//------------------------------//
// Epilogue - Mare, Stallion, Soldier, Spy 
// Story: Sweetie Belle and the Tablet of Knowledge 
// by CheshireTwilight 
//------------------------------//

A stallion sat in a Canterlot cafe.

As with most places in Canterlot, this cafe was overpriced and had an open patio with which to view passersby with disdain, as was the Canterlot tradition. He was a typical sight in such a setting, a pale blue coat, pale yellow mane and a simple blue blazer. Ordinary, but not painfully so. Like most patrons during the beautiful summer weather, he sat on the patio, sipping quietly on a coffee. Unlike most patrons, however, he was alone.

None of these ponies spared the stallion even a cursory glance. To some, it might have been suspicious that he checked his watch constantly, or that he had been reading the same page of the Canterlot Times for the past hour. These ponies also might have noticed—if they paid attention long enough—that the stallion would occasionally fidget with something in his pocket. The cafe proprietors certainly didn’t notice, not with regularly purchased refills and a generous tip to the waiter clouding their judgement.

Together, these actions might have been strange, but the stallion was confident in his cover. Canterlot wasn’t known for polite conversation—with most ponies actively avoiding each other in perpetual fear of speaking with a ‘lesser.’ Still, even in the unlikely event he is asked about his strange behavior, he was smart enough to make reasonable explanations.

‘All this preparation just to ensure the delivery of something no bigger than a small pencil,’ he thought with a sigh out of sheer boredom. He had been waiting nearly three hours at this point. ‘It is strange, though, that the ‘organization’ would ask me to meet the informant face-to-face this time. I don’t even know any names—and I certainly didn’t ask, not in this line of work—so why would they want to get cosy now? Every previous transaction was through some secret stash but the latest ‘dead-drop’ has me in a Canterlot cafe? Well, so long as I’m being paid—’

“Hello, dearest,” somepony said, breaking him out of his ruminations, “I hope it isn’t too much trouble to rest here a bit?”

The stallion looked up to see an old, brown unicorn mare with a grey mane and plaid knitted scarf. She spoke in a soothing tone, like one would expect if she were talking to a favorite grandchild. None of this was of any concern to the stallion, though. No, it was that this old mare bypassed several other tables in the cafe to speak with him directly that had him concerned.

“Normally, I would have the energy to do my errands,” she continued, ignoring the confused look the stallion was giving her, “but my grandson has recently returned from a foreign trip and he can be very precocious.”

‘Now it makes sense,’ the stallion thought, ‘that use of ‘foreign’ and ‘precocious’ in a sentence, it’s the ‘challenge’ statement I was given! This is my contact…possibly. She still needs to confirm my ‘counter-challenge’.’

"That sounds absolutely exhausting," the stallion replied, putting down his newspaper, "but still, I'm here to meet with a pony and I wouldn't want the seat taken by the unworthy. Would you say you are of a virtuous character?"

Most ponies would take that the wrong way and be insulted, or would puff up in pride and confirm the question. The pony the stallion was after, however, would respond to the counter-challenge 'unworthy' and 'virtuous' with-

"Of course not, dearie, nopony is worthy of the virtues of the truth."

Exactly that.

The stallion did not sigh in relief, even despite these theatrics finally being finished. In his mind, he was in an even worse predicament than before. Now he was fully exposed to this mare and could only hope that the organization wasn't compromised. If these 'challenges' and 'counter-challenges' were known to another organization and they had sent a double agent, his cover would have now been blown.

"Alright," he replied, offering the seat to the mare as she took great care in sitting down.

"It's good to finally meet you," the stallion said, "I had been waiting here for a while, what was the holdup?"

"Now dearie, it isn't nice to rush your elders," the old mare replied softly, "we have extra troubles as we age, you know. As you get older, you will come to realize that more and more obstacles get thrown in your way."

'Hmm,' the stallion contemplated, 'the subtext is clear, she had trouble getting here. Was she compromised? It never hurts to have an organization as well funded as the one hiring me in my debt.' He decided to ask. "Are you still alright to move around? I have a place to stay if you are finding all this outdoor work difficult."

She giggled, "Oh no, I've still got a number of years left in this old body before I'm through. Still, it would help if I could make it back home quickly. I'm afraid the Sun has really turned up the heat lately. It really does poorly with my peachy complexion."

'It looks like we're both impatient with this, then,' he thought as he took out a small gem from out of his pocket and set it on the table. It was tiny, only the shape and size of about three centimeters of pencil lead in size.

"This is what you're after," he whispered, all former pretext now gone, "it's a shard of an incredibly powerful crystal in the ruins near the Boiling Rock settlement. That's what the government is doing there. They are examining the wreckage of this crystal and keeping it away from everypony, likely because of how dangerous it could be in the wrong hooves. If your organization's scientists analyze this, they should be able to confirm its potency. Even a piece this size could power several streetlamps indefinitely...had it not been irreparably warped from some type of explosion, of course."

The mare, however, did not show any change in emotion, still giving him an eerily smiling face. Instead of responding or waiting to hear the rest of the story, she simply took the crystal and quickly left, much to the shock of the stallion.

