Spies: Jr

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Pancake and Lyra had eaten a big dinner in the ESS dining room. Now they were lying on their beds feeling stuffed. Pancake was concentrating on a particularly difficult section of his computer hacking textbook, while Lyra had finished her homework and was flipping through a store catalogue.

          ‘I want to get your sister back,’ Lyra said bitterly. ‘She’s always pushing us around.’

          Pancake rubbed his eyes as he looked up from his homework. ‘Cat’s still over there cleaning up mud,’ Pancake smiled. ‘I reckon it’s a fair punishment for what she did.’

          ‘But we’ve got to show her that she can’t keep being horrible to us,’ Lyra said. ‘She cut my face and made me cry in front of everypony.’

          ‘She’s bigger and stronger than us,’ Pancake said. ‘You said it yourself: if we go after her, we’ll probably come off worst.’

          ‘We will if we just go chasing after her like idiots,’ Lyra smiled. ‘But not if we plan it all out carefully.’

          The room went quiet for a couple of minutes as the two youngsters concentrated on their books.

          ‘Eureka!’ Lyra yelled, as she tore a page out of the catalogue and showed it to Pancake. ‘Look at item C.’

          Pancake looked at a picture of the biggest, meanest, water cannon he’d ever seen, before reading the description written beneath it:

Item C. Drenchmaster 5000, air powered soaking gun.

Holds two litres of water. Exclusive air pump system squirts water up to forty metres. Quite simply the most powerful water gun available. NOTE: This item is unsuitable for foals aged twelve and under. Price 16 bits. Catalogue number 261 272

          Lyra tapped on a banner at the top of the page that said, Special offer, buy one get one free.

          ‘Imagine if we sneaked up behind her with two of those Drenchmasters and… BLAMMO!’

           Pancake rolled back on his bed and cracked up laughing. ‘That’s a cool idea.’

          ‘Do you know when the best time to get Cat and Gerda is?’ Lyra asked.

‘When?’

‘They always put on ear rings and fancy jewelry when they out shopping. They walk around the mall pretending they’re all sophisticated, like teenagers or something.’

          ‘I’m up for that,’ Pancake giggled. ‘I’d even pay some money towards the water guns if I had any.’

          Lyra’s face dropped. ‘I thought you had thirty bits. You were saving up to get the hard drive for your Neighstation.’

          Pancake shrugged. ‘I was, but I bought that Stalliongrad Rangers scarf instead, remember?’

          ‘Ugh,’ Lyra moaned. ‘I was hoping you’d lend me some of your savings to pay for them.’

          ‘Sorry,’ Pancake said. ‘All I’ve got is three bits. Haven’t you got any money at all?’

          ‘Fifty-three silvers and a one bit coin left over from our trip to Manehatten.’

          ‘I guess that plan’s out of the window then,’ Pancake said, shaking his head. ‘Hearthswarming eve is months away, our birthdays are even further…’

          ‘Maybe somepony will lend us the money,’ Lyra said. ‘You could ask Stars or Cirrus and I could mention it to some of the fillies.’

          ‘Doubt it,’ Pancake shrugged. ‘Maybe they’d lend us if we were just a few bits short, but nobody will lend us the whole sixteen ninety-nine.’

          ‘We could ask our carer for an advance on our pocket money,’ Lyra said.

          Pancake burst out laughing, ‘You’re dreaming. You’d have better luck trying to rob the bank of Equestria than getting extra money out of Mad Marsh.’

          Lyra growled and pounded her hoof into Pancake’s mattress. ‘I’ve got to get my hooves on enough money to buy a pair of Drenchmasters.’

          A thought popped into Pancake’s head as he looked at the toys and games scattered around the room.

          ‘Why don’t we try selling some of our stuff?’ he asked brightly.

EVERYTHING MUST GO!

Pancake and Lyra crawled around the floor looking for things they didn’t play with anymore. They ended up with a saddlebag stuffed with an odd assortment of Neighstation games, action figures, Lego sets, a couple of DVDs and even a giant pink bunny called Mel that Lyra had slept with every night until she was six years old.

          They headed out into the corridor and began knocking on the doors of the other foals in the junior block, carefully avoiding rooms where older fillies who were friends with Cat lived.

          Pancake sold an old push chariot and a big stack of trading cards to a little five year old called Snout. Lyra sold a couple of hits CDs and a Neighstation game, but when they ran out of doors to knock on, they were still short of their 16 bits target.

          ‘How much have we got?’ Pancake asked Lyra, as they turned back into their room.

          ‘Six bits sixty-four,’ Lyra said miserably. ‘Even with the pocket money we had to start with, we’re still seven bits short.’

