@Meanlucario  
A conjunction, if I’m not mistaken.

@Background Pony #A555  
May I ask what “Than” is?

@Meanlucario  
Don’t talk about Than that way. He’s sensitive.

@Meanlucario  
It always sounded as if they are just “best friends”, and the winking and nudging is simply a tease to the adult viewers. I mean, cooper age cartoons did that all the damn time. X3

@Background Pony #A555  
Sorry, let me correct myself. Why is it a thing? Why can’t they be friends?

@Background Pony #A555  
Than never stopped the fandom before.

@Meanlucario  
I don’t know. I’ll ask him:  
“Hey, Every! Why do you try to ship them so much?”  
“Because they’re obviously a couple now.”  
“Oh, ok.”

@TexasUberAlles  

 
I always interpreted that as “She likes apples, as long as somepony else pays for them.”

@Meanlucario  
You gotta keep in mind though, that forced diversity, isnt really diversity.  
you can ship characters with whoever you want just for the hell of it, but if you dont have any other reason then “i just wanted someone different” then its detrimental towards the character’s personality.
 
EDIT  
oh and something I forgot to add is that I know lyrabon pretty much started as “for the hell of it” ship because they were often together, but their personalities kind of developed around that.

@Minus  
I admit, It’s likely that I haven’t encountered to the same stuff you have, and you may be right. But there is one, lesser thing about this pair that annoys me, and it’s the lack of diversity. It’s a rare sight seeing either of them being shipped with others, and the lack of diversity in people shipping them bothers me a bit. Also, I feel that Octavia has more of a personality, but I see your point, and think both characters need some love.

@Meanlucario  
I don’t ship Lyra and Bon Bon, and you don’t have to either. But I feel like you’re lying here. Pretending that them being lesbians takes away from their well established fan personas, so that you can be mad about it for a more legitimate reason. Because I can’t take it seriously hearing you say that Lyra’s Human fascination takes a backseat to her being gay. Never have I seen this be the case. All the fanfics about the two usually also add in her like of music, something often absent in the art. And I am glad to see any time someone does do something with Lyra that isn’t about humans for a change. Too much and it can get to “Scootaloo is a chicken” levels of awful.
 
Bon Bon always got the short end of the fandom stick, being reduced to the “unamused” pony. That and her career as a voice actress is all she had. Lyra without Bon Bon is still a character, but Bon Bon without Lyra is… lacking. I could say the same for Ocatavia though, that Vinyl stands on her own, whilst Octavia only becomes interesting as a foil to Vinyl.
 
Whatever the case, I hope that I am wrong in my unpleasant assumption about you. Maybe you’ve just been incredibly unlucky and haven’t found the great LyraBon stuff that I have. Maybe you’re searching in the wrong places. Can be hard when even non-shipping stuff often gets pooled in with the romantic when it comes to these two. That’s the reason I search for them with the LyraBon tag. Do you know how many pictures there are tagged under that? 1666. And without the LyraBon tag? Only a measly 4763… Oh. That’s quite a shock. Looks like us non-shippers actually have more art. Kinda makes complaining about this ship feel, jerkish now.

I still don’t ship Lyra and Bon Bon.  
They’re just close friends in my book.

Bon is a Rainbow Dash fangirl.  
 
She likes apples, but she doesn’t like ‘em that much.  
 
She’s willing to do the dirty work that needs to be done, and is concerned about the plight of other Ponies overseas.  
 
She likes gettin’ jiggy widdit.  
 
…But she’s not a rock fan.  

To add to the discussion, I personally have never seen people treat them as “only lesbians”. Their personalities are well established in the fandom; Lyra being an excitable mare, outgoing mare with an obsession with hand/humans (some people omit this part or change it for their own reasons) and Bonbon has always been made out to be a grumpy, more serious character.  
These traits were established from the little we saw of them in the episodes in the background.
 
And their begin together just often just make people put them together in their fiction, whether some made them just good friends or lovers is honestly pretty inconsequential because they always ended up having the same personality.  
Honestly, the only time I’ve seen one them being out of character was bonbon being an agent in ep100, since that broke from her established grumpy/serious attitude.
 
 
ex.  
 

@Zharkaer  
Sure, I can agree to disagree. You keep your ships, I keep mine. I will admit that part of this is more that I feel Lyra and Bonbon aren’t used as well as they can, but I could be wrong. Anyway, have a good day/night.

@Meanlucario  
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then. In these five years I’ve never felt that way about their character traits.

@Zharkaer  
True, that’s why we are able to change the meaning and degrees as we chose. Berry can either drink once a while, or daily, Oct can be partly British, or over the top brit. That is the key, variety. Lyra and Bon lacks this, as their main trait is lesbian, and the human-lover thing is rarely used other that as a quirk. My favourite example of someone using this right is the Silly Lyra series, where it’s less about Lyra and Bonbon being lovers, and more about them interacting. There is a difference, and understanding that will help you understand why I dislike the ship so much.

@Meanlucario  
And how are “alcoholic” and “British pony that loves classical music” any more of a personality than “overexcitable human-lover?”

@Zharkaer  
Berry sneaked in a drink, so she’s an alcoholic. Octavia plays a cello, so she’s a British pony that loves classical music. Dr. Whooves has a hourglass cutie mark, so he’s the Doctor. We created iconic characters with less that what Lyra gave us.

@Zharkaer  
I never really discussed if it was canon or not but okay.

@OGB64  
It’s one of the chapter books, which are canon.

@Background Pony #BC5F  
then what about the “Mares from S.M.I.L.E” cover?  
It’s either a comic or a book.

@Meanlucario  
You know we didn’t have much to go on, right? Just a pony being overexcited, sitting all human-like and holding a shake in her hoof isn’t much to work with in terms of personality.

@Dragonpone  
I mean that we created their personalities, and Bon’s strait man attitude feels more like it was made to ship them, since the only trait we gave Lyra was a hand fetish, and everyone loves opposites attracting. Octavia feels more natural, and like the character was made before the ship. That’s part of why she’s my favourite Background Main Six. Remember, I don’t hate the characters, or even the ship itself, but that we substitute personality and character for a boat to ride.

@Meanlucario  
Of course it’s a good thing, since fan-given personalities are meaningless.