The Bon Supremacy

Chapters

1: Lyra Taken
2: The Train
3: Revelations
4: Trixie
5: Hearth's Warming Eve
6: A New Way Forward

1: Lyra Taken

Ponyville
20 Harvest, 1502
1420 Local Time

Ponyville really was a wonderful place to live. Even on a dreary, rainy day like this one, Bon-Bon could appreciate the quaint beauty of a little village like this. The town was filled with small houses with charming old architecture and no dark alleys to speak of, and its ponies milled about in the slow pace of village life even with the poor weather, stopping under umbrellas and awnings to share small talk and gossip as rain fell down in sheets around them. Even the seemingly endless crises, large and small, that seemed to plague Ponyville ever since Twilight Sparkle's arrival three years ago didn't dampen how much Bon-Bon loved the town - if anything, like most Ponyville residents, they only made her more determined to stay.

It wasn't her problem anyway. There was a time when she'd worried about retirement - when Bon-Bon first came to Ponyville ten years ago, she'd had frequent nightmares about what might happen without the agency to protect ponies... but in the end, nothing came of them. In fact, ever since the Elements of Harmony appeared, Bon-Bon had few worries at all other than keeping Lyra from spending all of their income on My Little Human merchandise and Princess Twilight collectibles.

In fact, it was towards Lyra that her thoughts turned as she finished her shopping rounds for the day. The last thing she'd expected coming to Ponyville was to find love, especially with such an excitable mare... not to mention Lyra's bizarre hobbies and interests. But there Lyra was just a few years ago, alone in a new town with jam-packed saddlebags and a lyre over her back, and of course Bon-Bon had had to help her out with a place to stay; she'd always had trouble resisting a pretty face after all. Somewhere along the way their love had just... happened. Polite tolerance of Lyra's interests gave way to buying custom plushes for the unicorn's birthday, strict household boundaries turned into hoof-holding snuggles on the sofa, and somewhere along the way 'best friends' ended with a moonlit concerto and a kiss that felt like being struck by lightning.

What really hurt, though, was that for all the time she spent listening to Lyra gush about Canterlot, music, Twilight Sparkle, and 'anthropology', Bon-Bon hadn't been able to share her own life with her friend. She wanted so badly to tell Lyra her stories about exotic locales, bizarre monsters, insane villains, and beautiful mares... but it was Sweetie Drops who saw all of those things, and Sweetie Drops didn't exist anymore outside of a dusty suitcase stashed in a secret crawlspace. All Bon-Bon had were boring fabrications about going to confectioner's school in Baltimare.

It had been a relief when last week's bugbear attack had forced her to reveal her secret identity, but it had only brought a new sense of tension into their relationship. They might have made up and hugged at the wedding, and to an outside observer, it might look like there was nothing wrong between them... but Bon-Bon knew better. She could read even a stranger fairly well, and Lyra had become an open book to her - and the story inside wasn't pretty. The way Lyra pulled away just a little from their hugs, the constant veiled reproach in those pretty eyes, and a dozen other little hints all told Bon-Bon how much her lover was hurt.

As lost as she was in her thoughts, she didn't notice she'd already reached the flower stand until she felt somepony poking her in the chest. As distracted as she was, Bon-Bon nearly jumped out of her skin at the contact, and it was a testament to her discipline that she didn't slam sweet Roseluck into the ground on pure instinct. "Bon-Bon, are you alright?" The red-maned flower pony asked. "There's a line forming behind you, you know."

"I... I'm sorry, Roseluck." She managed a sheepish smile. Rule number one: stay in character, no matter what. 'Bon-Bon' was kind and quiet, and she couldn't let a few relationship problems shake her into showing the steel beneath the velvet. "Do you have the flower arrangement I asked for?"

Roseluck smiled kindly. "Of course I do." She turned and stood up on the cart, gathering up the large bouquet of yellow and white roses Bon-Bon had ordered a few days ago. "Did you and Lyra get into a fight?" she asked as she put the flowers carefully in Bon-Bon's shopping bag. "Mare's Day isn't for another four moons, and I've never seen you buy so many roses."

"You know I don't like talking about my personal life, Roseluck." She chuckled a little and gave Roseluck three bits for the bouquet. "Don't worry about us. It's nothing some flowers and a bottle of wine can't help me apologize for."

She thought through how she'd apologize as she made her way home. Something like this probably felt like some form of grand betrayal to Lyra, and so Bon-Bon thought that the best thing for it would be a big romantic gesture to help show that her feelings were genuine. The flowers were a start, and she had a batch of toffee-filled chocolates cooling in the kitchen back home. And tonight she was planning a late-night picnic at the same place where they first kissed, with Lyra's favorite sandwiches and a very old bottle of red wine she'd gotten after saving the mayor of Canterlot from a hungry wyvern. She'd been planning to save it for proposing, but if if things kept up like this it would be collecting dust next to her old crossbow for the rest of her life.

Bon-Bon heard a scream as she rounded the corner to head home, and she immediately dropped her bags and started running. She didn't want to think the worst, but it was hard to help but wonder if that was Lyra's voice. Another cry of pain from ahead gave her a burst of speed as she realized with horror that it was coming from her own shop. Bon-Bon came crashing through the glass door with a practiced roll just in time to see a pink earth pony mare in a heavy, hooded cloak holding up a small cube no bigger around than her own hoof, a thing of rune-etched brass and silver that Bon-Bon immediately recognized as a Capture Cube - a magic device meant to hold a monster for transport. And what she was doing with it was nothing short of horrifying. Lyra was scratching and scrabbling at the counters with hooves and magic alike, crying in pain and desperation as she was sucked and stretched and compressed into a glowing vortex on one side of the cube. Bon-Bon immediately sprung into action, dashing forward and grabbing Lyra's leg with both hooves. "I've got you, Lyra!"

Lyra sobbed heavily and said something that wasn't coherent as she sunk deeper into the Capture Cube. "Lyra, don't worry!" Bon-Bon shouted. "I've... I've..." She trailed off and looked into Lyra's eyes, feeling tears welling up in her own as the unicorn continued to sink. She didn't have her... not even close. A cube like this could hold a full-grown dragon, and her own strength wasn't nearly enough to counter it. "I'm sorry, Lyra," she said with a choked sob, and let go of her love's hooves to instead tackle the other earth pony. There was nothing she could do for Lyra right now, but if she subdued her attacker, she'd have all the time in the world to open the cube.

The other mare was easily as strong as her, and didn't seem unfamiliar with fighting. They rolled on the floor as Lyra continued to be sucked in, trading blow for blow with their front hooves. Bon-Bon had the advantage in skill, using her shins to block and deflect most of her opponent's punches, but Lyra's attacker seemed to have the edge in sheer sturdiness - she had a poor defense but flatly ignored clean barrel punches like they were nothing, and seemed heavier as well. The best thing would be to end this quick with a knockout; the moment this stranger realized she had the size advantage it would be over. Bon-Bon started striking at her foe's face, one particularly good punch knocking the mare's head back and causing her hood to fall, but Bon-Bon's shock at seeing her face gave the pink pony the opportunity to hit back hard to knock Bon-Bon away and get back on her hooves.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this," Pinkie Pie muttered in a dark tone that was entirely unlike her, as Bon-Bon writhed on the floor from the pain of catching a hoof to the throat. She picked up the now-dark cube and looked at it before depositing it in an unseen pocket of her cloak and turning back to Bon-Bon. "You were supposed to see her get taken but not..."

