Expert Analysis

The hum of an old buck's electric wheelchair filled the grand hall as the night rain steadily fell outside. Every few moments a flash of lightning could been seen through the massive stained glass windows that lined each wall. Massive concrete pillars reached from the ceiling and met the shiny floor, adorned with a complex pattern of geometric shapes. The grey buck slowly cruised down the hall in his chair accompanied by a light blue mare with a swooping blue mane. She walked with such grace as she followed, bringing a shimmer of light to the otherwise dreary room. She had a notepad tucked beneath her wing and a trio of dragonflys swirling about on her flank.

The grey buck retrieved a small cloth from his coat pocket and hacked into it fiercely before turning to the blue mare. "I understand you're here to learn about 47." He said before hacking into the cloth once more.

"Yes, I'm writing a report on her involvement with the Maresanto Corporation," Flitter said in a surprisingly firm voice.

"Well you've made the right choice coming to me. I was the lead investigator for the Celestial Defense Unit and founder of Operation White-Wash. After Equestria's industrial spike, small mercenary cells began to pop up which excelled at stealth assassinations. We'd managed to catch a few but the killings just got worse. In the five years following the spike, 'accidental' deaths went up by 500%. The public was in a panic. The royal sisters decided something had to be done. The CDU became the main line of defense against these organizations. We spent countless hours tapping phones, doing surveillance, and launching counter measures during events we suspected they would strike." The buck paused for a moment to catch his breath and continued. "One organization we followed very closely was The Agency. From what we can tell, they're the best of the best. They're cold, calculating, and damn hard to catch. Unlike their competition, we've yet to bring one of them into custody alive. Now you're here to learn about Agent 47 but I must warn you, her story is not a simple one. She was different. I have knowledge that nopony should know, but I will share it with you if that is your wish. Are you ready?"

The buck sat silently awaiting a response. Flitter sat for a moment contemplating her decision before giving a determined nod.

"Good. Well I guess the next question I have is where do you want to start?"

"The best place would be from the beginning. I would specifically like to know about her connections with Maresanto."

"Ahh, Maresanto. What a dirty bunch of liars. I guess that would be as good a place as any to start. As you know, Equestria has changed greatly in the last decade. For years, Equestria received all its power from magical gems. Gems are not innately powerful, they needed to be enchanted by a unicorn to become useful. They provided sufficient energy but were expensive to produce, and a unicorn’s magic is far from endless. Then came the discovery of coal." The last word brought a look of disgust to his face as they reached their destination. The pair arrived at a small table that sat atop a small granite staircase. The mare took her seat and admired the beautiful stained glass window to her right for a moment. The masterpiece featured Celestia raising the sun with her mighty power. The buck’s hacking broke the mare from her gaze. She sat her note pad down and waited patiently for the sickly buck to continue.

"Let me ask you a question miss, who has control of the magic?"

"Well the unicorns of course." she responded.

"Wrong. All ponies are magical."

"How so?"

"While unicorns have the most physical, tangible power, earth and pegasus ponies magic is much more subtle. Pegasi can walk on clouds and control the weather. Do you understand just how important that is?" Flitter gave him a nod signaling him to continue.

"Earth ponies hold an equally great power. They have a knack for anything agricultural. As they say 'Let them plant it, and it will grow'. As you've probably already realized, together Pegasi and earth ponies could completely control the food supply at any given moment. This didn't sit well with some of the more elite and wealthy unicorns of Canterlot. With a dumb-founding bankroll behind them, Maresanto opened their doors and started playing God. Are you familiar with Biotechnology, Flitter?"

She lifted her head from writing to give him a small nod, then went back to scribbling on the pad.

