Consequences

by GJT_Productions

The X-Factor

The disgraced former Lieutenant Captain Aten lay on his stomach in a hospital bed, mind numb not just from pain-killing drugs but an equally potent cocktail of despair, grief and frustration. Due to his death sentence, he was also under constant restraint, legs shackled directly to the hospital bed and a strap tied around his mid-section holding him down on the bed itself. His mane and tail had been shaved down to the skin, and small nubs stuck out where his wings had once been before being surgically removed - the physical testament of Princess Celestia's fiery punishment of his treason.

Aten knew the failure of Operation Whirlwind meant the end of the Agents of Chaos, at least as the organization he had lead. All of his subordinate Agents had been rounded up and imprisoned or committed suicide as Guard officers that remained loyal to the alicorns closed on them - none had escaped as far as he knew. The suicide of "Lord Zedd", the Agent codename for Aten's father and the original creator of the plan refined and followed in Operation Whirlwind, also meant that Aten had no way to appoint a successor - if a leader emerged from the rebels that escaped Canterlot to the southwest, Aten would surely not live to meet him or legitimize him as the new Agent 1. When Princess Celestia executed him, as he surely knew she would sooner or later, the organization that had worked to revive "the chaotic one" would be extinguished, perhaps forever.

Aten wanted to blame his father (and predecessor leading the Agents of Chaos) at first for all that had happened and would happen, but knew it was no use. His father had developed the plan based on old lore and legends - legends Aten now knew were wrong, but would've had no way of telling at the time. The return of Princess Luna had encouraged Aten that the legends of "the chaotic one" were likely true as well, and gave him confidence behind his control over the Canterlot Guard morning shift. It also encouraged his defiance, and turned his heart ice-cold against the many innocent lives that had been taken or otherwise harmed by his schemes. He only regreted that the well-laid plan just didn't work in the way he was sure it would.

The time in the hospital passed for Aten in numb anxiety - he presumed the only reason Princess Celestia was delaying was to maximize his humiliation, setting things up to be paraded "naked" (i.e. with a shaved mane and tail) and wingless around the whole city, perhaps multiple times, before the inevitable public spectacle of him losing his life by the will of the mighty sun princess. He hated the thought, and hated that Celestia would keep him in this prison-like state where he had no hope of escape but inevitable death...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to technically being on death row, Aten's room was constantly guarded by a pair of his former comrades - usually unicorns, much to Aten's galling indignation - posted between the door and his bed, meaning Aten usually could stare at nothing but the rumps of these guards or a sterile wall with the looping patterns of the machines at work. This would be agonizing treatment for any in captivity, but for a stallion like Aten it might as well have been a cleaner, brighter version of Tartarus. This was compounded by the fact he couldn't maintain a consistent sleep cycle - sleep was fitful and sometimes fleeting. Most of the time, he just lay a pathetic figure, letting tears silently slide out as internally as he cried out for any kind of release, even death. He still would not bow before Celestia or the other alicorns now, but he would be grateful when their sentence of death released him from the agony.

It was the middle of an otherwise quiet night, the moon in the "new" and darkest phase of its cycle, when Aten finally realized the two guards on his watch seemed to be planning something, judging from the intense whispered conversation between them. Both of them were unicorns, so Aten did not think it was anything good. The pegasus stallion riveted on them as they turned from their posts, closed the door into Aten's room, and then pulled the enveloping curtain surrounding the bed so that the two guards were directly facing Aten in close proximity behind the curtain.

There was a pause just long enough for alarm to break through the dazed cloud of emotions on Aten's face, and as soon as they see that the two stallions give slight nods at each other. Aten thinks that death or torture will come now instead of on Celestia's orders... and then one of the stallions sits on haunches and crosses his forelegs over his chest.

The change in mood is immediate, because Aten picks up on the signal just given him. His following whispered, raspy words are the best indicator of this: "I don't think I've ever been so glad to see somepony in my life! Is there any way you can get me out of this hospital and the city?!"

"Yessss, my comrade and I will help you." Agent X whispers back, pointing to the stallion beside him, who is already moving to undo the belt and shackles holding Aten down to the hospital bed. "I sssserved you because it got ussss both deeper into the ssssociety. You can do no more to help that directly, but we can get you out of here to help further our own endssss. Tonight is the besssst night to do it. We will take you sssouthwessst, where the ressst of your alliessss are waiting."

"'Deeper into society'? 'Further our own ends'? What are you talking about?" Aten naturally asks as the belt is quietly pulled off, confusion over Agent X's words now breaking through the emotional fog.

The two stallions move side-by-side again before X gives his answer: "You sssee, we are not Equessstriansss by blood, jusssst take the formsss of onesss. We ssserve not a princesssss, but a queen! It issss now time we ssshow our true ssselvesss to you sssso that you may believe ussss!"

Aten could only stare incredulously as a ring of magical energy goes around the stallions from top to bottom, seeming to transform them into something Aten tries to recoil from, but is unable to due to his shackles. Before him are what he can only think of as fanged, insectoid abominations of ponies, and his mind fails to even begin to understand how such creatures exist or have the abilities they do!

"Who... WHAT are you?!?" Aten exclaims wide-eyed, the last words he would say in quite a while as the two "abominations" pounce upon him...

Comments

[diablo4000]

Changlings great.............

[GJT_Productions]

8680173
Yep, this was the real "First Contact" between the Changeling race and the Equestrian kingdom. Problem was, the two "agents" were already deeply embedded at this point, and their machinations ensured no one knew what was really going on until it was too late...

[diablo4000]

8680205
So this si before the wedding?

[GJT_Productions]

8680212
Yes, before the wedding. (Canterlot Chronicles all takes place in the time of the show's Season 1 so far.)
Basically:
* Two Changeling agents have been "deeply embedded" in Equestria as part of a mission given to them by Chrysalis - searching for food sources - since before Luna's return. One has been quiet in the background so far (similar to the idea of vdrake77's The Changeling of the Guard), while the other contacted and joined forces with the Agents of Chaos because they had a use for his talents and he believed that the Agents could help the Changelings infiltrate Equestrian society more deeply.
* The failure of Operation Whirlwind has opened an opportunity for the "deep embeds" to escape and contact Chrysalis again, in this case by bailing Aten out of his death sentence and carrying him out of the city to join up with the other rebels in the southwest.
* After the two deep embeds contact Chrysalis, she begins sending out more and more disguised Changelings (over the course of Season 2 timeline wise) to open a way for her to get in herself. By the time she's in there, it's too late to stop her plan from being executed (which culminates in what's seen in the Canterlot Wedding).