//------------------------------//
// A Surprising Promotion 
// Story: Adventures of the EIA: Equestrian Intelligence Agency 
// by GuardianofRoin 
//------------------------------//

My name is Bladechaser, and I am a spy. Despite how peaceful Equestria is, there is a constant war being fought beneath the surface, away from the eyes of the public. Those battles are fought by ponies like me. Spies never work alone though and always have backup. Whether it be a half-deaf unicorn you spent almost your entire childhood with, his mad scientist of that friend, or even your local hardass guard, you always have someone to rely on. 

Celestia and Luna left the strategy meeting, worried about the news they had received. The eldest was the first to break the silence. 
"And to think, we thought the Griffon kingdom had broken the treaty when it was just a group of mercenaries. I am glad we didn't over-react. Still, this is unsettling. All that just to break into an Equestrian embassy in Saddle Arabia. We know documents went missing, but we need to find out what they found."
Luna listened closely, trying to figure out some way to comfort her sister. "Well, we have been infiltrated before. Maybe it's time we employ some of the same tactics? Have our own intelligence service looking into this?" 
Celestia gave her sister a firm gaze. "I thought I made my position on that clear. The royal guard can handle intelligence work. There's no need to create an agency. The moment we do that we will seem as if we are looking to betray our allies. We cannot allo-" 
Celestia was cut off as a unicorn guard came running. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, they have discovered which records were stolen. It- you should read for yourself." 
Celestia took the note, unfolding it and holding it in front of her with her magic to read. Her heart sank as she read off the words silently in her head. It felt like an eternity had passed in just those brief moments, the tension seeming to make the air itself grow heavy. Celestia turned to her sister, her gaze dire. 
"You know what to do Luna. This is your project so I leave this in your hands." Luna nodded, taking the paper and teleporting it into a pocket dimension she used to keep things safe.





At the barracks the night shift was just ending, three of the guards still lingering behind as they joked around. The first, a deep red unicorn colt with a long slicked back mane and a cutiemark that looked like a shield with a crescent moon. The second was a navy blue mare, horn proudly displaying past her long mane. Her cutiemark was more simple than that of her red colleague, a simple shield with a moon emblazoned along the side and a scythe to the side of it. The third was a proud pegasus, his hair spiked and just a few shades lighter than his dark blue coat. His cutiemark showed his talent with swords, a blade pointing to the heavens with wings spread from it's cross guard. He was also the only one that carried a sword, even though he could only use it with his mouth and had no magic or levitation to fall back on. The grip was a bit plain, simple leather wrapped around metal. It was more of a bare bones weapon, the only decoration being the enchanted runes on the blade which allowed him to have some better control as he used his mouth with it. The pegasus was the first to chime in. 
"Another day, another paycheck, eh Knightstar?" The deep red unicorn seemed to not hear him, going about taking off his armor. The navy blue unicorn sighed and shouted. 
"Blade just said something you know!" The red unicorn grimaced at the obnoxiously loud shout and heard his helm hit the floor, looking back at the mare. 
"Listen Roshie, you don't need to yell at that side of me. It's my other side that needs it." He turned to the pegasus and smiled. 
"You were saying Bladechaser?" Blade simply sighed and shook his head. 
"You REALLY need to get that fixed. You've let more than a few things get past your guard that I had to clean up." Knightstar scoffed and smirked. 
"What about the time a Timberwolf got the upper hand on you last week. That little butter knife had nothing on them so I had to save your sorry hide." Roshie took their heads and slammed them together, dazing the two. 
"How about you two remember how I stuck my neck out for you two when you BOTH failed to keep an eye Princess Celestia's pet phoenix!" The two recovered and chuckled a bit. 
"Ya, heheh, we still kinda owe you for that one. How about some breakfast. On us." Roshie simply huffed and continued taking off her armor. 
"We'll call it even if you two stop bickering like a married couple." Blade couldn't resist. 
"Ya, hate to have Knightstar's crush to get jealous." The red unicorn bolted at Blade, stopping just short of colliding with him. 
"Don't you EVER insult Princess Luna. She is the most kind, beautiful, and intelligent mare here and more importantly she-" 
"Is waiting to speak with us." A white unicorn interrupted in the doorway to the barracks, his messy navy hair accentuated by his glasses. His cutiemark was a buckeball, a diagram of a molecule. Knightstar chuckled nervously as he seemed to grow a deeper shade of red. 
"Oh, hey Buck. How long have you been sitting there?" Buck simply smirked. 
"Long enough to know your dream bride would be quite flattered with what you just said." Knightstar dashed to Buck and placed a hoof nearly IN his mouth. 
"Never speak of this again, to ANYPONY." Buck smirked and pushed the hoof out of his face. 
"And in exchange?" 
Knightstar sighed and shook his head. "Fine, I'll test that cutiemark switcher potion, AFTER we talk to Princess Luna." Buck chuckled. 
"Isn't that being too formal with your little cru-" A hoof to the face quickly ended the topic, knocking a lens out of Buck's glasses. Roshie popped it back in and pulled him along, Knightstar and Blade following suit.