"Wait! What are you—" he began, only to stop himself when he realized that he was drawing attention. Instead, he got up and quickly followed the mare, who just then had turned into an ally. He turned into the side-street, only to find her stopped halfway down and facing him. "You can't take your prize and go just yet. I haven't finished, and you didn't tell me where the dead-drop was so I could collect the second half of my payment. I'm a professional, and I will not be swindled."

“I’m afraid you have much bigger concerns at the moment, spy,” the mare said as two unicorn Royal Guards came from behind the mare.

Without giving it a second thought, the stallion immediately turned around, only to be faced with two more unicorn guardsponies. Quickly calculating his odds, he instead hung his head. ‘How? Each of those dead-drops were completely inconspicuous! How could the Equestrian government know? Was I betrayed?’

As the mare said, however, he had much larger concerns. Taking the opportunity granted by the stallion’s thoughts, the two guards behind him tackled the stallion to the floor, putting an inhibitor ring and hoofcuffs on with professional precision.





After the unicorn stallion’s arrest, the guards began to interrogate the “delivery-pony’s” identity, whereabouts, activities and affiliations in their headquarters in Canterlot. The room was a standard government style with cold steel chairs and table bolted to the floor and mirror on one wall doubling as a one way window. Despite the aesthetics, the interrogation was, as of yet, to no avail. Even several hours had borne no fruit. The pony still had yet to mention even his name.

“It’s a simple question, ‘stallion,’ where did you get the shard?!” the lieutenant said, slamming her hoof down on the simple metal table in front of her.

The lieutenant was no longer wearing her ‘old granny’ disguise, and with it, her calm soothing demeanor disappeared as well. She now looked as she really was: an athletic, brown unicorn mare with a black, military-cut mane. A scar on her neck—barely visible underneath her military work uniform—combined with her seething anger made it clear to anypony who saw her that she was nopony to be trifled with.

“What you were caught with is bad, real bad,” she continued, staring deep into the eyes of the stallion. “This is stolen Equestrian government property. Not just any property, but a dangerous, ancient artifact, a fact you already admitted to knowing. You realize how this looks, right? I’ll give you a taste.”

She picked up a paper off the table in front of her and recited a passage, “Article 1, Section VIII of the Equisian Non-proliferation Treaty: ‘Any non-governmental body or individual in possession of an unknown or potentially lethal magical artifact is required to relinquish it immediately to the nearest governmental agency or be considered an enemy of all ratifying nations.’ That means you are currently classified as a wanted pony to all the Equisian nations: Equestria, Zebrica, the Griffon Empire.”

Not seeing his expression change, she clarified. “Maybe we should send you to the griffons? It sure would be a relief on our government budget, not having to take care of you for all that time. I heard griffon criminals call our jails ‘paradise’ in comparison. They even make a profit off the political prisoners, you know. Coal mines are awfully hard work, but so rewarding…well, to the government at least. You’re just a short conversation away from avoiding that fate. Talk!” She emphasized that last point with another stomp of her hoof.

The stallion’s eyes widened slightly before coming back to normal. Despite the constant yelling, the bashing of tables and the allegations, the stallion had done little more than sit in his chair and stare. It was grating on the lieutenant’s nerves and it was showing. She decided it was time for a break and stepped out of the room and into the adjacent one. Through the one-way window, she could still see the stallion sitting there silently. In the room with her was was a pegasus stallion guardspony there to ensure that safety…of the suspect during the interrogation.

“What do you think, Lieutenant?" the guardspony asked as the mare sat in one of the chairs.

"This was all too easy," the mare replied. "A citizen reporting a dead-drop? Those are meant to be undiscoverable. It’s true that the citizen was just wandering her property and her background check was clean, but the chances of it happening are so astronomically small, it’s laughable.”

"Why would the purchasing 'organization' want to be caught, though?"

"That's the question, isn't it? Was it all so that they didn't have to pay the second-half of the payment? If so, why hire him in the first place?" She pointed a hoof at a picture of the gem on a table in front of them. "We have their package now, so all the effort was worthless. None of this makes any sense."

"I think you're over-thinking this. These ponies must have just done a sloppy job. I bet we'll catch them in no time," the guardspony replied proudly.

"Maybe..." the mare replied with much more reservation. “Still, I dropped the ball. I had the pony spilling everything he knew about the contract, but I took the crystal and left. I figured the surprise would make the arrest easier—and it did—but it wasn’t worth it. We know next to nothing and have more questions than answers.”

The pegasus just shrugged, not wanting to say anything to a disgruntled superior who was as likely to pile-drive him as she was to accept criticism. Still, despite her reservations, the lieutenant had a job to do. One way or the other, the stallion was going away for a long time, no question about it, but proper procedure had to be followed.

‘Still, I feel there is something larger at work here,’ she thought as she did some light stretching, letting her anger subside and become focused on the task at hoof. ‘If some organization is doing this on purpose, the message is clear: they know about the powerful crystal that nearly destroyed the world and they have the resources to take it. Yet despite that, they gave it back?’ She sighed before her eyes became hard and she marched confidently back into the room before her. ‘Whatever the case, one thing is certain.

‘This isn’t a threat Equestria is going to take lying down.’