//------------------------------// // Bonus: How Sunset Met Sweetie // Story: The Sun Never Sets // by Mr Fislewait //------------------------------// 7 Years After Evey's Birth Bon Bon may have retired but that didn't mean her life had slowed down. Since her retirement she had moved to Ponyville, formed a stable relationship with her marefriend and reignited her fillyhood passion for confectionery. Life was good for Bon Bon, sure, sometimes she would be called in as a consultant, or pestered by her former colleagues, but in general life was good. As she finished boxing up a bag of fudge for Pound Cake she heard a knocking on the door to the house portion of the building. "I'll get it!" Lyra called from the other room. Despite her eccentricities Lyra was a very dependable mare, Bon Bon was lucky to have her. She didn't shirk away from her own share of the housework and on a busy day in the shop like today, she would take post and turn away cold callers at the front of the house. With a satisfying 'click', the front door opened and Lyra welcomed their visitor with a jovial "Hiya!". "Hi there...I uh...I think I'm early, but I was having trouble arranging a foalsitter and-" Bon Bon frowned, as she heard the voice of an unfamiliar mare filter through from the other room. She began weighing out some Sherbet Lemons for Silver Spoon, but kept an ear out to catch the conversation from the other room. "Wow you are big!" Bon Bon winced slightly at what Lyra had just said. She was many things, but sadly subtle was not one of them, her marefriend had an unfortunate habit of accidentally sticking her hoof into ponies' personal matters. "I mean, not in a 'you could do to lose a few pounds' way, but like, you are really, really tall! Seriously!" "I uh... I get that a lot," the other mare sighed. "Look, I'm sorry Sweetie Drops but if this is going to be a problem I can reschedule to another day, I honestly thought Twilight would be in town to look after my daughter," hearing her real name caused Bon Bon to drop the current bag of sweets onto the counter in a panic. Sunset wasn't supposed to be here for another two hours! "Uhhh I'm not 'Sweetie Drops', ma'am, I'm Lyra. In fact nopony by that name lives here. But if you want to maybe speak to my marefriend Bon Bon, I have a feeling she knows who you might be looking for," Bon Bon hurriedly ushered the remaining customers out of the shop and began closing up, much to the confusion of the Ponyvillians. Despite her exceedingly loose lips Lyra had at least managed to keep Bon Bon's identity a secret for almost a decade now. "Hi there!" Bon Bon exclaimed, running through to the front of the house. "You must be Sunset!" She had been told to expect the new agent to be turning up today, but she hadn't been entirely prepared for the mare that was standing in front of her. Lyra wasn't lying, she was really tall, a long black cloak covering most of her body but not even reaching her fetlocks, let alone the ground. Her eyes had large black bags hanging beneath them and an energetic looking little filly hugged herself close to Sunset's leg. The letter had omitted that tiny detail, the two of them were meant to be meeting alone. "Hi...I uh, I'm sorry for being early, I was just telling Lyra that-" she sounded tired, very tired. "That you hadn't managed to arrange a foalsitter, I heard from the other room," Bon Bon looked down at the little filly and frowned. Back when she was the 'go-to mare' for the MIB she would never have stood for such unprofessionalism, right now though there was something in Sunset's voice that made her hold back on lecturing her, that and the fact that it was generally deemed a bad idea to mouth off to somepony who was technically royalty. "I...uh...I didn't know Twilight would be out of town, if it's a problem I can always come back another day." "No, no it's fine. Lyra can look after her if you're okay with that, she's great with kids," Sunset's eyes briefly flicked towards Lyra with a look of suspicion but then snapped back to Bon Bon. "You don't mind me leaving my wagon parked outside do you?" she asked, gesturing towards a large traveler's wagon standing in front of the building. "Not at all." "And will you be okay without mommy for an hour or so, Evey?" Sunset asked the little filly that was hiding behind her leg. "Uh huh," the filly nervously answered, "I'm a big girl now, I don't need a foalsitter all the time." "Well, maybe not, but today Lyra is going to be looking after you, okay?" "Kay..." ---------------------------------- "They didn't tell me you had a kid," Bon Bon said, trying to break the ice a little. The