“Scarlet, you probably won’t survive this ordeal. Nopony besides me, an alicorn, has ever managed to survive. You will die, Scarlet. Just like the rest.”

Scarlet Trace kept her eyes shut, the journal of the late Slate trembled in her hooves. The words from Gemini repeated in her mind like a recording, looping every few seconds.

Her eyes looked back down at the first entry. She immediately felt a kind of connection to this poor pony. Not to his difficult life, but more directly to the problem he had with his cutie mark’s meaning. Hesitating, she stole a glance back at her hindquarters, greeted by the large magnifying glass.

The cutie mark that had lingered there since birth. The very one that, according to Gemini and Nixie, was now trying to devour her from the inside out. She too, like this pony, was troubled by her mark.

‘Mom and dad never really let me do much of anything else either,’ Scarlet reached into her coat, pulling out the magnifying glass that hung around her neck. ‘Study for the Agency, work with dad at the Agency, talk to mom about the Agency. It was always about that building, and that organization. Those two lived and breathed it. I never questioned it once.’

Not noticing that she was drawing the concerned attention of six other ponies, she slowly turned the pages, skimming them for any interesting data. ‘Who questions their cutie mark? Only a pony who doesn’t know its meaning. And how is that possible? A cutie mark symbolizes your destiny. The meaning of my mark was as clear as day. At least,’ she exhaled, ‘that’s what the story’s always been.’

‘But everyone at the agency knows,’ Scarlet turned more pages over in a hurry. ‘A C-Ranked agent. Low-leveled. Clumsy. Incompetent.’ A heavy sensation bore down on her chest. Scarlet coughed, covering her mouth with her hoof. No blood, but she was feeling her energy draining faster, a side effect of Twilight’s spell succumbing to the hungry Scars.

‘I’m terrible at my job. Slate, I think you and I have something in common here. What happened to you?’

“Scarlet? Is something the matter?” A voice from the group spoke up.

The young detective snapped out of her trance, turning around to look at Twilight, the origin of the sudden question. “I’m fine, thanks. I’m just looking for another section to read through.”

“That’s fine. Take your time, hun,” Applejack reassured her, to the dismay of an increasingly fidgety Rarity. The dirty home was starting to wear on the fashionista’s nerves.

Scarlet stopped at another page. This one’s entry was written in a thick ink, catching her attention. “I think I might’ve found something else, girls.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Let’s hear it.”

The gray pony nodded in agreement, taking in a deep breath.

Fall of Year 1
Day 146

I’ve finally managed to settle all of my affairs back home. Father wasn’t too pleased with me moving out to live here in Ponyville, but mother didn’t seem to mind. With one less mouth to feed, the bits they earn at their jobs should be able to help them get by much more comfortably. Their financial stability wasn’t what motivated me to move away, but it definitely helps, and I’m grateful for that.

I haven’t been having the best of luck myself. I own a small lot here in this small town, and it’s perfectly quiet on most nights, but I’m slowly draining through the remaining funds I have left at the bank. Before long, I’ll be completely out of money to stay afloat here. It’s tough, but I’m positive that I’ll make it out as long as I seek out employment elsewhere.

The job situation hasn’t been any better either, which is probably the biggest issue I have at the moment. Ponyville only needs so many ponies to run everything here in town. My first instinct was to check out whether or not there was anything strictly available to only the pegasi here in town. The weather team was completely full, and they couldn’t afford to hire on new staff just yet, so that ruled out any possibility that I could do that.

Eventually, I decided to inspect the town for anything that kept me on the ground. I ran across Sweet Apple Acres after traversing every inch of central Ponyville. I met the most charming couple out there on the farm. They tended to a large apple field and other, smaller crops all by themselves. I offered a hoof to help them out, and though at first they weren’t interested, I managed to squeeze a proposal out of them.

It isn’t much, but it’s enough to get by for now. I’m still hunting for jobs that suit me better.

There’s another problem altogether. A role that I’m comfortable with. Anything that fits with my skill set. I’d be a liar if I said I had any special talents; the rock on my side more or less illustrates that quite well. I’ve always joked that perhaps my talent was weighing everyone else down. It depresses me at times because often, I start believing that those kinds of thoughts might actually be true. I’m a hard worker, and I’m willing to sacrifice a lot in order to live comfortably. That’s how my parents lived, and I have no qualms with that kind of lifestyle myself.

