Emergency new story announcement: In Their Highness' Clandestine Corps by AugieDog · 4:37pm Nov 3rd, 2012

AugieDog, author of Half the Day is Night, just published the first (>8000-word) chapter of a new adventure/comedy/romance, In Their Highness' Clandestine Corps, with Blueblood as a capable but insufferable James Bond, Luna as his fearsome boss, and Rainbow Dash as - a Bond girl with a spine and plenty of lip? No, I don't think we can use the words "Bond girl" here. More likely Bluebood will become a "Rainbow guy".

I suspect the less-than-completely-competent supervillain, Green Briar, the unicorn with the golden horn, will be the least of their troubles. AD has Blueblood and Rainbow as two overconfident ponies set on a collision course. Too soon to tell what the "Romance" tag on this one means for sure, but it would be nice if this got into the featured box before somebody posts a Halo clop-fiction.

AugieDog is Michael H. Payne, a fantasy and science fiction writer with a long list of published short stories, and a better writer than I am.

A comment by EverDusk:

One thing I liked a lot is how you've managed to wrap Bond's savoir faire around Blueblood's trademark obnoxiousness and make it work. That doesn't look easy but it manages to keep Blueblood being Blueblood and still come across as a real Double 0 agent.
I like the idea of Rainbow as a pairing a lot (and not just because she's my favourite) because the counterpoint she'll make to Bluebloods noble ideals and refined Canterlot digs will be hilarious.

A sample:

A sudden ozone scent tickled his nose, though, and he turned his face away as the explosives he'd planted in the crawlspace earlier finally went off, part of the wall blasting into a stinging spray of metal dust. It smashed Green Briar sideways with a cry, knocked the glow from his horn, and the spell that held Blueblood in place sputtered out like candles in the rain. Rolling to the floor, then, he lashed out with his hind legs, felt his hoofs hit the other unicorn with a solid squish, and he had to wince, thinking of all the unpleasant things he was constantly being asked to touch during these little escapades for his aunt.
Whatever other equipment Green Briar had tucked away--and he always had something, Blueblood had learned during their previous encounters--it all started whining, magical circuits no doubt overloading, and Blueblood raced for the doorway, sprinted down the circular staircase, the whole tower shaking now, more explosions rumbling everywhere. No time for a civilized descent: gritting his teeth, he rammed his shoulder against the first window he came to, hit it again and again and again, cracks spiderwebbing across the glass till it shattered outward, and he leaped into the empty midnight air as the rumbles all around built into a roar, fire flooding down the stairway behind him.
A snap of his teeth at the third button along his vest, and he felt the framework expand inside his tuxedo jacket, a mechanism of some sort that was supposed to be unaffected by the magic-dampening field Green Briar had wrapped around his workshop. But when the hang glider actually unfolded along his back, the wings spreading out and snapping into place more smoothly than he would've thought possible when that unkempt little minion of Aunt Celestia's had showed it to him, his surprise nearly made him forget to pull out of his dive. Auntie would never send him into the field with defective equipment, of course, but who would've thought something built by earth ponies would actually function?

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