The Agents of SMILE and the Case of the White Rabbit

Bon Bon was thinking about what Lyra had said about how she should try to get her boss to try to get her to stay in Ponyville. It wouldn’t be that difficult as long as she can convince them that this is good for the agency, and she has dedicated so much of her time and effort to it. So, asking for a transfer shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Then she came upon a sewer grate and looked around making sure the coast was clear. The mare then flipped a rock nearby and pressed it revealing a teleportation circle, and then once Agent Bon Bon was in the middle of it, she was suddenly beamed into the agency of SMILE. There the earth pony found herself surrounded by ponies running back and forth in a stream of paperwork. Looking around Bon Bon can see rows and rows of office cubicles and the sounds of ponies tapping on typewriters, she continued to trot through the halls coming upon rooms with glass windows and saw ponies in hazmat suits messing with magical artifacts, and others trying to feed various magical creatures. There even was a bugbear she captured not too long ago flying around in one massive field, gorging on a bucket of honey.

Then, as she was trotting through the halls, it’s been so long since she came to the head office of SMILE. It was surprising to see it was like a mix with an office, with a strange amalgamation of artifacts and magical creatures. Then she heard some pony shouting her name, and the earth pony was rather confused as she was looking around the place. She then cried out in surprise as she looked up and heard. “Sweetie Drops! Your back!”

She then spotted a light blue colored changeling flying into the hall with her bright orange eyes, and a big smile on her face as the insect slammed right into her and threw her into a hug. Sweetie Drops couldn’t help but laugh and hugged her friend back. “Hey, Urtica!”

Urtica nuzzled her and then said, “Congrats on the big promotion!”

Sweetie Drops took a step back, looking surprised. " Hold on, what Promotion!?”

The changeling squeaked, throwing a hoof over her mouth, “Yeah, you didn’t hear! Oh my gosh! I won’t spoil the surprise!”

Urtica laughed as she flew alongside her friend as they trotted along together and asked, “So!? Tell me all about Twilight Sparkle!? I heard she defeated Nightmare Moon and brought back Princess Luna!? That must’ve been so cool to see!”

“Yeah, she did it with her friends; I mean, I studied about the Elements of Harmony, but I think that the idea that Friendship is Magic is a bit silly.”

Urtica snickered as she waved a hoof, “Yeah, it’s probably more complicated than that, but say we have to go hang out more and catch up!”

She then flew over, to an exhibit pointing a hoof at the Bugbear: "Look! I created an entire sanctuary for the Bugbear you helped wrangle up!”

Sweetie Drops trotted over with a smile, seeing it lounging about as it munched on honey. The entire area was beautiful, with creeks and meadows that stretched as far as the eye could see and asked. “How did you make this?”

“So, we did some research on an enchanted snow globe then we reversed it and then enchanted it with a magical clover that made the area into a land that makes it an eternal spring and vwla! We have a suitable environment for the Bugbear!”

Sweetie Drops was rather surprised and asked, “That's impressive, how did you learn about this?”

“Well, we were keeping him in that stuffy prison in Tartarus was awful; it's still a creature, you know. So, I talked to this lovely sweet pegasus in Ponyville a while ago, and she taught me so much about bears and bees. I couldn’t tell her exactly what we had but got enough info to improvise.”

The earth pony was surprised and knew exactly who Urtica talked to, knowing only one pegasus who would have the knowledge to care for bees and bears. " So, you know, Fluttershy?”

“Know her!? Well…we talk from time to time….but yeah I do."

“Wait, how!?” Sweetie Drops asked, then put a hoof to her chin seeing it was obvious and added. “Oh, I see you're undercover in Ponyville too!”

Urtica cheeks flushed red and said, “Well, I guess I blew my cover, but eh, well, that won’t matter anyway. I just got so excited we finally got to meet up again.”

“I wasn’t gone that long!? The last time we spoke was just a few months ago?”

“Well, for me it felt like an eternity."

Sweetie Drops couldn’t help but laugh, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

The two then continued their trot. They came across a dragon-like creature, who cried out as he dropped a monkey’s paw onto the ground, making the two stop in their tracks. Sweetie Drops picked it up with a hoof and made a bleh sound and asked, “What the heck is this?”

“Do not touch that!?”

She looked to see a dragon-like pegasus swoop in and grab it. " Please tell me you didn’t say W-i-s-h, please.”

