Masked Pony: Agent of SECT

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 0

Ponyville. It was a nice, quiet town, the perfect place to disappear. At least, it was nice and quiet most of the time, when monsters weren’t attacking. During school hours. On weekdays.

I sighed. No matter how many years of monster hunting experience I had, I would never be able to deal with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. There was no way the amount of taffy they'd been working with had been enough to cause the disaster they'd caused. I suspected chaos magic, but I'd never been able to actually prove it.

It was my own fault for letting them try to help. It had just been impossible to say no to them when they asked so nicely!
“I’m awful sorry about the mess, Miss Bon-Bon,” Apple Bloom said.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to help clean up?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Princess Twilight says I’m getting much better with my magic! I hardly ever set things on fire!”

“I-it’s fine girls,” I said, forcing a smile and turning to them. Scootaloo tried to say something, but her mouth was still glued shut by taffy, just like half of my shop. “Why don’t you go and get cleaned up before that sets and turns as hard as a rock?”

The three left my shop before they could destroy anything else. I helped them egress quicky with a broom and some very aggressive cleaning in their direction. When they were gone, I collapsed against the door, already exhausted. It had been a long day, and when I got home, it was going to get longer.

Today, I’d promised my roommate, my best friend, that we’d talk about the secrets I’d been keeping from her.
I looked back at the molten taffy spilled across the counters and floors. Maybe a few hours cleaning up here wouldn’t be too bad after all.

---

When I opened the door, I could feel the argument ready to start. Lyra was sitting on the couch, and she didn’t turn when I walked in.

“I thought you’d decided to run away,” she said. “Since your secrets are so important to you.”

Wonderful.

“Lyra, I wouldn’t run away from you,” I said. “I promise. I just…” I sighed. “Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“Oh,” She said, her tone changing. She dropped her defensive stance and looked at me with sympathy. “Sorry. I didn’t know it was that kind of day.”

I smiled a little. “It’s okay. I’m going to pass it on when I send their families a bill for the damages.” I looked towards the kitchen. “So, how about I get started on dinner…”

“I’ll order a pizza. That way you can have more time to explain all these secrets of yours.” She patted the couch next to her. I tossed my saddlebags to the side of the door and trotted up to sit. She didn't shy away from me, which was a good sign.

“Okay. Where should I start?”

“You can start with who you really are,” Lyra grumbled.

I sighed. “I told you already. My real name is Sweetie Drops. I used to be part of an anti-monster organization. Most of the details are top secret, and I can’t really tell you much more than that.”

“You have to be able to tell me more than that!” Lyra groaned. “How much of what you told me about you is true? Like, do you even like daisy sandwiches?”

“Lyra,” I sighed. “Of course I do. The only things I lied to you about were my name and where I came from. Everything else, everything that’s really me -- that’s all true.” I smiled, and she gave me a nervous smile back. “I swore an oath never to tell anypony about this stuff.”

“It just hurts, you know?” Lyra sighed.

“I know,” I said, nuzzling her. “I’m sorry. You know, you’re the only one I would trust with my secrets. And the only reason I didn’t leave when the bugbear showed up.” I smiled sadly.

“So where do we go from here?” Lyra asked.

“The same place we were going before,” I said, putting a hoof around her shoulders. “Nothing about my past changes what we have now. Lyra, when Celestia disbanded the organization I could have gone anywhere and done anything. I chose to come here, and I chose to be with you. As a best friend. “

“But…” Lyra still looked unsure. “You didn’t even know me then!”

“That’s true. And when I was new in town, and really alone, you were there for me. You even bought some of my first batch of candy.”

“That was good stuff. I still remember it.” Lyra smiled. “You gave me a discount because busking with a lyre doesn't really bring in the bits.”

“That wasn’t the only reason,” I said. “I also gave you a discount for being a cute mare.”

“And I gave you a special performance for being the sweetest pony I know,” Lyra smiled.

Maybe everything was going to be okay after all.

---

With the Bugbear back in Tartarus, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders banned from my shop for a month, I was sure things were going to, finally, quiet down.

That was when the last person I expected to see again walked into my shop. And yes, I meant person, not pony.

“Well, this is quite a bit different from your last office,” came the voice, the tone making my skin crawl before I even turned to look. A griffon stood in the doorway, looking at my displays with a bored but critical eye. “Much more brightly colored, and far less screaming.”

“What do you want, Gerson?” I muttered. The only pony still in my shop looked at the griffon, with his ragged black feathers like a vulture, and made her exit, shooting me a sympathetic look. I kept eye contact with Gerson, just daring him to do something stupid. Part of me was already giving him a visual patdown, trying to see if he was carrying any anomalous items or weapons. I didn't spot anything, which just meant he was hiding them well today.

“Is it really so awful for me to come looking for an old friend?” he asked, grinning with his cracked beak.

“It is when you’re blowing my cover,” I said. “And besides, we were never friends with the Griffon Occult Coalition. We wanted to keep things safe, you wanted to turn them into weapons.” I glared at him.

“Come now,” he sighed. “We worked together quite a bit.” He picked up one of the bonbons I had on display and ate it. “Hm. You have quite a talent for making candy. You could make a living doing this!”

“I do,” I pointed out.

“True enough,” he agreed. “But think of how much greater you could be! You could have anything you wanted. It’ll be just like the good ol’ days before you got burned and cut loose. Heard anything from Celestia lately? Does she even remember you exist?”

