Rainboom Revolution

Morning shift Guard Lieutenant Amarna, wearing the green rebel star of Agent Animosity, smirked with satisfaction as he saw Agent Cruelty's squad approaches with a few unicorn prisoners. Amarna had been the most loyal servant of Lieutenant Captain Aten - now revealed to be the treacherous Agent Snake in the Grass - and felt it a great honor to wear the perversion of Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark to lead the main rebel attack force. This force was dozens of criminals, virtually all of them pegasi and most of them with long or lifetime prison sentences as the result of having the "wrong" special talents. All of them had been "replaced" by some mysterious means in their prison cells, and all would fight to the death against the system that was seen to be both dominated by unicorns and tyrannically insecure. Perfect pawns for the spreading of chaos, as both Snake and Animosity knew well.

Animosity was relieved that Cruelty's surprise attack had succeeded, for it meant the loyalists were already playing catch-up to the rebel attack and Animosity's force could execute the main attack immediately. The rebels knew the officer barracks would contain the most important targets - the bulk of the "horned one" officers, including Captain of the Guard Gibraltar and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor. Breaking in would allow a deliciously-anticipated general slaughter, fundamentally crippling the Royal Guard and (it was hoped) speeding up the spread of chaos necessary to revive the chaotic one.

Agent Cruelty approaches Animosity and his second, saluting and gesturing behind him to the unicorn prisoners. Animosity looked further behind and was pleased to find no pursuit of Cruelty's squad - the loyalists were still in disarray, and it would give time to set up the attack properly.

"One of the prisoners is the treacherous Ventas, sir. I would recommend he be loaded into the machine first." Agent Cruelty points out, and Animosity sees Ventas' horrified look at the guillotine-like device Animosity's squad was towing behind them.

Animosity pauses for a moment to consider the proposal before nodding in agreement, an evil grin spreading across the face of the pegasus as he speaks: "Yes, load him in first. His death will hit the horned ones hardest. Move quickly though, the loyalists will be reorganizing quickly enough."

"Yes, sir." Agent Cruelty replies with another salute, as Ventas is dragged and shoved in the direction of the machine, both rebel Agents deliciously enjoying the terror on his face...

Agent Cruelty transfers his hostages to the Animosity squad and takes flank guarding as the rebel mob begins general movement in the direction of the officer barracks, the death-dealing machine Ventas is loaded in being dragged at the rear. The machine had already tasted the blood of one unicorn, and soon it would taste more in the perverse desires of pegasi convinced of their own superiority.

Animosity notices two trends generally developing as the mob closes on the officer barracks. One is armored and presumably loyalist officers filtering in behind them, but setting up a defensive perimeter instead of attacking - doubtless the loyalist members would be reluctant to attack first, so were settling on simply cutting off any potential escape. Animosity was not worried about this, helped by the fact that loyalist Guards would "peel off" this perimeter to help respond to the attacks of his fellow rebels.

The second trend was more troubling - the lack of any castle staff joining the rebels. Snake had told Animosity that as soon as an attack was obvious, the "oppressed pegasi" of the civilian staff would join en masse to help counterbalance the loyalist resistance and cause further chaos. This terribly flawed assumption meant that Animosity was in a fragile situation once the attack was launched.

Quickly the situation got even worse as a magenta-colored magic bubble encased the entire officer barracks. The attacks were planned under another flawed assumption: any pony that had the power to put up an effective resistance would not be in the building. Instead, as a careful observation of an upper floor balcony determined, Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor had put up his shielding magic in response to the movement - not only posing a serious obstacle to any assault but indications of the loss of the element of surprise.

Animosity was undeterred though - not least because retreat would not be easy due to the royalist security perimeter behind his group. The royalists still hadn't attacked yet, so he assumed that they weren't willing to act without clear indication of rebellion. The rebel leader halted his entire squad near where the magic shield intersected with the ground, the blood of the rebels still running hot with eager anticipation for revenge.

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar, awake and wearing his full armor, shouts down at the rebel group from his balcony perch: "I WANT THIS NONSENSE TO STOP IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS AN ILLEGAL ACTION, AND EVERYPONY INVOLVED WILL BE PUNISHED MOST SEVERELY FOR IT!"

"WE REFUSE TO BEND BEFORE A HORNED ONE SUPPORTING A TREASONOUS PRINCESS! WE HAVE KEPT OURSELVES PURE BY DEVOTING OURSELVES TO THE CHAOS, AND NOW WE WILL BRING IT BACK UPON EQUESTRIA!" Agent Animosity shouts in return, and the mob takes off from their ground positions in preparation to begin attacking the magenta-colored shield around the barracks.

Inside the building, Captain Gibraltar looks back at Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor and Princess Luna from his balcony position, shaking his head sadly at the other two powerful ponies in the building with him. An attack, it seemed, was inevitable.

"At least now we know why Celestia wanted the meetings here tonight." Shining Armor grimly affirms, the magenta-colored glow of the magic sustaining the shield outside the building illuminating the dismay on both of his fellow ponies.

"Those words... why are they determined to use them against me, against us?" Luna croaks out in misty despair, obviously feeling her thousand-year previous betrayal of Celestia had given an excuse for the rebels to just ignore the Captain and Shining Armor.

"Some ponies just won't be reasoned with, Your Highness. Friendship won't even touch them, because they've shut themselves off from it. The Elements won't help, we have to fight, and ignore their tactics!" Shining Armor exclaims, the fierceness of his features amplified by the glow of his magic.

