//------------------------------// // 018 - The Hand of the Market // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Corona walked around the Hub like the AID agent she was – which to say she had high tech sunglasses on. She’d taken to wearing them more and more often simply because they were so useful – they were able to remind her of the names of thousands of individuals, told her if there were hidden weapons anywhere, and could help her navigate any maze-like corridors. As the Hub evolved, the corridors became more and more complex, and the need for aides increased. No longer were the winding halls empty – now they were filled with decoration, stands, and near constant foot traffic. This particular area had taken the form of a bazaar of sorts, with both official spaces and unofficial ones. The difference could be told by which places were in actual enclosures and which ones were just over glorified lemonade stands. This created an unusual atmosphere – large, impressive, official locations had big signs, display windows, and official workers. It didn’t matter if it was an embassy, shop, restaurant, information center, training dojo, arcade, or something else. They drew attention, and the smaller stands and such took advantage of that, clustering as close as they could to the important places, creating large halls filled with trinket carts, mystics, and people playing with cups. Corona stopped by one of the more popular locations – the Embassies for the Elemental Nations and Iroh’s tea shop. There were several humans of varying colors trying to sell teacups alongside a handful of opportunity-seeking ponies. Corona ignored them as they called to her. They weren’t important and she wasn’t in the mood for engaging with the attention-seeking crazies. She walked through the doors of the tea shop. As usual, it was completely full of patrons calmly enjoying their tea. She could see more than a few high-ranking individuals using the location to discuss policy, including Siron and Boxen of all people. What they were talking about wasn’t her business. She walked past all the tables and back into the ‘kitchen’, where Iroh himself was crafting more tea with his firebending. “Ah, Corona! How nice of you to drop by!” Corona reached into one of the shelves and grabbed some cherry-infused tea bags. “I was in the neighborhood, figured I’d drop by and say hello.” She used her fire to heat up the water quickly and dunked the tea in. “How’s business and politics?” “Business is excellent. The more tea I get the more I sell!” he laughed. “I’m making quite the profit even at the low prices I’m selling everything at! Who knew?” Corona smirked. “People like your company. And, apparently, talking about ‘business’ in a public location.” Iroh nodded, setting freshly brewed tea on the serving counter. “Chala and Chamomile for the General!” O’Neill got up from his table he shared with Link and a few Apollo crew members to grab the tea. He incredulously examined his cup and nodded slowly, as if it was satisfactory. “Cool beans.” Corona raised an eyebrow. “Did you seriously just say ‘cool beans’?” O’Neill raised his eyebrow in return. “Did you seriously just call it out like some phrase Nazi?” “Did you seriously just invent the phrase ‘phrase Nazi’ for this conversation?” “Please!” Iroh said, holding up his hands and chuckling. “We’re all friends here. No need to have a battle of banter.” Corona pointed at O’Neill. “But that’s how he gets his laughs.” “I will neither confirm nor deny my completely theoretical enjoyment with banter.” Iroh shrugged. “In that case, maybe I should challenge you to a battle of wit.” O’Neill narrowed his eyes. “You’re on, old ma-“ “General!” one of the Apollo crew members yelled. “Where’s the tea?” O’Neill put on an obviously fake smile. “It appears that I have to cut this meeting short to dote on my men.” He grabbed the tray with several teacups on it. “The duel of snarky old men will have to wait for another day.” “And what a glorious day it will be,” Corona commented. Soon, she and Iroh were alone in the back of the kitchen again. “I believe you asked about politics, earlier,” Iroh said, moving to prepare more tea. “Yeah. How’re things going on your end?” “The demons are working out really well for us. Hard workers with a strong pride that helps them build everything well. They’ve crafted the neutral Republic City well. Though, it can hardly be called a city at the moment, it’s more like a… ‘bumpkin town’.” “…What.” “I don’t know why people are calling it that but they are. It’s some joke on the demons’ presence, calling them unsophisticated and claiming anything they make is just like them.” Corona pursed her lips. “That’s hardly fair…” “Better than the extremists who’ve been attacking the demons’ own settlement,” Iroh sighed. “There’s a large movement forming to cut off all ties to other worlds because it’s an ‘invasion’ of sorts.” “Well, that’s stupid.” Corona took a sip of her tea – delicious, as usual. “Their violence is, but their reasonings are not without merit,” Iroh admitted. “We refused aid from Equestria to preserve our culture, and many of them are arguing the mere existence of Republic City and the demons ruins this.” “Republic City was completely your idea, though.” Iroh chuckled. “Try telling that to people who weren’t around when the idea was proposed. They’ve gotten it in their heads that it had to come from some alien force and ruins the ideal of balance. Using the demons as workers just gives them more fire, even if they have no say in the designs of the city itself.” Corona frowned. “Sounds like your world’s getting the short end of the stick.” “Hey, the rest of you are keeping everything secret from your various worlds. I’m just waiting for that to explode in your faces.” Corona shrugged. “Well, it’s public knowledge in Equestria, and it’s not really a secret in Lai, it’s just that they don’t advertise it.” “Ardent, both Earths, and the Binaries, all into keeping secrets.” Corona shrugged. “I don’t think it’s a problem, really. If my Earth got public knowledge of everything… Well, that’d just make this mess of marketplaces even worse. The place is basically driven by wealth. I’d say Earth Tau’ri is the same, but I haven’t actually spent a lot of time there to study the culture.” “Same here, I mostly just talk to their leaders and people in on the secret. They’ve perfected the art of classification.” “Hey, question – have you ever been to the Binary worlds?” “Once or twice, and under heavy, heavy guard.” “Same,” Corona said. “They’re paranoid. …Which makes it even weirder that Boxen is talking to Siron out there.” Iroh shrugged. “Deals will be made regardless of whether either side likes each other or not.” Corona nodded. Iroh set out another platter of tea. “For the lovely little ladies!” Twilight ‘Sparky’ the human walked up, head hung low. “Thanks, Iroh.” “Oh! Sparky, what’s wrong?” “Nothing much,” Twilight muttered. Corona lowered her sunglasses and raised her eyebrows. “Twilight, something’s definitely wrong.” “…Fine. Earth Gizmos is going to go out of business if we can’t turn a large profit soon. I’ll have to close it up forever. ” Corona put her sunglasses back on. “Not if I have anything to say about it.” She leaped over the counter and grabbed Twilight by the shoulders. “I am going to help your little store in whatever way I can.” “Corona… I mean, thanks, but you don’t have to-“ Corona held up a hand. “Don’t try to talk me out of it, I have nothing else to do today, so I might as well try to help a friend. What’s the issue?” “It’s just… People don’t want to come in and buy our things! I have no idea why!” Corona smirked. “Sounds like I need to investigate.” She took a sip of her cherry-infused tea. “To Earth Gizmos!