A jolt of pain runs through Bonbon's neck, right down to her heart. She coughs and shifts on the cold concrete floor, her tan coat getting smeared with the mix of blood and dirt and the chains clanking as her legs jerk. She wheezes for air and she blinks the watery haze out of her eyes as she tries to focus on the details of the room.
She sees a fan slicing a light on the other side, but it is just a silhouette in the dark abyss in the upper walls. What walls she can see are streaked with red and orange, and the metal door appears to be a slab of metal with only a slot to see through. She can hear voices on the other side, but has no idea what they are saying. They are both foreign and distant.
And the chains holding her are bolted to the floor. She tries lifting her hoof to gauge their strength, but she can barely move. The pain in her ribs, her limbs, and even her skull is preventing her from doing much. That, and the chains are also short, limiting her movement to barely allow the smallest of shifts.
It is during this test that a set of hoofs catch her attention, and she stops her test to try to see who is coming to her, but her movement bring pain.
“Hello, Agent Sweetie Drops. Or Bonbon Toffee. Or Candy Swirl. Whichever you prefer, it doesn't matter to me,” says a stallion. “Not anymore, anyway.”
Bonbon's pink and blue mane hangs in front of her face, clumped together with sweat, blood and dirt as she glares at her captor with bloodshot eyes. Her heart is really starting to ache, like hot talons squeezing into it. She cannot see much due to his face being hidden by the shadows, and the fact that he is tall is not helping, so all she can really see is the pressed gray suit and gold button cuffs of his sleeve. However, she recognizes that Saddle Arabian accent from anywhere, and his rose scented cologne is also strong, keeping up with his profile.
“I know you are mad. I can't blame you. I would be mad too if I was in your position,” says the stallion.
Bonbon says nothing, and the stallion sighs and paces in front of her, his steps slow and deliberate as his horn barely lights up, just giving enough light to illuminate his pale brown mane.
A satchel illuminated by a yellow aura floats past Bonbon and a spent needle is slipped into a sleeve with the biohazard symbol printed on it, which is next to three more full syringes that are snug in their slots. After the spent needle is secured, the unicorn zips up the satchel and slings it around his vest.
“But you have no right to be mad at me. I warned you to stay out of this. I told you to run, to go somewhere safe,” says the stallion. “But you didn't listen, and now you are paying the price.”
Bonbon winces and tries pressing her hoof against her heart, but they are chained down to hard. She can barely move them, so her aching, slow beating heart is going without comfort. A trail of tears flows from her shut eyes and cleans off streaks of grime, and her body shudders as hot puffs of air are pumped through her nose, pushing dust across the floor.
“I genuinely am sorry that it had to come to this. I never wanted to do this to you, but you left me no choice,” says the stallion. “I have injected your heart with a poison that is shutting it down. Soon you will die. Here. Alone. Nopony is coming to save you. We made sure of it.”
“I'll kill you,” sneers Bonbon weakly.
The stallion looks down at her, his yellow colored eyes shining in the dark.
“No you won't,” says the stallion.
The door opens up, and another stallion enters with a pair of guards wearing full body armor and faceless masks standing outside in the hallway with lights that are in need of replacement. This one Bonbon can see just fine and is another one she recognizes. He is a dark gray pegasus with a black mane, white freckles, white tipped wings, and hazel eyes. He is also wearing the same all black suit and tie with the golden pin of a jester hat that he always wears. It gives the appearance that he is wearing no clothes at first glance, but once one actually looks at the suit they can tell it is an expensive one with the finest tailoring money can buy.
“We're getting ready to move,” says the pegasus. “Did you get anything out of her?”
“No. It was a waste of time. We'll just have to assume that we have been compromised at every level and move to plan B,” says the unicorn.
“Fair enough. That's what we have backups for.” The pegasus looks at Bonbon. “Are we going to leave her here or dump her?”
“We'll leave her. We have too much to do be carrying dead weight. Are the charges set?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“If I didn't have to ask then I would not ask.”
The pegasus rolls his eyes and ruffles his feathers. “Fine. Yes. And before you ask, yes for question number two, too.”
“Good. Let's move out.” The pegasus nods and leaves the room, but leaves the door open so Bonbon can see the guards outside, and the unicorn looks down at her, shaking his head. “I'm sorry it had to come to this. But in the end, the world will understand.”
