The Mare Who Knew Too Little

by Alabenson

The Wrong Mare

Northern Spy trotted down the halls of the Equestrian Intelligence Division’s Trottingham branch with a practiced sense of purpose. Almost everything about the brown earth pony stallion was perfectly nondescript, right down to the round, red apply of his Cutie Mark. This unremarkableness was as much careful practice and cultivation as it was a gift of birth. After all, espionage was far easier when nopony ever remember your face. While there wasn’t any particular need for Northern Spy to remain unnoticeable within the confines of the EID itself, he took a certain amount of pride in keeping his skills as sharp as possible. Thus, it was rather satisfying for him to trot all the way to the branch head’s office and not have a single pony even notice his presence until he passed by the desk of his supervisor’s secretary.

“You’re half an hour late,” File Search said, not even bothering to look up from her typing as Northern Spy passed by.

“Good afternoon to you too, File Search. You’re looking lovely as ever today,” Northern Spy replied cheerfully as he headed inside the office. For her part, File Search ignored him, in part due to hooves being incompatible with making certain gestures. Inside the office, Highly Classified, the regional director of the EID, was parked behind his desk, looking none too amused. “Hello, Classified. What seems to be the trouble this week? Have the Diamond Dogs finally decided to invade?”

“Flippant as always, I see. Tell me, Northern Spy, how much do you know about the farming business?”

“Well, not all that much, I admit,” Northern Spy replied with a shrug. “I’ve got plenty of farmer in the family, apples mostly. But I can’t say I’ve much of a green hoof myself. Why, are you looking to hire a gardener?” Highly Classified snorted in irritation as he pushed a file over to Norther Spy, who opened it to reveal a picture of an arrogant-looking middle-aged stallion.

“This is Convoluted Plan. He’s a wheat magnate, though it seems in the last few years he’s been expanding ingo sugar production as well.”

“I’d heard the grain industry could be cutthroat, but I didn’t think it was something we’d normally need to get involved in.”

“Normally we wouldn’t. However, not long ago we received a message from one of Plan’s employees, a biochemist named Double Helix.”

“A biochemist? Seems like an odd hire for a farmer, even an industrial one.”

“Officially, Convoluted Plan hired him to work on developing new strains of wheat to boost production. But, according to Double Helix, he was actually brought on to help work on some horrible plot that could destroy Equestria.”

“That could certainly explain why’d we’d get involved, assuming, of course that this Double Helix isn’t just some disgruntled crackpot. I don’t suppose he was kind enough to tell us what this horrible plot is, exactly?”

“Not in his initial communication. However, Double Helix told us he was going to turn himself in, along with proof of whatever it is Convoluted Plan was having him work on.”

“Well, it doesn’t sound like we’ll need to get involved after all. If there’s actual proof of foul play, then the guard should be able to deal with the issue themselves.”

“Yes, if we had the proof then this would be easy. Unfortunately, we found Double Helix half-dead near the train tracks leading into Trottingham this morning. He’s unconscious now, but before he passed out he told us he passed the sample off to a specialist he had hired. La Mariposa.”

“The disguise expert? I was under the impression she retired.”

“It might be a student of hers who’s taken up the mantle, or somepony completely unrelated using the name. In any event, whoever they are, they apparently have the evidence Double Helix meant to pass on to us. Your job, Northern Spy, will be to locate the mare and retrieve the evidence before Convoluted Plan can recover it himself.”

“As assignments go, it sounds straightforward enough. So, what does this mystery mare look like?”

“There’s the difficulty, I’m afraid. We don’t know.”

“What? Surely Double Helix must have seen her to pass on the evidence. Even if she has changed her appearance since the drop-off, it would still at least give me a place to start.”

“Oh, I imagine Double Helix did see her. Unfortunately, he passed out before he could give us a description, and the doctors aren’t sure when he’ll wake up. That said, we do have some information on a possible starting point for you. One of our agents spotted a pair of known mercenaries, Strong Armer and Hired Muscle, getting off Double Helix’s train at the Trottingham station.”

“And we suspect they’re current employer is Convoluted Plan? It could just be a coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences, Northern Spy, and neither should you. If Convoluted Plan knew what Double Helix was trying to do, they he’d have done just about anything to prevent that evidence from falling into our hooves. Undoubtedly, these two are already tracking down La Mariposa. For the sake of Equestria, it’s imperative that you find her first.”

*********

Brief Memo hurried through the halls of the Convoluted Combine offices, until he finally reached the imposing double doors that led into the office of the company president. Suddenly hesitating having reached his goal, Memo swallowed nervously before gently tapping his hoof against the dark wood. “Pardon me, Mister Plan, sir? I have a report from the specialists we sent to deal with the Double Helix situation.”

“Come in,” a voice from beyond the door ordered, and Brief Memo hurriedly obeyed. Inside was an opulently decorated office, filled with artifacts and pieces of art that Brief Memo suspected were each worth more than he’d likely earn in ten lifetimes. The entire back wall of the office was a single, massive window which offered a commanding view of Trottingham. Standing looking out the window with his back to Brief Memo was a dun-colored earth pony stallion dressed in a simple yet finely tailored suit. “Do you know why I love this view so much?” Convoluted Plan asked as he heard the doors close behind Brief Memo, not even bothering to turn around. “It helps remind me of how much further I can still go. How much there is out there that I still haven’t conquered. Metaphorically speaking, of course.” A moment passed in silence before Convoluted Plan looked back over his withers. “That’s enough sentimentality. You said you had an update for me?”

“Yes sir,” Brief Memo replied, swallowing nervously. “We, well, we received an…according to—”

“Brief Memo, isn’t it?” Convoluted Plan said, turning around to face Brief Memo directly. “You were brought on to our Futures division relatively recently, if I recall correctly. Let me share a bit of managerial wisdom with you. Who knows, it might come in handy for you someday when you have subordinates of your own. You should never punish an employee for doing their job correctly. Now, in your case, your job is to bring me messages in a timely and accurate manner. You’re not responsible for the content of those messages, just for making sure they get to the right pony, which in this case happens to be me. If I started throwing a fit every time I didn’t like what a message said, then pretty soon ponies would stop telling me when things were going wrong, wouldn’t they? And you just can’t wrong a business like that, if you don’t know when things are going wrong you can’t do anything to fix them. So, with all that said, what exactly do you need to tell me?”

“Double Helix was intercepted, but he passed on the sample he stole to somepony called La Mariposa,” Brief Memo quickly blurted out.

“Mmhmm. And, is that everything?”

“They said Double Helix jumped off the train after he passed on the sample, and they’re still working to track down his accomplice.”

“There, see, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Your job was to relay all that to me, which you did an admirable job of. Now then your next task will be to relay my response to the two ponies who have, apparently, not done their jobs nearly as well as you have. Please inform them that they need to rectify the situation immediately. If they do not recover that sample, I will have both fed to Charon.” Despite the friendliness never leaving his voice as he spoke, the icy rage behind Convoluted Plan’s eyes told Brief Memo that he was deadly serious.

Comments

[StarzGecko]

Oh sweet new chapter! Can’t wait for more!