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “I guess the tea was ‘to go’ anyway.” Corona and Twilight said their goodbyes to Iroh and left the establishment, passing by O’Neill’s table. Something Link had said had him laughing hard. Judging from Link’s expression it wasn’t supposed to be funny. The two entered the long halls of the Hub and moved along, passing by shops, musicians, and dozens of important people and ponies. Neon signs demanded their attention, large screens showcased interdimensional news reels, and Corona was sure she spotted the infamous pink sugar skull appear on someone’s glasses for a split second. She wondered if the hacker could get into her glasses… Not a pleasant thought. Corona took a moment to wave hello to a person she recognized - Seskii, the pink potion seller, apparently doing really good business now that she’d left Ardent in favor of the Hub. They exchanged no words, but Seskii tossed Corona a free potion in between dealing with customers. Corona drank it as she and Twilight kept walking. “You know her well?” Twilight asked. “Not really. But she’s nice. She’s also got great potions. I think this one’s enchanted with a hint of ‘amusement’.” “...Huh.” They soon arrived at the Earth Gizmos store, which was surrounded by a number of watch sellers for some reason. They walked in the front doors. Lyra was at the register, Trixie was taking a nap on the floor next to her, and there were two patrons in the store. “Hey Twilight,” Lyra said, looking with dismay at the pathetic cash register. “Sold a toaster since you left, that’s it.” Twilight set out the tea on the countertop, which Lyra took eagerly to escape from the drudgery of her ‘job’. “How much longer until we cut our losses?” Lyra asked. Twilight shrugged. “I was thinking a week, but Corona wants to try to help us.” Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Got any clever marketing ideas that a bunch of high school students can pull off?” Corona grinned. “I have no ideas at the moment, but I plan to have some momentarily. First, we need to figure out what exactly the problem is.” “The problem’s easy,” Lyra said. “Nobody’s buying our stuff. We sell machines and gizmos from Earth, and nobody wants them!” Corona raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make any sense. I see smartphones everywhere. I’ve gone to Ponyville and found several televisions. They’ve even got a Ponyville Broadcast up and running, thanks to Pinkie. Everyone loves these devices.” Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Then explain to me why nobody’s rushing in to buy our entire stock.” “I plan to,” she said, noticing that one of the patrons – an Earth Kingdom woman – was leaving. “Hey, I’m Agent Corona, AID. Mind if I ask you a question or two?” “You’re just saying that-“ Corona produced her badge and raised an incredulous eyebrow. The woman tensed up. “Why of course! What do you want to know!” “Just curious why you’re leaving this store.” “Oh. Didn’t want to buy anything.” “Why?” The woman leaned back. “Because it was all too expensive? Why are you asking?” “Reasons,” Corona said, nodding to her. “Where you going now?” “Gear Emporium. Prices are better. Can I go now?” Corona nodded. “Sure.” The woman scampered out of the store. “The price is bad!?” Twilight twitched. “I price these as low as I can! We buy them in bulk and at a discount! If I sold them any cheaper it’d be at a loss!” Corona frowned. “What about this ‘Gear Emporium’? Do we know anything about them?” “They operate in the next district over,” Lyra said. “That’s all I know.” “I didn’t even know that,” Twilight said. “But I did know there were several other shops in the Hub that do the same thing we do… I wonder if they’re having similar problems?” Corona smirked. “I think we should pay them a visit. Come on Twilight, we’ve got competition to scout out!” She dragged Twilight out of the store, leaving Lyra with the remaining patron and the unmoving Trixie. They dashed through the halls of the Hub once again, leaving the familiar area and approaching one Corona had only been in a few times before, one of the strangely ‘empty’ zones where several enclosures were not occupied by anything. It was slightly eerie, seeing all the stands and tents without the glowing light of the large establishments. There were, however, a couple of places here. One was a ‘gateway’, a service that would dial any universe for anyone at a small price. From the looks of it, it was one of the less reputable places that might be convinced to send a patron to an ‘unsafe’ universe if enough money was paid, despite the Hub’s regulations forbidding that practice. It was one of the Hub’s few regulations. The other place was the Gear Emporium, a shop that occupied two entire rooms. It boasted a neon sign made of actual turning gears to draw in the crowds. Despite the lack of other establishments around, the Gear Emporium was crazy busy. People were dragging out televisions, game consoles, cameras, and phones by the dozen. Corona blinked. “…Well this is where all your customers have gone.” Twilight gawked. “…How?!” “We’re about to find out.” Corona adjusted her glasses and marched into the store, Twilight behind her. The store itself was, while larger than Earth Gizmos, not any nicer looking. The lights were the same, the shelves were identical, and the products were the same thing. But the prices… Twilight looked at a smartphone’s price tag and gawked. “That’s… That’s factory cost right here! This is how much you pay the factory to make one of these things directly! There’s no markup!” Corona furrowed her brow. “They can’t be making a profit off this at all, can they?” “No! Unless they’re stealing these things for free! Even if they’re making them themselves it’d be a zero-profit scenario, you have to put the money in to create them. They’re probably running at a negative profit margin, since they have to pay something to keep this store running!” “Something fishy’s going on…” She walked up to an employee sitting at a nearby wall, a human with purple skin grossly engaged in her phone. “Excuse me?” “Hm?” she said, looking up. “Can I help you with anything?” she asked in a tone that made it clear she did not want to help anyone with anything ever. “Hey, we were wondering, how can you sell your things so cheaply?” “Look, lady, this is the price everything in the Hub is at if