Authors Note: To the … three? Yeah three, or less, of you guys who actually wanted to see me start another story, sorry. I finished writing the second chapter, decided I hated to whole thing and scrapped it.

Chapter 23: The Hole in Our Defenses

Steel's House, Ponyville
Local time: 0900
Two months, four days since arrival

Q left Equestria after two days, lucky us. Knowing him he would put the planet in danger and I would save it. I would also probably try to kick his ass… which would go horribly wrong and result in my death. The day Q left Captain Silent Flight was let out of the hospital, he's been staying in my guest room while Broadsword has been sleeping on the couch. I don't understand why there isn't a guard barracks in Ponyville… or any guards for that matter. Maybe because it's so close to Canterlot they think it's close enough that the guards from there would be able to get here in time. Personally it seems like a huge mistake, it's at least at three hours by train (they don't say how long it takes so I'm guessing). Plus they have get on their armor, go to the station, and board the train… it takes too long. Anyway, I've gotten to know the two captains better. Broadsword is quiet and it takes him a while to trust anyone, most likely results of his time on the streets, but once he trusts you he's a great stallion to be around. He's pretty funny and has witty responses to almost everything. Honestly, if I wasn't a former soldier he probably wouldn't trust me as much as he does. Silent, as he likes to be called, was different story. He was friendly to everypony and always willing to give them a second chance. Broadsword said that he's only see one pony waste his second chance, after that Silent just ignored him. Anyway, Silent is serious most of the time, he relaxes when he's off duty but even then he's still… stiff, for lack of a better word.

Onto more serous news. There have been another wave of attacks, every city and town except Canterlot was hit. The small towns only has small attacks while the cities had more substantial attacks. So far there are only three reported deaths from these attacks but ponies are starting to get worried. Guards have been deployed to every populated area, even the farms. Surprisingly there hasn't been a major drop in Canterlot's defenses like I feared so his plan can't be to draw the guards out of the city. In light of these recent attacks I've decided to keep a record of the types of forces he has created so far. I don't have a lot of about these creatures, mostly it just contains the difference between them and their natural counterparts and what their role it combat most likely is along with a few weaknesses and strategy tips I found. I have, however, named the all. Shadow Gryphons, Shadow Timberwolves, Shadow Manticores… pretty much what it looks like with the word shadow in front of it. Oh, better write this down before I forget, Celestia personally saw to the destruction of Discords bunker the day after I was there.

Once again ending my journal entry I looked back to see my past entries, honestly I had maybe two entries before what has started to become known as the Everfree incident. Since he was created I've been writing more frequently in my journal. Putting it away I grabbed my copy of my book about Shadow Steel's forces. Currently there are only two copies in all of Equestria, Silent, Broadsword and I are bringing this one to Canterlot today so the princesses can make copies and distribute it to the forces across Equestria. The other copy I've left in Twilight's care, she's promised to keep it hidden among the other books until more copies have been made. Normally this would be overkill but I don't want to take any chances, these books could save countless lives in the days to come. It is only a matter of time until his forces attack and I want to keep as many ponies alive as possible. "Silent, Broadsword, you guys ready to go?" They checked each other's armor before giving me a nod. Giving my armored poncho a quick check we headed towards the train station. I let myself relax while we walked the streets, he would be a fool to attack us here. If he attacks us, which I'm pretty sure he will, it will be during the train ride. "Are you sure we'll be attacked? This book isn't an important target, it wouldn't be a strategic move. He would lose forces over a book that has little importance in the long run." While Silent did present a logical point he overlooked one very important fact. "You forget, his forces are not living. They are easily reproduced and replaced. Plus he wants to weaken us as much as possible, without this book many ponies will die that do not need to." Silent keeps thinking as Shadow and his forces like any other force he's been trained to fight. He thinks under the assumption that Shadow cares about his forces when in reality Shadow would send them to their doom without thinking… and none of them would protest.

