An infinite void surrounded Bon Bon in every direction, or at least every direction directly ahead of her since she couldn’t move her head or eyes. Somehow she knew she wasn’t dead, death couldn’t be… this emptiness. A low murmuring sound reached her ears and made them twitch in response, confirming to her that she was, in fact, still among the living.

But if not dead, then where was she? The darkness ahead seemed absolute despite her eyes being wide open… were they even open? At least her right eye should be working, right? The murmurs around her grew louder, melding together into something that almost resembled voices.

A sharp pain erupted in her neck, just under the skull, and made its way down her back. She tried to scream but discovered that her mouth refused to open. Two more deep shocks of pain appeared in her shoulders as if a red hot rod was being forced into her agonizing joints.

When the pain in her shoulders subsided, the murmurs around her grew more defined. She could recognize voices among the background noise.

“-All limbs connected, start up the link,” One of the voices said from somewhere on her left.

“Will it hurt?” Another questioned, a yak, judging by the accent… Yona?

“I hope not,” The first voice answered.

It did. A lot. Her limbs exploded with searing agony as if each of her bones had been shattered like glass. Her eye shot open, blinded by a bright light that hung above her. And she screamed, she screamed until her vocal cords gave out and then she kept making a horrid sound until her lungs couldn’t provide any more air.

“You said it wouldn’t hurt!” The yak shouted.

“I said I hoped it wouldn’t” The other voice replied, Bon Bon was starting to feel like having a chat with its owner.

She noticed how after the pain had diminished she could… feel her limbs. But the sensation was wrong, the way your hoof feels after you hold onto something frozen for too long. The only eye she had left started to focus on the world around her, the face of Yona came into view above her.

“Bon Bon? Are you there?” She asked.

She opened her voice to reply but no words came out.

“She’s there, she just did a number on her voice with that screeching,” The other voice said, she rolled her eye to meet the buglike face of a changeling, “Let’s help her sit up”

The bed she was lying in started to move slowly, lifting her upper half to a sitting position. Bon Bon closed her eye for a moment to fend off a horrible headache. She lifted a hoof to her brow to hold her head… and felt metal.

Her eye shot wide and looked at her hoof, her pupil a small black pinprick. A hoof-shaped block of steel stood where her hoof once had, the leg beneath appeared to be made with gray wires and struts. She shook, and the clatter of metal pieces coming from her forehooves only made her shake harder.

“Bring me a mirror” She ordered, trying to keep her voice from quivering.

“A- Are you sure?” The changeling asked.

“Bring me the damn mirror”

The changeling left the room, leaving her alone with Yona. Bon Bon turned to face the yak before speaking.

“A changeling?”

“Yes, Ocellus, she’s a defector, and a good surgeon” Yona responded.

The changeling returned carrying a mirror, and nestled it nicely in her new metal hooves. She steeled herself and took a deep breath before looking in the mirror.

“We had to rebuild your jaw, orange pony hit you hard. But you survived! You strong like yak!” Yona boomed.

“Not strong, lucky, we barely got there in time to stop her from bleeding out” Ocellus replied.

But Bon Bon wasn’t listening, her view was focused on the long scar over her left eye socket and the steel jaw that replaced the one she had lost. This wasn’t her face, this was somepony else, it had to be.

“What is this?” She asked, not bothering to hide the despair in her voice.

“It’s the best we could do to put you back together” The changeling tried to comfort her.

“I look like a monster…”

“I think you look strong, like yak!” Yona said, but she lowered her head when Bon Bon looked at her with a pained expression.

She lifted the mattress that covered her lower body and almost let out a cry. Her chest was now a series of steel plates covering cables like the ones in her hooves, even her rear legs were different.

“How bad is it?” She asked the changeling.

“Broken spine, missing eye, missing front legs, and severe internal organ damage. All we could save was some organs and most of your head”

So that’s it then, she was hardly a pony anymore. It seemed her days of undercover work were gone. Bon Bon tried to get up, rolling off the bed.

“Wait, wait! You still need to adjust!” Ocellus shouted as she rose to stand up.

The sensation was dull and sluggish, and the legs were missing the familiar pull and push of musculature, but Bon Bon managed to straighten herself out. A trembling hoof went forward to take a step, but she fell facefirst into the floor as the metal hoof slid away.

“I need to find those bastards!” She shouted.

“We are trying to track them down, but you are in no shape to leave this room, let alone fight these… desperado ponies,” Yona said.

Bon Bon dragged herself back onto the bed before looking back at the yak.

“Desperado? What do we know about them?”

“They are an independent guard group with very high-end weapons and armor, that’s all we could gather from the bodies. But we have our best unicorns at work on tracking anything they can find,” Ocellus explained, “For now, you need to rest”

They were right, her new joints were aching almost as much as her head. Turning to face the wall of the hospital room, Bon Bon tried to drift into sleep.

Days had passed now, and the cold wind blowing through her mane brought Bon Bon back to the present. The cold bit into her face as the balloon rose over the mountains of Yakyakistan, but she didn’t mind, the sensation of frost reminded her that at least some part of her body was still real.

“Bonny, can you hear me?” Said Sandbar, the ghostly projection of the pale Earth pony’s face in front of her startling the beige mare.

“Loud and clear, Sandbar” She replied.

“Can you see us? Is the crystal eye working?” Ocellus asked, poking her black head from behind Sandbar.

“I see you. I have to say, this thing is pretty neat,” The enchanted crystal in her right eye socket did wonders to increase her awareness, especially considering her left eye was missing.

“Great!” Chirped the Earth pony, “So, did you get a briefing before miss yak here threw you into a balloon?”

Bon Bon let out a small laugh.

“I read it on the way to the crystal empire. We tracked the armor and weapons of the desperado ponies to this yak factory, I need to go find out what they know, right?”

“Not just that,” Yona said, pushing Sandbar out of the way and filling the small square of Bon Bon’s view, “There seemed to be a city next to factory that was ‘abandoned’, but yaks don’t abandon cities! You need to investigate,”

“Yeah, yeah, get off!” Sandbar shoved the yak to the side and sat back down in his chair, “Listen, the factory is owned by a yak named Grimhorn, if you want to know what is going on in there you better keep your eye out for him”

Bon Bon rolled her eye at the dumb pun, but took a good look at the image of a yak that had appeared in her view. She could get used to the crystal eye.