“Shut up,” I said. “And get out of my shop.”

“That’s too bad,” Gerson sighed. “I like you, Sweetie Drops. We could have made a great team.” He tossed a few bits on the counter. “For the candy.”

He walked out, and when the door closed behind him, I almost collapsed, leaning against the counter, the stress nearly breaking me. What was he doing here?! The GOC had been a thorn in Equestria’s side for as long as it had existed.

The smart thing to do would be to go to Celestia. The Princess should know about this. If the GOC was working this close to Canterlot… but my last orders had expressly forbidden me from doing anything. I wasn’t even sure if any of my usual methods of communication would get through.

And, unfortunately, he'd been right about one thing. She'd cut me loose. She didn't care what happened to me. I was on my own.

---

“Bonnie, what are you doing?” Lyra groaned.

“I’m looking for something,” I said, pulling another box aside in the attic. I hadn’t gone through any of this since I’d moved in with Lyra. Neither of us had been able to afford a house alone, and once we’d started living together I couldn’t exactly have risked her finding my old gear, so it had gone unsorted into the attic crawlspace.

“I know that,” Lyra rolled her eyes. “What, though?” She opened one of the boxes I’d set aside.

“Careful,” I said. “Some of that is--”

“Woah!” Lyra gasped, as she pulled a helmet free of the cardboard. It had been periwinkle blue and white, but time and my very careful storage method of shoving it in a cardboard box had made the paint darken to gunmetal and grey “What is this thing?”

“It’s just part of my old armor,” I said. “We were supposed to be totally anonymous, so it’s a little different from Guard armor. Full mask helm to conceal my identity, a bodysuit to cover cutie mark and coat, better enchantments…” I shrugged.

“Ooh!” Lyra tried to pull the helmet on, her horn catching on it. “Aww… It doesn’t fit.”

“Sorry, Lyra. It’s fitted. Even if you skipped the helmet, the rest would be too loose.”

“So you admit you’re chubby?” Lyra asked, grinning.

“I’m an earth pony! We’re naturally a little stockier than unicorns!” I huffed. “Besides, I make candy. It’s natural that I’d have a few extra pounds. A thin chef is a bad chef, as they say.”

“Sure, Bon-Bon.” Lyra snickered. “At least you don’t have to worry about that, candyflanks.”

I blushed and took the helmet from her hooves, putting it back in the box. “Stop it, Lyra. Some of this stuff is dangerous.”

“Fine,” she sighed, sitting down on another box. It let out a chittering beep, and my ears perked up.

“Move,” I said, pushing Lyra away and opening the box she’d half-crushed. Inside, carefully packed away, was exactly what I was looking for. I grunted as I pulled the heavy device free and set it down on the floor of the attic, checking it for damage.

“A belt?" Lyra asked. "We have a bunch of those already, you know. And this one's got a big, ugly buckle..."

"It's the rest of my armor," I said. I tapped a button set into the side, and two of the six lights set into it came to life. "Not much of a charge left, but good enough for a little while..."

"No offense, Bonnie, but I don't think a belt and a helmet are much protection."

"The belt creates the armor," I explained. "I don't know exactly how it works, but it weaves magic around your body and kind of hardens but stays flexible around the joints. It's got some enhancement spells worked into it. Resistance to magic, poison and heat resistance, that kind of thing."

“Woah,” Lyra whistled. “That had to be expensive. I'd love to take it apart to see how it works...”

“It was necessary for agents in the field,” I said. “Can't carry guard armor with you everywhere, and the helmet collapses a little to make it easier to conceal. When I had to abandon ship, all of the equipment in my cell’s safehouse became my responsibility. I couldn’t sell it, and it seemed like a waste to just bury it, so I hung onto it.”

“Nostalgic?” Lyra asked.

“Part of me didn’t want to admit it was over,” I sighed. “Celestia… she cut us loose, but I thought someday I’d see a message that said ‘it’s time to come home.’”

Lyra looked down at that. I stepped away from the boxes to nuzzle her.

“Hey, harpbutt. That was a long time ago. The only home I want to come back to now is this one, okay?”

She nodded, quiet for a moment. “Then… why are you taking this out?”

“Something happened today, and it makes me worried,” I said. “Something that SECT would have taken responsibility for, a long time ago.”

“SECT?”

“Special Equestrian Combat Troop. I guess it doesn’t matter if you know the name, since there are no records anywhere and it doesn’t even exist anymore. One of our old rivals popped out of the woodwork and…” I shivered. “I just… if anypony is still listening, they need to be warned. If he could track me down, he could track down the others, too.”

“So you’re just going to send them a warning?” Lyra asked.

“That’s all,” I said, nodding. “Just a warning.”

---

I didn’t get any sleep that night. Every shadow looked like a griffon agent watching. Every motion outside the window made me jump.

What was the GOC planning? Why were they here?

And why did they come for me?

Comments

[hypervelocity]

I was trying to wrack my brain on why SECT sounded so familiar. Duh, that was Kabuto (ZECT)!

Oh boy, poor Bon-Bon is gonna have a rough time.

[B_Munro]

“And besides, we were never friends with the Griffon Occult Coalition. We wanted to keep things safe, you wanted to turn them into weapons.” I glared at him.

SCP reference?