it wants to survive,” she rolled her eyes. “Every tech store that has a chance is like this. I’ve checked myself, there are no better deals anywhere.” “How can you afford that?” “I just work here. I have no idea where we get our things from. A fairy godmother for all I know, or care.” She went back to her phone, clearly not in the mood for any more talking. Corona glanced at Twilight. “…Every store has these prices?” “I don’t know! I’ve not really looked at the competition before!” “Probably why you didn’t figure this out earlier…” Corona put a hand to her chin. “I don’t think the people here are going to be very helpful. Perhaps we should try somewhere else…” Twilight pulled up a map of the Hub on her phone. “Let’s see… I’ve got ten separate tech shops in the Hub, not including our own. The one we’re at now has the highest rating… But most of them are sitting even.” Corona checked the information on her sunglasses. “Wow. The internet sure moves fast.” “There’s already Hub YouTube,” Twilight commented. “I think it’s run by our Earth. I have no idea what’s going to happen when Tau’ri YouTube gets wind of this.” “Copyright law is going to be an absolute nightmare…” Corona realized. “Anyway, pick a store, any store.” “This one! The Flimflam Gadgetry Pit!” “Huh. Sounds a little crazy. Maybe they’ll be more helpful.” The Flimflam Gadgetry Pit was in an area of the Hub with a lot more shops than anything else, a bit of a ‘shopping’ district, if such a thing could really be considered to exist in the Hub. The two of them walked right in. The store was nowhere near as clean and organized as Earth Gizmos or the Gear Emporium, rather, it was a disorganized mess with products tossed around everywhere, labels slapped in awkward places, and no semblance of organization. There were a dozen or so patrons, and the counter was manned by four yellow individuals – two humans and two unicorns, each pair of which was clearly an alternate version of the other pair. “Hello!” One of the yellow unicorns called, the one with a mustache. “Welcome to the Flimflam Gadgetry Pit, run by Flim, Flim, Flam, and Flam!” Twilight blinked, pointing at the humans. “I know you! You’re those crazy salesmen that try to rip off everyone! How did you get clearance to get in here!?” “Stepped through the portal by accident,” human Flim said, shrugging. “It was as simple as promising to be a good boy and we got tickets.” “Plus, we got to meet ourselves!” human Flam said, leaping onto unicorn Flam. Unicorn Flam reared, laughed, and bounced across the store. Corona facepalmed. “I… Oh this is just great. Look, we’re just here to ask questions.” “I’ll answer them if there’s something in it for me,” unicorn Flim said. Corona flashed her AID badge. “Trust me, it's in your best interest.” She took no small amount of pleasure when unicorn Flim’s stance tightened and his pupils dilated. Of course she didn’t really have authority over him, but he didn’t have to know that. “Ah, right! What do you want to know?” “A simple curiosity. I’m wondering how you can sell all these things so cheap.” “Well, you see…” he coughed. “We don’t price them, our distributor does. They come to us with the prices printed on the box, we just slap the labels on the individual items. So you can’t hold us accountable!” “That’s completely fine,” Corona said. “I would like to know where the distributions come from though.” Human Flim came into the conversation. “Oh, just some blokes. Some fancy-schmancy rich type from Earth Tau’ri who wants to ‘spread the technology’. Decided to trust us and give us an edge.” “Who’s this guy?” “Calls himself Frank. Frank Saltwist.” Corona narrowed her eyes. She held her hands behind her back, slowly removing a glove. “That doesn’t sound like a human name.” “Oh, who knows, it might not be. It’s what he calls himself-“ Corona rushed her ungloved hand for human Flim’s arm. He recoiled before she could touch him. “EVERYBODY BAIL!” He screamed, leaping onto unicorn Flim and riding out a side door. The Flams had already left the establishment a while ago. “Get them!” Corona yelled, bounding after the human-pony combo, hands on fire. Twilight ran alongside her, preparing a spell. The Flims saw them coming. The human reached over to a nearby cart vendor and pulled it down, spilling cabbages into Twilight and Corona’s path. The cabbage salesman yelled in distress as his produce was trampled over. “MY CABBAGES!!!” “Sorry!” Twilight called back, stumbling over more than a few cabbages. She turned forward, casting her spell. She summoned a purple whip-like tendril of magic energy from the aether, twisting it toward the Flims. The human saw it coming and deflected with his hat of all things. The hat did not survive. Corona went next, throwing fire at the hooves of the unicorn, making him trip up. However, in the time it took Corona to make sure the fires didn’t spread, he had regained his footing. Twilight tried a spell again, this time grabbing the unicorn’s tail with her telekinesis. Her telekinesis was comparatively weak to that of most unicorns, but the tug was enough to make the unicorn stumble. Corona took the opportunity, blasting fire at the unicorn’s hooves again. This time he stumbled and fell over, dumping the human into a cart of scorpion popsicles. “Ugh…” Corona pressed her hand to the unicorn’s forehead… …Corona was standing in a dark space in a forested area, clearly a different universe. All four Flims and Flams were standing there, looking at a giant naval shipping crate filled with technology. There was a hooded man standing next to it. “Here’s our part of the deal. The prices you should use are inside on the individual boxes, as well as instruction manuals for everything. You’ll find that, at those prices, they should sell like hotcakes. All sold good profits go directly to us, but we pay you by the hour. Use your best judgment as to what should go on the sales floor at any given time. Our only requirement is that nobody finds out where you get your machines.” “What if we empty the crate?” human Flam asked. “We’ll be around to restock it for you.” Unicorn Flim scratched his chin. “You’re providing this to every store, aren’t you?” “Huh? That’d be silly. What kind of business model does that?” Corona, seeing this entire event from unicorn Flim’s eyes, understood that it was a brilliant business model. Try to control every store you can, drive the others out of business with low prices, and then start charging up the ‘wazoo’ for extra extra cash. Unicorn Flim was excited, nervous, and thrilled at the same time, similar to his mood in the future. Or, rather, present. “Sunseeeeeet…” The mysterious man left the universe with a portal device, leaving the crate behind. The memory blurred into the background as the four people started looking at their new wares… …Corona snapped back into reality. “Thank you, Flim, I have everything I need. Actually, one more thing. How close to empty is that crate?” “…Very.” “Good. You are going to tell me how to get there, and then you aren’t going to breathe a word about this to anyone. Got