• Published 10th Aug 2018
  • 561 Views, 16 Comments

The Bon Supremacy - CherryRush



After Celestia shut down the spy agency EI:6, Agent Sweetie Drops assumed the identity of the candymaker "Bon-Bon" and moved on with her life. But when her marefriend is kidnapped, she uncovers a criminal conspiracy that might end that peaceful life.

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2: The Train

Ponyville
20 Harvest, 1502
1730 Hours Local Time


After she'd patched herself up, Sweetie Drops rummaged through the medicine cabinets upstairs and found some willowbark extract for the pain before allowing herself a short nap on the sofa. Keeping on Pinkie Pie's trail was important, but she'd need her strength if (or rather when, as she forced herself to think) she caught up. Years of experience had taught her to get rest wherever and whenever she could; after all, you never knew what could happen, and you didn't want to be tired when trying to trick a chimera or defuse bombs. So she fell asleep quickly, and by the time she woke up it was already evening - 1730 to be exact, judging from her watch. No more laying around, then; it was time to find Lyra. Sweetie dumped the bottle of medicine into her magic bag and made for the train station.

The Friendship Express was, of course, the most obvious escape plan Pinkie would have had. A balloon was too small and intimate for a pony trying not to be recognized, and Ponyville's commercial balloon transit only went to the cloud cities anyhow... not a good place for an earth pony to flee to. (Lyra's attacker could be a unicorn under disguise, of course, but her size and weight had certainly ruled out a pegasus.) Ponyville had no coast or airship port, and was days away from anywhere significant by cart or on hoof, which all meant that the only way Pinkie Pie would have left was by train. But then where did that leave her? Ponyville's train station had direct routes to almost every city in Equestria and even as far as the Crystal Empire. And that was assuming that she could find out where Pinkie Pie had gone.

That part, at least, was easy. It only took an hour of interviewing the station workers before she found out that Pinkie Pie had bought a ticket to Fillydelphia. Depending on how Sweetie cared to think about it, this could be good news or bad news. The good part was that Lyra's kidnapper was keeping up the Pinkie Pie disguise. This meant that either she really was a secret twin, or she was far worse at the spy game than Sweetie Drops had thought. In addition, this meant that Sweetie had a location to look in. The bad news was that next train to Fillydelphia wouldn't leave until nearly 1900, which meant that the fake Pinkie would have a three hour head start to hide. Even with such an inexperienced abductor, three hours could make or break a kidnapping case, and Sweetie Drops cursed herself for taking that nap earlier as she bought her tickets - being sure to pay extra for a private cabin with a washroom.

Still, there was nothing to be done for it now, and she'd have time to go shopping first. By the time Sweetie was on the train, she'd gotten fresh medical supplies, some snacks, and everything she'd need to adopt her next persona. Sure, she'd only been to Fillydelphia a couple of times, and the odds of being recognized were incredibly low, but at the same time neither the hardened secret agent nor the sweet, innocent candymaker would serve her well. 'Tourist' was her best bet; no matter how ostentatious or obnoxious they were, tourists never got a second glance from locals; with the right accent and mannerisms, ponies would remember every detail of how annoying you were and not a single detail of your face.

She undressed quickly as soon as she'd locked the door to her cabin and checked on her wound first thing. The stitches were intact, still, and there was no undue redness - both were a relief. Sweetie washed it with disinfectant and freshly bandaged herself before addressing her mane and tail. Cutting this thick mane would be kind of tragic... there was a time when Sweetie Drops had always worn her mane and tail short, the better to modify them with wigs and extensions, but ever since retiring, she'd started letting it grow out and stopped straightening her bushy curls. Lyra had always loved nuzzling and teasing her mane, and that thought brought tears to her eyes as she started to cut her hair away with a set of shears.

Before long, pink and blue locks covered the washroom floor, and Sweetie Drops was crying outright, but the job was done. Her precious mane was sheared down to a bob and had been straightened, feathered, and fluffed into a rough "just woke up" style that was popular these days with the rave crowd, and her tail had gotten much the same treatment. As she started rubbing dye in with her hooves, she started thinking about her character. 'You're a middle-aged mom, and your daughter just left home to go to school,' she thought. 'Your husband left years ago and now you're all alone trying to act younger than you are.' Sweetie rinsed her hair in the sink and then shook out her now shockingly green mane and tail.

