The Secret Life of Lala Song

~Fillydelphia, 2 years ago~

A silhouette trotted across the streets of the city, harboring things that could be crucial to the national security of Equestria. The silhouette was cloaked, but it seemed to have magic powers. But, the pony was being followed.

"I know you're there! Give me the bag, and we both get out of this," a voice said to the silhouette. It seemed to be coming from a young mare, a young adult mare. The mare stepped out, revealing herself to be a pink unicorn with a wavy brunette mane and tail. She was wearing a skin-tight form of gear, including a few weapons.

"Why do you want this, agent?" the cloaked pony said to the young mare, on a mission to get the items in the bag.

"You know why," the mare said. "The things in that bag are crucial to Equestria's security basis. It's my mission to retrieve those items and return them to the right place. Now, hand. It. OVER!"

The silhouette tried to run, only to be stopped by multiple earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, all dressed similar to the mare who had confronted her. Another pony, this time a stallion, grabbed the saddle bag off the mysterious figure, and the mare removed the pony's cloak. She looked down at a photograph, showing a unicorn mare with a turquoise mane, yellow body, and a cutie mark showing a sapphire over a magnifying glass. The mare looked up to the pony that was in the cloak, and saw the same pony.

"Yep, this is her, Agent Trace," the mare said to the stallion who removed the saddle bag. The earth pony stallion, Golden Trace, had a pale blue, almost grey, body color, with a golden mane that had brief spots of white, and a cutie mark of a traced pencil.

"Good. Sapphire Clue, you are under arrest by the Strategic Plan for Enforcement and Logic League for the burglary of national Equestrian data." Golden Trace said to the thief, sending her to a containment place before she could be properly detained in a facility. "Well, Agent Song, I don't know how we could have caught her without you,"

"It was nothing, just basic work, Trace." the agent mare said to the stallion. The mare, Lala Song, was a fellow agent from Ponyville, where she lived an average life when she wasn't on missions. "Listen, there's um, something I need to tell you."

"Sure, Lala. What is it?" her partner asked.

"Um, I'm leaving the agency, Trace," Lala said. "I just think I need to live a real average life. I can't do it here. I'm going back to Ponyville tomorrow morning. Um, this was my last case."

Golden Trace dropped his jaw in shock to his partner's news. "Lala, why didn't you tell me sooner? You didn't bother to tell me that you were quitting the agency?"

"Golden, I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want it to effect this case. I didn't want you to look at this any differently." Lala said reluctantly. "I'm sorry."

"Just, promise me one thing, Lala," Golden said. "Keep in touch with me, so I know you're safe. I don't want bad things happening to you. Promise?"

Lala nodded her head. "Of course."

~Ponyville, Present Day~

The sun had been up for about a half an hour over Ponyville before Lala had finally opened her eyes. She was in her bedroom on the third level of her home, which was also the music shop, Sweet Beats, which she co-owned and ran with her best friend, Melody Clef. Melody had been practically a sister to Lala, almost as if she was her long-lost twin. But, Lala already had two sisters, her older sister Torch, a member of the Ponytones, and her younger sister Tia, who was commonly wrecking havoc with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Lala, however, lived with Melody, one of the few ponies (other than her family) who knew her past life in S.P.E.L.L. Melody understood that she wanted to keep it secret, so they agreed to not tell anyone but her family and her coltfriend, Noteworthy. When Lala had first told him, he was shocked, but Lala knew that he could be trusted with the secret. However, some of Lala's closest friends didn't even know the secret. One of her other best friends, Butterscotch Savoury, a member of the Lunar Guard, didn't know about Lala's past life. Lala wasn't surprised that Butterscotch didn't know, since she had only joined the Lunar Guard recently, and she wouldn't find out about S.P.E.L.L. for some time. Lala had decided to let Butterscotch find out her past for herself, since she would eventually.

Lala found the fresh smell of banana nut muffins from Sugarcube Corner, most likely the freshest batch Melody could get after Derpy did her usual morning muffin rampage. Lala came down the steps to the second level, the kitchen and living area, where Melody was keeping the muffins from Sugarcube Corner warm.

"Mmm. Mrs. Cake make a new batch when you got there this morning?" Lala asked.

"Actually, no," Melody said. "I got the first batch. Got there before Derpy's muffin-pocalypse began. Pinkie gave me these personally. Said that they were specifically for you. I know how much you love banana nut muffins, so Pinkie snagged these for me."

"Great. I'm starving." Lala said. She levitated a muffin with her blue magic grasp and took the wrapper off, then took a bite.

"So, how'd you sleep?" Melody asked.

"Terribly." Lala replied. "I had another S.P.E.L.L. dream. About that last case I worked before I left. I guess just this whole thing with what happened during that call the other night is what's been triggering it."

“What is it with this call that’s bugging you? I bet it’s just Golden Trace trying to get caught up with you.” Melody explained. “You never know.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Lala said nervously. “I can almost assure you that he doesn’t want to just chat.”

“Well, whatever he wants, just be nice. We don’t need another first day back mishap.” Melody reminded. She was speaking of what happened Lala’s first day back to Ponyville after she left S.P.E.L.L. Lala didn’t like to be reminded of it, because she nearly killed her sister, Tia. Lala was fifteen at the time, and Tia was ten. Lala accidentally shot one of her arrows in her quiver and it nearly hit Tia, so after that, Lala kept her old S.P.E.L.L. gear in a safe where a limited few knew the code to unlock it.

