In the weeks following the deployment of Princess Twilight's counter-spell, things were a blur for number of great number of data analysts—not just on the human side of things, but also the Equestrian as well. Many governments outside the United States had not only requested aid in dealing with their pony populations, but also sent in preliminary numbers of those infected with ETS. These included not only full transformations, but numbers of those who had already been labelled 'Partial'. There were even a few specific cases that had been referenced for one reason or another.

Search Fragment, a unicorn analyst, had been assigned to reading all the information coming in from the country neighbouring the United States to the north. It struck her as odd that the humans could not come together as ponies had and unite their species under one government, but it was a vast world, and governing billions was a tall order. Having read the region's history, she couldn't fault this Canada place from seeking independence from the so-called United Kingdom. At least the fragmented nature of humanity made it easier to break up all the paperwork and assign ponies like her to comb through it.

For the most part, everything that she had read over the last several hours lined up with what had been happening in the United States, albeit at a tenth of the scale. The areas hardest hit seemed to be the cities Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. She was seeing now, however, that there was a fair-sized cluster centred around the city of Halifax in the Nova Scotia province, with tendrils spreading into the other so-called Atlantic provinces. According to an information request from one Dr. Tara Weintraub, a family physician that had been sent towards the CDC through Canada's health authority, one of her patients may very well have been the region's primary case.

The more Fragment read this doctor's reports, the more uneasy she became, however. The patient in question and been within the vicinity of Lazy Pines when the outbreak began, and had even spent time in Denver before returning to Canada. In the following days, however, it became clear that his transformation was atypical of what other humans-turned-ponies experienced. It was actually kind of sickening for her to read... not just because of the sheer suffering caused by the unique interaction between his specific biology and ETS, but because of the psychological trauma that it must have caused.

Although she still had plenty of documentation to go through, Search Fragment gathered up the relevant documents into one file folder. She left her desk at a brisk trot, the folder levitating alongside her. There was no real answer in her mind how anypony could help this hapless individual, but the case was so... strange that it couldn't just be ignored. Surely somepony would have some idea.

With that in mind, she sought out her supervisor. She was unsure of why, but an official agent of S.M.I.L.E. had been assigned to supervise things Earth-side, and the mare in particular had been interested in any unusual cases such as this. Personally, Fragment suspected that the agency was just being paranoid—as usual—about potential changeling infiltration, or the potential of other demi-pony races popping up. Crystal ponies, for example, hadn't been a part of Sunset Shimmer's plan for this world, so what was stopping seaponies or kirin from coming up too?

Since the taupe mare wasn't at her desk at in the modular office they'd been provided, she had to be out on the roof again. "Agent Nine?" Fragment called out, stepping out of the portable building. To her right there were crates stacked in such a way that an agile pony could use it as an oversized set of stairs. "I've got something unusual here that I think needs attention."

After a moment, the earth pony in question peered over the edge of the roof. Her two-tone curls blew in the breeze as she slid her sunglasses down over her eyes. At her neck hung a pair of binoculars that the unicorn reckoned the agent had been watching the U.S. military with... again. "What have you got, Frag?" she asked, even as she hopped down from the roof to the crate stairway. "You usually wait until end-of-day to give me your report."

With a huff, the unicorn chose to ignore the nickname. Nopony had called her that since she left the agency herself. "Got an unusual ETS case north of the border," she replied once her former coworker-turned-boss landed in front of her. "The primary case for the east coast cluster was extremely atypical, and I thought somepony up the chain might need some eyes on the case."

As Agent Nine took the folder and started leafing through, Fragment used the opportunity to levitate a small mirror and comb from her lab-coat pocket. She'd been Earth-side for almost two weeks now, and the bedraggled pony in the mirror looked more than ready for a trip to a spa. Her green mane was definitely starting to fray at the ends, while the bags under her eyes stood out against her own cream coat. She simply did he best she could to tidy up her appearance while she waited for the agent's assessment.

Rather than disgust like Fragment had felt, though, the tightening of the agent's jaw indicated she was more... angry. "It's unfortunate what happened to this human," the mare said with a sigh, "but I'm more concerned about their treatment as a pony. The way they've been punished for simply following the instincts Sunset Shimmer inflicted on them is tantamount to physical and psychological abuse... and that's only what's been lodged in this doctor's reports. Who knows what's happened since? If this had happened in Equestria to natural-born ponies, I could guarantee there would be a public outcry and arrests."

Search Fragment's ears flicked back, and she found herself staring up at the sky. "Is there nothing that can be done?" she wondered aloud, watching as a flock of birds flew far overhead. "I know no formal agreements have been made with their government yet, but leaving a case like this be feels wrong."

With a nod of agreement, Agent Nine slid the folder into her suit jacket. "I'll pass this up the chain and see what can be done," she murmured. "I hope they'll, at the very least, approve some sort of wellness check. I have my doubts with this case, so I'd like some reassurance that the humans didn't fail as badly as I expect." Her hoof moved to caress the binoculars hanging at her neck as she grit her teeth. "I still don't know how the Princesses can tolerate these wildly unpredictable and inconsistent creatures."

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