Games We Play

Chapters

Gamer Luna
Never Any Easier
Night Life
Incendiary
A Long Game
Epilogue: Agents in Ponyville

Gamer Luna

"No...no...no...maybe...no...no...ugh, no..."

"Shining?"

"Oh, Captain! Apologies, I didn't see you there sir."

"At ease. I'm just here to give you the report."

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar had arrived in Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor's office to give the daily report before he went off-duty for the night, but was temporarily distracted by the boxes on the Lieutenant Captain's desk. One was an inauspicious box of gray plastic with a smaller box attached to it via a black cord, the other was a cardboard box filled with long, thin pieces of dark grey plastic standing on end with each piece colorfully labeled.

"What's that you got there?" the Captain asks, pointing toward the boxes behind Shining Armor.

"Oh, these? I had them pulled out of storage while I was sleeping. I wanted to see if Princess Luna was interested in this old thing, sir." Shining Armor answers, telekinetically picking up the gray box to show the Captain what he's talking about.

The Captain walks over next to Shining and squints to read the writing on the front of the box: "Pony... Entertainment... System... Goodness, I remember my two colts spending hours and hours on one of these things!"

"The same ones that are now serving in the field, sir?" Shining asks.

"Yes indeed. And suddenly I feel a lot older than I thought I did." the Captain replies.

"Sorry sir." Shining says, blushing a bit.

"Oh never mind, Shining. Here's the report."

Shining Armor telekinetically puts the gray box back on the table and then takes the report held by the Captain. He frowns as he reads the parchment.

"I see Princess Celestia made her decision about the five Agents, sir." the Lieutenant Captain comments. He was referencing the five "Agents of Chaos" that had participated in the failed "Operation Love Lost" and subsequently exposed and arrested. They had been held in custody while Princess Celestia decided their ultimate fate for their crimes against the kingdom.

"Unfortunately. It wasn't an easy decision, but in the end Her Majesty felt it necessary to make a strong response because of how deeply embedded this threat is." the Captain somberly comments.

"That's terrible! All those families..." Shining replies, dismay on his face.

"Yes, that's the problem with these things, isn't it?" the Captain wearily asks. "Such extreme movements swallow lives whole and then tear them apart without regard for the consequences or collateral damage. Now there will be foals without fathers and mates without their partners because Celestia must make a strong response. And I'm telling you Shining, there's nothing glorious or romantic about it. I hope you never have to see one of these things, or even worse participate in them."

"When was the last time she did such a thing? The only references I've seen are in history books..."

"Not in the living memories of most ponies has Celestia done this. Only the very oldest of ponies, like 'Granny Smith' over in Ponyville, have lived through the last time she did this, and there may only be a few surviving witnesses left."

"It's still a terrible thing, sir."

"Yes, I won't argue that. And I'd rather not go on anymore about it. Besides, you have assignments to give out, don't you?"

"Yes sir, I do."

"Then I'll let you get to it. I'm not going to invite you to the event, because there's nothing to be gained from your witnessing it. You will get a report tomorrow evening, and that ought to be enough to satisfy whatever morbid curiosity you may have."

"I understand, sir. Are you going off duty?"

"You have command for the night, but I'll still be in my office dealing with paperwork. Tell me how your little experiment works out." Captain Gibraltar states.

"I will, sir." Shining Armor replies with a modest smile.

From this meeting, Shining Armor goes to perform the shift-assignment duties. Before he has the lottery machine give out the assignments though, he has a special message to read to the assembled Lieutenants of his shift: "Message relayed from the Captain's preliminary report regarding the destruction of the Weather Ministry offices: 'In light of the brave and valorous conduct of Lieutenants Vesper and Stratocumulus in the context of this catastrophe, commendations are being entered into their respective personnel files. The previous recommendation of Medal of Valor for Lieutenant Stratocumulus has also been placed on the fast track for approval. Appropriate congratulations to both Lieutenants are in order. Glory to the kingdom of Equestria.'"

This message produced scattered congratulatory messages and gestures to Vesper and Stratocumulus from the other Lieutenants, and the lottery assignment proceeded with unusual merriment. As Stratocumulus approached to take his assignment, Shining speaks to him directly: "First what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration, and now this. Are you sure you're not trying to outdo me, Lieutenant?"

"I can assure you sir, I'm not." Stratocumulus replies, a slight blush to his cheeks bracketing a meek grin as he picks up his lottery ball.

What Shining was referring to was that mere weeks before, Stratocumulus was only a Guard Upper Class serving on the morning shift. The pegasus had been chosen as one of the four to go to Ponyville as part of the ill-fated Summer Sun Celebration and, despite being blasted back into a wall in trying to fight "Nightmare Moon", recited an oath of loyalty to the restored Princess Luna on his own initiative. This apparently very much impressed Princess Celestia, because during the reorganization effort Stratocumulus was given a Lieutenant's commission in addition to a transfer to the night shift, as well as recommendation for the Medal of Valor mentioned previously. All in all, a dramatic but well justified rise for a "rookie" Guard member.

"Well, whatever you're doing, don't stop doing it. That's an order." Shining Armor replies in a half-serious manner, confirmed by the amused smirk on his face.

"I won't sir, I promise."

Only after all the assignments had been given out and paperwork done up could Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor begin his effort to introduce Princess Luna to the world of video games. The guards in front of Luna's suite eye the game system and box full of cartridges suspiciously as Shining approaches the door carrying them telekinetically, but say nothing as Shining knocks on the double doors.

"Who knocks upon our door?" is the reply in Princess Luna's voice.

"The Lieutenant Captain, brightest star in the night, knocks upon the door." Shining Armor answers. The description wasn't a mere flight of fancy, but a kind of "royal nickname", a holdover from older days where even high-ranking officers were not supposed to be known by name. And, as Celestia pointed out, there was "no small measure of affection and flattery" in that title given to him by Luna.

"You may enter." Luna's voice is heard speaking.

Shining Armor opens the doors, the guards giving no impediment to doing so, and Luna, currently laying on her bed, looks on curiously as Shining brings along the game system and box full of cartridges into the room. Shining pushes the doors shut again with one of his hind legs as soon as he and what he is carrying are inside.

Not surprisingly, Luna is quite curious about what Shining has brought with him. Now that she's been in Canterlot a little while, all the "new" stuff has stopped coming at a rapid-fire pace and she can actually begin to enjoy the new experiences. Luna had also started adapting her speech habits on Celestia's prodding, going closer to a more modern but still quite formal version of the language.

"What is that you are carrying?" Luna asks as Shining stops in front of the TV in Luna's suite.

