BACKSTAGE AT THE CANTERLOT OPERA HOUSE...

"Ssssurely you know you can't esssscape, traitor? Even if you defeat me, there are others that will desssstroy you!" Agent X taunts Agent 3, the two locked in battle as the latter attempts to escape the rebel rally point that the Canterlot Opera House had become in order to warn loyal Guard forces about the rebellion.

"I don't care who, or even what, you are!" Agent 3 replies undaunted by X's current "insectoid abomination" appearance (which 3 at the time did not realize was X's true form and related to his true purpose in Equestria). "I long ago realized that all the Agents of Chaos wanted was to steal and kill and destroy for their own gain! That's not loyal or noble or even helpful for Equestria, and I will not be a part of a rebellion against the alicorns!"

"Enough Agent! I will not wait for Sssssnake to give the ssssentence, you will die now!" Agent X threatens, charging directly for 3. Agent 3, as he had done with the power of Nightmare Moon during his brief encounter with her before, simply braced for impact.

Both Agents go down, the struggle in the backstage area initially unheard due to the commotion up front. Agent 3, trying to prevent X from pinning him, gets a close up look of X's "abomination" features, which would only become important at a much later date. It was not long, however, before Agent X drew blood, sinking fangs into 3's neck. Agent 3 lets out a mighty shout of agony as a crimson liquid spills from the two holes in his neck onto the backstage floor.

It is this agonized shout that finally brings other ponies into the situation as two of the rebel guards posted at the nearby big door leading into the backstage area intervene at the sound of the shout. Agent X, upon hearing the others coming to 3's aid, quickly switches back to his previous disguise, giving a hissing curse as he ducks around a corner.

Agent X watches as the two rebel pegasus guards, one an Upper Class and one a Lower Class, come across Agent 3, down and desperately trying to staunch the bleeding from his neck. Both guards are briefly shocked - they can hear other activity from the stage, but nopony else seems to be coming to help him.

"What happened to you?!" the Upper Class guard asks Agent 3.

"Something bit me, get me to a hospital now!" Agent 3 orders fiercely, something he can get away with due to his higher rank within the Agents of Chaos organization.

"Can you take him to the hospital? I don't want to leave that door unguarded." the Upper Class guard asks his Lower Class counterpart in nervous confusion - it baffles him how Agent 3 had gotten his injuries, but they were serious enough to demand immediate medical attention.

"Sure, I'll take him. Come with me sir." the Lower Class explains, turning and assisting Agent 3 toward the door leading out of the opera house backstage, while at the same time trying to staunch further bleeding so as to not leave an incriminating drip tail behind them.

Agent X hisses in frustration as he realizes he can do nothing to stop what is happening - he can only trust that Agent 3's words about what he'd seen would go unheeded. He also realizes word of the attack cannot get to Agent Snake, as X could not explain who he really was or what he was really doing in Equestria, even to this rebel leader he trusted to further his own mission. Therefore he hastily decided to "replace" the Guard Upper Class once the latter was alone.

Agent X strikes again as soon as the Guard Upper Class is distracted trying to figure out how to clean up the spilled blood on the floor and report the incident to Agent Snake. The Upper Class doesn't notice X's "abomination" form until fangs sink into a hindleg. The guard crumples down in pain, only getting a brief glimpse of X before a strong kick knocks him cold.

With the guard knocked out, X has time to find one of the weapons equipped on the rebel guards - a syringe filled with a concentrated cyanide solution - and inject the guard with it, ensuring he would not wake up again. X decided to leave the needle sticking in the guard's body - in case Snake noticed Agent 3's escape, X would at least be able to claim he was just covering for the guard that apparently decided to commit suicide after the escape - as he switched into the guard's image and dragged the soon-to-be dead guard into a conveniently dark corner. Having done all he could at this point, Agent X simply decides to take the station of the guard he's imitating and hope Snake didn't notice anything for a while...

BACK ON THE OPERA HOUSE MAINSTAGE...

Wonderbolt Captain Spitfire's world started to fall apart around her as she behind Snake undisguised - Lieutenant Captain Aten wearing full armor, sporting a collar and a unicorn's horn attached to a band circling his head under a crudely-modified helmet. This pretense of an alicorn for a rebel leader, wearing what was later identified as a "second-rate copy" of the Alicorn Amulet artifact, was being hailed by the crowd lead by the six pairs of Guards wearing mocking versions of the Elements of Harmony. As Spitfire now realized to her horror, the six pairs of Guards wearing those mocking symbols - the commissioned leaders of the attack squads soon to strike - corresponded to the six "lackey" Lieutenants of Aten and their "apprentices" on the morning shift. All of them were Agents of Chaos, and Spitfire had in her impulsiveness lead her and her two highest subordinates right into their trap.

