//------------------------------// // Incendiary // Story: Games We Play // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Agent 23, Your time has come. Avenge our comrades taken by the sun. Destroy Guard Archive records and escape through window. Arrangements for you and family have been provided. Glory to the chaotic one. - Agent 'Snake in the Grass'" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Such was the message "Agent 23", the alias for a morning shift unicorn Lieutenant called Pyros, received before he started his shift. As his name may have suggested to you, his talent was is inducing the combustion of flammable materials, and ever since he joined the Guard he had wanted to make a big statement in Canterlot, maybe find a way to be the hero in a dramatic situation that would get the notice of an alicorn princess. Instead, he found himself hitting up the hard cider more and more frequently, mostly because being "sauced" and showing off his special ability was the best way to get the attentions of others. This culminated in him once ending up falldown drunk and setting the bar on fire as a result, which not only nearly got him discharged dishonorably from the Royal Guard but pushed him against Shining Armor - Shining, who was a Lieutenant at the time and present at the bar when the fire started, had used his shielding powers to help contain the fire long enough for others to put it out. Not surprisingly, this caused a lot of resentment on Pyros' part against him. The professional career of Pyros was saved by Lieutenant Captain Aten, who dumped him into indefinite bathroom duty in exchange for the Captain dismissing a planned court martial. Pyros, in gratitude, secretly joined Aten's "faction" in the Royal Guard shortly after, and once the whole incident had blown over he was approached by "Snake in the Grass", who offered to get him out of his professional purgatory and promised that Pyros would one day help take down Shining Armor. Pyros agreed to the offer and became "Agent 23" as a result. Supposedly due to "Snake's" actions, the records of Pyros were "whitewashed" and him restored to good standing in the Guard. Now was his time. Now, he would make his statement... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although Pyros had gotten his orders at the start of his shift, he wanted until the change to the afternoon shift before acting. As soon as he had been relieved by his afternoon shift replacement, he retreated to a utility closet and waited until the afternoon shift was fully on duty before emerging again. He kept his armor on to avoid drawing unnecessary attention, and moved in standard march rhythm to further make himself inconspicous. The Guard Archive records - less important documents such as incident reports and day-to-day paperwork - were stored at the top of a relatively short tower, with the most important documents secured in a vault in Canterlot's mountain itself. The vault could only be opened by the Princesses and the Captain of the Guard, but the other records could be accessed by any officer given an authorization pass from the Captain of the Guard. Access to the Archive records was controlled by a pair of guards posted inside the base of the tower, at a door which opened to reveal the staircase leading to the top. Lieutenant Pyros showed the guards a forged access pass - forgeries were not checked for because it was assumed the process for obtaining the pass was enough to protect against forging - and is allowed to enter the tower. Pyros climbs the steps of the tower in the same Guard march, and only once in the room does he drop his facade. The Guard Archive consisted of a large collection of filing cabinets and boxes, all meticulously labeled with their contents. Amongst those archives are many documents previously forged both by Agent Snake and Lieutenant Quill, which Snake wants destroyed to prevent the discovery of their forgery. Pyros, presumably, is simply to burn everything to ash to get that job done. The unicorn Lieutenant works as quickly as he can to prevent the guards from getting suspicious. Box lids are removed, cabinet drawers pulled open. When Pyros is satisfied, he makes a determined look and his horn glows with orange magic. One after another, the contents of the boxes and cabinet drawers ignite in angry orange flames - perhaps not enough for total incineration but enough to complete the mission Snake wanted of him. The room quickly filled with heat and smoke from the burning papers - the only escape that would not alert the guards was smashing through the single window which illuminated the room. Backing up all the way to the door and charging at full gallop, Pyros leaps and smashes through the window, sending glass shards flying out toward the mountainside. The helmet and armor protect Pyros from most of the glass shards. Unfortunately, they can't protect him from the sheer drop, and bravado turns to panic as he tumbles helplessly down - it was later learned that his assumptions about the "arrangements" in the message weren't the kind he thought they were. A pegasus thinking clearly might have been able to pull out of the drop, but for anything without wings it was hopeless. Pyros thuds against the mountainside and bounces downward, his helmet and shoes coming off him, the main armor piece getting banged and battered up. By the time the unicorn stallion rolls to a stop, the accumulated injuries have already been enough to take his life. Near where Pyros' battered, lifeless body has rolled to a stop, two pegasi stallions emerge from behind a boulder and cart the body into a small cave whereupon waits... "Just as you planned, Agent Snake." one of the pegasus stallions says to the cloaked figure in the cave. "Excellent. His horn will make a nice addition to my collection. Once you've sawed it off, leave him in here to rot. The fool deserved his fate." Agent Snake says. "Yes, Agent Snake." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEANWHILE... "I appreciate you two arriving on time. I know this is supposed to be an off week for both of you, but I summoned you both here for a very special reason." Captain Gibraltar was saying to the two saluting earth pony stallions that had been summoned to his office. The two stallions in question were Guards Upper Class Meadow Song and Caramel. Both earth pony stallions, they had permanent residence in Ponyville and commuted regularly to Canterlot in order to perform their guard duties. Being earth ponies in a guard populated primarily by unicorns and pegasi made them stand out even in ordinary circumstances, but their residence in the town where Twilight Sparkle had now been assigned to learn about friendship had pushed their profile even higher. "Let's get down to business, Guards." the Captain begins, sitting behind his desk as he speaks. "It has occurred to me that there is need for a permanent guard assignment for Princess Luna whenever she needs to be about during the afternoon shift. After going through the personnel files, I have selected you two for this special assignment, effective immediately. You may know why I selected you two in particular." "Yes, sir." both stallions reply in unison. They both had at least an idea why they had been chosen: Meadow Song had married into the Apple clan, which made him a relation of the Element of Honesty bearer Applejack, while Caramel lived next door to the Element of Generosity bearer Rarity. These connections more obviously qualified them to be in close proximity to Princess Luna than most anypony else in the Guard, the disadvantages of them being earth ponies not being regarded as important in this case. "You will receive notification..." the Captain begins to say, only to be cut off by another Guard member rushing into the office and crashing into Meadow Song and Caramel in the process. "Goodness, is everypony alright? What's all the rush about, soldier?" Gibraltar exclaims as he rushes over to help the other stallions up. "FIRE, SIR, ARCHIVE TOWER!" the stallion that had caused the accident yelled at almost point blank range. Immediately a cold sweat breaks out on Gibraltar's forehead. He knew what was in there and how important it was to the operation of the Guard. Most importantly, those records were the only effective way to locate the Agents of Chaos. "We'll have to finish this debriefing later, you two. Take me to the Archive Tower immediately, guard!" Gibraltar exclaims. "Yes, sir!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THAT NIGHT... "That's terrible, sir!" Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor was saying to Captain Gibraltar in the Captain's office as he was coming on duty for the night. Princess Luna stood beside him, both having been called to hear of that afternoon's incident as soon as they were ready for duty. "More than just terrible!" Captain Gibraltar exclaims, thumping his forehooves on the table to emphasize his words as he speaks. "More than 90% of our records up in smoke, the tower completely unusable and, if this report is right, one life lost!" "Burned?" Shining Armor guesses. "No, fell out of the tower. And what's worse is that after his fatal tumble, somepony cut off that unicorn stallion's horn! It wasn't broken, the team could clearly see it had been sawn off!" the Captain exclaims with angry bombast. This fact elicited shocked gasps from both Shining Armor and Luna. Cutting off a unicorn's horn, particularly one that was already dead, was considered the ultimate desecration - in older times, the wilder pegasus tribes would do this to unicorns captured in conflicts, but this kind of treatment had been outlawed shortly after Equestria's founding and was now universally considered extremely barbaric. Horn removal still occurred sometimes, but almost exclusively for medical reasons after the horn had been previously chipped or fractured - removal for almost any other reason was very much taboo. "Make no mistake here, this is a declaration of war!" Captain Gibraltar concludes. "These Agents of Chaos have declared war on peace, harmony and the Equestrian way of life! And their motives are still mysterious to us. We must be as ruthless in stamping them out as they are in trying to stamp us out!" Shining Armor and Luna exchange glances, Shining being able to see a kind of vague guilt in Luna's eyes, as if she thought this was something else her thousand-year old failure had unleashed upon Equestria...