From The Shadows

RANDOM MOMENTS

From The Shadows

by DeepThought

After the defeat of the changeling army lingkind retreated, instantly leaving Equestria in fear and disorder.

Well, most of it.

At the time of the attack one changeling with a broken wing was separated from the other ones by coincidence. Left alone in the Everfree Forest near Canterlot, he didn't notice his fellows starting to invade the city.  When they finally fleed he already got lost in the woods.

As a consequence he was disconnected from the changeling's collective mind. Otherwise unable to survive he started to decide individually, developing an own personality, consciously observing his surroundings. He managed to set up a camp, collected enough food and found a lake nearby. After he considered himself save he began to reflect about his situation which led him finally to thinking about a possible name for him - and he called himself 'Sole'.

Once his wing was healed, he traveled around until one day he detected the presence of other changelings far in the north.

Happily, he tried to reestablish a connection, but he noticed quickly that it wasn't the same experience anymore. He was rather an observer than a part of the community which was the essence of his life making him feel whole only a few months ago.

His short visit to the hive mind was not unseen. When he pitched up his camp that evening, he was captured by a small troop of changeling soldiers. He didn't resist and finally was taken to a hidden settling in the mountains.

After days in the dungeon he was interrogated by Chrysalis in the queen's throne room; later she suggested a deal:

Sole was allowed to live freely as long as he would stay near Ponyville and report on the situation. If he broke his promise, he'd be declared an outlaw. He’d suit his role as a spy very well, since he didn't required a constant link to the hive mind, unlike his brothers and sisters.

And because he was still loyal to his queen and didn't like the idea of spending his whole life in prison he accepted it.

He went back to Equestria and observed the 'Elements of Harmony' not seeing anything unusual happen, except Twilight becoming an alicorn,  until one day in the summer:

Sole ambles around the town of Ponyville, eyeing his surroundings attentively. He's still in his favorite form, a small light-blue unicorn colt, the same appearance he used to cover up when he first arrived here, one year ago.

His home is a little, old farm house remotely from the town's center. Since he settled, he made some 'friends', who were close to the mane six and reported continuously through a magic mirror to his queen.

He heads home, as often thinking about how unsuccessful his mission here has been, 'I don't know if the queen will allow me to stay any longer. Every time I call her, she gets more upset. And making the queen upset isn't exactly what I, well anyling, wish for.'

The changeling turns at a corner, leaving the town behind, only wild nature at both sides of the path. A familiar voice's sound echoes his track, he stands still, curiously.

"How did you do that?"

"I hoped you know," answers a male voice.

Sole sneaks into the sound's direction, hiding in the woods, he spies two ponies in the clearing, one of them obviously the recently coronated princess and element of harmony, Twilight Sparkle. Her dark-coated companion is unknown to him.

Then a sudden realization strikes him, 'He's an alicorn... A male alicorn!'

Facing them from behind, he notices their gaze pointed at a small sunflower, well, what used to be a sunflower, now surprisingly alive and moving its leaves.

"You did it again."

"What?" says the black stallion.

"You broke the rules of magic. AGAIN! That doesn't make sense. First you created matter, now you made a plant alive like an animal."

'Interesting. This will save me from the queen's disfavor one more time,' he says to himself with a bright smile and a look of determination, 'Let's watch them a bit longer.'

The sunflower being still stands, where it appeared, obviously paralyzed by fear.

"What shall we do?" asks Twilight.

"Catch it?"

"Well, it's too important for the development of magic... We can't leave it here. So I guess you're right. Maybe I will send it to Celestia. She has the most advanced knowledge about the principles of magic," the lavender mare answers, nodding slightly.

The sunflowerling - that's what Fire decided to call it - is once again surrounded by an orb of light. Twilight closes the gap between her and the strange creature, observing it from another point of view.

Dear Princess Celestia,

this day something special happened. Not only the fact that Fire learned to use a very high level of magic by practicing much shorter than I expected, but also what he was able to do really astounds and confuses me. He turned a sunflower into an animal-like being as he was distracted at casting a growth spell on it. I've put the creature into Owlisius transport cage for further study and I'd like to send it to you, because you are the best magician in all of Equis.

Your faithful student,

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

As Twilight receives an answer - a light suddenly pops up before her, leaving a letter with Celestia's seal, for the first time Fire notices how natural the interior of the tree house looks.

'Did the shelves just grow out of the tree?' he sighs defeated, 'Well, fuck logic, again. It's magic~...'

A growl from his stomach ends this stream of thoughts immediately. He hasn't eaten anything since the early hours of morning, he realizes. Twilight looks up from the Princess’ response letter, clearly irritated by the sound. When she notices what its source is, she gives the black stallion an understanding smile.

