Chapters "Good evening, Captain."
"I wish it was a good evening, Shining."
"What's wrong, sir?"
"Sit down. I'll explain."
Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor sat in front of Captain of the Guard Gibraltar's desk, concern creasing his face. Gibraltar himself wearily sat behind the desk, telekinetically levitating a few papers off it and looking them over for a moment.
"Want you to have a look at this." Gibraltar says, letting go of one of the papers in such a way it faced Shining as it floated back down to the desk. On the top was an abstract shape that resembled a griffon, and just below the shape was the words "Official Dispatch".
"A dispatch from the griffons?" Shining asks. Contact with the griffon kingdom across the great sea east of Equestria was sparse, and usually not on good terms. A general distrust between Equestrians and griffons existed, in particular with the pegasi members of the Equestrian kingdom. The particular hatred for pegasi stemmed from before the founding of Equestria, as pegasi and griffons regularly clashed in great battles both of ground and air, with the pegasi ultimately driving the griffons off the continent on which the kingdom of Equestria now sat. Strong traditions of militarism on both sides did nothing to improve matters at all, and the prejudice had become strongly ingrained over the years.
"Their ambassador is on the way. The dispatch is only a little ahead of him." Gibraltar says with exasperation.
Shining understood the Captain's attitude. Historically, griffon ambassadors generally only showed up in Equestria to demand things and cause trouble - it was not really "diplomacy" and their pride would not allow any real diplomacy. Even Celestia sometimes lost her regal patience with them. About the only thing that kept the the griffons from constantly warring on Equestria was the fact that a very big ocean separated the two sides.
"Do we have any idea what they want, sir?" Shining asks.
"No, but I have a sneaking suspicion what they are looking for. Aten and I will find out in the morning, that's when he's supposed to show up." Gibraltar answers. "I would recommend pulling in extra security while his party is here."
"I understand, sir."
"You have experience with griffons yourself, Lieutenant Captain?"
"Let's see... the former ambassador to the griffons taught at Academy... had to pull a double guarding both Princess Cadance and Twily last time they were here... there was also the crazy asylum seeker."
"Ah yes, those happen on occasion in the historical record. We have the policy of burden of proof that they aren't spies or saboteurs or something like that, usually they don't have it. The default answer to such requests is 'no' for that reason."
"Yes, sir. I will review the policies about griffons tonight."
"That would be a good idea. I'm heading out now, got a long day tomorrow. See you in the morning, Shining."
"Good night, Captain. Good luck too!"
"Thank you, we'll need it tomorrow."
LATE THE FOLLOWING MORNING...
"HONOR GUARD POSITION!" Captain Gibraltar barks out, his voice echoing through the throne room. On the command, the rows of armored stallions immediately stand at attention, facing each other across the carpet leading to Princess Celestia on her throne. Gleaming pikes point straight upward, them and the guard armor the stallions wear polished to a brilliant shine.
The flank guards Celestia had currently, as was the policy for these cases, were Captain Gibraltar on her right and Lieutenant Captain Aten on her left. Captain Gibraltar wore his deep brown ceremonial armor with a red star on the front - essentially, a recolored version of the standard armor that he had opted to use instead of custom-built designs some of his predecessors (and his eventual successor, Shining Armor) had used. Lieutenant Captain Aten wore a red colored armor with a black lightning bolt in place of the star on the front - supposedly based on the armor of Commander Hurricane, one of the pegasi founders of Equestria. Aten also had his wings open and fitted on the leading edge with spike-decorated armored strips. In fact, wherever Aten could get away with putting spikes on his armor, he did - again, supposedly based on armor worn by the pre-Equestrian pegasi tribes.
All those spikes and Aten's fierce glare gave Captain Gibraltar uncomfortable reminders of the illustrations of old pegasi warriors in books - possibly not by coincidence. Gibraltar once made the mistake of looking in Aten's office when the pegasus wasn't there, and was mortified by all the "replica weapons" and paintings and sculptures glorifying the old pegasi tribes - he later called it "one of the scariest offices he had seen in his life"! All this had long ago convinced Gibraltar something was wrong in the head with Aten.
Aten spent almost all of his non-work time either in his office, supposedly doing paperwork, or reading books in his quarters - he consistently refused any and all invitations to have a hard apple cider or two with some of the other senior officers, and when he actually did show up at a bar he usually was in no mood to socialize. It was also rumored he would become very unpleasant, if not outright hostile, after a few mugs of cider. There was also the fact that he did not have a wife or even a steady marefriend despite being around 30 years old and having such a notable title in the Royal Guard - again, rumors ran around that he claimed he was "saving himself for Princess Cadance", always good to tell for a laugh because Cadance had long ago made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
Finally, there was the record for troublemaking, culminating in Aten heading the "affirmative action for pegasi" faction within the officer corps of the Canterlot Royal Guard. Gibraltar had tried in vain for years to get Aten discharged or transferred, but the requests never made it past Celestia's desk. Because Celestia - for reasons that would not become clear for a very long time - refused to approve anything that would change the situation, Gibraltar and everypony else in the Royal Guard would have to deal with Aten and his problems for the foreseeable future.
A great roar that resounded like a trumpet blast came from outside the hall - the sound indicating the griffon ambassador had arrived. The doors are flung open to reveal the ambassador and his rectangle of four guards around him, that then begin stepping down the carpet with a certain swagger and smoothness that seemed to be known by all griffons.
Gibraltar was amazed how much armor and weaponry a griffon could wear - armor covering virtually every part of the body, claw and talon blade extensions, beak-attached blade, spiked armor strips on the lead edge of the outstretched wings, blades attached to tails, there even seemed to be little blades among the feathers of the wings! And of course, these griffon warriors had to be quite strong to carry all that extra weight - some even could fly with all that armor on! Even the hardiest earth pony could be unnerved by their appearance, and only Aten and Princess Celestia seemed completely undeterred by the display. Celestia had all the experience before in her hundreds of years in living, of course, and Aten seemed to get by on pure determination. Out of the corner of his eye, Gibraltar could see Aten's ferocity change into a subtle snarling, and there was a worry Aten would do something stupid once the griffon ambassador approached.
Fortunately, Aten kept his place as the griffon ambassador, armor clanking and clinking as he walked, stopped at the bottom of the steps leading up to Celestia's throne and simply glared up at the sun princess - demanding him to bow would've been a waste of time.
"For what business do you come across the sea, ambassador?" Celestia proclaims as she returns the ambassador's glare.
"We present demands for compensation." the ambassador answers in a very deep, growling voice.
"Compensation?" Celestia asks, an eyebrow going up.
"The scroll will provide the details. Slave!" the ambassador exclaims, calling the last words back behind him.
To the surprise of all the Equestrians witnessing, another griffon starts slowly entering through the throne room doors. He is unarmored, heavily burdened with baggage, and his wings droop limply - possibly completely useless. Every step he makes seems to be a painful struggle for him, considering the slowness of his movements and the contortions his face is making as he walks.