However, fortune just isn’t on my side. Aside from the Apple Family part time job, there’s been nopony in town willing to hire me. My only other option is to create my own business, but in what? I have no resources, no tools to create goods with. I’m not that good at gardening and raising crops, and construction is definitely out of the question.

Sometimes I wonder why I ever bothered to leave Manehatten in the first place.

What does this damn cutie mark mean? I just want to know. Am I good with stones? Is it a literal interpretation that I need to look for here? If not, then what else? What could this empty tablet on my flank represent?

It’s a thought that’s been torturing me for a long time now. It drives me insane on some days. I became so stressed over it once that I even had to make a quick trip to the clinic because I got sick. How strange too, I’m not the type of pony to just spontaneously come down with something like that. I’m usually very careful about who and what I come into contact with.

All of this concern must have me a little riled up though. It’s become harder to sleep, too. I spend far too much time at night wondering what it all means, and where I’m going to end up in the future. Will I become rich and famous? Successful perhaps? Successful at all? Or will I end up on the streets somewhere between Ponyville and the city?

Or maybe even become a denizen of Everfree Forest. I have heard that some creatures actually do make that terrible place their homes. I doubt I’d survive for long in there thought. It’s filled with dangerous animals.

I’ve rambled far too much by now. I think I just need a drink and some sleep. Tomorrow’s a new day. Perhaps my luck will finally turn around.

My search for meaning continues…

“Hey Applejack,” Scarlet immediately chirps after flipping another page. “You heard it too, this guy used to work for your family around the time he wrote this entry. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Can’t say that I do, sugarcube.” Applejack’s face wrinkled in thought. “The Apple Family’s been here in Ponyville even before it became a city. If anypony knew about this worker, it’d be Granny Smith.”

“Do you think we’d be able to ask her about him then?”

“Maybe, but it’s still strange.” Applejack shrugged. “None of that makes a lick of sense. We Apples always tend to our fields on our own, without any outside help whatsoever.”

Twilight and her friends gave the orange farm pony a confused, rejected look.

“Well, most of the time. But we’ve never employed anypony before recent. At least not to my knowledge. We’ve always relied on ourselves to raise the crops and take care of the critters on the farm. I can’t think of a single time where we’ve actually hired a single pony. Even moreso with Granny. She was more stubborn about it than the rest of us Apples.”

Scarlet turned back to the journal. “That’s odd. I don’t see why Slate would write about something like that then.” She looked back at Applejack, her eye catching the gem residing at the center of her necklace. “And I’d be stupid to question the Element of Honesty.”

She turned towards the cyan pegasus nearby. “What about you, Rainbow Dash?”

“What?” The pegasus body jumped at her name.

“Slate mentions the weather team in this journal as well. You know anything about it?”

“Sorry Scarlet,” she shook her head, “I got nothing. Besides, this guy sounds like an old timer.”

“Perhaps,” the detective blew a strand of red hair out of her face. She flipped through more pages his journal, moving through small drawings and tiny, solitary paragraphs.

“Blank Slate, who are you?”

“What do we do now, Flex?” The regal alicorns’ voice tightened. “You said yourself that it was too risky to bring Scarlet over here now. Everypony’s in danger if our suspicions are correct.”

The smaller earth pony quickly marched back into Princess Celestia’s castle, with the Princess following right at his side. “We’re running out of time. We need to quarantine Scarlet, drag her ass back over here, and question the entire group about what happened that night of Conroy’s death.”

“Steele… doesn’t this go against everything you were trying to avoid? Bringing Scarlet back into Canterlot right now is far too dangerous.”

He continued to walk, unimpaired by her claim. “I’m aware of the danger. We have to do something quick, but we also need to be careful about it. Anything brash could destroy her before we have a chance to look into the matter ourselves. Princess Celestia,” Steele turned a corner, heading down a large spiral of steps, “Is Luna aware of any of these matters as of this moment?”

“Only the minor details,” Celestia responded. “She watches over the night, and has her own fair share of problems to work out. I felt that this was a matter that the two of us could solve together.”

“We need to tell her everything that’s happened then. We might need her magic to help subdue Scarlet when we bring her back.”

The pair made their descent with hurried steps. It only took several minutes before they had reached the bottom floor of Celestia’s royal castle.

“What about your employees, Steele?”

He turned up to look at her, “You mean Locks and Amy?”

