It was a crisp Spring morning, and Ponyville was waking up.

The sun had been up for barely an hour, and already the streets were beginning to fill. Farmers and craftponies brought out their portable stalls, stocked with produce and wares to sell to passerby. Coffee shops and bakeries placed fans by the windows, allowing the smells of fresh breakfast goods to entice customers to come in for a taste. Early shoppers were out as well, ready to strike deals before the best merchandise was sold. Others ignored the stalls, already on their way to jobs of their own. And amongst the growing throng, two particular ponies trotted down the road, side by side, as always.

The two trotted at an easy pace, not in any rush and content to take in the sounds and smells of the morning. The first of the pair, a green unicorn, walked with a cheerful hop in her step and a vibrant energy which could not be denied. Her eyes constantly moved about, taking in absolutely every detail of the beautiful morning. She gave a cheerful wave to ponies as she passed, using the momentary pause as an opportunity for her slightly slower friend to catch back up with her energetic pace.

Her cream colored friend walked slowly because she was reduced to balancing on three legs. Her foreleg was occupied holding up a shopping list where she could easily read it while walking. Her pace was slower, more sedate, and her gaze was fixed on the list in font of her. The writing was crisp and precise, so much so that it might be mistaken for a pain-staking piece of calligraphy. Her eyes and footing never faltered, as she murmured out half-spoken automatic responses whenever somepony greeted her.

"So we definitely need carrots," she spoke up so that her unicorn friend would hear and pay attention, "Also radishes if they have any."

"And what if they don't?" the unicorn asked.

"Then I can substitute with more carrots." the mare's eyes continued down the list before stopping at a scribbled mess of lines. She pointed it out immediately. "Lyra, did you add this part? Near the apples? I can't make out your hornwriting."

"Let me see, scooch your head over a little Bon Bon." Lyra leaned in to read the list, squishing her face in close with the other mare's. Bon Bon rolled her eyes slightly, but smiled at Lyra's antics. "Oh, right, that. So you remember how I told you I saw Berry Punch at the bookstore yesterday? Well she told me about her sister, Berry Baker, who's visiting her for the weekend. Apparently her son, Berry Punch's nephew that is, just proposed to his marefriend and so she came here to contract Pinkie Pie for the bachelorette party. Been having a great time, apparently. Loves the small town feel. Said she might consider moving out here since her son's moving out soon. Empty nest syndrome and all..."

"Lyra," Bon Bon interrupted, "If this is going to be one of your long stories, could you pull back away a bit? I can't walk like this."

Lyra blinked, momentarily confused as she exited story mode and reassessed her situation. Then with a slight giggle, she leaned back and stepped away, finally freeing Bon Bon's face from hers. "Sorry, I got a little distracted."

She continued her story, now that the two could keep on walking while she did so. "Anyways, to make a long story short: Berry Baker baked Berry Punch some berry tarts as a thank you for letting her board for a few days. BP had one saved for lunch and offered to give it to me if I lent her a few bits so she could buy one more book and qualify to get another for free. So I did and she gave it to me."

Bon Bon waited a few moments for a continuation, but Lyra seemed to be finished and her concentration had moved on to a pun on a sign in a coffee shop window. "And?" she prompted.

Lyra turned her attention back to Bon Bon, completely clueless. "And what?"

Bon Bon sighed. This was the usual pattern Lyra's stories tended to follow. Often losing focus on the point of it by the time she got to the end. "And what does your lunch with Berry Punch have to due with this scribbled writing in the margins of my shopping list?"

"Oh that, right." Lyra's mental gears clicked back into place. "It was a really good tart, so I convinced BP to give me the recipe and I thought we could make it later."

Then why couldn't you have said that in the first place, Bon Bon's internal monologue grumbled, though her external response was much more friendly. "Oh, was that it then? Well I suppose we can try it. What exactly do we need?"

"Can't remember." Lyra replied, already distracted with a new banner some store was hanging. "That's why I wrote it on the list as soon as I got home."

Bon Bon took a deep breath, held it, but then let it back out through her teeth without the sarcastic reply she'd wanted to say. She took another deep breath to calm herself back down. Take it easy Bonnie, she reasoned with herself, This isn't worth getting impatient over, you're just still tired and a bit grouchy. Lyra's always been a bit scatterbrained, she's not trying to test you.

