Consequences

Chapters

Canterlot General
Promotional Blitz
Secret Passage
Crypts of Chaos
The Secrets I
The Secrets II
The Herd
The Witnesses
Harvested
Agonized in Ponyville
No Easy Answers
Unicorns Rising
The X-Factor
Inside The Final Act

Canterlot General

Canterlot General Hospital - the finest hospital in all Canterlot. The hospital where those with horn, those with wing and those with neither (and, in rare instances, both) preferred to be treated. And the hospital where Princess Celestia's "consequences" would begin to be felt as the aftershocks of Operation Whirlwind began to reverberate throughout Canterlot...

It was mid-morning, and a sleep-deprived Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas stumbled into the Canterlot General waiting room, surrounded by "gossip rag" journalists all too eager to get a piece of the juicy news story Operation Whirlwind was turning out to be.

The head of the afternoon guard shift swam as he tried to focus in all the buzz of activity - the result of being awakened at the break of dawn and given a warp-speed briefing by Captain of the Guard Gibraltar before he could even get a cup of coffee in his system. Snatches of the briefing's contents danced in his mind - Lieutenant Captain Aten and most of the other morning shift officers turning rebel over that night, Princess Celestia being obsessed with a certain statue in the castle statue garden that seemed undamaged, the captain leaving him in charge of the remaining morning shift temporarily, and most of all, to check for as-yet-undiscovered rebels as he proceeded with a special assignment.

Fidelitas, traveling alone but armored, did not find any rebels - it seemed that almost all of them had either been captured or escaped the city, reducing fears of wider damage to the city and its inhabitants. The Royal Guard would still have their hooves full, though, combing the city and trying to recover the artifacts the rebels had "seeded" the city with (a mostly fruitless effort, as it turned out - some would only be accounted for after Twilight Sparkle and her friends encountered enemies using them). The Lieutenant Captain was just beginning one of the longest days of his life, and even knowing what he carried he had no idea how long it would really be...

He stumbles up to the nurse busy trying to keep away the pressing journalists and uses grey unicorn magic to hold up a summary of where he was to deliver the missives he had been burdened with. The nurse only pauses a moment before wearily stating "One minute sir, I'll give you a room list..."

Although the wait is not long, the press - both in physical presence and insistence in asking questions of him - of the journalists around him causes Fidelitas to lose his temper and shout at the top of his lungs to get them to back off: "I AM DOING BUSINESS OF PRINCESS CELESTIA, DO NOT INTERFERE WITH IT!"

The shout stops the entire buzz in its tracks, freezing all the others in the waiting room in place for a few moments, before the journalists slink away in nervous shame and the others inside slowly begin to pick up where they left off. Fidelitas feels his cheeks growing warm inside his helmet - the behavior was certainly crude and unprofessional, but at least it had been effective.

"Here's the list of rooms you're looking for, sir, and you may need to do that trick again to keep the journalists from following you in." the nurse comments, causing Fidelitas' expression to turn even more red.

"Thank you, ma'am." Fidelitas manages to reply as he levitates the list with his unicorn magic and looks it over briefly before proceeding toward the door, already guarded by a Lower Class Guard unicorn in order to keep the journalists flooding into the hospital uncontrolled, that would lead deeper into the hospital. He turns back to face the hopeful-again journalists with angry glares, actually backing his way through the door and into the hospital proper in order to keep from being followed.

"I hate journalists." the Lieutenant Captain sighs out once inside the hospital hallways and turned around in the proper orientation. The first stop on his list would be the guarded care rooms where the Wonderbolts had been assigned to after arriving at the hospital...

As he travels through hallways busy with nurses and patients moving to and fro, he passes the "intensive care" section where he knew Lieutenant Captain Aten had ended up, and cannot help but satisfy the intense itch of curiousity by stopping to take a peek into the room where Aten had ultimately ended up.

Although Fidelitas knew Aten had quite a bit of surgery around his burned-off wings, even he could not help but be surprised at how pathetic the once-proud pegasus looked. The wings had been reduced to bandage-covered nubs, his partly-burned mane shaved off, and finally he was held down on his stomach by restraining rings both to keep him from trying to run away and to keep him from turning over on his back. An IV line was stuck into one of his forelegs, and he was kept sedated after the emergency surgery by the chemicals pumped through that IV line. There was steady breathing, and the heart monitor beeped in steady pace.

The reaction of Fidelitas wouldn't have been seen due to Aten's unconsciousness, but it alternated between stunned shock at what had happened to him and contempt over Aten's actions that lead to the state he was in now. He was reminded of something Princess Celestia had once told him: "But like one thousand years ago, I will do what must be done."; it certainly was not easy to deal with those you knew for a very long time suddenly turning traitor, but it was something you did to protect yourself and others you cared about.

The afternoon shift Lieutenant Captain flushes again - he realizes he's lingered there too long and needs to keep moving, particularly as other ponies are staring at him now. Glad he was alone and without others that might stop to jeer at the former rebel leader, he proceeded on to the guarded care section of Canterlot General...

"Right this way, sir." the nurse on duty in the guarded care section says as she escorts Fidelitas toward the rooms where the Wonderbolts were waiting. "They took quite a beating, but nothing broken thank goodness. Still, they've decided to stay in here and not being discharged until the media buzz dies off somewhat."

Fidelitas was puzzled by the statement until he actually saw the Wonderbolts themselves, bandaged and stitched up as they were, and recoiled briefly in shock at the sight. They were lined up in a row along the back wall of a large room, and all of them except two looked up as if foals awaiting punishment when Fidelitas stepped into the room. The two exceptions were Captain Spitfire, who was quietly sobbing in the corner, and Lead Wingpony Soarin', who as the only one completely innocent of any animosity the enemy exploited was able to stare Fidelitas in the eye.

"Who... who's in charge here?" Fidelitas asks as he looks around at the Wonderbolts injured more in spirit than in body, the deep concern apparent on the unicorn's face over what he was seeing.

"I am, Lieutenant Captain." Soarin' answers. "I've assumed operational authority of the Wonderbolts for the time being, considering Captain Spitfire is in no condition to make any significant leadership decisions."

"Understood." Fidelitas acknowledges, having heard from the briefing of Aten's "violation" of Spitfire that had occurred the previous night. Doubtless this extremely traumatizing event, coupled with the knowledge that she and her subordinates had been so easily manipulated by the Agents of Chaos for their own ends, had broken her confidence completely and made it easy for Soarin' to assume authority. The entire roster of Wonderbolts knew that the rebellion could have destroyed their organization and killed them all off, and that at least some of them had helped unleash that rebellion, so in end they knew that they dared do nothing but submit to whatever punishment Princess Celestia was going to give out now.

"We know why you are here, Fidelitas. Do what the princess wants of you, we will not resist." Soarin speaks again, channeling the mood of the entire organization's membership as he talks.

Soarin's words make it easier for Fidelitas, but his heart still sinks as he pulls out his special delivery via unicorn magic and floats it over to Soarin. This special delivery, a scroll containing a series of orders, is carefully opened by Soarin, the rest of the Wonderbolts looking over in morbid curiousity. Fidelitas sighs quietly as the scroll is unrolled, vaguely knowing what it contained.

Soarin stares down with a stunned expression at the text, and Spitfire looking over beside Soarin only manages to get through some of the scroll before breaking down crying again. This was Celestia's consequences, and as promised they were harsh - the Wonderbolts would be "cast out" of the Royal Guard, removing even a semblance of being involved in the military defense of Equestria and becoming merely an "affiliated" civilian organization. All ranks in the Royal Guard would be immediately stripped from Wonderbolt members, the nominal division colors were to be destroyed and some other reforms would be forced to be immediately carried out. Finally, it immediately cancelled all further Wonderbolt airshows until the reforms were implemented - essentially already a foregone conclusion due to the injuries the Wonderbolts had recently experienced - and promised all debts to the Equestrian state would be forgiven if the reforms were implemented without resistance or delay.

The grim scroll was passed around between the Wonderbolts, and soon there were no dry eyes left in the room. Captain Spitfire was weeping openly and the rest of the Wonderbolts hung their heads down in shame - their previous actions had left them no choice but to submit unconditionally to Princess Celestia's will, else she would probably destroy the organization completely. The athletes had already failed in being good role models due to the enemy goading them into indulging in their worst instincts, now they were suffering the consequences of being so easily manipulated by the forces seeking chaos and not trying to take a moral high road.

Fidelitas quietly slips away from the scene, not even giving a good-bye - his heart bled for the agony the Wonderbolts were suffering, but knew he was merely the messenger delivering deserved punishment to ponies that had failed so badly to do what they should have in maintaining harmony and order. It wasn't easy to play this part, certainly not, but it was a part he had to play...

Promotional Blitz

Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas had to leave behind the broken-hearted Wonderbolts after delivering the heavy consequences of Princess Celestia - there were other ponies to be visited in Canterlot General hospital. A few were civilian staff that had been unlucky enough to cross the path of rebel forces, but most of them were Royal Guards that had stayed loyal and ended up killed or wounded by the rebels. On authorization from Captain of the Guard Gibraltar, he promoted any wounded Lower Class Guard to Upper Class, and also told any wounded Upper Class they had been pushed to near the top of the list of potential choices for a Lieutenant's commission. Some of these honors were given posthumously, to grieving friends and family members just learning of the death of a stallion they admired and were proud of.

At the end of this grueling effort was the most consequential and important Royal Guard member currently being cared for by the hospital staff - Lieutenant Stratocumulus, having spent the overnight and duration of the Operation Whirlwind rebellion safe in the hospital. Fidelitas could tell as soon as he laid eye on Stratocumulus that the lightly sleeping Lieutenant had had a harrowing night, and quickly he turns to his nurse escort to get more information about the Lieutenant's condition.

"What happened to him, nurse?" Fidelitas asks as he looks over at the nurse, his expression one of great concern and some weariness from his previous efforts.

"The Lieutenant lost a lot of blood, sir." the nurse replies sadly. "When he was brought in, he was bleeding pretty profusely - we still can't get a straight answer on what attacked him and bit him on the neck. It was fortunate we were able to do a transfusion before the others affected by last night's events started coming in, otherwise his odds of making it through the night wouldn't have been good."

"Well, what did he say about what attacked him?" Fidelitas asks again, very curious about the strange attacker and wondering if he or it was affiliated with the Agents of Chaos in some way.

"The closest we've gotten - and we have to take this with a grain of salt as he was clearly dazed when he said it - is a 'bug-winged pony with bat fangs'." the nurse answers. "Is your service going to look into whether there's anypony which matches that descrption in the city?"

"Indeed we will." Fidelitas responds, using his unicorn magic to pull out a notepad with charcoal pencil and write down the description of Stratocumulus' attacker - completely unaware at the time of what this would mean for his future in the service and Canterlot in general.

"He's stable now, but we'll keep him here under observation for at least a few days just as a precautionary measure." the nurse explains.

"Understood, I would like to talk to the Lieutenant as part of my orders given by Captain of the Guard." Fidelitas asks.

"If he is awake, you can talk to him. I will be waiting just outside the door if you need anything, sir." the nurse answers, slowly moving to the doorway of the patient room Fidelitas and Stratocumulus were in.

The unicorn Lieutenant Captain spares one look back at the nurse before walking over to the bed-ridden Stratocumulus. The pegasus Lieutenant's breathing was shallow but steady, a heart monitor beeping in reassuring rhythm. Stratocumulus moaned and tossed his head in his sleep - Fidelitas could only guess at the nightmares the pegasus must've been having at that moment, but doubtless being associated with a group that was both active and ruthless in rebellion could produce very nasty ones. As Princess Luna had only in recent days been able to "dreamwalk" successfully in a consistent manner, it was up to Fidelitas to fix the problem this time.

"Lieutenant? Lieutenant Stratocumulus?" the unicorn stallion gently asks, and after a moment haunted, bloodshot eyes, speaking of sleeplessness and recent intense pain, open on his pegasus counterpart.

Fidelitas recoils briefly as Stratocumulus goes into deep gasping breaths, as if the sudden awakening produced a shock. The breathing stablizes again, and Fidelitas waves away with a forehoof a concerned peek from the nurse nearby. The pegasus on the bed looks up at Fidelitas, moaning and letting out a weak cough - the drugs running through his system were dulling the pain he felt, but it was obvious in his eyes he was looking for an escape, some way out of this nightmare he had stumbled into desperately trying to stop the previous night's rebellion.