Princess Luna looks over at the Lieutenant Captain, slowly taking in both the somber reality and the unspoken implication that she, even after she had done before, was still a better pony than these rebels. With a foreleg, she wipes away the tears in her eyes, and a smile slowly spreads across her face.

"I need you both watching right now!" Captain Gibraltar shouts out from his balcony position, and both Shining and Luna quickly race to beside Gibraltar.

What they see is both horrifying and incredible: dozens of pegasi pounding on the magic shield in front of them, and in the machine on the ground below a decapitated unicorn, not immediately recognizable, the horn removed and apparently pocketed as a perverse trophy of sorts!

"They are determined to kill! They must be stopped immediately!" Gibraltar exclaims as the loyalists behind the rebel group sprint in to attack, starting a general melee in the area in front of the officer barracks.

"Sir, I can't let down the shield without letting the enemy attackers in!" Shining Armor responds, gesturing toward the pegasi ramming against the shield he was generating. The pegasi showed the same persistence at the ramming tactic the Changelings would later show, and the experience this rebellion gave helped generate overconfidence in the shielding of Shining Armor later.

At this point, Princess Luna comes up with a suggestion: "My powers have recovered enough to shoot lightning bolts through any hole in the shielding. That can be used to prevent anypony from getting in while letting others get out."

Shining looks over at Gibraltar, who nods in response to Luna's suggestion then gives his orders: "I will get the Lieutenants out as quickly as I can. Shining, you focus on keeping that shield up and telling where the Princess needs to aim in order for the plan to work. Understood?"

"Yes sir, sir!" Shining Armor replies, briefly straightening up and giving a proper salute.

Captain Gibraltar gallops off without further word, and now both Shining Armor and Luna rush to the balcony overlooking the battle area. In the sky is the persistent ramming of part of the rebel force lead by Agent Animosity himself, on the ground is an appropriately-chaotic melee lead by both Agent Cruelty and Animosity's second-in-command. Cruelty's second-in-command and several other rebels are seen carting a hapless unicorn into the guillotine-like machine - the loyalists are too distracted to prevent this unicorn from losing both his horn and his head to the blade of the machine.

"That... is bringing back memories of more barbaric times." Luna comments as both she and Shining Armor recoil from the shameless execution in front of them.

"Barbarians indeed. Why do they want chaos so much?" Shining Armor asks in sheer disbelief.

"I most heartily wish to tell you, but I fear that the reason might manifest itself soon enough if they keep doing what they are doing." Luna explains. "It is something only the Elements could stop, and with the Bearers doubtlessly unable to respond quickly we must stop the rebels from the summoning they are attempting!"

The explanation didn't quite make sense to Shining - and it wouldn't for a long time afterward - but in the stress of the situation he shoves aside his own doubts and returns his focus to the situation he was facing. Ponies were dying, and unlike the "Night Eternal" there would be no magical artifacts and friendship power to count on to fight the evil.

Several tense, adrenaline-soaked minutes passed as the brawl continued, both rebels and loyalists going down with injuries. Cruelty's second-in-command abandoned the intended plan of executing unicorns on capture and only got to use the machine once more before he was ordered to open a way for the rebel wounded to escape back to the opera house. He succeeded, allowing several rebels that would've otherwise been captured to escape, but it upped the pressure on the remaining rebels as a result.

Agent Animosity, frustrated by the persistence of the magical shield protecting the officer barracks and seeing a counterattack being organized inside it, pulled the bulk of the remaining rebels into trying to break the shield, leaving Cruelty with a skeleton squad distracting the loyalist forces under operational authority of Lieutenant Skyver. The loyalists had been reduced by injury and the need to attend to the distractions elsewhere in the city of Canterlot, but they still were a superior force to the mostly-civilian rebels. Both Animosity and Cruelty hoped to receive civilian pegasi reinforcement, but that hope was proving rather elusive, as was the signs of the chaotic one's return.

Captain Gibraltar was preparing to initiate his counterattack when the battlefield was suddenly - and quite rapidly, suggesting a deliberate action - appearance of thick, black clouds overhead, leaving the battlefield only illuminated by the magical shielding generated by Shining Armor. The battle quickly paused, rebel and loyalist alike confused by the sudden change of weather that could only logically be caused by coordinated pegasi.

"What's going on? No thundercloud banks were authorized for tonight!" Princess Luna naturally exclaims, staring up at the skies in confusion.

"I don't know who assembled those thunderclouds, Your Highness. It could be rebels, it could be the 'chaotic one', it could be anything really." Shining Armor replies, staring up beside Luna as he speaks.

"Do either of you up there have an explanation for what's going on with those clouds?!" Captain Gibraltar is heard shouting up from ground level, behind him the counterattacking force consisting of a number of loyalist officers, most of them unicorn Lieutenants, sharing in the Captain's confusion.

"No, but it seems..." Shining begins in his response, only to be interrupted by a loud sound coming from above the clouds, similar to that of a firework being launched in the sky. The cloudbank opens enough to see a bright streak, electric blue against the relative dark of the night sky, high above the battlefield and apparently aimed straight at the officer barracks!

The rebels temporarily took hope - to them, it seemed the first sign of the chaotic one's return, or perhaps the vanguard of a powerful reinforcement. The loyalists were both confused and worried, the conversation between Luna and Shining Armor encapsulating the uncertainty nicely:

"Lieutenant Captain, whatever that streak is, is it aimed at us or at the rebels?"

"I wish I could say, Your Highness, I wish I could say..."