"Faster, slave! We don't have all day!" the ambassador yells back to the other griffon, who tries to speed up, mostly unsuccessfully. This kind of treatment, particularly for what griffons called "defectives" (unable to fly or run fast or lift heavy weights), was not unprecedented, but actually bringing the slave into the throne room was something new, and Captain Gibraltar lets his military stoicism slip into a puzzlement. Gibraltar had to wonder what the point of all this was as the slave slowly worked his way to beside where the ambassador was, and pulled out a scroll from among his burdensome baggage.
The slave slowly climbs the stairs, straining and groaning the whole way, and drops the scroll near the throne before trying to back down the stairs, only to slip and tumble his way back down instead. When he lands, some of the baggage strewn around him, he starts getting a verbal barrage of screeching and roaring from the ambassador in the native griffon language, much of which would not be appropriate to be translated or reproduced here.
Gibraltar looks over at Lieutenant Captain Aten, who seems eager to intervene. When Aten looks back, Gibraltar shakes his head - this is something he's determined Celestia herself ought to handle if she decided to intervene. Celestia does nothing but stare down stoically as the ambassador rages - it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before. The rest of the guard, following previously given orders, do not intervene either, although those closest to the ambassador shift their pikes to point across the carpet to prevent the angry griffon from getting too close for comfort.
Finally, with the ambassador's wrath exhausted, the slave leaves with his burdens as quickly as he can (i.e. not very quickly at all). Only then does Celestia telekinetically pick up the scroll and open it to read. As she reads, an eyebrow goes up but she does nothing else.
"I will consider your request for compensation. You will be summoned when the decision is made." Celestia states bluntly.
THAT AFTERNOON...
"What is all this about?!" the griffon ambassador exclaims, him being settled into the guest quarters now interrupted by a call from one of his guards.
"Don't know, Ambassador. He just wants to see you." the griffon guard replies with a shrug.
"Who is it?"
"Wouldn't say. Can't tell under the cloak either."
"... I'll meet him outside. Good thing I still have the basic armor on..." the ambassador mutters as he rousts himself and pads out the door.
When he gets outside, he is surprised to find a figure completely covered in a cloak, and his legs having material in the same color as the cloak tied around them - if it wasn't for the white unicorn horn sticking through a hole in the cloak, the ambassador would have no idea whether he was looking at a griffon or Equestrian.
"Who are you and what do you want?" the ambassador bluntly asks.
"My name is Agent Snake. I am leader of the Agents of Chaos." the cloaked figure begins speaking. "Surely you know, Ambassador, that the Equestrian princess is not going to give you one bit of what you demand?"
"I don't expect any different from those pigs, but what is your point?" the ambassador snarls out.
"I know of a way to compel the Equestrians to empty their treasury to you. But I need your cooperation to make it work, Ambassador." Agent Snake replies.
A thoughtful look crossed the ambassador's face - surely he knew these were much better terms than anything the Equestrians would offer him, so why should he say no? If this disguised figure was untrustworthy, the ambassador could always have him run through later.
"You have my attention. Go on." the ambassador finally states.
"Not out here. It would mean my death if we were caught here. Let us adjourn to someplace more... private." Snake states.
"Very well. But you had better be trustworthy, unicorn, or you'll live to see your horn broken before your neck is!" the ambassador warns, not an idle threat since there were historical records of such things happening to any unicorn unlucky enough to end up dead at the claws and talons of a griffon.
"Don't you worry, Ambassador. We have nothing to gain by stabbing you in the back. Now, shall we?" Agent Snake asks, pointing toward the room where the ambassador's party was staying while in Canterlot.
"Yes, we shall." the ambassador answers, his eyes glinting in the prospect of having an ally within the Equestrians and at last being able to humiliate them into giving up a large share of their treasure...
Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor telekinetically tosses the parchment onto Captain Gibraltar's desk. "Sir, with all due respect this is ridiculous!" he exclaims, his face showing fierce annoyance.
"You don't need to tell me twice." Captain Gibraltar wearily replies as he sits behind his desk. "But what can I do about it? You know how predatory these griffons can be whenever they come around."
"I never seen such absurd claims in my life, sir! Even if we accept the premise that the 'Eternal Night' reached into the griffon realms, how can we prove it caused any of the damages they list? They're using what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration for extortion!" Shining blasts out.
"Shining, please, I understand you're upset about all this. But yelling doesn't help anything." Gibraltar gently replies. "I wish we didn't have this problem just as much as you do. But they're here now, and so we have to deal with it. Princess Celestia has the final say on this, and I'm sure she won't let them have a bit from our treasury. But if we stoop to their level, they win, it's that simple. Our job is to keep them from doing anything tricky and to keep the peace, that is all Princess Celestia asks of us. You understand?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Do you have double guard around Luna's bedroom suite, like I suggested?"
"Yes sir."
"That ought to be enough to prevent trouble with Luna. You have command for the night, but I'll be here for a while yet dealing with paperwork."
"Understood, sir. Good night."
ABOUT 20 MINUTES LATER...
"Your Majesty, please put that down!" Shining Armor exclaims as he is let into Princess Luna's bedroom suite, him telekinetically carrying a grocery bag full of "junk food" for an all-night game session.
"And pray tell why should we?" Princess Luna asks, looking over at Shining as she speaks. Being levitated by her light blue magic was a colorfully-decorated box with a window in the front showing off a golden video game cartridge contained inside, the box still covered in shrink-wrap.
"There's only three of that kind of 'Harmony Defenders' cartridge in existence!" Shining Armor explains with a distressed look on his face. "When the game was first made, three special golden cartridges were produced and signed by the game's creator. One went to Celestia, one went to Cadance and the third was kept by the company's CEO. The one you're holding is the copy given to Cadance and is worth a significant portion of the Equestrian treasury!"
Luna pauses for a second, then raises an eyebrow in puzzlement as she looks at the box again. Finally, she puts it down on a nearby nightstand.
"If you actually want to play the game, there's a commercial copy in the box somewhere..." Shining explains, walking over and putting down the grocery bag before beginning to go through the box of game cartridges by telekinetically pulling up and putting back down different cartridges.
"Aha!" he finally exclaims as he levitates up a cartridge and whisks it over to the Pony Entertainment System, putting it in too fast for Luna to get a good look. The TV and game console go on, and quickly the suite is filled with bright colors and dramatic sounds. As the game's attract mode begins to play, Luna suddenly becomes transfixed by something she sees on the screen. After a moment, she taps a hoof on the screen.
"There. This." she says, pointing at the depiction on the screen of Princess Celestia and another alicorn, only slightly smaller than Celestia. That alicorn's coat was a deep blue, the mane and tail resembling a starry sky and flowing in the same way Celestia's did.