Urtica eyed him and asked, “Wait, you mean wi-”

The dragon-like creature slammed a hoof into her mouth, “do not finish that sentence! Because of this thing, we had to save an entire family from a fire-breathing dragon!” He then slammed it into a box and locked it, hoofing it to a pony in a hazmat suit. “Take this to level three lockup and do not say the word w-i-s-h around it, understand!?”

“Yes, sir.” the pony saluted before levitating it and trotting off.

The creature had emerald, green scales as it flew down, and they got a good look at him. His face was dragon-like, with yellow-slit reptilian eyes and two leathery reptile wings on either side. Then he took a gem, and took on massive bite out of it, and burped some fire. “Sorry, Sweetie Drops. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No worries, um, what was that?” the mare asked, looking confused.

“It's a Monkey’s paw, the damn thing gives you wishes, but it plays a twist and makes them come out in horrible ways.” He then pointed and snorted some flame and added, “Make that a Lesson to anyone thinking wishes do come true.”

Urtica flew over, “Ah, come here, Emerald Breath wishes do come true!” The two hugged as Sweetie always felt a bit guilty seeing him as a former agent until an accident with a cursed object made him a half-dragon. But he’s seemed to handle it pretty well.

Emerald then trotted over with a look of worry on her face and asked, “So what ya two doing? Does Sweetie Dr-mmmph”

Urtica put a hoof over her friend’s mouth, “Don’t spoil it. She doesn’t know yet!”

“Ah, ok?” Emerald shrugged as Sweetie snickered. She came across a central chamber with several different hallways going all over the place. But there was one massive hall lined with sculptures of ponies that led to the Head of the Agency. With the earth pony feeling a bit nervous, she slowly started trotting through them with a worried look on her face. Her “boss” wasn’t exactly a pony she would want to mess with, but she didn’t have a choice if she wanted to try making her case to stay in Ponyville. She then slowly came over to the door and gave it a few solid knocks and an old mare’s voice growled, “Come in.”

Sweetie Drops took a deep breath, helping her ready her resolve as she opened it, revealing an old, white-coated earth pony mare. She looked rather annoyed and had a curly blonde mane and tail with teal eyes; she wore a suit of bright blue color and a massive pink top hat on her head. Most ponies her age were living out their days in nursing homes or at Las Pegasus. But she was not like most; the earthpony mare clearly was an old, determined mare with a library behind her filled to the brim with tomes. Her boss was just as book obsessed as Twilight. If that mare wasn’t careful, she was going to end up like her boss. As the earth pony trotted closer, there sat on her desk a single nameplate, “Alice” in swirly cursive font, as she looked up and smiled, “There you are Sweetie Drops, my best agent.”

“Good evening, to you Alice,” Sweetie Drops replied promptly while giving a sharp salute.

“Good evening to you as well.”

Alice then threw a hoof over some paperwork, “I see the mission with Twilight Sparkle was a major success.”

“Yes, it was, as far as I’m aware.”

“So, as we are coming to a close with this chapter, have you considered what you wanted to do next?”

Sweetie Drops was rather surprised and asked, “Wait, you're asking me?”

The mare then sat down with a smile and replied, “You do not understand Agent Sweetie Drops. What you did last night was remarkable. You stopped an unknown assailant from taking Princess Celestia’s prize pupil, ensured she defeated Nightmare Moon, and returned Princess Luna to us.”

“Thank you.”

“And that doesn’t include the countless times you saved Ponyville from disaster in the short time you were there. Everypony there owes their life to you.”

“I know,” Sweetie Drops replied, seeing how asking for her transfer there sounded more plausible.

“Sadly, your deeds will not be noted or known due the confidentiality of our jobs, but I assure you, you will be well compensated for everything you accomplished.”

“Thank you I appreciate it.”

“And then we come to the reason why you're here.”

Urtica explained the promotion to her before, and Sweetie Drops was starting to feel the anticipation get to her as she stood there waiting patiently. Alice then held up her head and with a smile replied, “You are being promoted to head field agent of Ponyville.”

The mare paused, not believing her ears. “Wait…wasn’t I already the head field agent there?”

She smirked, “Not exactly. Remember, most of the agents there can’t unveil their secret identities. Regardless, Princess Celestia heard of your exploits, and I vouched for you as well. But you will need a partner, so I will have Urtica be your new partner.”

“Oh, I see,” the mare replied, still a bit surprised by the news.

“She already has an alias there, so leaving you two in charge is perfect.”

“What about Star Seeker?”