"Something I had pulled out of storage this morning. I thought Your Majesty might be interested in it." Shining replies with a gracious smile as he gently sets down both the console and the box full of games in front of the TV.

"A present? For us? But it is not our birthday or a holiday." Luna comments, a confused expression on her face.

"That's true, Your Majesty. But when I was younger, I spent many hours playing games on this gray box, and thought you could gain the same enjoyment I did playing those games." Shining modestly explains, beginning to hook up the appropriate cables to the boxy TV - flatscreen TVs did not exist in Equestria - in order to play the Pony Entertainment System.

Luna blushes slightly and looses herself in thought. Maniacal laughter and "The night shall last forever!" sometimes still echoed in her head, provoking shame whenever it happened. Nopony had a need, an obligation, to be this nice to her, not even her own sister who had forgiven her anyway and invited her to be again what she had been before. She sensed the fear and the loathing some of the guards and staff had for her - not in the open of course, but hidden under the surface where it festered, promising to build up into anger and disharmony.

And the worst part of it was, all the fault was Luna's own for listening to the lies and empty promises that eventually turned her against her sister and kingdom. After a thousand years on the moon, she expected to be utterly alone for the rest of her immortal days, even if Celestia did promise a restoration. And most of those around her did indeed stay away - be it because of fear, because of intimidation from the laundry list of problems she had, or, worst of all, because of an unforgiving and hate-filled heart.

But the exceptions to that rule gradually showed themselves brightly as the stars of her night sky against that bleak blackness. There were a number already - the pegasus Lieutenant Stratocumulus, the bat ponies lead by Lieutenant Vesper, the Captain of the Guard Gibraltar, the unicorn Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas of the afternoon shift, even the alicorn Princess Cadance who readily overlooked Luna's previous lack of acceptance of her presence in Canterlot. But Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor was the brightest of those stars by far.

Emerging to comfort Luna in the deepest depths of her despair and loneliness following her release from the nightmare prison, Shining with his bright blue eyes and modest demeanor had quickly captured her heart. Shortly afterward, the revelation from Celestia of that "Good Samaritan" being of the same blood - "the notes of the same song arranged a little differently", as Celestia poetically put it - as the filly who's "spark" had ended her thousand year nightmare seemed beyond amazing, perhaps the highest order of "friendship is magic" put into practice.

Even though Luna now knew that she could never have Shining Armor as consort - his heart already belonged to Cadance, and in any case Luna knew the pain loving a mortal being would bring eventually - she still felt unworthy of having such a friend, and probable future nephew-in-law, as him. Twilight Sparkle called him "B.B.B.F.F." as meaning "Big Brother Best Friend Forever", but Luna had privately developed her own version of that arrangement - "Beloved Brother Brave Faithful Friend" - and used it to symbolize his example in the fight to restore her to the position she had been in before. There were many enemies, both internal and external, but Luna was confident with his support and faithfulness they could never triumph over her and once again bring back the nightmare...

"Your Highness?" Luna heard Shining Armor's voice speaking through her reminiscing.

"Oh! Apologies, we were lost in thought. You were going to ask something?" Luna replied, focusing attention on the stallion in front of her.

"I have everything all set up." Shining states, telekinetically pushing the button that turned the TV on.

"So you connected the grey box to the box with the glowing screen that displays news and entertainment for our consumption?" Luna asks.

"Er, yes, if you mean connecting the Pony Entertainment System to the television." Shining replies, recognizing that Luna didn't quite grasp modern technology yet.

"And what does the grey box do, exactly?" Luna continues asking.

"It allows the playing of games on the television. The games themselves are on these things called cartridges." Shining explains, telekinetically lifting a cartridge from the cardboard box to show what he means.

"But if the game is on the things you call 'cartridges', then how do we play them on the screen?"

"I'll show you, Your Majesty. You open the flap on the front of the grey box... insert the cartridge like so... close the flap and press the button labeled 'Power'..."

The TV screen, which had been black up to this point, suddenly lit up with a picture that included the word "Tetris" and an 8-bit depiction of Canterlot Castle... and Luna's eyes immediately go wide in wonderment.

"Almost as magic as the glowing box itself!" she exclaims, staring at the TV in amazement.

Shining can't help but chuckle a bit at how magical an already outdated video game console must seem to somepony thrown a thousand years forward in time. He had already had multiple experiences with how something that seemed so ordinary to him and the ponies of the modern time was extraordinary to Princess Luna. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes... not so much.

"If this is a game, how do we play it?" Luna asks Shining Armor when she finally pulls her attention away from the screen.

"Using this. You press the buttons with magic." Shining Armor replies, telekinetically holding up the controller.

"We see." Luna states, carefully reading the buttons on the controller. Shining Armor lets down the controller in front of Luna, and she looks down at it with some confusion on her face before a glow of blue magic indicates the pushing of the "Start" button.

The TV screen changes to show a number of black boxes on a gray background. Most of the boxes have text in them, some have both text and pictures of four-block shapes in various arrangements. The large central box shows the same four-block arrangements slowly falling down the screen.

"How do we play this game?" Luna asks in confusion as she watches the shapes fall and stack up in the large central box.

"Move the shapes by pressing left and right on the cross-shape on the left of the controller. Use the controller buttons to rotate the shapes and get them to fit into each other. Each time you get a solid row, that row disappears and what's above it falls down into the gap. That earns you points. Don't let the shapes stack to the top of the screen or you'll lose the game." Shining explains.

It takes some trial-and-error to figure out which buttons do what (the "pause" function was particularly confusing), but in the end Luna figures out how to control the blocks. Being a total novice though, she very quickly loses the game. She stares at the screen with irritation as it displays "Game Over" in her face.

"We refuse to be bested by falling blocks!" Luna exclaims, again pressing the "Start" button with her magic. Her face assumed a determined expression, bits of the controller glowing blue as buttons are pressed to control the location and orientation of falling block arrangements on the screen.

Unseen by Luna, Shining Armor smirks at the sight of Luna playing Tetris as if she were fighting in a battle. He could never get his sister that interested in video games - books and Celestia's teachings were always more important - and it was tough to find games that both he and Cadance liked playing together. On the other hoof, though, Shining could tell right away Luna had "it" - the heart and soul of a determined gamer.

"Your Majesty, if I may give some advice..." he begins to speak.

"Quiet! Do not interrupt our battle!" Luna loudly cuts him off.

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

Shining Armor excuses himself from the suite as quietly as he can, shaking his head in bemusement. He wondered how long it would take for Luna to figure out there wasn't an end to that game, or whether his old hardware would survive the frustrations of an alicorn, even a weakened one. He also wondered if he would eventually get in trouble from this experiment.

It mattered little to him what the final outcome would be, though. As the humans would say, "Totally worth it."

