With the music blaring loudly and the lights flashing enough to give a colt a seizure many call me crazy. A club is generally the last place somepony in my line of work would be found, especially when training a rookie. Then again it's not all that hard to keep your eye on somepony trying a bit too hard to blend into a rave. Their eyes and ears are constantly on the move and scanning the crowd for a hidden threat. It's ironic really, that the things that give them away most is what they were told would keep them alive.

Clicking my beak twice in rapid succession I thankfully get a small nod from my trainee on the other side of the club. Without hesitation they slam the rest of their drink and hop down from the bar, their gait slowly transitioning into a drunken stumble the closer they get to our ‘target’. Unfortunately for said stallion he never saw Sierra until after she had already stumbled into him and slurred a half hearted apology. An apology he probably never heard considering he wasted no time taking the note slipped to him by Sierra and found a dark corner to slink away to.

“Why are we even bothering with something like this? What's the point in putting this much effort and resources into an op just to pass a note?” Taking a long sip from the overly fruity and watered down drink in front of me I hear Sierra sigh.

“While I congratulate you on making it back to me so quickly without me seeing it, you should know better than to talk about the job. Especially when you are ON the job.” Sierra winces slightly when I look back at her. No doubt expecting me to rip into her for it.

“Sorry Hotel…” Offering a nonchalant shrug in response I take another drink and toss a claw full of greasy fries into my beak.

“Relax Sierra. I may be your instructor but this is for all intents and purposes a low risk and high reward way for you to learn things. It's meant to let you get your hooves wet and give me a small break.” Sierra folds her ears and ruffles her wings.

“And sit down, you're going to make me nervous if you keep fidgeting like that.”

“Sorry.” Sierra reluctantly takes a seat next to me. The bravado and confidence I saw earlier are all gone now as she stares intently at my beak and claws as I finish up my fries and move onto the fish.

“Not bad Sierra. I honestly didn't see you until the last moment, but by then it was too late for me. Sure I could have thrown hooves and gone down valiantly in the line of battle for the glory of the crown, but it just didn't feel like the right time.” Sierra, the poor mare, sucked up Echo's praises like a dry sponge. Her ears peeking up and a hoof moving to idly twirl some of her mane. Sighing loudly I finish off the rest of my fruity drink and glare at Echo. The idiot at least has the decency to look guilty as I do so.

“How many times have I told you to stop trying to sleep with the recruits?” Echo starts to sputter a response but surprisingly Sierra beats him to it.

“Hey! He was just being nice! It's not his fault I'm just so good at my new job.” Oh Sierra you poor mare. He's inflamed both your ego and your libido.

“Echo is a Fae Sierra. He had you zeroed in the moment you walked into the bar.” Echo sputters louder and a very unequine like chatter escapes the ‘pegasus’.

“So what? Changelings have been pretty commonplace in Equestria for over a decade now. Most don't even walk around in a disguise anymore.” Echo is surprisingly quiet as I lean over the table and smile.

“I knew there was a reason they picked you to transfer to us. I'm glad I don't have to go over the usual spiel about them being people just like the rest of us.” Taking a large and messy bite of my deep fried fish I purr.

“Right umm… Should we head back for a full debrief Hotel or…” I shake my head and after noticing a small line of drool dripping from Sierra's muzzle reach under my wing and toss her my purse.

“No Echo, something big is going on back home and I was told to keep the rookie out of it. Speaking of, go and get yourself something to eat hun, training or not you did good.” Sierra parks up quickly and nods excitedly before tucking the purse under her own leathery wing and darts off into the crowd towards the bar.

“What the hell is going on Hotel? This is the fourth rookie in two weeks! Even if you're not supposed to say anything, we've known each other for years. Please, tell me what the fuck is going on.” Swallowing the last bite of my fish I sigh and motion for Echo to put up a quick ‘notice me not’ spell. After the dull green flash fades I watch to make sure Sierra can still find her way back to us.

“Might as well wait for the kid too. Top brass wanted to keep her out of the loop thanks to her mom, but if half the things I've heard about her are true she'd find out regardless.” Rather than saying anything Echo just nods and then rests his chin on the table until Sierra comes back.

“Did you guys cast a notice me not spell?” I interrupted her quickly before she could say anything else.