"Lieutenant, you can hear me? Understand what I'm saying?" Fidelitas asks, and Stratocumulus responds with a weak nod - the former quickly realizes trying to get the latter to talk would be a bad idea, so accepts the nod as an adequate response.

Fidelitas gives a relieved smile as he can finally proceed to what he came here to do: "I have very good news for you, Lieutenant. Your biggest contribution in service to the princesses of Equestria and the integrity of the Royal Guard can finally be made public. The Agents of Chaos did indeed strike in rebellion last night, as I'm certain you set out to warn us before you were attacked, but they were defeated - their leader, Lieutenant Captain Aten as 'Agent Snake', personally by Princess Celestia herself. You have no more to fear from them any more, and one of the things Captain Gibraltar assigned me to do here is present you with something very special."

Suitably intrigued by the words of the afternoon shift unicorn, Lieutenant Stratocumulus focuses (albeit weakly due to his condition) on the superior officer as Fidelitas uses unicorn magic to pull out a special scroll and unroll it. The unicorn begins reading the writing on the scroll, carefully crafted by Captain Gibraltar earlier in the morning: "By direct decree of Princess Celestia and my authority as Captain of the Guard, Canterlot Division, we now recognize and state in public record the actions of Lieutenant Stratocumulus as 'Agent Double Bar', risking life and limb to thwart several plans of the rebellious Agents of Chaos by providing information and other assistance to loyal members of the E.U.P. Guard over the course of a number of months previously, undetected by the rebel forces who had entrusted him with such a high position within their ranks. Having proven his loyalty to the alicorn princesses beyond any doubt and also placing in consideration his sterling service record previously, Lieutenant Stratocumulus has been recommended for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Captain, assigned in command of the Canterlot morning shift. This promotion will be effective as soon as Stratocumulus has been discharged from hospital and deemed fit for duty."

The surprising nature of this decision was quite obvious to everypony in earshot - Shining Armor, favored as he was by Princesses Celestia and Cadance, had taken at least four years in service to go from Guard Upper Class to Lieutenant and then to Lieutenant Captain, whereas Stratocumulus had made the same leap in less than a year's span! Although the risks Stratocumulus had taken doubtless would've merited him such an achievement in due time, the immediate promotion of a relatively "wet-eared" officer into such a high position was more a decision made of urgent need - a consequence of the existing staffing stresses that the rebellion had severely increased, and would ultimately lead to the Changeling invasion as that enemy took advantage of the critical weaknesses that resulted from the staffing shortages.

"Well you've definitely earned it, Lieutenant. I'm very proud of you, and all your loyal comrades in the service I'm sure share that sentiment." Fidelitas comments, shaking his head as he rolls up the scroll and levitates it with unicorn magic over to the side table beside Stratocumulus' bed.

The bed-ridden pegasus looks back at Fidelitas and after some effort finally gives a weak smile at the news he had just received, and that weak smile was enough for Fidelitas to forget about all the other unpleasant duties he had executed in Canterlot General hospital...

MEANWHILE, JUST OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL...

"You've brought 'the two witnesses', Agent X?"

"Yessss. Have any other Agentssss appeared?"

"No. With Snake incapitated and all others outside the city, I am assuming you are in overall command now?"

"Indeed. 'Misssster Hoofer' issss long dead and 'Lord Zedd' hassss ssssucceded in ssssuicide missssion."

"Then there is just the two of us, deeply embedded, to get him out."

"Out of the city, and to our true leader."

"But will he be willing to go?"

"What alternative doesssss he have? Being executed in public?"

"Good point. We'll focus all our efforts on getting him out then."

"Indeed. One enemy out ssssso he can help ussss get in further..."

Secret Passage

Captain of the Canterlot Guard Gibraltar spent most of the morning after the rebellion in a tired, stunned haze, wondering how in all Equestria that one of his highest subordinates had managed to get as far as he had in building up a rebel force. After managing to cobble together enough ponies to cover the depleted morning shift, he immediately moved into "deep-searching" Lieutenant Captain Aten's abandoned office.

As it turned out, Aten had not only locked and deadbolted his office door before executing the rebellion, but moved furniture to block the door on the inside. All this meant that it took a lot of shoving, some hoof-smashing and finally the application of saws to get in, and the sun was already high by the time the splintered door finally yielded to the exertion. Immediately afterward Captain Gibraltar orders the search to commence.

The office floor was covered by a spongy mess of randomly scattered papers soaked in spilled coffee - Aten had put the entire coffee supply he had in his office to the task, not only to destroy any potential evidence that could be used against the Agents of Chaos membership, but to force further delay in the searching effort, as Gibraltar realized to his frustration. As the soaked papers and anything else on the floor were carefully picked up and disposed of, Gibraltar did a visual check of what else could be found.

The "replica" weapons previously decorating the walls of the office were all missing from their mounts - some of these weapons would later be rediscovered abandoned in the city, confirming the suspicion that the very-usable "replica" weapons were given out to the rebels by Aten. The top of the office desk had been swept clean, adding to the debris on the floor, and all the drawers inside pulled out and dumped on the floor. The filing cabinet used for records had previously been emptied and already carted away after being used as part of the barricade. But what struck Captain Gibraltar the most was how Aten could've escaped from his barricaded office - flying out a window wasn't an option as the office faced into the mountainside, and the only door accessible from inside was a utility closet that was subject to regular searches for secret passages.

Gibraltar was stuck, but he had to find something to explain how Aten could conduct such an elaborate campaign of deception and rebellion right under everypony's snout deep within the Royal Guard...

The utility closet door was unlocked when Gibraltar ordered it opened - there was no artifical lighting and apparently equipment was deliberately placed to trip up potential searchers, so gas lamps had to be brought in and equipment cleared out before the search inside could commence. The Guard Captain at this point was ordering Aten's office desk to be hauled away and having the searchers probe the walls with hoof rapping in an attempt to find something.

It was just after the desk had been hauled out of the office that one of the searchers inside the utility closet called out he had found something, and Gibraltar rushes into the utility closet in reaction - both relieved and mortified that the searchers had apparently finally found the secret passage Aten had used to escape. The unicorn Royal Guard captain finds one of the searchers on hindlegs, pressing hoof on a loose ceiling tile which is now pushed aside to reveal a carved shaft leading into the mountain, just large enough for a pony to squeeze through.

Gibraltar looks up the hole in stunned incredulity for several seconds, and then turns to the searcher on hindlegs: "There's inspections for these kind of secret passages every year, how was this missed for so long?!"

"I wish I knew the answer to that question, sir." the searching guard replies with stunned honesty as he returns to all fours. "The old mineshafts inside the mountain are not well documented - most of the information we have on them either came from incomplete old records or more recent batpony surveys. Neither of these sources suggested the mining tunnels ever got to this part of the mountain, so the inspectors never would've bothered to look at the ceiling."

"Then we'll have to do our own surveying." Gibraltar comments with a frustrated growl as he stands on hindlegs trying to pull himself up through the hole in the ceiling. Several times he tries to reach through the hole only to end up swatting at thin air - he can't even land a hoof on the outside of the hole in order to try to push himself up.

"Very clever, to get up in here you either need a pair of wings to push off the floor or somepony giving you a boost. A crude but effective means of keeping out anypony you wouldn't want in there." Gibraltar comments, glaring up in continued frustration through the hole in the ceiling.

"We're going in I'm assuming, sir?" one of the searching guards nervously asks.

"Yes, I'm going to take two Upper Classes with me and search whatever tunnels are accesible through this passage." Gibraltar firmly answers. "We need to know what Aten and the Agents of Chaos were hiding in there, get some answers on how they managed to set up this rebellion without us having a clue."

"Yes, sir."

"I want everypony coming with me issued a lantern and one pony issued parchment and ink for note-taking and mapping out the tunnels. I also want gas masks in case there are traps waiting for us. As soon as we are ready we're going in, and going to document as much as we can."

"Yes, sir. I'll get the supplies, sir."

As the speaking Guard rushes away to gather the supplies, the other searchers post themselves to prevent unauthorized access to the office and its secret passage. Meanwhile, Gibraltar sits on haunches in the half-darkness of the utility closet, still trying to process what he had already seen and dreading what he would find next. The tangled web of the Agents of Chaos had already been shown to go far deeper - and been protected by forces he had no idea even existed - than he had ever thought possible. And what he would find next would surely be almost as earth-shaking as the reality of the Nightmare Moon legends...

Crypts of Chaos

"Guard, is everything ready?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Security perimeter established outside the office?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, we're going in now. Help me up, one of you."

Levitating a gas lantern with dark brown unicorn magic, Captain Gibraltar received a lift into the hole leading down a secret passage into the mountain Canterlot and its castle was built upon. The Captain knew of the mining that took place in old times - and the honeycomb of mine shafts and pits now mostly used by bat ponies - but had no idea that the enemy Agents of Chaos had been using them as their secret headquarters. This showed the Captain the deficency of the current surveys, but due to lack of staff was not able to do much about it until the later Changeling invasion once again highlighted the problem of the deficient surveys.

The secret passage was low, and Captain Gibraltar had to duck down to prevent the tip of his horn poking into the rocky ceiling. Two Upper Class Guards, both pegasi, were able to wing-boost themselves into the hole and followed the Captain of the Guard into the secret passage. The passage twisted and turned a few times before emerging onto a small landing, barely big enough for the three Guard stallions to stand on, directly facing an old mining elevator.

Gibraltar immediately moved over the controls, muttering something about how the Agents must've been able to keep the old equipment working. He immediately notices two different controls - a switch that opened and closed the cage that would be used to ascend and descend the shaft with, and two words scratched into a panel with a row of buttons: "Shrine" and "Office".

"Like a work elevator." Captain Gibraltar comments as he squints into the somewhat rusty but still solid cage. "There's probably other places this goes, but we'll check the two associated with the words right now. Everypony into the elevator cage."

The lever to open the door leading into the cage opens with only a hint of reluctance when pushed by unicorn magic, and the two Upper Classes cautiously proceed into the cage first, Gibraltar quickly behind them. The lever is pushed shut again and the button labeled "Shrine" is depressed with a hoof. The cage shudders and slowly begins a clanking, creaking descent into the mountain, a chill beginning to spread over the ponies.

"All systems go... wonder what's keeping this running, sir?" one of the Upper Classes comments to Captain Gibraltar.

"Some kind of enhancement on the mechanisms, no doubt. Only unicorn magic could do that, though." Gibraltar replies, eyes narrowing in contempt as he speaks. "Aten was already a traitor and hypocrite, is he a sadist too?"

"I think we'll soon find out, sir." the other Upper Class answers as the cage screeches to a stop in front of another tunnel in the cold rocks.

The cage door is opened by the Upper Class Guard that had spoken first previously, then tentatively that pegasus steps out of the cage and tests the rock in front of him, just in case there were any traps triggered by hoof pressure waiting for the search party. Only when confident that no traps were waiting do the searchers step out into the tunnel.

A quick check determines the tunnel directly facing the elevator only goes a short distance into the rocks, but turning around reveals a passage leading away in a different direction. Following this passage through several twists and turns, the searchers open into a small, musty chamber, barely big enough for the three stallions to fit into.

"Is this the shrine?" Captain Gibraltar asks amist the echoed shuffling of hooves.

"Must be sir, look at the shelf." an Upper Class answers, pointing toward the far wall of the chamber. On a natural rock shelf jutting out from that wall is set a pair of candles, partly melted from previous use, and a picture set between the candles. When Gibraltar moves his lantern closer to the shelf, he realizes the picture is of a statue in the statue garden - the same "Statue of Discord" Princess Celestia was so worked up about!

"What is with this statue, that the Agents of Chaos would build a shrine to it? Is there some connection to 'the chaotic one' they kept talking about?" Gibraltar asks in a great deal of puzzlement, squinting at the picture in the darkness.

"Sir, there's some kind of parchment near your forehooves!" one of the Upper Classes exclaims, and Gibraltar looks down to see the subordinate was correct, carefully lifting up the parchment using unicorn magic.

The unicorn Guard Captain turns the parchment over several times as he looks it over, and after a minute his eyes go wide in surprise. At the same time, a small gasp echoes inside the chamber.

"Sir, what is it?" one of the Upper Class Guards beside him asks.

"This is a meeting transcript with Princess Celestia, an old one." Gibraltar answers, the shock still in his expression.

"How old are we talking, sir?" the guard who spoke previously asks again.

