Two heavy maglocks disengaged in quick succession and a door opened onto a set of plasti-board furniture half-buried in moving boxes as the fiber optics in the wall lit up in a rainbow.

"RAINBOW FALLS RANCH - WELCOME HOME .

There was a whirr as the air kicked on, followed a few seconds later by the buzz of a bad bearing in the fan unit.

"Oh come on!"

Dante Haze grumbled as he sat the large saddlebag on the counter, boxes with Mega-Stuffer shack logos poking from under the cover, and debated whether he was annoyed enough to call in the problem. A glance at the timer on his commlink drew a frown. It could be hours before the building’s ancient maintenance drone trundled through the ducts to the problem and it wouldn't do for it to see something it shouldn't so he'd have to keep his coat on, metaphorically.

"Ugh, well at least I can relax...." He took out his modified drone and went through his now familiar rite. Checking for cameras while the new Neo-Net personal agent icon on beeped to confirm it was scanning for unexpected signal sources. A final astral check and he was satisfied.

"Oh yeahhhhh," Dante sighed as he released the magic bound up in his body. He released the bag clasp to pick a real apple out from the pile and licked his lips. Once again his eyes swirled with amethyst. By the time he was around the corner a similar crackle had run across his coat and left it the pearlescent white that was fast becoming his new casual. Passing the bathroom vanity he found his tail softly brushing the floor and against a stack of moving boxes.

He stopped and looked in the mirror with a sigh. There was no indication of the buzz cut he had given himself right after getting home from the museum, at the time half worried that KE would be knocking down his door. Half worried that Silky Sheets would ask him about some strange shimmery blue hair he found in the room Dante had used. So far neither had happened, but less than a week and some biting hunger pains later his Cover Mare worthy mane and tail were back.

He stared at the reflection that looked back from between various AR notes Dante had tacked up. On one side "Wickham, remember?" and the core details from his latest alias. On the other a singular question. "Who is Tisiphone?" His reflection, staring back, gave no answers.

"Might as well...," he grumbled and set down his apple. Retrieving his medical kit he checked again that the antenna was disabled and had it run a full diagnostic. The unit beeped and did nothing.

"Come on you piece of junk."

The box did nothing. Dante tapped the box and spun it around to find the AR readout indicating 'CONFIRM NEW USER PROFILE Y/N?'

"Oh for the love of a mangy manticore, I'm not a new user, Confirm profile Glass Darkly."

"OVERRIDE BIOMETRIC MISMATCH?"

"Yes, you stupid machine….I have no idea how I’m having so much difficulty with security scanners if a color change screws up the average sensor this much…." Dante glared at the offending box his pupils narrowing to slits in a way alien to any pony else before returning to round irises.

Finally the box scanned and hummed, pricked a leg, and finally spat out a report. Dante's mouth went drawn.

1) Excessive Calcium levels, at risk for kidney stones.
2) Unclear Endocrine markers
3) Possible cancer of the horn

Dante felt like his heart had fallen into his stomach. He was no fool, after a moment an idea that had occurred previously percolated as he took in the shadowy scan results.

"All the headaches...," he whispered as he looked at the image of the growth on the underside of his forehead, "but I don't even have a horn."

Dante coughed as his voice cracked, the stress of the moment too much. His purple eyes watered as he considered something insane, the warble that had softened his voice forgotten. His gaze flicked to data chips from his Metagenetics lectures, one of the few things he had unpacked.

"Dante...you might be turning into a unicorn, or worse," the tremulous whisper escaped his lips.

It made sense on a certain level. His magic had always been strong for an Earth Pony. If there was an astral template his body was trying to achieve that would explain the change in coloration and some of the other weirdness. The headaches would be a given. His mane and coat, while totally out of character for a rugged earther, wouldn't be THAT flamboyant on a Unicorn stallion.

It was an attractive solution. It would draw looks, and whispers, but honestly who could fault him if his metagenes had suddenly decided to defect to Canterlot. But there was an If… If he could explain the...other... things. He wasn't aware of any variant of unicorn that was an emotion eater. Maybe...there was another answer, he almost dared not consider the word. Alicorn. The tabloids had been full of wild accusations after the Royal Lie had been exposed. There was more that the world didn't know about its former overlords than it did and while breathtakingly rare it was not without precedence. He had no doubts that if he looked he could find an entire litany of conspiracy theories arguing that the Mi Amore Cadenza was using the Crystal Heart as the lynchpin of a dark ritual designed to conquer in the name of the Crystal Quebecois.

Dante leaned against the wall and tried to consider the ramifications.

"Silky would have a fit." Dante macabrely laughed, imagining the plaintive whines of how unfair it was...

A frown crossed Dante's face. Silky Sheets. They had no business being in that museum. There might as well have been a sign labeled 'sketchy situation.' The result had still been worth 9,000 nu-bits from the Museum Curator out of his depth if only because they had argued that it would have been even worse if they hadn't been there including the ire of the Solari Foundation. His persona of Edmond Dantes had still been a casualty as a consequence. Silky was going to be a problem. If not from his vindictive streak and penchant towards acting first and thinking later then from the fact he kept loosely tying the same ID and company to incidents.

He had cited his company at the KE station, again when questioned at the museum. He had gone off halfcocked when they had stolen the car and had almost killed the one captive that could satiate Knight Errant’s paranoia. Someone or Some agent was going to put it together. Tartarus be damned it was likely Silky's sister already had. Dante wasn't worried about himself. Neither alias of Dorian Gray, nor Edmond Dantes, had ever really existed nor was he leaving forwarding addresses as he changed homes and identities. Gwynn though. The naive Griffin was well within the blast radius if Silky went down, and as far as Dante could tell the unicorn noble had done little to mitigate the threat...

