The party concluded when Luna left to go raise the moon. This afforded Flutterbreeze enough time to return to his room and grab his mailbag. Curious, he opened the wardrobe to find two new uniforms waiting. He chuckled. ‘Planning ahead, I see.’ He put one on and quickly returned the designated meeting place in one of the castle’s back corridors.
While waiting for the others, he thought about who the traitor within the organisation could be. ‘It had to have been someone with knowledge of the mission. Luna? No, she didn’t know who I was until I arrived. The other operative? No, no they would have as little knowledge of me as I do of them. But who knew I was on the mission before yesterday... ‘
‘Ponyville! Of course! An agent from Ponyville would have heard me say I was going to Canterlot. I wasn’t exactly subtle during my last mission either... So who could it be? Agent Applebloom? Not likely. What motive could she have for rebelling against the princess. There must have been someone there who was watching me...’
He was interrupted by Luna’s appearance, along with another pony dressed in a black spy outfit. He recognised her as Fancy Pants’ wife. ‘What was her name again?’
“I had a feeling it was you.” she said. “I am agent Fleur, and you were what, Trufflepuff?”
He laughed on the inside. “Agent Flutterbreeze.”
“Alright, now that you two have finally met,” Luna said “we’d best get started.”
Flutterbreeze looked confused. “Wait, you’re coming too?”
“Of course we are.”
“But it could be dangerous, and if anything were to happen to you...”
“We are sure that a powerful alicorn of well over a thousand years can take care of herself. Besides, thou wilt no doubt need our help on this mission.”
He realized there could be no argument, so he just sighed and said, “As you wish.”
Luna turned to a statue of the Dalai Llama. “It should be right behind here...” A dark blue aura radiated from her horn and surrounded the statue.The sound of stone rubbing past stone could be heard as it slowly slid away from the wall, revealing a dark passageway.
Flutterbreeze glanced over at Agent Fleur. She certainly was a beautiful unicorn, with a figure similar to that of the princesses... When he realized where his thoughts were headed he felt a wave of embarrassed guilt.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He had been staring blankly at the wall for about a minute. “N-nothing, I just have an odd feeling about this is all. Let’s get started!” He began walking merrily into the dark corridor.
“I couldn’t have been paired with a stranger operative.” Fleur said.
“I certainly hope not!” Flutterbreeze yelled from within, now a dozen yards ahead. “I do wish some unicorn could help light the way though, its a bit dark in h- *smack* I’m alright!”
“We’d better go before he gets himself killed.” said Luna, jokingly.
The passageway led our heroes on a winding path down the interior of the mountain. Flutterbreeze counted the number of downstairs steps they took as they went, for curiosity’s sake. ‘4725, 4726, 4727... oh hello, what have we here?’
They had reached a pair of very large red doors, richly decorated in gold. Flutterbreeze looked down to notice a welcome mat with a floral pattern in front. “Cute.” he said. “You know, I’m a little surprised. Usually by now we would have been ambushed or sprung a series of booby traps just getting to this point.” He pushed open the unnecessarily heavy doors. “Oh, cruel irony.”
On the other side was a whole horde of flying serpent soldiers... who apparently got very bored waiting. Some occupied their time playing checkers, others drank coffee while reading the paper, a few had even been taking a nap.
One of them stepped forward to say in a harsh voice, “You ssssssilly foalsssss. *cough cough* Can I have a glass of water? Thank you. YOU SILLY FOALS! You thought you could just sneak in here and ruin our plans! We shall step all over your faces before the day is through!”
The ponies looked confused. Flutterbreeze asked, “You’re going to do what?”
“STEP ON YOUR FACES!!!”
“Ok, just making sure.”
“Now, prepare yourselves for your doooooooooooooooooooom!”
Luna’s horn started to glow. Fleur was twirling nun-chucks around that she had produced from seemingly nowhere. The reptilians spread their claws and fluffed up their feathers threateningly.
Flutterbreeze walked out in the middle and raised a hoof at each side. “Now hold on a minute! Before this battle gets underway, don’t you want to say what your motives are, or explain your master plan for the down fall of Equestria?”
“No, first you will defeat us here, then you’re going to head over to my master’s castle where he will explain the big plot and lose in the climax.”
Flutterbreeze looked disappointed, while the others were totally confused by this.
“So one second you’re saying ‘prepare for your doom!’ and the next you’re saying we’re going to win?” Fleur asked.
“That’s what minions do. I’ve studied into this and take my role seriously.”
“Dude’s got a point.” Flutterbreeze said, “Gotta take pride in your work.”
“CAN WE GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!?” Luna exclaimed in the ye olde royal Canterlot voice.
“As you wish...”
Chaos ensued as the two sides flew at each other. Luna blasted away serpents with magic as they came. Fleur dodged claw swipes acrobatically, taking them down with her nun-chucks. Flutterbreeze pulled out a rapier at the leader of the group, who did the same. “EN GUARDE!” Wild fencing began between them, but Flutterbreeze began to feel he was losing, so he decided to switch tactics.
“You fight very well, my friend, but I know something you do not!”
“And what is that?”
“I am not left-handed!”
“Oh, I love that movie!”
While the serpent’s guard was down, Flutterbreeze gave him a blow to the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking him unconscious. He put the rapier back into his mailbag (which surprisingly could hold it) and noticed a certain flying serpent with a black eye and burnt feathers.
“YOU!” He grabbed his trusty duct tape. “You may have gotten away from me twice before, but NOT THIS TIME! HAVE AT THEE!”
He leaped onto the intimidated reptile and within a few moments had all four of its legs tied behind its back. Its tail was free, though, and with it the serpent threw a cup of coffee at Flutterbreeze, which covered his uniform. He stood there with an exaggerated frown on his face. Luna saw this and burst out laughing, Fleur wondering what was so funny.
Flutterbreeze furrowed his brow and used almost half a roll of duct tape on the already
immobile serpent, covering him from head to tail. By this time all the other minions had been defeated, and they started laughing at their comrade as they lay on the ground. ‘Sweet justice at last!’
“Gee gee” Flutterbreeze said, to the confusion of all present. “But you know what I was just wondering? Why is there daylight down here underground... at night?”