The Sweetest Music

Chapter Thirteen

I Fall in Love Too Easily

***

Lyra shut the door behind her, groaning as she leant against the brown-ish redwood.

She had till tomorrow to pack her things. Bon-Bon and she would be on the train to Ponyville, with her mother's blessings. This was too surreal. Too good. Too good to be true.

No. Not 'too good', Lyra immediately stopped herself. Over the years, she had learnt not to have high hopes - or any hopes at all. Great expectations led to great - or maybe even greater - disappointments. Didn't they? Thinking that it was going to be great, that everything was going well - and then a stumble, a crash - and the fall would be terrible. No. It was better not to have hopes. Not expecting something good meant not getting disappointed - broken - by the reality. It was always good to walk a steady road than to climb a mountain and fall.

A knock at the door delivered her from this reverie. "Come in!" the mint mare called out, taking a step aside. "There's no lock."

It was obvious that it would be Bon-Bon - as much as Lyra loved her mother, she knew that the older mare wasn't in the habit of knocking. The cream-coloured pony slid into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Are you all right?" she asked, putting her hoof - that wonderful, comforting hoof - on the mint shoulder. Of course she isn't! she chided herself immediately. But she knew that Lyra knew that she knew. This mutual knowing - not knowing - wasn't really - was it?  - ruining their relationship - their not-relationship.

"Not really," Lyra admitted, surprised at how open she was with Bon-Bon - or maybe how open she had become in the confectioner's presense? "I'm all right, but it's just so strange." The mint mare moved towards the window. "It's what I wanted, but..."

The earth pony placed her hoof on the lyrist's shoulder again. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No. You did good," Lyra interrupted, looking out of the window. The sun was already setting over Equestria - a nice touch of disregard towards the official propaganda - be it self-mockery - on the matter. The blanket of snow - new, evening-born snow - was darkening with the very air, as it seemed. "Thank you for helping me." The honesty in Lyra's tone was making Bon-Bon's heart melt. "I've dreamt of it - moving away..." The mint mare's eyes cast one last look out of the window before focusing on the sweet cream-coloured mare. "But now that I have you, Bonnie, I want nothing more than to just stay with you."

Bon-Bon felt a little faint, the closeness of the beautiful unicorn driving her insane, her words music to her ears, her minty smoke-enhanced breath enticing her, and that name - 'Bonnie'... Bon-Bon didn't want to be called any other name, from now on. "I..." Bon-Bon gulped, shifting just a little closer. "I want it too. That's why I... That's why I had to say - why I said - what I said. I want to stay with you too, Lyra."

This weren't the words. They didn't actually mean that much - or they did; depending on how to look at it. But it was a pact. The words may never be said, and the two mares in love knew it. That didn't change the pact: this was not a pact of trust; this was a pact of love: a strange, beautiful abomination that Lyra had yet to understand. Did anything change at that moment? Maybe. What they said only made the form of the pact, while the feelings existed already, mutual, both mares knowing about them, knowing about the other's knowledge. Did the form of the pact make a difference?

In a way, it did. In the way that Lyra leaned in breathlessly, closing her eyes, and kissed Bon-Bon on the lips. The emotion that had been tucked away neatly found its passionate, vivid way in the assault on the cream-coloured mare's lips - mere seconds, only a moment for her tongue to explore the sweet mouth before Lyra had to broke the kiss, in fear of them being noticed.

They weren't, as it seemed.

The mint mare looked at the blushing earth pony mare, who had a goofy smile on her face. Maybe that wasn't a good kiss; maybe it was a desperate kiss, like the whole affair - or was it because of love? It was; it had to be. Born of desperation - maybe - it was still love; it had to be.

In any way, Bon-Bon enjoyed the kiss. Her heart was beating fast, galloping, reaching for the sky, as she cast a loving glance at Lyra, a glance that - she knew! - was returned. The kind of glance that could cost them so much. The kind of glance that needed to be well-concealed (ill-concealed?) most of the time. No words had to be said - no, they had to, Bon-Bon realised as she stopped lamenting at the brevity of the kiss (She didn't even meet the wonderful minty tongue with her own!); they couldn't be said.  The kind of words that could cost them so much.

Thank you, Lyra, Bon-Bon thought, and wanted to mouth - or even say aloud - but, instead, focused on what the mint mare was already saying.

"I'll have to fill the papers for work." Lyra felt a sudden urge to talk - just talk to the wonderful mare, about anything. And we haven't even had sex yet. The lyrist stopped herself. Such thoughts weren't acceptable. But... they were? Now that they had kissed... And that kiss did mean something. Lyra couldn't miss the loving gaze Bon-Bon - Bonnie; if felt so good to call her that - shared with her. She was pretty sure her own gaze was the same. "I don't want to..." Do I really want to just take a holiday? "I want to quit," Lyra amended suddenly. "And I will. Mom will give the application to them. I think I'll do just fine working at your store. That is," the mint mare smiled, "if you'll have me."

Bon-Bon couldn't restrain herself. She pecked the minty mare on the lips gently, smiling and smiling and not able to - having no desire to - stop smiling. "Of course, Lyra." She rested her head on the mint shoulder for a moment. "Please don't forget to take your lyre. I would love to hear you play." She added, "For me."

Lyra smiled and nodded. It was easy to speak to Bon-Bon; maybe it was the first time she had actually talked, really talked, apart, maybe, from some talks with her family: her mother. The old walls of the mansion, just like the walls of Bon-Bon store - she hoped - could host such talk, for, while they could not protect from the law or the government; from force - they could hold a certain extent of privacy, devoid of bugging and tapping and overhearing. "Of course, Bonnie. I'll go pack my things. Including my lyre."

"Good." Bon-Bon nodded. "I should go." She didn't need to explain why. Lyra understood it as it was. No suspicion could be raised; they had to be careful.

"I'll catch up with you," Lyra replied, gazing out of the window. It's okay, Bonnie. I understand. Suddenly, with a bitter sigh, she turned towards the cream-coloured mare. "Where are we going with all of this, Bonnie?" To Ponyville, she replied to herself with a cynical mental chuckle.

Bon-Bon smiled, looking at the concerned mare. I don't know, Lyra. But we're going together. She didn't need to say that aloud: Lyra understood, and she knew it. Instead, Bon-Bon just shifted a little closer to the mint mare, following her gaze out of the window as the snowlakes danced and fell in the evening wind.