Arriving at the train station we learned that there was a rockslide that has blocked the quickest route to Canterlot. The only other way to take the train there would require us to stop at Manehattan and then up the opposite side of the mountain. This would add another four hours to the trip. Other than this longer train route our only other option would be to walk which leaves us exposed. When planning this trip I immediately ruled out using chariots, they are easily shot down and if we were to go down nopony would know exactly where we are. Teleporting was also out, I wasn't good enough with the spell to risk it. While teleportation was something useful to know ever since Discord's 'mission' I had been focusing my studies on combat oriented spells. Before that, other than levitating things on a daily basis, I spent almost no time improving or learning new spells so I was still behind almost everypony. Right now I should be about the same level as a pony who had been in magic school for two years. Looking out the window I saw that we had already left Ponyville behind, strange I hadn't felt the train move. Taking out the book on shielding spells I brought with me I started to read. From when I briefly skimmed the books contents I found two types of shields that would be useful. "Reading anything good?"

"No, reading about shield spells. I think I'm going to need them." Broadsword chuckled, "I've narrowed it down to two useful spells. The first is a dome shield, it's the less powerful one but it covers your entire body. The second is more powerful but covers less of the body and you need to see that attack coming in order to block it, it won't just appear in the path of the attack." Broadsword nodded, "I could probably help you with the dome shield. Shinning has his own variation of that spell that nopony has been able to reproduce. He showed me how to do the basic version so I know how to at least form it. You're on your own for the other one." Looking over I saw Silent start to move, "Good your up."

"Sorry but I'm a Lunar Guard, we tend to sleep in. What are we talking about?" I quickly explained about the shield spells. "Those will provide a good defense, but what about offence?"

"Well while we're in Canterlot I plan on having a Ka-Bar knife made. It's what I used to use so I should be good with that. I also plan on leaning some ranged attack spell and a spell that would let me channel electricity into my knife, if such a spell exists." The rest of the trip to Manehattan consisted of lunch and Silent giving me a quick lesion on a spell called shock. The spell is designed to allow the user to channel small amounts of electricity into their hooves, with enough practice I should be able to increase the voltage and channel it into my

knife. In Manehattan we picked up three guards who were being transferred back to Canterlot. I decided to take a nap to pass the time. When I "woke up" I was thrown into the seat in front of me. The train had come to a complete stop. It was extremely dark outside and a quick lighting spell confirmed that we were in the tunnel that led to Canterlot. "Damn I hate being right. Alright Broadsword take one of the guards and head towards the back of the train, try to keep everypony calm. Silent stay here and guard the package." As Broadsword headed towards the back with a guard I took the other two and went towards the front. As we walked I reassured ponies that everything was fine, but I noticed that one of the guards looked very uncomfortable. "Hey you okay?"

"Not really, I have a minor case of claustrophobia. Normally it isn't a problem but being stuck here combined with the recent attacks…" I nodded, he isn't the first pony who I've seen with this type of condition. "Are you okay to confine or do you want to stay here?" He didn't replay so we continued on. Looking back I wish we had taken a different train. The one we were on had twenty-five cars, each able to hold thirty ponies. When we boarded we were in car number eighteen so we're probably in car number seven now. The guard only seamed to get worse as we went. In car seven there was a large group of foals, most likely on a school trip. "Hey, why don't you stay here and guard the foals." He nodded and I walked up to who I assumed was the teacher. "Are you in charge of these foals?" She nodded, "Yes, I'm Mrs. Note head music teacher of the Manehattan school district. We're taking a trip to see the Canterlot music museum but right now I'm just trying to keep them all calm." I looked back over at the guard who was now surrounded by the foals. "I can see that, anyway I'm going to be leaving him here." I leaned closer to her, "He also suffers from minor claustrophobia, so if you could keep him talking I would really appreciate it." She nodded in understanding and went over to the rest of the group. The other guard and I continued to the front of the train. When we got there the door was locked and I had to break it down. Inside were the bodies of the operator and the engineer, both their troughts had been slit. "Okay, things just went from bad to worse. Do you think you can get the train moving again?"

"I don't know… maybe, but I definitely going to give it my best shot." I went over to the bodies just to make sure. I got no vitas from either of them but I did find a black feather. "Hey look at this." We looked over the feather, it looked like a normal black feather but when I broke it in half it turned into black mist. "You stay here and get the train moving. I'm going to head back and check on the others." As I left I put a shield over the door and windows. I walked through each car double checking everything but there was one thing bothering me. That feather, it looked too small to belong to a gryphon… but a pegasus, maybe. Going through the car with the foals I saw that none of them were panicking or afraid, the guard also looked calmer. Reaching Silent I saw that Broadsword and the last guard had returned. "Anything?"