"The transcript refers to Aten as a Lieutenant, so it's a number of years old. It looks like it occurred during his 'equal pegasi rights' campaign..." Gibraltar speculates.

"The same one that caused Celestia to promote him to Lieutenant Captain?" the other guard escort pipes up.

"Yes, and this is very revealing on how he got he far as he did. You can read for yourself, if you want." Gibraltar offers.

The two Guard Upper Class escorts squint at the old parchment in rapt curiousity, beginning to read at the alternating conversation between Princess Celestia and then-Lieutenant Aten, Celestia speaking first:

"Lieutenant, I am certainly aware of the pride pegasi in general and pegasi stallions in particular have of their military heritage in the Equestrian state. But I will simply not tolerate your false and unfounded accusations of discrimination against pegasi in the service! If there are specific complaints you wish to address, you can have confidence that the Captain of the Guard will listen to and address your problems. I do not see the need for this meeting, what you are seeking can be reached in other ways."

"Your Highness, I asked for this meeting because I wanted to tell you something directly. I know that you keep something, or someone, imprisoned in the castle's statue garden. And I know a way to release that something from that imprisonment."

"... You know something is there? Whisper what he is in my ear, and I will know whether you speak true or not."

(unintelligble whispering)

"Your Highness, I know from the shock on your face that I am speaking true. And that's why unless I get exactly what I want, I will make every effort to release that being imprisoned in the statue garden. Does the Princess understand?"

"... Yes, Lieutenant."

The shock on Gibraltar's face is now shared by the escorts reading the parchment - except for the "Eternal Night", they could not imagine a scenario where Celestia was scared enough to submit to that kind of blackmail. All eyes turn back up to the picture in the shrine.

"Does the transcript say what Aten whispered into Celestia's ear, sir?" one of the Guards volunteers.

"No..." Gibraltar replies numbly, reaching a forehoof in the direction of the shrine's picture.

"What is it about this 'Statue of Discord'?!" the Guard Captain continues on in anguished confusion. "Why was Celestia so obsessed with this same statue this morning? Why is there a picture of it here at all, seeming to be worshipped by the Agents of Chaos? Is it related to that threat Aten used to get his way, and build his rebellion, all those years ago? All these questions, and no answers..."

"I feel, sir, that Celestia knows something about that statue we don't and that she won't tell us what it is." one of the Guards comments.

"I hope you are wrong, Guard, but fear you are right." Captain Gibraltar grimly states.

Indeed the guard was right, and Captain of the Guard Gibraltar would live to both see and regret the truth of that statement. Nopony except Princesses Celestia and Luna knew it at the time, but the presence of the Agents of Chaos was linked to an even greater threat to Equestria's peace and harmony, and as it turned out would help bring another mighty threat into Canterlot. The clues left in the crypts of chaos would be ignored, and great threats would attack Equestria because of it...

The Secrets I

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar and his two Upper Class Guard escorts had to leave behind the worrying puzzle of the shrine and proceed on with their search. One of the escorts documented their findings, both with descriptions and a crude mapping, before returning to the old mining elevator that had gotten them into the mountain hiding place of the defeated Agents of Chaos.

"We're going to proceed down to the Office level. Remember escorts, we must always be aware of traps and other possible defenses." Gibraltar comments to his escorts as he activates the elevator to take them further into the mountain.

The escorting pegasi could tell even a Captain of the Guard was uneasy with the situation he faced - hardly surprising considering this entire "base" of the internal enemy had gone undetected for who-knows-how-many years. This would form the seed of further paranoia about internal enemies, paranoia that other and more real external enemies would exploit to their own ends later...

When the elevator stops, a quiet sigh of disappointment is let out by the three stallions inside. Facing the way down the shaft is a large pile of rocks, but the cracked open space above the rock pile suggests a crude attempt to cave in the passage by explosives attached to the ceiling - an attempt that failed because of the lack of explosive power necessary to form a complete collapse.

"Pull enough rocks to form a passage and place them in the elevator cage - hopefully the weight won't cause a cable failure..." Gibraltar warily commands.

"Yes, sir." the two escorts reply, carefully starting to climb to the top of the pile.

Some rocks beginning sliding down the pile to land near Gibraltar's hooves, and Gibraltar himself levitates or pushes them into the cage. As the stallions work, an opening is formed leading further down the passage, and a powerful smell begins wafting through the opening, causing a temporary pause in the work.

"That smell... the smell of death and decay... we need to be careful... ponies have probably died in there." Gibraltar replies, his speech being interrupted by bursts of coughing as the sickening stench fills the tunnel around him.

"Yes, sir." each of the escorts replies in turn, realizing this search was turning out to be much more than a simple survey as rocks continue to be cleared away...

As the opening is expanded, the stench makes the three stallions more and more queasy, and they only proceed cautiously through the opening once it is expanded enough. The three stallions slide down the other side of the rock pile slowly, and the lanterns they carry show three options for the path ahead: just off to the left, a right a little further ahead and straight on.

"Which way, Captain?" one of the pegasi escorts asks Captain Gibraltar.

"No splitting up, we'll try each way in sequence. Left first." Gibraltar firmly orders, turning down the left passage before the escorts with him had a chance to state an objection.

After a short passage and a turn, Gibraltar's party emerged into a sight that amplified the effect of the stench that surrounded the stallions - they had entered the "trophy room" where Aten as Snake had displayed the cut-off body parts of other ponies! To the left was a series of decorated busts, to the right an ominously smoothed and labeled wall, although Gibraltar couldn't see what the labels were from where he was standing.

"Sir, requesting permission to throw up." one of the escorts besides Gibraltar asks, the Guard Captain noticing the pegasus had turned a very sickly shade of green, doubtless from the experience he had at the moment.

"Granted, keep the mess in a corner though." Gibraltar replies numbly, too shocked by what he was seeing to give a more passionate response.

As the sickened escort retreats to "toss his cookies", Gibraltar moves with morbid curiousity toward the row of busts on the left while the other escort moves to the right to look at the wall in more detail. The puking sound effects echo in the chamber as Gibraltar moves past the neatly-labeled busts in opened-mouth shock. He recognizes some of the names below the busts decorated with real unicorn horns: Quartermaster Tallymark, Lieutenant Quill, Lieutenant Pyros, Star Dancer...

Several other busts are labeled but do not have horns on them - Gibraltar recognizes one of the names as Lieutenant Xergraphos, who had been executed during the rebellion the previous night, and several other Lieutenants on his staff are also named. The implications are clear - Aten intended to kill and/or dehorn every unicorn he could get under his control.

"Sir, I think you want to see this." the escort looking along the right wall of the chamber speaks in Gibraltar's direction. Gibraltar quickly turns around and sees the horror in the escorting stallion's face, so rushes over to his side, looking up in further amplified shock at the smoothed-over and labeled wall.

"Your name is on there, sir. So is Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor's. And all three alicorns too, with space for the wings as well. Fancy Pants, Fleur Dis Lee, Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas... any powerful pony with a horn, labeled on this wall..." the escort pegasus replies breathlessly.

"What kind of mad pony would do this?! Or even want this? I... I'm afraid there's so much we may not even know, searching in these tunnels..." Gibraltar exclaims in shock at what he sees.

"There's still two more rooms to look over, sir. Do you think we'll find anything more like this?" the escort asks.

Gibraltar looks over with a haunted expression before replying: "I'm expecting it, Guard. And that's what's most horrifying about this whole thing..."

The Secrets II

"With all due respect, Captain, I'd just as soon not go into that 'trophy room' again."

"Noted, Guard. Now let's see if your comrade's stomach has settled and move on..."

Returning to the main corridor of the underground level from the trophy room, Captain of the Guard Gibraltar and a pegasus Guard Upper Class acting as escort turned to see another pegasus Upper Class, who was supposed to be the second escort in searching the caverns, smiling sheepishly near a yellow-green puddle on the rocky floor. Considering the array of detached unicorn horns on display in the "trophy room" and the odor of decay perfuming the air in the corridor, it was hardly surprising one of the Guards had lost his breakfast.

"If you say nothing about it in your report Guard, I won't contradict you." Gibraltar reassuringly states, in referencing the puddle of puke on the floor.

"Yes sir, thank you sir." the pegasus escort wearily replies, still looking a bit green around the edges.

"Save your thanks for later. If you're done, we're moving on to the next branch to check out." Gibraltar comments, pointing to the other tunnel leading opposite the one leading to the 'trophy room'.

"Understood, sir." the escort replies, cautiously moving to beside the Captain as the latter and other pegasus escort begin to move down that other tunnel.

A short slope down, a turn and then the passage opens up into a large oblong cavern. The three Guards can see a carved-out shelf along the rightside wall which seemed to have been used as a desk, and the Captain proceeds immediately toward it.

"Check down the other end of the cavern, I'll look over what's on here." Gibraltar orders, staring down at the rock shelf in lantern light.

The guards reply in affirmative, and their hoofsteps echo in the cavern as Gibraltar begins analyzing what he sees. Several scrolls, including a numbered list, are spread open on the shelf. Beside those scrolls is a typing machine, similar to the ones used in Royal Guard service for official records. Beside it was a short list that, upon reading, reveals to Captain Gibraltar how the Agents of Chaos had ciphered their secret messages: "Shift word pattern: Chaos Number 1 forward, Chaos Number 2 backward, Chaos Number 3 forward, Chaos Number 1 backward, etc..."

Gibraltar already knew, thanks to information previously provided by Lieutenant Stratocumulus, the "Chaos Numbers" were what a human would call "pi", "tau" (two times pi) and "e". But this pattern showed how the numbers would be used to cipher the message - a cipher that without benefit of computer technology would've been very difficult to crack indeed. The Guard Captain was impressed with the cleverness of the entire ciphering system.

"Sir, I think you should see this!" Gibraltar hears one of the escorts call out behind him, from the other side of the "office cavern". The old unicorn turns around and sees the lanterns of his escorts faintly in the darkness.

"Coming!" Gibraltar replies, his hooves clip-clopping on the stone floor away from the desk.

When he arrives at the other end of the cavern, he immediately sees, illuminated in lantern light, the objects that had drawn the attention of the other stallions. To the left was a machine that resembled an operating room table, tilted partly upright and with a giant saw positioned on an arm over it. To the right was a rectangular machine with two openings in the middle, one with a red spot above it and the other a green spot above it. In front of the latter machine a pegasus stallion, dressed in an Equestrian Intelligence Agency uniform, lay motionless on the rocky floor.

Gibraltar could guess the purpose of the machine to the left - horn amputation. But it was the machine on the right that shocked him the most - because it wasn't supposed to exist at all! He rushes over to the motionless pegasus and gives him a quick look over, finding his fears confirmed.

"This stallion is dead, probably suicide." Captain Gibraltar states as he looks back at the escorts. "An EIA agent, acting directly on Aten's secret orders. Probably disabled the machine and committed suicide when the rebellion fell apart."

"Not the source of the odor, though, sir." one of the escorts grimly replies, giving a scrunched-snout sniff afterward. "Were 'Mr. Hoofer' and the EIA really involved in supporting the Agents of Chaos? And what is with this machine he's in front of, sir? I've never seen anything like it!"

"I'll explain in a minute. I noticed a numbered list on that desk shelf at the other end of the cavern, could one of you bring it please?"

"Yes, sir." one of the escorts replies, not tarrying in bringing over a long trailing piece of parchment. Gibraltar takes it with unicorn magic and begins looking down the list.

After a moment's pause, he starts to give his explanation: "On this list seems to be the civilian identity of every Agent of Chaos, starting with Aten as number one. Most of the names on this list we've already accounted for. 'Mr. Hoofer' IS listed on here, but at number 42 - he was apparently more valuable for the services he could provide, such as intelligence and equipment, than anything else."

"Such as this machine, sir?" an escort speculates, pointing toward the rectangular machine the three stallions were standing in front of.

"Yes." Captain Gibraltar grimly replies. "The only place a machine like this is supposed to exist is at EIA headquarters. It's function is perfect duplication by magic - not even Princess Celestia herself would be able to tell the original from a duplicate this machine creates. This is how the Agents hid themselves so long - they could duplicate whatever they wanted, as long as it fit inside the machine anyways, then change the duplicate however they wanted and put it in place of the original without anypony being the wiser. Most of the paperwork forgery must've been done with this machine..."

"What powers the machine though, sir? Some kind of spell?" one of the escorts naturally asks.