"P-pinkie..." Bon-Bon gasped, trying to find her hooves and stand. "Please..."

"I'm... I'm sorry, Bon-Bon, or Sweetie Drops, or-or whoever you are." Tears glistened in Pinkie's eyes, and her hoof was shaking as she pulled a small crossbow from her cloak. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. I was just supposed to get Lyra and get out. But now I've got to hurt you, and I'm so sorry..." She closed her eyes and whimpered a little as she fired, catching Bon-Bon squarely in the barrel and knocking the smaller mare on her back. "I'm sorry, I had to do this..." Pinkie ran, crying, as Bon-Bon struggled to breathe around the bolt lodged in her diaphragm.

'Pinkie Pie... why would Pinkie Pie do this?' Bon-Bon thought. 'What did we ever do to her? No, I can't think about that now. Survival now, questions later.' Ignoring the pain in her gut, not to mention the thin trail of blood she was leaving, she started crawling for the back of the confectionery. She had to get to the trapdoor in the stock room - there was a medical kit with her old gear. Push back the shock and pain and betrayal and survive to keep fighting.

The shop was tiny, but it was a slow and painful slog regardless. She couldn't stand, and could barely breathe - each shallow breath felt like a red-hot sword plunging into her. The tumble down into the crawlspace was worse. Bon-Bon couldn't climb down the short ladder so much as fall down, and she fell on her barrel - nearly blacking out from the landing as pain lanced up and down her body. But there it all was right in front of her: a big black duffel bag, a small metal briefcase, a steel crossbow, and the dusty bottle of wine she'd been planning to share with Lyra. 'But Lyra's gone now,' a little voice in her head whispered as she unzipped the bag and started scrounging through the old gadgets and costumes for the little hard case that would be at the bottom. No, she couldn't think that way. Had to stay focused, think about the positives.

'Number one, the case is here,' she thought as she dug the little box out of the bag and opened it to find bandages, stitching materials, a flask of vodka, and tools. "Number two, Lyra is alive.' She drank half of the liquor and then quickly poured the rest into her wound with a whimper of pain. 'Three, Pinkie Pie is noticeable. There are going to be witnesses.' Bon-Bon prematurely grit her teeth and grabbed a pair of forceps. The bolt had to come out, and this was going to hurt. 'She's got no training, either. She should have shot me from the start.' She cried out loudly in pain as she pulled the bolt from her barrel. Thankfully, the head was a simple point and it came out clean, though she was gasping raggedly for breath after and had stars dancing in her vision. 'Stitches, got to close it up. Get a needle...' Though her hooves were shaking, she managed to thread a needle and start stitching her wound shut. In hindsight, she was lucky... it didn't look like it had done serious damage. She'd been hurt worse on the job before, and if she was careful it would heal in a couple of weeks.

'Five... Five, that's not really Pinkie Pie.' There was no way to know this for certain, but every instinct she had was telling her it was true. The real Pinkie would never hurt anypony, at least not intentionally, and she vaguely remembered Lyra saying that Pinkie, Twilight, and their friends were in Canterlot anyway at some kind of state function. A changeling was unlikely, and while Pinkie Pie had once cloned herself, those duplicates had been far too simple-minded to pull off something like this. That still left glamour spells, old-fashioned disguises, long-lost twins, morphing potions... any number of potential explanations.

Whatever the case was, she had to move quickly if she was going to catch up. As soon as she finished tying off the stitches and wrapping a bandage around herself, she started digging through the bag for equipment. Magic detector... a bit too sensitive but it might help her if she could get it tuned right. Bag of holding, obvious choice. No need for the monster hunting gear, but some sleep darts and a couple bottles of ether might reduce casualties if fake Pinkie had accomplices. Rope and grapnel, always handy. Wristwatch with a hidden switchblade, extra crossbow bolts, the collapsible crossbow itself... everything went into the bag. Last was clothes, something to help hide her injury. A nice turtleneck sweater to look unassuming, a thin jacket she could use to stow her stuff, and a simple skirt to hide her cutie mark, just out of habit. She threw a few extra outfits into the nearly bottomless bag as well, just to be safe. Finally, she dug out an old pair of mirrored sunglasses and carefully polished the scuffs off of them. How many ponies had she been behind these shades? Just one, she realized. Her other identities might wear glasses, or color contacts, or even shades very similar to these, but only one pony had ever worn these.

Agent Sweetie Drops slid the sunglasses onto her face with a sigh and a sense of finality. It was time to go to work.

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.

3: Revelations

Location Unknown
21 Harvest, 1502
0930 Local Time

When she woke the next morning, Lyra found herself in a decrepit-looking room with bare brick walls and little furniture except for a couple of rickety, hay-covered beds and a wooden table that looked like it had been gnawed on by something. A small fire burned in a pit in the middle of the room, wafting smoke up to a chimney in the ceiling. She tried to stand and felt a wave of dizziness that pushed her back down to her belly; the room spun and her head was pounding, and even though she just woke up she felt as tired as if she'd been awake for days. Catching sight of her leg, she realized that her coat had taken a sickly grey color that barely resembled her pretty teal fur, and she quickly turned her head around to look at her flank. There, in place of her golden lyre cutie mark, was a black equal sign. They'd really done it... suddenly it all came back to her in a wash of memory.

She'd been woken up before the dawn and dragged out of her cell by two huge earth ponies with dull coats, glassy eyes, and equal sign cutie marks. She had tried to struggle, of course, but they were much stronger than her, and she'd never really developed her talent for magic despite being good enough as a foal to get into Celestia's private classes. Eventually, she'd just let herself go limp and be dragged down narrow, dimly lit hallways into a large room, where she was unceremoniously dumped onto a a magic circle that looked like it had been crudely scorched with horn beams. She recognized the design, a six-pointed star within two concentric circles meant to amplify magic directed at a target within, from school (it had been a favorite of Moondancer's, after all, who'd wanted every boost she could get to compete with Twilight Sparkle's raw talent), but the runes etched between the circles seemed... wrong somehow.

She tore her eyes away from the floor to realize that she was surrounded by ponies just like the ones who had taken her here - dull and dazed-seeming, like sleepwalkers. Except for him, of course - their leader's coat was still in full color, and he approached her with purposeful menace. "My friends," he said for the benefit of the room, "We are gathered here today for the cutie un-marking of our new friend Lyra Heartstrings. She did not come to us willingly, but few understand the virtues of our way of life until they have lived it for themselves - let us not judge her for her past." Lyra tried to scamper out of the circle and escape, but found herself paralyzed by his magic, unable to move or even speak. "No, let all of her past crimes and sins be forgiven as ours were. Let us offer her TRUE friendship through equality as Starlight Glimmer taught us."

He began to prime the circle with a beam of pale green magic, and as the runes and geometric lines glowed in the same color, Lyra felt like she was dying. The feeling was indescribable and painful in ways that had nothing to do with bodily inury, and she clung on desperately as everything that she was slowly seemed to slip away. Beautiful classical melodies became atonal noise and her friends' faces faded away and all of the light and color she had ever seen in the world seemed to fade to grey. In the end, all Lyra was left with was her love for Bon-Bon, and that she refused to let go of. The one-eyed unicorn had been right, of course - struggling only made it hurt worse. But struggle she did, and she held onto that love with everything she had even as the pain felt like it would overwhelm her. Even as everything she was crumbled away, she held onto Bon-Bon with everything she had, until the pain finally grew too great and unconsciousness claimed her.