Never Any Easier

"It never gets any easier with time, Your Majesty?"

"No, Lieutenant Captain, it does not. But like one thousand years ago, I will do what must be done."

The Lieutenant Captain in this case was Fidelitas, the unicorn commanding officer of the afternoon shift. Captain Gibraltar had given him "the most grim of honors" in accompanying Princess Celestia in what she was going to do now. He could see the improvised stage placed in front of the ruins of the Weather Ministry offices, the five ponies receiving Celestia's sentence - three pegasi stallions, two unicorn stallions - shackled to the stage for the arrayed crowd of pegasi to see.

The crowd, drawn almost entirely from the pegasi colony high on Canterlot's mountain, was already charged with nervous energy by the destruction of the Weather Ministry offices several days previously - many in the colony had directly or indirectly depended on Weather Ministry jobs to sustain themselves and their families, after all - and the subsequent announcement that the duties the Ministry once carried out would now be "farmed out" to the local branches. Now they absolutely buzzed knowing they were about to witness something Princess Celestia had not done in the living memory of most ponies.

At the foot of the stage, in the very front of the crowd, were pegasus mares and foals in bitter grief, knowing what was to come to the stallions on the stage. Celestia had pronounced the sentence - for the crimes of treason and conspiracy against the Princesses of Canterlot, the five "Agents of Chaos" would forfeit their lives. Fidelitas' heart bled for the mares that would be without mates and foals without fathers, but also recognized that the enemy so deeply embedded within the Guard had provoked Celestia to such measures.

The enemy within had already inflicted grievous damage - a great cost in bits for damages, the jobs and esteem of dozens of ponies, and at least two lives sacrificed to its extreme ends. Now five more lives would be taken in a necessarily-hard response, and Fidelitas could see nothing but bitterness, pain and disharmony in the future. From a very young age, Equestrians were taught that their kingdom's greatest enemy was chaos, and these enemies seemed to be deliberately courting it. Why? Only Celestia knew, it seemed.

It was a lot for a relatively young unicorn stallion - Fidelitas was only around 30 years old - originally from a northern frontier town to handle. Fidelitas had been born and raised in Whitehorse, the northernmost settlement of any significant size in the Equestrian kingdom. Even as a colt, his combination of forest green coat, fiery red mane and ember orange eyes cut an impressive figure, although it wasn't in the same category as a stallion like Shining Armor or Fancypants.

He certainly knew he had potential right from the day he got his cutie mark - a pair of crossed swords - but in a remote settlement like Whitehorse, the only real use for his "magic sword" was in sculpting, usually ice blocks. He was training to be a sculptor in an apprenticeship when Whitehorse suffered windigo attacks and a group of Royal Guards serving in the field were sent in to help defend the town. Fidelitas performed bravely in fighting the windigos, and the Captain of the Northern Field Division made him an offer to join the Guard.

Thus began years of field training in the northern frontier forts, placed there by Celestia on the reasoning for watching for the return of the Crystal Empire. By the end of his first field tour, Fidelitas was already a Guard Upper Class, a rank usually earned by completing that first tour. Early in the second field tour, he got on Princess Celestia's radar screen by leading the effort that saved the entire Northern Division Command from being crushed to death after a massive avalanche buried most of the command center under snow. This earned him an officer's commission as a Lieutenant, and when that second field tour ended Celestia herself had Fidelitas transferred to Canterlot.

A few months after that transfer, Fidelitas found himself unexpectedly tapped to replace the retiring afternoon shift commander, and to his chagrin he found himself thrust headfirst into Canterlot's internal politics when a certain brother of Celestia's apprentice of magic ended up assigned to his new command. For around four years, he found himself suffering the shunning and even antipathy of a good proportion of the Guard ranks for "daring" to try to stand up for "Celestia's favorite". Aten's faction of disaffected pegasi in particular proved rather willing to discretely undercut his authority every chance they got.

Those years as a Lieutenant Captain hadn't made much sense to Fidelitas until the thousand year prophecy of the return of "Nightmare Moon" came true, and the subsequent chain of events showed what doubtless Celestia intended him to do: protect and incubate Shining Armor's professional future as Captain of the Guard and likely Prince of Canterlot. It also showed a shift in his priorities, as evidenced in Shining Armor now being his equal instead of subordinate.

Which leads us back to what he was doing with Celestia now: to stand firm against the enemy within and prevent it from destroying a good stallion's reputation for selfish gain. If that happened, the nightmare was likely to return, and with it the pain and grief only so recently escaped from...

It was time. Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas escorted Princess Celestia upon the stage as one of his subordinate unicorn Lieutenants read from a parchment magically levitating in front of him: "In accordance with the decree and will of Her Most Royal Majesty Princess Celestia of Canterlot, the five stallions on this stage shall forfeit their lives in the cause of maintaining harmony in the Kingdom of Equestria. As justice is blind, so shall the one who gives the punishment be blind."

This was the cue for Fidelitas to telekinetically pull out the ceremonial blindfold and tie it over Celestia's eyes. Nominally, it was to show Celestia was merely the executioner of justice instead of also the judge and jury. In reality, it made the process a whole lot less of an ordeal on Celestia if she couldn't directly see what she was doing. Fidelitas leads Celestia over to the first stallion in the line, then gently directs her movements so that the tip of her horn touches the stallion on the flat of the back. A yellow-colored pulse is seen passing over the stallion's body, and then he goes limp, his eyes falling shut for good. It was the most humane and peaceful way to go - akin to a deliberate overdose of anesthetic - and certainly an improvement over the protocol of a thousand years ago where "the full wrath of the sun" was the usual technique in this situation.

Even a humane technique couldn't stop the wailing and screaming from the mares and foals at the foot of the stage as the procedure was repeated with each stallion down the line, and to Fidelitas it reminded him too much of the wailing and screaming of those in the long-ago fight against the windigos at Whitehorse. He does not remove the blindfold until he has carefully lead Celestia down off the stage and back out of public sight, and immediately is struck by how misty her eyes are when he does so - it took Celestia all of her self-control not to cry during the whole event.

"Oh and this is war!" Fidelitas breathlessly exclaims as he stares in shock at Celestia's pained expression. He just barely sees one tear slide down one of her cheeks and drip down, but the smallest of payments for the lives she had to take for harmony's sake...

Night Life

"Who knocks upon our door?"

"The Lieutenant Captain, brightest star in the night, knocks upon the door."

"You may enter."

"Greetings, Your Highness. I trust you slept well?" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor asks as he enters into Princess Luna's bedroom suite.

"Yay, verily much so. I trust you are here to play more games from the magic grey box with me?" Luna asks curiously.

