Mission 5091
A pony clad in all black stumbled through an abandoned cellar, or so it seemed. That pony coughed up clouds of gray dust that it had earlier inhaled. When it reached the center of the cellar, its mission goal came into sight. Shelves among shelves among shelves of books covered in cobwebs and filthy gray lint lined the far wall. To a normal pony, it would be an antique fortune waiting to be sold, but to this pony, it was two words: Mission Complete. This pony pulled up the edge of its ski mask and retrieved something soft from the depths of its pocket, which it attacked the bookshelves with.
The pony stepped back, happy with its quick job of dusting. Its handy dandy feather duster was put back where it had come from, and the ski mask was resting after the important duty of covering this pony’s nostrils from dust. Its clothes weren’t saved though. The previously black pony was now an undesirable shade of gray. It shrugged. The efforts were worth it, because during the dusting it had found what it was looking for. The pony sidestepped to move in front of said item. It ran its hoof in wonder down the thick spine of the tome, and quickly snapped back to the job at hand. The gray pony lifted the great mass onto its arms, but even the trained muscles were nothing to the sudden weight of a very large book. The novel fell flat on the floor with a loud thud, and the pony froze, looking around for any sign that another pony had heard. That pony decided that nothing was amiss, so it scanned the tome with a helpful antigravity device and lifted it. Much lighter the pony thought with relief. I must bring this to Twilight Sparkle.
The formerly gray pony stepped hoof into Ponyville, a considerably sleepy and rundown town. That pony had taken its soiled clothes off, so it wouldn’t attract attention to itself. The pony walked quickly toward the center of town, wondering again where Twilight Sparkle’s house was. “Come on, you’ve been there before,” the pony whispered. It scowled and walked up to another of its kind. “Hello, could you please tell me where Twilight Sparkle lives?” it asked politely. The mare that she had asked smiled broadly.
“Ah sure as sugar do!” said a faintly familiar farm gal voice. The pony pulled out its glasses from its pocket and rubbed them as if it were a habit. Then, it arranged the glasses on its face, casually flicking a hidden switch. The glasses had a miniscule computer inside of them, which flared to life and gave the pony an augmented view of reality. Applejack, average farm pony. Friend of Twilight Sparkle. The pony smiled. Its handy glasses had listed all that it had needed to know, and within five seconds of actually putting them on.
“Could you please give me directions?” the pony prodded. Applejack looked insulted.
“Wah, I can do better than that! Ah’ll personally escort you to Twilight’s house!” she declared proudly.
“Thank you for the help!” exclaimed the mysterious pony. Applejack pushed the compliment away modestly.
“Aw shucks, it was nothing. Hay, if y’all ever need anything, gimme a call,” she said, walking away. The pony smiled for a few more seconds, then dove into the bushes and pulled on its two piece black uniform, with a black shirt and pants. The pony wanted Twilight Sparkle to know that it wasn’t just any pony. It would make explaining a lot easier.
“Twilight Sparkle?” called the pony as it walked in. A muffled thud of hoof steps came down the stairs, and somepony called, “Yes?”
“Hello,” said the pony simply as a lavender mare came into sight. Twilight stopped as soon as she saw the black clothed pony at her front door. She instantly made the connection to previous secretive happenings.
“Follow me,” she said, walking into her basement. The pony followed and watched as she turned. “Stand still,” she ordered, and walked around the pony before her. When she looped back around to the front of the unidentified stranger, she glanced at the ski mask it wore, then reached her hooves down and grabbed its pants, dragging them down to the floor. The pony before her looked very confused, so she shrugged. “I had to know mare or stallion,” she said. The mare in front of her smiled.
“They did say you were an odd one,” she said. Twilight looked up.
“Mmmmm, and who would that ‘they’ be?” she asked. The mare glanced in all corners of the room to make sure they were alone.
“The EIA,” she said quietly. Twilight nodded.
“Ah, so it’s the EIA this time. I should have known the Equestrian Intelligence Agency would come calling on me soon,” she sighed and sat down on a nearby couch. “So what does this agency want to know?”
“We don’t need any information from you. You want to give it, and ask for some advice,” she said vaguely. Twilight nodded, though confused. The mare before her sighed and held up a badge. “The EIA is an underground organization, formed to unearth the few big secrets that our rulers have hidden from us. On this mission, Mission 5091, I was sent to retrieve this book, whose whereabouts were only slightly known. It was said to have information on…” she trailed and cast a reflexive glance around the library. Twilight smiled cautiously.
“I think we’re alone,” she reassured the stranger.
“It was said to have information on alicorns,” she said earnestly. Twilight’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean… alicorns?” she asked, “As in, what kind of information?”
“That we have only guessed at, but certain sources tell us that it could possibly be on how our two rulers were created,” she said with trained calmness. Nothing revealed the excitement she had within. Twilight gasped.
“Why, that’s something that has only been fantasized about! I always thought that the alicorns just… were. I’ve never asked any-“ she stopped rambling and set her eyes on the book that had been placed before her. “May I?” she asked, stopping the hand that had instinctually reached out to open it. Her guest smiled.
“Of course.”