"Oh, you're awake. I'm... I'm glad." Lost in painful memories, Lyra hadn't noticed the pony enter. She looked so much like Pinkie Pie, and yet... not. Her mane was flat and limp, tied in a loose tail, and heavy-looking rings of steel and polished jade weighed down her ears. A black scar traced down the side of her muzzle, and when she pulled off her brown trench coat, Lyra saw swirling black fur-mark tattoos tracing down her front legs. "I'm... um, I know who I look like, but my name is Rose Quartz. I wish I could say it was nice to meet you."

"You..." Lyra thought hard for a moment. This pony seemed familiar, more than just because she looked like she could be Pinkie's twin sister, but her memories seemed fuzzy and hard to reach. "You're the pony who took me," she finally managed. Lyra thought should be frightened, but somehow she couldn't manage the emotional energy to feel anything at all.

"I'm sorry," Rose muttered as she set a small pot over the fire and started cutting vegetables into it from a bag she'd been carrying. "I don't have anything against you, I just do what they tell me."

Lyra came over to sit across the firepit from her. "Why, though? You look tough, but you don't seem like the kind of pony who would hurt me." It felt like a reasonable assumption, though it was hard to be certain of anything through the haze that seemed to grip her mind. A vague, black-and-white memory came to her of trying pipe-weed from the Mysterious South - mostly the way it fuzzed her mind and seemed to drain her energy... and Bon-Bon, in full color, scolding her for bringing it into their home. Bon-Bon had seemed so angry, but she'd also tucked Lyra up in bed and tolerated her addled babbling to give her a spoonful of bitter-tasting potion she'd called a universal antidote, and had stayed with Lyra until she fell asleep.

Rose Quartz sighed. "That pony who took your cutie mark, the one they call 'Master'. He has things on me." She poured some water into the pot. "It's how he operates... Blackmail and coercion and hostages. He knew that Sweetie Drops cared about you, so he took you to get to her. I don't have anypony I'm close to, but..."

"But what?" Lyra frowned at this. "What does he have on you that you'd be willing to do all of this?"

"I'm just trying to survive," Rose said. "It's all I've ever done as long as I can remember. Ever since..." She took a heavy breath and sighed sadly. "Ever since Twilight Sparkle killed all of my sisters."

It suddenly clicked for Lyra where she really remembered this pony from. "Pinkie duplicated herself a year and a half ago. You're one of them, aren't you? I thought she banished you all, but you got away, didn't you?"

"If you can call getting lost in the Everfree Forest by accident getting away." The pink mare shook her head. "I was just lucky enough to not be there when the others were all rounded up. I got to watch their life essence flying back where it came from, and then I was all alone, a grown mare with the mind of a child lost in the forest. I grew up pretty fast, I'll tell you that, but I've always had to live with the worry that I'd be found out." She stirred the soup as she continued, "He's got conclusive proof that I'm a duplicate. If I don't cooperate, all that proof goes straight to Princess Twilight."

They sat in silence for a while as Lyra digested this information. Finally, she said, "So what are you going to do to me?"

"Well... I guess I'll start by making you soup. And then I keep you here and safe, which is fine by me. I'd rather not tangle with your friend Sweetie Drops again if I can help it. Thunder and Lightning actually have the training, so I'll be glad to let them handle it."

"Who..." Lyra sighed and shook her head. "Nevermind... She's going to come for me, you know. She's probably looking right now."

Fillydelphia
21 Harvest, 1502
0945 Local Time

"Where are they?!" Sweetie Drops slammed the brown stallion's head into a shelf full of goods with a satisfying thunk and loud clattering as wrenches and screwdrivers fell to the ground. She let go long enough to let him slide limply to the floor and then pressed a hoof down on his back. "I'm done playing games with you, Twister!"

"Please!" He sobbed. "I just run a hardware store! I haven't seen your face," he pleaded, "just take the bits and go!"

She pressed her back leg down into the small of his back and took hold of the end of one of his wings with her front hooves. "You know every pony in this town. You think I don't know who you are? You think I'm stupid?!" She twisted hard and felt the hollow bones snap between her hooves, followed by a howl of pain from Twister. "You used to collect intel for EI:6! You used to be somepony! And now what? Now you open your fat mouth to anyone who'll pay you!" She moved her hooves down to the next joint. "All the scum of Equestria passes through this shop, and as far as I'm concerned you're just as filthy as the rest of them. Now, if you ever want to fly again... you're going to read that note again, very carefully, and tell me who they are." She let up just enough that he could pick up the note off of the floor - the same one she'd gotten on the train, though with her name scratched out.

"I, I, um..." He quickly read through the note. "I, shouldn't! I can't, please!" He cried out loudly as she broke the next joint down on his wing. "Alright! Please just stop! They call themselves the Equality Party, but everypony who knows about them just calls them Glimmerites! Please don't make me say more! Th-those two big ponies said they'd take my cutie mark if I talked!"

"Take..." She was surprised enough to actually let go of him. "Take your cutie mark? Is that even possible?"

"I... I don't know!" He scrambled back against the wall, turning so his wings were pinned back out of her reach. "But they seemed pretty certain that this 'Master' pony of theirs could do it, and I'm not going to take any chances!"

Sweetie Drops stared him down for a moment before sighing and pulling off the mask covering her muzzle, and then taking off her mirror shades to clip them to her shirt. "Twister..." Giving away her identity was a risk at this point, but he was clearly more scared of them than he was of her. Playing for his sympathy might be the better option.

"Wait..." He looked over her face and then his purple eyes went wide in recognition. "Sweetie Drops? Is that you? What in Celestia's name happened to you?"

"I'm on the job again, Twister. I'm sorry I hurt you, but they've got somepony I love, and I'm desperate." She shook her head and approached him. He cowered back against the wall in fear as she reached into her bag, but she only pulled out a roll of bandages. "I've got to save her... with everything that I've done, my Lyra's the only good thing I've got to show for it." She started straightening the broken bones in his wing, ignoring his little winces of pain.

"Were... were you really going to go all the way just then?" He managed to ask between small whimpers.

"I don't know. I... I want to say I wasn't really going to cripple you, but..." She pulled a couple of wooden dowels off of a shelf and returned to start splinting his wing. "...but I don't know. You know what I used to be like when I worked for the crown."

"Yeah..." He managed a weak chuckle. "I remember cleaning that back room a few times after you were done with it. But you always caught the real villain in the end."

"Maybe I haven't made as much progress as I'd thought," Sweetie Drops admitted. "There's a part of me that likes hurting ponies, so long as I can tell myself they did something wrong."

"Well, I can't say that I'm happy about you breaking my wing, but I kind of get it." Twister sighed and folded back his wing as best he could when she'd finished splinting it. "Listen, whatever you might have done to other ponies, you were always there for me. I don't know where your friend is, but I can tell you that the two who threatened me were Thunder and Lightning, our old friends from the agency."

Sweetie Drops frowned at this information. Thunder and Lightning were a pair of twins, a pegasus and a unicorn, who had been an unstoppable field team back in the day. The fake Pinkie Pie had been a clear amateur, but they could pose a serious problem. "And where does Pinkie Pie fit into this?"

"Your Pinkie..." He sighed and shook his head. "I promised I wouldn't tell anypony who she really was. She goes by Rose Quartz. She's a mercenary, hired hoof." He gestured vaguely. "I've hired her a couple of times when I needed extra muscle around, but I don't know what she's up to now. Getting involved like this isn't her style. Whatever she's doing, I don't think she's really one of them... ideology isn't really her thing."

