“Time is fifteen hundred hours. Target is leaving the coffee shop with a briefcase he was not carrying when he walked in.”
“Keep on his tail, but don’t intercept just yet, Agent Tiara,” the voice over the transmitter spoke. “I repeat, do not intercept just yet.”
“I get it,” Diamond Tiara said through gritted teeth. “You don’t have to remind me, sir. He’s going down 5th Street. I’m going after him.” Diamond hung up the transmitter and walked out of the alleyway she was hiding behind, following the stallion down the street whilst keeping a good distance away from him at all times.
The stallion turned down another alleyway, stopping at its entrance and looking around. Diamond quickly stopped herself at a nearby fruit stand and browsed its goods, slipping a small rectangular mirror from her scarf to observe the stallion without looking in his direction. As soon as he started to move again, she put the mirror back and continued to pursue him.
Diamond Tiara stopped at the entrance to the alleyway to glance inside. It was filled with homeless ponies that were staring right back at her, their eyes focussed and many of them fiddling with bit coins in their hooves.
“He paid them to keep stalkers out, huh?” Diamond turned around and backtracked down the street a few steps. “… Guess I’ve got no choice,” she said with a sigh as she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small sack. She opened the sack, revealing a collection of jewels that reflected the sun’s light intensely, and turned back to the alleyway. Swiftly, she threw the bag of jewels inside, and waited for the clambering of hooves racing towards the bait.
Reaching into her bag again, Diamond Tiara pulled out a small revolver and a badge. With a sigh, she threw the badge into the nearby trashcan, before charging headfirst into the alley.
The ponies were all too busy fighting over the jewels and bits scattered around to pay any notice to the mare rushing past them. She stepped over the ponies and made her way to the exit on the other side, leading her towards an unused warehousing zone that was burnt down a long time ago in a sudden, unexplained fire. Well, unexplained to the public, at least.
Diamond Tiara’s presence was noticed by the two suited ponies standing at the doorway, who pulled out their knives and targeted her. However, the first one was too slow to avoid Diamond’s spinning kick, and the second was only able to dodge one swift strike before receiving a harsh blow to the gut.
And both ponies lay unconscious on the floor, Diamond Tiara invited herself into the warehouse.
“Who’s there?!” the stallion inside shouted as he and the other two stallions either side of him turned to face the entrance. “Y-You’re with the Royal Guard?!”
“That’s right,” Diamond Tiara said as she walked inside. “Or at least, I was. Until just a few minutes ago, I was Agent Diamond Tiara, of Head Captain Shining Armor’s Special Division.” Diamond stopped as all three stallions aimed their guns at her, and she did the same to the stallion in the middle. “You remember my father, Filthy Rich, right?”
The stallion gasped. “R-Rich’s kid? No, impossible. You burned to death in that fire, I confirmed it for myself.”
“That’s right,” Diamond said. “The fire that burned this warehouse down while I was investigating my father’s death… There was indeed a causality. However, that was not me.”
“Don’t give me that! I confirmed the hoofprints, those can’t be forged!”
“… Listen,” Diamond said as she raised her rear left hoof and tapped it to the ground, creating a metallic sound. “A prosthetic hoof. The hoof you found attached to a charred body was my real one.” The stallion looked shocked at the news. “It was all done by the head captain, in order to fake my death and get you off of my tail. Because he knew that as long as I continued to investigate you, I would be a target.
“Now, though… I finally have you in my sights.” Diamond’s hoof shook as she narrowed her eyes. “Ten years ago, my father suddenly committed suicide after his business plummeted. I always found it strange. Not only was my father an excellent business leader, but he was also a strong pony! He would never take his own life like that!
“But then, after I started my investigation, I found something that shocked and scared me. My father… he was leading a double-life as a spy within the Royal Guard. A spy… working for you. Isn’t that right?”
“… Yes. That is correct,” the stallion said. “And a fine member of our group he was.”
“No!” Diamond shouted, tears flowing from her eyes. “You forced him into joining you! The entire time, you were holding me hostage without me knowing, so he had no choice but to comply! But when he was found out by a rival business leader, he was forced to shut down his business in order to keep his secret! He felt cornered… He felt that he had nowhere to go, and that there was only one way to escape without endangering me.”
“Diamond!” Diamond Tiara didn’t turn around, but she recognised Shining Armor’s voice behind her. “I told you not to intercept the target! Lower your weapon!”
“My father was killed because of me, and because of you,” Diamond continued, ignoring Shining’s order. “Now, I’ll make it up to him. I’ll avenge him by killing half of the parties responsible for his death, and I will serve my time to atone for my own part played in his demise.”
“I said drop it!” Shining Armor shouted as he ran to Diamond Tiara, but it was too late. A loud bang sounded throughout the warehouse, and all eyes turned to the middle stallion at the other end as he fell to the floor, blood pouring from a wound in his chest.
“O-Open fire!” one of the other stallions shouted, firing his gun at Diamond Tiara.
Shining Armor’s horn shone, and a shield deflected the bullet. “Damnit! Lay down your weapons and surrender!”
The stallions fired a few more shots, but none of them pierced the magical shield. A troop of guards entered the warehouse, and the two stallions stopped, dropping their guns and raising their hooves in defeat.
Shining Armor released his magic, and whilst his subordinates dealt with the arrest of the two stallions, and taking away the body of the third, he turned towards Diamond Tiara, who had dropped her gun to the ground and simply stared down at it with a vacant look on her face. “… Agent Tiara,” he said as he approached her.
“… I did it,” Diamond whispered, looking back up at Shining Armor. “I finally did it…”
Shining Armor shook his head sadly and used his magic to levitate a pair of hoofcuffs into the air. “Agent Tiara, I… I’m afraid that I must place you under arrest…”
Diamond Tiara did not resist. She simply nodded and allowed the hoofcuffs to bind her hooves, smiling as she heard the click. “Daddy…” A teardrop fell onto the metal cuffs. “You’re avenged. You can rest in peace now… Daddy…”