Rainboom Revolution

The collision between Agent Treachery and the two Wonderbolts Fleetfoot and Surprise was massive. The two Wonderbolts were knocked off the balcony they were perched upon by the upward force of Treachery's flying impact, and Treachery turned back to look as the two pegasi mares tumbled head-over-hooves to the floor below, near other Wonderbolts fighting Treachery's fellow rebels to protect themselves and their offices from the rebel attack.

Fleetfoot recovers just in time to see Treachery zooming down with Royal Guard pike extended down to skewer her on impact, and dodges out of the way of what would've been a critical blow. Instead, Treachery's pike jams into the floor when it hits, the point hopelessly stuck in the floor with cracks spreading out around it. Treachery lands and knocks away a leap from Fleetfoot before trying to pull his pike out of the floor, which leaves him exposed to getting knocked on his face from behind due to Surprise attacking. Fleetfoot and Surprise pounce on the stallion, but Treachery throws them both off by spinning around and onto his back.

Treachery scrambles back onto his hooves, but Fleetfoot pounces again. Treachery bucks and kicks trying to knock her off, and Surprise prepares to ram the stallion again when Fleetfoot shouts out something else instead: "Forget about me, go stop the explosive charges!"

Surprise, showing her trademark emotion, looks around to analyze the scene. Around her, other Wonderbolts are fighting with rebels, a glass case displaying historical artifacts is shattered and the vandalizers start carting the artifacts away, and finally Treachery's second-in-command disappears deeper into the building. Surprise takes one look back at Fleetfoot fighting with the rebel squad leader, and then follows the second-in-command rebel stallion into the office building...

The Guard Upper Class second-in-command of the rebels slinks into the building, quickly finding a utility closet and ducking into it to make his way to the large natural gas tank that supplied the water heaters scattered around the office building. Exploding this tank - to either fill the building with fire or implode it with the Wonderbolts still inside - was his main objective, which he intended to accomplish by attaching small explosive charges to the sides of the tank, arming them and getting out of there before they blew.

By the point the second-in-command stallion was in the utility tunnels, he had a vague awareness of being followed by somepony else, so as he went he deployed his backup pressure-sensitive charges behind him as impromptu mines. Due to the close-quarters nature of the tunnels, there would be no way to fly over the charges, and any touch would set off the charge to cause serious injury to the pursuer. The rebel knew that doing this would complicate his escape, but he had prepared to turn himself into a suicide bomber as a measure of last resort should it come to that.

Upon reaching the tank, the rebel quickly begins his work - previously he had been a demolition specialist for the Royal Guard, but had seen several unicorn co-workers promoted past him in the service and joined the rebels as a result of the seeming injustice of this. This helped explain why a pony without unicorn magic and with wings already occupied by holding charges to be deployed could work so quickly, smoothly sticking and arming charges arrayed around the tank.

As he works, the rebel is extremely surprised to see the mare named Surprise enter the area behind him, her off-white coat and yellow mane untainted by even the soot of an explosion! He just stops his work and stares blankly at the unharmed Surprise growling back at him, despite all logic telling him that she should have stepped on at least one of the mines he had deployed behind him.

"How did you even...?!" the rebel stallion finally asks in sheer confusion.

"You'd be surprised who I have in my family tree." Surprise replies smugly, just moments later charging the rebel.

The rebel second-in-command reacts on instinct, throwing another pressure-sensitive charge at Surprise. The charge detonates on impact, the explosion sending Surprise tumbling backwards and giving the rebel enough time to launch a counter-attack. Before Surprise can recover, the stallion is upon her, trying to pin her down long enough to attach more explosives, but the Wonderbolt mare kicks him off before he can do so.

Surprise rushes to the tank and attempts to yank off the attached charges, only to get mocking laughter from the stallion, followed by more mockery in word form: "You're already too late, the charges are armed, and you're not escaping this time!"

"How are you so sure about that?" Surprise challenges in response, and the answer is quickly provided when the rebel stallion tosses aside his armor, revealing the large explosive pack attached underneath it!

Surprise can only gasp in horror before a quiet clicking noise is heard, and the confined space is filled with booming light and heat. The female Wonderbolt is thrown far back down the utility corridor, and when she recovers enough all she can make out is flames and smoke - there is no sign of the rebel she was fighting. Remembering the explosive charges the rebel had placed on the nearby natural gas tank, and hearing the boom of a smaller explosion somewhere close by, Surprise turns and gallops away as fast as her legs can carry her back up the utility corridor...

Meanwhile, back in the lobby area of the office, the Wonderbolts and rebel party were deadlocked. Agent Treachery was hampered in his efforts by the disappearance of the looters - who had already made off with whatever precious artifacts they wanted - and the members of his party still outside - who had dispersed into the night after disabling Lightning Streak's group instead of joining the rest of the rebels inside the office building as previously instructed to - so had switched to his Plan B: providing a fatal distraction to the Wonderbolts to prevent them escaping the explosion.

Surprise comes across this deadlock, embodied by Fleetfoot dodging the swinging end of the broken spear shaft wielded by Treachery, as soon as she returns to the lobby area, and shouts out a warning: "THIS PLACE IS GONNA BLOW! EVERYPONY GET OUT NOW!"

The distraction is enough for Fleetfoot, who wrestles the broken spear shaft out of Agent Treachery's control and jabs the broken end into his right eye. While recoiling from this grievous wound, Fleetfoot breaks his jaw with an extremely hard hit by the shaft from below, the hit also breaking the shaft in two. Finally, Fleetfoot puts him out for good by ramming him back into a wall and then kicking his head with a hindleg while the head is pressed against the wall - an action that immediately knocks Treachery unconscious and cracks open his skull.

Fleetfoot books it out of the office building once she sees her opponent is down, Surprise and the other Wonderbolts right on her hooves. Once outside, Fleetfoot is appalled by the condition of Lightning Streak's group - all are sprawled on a cloudbank, all are covered with bruises and welts, all dance in and out of consciousness. In the surreality of the scene around her, Fleetfoot turns back to see the office building fill with fire and a mighty boom, flaming debris blowing out of the windows and into the clouds around the Wonderbolts.

In a panic, Fleetfoot looks around... and is relieved to account for all her fellow Wonderbolts. Only rebels - Agent Treachery and a few others that hadn't escaped the blast - had perished in the explosion. But as Fleetfoot hauls up the form of Lightning Streak to carry him to a hospital, the action imitated by her fellow "faithful" Wonderbolts with the other injured, there is an overwhelming sense of dreadful failure welling up inside.

The courage and integrity of Fleetfoot and her fellow "faithfuls" had allowed the Wonderbolts to survive and escape the rebel trap, but only with their lives. Their office building and headquarters in Canterlot was now in flames, precious records and historical artifacts either missing or burning to ash. Additionally, Spitfire, Soarin' and Misty Fly were still unaccounted for - and Fleetfoot had every reason to believe terrible things were happening to them. Terrible things Fleetfoot or the other "faithfuls" knew they could do nothing to stop.

As the wounded Wonderbolts flew heavy into the night, the rebellion continued unfolding below them, and Fleetfoot realized that their divisions and the hatred that had been allowed to grow within their ranks would mean that in the end they would be left without honor. Bitterly, the ranking Wonderbolt realized they deserved the humiliation that was sure to come to them from Celestia herself...