With one final cleansing breath, she let go of her anger. Bon Bon looked back down to the list in an effort to decipher Lyra's messy hornwriting. '-Berries' was definitely there, at least four times. That was probably 'Flour' and 'Sugar', crammed so close together it had seemed like one word initially. Even though writing either was redundant since she could always pull a little of one or the other from her confectionery shop's storage for personal use. Was that 'Lemon' something on the next line? Could be either juice or zest, which would make sense since the recipe is for tarts after all.

However the rest of the list would have to remain a mystery for the ages, as Bon Bon's musings were interrupted by an unexpected green wall in her distracted path. She fell back with a small yelp of surprise, dropping her list as she rubbed her injured muzzle. "Ow! Lyra! Why did you stop in the middle of the road?"

Lyra remained strangely unresponsive, staring off down the road away from them.

"L-Lyra?" Bon Bon ventured once more, more than a little confused and slightly alarmed.

"Bon Bon..." Lyra's voice was cold and flat, having taken on a tone of grave seriousness, "Do you realize... where we are?"

Bon Bon blinked, and took a moment to take in the surroundings she'd been ignoring. It was not their usual path, that much was immediately obvious. Rather than the main road, this seemed to be an area that toed the line between commercial and residential. Houses and storefronts both lined the street, sometimes sharing multiple floors of a buildings. Both sides of the road seemed to have an unusual number of stalls and street vendors, but that wasn't particularly odd. Most stores she either didn't recognize or were well known chains that didn't aid in pinning down a location. There was a clock repair shop down the road to her left, followed by a linens store and a Lunabits coffee house. The right side seemed to primarily contain houses. All were of the standard Ponyville design, with a little variance save for one. One particular house seemed somewhat bisected between two construction styles and paint jobs. In fact, if she didn't know better, she'd almost think it looked like Vinyl Scratch and Octavia's hou- oh no. Oh no...

Oh no. Oh no no no no no no! Bon Bon panicked internally, I got distracted! I forgot to keep Lyra busy and stick to the main roads. Oh this is bad, this is really really bad! I need to move her before she realizes--

But Lyra was already turning to face her friend, though only her neck seemed to rotate. The wide, impossibly wide, grin on her face telling Bon Bon all she needed to know. It was too late. Lyra was fully aware of exactly where they were, and exactly what that implied.

"We're on Cremini street..." Her voice was barely above a whisper, though high and strained like it was hard to talk at all. "And you know what that means?"

Bon Bon sighed, resigned to what was to come, "A yar-"

"Yard Sale!" Lyra practically yelled in giddy excitement. The rest of her body whipped around to face Bon Bon as she jumped in the air, a look of pure foal-like joy on her face. Her limbs flailed about manically as though desperate to release all of her excited energy as quickly as possibly. Unfortunately, the duty fell to Bon Bon to squash it.

"No."

Lyra stopped her jump mid-fall. She returned to the ground at a more reasonable pace. "What? But- but Bon Bon... this is a very small window of opportunity for treasure."

Ban Bon sighed in resignation as she continued. "Lyra, there's always some kind of sale going on here. If it's not a yard sale, then it's a flea market. Or a fire sale, or a second-hoof tent show, or a silent auction fundraiser, or a promotional street fair, or something else entirely. " She placed a comforting hoof on Lyra's shoulder. "And I know you mean well with your 'treasure hunting', but you always just get so excited that every single time you end up blowing our budget on things we could live without."

"Oh come on!" Lyra pleaded, "We're not that strapped for bits. And think of all the great stuff I've found before. Remember that antique candy tray I found for you once?"

"You mean the one that you only knew was a candy tray because you saw me throw out my old cracked one the week before?"

"Yeah that one," Lyra remained oblivious to the actual meaning of Bon Bon's reply. "Or that sweet hoodie I got for a steal?"

"You have three more just like it!" Bon Bin exclaimed, "Literally. I do not know why so many ponies are selling the exact same jacket or why you keep buying them."

"Come on... pwease?" Lyra scrunched her muzzle and widened her eyes. Bon Bon steeled her will against the barrage of adorableness, her one weakness. Even then, she struggled against Lyra's pleading puppy dog eyes. In a corner of her mind, a glimmer of logic shined. A viable and foolproof excuse. Bon Bon grabbed onto it with everything she had.

