Chapter one:

Double-0 muffin

    Canterlot castle. Chariot parking. One week prior to the grand galloping gala.

  The janitor hummed merrily to himself as he magically swung his mop to and fro. His job was to ensure the royal parking garage was in tip-top shape, and he also cleaned and maintained the chariots. After Luna ‘s return a year ago, Luna' s scary chariot at parked next to the golden, filigreed vessel that was Celestia’s. The janitor treated them like his babies, cleaning and maintaining these ancient artifacts with the utmost care.

Today he had to simply re-grease the primary wheel axle on celestia’s chariot, and then swab out the interior. He set to it with a passion.

The greasing took no time at all, meaning he was free to swab the interior. As the janitor used his dust-lifting spell, he noticed a small gleam in one corner.

Crouching down to get a look, the janitor lifted out a diamond-shaped gem. The gem was ruby red, but cloudy like milk. It sparkled beautifully in the light.

  The janitor’s telekinesis was sending the smallest amount of magic into the stone. The polished gem then seemed to come to life with a red glow of it’s own, and suddenly, the janitor felt a lot more…. Powerful. The magic, the arcane magic that flowed through him now was… indescribable.

He suddenly felt very thirsty.

His work had been completed, and it was almost six. That meant that Canterlot’s finest coffee shop, pony Joe’s, stopped serving coffee and the shop became a pub for the evening.

Joe was not very fond of the janitor, due to the fact that he rarely, if ever, followed through on a promise of payment following a binge. But this gem was just the thing to smooth over those wrinkles.

The janitor grabbed his lunchbox and charged out of the castle.

Pony Joe’s coffee shop pub; two hours later.

Pony Joe was treating himself to a cup of coffee as he kept an eye on the regular crowd. The ponies that arrived at his place at this hour had been working hard all day and wanted a chance to unwind and have some fun.  But if they ever got too rowdy, Joe had a ‘one-strike’ policy. First he would ask nicely for them to quiet down, and if that didn’t work, the Pegasus pony with biceps the size of footballs that Joe employed as a bouncer would step in.

Joe looked up as the small bell on the door tinkled.

  “Hey, welcome to pony Joe’s pub, what can I getcha- HEY!” hollered Joe. “YOU! You deadbeat- get outta my b-”

“Relax, Joe, I’m good for it. I’ve got your payment and a little something extra.” The janitor said.

He strode up to the counter and hopped up on a barstool, taking out the gem from his pocket.

“Here’s your payment. Now gimme a brew and keep em’ coming.”

Fifteen minutes of heavy drinking later…

“An- HIC! - And sh-sheleshtia bleshh ya, Joe! HIC!”  the janitor slurred in a drunken stupor.  “shee ya later Joe…HIC!”  And he stumbled out the door. Joe sighed to himself. The gem had been well worth six barrels of apple cider, even if he just wanted to pawn it. Over the next few hours, Joe pumped small sparks of magic into the gem, only to be rewarded with a bigger pool of magic to draw from.  That old soak had revealed the secret of the gem- thankfully, while heavily inebriated.  Nobody else in the bar understood him, but Joe had become rather proficient in drunkese. In return, Joe had promised him free drinks on the house whenever he came round.

But Joe was not a greedy pony- he had no want of too much power. He had his shop, he had his family, and that was all he needed.

Then Joe got an idea.

******************

Pony Joe’s coffee shop- one week later.

Twilight sparkle was enjoying her evening at last, after the fiasco that had been the grand galloping gala. Her dress was ruined, her hair was a mess- but it didn’t matter. She was in her favorite café, with her mentor and best friends.  They chatted and laughed into the wee hours of the morning.  

After many hours, the princess said she had to leave on royal business to clean up the mess of the grand galloping gala.  She left, and the friends decided that they had to go to.

As they were walking out, Joe called to twilight. “Hey, twilight! C’mere a second.”

Twilight spun around and looked at Joe curiously.

  “what’s up Joe?” she asked.

In response Joe levitated the gem over the counter and into twilight’s pocket.

“and that,” he said, “is for being my best customer all those years ago. Have fun with it, kid!”  twilight smiled and thanked Joe before leaving the shop.

*****************

NLR secret headquarters; three hours later……

For secret agent Black Clops it was just another slow day at the office.  When he’d signed up to fight celestial tyranny, he’d expected something a lot more glamorous. But paperwork was an important, if boring, part of being a spy. His current job was to review all the Intel for the past 100 years, a job he was not looking forward to in the least. But with a grim resignation, he set to it, sorting and filing and reading and rereading. Black needed to find any intel that was still valid in the pile of ancient, yellowing reports. It was a long and arduous task, one that took many hours.

Then Black found something.

It was the report at the very bottom of the stack, no more than half a page,  penned in hasty scribbles. Of course. what was on the report was enough to make black’s blood run cold.

black  panicked as he read the report. The case file detailed an incident called the ‘blood moon’. Every hundred years a bright flash of light is seen around the Everfree forest, and then the moon goes as red as blood. at the time of this report, one hundred years ago, a spy for the NLR had been planted in the squadron of guards brought to help execute the spell. The report detailed the gruesome and highly illegal nature of the spell, down to the last detail. Three ponies transformed into one alicorn, and then subsequently sacrificed?  

And then black saw the bottom.

Next potential victim: princess nightmare moon

Skimping over the fact that the report was rather outdated, and signed off with the “for the eternal night” manifesto of the days of old, the fact of the matter was that Luna’s life was in danger, and that meant that the NLR would have to put their best pony on the case.

Black snatched the report and flapped his coal-coloured wings all the way to the NLR’s main control center: the situation room. He passed by a multitude of his coworkers on his way there, knocking over the office water cooler on the way. As he approached the situation room, he felt a lump forming in his throat. The situation room had formidable defenses, and could probably withstand the destruction of equestrian itself. A squadron of armed guards didn’t hurt either.

He rushed into the room, and every pony in the room stared at him.

The room’s walls were lined with banks of great magical machines that calculated and monitored and computed. The main table was of craved ebony, with a massive sculpture of Luna’s and nightmare moon’s faces, back to back.

“ we have a problem!” shouted black. He trembled as he placed the paper on the table, and then gasped as THE BOSS picked it up. The boss was Luna’s second-in command, and as he read the report, his eyes narrowed.

“ we’re going to need to put our best pony on this one.” He said.

“call in- agent double-O muffin.”