“Sit down Sierra.” Taking her seat quickly and with folded ears I sigh.

“You're not in trouble, relax.”

“Well not yet anyway. If you let those fish and chips go to waste however…” A small smile makes it back onto the mare's face thanks to Echoes teasing.

“I'm going to start by saying that I'm not supposed to share any of this info… So with that out of the way, you didn't hear any of this from me.” I clear my throat roughly and shift around in my chair to get a bit more comfortable.

“Equestria is gearing up for a war.”

“What?” Holding up a talon I shake my head. Echo thankfully takes the hint.

“Equestria is, much to the surprise of some, not a very well liked country by others. For nearly 1,000 years we've been an economic and cultural powerhouse that dwarfed all other countries. After Princess Celestia's big surprise however things have changed. What was once blind zealous faith by the average pony towards a literal god like being, has turned to betrayal and mistrust. A mistrust that has inevitably over the past year dwindled down the overall stability and standing of our country and made us look weak.” Chewing on her fish widthwise eyes Sierra doesn't seem to notice some of her fries disappearing into Echoes mouth after being picked up in a green glow.

“Sho hwat!” Swallowing his mouthful before continuing Echo let out a soft hiss.

“Everypony wants to pick a fight with us now that Celestia turned out to be a dragon? She still raises the fucking sun! What do they think will happen if they attack!?”

“Normally that thought alone would be enough to stop any war minded nation in their tracks. However there has been a disturbingly large amount of ponies leaving this country en masse. Most of which tend to be of noble standing or in places of power and influence. In the last month alone we've had three businesses transfer their headquarters to another country and liquidate almost all assets within the Equestrian border.” Sierra laughs nervously.

“You're kidding right? Why would so many leave just because Celestia isn't a pony?” I smack Echo in the back of the head with my wing when he tries to take more of Sierra's food.

“Unfortunately it's not a simple answer, but from what little we've been able to gather… It's fear.” Echo chews loudly as Sierra looks on in confusion.

“Fear? Why?” I shrug.

“A few things have been proposed, but we have no idea for sure. The current running theory however is that if the Princess is willing to hide being a dragon for so long, what else is she hiding.” Whether or not she actually cares Sierra makes a very weak attempt at stopping the Fae from grabbing more of her fries.

“So basically everypony is jumping ship because the Princess isn’t an alicorn anymore? Seriously?” I shake my head.

“No, like I said, that is only a running theory. Besides that isn’t taking into consideration the different things happening around the globe. Over half the countries that Equestria has had ties with have distanced themselves from us if not outright cut off all contact. The biggest thing however, is that apparently, the Gods are returning.” Both Echo and Sierra stop eating and stare at me.

“The Gods?” Sierra grabs the last of her fish with her hooves and then passes the box with the remaining fires to Echo.

“Like all of the Gods or?” I sigh and shrug my wings.

“We don’t know. Any agents we send out go dark the second they cross the border. What I do know is that the brass are scared shitless.” Echo chitters something in his native tongue before switching back to common.

“Alicorn or not Princess Celestia holds the mantle of the sun, basically making her the Goddess of the sun depending on how you look at it. Then of course you have Princess Luna with the moon and Princess Cadenza with Love… Chrysalis, even if she refuses to be a monarch, holds the mantle of deception and lies… I think I heard somewhere that the new dragoness Fenrir was like the Goddess of War and chaos.” Sierra looks to Echo in confusion.

“Chaos? I thought Discord was the God of Chaos… How can -”

“Discord is the Spirit of Chaos, yes, but Fenrir holds the mantle for natural Chaos. Her existence is the sole reason that the Everfree forest still moves and acts on its own. She is chaos in its most natural state.” Sierra pales and drops the last of her fish back onto the table.

“Oh fuck…”

Author's Note

No these three characters are not throw aways and will come back at some point in the future. Other than that... I hope you enjoyed!

The next chapter will be back to our regular schedule program and may or may not accidentally be very spicy. In the meantime please feel free to leave comments in case I need to clarify more or even touch up the chapter in some spaces. I'll be honest 99% of this one was written on my phone at work so may be a tiny bit more rough in some places and self proof-reading can only do so much.