"That is a fairly accurate depiction of our true form, the one we had before our thousand-year exile." Luna explains, meekly smiling at a confused Shining Armor. "The dark powers twisted this into what both our sister and your sister confronted. We are still too weak now to take this form again, but do hope to do so again one day."
"But I've never..." Shining begins to say, a confused look on his face, before a raised hoof by Princess Luna cuts him off.
"All the storybook and other depictions of what happened were decreed by our sister to use an even younger version of ourselves in visual representation." Luna explains. "She wanted - and we cannot blame her for doing so - to separate what you saw in those books from the perversion of our true self that was called 'Nightmare Moon'."
"But then why is it different here?" Shining asks.
"Only our sister would know the answer to that question." Luna answers with something like a shrug. "But we are glad to see it here, and perhaps that is the entire reason for it to be there at all."
"Knowing Celestia, I wouldn't be surprised if it was." Shining replies with a smirk of a smile.
Soon Luna's suite was filled with the sounds of the "Harmony Defenders" (representations of Celestia and Luna from before Luna's exile to the moon) blasting away with their "Element Bursts" against "the enemies of peace and harmony" as the two alicorns flew past dramatic backgrounds clearly inspired by locations throughout Equestria, albeit ones as they looked at that time.
The sounds of the game being played and of the players in intense gaming, however, begun to be interrupted by an increasingly loud series of growls and screeches. Were the griffons deliberately being disruptive, or worse had too much drink been allowed to them? Either way, it portended nothing good.
Princess Luna, playing as the depiction of her past self, finally pauses the game and looks in the direction of the growls and screeches with extreme irritation. Shining Armor, playing as the depiction of Celestia, follows her look and seems just as irritated.
"We see the manners of griffons have not improved in a thousand years." Luna scoffs out with a contemptuous sniff.
"I don't know why that's happening - they aren't supposed to have anything that would make them drunk. The Captain made those orders very clear." Shining Armor states with a worried look on his face.
"Well, get them to stop. Now! Most annoying things..." Luna growls out.
"I'll try, Your Majesty. But I can't guarantee anything." Shining Armor replies with a mortified expression as he gets up to investigate the ruckus.
"Sir, the griffons..." one of the door guards says as Shining approaches the door leading out of Luna's suite.
"Already been ordered by the Princess. Two of you follow me." Shining answers, not even stopping as he trots out the door and down the hallway...
Arrival at the guest suite the griffon ambassador and his party were staying found a very unpleasant sight - they had clearly been allowed access to hard drink and were proceeding to make a mess of the room, screeching and roaring in spats and what the Equestrians could only guess was some kind of drinking song.
But the worst part was the lame winged servant, who had been chained to one of the walls. Some of the drunk griffons pulled at his useless wings as if they were ends of a tug of war, lashing at him with talon and claw whenever he cried out in pain. Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor felt for the poor thing, but knew he was helpless to change the situation.
"Most disgusting creatures." one of the guards with Shining whispers out.
"Ambassador! Ambassador!" Shining shouts over the din, immediately drawing the latter's attention.
"Leave us alone, unless the decision about our request has been made!" the ambassador growls back out in annoyance, his eyes seeming to glow fiercely.
"Princess Luna says to cease the racket immediately! This is not a tavern!" Shining exclaims, glaring fiercely in return.
"Bah! What can she do to us without her powers?" the ambassador scoffs, followed by a combination of growls that suggest an insult in tone. Some of the other griffons, having turned their attentions to the conversation, start laughing as well.
"I'd like to know who let them access the hard stuff and give them a piece of my mind! Come on, let's go." Shining says to the other guards, turning away from the scene and back toward the waiting Princess Luna.
It was not his job to escalate the situation, nor was it his job to bring Luna to try to convince them to pipe down. The chained "defective" servant, battered and in terrible pain, broke his heart, but he had to steel himself from trying to play hero. If it were an Equestrian chained up, then he might have right to intervene. But a native griffon... no, he had to stay out of it. Keeping the peace was first and foremost, regardless of what was "right" or "valiant" in this situation.
TEN MINUTES LATER...
"Outrageous! If we were at full power, we would thrash them all for their impunity right now!" Princess Luna exclaims in indignation, angry at her order being so crudely rebuffed.
"Well, Your Majesty, you are unfortunately not at full power, and trying to attack them as you are would not be a good idea." Shining gently points out. Luna simply gives a huff, sitting on haunches and crossing forelegs with a pouting expression on her face.
"Sir, Lieutenant Stratocumulus has just arrived." one of the guards at the door says.
"Just a minute, Your Majesty. I'll need to debrief the Lieutenant." Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor states, before walking out the door and approaching the at-attention Lieutenant Stratocumulus.
The pegasus Lieutenant gives a salute as Shining Armor approaches, seeming to show nothing more than solemn attention despite being called away from his post at very short notice.
"Sorry about the short notice, Lieutenant, but this is very important. Somepony authorized the griffons to obtain hard drink in defiance of explicit orders from the Captain. I need you to go down to Quartermaster Tallymark's office and see who put in that authorization. Understood?" Shining Armor orders.
"Yes sir, I'll get right on it!" Lieutenant Stratocumulus exclaims, smartly turning around and beginning to march away from Luna's suite. Shining Armor, satisfied, proceeds back into Luna's suite to resume the video game that had been previously paused.
As soon as Stratocumulus is out of earshot of anypony near Luna's suite, he very quickly diverts in a different direction, still going in the standard march to avoid drawing suspicion. Finally, he ducks into a staff-only bathroom, looking for a stall with a closed door. He opens the door to find a figure covered completely with a cloak and with cloth tied around his hooves, the only identifying feature the white unicorn horn sticking out from a hole in the cloak.
"Well?" the figure asks of Stratocumulus moments after the stall door is opened.
"Just as you planned, completely clueless. We seem to have gained the ambassador's trust, Agent Snake." Lieutenant Stratocumulus says to the figure.
"Excellent work, Agent 3. The confidence the shining one has in you will prove invaluable to the success of our mission." Agent Snake answers. "The Quartermaster is of no more use to us, and I have already dispatched another Agent to silence him completely. His office is open for the evidence planting operation. When that is complete, give the forged documentation to the shining one. That will buy us enough time to execute the joint operation with the ambassador."
"Yes, Agent Snake." Stratocumulus replies with a salute before closing the bathroom stall door and marching back out of the bathroom to do the orders of what seemed to be his true commander...
"Shining, I'm going to be very honest with you here - this report makes absolutely no sense to me." Captain Gibraltar says while sitting at his desk, his expression a mixture of puzzlement and concern as he studies the sheet levitated with his magic in front of him.
"I know, sir, this doesn't make sense to me either. But it's what Lieutenant Stratocumulus brought back to me when I sent him to investigate who went against your explicit orders not to let the griffons have hard drink." Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor replies, making something like a shrugging motion as he speaks.