She thought about this, offering him a helping hoof up. "Do you think I can turn her?"

He shrugged as he stood. "I honestly have no idea... it would depend on why Rose is involved. She's not really close to any pony and she only really cares about herself. If you knew what they were giving her, maybe you could make a better offer, but that's a big 'if'."

"Do you have anything else, Twister? Anything that might help me find these ponies?"

"I don't.... I mean, I'm not sure." He looked up at a tower of filing cabinets before seeming to remember he couldn't fly, then went to grab a ladder. He pushed it back with a scraping of metal wheels that badly needed grease, before starting to climb up towards the top. "I think they're planning something today. They've been asking about things like police presence and the like. I'd be willing to bet it's going to be some kind of attack or demonstration. Maybe they want to prove they can take cutie marks away. I might have something in my files here."

"Forget the files." Sweetie growled in frustration. "The pony who wrote this note - this 'Master' figure, I'm guessing... he's got this hangup on sins. He's going to target somepony with a past. You've already got a list off of the top of your head, I'm sure."

"Maybe..." He slid back down. "Most of them are pretty private, I can't imagine attacking them would make for a good spectacle. Wait, I might have somepony who fits the bill." He shot back up the ladder and came down with a poster held in his mouth. "There's going to be a big stage show tonight at the expo center, and look at the opening act," he said when he deposited it at her hooves. "The 'Great and Powerful' Trixie Lulamoon. Supposedly reformed criminal... real piece of work with an ego big enough to see from the moon."

"I remember you..." Sweetie Drops muttered before raising her voice a little to address Twister, "She terrorized Ponyville a year ago with an artifact called the Alicorn Amulet. I was there, but I couldn't do anything without blowing my cover identity."

"Yeah, it was all over the papers here, too." He rolled up the poster. "A lot of ponies think that she got way too light of a sentence. If I was going to punish someone by taking their cutie mark, I'd start with her."

"Thanks for the help, Twister." She gave him a careful hug. "With any luck, she'll be the perfect bait."

4: Trixie

Fillydelphia
21 Harvest, 1502
1900 Local Time

Twister had been good for more than just intelligence, and by the time he had outfitted her with throwing knives, an armored trench coat, homemade pipe bombs, and an assortment of specialty crossbow bolts, Sweetie Drops felt thoroughly bad for breaking his wing. He'd even gotten her a backstage pass for the show, and as she loaded bolts into her repeater's magazine from a catwalk with a perfect view of the stage, she made a mental note to send him some candies as an apology when all this was over.

She didn't know what to expect, but if Thunder and Lightning were involved, Sweetie decided she couldn't take chances - as much as she hated the idea of lethal force. Four standard steel bolts went into the long, thin box, and at the top of the magazine she slid in a thick red bolt Twister had referred to as a 'flaming banshee'. She started checking the calibration on her sight as ponies began filing into the audience seating. It didn't exactly look like it would be a packed crowd. Four, perhaps five caught her eye- coats and dresses that hid their cutie marks, the dull fur and glassy-eyed expressions Twister had identified as hallmarks of the Markless... But where were Thunder and Lightning? Thunder could be anywhere, and looking for him in the rafters would be a fruitless task with his dark colors, but his sister, on the other hoof, was normally easy to spot for those who knew her. She was big and muscular for a unicorn, and she'd always had poor marks in disguise at the academy. But she didn't seem to be in the crowd.

Even if she couldn't see them, Sweetie Drops was certain that they would show up. Trixie was nowhere near as powerful as she pretended to be, but even she could hold off the small number of potential attackers in the crowd... and the duo hated to delegate besides. Thunder and Lightning had always loved the fighting part of their job, and they'd never had a taste for the subtler means of solving a problem. Their apparent absence didn't change the plan, which was to wait. Wait for the cult ponies to attack first, then catch them by surprise. While her primary directive had always been capture, she'd learned over the years that patience and a well-placed bolt could sometimes solve a problem more easily and quietly than trying to fight monsters.

The lights went down, and Sweetie Drops loaded the first bolt with a pump of the slide running down the stock before sliding on the improvised disguise she'd used before - mirrored shades over her eyes and a black bandanna covering her muzzle. It was time for a show these ponies would never forget.

"Welcome to the Fillydelphia Center for a show of mystery and excitement you'll never forget!" A voice called out from the announcer's box, and thin white smoke began to pour onto the stage from hidden fog machines. "Tonight you will be shocked and amazed by the marvelous acrobatics and showponyship of Ponei Fantastique, on the first stop of their new tour! You will see feats that no pony has ever seen before, all done without the aid of wings or magic! But first, please put your hooves together for our opening act, the Great and Powerful - and Reformed - Trixie!" The audience seemed to murmur in agitation instead of applauding, but Sweetie ignored them and focused her sights on the stage.

A blue unicorn in a ridiculous pointed hat poked her head out from behind the curtains. "It's a working name!" she cried out in a tone of pique, and even if the stupid hat hadn't given it away, Sweetie Drops would have recognized the grating tones of Trixie Lulamoon's voice from anywhere. She held a special distaste for Trixie, and the irony wasn't lost on her that she was now saving her from a fate worse than death. Even aside from the torment that Trixie had inflicted on her and Lyra along with the rest of Ponyville (Sweetie Drops had been trained to endure worse, but Lyra still seemed to have nightmares sometimes about it), she'd always disliked ponies like that, showy and arrogant. It just seemed to run counter to everything Sweetie was.

The curtains pulled aside and Trixie stepped out to more murmurs and a few scattered boos. Personally, Sweetie didn't blame them, but when it really came down to it, she was a monster hunter to her core; there were ponies and there were monsters, and you protected the ponies from the monsters no matter what you thought of them. As Trixie traded barbs with the front row of the audience and began to perform card tricks that even an earth pony could do, Sweetie Drops saw the Markless ponies start moving through the audience towards the stage, but it wasn't time to act yet. She had to wait, and even more than helping the Arrogant and Foolish Trixie, waiting was the hardest part of the job.

"Always so patient, aren't you, Sweetie Drops? But you're getting slow- you didn't even bother to set traps." She nearly jumped out of her coat at a voice behind her, and she quickly rolled, crossbow up, to see a tall unicorn mare with pale grey fur, jagged, spiked blue hair, and a cruel grin - Lightning. Lightning opened her mouth to gloat more and started charging a spell, but Sweetie Drops didn't give her the chance. She quickly kicked Lightning's knee with her back legs, causing her to yelp in pain and her magic bolt to go wide and take out the safety railing. Underneath her, the act had stopped - the Markless had climbed up on stage and were advancing on a terrified Trixie, led by Thunder. Lightning's counterpart, unlike the others, was in full color - sharing the same colors as his sister, in fact.

"You always did talk too much," Sweetie Drops said with a smirk to the dazed unicorn before rolling under the other railing and letting herself fall front-first. She aimed her crossbow in the middle of the group of attackers and fired, hoping Twister's special bolt lived up to his hype.

The banshee was true to its name: halfway down, the red bolt burst into flames and started producing a loud screeching noise that clawed at Sweetie's ears and seemed to disorient the ponies below, though not so much that Thunder didn't manage to dodge. It exploded on impact with the stage, spreading fire across Thunder and his Markless minions, and the panic of everypony trying to put out the flames gave her the opening she needed to roll for a safe landing and cock the next bolt on her way up into a sitting position. Without hesitating, Sweetie Drops snap-fired at the largest of the Markless ponies, catching him in the throat and tossing the bow aside to spring up with her hindlegs and fling herself at the next one without caring to check if he was still alive. She'd have time for remorse later.