There was a pause as Alice replied, “Star Seeker does not wish to continue being your handler for the duration of your time in Ponyville; she has conflicting notions about Twilight Sparkle and will focus her efforts on researching the odd Bookstore you encountered.”

“I understand.” Sweetie Drops replied with a confused look on her face. She had never met Star Seeker but was still confused about why she didn’t like Twilight.

“Well, that's settled; you and Urtica, I heard, are already good friends, so her being your new partner shouldn’t be an issue.”

“No, it won’t and thank you for your confidence in me!” She saluted and trotted back out of the room, her face brimming with anticipation. Then as soon as she was out of Alice's office the mare squealed in delight, “oh yes this is awesome!”

The mare was not only going to be a secret agent but the head of the branch in Ponyville!? It was going to be awesome, and she got more then everything she could ask for. She'll finally go tell Lyra how much she loves her and how much she wants her to be in her life!

It was a lot to consider, especially since she still had a job to do, but with Twilight and her friends using the Elements of Harmony, they’d handle any threats to Equestria from here on out. She obviously will be keeping an eye on things and looking for anomalies, but the rest of her time in Ponyville will be a cakewalk. She then turned to see Urtica and Emerald both standing by with the changeling flying over and asked, “So…. did you get the news?”

Sweetie Drops squealed as she cried, “Yeah, I did! So I'm the head agent of Ponyville; it felt like I already was!”

Urtica blushed and asked, “Yeah, and um…did you hear about me!?”

“Oh, and that you're my new partner!”

“I know, right! isn't that awesome!” Come on, let's get something to eat!”

Emerald smirked and replied, "yeah I'm starving, come on!" The three then headed off towards the Agency's cafeteria.

The three were now in a massive cafeteria filled with other agents, all chatting about their work or having light conversations over hay burgers or pizza. Emerald was wrapping up his story about the Monkey’s paw. “So the kid found it and wished for a pet, and next thing you know, they had a dragon come over, starting to burn their home and causing mayhem! Luckily we were already on the trail of the damn thing and found it before the thing caused more damage.”

“Oh, that was just so cool! All I did recently was assign building permits.”

The two looked at her as Urtica threw a hoof. " Eh, it’s just a part of my cover.”

She then turned towards Sweetie Drops and asked, “So!? What ya think! Ya gonna be heading your own agency here, keeping us rookies in check.”

Sweetie Drops was surprised by her friend’s response and replied, “You're not a rookie; you were a part of SMILE long before I ever joined.”

Urtica threw a hoof and gave a long-winded sigh, “To be fair, I'd rather be a typical field agent. I doubt anyone would want to take orders from a Changeling.”

“Give it time. I'm sure-”

Urtica threw a hoof up, “Don’t start; I already made my peace when I joined.”

“Yeah I understand, it still amazes me that you broke out of your hive. You never really told me how you did that.”

Urtica paused, looking rather serious for the first time since Sweetie Drops had been with her. She said, “That is a long story, but the short story is I was always different from the other changelings in my hive more so than anyone else. But I was born with one specific role: to be the librarian, like my mother and father and their parents and so on. You know about Changelings, right?”

“Yeah, of course, your insectoids that feed off of love, which is kind of weird. Is it true you can feed on an emotion?”

“Well, in truth, we eat other things as well, but love is like your version of alcohol. It's intoxicating and can drive us crazy for it, and the emotion actually empowers us and doesn't inebriate us like alcohol. But we were always taught we had to feed off of others, so we constantly hunted the outskirts of the Northern Wastes, where we feasted on the love of stray ponies and Yaks that live out there. However, I was in charge of keeping the records of our history, and I learned that the Changelings weren’t always as they are now.”

Sweetie Drops nodded as everything that Urtica said matched her studies. She learned how Changelings feast on love, and they were at the top of their list of magical creatures on their watchlist.

Urtica then looked rather depressed and replied in a hushed whisper, “But as I was cataloging Queen Chrysalis's reign, I learned that we used to feast on our own love, and we didn’t need to latch onto other species for it. But when Queen Chrysalis came into power, she changed everything and over time, we reverted to our parasitic nature. I learned this from some old scrolls that she thought she destroyed. Still, I uncovered them as her head historian.” the changeling began to rub a hoof over her and added, “I tried to tell others who I thought were my friends. Still, they only ended up betraying me…”

She put a hoof down her face, where a long, jagged scar was, and Emerald put a claw onto her hoof. Sweetie Drops could feel a tear come to her eye and whispered, “I'm so sorry you had to go through that.”