“And Mystery Hart. Surely they’ll have something to say about your sudden change of heart.”

He sharply snapped his neck back at attention. “That’s their damn business. I don’t care what they think.”

“I think that now’s not the time to be saying something so silly,” a smooth, soft voice cooed ahead.

Steele and Celestia peered forward, towards the grand entrance to the entire building. A black unicorn mare sat at the corner, waiting eagerly for the two to return from their long discussion at the top of the palace. Her face was smug, her fur starting to mesh with the darkening sky behind her. Her fangs sparkled, revealing her identity almost immediately.

“Scrawl? What are you up to now? I have no time for your damn games,” Steele growled at her as they approached.

“Hey, calm down big guy. I just came from the Agency and thought I’d give ya another checkup. See if anything big has developed since I’ve been gone.”

“Something big, yes,” Steele muttered.

“So what’s all the fuss about, lovebirds?” Jessica smirked. “Somethin’ big sounds like my kind of job.”

“We will be bringing Scarlet Trace back to Canterlot prematurely,” Celestia explained with a sense of urgency.

The smile on Jessica’s mouth immediately vanished. “Really? Something happen to her?”

“No time to explain that. We need to head for the Agency as soon as possible,” Steele’s pace quickened as they past by the imp.

“Wow. That’s excellent timing, boss,” she rolled her eyes.

Steele paused, turning back towards his scribe. “Timing- what? Something on your mind, maggot?”

“Well I dunno,” she bobbed her head back and forth. “I DID notice something interesting on my way over here.”

“I don’t want to hear it unless it has something to do with this case,” Steele huffed.

Her smile grew, “Locks and Amy have breached the Agency, sir.”

Celestia and Steele both turned completely around. The old colt’s face drained of its energy, “What did you just say?”

“Locks and Amy broke into the Agency, sir,” she gave him an insultingly bad salute. “There was disposition leaking that bridged the Agency’s offices straight to Canterlot Cemetery.”

“Mysty,” Steele groaned. “Have the guardians captured them?”

“I’m not sure,” she playfully shrugged. “There was some alarm back at the graveyard because of some extremely high readings of magic. A good chunk of the guardians went to investigate.”

“What’s that old mare planning?” Steele grunted. Looking up to Celestia.

“Anything else you wish to share with us, Jessica?” the Princess of the Sun asked.

“The guardians arrived at the cemetery and are trying to break down a fortified barrier, but too many of them were pulled away. Whatever Locks and Amy are doing that encouraged them to break in, I doubt that whatever is left of the guard would be able to slow them down for long.”

Steele looked back at the wicked mare, “And what exactly did you do to stop them?”

“I was a distance away when the chaos broke out at the office, sir,” she lied with pride. “When I managed to get back, one of the weakened guards told me some of the minor details. I couldn’t immediately find them, so I cast a spell to set off the alarms.

“Also,” she continued, “I created a spell to force the snow down faster. I hope you two don’t mind.”

“It’s not a problem,” Steele answered. “The snow will reveal their hoofprints faster. It’s already getting late. Most ponies in that district are already at home.”

“Good work, Jessica,” Celestia praised.

“The Princess and I will head to the royal chambers,” Steele continued. “This actually helps us greatly that you’re here, Scrawl.”

“Oh yeah?” She chuckled.

“The two of us,” he looked up to the taller alicorn, “will meet up with Princess Luna and inform her of everything. We’ll head straight for the Agency immediately after we’re done to assess the damages and figure out what happened. I’ll also be ordering the troops at the cemetery to capture and detain Mystery Hart and to bring her straight to me when they can. She has a lot to answer to.”

“To you, sir?”

“I doubt that she’s just putting on a show because she’s drunk, or some crap like that. She’s creating a diversion,” Steele sighed. “Amassing so much magic in a place as unstable as the cemetery could be lethal.”

“What do I do then, sir?” Jessica eagerly awaited her orders.

Celestia watched at Steele hesitated for the first time since they left the upper floors of the castle. His ice cold gaze glued itself to Jessica’s frame while he thought.

“Jessica Scrawl, I want you to retrieve Domino Locks and Lily Sheen for me.”

“I can do that,” her smile returned in full. “But if they resist, sir?”

“At any cost, Scrawl. Take them down.”

The unicorn’s grin twitched wildly with his last order. The deal she had made with him earlier in the day threw her into a determined frenzy.