The subsequent fight was short, dirty, and far more one-sided than the numbers would have suggested. Losing their cutie marks had done more than take her opponents' special talents; they seemed to move and react more slowly, and had lost their earth pony strength besides. With Thunder still busy with the embers of phosphorus in his feathers, they didn't have a chance against a trained agent with all of her faculties. But by the time she'd rolled onto the back of the last Markless pony and knocked her out with a quick pair of strikes to the temple, Thunder was back in the fight, and she just barely managed to dodge a thrust from a thin lance he'd produced from somewhere.

Sweetie Drops slid off of the mare's back and back onto her hooves; she hopped and weaved around Thunder's strikes and did her best to get close enough to fight back. At the very least, the flaming bolt had evened out the playing field by scorching his wings. Thunder had been an expert at swooping hit-and-run attacks with his lance, but now it looked like he could barely fly well enough to use the weapon effectively. She jumped back and threw one of her knives, but he deflected it with a twirl of the long haft. Before she could throw another, she heard Trixie call out from the other side of the stage, "Behind you! Whoever you are!" Sweetie Drops quickly jumped aside without questioning, just in time to dodge a crackling bolt of blue-white electricity from Lightning, who had managed to get down from above.

"Trixie will help!" The magician called out, before starting to pelt Lightning with small cherry bombs that popped loudly and released clouds of thick smoke that left Lightning coughing. Thunder hesitated, appearing momentarily undecided between continuing to fight Sweetie Drops and helping his sister, and Sweetie took advantage by throwing another knife that took him in the knee.

"Just run!" Sweetie threw three more knives in a spread at Lightning and ran before seeing if they connected, grabbing Trixie by the coat with her mouth and half-dragging the unicorn along before she finally started running too.

"What's going on? Who are all of you ponies?!" Trixie asked loudly behind Sweetie Drops.

"Just shut up and follow me! Lightning's a good healer, we have to get out of here before they've recovered!" She led Trixie through the backstage passages, half trampling the stage hands and other performers before finally bursting out the back. "This way!" Sweetie Drops led her down the maze of back alleys and didn't stop running until they were at least a mile away. "All right," she said finally as she slowed down, breathing heavily. "Ditch the costume. We can afford to take a breather, but then I need to get you to safety." There was a time when she'd done twice this distance every morning, but she hadn't done endurance training in a long time - and Trixie, who had never done serious physical training, looked far worse off. She wouldn't feel completely safe until she'd gotten Trixie back to Twister's place, but there wasn't much choice but to let her rest.

"What... what the hay... is going on? Why... are ponies... attacking Trixie?" The unicorn asked between gasps for air.

Sweetie Drops rummaged in her supply bag for a bottle of water. "Take a guess," she said tersely, pulling her mask down and taking a heavy swig from her small tin canteen before offering it to Trixie. "Just pick one thing you might have done to make enemies."

Trixie glared as she took the canteen with her magic. "Trixie is making amends for her mistakes. She doesn't appreciate your tone."

"Yeah, well Sweetie doesn't appreciate arrogant half-wits who torture her friends." She glared at Trixie from behind her sunglasses. "If you'd run right off instead of jumping in to 'help'-" This she made sure to put in sarcastic quotes with her front hooves. "-I'd have been able to subdue them and get the information I needed for my real mission. Instead, I had to make sure Lightning didn't kill you."

"And you call Trixie arrogant," Trixie said with an angry huff. "You would have been easily overpowered without the aid of the Great and Pow-"

"Can we give it a rest with referring to ourselves in the third pony?" Sweetie Drops interjected. "I have someplace safe to take you, and you can be as annoying as you want once we get there, but for now you need to ditch the costume, put these on, and try to stay low-key. Alright?" She tossed some clothes down at Trixie's hooves. "Damnit, I left my crossbow behind, too."

"Well Tri- I had to leave quite a few things behind," Trixie said in an annoyed tone as she started changing into the yellow dress and wide sun hat. "You hardly need it, anyway." She huffed at Sweetie and handed over her normal clothes to go into the bag, along with the empty canteen. "I've done many things I shouldn't have, but at least I haven't killed anypony."

Sweetie Drops opened her mouth to reply and then closed it again after a moment, settling on a frustrated growl. "Let's just get moving." Trixie had a point, as much as she hated to admit it.

Thankfully, the trip back to Twister's shop was uneventful. Trixie had remained true to her word and remained quiet, and the two of them blended easily into the background as they passed through the dwindling pedestrian traffic. She brought Trixie in through the back door and handed her into Twister's care. Twister may be scum now, but at least she'd be safe here. The real shop underneath Twister's, in truth an old, forgotten bunker from the ancient war with the Crystal Empire, was well-known to be neutral ground as a fortunate side effect of the information broker's openness with his clients. If Twister sheltered Trixie here, even the weird equality cult wouldn't touch her for fear of breaking truce and angering the rest of the underworld.

For her part, Sweetie Drops settled down into Twister's small kitchen while he got Trixie squared away and thought about the night's events over a tumbler of apple bourbon that reminded her painfully of home. Liquor was another of her old, bad habits that she probably shouldn't get back into, but Celestia knows she needed a drink after all of this, and her hooves shook badly as she brought the glass up to her muzzle. In hindsight, she pitied the ponies without their cutie marks, and moreso regretted the ruthlessness with which she'd dispatched them. At least one had died a certain, painful death from a bolt in his throat, and she hadn't cared to be particularly gentle with the others. When fighting with hooves, there was a fine line between a knockout blow and caving in somepony's skull, and all she could do now was wonder where her confirmed kills were at now. And all of it for nothing. She'd lashed out at Trixie in the heat of things, spurred on by her dislike for the blue unicorn, but in truth it now seemed like a poorly conceived plan to begin with.

"Are you all right?" Trixie entered the room and sat across from Sweetie Drops, helping herself to a glass of the bourbon without bothering to ask permission. She'd changed back out of her disguise, though now she wore a bandage wrapped around her left-front fetlock. "Trixie may have seemed ungrateful at the time, but you did save her. Your friend explained what almost happened to Trixie."

Sweetie sighed deeply. "I don't... I don't have the will to fight with you right now. You were right, as much as I despise admitting that to you. The first thing I did when I had a weapon in my hooves again was kill somepony. Somepony barely capable of fighting back. And I was stupid to try and take on Thunder and Lightning by myself... I should have tried to think of some way to separate them instead of trying to rush in like some kind of hero."

"That's what Trixie came to talk to you about," Trixie said. "You've had a setback, but now the Great and Powerful Trixie will help you find your friend!" She reared up a little in a dramatic pose, and Sweetie Drops sighed at her.

"I'm better off alone," she said. "The fact that you annoy me aside, you..." She thought for a moment about how to say what she was thinking. "Under all the ego, you seem like a decent enough pony without that amulet on you. But trying to be my friend will only drag you down to my level. Twister here may be a dirtbag, but what am I? I'm a liar and a killer. I hurt ponies because it feels good and I tell myself it's for a greater purpose. I don't know why Thunder and Lightning are helping the Glimmerites, but I'm no better than they are at heart."