"No, just some worried ponies, you?" I sighed, "We found two bodies in the engine. I left one of the guards there to try and get us moving again. The other I left with a school group." I checked the book just to be sure, "I don't like this… this was defiantly a trap. But where are they…?" Suddenly the train jolted and started moving forward again, though much slower than before. "Good were moving, you all stay here I'm going to go to the engine and see if I can get us to go faster." The fact that we hadn't seen who killed the ponies in the engine plagued my thoughts, what were they waiting for? About halfway to the engine I ran into a locked door. Strange since no doors are supposed to be locked, it's a safety hazard. "Hey open this door!" I could hear somepony moving around on the other side but when I heard a window break I bucked down the door. Inside was the school group surrounded by what I'm dubbing shadow pegusi. The guard was trying to hold them back but they were fast, really fast. The only other pony I've ever seen move that fast was Dash. I quickly analyzed the situation, "A dozen hostiles armed with various knives surrounding a wounded guard and around twenty civilians." Or at least that's what I would have thought if I hadn't been tackled from the side. The pegusi then shoved a knife in my shoulder and twisted it. I cried out in surprise and pain. Luckily these things, while excellent fighters, are extremely stupid. Instead of pulling up the blade and plunging it into my skull it abandoned its knife altogether and focused on the guard giving me time to recover. Once I was back on my hooves I pulled out the knife and jumped the nearest pegusi, it was dead in seconds. Now the others realized I was still a threat and split into two groups. The first focused on me and the other focused on the guard. I chucked the knife at who I assumed was the leader and scored a headshot. This dropped their numbers down to nine, I had to deal with six while the guard had the other three. It seems they're not as stupid as I initially thought. Charging the shock spell I leaped at the closest one to disable it, shock wouldn't kill them but fighting five at once is better than fighting six. I disarmed them all in less than a minute and managed to render two of them unable to fight.

Grabbing the closer of the two I used it as a club swinging it at the others. I got two hits in before its neck snapped after launching one of them into the ceiling killing it. I moved the second one in the path of a knife and killed its wielder before it could recover. "If this is all you got you're going to have to do better." Hearing a crash and the sound of tearing metal, I looked behind them. The guard managed to kill one of them before the other two somehow caused the top of the car to collapse and crush his left hind leg, pinning him and taking him out of the fight. This left me to fight the remaining four alone. While they had numbers I had experience. I let them make the first move, two of them faced off with me while the other two moved to my flanks, one on the left the other on the right. Grabbing two pieces of wood, one was the remains of a chair leg the other a plank, I took them from what little was left of this car's seats. I levitated both of them in front of me and waited. The two on my flanks ran forward simultaneously, I turned to face the one on my right while I pulled out a piece of wood that rubble to fall into the path of the one on my left, if I'm lucky it will trip or be pinned. I parried his knife with the plank and drove the leg into its chest. As it exploded into black mist I moved the plank into the path of a knife meant for my neck. The two pegusi that hung back had joined the fight and the second one managed to land his knife in my side. When he tried to pull it out I cried out in pain, I think it's embedded in one of my ribs. Shaking him off I punched the other one in the face followed by a haymaker which dislocated its jaw and stunned it. Turning around I saw the one I had trip dislodge itself from the piece of wood it landed on. The spot where the wood had pierced its side was, for lack of a better word, smoking. The three of them and me faced off. Behind them I noticed Mrs. Note getting the last of the foals out of the car. The train lurched forward, forcing me to the ground as its speed doubled.

