"Buck, are you absolutely sure about this?"
"Yes, Lemony dear. I feel I must now. I can't go back to that anymore."
"Well won't you at least let me take something?"
"You can take what you want to keep for yourself. I don't want any of it anymore."
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Guard Upper Class Buck Withers watches as Lemony Gems, that old friend of Princess Cadance Buck now considered his marefriend, sorted through the gathered pile of various old items, most from his Canterlot Academy and university days. Pictures, memorabilia, certificates of achievement... all part of a past Buck wanted to make a clean break from now.
After a minute looking through, Lemony Gems levitates out using light blue unicorn magic a few items out of the pile and puts them aside. These include the jacket Buck had usually worn while at Canterlot Academy, the trophy Buck had been given when his Canterlot Academy team had won the high-school level championship, and his "Exceptional Athletic Merit" award he had earned at university. The only other thing Lemony would've wanted was Buck's Canterlot Academy graduation diploma - one of the few things that Buck had previously decided to spare.
"I'm amazed you're even here at all. I didn't think I would be able to see you for months." Buck states as Lemony goes through the pile.
"I left for Canterlot first chance I got after I read your letter. I wish I'd seen you at the award dinner, I'm so disappointed I couldn't make it that night." Lemony Gems replies in a quiet tone.
"I'm kinda disappointed too." Buck agrees, not quite sure whether her presence watching would've made things better or worse.
"I have to tell you though, Buck, I'm very glad you took the stand you did." Lemony states, looking up from the pile and straight into Buck's eyes. "I've been hoping for years that the Guard would help you become a better pony. I guess it worked."
"It was more Princess Celestia and her crazy plans." Buck replies with undiluted honesty, and he shares a brief chuckle with Lemony in response.
"Cadance always said Celestia worked that way, and after all I've seen I'm more convinced than ever now!" Lemony replies. Buck gives a nod and a smile in reply and looks over at the low sun thoughtfully.
"I have to go on duty soon, can't stay any longer." Buck comments to Lemony as he turns his attention back to her, a concern flashing across his face.
"Promise you'll visit me in Ponyville?" Lemony quietly asks, a pleading look in her eyes.
"I promise. Love you lots, Lemony Gems." Buck answers with a tweak of a smile.
"Love you too, Buck." Lemony answers back, kissing him on a cheek immediately afterward. She levitates up the items she had previously chosen, and Buck watches silently as she walks into the distance of a darkening sky...
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SOME TIME LATER...
Guard Upper Class Buck Withers could see in the rays of the rising moon that the firepit was ready to light. His watch was on the castle walls that night, and the firepit was useful for keeping warm. The items he would now sacrifice were spread over the ashes already in the pit as the tinder, split logs and smaller kindling branches neatly tented over those items.
As per Guard protocol for earth pony membership, he removed the safety device - a claw-on-the-end-of-a-rod contraption designed to allow safe and sanitary handling of torches - from the rack next to the firepit and moves to grab the nearby torch from its holder. There is only the slightest hint of hesitation as Buck carefully manipulates the device to rotate and lower the torch into the firepit, which ignites the contents inside.
With the torch returned to its place, Buck Withers watches as photographs, memorabilia of Canterlot Academy and the university he had attended afterward, and the documentation of his previous athletic achievement all are consumed by the bright yellow flames, sparks and ashes rising slowly out of the pit. The twinge of regret he expected to feel came and was quickly replaced by an odd sense of freedom, of some kind of invisible shackles falling away from his body.
"Strange, is it not?" a strong and elegant female voice sounds from somewhere near Buck. He turns to see Princess Luna standing nearby, meekly smiling and without escort!
"Your Majesty, what are you doing up here, particularly without escort?" Buck asks in a mixture of confusion and alarm.
"We were told your watch was on the wall. Our sister suggested we converse with yourself." Princess Luna replies frankly.
"Oh, so I guess you were told... about..." Buck trails off, wondering if the princess of the night could see his blush peaking out from under his helmet, particularly as she is approaching closer to his position.
"Yes, but that is rather beside the point." Luna responds with a shy smile. "The point is you succeeded where we failed one thousand years ago. That failure will have consequences that will last all time. Even with your sins being much lesser against our sister than ours were, they still could've had profound effects on Equestria, and Canterlot in particular. Your promotion of honor was well deserved."
All Buck can do is blink back at the princess in silence. By all rights he should've felt extremely flattered, but the awkwardness was keeping any good feelings from manifesting at the moment. The silence remains as Luna looks at the fire in the pit.
