Rainboom Revolution

Agent Sadness, civilian identity Guard Lieutenant Typhoon of the morning shift, had a job that was second to only Animosity's in importance. His small squad, wearing an orange upside-down balloon as its insignia, had a daunting but simply stated task: keep Princess Celestia from learning of the rebellion as long as possible.

On paper, the job of Sadness' squad, composed of a few lower-ranked pegasus Royal Guard members and some professional "eliminators", was simplified by the distractions of his fellow Agents, Animosity ensuring Princess Luna and the high Guard officers could not alert Celestia too quickly. But if Snake's plan did not work as expected, Sadness and his command would be lucky to escape the castle alive. Furthermore, Sadness found to his annoyance he would have to cover Snake's own infiltration of the castle, apparently to get him into the throne room so that he could declare himself king as soon as "the chaotic one" emerged.

Snake's demand meant Sadness splitting his small squad into two, one part to cover Snake's movements in the city and the other to actually perform the infiltration. Sadness himself would lead the infiltration while his second-in-command would lead the escort. It was thus Sadness, accompanied by the "eliminators", began the infiltration, the first target being the access to Celestia and Cadance...

The plan was not to go straight to the guards protecting the suites of Princesses Celestia and Cadance, but rather to create distractions elsewhere in the castle to draw the attention of the guards and confuse them. Sadness started by having his small command pelt random windows with rocks, sending guards scurrying all over the castle looking for the source of the rock throwers, then breaking through a security weakpoint at the Luna Vault, which was the only part of the castle open to public tours and where an important target was supposed to be located. Once inside, they would head straight to the guards to the royal suites, where the "eliminators" would take them out. Sadness didn't have orders for anything beyond that point other than "plunder the Artifact Vault", but it was assumed that by that point he could improvise something based on the situation at the time.

Lieutenant Aldebaran, already overstretched by the absence of any superior officers to call upon as well as minding both his own squad and that of Stratocumulus at the same time, was caught off-guard by Sadness' plan. He only realized this wasn't hooliganism he was dealing with when he first heard of a break-in at the Luna Vault. Taking an Upper Class and two Lower Classes with him, Aldebaran begins galloping through the castle corridors to the Luna Vault...

"Sir, aren't there a lot of precious and irreplaceable artifacts in that vault?" one of the Lower Classes asks Lieutenant Aldebaran as the guards gallop down the hallways at top speed.

"Exactly, Lower Class, that's why it's public access as a museum. Most of the presents Princess Celestia reserved for her sister in the thousand years she was gone are the only items of their kind left in existence, but we can't put tighter security on the place due to the public access requirements." Aldebaran explains in annoyance, the four stallions skidding around a corner immediately afterward.

Ahead of them they can see the access door from the public displays into the rest of the castle have been blasted open, a faint smoky odor filling the air around them. Aldebaran rushes to look into the breached doors... and is puzzled by what he sees. As his subordinates pass by and spread out among the display cases, Aldebaran observes that the only damage seems to be the doors leading in and out, the items and their display cases themselves are oddly untouched. The pegasus Lieutenant is trying to puzzle out why the criminals have acted this way when he hears his Upper Class subordinate calling from across the tour hall.

"Sir, we've got ponies down! Two unicorn stallions, one of them isn't breathing!" the Upper Class shouts, prompting Aldebaran and the rest of his subordinates to carefully work their way between the displays to the other end of the display hall.

Once there, Aldebaran could see two unicorns indeed laying down on the carpeted tour path. One, a unicorn with a striking resemblance to Gaffer and wearing a star-spangled cape, moans and begins groping with a forehoof for the glasses and hat also star-spangled that lay beside him. The other stallion, wearing a Guard dress uniform with the V-shaped insignia of a Quartermaster on the collar, had the ominous sign of an empty needle and drips of a crimson liquid beside him.

"Oh my head... where's my research notes?" the unicorn resembling Gaffer asks as he sits up and slowly looks around, massaging the area above his horn as Lieutenant Aldebaran rushes to his side. At the same time, the Upper Class stops in front of the other stallion and starts a lookover to determine if CPR would even be worth attempting, considering what he guessed about the needle's former contents...