Of course, he himself had entertained the notion of stealing the Alicorn Amulet for himself…for all of about 5 seconds. A review of the history of the piece had confirmed his gut feeling. He would have gained the amulet, and the immediate attention of the opposing mage, The Solari Foundation, and one ex-Princess of Magic and her pet dragon. That was way too much attention, especially since….

Dante’s stomach rumbled. He thought back to the mid-level manager he had ambushed the night before. The new Agent was helping with finding and verifying targets that warranted his attention. He didn’t want another Sea Whisper, and the updates to his car should avoid any further possibility of someone data-mining the grid records and noticing the common presence of the same battered Jackrabbit sedan at each incident. But all his money was going out again as nearly as fast as it came, and in the meantime, he kept hunting ponies not that dissimilar from Silky Sheets. In another life…

Dante smiled as he imagined what it would be like to grab Silky Sheets somewhere private and start draining from the well of that massive ego…

…but no… as much as he didn’t trust the secretive occult organization Silky belonged to…especially since the museum attackers had been linked to the mysterious 'Couch Mare Club.' As much as he was sure Silky was going to get Gwynn seriously compromised he shouldn’t think that way…

He stood up and looked in the mirror turning his muzzle back and forth…and to his annoyance found it just noticeably slimmer and rounder…Dante shook his mane and tried to imagine himself sitting on a beach in the Caribbean league surrounded by mares who adored the pretty unicorn stallion look. Starswirl’s beard he had watched enough music videos be filmed with unicorn rap stars, there had to be a little truth to the lies.

Dante looked down at the print out again before he deleted it…

“Wait what, (cough) how am I a half-inch shorter?”

Dante didn’t hear the warble in his voice as he considered the readout…

“I’ve been getting taller, how am I shorter?... This has got to be a bad reading…”

He measured again and got the same result. Deciding that there was one obvious way to check he grabbed his Berwick suit and threw on the jacket…and to his growing discomfort noted that the sleeves that had been expertly tailored so recently now were just a touch long.

“This is insane…,” the only answer was the grumbling of his stomach…

He exasperatedly deleted the record before returning to his apple. He had trouble enjoying it, at least for the first bite…but it was a real apple. His eyes fluttered a little…at least until the fourth bite when an aching twinge from the front of his mouth interrupted his moment of serenity.

Dante winced…and checked his teeth, and to his displeasure noted some redness and irritation at either side of the front of his muzzle. He tried to think to the last time he had been in a dentist’s clinic and came up blank.

“One more thing I guess…,” he checked his balance… the medical fund stood at a paltry 2k nubits. He wasn’t looking forward to what a dentist would do to that meager amount considering he had no dental coverage.

“Once more unto the fire…, so Wickham can get his teeth fixed,” it was a little disheartening…but Dante lifted his head…he was better equipped, edIT owed him an easier assignment, and the apartment and account at Stuffer Shack were paid through the next two months…it could be worse…if only he could figure out one of his mysteries…

He turned and went to get back to searching for records of Yaklicia, while his agent collated sightings of ponies who could stand to receive a visit from the stalker of Touristville. With luck one of them would have something worth stealing. Soon they’d hit up the Talismonger’s shop for the history of the Alicorn Amulet. At some point something was going to break loose. He’d figure out the Amethyst Tiara or Emerald Circlet, or they’d be paid what they actually deserved… he didn’t need much, just enough to pay off a medical researcher worth his hay… things could be worse.

In the mirror behind him the AR note sat next to his reflection.

“Who is Tisiphone?”

Author's Note

Game Events: The team is hired covertly by the curator of a museum in downtown Seattle to keep tabs on 'suspicious characters' as there is a major gem exhibit at the museum worth millions of nu-bits and he has heard rumors that the collection is being targeted for theft.

Once on the scene, it is learned that the museum is also hosting a short term exhibition of magical artifacts on loan from the Solari Foundation including the Alicorn Amulet. This immediately caused concerns for the two mages in the group.

A pony of interest is noted, and the team attempts to investigate, noting that there is a strange dust permeating the museum.

It turns out that the pony of interest is part of a second covert security detail hired by the Security Director of the museum without telling his boss as he feared to appear to be unable to handle the situation. The two teams thus hired by the museum started investigating each other, leaving the thieves relatively unopposed when they set off their incendiary nanites and finished their tunnel coming up inside the gem exhibit vault.

A furious battle broke out at the entrance of the gem vault, but between getting patrons to safety and the difficulty of the chokepoint we only succeeded in capturing a number of the thieves while the remainder rapidly escaped with the bulk of the gems.

Suspecting that this was a distraction, Glass Darkly used astral magic to return to the Alicorn Amulet and found it being stolen by a powerful unicorn. Glass Darkly grabbed the Amulet and fled as he was overmatched, resulting in a hectic chase around the museum before he ultimately threw the amulet at an arriving squad of Knight Errant officers and escaped (we were still wanted for the events at the Knight Errant station in the prior mission).

There was significant fallout from the highly public incident and Glass Darkly had to burn another fake ID and move again. To his chagrin, his fellows were less concerned. He noted with interest that the magical signature of the Alicorn Amulet while he had held it, was similar to the Amethyst Tiara and Emerald Circlet discovered in Mission 2. Research via available sources hinted that the two Foci were very old and had histories with famous adventurers of old.