"The past life is burning, like the unfeathered body of a phoenix." Luna comments.
"Er, well, yes, Your Majesty." Buck replies, not quite sure where she was going with this analogy.
"You are aware of our sister's pet phoenix?" Luna asks as she turns her attention back to Buck.
"Vaguely, Your Highness." Buck answers, trying to remember the name for it that he had once saw on the assignment list but only drawing a blank.
"Birds like her regenerate their old bodies by shedding their plumage and burning themselves to ash before springing back to life renewed - Philomena will undergo this process in a matter of months. You are undergoing this process, in a sense, right now." Luna explains, and Buck can't help but nod in agreement.
"We are undergoing this process in a similar sense as well." Luna continues. "The Elements of Harmony drove the nightmare out of us in a manner similar to a great storm of fire - the closest to true death we experienced in a long time. We were forced to regenerate our body in a very basic state, which we are only starting to recover from. Although forgiven by our sister, our weakened state we accept as necessary punishment for our previous rebellion, and we - in this case, meaning both our sister and ourself - hope and long for the day our powers can be fully recovered."
"Maybe that's the point. Maybe we're meant to travel this path together. Maybe that's what Princess Celestia wanted." Buck speculates.
"We cannot be certain about this, but we cannot deny that it might be exactly what our sister wants us to do. Both yourself and ourself." Luna replies, again giving a shy smile.
Buck Withers could tell in her look, the eyes in particular, that there was something in there worth fighting for. What Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, not to mention so many other of his fellow Guard members, was investing so much time and effort to bring back out. And, looking up at an untainted moon, Buck knew Luna's restoration was now what he had to fight for...
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MEANWHILE, UNDER CANTERLOT...
An old mining elevator creaks and groans before lurching to a stop. The doors make a moaning sound as the slowly work their way open, and a figure completely covered in a cloak and stockings steps out, red eyes glowing fiercely under the hood.
This area of the old mines under Canterlot was one of the few relatively safe areas for a pony to set hoof in, and made an ideal "secret lair" for Agent Snake as the shaft was supposed to been sealed off long ago. He doubted even Celestia knew he worked down here. Down in this rocky and dirty chamber the shaft elevator led to, Agent Snake kept all his things that were important to the Agents of Chaos: Agent and assignment list, targets for future operations, formulas and plans for various objects used by the Agents and, most disturbing of all, Agent Snake's "trophy shelves".
The fuming Agent Snake passed by the "trophies" of past glories - unicorn horns cut off and mounted on dummy heads labeled with the pony they had come from, pegasi wings similarly cut off and pinned to the rock walls, and most disturbingly of all stuffed and mounted heads of earth ponies displayed on the walls the same way hunting trophies were displayed on the walls of human houses. Any reasonable pony would probably have been sickened to the point of vomiting at this sight, but for Agent Snake it provided a nice stroking of ego.
Agent Snake's bad mood was triggered by Buck's "betrayal", which had led to the loss of two more Agents. He was starting to run out of Agents to use, so in frustration he had decided to start changing tactics. What those would be exactly he hadn't decided yet, but for now he decided to take petty revenge. He stopped in front of a shelf of rock he used a writing desk, then pumped a pedal under the shelf a few times to light a torch he would use to see what he was writing.
The first ciphered letter he typed out was meant to get the petty revenge he sought:
"To Agent 21,
Agent WB betrayed us and lead to loss of two fellow Agents. You must execute revenge on Agent's family. The life of Strong Withers is now forfeit and he must die as soon as possible. Have Lilly Withers brought to Canterlot after her mate is dead - I will surely enjoy her company.
- Agent Snake in the Grass"
Agent Snake immediately went into the second letter:
"To Agents P1 and P2,
After the betrayal of Agent WB, I am being forced to scale back Canterlot operations. I am reminding you of your obligations and heavily encouraging you to make a strike as soon as possible.
- Agent Snake in the Grass"
His mood improved by getting his feelings on paper, he let out an evil chuckle as he looked up from the shelf. There was another display above that writing shelf - currently at seven dummy heads and with space for pinning three sets of cut-off wings on the wall above. There was nothing mounted up there yet, but the labels on those dummy heads should've sent a chill down any decent Equestrian's spine. From left to right:
"Princess Celestia | Princess Luna | Princess Cadance | Twilight Sparkle | Shining Armor | Gibraltar | Fidelitas"
The ultimate trophy display, and the dreams of a demented stallion distilled to its essence hiding in the mines below Canterlot...