The Birth of a Rebellion

The brown coated pony took a step forward and landed on the stone floor. Crafty Tail looked to his side, and saw the doors from the other cars open and other ponies also setting their hooves on the crowded platform from the Canterlot train station. An atmosphere of happiness generated as everypony met again with their acquaintances and beloved families.

This vision of happiness made him shiver. The nausea that he felt just revealed how he would never be able to live a life like that. He knew he wasn’t a pony destined to have a family or a stable work. His special talent had always been finding other ponies, and he had become proficient on it, but not only on it. As this talent was discovered by Celestia herself, he was trained as an agent, a slow but unstoppable searcher of the enemies of her highness. This was the life he had since so long ago… He wasn’t an elder, but he wasn’t a youngster either since long ago. This life he had, full of crime and loss, had upset him but also made him more committed with what he did. It was a vicious circle that made him more indifferent to the reality he had sworn to protect. But he wasn’t tired. Every new enemy, every new objective made him remember why he did it, and though the images he had just witnessed would never be part of his life, he didn’t care.

From the crowd emerged a couple of armoured pegasi Royal guards. Their armours shone under the bright sun of noon, making them outstand over the crowd. Crafty Tail had always thought of this as a handicap to do a policepony’s job, but Celestia had a different opinion about that. Nevertheless, the guards approached him at a steady pace as the crowd opened at their sight. Perhaps in that sense those heavy knickknacks they wore where somehow useful.

“Sir, welcome back to Canterlot. On behalf of Captain Shining Armour we have been sent to escort you to the Royal guard quarters to…” one of the guards emotionlessly said, slowly fading his voice as Crafty Tail raised his eyebrow in disbelief and indignation under his dark sunglasses. Did they think he was an idiot? He knew perfectly what escort meant. He knew what had happened to the guards he had sent to escort mister Zephyr’s cage. After all he had planned it to occur.

“So my dear friend Shining Armour wants to speak to me? Sorry sirs, but my schedule has no free slots for hearing him whine about his pathetic “elite” forces being beaten by
outlaws and renegades.” Crafty Tail mockingly said passing by the shocked guards toward the door of the train station.

The guards took their spears from the harnesses by their sides and trotted toward the door, blocking the way.

“Sir, we have been ordered to escort you to, and we will carry out our orders.” The other guard firmly said. His expression was immutable, but his eyes revealed his rage toward the brown coated pony.

Crafty Tail sighed deeply. Even in his position as Celestia’s personal agent he still had to respond to some ponies, and he found Shining Armour to be one of the most annoying. Slowly he nodded and started to walk, followed by the guards. It seemed like his meeting with Celestia would have to wait.

Finally free from the annoyance of the chatter of captain Shining Armour, Crafty Tail started his slow and steady walk to the Celestia’s private chambers. He felt tired, as tired as he usually felt when he was forced to talk about his activities with some ponies that didn’t understood the nature of his work.

He still could hear the hammering words of the captain towards his work, his way to achieve things, his lack of honour… He had listened to the endless list of insults and demands with his always nonchalant attitude a thousand times, and the fact that Crafty ignored them pissed the guard off. But in the end Crafty knew what he intended to do with that. Every time they met, he tried to get a bit more of information about what the princess had commanded him that allowed him to take his guards and send them in suicidal missions just because he ordered it. Among the Canterlotian aristocracy, information was power and Crafty knew that was what the captain truly wanted. Celestia had granted him great power, yes, and that had the aristocrats from Canterlot really disturbed.

The life inside Canterlot’s walls wasn’t as ordered and settled as many ponies usually assumed. The aristocratic games of influence and power were what moved everything inside the court, and that was a game that Celestia played joyfully and with unmatched finesse. Though her will was law, she enjoyed the struggle of the aristocrats to impose their will over the others, and that was a game in which Crafty Tail had unwillingly become involved into, and he hated it so far. Anyway, the accident in the facility, followed by the escape of the only possible source of information about the rebel group that dammed Black Claw ran, had infuriated the beehive, and now he was being stung.

After few more minutes walking through the gigantic halls and long corridors of Canterlot’s palace, Crafty finally reached the doors of Celestia’s office, guarded by two royal guards who didn’t even changed their expressions as they noticed his presence. Ignoring both guards, Crafty Tail approached it and opened it without knocking.

In front of Celestia’s studio’s table sat a light brown coated pony with a blonde mane and a compass as his cutiemark.

“Crafty Tail? I expected your meeting with Shining Armour to be quite longer…” She stated, but her expression barely revealing any sign of surprise.

“Your majesty, I hear enough nonsense during my daily activities to hear it also from the very respectable members of your court, so I left as soon as he allowed me to.”

“Well Crafty Tail, this is mister Copper Compass, the new headmaster of Canterlot’s Academy.” She said introduction the light brown coated pony.

Barely impressed by the recent change in the Academy’s leadership, he emitted a low grunt as he shook the hoof of the pony. As the pony retired his hoof, Crafty Tail noticed three parallel scars that surrounded his right hoof. As if a trigger was activated, a flow of memories from several reports about the expedition to The Royal sisters palace memebers. Sending a pressing glare to Celestia, he started to approach a couch nearby and sat on it, staring coldly to the new Canterlot’s Academy headmaster.

“I guess I should leave now …” he said, clearly feeling uncomfortable. The new headmaster looked at Celestia, who slightly nodded in agreement. “Your majesty.” Bowing toward the princess, he turned around and left the room.

Celestia still stared from the other side of her studio’s at the sitting figure of the brown coated pony.

“You know that you are growing even more insolent with time?” she commented.

“Nah, just when I’m in bad mood.” The pony nonchalantly said.

“You should behave a bit. I’m still your princess and ruler after all, even though I allow you this arrogant attitude from time to time.”

“I’m just what you made me be, your highness…” He said as he took off his sunglasses and placed them inside the pocket of his gabardine. “So you finally got rid of that old and rusty stallion from the Academy? I still wonder why it took you that long; I thought my reports on his secret activities would have ended in something quicker.

“Oh, Crafty… There would be no fun in that, would it? I needed the headmaster to reveal his plans before I did nothing, and that’s why I waited.

“But anyway, choosing this pony to succeed him… It even seems a hasty decision. Have you ever thought of consulting me in your choice? ”

“In what concerns to the new headmaster, you will eventually discover what piece he is in the game, but his role must remain secret, for the moment.”

“You know I completely disapprove those games, your majesty. Even though a thousand years of ruling over this country may have led you to deep boredom, the political intrigues and schemes this court is playing with are becoming dangerous, and the fate of Equestria is not a game.”

“Are you lecturing me, Crafty Tail? Must I remind you what you have used the Royal guard for this time?”

“No, your highness…” Crafty Tail said, deflating a bit and flinching under the pressure of Celestias inquisitive stare. From all the ponies in Equestria, he found Celestia the only one deserving his respect, and his fear. “Anyway, your majesty, I must ask… What shall be our next step? I’ve done what you planned, and yet I can’t see the purpose of freeing a prisoner before extraction.”

“Several reports have spoken of increasing activity in the city of Stalliongrad, and I’m afraid that Black Claw will make his next move there. You will be sent there to investigate with a small detachment of Royal guards.” Celestia said as she stood up from the armchair of her studio and walked toward the sitting pony. “This game is a long and slow one, Crafty. The effects of each action may take years or even centuries to reveal. Just trust me when I say that the outcome will be my victory, as it always has been…”