Urtica looked down with a smile, “Well, it was a long time ago, then I was put in a pod to be reformed to become more susceptible to Queen Chrsyalis’ power, but I resisted her hypnosis and every attempt to brainwash me. She probably would have killed me, but she saw my skills as too valuable. But I eventually broke free and ran as far as possible; I ran until I couldn’t and collapsed…”

Her voice trailed off as she put a hoof to her face and then said, “Then Alice found me being a part of a team investigating the Changelings, and she took care of me for quite some time. She eventually became in charge of SMILE, and I became an agent, but most ponies see me as an alien or some monster, so I resigned myself as field agent.”

“So, you were always a rebel?” Sweetie replied.

The changeling laughed and waved a hoof, “No way. The reason I left the hive was because I sought love, and for survival. But honestly, I always wanted to feel what true love was, and I found it.” She put a hoof on her chest, “It starts here, loving yourself.”

Emerald sighed, “Yeah, sometimes that's easier said than done.”

Sweetie Drops felt that something was going on as she eyed her, “And where is this conversation heading? I feel like this is becoming a lesson of some sort?”

“I'm sorry to say this, but this…this place is like my hive to you; it's holding you back.”

“Holding me back? from what?”

“From love.”

Sweetie Drops put a hoof to her chest and asked, “How do you know?”

Before Urtica could say anything, Emerald laughed, “The best agent in SMILE falling in love, that is something, isn’t it?”

The mare scoffed angrily, threw her hooves around her chest, and snapped, “Thanks a lot, Urtica.”

The changeling blushed, seeing she had just exposed her friend’s secret, and added, “Sorry. I’ve felt your feelings for her for a while, and I can only guess who it is.”

“Come on, tell us!” Emerald cried with his eyes widened with anticipation.

Sweetie Drops glared at Urtica as she looked over and said, “I'm sorry to expose you but I should warn you that your relationship might come in conflict with this job. I've seen so many relationships fall apart because of it. And for you, this is something you're not going to be able to keep while trying to keep someone not in the agency from getting hurt.”

The earth pony knew her friend was right but said. “I'll make it work. Don't worry about me, alright?”

“Ok, I just wanted to put that out there.”

“Besides that, I'm curious what’s your alias is in Ponyville?”

Urtica smirked and replied, “Oh, you don’t know? I thought it was obvious.”

“I’m not sure?”

She snickered and then exclaimed, “Well, I’ll show ya when we go back!”

Emerald finished his plate of gems and burped some flame: “Well, you two have fun in Ponyville. I’ll make sure that Monkey Paw is stored away properly.”

Sweetie Drops turned to her friend and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Emerald, I won’t forget about you. I'm sure we’ll find a cure soon, and you can vi-”

The stallion pushed her hoof aside. “Don’t give me hope, alright!? Urtica researched my curse for months and hadn’t found anything! I’m never turning back to normal."

Sweetie Drops stepped back, feeling a bit stupid for saying that out loud without really doing the legwork to prove it, and said, “No, you're right. I haven’t worked on helping you find a cure for your curse, but while I'm in Ponyville i'll contiue researching it myself."

The half-dragon snorted flame, then grumbled, “Don’t worry about me, alright? Just focus on your lover,” before flying off. Sweetie put out a hoof feeling awful, and Urtica whispered, “Don’t worry; I’ll talk to him later. He is part dragon now, so he gets moody now and again.”

“Yeah, but that was stupid of me to say. I know his curse is rare, and he might never turn back to normal,” Sweetie Drops grumbled, but she would still look into his curse. Maybe Twilight’s library has an answer.

She and Urtica then got up and headed to the teleporter. As they went inside, Urtica suddenly transformed into a tan colored earth pony with a frazzled black mane, light brown eyes, and thick glasses with a pencil as a cutie mark.

“Wow, wait, are you the secretary for Mayor Mare!?”

“Yeah, I got the job about a year ago! Can’t believe ya haven’t noticed,” she snickered.

“Oh yeah, I should’ve huh? I feel kind of silly for not noticing that before?”

As they waited to be teleported into Ponyville Sweetie Drops asked, “So, what's your code name?”

“The name’s Pencil Pusher.”

Sweetie Drops snickered and added, “Nice, we should catch up again under cover.”

“Of course, maybe I'll tag along on your first date," Urtica replied, giving her friend a hug. The teleporter flashed, sending them back to Ponyville.