Vinyl stared, her mouth open in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes. “That's... that's your car?”

“Yes,” Octavia said slowly. “Is there a problem?”

“It's so... so...”

“Yes?”

“It's a piece of junk,” she finally said, staring at the sad example of a vehicle. The thing was covered in rust, paint chipped off, the bumper held on with duct tape and a huge crack in the back window.

Octavia just stared at her, eyes piercing through the unicorn with a look of borderline contempt. She motioned to the passenger seat.

Vinyl sighed and moved to the door, occasionally glancing at the earth pony. She wished her comment had got her yelled at. Instead, the way Octavia just looked at her made her feel small and insignificant. The door unlocked and she slid inside. She let out a shriek, looking around. “W-what? How... what?”

The inside was completely different. For one, it was clean, the seats were leather, electronic lights blinked on the dashboard and all the windows were perfectly clean and unbroken. “How... but it's... what?”

“A vehicle must be both tactful, and have all required necessities for the job,” Octavia said before sliding into the passenger seat. The car came on and they were off. “It also must not draw attention.”

“I'm sorry I called your car junk...”

“No need. It did appear to be junk,” Octavia said, giving another stoic, cold glance.

“Are you mad?”

“No, why?”

“Then why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Looking at you like what?”

Vinyl shivered, those eyes seeming to pierce through her like a crystal javelin. “N-nothing. Just, err, d-drive I guess. I ummm... so, Equestrian Secret Service?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know my parents?”

“They were two of our greatest agents and working on a case to take down the Three Doctors. Unfortunately, we lost contact with them. We have reason to believe you can help us.”

“Oh. I see, so ummm... who are the three doctors?”

“Dr. Alicity, Dr. Caballeron and the mysterious Dr. Athruz.”

“Mysterious? Are the others not?”

“What? No. Well, yes he is. But no, that's part of his name. Anyway, they are earth ponies, dedicated to destroying the balance between our three breeds. They may, possibly, have a way to destroy unicorns, all unicorns, in the world. Possibly even the alicorns.”

“That... that sounds pretty serious.”

“Indeed.” Octavia drove wildly through the streets, driving through and around traffic easily. “Had we known what a great threat they posed, we would have sent more than just those two to stop them.”

“You didn't see them as a threat? Then why--”

Octavia sighed. “Dr. Alicity is a fool. You may have heard of some of his exploits, such as the great pink party that closed down Manehattan for a day?” Vinyl shook her head. “He's a brilliant fool, but a fool. A minor threat. Dr. Caballeron is another minor threat, caring more for money than anything else. Daring Do has always been able to defeat him, so he hasn't been too worrisome. The true threat is Dr. Athruz. He has found a way to gather the other two together, creating a threat far more serious than we ever imagined those two capable of.”

“That's a lot of information to take in,” Vinyl said softly, before glancing out the window. “Wait, this is... how did you even know where I live? I put a lot of work into making sure I was unlisted!”

Octavia pulled the car into the driveway and looked up at the rather humble single story home, the walls painted a soft blue. Everything about it screamed mundane and simple, no hint of the famous tenant who lived within. “Secret agent, dear. Come,” she said before hopping from the car. “Before your parents left, did they mention anything suspicious to you? Perhaps send you something, a gift? Something that seemed odd at the time?”

“Well, they did send me a...” She paused when they made it to the door, it was hanging ajar. “I... I locked it when I left. How--”

“Stay back!” Octavia hissed, quickly drawing her gun from her bowtie and lodging it into her mouth. She pushed the door open with a hoof, eyes quickly scanning to the left and right. The place was trashed, pictures thrown on the ground, vases broken, carpet torn up. Vinyl gasped and charged past Octavia, her eyes wide. She made it down the hall, turned right, and screamed.

“Those monsters! Those... those sick, twisted monsters!”

Octavia ran forward, scanning the area for any sign of the raiders, but the building seemed empty. She soon joined Vinyl, and froze. A turntable, with huge speakers, took up most the room. It was smashed to pieces, the speakers ripped out, casing torn off, and chunks of the once valuable machine scattered across the floor. The ceiling fan had even been torn from the roof, now balancing precariously from a single wire close to the entrance. The unicorn fell to her knees and stared, tears in her eyes. “Not... not Delilah. You bastards. N-now... now it's personal.”

“What about your parents?”

“Now it's more personal!” Vinyl growled and got to her hooves, turning to the right. Opposite the remains of the turntable was a toppled over case, holding hundreds of records, some not even opened. Most were spilled over the floor now. The unicorn's horn glowed as she quickly stacked them up, before finally holding a new one, still wrapped up. “Neon Light's new album. I didn't really know why they sent me it, they knew I already had one. They're usually pretty good about not sending me duplicates. I just figured they'd made a mistake or thought I wanted it as a collectible.”

“The only mistake they made, was fighting against the Three Doctors.”

The two whipped around. An earth pony stood in the entrance of the room, surrounded by three others. He had a dark gray coat and a deep five-o'clock shadow on her face. His mane was short and wild, streaked with dark and light grays. All of them had guns, aimed at the two.

“Caballeron,” Octavia said with a growl.

“That's Dr. Caballeron,” the stallion said with a snort. “We'll take that record now, if you'd be so kind.”

“Shouldn't you be off somewhere, getting your flank kicked by Daring?” Octavia asked, eying the gun ponies. “You know I can't give you that record.”