"Yes, a spell cast by a unicorn. Which again proves Aten's hypocrisy - exploiting the talents of unicorns for his own ends in private while running them down in public. Ponies such as that one well deserve the suffering and punishment he has already and will in the future receive!" Gibraltar answers, contemptously spitting on the rocky floor afterward.

"What do we do with this equipment though? It's too big to get it through the tunnels!" the escort asks again.

"We'll need to secure this area first, then the Mechanic Corp. can come down here and disassemble the machines later." Gibraltar answers. "Besides, we're not done yet here, the presence of that smell means there's still more secrets to be found yet in these caverns..."

All three stallions look back toward the entrance of the cavern, the chill and nauseating smell around them finally taking hold and beginning to break through the professional attitude. They all sensed even darker secrets had yet to be found...

The Herd

"Does this tunnel go much further down?"

"I don't know, but that stench of death is getting stronger. We must be getting closer to the..."

"Sir, look out!"

One of the Guard Upper Class pegasus escorts grabs a tight hold on Captain Gibraltar before the older unicorn steps right off a steep drop in front of him! Both stallions fall back briefly, sending loose bits of gravel down the shaft that echo as they rebound off the sides of the shaft.

The drop off marks the end of the tunnel they had been exploring, following their investigations of the "office" and "trophy room" of the defeat Agents of Chaos hidden in Canterlot's mountainside tunnels. Since there was no other obvious place to investigate in searching for Agents of Chaos operations, the temptation was simply to turn around and report what they had already found once back on the surface. But the strong stench drew them on, and Gibraltar approaches the edge of the shaft cautiously.

The unicorn can feel a gentle breeze rising from lower in the shaft, doubtless drawing up the smell into the tunnel in the process, and determines that the shaft could be descended and ascended safely with the two pegasi carrying him, and he turns to face his escorts. Both pegasi were scrunching snouts at the smell that now saturated the air around them.

"Whew, did they throw their garbage down this shaft?" one of the escorts asks, trying to fan the foul air away from him with his wings.

"Or at least something they considered garbage." Gibraltar answers, the subtext quickly being picked up by the pair of escorts with him. "And I want to find out what exactly what that 'something' is."

"Sir, I seriously hope you're not going to have us carry you down there, are you?!" one of the escorts replies in surprise, the expression on the other escort's face showing he shared this surprise.

"Indeed I am, Guard." Gibraltar replies with an amused look. "The current is strong enough that by holding your wings open, you should be able to gently lower me down the shaft without crashing. The shaft is just wide enough for the two of you, so I want you to hold at the top opening and help me on, then lower me down the shaft."

The two escorts look at each other with looks of disbelief, but one shrugs shoulders at the other and the two decide it's better not to object to the Captain of the Guard's bizarre plan...

The low ceiling of the rocky tunnel did not help in setting up the descent, but once the awkward manevuers had been performed to get Captain Gibraltar on the backs of his pegasi escorts the descent itself was without incident, all three stallions ominously aware that they could well be dropping right into a trap, or at least something very unpleasant. The smell of decay and death was growing stronger as they descended, and now it was obvious what they were heading down was something more than a garbage pit.

Visibility was very limited due to the escorts needing to hold their lanterns by clamping down on the handle with their teeth, but the squishing they heard upon touchdown told them their fears were confirmed, and Gibraltar's expression - illuminated by the lantern he was hovering with unicorn magic - was for the first time phased. He worked his way off the backs of the escorts, the squishing sounds underhoof adding to the queasiness of the atmosphere around them.

"One of you two remind me we all need to go through decontamination procedure once we get back to the surface." Gibraltar says to his escort, the disgust in his expression quite visible on his lit-up face (although the same was not true for what he had stepped in).

"Yes sir. Shall we investigate further?" one of the escorts replied, hoping against hope the answer would be no.

"Indeed, Guard. This chamber goes into further into the mountain, and the source of that smell must be that way, so we need to find it." Gibraltar answers, already beginning an unpleasently squishy walk away from the bottom of the shaft. He was pushing against a steady air current, the same one that had allowed the descent in the first place, and the guards reluctantly followed him.

It was then that the real horror began to emerge again. Following the path of the air current, the party was lead into a short passage that emerged directly into a heart-stopping sight: pony corpses, pegasi mares and unicorn mares and earth pony mares alike, piled upon each other in varying states of decay! Most of them weren't identifiable, but all three stallions knew that those mares had to have suffered intensely before they died and heaped up in a rocky nook like a bunch of garbage. Once again, the stallions were astounded at the savagery they were seeing with their own eyes - there were at least a half-dozen corpses visible in the pile, and there was no doubt more they couldn't see, the source of the intense decay smell.

The three horror-struck stallions heard a whispered shuffle off to the left, and turned to notice a sloping down continuation of the passage. The party cautiously descended this ramp, and again there was another heart-stopping sight: mares of the three different main Equestrian races, looking up with darkness-enlarged eyes, coats matted and manes tangled with their own filth and half-decayed scraps of food, the mares having been starved enough where the ribs could be counted and wounds would fester without healing. Mares trapped in a living nightmare, to satisfy the perverse and monstrous desires of one arrogant stallion.

"Celestia have mercy...!" one of the escorts breathlessly gasps out, eyes wide in shock and horror.

"The 'herd' Agent Snake kept, this must be it. Only he knows how many have lived and died down here, denied the light of Celestia's sun and Luna's moon." Gibraltar sadly concludes.

"What do we do, sir? How will we get them out of here?" the other escorting Guard asks his commanding officer.

"We'll have to carry them up the shaft, one at a time. Regardless of how long it takes." Gibraltar states firmly, determination rising within him as he realizes he finally has some way to at least try to mitigate the effects of the Agents of Chaos...

It took the rest of the morning and about half the afternoon to accomplish the feat, but in the end all the survivors of Aten's "herd" were carried to the surface and taken to Canterlot hospitals. Some would not make it even after the rescue, but some would recover enough to tell of the blood-chilling horrors they experienced in that darkness, testimony enough worthy for confining the criminal in Tartarus for what he had done.

Captain of the Guard Gibraltar was tired, dirty and in sheer disbelief when he finally was able to get his report into Princess Celestia. The scope of the report, detailing the hidden mine shaft and the horrors contained within, was one of the few in recent memory able to shake the usually unflappable princess of the sun.

"So we'll have to add all the unfortunates caught in his 'herd' to the crimes against him." Celestia firmly states, giving an annoyed snort afterward. "I knew what he was all about chaos, but trapping innocent mares and treating them like garbage... good thing the Elements of Harmony make all the difference..."

"The Elements of Harmony? What do they have to do with this situation? And do they have anything to do with that statue you keep obsessing over?" Gibraltar asks of the princess rapid-fire.

Princess Celestia gives a very stern look over the top of the scroll she is reading and gives her reply in a tone of stern warning: "Captain, you are asking questions it is not your business to be asking. The statue is intact, the Elements of Harmony are locked away safely just in case we need them, and that is all that is important to the situation right now. Do we have an understanding, Captain?"

"Yes, Your Highness." the Captain of the Guard replies, too confused and a little mortified by the stern response.

"Good, you are dismissed. And please take a shower before you visit again, you reek very badly right now." Celestia comments.

"Yes, Your Highness." Gibraltar responds, now flushing a bit of red as he turns and leaves. The nagging curiousity about the statue and the Elements of Harmony still remained, however, and he kept turning theories over in his head the rest of the day about what the connection could be between those two and the Agents of Chaos.

Princess Celestia knew the connections, of course, and also knew that curiousity would draw unwanted attention to the "Statue of Discord". Gibraltar and the rest of the Royal Guard were, and had to be kept, clueless about the truth, and Captain of the Guard Gibraltar would live to regret his curiousity later on...

The Witnesses

"Who sent you? And why to the hospital to bother me?"

"We were sent by Lord Zedd, as witnesses. He knew you would be here."

"Who is 'Lord Zedd'?"

"He is our lord and master. He sent us as the two witnesses, spared to tell of the last glorious strike to the world."

"What strike, and I still want to know who is 'Lord Zedd'?!"

Lieutenant Vigil exchanged a concerned look with the one asking the questions, Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas, about the two pegasi he had brought to the hospital as a nurse squeezes by them both. Both pegasi were ex-Wonderbolts, the stallion named Wind Rider and the mare named Stormy Flare (Captain Spitfire's mother), and clearly were under the effects of something, considering the straight ahead blank stares, their trouble keeping upright, and the fact they occasionally drooled or let their wings hang down open before straightening again.

The nurse does a few tests - wing flexing, shining a light into the dilated pupils on both pegasi, pulling on tails - before looking back at the two Guard officers with her unsophisticated analysis: "They've definitely been drugged with something, but I can't tell exactly what just from these tests."

"Alright, just make sure their kept safe until the drugs wear off. Oh, and I would HIGHLY appreciate Captain Spitfire not see her mother in this condition." Fidelitas sighs out to the nurse.

"Yes, sir. Shall I escort them to a room?" the nurse asks.

"Not yet. I need to know something about where they came from." Fidelitas tells the nurse.

The unicorn Lieutenant Captain then turns to the drugged pair and asks them again: "You said 'Lord Zedd' sent you as witnesses. Where did he send you from, because the Lieutenant found you wandering about in the streets?"

"We were sent from the Final Act Retirement Community, in the pegasi colony above Canterlot."

Lieutenant Vigil again exchanges a glance with his superior officer, making a comment as he does so: "I have a very bad feeling about this, sir. That place is where a lot of old Wonderbolts live after their retirement from performing and touring, there's some other famous pegasi there too..."

"We haven't heard anything about that area attacked, but considering this I'm authorizing you to check out the situation. Take two Upper Classes with you and go see what's going on, with all due haste." Fidelitas orders, great concern amplifying the weariness in his tone.

"Yes, sir!" Lieutenant Vigil replies with a salute, letting the nurse take custody of the two 'witnesses' and escort them to a recovery room as well as leaving Fidelitas to puzzle out exactly what was going on here...

Both heart and mind raced as the pegasus Lieutenant and his two escorts took a cloud elevator up to the pegasi colony above the main city of Canterlot. The place had been formed by Cloudsdale transplants early in the city's history and had always been somewhat secluded from the rest of the city - even the alicorns rarely visited there - so news both good and bad took some time to get up there. Lieutenant Vigil feared that this was where the remainder of the Operation Whirlwind attacking force was actually hiding, instead of flying away to the southwest of the city as was the standard report.

Vigil and his two escorts begin cautiously trodding the cloud-paved streets of the colony, alert for any potential rebel ambushes. The fact that none materialized made the three Royal Guards even more concerned, and a deep feeling of dread had formed as they approached the multi-story complex of the Final Act Retirement Community at the far side of the colony. Vigil immediately noticed all the windows of the complex had been boarded up, and began to fear the retirement community had been turned into a rebel stronghold, or worse the elderly residents were being held hostage by a small rebel force!

"You see any emplacements of weaponry, or watch up top?" Vigil asks one of his escorts.

"No, sir." the escort replies.

"Then we'll approach the main door cautiously. I have a very bad feeling we're being led into a trap." the Lieutenant nervously orders.

The main door, signed with the name of the retirement community, was designed to mimic the feel of entering a theater or auditorium. But the lights that normally blinked and cycled around the outside were all unilluminated, and the three stallions could see boards nailed up across the glass doors on the inside. Vigil's unease does not subside, and he can also see the inside of the entry hall is completely dark save for the ambient sunlight streaming through cracks between the boards covering the windows.

"Something tells me conventional tactics won't work here, we'll have to ram them open." Vigil comments in his analysis, and looks over to his escorts. He steps out of direct path and gestures toward one of his companions, apparently to choose him for the operation.

"Helmet on, straight impact, keep your head down." Vigil orders, and the Upper Class knows better than to try to object. He backs up far enough to make sure he can get a good gallop going, then charges at full gallop straight at a point between the doors. On impact, he rebounds off the door with a THUD, the braced doors obviously wobbling but not giving way or breaking the glass panes.

"Safety glass, we're gonna need more force to break 'em. You line up with me, we'll each hit a side." Vigil comments, pointing to his other escort while the first one retreats a bit to make sure both helmet and head are OK.

Vigil and the escort line up side-by-side, charging at the individual panes the same way as the previous attempt did at the middle of the door. This time, as Vigil and his companion rebound off the braced doors, the distinctive sound of shattering glass is heard, and shards scatter down onto the cloudy surface. When the dazed Vigil looks up, he sees that the impact has shattered the safety glass on both sides of the main door, but the door itself is still braced shut by the nailed-on wood.

