//------------------------------// // The ERS // Story: The Sun Never Sets // by Mr Fislewait //------------------------------// Eventide was rudely awoken the following morning by a furious knocking on the front door. Dragging herself out from under her bed covers she trudged downstairs and began unfastening the latch on the door. Eventide let out a long yawn and carefully rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She took a few seconds to make an attempt at straightening her mane then pulled the door open and glared at the pony who had woken her so early in the morning. "Greetings, Miss Trailblazer, I'm Bit Interest with the Equestrian Revenue Service. I do apologize for the early hour of my visit but I felt you would find it preferable to a late night meeting." Standing on the other side of the door with a great fanged smile on his face was a silver grey batpony in a suit, with a briefcase tucked beneath one wing. Eventide blinked a few times as she tried to make sense of him. It stood to reason that batponies did exist outside of the night guard but she had barely met any of them in her travels. Of those she had met she would never have placed any as being a bureaucrat. "I understand that you are likely confused mam but would it be possible for me to step inside? The business I have to discuss with you is not something that you would want others to overhear," Bit spoke with a deep baritone and a perpetual grin that put Eventide on edge. Without speaking Sunset gestured for him to come inside, she pointed over towards the chairs in her living room which she noted (with a twinge of annoyance) still bore some slight stains from yesterday's drinking session. Eventide closed the door behind him then slowly moved to join him around her table. "I pay my taxes, Mr Interest, so how about you just cut to the chase and tell me why you're here?" Eventide groaned still nursing her headache from yesterday. "Blunt and to the point. They did tell me you would be terse," Bit unfastened the clasps on his briefcase and began sorting through the paperwork inside. "The short of it, Miss Trailblazer, is that we at the ERS have noticed a few irregularities in your paperwork. Miscellaneous expenses and income that don't appear to have been covered by either your writing career or by your work as an explorer." "My adventures brought in a lot of income that was hard to fit into the normal tax forms," Eventide shrugged as though the matter was no big deal. "As for expenses I often ended up spending my bits in far off places, haggling with locals, paying guides... it becomes quite difficult to track where the money has gone after awhile. Sorry if that messed up your precious paperwork." Bit furrowed his brows but his grin persisted. . "I understand. The problem here, Miss Trailblazer, is that the details I'm referring to have all been over the past five years, a stretch of time in which I am lead to believe you have been unemployed. Yes you have been paying your taxes, yes you have been filing your paperwork, but there are some rather considerable sums of bits that we have noticed you moving that are unaccounted for. You are aware that money laundering is a crime, Miss Trailblazer?" Eventide squirmed beneath his gaze, just how much did he know? "Money laundering only refers to illegally obtained bits, Mr Interest. All the money I've been handling has been exchanged for trade goods. Pretty sure I listed that on my paperwork didn't I?" despite the fact that she was telling the truth there was a lingering hint of doubt in Eventide's voice. "Indeed you did, Miss Trailblazer. Indeed you did. Frankly though I don't believe some of what your claims. For example we have records of you making bulk purchases of precious gems and then selling them on for considerable profit to a third party. We tracked your purchase and the first half of the transaction is perfectly fine, you bought from a reputable seller and the gems were shipped to your residence," he scanned his paperwork nodding to himself, then flipped to a new page. "However when we looked at your subsequent selling of the gems we found that your buyer lived at a nonexistent address in Griffonstone, with a little more digging I noticed that none of the normal postal companies had any record of you shipping anything out of Canterlot, Miss Trailblazer. The gems simply arrived at your address and by the end of the month they had all vanished without a trace, replaced by a very tidy little profit." Eventide gave a noncommittal shrug, "Sounds like the problem is with my buyer then, if he was using a fake address then it seems like he's the shady one here. Now how about you tell me what gives the ERS the right to stalk me? I'm pretty sure you don't have the right to track every letter and parcel that I send." "That would normally be true but I have a writ from the Princess granting me additional influence in any matters regarding this case. "Which Princess?" Eventide snapped back at him, now more angry than worried. "I'm not at liberty to say. I have other examples of irregularities in your income but I don't wish to bore you with them, for the most part they are much the same, one legitimate business, one buyer or seller who doesn't seem to exist and then you sitting in the middle of the deal turning an easy profit. Now then, let's move on to your purchases." Bit returned the first pile of paperwork back to his briefcase and exchanged it with a fresh stack. "Looking at your recent purchases we have noticed a considerable portion of your income, a little over eighty percent in fact, has been diverted to Baltimare in exchange for 'goods and services'. Such a considerable expense to one location with seemingly nothing gained in return is quite the red flag in our ledgers. Normally we would assume something along the lines of drugs, blackmail, perhaps an extended family that you were seeking to secretly support... but there is no evidence to suggest that you are a drug addict and my sources inform me that you have no living relatives. The third option also seems unlikely as your reputation is so mired in controversy that it is hard to imagine what somepony could blackmail you with that is worse than what everypony already knows." "Glass, Mr Interest. I've been buying glass," she was quickly coming to hate the stallion, his suggestion that she had nopony in the world that she might possibly care for stung more than she would care to admit. "I imagine you already knew that the money had been going to a small coastal shipping company, Celestia