“Bon Bon, it’s me,” Ocellus appeared in a separate window, apparently in some sort of lab, “Do you remember how to keep yourself going?”

“Yeah, yeah doc, cut up magical armor and weapons to absorb the magical remnant, I was already planning on slicing those bastards up anyway”

“Try and preserve their left forehooves as well,” The changeling said.

“What? Why?” Bon Bon said, confused.

“I need them for… my work, your eye should point out the ones you need to acquire. I’ll be able to enhance you further if you get me those hooves,”

“Oooookay?” She asked, confused at the bizarre request.

A yellow message flashed in her view, she was coming up on the factory.

“Good luck, Bon Bon we are here in case you need help,” Yona said from behind Sandbar before all the windows vanished from her sight.

The beige mare jumped out of the balloon as it passed over a snow-covered mountain, at the mountain’s base she could see the buildings of the city as well as the large spires of the factory. Despite the town looking abandoned, the factory was teeming with life, smoke columns rising from every chimney. Bon Bon curled into a ball to fall faster, preparing to test exactly how good her new body was at absorbing kinetic energy.

A large wall of snow flew into the air as the metal pony rolled down the side of the mountain. She jumped, her internal gyroscope helping her align with the ground, and started to slide down the mountain face. If their plans were correct, any pony or yak in the area would think it was just an avalanche.

Yona had asked her father about this place. The factory had been set up a few years ago to manufacture mining equipment, a town grew next to it as the workers looked for closer places to live. Due to the position of the factory, the only way to get to it was through the town itself.

Bon Bon came to a stop just a little distance from the edge of the town, none of the buildings had any lights on. For all intents and purposes, it was a ghost town. Still, she trotted over to the side of one of the huts, peeking her head around to look at the central street.

Two black-armored ponies stood at attention, each looking in a different direction down the street.

“You guys there?” She asked, her view immediately lighting up with a window showing Sandbar, “We were right, desperado is here. And I think something bad happened to the townsfolk,”

“Good job Bon Bon, that should be enough to get the yak army involved. As soon as you’re done with the investigation give us the signal and we’ll send you some reinforcements,” The earth pony spoke, receiving a nod from Yona.

The beige mare closed the windows in her sight and turned again to look at the guards, they had moved along their patrol routes. One of the guards was approaching the entrance to the town, just next to where she was hiding.

Bon Bon waited, listening carefully for the pony’s hooves on the snow as they approached. She didn’t even think, the second the tip of the desperado pony’s snout appeared next to the wall she drew her white blade and jumped forward, the crystal eye helping her align the edge perfectly to sever the pony’s neck. She watched the body fall into the snow with a cushioned sound.

The other guards would sound the alarm as soon as they found this body, even with the snow she had covered it with. She snuck around the huts of the town, trying her best to avoid any other guards along the way. She made it to an open plaza in the middle of town, the only hut around being the large one where the chief probably lived… or used to live anyway.

“Guys! I don’t think I can get past this area without being spotted,” She told her team, Sandbar thought for a bit before replying.

“We need to find a way to sneak through, if you get spotted in the middle of the town you’ll have everypony there on you in no time! You need to- WHAT IN TARTARUS WAS THAT?!” Sandbar said before a booming sound interrupted him.

Bon Bon blinked to clear her view and looked back in the direction from where she had hearth the loud sound. In the middle of the plaza stood a massive figure among the dry trees. If she had been told to describe what she saw, Bon Bon would have to say it was a yak. A great metal yak, the stringy artificial muscle identical to that in her legs. The ground vibrated hard every time the beast took a step even through the thick layer of snow.

“What is that thing?” Asked Yona, popping back into her view.

“I think it’s some kind of yak automaton,” Replied Bon Bon.

“A yak?! That thing is insult to yak!” Yona boomed, furious, “Bon Bon! New directive! Destroy that thing and any other like it!”

“But what happened to a stealthy approach?” Sandbar asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Crush the fake yak, Bon Bon, rip it to shreds!” The yak continued, ignoring the Earth pony entirely.

She was conflicted over the mixed orders, but decided to draw her sword anyway. It’s not like she had any other way of getting through the plaza. Bon Bon ran out from between the huts, facing the giant metal yak.

The beast turned to face her, the blue spotlight eyes turning red as it located its enemy. With a booming… moo? The yak launched itself into the air at Bon Bon. She rolled to the side, barely avoiding the metal monster as it threw snow in every direction.

A white slash crossed the yak’s side, but the artificial hide was too tough. Bon Bon was forced to dodge again as a hoof the size of her head flew out. She flipped backward, trying to gain some distance to think about her next move.

But underestimating the yak’s speed was a big mistake, by the time she lifted her head again her eye was full of yak. Two heavy hooves slammed into her head, if her skull hadn’t been reinforced with steel she was sure the impact alone would’ve killed her. She slammed into the snow below, rolling desperately to avoid the follow-up hit.

Her head was spinning, but she still managed to parry the yak’s horn. The magical field enveloping the metal weapon clashed against her sword’s edge, triggering the new talisman that was nestled in its pommel. The magic draining gem lit up slightly, reinvigorating Bon Bon as she used the horn’s hit to catapult herself out of reach.

“I got it! Listen, Bon Bon!” Ocellus said while the yak charged, “I think I can make your eye detect where the yak’s central talisman is!”

“Make it quick, doc, I don’t think I can fight this thing for much longer,” She said as she cartwheeled out of the way of another horn.

The yak tried to stomp on her again, the steel hoof deflecting off the white blade that Bon Bon had redrawn. She spun on the ground and jumped back up, giving the yak’s metal face a good kick as she flew.

“There! I got it!” Ocellus said as her crystal eye flashed rapidly.

