Special Agent Sweetie Drops
Lyra’s study steadily grew quiet as the minty mare cried herself dry into Bonnie’s loving embrace. Not a word was said until Lyra was finally still while Bon-Bon affectionately caressed her mane. Neither of them were expecting anything except the comfort of each other. Lyra for finally having revealed her secret and Bon-Bon for finally having Lyra confide in her. The minty mare was sure that Bon-Bon would take one look at the summoning circle and run for the town guards, but she stayed right by her side.
Lyra finally lifted her muzzle from Bonnie’s chest and looked into her eyes. She brought a fetlock to her face to wipe her muzzle and let out a few sniffles. “Did I ever tell you how much I love you, Bonnie? Through all of this you have always been there for me.” Lyra looked down to the ground in shame. “I really messed up Bonnie, I’ll probably end up in Tartarus for what I did.”
Bon-Bon continued to smile sweetly. “Lyra, I’m here for you and I will always be here.” She lifted Lyra’s face to hers and adopted a more stoic expression. “You need to tell me exactly what you did.” Bonnie looked around the study and then met Lyra’s gaze again. “I have a pretty good idea, but I want you to explain everything. I will help you in any way I can.”
Lyra explained everything to Bon-Bon. She left out no small detail. She started from the very beginning from when she started sneaking around the royal archives and then eventually to the blood ritual performed. Bon-Bon's face remained stoic during the explanation. In her head she had mixed emotions. She was crestfallen that Lyra was keeping this all to herself. Another part of her was angry Lyra broke into the archives. Bonnie wanted to choke Lyra and hug the stuffings out of her at the same time which made quite the juxtaposition. She was sad that her minty unicorn was cast off as a laughingstock. Throughout this tumultuous tale, she was starting to feel like a hypocrite for she had a secret too. There was something she needed to do, and she wasn’t going to like it.
At the end of Lyra’s story, Bonnie let out a long sigh and frowned. “Lyra, you’re not the only one keeping secrets. I have a confession to make. I am going to need to pull a lot of strings to get you out of this and in turn will reveal something I’ve never told anypony. You have to promise not to tell anypony.” Bonnie gave Lyra a hard look to convey the gravity of the situation.
Lyra met Bonnie’s gaze with confusion, and a slight hint of hope. “You’re going to try and help me? I promise, I will never tell a soul!” Lyra declared with a hoof-stomp. “I Pinkie Promise!” Lyra then began to recite the ancient ritual of the Pinkie Promise. Lyra’s gaze fell to the floor. “I don’t deserve it. Even if you have been keeping something from me, I’m not in a position to judge.” Lyra met Bon-Bon’s eyes again. “You can tell me anything Bonnie, please, if it will help me.”
Bon-Bon gave Lyra a hard glare and adopted a serious tone. “Lyra, do you trust me?”
Lyra nodded vigorously. “I trust you completely!”
Bonnie took another moment to collect herself and then began, making eye contact with Lyra throughout her explanation. “My name isn’t Bon-Bon. I’m special agent Sweetie Drops.” She punctuated this by taking out her badge of office. “I am part of the secret monster hunting agency funded by the crown. I was placed in Ponyville as an undercover agent with the alias “Bon-Bon”.” Bonnie continued despite Lyra’s ‘Deer in Headlight’s’ face. “This human may not be a monster, but I was given orders to be on the lookout for any strange creatures around Ponyville. I would say this case falls under my jurisdiction.” Bon-Bon gave Lyra a hard look. “Lyra Heartstrings, I hereby place you under arrest.”
Lyra could do nothing but stare in wide-eyed terror at what she was hearing. Her jaw was open and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Bon-Bon took a pair of hoof-cuffs and a magic suppressor ring out of her mane. She looked at Lyra with dropping ears and a frown. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time. You will be taken to Celestia for initial questioning and initial judgement.” Lyra was reeling and completely stunned. So stunned in fact that she could not move or resist as she was cuffed, and a magic suppressor was placed on her horn.
“Lyra Heartstrings, you are now under my custody. Your Cooperation will be regarded during sentencing. I must immediately take you to Celestia where judgement will be passed. If you would like to request counsel of a lawyer prior to meeting with Celestia, speak now.”