"I'm Mint Chip," she said in a Whinnyapolis accent as she looked herself over in the mirror. "My favorite things are Vinyl Scratch, happy pills, and younger males. Oh, and my daughter Twile, don'tcha know. She's just so good at magic!" She gave the mirror a grin and a girlish giggle that drew a stitch of pain from her barrel, which she ignored. 'Whatever you do, don't show any pony that you're hurting,' she heard from the back of her mind in the voice of one of her old academy instructors. A 'DJ Pon-3' (as Vinyl was known on stage) T-shirt covered her bandages, Sweetie Drops' mirrored shades were replaced with a pair of thick-rimmed window glasses, and she was about to finish the look with some gaudy costume jewelry when she heard a knock on her cabin's door.

Sweetie Drops carefully made her way to the door with a cautious, quiet stalking gait, hiding her shears just beyond the doorframe where they'd be easy for her to reach. 'Who could possibly know I'm here?' she asked herself. 'Keep it calm, get in character... it might just be an attendant pony to offer me tea.' She assumed a casual stance and took a deep breath before opening the door to see a lean grey stallion in an attendant's outfit with a tea cart next to him. His blue and white mane was cut in a short, severe style with bangs that came down around his unicorn horn, and his glassy eyes and overly-wide smile set off a red flag in the back of her mind.

"Hello, Agent Rank Five Sweetie Drops," he said in a monotone, never breaking his smile. "Can I offer you some tea?"

"Sweetie Drops? Oh, there must be some mistake," she replied, playing dumb and keeping up her accent even as she let her left forehoof drift slowly to her hidden shears. "I'm Mint Chip, dear, and I certainly didn't order tea service. Are you sure you have the right room?"

The strange unicorn took a step backward and picked up the teacup and saucer with his blue magic. "Please try some tea, Agent. I promise it's not poisoned." Even though his smile never wavered, his eyes seemed nervous - as though somepony she couldn't see was holding a knife to his back.

Sweetie's hoof wavered near the shears as she stared at him, silently willing him to break. Who was this pony and why was he so scared? He knew who she was... but at the same time, everything about him screamed pawn. The stalemate slowly started to stretch into pained silence, but after nearly a minute, she finally sighed and took the cup instead of the shears. "Where is Lyra? What are your leader's plans for her?"

"Lyra has been invited to join our perfect society, Sweetie Drops. It's difficult at first, but she'll be happy in the end. You'll understand soon, but I'm just a messenger," he said. He seemed relieved that she was cooperating.

"A messenger? Well I have a message for you to send to your boss." She set the tea down and took those shears, holding them up threateningly to the unicorn's neck. "I don't know who you are or what you want from me. I don't have much money or power. But I do have a set of skills that I've developed over my career, skills that make me a nightmare for ponies like you. Give me Lyra, unharmed, and I'll just put you in Celestia's nice, cozy prison where you can get lovely lessons in friendship and become a better pony. But if you hurt one hair on her mane..."

"What?" He whimpered in terror, scrambling back against the wall.

"I will find you... and I will kill you." He abandoned his cart and ran from the car in terror as she thrust her shears into the wall behind him, and she pulled them out of the wall with a satisfied huff as she returned to her cabin. Scaring him like that might not be what a 'good' pony would do - he already seemed scared enough of his own boss. But she was certain that they would get the message.

Sweetie Drops considered the tea and decided her best bet would be to just dump it down the sink; under the cup, she found a small envelope with a heavy black 'equals' sign embossed onto it. Inside was a letter written in a narrow, spidery hoof.

Agent Sweetie Drops, please don't worry about your friend Lyra. By now she has joined our PERFECT SOCIETY and soon she will be among the happiest ponies in the world. You'll be with her soon, and when you see how happy she is, I'm certain that you'll come around to our way of thinking and help us prepare Equestria for STARLIGHT GLIMMER to return. Everything will be clear soon, and all that you're going through now is simply the punishment for your sins. Once you know true friendship, all will be forgiven.