"The Pony Entertainment System, Your Highness. And yes, playing more games." Shining Armor gently explains.

"Good. Which game shall we play, then?" Luna asks again, a smile tweaking across her face in defiance of the typical seriousness.

"Well, Your Highness, there are certain customs associated with the playing of games such as these that I neglected to mention to you last night. I feel it is only appropriate to introduce them to you now."

"Customs are very important, yes. Pray tell what kind of customs are associated with these games?"

"Well, for starters, players who intend to play for extended periods of time generally stock up on food and drink before they begin. They also try to keep from being distracted as much as possible while playing."

"The second we can accomplish easily by order. For the first one we will need to have the servants bring us the food and drink, which will take some time."

"No need to summon the servants, I already have a plan." Shining Armor replies with a sly grin.

"Plan? What plan?" Luna asks, tilting her head in curiousity.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but your sister has been telling you about all the things that happen in Canterlot at night nowadays, correct?"

"Yes, told but have yet to see for ourselves. Requests for an escorted tour have gone unheeded, and attempting to leave the castle to look ourselves would certainly produce great upset with our sister." Luna says with a tinge of frustration behind her words.

"I'll give you the tour myself. I've got a chariot already waiting for us."

"... I don't want you to get in trouble on our account."

"Don't worry, nopony needs to know. If you won't tell, I won't." Shining Armor replies with a grin and a wink.

Princess Luna answers this with a wry, determined smile of her own. She privately thought the reason she had not been allowed to see Canterlot at night was because Celestia was being a "poopyhead" - a recently-learned variation of "nincompoop", one of Luna's favorite terms to use when her sister was acting particularly ridiculous - about the whole idea and simply refusing to act on it. What harm could it do to just look around, after all?

"We agree to your plan. Escort us to our transportation." Princess Luna affirms.

The castle "garage" high up in Canterlot was full of interesting vehicles parked and blocked in place: Celestia's royal chariot, the "royal tour carriage" Cadance had arrived in Canterlot in, a number of utility carts used for deliveries and similar tasks, and in a far corner a vehicle with an intimidating design under construction specifically to serve as Luna's royal chariot. Princess Luna, escorted by Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, entered the garage and passed all these vehicles, stopping in front of a smaller chariot currently surrounded by busy unicorn Upper Class Guards.

The small chariot in general had a paint job based on Cadance's coat and mane colors, with her light blue crystal heart painted on the middle. A pair of unicorn guards was busy looking over the chariot for problems and prepping it for departure while a third was hooking Lieutenant Stratocumulus, whom Shining Armor had previously chosen to pull the chariot, into the single harness strap.

"Pray tell what is this vehicle?" Luna asks, pointing to the previously described small chariot.

"Celestia calls it 'the couple's chariot'." Shining Armor explains. "It was built shortly after Cadance and I started dating. Designed specifically so that only one pegasus was needed to pull it. Made going on dates easier."

"Ah. But will Cadance not object to the use of the chariot?" Luna asks again.

"Like I said before, nopony needs to know." Shining Armor replies with a smile.

"Everything is set for you and Her Majesty, sir." Lieutenant Stratocumulus pipes up from where he is strapped to pull the chariot.

"Understood, Lieutenant. Clear the area!" Shining Armor states as he climbs into the chariot, the other unicorns that had been working dispersing away. He then generates a forcefield "bubble" to serve as a step up into the chariot.

"It is lovely, but are you sure it is safe?" Luna naturally asks.

"Sure, do ya trust me?" Shining Armor replies.

"...What?" Luna asks again, looking up at Shining in confusion.

"Do you trust me?" the unicorn stallion repeats, this time with a sparkling grin. Again emerged the bright blue eyes and grin that had enchanted Luna on their first meeting - in a different context and framed with a different set of armor, but the same eyes and grin nonetheless.

"...Yes." Luna answers, as she steps onto the forcefield bubble - which holds her weight - and into the chariot. It was little wonder to her now how much regard Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance, not to mention Princess Celestia herself, held toward him.

As soon as Luna was seated, the chariot was off and flying over Canterlot. If this were a TV show or movie, the sweeping visuals of an active Canterlot at night as the chariot flies over it might've been accompanied by dramatic orchestral music and a duet between the moon princess and the unicorn Lieutenant Captain. As the written word is but a poor substitute for those measures, the potential lyrics to such a music number will be given and the rest left to the reader's imaginations:

"I can show you the world! / Shining, shimmering, splendid... / Tell me, princess, now why won't you let your heart decide? / I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder... / Over, sideways and under, on a magic chariot ride. / A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view! / No one to tell us 'no', or where to go, or say 'We're only dreaming!'"

"A whole new world! A dazzling place I never knew. / But when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear, that now I'm in a whole new world with you!"

"Now I'm in a whole new world with you!"

"Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings! / Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky! / A whole new world..."

"Don't you dare close your eyes!"

"A thousand new things to see!"

"Hold your breath 'cause it gets better!"

"I'm like a falling star, come so far, won't go back to what I used to be..."

"A whole new world..."

"Every turn a surprise!"

"New horizons to pursue!"

"Every moment getting better!"

"I'll chase them anywhere! / There's time to spare. / Let me share this whole new world with you!"

"A whole new world."

"A whole new world!"

"That's where we'll be."

"That's where we'll be!"

"A thrilling chase."

"A wondrous place... / For you and me!"

(End musical number here.)

"Welcome to Hay Burger Express, good food round the clock! May I take your order?"

"Two large hayburger combos, please."

"Would you like dessert with that order?"

"No thank you."

"12 Bits. Please proceed forward to the window."

"You heard him, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Sir!"

"I hope these 'hayburgers' are worth the price you're paying for them." Princess Luna comments as Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor telekinetically pulls out his bit bag "wallet" to pay the worker for the food.

"Oh trust me Your Highness, they are. My sister absolutely adores these things, I think she would have them every day if she felt she could get away with it." Shining Armor answers reassuringly.

"Well, anything good enough for Twilight Sparkle is good enough for us." Luna replies with a coy smile, getting all the reassurance she needed.

Lieutenant Stratocumulus stops the chariot in front of the pick up window and Shining Armor telekinetically dumps the required number of bits in front of the worker.

In turn, the worker uses his unicorn magic to levitate the bags containing the food out through the window, which Shining takes and places between him and Princess Luna in the chariot. The unicorn stallion levitates out one of the wrapped hayburgers and grins as he sniffs it.

"Pure goodness in a wrapper." Shining Armor explains as he pulls back the wrapper and takes a bite of the hayburger.

Luna is skeptical as she repeats what Shining does with the other hayburger, but her face immediately lights up with the first bite, and quickly she begins to agree with Shining's assessment. The Hay Burger gained a major new customer as a result...