Trixie frowned and put her good hoof on Sweetie's. "You act like Trixie has never done anything she regrets. She put on an evil, soul-sucking amulet and enslaved a town out of jealousy. Everything you've done has been to protect ponies." She pulled back and scoffed, taking on a smirk as she downed half the glass in a single gulp. "It's not like Trixie is asking to be your friend, anyway. The Great and Repentant Trixie still has one-hundred-and-twenty community service hours left to fulfill, that's all."

Sweetie Drops wanted to argue, but she did need the help, and even a second-rate illusionist like Trixie had talents that could be useful. "Fine," she said after a moment of hesitation, "but we do it my way. No 'Great and Powerful Trixie' - you talk like a normal pony from now on. And you do what I say, when I say it."

"Very well," Trixie replied. "But Trixie has- er, I mean..." She sighed. "I have a condition of my own. If you want my help, then you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Trixie's court-ordered therapist says that the only way to move forward is to forgive ourselves. Also, that wheels are not untrustworthy," she said with a little smile. "But we can keep that between us."

Sweetie Drops chuckled a little, feeling a smile on her own muzzle despite herself. "Fine, then. Let's get started, Trixie. We've got a lot of work to do."

5: Hearth's Warming Eve

Ponyville
20 Deep Winter, 1500
2110 Local Time

Bon-Bon sat by her window, setting a small red candle on the sill as she watched the carolers around Sugarcube Corner across the street. They were knee-deep in the snow that was still falling gently, and lit only by the glow of the multicolored lights strung around the building, but their Hearth's Warming spirit wasn't dampened one bit. She rather envied them, in truth. Bon-Bon had many hidden talents, but singing wasn't one of them, and neither was simply letting loose and having fun. For the longest time, she hadn't even really had a home to go to for Hearth's Warming. Far from the celebration of friendship, love, and family it was for most of Equestria, for her and her colleagues Hearth's Warming Eve was a time of solemn reflection to remember the ponies who gave their lives in secret so that others could be happy and carefree. No tree, no presents, no dolls or carols. For the agents of EI:6, more often than not Hearth's Warming was a lit candle and a litany of names.

For the former Agent Sweetie Drops, there were many names, but one always came first. "Eclipse," she whispered softly as she struck a match and lit the candle. She had been Eclipse's first partner, tasked with showing the unicorn how things really worked outside the academy. He'd been headstrong and idealistic, but he'd also had a talent for illusion magic. Eclipse was brave and loyal, and one day he might have been a fine operative in his own right... if she hadn't failed him. He'd died on her watch, and ever since she'd always found some excuse to weasel out of ever training another rookie. She was about to continue with the rest of the list when she was interrupted by a knock at the door downstairs.

By the time she reached the shop below, the knocks had gotten louder and more insistent, and Bon-Bon finally opened the door to see a cross-eyed grey pegasus with a shaggy yellow mane. 'Derpy', ponies called her behind her back. Bon-Bon personally thought it rather cruel, even though she certainly wasn't the sharpest blade, but she'd always kept quiet whenever it came up rather than draw undue attention. "Muffins? You know we're closed tonight, right? Oh, please don't tell me you got roped into working on the holiday again. You should be at home with that doctor of yours."

Muffins gave Bon-Bon a sweet smile. "Oh, no. He's away on a trip. It's just me this year."

She sighed. He was always on some trip, or this or that unexplained absence. Personally, Bon-Bon thought that Muffins deserved somepony more reliable, but there was no accounting for taste, was there? "I'm... I'm sorry to hear that. What can I do for you tonight?" she asked gently, trying to keep the easily distracted pegasus on topic.

"Oh, right." Muffins shook her head as though she had water in her ears. "I wasn't busy, so Lyra asked me to come talk to you. She wanted me to get you to go to the am... amp..." Bon-Bon held back a sigh and waited patiently as Muffins struggled to sound out the word 'amphitheater'. As irritating as it was, snapping at her wouldn't help anypony or get her to the point any faster. "The old stage in the outskirts," Muffins finally managed.

"The one that's going to be torn down in a month?" Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow as she asked this.

"Just the one!" Muffins giggled in her slightly ditzy way. "She's got a super special surprise."

Bon-Bon exited the door, nudging Muffins aside, and instantly she was trotting up to the condemned outdoor stage. Lyra had torn down the yellow safety tape and was sitting up on the stage waiting. "Up here, Bonnie!" Lyra waved at her happily.

"Lyra, what are you doing here? It's freezing cold, it's the middle of the night, and that stage is a deathtrap." Bon-Bon stood in the snow and looked up at her. "Come on, let's go home."

"Yes, I'm sure you have so much candle-staring to do in place of actually participating in Hearth's Warming with me," Lyra said sardonically. She shook her head. "Not yet... I have something I want to say first. Bon-Bon... I, um... I feel like we've both been skirting around how we feel about each other. You're always so quiet about yourself, and I've been too nervous to say anything, so I, um... I wrote a song to tell you how I feel."

Bon-Bon sighed. "And why, Lyra, can we not do this at home?" The full moon shined unusually brightly overhead, and she felt as though this was all familiar somehow.

"Because that's not as romantic, you silly!" Lyra laughed and started to play her lyre.

Now Bon-Bon was certain this was familiar. Except she wasn't Bon-Bon, she was Sweetie Drops again. She'd given up on being Bon-Bon when Lyra was kidnapped by a counterfeit Pinkie Pie. Lyra couldn't be singing a sweet love song for her because she was chained up somewhere without her cutie mark, and this... "This is just a dream..." Sweetie Drops started to cry softly, and looked up at the moon. Luna had of course never been there when she'd been growing up, or for the many nightmares she'd had over her long career, but... she was back, and just maybe she'd answer now. "This is just a dream," she said with a little more strength. "I don't... I don't want to be here anymore. It hurts too much..."

As Sweetie broke down to cry in earnest, fog began to gather along the ground. The sound of the wind and Lyra's song gradually slowed and finally stopped entirely, and Sweetie Drops opened her eyes to see time frozen around her. Lyra, the wind-bent trees, and even the falling snow had all stopped in place, and the only things that moved were herself and the fog that was moving to gather all in one place.

"What we want and what we need are often very different things, Sweetie Drops," Princess Luna said as she stepped out of the fog, clearing it in an instant with her wings. Sweetie Drops immediately went to her knees, but soon felt herself being picked back up onto her hooves with magic. "Nay, please do not bow to me. If anything, I should be showing my respect to you for helping to keep the kingdom safe in my absence."

"Princess, I don't... I feel like I can't be here. This is where we first shared our love..." Sweetie Drops stepped up to the stage through the snow. "I've failed her so completely, and all of it was built on a lie to begin with. This was Bon-Bon's life... I don't deserve it."

"I felt like I could never be truly happy again after what I did as Nightmare Moon," Luna said quietly as she stepped over to join Sweetie, having an easier time in the snow with her long legs. "Like I didn't deserve to be happy. You remember the creature of blue smoke that attacked Ponyville in its dreams."

Sweetie nodded slowly. "It was just a few days ago, of course I remember." Sweetie Drops still felt ashamed for staying out of the fight. She'd feared that even in a dream, she might accidentally reveal her true abilities, but the others had barely beaten the monster. Maybe if she hadn't been so afraid, it would have gone easier.