Getting back up I saw that two of them landed on each other and the thirds jaw had separated from its face. Pressing my advantage I attacked the jawless one first. A few punches and kicks, as well as one good buck, later it was gone. The other two had gotten back up, only one still had its knife and the other didn't seem to care despite the numerous knives on the floor around it. I grabbed one of the knives from the floor and tried to think of a plan. That's when I noticed how dark the room was. Being in a tunnel blocked the sunlight and most of the lanterns had been destroyed or put out. Taking one last look at their positions, using my wings I made a small gust that put out the last few lanterns. In the darkness I had the advantage, while they fumbled around looking for me I got behind them. I took out the one with the knife first, holding him in place with my wings, which was harder than I thought, I plunged the blade into its skull ending it. I noticed how it started getting brighter, the tunnel was in two parts with an open area which gives a good view of the countryside. I jumped on the last one and stuck my blade between where its wings joined its torso, effectively crippling it. Looking out the hole I had an idea, I always wanted to try something like this. I dragged it over to the hole, "Get off my train!" and through it out. I didn't bother to watch it fall, unable to fly there was no way it would survive. Turning my attention to the guard I helped free him from the rubble. His leg was broken, until we got to Canterlot there was no way of knowing how bad it really is. I brought him back to the others, apparently they were attacked as well just on a smaller scale. Once he was in a semi comfortable position I headed back to the engine, I made sure to watch my corners. The trip back us uneventful, I wasn't attacked and the guard in the engine was fine. He did tell me that a few of them tried to get in here before moving on which explains why the group that attacked me was twice the size of the group that the others dealt with. On my way back to the others I check on the school group, other than a few small cuts and bruises they were fine, scared but okay. For the next twenty minutes I waited with the others while we finished our trip. The guard with the broken leg was complaining of some pain traveling up his left side, the others didn't seem too concerned but I knew it could be something serious but until we got to a hospital I couldn't know for sure. Pulling into the station, well more like crashing, since we didn't know how to properly operate a train we uncoupled the other cars and derailed the engine. I gave Broadsword and Silent specific instructions to bring the book to Celestia and not to stop for anything. I left the other two guards to do whatever and brought the third to the hospital.

"I need a doctor, now!" The doctors put him on a gurney and moved him into the ER. "I need somepony to check his left side, more specifically his arteries. He's been complaining of a pain in his left side, I need to make sure a piece of the bone didn't get pulled in." Unfortunately I was right, a piece of bone was being move through his circulatory system towards his heart. I had seen soldiers die from this before, they would be cleared by a medic and we would wake up the next day to find him dead, their heat pierced multiple times by a bone fragment. Luckily we had caught this in time, we could still save him. I left him in the care of the doctors and made my way to the castle. I finally started to relax once I was inside the castle walls, he would never try any attack here… at least not yet. I shuddered at that thought, him being powerful enough and have a large enough army to take Canterlot Castle… that is a day I hope never to see. I had hoped that the incident on the train would be the worst part of the day, I was wrong. About halfway to the throne room I ran into the last pony I wanted to see, Prince Blueblood. He greeted me in his usual manner, "The alicorn who isn't a prince, what are you doing here?" It was no secret that Blueblood and I couldn't stand each other, "So the prince who doesn't deserve his title makes another appearance. Have you tried to ruin anypony else's life yet today?" He scoffed at me comment, "No, oh well I guess the day is still young. As for my business, it is my own and none of your concern."

"This is my home, everything that happens here is my business." When we first met Luna had 'asked' him to check on me in the hospital, he was not thrilled with the idea. He popped in, we greeted each other, traded names, and then he left. The second time we met was when our hatred started. I went to visit Celestia during my allotted time out, and found her in the throne room talking with Blueblood. Before I even said hi I knew this was a conversation they had before and one that Celestia always had the same answer to. Or at least that's what I got from Celestia's bored expression. The fool wanted Rarity exiled for and I quote, "disrupting the Grand Galloping Gala and ruining my suit and mane." Rarity was my friend so naturally I stood up for her, which in this case involved me telling the prince to grow a pair and get on with his life. He wasn't thrilled. He started yelling at me saying something about who he was or something, honestly I wasn't paying attention. But he would not stop talking. It got so bad Celestia started to look annoyed so I did the only sensible think somepony like me would do… I punched him. It got him to stop talking but I put too much force in it and knocked him out, I may have also broken his snout but I didn't care. We've been at each other's throughts ever since. "We if it really is your business Celestia would have told you. Now if you'll excuse me, Celestia is waiting for me."

Arriving at the throne room I found Celestia waiting for me. Broadsword and Silent had already been her and the book was being copied as we spoke. Seeing as my work was done I asked Celestia if she knew where Luna was. Hearing that she was buried in royal business I took my leave and went out to hopefully find Octavia or Vinyl, maybe both. Passing the club where I had my first bar fight, I know I'll never forget this place, I noticed it wasn't open. Not surprising since it is a night club but I could check off one place as their possible location. Checking Octavia's home, the concert hall where the school group from the train was, and one of Vinyl's favorite restaurants rewarded me with nothing. I was actually about to give up when I ran into them in the street. "Hey guys what's up?"

