The name's Drops, Sweetie Drops...
Bon Bon found herself sitting on a bench, watching as ponies trotted past her. As the sun cast reds and golds across the landscape as it set, beginning to hide behind the trees of the forests just west of Ponyville.
With each new and familiar face, she found them waving and smiling. Of course, it was only courtesy to wave and smile back. Smile and wave, smile and wave. It was only the morning. Only the morning.
She wasn’t sure how long she had kept this routine for. Weeks? Months? Years?
She could still remember the day she was told to abandon the SMILE agency. When the bug bear had compromised their operations, she still remembered fleeing Canterlot to the one safehouse she had in Ponyville. The one place she knew would be safe, secure, and… and…
Her thoughts turned to her best friend, Lyra. Somepony she had gotten to know only in the past three or so years. A good friend. She always made Bon Bon smile, even on her off days. Sometimes she wondered whether she deserved what she had or she was just one lucky mare.
Just before the Nightmare Moon Incursion, she had moved back to Ponyville. Yes, back. She had lived there before. Long ago when she was just a filly. When she was still Sweetie Drops. Secret Agent Sweetie Drops. The name still made her smile. Her original name. Though she went by an alias that she had now grown into, she found that her mind turned to her past life, more often than she would’ve cared to admit.
Still, life in Ponyville was as peaceful as can be, save for the occasional monster attack. Sitting in the back and watching as the six ponies that always came to save the day usually fended off those attacks, she never had to do much. Sure, there were some smaller threats here and there that didn’t catch the attention of FROWN, the unofficial branch of SMILE.
Bon Bon snickered, shaking her head and leaving the bench behind.
Even though she was part of the agency, didn’t mean she couldn’t poke fun at it. She hadn’t thought much when she had become a part of an organisation called SMILE, but when she found out that the new group of powerful ponies composed of six mares was given the acronym FROWN, the Friendship Ranger Organisation of Worldwide Neighgotiations, she had nearly busted her lungs. All in private, of course. It was unprofessional.
As she neared her confectionary, she decided it was time to go home, seeing that the sun had now full hidden behind the trees and was hiding just beneath the treetops of the forests peaks of the mountains west of Ponyville. She had closed up shop just half an hour ago, a little earlier than she usually set out to do, but she wanted some extra time to think.
Extra time to think of friends, extra time to think of what was happening around Equestria, extra time to wonder just what was happening to the world.
Just a week ago, word had spread all across Equestria that Rarity had been taken hostage by a radical group of terrorists in the nearby continent of Zebrica. Taken someplace that was being controlled by that group of ponies and griffons and zebras. Where villages were being attacked and controlled by souls who didn’t deserve such power.
Now that Equestria’s protectors were down by two, more and more forces were beginning to see the cracks in Equestria’s armour. Now Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were rushing around trying to hasten their searches as well as figure out just how to save Rarity without violating any terms the terrorist group had made in ransom.
Of course, it wasn’t really Bon Bon’s area to be worried in at the moment. After all, it didn’t concern her direct life in the slightest. Humming a tune she had heard Lyra playing just the other day, she went up to unlock the door to her house… only to find the lock was loose. Frowning, she twisted her doorknob and pushed, finding the door to swing open.
Alarm bells rung all throughout Bon Bon’s head, and she checked the lock, only to find nothing wrong with it. But she knew better. She had double checked before she left in the morning to make sure her house was secure. Now it wasn’t. Glancing into the shadowy confines of her home, she slid the placemat away. With practiced precision, Bon Bon jabbed a piece of the concrete which fissured before giving way to her stun gauntlets. Slipping one on, she tapped her hoof again and the concrete closed, and she replaced the placemat.
Stepping into her house, she shut the door behind her… and locked it. Eyes darting, she slinked into the living room. Nothing. Crouching to the edge of the kitchen counter, she threw her hoof over and scanned. Nothing. Finally, she front-rolled into the dining room… and found a shadowy figure staring out the window perpendicular to the dining table, standing just enough out of the waning sunlight that any distinguishing features were unaccountable.
Narrowing her eyes, Bon Bon shot one of her tasers.
FWIzzzZASH-
Crunch!
Bon Bon widened her eyes as the taser was intercepted with silent grace and swiftly eliminated under the force of a hoof. What shocked her more was that the figure wasn’t even looking, as if Bon Bon was a minor nuisance at best. She could see the figure tilt it’s head to the side as she looked at the destroyed pins and sighed.
“It’s rude to attack people you’ve just met, you know,” the figure remarked. Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. It was a mare.
Bon Bon squinted. “And what if that person has just broken into my house unannounced?”
The mare flicked her mane, and a few strands caught in the light. Sky blue.
She stepped into the light, and Bon Bon hardened her face as she observed the scars running underneath an eyepatch over her left eye. Her remaining purple eye glinted with mischief and purpose as her muzzle curved ever so slightly. As she moved closer, Bon Bon stood her ground, and the mare stopped halfway across the dining table.