“I don't see how you could have any choice. There's no pony to save you this time, 0CD.”

“It's 0CT,” Octavia said with a growl. She took a few steps back, Vinyl moving with her. The earth ponies stepped forward, backing them up.

“Give it up. I have no desire to harm you. We need that record. Give it to me!” the doctor ordered, his eyes narrowed.

“Just how much are you being paid for this, Caballeron? Just how much is your conscience and integrity worth?”

“Enough to buy me a nice villa on the beach and keep me happy for the rest of my long, happy life,” he said casually. “Now, give it here.”

“You won't have enough to settle a malpractice suit when I'm done with you,” Octavia said, a grin forming on her lips. She shot a single bullet, up. The ponies looked up, just in time to see the dangling fan, its last tether severed, crash down on them. The mare then grabbed Vinyl and ran, bullets shooting by them. She leaped through the window, eyes closed as she did her best to shield herself from the crumbling glass.

Vinyl landed besides the mare, trembling and looking around. “W-what's going--”

“Come on!” Octavia ordered, galloping to the car. Unfortunately, two more vehicles had theirs pinned in.

“We're blocked in! How do we--”

“Just come!” the earth pony yelled as she slid inside. She began pushing dials. A purple field formed around the car the moment Vinyl slid into the passenger seat, the record held tightly in her magic. Bullets began bouncing off the shield, the four ponies standing in the window. They shot even as they scrambled out through the broken window.

Octavia put the car into reverse and slammed on the gas. They rocketed back, slammed through the two cars, before driving down the street as fast as the car would go.

“That, that was, I--”

“Don't worry, we're almost out of here.”

“That was AWESOME!” Vinyl yelled. “How did you--” The car shook as an explosion splashed against the shield, making it flicker a few times before disappearing. She looked out the back, her mouth falling open. “They have missile launchers!”

“Buck him!” Octavia shouted before turning a sharp right, another missile zooming past and blowing up some poor pony's mailbox. Behind them, the two damaged cars struggled to keep up, Caballeron driving one while one of his hench ponies dangled out the window, spraying machine gun fire after them. “Hold on!” The second car had a pony dangling out the window, loading a missile launcher. Octavia pushed a button and a metal horn popped out from the back of her car.

A small screen popped out from the dashboard, showing the view from the back window. She tapped on the second vehicle twice, red marks circling it. “Eat hot friendship!” A rainbow ray shot out from the horn, enveloping the car. Almost instantly it slowed down, began following the speed limit and the passenger got into the passenger seat, buckling up. Unfortunately, a moment later the horn was sprayed with machine gun fire, exploding out and sending smoke guzzling into the air. A small giggling pink mare, with the words 'We're experiencing technical difficulties' appeared on the small screen.

“Woo hoo!” Vinyl yelled, holding onto the door as the car veered heavily to the left, shoving her into it.

“Keep the record safe!” Octavia ordered before pushing a button.

“Shoop-shoop-bee-doo,” came out from the speakers. The car sped down the street before veering left again, this time leaving the road and driving onto the docks. Ponies galloped out of the way, yelling out a few angry curses but quickly running once the other car followed, still shooting at them.

“What are you doing?” Vinyl shrieked once the car swerved onto one of the long piers, racing towards the end.

“Trust me!” Octavia yelled, tapping on a few buttons and putting her pedal down on the gas as hard as it would go. Behind them, the window shattered as a few bullets finally made contact.

“Ahhhhh! We're going to die!” Vinyl yelled, the seriousness of the situation breaking through the cloud of excitement. The car hit the end of the ramp and dove towards the water, eliciting a scream from the unicorn. Right as it was about to hit, Octavia pushed another button and a blue shield formed around the car. They dove into the river and disappeared.

Dr. Caballeron slammed on the brakes, barely managing to stop his car in time. He leaped from the vehicle and stared into the blue water, growling and stomping his hooves. “You can't run forever! I'll find you!” he yelled.

“Boss, we need to go. The cops'll be here soon!” the other pony yelled.

Caballeron growled and gave the water one last glare, before galloping to his vehicle.

------

Vinyl took deep breaths, her heart pounding so loud she was sure Octavia could hear it. A wide grin was stuck on her face, causing her to start chuckling. “Heh heh. We did it. Can you believe it? We're alive! We totally did it!”

“We just got away,” Octavia said, before glancing to the mare. She didn't seem the least bit fazed. Their vehicle, surrounded by the blue barrier, slowly made its way through the water towards a destination she'd set. “Where's the record?”

“Right here,” Vinyl said, holding it up. “That was awesome! Do you get to do that everyday?”

“Only on the slow ones. Give it here,” the agent said, before taking the record. She peeled off the wrapping and frowned, pulling out the rather mundane looking record. “I knew I should have had a record player installed. We'll have to wait until we get back to base to play this.”

“Hee hee. So, if I stay with you, does that mean I can do more awesome things like that?”

Octavia just looked to Vinyl, her stony gaze not wavering in the slightest. “Perhaps. We still have a lot of work to do, though.”

Vinyl chuckled and then looked off in the distance, seeing two blinking lights. “What's that we're heading too?”

“That, dear. Is headquarters. I hope you're ready, because you're about to get an up close view of the Equestrian Secret Service.”

“Eeeeee! This is going to be awesome!”