The Sun Never Sets

by Mr Fislewait

Business

Most ponies owned very few clothes. Eventide was not one of them. Her wardrobe was surprisingly large when one considered that she had no real interest in fashion, but for the most part each outfit had a purpose or story to it; Eventide did not really own 'clothes' she owned costumes. Her favorite was of course her explorer's outfit, it was an accurate expression of her character, or at least of the mare she wanted to be. She had some fond memories of that costume and though the exact articles of clothing may have changed over time it was the outfit she had worn for some of the best years of her life. Then there was the dresses, each one gifted to her as a present from well meaning friends in the hope that she might wear them to the gala, none of them had ever been worn. There was the suit and tie, immaculately ironed for her court hearings (she had over the past five years been on both sides of that exchange) the tie a sombre black with thin teal stripes that she had specially commissioned for her first court date (back when she was the plaintiff). She had three separate cloak ensembles for use about the town and while none of them would ever conceal her identity from a determined paparazzi they were quite adequate at allowing her to not be immediately recognized by anypony who had read a paper in the past decade.

Her current costume though was one she despised. Today she was business Eventide, and wore the clothes and the mask to match it. At first glance it had a lot in common with her town clothes, consisting of a long jet black cloak with an amethyst clasp and a panama hat. Where this costume diverged though was in its length and other accessories, the cloak completely concealing her tail, a pair of tinted sunglasses covering her eye color and an old maroon wig making her mane look longer and darker than her usual style.

As she stepped off of the train at Ponyville station nopony paid her any attention. Most of the town knew this mare by the name Fantasia Scales, Canterlot music enthusiast and patron of the arts. Only a few of them knew that it was her beneath the costume and Eventide liked it that way. Ponyville was home to a lot of bad memories and were it not for the fact that she had business to conduct there she would happily leave it be. She didn't like Ponyville and it was a pretty good bet that most of the residents didn't like her. That was nothing new of course, a lot of ponies all across Equestria hated her, the difference here was that once upon a time she knew many of these ponies by name.

Reaching her destination she pushed open the door to the sweet shop and swept inside, a bell chiming above her to announce her presence. It was a humble establishment with affordable sweets of all kinds arranged in jars across the walls, at present there were only two other customers and no sign of the owner. The elder customer a unicorn mare (Dinky Doo, if Eventide remembered correctly) payed her no attention but the second stared at her in curiosity. It was a small walnut earth pony filly who had not earned her cutie mark and judging by the curious looks she was giving Eventide was not somepony she had ever met before.

"You look mighty important miss!" the filly squeaked, eliciting a barely concealed giggle from Dinky.

"I am not so important as you give me credit," Eventide droned in her best Whienna accent, having spent the better part of a year based out of the city she could imitate it well enough and so had opted to use it in her disguise. "I am simply here on business with Miss Lyra Heartstrings to see what wonders she has composed for me since the last time we were meeting." She extended a hoof towards the little filly. "Fantasia Scales."

"Paula Red Apple," the filly replied shaking the offered hoof. Eventide had not made it her business to keep up with the Apple family tree but at a guess she would pitch the foal as being the daughter of one of the three local apples. "If yer lookin for Lyra though why are you here?"

"I am of the understanding she still lives with Miss Bon Bon yes? Her living arrangements have not changed in the past few months?" the filly appeared a little confused at the question but behind her Dinky politely shook her head with a smile while mouthing 'no'.

"Okay I've got your order here, Dinky," Bon Bon said entering the storefront from the back room with a large basket of assorted sweets and chocolates on her back. She was beginning to go a little grey in the mane but still retained much of her youthful vigor, a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose being the only other indication that she was starting to show her age.

"Thanks, Bon Bon!" Dinky called levitating the basket onto her own back and a small bag of bits onto the counter. "Tell Lyra I said hi!" With that the unicorn trotted out the door leaving the other three mares alone. Bon Bon's eyes lingered briefly on Dinky before panning over to her remaining two customers. As she saw Eventide she froze slightly and ground her teeth together, her expression hardening.

"Do uh... do you two know each other?" Paula asked, clearly unnerved by the change in the confectioner.

"Oh we go back some ways, Miss Apple. Sweetie Drops is just a little surprised to see me, that is all," Eventide said with a forced smile as she looked between the filly and the owner. To her credit Bon Bon was doing a remarkable job of not freaking out.

"Sweetie Drops? Everypony around these parts calls her Miss Bon Bon," the little filly puzzled.

"It is a little nickname we have for her, me and some of her other friends that is. Now, how about you pick some sweets to buy little Apple, me and 'Bon Bon' we have some things to discuss." Eventide levitated a hoof full of bits over to the filly who proceeded to pick out and pay for her purchases then quietly leave the shop, constantly casting nervous glances at Eventide as she did so. When it was only Eventide left in the shop Bon Bon finally spoke.

"I thought I told you to never visit me at work and never call me Sweetie Drops in front of other ponies," she hissed. "Next time use the backdoor and just go see Lyra directly."

"Must have slipped my mind," Eventide shrugged her shoulders as she dropped the accent. "I wanted to see you first anyway. Just wanted to make sure that you had my payment before I went to see Lyra." She paced the room and pretended to inspect the wares, fully aware of the fact that Bon Bon was glaring at her the whole time.

"I have your payment in the backroom," she muttered. "You don't have to do this though, you can walk away right now, nopony needs to know whats been going on. We can all just drop this and move on with our lives!" she pleaded, her voice softening.

