“Yup, uh, alright.” Chance said into his phone, staring outside at the mountains as the voice on the other end droned on. “Ok sounds good. Talk to you when we land.” Chance hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket. “We got a bit of time, no rush.”
“I assume business?” Nova asked.
“Yes, I just had to tell them the time we were landing, they’ll have a car waiting for us when we get off.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Wish I was, you ever have lobster while a mile high in the fucking air?”
“No I have not, but more importantly, what the fuck kind of strings are you pulling that not only are you living comfortably in Switzerland, but you’ve got Wall Street picking you up in a limo?”
“Remember the money I had stashed away?”
“Yeah?”
“After laundering it all, I decided to invest. Bought a couple of businesses for laundering. Then turned that money into even more investments. After that, they started taking off, and it became less about laundering the money I had, and more about raking in this new cash from customers.
“Holy shit.”
“I kid you not If I wasn't set for life before, I am now. Now, this is just going to be a simple meeting between me and a vendor, if it works out, we may start stocking their products. After that, I’m going to Vegas.”
“And I assume you want me to tag along to the roulette table.”
“Of course.” It didn’t take long for them to get back, but the moment they stepped into their apartment, Nova made a mad dash to the safe and began pulling out his firearms.
“You sure about that?” Chance asked. “We’re not gonna be working our normal jobs, I highly doubt we need guns.”
“I feel better carrying one.” he replied, packing it into his suitcase.
“Well, whatever works for you, We’re not really in a rush right now so take your time. Chance walked over and began packing a few of his clothes along with documents as well. They wasted no time packing their essentials.
The trip from the apartment to the airport was uneventful, and so was their trip through security. And with their flight slated to leave in less than half an hour, the two decided to do what they do best.
“Two coffees please.” Chance asked the barista. The had found themselves at a local coffee shop. They paid and collected their coffee before walking to a nearby table. And sitting down.
“So.” Nova stated, taking a sip of his coffee.
“So.”
“Who exactly are we meeting?”
“No one you need to worry about.”
“That's the answer you’re going to give me?
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“And then, Vegas.”
“Yup.” Nova just looked at Chance in disappointment.
“You’re planning on popping an edible and gambling, aren't you.”
“Cmon, it’s gonna be fun.”
“I don’t doubt that, but Vegas?”
“Oh, where would you go?”
“I dunno, Colorado maybe?”
“Alright, the next time we come to the US, we’re headed to Colorado.”
“Nice.”
They finished up their coffee and began walking to the gate. They had a flight to catch, and they weren't about to miss it.
========================
The plane was high in the sky as Nova and Chance continued to talk. They had both paid for the in-flight internet, but due to how slow it was, they didn’t really bother with using it, opting to talk instead.
“So, you said you were going to tell me about…” Chance gestured, trailing off, taking a sip of his whiskey.
“Oh yeah, I did. Kid, let me tell you about, the fucking 80s’”
============================
An 18-year-old Nova hunched over his computer as he typed away. He was connected to a Bulletin Board somewhere in the country. Constant use of this kind of software though was costly. He had to personally ask Princess Celestia for funds to install a second phone line in the house he was in.
Of course, during all of this he had to maintain appearances by attending school. But now that he finally graduated, he could do whatever he wanted. Either by entering the workforce, or going to college.
Turning from his chair, he grabbed a nearby VHS tape and swiveled over to the tv on the shelf next to him. He started the movie, skipped past all the advertisements, and turned back over to the PC that he was using.
“Dammit. No new posts.” Standing up from his chair, he walked over to his closet and opened the door, grabbing a mason jar from the top shelf, he opened it and retrieved a nugget of marijuana. He gently set it down and resealed the jar, keeping it back in its original spot. Three knocks came from his bedroom door.
“Nova!” One of his handlers called for him from outside his door. He walked over and opened it.
“Yeah, Ruby?” He asked the woman outside.
“Just letting you know. The car will be here in about 15 minutes.”
“Got it.”
“If you don’t mind me asking. What exactly are you planning on telling her?”
“Want to get rid of me that easily?” Nova asked with a grin. “I think I’m staying in this world for a while to be honest.”
“We figured that much, but are you going to stay here or go off on your own?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out.”
=====================
“You got lucky, honestly. Coming here in the 80s” Chance commented.