"Nothing much Steel, Tavi and I were about to get an early dinner and help out a friend of mine." My stomach made its presence know, "Do you mind if I joined you?" I knew she would say yes but Vinyl decided to think about it. "I don't know… what do you think Tavi?" Octavia just shook her head, "Okay I guess you can." Following them I noticed we were heading towards the more local part of the city, away from all the hotels and tourist places. "Well here we are…" I was starting have second thoughts about lunch. The paint job was faded and chipped in many places, the sign looked worn and decrepit, and there was what appeared to be graffiti somepony halfheartedly tried to clean off, at least watching Bar Rescue was good for something. "Uh, are you sure about this Vinyl?" She nodded, "This was the address he gave me." Well at least I'll get a story out of this.

POV change: ? ? ?

(This may be confusing. If lost, watch the beginning of an episode of Bar Rescue)

"There it is, Beats Café." I said to my experts. For the food I had brought chef Iron Skillet one of Canterlot's greatest chefs, and for the bar I brought drink expert Strong Liver one of Equestia's leading mixed drink creators and promoters. "The concept behind this place was to have a place ponies could eat and listen to music without it being defining like at a club. Now for the recon I asked Vinyl Scratch to bring a friend with her so we could get a mares perspective." Vinyl Scratch, or as she is called on stage DJ Pon3, is one of the best DJ's out there so she would be able to get a good picture of how the music is. "The word café is more associated with mares because it a place they can gather and talk while enjoying some drinks without being bothered. There she is now." Now personally I was shocked when she brought more than one friend and even more shocked by who they were. "Are they who I think they are?"

"I think so Iron, Octavia Melodia and Flamingsteel. When I asked her to bring a friend I didn't think she would bring who is arguably the greatest cello player alive and a prince." I noticed them stop outside, the prince looked concerned and a little disgusted, which I understand one look at the outside and I wanted to leave too. We watched as they sat at the bar, the hidden cameras and microphones picking up everything. The prince looked concerned about the bar before whispering to the others. "This bar top is broken, one good hit and this thing will break. Are you sure you want to eat here?" Vinyl nodded and whispered back, "Yes, I told you we're doing a friend of mine a favor." I looked at my experts, "I don't think the prince being was part of the plan, they must have met him on the way here."

"Yeah, he also seems to know a little about bars, look." They were still waiting for somepony to take their order, "Well what do you think guys?" The prince looked around, "This place is dead. I'm surprised by how many ponies are here honestly. This decor is outdated, there are obvious signs of neglect, probably over a dozen health code violations, and that's just what I can see. Plus we've been here five minutes and nopony has come over yet." Switching through the cameras I found the owner. "There's the owner drinking and talking to one of the waitresses. And the other waitresses are just standing around, oh Celestia, look at her. She's smoking despite Canterlot's no smoking laws, that could get this place shut down and fined" After another five minutes of waiting somepony finally came over and got their drinks, "Look at that she's chewing gum." By chewing gum while taking the order she's showing that she does not care about the customer… at all. "What do you want?" And her tone… "I'll have a hard cider, Tavi you wanted a glass of wine." Octavia nodded, "I'll have the mead."

"We're out of mead. We're also out of ale, whisky, and vodka." The prince sighed and looked back at the menu. "No bar should ever be out of anything. And vodka, only gryphons and dragons have livers strong enough to drink more than a shot of that stuff, it makes no sense to have it." The prince, giving up on the menu, looks at the bar and notices something. "I thought you said you're out of vodka, what's with the bottle on the shelf?" She doesn't even turn around, "Its past its expiration date." The prince looked at her like she was crazy and I had to agree with him. "Expiration date, vodka doesn't have an expiration date its almost pure alcohol." The prince started to get in an argument with the mare about the vodka bottle, "You know what fine, just give me some hard cider." The waitress, now with a scowl on her face, went and filled their orders. "Ridiculous, I bet as soon as we leave her or somepony else is going to pour themselves a shot from that bottle." The mare returned with the drinks and gave them to our recon team, purposely trying to spill the prince's drink on him while trying, poorly, to make it look like an accident. "Want anything else?" she asked with an attitude. The group ordered two salads, one with the bars special dressing the other plain, and pasta in a mushroom sauce with a side steamed vegetables. Taking a sip of his cider the prince immediately gaged and pushed it away from him. "I would recommend drinking that Vinyl, its way past its expiration date." Vinyl and Octavia seemed confused, "After a certain time cider ferments past the point where it's okay to drink. At this point the cider is mostly alcohol with a taste of sour apples. Trust me you don't want to drink it unless you like shity vodka." Octavia commented that the wine was from a cheap five bit bottle that can be bought in any corner store. Switching to the camera in the kitchen we watched the chef prepare the food. "Did he wash his hooves first?"

