The now wounded mare hobbled her way along the alleyway using the wall as support, first her back leg, now a bullet wound in her front leg.
"You gotta stop getting hit on your left side Bonnie." She said slowly making her way down the alley to the Carousel Boutique, she went to the back door pushing it.
Locked, out of better judgement she hobbled away from the door and leaped into it sending the door crashing down with a heavy thud, rolling on the floor in pain Bon Bon realized the error in using a wounded leg to break in a wooden door.
"nice one Bonnie, you prolly woke the neighborhood too!" she cursed while dragging herself over to a fabric drawer she pulled out a sheet of cloth ripping it in half to make a temporary bandage, as soon as she applied it the once white elegant fabric was stained in her blood.
"I'm might need a Doctor for this.." she said slowly bringing herself to a standing position walking through the boutique, which unlike the last time she saw it was disheveled and filled with dust.
"Rarity must have seen this coming.." Bon Bon said to herself walking over to the table with various news clippings for the Equestrian Enquirer:
SWEETIE BELLE SHINES AT GALA! one of the headlines read, she had heard from Lyras letters while she was deployed on how all three of the crusaders had gotten their cutie marks. Lyra put it that the town "breathed a sigh of relief" when Scootaloo, the last of the crusaders to get hers, finally learned her special talent. Lyra said the town missed the antics of the trio but at the same time didn't mind the peace and quiet they had.
Bon Bon wondered where the crusaders were now, Who's on whose side? Bon Bon put those questions aside looking through the other clippings.
Ponyville Press:
Local CANDY SHOP OWNER COMATOSE AFTER BOATING ACCIDENT!
"Hey! I never owned a boat!" Bon Bon said about to throw the clipping into the wastebin when she saw.
Time Turner and Applebloom Create New Machinery to Lead Equestria to a Golden Age!
with a picture of a now older Applebloom wearing goggles and a coat with pockets filled with gears and tools standing proudly by a large machine with two loading claws that looked like a weaponless copperhead.
"Applebloom made those things!"
scanning through the various other clippings she was seeing a pattern: The earth ponies were making machines that made them more efficient than the unicorns magic could be filling the hypothetical room with a gas of hate and bloodshed all it needed was a spark and chaos would ensue and then she saw the last set of clippings at the end of the table paper clipped together.
Celestial council: All machines to be confiscated to the Equestrian government for immediate dismantling and re-purposed for government use only under the supervision of Flim/Flam Mechatronics
next clipping was various quotes on the response.
McTalk: These machines are key to our survival but we must make sure only the right people can use them!
Applebloom: That's Horseapples! This ain't over not by a longshot!
Flim and Flam: We are glad to see the people of Equestria will be able to sleep in their beds knowing the right thing was done.
ANTI-REG PEACEFUL PROTESTS TURN VIOLENT, MULTIPLE CASUALTIES.
SHINING ARMOR: NO COMMENT
ANTI-REG EXTREMIST DESTROY'S CANTERLOT EXPRESS TRAIN DURING DIPLOMATIC MEETING IN WAKE OF RIOTS, MULTIPLE CASUALTIES.
McTalk: Those savages will pay with their blood!
Then the final clipping in bold over-sized text:
WAR IN EQUESTIRA: TRAITOR LUNA SECEDES FROM EMPIRE!
The clippings fell to the floor in the shock Bon Bon was facing
"What have they gotten into?"
"That's what I said.." A strange voice uninterrupted, Bon Bon twirling around and aimed her still empty shotgun hoping to fool the hidden pony.
"Show yourself or I'll blast you into next week!" She snarled then her anger turned to fear as out of the shadow came the bipedal pony walking towards her, a few pellets in the armor where it had been shot but it looked more like a scuff than any actual damage.
"You're bluffing, and by the lack of shells in the ally means you still haven't loaded it!" the upright pony said, its voice muffled by the mask with the skull.
"Why did you miss back there?" Bon Bon asked
"Who said I was trying to hit you? No, we need you alive Bonnie" the pony pointed at the clippings, "You've read it yourself, We aren't the bad guys, they are!"
"I'm gonna need more than some clippings to prove to me!"
"Fine I'll play your game, your two pals, I have them surrounded. With the touch of a button the hell-raisers will burn the tree to the ground, but, I am the good pony here so I'm going to let you and your two friends leave, no one will touch you, you have my word." The pony said tapping on its armor where its heart would be.
"Why? Why all this trouble to get me and then cut me loose?" Bon Bon asked confused and exausted.
"Because, We already won the day." The muffled voice said. "Now go, and remember, We're the good guys. Not them."
"Let me see you face." Bon Bon said coldly
The pony was thrown off by this demand and its voice made it apparent.
"why?"
"True heroes don't cower behind masks!" Bon Bon accused hobbling right up to the standing pony, looking straight into what she believed was the eyes.
"I'm no hero." the pony said, standing still looking down at the wounded mare.
"Then what are you?" She asked
"Just another Soldier."
Then Bon Bon felt a pinch in the neck and felt with her hooves, a small dart was shot into her neck by a tranquilizer gun the pony had mounted on its shoulder.
"Good night, Bonnie"