Rainboom Revolution

Any civilian outside observer would not have been blamed for thinking there was an exclusive performance or dress rehearsal for a new show in the Canterlot Opera House, one of the most prestigious entertainment venues in Canterlot. But the armored guards posted outside each entrance, an eight-way arrow of chaos crudely painted over the side armor where the cutie mark would be, tell a very different and much more worrying story...

On the big stage inside, observing everything going on in the seats below, Agent Snake seems well pleased with the crowd in front of him. On one side of him is Agent X, in the same pegasus disguise as he "wore" the previous night, and it is to him Snake turns to speak: "X, you've outdone yourself again. I don't know where you found replacements for all those criminals that are supposed to still be in prison, but since they will serve me loyally I'm not complaining too much."

Agent 3, on the opposite side of Snake and wearing the same altered Guard armor as those stallions guarding the outside doors, looks over worryingly first at X's eager lip-smacking response to Snake's words, and then out at the crowd uneasily congregated in the front seats of the venue. There where twelve stallions, all pegasi, in the front row of seats, wearing armor painted with symbols deliberately mocking those of the Elements of Harmony - opposite in color and (except for the symmetric Magic and Generosity shapes) flipped upside-down from the correct orientation. Behind them was best described as a motley crew of almost entirely pegasi - most of them stallions although a few mares were in the mix - from various sources: some were criminals "condemned by their marks" to long sentences in jail, others were Wonderbolt Academy rejects lured into rebellion by the promise of being given what the Wonderbolts had denied them, yet others held grudges against various celebrities and joined the rebellion seeking revenge.

The ponies from these various sources would not have worked together normally, but they were all here tonight for one reason - they had been promised they would help destroy the system, and those supporting them, that had previously wronged them by spreading chaos and destruction in Canterlot. And Agent 3, a pegasus himself, knew that once the passions of such a crowd were unleashed the situation would become very serious indeed. It did not help that, as most of the activity would take place under low moonlight of the night, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony in Ponyville might not know or be able to respond to any rebellion before morning came - assuming, of course, that the unleashed "chaotic one" allowed morning to come at all!

Agent 3 is snapped out of his worried thoughts with Agent Snake's words beside him: "The Lieutenant is in the machine, so all we wait for are those Wonderbolts to trot right into our trap..."

"Yessss, right into the trap!" Agent X speaks (a rare enough event to draw Agent 3's attention to X immediately) in a hissing anticipation, lips smacking eagerly.

"Now, Agent 3, I need you and X to work together on this assignment. You two are to start cutting communication lines within the castle complex while we wait to actually trigger the operation. Go, the guards will let you out once you tell them what you're doing!" Snake orders both Agents 3 and X, both of which respond with salutes.

After the salute, both 3 and X exit off the main stage, but 3 retains his intense discomfort working with the apparent formshifting pony, and at the first chance to go a different way Agent 3 attempts to take it. This immediately prompts another line from the usually-silent X which stops 3 temporarily: "The exit is thissssss way."

A moment passes in which 3 tries to his nervousness unsuccessfully, and then 3 takes another step in the direction he wanted to go, prompting another line from X: "I am not dumb, I know what you are trying to do. Now sssssssstop immediately or I will be forced to take drassssstic measures!"

Agent 3 this time is undeterred, and takes another step away from X after only a moment's pause. What he sees next he would not be able to explain or even understand properly until much later - a green glow enveloping X and in place of the pegasus disguise was a hideously black, hissing insectoid perversion of a pony form! Agent 3 was horrified by the "monstrosity" (as he could only describe it at the time) that started coming straight for him!

Very quickly a brief chase ensued backstage, 3 knowing he would have to escape X if his real mission had a chance of being carried out successfully. For he never intended to follow Snake's orders, and it seemed Snake putting X with him indicated Snake may have known this. The only thing Agent 3 could do is find an escape before X caught up with him and took him down in a rather predatory seeming manner...

Amazingly, the commotion backstage was not noticed due to an interesting coincidence - shortly after Agents 3 and X disappeared backstage, the three Wonderbolts that the trap was meant for entered the main seating area, Captain Spitfire kicking the doors open while Lead Wingpony Soarin' and Second Lead Wingpony Misty Fly following nervously. Some in the crowd hissed and booed at them as they past by down the central aisle, and both Soarin' and Misty Fly were alarmed at the size of the increasingly hostile crowd - they would later estimate there were well over 100 ponies total rallied there, not counting the guards patrolling the outside perimeter of the opera house to keep unwanted spectators out.

Agent Snake, now alone on the main stage, was heavily amused by Captain Spitfire's angry determination contrasting with the nervousness of her subordinates - it was that kind of bullheadedness that had made Spitfire such a useful pawn in his previous schemes, and now had lead her and her comrades right into the trap he had laid for her.

