"But Octavia! That would be a TERRIBLE idea!" shouted Vinyl.
Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch were in financial crisis. The two musicians, whose music was normally the best selling in all of Equestria, was now beginning to plummet in sales due to a rather unfortunate set of lyrics Vinyl had written into a new single of hers.
"I don't care how bad it sounds." replied Octavia. "If we're to keep this roof over our heads, we're going to HAVE to retire from music. I know music is what we're best at, but if we can't support ourselves doing it, we're gonna have to find work elsewhere."
Vinyl was cross. "Have you ever seen a professional wrestler with the cutie mark of a donut vendor!? How about a race car driver with the cutie mark of a professional athlete!? NO! Our cutie marks TELL US we're musicians!"
Octavia sighed. "I didn't say we had to give up music as a whole. We can still play music for fun! We just can't do it for a living anymore. Also, YOU'RE the one who sang 'I'M GONNA POOP ENOUGH BRICKS TO BUILD A HOUSE AND THEN FORCE 'EM ALL DOWN YOUR WINDPIPE!' a few nights ago!
Vinyl finally gave up. "What ever. Come on, we're going to go get something to drink. I'll pay."
The local tavern wasn't much. just a quaint, wooden building that lacked electricity and plumbing. However, enough manure-covered townspeople showed up after 9 o'clock every evening to keep the place in business. With that said, Octavia and Vinyl would usually drink at places with heating and lighting, but they figured they could probably make use of a bill that only totaled at 12 pence even after buying the most expensive dishes served there. As Octavia and Vinyl sat down together and ordered themselves regular beers, a few inconspicuous figures entered the tavern muttering things across their breaths to each other. The two of them were the first to see an ugly, muscular hillbilly redneck stand up and punch Octavia in the face for an unknown reason.
Octavia didn't budge at all even though the blow could have knocked out anypony else. Instead, she flipped her head around and picked up her attacker before hurling him with one hoof straight through the wooden wall.
The whole bar stood up and clapped.
The two shady figures, however, stayed quiet, but exchanged smiles. "You think we've found what we're looking for?" one of them whispered.
"No doubts about it." the other replied.
The rest of the night was extremely uneventful. Octavia and Vinyl finished their drinks and went home just as they normally would. The alcohol daze easily allowed them to fall asleep that night, and it kept them asleep, too. However, this is what would allow the two shady figures from earlier to break in and silently kidnap the two sleeping mares unnoticed.
When Octavia woke up, she was in a futuristic, glowing, blue-greyish room that stretched about 50 meters in either direction. The ceilings were high over her head, around 20 meters above. The walls had no windows whatsoever. It was almost as if she had found herself in a bunker from a science fiction movie. As she tired to get up, she found that she was restrained. As her head spun around, she realized she was chained down to an upright steel bed. Further inspection revealed that she wasn't far from Vinyl, who was still sleeping, also chained to a vertical steel bed. Octavia spoke.
"V-Vinyl?"
Vinyl awoke.
"U-ugh..... Octavia..... Wait! Octavia!? Where are we?"
Octavia shot her friend a look. "I'm trying to figure that out myself. Can you do anything?"
Vinyl's eyes darted around.
"I don't know. I think I'm stuck too good to move."
Octavia built up some of her strength and with one mighty blow broke the restraints she was fastened to. She then proceeded to tear the restraints off of Vinyl's trap, freeing her.
A door opened in the far corner. A voice called out.
"Hey! Don't run, we're with the government!"
Octavia stood in front of her friend in a defensive stance. "What do you want?" she asked.
Three tall stallions with pale coats walked out of the door. They all looked intimidating, but they each seemed to be trying to act as unintimidating as they possibly could. Octavia readied her body to fight. However, her muscles loosened when she saw Princess Celestia herself trot out from behind the three stallions.
"Your Highness?" Octavia and Vinyl both gasped at the same time.
"My top men have told me about your abilities, and I feel that Equestria - and the rest of the world - needs them. to be put to work at once."
Vinyl gulped. "Are we, like, being sold into slave labour or something...?"
Celestia gave a shocked look. "What? No! We don't do that in Equestria and you know it! What I'm asking of you is if you'll become SPIES!"
Octavia and Vinyl both gave Celestia a confused look. "Spies?" Octavia asked. "You mean like James Bond and Peter Gunn?"
Celestia nodded. "Exactly! THOSE kinds of spies!"
Vinyl raised her hoof. "What exactly about us makes us seem like we'd be good at espionage and subterfuge?" she asked.
Celestia stepped closer. "Allow me to explain. You see, a few of my men were in the tavern last night when your friend Octavia destroyed a buffed redneck hillbilly and threw him through the wall with one hoof. They had never seen such incredible physical strength before, and we're currently in a national crisis that has been top secret until now, at least to you. Vinyl, on the other hand, has time and time again demonstrated her incredible technological knowledge time and time again. In the end, we decided you two were the absolute perfect duo to help us with the national crisis that's going on."
Octavia stepped closer. "What national crisis are we dealing with here?"
Celestia drooped her head a bit and turned. "You see, there's a massive corporate entity that we fear has ill intentions for the planet. They've kept themselves extremely separated from any and all world governments, and have been taking in an abnormally large amount of resources. This has made us wonder if they're up to something. They've also built large facilities in many countries around the world, those being Equestria, Germany, the United Kingdom, the USA, Italy, and Panama. With all this being said, I need someone to infiltrate each and every one of those bases and see what they're up to."
Octavia nodded. "I do believe you've never told us exactly who these ponies were in the first place." she asked.
"Nokatio Corporation." replied Celestia. "Headed by an older, thin and tall stallion from Kenya named Kaacha Later. Kaacha has been incredibly wealthy yet incredibly quiet about his whereabouts for years now. He founded his mega corporation in Italy in 1988, but since then not much has been revealed about him."
Vinyl raised her hoof. "Will we get a reward if we complete the missions you speak of?"
Celestia nodded. "Anything. You choose your reward."
Octavia smiled. "We'd like to ask for financial support! We're down in the dumps right now, and we'd like financial support!"
Celestia nodded. "Then I guess that means you accept the mission?"
Octavia and Vinyl looked at each other. Octavia smiled, and Vinyl gave her a wink.
"Yes!" said Octavia. "Bring it on!"
Celestia smiled. "You do not realize how grateful I am, nor do you realize the good you have pledged to do. Should this mission succeed, your names will go down in history as Equestrian heroes."
Vinyl clapped her hooves in excitement. "Well, what are we waiting for!? Bring on the missions!" she shouted.
"Not just yet." said Celestia. "First, there's a job you'll need to do. Vinyl, since you're such an electronics and engineering genius, why don't you design the vehicle you will use?"
"Vehicle?" asked a puzzled Vinyl.
"You will need some sort of armed and armored vehicle to use should you wish to take out their defenses and guards." said Celestia.
Vinyl scratched her head. She had designed a car that could transform from an automobile to a bass cannon before, but she'd never imagined herself designing a James Bond-esque getaway car.
"Give me some resources and time, I'll build you something." she said, confidently.