it?” “G-got it! It’s in the Forested World, right where our shop is!” She dropped him, turning to Twilight. “I’ve got answers!” “That was a… pretty public display, Corona.” “Then we need to move fast, before they got onto us. Come on Twilight, we’re going on a stakeout.” “…Yay?” ~~~ The Forested World was a strange one. It was an apparently endless forest filled with evergreen trees where it was always a warm summer night. There were always stars visible in the night sky, though there was no apparent way to get to them, even in a starship they never got any closer. The world had so much space that taking one step in most other worlds would result in a thousand steps in the forest. This huge space displacement effect made it a perfect place to hide large things, because people would rarely chance upon just the perfect location. Luckily a giant shipping container wasn’t too hard to see from a couple thousand feet away. Big, bright red, metallic, it was hard to miss. Corona and Twilight were currently up in a tree, watching the box below them. Twilight was shivering slightly. “Remember the plan,” Corona said. “What plan? It’s just a sleep spell!” Corona shrugged. “I’m mainly reminding you to have it ready.” “It takes a bit of effort to keep a spell ready for this long!” “Shh!” “There’s nobody here!” “There could be! The box is very empty now, and they should be back with a shipment anytime.” Twilight frowned. “Unless they saw what happened to the Flims and Flams.” Corona sighed. “That’s true… I don’t think so, though. If these guys have access to the Hub’s security tapes, I think we have bigger problems than your store.” Twilight folded her arms and fell silent. They continued watching the crate. They’d already been here for hours – not quite a day, but that didn’t mean much in this place. “How do you think this forest survives without anything to pollinate it?” Twilight asked out of the blue some minutes later. “I think these trees are frozen in time or something,” Corona said. “I don’t think they grow, seed, or anything.” “There’s wind though, they react to that. And us pushing on them.” “I also don’t see any pinecones. Makes me think they don’t reproduce at all.” “Then how’d this place come to exist in the first place?” Corona shrugged. “One of the mysteries of the mult- shh!” She pushed Twilight down the instant a portal opened up in front of the crate. A single person came out and investigated the crate with a clipboard. He was dressed all in black and his face was hidden. His hands were covered in gloves and clothing shined from excessive polish. He stuck his head into the crate, made a few notes on his clipboard, and reached for his dimensional device. “Now!” Corona nudged Twilight. She remembered she needed to make him sleep – and cast the spell. Twilight was far from an apt magician, but the sleep spell was a simple one. It also helped that the figure was tired to begin with. Before he could return to wherever he needed to report to, he slumped to the ground, snoring. Corona leaped out of the tree, removing a glove from her hand. She pressed it to his face… …She was on a beach covered in women in bikinis. Right, the man was sleeping, so she was sort of in his dream. She could see who she presumed to be him, a blue man lounging on a beach chair. His muscles looked far too defined to be real. “Dreeeeeeams…” Corona needed to focus on finding information, not nagging sensations in the back of her mind. But this dream wasn’t giving her anything, and as for the emotions in the space, they were all about ‘happy’ emotions that made Corona feel rather disgusted with herself. But she couldn’t really do anything. Her empathy was a passive ability. She didn’t control what it saw, not really. It merely saw what memories and emotions were strong in the mind of whomever she touched. Usually, the important things rose to the surface, a consequence of being interrogated. But this man had been snuck up on, he hadn’t been thinking about it at all… All she got was this beach. “Passive, you saaaaaaay? Why not try something?” There was definitely nothing she could do. But since she was here, she might as well try. She walked towards the blue man and stood in front of him. Something purple flashed, and he suddenly saw her. “Hey babe, what are you doing at a beach like this?” Corona realized with some trepidation that she was now a part of his dream, and therefore was dressed to match. She twitched. “I am your worst nightmare. Quite literally.” “Oh, really?” he sat up. “I like a challenge-“ She slapped him – it was very satisfying to slap someone with her bare hand without getting a rush of emotions from them. “No. You are going to stop ogling at these impressive and beaut-“ she caught herself acting on his emotions, growling. “Basically you’re going somewhere else.” “Where?” “The place you want to seeeeeeeee…” Corona smirked. “Why not your workplace?” Suddenly the blue man was in his shiny black suit, and Corona was standing next to him in the same suit. They were standing in a room filled with similarly dressed people, all holding clipboards with lists of technological devices on them. At the front of the room was a projector, and a woman in a suit. Corona recognized her. Her eyes widened – it was an agent at AID, one of her coworkers. Her name was… Katty, Corona remembered. “…Why am I back here…?” the blue man wondered aloud. “You tell me,” Corona asked, noticing with trepidation that much of what Agent Katty was saying was only half-remembered, blurred. “I… I already do the job… What’s with orientation again?” “Same response.” “You did this!” “No, really?” “Hey! Hey everybody, this woman’s crazy!” None of the audience paid him any mind. “What in…?” “Memoooooooory…” Corona smirked. “This is just a memory, and a rather fuzzy one at that. You can’t do anything.” He turned to glare at her. “Who are you?” “Probably just another figment of your imagination destined to torment you.” Can’t have him waking up and remembering this, if that is even possible. “Hey, here’s a thought. Maybe I’ll go away sooner if you ‘appease’ me.” He backed away. The scenery shifted to a park in the middle of a big city. There was a little girl holding his hand. “Daddy, who’s the strange lady?” Corona blinked. Unexpected. The man turned to his daughter. “I… I’m not sure at all.” “Something from another universe,” Corona said. Which was true, when taken in a literal sense. She technically lived on this Earth though… “Techniiiiiicalitiesssss…” Corona continued digging forinformation. “So, besides that woman, who’s your boss? Do you like him?” “Are you some kind of mind parasite?” “Yesssss you aaaaaaaare.” Corona gave him a thumbs up. “I am if you want me to be! So, show me your boss! Let’s talk about your boss!” The scene with the park vanished, replaced with a political rally. A man in a suit waved at the populace and smiled, the podium beneath him reading Senator Pearse. “Do you like him?” Corona asked. “He pays me…” the blue man answered, clearly not processing all of this properly. “One of the higher ups…” Corona