Evening that same day
Royal Palace, Canterlot, Ponyville, Equestria

Rainbow Dash had just arrived after a long and arduous journey to Canterlot. An aide of the Princess had already shown her to her room. There she dumped her bag before proceeding to the royal throne room. She had been sitting there for nearly half an hour, patiently waiting for Celestia to arrive.

Suddenly, she heard the door behind her swung open. Swiftly she turned and bowed before Celestia.
“Please rise my subject,” said Celestia.
“You summoned me to Canterlot for an important mission. What is it?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Are you aware of the current political situation in the Soviet Union?”
“I really don’t follow the news much, but I do know that it’s led by some guy named Stalin and that their communists. I don’t really understand what that is but from what I’ve heard from Twilight’s and Starlight’s conversations it’s something bad.”
“That would largely be true,” said Celestia. “The (human) rights situation in the country is horrid based on the testimony of individuals who fled the Soviet Union.”
“What does this have to do with me being here?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Patience my dear,” said Celestia calmly. “We are in need of photographic evidence of the abuses occurring in the Soviet Union. That is where you come in.”
Dashie cleared her throat. She was speechless. Her a secret agent? It sounded like something from a Ponywood movie script.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Scattered across the Soviet Union are a variety of prisons called ‘gulags.’ In these camps, prisoners from across the Soviet Empire are housed and exploited for the purposes of slave labour. Many are killed in these camps for merely holding the wrong political views.”
“That’s horrid,” said Dash.
“We hope to obtain pictures of some of these camps in order to help shed light on the abuses occurring behind the ‘Iron Curtain.’”
“We would normally use one of our agents to infiltrate another country for espionage. However, a talking pony in a human country would draw too much attention, especially for such a sensitive mission as this.”
“Additionally, the area around these camps are heavily guarded by soldiers. Therefore, the only way for this mission to succeed is for us to have a pegasus fly quickly over the area in question and take pictures during their fly over.”
“That’s where you come in Ms. Dash.”