"Shake it off, we'll try again." Vigil states to his escort in a dazed slurring tone.

Meanwhile, the escort that had done the first ramming attempt was looking around and gave a helpful report: "Still no signs of activity, rebel or otherwise."

"Thanks, very helpful right now. Come on, one more time at those doors." Vigil states to each of his escorts in turn, having recovered enough to try another ramming charge at the nailed-shut main doors. The full gallop passes over glass shards from the previous impact, and this time the impact splinters the wood planks, causing the doors to fly open and the two Guard stallions to spill into the lobby of the retirement community building, the floor covered with more glass shards.

Vigil moans as he works his way back onto four hooves, his head buzzing and feeling something warm trickle down his cheek. The escort coming behind him into the building lobby itself, blocking the light streaming through the doorway, quickly provides the explanation for the latter sensation: "Sir, you and the other escort slid right into the shards, there's cuts all over the place!"

"Ugh, alright, break out the medical kit and get some bandages on those. But be quick about it, we need answers what's going on in here..." Vigil orders, looking into the darkness the Final Act Retirement Community had been left in.

Questions swarmed in his head: Why was this place fortified when there seemed to be no rebels around to occupy the place? Where were the staff, and residents for that matter? Why was there no response to their ramming tactics, not even some kind of alarm systems? All those questions were cause for great worry, and Lieutenant Vigil would soon find his worries were more than justified...

Harvested

"Let's see if we can get some light on this situation." Lieutenant Vigil says as he observes his escorts cautiously moving in a utility room, staring at walls of panels through the lanterns they carried with wingtips.

"Over here, sir - this lightning generator is what runs the artifical lights here. It doesn't seem to have been sabotaged, just turned off." one of the escorts comments, he and his partner staring at the large circular machine in puzzlement.

"If the machine's in good condition, it should be safe to turn back on. Let's see what happens." Vigil orders.

"Yes, sir." an escort replies, looking over a panel on the machine in the lantern light and using a foreleg to press a few buttons and then move a lever. There is a hopeful hum, then a combination of whirring and sparking as the machine revs back up to speed. Some artificial lights come on around the search party, illuminating the utility room, and Vigil is briefly hopeful they're getting closer to an answer to what was going on in the Final Act Retirement Community...

This hope is quickly crushed when the three pony search team hears sparking and banging coming from their right. They turn in synchrony to see a panel spewing sparks and a few licks of flame, and the pegasus Lieutenant quickly jumps into action: "GET AN EXTINGUISHER ON THAT THING, PUT THAT FIRE OUT!"

One of the escorts wrestles a small fire extinguisher out of his saddlepack using his wings, pulling the pin out with his teeth as he hustles over to the sparking panel and then squeezes the handle in his mouth while facing the panel to discharge the extinguisher. A cold fog envelopes the panel, and in a few seconds the flames and sparking stop. Vigil hurries over to observe the ruined panel, now covered in a cold foam.

He squints at what he can see of the wiring in the panel, then states his alarmed conclusion: "The wiring looks like it was deliberately crossed. This thing may have been a trap, it was designed to blow as soon as we activated the generator."

"What did that panel control, sir?" the escort that had been using the extinguisher asked as he put away the device back in his saddlebag again.

"I think the door... yes, it says something on here... 'Main Resident Circuits'." Vigil comments as he stares at the outside of the door that had been covering the panel - this door had been blasted open by the short circuits also responsible for the sparks and fire.

"Does that mean all the resident rooms, sir?" the other escort asks worryingly.

"Not just all the resident rooms, but any medical equipment inside them. We just destroyed a bunch of very expensive hardware without even knowing it!" Vigil exclaims, smashing the door with a forehoof in frustration, only for it to rebound and smash his snout in the process!

As Vigil rubs his snout with an indignant glare in the panel's direction, an escort makes a helpful comment: "The power was probably off long enough that it shouldn't have mattered whether the ponies depended on the equipment or not - this jury-rigging must've been some kind of failsafe just in case something didn't work out."

"Yes, but this still doesn't answer what's going on here!" Vigil exclaims. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that 'Lord Zedd' or somepony working with him did this. But we still don't know why, or even what the intended purpose was in the first place."

"Sir, the power should be restored in the cafeteria, it wouldn't have been affected by that panel. We should go there now." the escort suggests in reply.

"I suppose, I don't see any other leads to anything else..." Vigil sighs out in resignation as he realizes his investigation won't get anywhere unless he sees what's going on in the cafeteria.

The cafeteria happened to be on the second floor, but climbing the stairs was no longer so daunting with the "movie theater" lighting back on. As the party starts climbing the stairs, they ominously note the automatic lift that assisted disabled ponies going up and down the stairs had been sabotaged - tools had been jammed into the running track and the lift pushed until the mechanical resistance from the jammed tools caused the lift to break and fall off its mount, the broken lift tumbling back down the stairs to lay on its side at the bottom.

"They wanted this thing unusable - but why?" Vigil comments.

"I fear, sir, the answers can only be found at the top, and they may not be what we hope they would be." an escort sadly answers.

The climb is cautious, the escorts close beside their Lieutenant on each side in the tight confines of the stairwell. At the top, another ominous sign - two pegasi, both wearing black shirts with a nametag pinned to it, slumping in front of a double door off to the left covered with nailed-on planks of wood. The three searchers rush over to the pair, seeing that the two were employees of the retirement community.

"Cold, sir. These ponies have been dead for some time." one of the escorts comments to the Lieutenant sadly, shaking his head as he looks up from his examination.

"They're the first ponies we've seen in here. And I've got a sinking feeling everypony else is behind those doors. Get at those boards." Vigil answers, pointing to the nailed-over double doors. As the word "Cafeteria" could be partly seen between the covering boards, the search party knew they had to break down the boards to get into the room.

"Yes, sir!" both escorts reply in synchrony, each one taking station in front of a door as Lieutenant Vigil moves the two dead pegasi out of the way. The feelings of dread and horror resurface in full force as the escort stallions begin smashing at the boards barricading the double doors, alternating between foreleg and hindleg smashing as they do so. Vigil notes in dismay that there is no response to the battering at the doors, not even a quiet sob or cry for help...

Eventually the boards are damaged enough that the pegasi escorts can push against the doors directly, leaning in with their weight instead of simply bashing the boards with hooves. Individual pushes do nothing, so the escorts back up and go at ramming the doors in sync with each other. The first ram produces a shuddering, confirming that the doors had been locked in addition to covered over, and the second ram breaks the lock, allowing the doors leading into the cafeteria to be pushed open.

Lieutenant Vigil and his two escorts had believed anything could be behind those doors, but were not prepared for the sight they faced as they pushed past splintered boards and other debris into the lit cafeteria. The space in the middle had been cleared of tables - quite violently considering the broken tables and chairs piled in the corners - and on the floor lay rows of pegasi, all neatly arranged and positioned in the same pose: placed laying flat on the back, with the wings tucked in and the forehooves crossed over the exposed belly.

The pegasi did not miss the signifcance of this arrangement, and each one rushed to the head of a row, feeling the pony at its head, getting nothing but cold claminess. They each moved on, getting the same cold feeling from the second and third ponies in the row. Finally, one of the escorts looks up, seeing the shock was shared with his Lieutenant and also his fellow escort, and utters the words Lieutenant Vigil hoped above all else he would not hear on this mission: "They're dead, sir... all of them."

The pegasus Lieutenant could do nothing in response but stand and stare in slack-jawed shock. The residents of the Final Act Retirement Community included many retired Wonderbolts and parents of Wonderbolts - some he recognized with surreal clarity from memories of Wonderbolt shows he had seen as a young colt - as well as several former members of the Equestrian Congress, and now they were all dead. Cut down all at once in a "harvest" by a force of malevolence Vigil couldn't even begin to understand...

He didn't know how long he stared there at the quiet horror of this bloodless massacre of both residents and staff of the retirement community before one of the escorts called out to him. He didn't hear the words at first, but did when they were repeated more urgently: "Sir, up here on the stage, I want you to see this!"

It took a moment for Lieutenant Vigil to be snapped out of his shocked trance and turn to see both his escorts on the stage at the far end of the room. This stage, befitting the theme of the whole building, was dressed up like a typical stage used for live-action stage plays, with a painted background and a podium in the middle of the stage area. Vigil could see a pegasus sprawled out on this podium, but had to get closer before he could see anything more.

Reluctantly, Vigil carefully steps between the rows of posed dead ponies, trying not to let his memories of past Wonderbolt performances rivet him down in place over any particular victim of the "harvest", and uses a wing boost to get up onto the stage. Once on the stage, Vigil cautiously approaches the podium, where he sees the older pegasus sprawled out on it was wearing an elaborate uniform and a nametag reading "Ringmaster".

"He must've been the last to die, sir. No one was left to arrange his body the same way as the others." an escort concludes grimly.

"There's a note here." Vigil comments, noticing a piece of parchment half-hidden under the dead pegasus stallion. He carefully moved the dead pony aside, then picks up the parchment using wing-fingers, the two escorts staring in rapt attention.

The side of the parchment Vigil first saw was blank, but when he flipped the parchment over he saw writing in the same blood-red ink previously encountered in the resident rooms he had checked. The words written on that parchment would haunt him for the rest of his life, their contents seemingly to be beyond belief of being true at all:

"If you are reading this, then the harvest is complete and you will not be able to help any pony reaped in the harvest. My name is Lord Zedd, former leader of the Agents of Chaos. As a colt, I was rejected by the Wonderbolts and Canterlot Guard in turn, and in response I embraced the hidden chaos I learned about at that time. Hidden from even the eyes of the sun princess I seeded wide the number and strength of the Agents of Chaos, and in turn teached my colt, the Snake in the Grass, to do the same as my heir when he came of age. He was able to attempt to summon the Chaotic One, a chance I never got, and I intended to turn this place into a fortress in support of his rule. Now though, it is obvious my son has failed in this attempt, and I have nothing more to live for. I will die, but I will harvest as many ponies as I can in the name of the Chaotic One before I do so. Every pony in this building will die with me, only two will be spared as 'witnesses'. The rest will have their bodies and souls delivered as a pleasing sacrifice to the Chaotic One, including my own. Glory to the Chaotic One and death to the rule of the alicorns!
- Ringmaster Lord Zedd"

There was nothing but stunned silence and the shuffling of hooves for a long minute after seeing the suicide note, none of the three pegasi in the search party able to come up with words for the sight of death so purposely delivered and cleanly presented for such a perverse purpose.

Finally though, one of the escorts breaks the silence: "...Who? Who could behave like this? Who could hate so much as to do everything they claimed to do - turning ponies against Princess Celestia, corrupting their own colt into a monster, and killing like this without mercy or remorse?!"

Lieutenant Vigil looks at his escort with a very grim expression, and makes his reply very straightforward: "Where there is no love or appreciation, hate will grow to fill in the void that is left behind. Soon, there is nothing left but the hatred. The magic of friendship can stop and reverse this course, as what happened with Princess Luna, but at some point even friendship will no longer work. And I fear there's a lot more absence of love and appreciation that these monsters have exploited than we will ever know..."

Agonized in Ponyville

For all the drama in Canterlot, Ponyville itself and the Element Bearers residing there was relatively drama free during the aftermath of Operation Whirlwind. The morning after the rebellion was defeated, Twilight Sparkle received an "unscheduled" letter from Princess Celestia explaining that all was well there and whatever had happened the previous night was not a sign that the Elements of Harmony needed to be used again.

The letter did not satisfy her suspicions, or those of her fellow Element Bearers, so Twilight actively sought more information over the next few days about what was happening in Canterlot from the stallions that commuted there to work in the Royal Guard. Through this exchange of information, Twilight was gradually able to build up a more complete picture of what had happened: the two stallions that had abducted Rainbow Dash and were later killed in battle when Rainbow "nuked" their hideout were indeed part of the Agents of Chaos, sent by their leader to deliberately cause trouble in Ponyville. The bodies of those two stallions were now laying in temporary caskets in a funeral home, already prepared for burial and pending the arrival of the families to allow them to say proper goodbyes.

Twilight Sparkle's patience tended to wear very thin while waiting in the town square for news from the rotating Guards, and this would become evident with the increasingly messed-up mane and tail as the wait grew longer. Spike, therefore, had no choice but to stay close to Twilight, and provide combs as necessary when a stallion in Guard service finally showed up with the news.