mused. “You’ve been very helpful, mister.” “Wait… How come you...” “Because I’m derogatory and mean. I’ll probably be going now-“ “SUNSEEEEEEEEET!” Corona looked directly at Senator Pearse. He was wearing the mask. She screamed… …Corona jerked back from the man’s body, breathing heavily. “What happened!?” Twilight yelled. “I… He must have had some sort of mental training…” “You went all purple for a while, Corona! I was worried!” Corona kicked the unconcious blue man. “I’m fine. Let’s go, I’ve got something to talk to Director Storm about…” ~~~ General Sunset, Toph, Lieshy, Vivian, and Fef were climbing a large mountain. Well, everyone but Lieshy was climbing. She was flying a little to the side, looking at them all impatiently. “The bumble can move above and below. I could just fly up, get the likely useless information, and come back down.” Sunset shook her head. “No, Lieshy. This is a monastery – we’re not going to upset the acolytes by just letting you charge in.” “Then just tell me what to do.” “They won’t speak to anyone who isn’t an acolyte or government employee.” “…That’s stupid.” Fef laughed. “So, can I test them when I get there to see if I can get them to crack?” “No trying to make them break their laws, we want information, not a fight.” Vivian nodded. “Got it. What’s the information this time?” Toph grunted. “This was the sixth artifact the Sage had Applejack get. Some kind of perfectly round sphere of white material. Applejack just charged in here, took it, and ran out. Didn’t know anything else about it, like so many of the other artifacts. Not that knowing more has been helpful.” Vivian put her head in her hands. “Aw, but I liked the story of the Red Rune! Such passionate love and sacrifice!” “Still useless,” Toph muttered. “The legend behind could esoterically affect the artifact’s power,” Lieshy commented. “Big word alert!” Fef called to her. “I can be the sesquipedalian whenever I desire.” “You are just such a STICK in the MUD sometimes, you know that?” “I hazard to suggest it’s called ‘being the reasonable one’.” “Now you’re just speaking like that to ANNOY me!” Lieshy smirked. “Eeeyup!” Fef pointed at Lieshy but couldn’t come up with a retort. “We’re almost there,” Toph announced. “Really?” Fef shouted, glad to be changing the topic of focus. “How can you tell?” Toph stomped her foot into the ground. “I can feel earth above us too, numbnuts.” “…Ah.” Vivian smiled. “Oh, that’s good, I can’t wait to meet these acolytes! …Even if they won’t talk to us, I’m sure the story of the artifact will be fascinating!” They arrived at the top of the mountain, discovering the summit to be a crater-like enclosure with one entrance – a set of gates that seemed to be made out of a solid piece of pearl. Sunset was fairly sure magic was used to construct it, since finding a pearl that size would require an oyster the size of a mansion or two. The gates themselves were inscribed with two giant eyes. One pupil was the shape of a hexagon, the other a six-pointed star. Sunset moved to knock, but the doors opened before she reached them. They slid back, kicking up significant dust, slowly revealing the interior of the summit-crater. There were a dozen simple stone buildings carved from the mountain’s rock, a handful of trees with strange blue fruit, and a statue of Armonia in the center, enchanted to have water flowing over her constantly. The Goddess looked exactly as she was usually depicted – humanoid with four arms and vague features alongside two pairs of wings – pegasus and dragon. Her head had three small, rounded horns to draw attention away from the nearly void face. A single tail twisted around her two legs, a simple mouth at the end. Sunset bowed purely from reflex. Lieshy glanced at the others before following suit. Soon, all five of them were bowing to the statue, most feeling pretty awkward about it. “General Sunset Shimmer, you are welcomed to the Gateway Monastery. We’ve been expecting you.” Sunset took that as her cue to look up. She stared into the purple eyes of an oculus with a similarly colored mane and a dull gray coat who was wearing perfectly white robes. “Thank you for your gracious welcome. I apologize for the unusual companions, but they need to hear what we’ll discuss.” “I understand. I also understand they will blurt things out constantly.” “…Now, I’m sure they can behave themse-“ “MAUD!?” Lieshy blurted. The acolyte made no reply – didn’t even so much as look at Lieshy. Sunset, on the other hand, shot Lieshy a look. “Don’t test them!” “But she looks like Maud! Pinkie Pie’s sister!” Sunset blinked, slowly turning back to the acolyte. “You wouldn’t, by chance, be related to Pinkie the Sage, would you?” “Your companion is indeed correct, I am her sister. I can hear them, by the way, I’m just forbidden from interacting with all of them save Fef, who holds a prominent position in her government.” “Cool!” Fef cheered. “What’s with the no talking thing though? Seems lame!” “It is to keep us disconnected from the ways of the world. However, we do understand that sometimes discussing our place in the world is necessary, hence the clause that allows for discussion with the government. Any government, really.” Toph grumbled. “Shoulda gotten Iroh to give me a title…” Maud looked back to Sunset. “You are looking for my sister.” Sunset nodded. “She’s caused some problems and is definitely up to something. Can you tell us anything?” “I know no more about what she wants than Lady Rarity did,” Maud said. “I may be able to see further than almost every oculus thanks to the Goddess’s blessing, but I cannot see inside the minds of anypony, not even my sister.” “Well, what about just Pinkie in general? How does she do the things she does?” Maud turned to look at the Goddess’ statue. “She sees something all other oculi can not. We see what is. She described once, to me, that she saw the reason for what is, as well. And, as you know, one day she saw a reason she hated, and started her quest, whatever it is.” “And what did she want taken from here?” Vivian asked. Maud made no response. Sunset shook her head. “Sorry. What she said, what was taken from here?” “The Goddess’ mold,” Maud said, pointing at the cupped hands of the statue. “The vigilante Applejack crashed through our doors one day on Pinkie’s behest and despite our best efforts to defend ourselves, made off with our prized possession. It was a pure white material that could take on any shape, made in ancient times by the essence of the Goddess against her will.” “I take it there’s a story behind that?” Sunset asked. “Yes. But first, you are going to have a mental breakdown.” Sunset blinked. “Come again?” She began to look around, concerned that something would jump out at her. She saw a large, blue dragon sitting on the edge of the crater. “Oh. You have a dragon. …Mildly terrifying, but nothing worth losing my mind over.” Toph tapped her foot on the ground. “Oh, yeah, dragon. Forgot to mention that.” “How do you forget to mention something like a giant predatory reptile?” Lieshy asked. “It seemed friendly.” Lieshy facehooved. “I don’t see any-“ Sunset began, but then she saw it. Towards the back of the canyon was an Arcei in acolyte dress. Sunset’s tail began growling, lighting on fire. She teleported right in front of the brown stallion. “I spy me an Arcei.” The Arcei backed away, but didn’t speak. “Oh, you can talk. I’m General Sunset Shimmer. Please, I’d like to hear which runes were destroyed in the construction of your arcs. How did the golems scream when they were slain? What ponies’ livelihood did you steal?” “I… I…” Sunset’s tail really wanted to eat him. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep the maw back, Arcei. Spill the beans, I’m curious.” “The Rune of Magnus!” Sunset’s face darkened. “…That was you!?” “I was young! I didn’t know what I was being asked to do!” “You think that’s an excuse for condemning an entire town to freeze to death?” She pulled her head back, preparing a devastating fire spell. She hit a rock wall instead of the Arcei. Sunset glared at Toph. “You think you’re defending an innocent, do you?” “No. I mean, he doesn’t sound like that much of a jerk, but I’m just stopping you from a murderous rampage.” “I grew up around the Rune of Magnus, Toph. The pack of Arcei that harvested that rune used it to make him.” “It doesn’t sound like he really had a choice. And something tells me if you try to kill him, you’ll turn all the acolytes on us. Including bad mama dragon up there.” Sunset glared at the ‘bad mama dragon.’ “I will roast you if you so much as touch Turner,” the dragon bellowed. Sunset took a deep breath and put the fire on her tail out. “…Fine. He lives. Whatever, keep your blasphemous freak here, see if the Goddess decides to smite you for betraying her creed.” “You are mistaken about her creed,” Maud said, walking up to Sunset again. “The runes are not part of the Goddess’ plan at all, and therefore are outside her doctrine.” Sunset shook her head. “What are you, crazy? Of course they’re part of the Goddess’ plan!” “They are not mentioned at all in any of the scriptures aside from as set pieces. They are not considered holy, nor evil, but are instead neutral forces.” Sunset frowned. “You’re an odd group.” “There’s a reason we left the main Order to live up here, they began to teach things deviating from the true scripture.” “Whatever. Fine. Do what you will, see what I care. Tell me about the Goddess’ mold so we can get on with our lives.” “The sphere that can take any shape came into existence at the time of magic. If you recall the legend, in the creation of the world the Goddess lost focus momentarially and infused part of her essence into the world that later became magic. The world started draining it from her in large quantities, trying to take all her power for itself. She could not allow this, and tied a knot to separate her power from the power the world had already taken. That knot is the mold.” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so we have an artifact that can take any shape with a relation to the Goddess. How does that help us?” “I do not know, I cannot see much. I do know that the mask she wears is the Goddess’ mold.” “Oh, so it has special white magic tendril powers?” “No,” Maud said. “It should be completely docile, unable to do anything beyond change shape.” Fef gasped. “She’s done something to it!” “Genius deduction,” Lieshy deadpanned. “What has she done?” Sunset asked. “I have no idea,” Maud admitted. “I do know it can’t be good. Something sick and dark is brewing. What makes me most concerned is that my prophecies tell me only part of it comes from Pinkie. The other is something… maddening.” Sunset nodded slowly. “Well, we’ll be off then. Enjoy your little den.” “May the Goddess bless you.” “Yeah, whatever,” Sunset muttered, walking out of the ‘monastery’. She growled. “Glad that’s over with.” Vivian put her hands on her hips. “Sunset Shimmer, that was completely uncalled for, rude, and brutish!” Sunset narrowed her eyes. “There’s a reason Arcei are illegal, Vivian. They destroy runes. In some cases, maybe that can be allowed to slide, even if I don’t think so. But that case? Ponies died when that rune was taken away!” Toph folded her arms. “And you think risking the mission was worth attacking him?” “You and I both know you only protected him because you felt like it and not because of the mission.” “Doesn’t matter. I still stand by it. Not to mention that by killing him you’d just bring about more violence. Isn’t that something you’re trying to stop doing?” Sunset frowned. “…I wouldn’t kill him. I would have just broken his arcs so he wouldn’t be able to destroy another rune.” “That’d be like removing somepony’s horn,” Lieshy pointed out. “So? It stops further destruction!” “I don’t think he was planning on destroying any more runes,” Vivian said. Sunset groaned. “You know what? You guys can find your own ways down the mountain. I’ll be waiting in the bar at Silkerton.” She lit her horn and teleported away. Toph threw her hands into the air. “Stubborn as a mule!” Fef broke out laughing. Toph facepalmed. “Fef that wasn’t that funny.” Lieshy sighed. “It was very painful. I worry about our leader, sometimes.” Vivian shrugged. “It’s a fault she has. We shouldn’t let her think it’s fine, and we should encourage her to change herself, but we also shouldn’t let it destroy our bond.” “I doubt,” Lieshy said. “It is something rather difficult to move past.” Toph clenched her fist. “You have no idea…” ~~~ Corona stepped into the primary mission control of AID and walked down the center aisle to Director Storm’s big seat. She took off her sunglasses. “Director? Can I have a word with you?” “Always! Well, so long as I’m not busy, but I’m not busy now!” He chuckled. “What’s on your mind?” “…In private?” His expression lost some of is jovial nature. “Ah, I see. Well, to the private office then! Onward!” He performed an exaggerated march into his private office, Corona in tow. His personal office was a somewhat small space consisting almost entirely of a desk and two bookshelves. There were three small chairs at the front of the desk, and one large behind. Storm took his place in the large seat and rested a finger on one of his many shiny paperweights. “So, what do you have for me?” “I uncovered a bit of an economic conspiracy at the Hub, and it involves at least one of our agents.” Director Storm sighed, putting his hands on the bridge of his nose. “It was only a matter of time… All right, who’s the traitor, what’s their plan, and how can I get them behind bars?” Corona found this reaction a little more accepting than she’d expected, but that was good for her. “Agent Katty. Her face was in the memories of a man I touched. She was teaching him how to do his ‘job’ which, at the very least, involved supplying technology shops of the Hub with products to sell at-cost in order to run any competing shops into the ground. Basically they’re encouraging price-fixing in order to exploit the extremely popular market of technology at the expense of ponies and the people of the Elemental Nations.” Storm furrowed his brow. “That’s definitely illegal here, but I’m not aware that we can charge them for doing such things on the Hub.” Corona smirked. “Well, we can cut off the people in charge on this end and expose the plan to the people of the Hub. Make a big show of it, make the people of the Hub come to realize that we’re on their side, and will defend them. Plus, if we can stop them before they complete their plan, we can keep technology prices from skyrocketing. For a while at least, I don’t really understand the economy that well.” “You and me both.” He put his hand to his beard, stroking it. “I like it, I like this a lot. We expose a conspiracy, boot out one of our less-than-loyal agents, and then we claim some glory of our own! Ha!” He took out a notebook. “Okay, so, who else is involved besides Katty? I know you’ve got more than you’ve told me. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have more.” “I intercepted a shipment and emotionally read a blue skinned man. Didn’t get his name, actually. I did get the name of who I believe is the mastermind behind it all. Senator Pearse.” Director Storm stopped taking notes and facepalmed, ramming the notepad into his face. Corona’s confident expression fell. “…What’s the problem?” “Pearse is the primary reason we get funding here at AID. Going up against him would be incredibly dangerous. Even if he wouldn’t declare political war on us if we exposed him, we need him in office so we can work like we do. If we remove him somehow, some other Senator I don’t know how to work with is going to screw everything over.” “So you’re saying we aren’t going to do anything.” Director Storm sighed, fixing Corona with a serious expression. Corona wasn’t quite sure, but this may have been the first time she’d seen a truly serious expression on his face. “More than that. I’m ordering you to stop looking into it. If he wants to do this, we let him. I’m very upset he didn’t at least have the courtesy to tell me what he was doing with one of my agents, but I can’t do anything about that now. I can’t have him knowing one of my agents acted against him.” “But sir, what about-“ “Corona, no. My decision is final, and it has nothing to do with my personal opinion on the matter. You are to cease investigations immediately and do nothing to hinder Senator Pearse’s shady operation. He is to have the full control of the technology market if he wants, no matter how many regulations or laws he’s breaking. …You didn’t get caught did you?” “The Hub’s cameras may have seen me tackle the Flim Flam brothers, but the blue man was asleep when I confronted him.” “Good. I’ll try to have those recordings erased from the Hub data…” “You have access to the Hub cameras?” Director Storm shrugged. “Not at the moment. But I’m pretty sure I can get it, it’d just take a couple agents in the right place.” Corona sat back in her chair, looking down. “So… That’s that? I just stop?” “Yes. I am sorry, Corona. This is one of those cases where my hands are tied. I will have a discussion with Senator Pearse about informing me of things, but that’s as far as the action I can take goes.” “So, he just wins.” Director Storm nodded. “It’s not like we can get the people upset to put pressure on him, everything here’s top secret.” He stood up. “Sometimes they have us in ugly traps, Corona. The cost of doing what you think is right is intentionally made too steep. You’ll just have to accept that.” He tapped one of his paperweights as he left the office. Corona just sat there, staring at the large empty seat in front of her for around a minute. Eventually she stood up, face downcast, and walked out. She put her sunglasses back on and tried to stare as impassively as possible, but it was still easy for everyone to tell she was down. Nobody said anything to her. ~~~ Twilight did not take the news well. Corona eventually forced herself to leave Twilight crying in the Earth Gizmos shop. Her presence wasn’t helping, not today. Corona had tried to tell Twilight she could take action herself, but she wasn’t hearing it. Twilight had gone into a pit of despair and there was nothing Corona could do about it. Not without some time. She walked through the Hub aimlessly, no clue of where she was going. No goal in mind. Trying not to think about today. The lies, the rules, the cheating, the manipulation, the mask, the barriers, the people in charge. She wanted to burn them all right now. Her phone rang. She whipped it out, planning to hit Ignore – but there was no button for that. There was just a pink hexagon with a sugar skull inside and the words GO THROUGH THE DOOR ON YOUR LEFT printed on the screen. Corona put her phone away and glanced to her left. There was, in fact, a door leading into an empty establishment. Her curiosity was piqued. She checked the door – unlocked. She walked into the room, not surprised in the slightest that the door closed behind her. The room was completely bare except for one large television screen with the sugar skull on it. “So… What now?” The symbol glitched for a second and switched to a live camera feed. A woman grinned at Corona. “Ah, I see you listened! Muy bueno.” Corona nodded. “I take it you’re Sombra?” “Yes! And you are Agent Corona, otherwise known as Sunset Shimmer, sophomore at Wolfe University on Earth Vitis, and technically you still hold the title of Protégé in Equis Vitis.” “Nice trick, knowing stuff that’s basically public knowledge. Why am I here?” Sombra grinned. “Here specifically? It was empty and you were walking by. Why am I talking to you? Well, you see, I’ve been watching your little game of detective through every camera I can find. You’ve gotten quite the story – an otherworldly attempt to exploit the friendly denizens of other worlds for money by manipulating the sale of technological devices.” Corona was mildly impressed she knew all that. “And?” “And it seems as if you have been silenced. But no worry, this is where your good friend Sombra comes in! You see, I started doing my own digging once I realized what you had stumbled upon, and I found a loooooot of evidence.” She pressed a button, bringing a picture of Senator Pearse and Agent Katty up next to her head. “You’d be surprised where people think there aren’t any cameras. Or where documents can be stored without being found.” She brought up a file detailing a ‘meeting’ orchestrated by ‘Blight Katty’. “And you see, Corona, what we have here is a case of me having all the evidence needed to blow the lid right off this thing, and the means to broadcast it to everyone in the Hub!” Corona narrowed her eyes. “And you want something from me for it, don’t you?” “See? This is why I like you, you actually have a brain. You’d be surprised how few people do.” Corona laughed. “No I wouldn’t.” “Perhaps not,” Sombra admitted, shrugging. “Your terms?” “Ah yes, my terms. You see, I want to form what you’d consider a partnership with you. In this partnership, we’d both get something we want. I’d get access to the events that Director Storm knowingly changes in reports, or things he never digitizes. You’d get a friend