          Cirrus stuck his head through the doorway. ‘Did you sell much?’ he asked.

          ‘Not enough to get the Drenchmasters,’ Pancake said, as he stared miserably down at his hooves,

          ‘Shame,’ Cirrus said. ‘I’ll take those two Neighstation games if you want, but I can’t pay you until pocket money day.’

          ‘No way,’ Lyra said. ‘Everypony will have money on pocket money day, but we want to go to the shops tomorrow.’

          ‘Oh well,’ Cirrus said, looking at his watch. ‘It’s nine o’clock. I’d better start getting ready for bed, or Marsh’s gonna do her nut.’

          ‘Is that the time?’ Pancake gasped, as he glanced around at his clock radio. ‘I thought it was earlier.’

          ‘See yous tomorrow,’ Cirrus waved, but as he headed out into the corridor he had a brainwave and turned back. ‘Here, you know who might be able to help you?’

          ‘Who?’ Pancake asked excitedly.

          ‘Sky Blue,’ Cirrus said.

          Sky was a sixteen-year-old ESS pupil who lived in the main building. Everypony on campus knew him because he was always trying to earn money by making and selling pirate copies of movies and video games.

          ‘How can Sky help us?’ Lyra asked.

          ‘He gets the younger pupils to run errands and do jobs for him,’ Cirrus explained. ‘Green Park made over two-hundred bits copying DVDs for Sky and Windy made a mint selling photocopied Harry Trotter books.’

          ‘And you think he’ll give us a job if we go over and see him?’ Pancake asked.

          Cirrus shrugged, ‘It’s just a thought. But if you want to see Sky tonight, you’d better hurry up. Marsh will be locking up any minute now.’

          Pancake and Lyra looked uncertainly at each other.

          ‘What do you reckon?’ Lyra asked.

          ‘It’s our only chance of getting our hooves on the money in time to go shopping tomorrow,’ Pancake said. ‘We might as well give it a try.’

          As Cirrus stepped back to his room, Pancake and Lyra belted out into the corridor and started running downstairs to the ground floor. Unfortunately, their carer, a chubby mare called Marsh Darko, had beaten them to the door.

          ‘And where exactly do you two think you’re going at this time of night?’ Marsh asked, as she turned a key in the lock.

          ‘Miss, we just have to pop across to the main building to see somepony,’ Lyra said.

          ‘I left my comic over there at dinner time,’ Pancake added.

          ‘Did you really?’ Marsh said as she tapped on the face of her watch, clearly not believing either excuse. ‘It’s two minutes to nine and I can assure you, you’re not going anywhere except upstairs to the washroom to brush your teeth and then back to your rooms to put your PJs on.’

          ‘But…’ Lyra said.

          ‘No ifs, no buts,’ Marsh said firmly. ‘If you two aren’t in bed in ten seconds flat, I’m going to want to know why. Now move it.’

THE DARKNESS

Pancake and Lyra cleaned their teeth, put out the light and climbed into bed. Marsh stuck her head inside their room to make sure they were both behaving, but their heads popped up as soon as she shut the door.

          Lyra flicked on her torch and pointed it at Pancake. ‘Are you ready?’

          ‘Ready,’ Pancake nodded, as he swung out of bed.

          He pulled his pyjamas off and heading for the door.

          ‘Quietly,’ Lyra cautioned, as Pancake grabbed the door handle.

          Pancake poked his head out into the corridor and looked both ways to make sure that Marsh wasn’t around.

          ‘Looks OK,’ Pancake said, as he crept into the corridor and moved quickly towards the swinging doors that led on to the stairs.

          The exit door was locked, so they headed down an unlit corridor that had classrooms on either side, turning the knob on each door as they went. The first three doors were locked, but – much to Pancake and Lyra’s relief - the fourth one swung open into a maths classroom with graphs and counting charts on the wall.

          Lyra placed a chair by the window, then stood on it and reached up to unscrew the catch that locked the window. While she pushed the chair out of the way, Pancake opened the window and swung his leg out over the ledge. He slid his flank off and his hooves crashed noisily on to the gravel path that surrounded the building.

          ‘Sssssssssh,’ Lyra said anxiously.

          But there’s no quiet way to jump on to gravel and Lyra made as much noise as Pancake had done. They both looked around anxiously, but there was no sign of Marsh coming after them.

          ESS campus is big and it was over a kilometre from the Junior Block, where Pancake and Lyra lived, to the main building where all the older ESS pupils who were qualified to work as spies lived.