Once more the yak jumped at her, but this time she was ready. Instead of her old hoof-catch, the hilt of her blade magically attached to her hoof. Bon Bon’s eye lit up, pointing out a triangle of light within the yak’s chest. With the incredible speed of her brand new legs, she sliced up the metal creature faster and faster, each slice giving her more and more power. She started to laugh as she ravenously slashed at the yak, her eye counting every cut… fifty, one hundred, two hundred… eventually the pieces grew too small to keep going and Bon Bon fell to her hooves again.

“Ummm, you okay there, Bon? That was…” Sandbar said before being thrown to the side by Yona.

“That was fantastic! Rip them all apart! Two more of those things are coming for you!” The yak said, shouting excitedly.

“Yes, chop it all up, chop, chop, chop,” Somepony said behind her, she turned with a quick sword slice… but hit empty air.

She took a deep breath to calm herself down, clearly, she was becoming paranoid. She focused on the thumping that came from behind the large hut. Two more yak automatons, as well as half a dozen desperado ponies, turned the corner of the hut to rush at her. This may have not been such a good idea after all.

The yaks attacked first, jumping at her at alarming speeds. She tried dodging by rolling forwards, but she was quickly blown aside by a magical explosion. The guard ponies would be more annoying than she thought. Her white blade danced around in a flurry of cuts and slashes as she ran through the assembled desperado ponies.

Swords, lances, and ponies fell around her like the snow coming from the sky. Sparks flew as metal met metal, the enchanted steel powering the next swing as it absorbed the magical energy of the guardsponies.

One of the guards made Bon Bon stop for an instant as her eye highlighted it’s left forehoof with a red haze. The green mare had no helmet, a captain, probably. The green pony rushed forward with her lance, but Bon Bon jumped to the side, throwing her sword into her forehoof.

The mare’s blue eyes went wide as the sword in Bon Bon’s hoof sliced cleanly through her left foreleg, the severed limb flying to the side. She focused on her shocked enemy and lifted her blade to start chopping, but something stopped her in her place.

Something being a magically reinforced steel yak horn. Her eyes filled with error messages as the tip of the weapon pierced her side and sent her flying into the large hut. To be fair, if her body hadn’t been made of steel she wouldn’t have survived slamming through a stone wall.

Bon Bon tried to get back on her hooves, desperately searching for where her sword had fallen. The searing pain in her side started to make her dizzy, a blurry screen popped into her view as somepony mumbled something unintelligible to her. A white shine caught her eye and she turned to grab the gemstone pommel of the blade, ripping it out of the stone brick it had gotten stuck in.

The wall next to her exploded as one of the yak automatons charged the wounded mare. A weak parry sent Bon Bon flying into another wall. More windows and red alerts flashed in her eye, but they were too blurry to make out any details.

Once more the yak charged, her strength was waning and all she could do was turn her head to rest the sword’s pommel against the wall behind her. The yak’s thick forehead slammed directly against the white tip of her sword, impaling itself.

Like a lightning bolt, a surge of energy coursed through Bon Bon’s body. The edges of her gaping wound closed slightly as something in her chest filled her with warmth. Her view sharpened to show a mass of warnings for blood loss and trauma as well as a desperate-looking Sandbar shouting at her.

“Bon? Are you there? Bon Bon!”

“I’m back, got pretty roughed up there,” She responded, spitting the hilt out.

“Sweet Celestia! I thought you were gone! What happened?” Sandbar asked.

“I think I got lucky and cut this thing’s central talisman, the magical surge must’ve made my own regeneration talismans kick in,”

Sandbar said something else, but the synthesized moo of the other yak drowned the Earth pony’s voice out. Bon Bon climbed out from behind the disabled automaton, grabbing the sword with her mouth and facing the large hole in the wall.

The large shape of the yak covered the entrance, blocking out the sun and filling the hut with darkness only punctuated by the monster’s shining red eyes. Bon Bon jumped onto the wall on the other side of the yak as it charged straight at her, jumping off the wall and onto the roof.

She watched the yak slam into the wall before jumping at its back, wincing as her wound was pulled on by her body. Bon Bon got to work on slicing up the yak’s armor, feeling blood gush out of her side every time she made a cut in the metal hide of the beast. As she cut deeper and deeper, the talisman in her chest warmed up again once the enchanted crystal in the being’s chest died out.

Finally free of the horde, she resheathed her blade carefully on her side before collapsing into the snow outside the hut.

“Yes! Good job Bon Bon!” Yona shouted into her already-ringing ears.

“The signal is getting stronger,” Ocellus said, popping into another window, “You still seem to be heavily wounded. Take some time to rest while we find you a power source”

Bon Bon nodded, not that her team could see her do it anyway. She cringed as the snow around her felt… wrong, like a mild tickling sensation instead of the cold she expected. Her steel hoof dragged through the snow in front of her head while she tried to remember what snow felt like, it definitely shouldn’t feel like sand.

“Bon, one of our unicorns found something,” Sandbar said, interrupting her thoughts.

“What is it?” She asked, rising to her trembling hooves.

“A large magical signature to the east of where you are, it’s not moving so we suppose it’s some sort of magic artifact,”

Bon Bon turned to face east, seeing nothing more than the rows of huts. The snowfall had thickened, bothering her view as it started to erase the evidence of the carnage. Dragging her rear hoof, she slowly made her way to where the signal was coming from, picking up the severed left hoof along the way.

A trail of bloodied snow followed along her dragging hoof as she crouched between the huts, scanning her surroundings for the amulet she needed. The blood loss was starting to make her dizzy again.

“Magically enhanced pony, halt!” A heavily modulated voice said from somewhere.

Bon Bon drew her sword and tried to get into a fighting stance, but decided against it when her wound gushed a stream of crimson onto the snow. Her eye darted around, searching for the origin of the voice.

A horrible screeching sound came from the hut on her side, and she turned in time to see a chainsaw rip through the wall heading straight for her neck. She crouched under the saw and jumped away from the crumbling wall, reading her blade for combat even if her body complained about the abuse.