"No he didn't and just by looking at the floor I can tell it's not sanitary." Some bars have special floors in their kitchens that have a small amount of water that runs over it and out a drain. The water first goes through a magical filter that keeps it clean which makes it so the chef doesn't need to wash his hooves between orders. Cross contamination can get somepony with allergies sick and makes the bar liable. "I can see that this chef needs help, everypony knows that you boil the water first before putting the pasta in." The chef did nothing to improve my impression of him. He used a head of lettuce strait from the fridge, tomatoes from a can, and most of the other ingredients weren't fresh. Switch cameras again we saw the food being brought to our recon group, the prince was not looking well. "You sure you're okay Steel?"

"Yeah, it's nothing it'll pass." Vinyl and Octavia started eating while the prince hesitated for a moment. "Man this is on bad salad." The prince nodded, "Yeah, mines partially frozen and there's no way these were fresh ingrediants." Vinyl nodded in agreement, "And their house dressing is really spicy. What about yours Tavi?"

"The pasta improperly cooked, some of it tastes rubbery while the rest is almost rock like. And the broccoli is still raw and they said mixed vegetables not one vegetable." This bar defiantly needs help, "Well I've seen enough." I was about to get out of the carriage when Strong Liver stopped me. "Wait, something's wrong with the prince." Looking back at the screen I saw the prince dash into the restroom. "Let's get in there, now." Going inside I told Strong to go check on the prince. While I conversed with the owner.

POV change: Steel

I don't know who Vinyl's friend is but they owe her a big favor. I could feel another wave of nausea hit me, I had already emptied my stomach of its contents so I just gaged. "Hey, are you alright." I shook my head, "Not really, but it's nice to know somepony in this place gives a damn." After gagging once more I staggered my way out of the stall and proceeded to rinse my mouth at the sink. I tried to make my way out of the bathroom but was forced to lean of the stallion who came to check on me. Walking back into the main room I saw two stallions in a heated argument. "No, no, don't give me that bullshit! You served them drinks of the lowest quality!" The other stallion opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the first stallion. "Don't even try to defend yourself, look at him! Does he seem okay to you!?" I'm guessing that he's talking about me, "He could have been anypony, but he's a prince. You got a prince sick because you served him a bad drink." I wanted to tell them that I wasn't a prince but another wave of nausea hit me. "I'm leaving, when I come back tomorrow this place better be clean and all your drinks had better be thrown away." The stallion stormed out followed by Vinyl, Octavia, and another stallion. I was gently nudged in the direction of the door by the stallion I was leaning on. Outside I saw the others getting into a carriage and was led to join them. "I have to apologize Vinyl, I knew that place was bad but I didn't think it was like that. Are you okay your majesty?" I looked at the stallion, now that he wasn't yelling he looked kind of familiar. "I've been better. My stomachs doing flips but I'll survive… I think. Also just because I'm an alicorn doesn't mean I'm a prince, I don't think I'll ever be crowned a prince."

"My apologies, most nobles in Canterlot are under the assumption that you are a prince. There have also been some rumors going around about you and the princesses specifically Luna, no doubt also false. Is it alright if we drop you off at Vinyl's place?" I nodded as yet another wave of nausea hit me and I laid my head next to the open window. "You know, I never got your names."

"Well things in the bar were more hectic than I would have liked and your health took priority. I'm John Taffer and I help failing bars for a living. That is Iron Skillet and Strong Liver." He said pointing at each stallion in turn. "Iron is a master chef and Strong is my bar stallion. He even created a new type of drink we're trying to spread across Equestria, mixed drinks." Strong nodded, "I created the first one by accident and I took many attempts before I created one that tasted good. I still haven't come up with a name for my profession, astronomers, geologists, chefs… I never thought coming up with a name for my profession would be the hardest part."