"No, Bon Bon, you could move on with your life." Eventide passed the owner and walked on into the residence at the back of the shop. "I'll be back down when me and Lyra are done," she whispered making her way upstairs to Lyra's room.

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Lyra rushed to the bedroom door as soon as she heard the knocking. Practically pulling the door off of its hinges she returned the huge smile that Evey had on her face with a grin of her own.

"Little Evey! Wow, is it good to see you! Come on in!" Lyra pulled Evey into a friendly hug as she entered the room then maneuvered her towards her desk. "Trust me you are going to love the latest pieces. I've got this great guitar piece that I bet the city kids would lap up!"

"Genre?" Evey asked cordially, speaking to Lyra more as a friend than a business partner.

"Prog Rock. The guitar is the dominant instrument but it has some keyboard, drums and flutes supporting it," Lyra answered levitating some sheet music over to her friend.

"Looks good, I'll be sure to pass a copy on to some of my contacts," Evey said as she scanned the paper. She didn't have any real musical talent herself but she had a few contacts in the industry that would often be willing to overlook her past if the music was good. "If I can get this published then you get your normal royalties and I take my normal fee. In the mean time though I have some more photos for you." Evey levitated the envelope of photos out of her saddlebag and over to Lyra. The other unicorn squealed in delight and quickly tore it open, spreading the pictures over her desk.

"Seriously, Evey? Where did you find them? I mean if you took even one of these to the journal of exotic animals and fauna... Evey this would be the scientific discovery of the century!"

"I've told you before, Lyra, Celestia doesn't want anypony else knowing about them, if I didn't know how much you used to obsess over them I wouldn't even be showing you these photos. I mean I could get into a lot of trouble for smuggling these into Equestria."

"But humans, Evey! Nopony believes they even exist! If you went public with this the entire field of cryptozoology would be given new respect!" Lyra shouted enthusiastically, her limbs animated in a convincing imitation of the mythical human.

"You know my thoughts on the matter, Lyra. If Celestia wants to keep them secret then who am I to argue otherwise? If things ever change trust me when I say you will be the first to know, but until then keep the photos under wraps, I don't want to see you getting arrested," the lie seemed to placate Lyra who let out a short exasperated sigh before returning to drooling over her photos.

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"If you ever hurt her you are a dead mare, you realize that right?" Bon Bon asked as Eventide descended the stairs.

"You give me too little credit. I don't want to see her hurt anymore than you do, all I'm doing is enabling her little fantasy a little. So long as she doesn't go sharing what she has seen then it's perfectly harmless."

"If you really cared about her you wouldn't be using her to get to me," the earth pony growled. She led Eventide to the back room of the sweet shop and pointed at a folder. "Everything you need to know from the MIB is in there. Take it and go." Eventide grabbed the folder in her magic and had a quick flick through the contents, nodding her approval.

"This all looks good. A couple of things I'd like you to look into though, Sweetie Drops," she winced when her name was mentioned. "First of all Starswirl's time travel spell..."

"Destroyed. We've been over this before, Eventide. It's gone and there's no bringing it back," Eventide didn't like the glares that Sweetie would shoot her but she had come to expect them, the mare despised Eventide's presence in her life.

"I know. I was going to ask you where it was kept prior to Twilight Sparkle's first encounter with it. What wing, what shelf, little details like that. For a mare with your connections that should be simple enough," Eventide said with feigned indifference.

"What would you even have to gain from that?" Sweetie Drops asked, her hostility replaced with curiosity.

"That's for me to know. Don't worry I have no aspirations to actually cast the spell, I have heard first hand how dangerous that sort of magic is, even if I were strong enough to cast the spell I wouldn't risk it. Second thing have you heard anything about the ERS looking into me?"

"It may have come up. A few of my former colleagues are a little curious about all the money mysteriously trading hooves back and forth between your bank account and some less than reputable ponies. Is that anything that me and Lyra should be concerned about?"

"No," Eventide muttered. While it might not be a problem for them though it was certainly something she had been hoping to avoid. Having the government looking into her buying and selling habits was not a good thing.

"Why are you still doing this, Eventide? Do you think she'd be proud of the mare you've become?" Sweetie Drops sighed and her tone shifted to something sadder, something pitying. "I knew her, Evey, not well, but I did know her. This wasn't the sort of life she wanted you to have. Blackmail? Extortion? Is it really worth it?" Eventide didn't dignify her with an answer, instead taking her papers and heading towards the door. Sweetie Drops didn't know a damn thing about her. "Even if you do go ahead with it and make good on your threats you'll be taking yourself down with us! You aren't innocent in all of this, hay you're pretty much the guiltiest of the lot. So what is worth all the risks, Evey?"

"The difference between us," Evey spat "is that for the past five years I have been at rock bottom. Right now I have nothing left to lose but everything to gain, you on the other hand? You could lose everything you have ever worked towards. Don't worry though, Sweetie Drops. If all goes according to plan then this should be over soon, I'll be out of your hair and you two will never have to deal with me again. Just find me where they kept the spell and we can all move on with our lives."

"What are you planning?" Sweetie Drops whispered.

"I'm planning to fix my life without hurting everypony else, so please, try not to get in my way." As she sauntered out of the door Evey adjusted her sunglasses to better hide her eyes and to conceal the tears she had begun to cry. The costume was necessary, it was important to the success of her plan. Without Business Eventide she could never have come as far as she had. So why was it that every time she wore this costume she always seemed to come away hating herself a little more?