"I created it to punish myself," Luna admitted in a quiet tone. Sweetie Drops looked up in surprise as she continued, "For the things I did as Nightmare Moon. I felt like I could never allow myself to forget, or to forgive, lest I become that monster again. But... the dream realm has a mind of its own, and a way of showing us what we need to see. Over and over again I saw Twilight Sparkle and her friends trying to save me, and over and over the Tantabus defeated them within my dreams. But at the end of it all, they were the ones to save me from myself... just as they were on the eve of the Summer Sun, two years ago."

Sweetie Drops shook her head, giving Luna a confused look. "But what's it got to do with me? Why do I have to see this again?"

"Perhaps the dream realm is trying to remind you that you are not Sweetie Drops anymore - not the pony you were before, at any rate. Some events in our lives change us so much that we can never go back, and all we can ever do is keep moving forward. The pony we were is no longer adequate, and we must step into the unknown and allow ourselves to become somepony new. When the Elements of Harmony cleansed me of the Nightmare parasite, I could not go back to the filly I was before I let it into my soul. I had no choice but to move forward and become the princess I was always meant to be." She smiled down at Sweetie Drops and started time again in the dream, and Lyra continued to sing as if Luna was not present and nothing had happened. "This was the moment your whole life changed. Bon-Bon is not enough to save her, but you cannot go back to the pony you were before Lyra, either, no matter how much you want to. Keep this moment close, no matter how much it hurts, and let her guide you so that you will never succumb to the darkness again."

"That's..." For once, Sweetie Drops was at a loss for words. "That's beautiful, Princess..." She sat and listened with Luna for a little bit before speaking again, trying to fully appreciate the bittersweet feeling of being with Lyra again, even if it was only a dream. "Princess Luna... You see so many things. You have to have seen something in the dream realm that can help me find her, or... or tell me what this pony wants with us."

Luna shook her head with a solemn expression. "I cannot. A pony's mind is their only truly private refuge, and I will not divulge anypony's private thoughts to you any more than I will divulge yours to anypony else. I'm sorry that I cannot help." Perhaps she saw Sweetie Drops' crestfallen expression, because after a moment she smiled and said, "But there is something else I can do for you. I did not come here simply because you called for me, but to address your unsanctioned actions, many of which have been outright criminal."

Sweetie Drops stood, taking a defiant expression. "I hope you're not here to tell me to stop, because I'm not going to. I'm going to do whatever it takes to find her, with or without your help."

Luna seemed amused by this, shaking her head with a smile. "I don't expect you would stop. In truth, I believe that these ponies represent a greater threat than simply to you. I cannot convince my sister to act without divulging the secrets of ponies' dreams, but I do have some power - such as the power to give a pardon for the crimes you have committed in the last few days."

Sweetie looked taken aback at this. "I... thank you, Princess."

"But there is something I must ask you to do in return," Luna said. "I cannot have you running this way and that on your own, killing ponies where you please. In exchange for this pardon, you will act on royal license from here on, with my personal oversight of your activities."

"Of course!" Sweetie beamed. This was better than she could have hoped for; while she might not have the resources of EI:6 at her disposal anymore, a commission signed by Princess Luna could open a lot of doors for her going forward. She bowed deeply and said, "I swear my loyalty to the Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle now and forevermore. I swear to follow all orders given to me and pursue your enemies to the ends of Equestria, and to lay down my life if needed for my fellow ponies."

Luna laughed softly. "Sweetie Drops, this is a letter of marque, not a knighthood. You don't have to swear any oaths." Sweetie Drops stood up, blushing a little in embarrassment, and Luna continued, "But I accept your loyalty nonetheless. By my power as the Princess of the Moon, I hereby commission you as an independent agent of the crown. You are ordered and authorized to apprehend the remaining followers of Starlight Glimmer, subject to oversight from the crown. This order and authorization may be rescinded at any time by myself or any of the other princesses." She stopped to let this sink in. "Now... it's about time you woke up."

Author's Note

Yes, I'm using the canonical name from the "Slice of Life" credits. Eat me.

6: A New Way Forward

Fillydelphia
23 Harvest, 1502
0730 Local Time

When Sweetie Drops finally woke up the next morning, Trixie was far more cheery than she had any right to be. "Hello, friend," the unicorn said in her typically grating tone, and Sweetie actually couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. In truth, Trixie always sounded sarcastic regardless of whether she was actually trying to. Trixie continued, "The friendly and reformed Trixie saved you some stale breakfast cereal... I'm sure the milk has softened it by now. Your friend's hospitality leaves something to be desired." She indicated a bowl sitting on the circular table in the corner of their little concrete room, which otherwise consisted of a metal-framed bunk bed and a couple of rickety chairs.

"Ehhh... he's not so bad, I guess. You don't have to come with me on all of this, you know." Sweetie Drops sat down across from her and took a bite of the cereal. It was pretty sub-par, but it's not like she was in a position to complain. "You could stay here, eat Twister's crap cereal, and be completely safe instead of chasing insane cult ponies across Equestria with me."

Trixie sighed quietly and looked down at her front hooves. "You saved my life. We can argue all day about whether you did it the right way, but you came jumping out of the rafters for me." She looked away, seeming uncomfortable with being so candid. "And perhaps Equestria is not ready for the Great and Powerful Trixie to make her apology tour just yet. Perhaps I'll learn a few tricks," she said with a smirk.

Sweetie Drops laughed. "You always have to ruin the mood, don't you?" She knew the type, though... She'd worked with plenty of agents who acted rude or sarcastic to hide their real emotions. You could get them right up to the point of acting normal, but then they just had to back away from anything resembling sincerity. "You can count your community service hours while I'm in the shower. Just think about what I said, okay? No pony will blame you if you just lay low for a while."

******

She decided to spend longer than normal in the shower that morning. Even aside from taking the time to wash the dye out of her hair, she really just felt the need to enjoy the hot water. As with sleep, a good hot shower was something you had to take advantage of when you could get it, since you never knew when you'd get one next.

When Sweetie Drops finally got out, Twister was sitting with Trixie. He had a bag of mail sitting on the table, and a worried expression on your face. "Did you tell anyone where you were going?" he immediately demanded.

"What? No." Sweetie glared at him as she sat up at the table. "I can't believe you'd even ask something that ridiculous."

"Hey, don't- don't break my other wing or something." He held his front hooves up defensively. "You might have lost your edge or some-"

"Lost my edge?!" Sweetie immediately retorted angrily, slamming her hooves down on the table. "Lost my edge?!"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Some pony is a bit defensive. You almost sound like Trixie used to be." When Sweetie turned on her, Trixie just shrugged with an unapologetic expression. "Let him talk. He does have a reason to ask."

Sweetie Drops just sighed and gestured at Twister to continue. "I got two pieces of mail here addressed specifically to you. Two pieces of mail, from two different sources. You do understand that you being here is supposed to be a secret, right?"

"Just hand them over," Sweetie said with a glare. "I'm going to be out of here soon anyway. I'm tired of letting them lead me around on a little leash." She took the first of two envelopes from him and opened it, smiling at the contents. "At least two of them were still alive when I was done. I'll pay them a visit at the hospital and get what I need."

"And just how will-" Twister fell silent as she slid the paper across to him. "A letter of marque with the Royal Sisters' seal? How did you even get this?"