"Spike, comb!" Twilight exclaims as she sees a Guard stallion - Cherry Fizzy in this case - approaching from the other side of the square. Spike sighs as he holds out a comb that Twilight takes using her unicorn magic, having just enough time to straighten out her mane and tail again before Cherry Fizzy stops in front of her and Spike. Twilight could tell the stallion was quite tired from the trip and time serving on duty, but he had promised her to bring whatever news he had heard while in the city of Canterlot.

Cherry Fizzy chuckles at seeing Twilight hastily straightening out her mane and tail - having served at Canterlot Castle during some of Twilight's time residing there as Celestia's student, he had some understanding of her personality quirks. This, plus his relatively high ranking (he was an Aide, the "non-com" equivalent of a Lieutenant in the E.U.P. Guard) currently made him the unoffical senior Guard officer in Ponyville. Nominally he was outranked by Lieutenant Crispin in actual operational authority, but Crispin had been in Canterlot since the morning after Operation Whirlwind, and rumor was he was going to be transferred permanently there instead of being allowed to retain the de facto independant command in Ponyville.

"What news do you have, sir?" Twilight eagerly asks with a huge grin, Spike giving an annoyed glare in Twilight's direction as he takes back the comb before it is dropped onto the town square's cobbles.

"Please Twilight, just call me Cherry." Cherry Fizzy replies with an amused smile. "Got two scrolls today - one about the two stallions waiting burial and the other about the Wonderbolts you said Rainbow Dash wanted so badly."

"Right, I'll pass along the second one but I'd like to see the first one myself." Twilight states.

"Sure, just let me get them out..." Cherry Fizzy returns, rummaging through a saddlebag pack with a forehoof before pulling out a pair of scrolls. One scroll has an Wonderbolt logo drawn on the seal, which Twilight levitates over for Spike to hold onto for the moment. The other scroll had an E.U.P. Guard logo on it, and this one Twilight levitated up and opened.

Her reading of the scroll was eager at first, but slowed as she kept on going, as if not quite understanding what she was reading. Finally, she lets the scroll roll back up and looks at Cherry Fizzy in confusion: "I don't understand. There aren't any immediate family to attend the common funeral for both of them?"

"The only immediate family those stallions have are foals. Both of their mates are dead, and the foals have been in protective services for some time." Cherry Fizzy answers in a sad tone. "Both of the mates seemed to have died in apparent robberies gone wrong, at about the same time, shortly after the two stallions were assigned to Ponyville permanently."

"...Somehow I don't believe that's coincedence." Twilight comments suspiciously.

"Neither does the Captain of the Guard. During the rebellion, the Guard captured a pair of batpony mercenaries, and they've said under interrogation that the Agents of Chaos employed many different ponies as mercenary assassins. Probably 'hits' were made on both of those mares so that the stallions wouldn't have a home to come back to should they have wanted out. Now those foals don't have either of their parents alive." Cherry Fizzy continues in the sad tone.

"When are those foals coming here?" Twilight asks again.

"On the way already, I think, so sometime in the next few days."

"...Alright, thank you Cherry. I'll take this second scroll over to Rainbow Dash. You're good to go."

Rainbow Dash was quite eager to receive the "inside information" scroll from Twilight. However, her eagerness began to deflate as soon as began reading the scroll Twilight had provided her, the mood following the deflationary trajectory downward.

The first sign of trouble Twilight noticed was Rainbow's puzzled contortions of her expression, eyebrows going up and down at seemingly random intervals. Next, the rainbow-maned pegasus began turning the scroll in various different ways - sideways, upside-down, flipping it over, etc. - as if she wasn't able to quite process what she was reading. Finally, she puts the scroll down on the cloud next to where she was sitting and gives Twilight a completely blank expression.

"...There must be a punchline I'm missing. This is some kind of elaborate joke, right?" Rainbow asks, prompting Twilight and Spike to exchange concerned looks.

"Rainbow, I wouldn't be sharing this scroll with you if it was supposed to be a joke." Twilight replies with sad honesty.

"But... I don't...how... how could any of that happened? Why would they have let it happen to them?" Rainbow replies in total bewilderment, obviously not believing a word of what she was being told about the Wonderbolts.

"Rainbow, I don't know what they teach you up in Cloudsdale about the Wonderbolts, but those ponies are not as white as the freshly made snow. If you go into their Academy thinking of them this way, all you're going to end up with is sorely disappointed." Twilight states, shaking her head sadly as she does so.

"That's stupid! And you're being stupid! Take your scroll and go away!" Rainbow snaps out, knocking off the rolled-up scroll to land in the dirt of the ground below.

Twilight recoils from Rainbow's sudden anger, but also realizes that she can do nothing more to change Rainbow's mind about the Wonderbolts. She looks over at Spike, who gives a shrug in response as he picks up the scroll off the ground. She then looks at Rainbow again, who is still giving an irritated scowl in Twilight's direction - at this point, Rainbow simply turns around and gives a "harrumph" that clearly indicated the conversation was over.

Twilight gives a sigh - already having prophetic knowledge about the troubles Rainbow Dash would have in the future with the Wonderbolts - and turns away, reasoning that Rainbow would need space to process the news she had been just given. It still hurt she wasn't believed however.

"And this is why reading is undeniably, unquestionably, uncool." Rainbow mutters out in irritation as soon as Twilight and Spike were out of earshot. Her attitude about reading would change on its own without causing too much trouble in the future. Alas, the same would not be true about her opinion about the Wonderbolts...

No Easy Answers

The day arrived of the funeral for the two dead Agents of Chaos that had been assigned to Ponyville. The service was a quiet one - except for the foals of the dead stallions, whatever family they had decided not to show up, presumably because of the treachery of the two stallions. This same treachery also meant that they were to be buried as a civilians - Princess Celestia had made it very clear in a decree any dead rebel was to be treated in this manner, no military honor at all.

Mayor Mare, assisted by Aide Cherry Fizzy, conducted a simple service at the funeral home for the two stallions, then lead the somber procession down to the town cemetary and a pair of adjacent gravesites. Twilight Sparkle was in attendance of the service and procession, as was Lieutenant Crispin - the first time he had had a chance to return to Ponyville since Operation Whirlwind - and a pair of broken-hearted foals.

Twilight had been told by Crispin - the escort of the foals from Canterlot to Ponyville on the final leg of their journey - who these foals were: one was a pegasus filly of the stallion that had been called "P1", the other a unicorn colt of the stallion that had been called "P2". Not surprisingly, both of these young ponies had been torn up by the loss of their respective fathers, and both Twilight and Crispin could see they were already starting to bond as a result of the common trauma.

As the procession quietly passed through the streets of town, Twilight Sparkle could see through the tears of the foals the same sense of awe and admiration she had had once of Princess Celestia. It would be her first real experience of what it meant to the citizenry of Equestria for her to be a Bearer of The Element of Magic, and later an alicorn princess herself, the image and responsibilities everypony expected her to uphold and perform, an echo of her understanding of what it was like for Princess Celestia (and Luna as well before her fall and exile) on a daily basis.

The inevitable question came from the filly during the procession, as emotions overflowed: "Why couldn't you save them, Miss Twilight Sparkle?! Why did they have to die when you were able to save Princess Luna?"

Twilight gave a sad sigh as she looked down with great pity at the filly who's life had been terribly upended by circumstances no young pony should've had to experience - she knew there were no easy answers for that filly's question, but she had to try anyway for the youngster's sake: "Well... we could... we could save Princess Luna because, deep down, she truly wanted to be saved. Your father and his partner, they... they didn't want to be saved. All they wanted to do was hate, and even... even the Elements of Harmony can't help a pony that doesn't want to be helped. I'm sorry, my little pony. That's the best answer I can give you."

The disappointment was stinging as the filly shuffled back toward Lieutenant Crispin, and Crispin looked over with a mixture of sadness and frustration that spoke more than words ever could. Twilight knew in that expression was the potent mix of emotions the presence and attacks of the Agents of Chaos had generated - how such extreme and baseless hatred mixed with ambition and ruthlessness to produce such things as foals without fathers. And the saddest part of it all was that Twilight knew the Elements of Harmony would not have been able to stop this evil - friendship would not, could not, save the day when souls and lives were given over to such hate and ambition as the Agents of Chaos possessed...

The awkward, sadness-drenched silence continued until the procession ended and the quiet lowering of the caskets into the pair of graves was begun. During the dual burial overseen by Mayor Mare and Cherry Fizzy, a question popped into Twilight's head: Who was going to take care of these foals? Should she volunteer to take care of them herself? More questions started to form in her mind, but before Twilight could spiral into the what-if worrying cycle she heard Lieutenant Crispin calling her over to meet somepony.

Glad for the interruption to her own worries, she rushes over to where she heard Crispin calling from, and sees him standing beside two other ponies. One is an earth pony mare, with a coat of dark blue and mane and tail of pure white. The other pony at first glance resembles Big Macintosh, but as Twilight gets closer she can see the stallion is a unicorn with a darker red coat than that of Applejack's brother as well as a dark pink mane and tail.

"Ahh, perfect timing!" Lieutenant Crispin exclaims as Twilight approaches him. "Twilight Sparkle, I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Blasto, Demolitions Expert in the Southern Division, and his mate Blueberry Whip."

"A pleasure to meet you both, I haven't met many in the Guard service that aren't based in Canterlot." Twilight states to the couple with practiced grace, accompanied by a shy smile.

"The pleasure is ours, considering you were trained by Princess Celestia herself. Already you've accomplished feats that will ensure your place in history books forever, and you're still quite young for a mare!" Lieutenant Blasto exclaims, and his mate nods in affirmation.

"That's very nice of you to say, sir, but I'm more curious to what you two are doing here..." Twilight asks, blushing a bit as she speaks.

"I was summoned to Canterlot in the wake of the Operation Whirlwind rebellion, so that my talents would be on standby in case some explosive devices were found in the city. Lieutenant Crispin here told me about the orphaned foals, and Blueberry and I both agreed we would adopt them both." Lieutenant Blasto explains.

"We agreed to it because we feel that with this happening fate has made up for the loss of Fizzlepop." Blueberry Whip adds quietly afterwards.

"'Fizzlepop'?" Twilight repeats back to the mare, unaware at the time of the future significance of this name.

"Fizzlepop Berrytwist. She was our only foal, and had her horn broken by an ursa minor attack." Lieutenant Blasto begins explaining with a very sad tone in his voice. "She would've been a few years younger than you are, and had two friends that got into Princess Celestia's school. Spring Rain and Glitter Drops would've been a few classes after yours - you know about them?"

"I know they were always attending Moon Dancer's parties, but I don't know much else about them." Twilight replies with a shake of her head - feeling, and not for the first time, regret over isolating herself from her fellow students at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

"Oh, that's too bad." Blueberry Whip replies with the disappointment clear in her tone. "We thought maybe you could ask them about why she ran away from home - that's what she did shortly after the two friends left to attend the school. We've heard nothing from her since. We don't even know if she's still alive!"

"Goodness, I'm so sorry to hear that! I wish I knew how I could help you find her, but I don't." Twilight states somberly.

"That's quite alright, Miss Sparkle. Like my husband said to his comrade, we're not hear to get stuck on the past, but to believe on the future. We will adopt the foals and cherish them as our own, and that is all that matters right now." Blueberry affirms gently.

"Of course, Miss Blueberry. I completely understand your decision." Twilight replies, giving an acknowledging nod as she does so.

"Now, if you don't mind Miss Sparkle, we would like to see the foals now, and Lieutenant Crispin here has said he has other matters to attend to, so if you'll excuse us..." Lieutenant Blasto states.

"Of course, go right ahead Lieutenant. It was interesting to meet you both!" Twilight exclaims.

"Same to you, Bearer of the Element of Magic." Lieutenant Blasto replies, and as he along with his mate and Lieutenant Crispin turn to leave the weight of the title begins to sink itself into Twilight Sparkle's conscious understanding...

LATER...

Lieutenant Crispin's heart was heavy as he arrived at what had been his usual duty post, a watchtower constructed overlooking the road leading from Ponyville into the Everfree Forest. This tower had been started during "Operation Shield" and, with a little help from the Element Bearers to thwart an Agents of Chaos scheme, had been completed for the express purpose of warning Ponyville citizens about potential threats coming from the Everfree Forest. Crispin had standing command of the operation since its inception, but that was about to change.

