Story idea fragment: complex answer · 6:27pm Jun 27th, 2020
Twilight Sparkle came glided down, coming in for a landing. Her hooves sank into the soft sand as she came down by the beach front bungalow. Before she had even folded her wings, a familiar large white form was moving toward her, stopping a short distance away.
"Ah, Princess Twilight Sparkle," Celestia said, dropping into a deep bow. "What an honor it is to have you visit me at my humble abode."
Twilight's wings flickered against her side, and a blush formed on her face.
"Please," she said as she moved toward the larger alicorn, "don't... don't do that." Her wings gave another flick as she looked around. "It just... feels so weird."
With a small chuckle, Celestia straightened up.
"Would you care for some lemonade?"
"Yes. Thank you."
The two made their way up to the porch, where a small table with a pitcher of lemonade and several cookies were waiting.
"So, what brings you to visit?" Celestia asked as she poured two glasses. "The letter you sent did not make it sound like it was completely casual."
"No," Twilight replied. "I'm afraid not." Her horn lit up as she picked up one, taking a sip. "As you are aware, now that I'm running Equestria, I have a lot of new responsibilities to deal with. Some of them, I will always have to perform, while others I can delegate to others. Some of them, though, I wanted to get familiar with myself before letting others to manage it. One of those last type includes the national budget."
As she took a longer drink, Celestia nodded.
"Understandable," she said. "Best to know where finances are going."
"Which brings me to why I came to visit," Twilight stated. She took a breath. "Celestia? How many secret agencies do you and Luna actually have?"
I feel like this scene would be great if animated, if only for the visual of Celestia still being taller even during the bow due to the scale difference. I also feel like the nature of InfoSec means that the correct answer is "more than any one creature is aware of, including ourselves, and it should be kept that way"
Yeah. I could see this happening. Particularly the point about the finances and all the secret agencies (one of the double-edged swords of all the new info Twi has access to now).
And, indeed, Herald of Opera's answer sounds like the correct one.
Also relevant: how many did the Crown have, or how many did Celestia, personally, have? How many were secret, and how many were merely confidential? How many weren't agencies, per se, but were instead confidential agents of public departments? Georg's stories have the Office of Diplomatic Support Services, for example, which is a public department, even if some of the actions of some members of the staff are secret.
"I don't know, how many breads have you eaten in your life?"
"Define 'secret.'"
"Ones that aren't public knowledge."
"Define 'public.'"
"Look, if I go into the Canterlot Archives and look up the structure of Equestria's government, how many agencies will be missing?"
"... Define 'missing.'"
"Really?"
"Twilight, the Department of Extraneous Affairs has been public knowledge for two hundred years, and in all that time, nopony has ever questioned its existence."