As they crept around the side of the junior block, Pancake and Lyra eyed two carts standing under a canopy. The carts were used by teachers and other staff to move quickly around campus. Foals were only allowed to use them with permission and they’d only get it if they had something heavy to carry, or if they were looking after another foal with a serious injury like a broken leg.

‘Let’s take a cart,’ Pancake grinned.

‘Are you mad? Lyra said, shaking her head, ‘We’ll be made to run about a million punishment laps if we’re caught with a cart without permission.’

Pancake shrugged, ‘But we’ll get to the main building and back so much quicker, which means there’s less chance of getting caught.’

‘Well I suppose,’ Lyra said. ‘Bagsy I’m pulling the cart.’

Pancake wasn’t too happy about Lyra pulling the cart, but she raced off and was strapped in the harness before he got a chance to complain.

‘Bags I’m taking it back,’ Pancake said, as Lyra accelerated forward.

SKY BLUE

Pancake and Lyra parked the cart at the rear of the eight storey main building. There was a permanently staffed reception desk in the front entrance, so they had to sneak through the fire doors at the back and walk upstairs to Sky’s room on the sixth floor.

          They felt nervous as they moved along the corridor. There would be big trouble if any of the staff caught them out of bed.

The older ESS pupils lived in the single rooms that branched off both sides. Most of the doors were open because there was a party going on. Loud music thumped out of several stereos and teenagers lined the walls holding cans of soda and paper plates, while a banner had been hung from the ceiling saying, Happy Birthday Snow Rusher!

         Sky lived in room 616, but when Pancake and Lyra reached the door, they discovered a blonde maneed stallion called Night Vision leaning against it snogging his fillyfriend.

          ‘What are you two squirts doing up here?’ Night asked. ‘Shouldn’t you be in bed?’

          ‘We’re looking for Sky,’ Pancake explained.

          Night tutted, before knocking on the door. ‘Sky, I’ve got a couple of little customers for you out here,’ he said.

          ‘Just a minute, Night,’ Sky answered from inside.

          As Pancake and Lyra waited anxiously for the door to open, three fillies charged out of a room across the hall and began fighting with pillows.

          ‘Sorry, little dude,’ one of them shrieked, as a pillow skimmed over Pancake’s head.

          The whole scene of older pupil's partying, snogging and chasing around made Pancake and Lyra uncomfortable. When Sky opened his door, they barged inside without waiting for an invitation.

          ‘Come in, why don’t you?’ Sky smirked as he pushed up the door. The slender teenager seemed younger than sixteen.

          Pancake looked all around and marvelled at the neatness. Everything in Sky’s room was tidy, from the stacks of magazines on the bedside table to the polished picture frames lined up on a table near the door.

          ‘If you’ve come looking for DVDs, I’ve got them all,’ Sky said, as he knelt on his carpet and slid an aluminium case out from beneath his bed. ‘Three bits for movies, five for Neighstation games, two for music CDs.’

          ‘Are they pirate copies?’ Pancake asked, as Sky flipped open the box, revealing almost a thousand silver discs.

          ‘Of course,’ Sky grinned. ‘You can’t get real ones at those prices, but they’re all tested and guaranteed to work.’

          ‘Where are the games?’ Pancake asked, as he knelt down excitedly and started flipping through the disks.

          ‘AHEM,’ Lyra said, noisily clearing her throat. ‘We didn’t come here to spend money.’

          Sky looked surprised as he stood up. ‘Well what did you come here for?’

          ‘We were hoping you could help us to earn some money,’ Lyra explained.

          ‘And how am I supposed to do that?’ Sky asked.

          Visiting Sky had seemed like a good idea when Cirrus suggested it, but now Lyra felt stupid.

          ‘Somepony told us you give foals jobs to do,’ Lyra explained. ‘Selling stuff and that.’

          ‘Green Park said you paid him nearly two hundred bits for copying some DVDs,’ Pancake blurted.

          Sky suddenly sounded annoyed. ‘Green Park is a big mouth who nearly got me kicked out of ESS. No offence, but I don’t trust little foals to work for me anymore and even if I did, I wouldn’t pick you two. I hardly know you.’

          ‘Can I buy this?’ Pancake asked, as he slid a Neighstation game out of the case.

          ‘Sure,’ Sky said. ‘Five bits.’

          ‘No you can’t,’ Lyra said angrily. ‘We’re saving up for the Drenchmasters.’

          ‘You might as well give up,’ Pancake said. ‘We’re never going to get the money and this game is a total bargain.’

          Lyra tutted and stamped her hoof, ‘Oh go on then. Buy your stupid game.’