The chariot finally stops in front of a 24 hour convenience store, and immediately Luna is dazzled by both the store's contents and presentation. Before Shining can say or do anything, Luna is through the doors and looks up and down the shelves in awestruck, "kid-in-a-candy-store" fashion. Shining Armor nervously chuckles to the curious and uneasy store clerk as the moon princess works her way up and down the aisles.

Finally, Luna approaches the counter wearing an excited grin Pinkie Pie would be proud of. Forehooves up on the counter, she begins rattling a list of items she wants rapidfire. The clerk simply does nothing but stare back incomprehensibly as he tries to make sense of what the moon princess is asking of him.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, but that all won't fit in the chariot." Shining Armor states from beside Luna, a sweatdrop forming on his head.

Luna stops her rapidfire speech, looks around the store one more time, then the chariot still waiting outside. She pauses for a minute, her expression in deep thought.

"I must apologize for Her Majesty's behavior. She's a little overexcited right now." Shining Armor says to the clerk to reassure him during the pause.

Another minute passes, then Luna approaches the counter again. To the relief of the clerk, her new list is both shorter and expressed at an understandable speed.

"I'll get the items. Charge it to Celestia's account." Shining Armor tells the clerk as the latter begins ringing up the order...

THE FOLLOWING MORNING...

"Something wrong, Captain?"

"Sorry, Your Highness, a little restless. Shining usually has his report in before you get here, but I haven't seen him come in this morning."

"He might still be in the office. You know how much time he's spending with my younger sister now, he might've gotten behind on the paperwork..."

"I just sent a Lieutenant out to answer that question. The coffee and donuts are waiting if Your Majesty wants them, we'll begin as soon as I get that report..."

A minute, then two, passes uneasily for Captain of the Guard Gibraltar as Princess Celestia helps herself to the coffee pot and Donut Joe donut box. The Lieutenant returns shaking his head.

"Not in there?" the Captain asks.

"No sir, the only thing I found was the notice on the door that he was in a meeting with Princess Luna." the Lieutenant replies.

"Meeting? I doubt it's a meeting, probably something else, Captain." Princess Celestia interrupts between bites of a donut.

"You think we should go investigate, Your Majesty?" the Captain asks.

"Oh yes. Absolutely." the sun princess replies, cheeks full of donut and the words muffled by the full mouth.

The Captain just sighs at Celestia's talking with her mouth full, then glares at the Lieutenant who is trying to suppress a snicker. He was going to have a long morning, it seemed...

"Guard, do you know if Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor is in the suite?" Princess Celestia hears the Captain ask one of the door guards to Luna's bedroom suite.

"As far as my partner and I know, sir, he's in there with Princess Luna." the door guard replies.

"Princess Celestia and I want to see for ourselves. Open the door." the Captain orders.

"But I think Her Majesty is already asleep." the door guard points out.

"I understand that, Guard. Open the door, you won't be blamed if she gets angry."

The door guards open the doors, and the scene in the suite so revealed immediately provoke both Princess Celestia and Captain Gibraltar to amused chuckles. Both Princess Luna and Shining Armor are sprawled asleep on the floor, junk food packages and soda bottles scattered around them and the Pony Entertainment System hooked up to the TV in the suite on. The TV displays a video game's idle mode, and the only sounds to be heard besides those coming from the TV is the snoring coming from Shining Armor.

The sun princess and Captain of the Guard share a good chuckle for a few moments while the door guards look into the suite in puzzlement. The guards shrug their shoulders at each other and close the doors again.

"Looks like they had a fun night." the Captain comments when he can finally talk.

"Indeed. Let's leave them sleeping, you'll get your report when he wakes up." Princess Celestia replies with a grin.

"No censure, then?" the Captain asks.

"No censure, Captain. We'll let this one slide." Celestia replies.

Inwardly, the sun princess was all but squeeing at the sight she had just seen. The magic of friendship was indeed hard at work in helping Luna adjust and recover from her thousand-year exile...

Author's Note

(Shameless ripping off of Aladdin is shameless.)

Incendiary

"Agent 23,
Your time has come. Avenge our comrades taken by the sun.
Destroy Guard Archive records and escape through window.
Arrangements for you and family have been provided.
Glory to the chaotic one.

Agent 'Snake in the Grass'"

Such was the message "Agent 23", the alias for a morning shift unicorn Lieutenant called Pyros, received before he started his shift. As his name may have suggested to you, his talent was is inducing the combustion of flammable materials, and ever since he joined the Guard he had wanted to make a big statement in Canterlot, maybe find a way to be the hero in a dramatic situation that would get the notice of an alicorn princess.

Instead, he found himself hitting up the hard cider more and more frequently, mostly because being "sauced" and showing off his special ability was the best way to get the attentions of others. This culminated in him once ending up falldown drunk and setting the bar on fire as a result, which not only nearly got him discharged dishonorably from the Royal Guard but pushed him against Shining Armor - Shining, who was a Lieutenant at the time and present at the bar when the fire started, had used his shielding powers to help contain the fire long enough for others to put it out. Not surprisingly, this caused a lot of resentment on Pyros' part against him.

The professional career of Pyros was saved by Lieutenant Captain Aten, who dumped him into indefinite bathroom duty in exchange for the Captain dismissing a planned court martial. Pyros, in gratitude, secretly joined Aten's "faction" in the Royal Guard shortly after, and once the whole incident had blown over he was approached by "Snake in the Grass", who offered to get him out of his professional purgatory and promised that Pyros would one day help take down Shining Armor. Pyros agreed to the offer and became "Agent 23" as a result. Supposedly due to "Snake's" actions, the records of Pyros were "whitewashed" and him restored to good standing in the Guard.

Now was his time. Now, he would make his statement...

Although Pyros had gotten his orders at the start of his shift, he wanted until the change to the afternoon shift before acting. As soon as he had been relieved by his afternoon shift replacement, he retreated to a utility closet and waited until the afternoon shift was fully on duty before emerging again. He kept his armor on to avoid drawing unnecessary attention, and moved in standard march rhythm to further make himself inconspicous.

The Guard Archive records - less important documents such as incident reports and day-to-day paperwork - were stored at the top of a relatively short tower, with the most important documents secured in a vault in Canterlot's mountain itself. The vault could only be opened by the Princesses and the Captain of the Guard, but the other records could be accessed by any officer given an authorization pass from the Captain of the Guard.

Access to the Archive records was controlled by a pair of guards posted inside the base of the tower, at a door which opened to reveal the staircase leading to the top. Lieutenant Pyros showed the guards a forged access pass - forgeries were not checked for because it was assumed the process for obtaining the pass was enough to protect against forging - and is allowed to enter the tower.