"Biotech is the practice of genetically modifying an organism to suit the meddler's needs. They started simple enough; creating corn that could yield twice the product in half the time. Making tomatos that naturally defended against bugs and disease. At this point, the scientist saw just how far they could take biotech. They'd just let Pandora out of the box, and couldn't be happier. They started off testing on small animals, making them faster and stronger. Every time they tweaked a life form’s genetic makeup, they would encounter many complications. One incident I remember clearly from their second year of operations. Can you imagine a cute little bunny slaughtering a whole room of scientists?" The buck dropped a creme folder on the table and took a sip from some contraption connected to his chair. Flitter slid the folder over and looked through it tensely. The folder had a full case report along with a series of crime scene photos. The white room had broken glass everywhere and the walls were covered in dark red blood, as if the animal had literally tried painting the room with its victims. She looked through every photo but couldn't find one with any bodies.

"I don't get it, where are all the bodies?" She asked curiously.

"There were twelve of them." He reached over to the photos and waved his hoof all over the room, pointing out different blood spatters and piles of gore as 'bodies'. It took all the mare had to keep her lunch done after making this gruesome revelation. After a few moments, she regained her composure and closed the folder. The buck took that as a sign to get back to his story.

"As you can see playing with genetics can have a very bad outcome. Maresanto Corp didn't even blink at the incident. The next day a fresh set of scientist were back in the lab trying to figure out what went wrong. The bunny escaped and hasn't been caught to this day. The board members decided it was time to go deeper. Gene splicing experiments became the norm for a while. They worked tirelessly attempting to fuse all different types of creatures together, taking the best aspects of each and forcing them into the final product. The most intriguing I'd heard about was Unicorn X Dragon. Apparently all subjects were deemed 'failures', but I wouldn't doubt they’d keep it a secret if they were successful. They were shooting for a unicorn with a scale hide that could breath fire. They also wanted wings for obvious reasons." The buck stopped for a second to catch his breath.

"At this point, the unicorns ruled the food industry. Earth ponies were no longer needed to tend the land so they became the main brute workforce for Equestria. They were subjected to long hours in horrible conditions. On top of that, they weren't even paid enough to feed their families."

"But if earth ponies are so great a growing stuff, why didn't they just grow their own food?"

"A good question. When Maresanto began producing its genetically modified seeds they patented them. The legal system is a fickle mistress, my dear. The Corporation hired goons to enforce their patents against the earth pony farmers. When a plant produces pollen the wind blows it away and takes it to another plant to pollinate it. If they found even one plant on a pony’s that was pollinated by theirs, they would sue them into the ground. So most gave up. Soon after, Maresanto’s entry into the market, we started seeing a series of crimes and began to link them together. We later realized we had something much bigger on our hands than a few killers. A whole network of highly trained and effective assassins had formed right under our noses. Our research shows they had been around for the last few decades, growing in strength and numbers. We don't know how their numbers rose so quickly without us noticing. Agent 47 was the star player in their arsenal. She’s quick, mostly discrete aside from a few 'incidents', and a stellar marksmare. Some say she could hit a bit at a thousand yards in the rain. This is the report on the first case we could link her to." The buck slid another folder over which the mare flipped through and studied its pages carefully.

***

"Good evening 47, I trust you've been briefed on how this works. My name is Diana and I will be giving you your assignments for the duration of your employment. Payment will be directly deposited into your offshore account. Bonuses will be awarded for being extra discrete. Any questions?"

She took my silence as a no and continued.

"Your first target is an earth pony politician that goes by the name Justice. He is the head senator for the Earth party but has been accepting large sums of money to misuse his position. His known ties to Filthy Rich have left him in bad standing with the majority of his colleagues in all three parties. He helped to pass the Biotech Research Act and outsourced thousands of jobs to the Zebra Badlands. Our client requests that he die slowly, to take a moment to think about the lives he’s ruined."

Diana paused for a moment while my laptop began pulling up different pictures and building schematics. The left side pulled up the picture of a dark brown buck with a white mane. Under the picture was a short description and a list of random details I could use to my advantage. His favorite foods, hangouts, and everyday habits. The last space gave a detailed medical history including surgeries and different medications he's been taking.