“No they won't.” Bonbon wheezes, bringing a pain like a knife into her heart, and her eyes flutter shut for the briefest of moments before she opens them halfway with a glaze blurring her vision. “We'll stop you. I'll kill you. And everypony will know what kind of monster you are.”
The stallion looks over his shoulder at the guards, and one of them holds up a hoof with a watch on it. Seeing this, he nods and looks at Bonbon again.
“Goodbye, whoever you are.”
The stallion then leaves with brisk steps and uses his magic to close the door, sealing Bonbon in darkness.
Author's Note
Who needs sleep when you can write pony words in an hour? (And not update stuff)
“I want... twelve donuts,” says Bonbon, wearing a brown saddle with her three bonbon cutie mark stitched on it.
“What kind of donuts?” asks Pinkie Pie, smiling from her spot behind the counter.
Bonbon taps her chin, her eyes scanning the menu on the wall behind the pinkest pony in existence. There are only fifty varieties of donuts to choose from.
Why so many? Not even the Divine know. But regardless of the reason, the outcome of this is her brain has become sore from trying to keep the colorful squiggly letters that spell out the types of donuts. She can read just about anything, but neon colors have always hurt her eyes and for some reason Pinkie Pie (or whoever writes these things) has decided that neon squiggly letters that blur together is the pinnacle of advertisement.
“I want...” Bonbon stops, thinks for a moment, and then sighs. “You know what, we'll keep it simple. Just give me twelve strawberry delight donuts.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie Pie taps on the register, each button making an obnoxious click and clack, and then there is a ding with a '25' popping up on the register's top. “That'll be twenty five bits.”
“... Okay, let's make that six.”
After getting her donuts Bonbon steps outside into the streets of Ponyville with her donuts in her saddle. The sun is warm but hurts her eyes, the breeze brings enough chill to keep her from sweating, and the citizens of Ponyville are milling about, eating, drinking, talking, living life peacefully. Bonbon takes a moment to put on her sunglasses and starts her walk down the sidewalk, passing the remaining numbers of the brightly painted wooden and thatch roofed buildings. The rest of the buildings have been upgraded to brick, but there is also a blight of abandoned with their doors and windows sealed by plants of wood, and in the distance, Twilight's Castle looms over the town, its crystal exterior reflecting the sunlight with a calming blue hue, always serving as a reminder that despite the rough days the royal class will always rule over the peasants. Not that Bonbon minds since the royals have always been good to Equestria. Plus, they give her a paycheck.
As Bonbon walks down the sidewalk, she is passed by bulbous vehicles with round backs and long fronts with tires that have white interiors drive down the roads, occasionally stopping at red street light so the crowd can cross the street. One street Bonbon crosses takes her to her next destination. A simple little building with a glass door and a large window to display its collection of cleaning supplies, from bleach to window cleaners and vacuums. The window also has paint on it advertising a sale of cleaning supplies, and hanging above the shop's door is a simple sign with blocky text: Discount Grocery Store.
A bell dings when Bonbon enters and is immediately hit with a concentrated stream of cold air flowing from a fan hanging from the ceiling. She keeps her sunglasses on to dim the bright lights, the clip-clop of her hoofs on the tile echo in the dead store, and she flashes a quick smile at the pony sitting behind the counter, reading a gossip magazine.
Bonbon goes straight to the cleaning aisle, passing the breakfast aisle, the juice and jarred goods aisle, and a few others. Upon reaching the cleaning aisle she goes straight to the bleach with a basket hanging from her mouth. Specifically the laundry friendly bleach. All of the bottles look the same with their white colors and basic labels, and as far as she knows they all work the same, but she keeps browsing just for the sake of killing time. She has nothing to do, anyway.
“I would recommend the Cloud 9 bleach. It is the best for laundry,” says a stallion with a smooth voice.
Bonbon glances to her side and sees a gray unicorn with a combed mane of white with a red stripe standing next to her, levitating a Cloud 9 bottle in blue aura. He has his thick glasses lowered and his blue eyes are focused on the ingredients printed on the back of the bottle. The concerning part for her is that she did not even see or hear him approach her, so she discretely sizes him up. Luckily he is average size for a unicorn stallion, so she is already bigger and stronger physically. But the magic part will be a problem if he tries anything.
“Thanks,” says Bonbon with a friendly smile.