A pony stood in the crumbled debris of the hut, the chainsaw that had nearly decapitated her rested on a thin metal arm attached to the its back. Black and gray armor plates covered her opponent from hoof to tail, a strange helmet covering the pony’s face. A cyan mane was the only part that wasn’t covered in armor, as well as its matching tail. Bon Bon sat on her haunches and dropped her sword to her hooves to free her mouth.

“And you are?” Bon Bon asked the strange pony.

“I am FS prototype LH-84i” The modulated voice replied, each word making the strange helmet pulse with red light.

“FS prototype?” She inquired.

“FriendShip prototype, my purpose was to infiltrate Ponyville and befriend the inhabitants,”

Bon Bon took a long look at the pony she was facing, the large frame of interlocking steel plates and shining lights didn’t exactly scream ‘infiltration!’, but perhaps it had some sort of camouflage device. Though a part of the pony’s words stuck out to her as strange… befriend the inhabitants? That would imply interacting with everypony.

“You’re from ponyville? Have we met before?” She asked cautiously.

“You don’t recognize me?” The pony replied, if its voice hadn’t been a robotic monotone Bon Bon would’ve been sure that they sounded… disappointed?

“I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you around,” She said, lifting her blade slightly.

“Bon Bon! are you serious? Is the armor really so jarring?” The pony cocked her head to the side.

The pony’s body… shifted. The plates around the face slid to the sides, revealing a pair of yellow eyes. A large helmet piece lifted off the pony’s face, with a mint green horn sliding out from a compartment in the mare’s forehead. If the white sword in Bon Bon’s hoof hadn’t been magnetically attached to her, she would’ve dropped it; for before her eyes stood none other than Lyra Heartstrings.

“Hey there!” Lyra said in her normal voice.

“W- what?” The blade shook in Bon Bon’s hooves.

“I am the FS prototype Lyra Heartstrings 84i. I’m… I’m here to kill you, Bon,”

The chainsaw on Lyra’s back revved up. Her expression was completely blank, stuck in a fake smile.

“But Lyra, we’re friends!” She pleaded with the green mare.

“I know, but desperado ordered me to kill you, please don’t resist,” Her friend’s eyes looked genuinely pained.

“You don’t have to listen to them! We’re best friends! Aren’t we?”

Lyra seemed to consider her words for a moment before replying.

“Our friendship was simulated for the purpose of infiltration. If I were to disobey my orders I would initiate my self destruct sequence,”

“But-” Bon Bon started, but couldn’t finish.

The chainsaw that flew at her head from above forced her to lift her blade and deflect to the side. She rolled to avoid another attack, grabbing the white sword in her mouth to fight her best friend.

Lyra stood on her hind legs, standing tall over her. She had done similar movements hundreds of times before, but Bon Bon never could’ve imagined that the reason why she could move like that was because she wasn’t a real pony.

The armored mare jumped at her, the chainsaw-arm flying at her midsection. Blade met blade, but instead of the catching she had grown used to, the spinning edge of the chainsaw threw her blade upwards. The saw, having broken Bon Bon’s guard, bit into her right foreleg and sent sparks flying into the snow.

Bon Bon was starting to hate the distant, almost muffled, sensation that her new body tried to convince her was pain. She dodged away from another swipe of the chainsaw, trying to gauge the best way of disarming her friend. Her weapon could deal a lot of damage, but Bon Bon’s body could withstand it for a while… an idea sparked in her head as she watched the metal arm swing again.

In a single movement, she dropped onto her back and threw the sword into her forehoof. The chainsaw fell, and Bon Bon flipped into the air, catching the spinning blade with her rear hoof as she continued the spin with her blade ready. With three quick cuts, the arm fell onto the ground, severed from Lyra’s back.

“Good one, Bon,” The green mare replied as Bon Bon threw the chainsaw away from her ruined steel hoof.

Before she could reply, steel claws extended from Lyra’s forehooves before the green pony threw herself at Bon Bon. A flurry of hits came from every direction as the beige mare desperately tried to defend herself. Fortunately, the claws didn’t do much damage, but if the blows continued for long the small hits would start to add up.

But something seemed off about Lyra’s attacks, it seemed like every blow that she couldn’t block in time hit her thickest armor plates. And every time Bon Bon dodged a sweep she noticed how Lyra took a second too long to recover, leaving herself wide open… What was she doing?

A roundhouse kick landed on her steel jaw, sending her flying into the hut wall behind her. A claw swung at her from above, Bon Bon barely catching it with her left forehoof. Once more, Lyra took a full second to recover from the block, leaving her chest wide open for the blade in Bon Bon’s right forehoof, but she couldn’t take the chance! Why was she…?

That’s it! It all made sense now! The hits on her armor plates, the encouragement when she disarmed her… the glaring openings in her defense whenever she attacked… Lyra was trying to let her win.

“I don’t want to kill you, Lyra! You’re my friend!” She shouted at the green mare.

“You can’t kill me, Bon Bon, I’m not alive,” Came her reply before Lyra jumped away.

There was a pause in the fight as her friend patiently waited for her to stand back up and grab her sword with her mouth. She may be right, but the fact still stood that the pony before her was her best friend. A thick tear rolled down her cheek.

“I am not alive,” Lyra repeated, “But in your state you won't be alive for much longer,”

As if the mare’s words had been laced with lead, Bon Bon’s body immediately seemed to triple in weight. She fell to her knees, coughing a large red stain onto the snow. Her side was slick with blood from her still-open wound, and her legs were growing weaker and weaker as her brain lost its grasp on them.

“I've been watching you, I know your body will heal if you cut up my talisman-” The green mare tried to say before Bon Bon cut her off.

“And I won’t do it!” She managed to say before another coughing fit took her over. Had the wind always been so… cold?

“Please, Bon, do not resist,” Even though the words had already been spoken, Bon Bon understood their double meaning now.

Tears and blood fell onto the floor like snowflakes, a harmony of pain, despair, and beauty. Lyra’s face was emotionless, but those yellow eyes were full of grief as the friends stared at each other.

“I… I’ll put you back together L- Lyra, I p- promise,” She said, struggling to stay calm.