Spitfire stops at the edge of the stage and begins ranting about how illegal and underhoofed a rally this was - the pretext for luring Spitfire and her subordinates into the trap by inviting them to the opera house - while the armored stallions in the front rows begin forming a semicircle around the three Wonderbolts. The alarmed Soarin' and Misty Fly immediately turn around and form defensive poses behind Spitfire, but any and all attempts to get Spitfire's attention fail due to the high volume of her ranting.

When Spitfire finally stops ranting, all Snake can do is chortle from his position on the stage, his voice in evil distortion. Spitfire continues to be caught up in her indignation and does not hear her subordinates behind her pleading to just try to get out as the armored stallions push closer to their location.

"I don't see what's so funny, traitor! I still hold the military rank of Captain of the Guard, and I am ordering you to cease and desist this effort immediately!" Spitfire shouts at the top of her lungs. "The real Royal Guards will put a stop to this soon enough, you'll see!"

"Yes, commanded by the horned one favorite of the alicorns and serving a once-treacherous princess." Snake replies with a heavy snark, making it clear how little he took Spitfire's words seriously. "I'm afraid, Captain, you have no authority here. SEIZE THEM!"

On the command given by Snake, the armored stallions rushed the three Wonderbolts, overwhelming Soarin' and Misty Fly's efforts to put up a defense and finally causing Spitfire to stumble into realizing how much trouble the trio was in. Thanks to the military precision and the four-on-one odds in favor of the rebel attackers, the three Wonderbolts are quickly overwhelmed, lifted and dropped onto the stage in front of Snake and then pummeled relentlessly. The crowd cheered, and Agent Snake grinned with satisfaction, as the three top Wonderbolts were smashed until punch drunk, welts and bruises all over their bodies and broken snouts leaking a crimson liquid all over the dress uniforms the Wonderbolts had worn in a vain attempt to get the rebels to respect their authority.

"Halt! You don't need to do any more, just shackle them up to the back wall!" Snake finally calls out, and his subordinates stop their attacks. Due to the sheer volume of hits they'd received, the Wonderbolts were too disoriented to put up much fight as they were pulled across the stage and hauled up to be shackled to the back wall of the stage, legs spread out and wings clamped shut with special bands that were typically carried by Royal Guard members for the purpose of arresting pegasi.

As Misty Fly is hauled up and shackled, she cries out in despair at what seems to be a backstabbing on the part of Agent Snake: "What have I done to deserve this treatment?! I've done nothing but serve you faithfully!"

"There won't be a place for air shows in the rule of the chaotic one. Never was, never will be." Snake casually replies, shocking Misty Fly into realizing he had never intended to keep the promises he had made to her and her "breakaway faction" within the Wonderbolts. Meanwhile, Spitfire and Soarin' are so disoriented that they do not fully grasp all that is going on around them.

Snake then walks over to where the three Wonderbolts are shackled, stopping in front of Misty Fly and getting close enough that she could feel the crackling of "magic electricity" in the collar and unicorn horn attached to him. Snake added to his statement in a sinister tone: "Yet your cooperation has earned you one mercy. When the chaotic one emerges in his full glory, you will be allowed to keep your head. Your fellows, they will not."

Snake lets out a deep chuckle as Misty Fly recoils in horror from him, then the enemy leader moves over to Soarin'. The second-in-command stallion is already paralyzed with fear, and Snake mocks him with the same deep chuckle he had just let out before speaking to him as well: "Your pie obsession marks you as a mental defective. I will make sure you die separated from your wings."

Snake came to Spitfire next, and she alone had regained any attempt at resistance, yelling as she yanked at her restraints: "You're a monster! You deserve no better than the pits of Tartarus!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Snake shouts back, smacking a forehoof in her already-bloodied face and triggering another cheer from the crowd watching his every move.

"I don't know where you get off thinking you can just do what you want, wearing a horn of pretension like that! I know you're only the pretense of an alicorn, but who are you really?!" Spitfire continues to exclaim defiantly.

Snake lets out the sinister chuckle again, then he turns back toward the watching crowd and proclaims his next words to them: "The Wonderbolt Captain has asked me to show my true face. I think, on the eve our hopes will be fulfilled, it is only fair that I now reveal my true identity. What say you, my loyal followers?"

The crowd responds with an affirmative cheer - many of them, the armored stallions in charge in particular, suspected they already knew who "Agent Snake in the Grass" already was, but wanted to see fully for themselves, so answered Snake's question with an eager yes. The support of the crowd was all Snake needed to make his big reveal, satisfied as he turned his attention back to the captive Wonderbolts.

"You have asked, and you shall receive. Behold, the true identity of your captor!" Snake proclaims in a very stage-worthy manner, the horn glowing briefly to whisk off the hooded cloak. Both the captive Wonderbolts and the crowd gasp in shock briefly, and then the crowd, lead by the armored stallions in front, lets out a riotous cheer. With the true identity of Agent Snake revealed, the whirlwind would begin to be reaped...