two of them had moved to the kitchen and Bon Bon was sorting out some tea, but she couldn't help but notice Sunset's eyes kept flicking towards the living room, where Lyra was keeping Evey entertained with her lyre. "She's quite the cutie." "Yeah...she really means the world to me," Sunset sighed. "How much did they tell you about me?" Bon Bon had imagined the new agent being many things, but the nervous wreck sitting at her table was not one of them. It was hard to reconcile the worried mother with the reports of a mare who was, to all intents and purposes, a serial killer. "Former student to Princess Celestia, extended absence from Equestria as a result of a powerful magical artifact, reformed villain, friend to Princess Twilight Sparkle, recently crowned Princess and an alicorn," they had also mentioned that she was believed to have been involved in the grisly deaths of no less than nine changeling infiltrators that the MIB had been keeping tabs on, but Sunset didn't need to know that. "They didn't mention Evey though?" Sunset asked, taking up her cup of tea in her magic. "No, they neglected to mention that little detail," Bon Bon sighed, "though I should probably have guessed it. I mean, I'm assuming you are the same Sunset who died here about seven years ago, right?" the alicorn looked a little different from the mare that had quietly hobbled about Ponyville for about a year before finally meeting her untimely demise during childbirth, but the similarities were uncanny, that and the shared name. "I was only dead for about an hour, but yeah that was me. I don't think we ever met properly back then." "No, no we didn't," to her eternal shame Bon Bon had placed a few bits on Sunset having gotten knocked up by Blue Blood. "The kid's the same one you were pregnant with, right?" "Yeah..." Sunset sighed despondently, "if it's a problem I can always come back-" "Another time," Bon Bon finished for her, "look, Sunset, I don't really know you, but you look shattered. Let Lyra take care of the kid and just sit back and relax for a little. Have some tea, take your mind off of life, and then, maybe, we can talk business." Sunset nodded mutely and took another sip of tea from her cup, her eyes drooping slightly. "Tough being a single mom I take it?" "Unbelievably," Sunset answered with a chuckle. "I love her, I really do, but it can be so hard making time to look after her, and then a few years back I got some bad news about her health, so really she needs all the care I can give her. Hopefully the new job will help with that a little..." "That's not why you're taking it though are you? Cause if it is I think you need to to maybe reconsider before you go any further, this job...it isn't great for relationships," Bon Bon had found no time for family during her time with the MIB, even after she left it had come dangerously close to ruining what she had with Lyra. "No...no, I want to do this. I need to do this, I can help Equestria, the money is just an added bonus." Bon Bon considered the words carefully, 'need', there was a possibility of mania behind those words, an obsessive need to give back to Equestria. The question was why. "How do you feel about changelings?" Bon Bon casually asked, sipping her own drink. She was unsurprised when Sunset practically jumped out of her skin. "What about them?" the alicorn growled, quietly. "Oh, I was just curious," that all but confirmed her superiors' suspicions. "I'm obligated to fill you in on the details of how this work goes, what it entails, what the MIB will expect from you...that sort of thing," she continued, "unless, you tell me right here and right now that you no longer want to go through with this. You don't know anything important yet so you can still just walk away, go be with your daughter, find something else to do with your life," the higher ups had been quite insistent on Sunset being accepted, 'better she be working for us than somepony else' as they had put it. She was deemed to be 'a valuable asset that if given direction could greatly benefit Equestria'. "No, I want-" "Because this job will not do your relationship with her any good," Bon Bon cut her off again, "and because revenge is an awful reason to get into this kind of work." That gave the alicorn something to think on. Sunset sat there, her mouth hanging open but no words coming out for about a minute before she came to a decision. "No. No, I can do some real good here, Sweetie Drops. I can help ponies, I can save lives. This is what I want to do with my life." "Well then," Bon Bon replied, barely repressing a sigh of defeat, "welcome to The Mares In Black."