Lyra gave her a wide smile before jumping to attack again. She lifted both her forehooves, claws ready to slam onto Bon Bon’s head… and froze. The green mare took a second to wind up her attack beyond the bounds of reason, basically offering her armored underside to the blender that was her white blade.

Tears fell down her cheeks as the sword flew upward, starting the cut just over Lyra’s left rear leg and ending as it split her features down the middle. The two halves of her friend’s face locked into a sincere smile, eyes closed in peace.

The talisman within the green mare’s body cracked open, filling Bon Bon with an incredible surge of energy. Her wound closed completely as her healing talismans got to work, pumping her body full of warmth once more.

“Oh Celestia, Bon Bon! We thought you were dead!” Sandbar shouted at her, apparently, she had gotten so engrossed in the fighting that she had ignored the windows at the edge of her view.

“I’m fine,” She replied.

“We can see that your vitals are rising, but are you certain you’re okay?” Ocellus asked her.

“I’m. fine.”

None of the ponies spoke as she took the blade back into her mouth and resheathed it.

“Your bloodlust didn’t even spare your friend, good,” Somepony said.

“Shut up! Who was that?!” She boomed.

“We didn’t say anything, Bon,” Sandbar replied, “Are you sure you want to-”

“Yes!” She shouted back, silencing the Earth pony, “I’m headed for the factory now, keep the yaks on standby and send someone to get Lyra, we have to fix her,”

“Are you-” Started Ocellus, but the changeling defector was silenced as well when Bon Bon exploded.

“Yes! I am fine! Send somepony to pick her up and tell the yaks to get ready or the next time I see you I’ll turn you into bug paste!”

A thick veil of silence fell over the communication spell. Satisfied, Bon Bon turned to face the factory where the bastards were hiding. The bastards that had taken her body… and now, they had taken her best friend as well. As the snow fell onto the mountain face, so did the steel hooves of the beige pony.

Despite being made of magical metal, Bon Bon’s hooves hadn’t stopped shaking as she stood at the entrance to the factory’s yard. Why couldn’t she calm down? It’s not like she hadn’t killed anypony before. She shook her head hard to dispel the ghastly images of her best friend, dead by her sword.

She didn’t see anypony guarding the factory, but surely there were cameras and guards waiting for her to get careless.

“You should be able to cut through that fence, be careful,” Yona said, popping into her view for an instant.

She took in the factory, a series of large cement rectangles dotted with chimneys that filled the air above with colorful smoke. Bon Bon trotted up to the fence, taking a good look to ensure that there were no guards.

“Here I go,” She said before drawing her sword. The buzzing of her magical blade filled the air in the silence of the mountain.

She worked quickly and precisely, two cuts in an X shape appeared on the fence, allowing her to push the bottom triangle down and climb into the factory yard. What she didn’t know, however, was that the fence had vibration detectors attached to the posts. The yard filled with the sound of steps, forcing Bon Bon to throw herself behind a container.

The steps sounded… strange. Too light to be a pony, but too heavy to be any kind of guard animal. Bon Bon poked her head out from behind the edge of the container to see who, or what, had come to investigate.

“What the…” She couldn’t help but open her mouth, and she cursed herself for it. It was a rookie mistake, the kind that gets you killed… or brutally dismembered.

In this case, however, the things she saw seemed to be as clueless as the dragon they were based on. The creatures that had come out of the factory to investigate were some kind of mechanical drakes, and if the green and purple color palette were anything to go by, they were inspired by none other thanRarity's assistant from Ponyville, Spike the dragon.

And it seemed appearance wasn’t the only thing they had taken from their base, given how cluelessly they approached the fence and looked around quickly before returning and climbing back into the hatch they had come from. This sparked an idea within Bon Bon. After all, if she just went in through the front door she would surely have to fight.

“I have a plan, what do I do once I’m inside?” She asked, the cement walls of the factory would probably scramble her comms.

“You need to confirm that this place is a weapons factory so we can get the royal court involved. Try to find out what happened to the town too, if you can. We also have some bad news…” Sandbar looked concerned.

“What's wrong?” Bon Bon replied as she climbed next to the hatch where the Spikes had come from.

“We have intercepted magical communications to and from the factory,” Said Ocellus, “A mare codenamed ‘mistral’ is on-site. Judging by how they talk about her we believe her to be some sort of general,”

“And you think it might be Applejack?” Bon Bon finished, the changeling’s nod telling her that she was right, “Well, guess I’ll finally have my rematch”

“Even with your new body, I suggest you-” The changeling tried to say, but Bon Bon closed the window. If she found the orange mare that had done this to her… she was going to kill her.

She took a small piece of cement from the wall of the factory in her hooves, turning to face the fence once more. With a good throw, the small wall fragment flew into the closest post. Just as before, the hatch opened and let out a trio of metal Spikes. Bon Bon pressed herself flat against the wall to avoid being spotted.

“Bingo,” She whispered when she saw the automatons ignore her and head for the fence.

She dropped into the hatch and crawled quickly through the cramped tunnel, trying to orient herself. Her crystal eye sent out a magical pulse, highlighting the structure of the vent as far as it could. Fortunately, it seemed deserted.

After a while, Bon Bon reached what she could only describe as a storage silo. Hundreds… no, thousands of Spike automatons lined the walls inside small cubicles. Her idea of going through the hatch to avoid conflict hadn’t been her best.

But after a few seconds, she realized none of the Spikes were moving, they seemed to be on standby. Bon Bon let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and carefully turned around. That’s when she came face to face with the three that had gone to investigate the fence.

“Unautho-” The one in the middle started, but all three were quickly silenced by a wide sweep of her blade.

The clattering of metal pieces was deafening in the silence of the silo, but she could hear perfectly fine how the rows upon rows of Spikes activated behind her. Bon Bon launched herself through the vent, unsheathing her sword and spinning in the air to cut the edges of the cramped metal tunnel.

She fell onto the factory floor with a loud clang. Something heavy landed on her back and grabbed onto her neck, choking her. But after throwing herself into a wall the creature let go. More and more of them were coming out of the hole she had cut in the vent. This was bad.

“Unauthorized pony detected” they chanted as one.

