This is the tale of Crimson Cross. A pony who joined the Equestrian Intelligence Agency as a wide eyed, patriotic pegasus, hoping to make his parents and his nation proud. How wrong he was.

Crimson is now the top agent in the EIA. Efficient at surveillance, interrogation and assassination. He has become a husk of a pony, a pony whose hooves are stained with the blood of countless traitors and criminals.

After another grim operation, Celestia has another one for him to take on, a different one that even for a pony as qualified as himself, is outside his area of expertise.