A Pony Sweeter than Honey
A PONY SWEETER THAN HONEY
A MY LITTLE PONY FANFICTION
An alarm clock rings a loud chime for a few seconds, startling a pony out of her bed. The ringing in her ears fade and is soon filled with a soft white noise of buzzing. The pony gets up off the floor and shakes her head.
"Why can't these things be quieter? Just once I wish I could wake up to a softer sound. This thing sounds like I'm right next to the Ponyville clock tower. Oh well, another day, another bit..."
She heads to the bathroom and checks herself out in the mirror. She examines her eyes. "Nothing wrong here." she thinks. Her eyes are still as green as ever. She checks her purple mane. "It's messy. I should take a bath before I work. It's important that I smell good." She checks her bright yellow fur all the way down to the haunch. On it, there are some bandages. She removes them and examines what was under the bandages. "Good, those healed up in no time! I think I'm building up an immunity!"
She bathes herself in the tub and, letting her inner child out, playing with a rubber bee. It makes a delightful squeak that always makes her giggle. "Hehehe, you're the only bee that never buzzes." After drying herself out, she heads to her kitchen. She fixes herself a few waffles and brings out a jar of honey. She slathers the honey on her waffles and digs in, face first.
She wipes her face after breakfast and goes into her closet. She reaches out and grabs a hat with protective netting attached to it. She puts it on and peers into her closet once more. There is an empty hook that was under the hat where the full suit should be. She sighs and heads on out the front door of her house. She looks around her field and notices something on a sign post near her door. It says, "Honeycomb's Honey Field! Please do not bug the bees, or you'll be sorry." Honeycomb's name is scribbled out in crayon and replaced with the name, "Pincushion."
"Vandalism! Who did this?" Honeycomb said aloud. She can hear the snickering of two fillies around her house. Honeycomb looked around the corner of her house and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, two bratty little fillies who always seem to make mischief when they aren't pampering themselves, laughing it up on their latest trick. Honeycomb was annoyed. "What do you think you are doing in such a dangerous place?! A beekeepers home is no place for you!" Diamond and Silver stop laughing and bring out their coin purses. "Our moms sent us to buy some honey from you. I, for one, can't stand not having honey my cereal." Diamond explains. Honeycomb gives them a look of suspicion. "Did you girls write on my sign?" Honeycomb asks. Diamond and Silver shake their heads. Honeycomb notices a crayon in the grass. "Fess up, girls. What gives you the right to call me names?" Silver Spoon blurts out and says, "Because you always go to the hives with no protection and come back with a few bumps on your big rump!" While the fillies giggle, Honeycomb sighs and shakes her head. "I can't afford a suit...I only could afford this hat when I bought all the hives... It doesn't matter, though! My cutie mark shows what I'm good at, and that is bees! I'm thankful I get a few bumps; it shows how much the bees trust me. If you girls tried it, you would be stung all over." After Honeycomb gave out her speech, the girls grew impatient.
"We gotta get back home so, let's make this quick. Two jars of your finest honey." Diamond demands. They reach into their purses and pull out two bits each. Honeycomb collects their payments and runs inside her house to retrieve their honey. She comes out with two jars full and gives them to the fillies. "Now about your vandalism, I..." Honeycomb stops what she is saying and sees that the fillies have already run off. "Hey, come back!" It was no use. Honeycomb sighs and wipes off the crayon from her sign. She knew she wasted enough time. Now it was time to do what she can do best. She looks at her honeycomb cutie mark and smiles.
She walks to the first hive. "Good morning, my buzzy, busy bees!" she says cheerfully. The bees actually buzz in a hum of delight. She works on cleaning and harvesting each hive, carefully trying not to hurt any of the bees. She always had a deep affection for them and thought of them as cute pets. She loves to put sugar water on her hoof and feed them with it. She says their little tongues tickle and makes her laugh. The bees sometimes landed on her unprotected body and either stayed or flew away, never attacking. However, there is an unexplainable phenomenon between her and the bees.
When working on one of the hives, she felt a bee land on her haunch. When she feels it, she gets a slight feeling of panic. Landing in that particular area meant one thing. "Oh no, not now! I was beginning to enjoy myself. Please... please just fly away and do not do what I think you are about to do!" she nervously thinks to herself. The bee on her extends its stinger and sticks it into her rump! "Ouch!" she yelps. Thankfully for the bee, Equestrian bees have no barbs on its stingers, so it was able to pull itself free. It flies away as the wound starts to form. Honeycomb looks at the wound with disappointment. Everyday, she gets a few stings on her tush and she doesn't know why they do that. She thought that maybe it was her cutie mark and that bees would fly to it, see it isn't real, and sting her in confusion. That's just one of her theories.