"The hit will take place at a dinner party for the elite of Canterlot. The event is being hosted by none other than Blueblood. The mansion sits atop a rolling hillside surrounded by a large spiked fence. The event is invite only and we've secured one just for you. However, once inside you'll need to disguise yourself. The door buck may not notice you’re not of the upper class, but the other ponies sure will. There are two secondary targets noted in your briefing files. Only engage them if it will not interfere with your primary objectives. The party starts at nine. Good luck 47."

The transmission ended with a small burst of static as the connection severed.

***

The manor glistened in the moonlight as snow slowly fell to the ground. The contractors spared no expense to make this mansion a work of art. The front side was lined with large windows separated by tall white pillars. Elite ponies were arriving in the finest carriages in all of Equestria, as was I. As we approached the gate, a husky brown pony with an assault rifle slung across his back signaled for us to stop. My driver handed over my invitation, and after a few seconds he nodded to the other guard. The gates slowly creaked open for us to go through. I noted the front gate wasn't going to be an option for my escape unless I wanted to become a swiss cheese pony. My driver let me out at the front door before pulling off back toward the front gate.

The outfit I choose was far from subtle, but would fit in quite well with Canterlot's elite. I was sporting a jet black evening gown with deep red accents. My mane was tied up in an elegant twisted bun with two red metal spikes keeping it together. As I entered the mansion, a buck in a tuxedo offered me a tray of hors d'oeuvres, to which I politely declined. I soon found myself standing in the largest room of all. In the middle of the room was a grand piano that sat empty with a giant crystal chandelier overhead. A large circular staircase stood to my left reaching up to the second story. The walls were lined with fine portraits of several different ponies. Some I recognized as generals, others looked like politicians. There was one pony that had more paintings than any other in the room, Blueblood himself. The feeling of pompous self-righteousness was thick in the room, each attendee congratulating each other on jobs well done and boasting about their own personal accomplishments.

The chatter died down quickly as a small dark grey mare with a mane of gold slowly made her way to the grand piano. She was wearing a stunning white evening gown with a small golden trim. I quickly noticed her as one of my secondary targets for this job, Short Strings. Apparently, after becoming a famous concert pianist, she began to dip her hooves into underground crime. She was from a broken family, leaving all the resources for corruption close at hoof. She opened her music book and began to tap her hooves on the array of keys before her. The sound that she produced was magnificent, filling the manor with its joyful tune. Slowly, her horn let off a faint blue light before strengthening. The beam poured up onto the chandelier which scattered the light all across the room. She filled the space with all the colors of the rainbow, but slowly the tone of her piece darkened, the tempo dropped and the colors shifted to their darker opposites. I couldn't help being caught in the performer’s snare like every other pony in the room. The lights dimmed as she played her final note, and rose to the sound of a hundred hoof claps. She bowed to her audience and exited through the door to her left. Soon after she left, Blueblood took the stage and approached the microphone.

"That was some show, wasn't it?" He asked the crowd, to which he received a short clap. "The next piece begins in twenty minutes and you will not want to miss this one, trust me." He has no idea. Blueblood left the stage and rejoined his group at a table close by. He began conversing with Justice, my main target, and an assortment of arm candy mares he'd probably had flown in from exotic regions. There was one mare in the group that stood out. She was shorter than the rest but absolutely stunning. The others had nothing on her. The white unicorn was wearing a beautiful gown fit for a royal, which went perfectly with her curly purple mane. Her elegance was astounding. I had seen her before on posters all over Equestria. Her name was Rarity and she was one of the biggest names in fashion this country had ever seen. Since then, she'd been hired on by Maresanto as Head of Public Relations. I took a seat nearby and eavesdropped for a bit, knowing whatever I picked up would probably be quite interesting.

"Well my darling, you see, we can't just let anypony have access to our technology. The profit margin is much too high to ever contemplate letting our competitors in on it. Besides, we invented the technology so it is our decision whether to share or not," Blueblood said in a self-entitled tone.

"So you're saying we have the power to feed all of Equestria, but we won't because of the potential profit?" Rarity shot back.