Bon Bon spun in place and ran down the hallway to escape the purple and green horde. Her blind escape was swiftly interrupted by a desperado guard that had the misfortune of standing in her way. That guard now lay in several decent-sized chunks on the floor.

The factory’s alarms were blaring now, and the security doors of the hallway started closing one after the other. Not that they would do much to stop her anyway.

She rolled just in time to avoid being trapped by one of the steel doors. Just because they couldn’t stop her it didn’t mean that they were useless. The door ahead managed to close in time, but it opened right up after a quick sword cut.

“You guys there?” She asked, but received no reply.

The metal claws of the Spikes hammered on the door she had left closed, the constant clatter almost as deafening as the alarm itself. Bon Bon spun to try and find a hiding place, her eye resting on a storage room that opened into the hallway.

Her crystal eye, now calibrated to spot talismans, pulsed through the door, highlighting eight Spikes just outside… as well as the several dozen that were stuck behind the other security doors. This almost drew a chuckle from Bon Bon, almost.

Once the creatures finished scanning the segment she had been in they got to work on trying to open the hallway doors. Every time the door would rattle in place but remain locked. One of the figures walked up to Bon Bon’s door, and she sent a silent prayer to Celestia that it wouldn’t notice the cut on the lock.

The doorknob spun, and Bon Bon pressed her forehooves against the door, pushing back against the metal Spike on the other side. After a few agonizingly slow seconds, the automaton decided that the door was locked and turned to leave.

She let out a gasp as soon as the things were too far away to hear her. The alarm had stopped, which meant that the doors were probably open again. Poking her head out the door she confirmed her suspicions when she saw the security door were open.

“That’s some lousy security, they lost sight of me and now everything is back to normal?” Bon Bon said out loud.

But you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, she thought as she trotted down the hallway again. Her eye caught a shinging yellow sign that read ‘Main factory floor’ with an arrow pointed ahead, as if the glorious sun was shining directly into the building. She thanked Celestia for her divine gift before picking up the pace.

Eventually, she reached a fork in the hall, one of the exits led into a metal staircase from which metallic clanging sounds could be heard in the distance. The other exit was closed off by a door that read ‘authorized personnel only’.

“I wonder if my keycard can open this?” Bon Bon asked sarcastically before cutting the door in half.

As she suspected, the stairs led to an observation deck overseeing the factory floor, a single pony stood in the middle, watching attentively downwards. They never suspected a thing as Bon Bon walked up behind them and drove her sword directly through their heart.

She kicked the body aside and took a good look at the factory below. They had been right, dozens of unicorns swarmed around a central conveyor belt, layering and weaving magic into the armor and weapons that passed by. This was exactly what they suspected. Now all she had to do was get out of here…

The yaks! She still had to find out what happened to the town. Her eye danced over the floor below, scanning everypony in search of Grimhorn, but there was nothing. The factory was massive! there was no way she could-

“Sparky! Are you there?” Somepony asked. Bon Bon turned to look for the source but didn’t see anypony, her mind was playing tricks on her again!

“Sparky I swear if you left your communicator on your desk to go to the bathroom again I’m going to shove my hoof so far up-” The voice continued, this time, however, Bon Bon found the source.

She took the small magical device from the dead stallion’s ear and linked it with her own. The voice of a mare on the other side greeted her with more colorful language.

“I guess you did, well whatever, start recording!” The mare said, causing the communicator to let out a loud beep, “Hey there lazy head! When you’re done with whatever you’re doing you better get your ass up to the sky carriage area. The yak and miss Mistral are going to have a meeting in half an hour and you know how… uncivilized that Grimhorn is.”

Bingo! that was all Bon Bon needed to hear, now all she had to do was get to-

“Oh!” The mare continued, “And about what you said yesterday… sure! We can go out for dinner sometime, I heard there’s some great hayburgers at-”

Bon Bon couldn’t hear any more, she threw the communicator into the air and cut it in half. Then in half again, just for good measure. A single tear threatened to roll down her cheek when she passed the dead stallion as left the observation area.

Her hooves were shaking again, at this rate she was going to undo the screws holding her limbs together. Smacking her leg into the wall hadn’t done anything other than almost alert a metal Spike that was wandering the area. But at last, she had made it to the top of the factory without being spotted… well aside from that one camera she had to cut apart.

Now she was hidden, lying flat against the roof of a parked sky carriage. There were a few guards around the deck but she couldn’t bring herself to kill them. Especially after learning that one of them was waiting on a stallion that would never come. In the middle of the roof there stood a yak, Grimhoof.

“Where is Mistral?!” He bellowed at the closest guard.

“She’s on her way sir, please calm down,” The earth pony responded.

“Calm down!? First you desperado ponies send workers away and buy my factory, then you turn it into weapons factory! And now you ask me to stay calm?! No!” The yak boomed before slamming his horns into the earth pony.

The guard went flying into a carriage, and judging by the way nopony reacted, this was either a common occurrence or they knew the pony was dead. The yak slammed his hooves into the floor, leaving deep dents in the metal. Bon Bon hoped she wouldn’t have to fight him, the metal yaks in the town already gave her enough trouble even as predictable as they were. Grimhorn slammed the roof again, letting out a roar.

“Can you please stop that?” A voice said from the main stairway.

“Look who decided to show up! We need to talk, Mistral!” Grimhorn bellowed at the approaching mare.

The mare wasn’t Applejack, that was for sure. An intricately stylized purple mane curled over the mare’s blue eyes, A bone-white horn popping out from the pony’s forehead. The mare was wearing some kind of armor around her neck and chest, it was closer to a thick metal harness than an actual breastplate. Her hooves were encased in steel claw-like gauntlets, yet the polished armor made the entire getup look… fashionable.

“Oh please, do tell what was sooo important?” The fashionista asked the yak, rolling her eyes.

“I want my factory back! You promised me half of the bits, but somehow you haven’t sold anything in three months? This is a scam!”

Bon Bon’s eye alerted her of multiple talismans approaching the area. She looked to the side and saw dozens of Spikes climbing the walls of the building, just behind Grimhorn.