Bon-Bon looked at Lyra expectantly. Lyra was in such a state of shock that she couldn’t utter anything except a faint “W-what?”
“You are being held for the charges of trespassing in the royal archives, grand larceny, and using blood magic to summon a potentially dangerous creature to Equestria which puts this case under my authority. While blood magic may not be against the law, summoning a sentient creature without their consent is.” When Bon-Bon finished, she had tears streaming down her muzzle.
“Bon-Bon what are you doing?” Lyra choked out. “You’re...you’re turning me in?” Lyra was aghast. She felt betrayed. She had just opened up to her filly-friend, and she was being arrested. “Bon-Bon, I thought we had something special.” Tears began to flow freely down Lyra’s cheeks again. “I trusted you!” She wailed.
Bon-Bon looked away. “You will have to trust my Lyra; this is the only way we’re going to get out of this.” Bon-Bon then removed a gold medallion from her mane. It was crested with Celestia on one side and a carving of Canterlot on the other. “We have to take this to Celestia immediately. This is a slipstream medallion that will take us directly to SMILE HQ. The first time can be a doozy, so hold on.” Bon-Bon placed her hoof on the medallion and then gave it a twist. The room filled with a bright light and the two mares were gone.
-_-
Twilight grunted and wiped the sweat from her brow. She had just finished putting up an anti-magic barrier around Charlie. It encompassed the entire basement in a dull magenta aura. “There! Now nopony will be able to cast spells near him. I can’t remove the ambient magic from the room, but at least it will keep anypony from casting on him.”
Twilight turned around to face Triage and Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, can you go get Spike? I need to write a letter to Celestia. Triage, can you keep monitoring Charlie’s thaumic readings? This barrier will buy us some time to try and figure out what exactly is going on here.”
Fluttershy nodded and quietly left the room. Triage gave Twilight a skeptical look before returning to her work of dressing the growing horn. “Twilight, I have to say you turned around quick. At first, I thought you weren’t ready for those wings you have, but I can see those leadership qualities coming out. I have to say, you’re actually taking this rather well.” Triage removed the gauze from Charlie’s forehead and sighed. “I have good news and bad news. What do you want to hear first”?
Twilight sat on her haunches and took in a deep breath. “Thank you Triage...I guess...I’ll take the bad news first.” Twilight braced herself with a frown and her ears flattened against her head.
“The bad news is that at the base of his horn, there seems to be fine maroon hairs growing in.” Triage looked at Twilight with a grave expression to let the implications sink in. Then she smiled and continued. “The good news is that his horn is at full length. We will be able to wake him up without further pain from the bone growth. I am just going to take a look at his burns and then we can go from there. I will also begin reducing the narcotics from his IV so he’ll wake up at his own pace.
-_-
Charlie’s Perspective
The drain from my dream had sucked me in and I felt vertigo as I fell through an open pit filled with stars. The darkness was broken up by what appeared to be faraway galaxies and planets. It felt like I was falling through a never-ending planetarium. From below I could see a spiral growing closer. It turned out to be coiled television screens. Every screen depicted a memory from my life. It started with memories from when I was five years old. I watched as I blew out my candle during my birthday. The first time I rode a bike without training wheels, that time I got in trouble for falling into a neighbor's koi pond because I wanted to see the fish. My first snowman. A snowball fight with my parents.
Then it occurred to me that maybe I was dying, and this was my life flashing before my eyes. It felt like an eternity I was traveling down this hall of memories. I watched as I got my driver’s license. I cringed at my first kiss. My high school graduation and my first job out of high school.
It wasn’t until I got to the memory of my first date with my wife that things started to feel surreal. I was feeling regret, pity, anger, remorse, guilt, and grief all at once. “No!” I shouted. “Please stop!” It was after I shouted that all the screens flickered and then started to show still images. They were photographs I had taken during our marriage.
“No, please! I don’t want to remember!” I cried. Seemingly as if to answer my cry, the screens flickered again. This time they showed my face. I was frowning, and it felt like every screen was following me with their eyes. I was still falling, and the sensation of a million eyes on me was starting to become unnerving. “Stop staring at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
It was true. I lived my life like a normal person. I never did anything out of the ordinary. My life was bland but predictable. I graduated high school with honors and went to university. I got a bachelor’s in IT and worked for a startup tech company that maintained corporate servers. I was your average techy. I got married and had a normal family. I never did anything I could never talk myself out of. Everything was going according to plan. Everything was great until…
All the screen flickered into blackness and I hit the ground with a muted thud.