"That is exactly what I'm saying. They controlled the food supply for the last thousand years. Why should we give them biotechnology? So they can become the controllers again? We unicorns are the superior race, why shouldn't we be treated that way?" This statement received nods from most ponies in proximity to him.

Rarity turned to Justice and directed the next statement towards him. "With these ludicrous new laws you've put in place, farmers can't survive on their own. If they even become remotely successful, you send your goons to shut them down. The whole situation is absolutely dreadful." Her face showed a look of disgust as she took a sip from her mixed drink.

"Miss Rarity, the laws we've passed have been absolutely necessary. If they have a plant on their farm that was pollinated by Maresanto, that plant is Maresanto’s property. Stealing is stealing, no matter which way you slice it," Justice said while slicing into a fresh cherry pie.

"Stealing?! So by your logic if I slip my ring into your bag without you knowing, you've stolen it." The mare was clearly getting quite agitated.

"In that case no, but as it applies to agriculture yes." Justice said with a smug look of satisfaction.

"So you would rather have a hard working farmer go to jail and his family go hungry, as opposed to losing a few bits!?"

"Precisely, and would you please calm down, you're upsetting the guests with your liberal jibber-jabber." Blueblood spouted. Oh no, he just fucked up big time.

"Why you little---!" Rarity shouted while swing her hoof towards Blueblood. The slap either hit him so hard or caught him by surprise that he fell straight out of his chair. The other guest stared wide-eyed as the white mare stormed off. As she passed by, we locked eyes and I could see the tears starting to form.

I took the moment of confusion to make an unnoticed exit. My file on Justice said he was deathly allergic to Storm Stalk, a popular seasoning found only in the Everfree Forest. To those affected, Storm Stalk would cause death within minutes, and it was a quite painful process. The body attempts to fight the foreign substance but unknowingly helps the toxins circulate quicker. Once the toxin finds the stomach, it fuses with the stomach acid ducts and orders them to produce a higher, much more potent digestive fluid. The acid quickly eats away the stomach lining causing ruptures into the rest of the body. Death quickly follows. My best bet would be to acquire a waiter outfit and hand deliver the trap. Seeing most of the waiters coming and going from the second floor, I climbed the circular staircase and scanned the hall for signs of a wash room. All the doors looked the same, and opening each door was out of the question, so I'd have to find another way.To the left of the staircase, two mares on break conversed about one of the stallions below. They looked so close they could have been sisters, with matching coats of green and blue manes.

"I'll be back in a minute, gotta go use the restroom." the left one said. Bingo.

As she started down the hall, I followed from a distance. She turned around once, but I just pretended to admire a portrait that hung beside me. The mare rounded the corner a few steps ahead of me. Once I reached it, I peeked around to see her enter a door to the right. The hall was pretty much empty aside from an armed guard patrolling the whole mansion. I stood outside the door pretending to examine a picture of the princesses, while secretly preparing to knock this mare out. The guard left the hall just in time as the mare emerged just seconds later. I caught her off guard and pushed her back in. We struggled for a moment until I bashed her head upside one of the sinks. She slumped to the ground as I cradled her in my arms. I could still feel a pulse so I hadn't killed her. I dragged her into the stall and proceeded to take her outfit. Her perfume smelled lovely, a mix of oranges and wild berries. I left the stall and purposefully jammed the lock closed before hearing loud hoof steps coming from outside.

"Is everything ok in there?" Some buck asked from outside the door.

"O yes, everything's fine. I just slipped is all." I said in my most lady-like voice.

"Good, well then I'll just come in and assist you."

"No,no. That won't be necessary. I'm fine."

"But I insist!" He said before bursting in with his pistol drawn. I quickly floated both the red spikes from my mane and tossed one at him. It hit his gun and knocked it to the ground before he could get a shot off. I lunged at him with my remaining spike and nicked his cheek, dropping small red dots on the tile flooring. He lowered his head and started to charge me. As he approached I jumped to the side and held out the spike for another slash. Instead of hitting it he spun around and apple-bucked me into oblivion. I hit the wall with a sharp *crack* and fell to the ground. Within seconds the guard was on top choking me. He muttered something about 'having his way with me' before finishing me off. And that was about the time that two deadly sharp spikes rammed into the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord and turning his posture to that of a sack of potatoes. I withdrew my spikes and rolled the heavy buck off of me. There wasn't anywhere left for me to stash his body, so I'd just have to make the room inaccessible. After grabbing his pistol, I cleaned my spikes off in the sink and secured them back into my mane. I love these things, fashionable and deadly effective.