          Pancake grinned at Sky and hoofed him five bits in change. Sky reached across the room and put the money in his desk drawer.

          ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,’ Sky said, sympathetically. ‘I tell you what though, seeing as you came all this way to see me I’ll let you have another game for half price.’

          ‘Sweet,’ Pancake said, as he started flipping through the pirated games in Sky’s case. ‘Two bits fifty, they’re like forty bits in the shops.’

          ‘What can I say,’ Sky grinned, ‘I’m a nice colt.’

          Pancake picked another game out of the rack and happily hoofed Sky the money, but his smile vanished when he saw the angry scowl on Lyra’s face.

ILL GOTTEN GAINS

‘I’m sorry, Lyra,’ Pancake said, as they reached the bottom of the stairs and headed back towards the cart.

          ‘You spent all our money on two stupid Neighstation games,’ Lyra growled. ‘You don’t care about my feelings at all, do you?’

          ‘I’ll let you pull the cart back,’ Pancake said.

          Lyra huffed as she strapped into the cart's harness. ‘You know, when I buy the Drenchmasters tomorrow, I’m not sure if I’m going to let you use them.’

          ‘Well we’re not getting them anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’

          Lyra grinned mischievously. ‘Aren’t we?’ she said, as she peeled a twenty bit stack out of her saddlebag.

          ‘Where did you get that?’ Pancake gasped.

          ‘When you gave Sky the five bits I watched him put it in his desk drawer. I noticed that he had about a hundred bits in there. I sneaked in and pinched a twenty while he was selling you the second disk.’

          Pancake’s mouth dropped open. ‘You stole Sky’s money,’ he gasped angrily.

          ‘Keep your stupid voice down,’ Lyra said.

          ‘Are you insane?’ Pancake spluttered. ‘Sky’s sixteen, if he finds out that you nicked his money, he’ll kick our flanks.’

          Lyra shrugged. ‘He had loads of money in there, he’ll never notice.’

          Pancake was shaking his head. ‘What’s gotten in to you, Lyra? You’re usually more sensible than me, but you’re acting like a total nutter.’

          Lyra grabbed Pancake by the scruff of his neck and pulled him close. ‘I’m sick of the way Cat treats us,’ she snarled. ‘Tomorrow, we’re going to get her back, or die trying.’

THE SHOPPING MALL

Saturday is a free day for all the ESS pupils who live in the junior block. They can hang around in their rooms and play, go swimming in the campus leisure pool, play sport, or go on an outing in one of the ESS mini busses.

          There are usually six choices of outing, which include ten-pin bowling, trips to the cinema, caving and go-carting. But the most popular choice is always shopping, especially amongst the fillies.

          Lyra and Pancake hadn’t got back to their beds until past ten o’clock and almost overslept. They scooped down bowls of cereal as fast as they could and made it to the mini-bus heading for the shopping centre seconds before Marsh closed the sliding door.

          ‘Phew,’ Lyra gasped as they stepped along the cramped aisle inside the packed mini bus.

          They ended up sitting directly opposite Cat and Gerda. The two fillies had both put their mane up. They carried matching hoofbags.

          ‘Oooh look at the ladies in their fancy clobber,’ Pancake mocked.

          Cat tutted. ‘We can’t all go around with greasy mane and dirt under our nails like you and your tomcolt fillyfriend.’

          ‘Hey,’ Lyra said angrily.

          Lyra was a bit of a tomcolt, but she had a habit of thumping ponies who said it to her face.

          ‘Did the little tomcolt wash all the mud out of her mane?’ Gerda asked sarcastically, as Marsh drove the mini-bus through the main gates of ESS campus.

          Pancake noticed that the backs of Cat’s hooves were all red and sore. ‘How long did it take you to scrub the hut?’

          Cat shrugged, trying to make out that the punishment had been easy. ‘Not long,’ she said.

          ‘You weren’t back when we all went to bed at nine o’clock,’ Lyra said.

          ‘You two are totally immature,’ Cat spluttered, as she raised her hoof. ‘So talk to the hoof, ‘cos the face ain’t listening.’

          It took half an hour by cart from ESS campus to Shopping World. It was one of the biggest shopping centres in the country, with just about every shop you could think of.

          The only trouble is that Shopping World is always packed on a Saturday. Marsh yelled out instructions as she led twenty ESS pupils across the giant cart park towards the main entrance.

          ‘Under eights must stay with me,’ she yelled. ‘Eight and nine year olds can go off on their own, but one of you must have a mobile phone and you must stay in pairs at all times. We’ll meet back outside the book store at one thirty sharp. Do NOT be late.’