She threw the saucer in anger, shattering it against the wall, and sat down to cry. It couldn't have been a simple ransomer - of course not. A ransom kidnapper, you could negotiate with and stall for time. You could maneuver around them while promising them their bits, and get a hostage back safe and sound. This looked more like some weird cult, and there was no way to predict what ponies like that would do. They were probably brainwashing or torturing Lyra right now, one step ahead the whole time while Sweetie Drops chased some imitation of Pinkie Pie. She'd thought that Pinkie had been sloppy in leaving such an obvious trail, but now she felt like she'd been played the whole time - hadn't Pinkie said that she was supposed to see Lyra get taken? She was on a track just like this train, and all she could do was fight a growing feeling of helplessness as she imagined what they were doing to Lyra now.


Location Unknown
Time Unknown


Lyra Heartstrings woke, slowly, in a small cell that looked like it had once been a walk-in closet. A small cot was propped up against one wall, with a little nightstand that had a book on it. Blinking away her grogginess and double-vision, she examined the cover of the thin, plain brown paperback. "The Markless Manifesto: Creating a More Equal Society," she read in a mutter. "By... Starlight Glimmer." Lyra set it back down with a sigh and sat down on the cot, asking herself 'What kind of weirdness did Bon-Bon, or Sweetie Drops, who whoever in Tartarus she really is get me into?'

The last thing she remembered was the strange, painful sensation of being sucked into that cube. "Bon-Bon tried to save me," Lyra said as she laid back. "This is all probably her fault, but she's coming for me. I have to stay positive and keep up hope." It felt weird to say it out loud like that. Hadn't Bon-Bon lied to her for years? These past few days, she'd worried more and more just how honest Bon-Bon's feelings were, whether the whole thing was just an elaborate cover story - whether every time they'd been together, Bon-Bon was just using her. But the way her marefriend had slammed through that glass to save her without even flinching and the tears in her eyes as their hooves slid apart... Lyra knew for absolute certain that that was real, and the more she laid there and thought about it, the more confident she felt that even now, Bon-Bon was coming for her. "My marefriend is the best secret agent in Equestria," she said to herself, managing a small smile. "And she's coming to rescue me."

"I wouldn't count on that," a quiet stallion's voice said, and Lyra sat bolt upright to see a lanky-looking blue unicorn in a brown cloak, with a long, black mane that came down over his right eye. "Sweetie Drops will swear utter devotion, to be sure, but when it really comes down to it, there's only one pony she cares about: herself." The stallion approached her, and Lyra pressed herself back into the wall with a shiver of fear; now that he was standing right in front of her, she could see a mess of scars on the right side of his face and muzzle, and an eyepatch under his mess of hair. "If it came down to it, I guarantee she'd pick her own hide over saving you. Don't worry, though. I don't intend to hurt you, or her, no matter how much I might want payback. I'm going to give you both the gift of true friendship, a life of openness and equality. Her special talent is spying, you know. Three candies in wrappers... little disguises, you could say, that hide what candies are really inside." He took Lyra's chin with one hoof and forced her to look him in the face. "Without her cutie mark, she won't be able to keep any secrets from you anymore."

"Her... her cutie..." Lyra's shocked expression gave way to an angry glare. "You're sick. You can't get away with taking ponies' cutie marks. I bet you can't even do that kind of magic in the first place."

"Oh, I found some very interesting scrolls with that manifesto. And I've always had a way with cutie marks." He let go of her and took a step back, smirking cruelly. "I suggest you get to reading - after all, your own cutie un-marking is tomorrow morning." Her captor stepped back to the steel door. "Don't be scared, Ms. Heartstrings. It doesn't hurt if you don't struggle, and it will all be worth it in the end. Once you two are perfectly equal, you can finally be happy together... and Sweetie Drops will finally learn the error of her ways." The door slammed shut with terrifying finality, and Lyra was alone once again.

Author's Note:

I just had to paraphrase the speech from Taken. Blame Arkonfleight.