Canterlot, the capital of Equestria.
Home of the Princesses of the sun and the moon.

Nighttime was getting near and per usual, the Royal Guard started their patrolling duties around the castle. But something was new in the schedule
Before the complete darkness of the night, a burst of small explosions would be heard, two times per minute, during two or three hours.

"Present arms!" Screamed Shining Armor to his troops. And they follow, by stretching their arms posing the muskets in front of them.

"In... position!" The first line knelled down, allowing their comrades behind them to see the targets.

"Take aim!!" They all pointed the weapons at the targets, while Shining rise up his sword.

"FIRE!!!" And with the final order, a ruckus of small explosions forming a big one.

The smoke of the gunpowder filled the place in a dense grey cloud, while the troops were coughing and trying to shove the smoke screen from their eyes. When fading away, most of the bullets didn't hit their targets, and other did, rarely... Firing those new weapons was like flipping a coin in the dark.

The captain gave orders to reload the weapons while checking the hay targets, and feeling more disappointment with every training.
He sheared his sword back in his belt, nagging about those creations. They had a lot of potential, but they didn't seem to come up with what the scientists promised.

"Troops! Dismissed! You can put the muskets back in the armory and go rest, we will continue tomorrow!"

All of them answered with a salute, a stomp in the ground and heading to the weapons depot.
Shining headed to the scientists who were watching the practice, getting closer of Prof. Fumes, who greeted him with a hand shake.
The classic "mad scientist", dark green colored, middle age, with a grey beard covering his cheeks and chin, not matching his messy greasy brown short hair. Wearing his glasses and his usual laboratory work smock, who always seems unwashed.

"It was a good session." He said.

"I guess... these new things don't seem to fit with what you told us, honestly." Said Shining.

"Well, they are not used to them... yet! It's all about practice. I'm telling you captain, once your troops get the hang of It, you won't regret."

"I really hope so. Anyway, how are things in the lab?" Asked Shining, will taking the hair out of his face, after hours of exercise.

"We are working on a prototype. We have been noticing how inaccurate they are, so we are working on a new thing. Something to substitute the crossbows." He said happily in his cranky voice.

"Continue..."

"This thing, we still don' have a name for It, but the barrel will be thicker, bigger, and a solid wood stock, AND even a biped for better precision. Needless to say, It will be heavier, sadly..."

"As long It's more accurate than the current ones, I'm happy with It."

"Well, there's something else... For such military luxury, they will be expensive, harder to make, so I would suggest reserve them to special units?"

"Hmm..." Took Shining Armor a moment to think about It. "A new kind of special units in our troops. I like the sound of that."

Taking a peek by his shoulder, all the troops were dismissed and somewhere in the barracks. The scientists were whispering among them, and their boss looking at the official expecting something else.

"I guess that's all then!" He said. "I need to rest and my men too. You keep working on that new weapon of yours, I can't wait to check It out."

"Will do, Captain Shining! Have a good sleep then! Say "hi" to the princesses for me."

Both high rank figures waved and departed to their destinations.
On It's way to the laboratories, something wicked came to his mind, making him grin for a moment. And the evil feeling vanished in a blink when something else made him shiver.

"I don't like this..." Thought the scientist. "Maybe It's my back bones... I should get a better position when looking through the microscopes..."

Later that night

Dr. Fumes headed to his home in Canterlot. Nothing luxurious, nor poor looking. He could be the chief scientist of the Royal Laboratories, but he never wanted to live in luxury.

Not in expensive matters, but in his craziness for science. Most of the rooms were like a different laboratory.
Biology room. Dissection table and materials, books of materials, jars conserving animal parts, and stuffed small animals.
Chemistry room. Tubes, flasks and containers with different chemicals and solids.
The workshop, where part of the new weapons were developed in his free time.
And the list would go on.

He closed the entrance door behind him and took a deep breath from the chemistry lab, which was the closest room at the moment. The scent of acids and other weird smells made him more awake and happy.