“You’re the boss, Flex,” her magic quickly wrapped around her. In a sparkling flash, she vanished.

Their world fell deathly silent as the scribe disappeared from sight. Steele turned to Celestia, whose face was just as concerned as his.

“Do you think… that I made the right choice?” he asked his ruler.

“We won’t know until this has all come to an end,” she cryptically replied. “Put in your situation however, I doubt I would’ve thought of an alternative.”

“Scrawl has complete immunity for a day, Princess. And Locks…”

“Locks?”

“Locks and Amethyst are doing this for Trace. If Jessica tries to capture them, they won’t go without a fight.”

Celestia’s face grew more worried. “Have faith in them.”

“Who, Princess?”

“All of them. Scarlet, Locks, Amethyst, Jessica, and Mystery. Have faith in the decisions they have made for themselves. We can no longer convince them of what is right and what is wrong. All we can do is hope that they’ve made the choice that will see them through.”

“I’m concerned for Scrawl the most. We had a deal. We can’t punish her if she tries anything violent.”

“… You mean, you’re afraid that Jessica might seriously hurt someone, Flex?” Celestia looked back at her old friend.

“Kill, actually.”

“I see,” Princess Celestia turned, motioning him to follow her towards the sisters’ chambers.

“You know, I’ve been keeping an eye on Jessica for quite some time now. I’d find it strange to think that she has it in her to kill anypony,” she continued.

“Her record’s clean, but-”

“I knew, from the very beginning of the Agency, that Jessica was far older than she ever let on,” the princess revealed, not letting the truth stop her pace.

“From… the beginning?” Steele’s eyes widened.

“I met that mysterious mare a long time ago. I could never forget a face like hers. That playful smile that I’ve grown to recognize from miles away. She came from Dodge Junction as a young mare.”

“Dodge Junction?”

“I believe they only preferred to call it ‘Dodge’ back in those days. She was a unicorn that held so many possibilities in her future. I wanted her to realize her potential. It happened, by my luck, that she had come seeking out my school for gifted unicorns at the time. I gladly welcomed her to study under the finest unicorns.”

The clacking of Celestia’s hooves grew louder as the sounds of Canterlot were swallowed up by the silence as they approached the royal chambers. “Jessica Scrawl quickly jumped to the top of her classes, and graduated with ranks far above what even I had originally anticipated.”

“Scrawl… she’s always been in contact with you?”

“Not exactly, which is what I’ve found so strange,” Celestia replied. “Almost immediately after graduating, she ran off. Disappearing beyond the Everfree Forest and heading as far east as she could. It was odd. I thought of pursuing her, but with my duties here in Equestria, I never had the chance, nor did I want to risk my subjects out in the world beyond.

“When was the next time you saw her then? She had to have come back eventually,” Steele said. “She works for the Agency now.”

“Centuries went by in those times. I almost didn’t recognize her black and orange colors when she returned to Canterlot after so many years. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw her. I thought maybe she was a descendant, or even just a pony who happened to be born with a strikingly similar color scheme. All of those suspicions were put aside when she came up to us.”

“Us? You mean…?”

“She returned right as you and Conroy Justis were developing the Agency. She introduced herself as Jessica Scrawl. I immediately knew that she could be a great and powerful asset to the organization after remembering her skills back when she graduated, and allowed her to work with you two.”

“We test everypony who comes in and out of the Agency. You knew right away then, didn’t you?”

“Yes. And as I had expected, she was a natural. Her power was simply phenomenal.”

“And you never questioned her about it, Princess?”

“It’s definitely extraordinary, but I never desired to invade her private life. She never showed any signs of being a threat, so I never had a reason to really look into her background. I don’t like the idea of spying on my loyal subjects. Even creatures like her.”

“And this unicorn that you’ve seen come and go throughout time, defying age, disregarding death… you trust her?” Steele tilted his head.

“Don’t you, Flex?”

“Well,” he looked down, “Aside from Amethyst… she’s never intentionally steered anypony into harm’s way before.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“My problem?” Steele repeated. “I just sent one of the most powerful unicorns in Canterlot, who has an entire day of diplomatic immunity from all punishments, to subdue the Agency’s greatest assets. By any means necessary.”

“I do wish to ensure that everypony comes out of this situation alright,” Celestia agreed. “Let’s hurry then, and explain everything to my sister. I’m sure that with her help, we can find the truth that we’ve been hunting for after all of this time.”