"Mixologist." He looked confused, "How did you come up with something so quickly?" He may be the first Equestrian to make a mixed drink but humanity did it first. "It comes from the word Mixology… which I just made up. From my home the word ology means the study of, and mix… well it's self-explanatory. Its translation is the study of mixing, or in your case, the study of mixing drinks." We talked until we reached Vinyl's house, Iron and Strong asked me if I knew anything about their fields of work. I knew next to nothing about making alcoholic drinks but I did know enough to have a conversation. Cooking was different, I knew how to cook. Iron didn't have as strong of a reaction to my past eating habits as others have had, he even asked me about meat, something about being asked to help a gryphon run bar. I assume that means that he will be dealing with meat based dishes in the future and he would like to have the information or John would have to find another expert for that place. Saying goodbye to everypony I made my way towards the train station. I didn't even make it a quarter of the way there before I decided I was too sick to take the train. The castle was much closer and I wouldn't have to walk from the train to my home once I reached Ponyville, plus I highly doubt Luna wouldn't let me stay the night. My path took me right past where the city met the mountain. When I reached the point where I would leave the mountain side I stopped. "Well, it is still early and I have wanted to see the old mines beneath the city." Deciding that my condition wouldn't significantly worsen I followed the mountain side until I came to an opening. Said opening was manned by two guards who refused to let me in. "Sir, our orders say we can't let anypony in."

"Why not, if it's a matter of clearance I can get Captain Shinning Armor, Captain Broadsword or Captain Silent Flight to vouch for me. If you're worried about me taking anything, don't. I'm friends with all three princesses and they would help me if I need money so I don't need to steel anything. Come on just let me in." The guard on the right started to get nervous, "No, our orders stand. Now leave." Wow, what a prick, "What's your problem? I know your orders are to keep ponies out but you don't have to be a dick about it." I saw him glance behind me, "Calm down sir, you're causing a scene." Turning around I saw a small crowd of five ponies we watching us. The other guard went up to them. "Move along, nothing to see here." I was about to turn and apologize to the guard when I felt somepony grab my muzzle and a sharp pain in my chest. Looking down I saw a knife hilt connecting to my chest. As I was dragged into the cave I saw a third guard walk out. I tried to get his attention but he just ignored me… something is wrong. I was dragged a good thirty feet before being tossed into a wall. "You just wouldn't stop would you? Good thing the boss said we could get rid of anypony that snooped around… pest part is he didn't say how to get rid of them." Somepony kicked me in the gut, causing me to rollover. What I saw… it looked like a pony but its eyes said otherwise. It was one of his creations, it was a unicorn like the others with a pitch black coat those red eyes "You talk."

"Yes, my master granted me and the rest of my kind more intelligence than the rest." He grabbed me and through me to the other side of the room, which turned out to be a ledge. Looking down I had a great view of this part of the mine… and the army that dwelled within. There were thousands of them ranging from gryphons to manticores. He grabbed me and through me into the wall again. I tried to think of a way out of here but my thoughts ended up thinking of the Shadow Unicorns purpose. "He could disguise himself as a normal pony. So perhaps, infiltration and espionage. Getting behind our lines and stealing our secrets." When he kicked me in the chest I was painfully reminded of the knife he forgot to pull out. "He made them smarter but not smart enough that they would pose a threat to him or gain free will." When he tried to grab me again I yanked out the knife and jammed it in his skull killing him. I limped farther into the tunnel and teleported myself to the castle hoping that none of them saw me leave.

I landed in the throne room, startling not only Celestia but also Luna and Cadence who were there as well. "Steel, are you okay? What happened?" I gently pushed Luna off of me and rose to my hooves. "Celestia you need to gather all the guards you have. There is an army inside the mines below the city, at least five hundred strong." Everypony, even the guards, gasped. "Are you certain?" I nodded, "The reason he never attacked Canterlot is because his army is here."

"Gather every guard in the city and any guards that are an hour away from Canterlot. Get them armed and ready. You two take Steel to the medical wing, I have a feeling that we will need him in this fight." As I was led to the medical wing I realized something. If we can cripple his army we will have the upper hand… but if we fail Canterlot may fall.

Authors Note: Well that's going to be the last chapter of the year. The next chapter will have the first large battle of the story. As I have it planed the first half of the chapter will be the battle the other half will be a period where Steel just unwinds, maybe do something I wrote about but didn't do anything with. As you read I put John Taffer in here, I tried to change his name but couldn't think of anyway to ponify his name. Also the story has over 25,000 views which I think is an accomplishment. So everyone, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.