Fumes left his meal on the oven and took the chance of the waiting time to wash himself with a hot bath, while concerned with the strange feeling he experienced on the castle, the reason because It repeated constantly on his way home.

He finished the bath, and still in his robe, the scientist headed to the kitchen to kill the hunger in a leftover of hay and apples from the other day.

Some hours later, he was too nervous to work in his science hobbies, to drink or eat.

"Something is not right... I think I've been working too hard..." He thought. And with that, he headed upstairs to his bedroom.

His bedroom was like a foal's bedroom with a passion for science. Close of the window, there was a telescope. The walls covered in books, reminding a small version of the castle's royal library.
That night he would sleep with a dagger under his pillow, but even that didn't shove away the fear.

The silence was broken! Dr. Fumes woke up with a heavy breathing while sweating.
Something downstairs went to the floor with a huge bang. Or maybe a door or a window being closed.

He turned on the light in his bedside table, and looked outside through the window.
There was nopony outside, and the trees weren't moving, giving signals there was no wind either.

"I must be paranoid... that, or there's an intruder..." He grabbed his dagger under the pillow. "I better check if everything is in order..."

He opened the bedroom door in silence with one hand while holding the weapon in the other. The squeak of the old door made him stop, almost making him lose grasp of the dagger in a urge of panic. Now whoever was in his house knew he was coming.

The middle aged colt took a peek outside with his knife ready to stab whatever would come. Pure silence, besides his nervous breathing.
Fumes walked slowly to the stairs and looked down to the dark hallway, expecting something to hit him on the head, but nothing happened.
Reaching the ground floor, he checked every room, turning on the lights and search under the tables and inside cabinets, just to find nopony there.

"There's somepony here, I know It... what would they want from my house..?"

There was nopony there... what could It be?
He headed to the living room and turned on the lights. It was nothing to do with the rest of the house. A cozy division with oak furniture and a fireplace full of ashes. He put the dagger in a small table next to the armchair, opened the mini-bar cabinet and filled the shot glass with whiskey. He sat down in the comfortable sofa and took a sip.

All the sudden, the room went dark in a blink.

In a rush of fear, Fumes threw the shot glass in the air and searched for the dagger, but It was nowhere to be found.
He stopped trying to hear something. Nothing but his heavy breathing again.

"If you praise your life, don't move an inch..." Said a voice in the darkness.

"W-who are y-you!? What do you want f-from me!?" Fumes asked in fear for his life.

"I don't blame you... we haven't seen each other in years, so no wonder you don't know my voice..." Said the voice in a calm but menacing way. "Let me refresh your memory. What happened twelve years ago in the Royal Laboratory?"

Fumes stopped to think, but nothing seemed to come up.

"Allow me then..." And the mysterious presence revealed his specie by making It's horn glow red and with It's magic, turn on the light switch.

The scientist covered his eyes because of the light, and when uncovering the presence in front of him sitting on the other armchair, holding the dagger stolen from the scientist.

"Mane... Shaker..?" Fumes muttered. "B...But how! Why!"

"You shut up, old geezer. I didn't forget what you did to me twelve years ago! And I still have a grudge against you..."

The doctor's pupils shrunk in despair, and he screamed on top of his lungs for help. He stood up and ran to the window, where he banged on the thick glass while screaming to the point of start coughing.
He looked at Mane and he didn't move from the same spot, just looking at him as if he was calling Fumes an idiot.

"There is no use, doc... It's very late, the Royal Guard ended the patrolling hours ago, and your house is surrounded by a silence bubble."

"Please Mane! I never had bad intentions! I was just following orders! Don't kill me! PLEASE!"

"Will you shut the fuck up?!" Screamed Mane standing up and kicking a chair out of the way, making the elder flinch in fear. "I'm the one who makes the questions here, and you better answer them fast and clearly!"

Dr. Fumes nodded. Mane smiled and sat back on the armchair and invited his victim to do the same, which he fulfilled slowly. Then the unicorn with his magic served him a glass shot of whiskey, and for himself, he floated the bottle next to him in the air and started drinking.