"It still doesn't make sense, though. Why would the Quartermaster do this on his own initiative? Surely he knows the consequences of defying such a direct order, and he's never done anything like this before." Gibraltar states.
"Sir, is it possible...?" Shining Armor hesitantly asks.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to consider it a possibility he's one of those Agents of Chaos. I'll confront the Quartermaster about this when he brings his report in here to my office. Usually he's done so already, but he must be running behind schedule this morning..." Gibraltar answers, eyebrows knitting tighter.
"Understood, sir. Is there anything else I can do?"
"Put Lieutenant Stratocumulus on notice he may need to come to my office to verify the report as soon as he wakes up. Without more hard information, that's all I can ask of you right now."
"Alright, sir. Have a good day, I hope?"
"I definitely hope I can have a good day, because it's not starting out very well that's for sure!"
EARLY AFTERNOON...
"So nice of you both to come!" Princess Cadance said, afterward taking a sip of tea from the tea cup levitated by magic in front of her as she and two other mares sat around a small table in a tea party of sorts.
"Oh it was our pleasure, Your Majesty! Diamond Rose and I are thrilled beyond belief to be here!" Lemony Gems, a unicorn mare with a pastel yellow coat and cerulean mane, exclaims in return. She and Diamond Rose - a pegasus mare with an off-white coat, a mane striped in three shades of pink and more than a passing resemblance to Fluttershy - had been friends with Cadance in high school and helped her get together with Shining Armor. Since then, both mares had entered the jewelry business - Lemony Gems in Ponyville and Diamond Rose in Canterlot.
"I'm sure you two are. I know there's a lot we need to catch up on, particularly with you Lemony." Cadance replies, taking a sip of tea before continuing. "I haven't heard much from Twilight about Ponyville, so I want to know how she's adjusting to living in that town."
"To be honest, haven't had much chance to check on her, but I know she's living in the Golden Oak Library there." Lemony Gems replies before drinking some tea herself.
"Not surprised, she lived in the library here, why should it be any different in Ponyville?" Cadance asks, before the three mares share a giggle for a few seconds.
"Hey, you're not allowed in there!" one of the guards is heard calling out from the hallway, immediately drawing the attention of the three around the table and cutting the conversation short.
"I am the Ambassador, it's my job to talk to royalty!" the griffon ambassador's voice is heard shouting back in a rather arrogant tone as he enters the room the tea party is being held in, the two guards assigned to the post fast behind him.
"Guards, let him have his say. It won't work anyway." Cadance orders in exasperated annoyance, rolling her eyes at the same time. The two guards pull back a little bit but keep their eyes fixed on the griffon ambassador, who is slowly pacing around the table with an almost predatory expression on his face. Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose both scrunch up in their chairs, freaked out by the griffon's unexpected arrival.
"Ambassador, is there a point to this visitation beyond scaring my old high school friends silly?" Cadance asks with an unamused look on her face.
"Hmph, tea parties! No wonder that darkness lasted as long as it did." the griffon ambassador states with a great deal of contempt on his face. "All that interbreeding has made our old rivals soft, putting them to guard frivolous things like this and perform for the amusement of those ground bound!"
Those statements produce a set of angry glares from the guards, both of which were pegasi, and an annoyed glare from Diamond Rose. Lemony Gems just continues cringing in her seat, and Cadance gives a look that mixes both boredom and annoyance.
"A pegasus like you should be ashamed of herself! In the old days, you took up arms alongside your mates, not giggled alongside the unicorns!" the ambassador continues, looking directly at the annoyed Diamond Rose. He approaches close to her and the guards rush toward him in response, but a hoofraise by Cadance stops them in their tracks.
"Take it easy. He has a right to his own opinion, guards." Cadance states.
"That's right. And if I was to say that Princess Celestia is a tyrannical trolling molester, well that's my opinion too!" the ambassador replies in a mocking tone, which again brings the guards rushing in an indignant anger.
"Don't do it. That's an order!" Cadance calls out again, which stops the guards once again.
"But Your Majesty...!" one of the guards objects.
"It's not worth starting a fight over, guard. Now, can we please finish our tea party?" Cadance asks in exasperation, levitating up the cup and saucer and taking a sip afterward to try to help calm things down.
But the expression on the ambassador's face clearly showed he was not done yet, and continued speaking on as he paces around the table: "Of course, I'd also say that Princess Celestia deserves her junior partner in the business of running a kingdom. Pretty and pink and with the power to restore love between ponies... there's a reason we've kept our dueling tradition even between mates. We don't want anything pink and equine coming over with her spooky magic to fix our problems."
Shocked gasps spread across the room as it becomes clear the griffon ambassador is talking about Cadance herself, and the sidelong glare as she sets down her teacup and saucer again indicates she knows too. Perhaps if the ambassador had known the hot blood of pegasi was Cadance's by birthright he would not have been so spoiling for a fight, but as it was he was in for quite a lot of trouble.
"Ambassador, don't you think you should rephrase that?" Cadance says as she scowls at the ambassador's smug confidence, the ambassador almost sticking his beak in her face at this point.
"You're right, I should." the ambassador smugly starts to answer. "I didn't mean to say that you're pink because you're a princess, I meant to say that you're a princess because you're pink."
The griffon ambassador breaks out in roaring laughter, and a very fierce Cadance rises from her seat. Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose scramble into a far corner of the room as a scowling Cadance smashes a forehoof between his eyes. The surprised and pained squawking from the ambassador brings screeching from other griffons positioned just outside the room, and soon the room is the sight of a full-on brawl, with Cadance repeatedly bucking and smashing the ambassador wherever she can land a hit and the guards rolling around smashing everything up while trying to keep the other griffons from interfering.
The squawks and cries ring through the hallway, followed by the hoofsteps of other guards scrambling to break up the fight. All the commotion also reaches a cloaked figure hiding in a utility closet, his hooves wrapped in cloth and a white unicorn horn sticking out of a hole in the cloak. If his smile could've been seen, it would've been a mile wide.
"Perfect. Everything is going to plan." the cloaked figure says to himself.
LATER THAT AFTERNOON...
Agent Snake had quite a sight in front of him. To his left was the griffon ambassador stuck in bed, casts over two of his legs and moaning in pain - Cadance had broken several ribs in addition to the two legs. To his right, a young female griffon going on and on about her trip to Ponyville had been ruined. Under the cloak, the smile was very amused indeed.
"My condolences to what happened. At least now you have an excuse to increase your demands." Snake speaks to the ambassador, who responds with a moaning squawk - getting beat up by a pink pony princess was not exactly the way he thought he would succeed in his mission. But if it worked, no one back home would be laughing about it, right?
"It's not fair! I try to go visit my old Junior Speedster friend and that's the kind of treatment she gives me?!" the young female griffon is roaring out indignantly.
"Gilda, I told you it would be a waste of time coming with us." one of the ambassador's guards - the young female's father, if Snake had to guess - replies. "She was not your friend then, she is not your friend now and she never was your friend. All the stuff that happened to you over there proved it beyond a doubt. Griffons and Equestrians just cannot be friends, no matter what they may say."