Aide Cherry Fizzy gave Crispin understanding, sympathetic glances as the two stallions climbed to the top of the watchtower. Already up there waiting was the rest of the quasi-offical Ponyville contingent: Guard Upper Class Meadow Song, Guard Upper Class Caramel, Guard Upper Class Noteworthy and Guard Lower Class Lucky Clover. The quartet saluted as Cherry Fizzy and Crispin arrived at the top of the tower, the latter looking back sadly.

"At ease." Crispin weakly comments, taking what he presumed would be the last look of the view from the top of the tower: Ponyville off to the left with Canterlot's mountain far behind it, the view to the right dominated by the dark green sprawl of the Everfree Forest and its secrets, and behind him the mountain on top of which a dragon had temporarily stored his horde until Twilight and her friends - mostly Fluttershy, apparently - convinced it to move on.

The subordinate quartet exchange worried looks upon seeing Crispin's pained scanning of the surrounding landscape. Finally, Crispin turns back to the other Guards and begins his explanation for the down mood: "I have some sad news to share with you - effective tomorrow, I will be posted permanently in Canterlot, probably not to return to Ponyville for many months, if at all."

The worried look exchanges continue, but Crispin continues on with his heavy words after a short pause: "This watch command is not being dissolved, however. I have been authorized by the Captain of the Guard to commission my replacement before I depart for Canterlot, and after some deliberation I have selected Meadow Song as my replacement in the watch command. The Captain has also given a promotion to Lucky Clover to the rank of Guard Upper Class so that he can fill the effective vacancy left by Meadow Song's commission. Both of these promotions are effective immediately."

After Crispin finishes, Cherry Fizzy moves into action, starting by removing the two-bar insignia off Meadow Song's uniform and pinning on a Lieutenant's star in its place, then taking the two-bar insignia he had just removed from Meadow Song and using it to replace the one-bar insignia on Lucky Clover. While all this is going on, the stallions look in stunned silence, too surprised by the news just given to them to say anything. The quartet all knew Meadow Song would be the most likely stallion to replace Crispin in command of the watch and that Lucky Clover had been angling for a promotion to Upper Class, they just didn't expect it to happen in this way!

When Cherry Fizzy finishes, he moves back to beside Crispin again, and both he and Crispin salute the quartet that would remain on the Ponyville watch. The quartet nods and return the salute, holding the pose as Cherry Fizzy and Crispin turn and start back down the stairs inside the watchtower. Crispin is silent the whole way down, but Cherry Fizzy catches a few glimmering teardrops on Crispin's face. It spoke volumes of how hard answers would come to the many questions Operation Whirlwind left in its wake - why the rebels had made the decisions they had made, how the collaterial damage of the rebellion would be dealt with, how to deal with the seriously dislocated command structure in the Canterlot Guard, and most importantly how to prevent the pain from leading to further hatred and animosity.

Little did the Guards stationed in Ponyville know that new hatred and animosity was already brewing quietly in Canterlot, a natural reaction to pegasi arrogance that would ultimately end up being just as futile and harmful as the philosophy that generated it...

Author's Note

(Apologies for missing last week's post - the holidays are particularly bad when it comes to work schedules and sapping energy from my will to write. Hopefully you all had a good holiday, and regular posting will resume next week...)

Unicorns Rising

"This had better be worth my valuable time, Lieutenant."

"I can assure Your Highness, once you see what I have to offer you will see this meeting was well worth your time."

Lieutenant Troilus resists the urge to roll his eyes as Prince Blueblood continues to fuss with his mane, trying to make sure every strand was in its proper place before beginning the appointed meeting with the Lieutenant. It was the early afternoon, and Troilus was eager to get through the meeting as quickly as possible after a long morning shift.

"There. Now, you brought me something for my consideration, Lieutenant?" Blueblood asks with practiced politeness, seating himself on a cushion across from the Lieutenant, with a gilded table between the two of them.

"Yes, Your Highness. First off, I congratulate you for a successful mission to Griffonstone..." Lieutenant Troilus gamely begins.

Prince Blueblood lets out an irritated snort before giving his reply: "Most ungrateful group of bastards I've ever come across. Celestia wanted me to protect them from the wrath of one of the pretenders to King Guto's fallen throne and all they ever wanted to do was hit me up for bits! If it wasn't on Celestia's direct orders, I would've walked away from the mission long ago..."

"Yes, Your Highness, those feathered fiends are never much fun to deal with. And putting the same feathered wings on ponies don't make for much of an improvement..." Troilus comments.

"Are you trying to get at something, Lieutenant?" Blueblood asks, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

Troilus straightens himself up again before giving his answer: "I am certain Your Highness is aware of the events of 'Operation Whirlwind' that occurred a week previous to this date?"

"Of course, Lieutenant. I was informed of the events on my way back from Griffonstone, and of course I was horrified that I had been targeted specifically by those rebels! The former Lieutenant Captain Aten I always knew was a potential source of trouble, from what meetings I did have with him, and it still amazes me he got as far as he did with his plans. I still am not certain what you are getting at though, Lieutenant." Blueblood states, just as gamely as Troilus before him did.

"The rebellion was entirely a pegasus-conducted operation. All the major players were pegasi, Aten and his 'lackeys', as their usually called. Most of them fought to their deaths or flew away like cowards! It's the old tribalism rearing its ugly head, and its corrupted the entire Royal Guard at this point. Celestia and her favorites don't seem to see that, and one day it will come back to kick them in the flank!" Troilus exclaims, thumping a hoof on the table for emphasis.

"It is true that Aten and his supporters were behind this, but there are still good pegasi that resisted the rebellion valiantly. Your new Lieutenant Captain, for one. And some of the Wonderbolts, for another." Blueblood calmly counters, citing both Stratocumulus and the faction of Wonderbolts lead by Fleetfoot in fighting the rebels during "Operation Whirlwind".

"There might be noble souls, but they aren't enough to check the passions ingrained to the race!" Troilus continues. "Aten's power playing has seriously compromised the Royal Guard, and it won't stand against an outside invasion! The training, the staff levels, the trustworthiness of the pegasi left, all are serious problems! And I already know the alicorns will turn a deaf ear to any suggestions I might offer."

"Which is why you came to me." Blueblood affirms, giving a thoughtful look in Troilus' direction during a brief pause. "I am flattered by your confidence, surely, but I am also convinced you have misread the situation at hoof. The Wonderbolts will survive, as will the Royal Guard, despite these problems."

"The Wonderbolts only survived because Aten failed, that Captain they have nearly led them to their ruin with her impulsiveness! She deserved the punishment she got, and as for the Royal Guard it goes back toward not following the principles passed down from the service that protected your ancestors, Your Highness." Troilus continues, circling back toward flattering Blueblood - by far the best way to try to get what he wanted.

"Yes, it is true that the current E.U.P. Guard owes more to the service that protected King Bullion and Princess Platinum than the warrior tribes of the pegasi, and that integrating the two different concepts of what the service should be like has always been a challenge, but Equestria will weather it just fine, Lieutenant. Those kind of rebellions have happened before and the princesses have always succeeded in taming them. Why should I believe it's any different this time around?" Blueblood counters.

"Because there are rebels still out there! And we don't know who might be still aiding and abetting those traitors!" Troilus exclaims. "Remember we found out about what 'Lord Zedd' had done? There could still be civilians like him out there, just waiting for the right chance to strike! And unless we strike first, more innocent ponies will die!"

"If it's a military campaign you're seeking my support for, you're asking the wrong stallion, Lieutenant." Blueblood replies calmly. "My experience is purely in diplomacy, none in military training or leadership. I know it will sound like a long shot, but I would recommend you try your luck with your superiors instead of trying to end-run around them with me."

At first, it looked like the unicorn Lieutenant had struck out with Prince Blueblood, pretender to the old throne of Princess Platinum and King Bullion, but there was still one more thing he could try, which he started at this point: "I already know they won't listen to me, Your Highness, but I know you will after I reveal what information I have on your ambitions."

"Ambitions? What in Equestria are you talking about, Lieutenant?" Blueblood asks, pretending to have no idea what Troilus was referencing.

"I know you are disastisfied with simply being one of Princess Celestia's diplomatic troubleshooters, more so ever since Princess Cadance was recalled to Canterlot to help in Princess Luna's rehabilitation. Your disgust with dealing with the griffons is proof of that. What I am offering is a way out of being trapped in that unwelcome service for the rest of your life." Troilus firmly states.

Blueblood pauses before giving his response, and the unicorn Lieutenant can tell the pretender prince is now curious enough to not reactively blow him or his offers off. And the response Blueblood gives is further encouragement: "Go on, Lieutenant. If you really have a way for me to get out of simply being a troubleshooter for the rest of my life, show it to me."

Lieutenant Troilus gives a devious smile, looking around briefly to make sure no one else was listening before dropping his bombshell: "I know where the rebels are, Your Highness. I was sent out southwest of Canterlot to find them several days after the failure of 'Operation Whirlwind', and I told in my written report that I found no signs of rebel activity in that area. I lied on that report though, I have everything documented here."

Blueblood looks on with stunned surprise as Troilus pulls out and unrolls a scroll on the table between them via unicorn magic. The pretender prince clearly recognizes the drawings on the scroll as a military map, showing the rebels hiding in two forts that had previously been abandoned after buffalo stampedes had breached the walls and allowed them to trample the ponies inside. This map also showed a hypothetical campaign to attack these forces and capture or drive away the rebels.

"Lieutenant, surely you know the consequences of lying on an offical report, don't you?" Blueblood finally manages to ask after recovering enough from the surprise he had just gotten.

"Princess Celestia and the Guard command will give me the benefit of the doubt because I am a unicorn, not a pegasus trying to cover tracks for anypony else. I have believed that we unicorns are the superior ones, and this campaign will prove it to Equestrians everywhere. And I need your help not just getting allies for this secret expedition, but in administring justice to the conquered rebels." Troilus lays out.

It didn't take long for Prince Blueblood to pick up the implications of Troilus' offer - to return to Canterlot in glory with the captured rebels would certainly boost his personal image greatly, perhaps enough to allow him to start a settlement of his own in that southwest area between Appaloosa and Canterlot. It wasn't a kingdom with a crown, sure, but it beat being Celestia's troubleshooter for the rest of his life. Visions of grandeur began forming in his head, and in that moment Blueblood made a wistful expression that Troilus saw was evidence of success.

"... Alright, Lieutenant, I'm in. What do you need me to do?" Blueblood asks, much to a pleasure that Lieutenant Troilus had to work hard to restrain.

"Just tell whatever unicorns will listen to you that you are going after the rebels that escaped Canterlot, and need their help. I'll take care of everything else." Troilus answers, smiling like a cat that had just caught a mouse as he rolls up the scroll again and puts it away using unicorn magic.

"What about Celestia though?" Blueblood understandably asks.

"Celestia will not act until it is too late for her to do much. She believes all is well now, when she will not acknowledge we are the superior ones and need to keep the impulsive pegasi in line and underhoof." Troilus replies confidently.

"That's right. We are the superior ones, and I am their prince. I will keep that in mind, Lieutenant. Thank you, sir, the meeting was well indeed worth the time." Prince Blueblood affirms with a nod. "You are dismissed to your barracks."

Once Troilus leaves the meeting with Prince Blueblood, he once again smiles, this time rather more deviously. He had succeeded in convincing Prince Blueblood to support his pet project pursuing pegasi rebels by appealing to his weakness: the vanity and pride Blueblood had in being the descendent of Princess Platinum and King Bullion. Little did Blueblood know at the time he was being manipulated in the same way Aten had manipulated Spitfire, and that similar consequences would eventually follow from this manipulation...

Author's Note

(Newton's Third Law of Motion: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.)

The X-Factor

The disgraced former Lieutenant Captain Aten lay on his stomach in a hospital bed, mind numb not just from pain-killing drugs but an equally potent cocktail of despair, grief and frustration. Due to his death sentence, he was also under constant restraint, legs shackled directly to the hospital bed and a strap tied around his mid-section holding him down on the bed itself. His mane and tail had been shaved down to the skin, and small nubs stuck out where his wings had once been before being surgically removed - the physical testament of Princess Celestia's fiery punishment of his treason.