She had a close circle of friends, some of which are either current or ex-S.P.E.L.L. agents. However, her closest friends barely even knew about S.P.E.L.L.; the only ones really knowing anything were Melody and Noteworthy. Melody had been there to see Lala be recruited for S.P.E.L.L., watching her board the train to leave. Once Lala had started her relationship with Noteworthy, they had made an agreement not to keep secrets from each other, which lead to her telling him about S.P.E.L.L. He wasn’t jealous when she told her about her ex-partner, Golden Trace, who was like a big brother to her. He had no reason to be jealous either, since Golden was five years older than the two of them.

Lala had been thinking so hard she didn’t even realize Melody had spoken to her again. “What was that?” Lala asked.

“I said, just relax. If anything, you could talk to Captain Atlantean about Butterscotch. I know you want to tell her.” Melody explained.

“I already have that scheduled, Mel.” Lala said. “I’m going to talk to him, and if he says no, I will eventually tell her myself.”

“Good luck.” Melody said, putting the leftover muffins away. “I’m gonna go down and set up. You want to help out today?”

Lala hadn’t worked in the store since Golden had called her. She wanted to accept, but she honestly couldn’t focus on her job when she had other matters weighing on her hooves. “I can’t,” she replied, “I have um, packing to do, since I will be in Canterlot overnight.”

“Okay,” Melody sighed. Melody had wished she would’ve said yes. Fortunately, there weren’t usually many customers in the shop, but every once and a while, there would be a pony or two who would come in. Melody made her way down to the shop to set up before opening. Melody had thought of the time she had spent worrying while Lala was away. This time was no different.

Lala didn’t go back to her room to pack. She immediately dashed out of the kitchen window and landed face-first on the ground below her. And, she didn’t even see Rainbow Dash walking by.

“Woah, you okay there, Lala?” Rainbow asked.

Lala, still face-down on the dirt road, replied, “I’m good.” It was muffled, so she wasn’t sure if Rainbow had heard her or not.

“Okay, if you say so,” Rainbow replied. She started trotting away, just as Lala was getting up. Lala began walking over to the Hay Burger. Sure, she loved hayburgers, but that wasn’t the reason she was headed over there. She had to meet a close friend, an ally. Once she arrived, she sat in a booth with none other that Butterscotch’s coltfriend, Audiofilly.

“You came alone, right?” Audio asked.

“Nobody but myself,” Lala answered.

“Good.”

“So, what is this about, Audio? S.P.E.L.L.? Butterscotch? Golden’s phone call?” Lala asked.

“The answer is D, all of the above.” he said. “First up, Butterscotch.”

“I really don’t want to have the whole ‘Butterscotch is going to know eventually so just let her find out naturally.’ talk again." Lala said.

"I'm not here to give you that speech, Lala. I'm here to tell you that I can't keep the charade up much longer around Butterscotch. You know as much as I do that we can't keep this up for much longer."

"I agree. That's why I'm going to talk to Cap. Atlantean when I head to Canterlot tomorrow."

"Can you handle him? He's pretty stubborn when it comes to his guards.”

“I dealt with a group of S.C.A.L.E. officers for over two weeks. I can handle a meeting with Atlantean.”

Audio rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to recall Lala’s case with a group of agents from the Strategic Center for Aid and Law Enforcement, or S.C.A.L.E. He assumed as much she was making a point, so he went along with her idea, and continued.

“What about Trace?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“I’m meeting him for dinner tomorrow. Let’s hope he just wants to chat.” Lala answered, speaking with a concerned look. “The last thing I need is to be leaving my friends and family again for another life-or-death mission.”

As Lala said that, Audio’s hPhone beeped. Lala knew what that beep meant: a mission. Audio looked at his phone. “Lala…”

“You have a mission. You better get packed for Canterlot. Stop by my hotel if you have time.” Lala explained.

Audio nodded and waved his hoof as he said goodbye to his friend. Lala waved back, and purchased a hot chocolate to go. Once she received her order, she paid and left, walking back to Sweet Beats.

The next day, Lala had her bags packed for Canterlot and prepared to leave.

“Call me when you get there, Lala. ‘Kay?” Melody requested.

Lala giggled. “I will, Mel. Take good care of the store.”

Melody nodded her head and waved goodbye as Lala walked out the front door. as she was walking to the train station, she ran into Butterscotch.

“Lala, hey!” Butterscotch squealed with delight. “I’m free this afternoon, maybe we can hang out?”

Lala had to tell Butterscotch no, even though she wanted to say yes. “Sorry, Butterscotch, I can’t. I’m headed to Canterlot on business and I won’t be back until tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

Lala could see the disappointment in Butterscotch’s eyes. “Are you having some sort of secret rendezvous with Audio? He left for Canterlot last night. I saw you two yesterday at the Hay Burger. Is he cheating on me with you?”

“No, Butterscotch,” Lala assured. “We were just two friends talking, that’s all. He got a call while we were there to come to Canterlot ASAP. Important matters. And, as for me, well, I have tour details to handle.”

“Alrighty,” Butterscotch said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Yep, bye.” Lala and Butterscotch waved goodbye to each other before Lala made her way to the train station. The train arrived shortly after Lala, and she boarded the train.

hPhone in hoof, she thought out loud. “Atlantean, please say yes. And Golden, please don’t bring me back.”

And in that moment, Lala hoped her world would change for the better, not for the worse.