While taking a break from being productive, Search Fragment couldn't help but watch as Agent Nine stormed through the door to their portable. The groan of straining metal could be heard as the earth pony pulled the door shut, and when she looked, some of the metal had warped under the force exerted by the angry earth pony. If Nine noticed, however, she did a very good job of hiding it. Instead, she took a seat at her desk and took out a flask and took a pull.
In all the years the analyst had known the agent, she'd only seen the mare drink on the job—outside work was a different beast entirely—when she was frustrated. Clearly her meeting with Princesses Twilight and Cadance had not gone the way she'd have liked. Probably way too much legal red tape for Equestrians to get directly involved in the matter. Not that it's exactly our place as pencil pushers to speak out about the treatment of these transformed humans—especially not when a fellow equestrian was to blame for the situation in the first place.
"I gotta ask..." Fragment started in Equestrian, even as she saw the Nine grabbing her workstation's computer mouse with her free hoof. "Why are you so interested in this particular ETS victim? I admit I'm just as angry at what I saw in the doctor's final notes about seeing their patient, as well as the second hoof account of the incident. The fact that we have almost zero documentation of their whereabouts after the fact is straight-up disturbing, but the way you were going on before the meeting, you were practically calling for the Princesses to take them into protective custody."
Agent Nine had definitely heard her, but her focus was on her monitor. She definitely wasn't ignoring her, but instead it seemed as though she were collecting her thoughts as she looked something up. After several minutes of silence, where Fragment continued pretending to work, the taupe earth pony took in a deep breath, put away her flask, and shut her eyes. "Not many ponies—no, not even in the agency—know about my history, but it has a lot to do with what's been bugging me about this," she answered in English. It struck Fragment as odd, as the humans definitely had the office monitored; how else did they know that she took a document outside without clearance? So why share this where a bunch of eavesdropping humans could listen in? "You rarely hear about pony trafficking, and the Royal Guard does a damn good job keeping it that way, but it happens...
"Me and my sister—a pegasus named Blossomforth—were orphaned in Baltimare after our Mom got sick. Got put into the foster system, but most pegasi looking to adopt weren't ready to take on an earth pony too. At least, none of the Cloudsdale types that showed an interest in my sister." There was a measure of anger in Nine's voice, but it was fairly muted. She pushed away the mouse and swivelled her chair so she could look directly at Fragment. "Eventually a couple did take us. Honestly, that's what had me so suspicious of them. I was her big sister, and I was supposed to keep her safe like Mom told me. So when that bastard came into the room to check on us, I... overreacted... and then both adults hated me."
It took a moment before Search Fragment could muster up a response. "What happened?"
"Son of a whore took me out one day while Blossom was at gymnastics. Said he was gonna take me to a fair 'by the pier'," she answered with a dark laugh. "Sold me to some black-market merchant from Klugetown, who happened to be docked at the pier. I won't go into the horrors I was subjected to over the next ten years, but suffice to say I forgot my own name, since I was only ever addressed as Slave #9. When it was clear that the Abyssinian that bought me was getting ready to start pimping me out, I escaped and made my way to Somnambula where I spent the next two years hustling travellers to make ends meet. Despite the hurt it represented, I kept my number as a reminder of the darkness that can lurk behind the kindness of strangers. When I got my mark, I cemented my new identity: Nine of Clubs. Not long after that, I caught the eye of a S.M.I.L.E. field agent, and the rest is history."
The unicorn levitated her empty coffee mug over to the provided water cooler and filled it. She regarded her supervisor with concern, while occasionally looking to the door as she drank. She shared her story, but Search still seemed to be missing some dots. "What's this have to do with the Cadlow case?" she finally asked.
"My adoptive 'parents' made my sister forget I ever even existed, and with ponies as vulnerable as these former humans, I worry that the same could happen to one of them." She shrugged. "Seeing a dead paper trail after reading that file, I can't help but worry something similar might happen to them. Especially if they've been isolated."
So Nine was concerned that Cadlow, or rather what was left behind by the transformation, might wind up in some awful place facing inequine treatment like she'd been. "If it helps, I did come across the documentation for their physician," she said, levitating over a file folder. "If they ended up at the same shelter as her, she might be able to tell you more than what we've been given."
The supervisor gave her an appreciative look before opening the folder. That left Search to her own devices. Rather than deal with the paper work in her inbox, however, she pulled up a digital copy of the Cadlow file on her own workstation and started to review. Although the man lived in another country, he was listed as having something called dual-citizenship. His place of birth was listed as Savannah, Georgia.
She frowned as an idea struck her. It'd certainly get her in a tonne of trouble if she acted rashly, due to the whole non-interference thing, but... If the Equestrian government couldn't help them, maybe there was somepony who could. Her eyes flicked over to her supervisor again before pulling up a file on an increasingly common ideology held by transformed humans: Shimmerism. There were ponies who believed that Sunset Shimmer had the right idea, and all but revered her as a saint. Although many of the Shimmerists were pro-transformation, there were several moderate factions cropping up that believed it should be a choice. Some of them were staunchly anti-human, but others seemed more accepting towards their former bretheren.
It seemed like a great deal of the southern portions of this country might be falling under the sway of this ideology. One of the particularly prominent factions was almost suspiciously pro-human, going so far as to lean into commerce and starting businesses tailored towards pony-oriented goods. There was even a rapidly expanding town by the name of Riverview that was becoming a hub for ponies who weren't completely abandoning their human roots. They were very vocal and might even have a degree of political sway if she read between the redacted lines.
The problem became that they didn't have any recent data on Cadlow—no location, no reports of deaths, not even whether they accepted their transformation or if they wanted to go back to normal. If they did get the Shimmerists involved would Cadlow be appreciative? It was possible that if they could exert some pressure on the United States government to request a transfer, and they'd be delivered straight into open arms of the would-be cult of Sunset Shimmer. If they wanted to return to being human, what guarantee was there that these ponies might browbeat them into staying a pony?
There simply wasn't enough concrete information available on the exact dispositions of any of the major factions. Still, she noted down the names and districts of a few of the groups that might be vocal enough to get something done. Depending on Cadlow's circumstances, Sunset Blessing might just be the lesser of two evils. "Hey, Nine?" she called across the room, as she opened up the electronic mail program on her workstation. "If you can get any information on that case and the princesses still can't help, it might help to reach out to some of the ponies on the list I'm about to email you. Just... uh... Just don't freak out at the first name, alright?"