“You say ‘Hi’, Agent Sweetie Drops.”
Bon Bon breathed in sharply, her eyes narrowing as she tensed. Her brows furrowed in alarm as now, this intruder wasn’t just a random burglar. She was something more. “How do you know my real name!?” she hissed, her muscles getting ready for a confrontation.
The mare only smirked beneath her weathered magenta coat. “Trust me, Miss Drops, you don’t know what you’re about to deal with.”
“Try me!” Bon Bon shouted before pouncing forward.
As Bon Bon watched the mare easily sidestep, Bon Bon compensated and rolled to a stop beside one of the chairs. She then threw the chair at the mare, but her eye twitched when she saw she had just caught it mid-air, wings flapping as she set it gently back down.
“Come now, Miss Drops. I wouldn’t want to ruin your afternoon by fighting you.”
Bon Bon growled. “You’ve already done that by coming into my home!”
The figure sighed, seeing that Bon Bon’s mind was set on seeing her as an enemy. “Miss Drops-”
“Hiyah!” Bon Bon shouted as she cartwheeled into a kick of her hindlegs. The resulting impact was non-existent as she hit empty air and she flipped back to four hooves. Bon Bon squinted as she watched the mare land the somersault she had made above Bon Bon. Lunging forward again, Bon Bon expertly stood on two hindlegs as she swung hoof after hoof. She cried in frustration when each strike missed by a hair’s length.
Planting a foreleg down, Bon Bon spun on it and swung both legs at the mare… only for her to stop mid-kick. Twisting her head to look in confusion as she strained to remain her balance on one hoof, she widened her eyes when she saw that the mare had simply put up a foreleg, on which now rested her two hindlegs.
Bon Bon watched as in the span of a second, the mare had frowned and swung her other hoof to grip both her hindlegs before spinning Bon Bon with surprising power. As Bon Bon twirled through the air, she yelped in surprise and hit the ground hard, winding her.
As she wheezed for breath on the ground, she struggled to get back up, crawling and pawing away from the mare. The mare in question only watched as Bon Bon recovered and propped herself up against the kitchen cupboards.
“You’ve grown rusty.”
Bon Bon gulped and twisted back onto four hooves, cracking her neck muscles and stretching her legs. “And how would you know?”
“Cloudy Herald was a good friend, Miss Drops. I would never forget the pony that she would eventually raise… and even take as an apprentice.”
Bon Bon’s breath hitched as she found the world spinning and shook her head, now studying the mare in a new light. “How… who are you?” The mare simply smiled, saying one word that chilled Bon Bon to the bone.
“Fury.”
“And why are you here… Fury?” Bon Bon asked.
Fury nodded, right eye relaxing as she was finally getting somewhere. “You very well know that SMILE is a secret agency, tasked with protecting Equestria from monsters that could threaten the normal lives of citizens living in Equestria.”
Bon Bon cocked an eyebrow. “Your point?”
“Miss Drops, SMILE is only a branch of an even greater organisation that has been tasked with the protection of Equestria and all the lands beyond.”
Bon Bon frowned. “That’s not possible. I would’ve heard of it-”
“I’m sure you have, Miss Drops,” Fury said, “But you just haven’t been paying enough attention.”
“So what is this… greater organisation then?”
Fury tilted her head to one side before smirking. “Miss Drops, I am the Director of the Secure Handling of Immediate Events and Lives Division.”
“The who in the what now?” Bon Bon’s muzzle scrunched.
With a smirk that glinted with pride, Fury shook her head. “Just call it ‘SHIELD’.”
Bon Bon frowned again before nodding. “O-kay. So if you’re the Director of SHIELD…” She motioned around her. “Why did you break into my house?”
“Because I need your talents, Miss Drops-”
Bon Bon shook her head. “Look, you might be high and mighty, but could you please stop calling me ‘Miss Drops’? It makes me feel old.”
Fury cocked her head to one side and breathed. “If that is what you want. Agent Drops, you were one of the most senior and well-equipped ponies in the whole SMILE agency, even better than many of my best agents who are out in the field. With the whole of Equestria now in more danger than it has been since before the Nightmare Moon Incursion, I need all the hooves I can get.”
“So you’ve come to recruit me?” Bon Bon asked, “Because SMILE has been disbanded, hasn’t it? And you need my help finding Rarity and Rainbow?”
Fury smiled. “More than that.”
“What?”
“Agent Drops…” Unsheathing a folder from within her leather jacket, she placed it onto the the table beside her.
“I’m here to talk to you about the Guardians Contingency.”
Author's Note
T
My Crystal Heart
In light of Rainbow's disappearance, Equestria was seen as weak. Rarity, tasked with creating a new defence, is ambushed and taken hostage after a show of her craft, and must now figure out just who is friend and who is foe...
Essay Jay ·
8.6k words
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