"Hmph, ain't that the truth!" one of the other griffons adds on before continuing to write the revised version of the original demands for "compensation".
"Fortunately, your troubles will be short lived. We are ready when you are." Agent Snake says to the griffon writing.
"You mean tonight?" the writing griffon replies, only briefly stopping in his work.
"Yes. I have arranged an opening to execute the plan. All I need is your slave." Snake explains.
The writing griffon looks over at the ambassador, who gives a nod - apparently, he has nothing to loose at this point except something he could replace once he got back to his own lands.
"Bring him!" the writing griffon orders two of the guards, who leave to fetch the enslaved griffon, Gilda following behind them.
While waiting, the griffon writing the revised demands finishes his job, and Agent Snake pulls out a needle full of a black liquid. Interestingly, he did not use telekinetic magic to accomplish this despite sporting a unicorn horn. Fortunately, the griffons seemed not to notice or care about this little detail enough to make mention of it.
Two guards bring in the squawking, screeching slave, which is fighting claw and talon against their pull. This effort is only redoubled when he sees the needle Agent Snake wields.
"Hold him down!" the griffon that had been writing orders out, and the two guards smartly pin down all the legs of the slave, rendering him unable to do more than squawk incessantly.
Agent Snake approaches with the needle - he can see the slave griffon struggling to resist, but it's no use. The needle is jabbed into the slave's neck and the plunger pushes the black liquid into his body, the slave all the while crying out in pain.
"There. Unconscious in eight hours, comatose in sixteen. Even if he does squeal, the Equestrians won't be able to get anything useful out of him." Agent Snake explains to the other griffons.
"Good. We'll give him the knock-out drug to smuggle in during the opening you mentioned, and execute the plan." one of the guards says to Agent Snake.
"There, you see Ambassador? All worth it." Agent Snake replies, and the evil devious grin that spreads across the Ambassador's face indicates he agrees. Once again, the Agents of Chaos were ready to strike...
Paperwork - the bane of any officer in the Canterlot Royal Guard. Anypony with an officer's commission had to do at least some of it as part of their duties. Unicorns had it relatively easy: manipulating a quill pen to scratch writing on parchment. Pegasi and earth ponies had it harder, because there was no good way for either of them to hold a quill pen - they used a kind of typewriter with which they could peck at keys using hooves, and even then it was a slow, tedious process.
Lieutenants had to do paperwork to monitor their squads - generally a named folder was used that had a copy of each required sheet for each guard in their squad, resulting in a fairly thick package. Lieutenant Captains, on the other hoof, had to assemble and set up all those folders in addition to the assignments for all the Lieutenants, which lead to long and tedious hours behind a desk for them.
It is in this situation we find Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, sighing and with a thoroughly bored expression on his face as he manipulates the quill pen to scratch out the required entries on the parchment. Two stacks of manilla folders lay on his desk - a short stack of folders stuffed with papers and a longer stack of empty folders. Assembling a Lieutenant's folder necessarily involved much paper manipulation and pen scratching, thoroughly necessary and tedious drudgery that had to be done.
The relative silence of Shining's office, the only real sound being the scratching of the quill pen, is broken by calls by the two guards posted at the door. Shining looks up, not having heard what the guards were saying.
"Repeat that?" Shining calls out to the door guards.
"One of the griffons insists on seeing you, sir. He's carrying something." the answer comes back.
"Confound those annoying griffons... send him in!" Shining orders, followed by him muttering how stupid the griffons would have to be in order to think they could bribe him into getting their way.
Shining stops his work in surprise when he sees the crippled-wing griffon slave walking into his office, a jar of something in one of his taloned forefeet. The two door guards follow him in.
"What do you want?" Shining asks as he stares down at the griffon, who responds merely by putting the jar on the desk. An eyebrow goes up as Shining telekinetically levitates the jar up and gives it a good lookover.
"Open it, take a sniff." Shining finally says as he levitates the jar in front of one of the guards.
"Sir?" the guard in question, a dark-coated unicorn, asks with a confused and alarmed look on his face.
"That's an order!" Shining snaps out with a fierce glare at the guard.
The guard hesitantly uses his magic to unscrew the top off the jar and then takes a short sniff as a sweet odor fills the room. Immediately he reels back, his face scrunching as he stumbles and his partner guard shifts to keep him from falling over.
"Chloroform. Probably mixed with something else." Shining Armor concludes as he uses his magic to screw the jar shut again. A faint sweetness lingers in the room as Shining gets up from his desk, carefully observing the guard that inhaled the knock-out gas as still rather unsteady on his hooves and having the same kind of eyes Derpy Hooves typically exhibited.
"Get him some fresh air. Have the stand-by guards over here as quickly as possible." Shining orders the guard that had not inhaled the chloroform mixture.
"Yes, sir." that guard replies, his comrade placing one foreleg around the withers to help steady himself as the two of them work their way out of the office. When the two guards are gone, Shining turns to face the griffon he was now alone with in the room.
"Why did you bring me this jar?" Shining asks the crippled-wing griffon sternly.
The griffon slave - his useless wings splayed out and him shrinking down in a manner similar to what Fluttershy often did - hesitated to respond at first, but finally the words come out in a quiet, pleading croak, accompanied by a tear trickling down his face: "I bring... bring it as proof. Your princess... is in danger. I have less... than 24 hours... and I plead... for asylum."
ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER...
"Back, someone's coming!" Shining gives a quiet command as he looks down the hallway which passes the doors to Luna's royal suite.
Around the corner with him was Captain Gibraltar, whom Shining had brought the griffon slave to after hearing what the latter had to say about the danger to Princess Luna. The two of them were able to quickly prove the truth of the griffon's statement by catching the two afternoon shift guards to Luna's suite away from their posts - the pegasi stallions had little choice but to admit to their role in the plan and were currently being bound by Lieutenant Vesper's bat ponies, their final disposition put off until the immediate threat was averted. The griffon himself was locked in "protective custody" with another bat pony as a guard.
"Who is it?" Captain Gibraltar quietly asks, both he and Lieutenant Vesper beside him just behind the watching Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor.
"Griffons. Two of them. Looks like they're part of the guard, the ambassador is probably incapacitated too much to do it himself. I'll wait until they're distracted." Shining replies in a whisper as he pulls back out of view.
The guard officers wait patiently, one minute, then two, the only sounds being the quiet motions of the waiting griffons. Finally, they begin to talk among themselves about where the slave with the chloroform is, making growls of frustration about how he was wasting precious time to execute the plan.
Around the color, Shining's horn glows with a magenta color, and a bubble of the same color rapidly encases the two griffons. Impatience quickly turns to panic for the two griffons, but before they can do anything an ear-piercing screech fills the hallway - a bat pony's call could match a griffon's roar in magnitude and was far more shrill in tone.