“Damn right I did.”
=====================
Nova currently had a blindfold covering his eyes, standard procedure. He knew what to expect when going back to his home. Though he did consider Earth to be his home more than Equestria.
“We’re here.” One of the men in the car said. Nova turned his head in the direction of the voice.
“Can I take this thing off now?” He asked.
“Sure.” Taking off the blindfold he blearily looked around as his eyes adjusted to the light, only to find. “Yup, just woods.”
“What, did you expect us to open a portal in downtown Manhattan?”
“No.” Nova replied, stepping out from the car and grabbing his backpack. “But it does get old after the fiftieth time.” He turned to see a portal, with two men standing next to it.
“She’s waiting on the other side.” One of the men said. Nova simply nodded before stepping through.
When he came through on the other side, everything felt just a bit warmer, and his clothes where nowhere to be found, not that he needed them anyways. He looked down at his hooves and flexed them slightly as he adjusted to his surroundings. He was a pony again.
“Oh good, you’re not panicking.” Princess Celestia said as she looked at Nova.
“That was once, I was 10, and it was my first time coming back, are you really going to hold that against me?” Nova grumbled as he got back on his hooves and rummaged through his bag.
“I’m not holding it against you, I’m simply just having a laugh at your expense.” She replied with an impish smile.
“Well keep it up and you won’t be getting a puff of this.” Nova quipped, pulling out a small joint that he had rolled beforehand.
“Oh dear, you do drive a hard bargain.” She said, her smile was still prevalent though. They stared each other down for just a bit longer before laughing together.
“It would be boring to smoke alone.” Nova said with a chuckle.
“Indeed.” Princess Celestia replied, pulling Nova into a hug, he returned it as their wings enveloped each other. “It’s so good to see you again.” They pulled away from each other.
“So about that light.” He held the joint in his mouth, Celestia's horn sparkled slightly and the end of the joint was lit. he took a small puff before holding it out to Celestia, who took a puff. They began walking out of the room that held the portal and towards the hallway.
“I still can’t believe that this is illegal in that world.”
“You know exactly why it's illegal, don’t you?”
“I’ve experienced this kind of thing first hoof multiple times, I know the repercussions this will bring in the future if they continue down this path of prohibition.”
“It’s not like you can waltz on over there and get them to change. We’ve had a non-interference protocol for the past 60 years, and if Alchohol prohibition wasn't enough to break that, then why should marijuana.”
“The woes of confining yourself to an observing force, unfortunatly,” Celestia said with a sigh as she opened the door to a meeting room. “Here, take a seat.”
“Anyways.” Nova started, putting out the joint in a nearby ashtray, and sparking up a cigarette in its place. “Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first.” He pulled out a binder of papers and flipped through it, double-checking everything that was contained inside of it. “This here is the current report on technology regarding consumer-level electronics. It should line up with your reports from other sleeper agents. There is also a request in there to place a few sleeper agents in Japan, for some reason we’ve been seeing lots of high-quality goods come from that country and I think it would be a good idea to keep a few agents there.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, here is a request for more funding. Funds will be used to mostly buy more electronics.” He pulled out an envelope and slid it to Celestia.
“Mostly?”
“You know me.” He replied with a grin. “There is also the request to add another phone line into our current residence for me to operate more effectively without interruptions.”
“I’ll pass it off to the bean counters, but there is one thing that we still need to talk about.” Nova sighed and gestured for her to continue. “As you just demonstrated, the crown will finance most endeavors that you decide to take on that world until such a time that you can be independent on your own. Your handlers relayed to me that you have three options, return to Equestria, find a job on earth, or pursue higher education. You don’t have to choose now, but it would be nice to have an answer in the next couple of months. And please do keep in mind that the option to return to Equestria will remain open for as long as we have contact with our portals on Earth”
“Well, my grades are high enough that I can go wherever I want to. So my plan is to go to college. I’ve sent out my transcript to a lot of colleges and I’m waiting to see what they say.”
=============================
“So where did you go?”
“New York University.”
“Good shit.”
“Yeah, it was a wild four years.” They would have continued talking more, but it was at that moment that Nova let out a large yawn.
“We should probably take that as a sign to go to bed, we got a long ass day tomorrow, and I don’t want to be jet-lagged all day.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Goodnight.”
“Night.”