Sunset Shimmer sighed as she wandered up the steps to her apartment. She shouldered her bag as she felt the straps dig into her shoulder for the hundredth time this afternoon. She contemplated leaving her job at the company, but decided against it. This was the steadiest job with a good pay she had found in a while. Her head lolled back as she kept on climbing, an involuntary groan rolled out. Her eyes drifted over to the walls, nothing particularly interesting about them, but there was this massive stain on the way to the third floor that announced the inevitable arrival to her floor. Ah, there it was. Sunset shook her head slightly, if only just to get rid of her lethargy. She moseyed over to her door, Room 313, fished the keys out of her bag and opened the door without much thought.

As a breeze of air conditioned air flew into her face, Sunset let out a content sigh. She quickly closed the door behind her, in order to keep the cold air in and took her shoes off. She then shuffled over to the dining table and plopped her bag onto it before making her way to the couch. Without a second thought, she fell face first into its soft embrace. Before a thought entered her head, she was out like a light.

***

A quiet click awoke Sunset from her slumber. Her quiet, peaceful slumber might she add. With a groan she pushed herself up and tried to make sense of her situation. Work clothes? Check. Couch? Check. Bag on table? Check. No dinner? Check. She fell back down. Everything was in order, so why did she wake up. With a quiet yawn, she tried to remember what brought her to the waking world. The answer that her brain brought forth was confusing. A quiet click. Sunset frowned, she always considered herself to be a heavy sleeper and not only that, how does anybody wake up from a quiet click.

Then she paused.

What kind of click? She rolled over onto her back, balancing precariously at the edge of the couch. Looking up at the ceiling with a blank stare, she tried to recall what kind of click it was. There were many clicks in this world. Could be a door, a microwave, a clock, a table. Literally anything in her apartment could make a click sound in the right situation. After much half-asleep contemplation, Sunset decided that this was stupid and attempted to try to sleep again.

She couldn't.

With a groan, she let go of her balance and promptly flopped onto the floor. With a heave, Sunset pushed herself up to her feet and blearily looked around. She vaguely recalled not pulling the curtains so it must be night time. That's fine by her, as long as it wasn't early in the morning, she should be fine in the morning. With that thought in mind, she ambled over to the table and scrounged in the dark for her phone. It took a while but her hands finally grasped the brick that contained the world and other useful features. Like the time!

Sunset clicked the on button and nearly dropped the phone from surprise. She scrambled frantically to open the phone, then slid down the quick settings and lowered the brightness a ton. She stood there for a moment, trying to recover from the large dose of awakeness her phone had decided to give her. She grumbled something under her breath and shook her head slightly, trying to dislodge the spots dancing in her eyes before checking her phone again. Huh. Nearly 10:00 PM. Not bad.

She put her phone down and made her way to the kitchen and turned on the overhead lights. She looked around for a bit, as if in a daze, before finding what she was looking for. Sunset chuckled as she pulled out a packet of instant ramen. Food of the gods! She quickly heated up the water in a pot and waited patiently for her food to be made right before her eyes. When it was ready, she quickly cleaned up everything, dumped the flavoring packet into the ramen, grabbed a knife, looked at it, put it back and got the right set of utensils, before finally making it back to the table.

She let the aroma waft over her for a few seconds before giving into the temptation and started munching at it with gusto. Delicious. Truly nothing better than instant ramen. Sunset was just about to finish her last bite when suddenly the lights in her dining area was turned on. Blinded for the second time, she decided to just stay put and freak out later. Oh, and also finish her bite. It would be sacrilege to waste the food of the gods. After muttering her thanks, she rubbed at her eyes until she was able to see again, then, and only then, did Sunset look up to see who rudely interrupted her dinner time.

Oh, it was some random person.

Sunset merely nodded in greetings before picking up her bowl and chopsticks and meandered over to her kitchen, yet again. As she washed her dishes, she heard some noises behind her. She ignored them. Dishes were important, she had learned the hard way. If she lets them stack up, then it becomes the worst kind of hell later on. Better do it now.

"Ummm..."

"Give me a second, I'm almost done." With a last few good scrubs, Sunset put the bowl and pot into the drying rack. Then she turned around with an eyebrow raised. "Should I ask the obvious question, or...?"

"Ah, yes! Um..." The person paused. "Wait. why aren't you scared, or even surprised?"

"Eh." There was a pause, as if the person was waiting for more. Sunset just stared at them. They coughed uneasily.