The faces of the griffons contort in pain, temporarily causing them to let their guard down, and before their ears can stop ringing the three Guard stallions are almost upon them! The magenta bubble comes down, and there is a mighty collision as Gibraltar, Shining Armor and Vesper hit the two griffons sidelong.
Mere moments later, a confused Princess Luna opens the door to her suite to see a great scuffle going on in the hallway, with the two griffon guards on one side and the three Royal Guard officers on the other. Despite the ferocity and resolve put up by the griffons, they had neglected to don their armor and weaponry while their Equestrian opponents wore their armor. This, in combination with the advantage of numbers going to the Equestrians, quickly wears down their resistance, although it takes a good deal of bucking and hoof-smashing from the three Equestrians before the griffons yield.
"What is the meaning of all this?! Explain, Captain!" Luna shouts when she finally is able to penetrate the echoing ruckus. Captain Gibraltar, Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor and Lieutenant Vesper are tired and scratched from the struggle. The defeated griffons, each with a number of bloody circles where the hooves impacted and broken bones, expend their last resistance in a futile effort to prevent other guards converging on the scene from taking them into custody.
"I'll explain once the rest of the griffon party has been summoned here, Your Majesty. I can assure you your sister will soon put an end to their trouble for good." Captain Gibraltar explains through panting.
Princess Celestia had not had occasion to use her version of the Royal Canterlot Voice for many years. But tonight might give reason for her to use it once more...
"You getting all this down, Lieutenant?"
"As fast as I can, sir."
Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor had never before heard the volcanic fury of Celestia's old "Royal Canterlot Voice", and hoped never to hear it any closer than he was to it right then. Even through a wall he could feel the magically-generated rumblings which others had mistaken for an earthquake - more than once he had to confirm to panicking staff that yes, they knew about the shaking and no, the castle was not going to fall down on top of them.
The recent second attempt at abduction of Princess Luna had led the moon princess to demand to immediately address the entire griffon diplomatic party. With both the ambassador himself and two of his guards crippled by broken bones, they had to be moved on stretchers by medical staff to the designated meeting place. Once the entire party had been assembled, the griffon ambassador was browbeaten into confessing his cooperation with the Agents of Chaos to further their own ends. Condemned by his own words, the ambassador had little choice but to accept the sentence given to him by Luna - unilateral revocation of his status as ambassador to the Equestrian kingdom. That meant he had 24 hours to leave Canterlot and start the return trip to his own realms - if he did not leave in that timeframe, then he probably would've been arrested and executed as a result of his actions.
Princess Luna then ordered Captain of the Guard Gibraltar and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor to divide the conspirators into two different groups. The griffons would be taken to Celestia by Shining Armor to given a haranguing for their crimes as "we currently lack the means to do it properly ourselves". The actual haranguing would take place in Celestia's resting chamber, with Shining Armor guarding the door in and a night-shift unicorn Lieutenant recording the event for posterity. The two pegasi guards involved in the conspiracy were taken by Captain Gibraltar and given a summary demotion from Guard Upper Class to Guard Lower Class, eventually to be sent away from Canterlot into the field never to return. At the same time, the former griffon slave - the expulsion of the ambassador effectively released him from servitude - suddenly collapsed into unconsciousness and was rushed to medical care.
Despite the annoyance of being suddenly awakened in the middle of the night, Princess Celestia proved most willing to give a proper verbal lashing to the helpless griffons once situation had been explained to her - Shining himself suspected that this was something she had wanted to do ever since the party had arrived in Canterlot. The "Royal Canterlot Voice" was something Celestia had rarely used ever since she stopped being the "unapproachable" ruler of centuries past, but against old enemies of Equestria she was certainly willing to use it now.
As both Shining Armor and his younger sister later experienced firsthoof, Luna's "Royal Canterlot Voice" was like a thunderstorm, with mighty wind and lightning to accompany it. Celestia's version was like an erupting volcano, the ground around rumbling and shaking and the words paired with blasts of magically generated fire. Some old illustrations depicted Celestia as actually breathing fire like a dragon while using the voice, although it was generally believed to be a metaphorical representation and not literal fire-breathing. Both versions did their intended job, but were as different as the sisters themselves were.
A faint smoking smell filled the air as Celestia went on and on about the sins the griffons had committed against Equestria in its long history - even Celestia's memory wasn't perfect, but she had the help of written records and her "magical security cam". Shining held not even an ounce of sympathy for the griffons currently getting blasted in such a manner. As far as he was concerned, they were getting what they deserved.
Finally, the booming, rumbling voice ceases and the doors to the resting chamber open, quickly followed by a very noticeable rise in temperature and an increase in the smoking smell. Several items in the room show signs of being scorched by fire. Princess Celestia steps with her full regality toward the door and out past Shining and his subordinate, leaving the lesser guards to take away the the petrified and singed griffons as well as make sure there weren't any smouldering fires left over.
"I'm amazed the sprinkler system didn't go off, sir." the unicorn Lieutenant states as he stares in slack-jawed amazement at the scene in the resting chamber.
"We had it turned off before she started, Lieutenant." Shining Armor explains with an amused look on his face.
"I have to ask though, sir, is it really true that Her Majesty can breathe fire like a dragon? I mean, I've seen the historical illustrations..." the Lieutenant asks.
"Let me tell you a story, Lieutenant." Shining Armor begins to explain with a wistful smile. "Shortly after my younger sister started learning magic from the Princess, she somehow managed to completely burn her throat, tongue and mouth. Couldn't speak or eat properly for a week. When she recovered enough to explain what happened, she said that she burned herself from a spell that, and I quote, 'I will never ever ever use again!'. Now, with that information in consideration, what do you think the answer to your question is?"
The sufficiently impressed expression on the Lieutenant's face seemed to indicate Shining had made his point sufficiently. Shining himself looks down in the direction Celestia had went and just lets out a chuckle - he loved his job right then and there...
THE FOLLOWING MORNING...
"I'll take your final report, Captain." Princess Celestia said as she sat on her throne, Captain Gibraltar bowing before her.
In the background was the griffon diplomatic party attempting to leave as quickly as they could considering most of the party was bedridden. There was no small amount of amusement to be had, particularly for pegasi, as the griffons were hauled around on stretchers for all to see. This public humiliation would mark the end of the ambassador's career as well as apparently cutting off any chance of Gilda, who was a witness of the laughing mockery, attempting to reconcile with Rainbow Dash - the old relationship was dead and would stay dead, collateral damage of the griffons' scheming.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Captain Gibraltar states. "According to the best available information we have, the griffon ambassador conspired with Agent Snake, leader of the Agents of Chaos, in a second attempt to abduct Princess Luna. Espionage items were either stolen from our stores or smuggled into the kingdom for that purpose, and the Quartermaster put out of the way to hide that fact. With the two afternoon shift guards to Luna's suite being part of the subversive Agents of Chaos, it was only the defector's warning that allowed us to thwart the extortion scheme."
