Phoenix Down

by GJT_Productions

The Next Phase

"Shining, I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Four dead - including a longtime announcer at the stadium - and dozens injured in that riot, it does not matter what additional precautions you took in light of the fliers being distributed, it clearly was not enough. There has to be a board of inquiry - Celestia has told me it ought to happen - even if the article submitted by Troilus in the gossip rags didn't call for your immediate ejection from the Guard. We have to follow protocol here - anything less and public trust gets shattered. You understand, Lieutenant Captain?"

"Yes, Captain, I do."

"Good. Effective immediately, you're suspended from duty. Lieutenant Vesper is going to take charge of the night shift operations for the moment. And let me make one additional thing clear - my gut instinct is telling me you were framed for this. Troilus' screed has rekindled my fears that dark forces are still operating in our ranks, even with the Agents of Chaos gone. But not playing by the rules and showing obvious favoritism means they win, so I need your complete and total cooperation on this. I'm not going to prohibit you from contact with the princesses, I'll let them decide that individually. And, if all else fails, we can always send you into a field assignment, but I'm hoping it won't come to that."

"I understand, sir."

"Very good. You are dismissed and confined to quarters until further notice."

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MEANWHILE, SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY OF CANTERLOT...

"OK, Troilus, so with the resignation demand out there, what's our next move?" Guard Upper Class Lyacon asks of his Lieutenant, as both figures huddled at the end of an alley.

"Considering we've already had several ponies come up and tell us that they would support the campaign to hunt the rebels instead of trusting Celestia and the Guard to deal with it, I believe we'll have our army real soon." Troilus confidently replies. "We'll get as many sign ups as we can this evening, then start squeezing his allies to get some vital information for our campaign. I already have a list of ponies to interrogate for that purpose."

"And what about Prince Blueblood?" Lyacon asks again, referring to the pretender prince that served as a potential figurehead leader for the anti-pegasus campaign.

"I wouldn't worry about him, Blueblood's vanity won't allow him to speak a word against anything we're doing. He'll just lay low and keep quiet until the Gala, and by that point..." Troilus reminds his junior Guard member.

"He'll make a complete fool of himself and get stuck with us, yes you've told me this before, sir." Lyacon states with an eyeroll.

"Mmmm, yes." Troilus states with a sly grin, almost as if the mental image of the moment was enough to cause intense pleasure on the part of the maverick.

"Alright, but what about the Acting...?" Lyacon begins to ask again, only to be interrupted by a sudden flash of bright blue light that draws the attention of both stallions.

The glow of bright blue light resolves into a floating circle of flame-like magic energy, with the area inside the circle becoming dark and opaque to whatever is behind it. An off-white hoof sticks through the portal, causing an involuntary recoil by the two stallions. The hoof becomes a full leg, then another hoof appears parallel to the first one, and by that point both Troilus and Lyacon can see who is walking through the opened portal...

"Chancellor Neighsay, good timing! We were just talking about you!" Troilus exclaims.

"I must say, sir, you sure know how to make an entrance!" Lyacon quickly adds with a quite impressed look on his face.

"Thank you, both of you." Chancellor Neighsay answers with a proud grin as the portal closes behind him once he is completely through.

"How did you find us here though?" Troilus naturally follows up.

"The magic lines of Princess Celestia's monitoring are easily... never mind, I don't think it's worth the time it would take to explain it to you..." Neighsay begins, only stopping when he realizes both Troilus and Lyacon are giving him blank stares back to his words.

"Wait, 'monitoring'?" Lyacon pipes up, apparently that word having been the only one that stuck out in his mind.

"Never mind, Lyacon. I'm pretty sure Princess Celestia's capabilities in viewing the lives of private citizens are overblown at best." Troilus answers reassuringly, covering up his own concerns with a well-performed act of confidence.

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"So then, down to business." Neighsay states. "First off, I must congratulate both of you, and your junior comrade, on a job well done with inciting that riot. I don't think I could have done a better job myself."

"Thank you, sir. We both knew it would temporarily get Shining Armor and his supporters off our backs, so we could focus on the next phase." Troilus answers with a tone mixing pleasure and deliciously evil anticipation of what was to come next.

"Speaking of the next phase, I have an update on those alternative candidates for EEA Chancellor." Neighsay dangles out, giving a vaguely seductive look as if to further entice the two fellow unicorn stallions into hearing what he had to say.

As soon as the two stallions were riveted in attention to him, he makes his update statement: "Your mystery poison has eliminated one alternative candidate, and I just got a written statement from another candidate which announced he was withdrawing his nomination. However, there is still work to be done for both of us, because there are other candidates still more suitable for the Chancellorship."

"Oh?" Troilus asks, disappointment visible in his expression as he sees Neighsay use orange-colored magic to pull out a small sealed envelope from the side-saddle pack he's wearing.

"There are others that Celestia would still choose over me. The names are in the envelope, they must be eliminated." Neighsay answers, Troilus taking the envelope with a sickly-green color of unicorn magic and then opening it while still holding it in mid-air.

Guard Upper Class Lyacon slides up next to his Lieutenant as the latter pulls out a small slip of paper with the unicorn magic and unfolds it, still keeping it hovering beside the opened envelope. Both renegade unicorns silently read the names on the envelope, then Troilus folds the slip of paper and returns it to the envelope, giving Neighsay a silent nod as he does so.

"Your mystery poison might work wonders for confounding the hospital staff, but I would be careful not to use it any more than is necessary." Neighsay cautions. "Even the Agents of Chaos couldn't bring down that griffon with it. Probably has something to do with their biology..."

"Of course sir, we can always fall back on the cyanide solutions..." Troilus comments.

"Good enough. I will be expecting good news from you soon." Neighsay again warns, the glare in his eyes making it clear that failure would not be acceptable to him. He turns and fires an orange-colored beam from his horn, opening the same kind of portal he had used to get here, and the two other stallions can see a bit of the EEA Chancellor's office through the portal as Neighsay steps through it.

The portal closes behind Neighsay, leaving Troilus and Lyacon alone again. The two maverick unicorns turn to look at each other, and the Lieutenant gives his subordinate a satisfied smile - all was going according to plan, and some time soon, perhaps even the very night of the Grand Galloping Gala, they would be able to start their anti-pegasus march out of Canterlot.

"Shining Armor has been neutralized. Even if he does not fall, anything he or the princesses do will only add to the strength of our cause." Troilus comments with an evil glow in his eyes. "We can squeeze his allies at will, and at the same time help Neighsay secure that Chancellorship position. Now, let's go back to the underground lab and brew up another batch of the special poison, there's work to be done yet!"

"Right behind you, sir!" Lyacon comments as he moves behind the Lieutenant, first briefly in doubletime to catch up with him and then in lockstep march once the two emerge from the alley and head down a Canterlot street back toward the castle.

No pony that they passed by could've seen that they were up to anything other than usual Royal Guard business, and that was exactly the point: hidden sinister motives would remain hidden until revealed at the most appropriate time to advance their own cause and erode public confidence in the E.U.P. Guard, to create a way for others to get in...

Author's Note:

(And again with work overtime delaying a chapter a week, sorry everyone...🙄)