-_-
I woke with a start. The first sensation I felt were the restraints around my wrists and ankles. My mind was a bit fuzzy. My mouth felt dry, and I could feel pillowy cotton around most of my body. I could hear the beeping of medical equipment to my right, and I overheard someone talking to my left.
“Lyra and Bon-Bon have been gone for a couple hours now. I wonder what’s taking them so long?” It sounded like a feminine voice filled with impatience.
I heard a more childish voice respond. “Maybe Lyra is doing more research on…” the voice was cut off by a huge belch the likes I had never heard before, followed by a gagging swooshing sound.
“Ah, looks like Princess Celestia got back to us.” The feminine voice replied, followed by the same voice reciting what seemed to be a letter.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Thank you for keeping me up to date with the human. It brings me great relief to know that this is being taken care of by capable hooves. There are a few things that have come to my attention about the strange appearance of the human. It seems there is more to this than I initially thought. My sister and I will be making a visit this evening to meet with the creature. We would like to ask him a few questions in person.
To My faithful student,
Princess Celestia
This was getting weird. Princess Twilight Sparkle? Princess Celestia? What kind of names were those? Am I “The Human?”
The feminine voice continued but took on a tone of panic. “Spike, the Princesses are visiting the library! We have to get everything ready!” This was then followed by the sound of quickly receding clopping followed by the sound of a door opening and slamming shut. I inwardly cringed at the loud noise.
The childish voice spoke again, sounding resigned and tired. “I should probably go make sure she doesn’t have a hernia.” the sound of claws clacking on floorboards filled the room, with the door opening and closing more softly this time.
Things were finally quiet, and I was able to take a full inventory of my surroundings. My head still felt funny. There was a new weight surrounding my forehead and there was a strange pins and needles sensation coming from it. I was covered in what felt like bandages. I could feel electrodes suction cupped to my body. There was an IV in my arm. The scratchy feel of a wool blanket was pulled up to my neck.
I was in a hospital. I could smell antiseptic and there was clearly a heart monitor going off. With my surroundings considered, I fluttered my eyes open. What stared back at me was a very lumpy and rooty ceiling. I tried to turn my head to look to my left, but there was a strap holding my head in place too.
What did I do to need full body restraints?
“Oh, you’re awake!” A melodious voice called from my left. A white head appeared in my vision. It was an equine face with large pink eyes. There was a horn jutting from her forehead, and she was smiling.
A unicorn?
“How are you feeling?” The unicorn said. It was talking to me. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners! You probably don’t remember anything from before. My name is triage and I’m your doctor. We can take it slow. You’ve been through a lot.” She ended her introduction with a pleasant smile that was slightly infectious.
What did she mean by ‘not remembering anything from before?
“What happened?” I croaked out. “And why am I restrained?” The fuzziness in my head kept me from recalling much of anything. I was so confused, and my head wasn’t cooperating with me.
“Oh dear, now what’s quite a question. Before I answer anything, I need to get an idea of your mental faculties as well as get you out of those restrains once we establish your pain level. Can you answer some of my questions first?” She asked in a chipper tone.
I just nodded as much as I could with my head restraint.
“Alright, we’ll start with an easy one. Do you know who you are?” She questioned in a lighthearted tone, almost sing-songy. In fact, everything she said seemed to have a harmonious quality to it as if she was ready to start singing.
“My name is Charlie.” I said without little fanfare. I mentally fist-pumped for getting that one right. Small victories.
“Very good!” She sang. “Next question. Do you know where you are? She looked at me with raised eyebrows.
I had no idea, and my mind was firing blanks. Something told me I was either having a fever dream, or I woke up in Narnia. Either way something didn’t feel quite right. I had a horsey doctor, and I was restrained in a hospital bed. I couldn’t move my head, legs or arms. I took in a deep breath and answered with a defeated “No. I have no idea where I am or how I got here.”