"We can't because... I have a very strict budget. Yes, that's it. I have every bit tallied up between finances at the shop and personal expenses. With everything so precisely accounted for, there's just no way we can just start spending bits all over the place at some yard sale."

"Oh, so it was like that then." Lyra's sank deep into thought for a moment. Bon Bon sighed in relief, silently thanking Celestia for being able to pass through this trial with her bit balance intact. Unfortunately, when Lyra found a focus, she could be remarkably clever. "Wait, so you tally up all the bits?"

"Um, yes. All of them."

"Even my wages from the conservatory?"

"Ah, yes right. Those too." A nervous sweat formed on Bon Bon's brow. Had Lyra seen through her bluff?

"Okay, so how's about a deal. I'll take some of my stuff off the shopping list. I can go another week without my morning crullers. That should save us a few bits." She raised a hoof as more inspiration stuck. "Ooh, and I'll also put in some extra hours at the conservatory this week and help you out with the morning prep work at the confectionery. Then you can give Twist a few days off and save the money that you would have given her for those shifts. Put all that together, and that should be enough for little bit of treasure hunting. So, whaddya say?"

Bon Bon silently contemplated the unexpected offer. Wow, for Lyra, that's a surprisingly good deal. Having her work a bit more would certainly solve the budgeting problem. And it would be nice to give Twist a few days off. She could go on that trip to Canterlot with her friends she was talking about last week. Plus Lyra knows her way around the prep area nearly as well as I do. That could give me a chance to try one of those new recipes. Like those raspberry truffles with the imported cocoa. I could have her start setting up early while I grind the beans into fine powder, then have her select the ripest berries while I whisk in the milk...

As Bon Bon's thoughts drifted from shopping to cooking, Lyra grew worried at her silence. After a full minute of contemplation, Bon Bon had still not answered her. She began to grow nervous. Was her deal not good enough? Did she need to offer more? At the end of the second minute, she threw out her last lifeline. "You can set a spending limit! I promise I won't go over it!" More still? "You can even come with me and oversee my purchases!"

That yanked Bon Bon right out of her mentally choreographed baking scene. A budget cap? With supervision? How like Lyra to keep digging even after striking gems. Better play it cool though, Bon Bon thought, No reason to let this advantage go to waste. "Ten bit spending limit."

"Ten bits!?" Lyra exclaimed. "That's barely pocket change! Bonnie, be reasonable!"

"Well what do you think's a fair amount?" Bon Bon asked.

"Fifty bits." Lyra replied immediately, already engaging a haggling mindset.

"Fifty bits?! Not unless you're planning on abandoning the idea of groceries for the next week. Fifteen."

"Fifteen?!" Lyra reared back in overexaggerated shock, "I've seen ponies throw more than that in wishing wells. Forty and not a ha'bit less."

Okay, I'll admit this haggling is actually kind of fun. Count it a point in your favor Lyra. Bon Bon thought as a small grin found it's way onto her face. "Forty? We might as well sell the house then. Twenty, and I think I'm being generous."

"Thirty." Lyra shot back just as quick, "And I'll make you dinner instead of eating out tonight."

"Ooh, tempting." Bon Bon fluttered her eyelashes, "You strike a very enticing bargain. Final offer: Twenty-six bits, and you make the dinner, but I'll handle dessert."

"Deal!" Lyra stuck out a hoof to shake on it. Bon Bon grabbed it firmly, and the deal was struck. Their hoofshake stayed together for a moment before they both broke into cheesy grins and pulled each other close as they nuzzled softly. No words needed to be spoken between them. Their moment of intimacy lasted several seconds before they finally broke it off. Bon Bon was the first to speak.

"So, I guess we're going yard saling then."

Lyra grinned her lovably cheeky grin. "Oh, we're not just going yard saling, Bon Squared," She snagged a hat from a nearby display stand with her magic, tossing a bit to the owner who nodded in acknowledgement. Lyra tugged the soft brown material down between her ears with her horn sticking out from the front brim, somewhat resembling a rather well-known purveyor of relics and antiquities.

"We're going treasure hunting."

Author's Notes:

Bits Spent: 1
Bits Remaining: 25

Also, thoughts on: Bon Bon, Bon-Bon, or Bonbon?