Pyros climbs the steps of the tower in the same Guard march, and only once in the room does he drop his facade. The Guard Archive consisted of a large collection of filing cabinets and boxes, all meticulously labeled with their contents. Amongst those archives are many documents previously forged both by Agent Snake and Lieutenant Quill, which Snake wants destroyed to prevent the discovery of their forgery. Pyros, presumably, is simply to burn everything to ash to get that job done.

The unicorn Lieutenant works as quickly as he can to prevent the guards from getting suspicious. Box lids are removed, cabinet drawers pulled open. When Pyros is satisfied, he makes a determined look and his horn glows with orange magic. One after another, the contents of the boxes and cabinet drawers ignite in angry orange flames - perhaps not enough for total incineration but enough to complete the mission Snake wanted of him.

The room quickly filled with heat and smoke from the burning papers - the only escape that would not alert the guards was smashing through the single window which illuminated the room. Backing up all the way to the door and charging at full gallop, Pyros leaps and smashes through the window, sending glass shards flying out toward the mountainside.

The helmet and armor protect Pyros from most of the glass shards. Unfortunately, they can't protect him from the sheer drop, and bravado turns to panic as he tumbles helplessly down - it was later learned that his assumptions about the "arrangements" in the message weren't the kind he thought they were. A pegasus thinking clearly might have been able to pull out of the drop, but for anything without wings it was hopeless. Pyros thuds against the mountainside and bounces downward, his helmet and shoes coming off him, the main armor piece getting banged and battered up.

By the time the unicorn stallion rolls to a stop, the accumulated injuries have already been enough to take his life. Near where Pyros' battered, lifeless body has rolled to a stop, two pegasi stallions emerge from behind a boulder and cart the body into a small cave whereupon waits...

"Just as you planned, Agent Snake." one of the pegasus stallions says to the cloaked figure in the cave.

"Excellent. His horn will make a nice addition to my collection. Once you've sawed it off, leave him in here to rot. The fool deserved his fate." Agent Snake says.

"Yes, Agent Snake."

MEANWHILE...

"I appreciate you two arriving on time. I know this is supposed to be an off week for both of you, but I summoned you both here for a very special reason." Captain Gibraltar was saying to the two saluting earth pony stallions that had been summoned to his office.

The two stallions in question were Guards Upper Class Meadow Song and Caramel. Both earth pony stallions, they had permanent residence in Ponyville and commuted regularly to Canterlot in order to perform their guard duties. Being earth ponies in a guard populated primarily by unicorns and pegasi made them stand out even in ordinary circumstances, but their residence in the town where Twilight Sparkle had now been assigned to learn about friendship had pushed their profile even higher.

"Let's get down to business, Guards." the Captain begins, sitting behind his desk as he speaks. "It has occurred to me that there is need for a permanent guard assignment for Princess Luna whenever she needs to be about during the afternoon shift. After going through the personnel files, I have selected you two for this special assignment, effective immediately. You may know why I selected you two in particular."

"Yes, sir." both stallions reply in unison. They both had at least an idea why they had been chosen: Meadow Song had married into the Apple clan, which made him a relation of the Element of Honesty bearer Applejack, while Caramel lived next door to the Element of Generosity bearer Rarity. These connections more obviously qualified them to be in close proximity to Princess Luna than most anypony else in the Guard, the disadvantages of them being earth ponies not being regarded as important in this case.

"You will receive notification..." the Captain begins to say, only to be cut off by another Guard member rushing into the office and crashing into Meadow Song and Caramel in the process.

"Goodness, is everypony alright? What's all the rush about, soldier?" Gibraltar exclaims as he rushes over to help the other stallions up.

"FIRE, SIR, ARCHIVE TOWER!" the stallion that had caused the accident yelled at almost point blank range.

Immediately a cold sweat breaks out on Gibraltar's forehead. He knew what was in there and how important it was to the operation of the Guard. Most importantly, those records were the only effective way to locate the Agents of Chaos.

"We'll have to finish this debriefing later, you two. Take me to the Archive Tower immediately, guard!" Gibraltar exclaims.

"Yes, sir!"

THAT NIGHT...

"That's terrible, sir!" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor was saying to Captain Gibraltar in the Captain's office as he was coming on duty for the night. Princess Luna stood beside him, both having been called to hear of that afternoon's incident as soon as they were ready for duty.

"More than just terrible!" Captain Gibraltar exclaims, thumping his forehooves on the table to emphasize his words as he speaks. "More than 90% of our records up in smoke, the tower completely unusable and, if this report is right, one life lost!"

"Burned?" Shining Armor guesses.

"No, fell out of the tower. And what's worse is that after his fatal tumble, somepony cut off that unicorn stallion's horn! It wasn't broken, the team could clearly see it had been sawn off!" the Captain exclaims with angry bombast.

This fact elicited shocked gasps from both Shining Armor and Luna. Cutting off a unicorn's horn, particularly one that was already dead, was considered the ultimate desecration - in older times, the wilder pegasus tribes would do this to unicorns captured in conflicts, but this kind of treatment had been outlawed shortly after Equestria's founding and was now universally considered extremely barbaric. Horn removal still occurred sometimes, but almost exclusively for medical reasons after the horn had been previously chipped or fractured - removal for almost any other reason was very much taboo.

"Make no mistake here, this is a declaration of war!" Captain Gibraltar concludes. "These Agents of Chaos have declared war on peace, harmony and the Equestrian way of life! And their motives are still mysterious to us. We must be as ruthless in stamping them out as they are in trying to stamp us out!"

Shining Armor and Luna exchange glances, Shining being able to see a kind of vague guilt in Luna's eyes, as if she thought this was something else her thousand-year old failure had unleashed upon Equestria...

A Long Game

A call echoes through the streets of Canterlot, causing all who hear it to scamper and swerve out of the way of the caller: "MAKE WAY FOR THE ROYAL ESCORT!"

The royal escort in question consisted of a box of four Guards surrounding Princess Luna, all walking the streets of Canterlot in the late afternoon toward a specific occasion Luna had been invited to - one of the scarce few to date, in fact. Two of the guards were the recently assigned Upper Classes Meadow Song and Caramel, and the latter had spent, at Luna's request, the duration of the escort duty telling the Princess what he knew of his now-famous neighbor - Rarity, new bearer of the Element of Generosity. It was in this conversation that Luna first learned of Rarity's younger sister - who she would much later help in dealing with her own big sister problems.