It's painful, but it doesn't matter to her. Her love of bees never falters and she still loves to take care of them, no matter how many times she is stung.
In Ponyville, 3 fillies are attempting to paint a picture on a canvas. A pony named Scootaloo, a pegasus pony with fuchsia hair and an orange amber coat, starts off by splattering a bucket of blue paint on the canvas. Then, Sweetie Belle, a unicorn pony with a rose and purple main and a white coat, makes splotches of white paint on the blue background. Lastly, an earth pony with a red mane and light yellow coat named Apple Bloom, paints a house and a tree on the canvas. After they where finished with their creation, they all look excitedly at their own flanks with anticipation. However, after they saw that they flanks are unchanged. Their excitement turns into disappointment.
"Well, I guess we aren't Cutie Mark Crusader painters, after all. Come on; let's go find something else to do." After walking away a considerable distance away from the canvas, they hear a disgruntled voice. "Hey, who used all my paint?!" The CMC runs upon hearing this. After a bit of running, they look back to see if they lost the angry pony. But, they don't look at where they were going and they crash into two other fillies! Screams were heard, as well as the sound of something breaking. Two things breaking, in fact!
"OW! Oh! Now look at what you blank flanks did!" They all recognize that voice! They crashed into Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The CMC pick themselves up and look at the damage. There are two shattered jars with honey spilling out of it. "This is your fault, you know! You really should watch where you are going! I expect compensation from you!"
"Compensation?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Yeah, go to the honey fields and buy us some honey." demanded Silver Spoon. Scootaloo objects, "No way, I'm not going to do that for you!" Apple Blooms disagreed with Scootaloo. "Ma sister said that if you break somethin' that ain't yours, ya hafta make things right by paying em' back." "But we don't have any bits, how are we going to buy some honey?" said Sweetie Belle. Just then, Diamond Tiara got a wicked idea...
"Why pay for jars of honey when you can harvest it yourself?" she said. "Huh?" said all three of the CMC girls. Silver Spoon laughs to herself and says, "The pony who lives there harvests the honey without any protection because the bees there are so friendly. So if she can do it so easily, you can do it too! Maybe you'll all be Cutie Mark Crusader Honey Harvesters."
That speech did it. They all were so excited about getting their cutie mark that they instantly forgot about the dangers behind it. Well, almost all of them... Sweetie Belle did not like the thought of being stung. She tried to coerce them but Scootaloo and Apple Bloom told Diamond and Silver that they planned to bring back tons of honey. They dashed off to Scootaloo's scooter and wagon. Sweetie Belle, although reluctant, followed them to go to the honey fields. When the CMC was out of view, the two naughty fillies laughed. "What a bunch of suckers! Do you think next time we can call on them to take out our trash for cutie marks?" said Diamond with a smirk. "But what about our honey? Won't our parents get mad?" said Silver Spoon. "All blame is off us." said Diamond. "They're the ones who broke it. The honey isn't THAT important. Besides, their blank flanks getting stung are more than enough "compensation" for me. Come on, let's go."
After a few minutes of walking, Diamond and Silver is confronted by a cowboy hat wearing pony with a blond mane and an orange coat. It was Apple Bloom's big sister, Applejack. "Girls, kin ya help me out? I'm tryin' to find Apple Bloom. Have ya seen her?" she asked. The two fillies looked at each other with sly smiles. "Yeah, we have. She was with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. They said they wanted to be Cutie Mark Crusader Honey Harvesters over at Honeycomb's." explained Diamond. "She WHAT?!" screamed Applejack. "We tried to tell them it was a bad idea, but they didn't listen." Silver added. Applejack got a looming sense of dread. "Thanks fer helpin' me out, girls. I gotta go!" she told them as she bolted towards the honey fields as well. The two bratty fillies chuckle as they head home.
Over at the fields, Honeycomb decided to take a quick break from work, so she could have a bite to eat. She enters her house and, after taking off her hat and putting it on the coffee table, she slipped into the bathroom to examine herself. She looks in the mirror and starts to count. "One...two...three... four stings. Well, it's fewer than yesterday but more than two days ago." she thinks. She puts a bit of ointment on the wounds and a few bandages over them. "That's better. Now, what am I going to eat today...? Oh! I know! Sliced carrots and honey roasted peanuts! Some of that Apple Acres apple juice will make a good drink to go with it, too!" She heads to the kitchen and begins to raid the fridge.