"How very appropriate a pony named 'Spitfire' has provided me the match with which to ignite the firestorm." Aten taunts Spitfire, the smug confidence he exuded only matched by the menace of eyes glowing red.

"What are you even talking about?!?" Spitfire exclaims, her defiance still not completely gone.

"Is your memory so short, Captain? I'll bring out the machine to help refresh it for you!" Aten taunts again, this time the horn and collar both glowing in a manner that would be similar to a unicorn using their own magic to control things.

Now the entire audience watching in the opera house seats is rapt with attention as a large wheeled contraption, appropriately glowing a menacing red, is directed onto the stage by the faux-unicorn magic. Spitfire is shocked by the type of the contraption, which would generally be described by a human as a guillotine, but is even more shocked to find that an unfortunate unicorn stallion is already loaded into the device.

"You said I would be spared if I helped you! Get me out of this thing!" the indignant unicorn locked inside begins exclaiming, answered by some booing from the crowd.

"Shut up, Xergraphos, and play back what I told you to play back before." Aten replies, giving a hard smack to the immobilized head. Xergraphos groans a bit and gives a glare at Aten, but considering his immobilized condition can not do much more than what is demanded of him.

The chained-up Spitfire, along with Soarin' and Misty Fly chained-up beside her, are temporarily blinded by the rectangle of projected lighting that now spreads across the wall centered on Xergraphos locked in the device. Although none of the captive Wonderbolts can see what is projected on the wall, they can hear the audio "playing back" with it, and the audio is enough evidence to prove Aten's point:

"NOT ANOTHER WORD, LIEUTENANT CAPTAIN! YOUR SISTER'S RECKLESSNESS NEARLY COST US OUR LIVES, AND I WILL TOLERATE THE ANTICS OF HORNED ONES NO LONGER! I WILL MAKE SURE NO HORNED ONE EVER SERVES IN THE ROYAL GUARD AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!?"

The reaction is immediate, the crowd in the opera house seats shouting "DEATH TO THE HORNED ONES!" and Aten giving Xergraphos another hard smack, which causes the entire clip to be played back in a looping manner. Soarin' and Misty Fly struggle to see what Spitfire is doing, and as her words continue looping and continue whipping the crowd into a frenzy the determination - and the color - drain from Spitfire's face, leaving nothing but horror in its place. Horror over what her careless words were going to unleash upon Canterlot and Equestria, horror over having set loose demonic behavior worthy of banishment to Tartarus or even death itself. Horror that she had essentially written the death warrants of any unicorn that was captured by these rebels, and probably those of her and her two subordinates.

"I hear you loud and clear, my followers. If it is death to the horned ones you want, then I shall give it to you now!" Aten exclaims, quickly spinning the guillotine-like device around using the faux-unicorn magic so that Xergraphos is facing the crowd and then, after only pausing a brief moment to make sure the crowd was focused solely on what was happening on the stage, pulling a handle on one side of the device.

The blade above the neck of Lieutenant Xergraphos drops, and in a sickening "thunk" the Lieutenant's life is extinguished, the separated head dropping onto the stage and the "magic screen" being cut abruptly. The crowd roars with enthusiasm as Aten lifts the decapitated head into the air as proof of death, and for the trio of helpless Wonderbolt captives the horror of the sight begins to exert a crushing grip.

"You have your orders! Do what must be done to purge the influence of the horned ones! Do not hesitate and do not show mercy!" Aten proclaims to the roaring crowd, which roars even louder in response.

As that seemed to indicate that the rebels would begin their attack, the horror reached what seemed to be a crescendo among the captive Wonderbolts. But when Aten turned around with an expression both triumphant and predatory, the captive trio - with Spitfire most of all - realized that the horror was just beginning. Aten pulls out from a pocket inside his armor a pair of hoods, jamming one over Soarin' and the other over Misty Fly. Spitfire realizes just a little too late what Aten is intending, but also knows her cries would be lost in the din unleashed by the crowd. The whirlwind had been unleashed, and many ponies would suffer, some to the point of death, as a result of it...

Author's Note

(Apologies for the late upload this week, work schedule did not permit me to get it out any earlier. Also, it is IMPORTANT to understand that the next chapters detailing the rebel attack are not meant to be in chronological order, as is the usual case with my writing. Instead, all these chapters are meant to take place at roughly the same time and only near the end of the story will chronological progression resume.)