"Now, what of you, Guard Meadow Song? Surely you have many fascinating stories about the new bearer of the Honesty Element for us to hear?" Princess Luna asks of Meadow Song as Caramel exhausts his stories about Rarity.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I don't have a lot of stories about Applejack." Meadow Song replies with a slight blush. "I grew up in Canterlot - Caramel and I were one year behind Princess Cadance and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor at Canterlot Academy - and only married into the Apples. I'm still kind of considered something of an outsider, particularly considering I'm part of the Guard."

"Well, we are still interested in what you can tell us about." Luna states with a modest smile.

"Very well, Your Majesty. Applejack is the middle of three siblings. She has an older brother named Big Macintosh, or 'Big Mac' as he's usually called - strong, silent type. She also has a younger sister named Apple Bloom, about the same age as Rarity's younger sister Caramel was talking about... I think they're both at the same school too..."

"Yes, Ponyville Schoolhouse." Caramel interrupts. "The teacher there is another Canterlot transplant - same class as Princess Cadance and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor - named Cheerilee. Valedictorian of her class, and not bad to look at either. For an Earth pony, that is."

"Yes yes, Caramel. Now where was I...?" Meadow Song asks.

"You can tell us more later. We seemed to have arrived at our destination." Princess Luna states.

The destination in question was a large, elegant hall owned by Fancypants, where he taught and played chess with other upper-class ponies on a weekly basis. With Princess Celestia's discrete approval, Princess Luna had signed up to join the chess club, in part to meet the very important Fancypants for the first time (scheduling made it tough to meet him any other way) and as a test for how the Canterlot upper crust would react to having Luna among them.

The royal caller announces Luna's arrival as the doors open for the night princess and her escort, and immediately all eyes go upon the group. Caramel and Meadow Song, making the front edge of the square, smartly step aside to let a meekly smiling Luna pass them.

Luna can see both Fancypants and his escort, Fleur Dis Lee, on the stage at the other end of the hall, but she is more focused on the crowd gathered in the hall... which is responding in a manner both puzzling and discouraging. The princess sees an array of faces ranging from cold stares to mortification to outright revulsion - a few of the closer ponies seem to be backing away with disgusted looks on their faces.

"Guard, do we reek of something? Be honest. I know bathing everyday is a relatively new habit for us, but we did take a shower before we left the castle." Luna asks as she looks back at her escort, a dismayed look on her face.

"I think, Your Majesty, that what you reek of is not something that can be rid of by showers or perfume." one of the other escorts, a unicorn, explains to Princess Luna - the most sensitive way of explaining the problem isn't body odor but the odor of her reputation.

"Oh, we see." Luna quietly replies, both her ears and expression drooping in serious disappointment. She is considering just turning around and forgetting about the whole thing when the attention of everypony in the hall is drawn to the rapping hooves of Fancypants.

"Now now, everypony. The princess is here to learn and enjoy the game just as you are, and I expect no less than the utmost tolerance and cooperation from you all. If you cannot abide by that, I do not want you in my club. You know where the doors are if you want to leave, otherwise there shall be no more of this nonsense from you lot. Is this clear?!" Fancypants loudly speaks to the crowd from his post on the stage, an irritated look on his face.

Only a very few ponies actually walked out of the chess club after Fancypants' rebuke of the crowd's attitude - most just switched to the cold stare and then went back to their previous conversations, turning the atmosphere from hostile to merely cold. Both Luna and her escort were glad to see Fancypants, accompanied by Fleur Dis Lee, come down from the stage and work their way through the crowd to where they were currently located. Both Fancypants and Fleur stop to bow before Luna, her Guard escort arrayed in a semi-circle behind her.

"Arise. Thine chivalry and decency clothes better than the fanciest of pants." Luna speaks, apparently improvising the line on the spot.

"But the honor is all ours, Princess of the Night." Fancypants replies, not above giving a little flattery himself.

"Yes yes, we though have indeed heard much positive of both of you. And now seeing face to face we can tell the similarity to Twilight Sparkle's brother of blood is more than just coat deep." Luna continues on.

"Well Your Majesty, let's just say that you aren't the first pony to notice the similarities between myself and Shining Armor. Even though I was born in Trottingham across the sea, I suspect his bloodline and mine were well mixed together at some point in the past." Fancypants explains.

"And your escort! She reminds us of our sister in her youth, even though her bloodline is not royal!"

"Fleur? Yes, you're not the first to make that connection either. Nopony knows why exactly she looks like that, the closest we've ever gotten is some mumbo-jumbo about bloodlines and the old unicorn kingdom neither of us could make sense of."

Luna's face assumes a thoughtful puzzlement, but the moon princess does not respond verbally. It seems she's just as confused about it as Fleur and Fancypants are.

"In any case Your Majesty," Fancypants starts again, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible, "you're here to play, correct?"

"Indeed. We have heard chess is still played, but some things have changed in the thousand years we have been gone."

"That is correct, Your Highness. And the best way to explain the differences is to demonstrate them. So shall we begin?" Fancypants asks with a modest smile.

"Yes, we shall." Luna replies, her face assuming a determined spryness that wouldn't have been out of place on Rainbow Dash's face.

ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER...

From a high balcony, an earth pony stallion is seen peeking his head out from behind a support column, observing the various games of chess being played in the hall. The unicorn players moved pieces with magic, while the pegasi and earth ponies either did careful nudging with hooves or operated a grabber, usually elaborately decorated with jewels and gold, to move the pieces.

The stallion focuses his attention on the stage, where Fancypants with Fleur Dis Lee beside him is pointing out various things on the chessboard to Princess Luna. He grins evily, and the quiet click of an activated device sounds next to him.

"Now then, Your Majesty, the idea behind the 'en passant' capture..." Fancypants was saying as he sat beside the chessboard.

Princess Luna's snout suddenly crinkles in disgust, and she sniffs the air for a few seconds, looking around to locate the source of the stink.

"...Something wrong?" Fancypants asks when he notices Luna's behavior.

"Pray tell, is there something burning around here?" Luna asks of the upper class stallion, a concerned look on her face.

"Burning? What...?" Fancypants begins to say before interrupted by a surprised yelp from Fleur.

Whispy smoke, rapidly growing thicker and blacker, is seen rising up around the edges of the chessboard, pouring out from the join of the board itself to its supporting pedestal. Fancypants and Luna recoil back in shock, and Fleur quickly smashes the whole setup away, marble chess pieces flying every which way as the elaborately decorated board and pedestal fly down into the crowd. Just before impact, a small explosive device blows the chessboard apart, sending dangerous metallic shrapnel flying among the surprised crowd.

There is barely time for anypony to register what just happened when a second bang is heard, and sparks rain down on the gathered crowd from the ceiling above. In slow motion horror, one of the chandeliers dangling from the vaulted ceiling breaks away and comes down with a mighty crash as ponies scramble to get out from the area of impact. Nopony is crushed underneath the fixture, but some ponies can't escape the flying shards of crystal produced by its impact.