"Slow down, stallion. Let's start with your name, since I know you're not Gaffer, he's on duty elsewhere..." Aldebaran states, gently pushing the glasses and hat with a forehoof closer to the stallion he was speaking to...

"Sunburst. My name's Sunburst, I was studying the artifacts, they came out of nowhere, I tried a fireball spell..." the unicorn tries to explain as he finally activates his unicorn magic to put the glasses and hat back on, forehoof still rubbing the area above his horn.

"They must've been attacked, what about the other stallion?" Aldebaran asks desperately, turning to his Upper Class subordinate looking over the other fallen unicorn stallion as he does so.

"He's the Acting Quartermaster, sir. Already dead, lethal injection judging from the needle." the Upper Class replies, and a horror streaks through all the other ponies watching as for the first time it was suspected the Agents of Chaos were involved.

"What else can you tell me, Upper Class?" Aldebaran asks, shoving down the dread beginning to well up inside him.

"The Quartermaster was stripped clean, sir. None of the keyrings can be accounted for." the Upper Class adds with a dreadful weight in the voice.

"Sir, that means they have access to the armory, the treasury..." one of the Lower Classes quickly points out.

"The Artifact Vault!" Aldebaran concludes breathlessly.

"What's that, sir?" the other Lower Class present asks.

"It's one of those things that's not supposed to exist in here, like the Luna Vault was before Princess Luna arrived here." Aldebaran explains. "There's all kind of dangerous magical artifacts hidden in there, and unlike the Elements of Harmony Celestia doesn't have a protective forcefield around them because they aren't supposed to even exist at all - the field would draw too much attention to the spot."

"How do you know about all this, sir?" the Lower Class that spoke before naturally asks again.

"Being the longest-serving officer on the night shift, you tend to learn about things you shouldn't necessarily know about. Now we need to go secure the Artifact Vault, I'm certain that's where the attackers are headed!" Aldebaran explains.

"Sir, what about Sunburst and the Quartermaster?" the Lower Class continues asking.

"The Quartermaster we can do nothing to help, but I want you to get Sunburst some medical attention, Lower Class. Escort him to the medical station within the castle, have him checked out." Aldebaran orders.

"Yes, sir. Come with me please, Mr. Sunburst." the Lower Class replies, first to his Lieutenant and then to Sunburst, who by this point has realized his research notes are nowhere nearby - possibly stolen by the attackers. Reluctantly, Sunburst slowly begins following the Lower Class Guard deeper into the castle through the breech where the doors leading inside used to be.

"We're going to the Artifact Vault. Now. Doubletime!" Lieutenant Aldebaran shouts, and he takes off in full gallop with his remaining subordinates quick behind him, the direction opposite the one Sunburst was being escorted...

MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE IN THE CASTLE...

Despite the qualifications of the guards posted in front of Princess Celestia's royal suite, they stood no chance against the Gemini Bats, a pair of twin batpony mercenaries who were busy for their hefty bounty that night. The bats flew high and slow just below the vaulted ceiling, too quiet for the confused and anxious guards to hear, then swiftly dropped on quiet wings and delivered their lethal payload in well-honed synchronization. As the two unicorn stallions slumped down from the cyanide's effects, the assassins catch them and lay them down gently so that there was no sound to echo across the castle hallways.

"What next, brother? We have already taken out the guards in front of Cadance's suite." one of the batponies asks, looking back and forth to see if anypony was watching them.

"Agent Sadness will open the royal treasury to us. We help ourselves to its wealth, as much as we can carry, as our pay." the other batpony answers.

"Sounds like a plan to me, brother. Lead the way."

Although the batponies in general were supportive of Luna, these two had been bought off by promises of the rebels, and rather like the Flim-Flam Brothers Twilight Sparkle and her friends would deal with later were willingly ruthless seekers of wealth. The Flim-Flam brothers, though, did not have the talent of silent wings or stolen supplies of cyanide at their disposal. And as the loyalists would find out, stopping these traitorous assassins that had already taken four pony lives that night would prove a much tougher nut to crack than the Flim-Flam Brothers.

All was now set for the final confrontations between the rebels and the loyalists. With the main rebel attack failed, and the loyalist forces preparing to counterattack, the only real hope of the rebels, despite the delusions of Agent Snake leading them to victory, was the appearance of the "chaotic one"...