“Darling, we really haven’t sold anything! All the equipment has been going to our own troops,” Rarity said with a warm smile.

“That was not our deal!” The yak slammed the floor again.

“But it was, sweetheart! The contract said that you would get half of all our public sales, but we haven’t gone public yet,”

The yak turned visibly red, blowing smoke out of his nostrils.

“Yak shouldn’t deal with pony! Pony scammer!” Grimhorn bellowed.

But before the yak could charge he was attacked by the metal Spikes, jumping onto him from every direction. Their small steel jaws bit deeply into his flesh, making him scream. He desperately tried to stomp them or throw them off his back, but the mass of metal was too overwhelming.

With a roar, the yak charged at Rarity, his single remaining eye glowing with rage. But the mare simply dodged to the side, letting the yak rush past her and over the guardrail.

“So uncivilized,” The fashionista said, looking down at where Grimhorn had fallen.

The white unicorn turned around to look directly at Bon Bon’s carriage, an evil grin on her face.

“Darling, you really need to work on your stealth,”

Something heavy landed on Bon Bon’s back. She turned her head to see a Spike automaton, it had probably climbed up from behind and spotted her.

“Heh, wasn’t expecting to find so many of these annoying things,” She replied after kicking the metal dragon to the floor, breaking it.

She jumped to land in front of the unicorn and went for her sword when she saw the guards approaching. Five of them counting the red pegasus mare captain, if she could-

“Leave us,” Rarity ordered.

“B- but Mistral-“ The pegasus captain started, but she fell silent when Rarity shot her a glance.

Bon Bon also fell silent, the mare’s voice had stuck out to her… she was the voice on the communicator, she was… no, She had to focus on the mission.

“Yes ma’am,” The pegasus said, trotting away with the other guards.

Her hooves started shaking again, but she had more important things to worry about now. Taking a page from the late Grimhorn, she slammed both her hooves into the roof, hard. Unlike the last time she had tried it, this time the hit made her stop shaking.

“Well now, shall we parlay, my dearest Sweetie Drop?” The white mare said.

Her words hit Bon Bon like a bucket of freezing water, memories shot through her head faster than a bullet… faster than she could suppress them. Memories of her past that she had tried so hard to forget.

“How do you know that name?!” Bon Bon exploded, pure rage seeping into her voice.

“Oh please darling, I’m the queen of gossip, do you really think I wouldn’t be able to find out something as simple as that?” Rarity raised an eyebrow at her.

“That’s not me anymore! My name is Bon Bon!” Her anger was growing exponentially, like a pressure cooker starting to crack.

“Is that so? Because I’d say that horrid display of violence in the town just now was… Sweeter than Chocolate”

She knew exactly what she had said, the devilish grin confirmed it. A warning for high blood pressure flashed in Bon Bon’s sight as she grit her teeth.

“Why are you working with these ponies if you hate violence so much?” She asked the unicorn, injecting as much hatred into her words as she could muster.

Rarity lifted her hoof to her chin in a mock thinking gesture as she paced in front of BonBon.

“Well, I guess I started out looking for ways to get further into the fashion business. Before I knew it, Desperado sent me a contract to help them design magical armor… which I took, of course. I wanted the bits so I could open a new boutique in Canterlot, you see?”

“Oh? So that explains the army of automatons? Or how you just sent them to murder Grimhorn?” Bon Bon retorted snarkily.

“By all means, no! These adorable Spikies were created to help me make dresses!” The fashionista walked towards the Spike that Bon Bon had destroyed earlier, “But they lacked my… touch, so to speak,”

Rarity lowered her head and bit onto the destroyed metal arm, dislodging it from the shoulder joint. The severed limb came to life, attaching its shoulder end to a connector on the white unicorn’s harness. Her new arm lowered and ripped off the other limb from the broken Spike, attaching it on the other side of Rarity’s chest.

“Fortunately, I found a way to make them even more useful!” She said with glee as several Spike automatons ran towards her.

The metal dragons Started to disassemble themselves, attaching their arms onto all the connectors along Rarity’s back. Before long, multiple now-armless Spikes stood around their leader, a white unicorn wearing a crown of metallic limbs around her neck.

Several of the arms had been locked together, ripping off the sharp spikes that ran down the heads of the nearest automatons. The makeshift spear was slung behind Rarity, held firmly by two pairs of arms.

“Is the spear a dressmaking tool?” Bon Bon asked, lifting an eyebrow.

The white unicorn gave a mirthless laugh.

“Don’t get me wrong, I may remain a stranger to violence, but this armor is more than able to protect me… And get rid of anypony that might interfere with my work,”

“We’ll just have to see how good it is, then,” Bon Bon took a step back, readying herself for combat.

Rarity gave no reply, instead launching herself forward as the spear spun menacingly behind her. Bon Bon barely got her sword out in time to meet the sharpened steel head-on, slicing the tip of the spear clean off.

The cut was too clean, however, and the tip continued on its original path before slamming into Bon Bon’s right shoulder plate. It didn’t seem to have done much damage. She lifted her view to stare at the unicorn, had her mouth not been full of hilt, she would’ve given her a smile. There was no way for Rarity to win this, especially with only half a weapon.

But the moment of triumph didn’t last as she was forced to dodge out of the way of several armless Spikes. To her dismay, she saw a new automaton jump towards the white mare and disassemble itself to repair her spear. Several of the arms on the mare’s neck grabbed the metal dragon and threw it violently at Bon Bon.

She considered cutting it apart but decided to simply kick the thing aside. Yet the second her hoof connected with the dragon’s metal scales the entire automaton exploded, sending her spinning onto the ground.

A warning flashed in her eyes, her right forehoof wasn’t doing great after the explosion. She shook out of her momentary stupor just in time to see the unicorn flying through the air at her, spear lifted. A white slash came up to meet the mare, but was parried by… the spear?

Indeed, just as the blade rose the spear had bent along several of its elbows to strike her sword on the flat, shoving it to the side instead. Bon Bon had to backflip to get out of the way in time before being skewered. The arms on her opponent’s back took the spear and twirled it to face her again.