The Captain of the Guard could see the frustration again crossing Celestia's face. Somehow this enemy knew exactly what to do to override security measures - the only conclusion she could think of was that their leader was some high-ranking member of her guard. But without more hard information, she only had speculation to go on.
"And what of the Quartermaster? He has been AWOL for at least 24 hours." Celestia asks.
"We only got an answer to that question a few hours ago." Captain Gibraltar answers. "Two of our guards patrolling the city were approached by sanitation workers that claimed that they noticed a stallion's hoof in a dumpster. When the stinky business of extraction was completed, the guards were able to identify the victim as Quartermaster Tallymark. The medical staff is still trying to determine exact cause of death, but he was obviously taken by surprise. His horn was also cut off before he was tossed in the dumpster. I'm having a Lieutenant take inventory of the stores now to account for everything, but I'll need Raven to help him out."
"Of course, Captain. Raven is well suited to the business of inventory work. Raven?" Princess Celestia calls to her aide, who along with Kibitz is currently supervising the departure of the ambassador's party. Like Kibitz, Raven held a warrant that allows her to order the junior members of the Guard around, mostly for the purpose of expediting security clearance for what Celestia needs done for the day.
"Yes, Your Majesty?" Raven says as she turns back to look to the sun princess, a checklist and quill pen being telekinetically held in mid-air. Kibitz, standing beside her, also turns to face Celestia.
"Leave your checklist with Kibitz. The Captain has need of your skills elsewhere. Kibitz can finish the work himself." Princess Celestia orders.
"I can?" Kibitz asks with surprise just before the checklist and quill pen Raven had were tossed into his face, prompting much fumbling on Kibitz's part and amused chuckles from both Celestia and the guard captain. Kibitz gives an angry glare in Raven's direction as he adjusts his spectacles and attempts to pick up where Raven left off.
Raven approaches the Captain and is ordered to assist in the inventory, but as she leaves she almost collides with a guard rushing into the throne room. The Captain, not surprisingly, asks what the urgency is for.
"The defector's condition is worsening. If something isn't done soon, we'll lose him." the guard explains.
"He hasn't responded to any of the treatments?" Captain Gibraltar asks of the guard.
"No sir."
"Then bring him in here. We have one last option to save his life."
"Yes sir."
The griffon defector is sped with all haste to the throne room, looking even more pitiful than before on a medical stretcher. Meanwhile, the Captain briefs Princess Celestia about the griffon defector: "Claims he has no proper name, all he's ever known is 'slave' or 'defective' or things like that. Exhibits stunting and injury consistent with long-term abuse. Interestingly, he was not born with crippled wings - when the medical staff took an x-ray of him to try to figure out what was going on, we found his wings had been deliberately broken and not allowed to heal properly multiple times in the past, rendering them completely useless in the process."
"What has happened to him now?" Princess Celestia asks.
"Poisoned in some way. We haven't been able to identify what the poison is though. All the treatments that have been tried only seem to slow its progress." the captain answers, his tone as frank as possible.
"Then the 'Way of the Phoenix' it is?"
"Probably is the only way to save his life, yes. But he's still..."
"I know, Captain. But to let him die when he has been pushed away by his own race, when he is so willing to serve us instead of them, would reflect poorly on all of us Equestrians. I am not just doing this to reward him with a new, better life, Captain. I am doing it to prove the lies the griffons tell to be exactly that: lies."
"But will Philomena cooperate, Your Majesty?"
"She is nearing the end of her current life cycle, Captain. A few feathers plucked off is not going to be unduly upsetting to her, trust me."
"Very well then, I will tell the medical staff to bring him into wherever you want to perform the ritual."
A minute or two later, the medical staff come hurrying into the throne room, the former griffon slave limp on the stretcher. He seems to waver in and out of consciousness as all the events unfold around him. It was hard for an Equestrian to pity any griffon, but Celestia did so now for the scarred and dirty little thing on the stretcher. For the first time she could clearly see the matted dirt-brown fur and feathers as well as count the ribs of his ribcage. Red eyes dimly pleaded either for salvation or the eternal release of death - Celestia could not tell which.
The thought of a mercifully releasing this tortured soul from his agonized, degrading existence passed through Celestia's mind as she looked down at the griffon on the stretcher. But no, she wanted the griffon to make that choice - it was not right for her to make it for him. Not when he had done no wrong against her or her kingdom.
"Do you want to live?" the sun princess asks as she looks down at the griffon. He just nods slowly, lacking the energy to do anything else.
"Then I can give you new life. The Way of the Phoenix will do that for you." Celestia continues with a smile on her face just before looking back at Captain Gibraltar.
"Have them take the griffon to my chambers. As soon as they clear out, lock the doors and post guard, the process must not be disturbed once begun." Celestia tells her Guard Captain.
"You heard the princess!" the Captain speaks to the medical staff, and again they begin rushing the stretcher with the griffon on it toward the specified destination, Celestia following closely behind. Once Celestia is out of the room, one of the guards posted at the throne asks of the guard captain what "the Way of the Phoenix" is.
"Ah, that is a great mystery only Celestia knows the answer to." Captain Gibraltar answers. "Nopony beside her knows exactly how the ceremony works, but it does involve phoenix feathers and is rumored to be able to bring the dead back to life. Celestia has said very little about the ritual, and she has never taught it to anypony else, not even Twilight Sparkle. All we have is rumors as anyone that's been through the ritual is bound by royal decree to never give details about what's happened to them - most of them probably don't even know the details due to their condition when they go through it. Sometimes it also doesn't work - Celestia will come out and say the ritual failed or something like that."
"That seems rather odd, sir." the throne guard comments.
"Must be a very exacting process, guard, if I had to guess. Won't always work, but Celestia must be willing to try in order to extend the victory we've gotten. That'll show the griffons who are the savage ones in this conflict!" Gibraltar states, looking out the throne room door with fierce determination...
Emerald green eyes open on a beaked face. The first thing visible when they come into focus is Princess Celestia smiling down at him.
"Is it done?" she asks, her tone a gentle concern.
The griffon looks around in wonderment for a few moments, then rolls over on his side from the position on his back he had been sleeping on. Slowly he gets to his feet - it takes a minute for him to find his balance. He then looks around the room in a great deal of puzzlement.
"The ritual worked. The mirror will show you the regeneration of your body." Celestia says, pointing a forehoof at the large stand-up mirror in the room. The griffon looks over - and is immediately transfixed by the figure he sees in the mirror. Immediately, he slowly walks over to the mirror and puts a taloned foot up to the mirror, just to confirm that it really was him.