Aten knew the failure of Operation Whirlwind meant the end of the Agents of Chaos, at least as the organization he had lead. All of his subordinate Agents had been rounded up and imprisoned or committed suicide as Guard officers that remained loyal to the alicorns closed on them - none had escaped as far as he knew. The suicide of "Lord Zedd", the Agent codename for Aten's father and the original creator of the plan refined and followed in Operation Whirlwind, also meant that Aten had no way to appoint a successor - if a leader emerged from the rebels that escaped Canterlot to the southwest, Aten would surely not live to meet him or legitimize him as the new Agent 1. When Princess Celestia executed him, as he surely knew she would sooner or later, the organization that had worked to revive "the chaotic one" would be extinguished, perhaps forever.

Aten wanted to blame his father (and predecessor leading the Agents of Chaos) at first for all that had happened and would happen, but knew it was no use. His father had developed the plan based on old lore and legends - legends Aten now knew were wrong, but would've had no way of telling at the time. The return of Princess Luna had encouraged Aten that the legends of "the chaotic one" were likely true as well, and gave him confidence behind his control over the Canterlot Guard morning shift. It also encouraged his defiance, and turned his heart ice-cold against the many innocent lives that had been taken or otherwise harmed by his schemes. He only regreted that the well-laid plan just didn't work in the way he was sure it would.

The time in the hospital passed for Aten in numb anxiety - he presumed the only reason Princess Celestia was delaying was to maximize his humiliation, setting things up to be paraded "naked" (i.e. with a shaved mane and tail) and wingless around the whole city, perhaps multiple times, before the inevitable public spectacle of him losing his life by the will of the mighty sun princess. He hated the thought, and hated that Celestia would keep him in this prison-like state where he had no hope of escape but inevitable death...

Due to technically being on death row, Aten's room was constantly guarded by a pair of his former comrades - usually unicorns, much to Aten's galling indignation - posted between the door and his bed, meaning Aten usually could stare at nothing but the rumps of these guards or a sterile wall with the looping patterns of the machines at work. This would be agonizing treatment for any in captivity, but for a stallion like Aten it might as well have been a cleaner, brighter version of Tartarus. This was compounded by the fact he couldn't maintain a consistent sleep cycle - sleep was fitful and sometimes fleeting. Most of the time, he just lay a pathetic figure, letting tears silently slide out as internally as he cried out for any kind of release, even death. He still would not bow before Celestia or the other alicorns now, but he would be grateful when their sentence of death released him from the agony.

It was the middle of an otherwise quiet night, the moon in the "new" and darkest phase of its cycle, when Aten finally realized the two guards on his watch seemed to be planning something, judging from the intense whispered conversation between them. Both of them were unicorns, so Aten did not think it was anything good. The pegasus stallion riveted on them as they turned from their posts, closed the door into Aten's room, and then pulled the enveloping curtain surrounding the bed so that the two guards were directly facing Aten in close proximity behind the curtain.

There was a pause just long enough for alarm to break through the dazed cloud of emotions on Aten's face, and as soon as they see that the two stallions give slight nods at each other. Aten thinks that death or torture will come now instead of on Celestia's orders... and then one of the stallions sits on haunches and crosses his forelegs over his chest.

The change in mood is immediate, because Aten picks up on the signal just given him. His following whispered, raspy words are the best indicator of this: "I don't think I've ever been so glad to see somepony in my life! Is there any way you can get me out of this hospital and the city?!"

"Yessss, my comrade and I will help you." Agent X whispers back, pointing to the stallion beside him, who is already moving to undo the belt and shackles holding Aten down to the hospital bed. "I sssserved you because it got ussss both deeper into the ssssociety. You can do no more to help that directly, but we can get you out of here to help further our own endssss. Tonight is the besssst night to do it. We will take you sssouthwessst, where the ressst of your alliessss are waiting."

"'Deeper into society'? 'Further our own ends'? What are you talking about?" Aten naturally asks as the belt is quietly pulled off, confusion over Agent X's words now breaking through the emotional fog.

The two stallions move side-by-side again before X gives his answer: "You sssee, we are not Equessstriansss by blood, jusssst take the formsss of onesss. We ssserve not a princesssss, but a queen! It issss now time we ssshow our true ssselvesss to you sssso that you may believe ussss!"

Aten could only stare incredulously as a ring of magical energy goes around the stallions from top to bottom, seeming to transform them into something Aten tries to recoil from, but is unable to due to his shackles. Before him are what he can only think of as fanged, insectoid abominations of ponies, and his mind fails to even begin to understand how such creatures exist or have the abilities they do!

"Who... WHAT are you?!?" Aten exclaims wide-eyed, the last words he would say in quite a while as the two "abominations" pounce upon him...

Inside The Final Act

While Lieutenant Vigil and one of his Guard Upper Class escorts were getting patched up by the fellow escorts from the glass scrapes caused by their breaking into the Final Act Retirement Community, they made a plan about how to search the building. The apartment building in the pegasi colony above Canterlot seemed to have been fortified by boarding up all the windows and doors, but there were no rebel forces inside, or any signs of rebel activity. There was also no sign of the usual residents or staff in the building, and worry streaked Lieutenant Vigil's mind in the same way shafts of sunlight penetrated through the boarded-up windows.

"We'll start with the rooms of the 'two witnesses'. That'll be the best place to find clues." Vigil affirms once the cuts had been bandaged over, referring to the two pegasi residents sent down into the main city by "Lord Zedd", presumed to be an Agent of Chaos, as "witnesses of his final act", whatever that actually meant.

"Yes sir, as soon as we can obtain a room listing of where they are. We need the listing because otherwise we would be stumbling around in the darkness not knowing where we should be going." the escort performing the bandaging explains, carefully manipulating "wing fingers" to secure a gauze bandage over a cut.

"Understood. Artificial lighting may have been deliberately sabotaged, so we will not attempt to restore it right now. Instead, we'll go with the lanterns." Lieutenant Vigil affirms, using a wing to turn on one of the emergency lanterns that the squad had been equipped with previously.

The room listing showed Wind Rider's room as being closer than Stormy Flare's, so Lieutenant Vigil ordered the squad to check that one first: "Wind Rider is Room 106, shouldn't be too far from here. If we need to, we'll check Stormy Flare at Room 155 after that."

"At least we won't worry about having to climb stairs in this darkness..." one of the escorts sighs in relief.

Vigil and the two escorts form up, leaving behind the broken main entry doors, and proceed to the opposite end of the atrium, taking in what little they can see of the movie theater thematic of the place. This goes right down toward the sign above the doors leading inside, which reads "All Screens This Way". The pegasus Lieutenant gives a careful push with a forehoof on the double doors, and one of them swings a bit revealing they are unlocked. Despite misgivings (shared by the escorts as shown in the worry-filled faces) that they were walking into some kind of trap, Vigil pushes one door all the way open, revealing a well-worn red carpet underhoof leading toward the "screens" (actually the rooms of the residents).

"Check the doors, see if there's any response. One of you on the leftside, the other on the rightside." Vigil orders, referring to the rows of doors on each side each labeled in number order - even numbers starting from 100 were on the doors to the left, odd numbers starting from 101 on the right.

The escorts split up and beginning rapping on the doors with forehooves, the knocking sounds echoing through dark and empty hallways. No response, from any direction, emerges, even after repeated attempts. Looking slightly further down the hallway, the pegasus Lieutenant notices the door to 106, Wind Rider's room, seems to be the only one open and/or unlocked.

"These doors wouldn't automatically be locked behind them, somepony had to lock all these doors themselves. The question is who did it and why? And if the residents aren't in there, where are they?!" Vigil replies in puzzled frustration - some things about this mystery weren't adding up.

"Sir, permission to try another pair of doors? There may be ponies in great distress and need of medical attention right now in this building!" an escort asks, some desperation in his tone as he speaks.

"Go ahead, although the fact there hasn't already been a response of some kind to our presence worries me." Vigil replies, and quickly the escorts get to work rapping on doors. Again, though, their efforts are lost in dark echoes down the hallways only illuminated by the lantern lights of the searching Royal Guards.

"This just keeps getting worse and worse, sir." an escort comments worriedly to Vigil after the last sounds are lost in the darkness.

"Into Wind Rider's room, then." Vigil responds, seeing there was nothing better to try at this point...

Lieutenant Vigil carefully swings the open the door into Wind Rider's room, and immediately recognizes the scent that tickles his nostrils as he and his escorts cautiously move into the living area: "Juniper Phoenix. He must apply the stuff to everything around here..."

"Sir, look over here, all these trophies! Mustang Marathon, Wonderbolt Flight Endurance Record, Canterlot Circuit, Cloudsdale Circuit..." an escort comments as his lantern light glints off a wall-length case of trophies and plaques.

"One of the legends of his day, but now he'd have trouble keeping up with the young recruits..." Vigil comments.

"Sir, there's something written on the coffee table!" the other escort exclaims, looking down at the surface with horror. Vigil can vaguely see various books and other items scattered at his escort's hooves, some in a broken condition - indicating the coffee table had been cleaned off by everything pushed off onto the floor.

"Let me see... is that in blood?!?" Vigil says in horror when he reads the writing for himself, a deep red and streaky writing covering the entire top of the table.

"Maybe just red paint, sir." the escort replies, squinting down at the writing as he speaks. "Let's see...'ALL TO THE HARVEST, LORD ZEDD WILL HARVEST ALL'."

"There's that 'Lord Zedd' again. But if he's here, why haven't we met him yet? Why is there no activity here?" Vigil asks in a mixture of frustration and concern.

"I wish I knew, sir." is all the escort can give in answer.

"In any case, this doesn't really help us with anything. It doesn't tell us where the residents and staff might be, never mind where this 'Lord Zedd' is!" Lieutenant Vigil continues, the frustration becoming more obvious.

"Are we going to move on, sir?" the escort cautiously asks.

"Yes, to Stormy Flare's room. Since we know where Wind Rider is already, there's nothing more to be gained by staying here. You two can keep trying doors if you want, but I have a sinking feeling nopony will respond..." Vigil answers, nerves beginning to pierce his professional manner. The pegasus Lieutenant was already beginning to think the worst had happened, but had no way yet to figure out whether his theory was true or not...

Moving down the main hallway of the retirement center's first floor, the escorts rapped on doors as they passed, but as feared got no response whatsoever. This, in combination with Vigil's nerves beginning to show through, also causes the escorts to start losing their nerves. Upon arriving at Stormy Flare's room, they find the door in the same state as Wind Rider's room, further adding to the worry.

Entering Stormy Flare's room reveals a setup fairly similar to Wind Rider's, but with one disturbing difference. Medals and trophies, some of them bearing the name of Spitfire instead of Stormy Flare, were found scattered on the floor among the shattered pieces of the broken trophy case. Some of the trophies were broken, fractured in a manner consistent with being smashed underhoof by a violent blow, and the appalling stench of urine emanated from the carpet on the floor.

Seeing the descration of such honors was appaling enough, but the escorts also found a coffee table cleared off and painted with words the same way as in Wind Rider's room. This prompted a speculative comment from one of the escorts: "Were Wind Rider and Stormy Flare deliberately targeted for this treatment, sir?"

"Possibly. Stormy Flare is Captain Spitfire's mother, and Wind Rider is one of the most decorated veterans of previous generations of Wonderbolts. There's other old Wonderbolts that live here, but those two would make the most obvious targets. Why they were drugged up and dropped off in the city below, though..." Vigil speculates.

"Maybe keeping them alive was the point - they said they were 'witnesses'. They must've 'witnessed' something, sir, and they would be the most effected by being humiliated like that instead of whatever's happened here..." the escort replies in his own turn of speculation.

Vigil nods as he looks down at the writing on Stormy Flare's coffee table: "ALL HARVEST IN CAFETERIA. THE WONDERBOLTS MUST DIE! LONG LIVE CHAOS."

"Who wrote those messages? And where is that pony?" one of the escorts asks with great alarm, recognizing there was possibly a totally psychotic pony running about in the building.

"It might be 'Lord Zedd' himself leaving these messages behind. Whoever that pony is, they're absolutely insane. And we need to get down to the cafeteria as quickly as possible!" Lieutenant Vigil exclaims.

"You think that's where the 'something' those two witnessed happened, sir?" the escort replies.

"Yes, and we need to get whatever artificial lighting is still working back on in here. Right now!" Vigil exclaims again, trying to keep panic from racing through his mind. He knew by instinct something very bad had happened in here, but didn't know what and didn't know if there was anything he could do to fight against it...