Sweetie Drops didn't answer - in fact, she felt like she couldn't speak at all. The other envelope had contained a flat memory crystal implanted with an image of Lyra... but it was Lyra as she'd never seen before. Her colors were sickly grey and her mane hung limply, in fact she looked like she was barely alive... and her cutie mark was gone, replaced with an equal sign just like the others. Sweetie Drops smashed the blue crystal against the table with a choked snarl of rage and turned her attention to the letter that came with it, doing her best to hold back tears as she read it. "We're... we're sorry we missed you at Lyra's unmarking," she read aloud after a moment. "But you still have a chance to join her. Bring us Trixie Lulamoon by the end of the moon and we will let you be with your lover. If you refuse, Lyra..." Sweetie Drops' hooves started shaking. "Lyra will lose more than her cutie mark. Oh... Oh, Celestia..."

She started to cry outright now, and distantly felt Twister patting her on the back as Trixie huffed at the letter. "This is obviously a trap."

"I... I know," Sweetie sobbed. She took a couple of deep breaths to try and steady herself. "I know it's a trap... but I don't know what options I have. I can surrender for Lyra's sake and give up on the mission Princess Luna gave me personally, or I can keep up with the mission and maybe never see her again." She slammed her hoof on the table. "I'm tired of being led around! I'm tired of feeling so damn helpless!"

"We have a third option," Twister said quietly. "If I gave them Trixie, you could fulfill their conditions without showing up to spring the trap. Trixie, I'm sorry, but-"

Trixie shook her head. "You're..." She hesitated and finally sighed. "You're right. Maybe it's what Trixie deserves. You risked so much for me, I know, but after what I've-"

Sweetie Drops interrupted her with another hit to the table. "No! I'm... I'm not sacrificing anypony else!" She shook her head at Trixie. "I'm not... I'm not going to be that pony anymore. I've got a past, too, Trixie. We don't..." She struggled to put her thoughts into words, remembering Luna. "We don't get better by punishing ourselves. We get better by being better. No more killing, no more torture, and no more ponies left behind. Give me real fucking options, Twister."

"You couldn't have said 'no torture' a little earlier?" Twister gave her a half smile, and sighed deeply when Sweetie Drops just glared at him in response. "Fine. We've got a few days. I'll kick some clouds and see what comes out, alright? Just... just don't do anything reckless."

"Fine by me." Sweetie Drops kept staring at him for a moment before turning to Trixie. "Let's get you a makeover, shall we?" Trixie sighed at her, but it was clear from Sweetie's tone that even she wouldn't escape from this one.

Unknown Location
23 Harvest, 1502

Once Lyra got to know Rose Quartz, she really wasn't that bad. Her soup was actually pretty good, and afterwards they'd stayed up long into the night. Rose had a deck of cards and sat playing with Lyra while practically demanding that she share stories about Ponyville. The memories were hard to recover, and even when Lyra recalled them, they were shrouded by the gray haze that seemed to press in on her every thought... but talking about them actually made her feel a little better. More than anything, Rose wanted to hear about Pinkie Pie. She wanted to hear all about Pinkie's relationships with other ponies, about her baking, about her parties. The parties especially drew her interest, and there were times when she'd even briefly smile- it was only for a few moments at a time, but when she did she seemed like a pony transformed. Despite her dour nature and body modifications, she smiled the same infectious grin as Pinkie, lighting up her face to the point that she almost seemed to turn a brighter shade of pink.

The similarity between them actually shook Lyra a little bit, and even after Rose had put out the fire and declared that it was time for bed, she'd stayed up in her cot thinking about it. What happened to her, really? Pinkie Pie was a pony who'd never quite grown out of being a filly... and her duplicates had had all of the childlike joy with none of the inhibitions. Lyra had always felt a little jealous of Pinkie Pie for that. No pony ever really judged her for how she acted; at worst, they'd roll their eyes and simply declare "Pinkie is being Pinkie again". Lyra had always wished she could have the same joyful abandon to live her life without fear of judgement. She could always practically feel ponies staring at her disapprovingly when she was reading her comics or buying toys for her collection, and she knew full well that to every pony in Ponyville she was "the weirdo with the human dolls". There was no telling what horrors Rose Quartz had faced in the Everfree Forest, of course - it had grown less dangerous in the last couple of years (with the exception of one notable incident that Lyra didn't like to think about), but it was still the Everfree Forest. Horrible thoughts of what might have happened to her plagued Lyra through the night, even after she fell asleep, and she didn't end up waking until late in the morning.

When Lyra woke, it seemed that Rose had already left and returned with a new possession. She was sitting up at a small table assembling a bizarre device unlike anything Lyra had ever seen, and at her hooves laid a thin, rugged-looking metal case with the words WHITE BLAZE FIREARMS stamped in big, bold letters, followed by smaller lettering that read a subsidiary of RICH CORP.

"What is that?" Lyra asked groggily.

"Insurance," Rose said curtly. "This is a weapon from the human world that will put me on even ground if the 'Master' betrays me."

"The..." Lyra trailed off. Somewhere in her mind she knew that she should be thrilled at the mention of the human world, the idea that all of the theories that ponies laughed at her for were true. There really was a human world, and the princesses really were covering it up. But she couldn't muster the energy to be happy. She almost felt the sense of vindication rising in her and then it quickly fizzled out with a sensation of cold pressure gripping her chest. "Do you really think that will happen?" She asked instead in a dull tone.

"Anything is possible," Rose replied, setting the device aside to start sliding tiny brass cylinders- no, bullets. Lyra suddenly remembered a graphic novel she'd read about a human warrior who used strange weapons called 'guns' to fight the undead. Rose was feeding bullets into a long, thin magazine - a lot of them. "I've learned not to trust anypony but myself. Even back to the beginning, every time I thought I could trust somepony, I turned out to be wrong." She slid the magazine into her machine pistol with a hard chunk. "Even Pinkie Pie... I trusted her when she said her friends would be my friends. We... we all did." Rose set the weapon down with a sigh. "Pinkie didn't have any malice towards us. She was just... wrong. A pony doesn't have to have anything against you to hurt you. Remember that when you're putting all your faith in Sweetie Drops."

Lyra stepped forward, putting a hoof on Rose's foreleg. "You're wrong. I know you feel like the whole world is against you, but what if it's not? Maybe... maybe Twilight didn't know what she was really doing. She would never kill any pony intentionally." She sighed. It sounded hollow even to her. "When... when Bon-Bon told me who she really was, I was devastated. I wasn't sure if I could ever really trust her again."

"Then why are you so sure she'll save you?" Rose asked.

"Because..." Lyra stopped to think about it. As she thought about Bon-Bon, she felt like happiness and love were coming out of her heart only to be contested by black pain and dread coming from her new cutie mark, like it was trying to suppress everything good about her. "Ugh..." It made her feel like she wanted to throw up, but she persisted. "Because even if I can't be certain about her ever again, I can be certain about... about us. She's the pony I love, the one I want to spend my whole life with. And even before that, we were best friends. I don't really know anything else about her, but I know in my heart she feels the same way."

Rose looked away with a conflicted expression. "That sounds... nice," she said in a shaky voice. "I can't even be friends with myself. I look in the mirror and I see a stranger. I'm a lie, just a cheap rip-off. No pony will ever see me as anything else, let alone be my friend. That's why I have to-"

She was interrupted by Lyra throwing her forelegs around her in a hug. "Then I'll be your first friend."

Rose hesitated. "Even... even though I'm holding you prisoner?"

Lyra sighed. "You're just as much a prisoner right now as I am. You do see that, don't you?"

"I..." Rose looked away.

"We'll get our chance." Lyra put a hoof on Rose's chest. "Together."

"Together." Rose hugged her back.