"So Fumes... nice weapons you designed for what I heard..."

"Ho-how did you k-know of them..?"

"Questions, questions! I do them and you answer them! But to be fair, I have my ways to know."

"Oh, thanks..."

"I would consider how you answer me! I'm the one with magic powers and a dagger in my possession. Also, I've built quite a reputation out there..." Mane took a gulp of whiskey, cleaned to his arm and continued. "So, these muskets and pistols, how you call them. What can you tell me about them..?"

Fumes was shaking in fear, took a sip and a moment to start talking, thinking if It was good idea to share such secrets, but he had no choice.

"I'll believe you already know some parts about the new weapons, so I guess I should say the other details..?"

"I already know what they are, how good are they, some flaws, and a bit of how to use them, just by words..."

"Well okay then... the reload time is not perfect, they take a minimum of half minute to reload. The ammunition, there are 2 kinds... the first is simple iron balls that you shoot. The other is made of lead, because if It get's stuck on the target's body, It can cause lead poisoning, the rest is obvious. Recently we developed a new version. It's a short version of a musket, and the barrel's end is expanded, like a bell. When you shoot It, a hand full of iron pebbles sprays the area in front of the shooter. It has proved to be pretty efficient against groups of targets... Oh! And they already are being produced and exported too! We call them blunderbuss."

"Hmm... fair enough, Fumes... tell me, where are they being exported?"

"C-Cloudsdale... Um... Appleloosa's region, Cloudsdale and Crystal Empire, your town..."

"I knew It..." Mane muttered. "Crystal Empire! How are they being shipped?"

"B-By train of course! In military vault train carts!"

"I see... and are you aware some of these weapons have been stolen in there..?"

"What! No! There was not even a single report!" Fumes sounded surprised.

"Exactly! It seems you should have more control in the production and a better depot for them in my hometown."

Mane finished the bottle and pulled another from the mini-bar. This time was wine and he putted It back, he never liked wine, and searched for another whiskey or at least a vodka. And he smiled when a familiar looking bottle met his eyes, he pulled out with his magic and what could be for him but Crystal Vodka.

"HAHA! Fumes you crazy bastard! A colt from your age shouldn't drink this..."

"Um...Mane please, It's imported, very expensive and insanely strong! They are-..."

The scientist was interrupted by the sight of Mane opening the brand new bottle, open It like nothing and showering his mouth in the precious drink as if It was water.

"...rare.." Finished Fumes, frozen in shock from what he just saw. And the young unicorn not showing any signals of being drunk.

"There, I saved your life. No need to be grateful. This thing could kill you for somepony of your age and stature..." Said Mane with a mocking voice. "Also, just to let you know, I'm going to the Crystal Empire to stop whatever is happening there!"

"W-wait! Mane, this is something you can't stop!"

"I'm simply gonna hide myself with my partner Pinkamena Diane Pie herself in a box big enough, get inside one of the vault trains, and I once I arrive, we will get out and start investigating. Also, we are going to be disguised, mainly me because... you know... things from the past."

"Why did you just told me all that?! Don't you think I'm gonna tell this to Shining Armor?"

"Oh, don't worry, I got everything planned... besides, the alcohol just reached my head, and I remembered..." With that, Mane tied the old scientist with his magic to the sofa. "What you did to me... I still have memories of It..."

"Please..." Fumes started to cry for his life. "It was Celestia who ordered... I didn't mean It..."

"Your files say something completely different... And orders or not, you still did It..." Mane approached the dagger from his chest.

"P-Please..!"

"Three fucking months... needles, tests, rubber tubes, gas masks..."

By this point, Fumes was too scared to speak.

"Hey Fumes..." Mane called him. "...all I said to you..."

His horn started glowing more and more, capturing the scientist's attention as if he was seeing his death approaching.
Mane Shaker closed his eyes and muttered with a evil grin:

"You won't even remember..."