"How much are we going to tell her?" asked a hushed voice.

"As little as possible. We can't have her panicking. She has to know her assignment and she has to complete it, but she cannot be told any more than that," said a second voice.

"She does have a right to know," the first voice countered.

"Yes, she does, but all in good time. It is not our job to tell her. For now, she can only know enough to get the job done," said the second.

"You said that. Are you sure she won't find out anyway?" asked the first voice.

"Find out what?" asked Rainbow Dash groggily. She opened her eyes to a bright white room. The amount of light in the room forced her to close her eyes again. She tried again, squinting and shielding her face with one hoof. Everything around her was a blur and her head felt as though it was inhabited by Pinky on a sugar high. Two ponies were hunched over her. They had masks covering their muzzles.

"How do you feel?" asked the pony on her left. The pony belonged to the first voice.

"Um, fine, I guess, but I have a bit of a headache," replied Rainbow Dash, blinking.

"That'll go away soon enough," said the pony.

"What happened? I remember standing in my kitchen, and I was talking to someone, and then… nothing," asked Dash, trying to remember. Her eyes had adjusted enough to open fully. She looked around and found herself in a room resembling a doctor's office. There were strange tools on a tray in one corner, and many wires and tubes hanging from the walls. She herself was lying on a rough bed in the middle of the white room.

"All will be explained," said the pony on her right. They both took off their masks and placed them on a counter. The two ponies were wearing black suits, and had bright gold badges attached to their haunches, right over where a cutie mark would be. They both were a dark teal colour, the first pony with a pink mane, and the second with a brown one. Rainbow Dash began mentally calling them Pink and Brown.

"We will take you down to see Lighthouse, come with us," said Pink. Rainbow Dash hopped off the bed and they shepherded her to the door.

"Just wait 'til you see this," Pink said, smirking slightly.

"See wha- whoa…" Rainbow Dash's voice faded into nothing as the door was opened to reveal a giant room probably a quarter of the size of Ponyville. They walked out onto a glass balcony that wrapped around the entire room. Dash leaned over the marble railing that lined the balcony, far enough that she would have fallen if not for her wings. On the floor below she could see what seemed like hundreds of ponies all typing on computers in their cubicles, carrying files to and from various offices, and chatting to one another.

There were several Pegasi flying around carrying letters, delivering them to earth ponies and unicorns, all wearing black suits with the gold badge over their cutie mark. Some, Dash noticed, had small gold stars surrounding their badge, which she assumed showed their rank- kind of like martial arts belts, she figured. The cubicles were placed in such a way that they left a huge circular space in the middle of the floor. In that circle was the same crest as on all the ponies' badges – a rearing Pegasus in spy gear, encircled by the words 'Each for All,' with PIA written underneath the whole thing.

"What… what is this place?" asked Rainbow Dash in utter awe. Brown chuckled and placed her front legs on the rail, gesturing to the room.

"Welcome, to the Ponies Intelligence Agency," she said.