hoof, this could be a trick, and if she opened the door, she would be captured.
But on the other hoof...her mother's macaroni and cheese was really good.
Grabbing the frying pan's handle in her mouth, Lyra jumped down from her bed and made her way to the bedroom door. She undid the lock by pushing with her hooves, making a sharp klack. The filly winced as the entrance way opened, revealing a bright yellow unicorn with a bowl levitating next to her.
Sunlight Shimmer frowned when she saw her pot-headed child. "Lyra, what in Celestia's good name are you doing?"
"Oh, good, it's only you," Lyra said, releasing the breath she had been holding. She stepped aside to let her mother through. "I need to keep the door closed, though. Just put the food on my bed and leave."
"Lyra, that is no way to speak to your mother!"
Under the pot, Lyra's ears drooped. "Sorry, mom."
Sunlight sighed. "Well, at least I know where my good pan went." She laid the bowl on the desk by Lyra's bed. "Lyra, why are you wearing my pots and pans? What's going on?"
Lyra jumped back into bed and adjusted her helmet. She took a glance at Sunlight, who was regarding her strangely. "Hey, stop looking at me like I'm crazy! You'll be sorry when the humans come and kill you!"
The mother blinked. Suddenly, her gaze turned angry. "Lyra!" Sunlight yelped, shocking her daughter. "I hope you don't think that I don't know where 'humans' are from. You saw that movie, didn't you?"
"I know, but-"
"Really, Lyra, you know that you're not allowed to see movies like that! And now look what happened!"
"But, but, moooooom!" Lyra said, her lower lip trembling. "It looked so cool! How was I supposed to know that it was going to be scary?"
Sunlight glared down at her daughter.
Lyra hung her head. "I'm sorry..."
"Good. Now, what's all this about the humans killing us?" Sunlight asked, sitting next to her daughter.
The filly wrung her hooves. "I think... I think that movie was just a warning!"
"A warning?" Sunlight questioned, incredulous. "And just what do you mean by that?"
Lyra’s eyes went wide. "I've been seeing them everywhere! The ponies standing on two hooves! They're humans! The humans are everywhere, just waiting to kill us and take our skin!" The golden mare stared. "They already got Mrs. Sharpener, and, and, the older kids!" Lyra yelped, grabbing her elder. "They're hiding, just waiting to get us when we're not looking!"
There was a tense silence, punctuated only by Lyra's heavy breathing.
Sunlight Shimmer began to laugh.
“Stop l-laughing at me!” Lyra pleaded, tears filling her golden eyes. “I don’t wanna d-die!”
“Oh, sweetie...” Sunlight wrapped a hoof around her daughter and pulled her close. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. But you know that that’s completely ridiculous! Humans aren’t real. I guarantee you.”
“How do you know?!”
Sunlight opened her mouth, but closed it just as quickly. She thought for a moment. “Well... here, let’s look at it this way. You said that humans are everywhere, just waiting to get us. Right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“So, if that’s true, why haven’t you ever seen them before?”
Lyra furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“If humans were really trying to kill you whenever you weren’t paying attention, don’t you think they would have gotten you already? You know, sometime during all the years you didn’t know about them?”
“Uh...I never thought about it like that,” Lyra admitted. “That makes sense, I guess.”
Sunlight grinned and leaned in close to her daughter. “And, you know what else?”
“What?”
THe mare pulled Lyra’s “Even if there were humans, they could never get you.” She pulled her daughter into a warm hug. “Because mommy and daddy would make sure that nothing ever hurt you.” She looked down at the ball of mint fur in her arms. “Okay?”
Lyra smiled wide and returned the gesture. “Thanks, mom. I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetie.” She jumped off the bed and picked up Lyra’s bowl. “Now, come on; you’re going to eat at the kitchen table, like a big filly. And, you can return my pots and pans.”
“Okay,” Lyra said, almost dejectedly. Sure, she was happy that she didn’t have to live locked in her room for the rest of her life. But she was having fun, being an alien defender! They walked out of the filly’s room, side by side. “So, mom...”
“Yes, Lyra?”
“I’m not in trouble, right? Me being scared taught me my lesson?”
Sunlight chuckled. “Oh, no, no, no. Your punishment hasn’t even begun.”
Lyra’s ears flattened. “Oh.”