“Vinegar also works,” says the stallion. “But you obviously have a tough job if you are using bleach. Vinegar is more for softer approaches, whereas bleach can really get rid of a problem. But if you use too much then it ruins the fabric beyond repair.”
Bonbon nods slowly like a good mare interested in the fascinated subject of bleach versus vieagr, and the unicorn smiles at her and shakes his bleach bottle.
“Better hurry, these bottles go fast when they're on sale,” says the unicorn.
Then he trots away, whistling the Equestrian National Anthem, and Bonbon watches him for a couple more seconds before she looks at where he got the bottle from. There is a disposable camera siting on the rack that looks identical to the ones near the front of the store, and after studying it for a moment she swipes it, puts it in the basket with her bleach and heads to checkout.
A few minutes later of navigating pedestrian traffic and finding a random route Bonbon reaches her home. It is near Twilight's Castle and is one of the few remaining thatch houses left in Ponyville, so she has bragging rights.
However, what the population does not realize is that her front door has three locks, each with a different key that must be unlocked in a special sequence (which is a pain when trying to get inside with groceries on a rainy day), the front door is actually metal with wood covering, and the outer wall has a nice safety feature of concrete and rebar blocks, disguised by wood. Her windows are bullet proof, her roof has a thatch outer layer, but it is also metal, the chimney is fake, and all of her lights are motion activated. Needless to say, it has been very expensive for her to get her house upgraded to the design she wanted and she is not selling it anytime soon. If ever.
Once Bonbon is inside her little fortress she puts her saddle on the kitchen counter, does a quick search of her property to make sure no one is around, and then she puts a donut on her table, sits with her back to the wall, and brings the camera to her eye.
A pair of blue lights slide side to side and up and down, thoroughly covering her eye and temporarily blinding her. After that, there is a beep and a seal appears consisting of a gold hexagon with the sun inside, wings outside and black letters of S-I-D on the bottom.
'Identity Confirmed. Senior Special Agent Sweetie Drops activated.' scrolls a message.
The message and symbol flicker away to a blue background and a flag of red star with gold hammer and sickle appears. Beneath it are three green orbs with diagrams of their molecular structures next to them, as well as Radiatium-239.
“Special Agent Sweetie Drops, the S-I-D will make this quick,” says a stallion. “There has been an incident in the United Kingdoms of Altai. The griffins are keeping it quiet, but our channels have picked it up. Long story short, three orbs of weapons grade radiatium have been stolen from Fort Gemvein in East Altai.”
Bonbon hums, and then takes a bite out of her donut. Despite Pinkie Pie being the absolute weirdest pony she has ever met she can always count on her to give her fresh food. Unlike those guys at Hearty's Junior. They always give her cold fries and put pickles on her hayburgers.
“Each orb is strong enough to level a major city. Canterlot, Griffenstone, Saddlerock, so on,” continues the voice. “The good news is that our thieves are terrible at navigating the dark market so we were able to find them and their buyer quickly. The bad news is that in five days they will meet with this pegasus in Harrow Valley, North Zebrica.”
The current images are replaced with a small walled compound in the middle of a prairie, and a picture of a stallion with a dark gray coat, a black mane, white freckles, white tipped wings and hazel eyes. He is wearing an all black suit with a golden jester hat a pin. Seeing this brings Bonbon's muscles to stiffen.
“Moonstone Skyward,” says the voice. “We all know he is the next highest ranking member of KARMA, and capturing him will bring us one step closer to apprehending Dr. Astral Plane.”
The pegasus is replaced with a tall and slender unicorn stallion with yellow eyes, a pale brown mane, and copper colored fur. He is wearing a pressed gray suit and has tired eyes, and next to his picture is a crescent moon with a sword and shield, and 'DENOUNCED' stamped across the symbol.
“We capture Moonstone Skyward, we have a chance of apprehending Dr. Astral Plane, and that will bring us one step closer to dismantling KARMA,” says the voice. “We cannot stress how important this mission is. If KARMA gets hold of those radiatium orbs then they will destabilize the whole world. More details will be discussed at Cloud 7-2. This message will self destruct in five seconds.”
Bonbon drops the camera, covers her eyes with her hoofs and groans loudly. There is then a small flash of light and thin smoke rises from the camera, where it quickly disappears as if it had never been there. Just like Bonbon's vacation.
