She trotted quickly toward the marketplace, making sure no one was watching her as she went. It was extremely risky to be doing this, but she had to do it in memory of her friend. She would almost certainly need to take a shower after this was over with the considerable amounts of garbage that cluttered the alleys. The scent was already sticking to her coat. When the marketplace came into sight from the alley she snuck through, she paused . A minty green mane could barely be seen as she peeked around the corner to make sure that other than her and the seller, no one else was there. Satisfied with a lack of ponies to take witness, she trotted over to a bench next to a fountain and sat down.
After waiting for a small amount of time, no more than a minute, another pony sat down on the bench beside her. "Are you the mare that's paying for my services?"
"Yes, I am," Lyra said. Rusty Clouds was a good stallion. He was always able to get whatever anypony needed, given they had the bits to pay for it.
"You sure this is what you want this kid?" he asked in a gruff voice, "You do realize what would happen if anyone caught eyes of you, holding on to this?"
"I am well aware of the penalties for being affiliated with them and I am willing to take the risk."
"If you say so, your funeral."
With all of the different things the Rusty has obtained for different ponies over the years, most of them being illegal or dangerous in some form, he was used to no longer seeing a repeat customer because of what others have done to them when they discover what item he gives them. "They all knew the possible consequences," he had said when explaining this in the past. "Too bad they were never smart enough to take my warnings."
As soon as Lyra pushed the envelope over to Rusty, he pushed a plastic tube over to her, presumably with the item prior discussed. She popped the lid off of the top to confirm the contents, then giving a small grunt as she hopped up from the bench. "Pleasure doing business with you Rusty." Making sure no one else saw her leave, she weaved another trail through the alleyways to confuse anyone who might be following her. After getting far enough away from the marketplace to know for certain no one was following her, she trotted home.
---*---
"Bonbon? Are you home?" Lyra called out. No response coming, she assumed that it was safe and went upstairs.
"Finally," Lyra sighed with relief. She pulled the object out of the tube that had protected it from potential peeking eyes and rolled it out on the bed. The Amareican flag, containing the stars and stripes that distinguished it so well from the Equestrian flag.
Even though Lyra had realized how dangerous and expensive it would be to obtain the flag, she still did it for her friend, Ruby Fang. Ruby Fang had been a citizen of the country Amareica that was well known for cannibalism. Ponies that lived in Amareica would often come over to Equestrian shores and kidnap ponies for their own uses. Ruby Fang was born there and had grown up with a diet similar to others around her as you would expect.
Throughout her life, Ruby had always liked to explore. When she had grown up and moved out on her own, she decided she wanted to go to Equestria and explore it. Equestria's size was far superior to that of the island that Amareica was based on, which would provide her with the perfect new area to explore.
Sometime during her travels she met Lyra. Ruby and Lyra didn't have the most in common between them but, after having the chance to talk for a while when Ruby appeared at Lyra's door,looking for a place to stay, they had gotten along well and had become close friends over time.
Eventually, Ruby told Lyra the secret of where she had originally come from. Lyra was initially aghast but was quickly able to look past that when Ruby told Lyra that she hadn't eaten any meat since she had left her homeland.
Eventually, Ruby had not come back from one of her many adventures. It wasn't uncommon for Ruby to be gone for periods of up to 3 months, but it had been almost a year since Lyra had last seen her. At first she didn't want to assume the worst, but after eight months she had finally accepted what had happened.
Now it was early afternoon on Freedom Day, the holiday in Amareica where the citizens celebrated the founding of the country and thereby the ability to change a specific law regarding diets.
Now, in the middle of the room, Lyra took the flag and put it up in the middle of the room. She stood in place with her gaze overlooking the flag for a few minutes when she heard the door begin to open suddenly.
"Bonbon must be home now," she nervously whispered to herself, "She wasn't supposed to be home for another hour!"
Before she could get the tube to hid the flag, she heard a voice from the entrance of the room. It wasn't the one she expected at all though. She quickly turned to face whoever had just show up at the house.
"Hey Lyra, Long time no see."
"Ruby?" Lyra asked, her surprise evident in the tone of her voice.
"I see you even got the flag set up for me," Ruby said, her voice becoming softer. "Nopony has done something that kind for me in a while."
Lyra galloped up to Ruby and embraced her with a giant smile on her face. "I can't believe you're finally back...after all this time. I'm so happy now."
"Me too," Ruby whispered as she returned the embrace. "Me too."