Meanwhile, outside in the honey fields, Scootaloo parks her scooter and wagon near Honeycombs house and the CMC sneak to the hives. "Wow, Lookit all of 'em!" said Apple Bloom. "That's a lot of bees... Maybe we should go ask the pony who lives here to help us." said Sweetie Belle cautiously. "And miss our chance in becoming Cutie Mark Crusader Honey Harvesters? No way! A true pro does it all without any help." said Scootaloo.
All three approach a hive of bees. Scootaloo steps toward it and slowly opens the drawer containing the hive. A bee, returning to its hive, sees the three fillies messing with his home. It decides to take action and swoops down to the attack. It lands on Scootaloo's rear and inserts its sting into her. Scootaloo makes a high pitched scream and backs off. The scream alerts the bees in the hive as well as Honeycomb having her lunch. She grabs her hat and dashes outside. "Ow ow ow! That hurts!" says Scootaloo jumping in pain. "Um... I dun think I wanna be a Honey Harvester anymore." said Apple Bloom, pointing to the swarm circling above them. Scared stiff, the ponies hold on to each other for dear life until a voice was heard. "Don't just stand there! Run! Get inside my house and you'll be safe!"
They immediately start running towards Honeycombs's house as the swarm gives chase. One bee catches up and stings Apple Bloom. "Yow, it got me!" Upon hearing this, all three start to speed up in an adrenaline rush and start to lose the swarm! But Sweetie Belle trips and tumbles. "Aaah! Help me!" she screamed! "Hold on, little filly! You two go in and shut the door! I'll get her back!" ordered Honeycomb. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom ran inside and did what she told them to do. Honeycomb dashes towards Sweetie Bell and, using her hat, wraps her around its protective netting. Now, completely unprotected, Honeycomb braces herself over Sweetie Belle to defend her from the wrath of the bees. They circle around her and prepare to attack. "Stop! Listen to me!" she cried out. "This girl did not mean to hurt you or your colony!" The angry buzzing starts to die down. "She's sorry. Please go back to your hive. She won't bother you again." The buzzing fades as the swarm retreats back into its hive. After their retreat, she removes the hat off of Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom look out the window out of astonishment, both whispering the word, "Whoa." "That was amazing! How did you do that?!" asked Sweetie Belle. Honeycomb chuckled and said, "Just call me the Bee Whisperer."
Inside her house, Honeycomb starts to treat the girls. She puts a bandage on Scootaloo and tells her it maybe red for a few days. She looks over at Apple Bloom who is walking around in circles. "Excuse me but what are you doing?" asked Honeycomb. "I think there is somethin' on ma flank! Did I get ma cutie mark?" Sweetie Belle looks at it and says, "No, it's just a bee sting." "Oh..." said Apple Bloom "Well, may I have a bandage then?"
Suddenly, Applejack busted through the front door, short of breath. "Sorry for not knockin'. Apple Bloom! Are you okay?!" she shouted. Apple Bloom nods her head and confirms, "We had a bit of a tizzy, but we're ok!" Applejack lies down on the ground and breathes a sigh of relief. "Whew. I'm glad that you are all ok. What possessed you to go and be beekeepers anyway?" asked Applejack. "We accidently ran into Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and broke their honey jars." explained Sweetie Belle, "They told us we either had to pay for the honey or get it ourselves. And since we had no money..." Scootaloo interrupts. "They said that the bees were friendly enough to let us get some honey because she was able to get it without wearing those suits." Applejack huffed with an angry look on her face.
"Why those little hoity-toity brats! They done told me that they tried to convince you not to go! Those ne'er-do-wells are gonna get a whupping for endangering your lives." "Hold on, Applejack." said Honeycomb. "Yes, those girls were mean to trick your sister and her friends like that, but that doesn't mean you should go get revenge." "Something's GOTTA be done. They can't get away with stuff like this!" said Applejack. "And they won't, trust me; I'll take care of them." replied Honeycomb "But you girls should forgive their actions and move on." Scootaloo shouts,"No way! I'm with Applejack. I say we give them our pain tenfold!" "When a bee stings you, do you deal with the pain and move on or follow it until you find its nest then hit it with a stick, only to get more stings." explained Honeycomb Sometimes it's easier to move on with the bad things in life instead of dwelling on it. That's why I love my bees no matter how many times I'm stung. I don't resent them, and neither should you."
Scootaloo rolls her eyes. "Fine, I'll let it go. But next time, they better watch themselves." AppleJack and Honeycomb shake hooves and the CMC return to their respective homes. Before the day was over, however, Honeycomb was able to talk to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's parents. They all agreed that their daughters would work part time cleaning Honeycomb's house and delivering honey to customers for a week. Amazingly, they were more reliable then the previous postmare that delivered them. Poor Derpy will never forget the time she crashed into one of her hives that day.
The end