who could help you keep your little AID organization accountable for the things they do.” “…You’re asking me to become a mole, a traitor.” “Yes!” “No deal.” “But think about this, Corona!” Sombra said, leaning in closer to her camera. “Do you really think this will be the last time something like this happens? Surely, if Senator Pearse is willing to do this, he’s willing to do other highly despicable things. This will be far from the last exploitation of his, and there will no doubt be other things the ‘admirable’ Director Storm will be unable to prevent – if he truly is that great of a person.” “He’s not. But he is forward and honest.” “Do you really think so?” Sombra took a physical file from off screen and examined it. “This file was never digitized, and I only got it by being really lucky with a stupid agent not checking if the paper shredder was working properly. It describes a magic artifact that was ‘lost in action’ that I swear looks a lot like one of Director Storm’s fancy paperweights…” Corona shrugged. “He was probably hiding it from people like Senator Pearse.” “That’s certainly possible, but how would you know?” Sombra asked. “I don’t,” Corona admitted. “And that’s what I’ll provide. A way for you to find out. A method by which to keep them accountable. A friend of sorts who just wants information in exchange for an avenue for you to achieve justice, when needed.” Corona furrowed her brow. Sombra was actually making a lot of sense here. “You make a fair argument. But you’re a criminal.” “What have I done besides steal a few things and hack a lot? Didn’t your close friend Nova do the exact same thing several months ago, and yet you’ve forgiven her completely!” “You’re not showing remorse.” “I was just making a point…” Sombra said, putting on a pouty face. “This is a one-time offer Corona, I won’t offer it again later.” “I won’t betray them, Sombra. I may not agree with what they do all the time, and they may be locked by bureaucracy, but I trust them.” Sombra placed another file onscreen. “Do you remember the world with the pawns and the cube?” “Yes, actually. What about it?” She pointed to a specific part of the file. “They authorized a nuke to be dropped on it, destroying everything there. The reason? ‘Possible security breach’. Suggested by Agent Tempest and authorized by Director Storm. There’s a footnote here that the rest of the team should not be made aware of the course of action, this time suggested by Director Storm himself.” Corona blinked. “That… That can’t be real.” “You have your dimensional device on you, do you not? You can always go check. I’d be wary of the radiation though.” Corona pulled out the device, setting it to open a portal. There was nothing but blackness, not even the grid was visible. She closed the portal quickly, nervously glancing at the red radiation readout on her glasses. “Nice reflexes,” Sombra said. “So, there you go. They’re hiding at least that from you, and I’m pretty sure you think that’s pretty horrible. I may not be the best person, Corona, but I think I’m your only option if you don’t want to become a soldier who follows orders blindly.” Corona took a deep breath and nodded. “We have a deal. What do you want me to do now?” Sombra grinned with victory. “At the moment? Nothing. Just keep an eye out for AID being secretive or manipulative about anything. I’ll be in touch. Feel free to get back to your day, in about five minutes the lid should be blown wide open on this thing. See you around!” The screen went dead and the door behind Corona popped open. She took a step out into the street and started walking, once again without any clue where she was going. She wondered what Sombra was going to do… Precisely five minutes later, when she passed Seskii and the cabbage salesman again, every screen in the Hub lit up with photos, documents, and a typed up description of the Senator’s plan. It took a few minutes for people to start getting angry. Corona smirked. The sight of people getting angry was, for once, something good. She returned to Earth Gizmos to find Twilight staring at a computer. She looked up. “Did you…” Corona held up a hand. “I didn’t do this Twilight.” Twilight smiled and dragged her into a hug. “Of course you didn’t.” The two friends embraced. ~~~ Director Storm paused the video. “So, let’s review. You walk into the store smiling, and Twilight asks you if you did this. With a cocky smile on your face, you emphasize the words ‘didn’t’ and ‘this’, implying that you had some tangential relation while making it clear she’s not to suggest any sort of involvement to anyone in a statement that probably isn’t a full lie.” Corona opened her mouth to speak. Director Storm held up a hand to stop her. “Look, I know there’s an excuse coming, and it’ll be a good one, and I’ll see right through it because I’ve been at this job way, way too long. Let me just make it clear that I am not happy with you disobeying my order.” Corona said nothing. Director Storm continued. “Now, I can’t find what exactly you did to do that, so I have to give you points for that, a good agent knows how to cover her tracks. But I did find enough to point at you and probably get you convicted. I then promptly threw all that information into every trash heap I could find so no one could ever say you had anything to do with it.” “…Why?” “Because you are a good agent. There’s a delicate balance of following orders and using your own judgment. As much as the system wants you to follow orders blindly every time, I wouldn’t be where I am today without a bit of rule breaking. You’ve pulled a good one – Senator Pearse’s plan is completely toast, he’s still a senator, and he has no reason to hate us at all. Though he is being very adamant we find out who did this. Frankly, I’m encouraged to just pin it on that loose hacker, Sombra, and get on with our lives, but we’ll see if a better target presents themselves.” Corona smiled nervously. “Heheh… Yeah…” “Anyway, as well as this turned out, I still can’t have you disobeying direct orders like that. So there will be some punishment disguised as regular assignment.” “…What?” “Your team is going to go through ‘survival training’ on this planet. Spend a month in the wilderness without any supplies. And I’ll order Tempest to ensure you don’t use any of those fire powers of yours.” “I’m in college, Director!” Director Storm grinned. “This won’t take place until your summer vacation. I’ll keep adding days and weeks to it if you do more questionable things. So I’d suggest being a good girl for the next little while, hrm?” “Yes sir!” “Good. Now get out of my office, I need to call someone about another illegal shipment. The cargo only gets weirder when you upgrade to interdimensional status.” “I can imagine…” Corona said, standing up and walking outside. She put her sunglasses back on. There was a little sugar-skull icon that flashed on them for the briefest of moments. A smiley face emoticon appeared in the top right corner. Corona nodded, biting her lip. This… well, this was going to be interesting, to say the least.