"Alright!" They shook themselves a little, probably trying to regain their lost bravado. "Right. So, hi!"

"Hi."

"I have a job for you."

"Uh huh."

"It involves espionage."

"Mmmkay."

"Highly dangerous, but I think you're the right person for the job!" The person's face was hidden under a black mask, but Sunset was quite sure that they were smiling.

"..." Sunset pushed herself off the kitchen counter and brushed past the person. She had no idea who this person was, but one thing for certain, this was their first time at doing something like this. So, might as well get comfy. She plopped herself down on the couch and pointed at the chair at the other end. "Sit."

"...okay."

"Now, it's typically considered polite to introduce yourself and your organization before you offer a job, yes?" Sunset made a 'go-on' gesture.

"Ehe...right, right." The person took a calming breath, then another. They chuckled awkwardly once, then took one last final breath. "Sorry about that."

"No worries. First time gets everyone."

"So, my name is Dry Clean, please to make your acquaintance." They extended a hand in which Sunset accepted politely.

"You know, it would be nice to put a face to the name."

"Ah, right! My apologies." They pulled off their face mask to reveal a young man. He had a nervous sort of smile, blue eyes that spoke of the deep ocean, and a kind enough face. Skin color was a tan that did not warrant much attention, nor did his dusty gray mop of hair.

"That's better. Now I introduce myself. My name is Sunset Shimmer."

"Oh, I already know that. I'm headhunting, you see, and your profile just seemed to fit the bill so perfectly, I just had to try!" Dry smiled enthusiastically.

"And this is the part where you mention who you're headhunting for and what the 'bill', so to speak, actually is."

"You're right, you are totally right." Dry laughed a little. "You really are smart. You'd be perfect for us! So uh, I'm part of the United States of Equestria's Secret Service called Center of Intelligent Agents, or CIA for short. The 'bill' is actually anonymous blandness, and you're perfect! Not that you're bland, yourself, it's just that you have no records of, so to speak. No birth certificate, no family to speak of, essentially no documents from before 10 years ago. It's honestly a miracle you're surviving in our country at all! I mean, how do you get past legal details with nothing at all?"

"I have my ways."

"Huh." Dry took a moment to ponder on that before remembering something. "Right! So, uh, yeah. You fit the bill exactly. You're basically a ghost. Well, better than a ghost. You are inconspicuous as can be. Just a cog in the machine. A regular Mary Jane." He went through his hair with a hand in disbelief. "I mean, I can't believe a person like you exists! How did you even do this? The no documents, I mean."

"I'm an illegal immigrant." She answered, deadpan. It was the truth, more or less.

"That really explains it." Dry Clean laughed again, nodding to himself and paced around. "I mean, wow. Just wow."

"Yeah, I'm something of an oddity." Sunset shook her head, this is going to take forever. "So, what does the CIA want with me? What is this job you want me to do?"

"Right, right. You're right, of course." He grinned a pointed a finger at her. At her displeased expression, he coughed awkwardly before continuing. "So, basically, there's this rich guy. Money Bags. He recently came into possession of invaluable intel that could bring down the U.S. of E.. We figured out that he's going out to some major concert in a week's time, and what better way to get close to him, then a regular Mary Jane!"

"And why can't you guys do it?"

"Oh...ehe. Right. So, uh, this is a bit embarrassing, but the intel that he has? It also has all the operatives listed, past and present. Future operatives too."

"Because of course." Sunset sighed. "So you want me to attend this concert and do what..."

"We just need you to plant a bug on him, and that'll be it! Your job'll be done and you get away scot-free. No harm. No foul. The rest will be up to us."

"Sounds simple enough."

"Yep!" Dry had two thumbs up. Sunset's displeasure hadn't lessened. He lowered his hands.

"So, what's in it for me?"

"Uhhh...money?"

"Sure, money works."

"Great!" Dry sprung up with a huge grin. "Shall we?"

"..." Sunset stared at him. "You really need to get better at this."

"Oh!" He conked himself on the head and tried again. "So, now that's settled. Shall we head over to CIA Canterlot Regional Headquarters for your debriefing?"

"See, that's infinitely better. Yes, we shall." Sunset picked up her bag and walked out her front door. Dry quickly followed and watched as she locked her door. The two made their way down the three flights of stairs and out the front door. There, a black unmarked car was waiting for them. The two got in and the driver sped away.

"Oh, you never told me who's playing at the concert."

"Oh, you've probably heard of them. It's The Rainbooms."

Author's Note

AND WE'RE OFF!