The three entered the night princess's chambers, the thick doors closing behind them as Luna walked up to the four. Knightstar could feel his face grow even more red as she approached, Blade quickly getting next to him should he faint again in Luna's presence. The princess spoke unusually quiet as opposed to her reputation. 
"Thank you for coming. As you may know there was an incident at the Equestrian embassy in Saddle Arabia. What was not announced was the fact a shipment order was stolen from the embassy. We were importing a few boxes of spices from Saddle Arabia for the Grand Galloping Gala. As you know it is the biggest event which my sister and I make an appearance. We believe this was staged in order to find a way into the gala and assassinate myself and my sister. Your job is now to find out who this rogue operative is, what his or her goal is, and stop her. Bring her in alive if possible, dead if necessary. We need to find out what she is planning and why. To this end I am starting the Equestrian Intelligence Agency, and you will be it's first agents. Professor Buck E Ball will be your equipment designer and specialist and assist you with whatever tools you will need." 
All four seemed to drop their jaws in surprise, amazed by what had transpired. This was enough to even have Knightstar make sense around the princess. "But Princess Luna, Equestria has never established an intelligence agency. All of that was handled by the Royal guard." 
Luna sighed and nodded. "True. Normally we would just assign a task force with investigating. However, whoever it is has covered their tracks. The assault on the embassy in Saddle Arabia is a dead end. However, we have picked up some information that somepony was smuggled into Manehattan from overseas. He earned quite a bit of attention as they took down the guards patrolling the docks without anypony knowing. We found them a few hours after they failed to check in. They are still alive, but they didn't see their attacker's face." She handed a file to Buck who levitated it for the four to read. 
"That's why you four are going undercover. Each of you will have a dossier with your new identity." 
The first folder went to Knightstar, who nearly fainted from being close to something given to him by Luna. "Knightstar, your cover will be that of the group's conman. Generally you are the one who does the recruiting and info gathering for the group." 
The second folder went to Buck. "You'll be their explosives expert. Considering how you blow up the labs here every other day it shouldn't be a stretch." Buck could only blush deeply as that was brought up. 
Roshie's folder came next. "You'll be the muscle behind the group. Anything that gets hit or shot is mainly handled by you." 
The last folio went to Bladechaser, who was the only one who had to grab his physically. "You are the boss so to speak. You have done more covert fieldwork than the others so I am putting you at the head. Normally Roshie would have seniority but you have a clean record for covert operations. All successful with no deaths, even in the most unexpected scenarios. I want to be sure no pony else gets harmed." 
Blade was overwhelmed by his new command, never having expected to have to do something like this in his dreams. He looked to Knightstar who smiled and gave him a nod. Turning to Roshie she did likewise followed by Buck, despite the fact he was still nervous about going into the field. With renewed determination he turned back to Luna and nodded. "Yes Princess. You can count on us!"