Upon exiting the washroom I purposefully jammed the lock to buy me some time. With a quick look at my PDA I found the stairs to the attic were right down the hall. With a little picking I was able to pop the lock and get to the top floor. To my surprise, the space wasn't filled with fine furniture and trinkets, but large grey file cabinets and personal computers. I rooted around in the file cabinets for a few moments and grabbed a couple files that caught my eye. They weren't one of my objectives, but I'm sure The Agency would be interested in anything I found. Afterwards, I located the main support for the massive chandelier overlooking the piano. It was held up by a thick metal cord that started from the ceiling. I pulled out one of my gadgets made specifically for a situation like this. I clipped the small green box to the middle of the line and primed the charge. This little box will produce a super hot flame when detonated, strong enough to melt the thick cord almost instantly. Doing my best to curb my curiosity, I made my way back to the second floor. That little incident with the guard put me behind schedule so I had to hurry. The show resumed in five minutes and my window of opportunity was closing.

I quickly located the kitchen and ordered up one Gin and Tonic. Justice's file said it was his favorite drink, and I couldn't chance him passing up the beverage. The barpony whipped it up in the blink of an eye, tossing the bottles around and doing all kinds of fancy tricks while pouring. She served it up on a silver tray with some very intricate metal engravings, definitely an earth ponies work. After exiting, I put three drops of Storm Stalk extract in the concoction, more than enough to end him even if he had medicine on hand. The group was still seated at the front-most table, minus the white mare. As I approached I caught the back end of their conversation.

"... And that is why those brutes aren't fit to hold public office. There's no way they could be in a position of leadership without running the country into the ground." Justice continued to spout off about unicorn superiority while the rest nodded their heads in agreement.

"Gin and Tonic, sir," I asked in the most delicate voice I could manage.

"Why yes, how did you know?" He asked.

"Inside tip," I replied, giving him a flirty wink. He sat his drink down and stirred It for a minute before taking a small sip. That's right you bastard, drink up.

Now that all the pieces were in play, it was time to make my exit. Intel said my best bet was an underground walkway leading out through the storage shed out back. The path was designed as an escape route from Blueblood's mansion in the event of an attack. I pulled out a smoke and walked out back casually, as if I was going on break. The back porch was empty aside from a little white unicorn quietly weeping. She immediately noticed my presence and turned to me.

"Please miss, do you have a minute?" She begged.

"Well I'm on a tight schedule..."

"O, but it will only take a moment. Please." She stared at me with those teary eyes and I gave in.

"Okay," I sighed, knowing I could blow the whole mission right here.

"I can't take it anymore. I joined thinking I could make a difference. Make sure every foal has a full stomach regardless what situation the parents were in. Help Equestria become a better nation. The only thing we've done since then is hurt everypony else. We play God everyday and put a stranglehold on the food industry. We make them slave away in the factories for next to nothing. How can I live knowing all I do is hurt ponies?" Rarity asked

"You don't." I replied.

"I don't quite follow."

"All souls will meet their end one day. You can only strive to make up for the evil by doing good. The question is, are you a good pony or a bad pony?"

"I... I just don’t know anymore." From inside I heard the pianist starting her second performance.

"I'm sorry, but I must be going," I said as I rose and began walking toward the shed.

"But I never caught your name!" Rarity shouted at me. Right after I heard the performance suddenly stop due to Justice’s wheezing.

"47," I said low enough that she couldn't hear. I pressed the detonator and trotted off into the snow, the screams of Canterlot's elite sounding like a sweet melody of panic and confusion.