Princess Luna, Fancypants and Fleur Dis Lee are watching the unfolding disaster from the stage when a mighty shout pierces through the unleashed panic in the hall. Near the door, two charging earth pony stallions knock down the two unicorn guards that had been part of Luna's escort and break for an escape. Meadow Song and Caramel, being sterner earth ponies, are able to resist a similar ramming and immediately pull the criminals to the ground, the stallions rolling and tumbling near the exit door to the hall. Fleur Dis Lee gives a brief glance over to Fancypants and Luna before making a leap off the stage and quickly taking off in full gallop, passing the shattered chandelier and heading to help the guards.

"Where's she going?!" Luna exclaims to Fancypants over the sounds of the confusion and struggle.

"Warrant officer in the Guard, she's had full Academy training. Necessity because she sometimes body doubles for your sister." Fancypants shouts back.

All Luna can do in response is give a disbelieving look at Fancypants, who in turn meekly smiles back. The hall is a cacophony of shouts, worried exclamations and cries for help from those that were injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, Fleur has reached the scene of the conflict and downs the stallion pinning Meadow Song with a skull-splitting hoof smash on the top of his head. Before the other attacker can react, Fleur knocks him off balance, which allows Caramel to recover from his own pinning and the two now-recovered unicorn guards to yank the attacker down and pin him. The unicorn mare then delivers the finishing blow with a hoof to the second attacker's face that knocks him cold as well.

"And not even a bit of magic!" a breathless Luna comments as she watches Fleur's performance. With the brawl at an end, the guards can now turn toward securing the two attackers and helping those injured in the attack.

"Oh Celestia, when will this madness end?" Fancypants worriedly exclaims as he watches more guards and concerned bystanders from outside rush into the building to render assistance...

THE FOLLOWING MORNING...

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar was fit to be tied as he raged in the meeting room to concerned Princesses Celestia and Cadance. Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas watches beside the princesses, while Lieutenant Captain Aten simply looks on with furtive half-interest only.

"These Agents of Chaos aren't just brash and recklessly dangerous, but quite determined to make a mockery of my entire command!" Gibraltar roars out. "Look what I found on my desk this morning when I came in!"

A note goes flying across the table for Celestia and Cadance to read. Although rendered in plaintext, it was not hoofwritten but instead typed in the same font used for recording Guard Archive documentation, making it impossible to determine who wrote the note. The note read as follows:

"Your confidence is very amusing, Captain, for we are playing a much longer game than you are. We are everywhere, in every corner of your society. You will never be able to find us all. The shining one will fall, and the chaotic one will rise. We are the Agents of Chaos, and we will triumph over peace and harmony to resurrect the chaotic one.

Agent 1 'Snake in the Grass'"

As Princess Celestia read the note, two names flashed in her mind, neither of which she dare utter even underneath her own breath. One was the name of the dark secret of the Canterlot statue gardens, the other the name of the one she had to yield to in order to keep that dark secret intact.

This was war, but not one that could be won by using the Elements of Harmony. This one had to be fought behind the scenes, in the dark alleys of Canterlot and the hallways of her own castle. An enemy within, both fearless and destructive to the extreme - this was an enemy you couldn't conquer by shooting rainbows of friendship at. It had to be the long, dirty, grim method of vigilance and determination... and hoping you could stop them from summoning apocalypse.

Epilogue: Agents in Ponyville

Two pegasus stallions stood on the Canterlot train station platform, waiting for the last train of the day to Ponyville. Both were Guards Upper Class, working the afternoon shift - they knew each other from their common line of employment, but otherwise did not consider themselves friends. One white coated and one dark coated, each was somewhat surprised to meet the other at that particular place and time.

There was no time to try to figure out why though - the conductor was already calling for all passengers to board the train. The two stallions walk aboard and take seats next to each other in the row of seats farthest back on the train. The wait is uneasy, and when the white coated stallion attempts to make conversation his counterpart shushes him.

Eventually, the conductor comes back to punch their tickets, and shortly afterward the train pulls away from the station heading to Ponyville. It was only then that wings reached into saddlebags and pulled out envelopes concealed inside them. To the surprise of both stallions, each finds the other's envelope to have exactly the same text printed on its front - the only difference between the two envelopes is that the white stallion's envelope has a red seal while the dark stallion's envelope has a blue one. This ciphered text was what directed them to be sitting side-by-side on the train in the first place, so naturally surprised glances were exchanged between the stallions before the letters were opened as the text directed them to do.

Each stallion pulls out a letter from their envelope. Again, there is mutual surprise as the letters share the exact same ciphered text and the only difference is an ink spot of color matching the envelope's seal at the top of the page. In plaintext, the letters read as follows:

"Dear Agent of Chaos,

I have directed you two to be together on the same train for a very specific reason. Normally, the identities of other Agents are kept secret from each other, but for this assignment it is necessary for a pair of Agents to know each other's identities for the purposes of mutual cooperation.

The recent destruction of the Guard Archive records has allowed the erasure of your record of service in the Royal Guard. You have been released from any further obligation to serve in the Royal Guard and will now instead perform your duties as Agents of Chaos in Ponyville. A stipend will be sent to provide for you and your family during the duration of this assignment.

The stallion with the red mark on their letter is now designated Agent P1. The stallion with the blue mark is now designated Agent P2. Your common objective is to spread chaos wherever and whenever you can in the town of Ponyville. This is to distract and keep occupied the Element Bearers and the town government in order to prevent their meddling in our affairs in Canterlot. You must be careful though to NOT directly interfere with the mission of the sparkling one in Ponyville - all actions must be indirect or your presence will eventually be exposed.

You must keep the Element Bearers distracted or they will use the power of those Elements against us. If that happens, all will be lost. Do not fail me, Agents. Glory to the chaotic one.

Agent 1 'Snake in the Grass'"

The pegasi stallions exchange glances, first surprised, then with evil grins attached. It was not necessary to exchange words between the stallions - they both understood why they were working together. Earlier, each of them had been separately promised a hefty monetary reward in exchange for their completion of an as-yet unspecified "field assignment" for the Agents of Chaos - this letter had to explain what the "field assignment" was, and it gave the pegasi stallions great pleasure that they were the ones to be making misery for the six newly famous fillies in Ponyville.

As the train snaked its way toward Ponyville, nopony could've anticipated that it was bringing the proximate cause of much of the misery that struck the town over the coming months - acts of chaos as a smokescreen to hide and distract from the operation of the Agents of Chaos and their ultimate purpose...