Something bit her rear leg, she turned to see an armless Spike busy with trying to bite her leg off. Her crystal eye kicked back in, highlighting the magical talisman within the automaton. That was it! She could outlast Rarity by using the Spikes as well! The white sword plunged into the small dragon, filling Bon Bon with a rush of power that straightened her forehoof out… mostly.

Rarity, however , had other plans, jumping once more at Bon Bon while the spear danced around her like a hypnotized snake. The white sword managed to clip the end of the spear once more as its user dodged to the side. As soon as the unicorn’s attack ended, Bon Bon threw her sword into her rear hoof, the magical metal attracting the hilt and keeping it in place.

Now it was her turn to jump, she rushed at Rarity, who had lifted her weapon once more, and jumped into the air. She spun, the blade humming as it flew towards the mare’s collar. The metal arms couldn’t block in time, and many fell onto the ground under the unrelenting edge of the white sword.

The two arms on the front, however, were still completely functional. The white unicorn turned to face Bon Bon with a grin as the two arms on her shoulders grabbed the spear tightly. The weapon shifted before her eyes, elongating into a long, flexible row of arms. It ditched the sharp spike at the end before bending like a tentacle and grabbing onto Bon Bon’s right forehoof.

In one swift motion the world disappeared from beneath her, she tumbled through the air before being slammed onto the roof. She was lifted again and thrown against the stairwell, going through the metal door like a battering ram… or a battering pony, in this case.

“You can’t win darling, just give up,” The unicorn suggested as several Spikes climbed onto her to replenish her lost arms.

A barrage of Spikes flew at Bon Bon, but she wouldn’t fall for that trick twice. Three backflips were more than enough to get out of the way and see the metal balls fly into a silo behind them.

The arm-whip flew at her again, but this time she was waiting. As soon as the hand grabbed her she threw her sword into her forehoof and focused on the metal limbs holding her aloft. Three quick cuts were enough to destroy the whip, but the momentum it had sent her flying towards the railing.

Not satisfied with sharing Grimhorn’s fate, Bon Bon bit onto the metal railing, thanking Celestia that her upper teeth had been replaced along with the bottom ones. Now with a point of leverage, her body slammed into the side of the building as her reinforced jaw struggled to hold onto the railing.

She kicked off the wall, rotating back up to the roof and directly at a very confused unicorn mare.

“How did-” Was all Rarity managed to say before Bon Bon slammed into her like a freight train, sending both mares flying over the other end of the building.

What arms remained attached to the unicorn’s collar reorganized themselves into two strands, clutching at everything and anything in their way to slow down the fall. Bon Bon, on her part, decided for a more… direct approach to slowing down. This approach being, of course, slamming into several small pipes like a makeshift cannonball.

She landed harshly onto the factory yard, bouncing several times despite the floor being made of concrete. Rarity, on the other hoof, landed with the grace of… well… Rarity. The white unicorn looked annoyed at her opponent as several Spikes swarmed around her to replace her missing arms.

“I can do this all day, darling,” She taunted.

“So can I,” Bon Bon lied, in reality, she was having trouble with even seeing the mare through all the warning signs her eye was being bombarded with.

Bon Bon got back to her hooves, picking up the sword that had fallen nearby before staring defiantly at Rarity. She had to appear strong, even if her legs felt like they were about to give out. The armless dragons charged at her, tailed by the elegant white unicorn.

The first group was taken out by a quick horizontal slice. Their talismans held some magic, but not nearly enough to heal her wounds. Bon Bon lifted her head just in time to block a whip-hit from Rarity. The extra reach on her opponent’s weapon was going to be an issue.

Rarity spun the whip around in her arms before uncurling it directly at Bon Bon. She tried to dodge aside, but found herself to be firmly locked in place by a pair of Spikes that held onto her legs. She whirled her blade around to cut at them, but it was already too late. The sharp metal on the end of the whip slammed deep into her right shoulder, the barbs on the spikes locking it in like a fishing hook.

The strand of arms lurched upward, sending Bon Bon into the air as the sharp metal ripped her shoulder apart. Judging by the amount of pain and blood that exploded in her side, the hook was now stuck in whatever little flesh she had. The metal fingers holding it let go of the blade, leaving Bon Bon to float for an instant. She was distracted by a new source of pain, and then another, and another. Her eye cracked open to see the motive, Rarity had whipped her several times along the belly causing multiple deep gashes to open along her midsection.

Bon Bon collapsed onto the floor in a bloody heap, her sword falling away from her grasp.

“I told you, darling, nopony interferes with my work,” The white mare walked elegantly towards her downed opponent.

“D- doc…” She whispered into her communicator.

“By the queen! Bon Bon, what are-” The changeling started, but Bon Bon cut her off quickly.

“Divert all my power to my rear legs, now!”

The changeling gave a nod, not bothering to ask for an explanation.

“What are you muttering about, Sweetie? Speak up,” Rarity said, giving her a kind smile.

The unicorn raised her spear once more, grabbing it with every single arm on her collar. A small shock went through Bon Bon’s body, like a static shock, focused on her rear legs. Praised be the sun!

She saw Rarity’s eyes widen in shock as Bon Bon used every last bit of energy in her body to jump at her with the only weapon she had available: the steel spike lodged in her shoulder. A horrid gurgling sound emanated from the white mare’s throat as it was pierced by the sharpened metal. The arms holding the spear spazzed out as the pearly horn in her forehead shot out a rain of blue sparks.

Both mares tumbled onto the floor, their blood mixing together as it pooled below them. A loud explosion echoed from somewhere around them, a column of fire rising from their left. The silo that the Spikes had hit was probably full of something flammable. The building shook again as another silo went up in flames. Bon Bon turned to the sky, losing herself in its infinity.

“Bon! That place is going to blow! Get out of there!” Sandbar shouted at her.

“I’m… coming…” She replied weakly as she dragged herself towards the main gate.

Author's Note

Second chapter is up, on time.

I will be making a separate chapter for each mission, so the two people that actually read this can more or less predict what is in store for the next one. Once more I encourage criticism and hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Next one should be done by next wednesday.