The new griffon was strong and proud as any warrior of their race, coated in fur that gleamed gold and a fiery red mane of feathers on the head. He spread out his wings - wings he had never been allowed to use before - and found that their feathers too gleamed a golden yellow. Even if the golden and fire red plumage weren't considered colors of beauty to a griffon - and indeed they were - it was still a magnificent figure to behold in the mirror. The awe-struck griffon turns from the mirror and does the only thing he can to show his gratitude: bow before the sun princess of Equestria.
"There is now beauty where once was ugliness." Princess Celestia began to speak to the bowing griffon. "There is now strength where once was weakness. There is life where once only death threatened. Along with your new life I will grant you a new name. Arise, Excelsior! May your years of service to Equestria be long and glorious ones indeed!"
The griffon comes up from his bow, staring into Celestia's smiling eyes. And, for perhaps the first time in his life, a smile plays across his face too.
A LITTLE LATER...
"Back, all of you! The armor makers must be allowed to work without interference!" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor barks out, and the throng of curious Equestrians back away from the object of their attention - the ex-slave griffon now called Excelsior. Around the griffon several different ponies were taking various measurements for the purpose of forging a set of Guard armor for him.
"In accordance with Princess Celestia's wishes, Captain Gibraltar has given Excelsior a provisional Guard Upper Class ranking." Shining Armor began explaining to the two Lieutenants, Vesper and Stratocumulus, beside him. "He'll be in Academy a few weeks to learn the basics and get some flight training, then put on the night shift as per the Captain's instructions. Lieutenant Vesper, when the Academy deems him ready for active duty he shall be assigned to your command. Acknowledge?"
"Yes, sir!" the bat pony Lieutenant Vesper replies with a salute.
"Very good. Lieutenant Stratocumulus, please inform the Captain of the progress of the operation and the rendering of my decision." Shining Armor states, turning to the pegasus as he speaks.
"Right away, sir." Stratocumulus replies, turning to head toward the Captain's office. After a few turns down the hallway though, he is yanked into a utility closet by an unseen figure. Before Stratocumulus can even figure out what's happening, a light in the closet comes out to reveal a figure completely cloaked and hooves covered, a white unicorn horn sticking through a hole in the cloak.
"Agent Snake?" Stratocumulus whispers nervously to the cloaked figure, getting the sense he was in some kind of trouble.
"You failed me, Agent 3!" Snake exclaims in a stage whisper, his tone angry. "You said Formula X would kill by the end of the night! He wasn't supposed to survive long enough for the sun to save his life!"
"The formula was never tested on griffons! How was I supposed to..." Stratocumulus tries to explain, only for Snake to start approaching, the figure's eyes glowing a fierce red. It is not long before Stratocumulus is against a wall and up on his hind legs as the fear spreads on his face. Snake rears up as well and plants a forehoof on Stratocumulus' neck, causing the pegasus to start choking and gagging from the pressure of the hoof pushed on his neck.
"Let me make something very clear, Agent. I am tired of failure!" Snake's angry stage whisper continues. "We were supposed to backstab the griffons with the formula after they had the moon princess! That's the whole reason I had the Quartermaster eliminated in the first place! I've already had to dispose of one Agent for not hiding the Quartermaster's body well enough, don't make me have to do you too!"
Snake pauses, letting the pegasus gag and turn a shade of green before continuing: "If you fail me again, You. Will. Die. Do you understand me?!?" The pegasus makes an effort at nodding, and Snake releases his choking push. Stratocumulus collapses to the floor, coughing and gasping for air.
"Get out of my sight, Agent! My patience is exhausted with you!" Snake warns with the fiercely glowing eyes underneath the hood.
Lieutenant Stratocumulus spends a few minutes in a bathroom afterward trying to gather his frayed nerves. The last time he had ever been choked like that was in Guard training, and that was as part of a training simulation.
The pegasus Lieutenant didn't know fear easily. He had looked straight in the face of Nightmare Moon when she first appeared in Ponyville and lived to tell the tale. He had braved raging fire to save an innocent life in the catastrophe that engulfed the Weather Ministry. Between those two events, he had earned a Lieutenant's commission at a relatively young age and a Medal of Valor upon his dress uniform. No, he did not find reason to fear easily.
But he knew fear now because of what Snake had threatened. Stratocumulus, like many of what he presumed were his fellow Agents, had joined the Agents of Chaos because Snake had promised him something he wanted rather greatly. Now those words rung rather hollow, as the pegasus Lieutenant knew the whole organization was in danger of destruction. The number of exposed Agents was growing with each failed plot, and the odds of him joining that number were growing with each passing day.
The night shift gave a guard a lot of time to think, and think the pegasus had done. Stratocumulus had not originally planned to join the Royal Guard at all - his special talent was "cloud paving", or laying out a stable, perfectly horizontal layer of clouds. Anypony that couldn't walk on clouds couldn't understand the utility of the talent, but in a place like Cloudsdale or the pegasus "colony" above Canterlot it was invaluable for making sure you were building things on level foundations. The kind of construction jobs where that talent would be most useful, however, were seasonal work, so he had enrolled in the Royal Guard for a more guaranteed income.
His heart was still into cloud construction work, though. He tried to enter the Guard's Mobile Construction Unit, but found his applications were being consistently denied despite him showing his aptitude for the work. Finally, Snake appeared to him and told him that the supposed anti-pegasus prejudice in the upper ranks of the Guard were the reason that his applications were being ignored, and that if he joined the Agents of Chaos that eventually he would get his construction job. The frustrated pegasus agreed to the deal, but now Stratocumulus wondered if Snake had told him a pack of lies at the very beginning.
Betrayal of Snake risked a nasty death, but Stratocumulus knew that if he was exposed he would most likely be exiled to the frontier settlements or even executed as Princess Celestia had done to other Agents. He looked himself in the bathroom mirror and asked himself what his purpose was in the Royal Guard now.
The word "loyalty" popped into his head as he looked in the mirror - not very surprising considering the circumstances. He knew the Element of Loyalty was now held by a pegasus, Rainbow Dash. There was a certain irony in that, because loyalty tended to become perverted in pegasi with real power - the corruption of the now-dissolved Weather Ministry was legendary, the corruption of Lieutenant Captain Aten's morning Guard shift because of "loyalty favoritism" was rife, and it was rumored that Spitfire, the current Wonderbolt leader, doled out "loyalty" based on flying performance. This behavior, in turn, trickled down into the lower ranks.
A realization hit Stratocumulus: Snake practiced a perversion of loyalty, just like all those other pegasi with major powers over other ponies. Staying with the Agents was not true loyalty to anything, since Snake now made it clear Stratocumulus was disposable. Staying loyal to Celestia, that was where true loyalty lie. His previous personal oath to Princess Luna was not an impulse based on what he thought Princess Celestia wanted him to do, but a way to a more noble existence, to escape the traps that snared so many other pegasi.
The expression in the mirror becomes determined. Stratocumulus now knew what he would do, where his true loyalties lie. He would deliver his report, and perhaps something that would destroy the Agents of Chaos for good at the same time...