“Probably I should have considered to offer you a proper meal, when we arrived. You must be really exhausted because of the number of spells you cast,” she adds, “And Celestia proposed to send us a chariot to carry the... umm... sunflowering - That’s what you called it, right?” he nods, ”...for further study to the castle. They really have the best equipment and the brightest minds of ponykind at the Royal Academy of Magic in Canterlot. When I lived there I had the honor to visit it two times. It's a gigantic building in the west of the city. It'd take anypony years to see all of it. The academy is full of wonder-like inventions and developments," she's says with poorly hidden excitement, deep stuck in memories.

"Would you like to try some fried hay for lunch?"

Surprised by the sudden change of topic Fire, imagining this place, stammers, "Yeah... of course... I'd like."

"Great!" she says not noticing the slight amount of confusion in his voice.

The food here never ceased to amaze Fire - it was the best he ever had and he was sure of it, although he couldn't remember much about his life as a human. Every frie tasted like a touch of heaven, the mild, but hearty aroma gave him an indescribable feeling of joy and satisfaction.

After his first bite he zoned out, starring with empty eyes at the meal, until he is disrupted by an annoyed voice.

"You can simply tell me, if you don't like it."

"..."

"Fire?"

"..."

"Fire?!"

"Umm, yes"

"Are you alright?" Twilight, the lavender chef, asks, now obviously concerned.

"Twilight. This. is. amazing," the black stallion says, emphasizing every word, pointing at the dish.

"Really? It's just normal food... as always"

"It's unbelievable. I don't know if my taste buds changed, but this experiences outclass everything from Earth."

"If you like THIS, you'll love the pastry from Sugarcube Corner."

'I have to pay Pinkie a visit. It's a shame I didn't try her food at the party.'

Fire browses through the library's index, searching for history books in the vast amount of information.

'Let's spend the afternoon with some reading. As long as I don't know, if I can go back to Earth anytime soon, I should learn as much as possible about my new home.'

Still enjoying his new skills he magically picks a book from the shelf, named 'The full history of Equestria', and turns its pages until he reaches the directory.

Scanning its contents, he decides to start with the chapter 'The first settlement', sits down on a nearby chair, sighing tiredly, and begins to read...

'Princess Luna is obviously a criminal. Thousands of ponies died under Nightmare Moon's rule, freezing and starving to death in months, well actually a day, of deadly darkness. She was banished to the moon for thousand years after a fight with her sister, just came back recently and tried to put Equestria in eternal night again, so Twilight and her friends had to fight her - and she's still a respected member of the royal family. That's ridiculous...'

His thoughts are disturbed by a knock at the door.

"I'm home, Twi!" A boyish voice exclaims.

'Who's that? The royal guards already have been here to take the 'thing' with them.'

Then the door swings open and reveals the voice's source. A bipedal, lizard-like being stares at the black alicorn stallion, and he stares back.

"Umm, hello. I'm Fire Void."

"I'm Spike."

Embarrassing silence.

"Yeah. So you know Twilight?" asks Fire.

"I actually live here. I was just at a camp for a few weeks."

"Oh, she didn't tell me."

"That sounds like her," he chuckles.

"..."

'Small talk is definitely not my strength.'

Both of them sigh in relief, when finally the said lavender mare comes from upstairs and embraces Spike in a tight hug.

"I missed you, Spike."

"I missed you, too."

After another short period of silence he shifts his gaze towards Fire and asks innocently - maybe a bit too innocent, notices the stallion with a grin - "Is this your coltfriend? Are you a couple, Twi?"

'Wow, he's a little devil.'

"NO! He's not! No, no, no!" she says, her cheeks' color turned to a deep pink. After exchanging a look with Fire, considering how impolite this actually sounded, she adds, "No offense."

"No offense taken," replies the obviously amused stallion, letting out a small laugh.

"This look! Hahahahahaha!" Spike says, struggling to breath, rolling on the floor.

"You're rude, guys," she says with a little giggle, realizing she was fooled.

'I'll probably like this guy.'

At this point Fire started to consider Twilight his friend. They shared many interests, she was smart and had a very unique sense of humor. Also he thought she was good-looking - at least as far as a pony could. And so they spent the whole evening together in a fantastic atmosphere, tightening the young bond of friendship, until the exhausted stallion, hardly managing to keep his eyes open, called it a night. Twilight leaded him to his room and watched him instantly fall asleep, snuggling comfortably into his blanket.

She smiled.

Later in the night, Twilight is woken by the sound of steps in the library. First not suspecting anything, she pays closer attention to the steps' rhythm.

Instead of the usual clip clap of pony feet or Spike's quiet steps, something, or someone stomps down there.

She gets up, alerted, and sneaks downstairs, looking at her feet to avoid to make any sound, and succeeds.

But when she finally looks up again, she is shocked. Facing a tall, red-eyed monster, standing only on two legs, adrenaline pumps through her body. It obviously noticed her presence.

A scream escapes her throat.