knows you seem to know everything else about my money. So in answer to your query I have been buying glass. In my travels I took quite a fancy to a specific style of crafted glass that they use in the far east and now that I have been unceremoniously forced into retirement I've decided to begin collecting. I'm allowed a hobby aren't I, Mr Interest, or does that offend your Princess?" Bit frowned and looked over his notes. "You expect me to believe that you have spent a veritable fortune on glass decorations?" "They are very expensive, Mr Interest, and that is before taking into account shipping and holding. I pay almost twice the cost of the glass itself in shipping alone to make sure that it arrives in one piece." "Fascinating," Bit sighed, his voice heavy with sarcasm. He looked up from his papers and scanned every inch of the room. "I find it curious though that you have spent so much money on this hobby and yet I see no evidence of it in your home." Eventide had to laugh at that one, sometimes it seemed honesty really was the best policy. "Mr Interest, if you are here on business from the Princess I imagine she has told you a few things about me?" Bit nodded grimly. "For example the fact that I am an alcoholic. Now knowing that fact, Mr Interest, and knowing that I freely admit that I have a problem, do you really think I'd leave a fortune in fragile glassware somewhere that I could easily break them while drunk? No, Mr Interest, I keep them stored somewhere safe and secure where I can enjoy them in private, and no I'm not going to show you where that is." "Yes, well while I can certainly see why that might-" Bit was cut off by a sudden furious knocking at the door. Both ponies turned to the source of the sound as it continued unabated. "Are you expecting somepony else?" Bit asked with a curious grin. Eventide hadn't been expecting anypony at all. It was far too early for post and almost everypony who knew her address would have let her know they'd be coming ahead of time. The knocking continued. "Perhaps you should get that." Eventide cautiously made her way over to the front door, Bit Interest watching her like a hawk the whole time. With slow and careful movements Eventide opened the door, hoping to be able to speak to her new guest without Bit seeing who they were. Her attempt was instantly foiled though as the moment she began to open the door her visitor forced their way into the room and slammed it shut behind them, standing there dressed in sunglasses and a sunhat was Sweetie Drops. "Here," she whispered, thrusting a small envelope into Eventide's hooves. "Exact details including room number, shelf number and position on the shelf. I don't know what you hope to gain from it but it's not my problem anymore. I never want to see you in my life ever again and if you ever dare come near Lyra then there will be Tartarus to pay." The instant she stopped speaking Bit Interest surreptitiously cleared his throat, causing Sweetie Drops' eyes to instantly snap to him. "Is there a problem, Miss Drops?" he asked in a genial tone that sent a shiver down Eventide's spine. To her knowledge the only ponies that knew her by that name were involved with the MIB. "No... no problem at all," Sweetie said with a nervous laugh. "I was just passing on some music that my marefriend wrote for Miss Trailblazer. Now if you'll excuse me I have some other business to attend to before I head back to Ponyville." Turning quickly on the spot Sweetie Drops opened the door and left the house leaving Eventide and Bit alone. As Sweetie Drops left Bit began returning his papers to the briefcase and fastened the clasps. "I must also be heading off, Miss Trailblazer. I have just recalled a rather pressing matter of business of my own that I must look into. I must say that this visit has been quite the enlightening experience, I imagine we shall be speaking to one another again in the near future. Good day, Lady Trailblazer, do try to keep out of trouble." Straightening his suit Bit Interest walked to the door and let himself out. Alone at last Eventide collapsed onto her knees. How much did they know? Had Bit overheard what Sweetie had said? Fresh dread and a sense of impending doom washed over Eventide as she began to consider the possibilities. For the time being it seemed that her safe house had gone undiscovered, if the Princess knew of its existence she doubted that she would have sent a spy to her house. Still, if one of them was starting to grow suspicious of her activities then she needed to hurry up her plans. -------------------------------------- Dear Diary, My name is Eventide Trailblazer but my mommy and her friends call me Evey for short. Hello, diary, how is it being a book? I've never written a diary before so I'm sorry if I'm doing this wrong, mommy says that I should just treat you like a friend and that I can tell you anything at all because nopony else is going to read you but me. Today Pinkie Pie gave you to me as a late birthday present, which was a little odd because she had already given me a present on my actual birthday. Big Pinkie Pie not little Pinkie Pie. She gave you to me and everybody was very happy about it, apparently every little filly needs a diary and you are my very first! Then Pinkie Pie was weird. She took me aside when nobody else was looking and told me what to write in you, but she seemed very sad about it. Pinkie told me that I should write down everything that happens that makes me happy and everything that happens that makes me sad. She also said I should write lots and lots about mommy and what makes her happy and sad. Then she said that if mommy ever acted funny, or odd I should write that down too. I don't know why but I trust Pinkie so that's what I'm going to do. Then she told me that if I ever get too scared or worried about mommy then I should take my diary to Princess Twilight and let her read it. That was silly though because everybody knows that you're not supposed to show somepony else your diary! Also my mommy is the best mommy, she never scares me and she is big and strong so I don't have to worry about anything ever. Today was very good except for lunch. At lunch the man who took our order gave me a very funny look. Apparently something I said was bad or confusing and he didn't understand it. Mommy and Princess Twilight both told me that I was going to need to remember to use my right 'pronouns' from now on. I don't know what that word means but I think I saw it on the menu as a salad so I guess it is some kind of food. Until next time, Evey